CHAPTER V.
BELTON FINDS A FRIEND.
Long before the rifle ball, the cannon shot, and the exploding shell were through their fiendish task of covering the earth with mortals slain; while the startled air was yet busy in hurrying to Heaven the groans of the dying soldier, accompanied as they were by the despairing shrieks of his loved ones behind; while horrid War, in frenzied joy, yet waved his bloody sword over the nation's head, and sought with eager eagle eyes every drop of clotted gore over which he might exult; in the midst of such direful days as these, there were those at the North whom the love of God and the eye of faith taught to leap over the scene of strife to prepare the trembling negro for the day of freedom, which, refusing to have a dawn, had burst in meridian splendor upon his dazzled gaze.
Into the southland there came rushing consecrated Christians, men and women, eager to provide for the negro a Christian education.
Those who stayed behind gathered up hoarded treasures and gladly poured them into the lap of the South for the same laudable purpose.
As a result of the coming of this army of workers, bearing in their arms millions of money, ere many years had sped, well nigh every southern state could proudly boast of one or more colleges where the aspiring negro might quench has thirst for knowledge.
So when Bernard and Belton had finished their careers at the Winchester public school, colleges abounded in the South beckoning them to enter.
Bernard preferred to go to a northern institution, and his mother sent him to enter Harvard University.
Belton was poor and had no means of his own with which to pursue his education; but by the hand of providence a most unexpected door was opened to him.
The Winchester correspondent of the Richmond Daily Temps reported the commencement exercises of the Winchester public school of the day that Belton graduated.
The congressman present at the exercises spoke so highly of Belton's speech that the correspondent secured a copy from Belton and sent it to the editor of The Temps.
This was printed in The Temps and created a great sensation in political and literary circles in every section of the country.
Every newspaper of any consequence reproduced the oration in full.
It was published and commented upon by the leading journals of England.
The President of the United States wrote a letter of congratulation to Belton.
Everywhere the piece was hailed as a classic.
After reading the oration, Mr. V.M. King, editor of The Temps, decided to take it home with him and read it to his wife.
She met him at the door and as he kissed her she noticed that there was a sober look in his eye.
Tenderly he brushed back a few stray locks of his wife's hair, saying as he did so, in a somewhat troubled tone:
"Wife, it has come at last.
May the good Lord cease not to watch over our beloved but erring land."
She inquired as to what he meant.
He led her to his study and read to her Belton's oration.
In order to understand the words which we have just quoted as being spoken by him to his wife, let us, while he reads, become a little better acquainted with Mr. King and his paper, The Temps.
Mr. King was born and reared in Virginia, was educated at a Northern University, and had sojourned for several years in England.
He was a man of the broadest culture.
For several years he had given the negro problem most profound study.
His views on the subject were regarded by the white people of the South as ultra-liberal.
These views he exploited through his paper, The Temps, with a boldness and vigor, gaining thereby great notoriety.
Though a democrat in politics, he was most bitterly opposed to the practice, almost universal in the South, of cheating the negro out of his right to vote.
He preached that it was unjust to the negro and fatal to the morals of the whites.
On every possible occasion he viciously assaulted the practice of lynching, denouncing it in most scathing terms.
In short, he was an outspoken advocate of giving the negro every right accorded him by the Constitution of the United States.
He saw the South leading the young negro boy and girl to school, where, at the expense of the state, they were taught to read history and learn what real liberty was, and the glorious struggles through which the human race had come in order to possess it.
He foresaw that the rising, educated negro would allow his eye to linger long on this bloody but glorious page until that most contagious of diseases, devotion to liberty, infected his soul.
He reasoned that the negro who had endured the hardships of slavery might spend his time looking back and thanking God for that from which he had made his escape; but the young negro, knowing nothing of physical slavery, would be peering into the future, measuring the distance that he had yet to go before he was truly free, and would be asking God and his own right arm for the power to secure whatever rights were still withheld.
He argued that, living as the negro did beneath the American flag, known as the flag of freedom, studying American history, and listening on the outer edge of great Fourth of July crowds to eloquent orators discourse on freedom, it was only a matter of a few years before the negro would deify liberty as the Anglo-Saxon race had done, and count it a joy to perish on her altar.
In order that the Republic might ever stand, he knew that the principles of liberty would have to be continually taught with all the eloquence and astuteness at command; and if this teaching had the desired effect upon the white man it would also be powerful enough to awaken the negro standing by his side.
So, his ear was to the ground, expecting every moment to hear the far off sounds of awakened negroes coming to ask for liberty, and if refused, to slay or be slain.
When he read Belton's oration he saw that the flame of liberty was in his heart, her sword in his hand, and the disdain of death stamped on his brow.
He felt that Belton was the morning star which told by its presence that dawn was near at hand.
Thus it was that he said to his wife: "Wife, it has come at last.
May the good Lord cease not to watch over our beloved land."
This expression was not the offspring of fear as to the outcome of a possible conflict, for, Anglo-Saxon like, that was with him a foregone conclusion in favor of his own race.
But he shuddered at the awful carnage that would of necessity ensue if two races, living house to house, street to street, should be equally determined upon a question at issue, equally disdainful of life, fighting with the rancor always attendant upon a struggle between two races that mutually despise and detest each other.
He knew that it was more humane, more in accordance with right, more acceptable with God, to admit to the negro that Anglo-Saxon doctrine of the equality of man was true, rather than to murder the negro for accepting him at his word, though spoken to others.
Feeling thus, he pleaded with his people to grant to the negro his rights, though he never hinted at a possible rebellion, for fear that the mention of it might hasten the birth of the idea in the brain of the negro.
That evening, after he had read the oration to his wife and told her of his forebodings, he sat with his face buried in his hands, brooding over the situation.
Late in the night he retired to rest, and the next morning, when he awoke, his wife was standing by his bed, calling him.
She saw that his sleep was restless and thought that he was having troubled dreams.
And so he was.
He dreamed that a large drove of fatted swine were munching acorns in a very dense forest of oaks, both tall and large.
The oaks were sending the acorns down in showers, and the hogs were greedily consuming them.
The hogs ate so many that they burst open, and from their rotting carcasses fresh oaks sprang and grew with surprising rapidity.
A dark cloud arose and a terrible hurricane swept over the forest; and the old and new oaks fought furiously in the storm, until a loud voice, like unto that of a God, cried out above all the din of the hurricane, saying in tones of thunder:
"Know ye not that ye are parents and children?
Parents, recognize your children.
Children, be proud of the parents from whom you spring."
The hurricane ceased, the clouds sped away as if in terror, and the oaks grew up together under a clear sky of the purest blue, and beautiful birds of all kinds built their nests in the trees, and carolled forth the sweetest songs.
He placed upon the dream the following interpretation:
The swine were the negroes.
The oak trees were the white people.
The acorns were the doctrine of human liberty, everywhere preached by Anglo-Saxons.
The negroes, feasting off of the same thought, had become the same kind of being as the white man, and grew up to a point of equality.
The hurricane was the contest between the two races over the question of equality.
The voice was intended to inform the whites that they had brought about these aspirations in the bosom of the negro, and that the liberty-loving negro was their legitimate offspring, and not a bastard.
The whites should recognize their own doings.
On the other hand, the negro should not be over boastful, and should recognize that the lofty conception of the dignity of man and value and true character of liberty were taught him by the Anglo-Saxon.
The birds betokened a happy adjustment of all differences; and the dream that began in the gloom of night ended in the dawn of day.
Mr. King was very cheerful, therefore, and decided to send to Winchester for Belton, thinking that it might be a wise thing to keep an eye and a friendly hand on a young negro of such promise.
In the course of a couple of days, Belton, in response to his request, arrived in Richmond. He called at the office of The Temps and was ushered into Mr. King's office.
Mr. King had him take a seat.
He enquired of Belton his history, training, etc.
He also asked as to his plans for the future.
Finding that Belton was desirous of securing a college education, but was destitute of funds, Mr. King gladly embraced the opportunity of displaying his kind interest.
He offered to pay Belton's way through college, and the offer was gladly accepted.
He told Belton to call at his home that evening at seven o'clock to receive a check for his entire college course.
At the appointed hour Belton appeared at Mr. King's residence.
Mr. King was sitting on his front porch, between his wife and aged mother, while his two children, a girl and boy, were playing on the lawn.
Belton was invited to take a seat, much to his surprise.
Seeing a stranger, the children left their play and came to their father, one on each side. They looked with questioning eyes from father to Belton, as if seeking to know the purpose of the visit.
Mr. King took the check from his pocket and extended it toward Belton, and said:
"Mr. Piedmont, this will carry you through college.
I have only one favor to ask of you.
In all your dealings with my people recognize the fact that there are two widely separated classes of us, and that there is a good side to the character of the worst class.
Always seek for and appeal to that side of their nature."
Belton very feelingly thanked Mr. King, and assured him that he would treasure his words.
He was true to his promise, and decided from that moment to never class all white men together, whatever might be the provocation, and to never regard any class as totally depraved.
This is one of the keys to his future life.
Remember it.
