A NEGRO SEER A ZIGZAG PATH

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 74, 28 March 1914, Page 13

A NEGRO SEER A ZIGZAG PATH

"THE GREAT GENEROUS AMERICAN HEART." , This remarkable rhapsody publi?hed by the New York Independent, is by a gifted American negro Kelly Miller, who is now Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Howard University, Washington :—: — The vision of a ecion of a despised and rejected race, the span of whose life is measured 1 by the years of its Golden Jubilee, and whose fancy like the vine that girdles the tree-ttunk runneth both forward and back. I see the African savage as he drii\ks his palmy wine, and Da6ks in the sunshine of his native bliss, and is happy. I see the man-catcher, impelled by thirst of gold, as he entraps his 6impleeouled. victim in the snares of bondage and of death, by use of torce or guile. I see the ocean basin whitened with his bones, and the ocean current running red with his blood, amidst the hellish horrors of the middle passage. LABOURING FOR TWO CENTURIES. I see him labouring for two centuries and a-half in unrequited toil, making the hillside of our southland to glow w-ith the snow-white fleece of cotton^ and the valleys to glisten with the golden sheaves of grain. 1 see him silently enduring cruelty and torture indescribable, with flesh flinching beneath the sizz of angry whip or quivering under the gnaw of the sharptoothed bloodhound. I see a chivalri^ civilisation instinct with dignity, comity, and grace rising upon pillars supported by his strong and brawny arm. ' I see the swarthy matron lavishing her soul in altruistic devotion upon the offspring of her alabaster mistress. I see the haughty sons of a haughty race pouring but their lustful passion upon black womanhood, filling our land with a bronzed and tawny brood. I see also the patriotic solicitude of the kindly-hearted owners of men, in whose breast not even inquitous system could sour the milk of human kindness. ( I hear the groans, the sorrows, the sighings, the soul striving of these benighted creatures of God rising up from the low grounds of sorrow and reaching the ear of Him who regardeth man of the lowliest estate. I strain my ear to supernal sound, and I hear in the secret chambers of the Almighty the order to the Captain of the Hosts to- break his bond and set him free. I seevAbraham Lincoln, himself a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, arise to execute the high decree. I see two hundred thousand black boys in blue baring their breasts to the bayonets of the enemy, that their race might have some slight part in its own deliverance. I see the great Proclamation delivered in the year of my birth, of which I became the first fruit and beneficiary. I see the assassin striking down the great Emancipator ; and the house of mirth is transformed into the Golgotha of the nation. I watch the Congress as it adds to the Constitution new words, which make that document a charter of liberty indeed. I see the new-made citizen running to and fro in the first fruit of his newfound freedom. I see him rioting in the flush of privilege which the nation had vouchsafed, but which I know is not destined long to last. I see him thrust down from the high ccat of political power by fraud and force, while the nation looks on in sinister silence and acquiescent guilt. I see the tide of 'public feeling run cold and chilly, as the vial of racial wrath is wreaked upon his bowed and defenceless head. I see his body writhing in the agony of death as his groans issue from the crackling flames, while the funeral pyre lights the midnight sky with its dismal glare. My heart sinks with heaviness within me. PROGRESS WHICH ZIGZAGGED. I see that the path of progress has never taken a straight line, but has always been a zigzag course amid the conflicting forces of right and wrong, truth and error, justice _and injustice, cruelty and mercy. I see that the great generous American Heart, despite the temporary flutter, will finally beat true to the higher human impulse, and my soul abounds with reassurance and hope. I see his marvellous advance in the rapid acquisition of knowledge and acquirement of things material, and attainment in the higher pursuits of life, with his face fixed upon that light which shineth brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. I see him who was once deemed sticken, smitten of God and afflicted, now entering with universal welcon\e into the glad fellowship of humanity, and I look calmly upon the centuries of blood and tears and travail of soul, and am satisfied.