The day on which I was able to figure up a thousand dollars marked an epoch in my life.  And this was not because I had never before had money.  In my gambling days and while I was with my millionaire I handled sums running high up into the hundreds; but they had come to me like fairy godmother’s gifts, and at a time when my conception of money was that it was made only to spend.  Here, on the other hand, was a thousand dollars which I had earned by days of honest and patient work, a thousand dollars which I had carefully watched grow from the first dollar; and I experienced, in owning them, a pride and satisfaction which to me was an entirely new sensation.  As my capital went over the thousand-dollar mark, I was puzzled to know what to do with it, how to put it to the most advantageous use.  I turned down first one scheme and then another, as though they had been devised for the sole purpose of gobbling up my money.  I finally listened to a friend who advised me to put all I had in New York real estate; and under his guidance I took equity in a piece of property on which stood a rickety old tenement-house.  I did not regret following this friend’s advice, for in something like six months I disposed of my equity for more than double my investment.  From that time on I devoted myself to the study of New York real estate and watched for opportunities to make similar investments.  In spite of two or three speculations which did not turn out well, I have been remarkably successful.  Today I am the owner and part-owner of several flat-houses.  I have changed my place of employment four times since returning to New York, and each change has been a decided advancement.  Concerning the position which I now hold I shall say nothing except that it pays extremely well.

As my outlook on the world grew brighter, I began to mingle in the social circles of the men with whom I came in contact; and gradually, by a process of elimination, I reached a grade of society of no small degree of culture.  My appearance was always good and my ability to play on the piano, especially ragtime, which was then at the height of its vogue, made me a welcome guest.  The anomaly of my social position often appealed strongly to my sense of humor.  I frequently smiled inwardly at some remark not altogether complimentary to people of color; and more than once I felt like declaiming:  “I am a colored man.  Do I not disprove the theory that one drop of Negro blood renders a man unfit?” Many a night when I returned to my room after an enjoyable evening, I laughed heartily over what struck me as the capital joke I was playing.