“I do not think so, Mr. Thompson.  I saw in the window an advertisement, ‘A boy wanted.’  They did not say what color the boy must be and I applied for the situation and did my work as faithfully as I knew how.  Mr. Hazleton seemed to be perfectly satisfied with my work and as he did not seek to know the antecedents of my family I did not see fit to thrust them gratuitously upon him.  You know the hard struggle my poor mother has had to get along, how the saloon has cursed and darkened our home and I was glad to get anything to do by which I could honestly earn a dollar and help her keep the wolf from the door, and I tried to do my level best, but it made no difference; as soon as it was known that I had Negro blood in my veins door after door was closed against me; not that I was not honest, industrious, obliging and steady, but simply because of the blood in my veins.”

“I admit,” said Mr. Thomas, trying to repress his indignation and speak calmly, “that it was a hard thing to be treated so for a cause over which you had not the least control, but, Charley, you must try to pick up courage.”

“Oh, it seems to me that my courage has all oozed out.  I think that I will go away; maybe I can find work somewhere else.  Had I been a convict from a prison there are Christian women here who would have been glad to have reached me out a helping hand and hailed my return to a life of honest industry as a blessed crowning of their labors of love; while I, who am neither a pauper nor felon, am turned from place after place because I belong to a race on whom Christendom bestowed the curse of slavery and under whose shadow has flourished Christless and inhuman caste prejudice.  So I think that I had better go and start life afresh.”

“No, Charley, don’t go away.  I know you could pass as a white man; but, Charley, don’t you know that to do so you must separate from your kindred and virtually ignore your mother?  A mother, who, for your sake, would, I believe, take blood from every vein and strength from every nerve if it were necessary.  If you pass into the white basis your mother can never be a guest in your home without betraying your origin; you cannot visit her openly and crown her with the respect she so well deserves without divulging the secret of your birth; and Charley, by doing so I do not think it possible that however rich or strong or influential you may be as a white man, that you can be as noble and as true a man as you will be if you stand in your lot without compromise or concealment, and feel that the feebler your mother’s race is the closer you will cling to it.  Charley, you have lately joined the church; your mission in the world is not to seek to be rich and strong, but because there is so much sin and misery in the world by it is to clasp the hand of Christ through faith and try to make the world better by your influence and gladder and brighter by your presence.”