Being hungry, he went forth in quest of a meal.  He entered a restaurant and asked the white man whom he saw behind the counter for a meal.  The white man stepped into a small adjoining room to fill the order, and Belton eat down on a high stool at the eating counter.  The white man soon returned with some articles of food in a paper bag.  Seeing Belton sitting down, he cried out:  “Get up from there, you nigger.  It would cost me a hundred dollars for you to be seen sitting there.”

Belton looked up in astonishment, “Do you mean to say that I must stand up here and eat?” he asked.

“No, I don’t mean any such thing.  You must go out of here to eat.”

“Then,” replied Belton, “I shall politely leave your food on your hands if I cannot be allowed to eat in here.”

“I guess you won’t,” the man replied.  “I have cut this ham off for you and you have got to take it.”

Belton, remembering his experience earlier in the day, began to move toward the door to leave.  The man seized a whistle and in an instant two or three policemen came running, followed by a crowd.  Belton stood still to await developments.  The clerk said to the policeman:  “This high-toned nigger bought a meal of me and because I would not let him sit down and eat like white people he refused to pay me.”

The officers turned to Belton and said:  “Pay that man what you owe him.”

Belton replied:  “I owe him nothing.  He refuses to accommodate me, and I therefore owe him nothing.”

“Come along with me, sir.  Consider yourself under arrest.”

Wondering what kind of a country he had entered, Belton followed the officer and incredible as it may seem, was locked up in jail for the night.  The next morning he was arraigned before the mayor, whom the officer had evidently posted before the opening of court.  Belton was fined five dollars for vagrancy and was ordered to leave town within five hours.  He paid his fine and boarded the train for Cadeville.

As the train pulled in for Cadeville, a group of white men were seen standing on the platform.  One of them was a thin, scrawny looking man with a long beard, very, very white.  His body was slightly stooping forward, and whenever he looked at you he had the appearance of bending as if to see you better.  When Belton stepped on to the platform this man, who was the village doctor, looked at him keenly.

Belton was a fine specimen of physical manhood.  His limbs were well formed, well proportioned and seemed as strong as oak.  His manly appearance always excited interest wherever he was seen.  The doctor’s eyes followed him cadaverously.  He went up to the postmaster, a short man with a large head.  The postmaster was president of the band of “Nigger Rulers” of that section.

The doctor said to the postmaster:  “I’ll be durned if that ain’t the finest lookin’ darkey I ever put my eye on.  If I could get his body to dissect, I’d give one of the finest kegs of whiskey in my cellar.”