I have often wondered if there was a white institution in this country whose students would have welcomed the incoming of more than a hundred companions of another race in the cordial way that these black students at Hampton welcomed the red ones.  How often I have wanted to say to white students that they lift themselves up in proportion as they help to lift others, and the more unfortunate the race, and the lower in the scale of civilization, the more does one raise one’s self by giving the assistance.

This reminds me of a conversation which I once had with the Hon. Frederick Douglass.  At one time Mr. Douglass was travelling in the state of Pennsylvania, and was forced, on account of his colour, to ride in the baggage-car, in spite of the fact that he had paid the same price for his passage that the other passengers had paid.  When some of the white passengers went into the baggage-car to console Mr. Douglass, and one of them said to him:  “I am sorry, Mr. Douglass, that you have been degraded in this manner,” Mr. Douglass straightened himself up on the box upon which he was sitting, and replied:  “They cannot degrade Frederick Douglass.  The soul that is within me no man can degrade.  I am not the one that is being degraded on account of this treatment, but those who are inflicting it upon me.”

In one part of the country, where the law demands the separation of the races on the railroad trains, I saw at one time a rather amusing instance which showed how difficult it sometimes is to know where the black begins and the white ends.

There was a man who was well known in his community as a Negro, but who was so white that even an expert would have hard work to classify him as a black man.  This man was riding in the part of the train set aside for the coloured passengers.  When the train conductor reached him, he showed at once that he was perplexed.  If the man was a Negro, the conductor did not want to send him to the white people’s coach; at the same time, if he was a white man, the conductor did not want to insult him by asking him if he was a Negro.  The official looked him over carefully, examining his hair, eyes, nose, and hands, but still seemed puzzled.  Finally, to solve the difficulty, he stooped over and peeped at the man’s feet.  When I saw the conductor examining the feet of the man in question, I said to myself, “That will settle it;” and so it did, for the trainman promptly decided that the passenger was a Negro, and let him remain where he was.  I congratulated myself that my race was fortunate in not losing one of its members.

My experience has been that the time to test a true gentleman is to observe him when he is in contact with individuals of a race that is less fortunate than his own.  This is illustrated in no better way than by observing the conduct of the old-school type of Southern gentleman when he is in contact with his former slaves or their descendants.

An example of what I mean is shown in a story told of George Washington, who, meeting a coloured man in the road once, who politely lifted his hat, lifted his own in return.  Some of his white friends who saw the incident criticised Washington for his action.  In reply to their criticism George Washington said:  “Do you suppose that I am going to permit a poor, ignorant, coloured man to be more polite than I am?”