Part 90

The reform schools for juveniles throughout the North and West, and those in Virginia, represent Christian agencies for the reduction and destruction of crime in its germinal state, and are a display of wise and humane statesmanship on the part of legislators. The white people of Virginia, ever responsive to appeals in behalf of human need, made possible the Virginia Manual Labor School at Broad Neck Farm, Hanover, Virginia. It was this sentiment in behalf of moral reform among Negro children and youths that brought to the aid of this institution the interested concern of a man of wealth and national influence, whose sympathy for the poor and ignorant of his countrymen, white and black, is as broad and far-reaching as ignorance and human suffering. This reformatory, opened September 12, 1899, and aided by the state February 5, 1900, began with a nucleus of five Negro boys, and has now under its guardianship fifty-two children. It has thus early demonstrated conclusively that saving and redemptive elements of character exist in Negro children no less than in those of other races; also that for tractableness and responsiveness to kindly influences, delinquent Negro children show themselves of legitimate kinship to that race among whom, as the classic writer tells us, "the gods delighted to disport themselves--the gentle Ethiopians."

I know how disposed as a race we are to wilt, to lose heart, and complain, in the glare of new exhibitions of prejudice, such as harass us in our native Virginia, and our brethren in other parts of the country. To such, I put the question: "By courage can we not lessen misfortune? Yes! A thousand times yes! Courage turns ignoble agony into beautiful martyrdom. Its alchemy is universal. Is the stake a misfortune to the martyr? It is his dearest fortune. Is oppression, prejudice, or ignorance, a misfortune to the reformer? It is the very condition of his reform. Is misunderstanding, injustice, suspicion, or contempt a misfortune to the earnest man or woman anywhere who is trying to guide his life by a more celestial trigonometry than petty minds can conceive? In one sense these things are to be deplored but in another and deeper sense nothing is to be dreaded that can be faced and known by an unfrighted human spirit. A misfortune bravely met is a fortune, and the world is full of people happy because bravely unhappy."

FOOTNOTES:

The American Negro of To-day. Contemporary Review, February, 1900.

The late Mr. C. P. Huntington of New York.

TOPIC XXXII.

THE AMERICAN NEGRO'S OPPORTUNITIES IN AFRICA.

BY WILLIAM H. HEARD.

DR. WILLIAM H. HEARD.

Dr. William H. Heard, ex-Minister Resident and Consul General to Liberia, was born in Elbert County, Georgia, of slave parents and therefore was a slave himself until Lee surrendered to Grant in April, 1865. He was only fifteen years of age at this period. He began his education at this age, attended South Carolina University, Clark University and Atlanta University at Atlanta, Georgia; taught school twelve years, was elected to South Carolina Legislature from Abbeville County in 1876, appointed railway postal clerk in 1880, but resigned this position in 1883 and entered the ministry at Macon, Georgia. He pastored churches in Athens and Atlanta, Georgia; Aiken and Charleston, South Carolina; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Wilmington, Delaware; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and was appointed Minister Resident and Consul General to Liberia by President Grover Cleveland February, 1895. He served this position with honor to his race and to himself. He is one of the most successful ministers in his denomination, and has served the best appointments, both as pastor and as presiding elder. He is now the pastor of Allen Temple, Atlanta, Georgia; has written a book called the "Bright Side of African Life," which has a large circulation. He is now President of the Colored National Emigration Association.

The Liberian government takes charge of all persons landing as emigrants and looks after their comfort preparatory to their settling; but if one prefers he may secure board in the best of families at a cheap rate until settled. As the government gives each settler from fifteen to twenty-five acres of land, and allows him to choose his own plot, it takes a little time to settle. He must locate and survey his land and build his hut. All new-comers build the hut, as it is cheap and quickly built. From fifteen to fifty dollars will put up a good thatch hut which will answer all purposes for at least three years. The land cleared, coffee, ginger, sugar-cane, edoes, cassada, oranges, limes, plums, bread-fruit, pawpaws, can be planted. It takes three years for coffee to yield; five to six for oranges, limes, bread-fruit, etc. Edoes, cassadas and such bread-stuffs yield in three or four months, and ginger and sugar-cane once a year. From these two commodities an income at once is had. All of the above fruits and products are obtainable from neighbors while yours are maturing. This is the condition of the farmer. But should you go out as a professional or business man you have a wide field and little competition. Any educated person will find ready employment by individuals or the government and a remuneration in keeping with the vocation. Citizenship is the result of a deed to your land and this is obtained at your option; and citizenship means an election to any office save that of President and Vice-President. It requires a residence of five years to be elected to one of these offices. Attorney Wright, Professor Stevens, Rev. Frazier and others filled national positions before they had been citizens five years. The government needs strong men to assist in running the Republic, and such, if loyal, are always welcomed. The merchant of Liberia receives the greatest profit of any merchant on the face of the globe--not less than one hundred per cent on the purchasing price--and a hundred and fifty per cent on the selling price. Rent is cheap, taxes low, and duties moderate, so that everything is in favor of the merchant.

The scientist finds the widest field imaginable--silver, gold, precious stones, herbs, coal, iron and such articles are as plentiful as the leaves on the trees--they never fall. All that is needed is a scientific eye to see these things.

The zoologist could make a fortune in one year catching insects and shipping them to colleges in America, England, Germany and France.

Why so many of our young people, educated and refined, will don white aprons and stand behind chairs and watch other people eat is a problem, if there is one, that needs to be solved. Many of our educated girls, when they can work on people's heads and feet, and present a card with some big word on it, as "chiropodist," which means foot-cleaner, are perfectly satisfied. All of this must be done, but it does not require a knowledge of Latin, Greek, French, German, and all the sciences to do this successfully; yet it is the highest ambition of many of our young people, while Africa invites them to higher walks.

In America cotton is the staple in many of the Southern states. The farmer plants and grows this staple to obtain clothing and the necessaries of life, and, if possible, lay by a dollar for a rainy day. In Liberia coffee holds the same relation to the farmer as cotton in America; yet it is planted like the peach tree or apple tree. It takes about five years to yield, but when it begins to yield it increases yearly, costing about five cents a pound to clean, hull and ship to market, giving a clear profit of from two to five cents on the pound, while there is no real profit in cotton growing. Liberia would yield cotton as prolifically as Arkansas or Mississippi, if cultivated. The Englishmen are turning their attention to cotton growing in West Africa.

Cassadas takes the place of the American sweet potato, but is much easier produced, as the greatest cost is the labor of planting. It produces without cultivation, and, as there is no frost in West Africa, once planted it will produce for twenty years. It is a root as is the sweet potato.

The upland rice of West Africa grows anywhere and everywhere it chances to fall upon the ground. Very little attention is given to cultivation, yet it could be made an export which would yield the farmer a most valuable income. Corn grows as prolifically in Africa as in the bottoms of Georgia and Alabama. Planting is the hardest task.

The palm tree grows as the pine in Georgia or North Carolina, and the nut which it produces is as large as, or larger than, a horse chestnut. These nuts contain an oil that answers all the purposes of bacon, lard and butter in America. The greatest task is to have a boy climb the tree and cut them down. This oil fries your fish, seasons your greens, shortens your bread and answers all the purposes of lard or butter.

There are hogs, cows, sheep and goats in West Africa, but no meat can be cured, therefore all bacon is shipped from abroad.

Rubber farms are much more profitable than turpentine farms, for the reason that it costs so much less to produce rubber and the profit is so much greater. Rubber is produced at from fifteen to twenty cents per pound and sold at from seventy-five cents to one dollar per pound. While all of these products are used on the ground, with a few exceptions, yet all of them are profitable commodities for export.

We have presented this array of facts to sustain our position that the Negro will be benefited by returning home to Africa as fast as he is self-reliant and independent. But he must be a man; boys cannot stand the hardships of pioneer life.

TOPIC XXXIII.

THE NEGRO AND EDUCATION.

BY MRS. LENA MASON.

MRS. LENA MASON.

Mrs. Lena Mason, the Evangelist, was born in Quincy, Ill., May 8th, 1864. Her parents, Relda and Vaughn Doolin, were devout Christians, and they brought up their daughter Lena, as far as they knew how, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, so that Lena became a Christian at a very early age. She attended the Douglass High School of Hannibal, Mo. She also attended Professor Knott's School in Chicago. She married March 9th, 1883, to George Mason. Of this union six children were the result--four boys and two girls; of these only one, Bertha May, survives.

At the age of 23 Mrs. Mason entered the ministry, preaching for the first three years to white people exclusively, and later preaching to mixed congregations. She now belongs to the Colored Conference. Mrs. Mason has preached in nearly every state in the Union, and the preachers are few who can excel her in preaching. She has, since she has been preaching, been instrumental in the conversion of 1,617 souls. Her five months' work in colored and white churches in Minneapolis will never be forgotten by those who were greatly benefited by her services. Mrs. Mason possesses considerable ability as a poet, and has written several poems and songs that do not suffer by comparison with poems by the best poets. Mrs. Mason is powerful in argument and picture painting. Rev. C. L. Leonard, pastor of the Central German M. E. Church, in speaking of Mrs. Mason, says: "I desire to express my highest appreciation of Mrs. Mason's church and effective evangelical work in my church and in many others. Mrs. Mason is now making a tour of the South, and by her lectures and sermons is doing a work among the colored people that will bear good fruit in the future. One only needs to hear Mrs. Mason lecture and preach to understand how it is that one never tires listening to her."

1. Said once a noble ruler, Thomas Jefferson by name, "All men are created equal. All men are born the same." God made the Negro equal To any race above the grave, Although once made a captive And sold to man a slave.