Part 94

He was not only a great executive and a great legislator, but, when yet a youth, when the great Republic was in the agony of possible dissolution, he heroically shouldered a musket and went to the front as a private to preserve the union of the states bequeathed to us by the noble fathers and the heroism of the American revolutionary soldier in that memorable struggle, the first victim of which was Crispus Attucks, the lineaments of whose personality have been chiseled in marble and will stand a monument upon Boston Common, to show a "Man's a man for a' that and a' that," and that the rank is but the guinea's stamp.

Ah, well, we faithful hearts and true, who were never false to a friend, who have always loved the flag, even when the flag waved not over us, who fought with Washington at Valley Forge and with Perry at Lake Erie, with Jackson at New Orleans, with Shaw at Fort Wagner, and with Butler at New Market Heights, who went up San Juan Hill with Theodore Roosevelt and the immortal Rough Riders and followed little Joe Wheeler in Luzon, who, although a Southern brigadier, as a reconstructed unionist in a reunited country showed in Cuba and Manila that he had the same regard for a black soldier as for a white one when he was loyal to the flag and faithful to his country, are here to mourn our loss. This great heart that loved his country and gave his life to it and for it is stilled in death!

The assassin! What of him? It is a matter of notorious fact that he was so obscure in the life that he had led and had contributed so little to the public weal in the place where his hands found labor that he was utterly unknown and went down to the quicklime that consumed his miserable remains, to the chaos from which we all spring, stigmatized with at least two cognomens and with the reputation of having contributed nothing to the wealth of the Republic or the happiness of mankind. There are millions of him in Europe and America who keep in perpetual jeopardy the splendid civilization evolved out of the tumult of Egypt and Rome and the Dark Ages. And the very genius of logical business development sprung out of the bosom of Moroe on the Nile and of Tyre where ancient Afro-Phoenicians ruled the blue waters of the adjacent seas and of the lordly Egyptians, who were African in their fiber, historians to the contrary notwithstanding, were the founders of the commercial spirit that dominates the world to-day. More than that, they laid the basis of our literature and of our philosophy. As Lord Byron hath beautifully said:

"Ye have the Pyrrick dances yet-- Where has the Pyrrick phalanx gone? Of two such lessons, why forget The nobler and the manlier one? Ye have the letters Cadmus gave; Think ye he meant them for a slave?"

Now, Cadmus was a black African slave captured in war; so was Aesop, the world's greatest fabulist; so was Terence, among the grandest of Rome's lyric poets; so was Pushkin, the national poet to-day of Russia; so was Alexander Dumas the first, the greatest, not only of French novelists, but of novelists of all times and the infinite storehouse from which all novelists draw, Honore De Balzac and Charles Dickens to the contrary notwithstanding.

But of this vile assassin, Leon Czolgosz, why do I make this exordium here upon the violent taking off of the President beloved by all the people, and my animadversion upon the character of the man who lifted his hand against the supreme representative of the greatest Republic upon earth and the most prosperous nation? It is an incident in the life of government that the supreme head of it shall be subject to the vicissitudes of its maniacal, fanatical and criminal classes, those who live by their wits or those who dream of a condition of society unattainable, as human nature is constructed, such as Edward Bellamy has pictured in "Looking Backward." I wish it distinctly understood that I refer to this matter simply to draw attention to the fact that Czolgosz, the obscure assassin of the highest representative of the logic of business development in this country, is inseparably linked as the Siamese twins to the mobocrat, and that any effort made to root out the anarchist in this country will fail, and should fail, unless the mobocrat is rooted out at the same time.

It is written in the stars. God has said, "Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people."

And what business development can we have when the dark shadow of anarchism and mobism overshadows the land like the dark cloud that covered the children of Israel in their confusion, when in their perversion they had turned their faces from the God of their destiny? No, there can be no business development in this country while our laws are so lax as to allow irresponsible individuals or organizations to clog the wheels of industry or to waste unnecessarily the red blood that gives life to a virile human form. I say, with our grand President, throttle the anarchist that would shoot a President or a successor to a President. Yes, but if you leave the Southern mobocrat to shoot John Jones, an unknown entity, the element of anarchism remains pregnant in the body politic and is liable at any time to show its venomous head.

Who could have told when the whole nation was hopeful that a John Wilkes Booth lurked reluctant in the body politic to cut down the wisest and the most humane and the most lovable of all the Presidents? Ah, my friends, you can't protect the President of the United States from the assassin, and leave unprotected in any corner of the republic its meanest citizen, because, as Alexander Pope has wisely said, "We are all but links of one stupendous chain. Break a link of that chain and the power of that chain is destroyed."

TOPIC XXXVIII.

HOW TO HELP THE NEGRO TO HELP HIMSELF.

BY W. R. PETTIFORD.

REV. WILLIAM R. PETTIFORD, D. D.

It is difficult to present a life's record so as to furnish a correct estimate of the man in question. Particularly is this true if we attempt to give upon a page the account of a long life of active and useful service.

Among the leaders in Christian work in the state of Alabama, Dr. W. R. Pettiford ranks very high, having but few, if any, superiors. As a business man he is unexcelled. Twelve years of unremitting toil and unbroken success in the banking business demonstrate the truth of this assertion.

In presenting this sketch we could not do better than quote from the Cyclopedia of the Colored Baptist of Alabama, by Rev. C. O. Boothe, D. D.:

Rev. W. R. Pettiford, D. D., son of William and Matilda Pettiford, was born in Granville county, North Carolina, January 20th, 1849. He was, when a boy, of an industrious turn of mind, working faithfully at whatever his hands found to do. At one time he was with the tanner, and at another time he was running his father's farm.

At the age of 21 years he united with the Baptist Church of Rocksboro, Person county, North Carolina, and was immersed by the Rev. Ezekiel Horton of Salisbury. While he was serving this church as clerk he told his mother the secret, which he greatly desired that she would not reveal, that he felt called to the gospel ministry. Brother Horton often put up at their home, hence soon got possession of the secret.

Dr. Pettiford now says: "When I was called into an examining council and learned that my secret was out, I was very much frightened, but the advice given upon this day has ever been helpful to me."

At the commencement of Selma University, 1877-78, he joined Brother Woodsmall, becoming a member of the pioneer faculty of the school. It was here that he was seen as the patient, studious, industrious man--loved by tender youth and trusted by those of riper years.

He was called to ordination by the Berean Baptist Church, Marion, Ala., and dedicating hands were laid upon his head in Marion, Ala., in the midst of the Conventional Session held there in November, 1880. After this he severed his connection with Selma University to enter the pastorate in Union Springs.

As teacher and financial agent he made such a record that unprecedented prestige was given to his work at Union Springs, where for two years, by his labor of love and sacrifice, he laid the foundation for permanent Christian work that shall stand throughout all time.

For a brief period Dr. Pettiford worked under joint appointment of the American Baptist Home Mission Society and the Home Mission Board of the Alabama Baptist State Convention as lecturer for ministers. In this capacity he accomplished a great work. Many ministers to-day look back to those days when they sat in institutes conducted by him as the times of their greatest inspiration for mental and spiritual development.

As president of the Alabama Penny Savings Bank he has a reputation as extensive as the country of which he is a citizen. There is no city of importance where this bank has not done business. It has gained the reputation of being a safe business, having survived several panics to which many other similar institutions have succumbed.

Dr. Pettiford has managed to find some time to write. He is the author of the following treatises: "Divinity in Wedlock," "God's Revenue System" and "The Centenary," all of which do him honor and his fellow man service. But this sketch would be incomplete if it were closed without stating this truth: That much of the Doctor's success is rightly attributed to the sympathy and help of his life companion, formerly Miss Della Boyd, to whom he was joined in bonds of wedlock November 22, 1880. Three children have graced their home, being systematically trained for usefulness in life.

Since the emancipation of the Negro in this country philanthropists have contributed largely to the establishment of schools and colleges for his education. Some of these institutions have been the means of affording the Negro literary instruction, and others have given him more practical benefits in industrial training. These methods of helping a race that was necessarily groping in the darkness of illiteracy are not only commendable from the viewpoint of humanitarianism and sound philanthropy, but it must be conceded that some such help was indispensable to any real advancement of the Negro in the matter of education. For all such assistance it can be said that the Negro is truly appreciative and, for the most part, has earnestly striven to demonstrate his profound gratitude by eagerly taking hold of the opportunities thus afforded for his enlightenment. The industrial schools, Hampton, Tuskegee, and others, have done much in a practical way for the Negro in giving him a knowledge of trades--a class of training that must prove of inestimable value to him in his endeavor to earn a living honestly and honorably. That person who has been taught how to do something well, who has been so equipped as to be able to do with skill what the world is willing to pay a desirable price for, has been done an incalculable service, and one for which society as well as the individual himself has occasion to feel grateful.

So generously have the Negro's friends contributed toward his education and so marked are their continued efforts in this direction that it would appear somewhat bold for anyone to offer a suggestion at this time looking to any additional contributions from this source for the purpose of materially advancing the masses of that race along other lines. On the other hand, when it is remembered with what avidity the beneficiaries of these funds have seized the opportunities offered, and the splendid results so far realized; and when the further facts are borne in mind that the improvement of one class of the population never fails to inure to the benefit of the entire community, it may not, after all, require unusual temerity in one to venture upon the suggestions which are to follow in this article. When it is noted, too, with what care, discrimination and rare judgment such contributions have been directed in the effort to lift the Negro out of his unfortunate condition, and with what earnestness, consistency and sincerity of purpose such aid has been given, the conclusion is irresistible that any other needed help will come if the method suggested is shown to be practicable and gives promise of beneficial results.

While the school has wrought wonders for the Negro, as it has for all civilized races, it cannot be hoped or expected that all desirable improvements in the development of a people can be accomplished through this agency. All the virtues may be taught in the school-room, but the student gets only a theoretical idea of what is intended to be conveyed to his mind, and necessarily so. He has not yet learned to be practical and cannot, until he is brought in contact with the actual and serious responsibilities of life, see the real, practical phase of things as they actually exist. He needs to learn the practical value of economy and thrift, of constant industry and frugality. If he would build on a certain and safe foundation, he must do so by honestly earning every dollar he can and wisely saving as much of it as his actual necessities will permit. Nothing so strongly encourages this spirit in the Negro as a savings bank operated in his community by persons of his own race. The powerful influence exerted in this direction by such institutions may be shown by some impressive figures which have been secured from reliable sources: Atlanta, with no such institution to stimulate its colored population to save, has only 1,000 colored depositors in the associated banks of that city out of a total colored population of 30,000; or one out of every thirty. Richmond, with a thriving institution of this character, has 5,000 colored depositors out of a total colored population of 45,000; or one out of every nine. Birmingham boasts of 5,000 colored depositors (4,000 of whom deposit with the bank with which the writer is connected) out of a total colored population of 20,000; or one out of every four. These three thriving Southern cities, blessed with equal prosperity and promise, furnish convincing proofs of the great power for good exerted by such institutions. If Atlanta, which in other respects equals either of these two cities, were favored with the presence of a bank of the kind mentioned, a much larger percentage of its colored population would be filled with the spirit of economy and the desire to save.