1. French Sergeants fraternizing with Colored American Sergeants. 2. and 3. Colored Soldiers and the French children. 4. Two colored Sergeants visiting in French home.
Finally, we can happily say that it was a pleasure to note that the relationship between the colored American and the Frenchman grew in cordiality and friendliness until a strong, and we hope, lasting bond was established between them. They were made welcome guests in the homes of the wealthy and cultured, as well as in the most humble. The understanding ear of the colored man seemed attuned to the French language, and he learned more quickly than others, it seemed, how to converse with this romantic people. The French people are affectionate and demonstrative, which corresponds to the deep emotional spirit which seems the heritage of the colored American. The colored soldiers were naturally musical, and many of them sang with a wonderful penetrating pathos, or with notes that brought forth joy that was unconfined; others were talented and accomplished pianists. These things appealed deeply to the artistic soul of our French comrades.
The variety of color among them interested the Frenchman much as the light and shade in a picture, or the coloring in the drapery in his store windows, or in the birds that flitted about in his mountain fastnesses. He admired the way they fought, and the way they performed without murmuring their tasks at the dock, on the railroads, or in the warehouses. He loved them because they did all these things with a song of joy, though perhaps with a crucifixion of spirit; and with all earnestness and genuine desire he invited them to come again, that the relationship thus begun might grow in strength and beauty and mutual helpfulness.
Take fast hold of instruction, let her not go: keep
her; for she is thy life.—Proverbs 4:13.
Education
THE chief educational work to be done among the colored troops overseas was that of teaching them to read and write, as large numbers were unable to sign the payroll. These men were drafted into the army often without regard to age or physical fitness. One man from Texas, upon delivering a company of men to a lieutenant whom he thought to be white, remarked that he had brought him a good bunch of Negroes, and had plenty more down there if he wanted them. At first, he said, they took all the men who had just purchased little farms, so that the property would soon return to the original owners, and then they just went out through the country and gathered them up everywhere, so that they could get their full quota without sending their white boys. Of course, he said, the Negroes didn’t know any better and just thought they had to come.