Black-No-More, Incorporated, was not slow to seize upon this opportunity to drum up more business. With 100 sanitariums going full blast from Coast to Coast, it now announced in full page advertisements in the daily press that it was establishing lying-in hospitals in the principal cities where all prospective mothers could come to have their babies, and that whenever a baby was born black or mulatto, it would immediately be given the 24-hour treatment that permanently turned black infants white. The country breathed easier, particularly the four million Negroes who had become free because white.
In a fortnight Bunny Brown returned. Over a quart of passable rye, the two friends discussed his mission.
"What about Licorice?" asked Matthew.
"Useless. You ought to give him the gate. He's taking your jack but he isn't doing a thing but getting your checks and eating regularly. His followers are scarcer than Jews in the Vatican."
"Well, were you able to talk business with any of the Negro leaders?"
"Couldn't find any of them. Their offices are all closed and they've moved away from the places where they used to live. Broke, I suppose."
"Did you inquire for them around Harlem?"
"What was the use? All of the Negroes around Harlem nowadays are folks that have just come there to get white; the rest of them left the race a long time ago. Why, Boy, darkies are as hard to find on Lenox Avenue now as they used to be in Tudor City."
"What about the Negro newspapers? Are any of them running still?"
"Nope, they're a thing of the past. Shines are too busy getting white to bother reading about lynching, crime and peonage," said Bunny.