He attended church constantly, became an earnest Christian, had obtained an excellent education, and then it wuz not strange that he should look about him to try to behold the rewards that merit wins. One illustration of this reward of merit we have jest given—when he wuz elected Justice of the Peace.
That wuz a fair sample of the rewards of merit offered to his race.
He wuz not alone in it; no, he looked about him, and he saw thousands and thousands of young colored men who had studied jest as hard as he had—they too had dreams of this great truth that had been dinned in their ears so long—that Christianity, education, and merit will win all the prizes of life.
They studied, they worked hard, they pursued lofty ideals, and when they left their schools they wuz Christians, they wuz educated, they wuz meritorious. Their minds wuz bright and well equipped, their tastes wuz refined, they wuz good.
Of what avail wuz it all, so Felix asked himself, when they wuz pushed back to the wall by brazen audacity and ignorance—and intolerance and ignorance and immorality, if encased in a white skin, might snatch all the prizes out of their hands and take their places in the front ranks of life.
In many States in the South they could not get the place of a policeman if it depended upon the integrity of the ballot.
What sort of an education, a finishing school, wuz this for the young colored man of the South? Wuz such unblushin’ fraud, and lies, and cheatin’, and heart-burnings, and sickenin’ disappointments, and deeds of violence, a wholesome atmosphere for young people to learn morals in?
Felix, as he looked about him and saw the thousands and thousands and thousands of young men, graduates of schools and members of churches, in jest the same condition as he himself wuz—he might be pardoned if he asked himself if the long horror of the War had been in vain.
If Lincoln and Grant and all the other pure souls had toiled and died in vain.