And pity 'tis 'tis true."
The professor was actually doing this very absurd thing. He had taken charge of a colored class in the church of which Rev. Evarts Kent is minister and was teaching them how rightly to use the talents with which God had so richly endowed them.
Accordingly, in the year of grace 1888, the Atlanta Constitution publishes the astounding fact, and calls the world to heed it, in conspicuous head lines:—
"WHITE OR BLACK—A PROMINENT MUSICIAN WHO TEACHES BOTH COLORS—HIS BUSINESS SAID TO BE INJURED."
Then followed the whole sad story. The musician had been interviewed and investigated. He did not deny the serious charge to this superintendent of public proprieties. With a heart as hard as old Pharaoh's he proposed to go on and do more likewise. In short, the representative of the Constitution could do nothing with this intractable professor. Hence "he did not stand upon the order of his going, but went at once," and reported that "according to Mr. Suiter's own statement, he is teaching a colored class, and he has lost a white pupil, which shows that his course is hurting his business." "Diligent inquiry has failed to bring to light any proof that he has notified his white pupils that he is teaching colored people."
Leaving out the meanness of this, has anyone read anything published lately more ridiculous? It is not necessary to quote the professor's public reply. It simply claimed the right of manhood and common sense, and doubtless left the Constitution wondering how a man capable of making it appear so foolish could yet descend to such depths of ignominy as to teach people whose ancestors came from Africa, the unpardonable sin of singing praises to the Author of their being. To what deeps some will descend! Why should colored people add to the criminality of being born black, the fearful temptation of pay in advance to one who could teach them while he had pupils who had the merit of having been born white?
This was really transpiring in the city of Atlanta several days in the month of February in the year 1888, and was in successive issues of the Constitution, which shows among other things that there is latitude, if not longitude, at a Brooklyn New England dinner. Meanwhile we think we hear Uncle Rastus quoting the prophecy, "The morning cometh and also the night," but he can't help laughing because it is "awful funny."