Iola Leroy; Or, Shadows UpliftedHarper, Frances Ellen Watkins
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Iola Leroy; Or, Shadows Uplifted
Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins
African American women -- Fiction; African Americans -- Fiction
"Why, Iola," asked Robert, "don't you believe in young people having a
good time?"
"Oh, yes," answered Iola, seriously, "I believe in young people having
amusements and recreations; but the times are too serious for us to
attempt to make our lives a long holiday."
"Well, Iola," answered Robert, "this is the first holiday we have had
in two hundred and fifty years, and you shouldn't be too exacting."
"Yes," replied Marie, "human beings naturally crave enjoyment, and if
not furnished with good amusements they are apt to gravitate to low
pleasures."
"Some one," said Robert, "has said that the Indian belongs to an old
race and looks gloomily back to the past, and that the negro belongs to
a young race and looks hopefully towards the future."
"If that be so," replied Marie, "our race-life corresponds more to the
follies of youth than the faults of maturer years."
On Dr. Latimer's next visit he was much pleased to see a great change in
Marie's appearance. Her eye had grown brighter, her step more elastic,
and the anxiety had faded from her face. Harry had arrived, and with him
came Miss Delany.
"Good evening, Dr. Latimer," said Iola, cheerily, as she entered the
room with Miss Lucille Delany. "This is my friend, Miss Delany, from
Georgia. Were she not present I would say she is one of the grandest
women in America."
"I am very much pleased to meet you," said Dr. Latimer, cordially; "I
have heard Miss Leroy speak of you. We were expecting you," he added,
with a smile.
Just then Harry entered the room, and Iola presented him to Dr. Latimer,
saying, "This is my brother, about whom mamma was so anxious."
"Had you a pleasant journey?" asked Dr. Latimer, after the first
greetings were over.
"Not especially," answered Miss Delany. "Southern roads are not always
very pleasant to travel. When Mr. Leroy entered the cars at A----, where
he was known, had he taken his seat among the white people he would have
been remanded to the colored."
"But after awhile," said Harry, "as Miss Delany and myself were sitting
together, laughing and chatting, a colored man entered the car, and,
mistaking me for a white man, asked the conductor to have me removed,
and I had to insist that I was colored in order to be permitted to
remain. It would be ludicrous, if it were not vexatious, to be too white
to be black, and too black to be white."
"Caste plays such fantastic tricks in this country," said Dr. Latimer.
"I tell Mr. Leroy," said Miss Delany, "that when he returns he must put
a label on himself, saying, 'I am a colored man,' to prevent annoyance."
CHAPTER XXX.
FRIENDS IN COUNCIL.
On the following Friday evening, Mr. Stillman's pleasant, spacious
parlors were filled to overflowing with a select company of earnest men
and women deeply interested in the welfare of the race.
Bishop Tunster had prepared a paper on "Negro Emigration." Dr. Latimer
opened the discussion by speaking favorably of some of the salient
points, but said:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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