It appears that Prof. Sumner Salter, a graduate of Amherst College, a son of an honored pastor of Iowa, a musical director of exceptional gifts and a teacher of eminent ability, was solicited by parties in Atlanta to take his residence there in the interest of the musical cultivation of such as could secure his services. He soon attracted the patronage of society, and all went smoothly until the tempter came. Alas, there was a serpent in Eden, so there was a skeleton in the closet of the _Atlanta Constitution_. It was a dreadful skeleton. The _Constitution_ seriously publishes the fact that "it was whispered about for some time," until patience ceased to be a virtue, when it sent a guardian of public safety in the form of a reporter to investigate. "Was it really true that a white man who was giving music lessons to white people was also teaching a colored class at another time and place? If so, what about the New South? The black man had no business to be black, but he _was_ all the same, and being so what right had Prof. Salter to teach _colored_ people to sing? Let the matter be thoroughly searched out. The reporter departed on his mission, with a countenance more in sorrow than in anger, and returned _vice versa_. "'Tis true, 'tis pity, 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. {95} 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."