This defence, suggesting the make-believe loan of his body by the friar in the Decameron to the angel Gabriel, which, of course, had never been heard of by the accused, convinced the church, willing to be convinced. It appeased the injured husband, willing to be appeased. It fully vindicated the gay clergyman and the erring sister, who were in effect told to go and sin no more with such little discretion. Had this case, or another like it, occurred at that time or since in any other negro church of that region, there would have been acquittal and justification of the accused, although perhaps the good plea and the right psychological moment to make it might not have been so aptly found.[166] The habits and customs of the race mix men and women always and everywhere; and in those opportunities each one of the young and the old, married and unmarried of both sexes--of even children just arrived at puberty--chases a short-lived amour with ever eager zest.[167] The blacker the Lothario the more show of white blood he seeks in his fancies. Now and then furious desire for real white overmasters him. Surprising some unattended angel of a girl or matron, he chooses to see Rome and then die. Her avengers pour kerosene on him and burn him to a crisp. His lusty fellows think to themselves what Hermes, in the song of Demodocus, says to Apollo of the mishap to Ares and golden Aphrodite--that is, that for the same brief pleasure they would each gladly endure thrice the penalty. Professor DuBois says that the chastity of the negro women has improved so greatly "that even in the back country districts not above nine per cent of the population may be classed as distinctly lewd."[168] Inquire of honest witnesses who have good opportunities of observing--the farmers, small and large, and the storekeepers, in the country, those who do contract work and the police in the cities--of all who have close access to negroes at all times, and especially at night; and the concurring report will be that right correction of Professor DuBois' statement just given cannot stop with mere inversion of his percentages; that the fact is, no negroes in this lower class which we are now dealing with are chaste except those whose physical condition has made a virtue of necessity.[169] It is sadly true that men of all races are too prone to unchastity. It is chaste women that give human amelioration its main propulsion; for they make every husband to know that the children around his fireside are his own. If I were asked in what one particular had my life-long comparison convinced me that the two races are farthest apart, I would unhesitatingly answer, in the character of the women of each--the average white woman, from her marriage on, forgetting all other men but her husband, the black wife always with a paramour, if to be had.