The Forged Note: A Romance of the Darker RacesMicheaux, Oscar
General
The Forged Note: A Romance of the Darker Races
Micheaux, Oscar
African Americans -- Fiction
"Let me at him! Let me at him!" cried Legs from the outside, but John
Moore didn't wait to hear any more. A crash and a rattle as of falling
glass scattered about, showed that an exit was unconventionally made in
the rear. Wyeth and Legs came around in time to see him going over the
back fence. The next time they saw him, he was leading the other by
about two rods, as they went up the street.
"Jumped right into his jaws," laughed Glenview, as they watched the
chase from the porch.
Ten minutes later, some one tore into the house, and turned the key of
the door so quickly, that it seemed like an automatic spring lock.
It was John Moore.
"Let's go down to the drug store," suggested Wyeth. Legs didn't hang out
in that direction, so Glenview was the recipient of the suggestion. He
couldn't, so, presently, Wyeth went alone.
"They are going to fall down in both those towns, on the securing of a
Y.M.C.A. for Negroes, and I knew they would when they started," the
druggist was saying, when Wyeth entered.
"Negroes can secure nothing but churches down south," commented another.
"They have only a few weeks left, before the time limit on the
appropriations from the Jew expires. He offered twenty-five thousand to
any association where the people secured an additional seventy-five
thousand. Now six months after the campaign for the association in
Grantville," so said a mail clerk who ran to that city, "less than five
thousand in cash, out of a total of more than thirty-three thousand
dollars subscribed, has been collected to date. How can this--what is
the name of the secretary of the proposed association--yes, I have it,
Jacobs--Rev. Wilson Jacobs, figure they will be able to secure one in
that town?"
"It's all stuff. Nigga's down here would do nothing with an association
no way," said the druggist.
"I stopped at the Y.M.C.A. when I was in Chicago this summer," said the
bookkeeper in the Dime Savings Bank. "It appears to be conducted with
great success, and is surely a fine, clean, up-to-date place to stop,
regardless of the fact that almost everything is open to Negroes in that
city."
"Yes, but the Negroes in Chicago are civilized," said another. "These
Negroes down here would have to have a half dozen police standing around
to keep order, if they had one."
"But don't you feel such a thing in this town would act as a great moral
benefit?" suggested Wyeth, at this juncture.
"We now hear from Tempest," smiled the druggist. He had not been able,
as yet, to reconcile himself to the bet he lost some months before, and
had since a grudge against Wyeth.
"I see by today's paper, that Wilson Jacobs will address the people of
the city in regard to the Christian forward movement, and will be
assisted by several white men of high standing in the city."
"Well, speeches will be all right; but I'd bet a dollar to a dime that
they will never secure a Y.M.C.A. in the town he represents. As for
Effingham, no chance."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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