Progress and Achievements of the Colored People: Containing the Story of the Wonderful Advancement of the Colored Americans—the Most Marvelous in the History of Nations—Their Past Accomplishments, Together With Their Present-day Opportunities and a Glimpse Into the Future for Further Developments—the Dawn of a Triumphant Era. A Handbook for Self-improvement Which Leads to Greater Success
John Stuart Mill · en
It is true philosophy that makes for education and wisdom, gives polish,
affords incentives to ambition and a leaning toward high ideals, as well
as offering opportunities—always bear in mind “Opportunity” for that is
what counts. Now imagine the bright men and women that travel on these
two hundred thousand miles of railroad. Imagine also, our ten thousand
men circulating among them; mixing with them; in daily and hourly
contact with them! Something must come of this association, and
something does come, which something is of incalculable benefit.
The passengers on the Overground Railroad are men and women from every
part of the world. They are the successful people; the experienced
people, and the leaders of thought. They have taken opportunity by the
forelock and ridden it to the finish. Otherwise they would not be able
to travel.
They are soldiers, statesmen, politicians, lawyers, clergymen,
physicians, scientists, and everything that is the highest and noblest
in the world.
Their number according to statistics, runs up into the hundreds of
millions of passengers annually. Our ten thousand in the performance of
their duties, listen to their interchange of opinions; note everything
that is worth knowing; glean opportunities, and absorb information and
wisdom.
If you have noticed any of these ten thousand off duty and on his way
home, you can not have failed to see gentlemen.
These men are really the operators of our “Overground Railroad” in the
highest sense of management. They are not mechanical, they are observing
and possess the power of mental acquisitiveness, due to their
surroundings and their contact with the passengers. They are the
opposites of the patrons and passengers, and managers of the old
“Underground Railroad,” which is switched off into the sidetrack of
forgetfulness.
The Pullman man from New York City meets his brother Pullman employee
from San Francisco, let us say, at St. Louis. Their regular stunt is
about two thousand miles each, with the care of numbers of the
passengers coming from tens of thousands of miles apart, from all over
the globe, in fact.
What is the result of this meeting? To an outsider it is something like
this:
“How are you, Sam?”
“How are you, Bill?”
“Have a New York stogie.”
“Have a San Francisco cheroot.”
That is all the outsider sees or learns. But when these men get away and
apart, they exchange notes of everything that they have learned on the
trip or has transpired on their routes. They are message bearers of
everything they have learned new from their passengers.
Multiply this one instance with thousands of similar instances. We have
every city in the world linked with every other city; every nationality
brought in contact with every other nationality; every class and
character of individual tied up with every other class of individuals,
and these men are the great deposit reservoirs of everything.