THE AFRICAN IN THE UNITED STATES. 439 



at whose completion the rich and the poor, the upper and the lower 

 orders, are found, as a whole, to have changed places. It is a law of 

 slow action, but sure. 



The causes are apparent. The sons of the rich eat daintily, exer- 

 cise daintily, keep late hours for resting and rising, are self-indulgent 

 and extravagant. There are, of course, exceptions. Undoubtedly, 

 however, the surroundings of the sons of wealth create tendencies this 

 way, toward effeminacy of body and uneconomical habits of mind. 

 These are downward tendencies, and, pressing through a cycle of 

 years, bring the descendants of the rich, as a class, to the social 

 bottom. 



The poor, on the other hand, are compelled, by their condition of 

 life, to strength-giving exercise, and careful, saving methods in the 

 management of means. Robust bodies and thrifty ways give upward 

 tendencies, which, acting through the social cycle, lift the descendants 

 of these poor to the higher planes. Taking men in the mass, tenden- 

 cies and results are this way. 



Now, as regards the blacks, this fundamental law is broken, and 

 the issue, in a state of society theoretically free, is approaching dis- 

 order. 



The blacks are an improving race, and the throb of aspiration is 

 quickening. Progress with the pure African is, indeed, slow. How 

 could it be otherwise ? A long dark night of barbarous ignorance in 

 his native land, succeeded on these shores by nearly a century of servi- 

 tude, wherein letters were denied him, and improvident, unthrifty 

 habits necessarily engendered, could rapid progress for the race, under 

 these circumstances, be rationally expected ? Advancement in mental 

 training and in economic science must needs be slow but there is 

 advancement. 



That portion of the colored population known as mulattoes show, 

 in mind and manners, a marked superiority, drawn from the side of 

 their white parentage. This element, though increasing among them- 

 selves, is not increasing (appreciably) from admixture of bloods ; be- 

 cause the white man can not now cohabit with negresses with the 

 impunity belonging to days of slavery. With all its gradations it 

 still, however, forms a very large class. They mingle freely with the 

 pure African on terms of perfect equality, have the African instinct, 

 and make a great factor in determining the average progress of the 

 race. 



This laboring class, working upward along the social cycle, meets, 

 almost on the threshold of development, an impassable barrier. With 

 growing aspirations incapable of being realized, they are doomed to 

 remain where they have been, and be hewers of wood and drawers of 

 water. Individuals here and there, by force of peculiar talent and 

 fortunate circumstances, break through the opposing obstacle, and at- 

 tain high positions ; or such positions may be conferred in the interest 



