156
TALKS FOR THE TIMES.
ried up into his room, or his boots haven't been
blacked in the morning. He has been greatly exas¬
perated by a shiftless and negligent fellow. He goes
off, gives his experience with a Negro, and with great
assumption says, " Ab uno disce omnes" (From one
learn the character of all). By and by another one
comes. He may have some of the good blood of the
old abolitionists coursing through his veins. He
happens to drop into one of the schools, and perhaps
hears just one student recite Greek or Latin or Math¬
ematics. He goes back home, and says, "I told you
so. Yes, when I was a boy, and father took such a
decided stand in favor of those poor colored people,
they threatened to hang him, threatened to tar and
feather him. I have just been down in Georgia,
down in Atlanta. I visited a colored college, and
heard a young man recite Greek as fluently as you
would English. I don't believe that young man
could be surpassed anywhere, in scholarship or gen¬
tility or moral culture." a Ab uno disce omnes."
Now, no one of these is a true representation of the
Negro. These are the extremes. The true represen¬
tation would be the mean. The Negro is just as good
and just as bad as anybody, just as dull and just as
Permalink: http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/n3cmg
