it is the work of the devil, or the wrath of God, or a punishment of the wicked, while reason and science say that it is but a law of the elements and a necessary cleansing and readjusting process, désigned by a Wise Ruler in the economy of the world, for the preservation of plant and animal life. Did not these disturbances occur over land and sea, stagnation and death would soon take place, and leave the earth a silent cemetery.

Had not Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington and nearly all the other great men of the American Negro race been of mixed blood, this people and this world would be just that much worse off. The manner of their birth has been criticised and condemned, and no doubt justly in the light of modern ethics, but, nevertheless, the law of dissemination or mixing was obeyed under adverse conditions, and the wrong here involved can only be laid at the door of human ignorance and depravity.

Here again, as in the natural process of purifying the atmosphere as in the storm, poor humanity has been outwitted and a greater intelligence has taken in hand the destiny of a people. All the man-made laws and adverse criticism cannot change the inevitable. Why should the moral heroism and the great intellectual illumination of this free age longer per

mit the inhuman procedure, discussed in this book, when the proper legislation would wash away this horrible stain, this unmitigated curse, and give to both races a moral tone, a Christian purity, as behooves a civilized people. The following analyses of the blending of the two races must convince all skeptical and prejudiced that legal amalgamation and the removing of prejudice is the paramount race issue.

CHAPTER XII

RACE INTEGRITY

THE RACE INTEGRITY CRANK.In every age of mankind the demand for race integrity was manifested among the various tribes and nations of the world; and among people the most barbarous and exclusive the demand has been most strenuous. In fact, the most barbarous often pride themselves most on their race purity. Ignorance is invariably the father of race prejudice, and the source of belief in race integrity. And this absurd, childish proclivity manifests itself in a peculiar manner, under peculiar circumstances, at the present time. We say absurd, childish-what else, think you, is it? The absolute inconsistency of many who cry the loudest for race integrity is abominable! We do not deny that illicit miscegenation prevails throughout the South among the lowest classes of the races; but when men of influence and social prominence everywhere step up to us and damn the entire "nigger race," and demand race integrity, while their pale-faced sons and daughters and their dark-faced "concubines" (?) are fed and housed by them, this race integrity business becomes a very serious proposition.

When the modern Moses of America makes laws, forbidding the "children of Israel" to commingle with all other races, while he persistently sticks to his-black honey-Ethiopian wife, in spite of all the protests, arguments and prejudice of his brother Aaron and sister Marion, we think it is time we take a good, square look at this "sacred" race purity doctrine. What we say is not meant to reflect unkindly upon those who very seriously believe in their own breed, and champion that particular kind of breed to which they belong. They have that privilegeall men have that privilege. Most men believe that they are the only pure-bred animal on earth (the tree-climbing, cocoanut-headed pigmy believes that), consequently they are extremely anxious to populate the world with their particular "species," to the exclusion of all others. We have profound respect for this class of men and women, although they may be a little self-centered, unreasonable. But, if we made it our business to hate any mortal being on earth, it would assuredly be the bold-faced hypocrite, the race integrity crank; the man with a "ga" at the end of Negro, and a "d" in front. Our country is at present infested with this kind of human monstrosity.

THE MAN WHO IS NOT A NEGRO. -We would not deny that some day, yet far dis

tant, the presence of a pure-blooded Caucasian will be a rare curiosity in some sections of the Southland; but the real Negro will also be conspicuous for his absence. Indeed, as we assert in several parts of this book, the true Negro will, within a comparatively short time, be extinct, unless recruited from Africa.

While the amalgamating process is more noticeable in cities, there are many instances in rural districts where some white planters have their "mistresses." You may call the progeny of this class white Negroes, you may continue to call all people of African descent Negroes; but they are, nevertheless, as far removed from a Negro as an Irishman is from an Indian. On short notice a goodly crowd of this class of socalled Negroes, who are as white as many southerners, may be picked up in most localities. Of course, if they prefer to call themselves Negroes to anything else, that is their business; scientifically speaking, we cannot class these with the Negro race, as they have lost their Negro characteristics to too marked an extent. Any man. with more foreign blood than a mulatto is not a Negro, and the fact that he is called one, or calls himself one, is absurd. He could, with more propriety, be called a hybrid or mongrel, for he is nothing else. If anthropology teaches any truth, it must teach that a man of mixed blood