lass coach, whither
he supposed they were carrying him. But when they got to the platform,
instead of carrying him across they tossed him off the train into that
muddy ditch at which Belton had been looking. His body and feet fell
into the water while his head buried itself in the soft clay bed.

The train was speeding on and Belton eventually succeeded in
extricating himself from his bed of mud and water. Covered from head
to foot with red clay, the president-elect of Cadeville College walked
down to the next station, two miles away. There he found his satchel,
left by the conductor of the train. He remained at this station until
the afternoon, when another train passed. This time he entered the
second-class coach and rode unmolested to Monroe, Louisiana. There
he was to have changed cars for Cadeville. The morning train, the one
from which he was thrown, made connection with the Cadeville train,
but the afternoon train did not. So he was under the necessity of
remaining over night in the city of Monroe, a place of some twenty
thousand inhabitants.

Being hungry, he went forth in quest of a meal. He entered a
restaurant and asked the white man whom he saw behind the counter for
a meal. The white man stepped into a small adjoining room to fill the
order, and Belton eat down on a high stool at the eating counter. The
white man soon returned with some articles of food in a paper bag.
Seeing Belton sitting down, he cried out: "Get up from there, you
nigger. It would cost me a hundred dollars for you to be seen sitting
there."

Belton looked up in astonishment, "Do you mean to say that I must
stand up here and eat?" he asked.

"No, I don't mean any such thing. You must go out of here to eat."

"Then," replied Belton, "I shall politely leave your food on your
hands if I cannot be allowed to eat in here."

"I guess you won't," the man replied. "I have cut this ham off for you
and you have got to take it."

Belton, remembering his experience earlier in the day, began to move
toward the door to leave. The man seized a whistle and in an instant
two or three policemen came running, followed by a crowd. Belton stood
still to await developments. The clerk said to the policeman: "This
high-toned nigger bought a meal of me and because I would not let him
sit down and eat like white people he refused to pay me."

The officers turned to Belton and said: "Pay that man what you owe
him."

Belton replied: "I owe him nothing. H