reamed of such a thing."

"All of that shall be made perfectly clear to you in the course of the
narrative which I shall now relate."

Bernard leaned forward, anxious to hear what purported to be one of
the most remarkable and at the same time one of the most important
things connected with modern civilization.

Belton began: "You will remember, Bernard, that there lived, in the
early days of the American Republic, a negro scientist who won an
international reputation by his skill and erudition. In our school
days, we spoke of him often. Because of his learning and consequent
usefulness, this negro enjoyed the association of the moving spirits
of the revolutionary period. By the publication of a book of science
which outranked any other book of the day that treated of the same
subject, this negro became a very wealthy man. Of course the book is
now obsolete, science having made such great strides since his day.
This wealthy negro secretly gathered other free negroes together and
organized a society that had a two-fold object. The first object
was to endeavor to secure for the free negroes all the rights and
privileges of men, according to the teachings of Thomas Jefferson.
Its other object was to secure the freedom of the enslaved negroes
the world over. All work was done by this organization with the sole
stipulation that it should be used for the furtherance of the two
above named objects of the society, and for those objects alone.

"During slavery this organization confined its membership principally
to free negroes, as those who were yet in physical bondage were
supposed to have aspirations for nothing higher than being released
from chains, and were, therefore, not prepared to eagerly aspire to
the enjoyment of the highest privileges of freedom. When the War of
Secession was over and all negroes were free, the society began to
cautiously spread its membership among the emancipated. They conducted
a campaign of education, which in every case preceded an attempt at
securing members. This campaign of education had for its object the
instruction of the negro as to what real freedom was. He was taught
that being released from chains was but the lowest form of liberty,
and that he was no more than a common cur if he was satisfied with
simply that. That much was all, they taught, that a dog howled for.
They made use of Jefferson's writings, educating the negro to feel
that he was not in the full enjoyment of his righ