of miraculous mechanical equipment, are
born daily and die as quickly. But there are also books, that like some
men marked before their birth for a place amongst the "Seats of the
MIGHTY"; an association with the IMMORTALS, that

"Were not born to die."

This book seems of that glorious company.

* * * * *

IN THE--

Spiritualized humanity that broadened the vision and inspired the pens
of the devoted corps of writers, responding to my suggestions and
oversight in its preparation; the getting together of data and facts, is
reflected the incoming of a NEW AND BROADER CHARITY--a stranger in our
midst--of glimpse and measurement of the Negro. Beyond the written word
of the text, the reader is gripped with a certain FELT but unprinted
power of suggestion, a sense of the nation's crime against him; the
Negro, stretching back through the centuries; the shame and humiliation
that is at last overtaking it, that has not been born of the "Print
Shops" since the sainted LINCOLN went his way, leaving behind him a
trail of glory, shining like the sun; in the path of which, freed
through the mandate of his great soul, MARCHED FOUR MILLION NEGROES, now
swollen to twelve, their story, the saddest epic of the ages, of whom
and in behalf of whom their children; the generation now and those to
come, this History was collated and arranged. It is an EVANGEL
proclaiming to the world, their unsullied patriotism; their rapid fire
loyalty, that through all the years of the nation's life, has never
flickered--

"Has burned and burned Forever the same",

from Lexington to the cactus groves of Mexico; in the slaughter hells of
Europe; over fields and upon spots where, in the centuries gone, the
legions of Caesar, of Hannibal and Attila, of Charlemagne and Napoleon
had fought and bled, and perished! Striding "Breast forward" beneath the
Stars and Stripes as this History crowds them on your gaze, through the
dust of empires and kingdoms that; before the CHRIST walked the earth;
before Christianity had its birth, wielded the sceptres of power when
civilization was young, but which are now but vanishing traditions.

You are thrilled! History nor story affords no picture more inspiring.

MAKING DUE ALLOWANCE--

For its nearness to the living and dead, whose heroic and transcendant
achievements on the battle spots of the great war secured for them a
distinction and fame that will endure until--