Show the old settler 0 my aly dear san Ju jumpers Jua ners apers I 1 have a friend who is a colored man not a I 1 cannot cann ot think of hirn him in any juch ach terms it implies too much hateful and unwarranted prejudice prejudice is the most cruel and the most brainless passion that ever gets into the human heart in my world of thought where wishful thinking mounts often to heights of reality Abra abraham harn lincoln johnsen is not a nigg but he is a thinking toiling suffering soul who from some inexplicable encounter in the primeval world has come into this stage of existence bearing the dreadful skin of blackness and the other peculiarities of form and habit characteristic cf f hs race but abrahams hair and mustache kinky and short are white with age when first I 1 saw abraham lincoln johnson it was in the early spring and he and his faithful old lazie were plotting the flowerbed flower bed under the trees in front of their home I 1 saw them frequently after that lazie told me a lot about her people and her girlhood and abraham spoke feelingly of f the land of his childhood in one of the distant southern states and of the dear old mammy who gave him his start in the world I 1 was moved with a sympathizing interest in them if for nothing else than the important fact that they were black and despised and shut out from the world of people who are blessed with white skins and favored with much which should breed charity and compassion in their souls forthome for those who walk in sorrow and shame for lack of those things I 1 was moved with their fine devotion continued on page 12 the old settler 0 contina Cont continued inu ed f from r om page 1 and love fr f r each other he vf as tender with her as a love rna maa er in in his teens when spring came aga n 1 I looked for them in heir love 1 1 and stopped to watch vatch them stooping over the young plants and later in the summer I 1 saw sav them there two lovers still after ther ittle nock flock had married off and gone with the opening of he third spring I 1 met jd id abraham on the street aril ani an i the tha open hap happa pv smile had gone aroln fro m his face I 1 spoke I 1 to him and his eyes were wet I 1 listened in n a reverent hush he had something to tell me and he spoke low ad and with difficulty lazie died ladt night he managed I 1 to say turning his face buic quickly lest I 1 should see the emotion he could not control we been livin happy to together ether thirty five years he b bc wed wed his old head over and wiped his eyes with his handkerchief 1 I never felt so desolated before in all my life I 1 could feel the warmth andthil and the sorrow of his aching heart and to me he was not black for shining above his blackness was his pure devotion and his hard fight to carry on alone in a world that had lost its main charm we stand up straight when we are young he said pensively but the earth pulls us over more and more and we stoop down to it till we rest in its soil I 1 turned and looked a at his stooping shoulders as he trudged away and I 1 looked for him again in his garden when I 1 passed that way he was late arranging the flowers it this h i s y year e a r he went slowly I 1 fly and uncertainly abut abacut the task and nd when I 1 saw him standing there irresolute and alone where lazie had stood by him I 1 felt a great kindred tie of sorrow which draws all men together in the brotherhood of tears when they know what it is by having gone through it ALBERT R LYMAN |