must, of course, have a good voice, but he must also have a reputation
among the men for intelligence, for being well-posted and having in
his head a stock of varied information. He is generally the final
authority on all arguments which arise, and in a cigar factory these
arguments are many and frequent, ranging from the respective and
relative merits of rival baseball clubs to the duration of the sun's
light and energy--cigar making is a trade in which talk does not
interfere with work. My position as "reader" not only released me from
the rather monotonous work of rolling cigars, and gave me something
more in accord with my tastes, but also added considerably to my
income. I was now earning about twenty-five dollars a week, and was
able to give up my peripatetic method of giving music lessons. I hired
a piano and taught only those who could arrange to take their lessons
where I lived. I finally gave up teaching entirely, as what I made
scarcely paid for my time and trouble. I kept the piano, however, in
order to keep up my own studies, and occasionally I played at some
church concert or other charitable entertainment.

Through my music teaching and my not absolutely irregular attendance
at church, I became acquainted with the best class of colored people
in Jacksonville. This was really my entrance into the race. It was my
initiation into what I have termed the freemasonry of the race. I had
formulated a theory of what it was to be colored; now I was getting
the practice. The novelty of my position caused me to observe and
consider things which, I think, entirely escaped the young men I
associated with; or, at least, were so commonplace to them as not to
attract their attention. And of many of the impressions which came
to me then I have realized the full import only within the past few
years, since I have had a broader knowledge of men and history, and
a fuller comprehension of the tremendous struggle which is going on