quarters as to the ability of the Negro unguided, unsupported, to hew his
own path and put into visible, tangible, indisputable form, products and
signs of civilization. This doubt cannot be much affected by abstract
arguments, no matter how delicately and convincingly woven together.
Patiently, quietly, doggedly, persistently, through summer and winter,
sunshine and shadow, by self-sacrifice, by foresight, by honesty and
industry, we must re-enforce argument with results. One farm bought, one
house built, one home sweetly and intelligently kept, one man who is the
largest tax payer or has the largest bank account, one school or church
maintained, one factory running successfully, one truck garden profitably
cultivated, one patient cured by a Negro doctor, one sermon well
preached, one office well filled, one life cleanly lived--these will tell
more in our favor than all the abstract eloquence that can be summoned to
plead our cause. Our pathway must be up through the soil, up through
swamps, up through forests, up through the streams, the rocks, up through
commerce, education and religion!

[Footnote A: In the original, this was 'drudggery'.]




_The Talented Tenth_

By PROF. W.E. BURGHARDT DuBOIS

A strong plea for the higher education of the Negro, which those who are
interested in the future of the freedmen cannot afford to ignore. Prof.
DuBois produces ample evidence to prove conclusively the truth of his
statement that "to attempt to establish any sort of a system of common