Anna had brought the high-chair in which their own darling had sat a few
months before, when she had made gladness and sunshine around her
parent's path.
There was a tender light in the eye of the Quakeress as she dusted the
chair, and sat Minnie at the table.
"Do you think," said Thomas, addressing Josiah, "that we will ever
outgrow this wicked, miserable prejudice?"
"Oh, yes, but it must be the work of time. Both races have their work to
do. The colored man must outgrow his old condition of things, and thus
create around him a new class of associations. This generation has known
him as a being landless, poor, and ignorant. One of the most important
things for him to do is to acquire land. He will never gain his full
measure of strength until (like Anteus) he touches the earth. And I think
here is the great fault, or misfortune of the race; they seem to me to
readily accept their situation, and not to let their industrial aspirations
rise high enough. I wish they had more of the earth hunger that
characterizes the German, or the concentration of purpose which we see
in the Jews."
"I think," said Thomas, "that the Jews and Negroes have one thing in
common, and that is their power of endurance.
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