The father lifted his head:
"Prejudices! You know as well as I that the white man"s instinct of racial purity is not prejudice, but G.o.d"s first law of life--the instinct of self-preservation! The lion does not mate with the jackal!"
The boy flushed angrily:
"The girl I love is as fair as you or I."
"Even so," was the quick reply, "we inherit ninety per cent. of character from our dead ancestors! Born of a single black progenitor, she is still a negress. Change every black skin in America to-morrow to the white of a lily and we"d yet have ten million negroes--ten million negroes whose blood relatives are living in Africa the life of a savage."
"Granted that what you say it true--and I refuse to believe it--I still have the right to live my own life in my own way."
"No man has the right to live life in his own way if by that way he imperil millions."
"And whom would I imperil?"
"The future American. No white man ever lived who desired to be a negro.
Every negro longs to be a white man. No black man has ever added an iota to the knowledge of the world of any value to humanity. In Helen"s body flows sixteen million tiny drops of blood--one million black--poisoned by the inheritance of thousands of years of savage cruelty, ignorance, slavery and superst.i.tion. The life of generations are bound up in you. In you are wrapt the onward years. Man"s place in nature is no longer a myth. You are bound by the laws of heredity--laws that demand a n.o.bler not a baser race of men!
Shall we improve the breed of horses and degrade our men? You have no right to d.a.m.n a child with such a legacy!"
"But I tell you I"m not trying to--I refuse to see in her this stain!"
The father strode angrily to the other side of the room in an effort to control his feelings:
"Because you refuse to think, my boy!" he cried in agony. "I tell you, you can"t defy these laws! They are eternal--never new, never old--true a thousand years ago, to-day, to-morrow and on a million years, when this earth is thrown, a burnt cinder, into G.o.d"s dust heap. I can"t tell you what I feel--it strangles me!"
"No, and I can"t understand it. I feel one thing, the touch of the hand of the woman I love; hear one thing, the music of her voice----"
"And in that voice, my boy, I hear the crooning of a savage mother! But yesterday our negroes were brought here from the West Soudan, black, chattering savages, nearer the anthropoid ape than any other living creature. And you would dare give to a child such a mother? Who is this dusky figure of the forest with whom you would cross your blood? In old Andy there you see him to-day, a creature half child, half animal. For thousands of years beyond the seas he stole his food, worked his wife, sold his child, and ate his brother--great G.o.d, could any tragedy be more hideous than our degradation at last to his racial level!"
"It can"t happen! It"s a myth!"
"It"s the most dangerous thing that threatens the future!" the father cried with desperate earnestness. "A pint of ink can make black gallons of water.
The barriers once down, ten million negroes can poison the source of life and character for a hundred million whites. This nation is great for one reason only--because of the breed of men who created the Republic! Oh, my boy, when you look on these walls at your fathers, don"t you see this, don"t you feel this, don"t you know this?"
Tom shook his head:
"To-night I feel and know one thing. I love her! We don"t choose whom we love----"
"Ah, but if we are more than animals, if we reason, we do choose whom we marry! Marriage is not merely a question of personal whim, impulse or pa.s.sion. It"s the one divine law on which human society rests. There are always men who hear the call of the Beast and fall below their ideals, who trail the divine standards of life in the dust as they slink under the cover of night----"
"At least, I"m not trying to do that!"
"No, worse! You would trample them under your feet at noon in defiance of the laws of man and G.o.d! You"re insane for the moment. You"re mad with pa.s.sion. You"re not really listening to me at all--I feel it!"
"Perhaps I"m not----"
"Yet you don"t question the truth of what I"ve said. You can"t question it.
You just stand here blind and maddened by desire, while I beg and plead, saying in your heart: "I want this woman and I"m going to have her." You"ve never faced the question that she"s a negress--you can"t face it, and yet I tell you that I know it"s true!"
The boy turned on his father and studied him angrily for a moment, his blue eyes burning into his, his face flushed and his lips curled with the slightest touch of incredulity:
"And do you really believe all you"ve been saying to me?"
"As I believe in G.o.d!"
With a quick, angry gesture he faced his father:
"Well, you"ve had a mighty poor way of showing it! If you really believed all you"ve been saying to me, you wouldn"t stop to eat or sleep until every negro is removed from physical contact with the white race. And yet on the day that I was born you placed me in the arms of a negress! The first human face on which I looked was hers. I grew at her breast. You let her love me and teach me to love her. You keep only negro servants. I grow up with them, fall into their lazy ways, laugh at their antics and see life through their eyes, and now that my life touches theirs at a thousand points of contact, you tell me that we must live together and yet a gulf separates us! Why haven"t you realized this before? If what you say about Helen is true, in G.o.d"s name--I ask it out of a heart quivering with anguish--why haven"t you realized it before? I demand an answer! I have the right to know!"
Norton"s head was lowered while the boy poured out his pa.s.sionate protest and he lifted it at the end with a look of despair:
"You have the right to know, my boy. But the South has not a valid answer to your cry. The Negro is not here by my act or will, and their continued presence is a constant threat against our civilization. Equality is the law of life and we dare not grant it to the negro unless we are willing to descend to his racial level. We cannot lift him to ours. This truth forced me into a new life purpose twenty years ago. The campaign I have just fought and won is the first step in a larger movement to find an answer to your question in the complete separation of the races--and nothing is surer than that the South will maintain the purity of her home! It"s as fixed as her faith in G.o.d!"
The boy was quiet a moment and looked at the tall figure with a queer expression:
"Has she maintained it?"
"Yes."
"Is her home life clean?"
"Yes."
"And these millions of children born in the shadows--these mulattoes?"
The older man"s lips trembled and his brow clouded:
"The lawless have always defied the law, my son, North, South, East and West, but they have never defended their crimes. Dare to do this thing that"s in your heart and you make of crime a virtue and ask G.o.d"s blessing on it. The difference between the two things is as deep and wide as the gulf between heaven and h.e.l.l."
"My marriage to Helen will be the purest and most solemn act of my life----"
"Silence, sir!" the father thundered in a burst of uncontrollable pa.s.sion, as he turned suddenly on him, his face blanched and his whole body trembling. "I tell you once for all that your marriage to this girl is a physical and moral impossibility! And I refuse to argue with you a question that"s beyond all argument!"
The two men glared at each other in a duel of wills in which steel cut steel without a tremor of yielding. And then with a sudden flash of anger, Tom turned on his heel crying:
"All right, then!"
With swift, determined step he moved toward the door. The father grasped the corner of the table for support:
"Tom!"
His hands were extended in pitiful appeal when the boy stopped as if in deep study, turned, looked at him, and walked deliberately back:
"I"m going to ask you some personal questions!"
In spite of his attempt at self-control, Norton"s face paled. He drew himself up with an attempt at dignified adjustment to the new situation, but his hands were trembling as he nervously repeated:
"Personal questions?"