ds, have a chance. Train
the Negro to accept and carry responsibility by putting it upon him. Train
him, more than any schools are now doing, in morals--to speak the truth,
to keep a promise, to touch only his own property, to trust the
trustworthy among his own race, to risk something in business, to strike
out in new lines of endeavor, to buy houses and make homes, to regard
beauty as well as utility, to save rather than display. In short, let us
subordinate mere knowledge to the work of invigorating the will,
energizing productive effort and clarifying moral vision. Let us make safe
men rather than vociferous mountebanks; let us put deftness in daily labor
above sleight-of-hand tricks, and common sense, well trained, above
classical smatterings, which awe the multitude but butter no parsnips.

If we do this, America will have enriched her blood, ennobled her record
and shown the world how to deal with its Dark Races without reproach.

[Footnote B: In the original, this was 'Northen'.]

[Footnote C: In the original, this was 'weeek'.]

[Footnote D: In the original, this was 'seees'.]

_Representative American Negroes_

By PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR

An enumeration of some of the noteworthy American Negroes of to-day and
yesterday, with some account of their lives and their work. In this
paper Mr. Dunbar has turned out his largest and most successful picture
of the colored people. It is a noble canvas crowded with heroic figures.

In considering who and what are representative Negroes there are
circumstances which compel one to question what is a representative man of
the colored race. Some men are born great, some achieve greatness and
others lived during the reconstruction period. To have achieved something
for the betterment of his race rather than for the aggrandizement of
himself, seems to be a man's best title to be called representative. The
street corner politician, who through questionable methods or even through
skillful manipulation, succeeds in securing the janitorship of the Court
House, may be written up in the local papers as "representative," but is
he?

I have in mind a young man in Baltimore, Bernard Taylor by name, who to me
is more truly representative of the race than half of the "Judges,"
"Colonels," "Doctors" and "Honorables" whose stock cuts burden the pages
of our negro journals week after week. I have said that he is young.
Beyond that he is quiet and unobtrusive; but quiet