They made resolutions that
extolled him, and the Negro band came around and serenaded him, playing
various things in varied time.

All this was very sweet to Mr. Asbury, and the party managers chuckled
with satisfaction and said, "That Asbury, that Asbury!"

Now there is a fable extant of a man who tried to please everybody, and
his failure is a matter of record. Robinson Asbury was not more
successful. But be it said that his ill success was due to no fault or
shortcoming of his.

For a long time his growing power had been looked upon with disfavour by
the coloured law firm of Bingo & Latchett. Both Mr. Bingo and Mr.
Latchett themselves aspired to be Negro leaders in Cadgers, and they
were delivering Emancipation Day orations and riding at the head of
processions when Mr. Asbury was blacking boots. Is it any wonder, then,
that they viewed with alarm his sudden rise? They kept their counsel,
however, and treated with him, for it was best. They allowed him his
scope without open revolt until the day upon which he hung out his
shingle. This was the last straw. They could stand no more. Asbury had
stolen their other chances from them, and now he was poaching upon the
last of their preserves. So Mr. Bingo and Mr. Latchett put their heads
together to plan the downfall of their common enemy.

The plot was deep and embraced the formation of an opposing faction made
up of the best Negroes of the town. It would have looked too much like
what it was for the gentlemen to show themselves in the matter, and so
they took into their confidence Mr. Isaac Morton, the principal of the
coloured school, and it was under his ostensible leadership that the new
faction finally came into being.

Mr. Morton was really an innocent young man, and he had ideals which
should never have been exposed to the air. When the wily confederates
came to him with their plan he believed that his worth had been
recognised, and at last he was to be what Nature destined him for--a
leader.

The better class of Negroes--by that is meant those who were
particularly envious of Asbury's success--flocked to the new man's
standard. But whether the race be white or black, political virtue is
always in a minority, so Asbury could afford to smile at the force
arrayed against him.

The new faction met together and resolved. They resolved, among other
things, that Mr. Asbury was an enemy to his race and a menace to
civilisation. They decided that he should be aboli