t in the mine. To add to the
horror of being lost, sometimes my light would go out, and then, if I
did not happen to have a match, I would wander about in the darkness
until by chance I found some one to give me a light. The work was not
only hard, but it was dangerous. There was always the danger of being
blown to pieces by a premature explosion of powder, or of being crushed
by falling slate. Accidents from one or the other of these causes were
frequently occurring, and this kept me in constant fear. Many children
of the tenderest years were compelled then, as is now true I fear, in
most coal-mining districts, to spend a large part of their lives in
these coal-mines, with little opportunity to get an education; and, what
is worse, I have often noted that, as a rule, young boys who begin life
in a coal-mine are often physically and mentally dwarfed. They soon lose
ambition to do anything else than to continue as a coal-miner.

In those days, and later as a young man, I used to try to picture in my
imagination the feelings and ambitions of a white boy with absolutely
no limit placed upon his aspirations and activities. I used to envy
the white boy who had no obstacles placed in the way of his becoming a
Congressman, Governor, Bishop, or President by reason of the accident of
his birth or race. I used to picture the way that I would act under such
circumstances; how I would begin at the bottom and keep rising until I
reached the highest round of success.

In later years, I confess that I do not envy the white boy as I once
did. I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the
position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has
overcome while trying to succeed. Looked at from this standpoint, I
almost reached the conclusion that often the Negro boy's birth and
connection with an unpopular race is an advantage, so far as real life
is concerned. With few exceptions, the Negro youth must work harder and
must perform his tasks even better than a white youth in order to secure
recognition. But out of the hard and unusual struggle through which he
is compelled to pass, he gets a strength, a confidence, that one misses
whose pathway is comparatively smooth by reason of birth and race.

From any point of view, I had rather be what I am, a member of the Negro
race, than be able to claim membership with the most favoured of any
other race. I have always been made sad when I have heard members of