The Project Gutenberg EBook of Birthright, by T.S. Stribling

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Birthright
A Novel

Author: T.S. Stribling

Release Date: January 7, 2004 [EBook #10621]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIRTHRIGHT ***

Produced by Robert Shimmin and PG Distributed Proofreaders

[Illustration: "Yes, Cissie, I understand now"]

BIRTHRIGHT

A NOVEL

BY T.S. STRIBLING

Illustrated by
F. Luis Mora

1922

TO MY MOTHER

AMELIA WAITS STRIBLING

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"Yes, Cissie, I understand now"

Peter recognized the white aprons and the swords and spears of the
Knights and Ladies of Tabor

Up and down its street flows the slow negro life of the village

In the Siner cabin old Caroline Siner berated her boy

The old gentleman turned around at last

"You-you mean you want m-me--to go with you, Cissie?" he stammered

"Naw yuh don't," he warned sharply. "You turn roun' an' march on to
Niggertown"

The bridal couple embarked for Cairo

BIRTHRIGHT

CHAPTER I

At Cairo, Illinois, the Pullman-car conductor asked Peter Siner to take
his suitcase and traveling-bag and pass forward into the Jim Crow car.
The request came as a sort of surprise to the negro. During Peter
Siner's four years in Harvard the segregation of black folk on Southern
railroads had become blurred and reminiscent in his mind; now it was
fetched back into the sharp distinction of the present instant. With a
certain sense of strangeness, Siner picked up his bags, and saw his own
form, in the car mirrors, walking down the length of the sleeper. He
moved on through the dining-car, where a few hours before he had had
dinner and talked with two white men, one an Oregon apple-grower, the
other a Wisconsin paper-manufacturer. The Wisconsin man had furnished
cigars, a