The Quest of the Silver Fleece by W. E. B. Du Bois

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"Very good," the Senator acquiesced. He called in a spectacled man with
bushy eyebrows and a sleepy look.

"I want you to work the Negro political situation," directed the
Senator, "and bring me all the data you can get. Personally, I'm at sea.
I don't understand the Negro of today at all; he puzzles me; he doesn't
fit any of my categories, and I suspect that I don't fit his. See what
you can find out."

The man went out, and the Senator turned to his desk, then paused and
smiled. One day, not long since, he had met a colored person who
personified his perplexity concerning Negroes; she was a lady, yet she
was black--that is, brown; she was educated, even cultured, yet she
taught Negroes; she was quiet, astute, quick and diplomatic--everything,
in fact, that "Negroes" were not supposed to be; and yet she was a
"Negro." She had given him valuable information which he had sought in
vain elsewhere, and the event proved it correct. Suppose he asked
Caroline Wynn to help him in this case? It would certainly do no harm
and it might elect a Republican president. He wrote a short letter with
his own hand and sent it to post.

Miss Wynn read the letter after Alwyn's departure with a distinct thrill
which was something of a luxury for her. Evidently she was coming to
her kingdom. The Republican boss was turning to her for confidential
information.

"What do the colored people want, and who can best influence them in
this campaign?"

She curled up on the ottoman and considered. The first part of the query
did not bother her.

"Whatever they want they won't get," she said decisively.

But as to the man or men who could influence them to believe that they
were getting, or about to get, what they wanted--there was a question.
One by one she considered the men she knew, and, by a process of
elimination, finally arrived at Bles Alwyn.

Why not take this young man in hand and make a Negro leader of him--a
protagonist of ten millions? It would not be unpleasant. But could she
do it? Would he be amenable to her training and become worldly wise? She
flattered herself that he would, and yet--there was a certain steadfast
look in the depths of his eyes that might prove to be sheer
stubbornness. At any rate, who was better? There was a fellow,
Stillings, whom Alwyn had introduced and whom she had heard of. Now he
was a politician--but nothing else. She dismissed him. Of course,
there was the older set of office-holders and rounders. But she was
determined to pick a new man. He was worth trying, at any rate; she knew
none other with the same build, the brains, the gifts, the adorable
youth. Very good. She wrote two letters, and then curled up to her novel
and candy.

Next day Senator Smith held Miss Wynn's letter unopened in his hand when
Mr. Easterly entered. They talked of the campaign and various matters,
until at last Easterly said:

"Say, there's a Negro clerk in the Treasury named Alwyn."

"I know him--I had him appointed."

"Good. He may help us. Have you seen this?"

The Senator read the clipping.

"I hadn't noticed it--but here's my agent."

The spectacled man entered with a mass of documents. He had papers,
posters, programmes, and letters.

"The situation is this," he said. "A small group of educated Negroes are
trying to induce the rest to punish the Republican Party for not
protecting them. These men are not politicians, nor popular leaders, but
they have influence and are using it. The old-style Negro politicians
are no match for them, and the crowd of office-holders are rather
bewildered. Strong measures are needed. Educated men of earnestness and
ability might stem the tide. And I believe I know one such man. He spoke
at a big meeting last night at the Metropolitan church. His name is
Alwyn."

Senator Smith listened as he opened the letter from Caroline Wynn. Then
he started.

"Well!" he ejaculated, looking quickly up at Easterly. "This is
positively uncanny. From three separate sources the name of Alwyn pops
up. Looks like a mascot. Call up the Treasury. Let's have him up when
the sub-committee meets to-morrow."

Bles Alwyn hurried up to Senator Smith's office, hoping to hear
something about the school; perhaps even about--but he stopped with a
sigh, and sat down in the ante-room. He was kept waiting a few moments
while Senator Smith, the chairman, and one other member of the
sub-committee had a word.

"Now, I don't know the young man, mind you," said the Senator; "but he's
strongly recommended."

"What shall we offer him?" asked the chairman.

"Try him at twenty-five dollars a speech. If he balks, raise to fifty
dollars, but no more."

They summoned the young man. The chairman produced cigars.

"I don't smoke," said Bles apologetically.

"Well, we haven't anything to drink," said the chairman. But Senator
Smith broke in, taking up at once the paramount interest.

"Mr. Alwyn, as you know, the Democrats are making an effort to get the
Negro vote in this campaign. Now, I know the disadvantages and wrongs
which black men in this land are suffering. I believe the Republicans
ought to do more to defend them, and I'm satisfied they will; but I
doubt if the way to get Negro rights is to vote for those who took them
away."

"I agree with you perfectly," said Bles.

"I understand you do, and that you made an unusually fine speech on the
subject the other night."

"Thank you, sir." This was a good deal more than Bles had expected, and
he was embarrassed.

"Well, now, we think you're just the man to take the stump during
September and October and convince the colored people of their real
interests."

"I doubt if I could, sir; I'm not a speaker. In fact, that was my first
public speech."

"So much the better. Are you willing to try?"

"Why, yes, sir; but I could hardly afford to give up my position."

"We'll arrange for a leave of absence."

"Then I'll try, sir."

"What would you expect as pay?"

"I suppose my salary would stop?"

"I mean in addition to that."

"Oh, nothing, sir; I'd be glad to do the work."

The chairman nearly choked; sitting back, he eyed the young man. Either
they were dealing with a fool, or else a very astute politician. If the
former, how far could they trust him; if the latter, what was his game?

"Of course, there'll be considerable travelling," the chairman ventured,
looking reflectively out of the window.

"Yes, sir, I suppose so."

"We might pay the railroad fare."

"Thank you, sir. When shall I begin?"

The chairman consulted his calendar.

"Suppose you hold yourself in readiness for one week from today."

"All right," and Bles rose. "Good-day, gentlemen."

But the chairman was still puzzled.

"Now, what's his game?" he asked helplessly.

"He may be honest," offered Senator Smith, contemplating the door almost
wistfully.

The campaign progressed. The National Republican Committee said little
about the Negro revolt and affected to ignore it. The papers were
silent. Underneath this calm, however, the activity was redoubled. The
prominent Negroes were carefully catalogued, written to, and put under
personal influence. The Negro papers were quietly subsidized, and they
began to ridicule and reproach the new leaders.

As the Fall progressed, mass-meetings were held in Washington and the
small towns. Larger and larger ones were projected, and more and more
Alwyn was pushed to the front. He was developing into a most effective
speaker. He had the voice, the presence, the ideas, and above all he was
intensely in earnest. There were other colored orators with voice,
presence, and eloquence; but their people knew their record and
discounted them. Alwyn was new, clear, and sincere, and the black folk
hung on his words. Large and larger crowds greeted him until he was the
central figure in a half dozen great negro mass-meetings in the chief
cities of the country, culminating in New York the night before
election. Perhaps the secret newspaper work, the personal advice of
employers and friends, and the liberal distribution of cash, would have
delivered a large part of the Negro vote to the Republican candidate.
Perhaps--but there was a doubt. With the work of Alwyn, however, all
doubt disappeared, and there was little reason for denying that the new
President walked into the White House through the instrumentality of an
unknown Georgia Negro, little past his majority. This is what Senator
Smith said to Mr. Easterly; what Miss Wynn said to herself; and it was
what Mrs. Vanderpool remarked to Zora as Zora was combing her hair on
the Wednesday after election.

Zora murmured an indistinct response. As already something of the beauty
of the world had found question and answer in her soul, and as she began
to realize how the world had waxed old in thought and stature, so now in
their last days a sense of the power of men, as set over against the
immensity and force of their surroundings, became real to her. She had
begun to read of the lives and doing of those called great, and in her
mind a plan was forming. She saw herself standing dim within the
shadows, directing the growing power of a man: a man who would be great
as the world counted greatness, rich, high in position,
powerful--wonderful because his face was black. He would never see her;
never know how she worked and planned, save perhaps at last, in that
supreme moment as she passed, her soul would cry to his, "Redeemed!" And
he would understand.

All this she was thinking and weaving; not clearly and definitely, but
in great blurred clouds of thought of things as she said slowly:

"He should have a great position for this."

"Why, certainly," Mrs. Vanderpool agreed, and then curiously: "What?"

Zora considered. "Negroes," she said, "have been Registers of the
Treasury, and Recorders of Deeds here in Washington, and Douglas was
Marshal; but I want Bles--" she paused and started again. "Those are not
great enough for Mr. Alwyn; he should have an office so important that
Negroes would not think of leaving their party again."

Mrs. Vanderpool took pains to repeat Zora's words to Mr. Easterly. He
considered the matter.

"In one sense, it's good advice," he admitted; "but there's the South to
reckon with. I'll think it over and speak to the President. Oh, yes; I'm
going to mention France at the same time."

Mrs. Vanderpool smiled and leaned back in her carriage. She noted with
considerable interest the young colored woman who was watching her from
the sidewalk: a brown, well-appearing young woman of notable
self-possession. Caroline Wynn scrutinized Mrs. Vanderpool because she
had been speaking with Mr. Easterly, and Mr. Easterly was a figure of
political importance. That very morning Miss Wynn had telegraphed Bles
Alwyn. Alwyn arrived at Washington just as the morning papers heralded
the sweeping Republican victory. All about he met new deference and new
friends; strangers greeted him familiarly on the street; Sam Stillings
became his shadow; and when he reported for work his chief and fellow
clerks took unusual interest in him.

"Have you seen Senator Smith yet?" Miss Wynn asked after a few words of
congratulation.

"No. What for?"

"What for?" she answered. "Go to him today; don't fail. I shall be at
home at eight tonight."

It seemed to Bles an exceedingly silly thing to do--calling on a busy
man with no errand; but he went. He decided that he would just thank the
Senator for his interest, and get out; or, if the Senator was busy, he
would merely send in his card. Evidently the Senator was busy, for his
waiting-room was full. Bles handed the card to the secretary with a word
of apology, but the secretary detained him.

"Ah, Mr. Alwyn," he said affably; "glad to see you. The Senator will
want to see you, I know. Wait just a minute." And soon Bles was shaking
Senator Smith's hand.

"Well, Mr. Alwyn," said the Senator heartily, "you delivered the goods."

"Thank you, sir. I tried to."

Senator Smith thoughtfully looked him over and drew out the letters.

"Your friends, Mr. Alwyn," he said, adjusting his glasses, "have a
rather high opinion of you. Here now is Stillings, who helped on the
campaign. He suggests an eighteen-hundred-dollar clerkship for you." The
Senator glanced up keenly and omitted to state what Stillings suggested
for himself. Alwyn was visibly grateful as well as surprised.

"I--I hoped," he began hesitatingly, "that perhaps I might get a
promotion, but I had not thought of a first-class clerkship."

"H'm." Senator Smith leaned back and twiddled his thumbs, staring at
Alwyn until the hot blood darkened his cheeks. Then Bles sat up and
stared politely but steadily back. The Senator's eyes dropped and he put
out his hand for the second note.

"Now, your friend, Miss Wynn"--Alwyn started--"is even more ambitious."
He handed her letter to the young man, and pointed out the words.

"Of course, Senator," Bles read, "we expect Mr. Alwyn to be the next
Register of the Treasury."

Bles looked up in amazement, but the Senator reached for a third letter.
The room was very still. At last he found it. "This," he announced
quietly, "is from a man of great power and influence, who has the ear of
the new President." He smoothed out the letter, paused briefly, then
read aloud:

"'It has been suggested to me by'"--the Senator did not read the name;
if he had "Mrs. Vanderpool" would have meant little to Alwyn--"'It has
been suggested to me by blank that the future allegiance of the Negro
vote to the Republican Party might be insured by giving to some
prominent Negro a high political position--for instance, Treasurer of
the United States'--salary, six thousand dollars," interpolated Senator
Smith--"'and that Alwyn would be a popular and safe appointment for that
position.'"

The Senator did not read the concluding sentence, which ran: "Think this
over; we can't touch political conditions in the South; perhaps this sop
will do."

For a long time Alwyn sat motionless, while the Senator said nothing.
Then the young man rose unsteadily.

"I don't think I quite grasp all this," he said as he shook hands.
"I'll think it over," and he went out.

When Caroline Wynn heard of that extraordinary conversation her
amazement knew no bounds. Yet Alwyn ventured to voice doubts:

"I'm not fitted for either of those high offices; there are many others
who deserve more, and I don't somehow like the idea of seeming to have
worked hard in the campaign simply for money or fortune. You see, I
talked against that very thing."

Miss Wynn's eyes widened.

"Well, what else--" she began and then changed. "Mr. Alwyn, the line
between virtue and foolishness is dim and wavering, and I should hate to
see you lost in that marshy borderland. By a streak of extraordinary
luck you have gained the political leadership of Negroes in America.
Here's your chance to lead your people, and here you stand blinking and
hesitating. Be a man!"

Alwyn straightened up and felt his doubts going. The evening passed very
pleasantly.

"I'm going to have a little dinner for you," said Miss Wynn finally, and
Alwyn grew hot with pleasure. He turned to her suddenly and said:

"Why, I'm rather--black." She expressed no surprise but said
reflectively:

"You _are_ dark."

"And I've been given to understand that Miss Wynn and her set
rather--well, preferred the lighter shades of colored folk."

Miss Wynn laughed lightly.

"My parents did," she said simply. "No dark man ever entered their
house; they were simply copying the white world. Now I, as a matter of
aesthetic beauty, prefer your brown-velvet color to a jaundiced yellow,
or even an uncertain cream; but the world doesn't."

"The world?"

"Yes, the world; and especially America. One may be Chinese, Spaniard,
even Indian--anything white or dirty white in this land, and demand
decent treatment; but to be Negro or darkening toward it unmistakably
means perpetual handicap and crucifixion."

"Why not, then, admit that you draw the color-line?"

"Because I don't; but the world does. I am not prejudiced as my parents
were, but I am foresighted. Indeed, it is a deep ethical query, is it
not, how far one has the right to bear black children to the world in
the Land of the Free and the home of the brave. Is it fair--to the
children?"

"Yes, it is!" he cried vehemently. "The more to take up the fight, the
surer the victory."

She laughed at his earnestness.

"You are refreshing," she said. "Well, we'll dine next Tuesday, and
we'll have the cream of our world to meet you."

He knew that this was a great triumph. It flattered his vanity. After
all, he was entering this higher dark world whose existence had piqued
and puzzled him so long. He glanced at Miss Wynn beside him there in the
dimly lighted parlor: she looked so aloof and unapproachable, so
handsome and so elegant. He thought how she would complete a house--such
a home as his prospective four or six thousand dollars a year could
easily purchase. She saw him surveying her, and she smiled at him.

"I find but one fault with you," she said.

He stammered for a pretty speech, but did not find it before she
continued:

"Yes--you are so delightfully primitive; you will not use the world as
it is but insist on acting as if it were something else."

"I am not sure I understand."

"Well, there is the wife of my Judge: she is a fact in my world; in
yours she is a problem to be stated, straightened, and solved. If she
had come to you, as she did to me yesterday, with her theory that all
that Southern Negroes needed was to learn how to make good servants and
lay brick--"

"I should have shown her--" Bles tried to interject.

"Nothing of the sort. You would have tried to show her and would have
failed miserably. She hasn't learned anything in twenty years."

"But surely you didn't join her in advocating that ten million people be
menials?"

"Oh, no; I simply listened."

"Well, there was no harm in that; I believe in silence at times."

"Ah! but I did not listen like a log, but positively and eloquently;
with a nod, a half-formed word, a comment begun, which she finished."

Bles frowned.

"As a result," continued Miss Wynn, "I have a check for five hundred
dollars to finish our cooking-school and buy a cast of Minerva for the
assembly-room. More than that, I have now a wealthy friend. She thinks
me an unusually clever person who, by a process of thought not unlike
her own, has arrived at very similar conclusions."

"But--but," objected Bles, "if the time spent cajoling fools were used
in convincing the honest and upright, think how much we would gain."

"Very little. The honest and upright are a sad minority. Most of these
white folk--believe me, boy," she said caressingly,--"are fools and
knaves: they don't want truth or progress; they want to keep niggers
down."

"I don't believe it; there are scores, thousands, perhaps millions such,
I admit; but the average American loves justice and right, and he is the
one to whom I appeal with frankness and truth. Great heavens! don't you
love to be frank and open?"

She narrowed her eyelids.

"Yes, sometimes I do; once I was; but it's a luxury few of us Negroes
can afford. Then, too, I insist that it's jolly to fool them."

"Don't you hate the deception?"

She chuckled and put her head to one side.

"At first I did; but, do you know, now I believe I prefer it."

He looked so horrified that she burst out laughing. He laughed too. She
was a puzzle to him. He kept thinking what a mistress of a mansion she
would make.

"Why do you say these things?" he asked suddenly.

"Because I want you to do well here in Washington."

"General philanthropy?"

"No, special." Her eyes were bright with meaning.

"Then you care--for me?"

"Yes."

He bent forward and cast the die.

"Enough to marry me?"

She answered very calmly and certainly:

"Yes."

He leaned toward her. And then between him and her lips a dark and
shadowy face; two great storm-swept eyes looked into his out of a world
of infinite pain, and he dropped his head in hesitation and shame, and
kissed her hand. Miss Wynn thought him delightfully bashful.

_Twenty-six_

CONGRESSMAN CRESSWELL

The election of Harry Cresswell to Congress was a very simple matter.
The Colonel and his son drove to town and consulted the Judge; together
they summoned the sheriff and the local member of the State legislature.

"I think it's about time that we Cresswells asked for a little of the
political pie," the Colonel smilingly opened.

"Well, what do you want?" asked the Judge.

"Harry wants to go to Congress."

The Judge hesitated. "We'd half promised that to Caldwell," he objected.

"It will be a little costly this year, too," suggested the sheriff,
tentatively.

"About how much?" asked the Colonel.

"At least five thousand," said the Legislator.

The Colonel said nothing. He simply wrote a check and the matter was
settled. In the Fall Harry Cresswell was declared elected. There were
four hundred and seventy-two votes cast but the sheriff added a cipher.
He said it would look better.

Early December found the Cresswells domiciled in a small house in Du
Pont Circle, Washington. They had an automobile and four servants, and
the house was furnished luxuriously. Mary Taylor Cresswell, standing in
her morning room and looking out on the flowers of the square, told
herself that few people in the world had cause to be as happy as she.
She was tastefully gowned, in a way to set off her blonde beauty and her
delicate rounded figure. She was surrounded with wealth, and above all,
she was in that atmosphere of aristocracy for which she had always
yearned; and already she was acquiring that poise of the head, and a
manner of directing the servants, which showed her born to the purple.

She had cause to be extremely happy, she told herself this morning, and
yet she was puzzled to understand why she was not. Why was she restless
and vaguely ill at ease so often these days?

One matter, indeed, did worry her; but that would right itself in time,
she was sure. She had always pictured herself as directing her husband's
work. She did not plan to step in and demand a share; she knew from
experience with her brother that a woman must prove her usefulness to a
man before he will admit it, and even then he may be silent. She
intended gradually and tactfully to relieve her husband of care
connected with his public life so that, before he realized it, she would
be his guiding spirit and his inspiration. She had dreamed the details
of doing this so long that it seemed already done, and she could imagine
no obstacle to its realization. And yet she found herself today no
nearer her goal than when first she married. Not because Mr. Cresswell
did not share his work, but because, apparently, he had no work, no
duties, no cares. At first, in the dim glories of the honeymoon, this
seemed but part of his delicate courtesy toward her, and it pleased her
despite her thrifty New England nature; but now that they were settled
in Washington, the election over and Congress in session, it really
seemed time for Work and Life to begin in dead earnest, and New England
Mary was dreaming mighty dreams and golden futures.

But Harry apparently was as content as ever with doing nothing. He arose
at ten, dined at seven, and went to bed between midnight and sunrise.
There was some committee meetings and much mail, but Mary was admitted
to knowledge of none of these. The obvious step, of course, would be to
set him at work; but from this undertaking Mary unconsciously recoiled.
She had already recognized that while her tastes and her husband's were
mostly alike, they were also strikingly different in many respects. They
agreed in the daintiness of things, the elegance of detail; but they did
not agree always as to the things themselves. Given the picture, they
would choose the same frame--but they would not choose the same picture.
They liked the same voice, but not the same song; the same company, but
not the same conversation. Of course, Mary reflected, frowning at the
flowers--of course, this must always be so when two human beings are
thrown into new and intimate association. In time they would grow to
sweet communion; only, she hoped the communion would be on tastes nearer
hers than those he sometimes manifested.

She turned impatiently from the window with a feeling of loneliness. But
why lonely? She idly fingered a new book on the table and then put it
down sharply. There had been several attempts at reading aloud between
them some evenings ago, and this book reminded her of them. She had
bought Jane Addams' "Newer Ideals of Peace," and he had yawned over it
undisguisedly. Then he had brought this novel, and--well, she had balked
at the second chapter, and he had kissed her and called her his "little
prude." She did not want to be a prude; she hated to seem so, and had
for some time prided herself on emancipation from narrow New England
prejudices. For example, she had not objected to wine at dinner; it had
seemed indeed rather fine, imparting, as it did, an old-fashioned
flavor; but she did not like the whiskey, and Harry at times appeared to
become just a bit too lively--nothing excessive, of course, but his eyes
and the smell and the color were a little too suggestive. And yet he was
so kind and good, and when he came in at evening he bent so gallantly
for his kiss, and laid fresh flowers before her: could anything have
been more thoughtful and knightly?

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