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44 Abbott's Monthly The SURPRISE A Short, Short Story With an Unusual Twist That Really Makes It a Surprise By JAMES MICKLES [[image]] Illustrated by Edgar Riley [[caption] This woman was an intruder--but how? He should eject her at once--but how? For a moment, as he watched the regal form strut in dignified fashion across the bedroom, that certain devilish feeling, that generally takes possession of one after numerous Tom Collin's, was telling him he didn't care. [[/caption]] CARLTON PIERCE had money, and not just a little--a keen sense of humor, and a habit of drinking--not just a little. This latter,--er, defect, may we call it, oddly enough, had thus far borne no tawdriness with its repetition. Usually drunk; rarely sober; but always the suave monument of magnetic personality. His was an uncanny ability to "be himself." Well, the next in line, naturally would be a pert, winsome little--'er, should we say "flapper"? But could we fit Daphne into that category? Not so snugly. It was in the wind that their engagement was a sacrifice of youth to that illusive Goddess of glittering gold. And too, the spectre of drab realism hung over the horizon, soon to wreck their carnal anticipations. BUT people will talk. Of course, Carl had admitted, one evening (to himself) while primping his mustache before the mirror, that he was old enough to be marrying the girl's mother, who, by the way, he had never met. But why tamper with age, when money could--aw, not that. He was not a sugar daddy, gloating over his conquest of tender flesh. She was not a gold digger, selling her charms for a stack o' dollars. They were in love. Thursday was Baxter's night off. The big clock in the Library struck eleven as Carl passed it. Daphne was gone. Out of town, maybe--somewhere--he didn't know. She would bring him a surprise, so she said. Oh well, no little girl, no fun. Might's well take a few nips and hit the air. Too soon to retire. He went to his room--to the service cabinet, whistling; bereft, however, of his usual buoyancy. A small piece of ice tinkled in the tall glass he lifted from its place. The last remnant of Baxter's service. The power (Continued on page 63) for May, 1931 45 What Books Tell Us [[image]] by DEWEY R. JONES "Cosas de Negros" By Vincente Rossi Cordoba, Argentine Republic Privately Published THE blot markers and the mudrakers are still to the fore. We have seen pass in review "Nigger Heaven," "Home to Harlem," "Banjo," "The Blacker the Berry" and lately "Born to Be" acclaimed the wonder of the literary scribblers of the day by his putative fathers. All the books above named will in due time pass to the Limbo beyond the horizon while Frederick Douglas, Booker T. Washington and W.E. Burghardt Dubois with his "Souls of Black Folk" will be tenderly remembered for their sincerity of purpose, and laurel leaves will be placed on their brows for having pointed to the star of Hope, when the days were dark and the road long and dreary. Can we call attention to a work by Vicente Rossi of the Argentine Republic under the name "Cosas de Negros" in the Spanish language as one of the most refreshing books printed during the past decade? This book is somewhat similar to "The Negro and the Sunny South" (Martinsburg, W. Va., 1899), by Samuel Creed Cross, a white man from West Virginia that created a furor and sensation thirty years ago for its truthful and unvarnished defense of the proscribed race. In the preface of this remarkable book Mr. Rossi says, "I was engaged in writing the origin of the Tango but had laid aside the MS, and forgot all about it. [[image]] [[caption]] ARTHUR A. SCHOMBURG, Curator at Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., who contributes a review this month on Vicente Rossi's book, "Cosas de Negros." [/caption]] Years later while going over some papers I came across a bundle labeled 'Negro Doings'." We are certainly glad Mr. Rossi came across these papers and printed them. A large number of black Americans should read these views so charmingly recorded and expressed on very important and transcendental data by a white man free from despotism and fanaticism. The white American believes he has a monopoly of all human traits. In this remarkable book the author speaks with the freedom of the Pampas. "The white race came to America with the Christian cross but on closer examination it was a dangerous dagger with a cross section that has been used to hold the black man in abject subjection. Had it not been for the importation of the African, the European could not have succeeded in the exploitation of the American continent. Religion had been used as a cloak to deceive first the Indians, a roaming band of people who were very reluctant to help their oppressors plant themselves ultimately to rob them of their own country." "THE African Negro was honorable and faithful, of good morals and a stoic in matters of color, cultivated the lands, had no wish for ambition nor for money to furnish the bare necessities of life. He was offered religion and believed in it, yet was free from fanaticism, learnt that 'Blessed are the meek.' No race has practiced greater abnegation and shown more sincerity and Christian good will, has been slapped on the left cheek and has turned the right for more blows. None loved more his neighbor than the African. He believed himself elected to the religious clan and with confidence in the word of God transmitted by his white master, waited patiently the promised reward for those who suffered and believed without complaint or rebellion in the doctrine of eternal life." This is a sample of the meat in the book. The state and church under the Spaniards were one, like wings of a bird, they worked in unison. Well oiled machinery until the Inquisition changed things. The ambrosia which the church and state gave the Africans in those early days, promises they never intended to keep. The Africans especially those called bozales, who could scarcely talk, as if some object had been placed into their mouths to render them incapable of articulation, took for granted the notorious "middle passage," the inhuman conditions and ultimately the enforced living in a country entirely unknown to them. They had not the remotest idea what it all meant. HAVING been intrigued by the Portuguese during the reign of Henry IV, many Negroes had been taken to Portugal, treated well, and returned to their African homes to spread the good news, in this way gaining their confidence. When the discovery of America by Columbus became known Europe lacked sufficient hands to develop the newly discovered paradise. Here is where the (Continued on page 61)
