SPEECHES & WRITINGS FILE "Mrs. Rolston Takes a Trip" Mrs. Ralston Takes a Trip. Pronounce her name, so that it will rhyme with awl, please,"Rawlston", with a good broad A. This trip just had to be made, you know. It wasn't a pleasure trip, though, of course Mrs. Ralston expected to get pleasure out of it. Why shouldn't she? She was combining pleasure and business and duty and missionary work all in one, It would be pleasant to make new friends and meet old ones. Everywhere she went, she met old friends. There was no earth ly reason why she shouldn't run true to form in this particular on the pros pective trip. Mrs. Ralston was a public speaker. She was always referred to as a lect urer. But, although she had been talking in public more years than she would care to acknowledge to a casual stranger, she said it almost scared her to death when people called her a "lecturer," The word sounded so pretentious, so stilted and so awesome to her, she said. Then people inquired when she would deliver her lecture, she usually replied "I'll speak" at such or such a time. And it is just as well to state right here that it was the consensus of opinion among those who had heard her and were competent to judge that while she was not in the class with Demostenes or Cicero Mrs. Ralston could and did tell the world exactly what she thought in a concise, enter- taining, intelligent and even eloquent way. For that reason the business part of these lecture engagements always panned out very well. That is, they did for those who engaged Mrs.Ralston to speak, though she herself was usually shy not a few dollars, when the time came to settle up, For instance, when Mrs. Ralston was engaged by a committee or a club to speak so as to raise money for any cause, such as buying a new carpet for a society room, or paying a kindergarten teach- or getting a communion service and was promised a certain percent of the "gate receipts", even though the hall, or the theatrs or the church in which she spoke seemed to her very full, when it came to a show down, so to speak, she was usually given as her share much less than her eyes and her ability to count noses had led her to believe she would receive. [column break in scan -- separate page of book:] 2 But Mrs. Ralston was always happy to accept invitations to speak, for she fully believed it was her duty to carry the message she delivered, even though her exchequer were not greatly increased thereby. Sometimes she de- clared she was doing missionary work. But an observing little girl whose mother had carried her to hear Mrs. Ralston speak declared that she"certain ly didn't look like no missionary to her, all dressed up in them pretty clothes ". Truth compels us to record that Mrs. Ralston always saw to it that the col- or of her garments was becoming, the style up to date and the fit correct. She felt that if the eye were pleased, the mind could all the better receive and absorb what she said. The lady was tall, though not willowy. She had passed the age of will lowyness long, long ago, for she had two grown sons and was a mother-in-law to the wife of one of them, But she was slender enough not give the slight- est suggestion of carrying around too much flesh. Her hair had been dark brown, for the matter of that, it was still dark brown. Mrs. Ralston said she used a very wonderful hair tonic which kept her hair from turning gray, but there were those who professed to know who declared that the lady resorted to a common garden variety of hair dye to compass this end. But, after all, that has nothing to do with this trip. As we were saying Mrs. Ralston just had to make this trip. To day was Monday, she was thinking to herself, and she had a very important engage- ment in Crisbane Wednesday evening. She would speak to night in Cleaveport and take the train for Crisbane early tomorrow morning. Ay, there was the rub. She had to travel all day long. How she hated that prospect. It would have been so much easier, if she could have bought a Pullman berth Tuesday night and reach Crisbane the next forenoon. In a pinch she might have taken the trouble and gone through a certain hokus pokus tomatoe can procedure to secure a berth on the Pullman, but after mature deliberation she decided that should would go along the line of least resistance and take the morning train. Having reached this decision Mrs. Ralston went to the mirror and stood looking at herself. It was quite evident that she was not standing before the pretty mahogany vanity to admire herself, for there was doubt mingled with apprehension written all over her face. She was inspecting her hair very closely and regretting that she had been obliged to shampoo it the day before. It would have been so much better, she thought to herself, if she could have deferred that operation till she reached Crisbane. She was wondering whether she could make it lie down properly and behave itself so that she should carry out the plan she had in mind. She usually liked her hair fluffy, but it would never do to let it run riot on this trip. She dampened it thoroughly, rolled it into a tight knot and then began to smooth it back so vigorously that not a crinkle was left. She knew that when her front hair dried it would be practically straight. Mrs.Ralston began to smile and then laughed audibly. She was thinking of a conversation she had had with Dorcas, the young woman who came to help her clean house every week, when she was home. Dorcas was complaining about the money she spent having her hair straightened. ""Why dont you leave your hair as God gave it to you? Dorcas,"Mrs. Ralston had asked. "For Goodness sake, hush, Miss Ralston," Dorcas replied, "God didn't have noth nothin a tall to do with this haid. Twas the devil hisself who gave me a haid of hair I can scarcely git a comb thoo and it takes me forever to untangle. Taint nobody sadisfied with their hair nohow. Women with straigh hair are always puttin it up in curl papers, or pinchin it with red hot irons And Miss Walcott an all her daughters spend a mint of money gittin a permanent wave, so the straightness is all knocked out. An here I am tryin to git all the wave and curl out of mine. There aint no women zactly sadisfied with their hair." But with her face curly hair would greatly handicap Mrs. Ralston in taking her trip, as she had decided to take it. In describing Mrs. Ralston's complexion nobody could truthfully say that she was fair as a lily, unless he had a tiger lily in mind, and then he would be inaccurate in referring to that flower as fair. The lady looked out of her windows, when she had 4 finished brushing back her front hair, and saw at a distance large plantations of sugar cane. Involuntarily there passed before her mind the pictures [*of*] wealth and luxury in which the former owners and their families once lived. She was aroused from her reverie by a voice. "Git up. mule. What de matter wid you crawlin along heah like a snail?" Passing by the window Mrs. Ealston saw a dilapidated wagon whose rear wheel was so wobbly that it was likely to roll away at any minute. But the dusky driver went on in the even tenor of his was not at all disturbed by the catastrophe about to overtake his equipage. He should be the president of a Dont Worry Club, thought Mrs. Ralston. He certainly is a splendid type of the man who takes no thought of the morrow and gives himself little concern about what he shall eat or where withal he shall be clothed. Mrs. Ralston returned to the mirror to give her front hair another vigorous brushing. A look of disgust passed over her face. I wonder what Dorcas would say, if she could see me trying to straighten out my front hair, she said to herself. "How I hate to be forced to stoop to such an ignoble trick, but under the circumstances there is no other way. There's no use tearing passion to tatters about conditions which I can not change. I must either resort to this scheme or suffer the discomforts to which I was subjected last week." The very thought of that journey made her shudder. She had started in the Jim Crow Car at five o'clock one morning, too early to get breakfast before boarding the train and was unable to get anything to eat the whole live long day. The train was late at the station where dinner was announced and after time the white passengers had been served, it was too late for Mrs. Ralston to get any food. The porter promised several times to bring her some fruit, when the train stopped long enough for him to run out and get it, but he told her he had been unable to do so. She had dined the evening before the commenced her journey, so that when she reached her destination the next night at eight o'clock she had been without food for more 5 than twenty four hours. When she thought of the headache with which she had been racked all night and how near she came to being unable to fill her engagement, she decided emphatically that she would resort to almost anything not actually dishonorable to avoid a repetition of that experience. Mrs. Ralston went to the bureau drawer, took from it a little black silk cap such as men wear on a train and tried it on. She pulled it well down over her face and draped a little veil around it and then she put it in her handbag. The little cap would cover a multitude of curls which like Banque's ghost would not be downed immediately after a shampoo, she knew. no matter how she might try to smooth them back. It was very difficult to induce the kind friends with whom she had stopped in Cleaveport not to arise early and take her to the train. They were the very quintessence of politeness and hospitality and could not bear to think of letting a lady, even though she was a public speaker go to the train unaccompanied. But Mrs. Ralston finally prevailed upon them to allow her to to go alone, assuring them that she was accustomed toit and preferred to do it. She pledged her hostess to absolute secrecy and told her how she "Please dont take me to the east side of the station of the station, James," she said to the chauffer who was carrying her to the train."Stop at the West side and let me pay you before you reach the depot, so you wont have to stop there a second." "Lady I raly cant do that. You see, youse a stranger heah. Youdont know nothin a tall about the rules an regerlations down heah, but I lives right inthis town." the man paused a moment and shook his head vigorously. "What's me, I'm a goin to stay right heah. and you're goin right away. You aint no white lady and they'd jes about string me up to a tree, ef I put you down on the white folks side of the station." "It's early, James. No one will see you- nobody who knows me," pleaded Mrs. Ralston. If you take me to the colored people's waiting room, I'll have to ride in the dirty Jim Crow car till midnight and maybe I wont be able to get a bite to eat all day. It actually happened to me once. It will make me sick." "You dont look like no white woman to me, Missus, You show cant fool these white folks down heah, If you git on their train, you'll jes git yoursef into a heap er trouble, Talk about puttin your haid in a lion's mouth. That' safe and easy beside what you're a goi to do. But I'LL put you down on the West side, if you jes will dah the lightnin to strike you." Mrs. ralston reached the station only a few minutes before the train arrived. She did not enter the waiting room, she had bought her ticket at a down town office the day before. She wore a veil and walked up and down the far end of the platform until the locomotive had very nearly pulled in. Summoning all the courage she possessed she handed her handbag to the porter without looking directly at him andentered the car for white people. Her heart was thumping hard and her hand trembled violently, as she handed the tip to the porter. When the conductor came ofr her ticket Mrs. Ralston had regained hercomposure . Soon after he had passed through the car she went to get a dringk of water from the cooler in the rear, Deftly removing her hat while standing there she put on her little black silk cap, Returning to her seat she looked out of the window at the plantations, and swamps, She saw forests of tall pine tress to which little cup shaped containers had been fastened and into which the resin oil was flowingfrom the wege-shaped gashed which had been cut into the trunks. Suddenly someone spoke to her. She turned from the window and saw the conductor had seated himself beside her. For a second her courage forsook her, but when she looked into his face, she saw she had nothing to fear. the expression that would have been plainly written on his features, if he had had the slightest suspicion of her racial identity was not there. "You're a stranger down heah," he began. I reck on it aint so warm up your way this time of yeah as it is down heah. Well how do you like us any how?" The conductor was a round, poly red-faced amn and was plainly in a mood to talk. Mrs. Ralston expatiated enthusiastically upon the warm and generous hospitality of the people, the sweet voices and the beauty of the woem, the gallantry of the men and the mildness of the climate in the winter months, when it it so cold and bleak further North. In short she emphasized as strongly as she could the advantages and the virtues of the section thru which she was passing. The conducted interrupted her abruptly. "Excuse me, lady," he said. "Look a yonder." He was pointing to some ragged colored children seated not he top rail of a fence and a group of unkempt men and women near by. Behind them was a number of dilapidated and unsightly cabins. "Thats the kind of cattle some of you good people up yonder want to run our States down heah. But constitutional amendments or no amendments we aint going to let em do it. We know how to git around them amendments all right." The conductor laughed ingratiatingly at Mrs. Ralston. "Excuse me for being so blunt, madam. I don't mean no harm. But you've come down heah to see things as they are an I'm jes a showin em to you." The conductor was very much pleased with the unanswerable argument he had presented and was smiling broadly. "Them people are jus as near brutes as human beins kin be." "What would you expect them to be" asked Mrs. Ralston very calmly. What would you expect any group of human beings to be brought up in such a squalor and ignorance as that in which these people live from the time they are born until they die. It takes initiative and intelligence to run away from such surroundings." Well, all you folks from up yonder have got to do is to come down heah an live among em. You'll see enough I reckon in a mighty short time. After a while the folks from up yonder are harder on em than we are who knew em." That's because the strangers down heah want to be polite and avoid giving offense. They know if they differ with you they are forever shut out from social intercourse among their equals and can not succeed very well, if they engage in business. I have friends who have been coming down here for years and they have told me a great deal about existing conditions. They tell me that these people have little schooling and what they get in many instances is very poor. They tell me that in normal times the wages are low and they have almost no chance to get justice in the courts of law." The words poured from Mrs. Ralston's lips. She did not seem able to stop. Suddenly she realized what she was doing and she turned squarely around in her seat, so that she could look directly into the conductor's face. But he gave no evidence of being offended. He was rather amused at the earnestness of this "lady" who thought she knew so much. "And my friends who have lived down here say that these people have made marvelous progress," she concluded. They were approaching a station and the conductor excused himself. Several times during the day he returned to engage in conversation with this "lady." He would have died the death rather than call her a woman. His mother had raised him better than that, thank you. The passenger interested him/ Every now and then they would return to the Race Problem. The conductor had never talked with anybody, no matter from what section of the country who could see so many virtues in colored people and who could give such surprising evidence of their progress as this passenger. Finally he began to agree with Mrs. Ralston and related instances of progress, intelligence and thrift which had come under his own personal observation. To the conductor Mrs. Ralston was indeed a rare bird with her swarthy complexion and dark brown eyes that seemed to look clear through him. Then, too, she said "cawnt" in a most engaging way. She made it a point to agree with him whenever she could and disagreed with him without the slightest shew of feeling. It amused Mrs. Ralston to hear how magnificently and shamelessly the conductor exaggerated some facts and how deliberately he misrepresented others. The day was drawing to a close and the train was approaching a city not he border line of two States. "You will have to get out at the next sta- ion", said the conductor. The train goes no further and you'll have to stay in Teckston all night." For a second Mrs. Ralston was speechless, Her plan had indeed miscarried. She avoided a dirty car and had been able to secure food, to be sure, but if she had to stay all night in Teckston, [?] what a terrible price. "I am not acquainted with anybody here," she said. What on earth can I do?" She was confused and helpless." When I bought my ticket at Cleaveport", she explained. "I was assured that this train would go straight through to Brisbane. I had no idea I should be obliged to remain over night anywhere." What int he world can I do?" she repeated. "Why, yes go to a hotel, lady. There aint noth else to do. As much as yu've traveled, you must have stayed all night in a hotel somewhere." Then Mrs. Ralston lost her self control. "Yes, I know," she exclaimed wringing her hands, "but I cant stop at a hotel here." The moment she had uttered these tell tale words, she realized what she had done and she would have given a great deal to retract them. They made no impression whatever upon the conductor, however. There's no use takin on like that, he said. "Why cant you stop at a hotel here? He asked, using the tone one employs to soothe a frightened child. He pointed out the window. "See that large building over yonder?" showing across the railroad tracks? That's one of the finest hotels anywhere in the section. You can get a room there for the night and leave for Crisbance tomorrow morning." The train had pulled into the station. "Come along with me, he said. He picked up Mrs. Ralston's dress suit case and started toward the door. There was nothing for Mrs. Ralston to do but to follow. "Heah, take this lady to the Halsey House," he said, handling the suit case to a porter, who was dark-brown in complexion and very old. Mrs. Ralston was almost paralyzed with fear, In the first place, she feared that the porter would refuse to take her to the Halsey House, for she felt certain he would know she was classified with his group the minute he took a good look at her. She knew how easy it is for one member of the race to identify another. She had always been amused at the cock-sure manner in which white people who lived in that section declared that they could detect a colored person, if he had the very slightest infusion of African bleed in his veins. But if the colored porter recognized her, he obeyed the conductor's orders to take her to the hotel. During the short walk from the station to the hotel Mrs. Ralston dreaded the ordeal there which she would have to pass, when she would apply for a room, The clerk might refuse her accommodations the minute he laid eyes on her, He probably would, she felt sure. Once she had almost decided to ask the porter, if he knew a colored boarding house to which he could take her. But she had heard some harrowing experiences related by friends who had gone to boarding houses about which they knew nothing. Moreover she did not know what the consequences might be, if it were discovered that she had dared to ride all day in a white coach. But now she had reached the Halsey House. As she approaching the clerk she realized that the dust and dirt from the open window by had made her several shades darker than she really was. She felt that she which she had been sitting all day emphasized the natural swarthiness of her could not take another step in that direction. She feared she would have complexion, to say the least. But after the clerk had assigned her to a heart failure and fall to the floor. But the clerk assigned her to a room, Mrs. Ralston felt that he might have attributed her swarthiness to immediately, saying at the same time that dinner was nearly over, and she to the coal dust from he train which after all might be regarded as a would have to giver her order immediately, if she wished to be served. Blessing in disguise. Even if Mrs. Ralston had wished to do so ,she would have had no time to wash the grime from her face. and then, too, it suddenly occurred to her that this might be blessing in disguise that the swarthiness of her complexion chances of conceal her identity were greatly enhanced might be attributed to the train rather than to nature. When Mrs. Ralston entered the dining room a colored waiter approached her and seated her immediately at a table with a man and his wife. Her heart was beating rapidly as she took her seat. If either of these two people suspected the truth, what would they do? When the waiter rattled off the bill of fare, she asked him to bring her a good dinner and mentioned several dished she especially liked. In spite of her excitement and fear Mrs. Ralston consumed some of her food and then went immediately to her room. 11 As seen as she entered, she noticed that a casement window opened out on a little balcony over the sidewalk. below. Just then she remembered that in her excitement she had signed her full name. when she had registered. For several weeks she had been delivering lectures in neighboring cities. What if should happen to glance at the register some of the waiters who had read the race papers recognized her name and talk about it without intending to do her any harm quite innocently mention the fact, so that the proprietor would learn that a colored woman was actually occupying a room in his hotel, what would he do? Suppose she should suddenly be awakened in the middle of the night and find a mob ready to punish her for so flagrantly flying in the face of tradition and custom? She opened the window wider, went to the balcony and looked down at the pavement. She decided then and there. that if a mob came for her she would jump down on the stone pavement, rather than yield without making any resistance. She had retired and in spite of her fears had gone to sleep from sheer fatigue when suddenly she heard a knock at the door. She listened a second unable to speak. Another knock a bit louder caused her to turn over facing the door. She thought of her resolution to jump out of the window and raised herself up on her elbow. A third knock came. Summoning all her strength she called out "Who is it, please?" "Lady, did you ring for a pitcher of ice water?" asked a bell boy obliging Being relieved from the terrible strain and delivered from her fears ly. "No, No, I didn't". Mrs. Ralston [was so relieved that she] shouted her reply so loud, she might have alarmed the other patrons of the hotel. After eating her breakfast in peace, paying her bill and boarding the soliliquized, "All's well that ends well, but I hope nevertheless it will be a long time before I have to pass thru a similar ordeal. time before she would be obliged to pass thru a similar ordeal. Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.