AT  VlCKSBURa  331

Soraething  has  been  effected :  the  children  of  the
slaves  are  become  free,  but  the  children  of  those
who  used  to  be  masters  still  take  a  Negro  noK
and  then  and  burn  him  to  death.
I  sat  on  a  pyramid  of  lawn  and  looked  down
to  the  river.  There  was  a  din  of  sawmills.  The
Memphis  train  went  howling  past,  and  then
with  a  petty  rush  on  the  road  below  an  electric
trolley  car  from  Vicksburg.  The  world  went  on
in  seeming  peace.  A  throng  of  Negro  workmen
holding  on  to  one  another  came  singing  along
the  way.  They  were  not  slaves,  anyway.  They
had  life,  the  beginnings  of  new  life.  Though
fraught  with  grave  dangers,  impeded  by  preju-
dice and  hate  and  a  thousand  difficulties —
nevertheless  it  was  new  life  that  they  had.  And
those  who  died  to  give  it  them  lie  in  these  quiet
graves  while  the  river  of  life  goes  past.  They
did  not  mean  that  the  gift  of  freedom  should
be  tarnished.  Most  of  them  would  be  ready  to
die  again  to  complete  the  gift  they  gave.  And
John  Brown  himself  if  he  should  reappear
would  not  be  sweetened  by  what  he  saw  happen-
ing in  the  world.  His  soul  goes  marching  on,
but  it  is  still  the  soul  of  vengeance  and  wrath.
