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there was no hesitation in closing up on the Ninth and Tenth Regiments, because the men in them were colored. All honor to the black troops of the gallant Tenth."
Says the "New York Mail and Express:" "No more striking example of bravery and coolness has been shown since the destruction of the Maine than by the colored veterans of the Tenth Cavalry during the attack on Fort Caney of Saturday. By the side of the intrepid 'Rough Riders' they followed their leader up the terrible hill from whose crest the desperate Spaniards poured down a deathly fire of shell and musketry. They never faltered; the rents in their ranks were filled as soon as made. Firing as they marched, their aim was splendid, their coolness superb, and their courage aroused the admiration of their comrades. Their advance was greeted with wild cheers from the white regiments, and with an answering shout they pressed onward over the trenches they had taken close in pursuit of the retreating enemy. The war has not shown greater heroism. The men whose freedom was baptised in blood have proven themselves capable of giving their lives that others may be free. Today is a glorious 'Fourth' for all races of people in this great land."
The "New Orleans Item" gives its contemporary, the "States," the following spanking (with the usual interrogation, "Now will you be good?"): "The 'States' has evidently failed to profit by the beneficial lesson taught since the opening of the Santiago campaign. Had our esteemed contemporary been present in Richmond a few days since; when the form of a Negro soldier pierced by nine Mauser bullets was tenderly borne through the streets by four stalwart white infantry men, he would have heard the lustiest cheers that ever went up from the throats of the residents of the former capital of the Confederacy. Perhaps our anti-Negro friend would have learned wisdom from the statement of a member of Roosevelt's regiment, who declared in an interview with a press representative, that had it not been for the valiant conduct of the Negro cavalry at Baguiri the Rough Riders would have found the routing of the Spaniards almost a hopeless task. The attack of the 'States' on the Negro soldier is vicious and unpardonable. There is no more intrepid or hardy fighter to be found anywhere than the much-abused descendant of Ham. He has dogged persistence and a determination to conquer which triumphs over all obstacles. He is aware of his social inferiority and never seeks to attain positions of eminence to which his valor and his spirit of daring do not entitle him. The 'States' presents one of the most rabid cases of negrophobia extant. It should seek an immediate cure."
Such indorsements from the white press of the country is not only timely, but for all time. History of his endurance and endeavor in peace, and his valor in war, stimulates his demand and strengthens his claim for equal justice. Such and kindred books as "Johnson's School History of the Race in America" should be prominent as household gods in every Afro-American home, that along the realm of time the vista of heroic effort "bequeathed from sire to son" may gladden hearts in "the good time coming;" for it is display in endurance, a vigorous courage, a gladsome self-control, a triumphant self-sacrifice, that mankind applaud as supreme for exaltation, and the highest types of self-abnegation for human advancement; for "before man made us citizens, Great Nature made us men."
Equally as in the realm of war has the race produced its noblemen in the arena of peace and mental development. For, if it be true that "the greatest names in history are those who in the full career and amid the turbid extremities of political action, have yet touched the closest and at most points the ever-standing problems of the world and the things in which the interests of men never die," our industrial educators are fittingly placed.