they became reconciled to the situation and some of them now say the
colored brother can have half of their blankets whenever they want
them."

The above is an extract from a communication to the Daily Afternoon
Journal, of Beaumont, Tex., written by a Southern white soldier:
"Straws tell the way the wind blows," is a hackneyed expression, but
an apt illustration of the subject in hand. It has been hinted by a
portion of the Negro press that when the war ended, that if there is
to be the millennium of North and South, the Negroes will suffer in the
contraction. There is no reason to encourage this pessimistic view,
since it is so disturbing in its nature, and since it is in the
province of the individuals composing the race to create a future to
more or less extent. The wedge has entered; it remains for the race to
live up to its opportunities. The South already is making concessions.
While concessions are apt to be looked upon as too patronizing, and
not included in the classification of rights in common, yet in time
they amount to the same. The mere statement that "the colored brother
can have half of their blankets whenever they want them," while
doubtless a figure of speech, yet it signifies that under this very
extreme of speech an appreciable advance of the race. It does not mean
that there is to be a storming of the social barriers, for even in the
more favored races definite lines are drawn. Sets and circles adjust
such matters. But what is desired is the toleration of the Negroes in
those pursuits that the people engage in or enjoy in general and in
common. It is all that the American Negro may expect, and it is safe
to say that his ambitions do not run higher, and ought not to run
higher. Money and birth in themselves have created some unwritten
laws that are much stronger than those decreed and promulgated by
governments. It would be the height of presumption to strike at these,