1 As the time flew, however, he began to grasp a new idea.
2 Yet even then the hard ruthless rape of the land began to tell.
3 There came a day when all the teachers left the Institute and began the hunt for schools.
4 He began to have a dim feeling that, to attain his place in the world, he must be himself, and not another.
5 An old woman on the outskirts of the throng began singing this song; all the mass joined with her, swaying.
6 And we who saw daily a new thoughtfulness growing in his eyes began to expect something of this plodding boy.
7 Still the price of cotton fell, and gradually the landlords deserted their plantations, and the reign of the merchant began.
8 Thus, by national opinion, the Negroes began to recognize Mr. Washington's leadership; and the voice of criticism was hushed.
9 So flagrant became the political scandals that reputable men began to leave politics alone, and politics consequently became disreputable.
10 Alas, with the years all this fine contempt began to fade; for the words I longed for, and all their dazzling opportunities, were theirs, not mine.
11 Men began to pride themselves on having nothing to do with their own government, and to agree tacitly with those who regarded public office as a private perquisite.
12 I held my face beside his little cheek, showed him the star-children and the twinkling lights as they began to flash, and stilled with an even-song the unvoiced terror of my life.
13 It can thus be seen that the work of education in the South began with higher institutions of training, which threw off as their foliage common schools, and later industrial schools, and at the same time strove to shoot their roots ever deeper toward college and university training.
14 The free Negroes of the North, inspired by the mulatto immigrants from the West Indies, began to change the basis of their demands; they recognized the slavery of slaves, but insisted that they themselves were freemen, and sought assimilation and amalgamation with the nation on the same terms with other men.