The Athenaeum. (Atlanta, GA) 1898-1925, January 01, 1925, Image 20
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THE ATHENAEUM
CURRENT NOTES
By John W. Lawlah and T. Harvey Burris. ;
Homo Africanus—At first reading, this article in the American
Mercury by L. M. Hussey appears indeed to be a revelation even to
the close student of Negro psychology. We wonder at his insight
and are forced to concur to many of the conclusions derived from his
keen observations. That the Negro is playing a role in many in
stances of mock servility cannot truthfully be denied. The wisdom
of this pretended deference to the white man is, however, question
able. We fear lest life or limb purchased at the price of servility,
pretended or real, is far too dearly bought. Is life so dear or any
position under heaven so entrancing as to be purchased or kept at
the price of servility and self abasement? A great number of Negroes
have practised mock servility just once too much- Any act habitually
cultivated becomes ingrained into the system and soon becomes al
most ineradicable from the regularly functioning mechanism. Let
no Negro be dastardly enough to pat himself on the back because it is
possible that he may be fooling some self vaunting Southener. These
bowing and scraping traitors to their race are setting miserable ex
amples for the young at a time when our souls are crying out for real
Negro manhood, and the lives they save by their servility aren’t worth
the hats which they doff.
TIME. Time is your most valuable asset. A man will steal your
watch or other possessions and you raise a howl, but you never say
anything when a person uses your time. You daily throw away
your time, use it up unreservedly, and never stop to consider what a
great portion of real life you are missing. Consider yourself one
minute closer to immortality each minute you lose, and you will
cease giving away your most valuable possession.
"Lose one moment loitering, ’twill be the same old story,
The next and then the next more dilatory,
Each indecision brings its own delays,
And days are lost lamenting o’er lost days.
Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute,
What you can do, or think you can, begin it—
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
Only- cease losing minutes and then the work grows heated—
Begin saving time, and the task will be completed.”
AUTONOMY—Have you ever considered what it means to have an
autonomous mind? Too long have men relied on their brothers to
think for them, and now it is showing itself, in that men are led to
think it their duty to lie idly by and wait for the thought to be work
ed out in order that they might act- Nothing has ever been accom
plished except where self governed minds launched out and grasped
for external unknown words. Autonomous minds made possible; 1. the