The simple announcement of the purpose of Mr. John E. Bruce (B ruce-G rit) to write a story dealing with some of the problems affecting the political rewards due and obtainable by the Negro wherever he is a conscious factor, should be sufficient to arrest public attention in anticipation of a clever story; for there is no non de plume more widely known, nor one possessing greater ability than he to entertain and instruct. First, he is a master of the art of graphic expression; he excels as a delineator of character, his style is unique and inimitable. His many years of service as newspaper correspondent and as editor, covering more than thirty years, have given him contact, observation, and experience. With these has come wisdom, giving clarity to his vision, sanity to his judgments, moral courage to his expressions. The story which he gives is in accord with twentieth century conditions and not along the lines of reconstruction dreams. Mr. Bruce was born in Maryland, near the National Capital, at a time that enabled him to see very much of the great men who made Civil War and Reconstruction history. His facilities for education, owing to the humble circumstances of his parentage, were scant; but by dint of industry, his ambition and his will he availed himself of these to such an extent that from this school of adversity, in which he was environed, he graduated, so to speak, summa cam laude. On of his employments as a youth in the seventies was with a well-known Washington correspondent of a New York daily. He saw and heard many things in those days in which he was not supposed to have any interest. These fired his soul, they excited his ambition, they were greater teachers than the school room routine of these days. The men who employed him were attracted to his unusual abilities which they recognized and encouraged.(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don"t occur in the book.)About the Publisher