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pushed from the step, though the car was nearly empty, and she was seeking shelter from a violent rain.
‘That was wrong,’ replied the manager.
‘We have no reason to complain of colored people as passengers.
They obtrude upon no one, and always have sixpences in readiness to pay; whereas fashionably dressed white people frequently offer a ten dollar bill, which they know we cannot change, and thus cheat us out of our rightful dues.
Who was the conductor, that behaved in the manner you have described?
We will turn him away, if he does n't know better how to use the discretionary power with which he is entrusted.’
Friend Hopper replied, ‘I had rather thou wouldst not turn him out of thy employ, unless he repeats the offence, after being properly instructed.
I have no wish to injure the man. He has become infected with the unjust prejudices of the community without duly reflecting upon the subject.
Friendly conversation with him may suggest wiser thoughts.
All I ask of thee is to instruct him that the rights of the meanest citizen are to be respected.
I thank thee for having listened to my complaint in such a candid and courteous manner.’
‘And I thank you for having come to inform us of the circumstance,’ replied the manager.
They parted mutually well pleased; and a few days after,
Boston, J. P. Jewett and Company; Cleveland, Ohio: Jewett, Proctor and Worthington; London; Low and Company, 1854.
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