- tory department, he was coolly informed that
did not receive coloured students. His farm was taxed for the support of the public schools, but it was an exceptional favour for those days that his children were allowed to share their privileges. In Ravenna, where Loudin went to school for a time, the seats in the schoolroom were assigned according to scholarship. He was studious and quick to learn, but when he was found entitled by the rules to a higher seat than several members of his class, their parents took their children out of school, in a white heat of wrath that he should not only have a seat beside but above them!
Converted when a lad, he was admitted to membership in the Methodist church at the same place. He was then a printer's apprentice. His wages were $45 year, and he gave $5 of this to the church. Having a reputation among his acquaintances as a good singer, he applied, two or three years after he became a church member, for admission to the choir. To his surprise and indignation, his application was refused, because of his colour. He made up his mind that he was not likely to get or do much more good in that church, and he never troubled it with his presence afterward.
When a young man he found himself in the city of Cleveland, and obliged to obtain lodgings for the night. Going from one hotel to another, he was refused by each in turn. It was nearly midnight, and only one remained unvisited, and that the leading hotel of the city. Using a little strategy here, he led them to suppose he was a slave travelling in
