I met the amiable and widely read John Clute in New Hampshire in the summer of 2014. He
introduced me to this work, which he describes in the
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
as a satire of race relations in post-Reconstruction America. For the most part, the story
takes place as a conversation between a black man, Sam Brown, and his white brother, Boss
Jones. As such, it’s a subtle satire, using the “science of Anthropology” to warn us of
the laziness of the Negro, the greed of the white man, and the evils of incompatible matings,
among other things.
Clute classifies the work as having numerous fantastic elements such as
when Sam and the author Bob Wells leave their bodies to invisibly view other happenings, at
least one small bit of time travel, and the one item that’s of most interest: a potion that
changes Mr. Jones into a Negro for the span of a train journey.
Whatever time travel does
exist, such as a possible visit by Mr. Jones to 16th century Greece, is subtle compared to
the other aspects of the satire.
— Michael Main
The doors and windows were opened, Sam and Mr. Jones walked out of the room, then to the
depot purchased tickets and started for Chicago, but when the two men arrived at the
depot, to Mr. Jones surprise, the ticket agent told him to get out of that waiting room
or he would take a club to his head, and that pretty quick.