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Afro-American Encyclopaedia;
Or, the Thoughts, Doings, and Sayings of the Race, Embracing Lectures,
Biographical Sketches, Sermons, Poems, Names of Universities, Colleges,
Seminaries, Newspapers, Books, and a History of the Denominations, Giving the
Numerical Strength of Each. In Fact, it Teaches Every Subject of Interest
to the Colored People, as Discussed by More Than One Hundred of
Their Wisest and Best Men and Women:
Electronic Edition.

James T. Haley

Funding from the Library of Congress/Ameritech National Digital Library Competition supported the electronic publication of this title.

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Academic Affairs Library, UNC-CH
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
2000.

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(title page) Afro-American Encyclopaedia; or, The Thoughts, Doings, and Sayings of the Race, Embracing Addresses, Lectures, Biographical Sketches, Sermons, Poems, Names of Universities, Colleges, Seminaries, Newspapers, Books, and a History of the Denominations, Giving the Numerical Strength of Each. In Fact, It Teaches Every Subject of Interest to the Colored People, as Discussed by More than One Hundred of Their Wisest and Best Men and Women.
(cover) Thoughts Doings and Sayings of the Race
James T. Haley
xiv, 639 p., ill
Nashville, Tenn.
Haley & Florida
1895
Call number E185 .A27995 1895 (Walter R. Davis Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

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Library of Congress Subject Headings,

21st edition, 1998

Languages Used:

LC Subject Headings:

Revision History:

        

Illustration

        

Illustration

AFRO-AMERICAN ENCYCLOPÆDIA
ENLIGHTENING THE RACE.

Page iii

        

Illustration

Afro-American Encyclopaedia;
OR, THE
THOUGHTS, DOINGS, AND SAYINGS OF THE RACE, EMBRACING
Addresses, Lectures, Biographical Sketches, Sermons, Poems, Names of Universities, Colleges, Seminaries, Newspapers, Books, and a History of the Denominations, giving the Numerical Strength of Each. In fact, it teaches every subject of interest to the colored people, as discussed by more than one hundred of their wisest and best men and women.

ILLUSTRATED WITH BEAUTIFUL HALF-TONE ENGRAVINGS.

Compiled and Arranged by James T. Haley.

SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION EXCLUSIVELY.

        No man has a right to bring up his children without surrounding them with good books if he has the means to buy them. A library is one of the necessities of life. A book is better for weariness than sleep; better for cheerfulness than wine; it is often a better physician than a doctor, and a better preacher than a minister.--Beecher.

NASHVILLE, TENN.:
HALEY & FLORIDA.
1895.

Page iv

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1895, by HALEY & FLORIDA, in the
office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C.
All rights reserved.

        

Illustration

Page v

PREFACE.

        Twenty years ago we commenced the subscription book business. Our canvass was usually from door to door, embracing both white and colored. The scarcity of books by negro authors suggested the idea of the compilation of this book. The labor connected with such a work as this none can fully appreciate but those who have performed it. We have tried to compress within a few hundred pages the momentous events connected with the Afro-American race during the nineteenth century. The utmost care has been taken in the collation of the matter in this work, and no expense has been spared to make it not only acceptable to the colored people, but to all classes of readers as well. We can scarcely hope that each article our book contains will be found strictly accurate, since authors of the highest repute differ greatly; where there is a difference of opinion we have endeavored to give the explanation which appeared to be the best supported. We hope and believe the book is free from serious error, but if any should be discovered we shall feel under obligation to those who detect the same, if they will kindly communicate with us, so that in future editions they may be corrected. The book, however, is one of reference rather than one of criticism, an accumulation of facts rather than of opinions. It furnishes the most authentic information concerning the race, and we trust it will awaken a more appreciative spirit of enterprise among them. It has aimed to direct attention to their vast capabilities and resources, many of which are yet undeveloped. We have endeavored to meet the wants of the negro, who is desirous of knowing more of the history of his race, and the achievements of its great men and women (but who are without the assistance of books that bear upon this subject), by compiling these subjects, believing that it will incite a more cheerful reading and deeper research, as the best means of obtaining general information. An effort has been made to render it so generally interesting that it may "be dipped into here and there with the certainty of something being found capable of giving instruction to all classes of readers." The matter contained in this volume can be accumulated only by years of labor and research from sources not easily accessible to the general reader, to say nothing of the vast amount that is fresh from the pens of the most eminent men and women of the race.

        Our object throughout has been to produce a useful book, therefore, as far as was consistent with our plan, we have carefully gleaned whatever was of value wherever it could be found. If at any time we have failed to give credit, it has been because we did not know to whom credit was due. It would have been impossible to render this volume as complete as it now appears, without the sanction of living authors, publishers and owners of copyrights to make extracts; for their courtesy, and for all information from whatever source we tender our most grateful acknowledgments. With this preface, we launch our boat, trusting, hoping and praying that it may accomplish some good.

J. T. HALEY.

NASHVILLE, TENN., Sept. 1, 1895.

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DEDICATION

        To all, of whatever nationality, who desire to know more of the progress and achievements of the race, and especially to Afro-Americans, old and young, but more especially to those noble, consecrated Christian men and women, who have rendered me such valuable assistance in the preparation of this work, is this volume dedicated.

By the Compiler.

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CONTENTS.

Page xiii.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page XV

        

Illustration

AFRICAN WARRIOR.

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Africa and the Africans.

        AFRICA is one of the great divisions of the globe--the second in point of size, but the least important as regards civilization and progress. Until recently, this continent, so long a land of mystery, was inhabited by wild and barbarous tribes and untrodden by the foot of civilization. This great continent of the globe lies in the Eastern Hemisphere, South of Europe, and is separated from that continent by the Mediterranean Sea. No other land division of the globe has such a rounded and complete outline. The explorations of travelers within the present century have revealed all the leading topographical features of the country, and enabled us to form a fairly accurate knowledge of its configurations. Lying almost wholly in or near the equatorial regions, its torrid climate and enormous deserts render explorations perilous.

        It is southwest of Asia, with which it is connected by the Isthmus of Suez. It may, however, be described in brief as an insular continent, since it has of recent years been disconnected from Asia by the Suez Canal.

        The continent lies between 37 degrees 20 minutes north, and 35 degrees south latitude, and 17 degrees 33 minutes west, and 51 degrees 22 minutes east longitude. It is, therefore, almost wholly in the tropical regions. The greatest length of this mysterious land, when we measure from Cape Aquehas, just east of Cape of Good Hope to Cape Bon, which is near Bizerta in Tunis, is about 4,330 geographical miles; while the greatest width, taking Cape Verd on the Atlantic side and Cape Gardafin on the Indian Ocean, is 4,000 geographical miles. Figuring the entire length of the country, excluding Madagascar and other African islands, we have about 11,300,000 statute square miles. The explorations of the continent are slowly advancing year by year, but with earnest and unceasing progress.

        The southern portion of Africa is a vast tableland not generally elevated, sloping on its northern side to the equatorial plane of Soudan, and thence to the lowland region which constitutes the greater part of Northern Africa. Senegambia on the west and Abyssinia on

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the east are characterized by mountaneous ridges and plateaus, which "stretch from the southern tableland like rocky promontories into a sea of level country." The only other elevated region of importance is the Atlas range in the northwest. The coast line is about 16,000 miles in extent, or about two-thirds of the entire distance around the globe. The bodies of water which surround Africa are the Mediterranean Sea on the north, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean on the east, the Southern Ocean on the south, and the Atlantic Ocean on the west.

        This country has been looked upon as pre-eminently the land of deserts. The great Sahara stretches almost across northern Africa. It is not an unbroken sandy expanse, but full of variety, broken up by great oases and green stretches of land. Some of them are 120 miles in length and from three to five miles broad. In Southern Africa is another desert known as Kalahari. The plateaus of Southern Africa are fertile and thickly populated.

        The extent of the mineral wealth of the continent is unknown, but the precious metals are only found in a limited area. Gold is found in Guinea, iron and copper are found in inter-tropical Africa, coal has been discovered along the Zambesi, and salt is everywhere abundant.

        Dense forests with rankest vegetation, teaming with animal and insect life, pervade the equatorial regions. The most valuable productions of the vegetable kingdom are dates, oranges, olives, rice, cotton, indigo, bananas and grains.

        The quadrupeds found in Africa cover a wide range of natural history. The chimpanzee and the gorilla, baboons and monkey abound in great numbers. The elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus buffalo, giraffe, camelopard, zebra, quagga, antelope, lion, leopard, panther, tiger, hyena, jackal and camel are all at home on the "Dark Continent." The camel is used as the principal beast of burden. There are five great mountain systems. The climate is more equable in the distribution of heat than that of America. There are many large and important rivers: The Congo, the Limpoppo, the Niger, the Nile, the Senegal, and the Zambesi. The Nile is the most famous and wonderful of all. Many of the lakes are vast inland seas, whose existence have been verified by recent explorers. The general form of Africa is triangular, the northern part being the base, and the southern extremity the vertex.

        In the northern part of Africa the Mohammedan religion prevails,

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numbering perhaps two-thirds of the entire population. There are about 700,000 Jews, principally in the cities. Christianity pervails in Madagascar, Liberia, the British possessions of Southern Africa, Algeria, parts of Abyssinia and Egypt.

        In the providence of God it seems that this great and glorious country is chiefly for the colored races, and especially for the negro. Centuries of effort and centuries of failure demonstrate that white men cannot build up colonies there. That portion of the continent lying between the Mediterranean Sea and latitude 20 degrees north, is settled principally by tribes not indigenous, such as Arabs, Turks, Moors and Frenchmen. They have gained possession of the country by conquest. Egypt is partly peopled by Copts, supposed to be descended from the ancient Egyptians, but they are probably a mixed race. The greater portion of Africa's population belongs to two races, the Berbers and the Negroes of Ethiopia. The former are nomadic occupying the mountainous regions of Barbary and the Sahara. They are sometimes called the Kabyles. The Berber nation is one of great integrity. They are warlike and predatory. Their religion is Mohammedism. In South Africa there are many Hottentots, entirely different from all the negro race. Central Africa is inhabited by the Ethiopic race. Mohammedanism and Fetishism are the prevailing religious of the continent. Some tribes offer human sacrifices. The principal negro nations are the Mandingoes, the Foolahs, the Yolofs and Ashantees. It is estimated by some writers that 150 languages are spoken in Africa, and that the population is about 200,000,000.

        The principal divisions of the continent are as follows:

        Algeria, Tripoli, Morocco, Tunis, Bambara, Senegambia, Liberia, Ashantee, Dahomey, Gando, Bornoo, Adamawa, Loango, Congo, Angola, Beuguela, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Madagascar, Mosambique, Zanquebar, Adel, Cazembe, Abyssinia, Darfoor, Kordofan, Waday, Soudan, Sennar, Neubia, Egypt, and Haussa.

        The word negro is a name given to a considerable branch of the human family possessing certain physical characteristics which distinguish it in a very marked degree from the other branches or varieties of mankind.--International Cyclopedia.

        The term negro is properly applied to the races inhabiting that part of Africa lying between latitude 10 degrees north, and 20 degrees south, and to their descendants in the old and new world. It does not include the Egyptians, Berbers, Abyssinians, Hottentots,

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Nubians, etc., though in popular language, especially in the older writings, it comprises these and other dark skinned nations, who are not however characterized by the crisp hair of the true negro.

        The negroes are said to occupy about one half of Africa, excluding the northern and southern extremities, but including its most fertile portions. They have less nervous sensibility than the whites, and are not subject to nervous afflictions. They are comparatively insensible to pain, bearing severe surgical operations well; they seldom have a fetid breath, but transpire much excrementious matter by means of glands of the skin, whose odorous secretion is well known. His skin is soft and silky; hair, though called wool, does not present the characters of it, and differs but little from that of the other races except in color and in its curled and twisted form. He flourishes under the fiercest heats and unhealthy dampness of the tropics, where the white man soon dies.

        In addition to Africa, negroes are found in the United States, Brazil, West Indies, Peru, Arabia, and the Cape Verd Islands. They are rare in Austria, Europe, and Polynesia.

        Negroes were almost unknown to the Hebrews. They were unknown to the Greeks until the seventh century B.C. About twenty-three hundred years B.C. the Egyptians became acquainted with negroes, who helped them on their monuments as early as 1,600 years B.C.

        The African negroes display considerable ingenuity in the manufacture of weapons, in the working of iron, in the weaving of mats, cloth and baskets from dyed grasses, in the dressing of the skins of animals, in the structure of their huts and household utensils, and in the various implements and objects of use in a barbarous state of society.

        Some of them worship idols, and believe in good and evil spirits, in witchcraft, charms and spells, omens, lucky and unlucky days. They make prayers and offerings to their idols, and have sacred songs, and festivals. They sacrifice animals and sometimes human victims. They have priests who are their doctors. They believe generally in an after life, without any distinct idea of retribution. They have great fears of ghosts and apparitions. They become ready converts to foreign religions. All tribes are passionately fond of music, and have many ingeniously contrived musical instruments. They have a keen sense of the ridiculous, and are of a cheerful disposition. Naturally they are kind-hearted and hospitable to strangers,

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and are ready to receive instruction, and profit by it. They are quick to perceive the beauty of goodness, and hence they generally appreciate the services of missionaries in their behalf, and but for intoxicating drinks brought by traders, they would probably soon become Christianized.

LIBERIA.

        LIBERIA is a negro republic in Western Africa, on the upper coast of Upper Guinea. The boundaries are not definitely fixed, but provisionally the River Thebar has been adopted as the northwestern, and the San Pedro as the eastern frontier. The republic has a coast line of 600 miles, and extends back 100 miles, on an average, but with the probability of a vast extension into the interior as the tribes near the frontier desire to conclude treaties providing for the incorporation of their territories with Liberia. The present area is estimated at 9,700 square miles. The republic owes its origin to the "American Colonization Society," which was established in December, 1816, for the purpose of removing the negroes of the United States from the cramping influences of American slavery, and placing them in their own fatherland. The first expedition of emigrants, 86 in number, was sent out in February, 1820.

        About 36 miles along the coast, with an average breadth of two miles, of the Mesurado territory was purchased in December, 1821. For a hundred years the principal powers of Europe, in particular France and England, had repeatedly tried to gain possession, but the native chiefs had invariably refused to part with even an acre, and were known to be extremely hostile to the whites. On the 7th of January, 1822, the smaller of the two islands lying near the mouth of the Measurado River was occupied by the colonists, who called it Perseverance Island. They remained here until April 25th, when they removed to Mesurado Heights, and raised the American flag. The colony henceforth grew, and expanded in territory and influence, taking under its jurisdiction from time to time the large tribes contiguous. In 1846 the board of directors of the American Colonization Society invited the colony to proclaim their independent sovereignty, as a means of protection against the oppressive interference of foreigners,

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and a special fund of $15,000 was raised to buy up the national title to all the coast from Sherbro to Cape Palmas, in order to secure to the new nationality continuity of coast. In July, 1847, the declaration of independence, prepared by Hilary Teoge, was published. Representatives of the people met in convention, and promulgated a constitution similar to that of the United States. Soon after the new republic was recognized by England and France; in 1852 it was in treaty stipulations with England, France, Belgium, Prussia, Italy, the United States, Denmark, Holland, Hayti, Portugal, and Austria.

        The constitution of Liberia, like that of the United States, establishes an entire separation of the church from the State, and places all religious denominations on an equal footing, but all citizens of the republic must belong to the negro race.

        The most important tribes within and near the republic are the following:

        1. The Veys, extending from Gallinas, their northern boundary, southward to Little Cape Mount: they stretch inland about two days' journey. They invented some twenty-five years ago an alphabet for writing their language and, next to the Mandingoes, they are regarded as the most intelligent of the aboriginal tribes. As they hold constant intercourse with the Mandingoes and other Mohammedan tribes in the interior, Mohammedism is making rapid progress among them.

        2. The Pessehs, who are located about 70 miles from the coast, and extent about 100 miles from north to south, are entirely pagan. They may be called the peasants of West Africa, and supply most of the domestic slaves for the Veys, Bassas, Mandingoes, and Kroos. A missionary effort was attempted among them many years ago by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, but it was abandoned shortly after in consequence of the death of the first missionary, Geo. L. Seymore.

        3. The Barline tribe living about eight days' journey northeast from Monrovia, and next interior to the Pessehs, has recently been brought into treaty relations with Liberia. The Barlins are not Mohammedans.

        4. The Bassas occupy a coastline of sixty miles or more, and extend about the same distance inland. They are the great producers of palm oil and camwood, which are sold to foreigners by thousands of tons annually. In 1835 a mission was begun among these people

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by the American Baptist Missionary Union, whose missionaries studied the language, organized three schools, embracing in all nearly a hundred pupils, maintained preaching steadily at three places, and occasionally at a great many more, and translated large portions of the New Testament into the Bassa language. Notwithstanding this promising commencement, the mission has been abandoned for many years, but the Southern Baptist convention has resumed missionary operations among the Bassas.

        5. The Kroo, who occupy the region south of the Bassa, extend about 70 miles along the coast, and only a few miles inland. They are the sailors of West Africa, and never enslave or sell each other. About 50 years ago a mission was established among them by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions at Settra Kroo, but it has long since ceased operations.

        6. The Greboes, who border upon the southeastern boundaries of the Kroos, extend from Grand Sesters to the Cavalla River. In 1834 a mission was established among them by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, which continued in operation for seven years. A church was organized, the language reduced to writing, and parts of the New Testament and other religious books translated into it.

        7. The Mandingoes, who are found on the whole eastern frontier of the republic, and extend back to the heart of Soudan, are the most intelligent within the limits of Liberia. They have schools and mosques in every large town, and, by their great influence upon the neighboring tribes, they have contributed in no little degree to abate the ignorance and soften the manners of the native population of Liberia.

        Agriculture is carried on with increasing success. Sugar is the principal article of produce, also of manufacture. Arrowroot, rice, cocoa, cotton and coffee are cultivated. Lime is made from burnt shells. Trade is rapidly extending. Palm oil, ivory, gold dust, cam-wood, wax, coffee, indigo, ginger, arrowroot and hides are among the principal articles of export. The capital and largest town is Monrovia, a seaport on Cape Mesurado, with about 15,000 population. Liberia has a population of 1,050,000. But speaking of Liberia to-day, in his excellent work, "Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race," Mr. E. W. Blyden says: "No agency has yet been tried for Africa's regeneration, which promises so much and is capable of so much for the permanent welfare of the

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people as the method of the American Colonization Society in the establishment of Liberia. The United States has furnished Africa with the most effective instrument of unlimited progress and development in the Republic of Liberia. The basis of the Liberian political life is the American constitution and laws. But the earlier legislators of the new State very soon discovered that American precedents, in not a few important respects, would have to be set aside; and it is creditable to their statesmanship that they were able to introduce with prudence such modifications into the American system as made it applicable to their new circumstances and practicable for their purposes. Their successors are finding more and more that as they advance into the continent and develop national life, new modifications will be necessary. These must take place if there is normal growth--if the nation is to be the true expression of the race. The friends of Liberians abroad cannot help them to national or racial expression. They must fight their own battles and achieve their own victories, if they are not to be overawed, depressed and overcome, not so much by the merits and virtues as by the vices and failings of foreigners, whose literature they read and whose commodities they purchase.

        The theory upon which Liberia was founded has thus far stood the test. It is a theory with definite practical consequences, which every one who is earnest in the desire for African regeneration and acquainted with the facts must accept, and which no one in these days, however antagonistic to the negro in exile, will strenuously oppose.

        In Liberia, the people, with all the drawbacks incident to their necessarily isolated life, have the legislative control of at least 500 miles of coast, and of an indefinite interior. They recognize the necessity--the prime necessity--of the moral and religious emotions. Their minds are strengthened and expaned by the wide and glorious prospects which their independent nationality and the vast continent on which they live with its teeming millions of their blood relations open before them; and they stretch out their hands to the United States for the return of their exiled brethren, to increase their civilized and Christian force. They ask for greater educational and religious facilities. They could have greater material prosperity; but they look upon the life as more than meat, and the body as more than raiment. For more than half a century they have resisted the appeals of Europeans for an indiscriminate trade in the country, and

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have thus kept an extensive region both on the coast and in the interior in a virgin state waiting for their brethren from the United States, who will know how to protect themselves against the influence of a vicious foreign trade, and who will be able to introduce in a regular and healthful form the blessings of freedom and civilization. As an example of the work in promotion of a genuine Christian civilization which Liberia, as an independent nation, whose laws are final, has the power of performing, see the recent law enacted against Sabbath breaking, which applies only to the seaboard and to the proceedings of foreign vessels. You would understand the import of this fact and its bearing upon Christianity in this country if you could see how all along the coast out of Liberia the Sabbath is disregarded by foreign traders, while the missionaries look helplessly on. In course of time, Liberia will banish the traffic in spirits from the whole of her domain; and in this effort she will be sustained by the great Mohammedan trading community on the east and north.

        Now, here is an instrument--indigenous, sympathetic and permanent--for the aggressive work of the American church. If American Christians will deal with this question earnestly and wisely, they can in a few years revolutionize the migration countries. America possesses the elements--the human instruments--now needed for the work in Africa, and they are anxious to come. Rev. H. N. Payne says: "Much as the colored people are attached to the places where they grew up, thousands of them would gladly go to Arkansas, to Texas, or to any other place where they would better their condition; but they cannot raise the money to emigrate, and must stay and suffer where they are." Now here is disinterested testimony, put not half so strongly as the facts warrant. The any other place is Africa; and if these helpless creatures do not name Africa in the utterance of their tearful longings, it is because thousands do not dream that there is any possibility of ever getting to this distant country. I found, during my travels in the South, in 1882, that hundreds were turning their faces to Arkansas and Texas, who had never heard of Liberia or the American Colonization Society.

        Do not wait until you have trained the negroes up to your ideal--in your peculiar modes of thinking. You cannot make them Anglo-Saxons. You never will make them so in spirit and possibilities, if I interpret the providence of God aright. The Hebrews of Egypt remained illiterate and ignorant, though surrounded for 400 years by the splendors of a brilliant civilization. That civilization was

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not for them, though they had, by providential direction, been brought into contact with it. It was not suited for the peculiar work for which they were destined. So the children of Africa in the United States have the possibilities of a great work in the fatherland. Remove them from the pressure in your country to the freedom and congeniality of their ancestral home, and so open a wider sphere, for the play and development of their social, moral and spiritual nature. It is not the best plan to rely upon college training to fit them for work in Africa.

        The fugitive Hebrew slaves, without the learning of the schools, received the law for their guidance--found the truth for their race--in the solitudes of the desert. In Africa, the merest rudiments of Western learning will have more power upon the negro than the highest culture in America. There is something in the atmosphere, in the sunshine, the clouds, the rain, the flowers, the music of the birds, that makes the a b c of your culture more valuable to him than all the metaphysics and philosophy you can possibly give him in America.

        The Republic of Liberia now stands before the world. The nations of the earth are looking to her as one of the hopeful spots on the continent of Africa. Travelers in Syria tell us that Damascus owes its fertility and beauty to one single stream--the River Abana. Without that little river, the charm and glory of Damascus would disappear. It would be a city in a desert. So the influence of Liberia, insignificant as it may seem, is the increasing source of beauty and fertility, of civilization and progress to West and Central Africa.

        We do not ask that all the colored people should leave the United States and go to Africa. If such a result were possible it is not, for the present, at least desirable; certainly it is not indispensable. For the work to be accomplished much less than one-tenth of the eight millions will be necessary. The question is not whether certain rich men will choose to remain behind, but whether there will be found worthy men who will choose to lead the return. Plenty of prosperous Jews remained in Babylon when Ezra marshalled his band of 40,000, and began a new, glorious epoch in the history of his race, making the preparation for that epoch in the history of the the world which has been held glorious enough to be dated from for evermore.

        There are negroes enough in the United States to join in the return--descendants of Africa enough, who are faithful to their instincts

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of the race, and who realize their duty to their fatherland. There are many who are faithful, there are men and women who will go, who have a restless sense of homelessness which will never be appeased until they stand in the great land where their forefathers lived; until they catch glimpses of the old sun and moon and stars, which still shine in their pristine brilliancy upon that vast domain; until, from the deck of the ship which bears them back home, they see visions of the hills rising from the white margin of the continent, and listen to the breaking music of the waves--the exhilarating laughter of the sea as it dashes against the beach. These are the elements of the great restoration. It may come in our own life time. It may be our happiness to see those rise up who will formulate progress for Africa--embody the ideas which will reduce our social and political life to order; and we may, before we die, thank God that we have seen this salvation; that the negro has grasped with a clear knowledge his meaning in the world's vast life--in politics, in science, in religion.

CAUSES OF COLOR.

        THE various colors seen in the natives in Africa, where amalgamation with other races is impossible, has drawn forth much criticism, and puzzled the ethnologist not a little. Yet nothing is more easily accounted for than this difference of color among the same people, and even under the same circumstances. Climate and climate alone, is the sole cause. And now to the proof. Instances are adduced, in which individuals, transplanted into another climate than that of their birth, are said to have restrained their peculiarities of form and color unaltered, and to have transmitted the same to their posterity for generations. But cases of this kind, though often substantiated to a certain extent, appear to have been much exaggerated, both as to the duration of time ascribed, and the absence of any change. It is highly probable that the original characteristics will be found undergoing gradual modifications, which tend to assimilate them to those of the new country and situation.

        The Jews, however slightly their features may have assimilated to those of other nations among whom they are scattered, from

Page 12

the causes already stated, certainly form a very striking example as regards the uncertainty of perpetuity in color. Descended from one stock, and prohibited by the most sacred institutions from intermarrying with the people of other nations, and yet dispersed, according to the divine prediction, into every country on the globe, this one people is marked with the color of all; fair in Britian and Germany; brown in France and in Turkey; swarthy in Portugal and in Spain; olive in Syria and Chaldea; tawny or copper-colored in Arabia and in Egypt; whilst they are "black at Congo, in Africa."

        Let us survey the gradations of color on the continent of Africa itself. The inhabitants of the north are whitest; and as we advance southward towards the line, and those countries in which the sun's rays fall more perpendicularly, the complexion gradually assumes a darker shade. And the same men whose color has been rendered black by the powerful influence of the sun, if they remove to the north gradually become white, (I mean their posterity), and eventually lose their dark color.

        The Portuguese who planted themselves on the coast of Africa a few centuries ago, have been succeeded by descendants blacker than many Africans. On the coast of Malabar there are two colonies of Jews, the old colony and the new, separated by color, and known as the "black Jews" and the "white Jews."

        The old colony are the black Jews, and have been longer subjected to the influence of the climate. The hair of the black Jews is curly, showing a resemblance to the Negro. The white Jews are as dark as the Gypsies, and each generation growing darker.

        Dr. Livingstone says:

I was struck with the appearance of the people in Londa and the neighborhood; they seemed more slender in form and their color a lighter olive than any we had hitherto met.

        Lower down the Zambisi the same writer says:

Most of the men are muscular, and have large, ploughman hands. Their color is the same admixture, from very dark to light olive, that we saw in Londa.

        In the year 1840, the writer was at Havana, and saw on board a vessel just arrived from Africa some five hundred slaves, captured in different parts of the country. Among these captives were colors varying from light brown to black, and their features represented the finest Anglo-Saxon and the most degraded African.

        There is a nation called Tuaricks, who inhabit the oases and southern borders of the great desert, whose occupation is commerce, and

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whose caravans ply between the Negro countries and Fezzan. They are described by the travelers, Hornemann and Lyon.

        The western tribes of this nation are white, so far as the climate and their habits will allow. Others are of a yellow cast; others again are swarthy; and in the neighborhood of Soudan, there is said to be a tribe completely black. All speak the same dialect, and it is a dialect of the original African tongue. There is no reasonable doubt of their being aboriginal.

        Lyon says they are the finest race of men he ever saw, "tall, straight and handsome, with a certain air of independence and pride which is very imposing." If we observe the gradations of color in different localities in the meridian under which we live, we shall perceive a very close relation to the heat of the sun in each respectively. Under the equator we have the deep black of the Negro, then the copper or olive of the Moors of northern Africa; then the Spaniard and Italian, swarthy compared with other Europeans; the French still darker than the English, while the fair and florid complexion of England and Germany passes more northerly into the bleached Scandinavian white.

        It is well-known that in whatever region travelers ascend mountains they find the vegetation at every successive level altering its character and gradully assuming the appearances presented in more northern countries; thus indicating that the atmosphere, temperature and physical agencies in general, assimilate as we approach Alpine regions to the peculiarities locally connected with high latitudes.

        If, therefore, complexion and other bodily qualities belonging to races of men depend upon climate and external conditions, we should expect to find them varying in reference to elevation of surface; and if they should he found actually to undergo such variations, this will be a strong argument that these external characteristics do, in fact, depend upon local conditions.

        Now, if we inquire respecting the physical characters of the tribes inhabiting high tracts in warm countries, we shall find that they coincide with those which prevail in the level or low parts of more northern tracts.

        The Swiss, in the high mountains above the plains of Lombardy, have sandy or brown hair. What a contrast presents itself to the traveler who descends into the Milanese territory, where the peasants have black hair and eyes, with strongly-marked Italian and almost oriental features.

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        In the higher part of the Biscayan country instead of the swarthy complexion and black hair of the Castilians, the natives have a fair complexion with light blue eyes and and flaxen or auburn hair.

        In the inter-tropical region, high elevations of surface, as they produce a cooler climate, occasion the appearance of light complexions. In the higher parts of Senegambia, which front the Atlantic, and are cooled by winds from the Western Ocean, where, in fact, the temperature is known to be moderate, and even cool at times, the light copper-colored Fulahs are found surrounded on every side by black Negro nations inhabiting lower districts; and nearly in the same parallel, but on the opposite coast of Africa, are the high plains of Enared and Kaffa, where the inhabitants are said to be fairer than the inhabitants of Southern Europe.

        Do we need any better evidence of the influence of climate on man than to witness its effect on beasts and birds? Æolian informs us that the Eubaea was famous for producing white oxen. Blumenbach remarks that "all the swine of Piedmont are black, those of Normandy white, and those of Bavaria are of a reddish brown. "The turkeys of Normandy," he states "are all black; those of Hanover almost all white. In Guinea the dogs and the gallinaceous fowls are as black as the human inhabitants of the same country." The lack of color in the northern regions of many animals which possess color in more temperate latitudes--as the bear, the fox, the hare, beasts of burden, the falcon, crow, jackdaw, and chaffinch--seems to arise entirely from climate. The common bear is differently colored in different regions. The dog loses its coat entirely in Africa, and has a smooth skin.

        We all see and admit the change which a few years produce in the complexion of a Caucasian going from our northern latitude into the tropics.--The Rising Sun.

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Color of the First Man.

BY REV. J. F. DYSON, B.D.

        THOSE who are conversant with the Hebrew language will agree with me in the statement that the Hebrew word Adam, the name given to the first man, means reddish or auburn color, as well as man; or better, perhaps, red man; the name designating the color. I therefore claim two points, which, to any reasonable person, are sufficient proof of Adam's color, namely: The color of the material out of which he was made, and this indicated his name. Is it not more reasonable to believe that a man made out of red colored material, and having a name signifying red color, was red, than to believe that he was white? And is it not strange that many men who seem consistent in making expositions on other weighty matters will agree that the first man was made of red clay, that his name signified red color, that it was given him because of his red color, yet he was white? Mystical inference! If the first man had been made out of chalk, and called Chivvah, which is the Hebrew for white, what rational man is there under the sun who would presume to gravely assert that, notwithstanding his formation from chalk, and his name which implies the color of chalk, yet the first man was red? But I must not cross the Rubicon before I come to it. Perhaps when I have presented my whole argument some opinions will have undergone a change. Was the first woman of the color of the first man? This is a question whose answer will determine my cause of procedure.

        1. Is it possible that the color of the first woman was not of the same color of the first man? To say that it is impossible is to limit omnipotence and omniscience. The same wisdom that produced one color in man, could produce a different color in the woman.

        2. It is probable that the first woman was not of the same color of the first man, from the presumption that God having manifested variety of color throughout the several kingdoms of nature would not make an exception of this rule in the heads of creation. To begin with, there is the black earth and the white light of the sun; and

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there is the black crow and the white crane; the black and polar bear; black and white beasts; the black dolphin and white fish. There is chalk, limestone and lead; coal, granite and iron; black and white stone and minerals; ebony trees and sycamore trees; black-berries and white cap berries; the dun pansy and the white rose, and so forth.

        3. It is probable that the first woman and man were not of the same complexion, from the fact of the existence of divers colors in their offspring, to time whereof the history of man runneth not to the contrary, and the total silence of history, sacred and profane, at the surprise of any race, or individual of any race, in meeting another race, or individual of another race of a different complexion, justifies this probability yet more.

        4. It is probable that the first man and woman were of different complexions, from the fact that all of Noah's children were not of the same color. The words alchemy and chemistry preserve in our own language this meaning of Ham or Cham. They literally mean the "black art," from Kemia, chem--black. They came to us through the Arabs from Egypt. That Ham in Hebrew means swarthy or darkish all linguists are agreed and, as we have before intimated, that in the early history of mankind names given men frequently indicated peculiar physical features possessed by those who bore them, we are therefore to conclude that Noah's second son was of a complexion darker than that of either the oldest or youngest son.

        Japheth, the name of the youngest son, was no doubt derived from Yaphah, which means "to be beautiful," hence fair, that complexion being thought the ideal of beauty among the ancients. But for the children to be of different colors, it is necessary that the parents be of different colors, and again their parents must have been of different colors, and so on back to the diversity of color between Adam and Eve.

        What was Eve's color? She could not have been red like Adam, otherwise their posterity would have all been red. If she were darker than red, or even Adam's color, their descendants, according to physiological law, would have been yet darker. If she was jet black, their children, by the same law, would have been a brown next to black. These results would have been as stated, provided their offspring had taken color after Adam, admitting Eve to have been red, brown or black, and thus, too, accounting for the yellow, brown,

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red and black races of those who hold that there are five distinct races of man. But how about the white race? It seems to have been left entirely out of the enumeration. There can be but one conclusion regarding it. If Adam was of a reddish color--as I think I have clearly shown him to have been--and Eve was of a color which was neither yellow, red, brown nor black, and as some of their posterity are a complexion different from either of these just named, and that complexion is the only one that she could possess, if we agree with Blumenback that there are but five races of men distinguished by their color, then we must conclude that Eve, the first woman, was white. The argument upon which this conclusion is founded is both scriptural and scientific, and from this basis, and none other, it proposes to declare a hitherto hidden truth. Having established the color of the first man by a draft on Scripture narrative, etymology and mental philosophy, I shall, in another chapter, establish the color of the first woman by the same means, perhaps using the argument of two or three affinitive sciences in addition thereto.--The Unity of the Human Race.

Color of the First Woman.

BY REV. J. F. DYSON, B. D.

        LET us first consider Gen. ii. 21-23, wherein Moses, Israel's great law-giver, gives the world the only trustworthy history it has of the creation of woman and the beginning of the world. "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from the man, made he a woman and brought her unto the man. And the man said, this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man."

        I attach more importance to the fact that woman was made out of man's rib than others do, yet no more than the fact deserves. If Adam was made out of red clay, which made his color red, it is unreasonable to believe that as Eve was made out a white rib she therefore

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naturally received her color from it, or received no color at all, if it be contended that white is no color. In all candor, is not this a more reasonable, a simpler theory than the unscriptural ones that are thrust into notice of the reading public? It puts an end to many theories heretofore advanced, and silences forever Ariel's bray, and brands his infamous assertion that the negro is a brute, a malicious falsehood; it withholds from the murderer Cain and a she ape in the land of Nod the ancestry of the black race; it shows that the color of Ham's descendants is not the result of Noah's cursing Canaan, by proving that the source of their color was in Eden. In a word, it turns a full light upon the Scripture declaration, "God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth," traces it to its true source, and keeps to the text in contending with those who inadvertently overlook this truth, pervert, or willfully deny it. It does not require nearly as great a stretch of faith to believe that Eve took her color from the rib out of which she was created as to believe that she was created out of the rib; therefore let us bow at the shrine of reason and consistency. In proving the color of Adam I resorted to the etymology of his name. Does not the etymology of Eve's name also have reference to her color? Beyond a doubt it has. The word which we translate Eve is Chavvah in Hebrew, and means simply life, and no one who is familiar with Holy Writ will deny that life and immortality are symbolized by white, from the Pentateuch of Moses to the Apocalypse of John, and in human experience from Nimrod until now. Therefore Eve's color indicated that she was the "mother of all living," or the source of all living, as much as her name. In order for the woman to engage the attention of the man she must have been attractive. What color is more attractive than white? For her to claim his protection she must have had a delicate appearance. What color is more delicate than white? To draw upon his affection she must have been fair, or, in other words white; and I do not think it more poetic than truthful for me to say that Eve's color denoted virtue, the brightest gem in the diadem of her priceless womanhood, and the most glorious and most valuable legacy left by her to her posterity.

        It would be unwise for me to multiply these subsidiary arguments in support of the fact of Eve's color being white, which has been already made plain, for in doing so I would underrate the mental ability of the reader to grasp ordinary truth, and see by the clear light of analogy, illustration and reason.

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        Next we will consider the complexions of the descendants of father Adam and mother Eve. At once the important question is proposed: "If Eve was white and Adam was red, none of their immediate descendants could have been white or entirely black. Some of them must have approximated a white color, some a color medium between white and red, and others must have approximated Adam's color, or the colors must have graded from nearly, or quite red, up to nearly white, in several fine shades. Where then is the source of full white and full black people?" This question is not difficult of solution. In answering it I shall show, however paradoxical the proposition may seem, that it is easier to account for the black and white children from a red Adam and a white Eve than it is to account for yellow, red, brown and black children from a white Adam and a white Eve, white and yellow children from a red Adam and a red Eve, or white, yellow, red and brown children from a black Adam and black Eve.

        Knowing that there are different opinions as to the universality of the flood, I shall not insist that all human beings save Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives, perished therein. My agreeing with those who affirm or those who deny this theory would neither strengthen nor weaken my argument asserting the divergence of color in the first human pair, and per force of reason in their descendants whether they were roaming the tableland of Nod during the flood, or rocking in the Ark upon the billows above Shinar. I have often stated that Noah's three sons, saying nothing of his wife or his son's wives, differed in complexion. The names of two of them indicate this. Ham (Hebrew Cham) means swarthy. Japheth (Hebrew Yaphar) means fair or whitish. Between Ham's swarthy complexion and Japheth's fair complexion it is not unreasonable to believe Shem's auburn complexion had place.

        The Scriptures teach that Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years, but giving no account of his having any other children than those who survived the flood with him and his wife in the Ark. As the Scriptures are mute on this subject I shall be also. Not denying that Noah had other sons and daughters born unto him after the flood, but basing my theory of the re-peopling of the earth upon the fruitfulness of Shem, Ham and Japhet, and the fruitfulness of their children and their children's children, whose geographical distribution alone I shall notice.

        I assume as a matter of course that the white complexion did not

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exist after Eve's death until centuries after the confusion of tongues at Babel, and the dispersion of the three grand divisions of mankind thence "upon all the face of the earth," as the Hebrew has it, nor was the very black complexion known until the people distinguished thereby had subordinated themselves to the circumstances which produced it. To what do these statements lead? They lead to the inevitable conclusion that all the complexions except the white and black were the naturally direct result of the union of Adam's and Eve's complexions, but that these were produced by the "influences of the chemical solar rays, the altitude or depression of the general level, the difference of geological formations, the varying agencies of magnetism and electricity, as atmospheric peculiarities, miasmatic exhalations from vegetable and mineral matter, difference of soil, proximity to the ocean, variety of food, habits of life and exposure."

God's Problem for the South.

BY REV. A. L. PHILLIPS, TUSCALOOSA, ALA.

        GOD is the greatest of all problem makers. Neither nature nor metaphysics nor grace contains a single problem that is not his by origination and proposal. The mystery of the milky way or the doctrine of perception or the method of reconciliation between God and man are not human. Since no human mind has ever fully understood them, it is but just to infer that they are super-human in origin. When God sets a problem before the human mind he usually indicates general principles by which it is to be solved. He never ciphers out the details for any man. God told Moses to go lead his people out of Egypt. "Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." (Ex. iii. 10.) When Moses had insisted upon Jehovah's telling him something about the details of the work, he was at last asked, "What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. Cast it on the ground. He cast it on the ground and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from before it. And the Lord said into Moses: Put forth thine hand and take it by the tail. And he put

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forth his hand and caught it and it became a rod in his hand; that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers hath appeared unto thee." (Ex. iv. 3-5.) Moses' problem was to lead out the people; his method of solution was to be miracles. Jesus stood in the midst of his disheartened disciples on the mount in Galilee, and gave them the greatest problem ever committed to human head, heart and hand. "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." Such a problem had never been given to men in the past history of the church; it has not been modified one jot or one tittle since its first announcement. It was original, startling, overwhelming. It gave the world a new estimate of the power of the human soul, that it could embrace with loving solicitude the entire human family. The problem carried within its depths its own solution as a granite mass bearing its imbedded dynamite. The problem was Go: its solution lay in one word--preach. The problem is now before us. It is divine; so is its solution. The church must, and, by God's good grace, will work it out.

        In working it out, the church in the United States has some peculiar conditions to meet. It is better equipped in brains, in money, in spirituality than ever in its history. More people are easily accessible than ever before. Cries for the preached word come from every quarter of our own country and in tumultuous mobs beneath our windows alarm our sleeping consciences. Mute appeals of unnumbered millions of heathen call us irresistibly to their help. The Syro-Phoenician woman in the coasts of Tyre begs for crumbs from the spiritual feast that our Lord spreads before us. Poor Lazarus, outcast, sore-covered, dog-licked, lies at our door piteously pleading, "Give, or I die!" Let us attend to this cry from Lazarus for a little while. We'll not stop to speak of the Chinaman, for he is removed from us by law, nor the Indian, who is fast being removed by powder, rascality, and liquor. Our problem in the South is how to reach the negro with the gospel. It may be solved perhaps by first reaching the white man. For until his brain is cleared and his conscience aroused, very little can be done. What are the conditions of the problem? 1. Many millions of white and black people live in the same territory. 2. The whites once owned the blacks. 3. The whites are vastly in the majority, have infinitely more money, education and spirituality. 4. Against the will of the intelligent majority, the minority was freed. 5. By law both black and white are equal citizens of the same government. 6. Powerful influences

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have for years been at work causing ill-will between the two races. The question that we have to answer is, can these two races live in peace on the same soil as equal citizens of the same government? If so, how?

        What does history say about it? Before the general diffusion of Christianity when two alien races came into contact, one or the other was exterminated or enslaved. Rome and Carthage fought until it was written Delenda est Carthago. But what lesson do the records of nations since our Lord's ascension even down to the year 1891 teach us? An elaborate experiment was made in Spain. But the Moors were expelled in spite of their superior science and art. Spain and Portugal came into contact with the natives of Mexico and South America only to enslave and destroy them. The Puritan and the cavalier met the proud red man on his own soil and have killed him until only a small remnant remains to build the camp-fire and recall the deeds of ancient braves, with no hope for the future except his ration of blue beef and abuse. Slave and Hebrew, though not even of different races, cannot live together unless the Jew will submit to oppression nearly as galling as slavery. What says history? She says emphatically that the experiment that we are making in this country is a crime against humanity--that either slavery or death must be its end.

        What says the Constitution of the United States? Before the adoption of Article XIII. of the amendments of the Constitution abolishing slavery, its existence had been simply ignored by that immortal document. Perhaps no greater experiment in making laws has ever been attempted than the adoption of the last three amendments, making citizens out of slaves up to that time kept ignorant by law. Questions as to the wisdom of their enactment or perpetuation are purely theoretical. They are there, and nothing short of a revolution can remove them. What does the Constitution, our highest and most unchanging law, say about these two races living together? It simply says to all alike, "You shall live together in peace!" This may not be the voice of conscience, but it is the fiat of authority. The Constitution therefore says to us, say we yea or say we nay, "I know that history declares it can't be done, but my voice is louder and my arm is stronger than history. Let there be peace!" The Constitution sought to create peace and interject it between the discordant and warring elements of society. As loyal citizens of our land and as staunch defenders of the Constitution, we must obey the law.

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        What says the gospel of God? "As ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them likewise." "Follow peace with all men." "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." We are perhaps too prone to apply these wholesome precepts to the lives of others, forgetting for the time their direct bearing upon our own consciences and lives. It is to no purpose that we say that we once did our religious duty to the negroes. Satifying reflections on our past performances may soothe us into present neglect. Energetic resolutions to do our duty in the future may be a subtly delusive way of calming the cryings of an urgent conscience to-day. A shifting of responsibility that God has laid, is impossible, for the only method of discharging responsibility to God is by doing the duties demanded.

        A condition of society exists to-day in the South the like of which has never before been seen. Ignorance and intelligence, poverty and plenty, have always existed side by side everywhere. But when in the history of the ages has a people who were never in bondage to any man, conferred on an alien race, once their slaves, the equal legal rights and privileges which they themselves have created and enjoy?

        When we have set aside all political considerations and social fears, we find that the essence of the whole matter lies in the question of, How shall two men, equal before the law, behave towards one another? History is eloquent with illustrations, and the Constitution speaks with the voice of authority. But to consider this question, neither history nor the Constitution is sufficient. For the Christian, there is but one code of morals, but one yard-stick for measuring this cloth, but one voice--and that of law and love united--that has inherently the power of solution. Political expedients are, at best, mere temporary aids. The law is useful as an educator, but it has no power of producing in its own subjects sympathetic obedience. We must have a solvent more permanent than party platforms, more powerful than all law. Something is needed to arouse the conscience, engage the heart, and direct intelligent effort. There are three persons concerned in this matter--the white man, the negro and Almighty God. The [white man knows his weakness, the negro is expectant, and, unless the Lord show the strength of his right arm, the pessimism taught us by history and aggravated by the demands of an unfailing law, will soon change to discord and open strife. A learned divine once said, "Unless the gospel solve this matter, then it will be bang! bang!" Says the apostle "I can

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do all things in him that strengtheneth (endynamites) me." What says the gospel? "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel." "For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth"--"Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." So long as we walk in such light as that, there is no pessimism, not even a shade of doubt.

        Again, says this same gospel, 1 Thess. ii. 3, 4, For our exhortation is not of error nor of uncleanness, nor in guile; but even as we have been approved of God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which proveth our hearts. That is, we were made by Christ, at his ascension, trustees of his Gospel, for the benefit of all mankind. Shall not this stir up our consciences? A trustee must be faithful. Have we, as individuals, or as a church of Jesus Christ, done our duty to the negroes? At the judgment seat of Christ it will be too late to attempt an answer. It is called to-day. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me," said Jesus, "because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." Man can have no higher duty, he can enjoy no more sanctifying privilege than to do the works and speak the words of God to men everywhere. Is there a finer field in our South-land for preaching Christ than is afforded by the negroes? Humble, bound by Satan in chains of lust, enslaved to sin, blinded by the god of this world, ignorant of the time of God's calling--among such, surely ought the gospel to be preached.

        The Southern Presbyterian Church is just entering upon the great evangelistic period of its history. For the coming of this time God has been patiently preparing us. He has endowed us with a pure doctrine and an adaptable polity. He has enlarged our borders. He has filled our barns with plenty. He has unstopped our ears to the cry of the heathen. He has opened our eyes to the destitution at home. He has been perfecting us by the sufferings of persecution, dissension and discord from within and from without. Uniform and unified we stand before him to-day. In his own hand-writing he gives us our ploblems. The great home-problem is how to evangelize our colored fellow-citizens, who are our friends and neighbors. Surely, God's people will not halt now. To halt will be to retreat. With heart and head and hand, intelligently, wisely, humbly, patiently,

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cheerfully, sympathetically, for God's own glory, let us now do our whole duty to the negro. Let North, East and West be patient and charitable, while aiding us to adapt the gospel to these hitherto untried conditions. Let all the people conscientiously introduce God into this mighty problem. It will soon be solved then, and, until then, never.

The Providence of God in the Historical Development of the Negro.

BY REV. A. F. BEARD, D. D.

        THE orginal condition of the Negro people was heathenism in Africa. Then came two and a half centuries of American slavery with the evils which it bred and fostered. In the dreadful discipline of slavery, there had yet been a great gain in condition over the estate of their ancestors. The race had ceased to be absolutely African; there remained few with wholly African blood.*

        * A Southern authority, in a careful work entitled: "The Resources and Population of South Carolina," published in 1883 with the State imprint, speaking of the Negro people uses the following words, viz. : "One-third has a large infusion of white blood. Another third has less, but still some; and of the other third it would be difficult to find an assured specimen of pure African blood. If the lineage of these Negroes whose color and features seem most unmistakably to mark them as of purely African descent be traced indisputable evidence may often be obtained of white parentage more or less remote."


Not only by the amalgam of race but in other ways, all had gained something from contact with civilization. Those who had lived in towns and cities had taken on certain of the blessings of civilization. The great majority who lived on remote plantations had nevertheless seen something of civilization. Mentally and morally children, their heathenism had been modified by living among white people. The speech of heathenism had been exchanged for the rudiments of the English tongue. Besides this they had learned needful lessons in their hard school of servitude. The spirit of obedience, the consequent reverence for law and respect for authority, in the providence of God, were preparations for the
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day of emancipation. While most of them imperfectly apprehended the meaning of a religion which meant character and conduct, yet nearly all had absorbed a sense of the government of God, which was strong and in some ways controlling. All this was progress in condition over the estate of their African ancestors; a great gain over naked barbarism. This was not the purpose of man, but it was in the providence of God.

        When Christian faith and love said this redeemed people must now be educated and helped into worthy Christian manhood and womanhood, this was another step in the movement of divine providence.

        When the race history began, it began at zero. Four millions of people had existed, but as yet there could be no history. That there may be history, there must be legal marriage, family name, continuity of family life, and possession of property. The Negro had none of these.

        A score and a half years have passed and the Negroes number seven millions of people. Two millions have learned to read. Many have pushed on beyond elementary education, and a small percentage have made attainments which are prophetic of power and position for the race in the times to come.

        While it is true that those who cannot read to-day are in excess of the original four millions when they were set free, and that the Negro left to himself has even degenerated from the Negro of slavery, it is also true that a single generation has witnessed in the life of hundreds of thousands a wonderful evolution in manhood and womanhood. The growth of the race in honorable self-hood has been for such, like the story of Narcissus in the myths of the ancients. Narcissus, you remember, had fallen from the knowledge of his high birthright as a descendant of the gods, and was living low down unmindful of his high origin. But one day at the water side for the first time he saw his own image reflected back to him as from a mirror. It was not a clear vision, but to him it was a revelation. He saw that he was not like the brutes. He felt that he ought to be more than he was. His thoughts within him were stirred. The sense of his high origin and birthright slowly came to him. One thought quickened another, and he found himself rising to his thought until he felt the fire of his divinity. He grew in his purpose toward that which he held in his mind. He cast aside what was low, and he resolutely left all that pulled him down. Thus leaving the things that were behind, he pressed forward, and so

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became transformed in thought, in character and in life, passing from achievement to permanent possession, until the glory of the gods was his, and he took his place among them.

        Thousands upon thousands of the Negro people have had this vision and revelation. The idea of self-hood, and the reaching forth to it, in a single generation of the Negro race has been a wonderful prophecy of possibility in the significance and quality and nobility of life. This is seen to be the master key to unlock the door of caste and hindrance for their entrance to the rights of manhood and womanhood, and to the dignities of life. This is the power that is to settle at last the standing and the recognition of race. This is a gain greater than that which can be tabulated in statistics.

        This is the highest achievement of this generation of the Negro race. It means a people who are capable of storing strength and character. It means the uplift of race life.*

        * When the race history began there was not a school for the Negro; there are now more than 25,000 schools.

        Then there was not a Negro pupil; now there are enrolled 1,309,251 pupils in schools.

        Then the number of Negro people who could read "were not worth the counting;" now 2,000,000 people have learned to read since 1865.

        But elementary education is not all. There are 25 colleges, 8,396 professors and students; there are 25 schools of theology with 755 students; there are 5 schools of law, and 5 schools of medicine.

        Where a Negro teacher would have been a subject for jest and also of arrest, there are now 20,000 such teachers in common schools.

        Where their churches had the ministry of ignorant and immoral preachers these are being displaced by those who are intelligent and worthy. Purer churches are being organized. We sometimes think the progress is slow. It is no slower than Christianity is.

        The Negro who possessed nothing is acquiring property. The estimate of taxable property gained since emancipation for 7,000,000 of people is 264,000,000 of dollars.


        We are not to conclude, however, that a true and living progress of the race is to come easily or in a short period of time.

        The fact that millions are in degradation and are not getting out of it, and that more children are growing up in ignorance than are being educated, is one of gravity, and must excite concern. It will trouble future generations more than it does the present one. It must not only qualify the progress of those who would rise, but it must also make the question of white and black people living side by side in peace and in respect for civil and Christian rights more difficult of solution, and more uncertain in respect to time.

        We may expect no little trouble in such conditions. The alienation between the white and black people will be likely to widen and

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deepen. True peace and cordial relations depend upon conditions which as yet exist but in very small degree.

        The moral evolution of mankind is a very slow process. The development of purity of mind and heart is a long way from perfection yet, in peoples most powerfully affected by Christianity. The development of conscience so that it shall rule the life of man has not been such as to make the best communities unduly elated. The development of civil society which depends upon the development of man, upon the expansion of his mind and the regulation of his moral nature, is slow even when the hindrances are fewer than the helps.

        Consider now a people among whom chastity was an almost unknown virtue, among whom superstition overlaid conscience, among whom conscience was in the alphabet of development, among whom the first principles of civil society and duties were never thought of, and he would be unreasonable who should even in favorable environments expect any permanent progress which shall come in other than in long and patient years. Then remember that for the most part the environments are not favorable. There is the prejudice of race to be overcome--prejudice which lives cruelly and dies slowly.

        The Negro people have not to make their first acquaintance with oppression and injustice, and no one can tell when they and their wrongs will part company. It will be a long time before the Negro race will have even-handed justice. The race will be tolerated, perhaps, and some Christian souls will cherish friendliness and give helpfulness. But to most the Negro will be a social and political burden. He will be discriminated against. If recent events in the South teach anything the negro may not expect his civil rights and perhaps not the protection of equal laws for many a year. We may hope for gradual amelioration with gradual education. We may hope that brute force and violence and personal cruelties will not long continue, but we have no reason to expect that the time of discipline is nearly over. This people are to remain a separate race, who cannot be absorbed with the people by the side of whom they are to live, and yet to live without a separate national existence--always in the minority--always the weaker among the stronger. Here, on the same soil the struggle of life must go on, are two races--the juxta-position of two nationalities--that differ in physical externals, in distinctive characteristics and in sympathies; the weaker condemned to the discouragements which grow out of their weakness, and with no alternative but the generosity of the stronger when any conflict

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of interest may arise. Until Christ shall possess the hearts of men as he does not yet, it requires no prophet to tell us that the history in many respects must be sad, and it may be fearful. There are difficult facts to meet when we consider the development of this race.

        What shall we say as to the providence of God in this history?

        Let us get our bearings. For the sake of comparison suppose we recall the history of the development of some other peoples during this period of two hundred and fifty years, peoples who were civilized when the first shipload of slaves landed in Virginia.

        Our Anglo-Saxon people. It has not been always a sunny day and an excursion of pleasure in the forward movements of our own race. During this same period of time more people in England have lost their lives in their struggles to come where they now are, than have perished in this land through slavery. Not to mention ruder days, two hundred and fifty years past have witnessed stormy times in old England. The dethronement and beheading of a king, bloody wars under Cromwell, persecutions for opinions' sake; imprisonments and executions in the restored monarchy; insurrections in Scotland, conspiracies in Ireland, massacres in all three islands, and that on a large scale. How people suffered for their opinions! How property was taken from them! How families were exiled and scattered! It is a crimson history.

        If we take France, e.g., in the same period, there are the Hugenot persecutions, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and its attendant horrors, St. Bartholomew's day and its murders, and for centuries men hunted down like beasts and driven from their country to keep their lives; the French Revolution; the Reign of Terror; the Goddess of Reason and the Scourge of Unreason. Germany with its continuous wars poured blood of men on the soil like water.

        All this and more in many lands became history while the Negro was in the tobacco plantations and in the cotton fields. There is in the lesson of history certainly no ground for discouragement for the Negro people in the fact that struggle means struggle, and that struggling up means time, a long time. Said the apostle, "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together, until now." This is what other peoples have been doing all the ages "until now." The stages of advancement and attainment in the history of peoples are, if you please to call them so, the evolutions in these processes God's providence. The kingdom of truth, of order, of reason, of justice and, finally and supremely, of love,

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that is, the kingdom of God comes in these processes; in and through the conflicts of human thought and the struggles of human will not only, but most often by means of them. The philosophy of the history which records the movement of men's minds through darkness into light, through obstacles and painful transformations, over oppositions and adversaries, the errors and the evils, the discordances and distractions are all in evidence that these very conditions in the providence of God, furnished not only the occasions, but the reasons and methods for growth out of weakness into strength, for the expansion of intelligence, for better laws, for better and larger life. History is full of movements which themselves were big with injustice, and from which were painfully envolved the very arguments to overcome them, and to deliver the people from their evils. The progress of mankind has thus been through storms and against head winds. The course has seldom been a straight one as men planned, but a crooked one as men made it, like a ship beating its way against hard and furious weather. When the evils in one form had come to be at last too grevious to be borne, then under the impulsion of necessity there is a new course of thought and action, and the ship tacks about. She does not point to the goal always but there is a gain in the stretch. The movement is zig-zag, and often apparently away from what is desired, but the resultant of these movements is progress toward the final good. From every century and every race comes this same story. It is this, the law of struggle is the law of life, a severe law, but in the providence of God, and in the long run the law through which comes all human achievement and progress. The peoples who are welded are welded in the fire.

        Now the Negro people will prove to be no exception to this law, unless they are always to be a subject class. If in their hard conditions God has some better things for them they cannot get this in an easy way nor in a short time. They are taking now their first step in their historic life as a people. No people ever got as far as their advanced guard has, more easily or more rapidly.

        If now under the dispensations of God's providences these who have moved up from the lowland to highland look back into the bogs to see millions of people there with little movement to better life and get discouraged, or if they see the difficulties and dangers, the inevitable hostility to which they are subjected, and get apprehensive, we can say to these, other people have been through floods and under the waters. Governments and institutions and races are but human nature

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on a great scale, and what the word of the Lord says to persons is true for aggregations of persons, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you." It must needs be that peoples which have not been through the fiery ordeal, which is God's school of development for the accumulated strength of trial, must remain in weakness. The accumulated strength of a patient overcoming on the part of a soul or on the part of a people, is a permanent possession, and in the end is worth all the cost. Ideas that have been wrought in by pain and wrought out by patience are those which are permanent. The working and the waiting, the injustice and reactions to the confirmations of justice, the wandering in the wilderness on the way to the promised land, and the dying without the sight of it; the violence of opposers as well as the hand of Christian sympathy, the hostility of caste as well as brotherly kindness, these are all in the process. This discipline, development, evolution, all in the end make for the regeneration of the generations. If the process is hard, it is yet a process in the providence of God, and it prevents weakness. No people who have a history have been exempt. All have found in this way their inheritances. If this stumbles you, does it stumble you any more than the fact of sin in the world?

        Again, if the missionary, or the philanthropist, or patriot, is likely to be discouraged or disheartened because that which will surely take many generations is not secured in one generation, he may call to mind the fact that the providence of God is a continuous providence, and as the great historian of France says, "its logic is not the less conclusive for reasoning slowly." As Christians we may not forget that the first fact of history is sovereignty of God. Men may oppose this, and suffer and cause others to suffer, but they cannot hinder it. The Omnipotent will is ceaselessly working. It has neither change of purpose nor repose. Every detail of history, every attempt to hinder and destroy that which God has purposed, works on and all work together in combination and dependency until God's clock of time shall strike the hour of his providence.

        Very truly did Ex-Governor Bullock, of Georgia, recently testify as to the present avowed purpose in our Congress to practically annul the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to our Constitution, which confirm to white and black alike the rights of freedmen and the privileges of citizenship, in saying, "this is not only unpatriotic, but for our section is bad politics." Yes it is, and it is one more of

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those false movements intended to reverse the providence of God and to secure the will of man, but which always turn out for the furtherance of the divine purposes. The brethren of Joseph took counsel together to hinder the purposes of God. The stronger sold the weaker a slave in another land. But as time moved on, these sinners and brothers must needs go "way down into Egypt land." Then conscience extorted the confession from them, "We have verily been guilty concerning our brother." The one whom they proposed to degrade in servitude God had highly exalted. "Ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good." Man is free, but God rules.

        What God in his purposes may have in store for the people whom his providence brought from the jungles of Africa, and whom his providence prepared for the emancipation which he himself ordained and brought to pass, we cannot know until his providence shall have ripened. But this we have learned, that God has overturned the purposes of man. When men proposed to make the chains stronger, God snapped them. Enough already has been concluded to give us a pledge of God's purpose that he intends this people to be at least really and truly free, and to have their opportunity for manhood and womanhood. That which has been settled in heaven will not be unsettled on earth. Prividence takes no step backward. The chariot wheels of God turn only one way. On man's part possession may wait, must wait upon preparedness. The fullest manhood, the truest brotherhood, the best life, is not a gift which one may take and say, "I have it." It is a salvation which one must needs work out with fear and with trembling, as God works it in. As to time, this salvation of a people will move on with the movement of Christianity and Christian faith in our land.

        Finally, we who are working together with God are engaged in that which is assured. There is no uncertainty as to the result. The prayers of good men and good women, the schools and the teachers, the churches and the preachers, the forces that make for righteousness, the promises of God for the accomplishment of his purposes among men, "the stars in their courses," will bring forth judgment unto truth. There may be oppositions, hindrances, and what are to us discouraging delays, but he who came "to bring forth judgment unto truth will not fail, nor be discouraged." And when God shall explain his providences and justify his ways to man, it shall be seen that human history is something more than the fact

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that men can choose, and that one event thus follows another coming and going, but that while they choose there is One who both governs and judges. To the degree that we believe this we shall be faithful and we need not fear.

        Whatever happens on the way to this day of God, it is for us to labor on, confident in his redeeming grace, in the certainty of his holy government, in the pledge of his omniscience, in the help of his omnipotence, and in the amen of his accomplishments.

The Possibilities of the Negro.

BY THE LATE SENATOR LOGAN.

        Extracts from His Washington City Address in the A. M. E. Church.

        AFTER dwelling at length upon the marvelous progress of the colored race in the United States, he then pointed out the negro's faults:

        If there is any one thing that will clog the wheels of your material progress it is the fact that some of you try to overreach yourselves. Do not become dazzled at the splendor and magnificence of those who had hundreds of years to make this country what it is today. No man is a success who has not a fixed object as a sign-post--an aim in life to attain unto. A man should get that kind and that amount of education that will best fit him for the performance and the attainment of his object in life. Too much Greek will do you no good; what does a man want with Greek around a table with a white apron on? I do not say that you should not study Greek if you intend to fill a chair in some institution of learning; I do not say that you should not read medicine if you desire to become a physician, or law if you wish to follow that profession. But I tell you our white people are fast growing indolent and lazy. If you watch your chances and take timely advantage of the opportunities offered you, your race will be the wage workers, the skilled artisans, and eventually the land owners and the wealthy class of this country. I advise you to learn trades; learn to become mechanics. You have the ability and capacity to reach the highest point, and even go further in the march of progress than has yet been made by any people.

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        I predict that the time will come and it is not far off when we will have a negro poet from the South. He will set the magnificent splendor of the "Sunny South" to music. His muse will touch the lyre and you will hear the sweet murmur of the stream, the rippling waters, and we shall see the beauty of that country as it was never seen before. It will come; and after him other still greater men. But it takes labor to become a great man just as it takes centuries to make a great nation. Great men are not fashioned in heaven and thrown from the hand of the Almighty to become potentates here on earth, nor are they born rich. I admit that there is, in some parts of this country, a prejudice against you on account of your color and former condition. In my opinion the best way to overcome this is to show your capability of doing everything that a white man does, and do it just as well or better than he does. If a white man scorns you, show him that you are too high-bred, too noble-hearted to take notice of it; and the first opportunity you have do him a favor, and I warrant you he will feel ashamed of himself and never again will he make an exhibition of his prejudice. The future is yours and you have it in which to rise to the heights or descend to the depths.

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A BLACK MOSES.

BY THADEUS EDGAR HORTON.

        BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER, of the A. M. E. Church, who has stood for many years as one of the foremost representatives of the negro race in this country, has attracted attention of late by his advocacy of the return of the black man to his native land. His published views on this subject have been extensively discussed, and because of the bishop's prominence and his reputation as a student of the Afro-American problem, have had great weight attached to them.

        The bishop is himself an interesting personality. He was born in Newberry, S. C., in 1834. His parents were free, but while a boy he was "bound out" to a slave owner and worked side by side with slaves in the fields until his fifteenth year. Then, tiring of the hard labor and ill treatment, and with restless longings for something higher than the farm hand's fate, he ran away from his master and entered the service of a firm of attorneys in Abberville, S. C., where John C. Calhoun once practiced law. His employers, attracted by his aptitude, especially in spelling, taught him the elementary English branches, and in the intervals of his duties as office boy he read law, often pouring over his books late at night, when his "bosses" had gone home.

        At twenty years of age young Turner became a liscensed minister of the M. E. Church, South. After a few years of itinerant service, during which his fame as an eloquent preacher spread through the surrounding country, he determined to go to Africa as a missionary. About the same time he transferred his allegiance to the A. M. E. Church, and entered Trinity College, in Baltimore, where he studied for four years, completing the courses in divinity, Latin, Greek and Hebrew.

        The war was in full blast when he ended his college term and he was assigned to the pastorate of Israel Church, in Washington. His

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BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER, Of the A. M. E. Church.

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reputation and his congregation grew rapidly, and when the enlistment of negro troops was decided upon, on the recommendation of Chief Justice Chase and Secretary Stanton, President Lincoln made him chaplain of the first regiment of colored troops that was mustered into the service of the Government. He was the first negro chaplain ever appointed and possibly the first colored officer to receive a commission. At the close of the war, so excellent had been his record, he was recommissioned a chaplain in the standing army by President Johnson. Later, he was detailed for Freedman's Bureau service and sent to Augusta, Ga. ; but finding so much religious and educational work to be done among his people, he resigned that place and re-entered the regular ministry of the A. M. E. Church, delivering lectures on educational and industrial subjects, and advising the negroes how to adapt themselves to their new condition of freedom.

        During the reconstruction period he became known as one of the most powerful stump speakers in Georgia. He was elected from Bibb County as a member of the Constitutional Convention, and was afterward chosen to two successive Legislatures. When Congress passed the Civil Rights Bill he resolved to abandon active participation in politics and has never since been an aspirant for an elective position. He was made postmaster at Macon, Ga., being the first Negro postmaster in the State; but resigned on account of the bitter opposition of the white people, and was appointed custom house officer at Savannah.

        In 1876 he was chosen by the General Conference of the A. M. E. Church, publisher-in-chief, with headquarters at Philadelphia. Four years later the General Conference held at St. Louis elected him bishop. During all his other duties he had preached regularly, and had become known as perhaps the greatest revivalist of his race. He often preached three times on Sunday and every night in the week for three or four months at a time, and he has a record of thirty thousand additions to the church to his credit.

        Bishop Turner is one of the best informed men on the Negro question in this country. He has three times visited Africa., once on a flying trip and twice in his official capacity. In 1891 he went to the Dark Continent to look after the missions of his church there, and organized conferences in Sierra Leone and Liberia. The past spring he visited Africa and spent several months on the west coast. The bishop is the general consular representative of the Republic of

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Liberia to the United States, regularly accredited by President Cheesman and Secretary of State Gibson.

        The bishop believes that his race will ultimately return to Africa and that it is the duty of the government to help them do so. He regards slavery not as a divine but as a providential institution of temporary duration, brought into existence for the purpose of bringing the negro in contact with the Caucasian--the great race of the world. He thinks the black man will rise faster in a republic to himself, and that that alone will bring peace and quiet to this country. He declares that for two races of people to be living in the same country, under the same institutions and subject to the same laws with no social contact, is an anomaly and can be productive only of evil results.

        Bishop Turner's home is in Atlanta, Ga., where he is held in high esteem by the best people of both races. He was married a few weeks ago for the second time.--Once A Week.

REV. EDWARD W. BLYDEN, A.M., D.D., LL.D.

BY HON. SAMUEL LEWIS.

        EDWARD WILMOT BLYDEN was born in the Danish Island of St. Thomas, West Indies, and is of the purest Negro parentage. Inspired in early youth with a love for the fatherland, and a desire to labor for its amelioration, he went to the United States in his seventeenth year, with a view of pursuing certain studies to fit himself to work in Africa. Influential friends endeavored to secure for him admission to some institution of learning there, but so strong was the prejudice against his race at that time that the effort proved unavailing. He was advised to proceed at once to Liberia, where the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States was about to establish a high school under the care of Rev. David A. Wilson, M. A., a graduate of Princeton College, now Dr. Wilson, of Missouri. After a few months' residence in Liberia, young Blyden entered the new institution among its first pupils. By diligence and perseverance he soon rose to the headship of the school, and, after filling that office for three years to the satisfaction of all concerned, was, in 1862, elected to a professorship in the newly-founded college of Liberia. In 1864 he was appointed Secretary of

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State by the President of Liberia, and managed for two years to combine the duties of that office with his educational work. In 1869 he made a journey to the East, visiting Egypt and Syria, chiefly with the view of studying the Arabic language in order to its introduction into the curriculum of the college.

        In 1871 he resigned his professorship and after a brief visit to Europe spent two years in Sierra Leone, during which time he was

Illustration

REV. EDWARD W. BLYDEN, A.M., D.D., LL.D.

sent by the Governor of this Colony, which was then under the administrations successively of Sir Arthur Kennedy and Sir John Pope Hennessy, on two diplomatic missions to the powerful chiefs of the interior. His report on one of those expeditions was published at length in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society.

        In 1877 he was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Liberia at the Court of St. James's, and was received by Her

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Majesty at Osborne, July 30, 1878, being introduced by the Marquis of Salisbury, then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. He was soon after elected an honorary member of the Athenæum Club. In 1880 he was elected a Fellow of the American Philological Association. In 1882 he was made a corresponding and honorary member of the Society of Science and Letters of Bengal. In 1884 he was elected Vice President of the American Colonization Society. The honorary degrees of Master of Arts, Doctor of Divinity and Doctor of Laws have been conferred upon him by different American colleges. In 1885 he was nominated by the Republican party of Liberia a candidate for the Presidency of the Republic.

        Dr. Blyden has in the course of his labors been brought into contact--epistolary or personal--with some of the most remarkable literary men of his day. Among them may be mentioned Lord Brougham, Mr. Gladstone, Dean Stanley, Charles Dickens, Charles Sumner.

        He seems from his earliest years to have had a central idea, a dominant conviction about the Negro and his country, which has, all along, guided and sustained him in his efforts. He believes his views to be true, and he is only gradually elaborating the exact method by which they may be brought home to others.

        The following articles, though written at different times, will appear, when read carefully, to be linked together. They are not only the sentiments of a careful observer and diligent student, but they are the exponents of a purpose, the patriotic purpose of a lover of the race.--Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race.

Hon. John M. Langston, A.B., A.M., LL.D.

        ONE of the greatest negroes in America is the subject of this sketch. He was born upon a plantation in Louisa county, Virginia, on the 14th of December, 1829. He was born in slavery, and takes the name of his mother. His father was his owner, and upon his death, John was set free and sent to Ohio where he grew up to manhood, receiving in the meantime a fine education, graduating at Oberlin College in 1849. He chose the law as a profession, and graduated in that department at Oberlin College in 1853. He was

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Illustration

HON. J JOHN M. LANGSTON, A.B., A.M., LL.D.

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elected clerk of the township of Russia in 1856; in 1857 he was elected City Councilman, and two years later he became one of the Board of Education of Oberlin. In 1867, through the influence of Hon. Salmon P. Chase, Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court, he was made inspector of the colored schools, and in July of this year he made a trip through the South, speaking at every prominent place. This same year he was admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court. In 1869 he accepted a professorship in the Law Department of Howard University, Washington, D.C. He was dean of this department for several years, receiving in the meantime the degree of LL.D. He was appointed by President Grant a member of the Board of Health of the District of Columbia in 1871. In 1877 he was appointed minister to Hayti by President Hayes. Here he remained until July 1885, when he was elected President of the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute. This school was founded by the government in 1882, and "supported by popular appropriations of twenty thousand dollars annually." This duty he performed with credit to himself and his people until December 1887 when he resigned much to the regret of the students for all held him in the highest esteem. He was elected a member of the Fifty-first Congress to represent the people in the Fourth Congressional District of Virginia in 1888, the first and only colored representative in Congress from the "Old Dominion." Mr. Langston is among the most scholarly men of his race. He is a man of wealth and lives in luxurious style in his "Hillsdale Cottage" in Washington, D. C.

Hon. J. T. Settle, Memphis, Tenn.

        JOSIAH T. SETTLE was born among the mountains of "East Tennessee," September 30, 1850, while his parents were "in transitee" from North Carolina to Mississippi. His father was Josiah Settle, of Rockingham County, North Carolina, his mother belonged to his father, who unlike many prominent slave holders of that period, had a deep and sincere affection for his children and their mother. After several years residence in Mississippi he manumitted the mother and her eight children according to the laws of the State. He feared, however, that their freedom even then,

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Illustration

HON. J. T. SETTLE, Memphis, Tenn.

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might not be secure, and in 1856 he moved the family to Ohio and located them at Hamilton. It was at this time the highest evidence of his Christian manhood and nobility of character were shown, when in the presence of his family and many prominent citizens of Hamilton he lawfully married the mother of his children, giving the children a legal right to their name and their mother a right to the sacred name of wife. Giving them all the tardy justice which the conditions of slavery had until then rendered impossible.

        He spent his summers with his family in Ohio and the remainder of the year upon his Mississippi plantation until the war came on, when being a "Union man" he came North and remained with his family until his death in 1869 in the 70th year of his age, he having been born in 1799. Josiah T. Settle, the subject of this sketch, attended the public schools in Hamilton and vicinity until 1866, when his father sent him to Oberlin where he prepared for, and entered college in 1868. He was one of three or four colored boys in a class of forty or fifty, yet he was chosen as one of the eight class orators to represent the class when he entered college, an honor much sought by all students. He completed his Freshman year and entered the Sophomore Class at Oberlin. In 1869 having lost his father, who had indeed been a father to him in the broadest sense of the word, he left Oberlin and went to Washington City and entered the Sophomore Class of Howard University, where he pursued his college studies and taught in the preparatory department. During a portion of his "college course" he was a clerk in the Educational Division of the "Freedmen's Bureau." In the latter part of his Senior year he was elected Reading Clerk of the House of Delegates, (the District of Columbia then being under a territorial form of government).

        He graduated from the College Department of Howard University in 1872 together with James M. Gregor, now professor, and A. C. O'Hear, theirs being the first class to graduate from that department. At the time of his graduation he was performing the duties of Reading Clerk of the Legislature, teaching a class in Latin and one in mathematics daily at the University and pursuing his own studies at the same time. Immediately upon his graduation from college he entered the law department of the same institution, then under the control of Hon. John M. Langston, from which he graduated in 1875.

        While a citizen of the District of Columbia, Mr. Settle took an active part in politics and held many positions of honor and profit.

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On July 9, 1873, he was appointed a clerk in the Board of Public Works of the District of Columbia at $1,200 a year by Governor A. R. Shepherd, which he held until some time in 1874 when the Board having ceased to exist, he was on August 29, 1874, appointed clerk in the "Board of Audit," a Board consisting of the first and second comptrollers of the United States Treasury, to adjust the indebtedness of the late Board of Public Works. He continued in this position until the Board had completed its work and expired by act of Congress. He was also trustee of the public schools of the District of Columbia, serving in that capacity several years.

        During the presidential campaign of 1872 he canvassed several counties of Maryland and Virginia in the interest of the Republican ticket, where his youth and brilliancy created considerable attention; he also made speeches for the ticket in Ohio, speaking at Hamilton, Dayton, Cleveland and other places. Upon his graduation from the law department he was selected as one of the orators to represent his class. He was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, but having determined to practice his chosen profession in the South, he left Washington in the spring of 1875 and located in North Mississippi and at once began the practice of law. He returned, however, the same year and married the refined and cultured niece of Mr. J. C. Bishop, of Annapolis, Miss Therese T. Vogelsang, and again made his home in Mississippi. In August of the same year he was unanimously nominated by the Republican convention for the position of District Attorney of the then Twelfth Judicial District of Mississippi in which there was, at that time 2,000 Republican majority. The result of the elections in Mississippi in 1875 was a revolution in the politics of the South, and the virtual death of Republicanism in that part of the country. Mr. Settle was of course defeated with all the rest.

        In 1876 he was one of the delegated from Mississippi to the National Republican Convention which met in Cincinnati. He was the only delegate from Mississippi who voted for the nomination of Roscoe Conkling for president, and continued to vote for him as long as his name was before the convention. This same year he was chosen one of the presidential electors for the State-at-large on the National Republican ticket, and made the canvass of his State for Hayes and Wheeler.

        In 1880 he was presidential elector on the "Garfield and Arthur" ticket. In 1882 he was strongly urged to become a candidate for

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Congress in the Second Congressional District of Mississippi, but in the convention declined the nomination and himself placed General James R. Chalmers in nomination. He was made chairman of the Republican Congressional Executive Committee, and made a thorough canvass of the district which resulted in the election of General Chalmers by a handsome majority.

        In 1883 Mr. Settle was nominated and elected to the Mississippi Legislature. He was elected upon an independent ticket, being strongly opposed to the fusion his party made with the Democracy. It was during this canvass that he made the most brilliant efforts of his life. He was met by the ablest speakers of both of the old parties; but before the people he was irresistible and was triumphantly elected by more than 1,200 majority. Though elected upon an independent ticket, for local reasons he never swerved from his Republicanism, and was one of the recognized leaders of the Republican members of the Legislature. Though his party was in a hopeless minority in that body, his ability and genius were fully recognized, and upon the adjournment of the Legislature he was presented with a gold-headed cane as a token of the esteem in which he was held by his fellow members. The correspondent of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat writing from Jackson, Miss., Jan. 4, 1884, of the personnel of the Mississippi Legislature said of him:

        "A colored orator--but the palm for natural ability as an orator--is borne by a colored man, J. T. Settle, of Panola County. He comes of the famous North Carolina family of that name, is well educated and a lawyer by profession. He is of spare figure, light of color and good looking. When he gets the floor he speaks in a manner to command the attention of the entire house."

        Upon his return from the Legislature he determined to abandon active participation in politics and devote his time and energies to the practice of law, and left Mississippi and located in Memphis, Tenn. About two months after his location in Memphis his success in practice having won for him the respect and admiration of Gen. G. P. M. Turner, the Attorney General of the Criminal Court, he appointed him Assistant Attorney General, which position he held for more than two years. During this time he conducted the greater portion of the public prosecutions. The manner in which he discharged the responsible duties of prosecuting attorney is thus put in a letter written by the Hon. Addison H. Douglas, who was at that time upon the bench of the Criminal Court:

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        "It is at all times a pleasant duty to offer commendation to those whose exemplary professional deportment has been such as to challenge attention. This is peculiarly appropriate in reference to those who have had the good fortune to be admitted to practice in the courts of the country; for in that capacity, with all its surroundings, of contact and associations, a man more readily and certainly develops his true character than almost anywhere else. I am led to these observations in part by closely scrutinizing the general deportment of members of the bar, both from the bench and as an associate practitioner. A remarkable instance occurs to me at present in this connection in the character and conduct of J. T. Settle, Esq. He settled in Memphis about the year 1885, having recently served in the Legislature of the State of Mississippi, and shortly after locating in the practice in this city he was appointed Assistant Attorney General, which position he continued to fill two or three years with marked ability and fidelity. His uniform attention to official business, his manly courtesy and amiability won for him the esteem and respect of the bench, the bar and litigants, and went very far to break down the existing prejudices against his color in the profession. His talent is fully recognized, and his integrity has in no instance been in the least questioned from any source.

        "He prosecuted without acerbity and with fairness, but neglected no legitimate resources to fix conviction upon the really guilty.

        "He is such a master of elocution and displays such fluency and indeed brilliancy, that he invariably captivated those who listened to him.

        "He is remarkably simple in his manners and utterly without ostentation, and an honor to his profession. Respectfully,

"A. H. DOUGLAS."


        In the spring of 1888 Mr. Settle lost by death his devoted wife, who had indeed been a helpmate to him in every sense of the word. She left him no children, their only child, a little girl, having died years before in infancy.

        This same year he was made a member of the Republican State Executive Committee of Tennessee and served continuously for six years. In 1892 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention at Minneapolis.

        Though Mr. Settle takes some part and interest in politics, such as he believes the interests of his race demand, he is by no means

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Illustration

Residence of HON. J. T. SETTLE, Memphis, Tenn.

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what may be called a politician, and seeks no political preferment. He prefers to devote his entire time and energies to his profession and by his success demonstrates the capacity of his race to successfully measure arms with the Anglo-Saxon in the professional walks of life. Mr. Settle's course at the bar demonstrates the fact that it is possible for a colored American to succeed in the practice of law, if he will thoroughly prepare himself for his professional work and then give it his whole time and energy. He enjoys the confidence and esteem of the entire bench and bar; his practice is large and lucrative, and he is rapidly accumulating a competency. He is now in easy circumstances.

        In 1890 he married Miss Fannie A. McCullough, one of the most beautiful and accomplished ladies in Memphis. She was distinguished for her superior vocal qualities, and at the time of her marriage had charge of the musical department of LeMoyne Institute. This position she resigned upon her marriage. Mr. Settle owns a beautiful house in one of the most desirable localities in Memphis where their friends always find a cordial welcome. Their marriage has been blessed by two extremely intelligent and handsome boys, Josiah T. Settle, Jr. and Frances McCullough Settle, both of whom give great promise for the future. This man's life, thus far, demonstrates what the colored American can do, and is doing in the South.

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COLORED BAR ASSOCIATION.

[An address of the Hon. J. T. Settle, delivered at Greenville, Miss. Some stirring, new and novel thoughts advanced by an eloquent Memphis lawyer before the first State Bar meeting of his race held in the South.]

        GENTLEMEN of the Colored Bar Association of Mississippi, I have listened with pleasure and profit to your excellent addresses on different legal topics, and I can pay you no higher compliment than to say you are an honor to the profession. I look upon this meeting as the dawn of a new era in the history of our race. It is no new thing for us to meet and participate in the public assemblages of men; in fact one of the misfortunes of our people has been a too great love for meetings and conventions of every kind, out of which little if any permanent good has ever accrued to us. The emotional side of our nature has ever been so easily reached that we have been too often used as instruments in the hands of others in promoting their own selfish ends.

        This organization, of which this is the first annual meeting, marks the advent of the colored citizen into a new field of labor. It evidences the existence of a sufficient number of colored lawyers in Mississippi engaged in active practice of the law to form a State organization to promote their interests individually and collectively and in doing this they cannot fail to promote the interests of the entire race and to contribute to the general welfare of our common country, for we are as much a part of our composite nationality as any element it contains. It is no new thing for the residents of this beautiful delta to see gatherings of colored men. Politics and religion have given us conventions and conferences at short intervals until some have come to believe that we take to them as naturally as birds to the air and fishes to the sea. But whoever thought that here in this beautiful city--queen of the valley--beside this great inland sea, would meet the first colored bar association ever organized in the United States? And I think I may safely say that never in the history of the race has there been a meeting fraught with more significance. It shows that the various and trying ordeals through which we have passed during the last fifteen or twenty

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years in this beautiful southland, have envolved a class of men--educated, thoughtful and conservative--indeed, men who are alive to the present and prepared to meet the demands of the future.

        To be members of this "Bar Association," you must be members of the bar of Mississippi, and this means a great deal; it means that you bear the great seal of the State to a good moral character, and to your possession of sufficient learning in the law to be admitted into the professional brotherhood of her greatest sons, and no State in this beautiful galaxy of States can point with greater pride to her bar than our own beloved Mississippi. Among jurists and advocates, her Sharkey and her Prentiss have few equals, and no superiors, and a long list of those who have emulated their greatness has distinguished Mississippi in the highest courts of our country and of the national legislature. Each member of this association has subscribed to the same oath and presented the same qualifications as were required of Sharkey and Prentiss, of Walthall and George. We are all equals in the world of intellect; though some of us may be small and some great, here there are no distinctions of race or color; circumstances may control the use of our attainments, but our acquisitions of learning are only circumscribed by the limitation which Deity placed upon our minds in the hour of our creation. Most of us here have spent many years in the practice of our chosen profession, many of us began the practice under adverse circumstances; none of us probably had fathers or kinsmen in the profession who could take us into their offices and induct us into the practice; then there were few if any members of the race old enough in the profession to render us much if any material assistance.

        Many of our friends and all of our enemies discouraged us by saying that this was the one profession in which we could not hope to succeed. We have been compelled to realize that we are the representatives of that race which has labored in mental and physical servitude and suffered from political and social degradation since the planting of civilization on this continent. We realized in the beginning that the undertaking to become practical lawyers, and to acquire such a mastery of the law as to enter favorably upon its practice, was a serious one and doubly so to us.

        We have met unreasoning prejudice which denied us excellence of any kind--which declared that we were without intellectual vigor and inventive power, and destitute of strength to grasp, and persistency

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to retain and master any complex and profound proposition. In many instances we have commenced our trial before a jury whose per-formed judgment would disqualify them from sitting in any other case. We have often found, not our client, but ourselves on trial, and not ourselves alone, but the whole race with us--a race which is condemned for the failure of its individuals, while the success of every member of it is pronounced exceptional and due to incidental conditions.

        We have made good soldiers and successful teachers, we have produced some great preachers and distinguished speakers, and this meeting demonstrates the fact that we are equal to the hard, tough and long-continued struggles of the bar, in some respects the severest test that can be applied to a man; and yet the world may be slow to admit our success until, perhaps, we have produced an attorney-general or a justice of the supreme court. We have met these and many other trying difficulties. Most of us here began our professional career alone and unaided, and such success as we have won has come, as come it will, through years of diligent application and earnest endeavor. We find many obstacles in our professional paths, but they are not insurmountable; they are rather crucibles into which we have been placed where the dross is purged away and the best elements of professional manhood refined and elevated.

        I do not mean to say that every young man of color who has begun the practice of the law has succeeded; no, not by any means. Nor is this true of the young men of any race, for along life's highway, in all of the professions, are many wrecks which mark the weakness and frailty of human character; and here I think I may safely say that one of the principal causes of failure in the legal profession is the want of sufficient preparation. Some persons unwisely think that all that is necessary to constitute a successful lawyer is an oily tongue, a vivid imagination and a great capacity to lie; in fact some people profess to think lawyer and liar synonymous terms. Such persons, it is needless for me to say, know but little of the law and still less of the lawyer. They forget, or do not know, that the contests of lawyers are not "ex parte." They confront each other before learned and astute courts and in the presence of the world, where lies and frauds have the least possible chance of success and where exposure would usually prove fatal to a cause.

        No lawyer can build a splendid professional career upon an insufficient education any more than he can build a monument of stone

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upon a foundation of sand. I do not mean to say a collegiate education is absolutely necessary to a successful career, but it is a great help. Few men ever reached distinction in the law who were not thorough scholars. Many also fail who are well equipped intellectually because they depend upon the oily tongue and vivid imagination rather than real earnest work. I know that there are many prejudices against our profession. It has been said that it is full of pettifoggers, who pervert the law to purposes of trickery; with quacks, who sacrifice their clients through ignorance, and with hungry hangers-on, who are continually stirring up law-suits. It is also said that lawyers delight in tricks and chicanery, that they will argue as strenuously for the wrong as the right, for the guilty as well as the innocent, and hire out their conscience as well as their ability to any one who is willing to pay a fee. I, for one, am ready to admit, to some extent, this truth. Ours, above almost any other profession, abounds with opportunities and temptations to abuse its high functions, and it would be strange indeed if it had not some, nay many unworthy members.

        We see many unworthy members of other professions, and therefore take no particular shame to ourselves that some are found in ours. We also take refuge behind the maxim that the supply simply meets the demand. Were there no dishonest clients there would be no dishonest lawyers. Our profession, therefore, does but adapt itself to the community in which it is exercised. Blackstone says "that the law employs in its theory the noblest faculties of the soul," and further he declares "that it exercises in its practice the cardinal virtues of the heart." Let no man make the fatal mistake of entering our profession as a sinecure, for lawyers dearly earn all they obtain, whether of honor or emoluments. Genius may sometimes distinguish a man in some other walk of life, but not here. Here he must toil unceasingly; here there can be no drones; here no fertile imagination can supply the place of patient investigation. A well-balanced mind might easily suggest what the law ought to be, but actual investigation alone must determine what the law is.

        An eminent jurist addressing a class of law students once said: "Let those who would prepare themselves for untying the knots and solving the problems of jurisprudence first of all make up their minds to hard work. Let them weigh well the fact that to scorn delights and live laborious days is the indispensable condition of professional eminence; on somewhat easier terms they may prepare themselves

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to prowl in courts of law for human prey, but nothing short of resolute, emulous study can raise him to that height which alone should satisfy a generous ambition."

        When we examine for a moment the popular impressions against lawyers they resolve themselves into popular delusions. The law rightly practiced is one of the noblest professions that can command our time and employ our faculties. Its effects upon the mind and soul of the practitioner are at once to enlarge and exalt, whatever the world may say or think. Its practice calls into constant exercise his best qualities of intellect, and familiarizes him with the use only of the most honorable means, while as a result of his contests in the presence of the world, those contests are necessarily of the most honorable, and often of the most chivalrous character. As one consequence there is almost a total absence of feuds, animosities and jealousies among the members of the profession, and few tales or slanders concerning its practitioners find inventors or bearers in the atmosphere of the law.

        The rule of absolute integrity is the rule of the first-class lawyer, and he may (as he frequently is) be entrusted with the dearest possessions, and the most sacred of human confidences, with the certainty that good faith will govern his entire conduct in the discharge of all his duties. The practice of the law enlarges and strengthens all the faculties of the mind, and naturally leads to various attainments. The constant dealing with the business and affairs of men makes him an adept and expert in all the varied branches of industry and enterprises. His habit and business of advising in difficult and complex transactions makes him a cautious, safe, and skillful counselor. His constant intercourse with men renders him a master of human nature, the working and weaknesses of the human heart, the play of human passions, and the springs and motives of human conduct. He sees rather the worst of men, and would grow cynical and misanthropic, if he was not constantly surrounded with the illustrations and manifestations of man's better qualities in the persons of his professional friends. His habit of investigating everything and of taking things only on proof, makes him incredulous, and hence he is seldom imposed upon and is never visionary. His love and veneration for the law render him somewhat conservative, while his skill and ability as a public speaker--a real power in a free community--always attract to him the popular admiration, and open to him the highest position his ambition may covet.

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        The successful lawyer unites in his person more of the elements of a popular leader than are usually found in another, and necessarily the members of the bar, although numerically smaller than any other trade, calling or profession, can, and usually do, directly exercise a larger influence among a given people than any other, and by concert could do much to control its affairs and shape its destinies, and it is certainly no discredit to them that the aggregate of his power and influence has always been exercised to promote and build up those institutions that advance civilization, extend the field of human effort, encourage education, promote science and the arts, purify the morals, extend the franchises of the citizen, protect virtue and secure religious toleration.

        The bar has necessarily exercised the whole judicial power of this country. It has furnished the controlling influence in its varied legislation, and contributed out of all proportion to the executive officers. In the main this influence has been enlightened, liberal and patriotic; and in no instance has it attempted to advance its own interests as distinguished from the masses of our people.

        This, gentlemen, is a subdued and colorless sketch of our profession from the modest standpoint of one of its humble members. The law, as a profession, comes to us with the commendations of a remote antiquity. Sages have heaped upon it lofty panegyrics. It has been said not only to embody "the gathered wisdom of a thousand years," but also in sober truth "the perfection of human wisdom;" and he who would win her favors must consecrate himself to her and to her alone, for she is indeed a jealous mistress, and never flirts or coquettes. She will have nothing to do with the danglers, and reserves her favors for those who woo in good faith and with the most honorable intentions. And here I trust you will pardon me if, from practical observation, I refer briefly to some of the elements of character absolutely necessary to every lawyer who would succeed. In this, above all other professions, is honesty the most essential element to a successful career. He who begins his practice with the idea that anything is permissible by which he can secure a fee, may as well stop among the sharks and pettifoggers, for he will never rise above them. No profession demands of its members a higher standard of honesty and integrity, and no man ever became a great or moderately successful lawyer who was not an honest and upright man. Yet honesty is one of the first elements of character which ambition is likely to overthrow; to sophisticate the truth for any

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purpose in the practice, breeds rottenness at the foundation of all personal power. Sooner or later the career based on dishonesty will crumble and fall. Nature is against dishonesty. God is against it. All the conservative and restorative forces of society are against it; it vitiates all the currents of power that flow out of it. The history of this country is full of instruction on this point. Memory does not have to reach far back to recall a list of eminent men who built themselves up by honest endeavor into positions of great personal power and lost such positions by intrigues and compromises into which they were tempted by the desire of place and power.

        A great man turned demagogue presents the pitiable spectacle of a Samson shorne of his locks. Will is another element which cannot be overestimated. No man can be called a strong man who is not strong of will. Will may indeed be called the backbone of power, into which all the other elements of character articulate, and to no character is this element more essential than to the lawyer. The will power of Martin Luther was the most potent factor in the reformation of the sixteenth century. It was the indomitable will of Stanley that revealed the secrets of the "dark continent," and gave to mankind a new world to Christianize. When Disraeli, afterward Lord Beaconsfield, attempted to make his first speech he was openly laughed down; he turned, and shaking his fist in the face of his revilers, hissed in their teeth that the time would come when they should hear him, and the influence of this wonderful man upon the history of Europe does but show how powerful was his will.

        Will has the same office in every walk of life. It may indeed be called a spark struck from Divine might. So long as it flows through honest channels there is nothing more truly divine. Willfulness is not will, it is simply a form of obstinacy. Will is positive and projects a current of vital force, which we break up into words or shape into actions. No weak, easy-going, yielding, good-natured man ever succeeded at the bar, and never will. Courage, moral and physical, are both necessary elements of character. It is the especial privilege of a lawyer never to give up a case. Lord Erskine, confessedly the first of English advocates, had not the courage to defend Hastings, and absolutely failed in the House of Commons through fear of Pitt. It is said that Cicero lost the case of Milo for the want of nerve; he had not the courage to deliver his argument in the spirit in which it was prepared, and Milo in exile said that if it had been pronounced with courage he had not been banished.

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        There is probably no element of character that inspires so much admiration and creates so quick and enthusistic a following as this. A man who is afraid of nothing in the discharge of his duty, afraid of no consequence personal to himself, has his battle half won before he strikes a blow. So great is the popular admiration of courage that it has always been surrounded by a halo of romance.

        In the common thought the test of courage is the test of manhood. In multitudes of minds there is no unpardonable sin but that of cowardice. The truth is that he who plants courage of any kind raises friends. Earnestness and enthusiasm are also so essential that I cannot refrain from mentioning them in this connection. I name them together because they are so nearly akin; indeed, enthusiasm is only earnestness carried to white heat; they are the only qualities that can take the place of personal magnetism in compelling sympathy. Earnestness comes from strong conviction and strong feeling; enthusiasm rising out of it is the fusion and sublimation of all the elements of power within a man, and is strong in proportion as it is rational; the moment it becomes mere passion it becomes weakness.

        The world refuses to be moved by men who are not in earnest. Human nature is very much like iron--if you would bend it or shape it you must heat it. Earnestness is the furnace; enthusiasm the fire whose flames need only to envelop other minds to make plastic or ductile. Truth is often unpalatable and offensive, but borne in the menstrum of a strong enthusiasm, we accept the draught which would otherwise have been refused. These are some of the elements of character most essential to success in any sphere of life, but especially so to those of us who are engaged in the practice of the law. Coming, as you do, from every part of the state, you are indeed a representative body of men. You represent the intellectual and moral worth of the race, which has survived the political revolutions which have swept over the state during the past few years.

        We have learned in the hard school of adversity that we are not the wards of any political body; that the improvement of our condition in life is not the solicitude of any particular section of our country, and that the days of our political bosses are over forever; that we are the architects of our own fortunes and the arbiters of our own destinies. That with the various walks of life thrown open to us we are to enter and win victories or defeats upon equal conditions with every other race or condition of people.

        We are citizens of this country by nativity, not by choice or adoption,

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and here, under God's providence, we mean to stay, and strike glad hands with all lovers of justice, work out our own destinies and vie with every other nationality in developing the material resources and contributing to the greatness of our beloved southland. Agitators may discuss the so-called race problem, but in the busy, active duties of life we have no time for theories. We should prepare ourselves by every energy of mind and soul to solve the problem put to us by those by whom we are surrounded, and with whom we live, viz.: "The survival of the fittest." Citizens by nativity, we have no other land to love. To this we have given our labor for more than 100 years; in defense of her flag we have given our lives; to sustain her integrity we have contributed whatever was demanded of us. At all times have we been faithful and reliable.

        We have never been numbered among our country's enemies. We have never been found in the ranks of the Socialists and Anarchists in their attacks upon social order and our free institutions. Yet we have lived under a condition of things at times unequaled in the history of civilized government. We see the political party to which we have given a blind devotion for a quarter of a century growing tired of our allegiance. We see our rights in Mississippi, together with those of some of our unfortunate white fellow-citizens, diminished and taken away. I must confess these are not incentives to awaken sentiments of "armor patriae" in our hearts. Though sometimes discouraged we are not despondent, and behind the clouds that overhang our horizon we think we can see the silver lining, and challenge any race or condition of American citizenship to a greater love of country.

        Erin's sons were never truer to the Emerald Isle, nor the Highlander to Scotland's cliffs and crags than we to the land of our birth. What member of any race ever gave expression to loftier sentiments of patriotism in the American Congress than the distinguished lawyer and scholar, Hon. John M. Langston, of Virginia, when from his seat in that august body he said: "Ah, my white fellow citizens on the other side of the house, and on every side, black as we are, no man shall go ahead of us in devotion to this country, in devotion to its free institutions, for we hold our lives, our property and our sacred honor in pledge to the welfare of our country and of all our fellow citizens. Do you want us to fight for your flag? Call on us and we will come. Do you want men to tarry at home and take care of your wives and children, to take care of your homes and protect

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your interests? Call on us and we will sacredly keep and perform every trust and obligation." Every member of the race echoes these sentiments, and in the years to come, when man's passions and prejudices have subsided, impartial history will give to no race a prouder place in their country's history than we shall possess, and no race or condition of people will be prompted by a purer or loftier patriotism than we, in our efforts to make our beloved South the home of a happy, prosperous and contented people.

Dr. Robert Fulton Boyd.

        THE subject of this sketch was born on a farm in Giles County, Tennessee, where his early boyhood days were spent. His mother was taken from him before the time for weaning and he never lived with her very much from that till he was nearly grown, and yet he has always been a most devoted son. When the great civil war broke out his mother was carried South and there remained till 1866, when she returned to Giles County and carried her two children, the oldest of which was Dr. Boyd, to Nashville. At the age of eight years he went to live with Dr. Paul F. Eve, one of the greatest surgeons of his day. It was there that our hero first conceived the idea of making a physician of himself. While living with Dr. Eve he attended night school at the old Fisk School, now Fisk University, where he learned to spell and read in McGuffey's First Reader. In 1868 he was put to work on a farm in Giles County. Here he worked till 1871 when he returned to Nashville and began to work at the brick trade. He had not yet learned to write and knew but the elements of reading. His soul was kindled with the hope of an education. His ambition was aroused so in 1872 he hired himself to General James H. Hickman, a real estate agent, to work half the day for something to eat, and he attended school the other half. He kept up this contract with General Hickman for three years, at the end of which he was doing all the outside collections and doing the entire bookkeeping of the office. The General never paid him any money during this time, but when he found that the Doctor meant to quit he offered him $20, $30 and $50 per month to stay and do the same work that he had been doing for his meals. But our hero had

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Illustration

DR. ROBERT FULTON BOYD.

        Nashville, Tenn.

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higher ambition and more lofty aspirations. He left General Hickman in the early summer of 1875 and entered upon the profession of school teaching at College Grove, Williamson County, Tennessee. His soul was in the work and he impressed the people with his earnest, energetic, conscientious spirit. At the close of a most successful term here, he returned to his studies at the Central Tennessee College. In the summer of 1876 he went to Giles County and began teaching. Here he gradually rose from the country schools to the principalship of the male school of 170 boys in Pulaski. In 1878 and 1879 he was principal of the female department of the public schools in Pulaski. In 1880 he entered Meharry Medical Department of the Central Tennessee College, where he graduated with the first honors of his class in 1882. After graduating the Doctor went to New Albany, Mississippi, where he took the principalship of a high school and practiced medicine till the fall of '82, when he returned to Nashville and was made adjunct professor of chemistry in his Alma Mater. He entered upon his work at Meharry and at the same time he entered the College Department of the Central Tennessee College from which he graduated with honors in May 1886. From 1884 to 1888 he was professor of physiology in Meharry. He graduated from the Dental Department of this college in 1887. In 1888 and 1889 he was professor of anatomy and physiology in Meharry. In the summer of 1890 he took a post course in the Post-Graduate School of Medicine at Chicago, and in the summer of 1892 he took a special course in the same school on the diseases of women and children. While in Chicago he did work in all of the big hospitals there under some of the greatest men of the profession. While connected with the Central Tennessee College as a student he taught in the various departments of the school, and was during the whole time professor of hygiene and physiology. In June 1887 he entered upon the practice of his profession in Nashville, Tennessee. He did not ask nor expect the better classes who were able to employ experienced and well known physicians to patronize him; but he went into the alleys, old cellars, dilapidated stables and unhygienic sections of the city. Under his treatment nearly every case got well and the incurables were greatly benefitted. His success was unparalelled. In all difficult cases he freely sought the consultation and advice of the physicians and surgeons of high standing.

        His work has steadily grown in quantity and quality till it is second in importance to that of no physician in the city. Really he

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does more work than any other physician in Nashville. He goes to the homes of high and low. He goes in the parlors and lowest tenement houses. Whether there is money in the visit or not he goes. He boasts that he has never denied any person his professional services. He is a blessing to the people of Nashville and they realize it. The people there know him well, love him, trust him and honor him, as is demonstrated by the fact that in 1891, they nominated and ran him on the Republican ticket for the General Assembly. In 1892, when both the Democratic and Republican Executive Committees refused to allow colored men to have a say in nominating candidates for Mayor and City Council, the colored citizens met in convention and put out a full city ticket, at the head of which for Mayor was Dr. Boyd. A great many whites were in sympathy with the colored people and voted for this ticket. Colored voters rallied around the ticket to a man, and by so doing forever wiped out the color line in Nashville politics. In May, 1891, his alma mater conferred upon him the degree of A.M. For the years 1889 and '90, he was professor of physiology and hygiene. For the years 1890 to 1893 he was professor of physiology, hygiene and clinical medicine. Since 1893 he has been professor of the diseases of women and clinical medicine. He is at the head of the college hospital and gives two hours free to the sick and indigent poor every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday during the college year. Hundreds attend his free clinic and are helped, benefitted and cured of all kinds of maladies. While the Doctor does a larger charity and benevolent practice, yet he does a good paying practice. He has made money right along and invested it wisely. He owns several pieces of good property among which is a magnificent three-story double brick on a corner opposite the Duncan House, one of the largest and most popular hotels in the city.

        His office, library and instruments will compare favorably with those of our most wealthy physicians and surgeons. His horses and vehicles are of the best. Dr. Boyd is a typical example of what a young man can be in spite of the greatest oppositions. He is a hard worker and uses all of his power to elevate the race and bless mankind. He is at present one of the Tennessee commissioners for the Southern States and International Exposition at Atlanta, Ga.

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Illustration

Residence of DR. R. F. BOYD, Nashville, Tenn.

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THE MORTALITY OF THE COLORED PEOPLE AND HOW TO REDUCE IT.

[Read before the Tennessee State Convention of Colored Teachers, held at Nashville, Tenn., June 11-14, 1895.]

        A GREAT deal has been said and written about the great mortality of the colored people in the South, especially in the large cities. The statistics are alarming, so much so that the less thoughtful are expecting the race to become extinct. And why not, since the actual figures show that we die three and four times as fast as we are born in large cities of the South? What is the cause and how can it be diminished? There is no longer any doubt in the minds of physicians and the well-informed laity as to the cause of disease and the real possibility of reducing the mortality of a community and thereby prolong life. Under hygienic rules and regulations the health can be improved and the cause of disease entirely removed. The profession formerly understood and defined hygiene as the art of preserving the health; but under modern investigation it is made to increase as well as to preserve the health. The term applies to the place as well as to the people who live in it. We now go further than this, for we include under hygiene the examination of the conditions which affect generation, development, growth and decay of individuals, nations and races. On its scientific side it is co-extensive with biology, the science of life. It includes both sociology and physiology and whatever can cause or help to cause discomfort, pain, sickness, death, vice or crime. And whatever has a tendency to avert, destroy or diminish such causes are matters of interest to all who are interested in our subject. The old belief that disease and death are due to a special providence or the vengeance of an offended deity still lingers in the minds of many with regard to the great epidemics; but to the more intelligent cause and effect do not thus seem. Some would attribute all disease to vice For this there is an apparent reason, but a deep investigation will convince us of their mistake. Vice and disease are close, their relations are very close, yet each has its separate origin; and in each the public

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is equally interested. Every city and well-organized community are being awakened from their stolid indifference of centuries to a sense of the importance of hygiene; and well they might for all the powers moral, intellectual and physical depend upon a proper knowledge and an obedience to the laws of hygiene--the fundamental principle of all efforts to improve and preserve the health. For man is an organized being just as subject to organic laws as the inanimate bodies which surround him are subject to mechanical and chemical laws, and we as little escape the consequences of neglect or violation of those natural laws which effect organic life through the air we breathe, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the exercise we take and the circumstances surrounding our habitation, as a stone projected from the hand or a shot from the mouth of a cannon can place itself beyond the bounds of gravitation.

        A proposition well established by an extensive observation of facts is that a human, supposing him to be soundly constituted at first, will continue in good health till he reaches old age, provided certain conditions are observed, strict hygienic rules, and no injurious accident shall befall. At what age he will die we cannot say. There has been much speculation as to the natural term of man's life. Physiologists have fixed it at a hundred years, which is nearly in accordance with the law indicated by Florens. He states that the period of the life of an animal is five times that required to develop perfectly the skeleton. At present the actual duration of life is less than half this time. But there is satisfactory evidence that it can be increased in civilized countries under hygienic rules and regulations. The ancient estimate of the duration of life is expressed in David's declaration that "the days of man are three-score years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be four-score years, yet is there strength, labor and sorrow."

        Kolb, a careful and reliable statistician of our times says that the maximum age reached by man has not changed in many centuries, but the number of persons who now survive infancy, and those who reach ripe old age under hygienic laws and regulations has decidedly increased, and this opinion is sustained and concurred in by Mr. Lewis, the secretary of the chamber of life insurance of New York City. He points out while civilization largely interferes with the laws of evolution by survivorship, it aids by encouraging the waste which occurs in its absence. He says under natural selection when variation in capacity arises, thousands of them are wasted. While we

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have no record of the duration of life in Ancient Greece and Rome, it is quite possible that it was greater than in Western Europe during the middle ages which formed a period of retrocession from a sanitary view. The early Jews and the ancient Romans were clean in their person and dwellings, they undoubtedly had a much smaller degree of mortality than the people at the time when dirt became the odor of sanctity. It is impossible for me to speak truth certainly of the vote of mortality of the ancients because statistics are not at our command. But I can and do speak of the good results of modern hygienic rules and sanitary regulations. When properly observed, they increase the longevity of life, decrease the mortality and bring greater health, comfort and happiness to the individual and the community at large. Then if we would preserve for ourselves and the community in which we live what is justly esteemed the greatest earthly blessing, good health, and live out the naturally appointed time, we must observe ten essential rules:

        If individuals and communities will conform strictly to these rules all avoidable diseases would be completely annihilated and epidemics would be unknown. The physicians would then be employed to prevent rather than to cure. On the other hand wherever hygienic and sanitary science is not enforced, filth, decaying and putrifying matters are sure to accumulate. These are the suitable material for the propagation, generation and development of the disease germs, bacteria micrococci, micro-organism spores, microzomes, etc., which are the cause of all communicable, contagious and epidemic diseases. These germs all have the power of self-propagation in unhygienic surroundings in warm climates such as we have in Southern cities.

        A population under the influence of filth, poorly housed in crowded dwellings or low, damp localities, where no rules regulate the habits of eating, drinking, sleeping and exercise, the mortality is sure to be

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great. Under these conditions infectious diseases spread, become epidemic and stalk through the land carrying death and destruction. I need not tell you that the greater part of the sickness and mortality of the human race are due to these causes, due to the epidemics, and yet these diseases are all avoidable. They can be stamped out by personal efforts. We have a thorough knowledge of how to prevent most of the diseases that enter the body through the respiratory, digestive, cutaneous, circulatory, nervous and genito-urinary system, and yet they are frequent and their effect is great. Now if what I have stated is true, and it is, not only do health and longevity depend upon laws which we can understand and successfully operate, but man has in his power to modify to a great extent the circumstances in which he lives, with a view to the promotion of his well-being and preservation. Everybody knows that the draining of a marsh pond banishes malaria, a change from city to the country reinvigorates, and those who live in the high, well-drained portion of a city have the smallest degree of mortality; and that the greater comforts possessed by the rich and affluent secure them longer life than the poor. To diminish the mortality of our race will depend both upon our individual efforts, as well as upon the public measures of the legally constituted authorities. We must begin in the homes. The dwellings of our people must be improved. The old dilapidated stables in the narrow filthy alleys are not fit for human habitation. The low, damp, dark basements and cellars often beneath the level of the ground with insufficiency of both light and air are occupied by our people. The cluster of homes built in the bottoms and low places, the closely pent up, back to back, so built as to cut off and prevent free ventilation, with only one entrance to each and a privy in the centre, the dirty neglected portions of the cities where heaps of rubbish, animal and vegetable matter, are allowed to decay and send their poisonous odors from house to house are the habitations of colored people. And to add to the woful condition of things, these uninhabitable quarters are over crowded. I don't think I miss it far when I say that one third of the colored people in our Southern cities live in just such dwellings as I have here described, while most of the white population live in well built houses in the healthy portions of the cities. Then is there any surprise that there should be a great disproportion in the mortality of the two races? Do you wonder that the colored people die so fast? Suppose we add to the disgraceful inhumane dwellings of our people the quality of food

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they eat, you will have more light on the mortality of the race. As you know our people are the working classes in the South; they go to the markets Saturday nights and buy the spoiled meats and vegetables on which the flies and smaller insects have preyed all day. In these vegetables are the seed of indigestion disorders and death. The vegetables and meats which are left over and not sold in the market and grocery houses are put in wagons and driven to the colored settlements where they are sold cheap for cash. Do you wonder that the death rate of the colored people is so great? If the white people were similarly situated would their death rate be as it is to-day? Compare the statistics of all the large cities of the North and of Europe and you will find that under similar circumstances this same disproportion exists between the upper and lower classes where the dwellings and food have the same difference. But this same difference exists nowhere else in the world as it does here in our own Southland. In most of the Southern cities it is impossible for a colored man to rent a first-class uptown building, no matter how much money he has, and in many places not even a respectable dwelling can be rented. But the low, dark, damp, confined, ill-ventilated cellars, basements and alley houses are rented to colored people for as much as good comfortable quarters ought to bring. I assert without fear of a successful contradiction that any other race of people situated as the colored people are in the South would be exterminated in twenty years.

        In his last annual report Dr. N. G. Tucker, the efficient health officer of Nashville, states that the entire number of white people who died during the year 1893 was 786, and of colored people 839. He says in his report, "As usual the death rate among the colored people exceeds that of the white. If we were to consider alone the death rate of our white population the exhibit would be an exceedingly favorable one for our city." The good doctor gives facts; but he does not tell the city why the death rate of the colored people is so great, nor does he give a remedy for it. Of course the sanitary measures which he recommends are for the good of all; but the key that will unlock the mystery of high death rate among the colored people is to better their condition, improve their habitation, enact and enforce laws against allowing people to sleep in the basements, cellars, old stables, alley houses and pent up cluster houses in low malarial sections of our Southern cities.

        Make the penalty against landlords so heavy that they will not

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rent such places for dwellings. Regulate the kind of tenement houses to be rented and the number of persons who shall sleep in one room. Enforce the laws against selling tainted meats and decaying vegetables to the poor. Break up these late church meetings in poorly ventilated houses. Prohibit the collection of large numbers of persons in the dens where dancing and whisky drinking are indulged in till the wee hours of morning and the mystery will be solved. By the proper legislation and enforcement of laws we will have prevention. The whole system of medicine is now turning upon prevention rather than the cure of disease. The time has come when physicians must be employed to prevent as well as to cure. If this is done there will be less sickness, and epidemics will be a thing of the past. Then sanitary science under strict hygienic observance will reach perfection. The rude, careless and gross habits of living will be corrected and a system of perfect drainage and pure ventilation will be inaugurated. The pure air and a good water supply will be furnished to every public and private house. Then, only pure and unadulterated foods will be allowed in our markets and grocery houses. Every hotel, private and public boarding house will furnish properly prepared foods, and universal cleanliness will be the law, and the death rate among our people would reach its minimum.

        To reduce the mortality of the race we must begin with the new born. The death rate of colored infants in the cities and towns is alarming. More than half of the children born in the cities die before the third year, and about one half of the remainder die before the twelfth year. Of course the circumstances and condition of the parents affect the children and greatly increase their mortality, but still a greater part of it comes from the ignorance of those who handle the mothers and their infants. The ignorant grannies and meddling old women are very largely responsible for the death rate of colored children. None but trained nurses and educated mid-wives under the direction of a physician should handle mothers and their infants.

        The infant mortality will be reduced at least one half when our people learn that the care of a good, well-informed, conscientious physician is necessary from generation and development through the entire stage of adolescence, not so much to look after the sick but to prevent disease.

        Another most potent remedy for diminishing the mortality of the colored people in the large cities of the South is the establishment of hospitals in which the members of the churches and various

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societies can be treated and have the constant care of trained nurses. The churches and societies with the benevolently disposed people could easily support a hospital in every city. The hospitals would afford an opening for our young women to become trained nurses, and whether they give their services to the public or use their training in the schools, they would be a blessing to the race and the country in which we live. The good physicians everywhere would lend their aid and give their services to these hospitals. Meharry Medical College would furnish interns whose services would be given free of charge and the good people everywhere help. The mortality of the colored people must be diminished. Let us all turn our attention to this particular work of urging upon the people better homes, better food, better clothing and better habits of living. Let us urge upon law makers to pass such laws as will help us in our efforts and the call upon the legally-constituted authorities to enforce them. If we will all do our duty a change will soon come, and we will prove to the world that under proper hygienic laws the colored people will die no faster than other peoples; but, on the other hand, where all things are equal, they will live longer.

THE COLORED MAN IN MEDICINE.

[Delivered by L. T. Burbridge, M.D., at New Iberia, La., January 1, 1895, at Emancipation exercises.]

        HAD I been called upon to select a subject upon which to address you on this occasion, I doubt my ability to select one more appropriate to my thoughts and feelings, and more suitable to this audience and this occasion than the one given me by its promoters, viz.: The Colored Man in Medicine. Although I am as yet but a young disciple of the healing art, I believe in common with most young practitioners who have had ample leisure to reflect upon the hopes and possibilities of the medical profession so far as the colored man is concerned there is for him a bright and promising future. I, therefore, thank you for the privilege of addressing you on this subject and on such an auspicious occasion, an occasion (if

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you will allow me to say) when the heart of every true and loyal colored man should turn in thankfulness to God for his great deliverance from the greatest curse that ever afflicted any Christianized people. Thank God we to-day are living under entirely different circumstances to those existing previous to the time this day is intended to commemorate. Under the blessings of freedom we enjoy a purer air, a more lofty existence than before, and the sunlight of peace, prosperity and intellectual growth is shedding softened rays upon our pathway, lighting up the darker places and beckoning us on to a future as bright and promising as any ever enjoyed by any other people. May it shine more and more unto the pefect day.

        Having been so recently released from bondage, burdened with all the ignorance and superstition which that state implies, it would appear that the colored man had had short time in which to prepare himself for the learned professions. Not so however. With his characteristic power of imitation, and his readiness to adapt himself to the study of scientific medicine with the same zeal and earnestness he had manifested in working his old master's crops, naturally quick of perception and kind and sympathetic in disposition, he made rapid strides in the most difficult of sciences, and the medical history of the last few years furnishes ample testimony to his success.

        Had I statistics at my command I could furnish some interesting figures of the growth and progress of the colored man in medicine. It is sufficient to say, however, that thirty years ago, there were few if any Negro M.D.'s to be found, while to-day there is scarcely a Southern town and a large proportion of the Northern towns and cities that cannot boast of one or more colored physicians, regular graduates of authorized Medical Colleges. While this is true we are compelled to admit that there is a field for many more. It is estimated that there is one white physician to every 300 of his people; while there is only one colored doctor to every 20,000 of his people. This furnishes an idea of our need, for we feel assured that when the colored physicians become more numerous so as not to be a rare object then he will be more respected by all classes of people. Then too we feel proud to state that the practice of the colored doctor is by no means confined solely to his own race. For even here in the historic old State of Louisiana, whose fertile vales have often echoed to the cry of the oppressed, the Negro physician enjoys in many instances a small, but growing white patronage. This in itself is a confession of a recognition of skill and ability, wrung as it were from

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the lips of the oppressor. And what has been the reception of the Negro physician from his white professional brother? Has he been laughed at, and scoffed upon as being unworthy of any consideration as a scientific man? By no means is this true. While we admit that in all cases he has not been received with open arms due, more perhaps, to petty prejudices and jealousies than any doubt of his medical skill, still on the whole he has received many marks of respect and appreciation, and many kindnesses in the loan of books and instruments from his white professional contemporaries, for which he has been duly grateful. And in many instances the white physicians have not hesitated to avail themselves in consultation over grave cases of his sound common sense and superior medical and surgical skill. The outlook, I say then, is hopeful yet the path of the Negro doctor is by no means strewn with flowers. Isolated, as many of them are, from a daily intercourse with colored men of their own profession and despairing of any assistance from the opposite race, often their only recourse is their books and journals. Under such circumstances the Negro physician sometimes finds himself confronted with a deep and seemingly impassible gulf over which it seems impossible to leap and around which he can see no way. Turning back is not to be thought of, go ahead he must. Then it is that his self-reliance and manhood, if he has any, show themselves. If he stops to reflect he will remember that others have passed the same way, and why should he not do likewise? So summoning all his skill and strength for the effort he makes the leap, lands safely on the other side and has won. I will cite an instance: A surgical operation of importance is to be performed, and the case falls into the hands of the colored doctor. He knows that there is little hope of any professional assistance from the neighboring physicians and his future reputation and success depend, perhaps, upon the issues of the case. The responsibility is a grave one but does he hesitate? Not for long, but he resolutely goes to work, determined to do or die, with no help but that afforded by untrained bystanders; and he usually achieves success. These are not the only difficulties that confront a Negro doctor, but he meets serious drawbacks in the lack of race pride, and confidence which some of his people manifest toward him. It seems that many of our good people have not as yet learned to appreciate the merits of the doctors of their own race. There are those who not only fail to give their own patronage, but take every reasonable opportunity of throwing

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obstacles in the way of their progress. This, I am glad to say, is rather the exception than the rule, still it is an exception that occurs entirely too often for the comfort of the doctors, and for the welfare of the race he represents. The advent of the colored man into medicine worked an era of better sanitary protection, and better medical attention generally for his people than they had ever enjoyed before, because of the competition it excited. It would appear then that the colored physician instead of arousing their animosity, should be an object of their confidence and respect. The colored physician does not ask patronage on the score of color, and on the other hand he does not want to be denied work on that account. He does not ask that allowances be made for his deficiencies because he is a Negro, and on the other hand he does not want to be denied the privileges that skill and ability should demand for any medical man whether he be white or black. A recognition of skill and competency is all that he asks regardless of color. In other words he wants to be treated as a man--one who has fully prepared himself to do the work as thoroughly and skillfully as any other man of whatever nationality. The Negro physician realizes the fact that this is his only hope for successfully overcoming the many discouraging features of his work, and with this fact in view he has ever bent diligently to the accomplishment of the task set before him. One has not to go far to judge of his success. Here in your own thriving town you have a specimen of a diligent, hard-working, aspiring Negro physician, Dr. Jefferson, who has been with you now about two years, deserves much credit for the success with which his efforts have met in this community. This, I judge, he has won not from the fact that he is a colored physician, but from the manifest skill and ability with which he has undertaken, and accomplished difficult work. So it is that in spite of opposition, in spite of discouragements, in spite of the numerous obstacles which arise to impede his progress, the Negro doctor is steadily moving onward.

        In November last the colored doctors of Florida, and adjacent states, met and formed a Colored Medical Association. At this meeting papers were read and discussed that would have done credit to any medical association of this country, and the daily papers in commenting upon this association spoke of its action as being highly creditable to the colored medical profession, and to the Negro race at large. Is not this encouraging, and does it not bid us to look hopefully forward to the future?

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        The advantages offered to the colored man for a medical education are good. Meharry, New Orleans and Shaw Medical Colleges, in the South are doing good work, and in the North but few if any doors are closed against the colored aspirant; while England, France and Germany all extend to him a welcoming hand. And if as yet we have not a Treve, we have a Newman, if we have not a Koch we have a Stewart, and if we have not a Sims we have a Boyd. These are among the pioneers of the Negro medical profession, and where they leave off their posterity will take up and carry on the work so well begun. I repeat that the colored medical profession is yet in its infancy. If in thirty years they have accomplished so much what may we not hope for a century? When we reflect that our white professional brother has not one, but many centuries back of him, does not that encourage us to look for brighter things for the Negro physician? May we not hope that the day will come when the Tulane and Vanderbilt Medical Colleges will open their doors to all regardless of color, where the white and black doctors of the South will travel side by side in the same railway coach, when there will be no white or black medical associations, but all be united in one band of harmonious fellow workers with but one object, and that the relief of suffering humanity? We smile at the thought, but history has repeatedly chronicled greater and more wonderful revolutions than these, and so will it again. Then with a firm reliance on self, and an unwavering trust in God, the great harmonizer and peace-maker, we press manfully onward in our struggle for truth and right, believing that in the fullness of time all things will end well.


                         "Let us then be up and doing,
                         With a heart for every fate;
                         Still achieving, still pursuing,
                         Learn to labor and to wait."

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A Valuable Remedy for Diptheria and Throat Diseases.

        A FEW years ago, when diptheria was raging in England, a gentleman accompanied the celebrated Dr. Field on his rounds to witness the so-called "wonderful cures" which he performed, while the patients of others were dropping on all sides. The remedy to be so rapid must be simple. All he took with him was powder of sulphur and a quill, and with these he cured every case without exception. He put a teaspoonful of flour of sulphur into a wineglass of water, and stirred it with his finger, instead of a spoon, as the sulphur does not readily mix with water. When the sulphur was well mixed he gave it as a gargle, and in ten minutes the patient was out of danger. Sulphur kills every species of fungus in man, beast and plant in a few minutes. Instead of spitting out the gargle he recommended the swallowing of it. In extreme cases when he had been called in just in the nick of time when the fungus was too nearly closed to allow the gargling, he blew the sulphur through the quill into the throat, and after the fungus had shrunk to allow it, then the gargling. He never lost a patient from diptheria. If a patient cannot gargle, take a live coal, put it on a shovel, and sprinkle a teaspoon full or two of sulphur at a time upon it, let the sufferer inhale it, holding the head over it, and the fungus will die. If plentifully used the whole room may be filled almost to suffocation; the patient can walk about in it, inhaling the fumes with doors and windows shut. The mode of fumigating a room with sulphur has often cured most violent attacks of cold in the head, chest, etc., at any time, and is recommended in cases of consumption and asthma.

VIRGINIA'S FIRST WOMAN PHYSICIAN.

        SARAH G. JONES, M.D., the first woman to be licensed to practice medicine in Virginia, is a daughter of George W. Boyd, the leading colored contractor and builder of Richmond. She was born in Albermarle County, Va., and educated in the public schools of Richmond, being graduated in 1883. She then taught in

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the schools of this city for five years. In 1888 Miss Boyd was married to M. B. Jones, who, at that time, was also a teacher, but now is G. W. A. Secretary of the True Reformers. Mrs. Jones entered Howard Medical College, Washington, D. C., in 1890, and was graduated this year with the degree of M.D. She appeared before the State Medical Examining Board with eighty-four others and received a certificate, which entitles her to secure a license to practice her profession. Mrs. Jones received over 90 per cent on the examination in surgery. Out of the class of eighty-five, twenty-one white graduates, representing several colleges, failed to pass. Dr. Jones and her husband are representatives of the best society of colored people in the State, and are well-to-do-people. When a school teacher she was known as one of the brightest young colored women in the city. She will practice among her race.--Noted Negro Women.

        THOMAS A. CURTIS was born at Marion, Perry County, Ala., November 30, 1862. His parents were slaves, but by earnest toil and study his father became State Senator of Alabama. His son, Thomas, inherited his father's love for knowledge, and therefore took advantage of every opportunity to develop his mind. He graduated from the State Normal School at Marion, 1881, and begun teaching in his native State. He afterwards went to Texas where he taught for five years. Abandoning the profession of teaching, he entered Meharry Dental College from which he graduated in 1889 with honors, being the best practical dentist of his class. For this excellency he received a gold medal. His success as the first colored dentist of Alabama was marvelous. During the first year of his labor as dentist he earned more than $2,000, and every succeeding year finds him making improvement both in proficiency of his profession and increase of his practice.

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Illustration

DR. T. A. CURTIS,
Montgomery, Ala.

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THE NEGRO IN DENTISTRY.

BY THOMAS A. CURTIS, D.D.S.

        HERODOTUS, the father of history, who traveled in Egypt the fifth century B.C., devoted one of his books to the description of the manners, customs, art and science of the Egyptians. Herodotus, speaking of the ancient Colchus, whose inhabitants were originally Egyptians and were colonized when Sesostris was King of Egypt, said: "I believe that the ancient Colchi to be a colony of Egypt because like them they have black skins and frizzled hair." Volney says, in noting these remarks of Herodotus, "It showed that the ancient Egyptians were real Negroes of the same species of all the natives of Africa." Diodorus, another ancient historian, informs us that the æthiopians considered these Egyptians as one of their colonies.

        Egypt, the mother of science and art, claims dentistry as her elder daughter. She was the first nation of the world to adopt dentistry as a branch of medicine. It is not known how far the specialist of that day had advanced in this art; Herodotus, however, five hundred years B.C., noticed that medicine was divided into branches, among which was dentistry. Evidence in abundance is found to prove that the ancient Egyptians understood the art of filling teeth with gold and the manufacture and setting of artificial teeth. Museums contain mummies from Thebes with gold filled teeth, artificial teeth of sycamore wood set in gold; therefore it is evident that the Negroes are the originators of the art of dentistry. He is now beginning to re-enter the dental profession, and may do for its perfection what his ancient ancestors did for its infancy. But little progress was made in the practice of dentistry until the last century. During this period it has outstripped every other branch of medicine, and now stands before the world as a specialty equal in importance to any branch of surgery, in fact it may justly claim what medicine cannot, to have risen from an art to the dignity of a science.

        Prior to 1776 there was not a practicing dentist in this country.

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All operations were performed by the general practician or surgeon. The key, that instrument which came near debasing the profession, was the only instrument in use. Dr. Woffendale, of London, arrived in New York in 1776. Although he was the only man in the entire country devoting his time to dentistry, the public so little appreciated his services that he was obliged to return to England in 1787, being unable to support himself. In 1783 Dr. Jas. Gardetta came to this country and settled in New York. He afterwards removed to Philadelphia and continued there as a successful practician for forty-five years.

        Dr. Hyden commenced the practice of dentistry in Baltimore in 1804. He was a man of great energy and ability. It was he who first realized the importance of a higher standard for the profession. He induced a number of gentlemen to join him in petitioning the Legislature of Maryland to establish a dental college. From this time on dentistry has made rapid strides, until it now numbers among its practicians some of the most scientific and enlightened men of this country. From a mere itinerant existance it has risen to a position equal to any branch of medicine, and is decidedly the most remunerative of all.

        Dentistry now opens to view a broad, lucrative and inviting field for the aspiring and educated Negro youth. The opportunities it furnishes have not been grasped in the past as readily as I hope the possibilities will warrant in the future. Our young men have drifted into a stream which has flown steadily into the medical profession. A very few have stopped to ask the all-important question, "Am I better fitted by nature for the practice of dentistry than for the practice of medicine?"

        Prior to 1862 we hear nothing of the Negro in the dental profession, but at the close of the war he is remarked as being established as a successful practician of dentistry, born and matured, as it were, in a day. When the surprised public had time to ask the question, "Who are these men?" on investigation, they were found to be the former office boys of their masters, who picked up the fundamental principles of dentistry, and now emancipated, practiced it with confidence and ability. The State of Georgia appears to take the lead in producing these noted pioneers, among whom are the Dr. Badger Brothers, of Atlanta, and Dr. Zeque, of Augusta. All of these gentlemen won distinction and wealth in their professions, had as their patients some of the best white families of Atlanta and Augusta. I

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have examined with a degree of surprise and satisfaction some of their gold fillings, which at the time, was more than twenty-five years old. Artistic and durable, their work stands a monument to their ability and profession. Many of these old pioneers have passed away, but I am proud to have had the pleasure of saying to Dr. Badger, of Atlanta, that it was from his success that I caught the inspiration to adopt dentistry as my life's work.

        The late Dr. Wm. J. Simmons, of Kentucky, a noted Baptist divine, entered the office of Dr. DeLangie, a dentist in Bordentown, N. J., he learned rapidly and was soon able to do good work. Though often rebuffed by the white people, he operated on some of the best white families in the city. But he was unwilling to remain in the profession without the thorough knowledge of dentistry, such as only could be given in a dental college, and on being refused admission to a dental college in Phildaelphia, he therefore abandoned the profession.

        Dr. Smith, of Little Rock, Ark., also one of these early pioneers, has won wealth and fame in the dental profession. He is one of the wealthiest Negroes in Little Rock. The dentists of to-day are too numerous to mention. There are now about one hundred Negroes practicing dentistry in the United States, graduated from dental colleges. Some of the most prominent are as follows:

        Dr. Grant, of the Harvard Dental Faculty, has acquired great distinction as a practician and professor of dentistry, having lectured before the Harvard Dental School for a number of years. His practice is said to net him ten thousand dollars a year.

        Dr. C. E. Bently, of Chicago, Ills., is one of the foremost young men in the profession irrespective of color. He has several times been honored with positions in the Dental Associations of Chicago, and is now one of the assistant editors of the leading dental journal of the West.

        Dr. J. R. Porter, of Atlanta, Ga., is a practical dentist, a gentleman, affable, refined and cultured. He graduated from Meharry in 1889, and was valedictorian of his class. His success in Atlanta is assured. Day by day he is building monuments of gold and silver that will attest his worth and ability.

        Dr. Fields, of Memphis, Tenn., and Dr. Ferrill, of Houston, Texas, enjoy the confidence and respect of all who know them. They are the leading young men in the dental profession in their respective States. There are other young men as prominent and successful in

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the practice of dentistry as the ones I have already mentioned. In fact I have yet to hear of a single young man who properly prepared himself for his work who has made a failure.

        As an inducement to young men to enter the profession of dentistry in this country, we cite as a fact that the Americans have the worst teeth of any people on earth. The reason for this is we change the proportion of the various food stuffs we eat more than any people on earth. What nature has stored up in food to build up hard tissue we constantly eliminate, consequently we do not take the proper material into our system that would be carried back atom by atom to take the place of this tissue metamorphises. What is true of the white people under the same circumstances is true of the Negro. There seems to be a prevailing, but erroneous, opinion that Negroes possess better teeth than the white people. There might have been a time when this statement was correct, but since the Negro has adopted all the civilized modes of living like the Caucasian his teeth are no better than his, if as good. The advantage the Negro has over the white people as to predisposing causes he looses in exciting causes, carelessness and wanton neglect.

        In conclusion; we do not evolutionize by the advancement in civilization made by other people as much as we advance and become civilized to the extent we are able to evolutionize ourselves. This evolution is nowhere more noticeable than in the practice of dentistry by the Negroes, the establishment of schools of dentistry, the graduating of young men from these schools to take care and preserve our teeth, mark an epoch in the history of our civilization which only future generations will be fully able to comprehend and appreciate.

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Shall Our Women Extract Teeth?

BY DR. D. P. REED, IN "NEW YORK AGE."

        THE time has long since passed when the availability and fitness of woman for the practice of dentistry can be questioned; and whatever may have been the differences of opinion as to her qualifications, both physical and mental, for this work, when measured by the standard of male requirements, the fact remains that in dentistry, as in all other branches of the "healing art," woman has found and successfully occupied a field of usefulness in which the sum total of those distinctively feminine qualities, which go to make up an ideal womanhood, have been invaluable.

        Why should not a woman, if qualified, practice dentistry as well as medicine? Dentistry is only a specialty in medicine, and it takes nerve to practice either with success. But remember that dentistry requires coolness and steadiness of nerves. A frail, nervous woman has no business in this profession. Good health is especially requisite for dentists, because they must do most of their work standing, inhale foul and unhealthy breaths, be indoors most of their time; and when all this is added to their business cares, they must have a good constitution not to succumb to these depressing influences. I am told by a practicing woman dentist, who is a graduate of a reputable college of dentistry, that the question her patients usually ask is, "Can you pull teeth?" Her answer is, "Why, yes; pulling teeth is only an art!" I saw her attempt to extract a tooth one day and it certainly required more strength than art. Very few dentists can extract teeth properly, and for this reason dentist are now specializing, performing only such operation as the cases require.

        There are about seventy-five women dentists in this country, and of this number about twelve are practicing in Philadelphia, which seems to be their centre. There they have organized a society, and at their first meeting about half of the women dentists from all parts of the United States attended. Notwithstanding the fact that only a few colleges will graduate them, they are rapidly coming to the

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front. Our New York College has several times refused, to my personal knowledge, to admit the fair sex; and it has been only since the Philadelphia Dental College has been graduating them. I had the pleasure of graduating with a woman dentist, and during our college days we spent many a pleasant hour together over our cadavers. She was an American and full of genius. We have about four practicing in this city and they are doing comparatively well. There is Mrs. Lydia C. Clare on Eighth Avenue taking care of her husband's practice. There is one now on Madison Avenue and one on Third Avenue. The first woman dentist to open an office in this city was Mrs. Dr. Olla Neyman, the daughter of Madame Clara Neyman, the writer and lecturer. With these women already in the field demonstrating the capacity of their sex in this profession, there is no reason why some of our able, enterprising and energetic young women should not take up and successfully practice the science of dentistry. I hope these remarks will come under the eye of some watchful, capable young woman and stimulate her to make the effort. As a rule it certainly hurts a sensitive woman to inflict pain, although eventually, she becomes used to it and maintains her sympathetic nature through it all. Thus this very sympathy would attract to her the sensitive and nervous of both sexes; and men as well as women and children would rather submit a troublesome and aching tooth to the gentle ministrations of a woman, than to the harsher manipulations of a sterner and less sympathetic man. It is difficult for the average individual to associate the idea of profound learning and sciencific attainments with the fair countenance and unassuming grace of a girl graduate, even when the bright, intellectual eyes look up at him and he has the ocular demonstration that she is skillful even to the tips of the dainty fingers that can quiet a throbbing nerve, plug a fulsome cavity or use the forceps, if necessary, with a dexterity equal to some of our old D.D.S.'s.

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DR. IDA GRAY, DENTIST.

        AT the writing of this sketch, Miss Gray is among the leading Afro-American dentists. She resides in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is highly respected by all classes. She was educated at Gaines High School. From there she entered the University of Michigan, graduating from the dental department in 1890. After the completion of her course, she returned to her home in Cincinnati where she opened an office on Ninth Street, and commenced the practice of her profession. The success of Dr. Gray only demonstrates what can be accomplished by an Afro-American lady when they manifest the necessary pluck and energy. In the past few years Miss Gray has built up a lucrative practice, her patients being about equally divided between white and colored. Miss Gray is a very accomplished lady, and is spoken of in the highest terms of the press without regard to nationality.

Prof. Booker T. Washington.

[Principal of the Tuskegee, Alabama, Institute--How and Where the Great Educator Grew to Distinction.]

        MR. WASHINGTON, of Tuskegee, Ala., was born a slave at Hale's Ford, Va., April, 1857. He belonged to a family by the name of Burrows. Very soon after the war he went with his mother, Jane Ferguson, his stepfather and the remainder of his family to Malden, W. Va., to live. Here he worked in the salt furnaces the greater part of each year and went to school during three or four months. Mr. Washington usually secured some one to teach him at night when not permitted to attend school in the day. After working in the mines and furnaces for a considerable time, he secured employment at the house of Mrs. Viola Ruffner, a lady of New England birth and training, and who, though very exacting regarding

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Illustration

PROF. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON,
Tuskegee, Ala.

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all matters of work, was very kind and showed her interest in the education of young Washington in a number of ways. In 1871, in some way, Washington heard of the Hampton Institute in Virginia. He at once made up his mind to enter that institution. With his own small earnings, amounting to $6 per month, and with what his family were kind enough to give him, he found himself in Richmond, Va., but friendless, shelterless and homeless. Casting about, however, he soon discovered a hole under a sidewalk that offered a night's sleep. As luck would have it, when he awoke next morning he found he was near a vessel that was unloading pig iron, and application was at once made to the captain for work, which was given. Mr. Washington worked here until he had enough money to pay his way to Hampton Institute, which place he reached with a surplus of fifty cents. He remained at Hampton three years, working his way through, and graduated with one of the honors of his class. After graduating and teaching in West Virginia, his old home, for a while, and spending a year in study at Wayland Seminary, Washington, D. C., Mr. Washington was invited to return to Hampton as a teacher. In this capacity he remained at Hampton two years, till 1881, when application was made to Gen. S. C. Armstrong by citizens of Tuskegee, Ala., for some one to start an institution at Tuskegee on the plan of Hampton.

        Mr. Washington was at once recommended for the position. Upon reaching Tuskegee he found neither land nor buildings, nothing but the promise of the State to pay $2,000 annually toward the expenses of the school. The school was started in an old church and shanty with thirty students and a teacher. The history of the school and its present condition are already known to the readers of this book, and to the world for that matter. It is enough to say that the institution with its 1,900 acres of land, its 28 or more large buildings, with its 1,000 or more teachers and pupils, its wealth in live stock and its valuation of over $250,000, is a prodigy of development. Principal Washington has met with unusual success in making the acquaintance and securing the confidence of prominent and wealthy people throughout the country. This is attested by the fact that he succeeds in raising from $50,000 to $60,000 each year with which to carry on the school work. Several individuals give from $3,000 to $10,000 each annually toward the support of the school. Mr. Washington's services are in constant demand to speak at associations, clubs and prominent churches. The speech that brought him first

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into prominence was before the National Education Association, Madison, Wisconsin, in 1884. Soon after he was invited to address the Boston Unitarian club, the most intelligent and wealthy club in the world, he being the first Afro-American to address the club. He has spoken at Plymouth Church (formerly Henry Ward Beecher's); Trinity Church, Boston, (formerly Phillips Brooks') and many other of the most prominent churches in the country; also before the Political Science Club, of Cornell University; the Congregational Club and the Twentieth Century Club, of Boston. The "Outlook," one of the greatest Christian journals in this country, published in '93 the cut of Prof. Washington, along with those of the presidents of twenty-eight of America's leading colleges. Mr. Washington is regarded as one of the leading men of the country and is held in high esteem in Massachusetts, as was shown by his being made the guest of honor at the governor's table recently. Mr. Washington is among the foremost men of this country and time.

Mind and Matter.

[An address delivered by Booker T. Washington, Principal Tuskegee (Ala.) Normal and Industrial Institute, before the Alabama State Teachers' Association, Selma, Ala., June 5, 1895.]

        MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

        THE question comes before me to-night with a greater force than ever, it seems to me, To what extent is our education reaching, penetrating the heart of the masses of people by whom we are surrounded; to what extent is our education affecting the heart, affecting the hand, affecting the head, the whole man, of the masses by whom we are surrounded in such counties as Bullock, Lowndes, Wilcox, Dallas and Montgomery? Now I understand that there are favored ones in all parts of the State, but an education that does not, sooner or later, lift up the masses, has its weak points. The question arises to what extent is the education that we are getting in our universities, academies, high schools, common schools, reaching the heart of the masses of these people, and to what extent are we able to appreciate an improvement in the condition of the masses by reason of the education we are getting from day to day?

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        There was an incident which happened sometime ago up in the State of Kentucky, which aptly illustrates what I am speaking of. There was a man who had spent a good many hundred dollars in educating his son known as Solomon. This man and his wife, both of whom were very ignorant so far as books are concerned, began sending Solomon to school when quite young, keeping him in school four and five months each year. During vacations Solomon would earn two and three dollars a week, which he gave to his father and mother regularly. When he grew older, Solomon was sent to college where he remained seven or eight years at the expense of his father and mother. Finally Solomon received his diploma and returned to his old home. It was not very long before the old folks began to note a change in Solomon's appearance and especially in his disposition to work. There was a kind of restlessness about him. The old people began to notice that he cared little for home, that he didn't go out into the field each day and help his old father as he used to do before going to college, and that at the end of each week Solomon didn't bring in the usual two or three dollars. They noticed that he did nothing but walk around the streets with his hands in his pockets, and that as one Saturday night drew near, Solomon got nearer the old man, and asked him for fifty cents with which to buy a silk necktie. The old man scratched his head, but said nothing. And Solomon continued to walk about the streets with his hands in his pockets and stand on the corners. When the next Saturday night came around, Solomon asked his father to give him four dollars with which to buy a new pair of shoes. The old man had never heard of a pair of shoes costing more than two dollars, and started to speak out, but kept his tongue and gave Solomon the four dollars. These requests and the great changes in Solomon began to make the old man think about Solomon and his college education. Finally there appeared in the town, a man from Massachusetts. Solomon's father one day went to this man, whose acquaintance he happened to make, and said, "I want to speak with you about my son Solomon. He has been to college and has a good education. I am sure of that; but my friend, for God's sake take Solomon aside and tell him what to do with that education."

        Now my friends, wont you agree with me that there are a good many Solomons getting scattered all through the South? Aren't there entirely too many of our people whose heads are full, but who don't know how to use it?

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        This Massachusetts man took Solomon aside and said to him, "Solomon, what did you study in college?" "Chemistry, sir." "Well, that's good, but what are you going to do with that chemistry?" "I don't know, sir," replied Solomon. "Well Solomon, your father is a farmer; you take your chemistry and go out into that field and show him how to enrich his soil. What else did you study at college?" "Geometry, sir." "Well Solomon, isn't it possible for you to go out there with your father and show him how to check off that land, how to run his corn rows straight instead of crooked?" "That is true, I had never thought of that," said Solomon. Then Solomon began to think, and by reason of that good, sound and timely advice, joined his old father and began to apply his education; and to-day, my friends, in the whole State of Kentucky, I venture to say, you cannot find a more intelligently conducted farm than Solomon's. (Applause.)

        Now my friends, I believe there is no difficulty, however great, out of which we cannot find our way. The story is told that at one time, two unfortunate frogs fell into a jar of milk over night. After kicking for several hours, endeavoring to get out, one of the frogs said to the other, "It's no use kicking, I'm going to give up and sink to the bottom. The sooner it's over the better." Not so with the second frog, who kept on kicking until morning when the milk turned to butter, and he once more found himself on terra firma. We must all get out of our difficulties by kicking.

        We are born, so far as our educational career is concerned, in time to take advantage of all the mistakes the white man has made during the last two thousand years, and the question is, simply, Are we going take advantage of these mistakes he has made, or are we going over the same rough ground and learn by the same hard experience what the white man is just realizing? (Applause.) I for one, am in favor of taking advantage of these mistakes, and making the most of them. If you have watched the trend of education for the past fifty years, you have noticed that it has tended in one direction, namely, the cementing of mind and matter. It has tended in the direction of making mind a part of matter. In this city to-day there is extended to the poorest and most humble child the opportunity of receiving a better education than was given the child of the President of the Union fifty years ago. Fifty years ago the little boy of four or five years went to school and was taught to count abstractly, one, two, three, etc.; to-day he goes into the school

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room and counts, one apple, two definite apples that he can lay his hand on. Fifty years ago this little boy learned to read by pronouncing abstract and often meaningless words; to-day he reads of a dog, not some dog far off in the distance which he cannot see and feel, but one that really exists and upon which he can lay his hand. Fifty years ago he studied about chemistry, he sat up in a school or lecture room, and was told about chemistry, and the chemical experiments which were made; to-day, instead of studying about chemistry, the student feels, handles and comes in immediate contact with the matter about which he studies. He performs with his own hands the experiments which, fifty years ago, were lectured about.

        Now my friends this brings me to the question that I have especially in view to-night; it is what we are wont to call industrial education, the application of mind to matter, and to the conquering of the forces of nature. A few days ago I visited a certain institution where mechanical drawing is taught. I went into the room where a class in this study were reciting. I noticed on the black-board, this problem: "Draw out, design and create a plan for dairy." The teacher told me that none of his students had ever seen the kind of building he had in mind, yet he wanted them to draw from their own resources and create a dairy.

        What is education? By education the mind is strengthened, whether through the study of the classics, or through mechanical drawing, or through the carpenter shop. No matter how he gets it, a man is educated whose mind is so strengthened that he has complete control of the organization and use of his mind. And so this teacher told his students to create a dairy. My friends, isn't that education? Compare an education like that with merely having a boy sit down and memorize something that happened a thousand years ago.

        Now, my friends, I never plead for less education. I believe in the highest development of the mind. I believe with the poet--


                         "Had I the power to reach the pole
                         Or grasp the ocean with a span,
                         I'd still be measured by my soul,
                         The mind's the measure of the man."

        But we must remember that I am pleading for the use of the mind, for the use of education, no matter whether it is little or much education, no matter whether it is secured in this way or that way, I am pleading for the use of education.

        We had just as well inculcate this in our pupils once for all, that

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the world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what the man or woman is able to do that the world cares about. An educated man standing on the corners of the street with his hands in his pockets is of no more value to the world than an ignorant man doing the same thing. In almost every community in the South and throughout the North they have what is known as "smart men," men of education and culture. You go into any city and it will not be very long before the news reaches your ears that there is a very smart man in that community. I saw one of these smart men some time ago. I had heard a great deal about him, and asked some one who he was. "O that's Mr. Soandso, and I tell you he's a smart man," "What does he do?" I asked. "O he isn't doing any thing in particular just now; he's just a smart man, that's all." (Laughter.) "Can he build any houses?" "O no, he never builds any houses." "Drow the plans for any? Does he farm, raise hogs?" "Oh, my, no! He doesn't do anything like that, he wouldn't be caught raising hogs for any thing. He's just a smart man, but just now he isn't engaged in any particular line of work."

        Now, my friends, when we speak usually of hand-craft, the average man gets the idea that it is something to teach a man to work. When you speak of industrial education, he is immediately prejudiced. He will say, "My son or my daughter knows how to work already." My friends, never was there a greater mistake made than this. I do not mean to say that the Negro doesn't work. Whether you find him in the Mississippi bottoms, on the sugar plantations of Louisiana, on the rice swamps of North Carolina, or the cotton fields of Alabama, the Negro works hard from morning till night. And he works at a tremendous disadvantage, and he does everything in the most costly manner. I will tell you what industrial education means: It means teaching a man how not to work. That is what industrial education means. It teaches a man how to harness the forces of nature and make them do his work instead of working out his brains and strength, accomplishing very little good.

        Sometime ago, while traveling through the State of Indiana, I saw a man engaged in planting corn. Instead of following a plow he was seated on a large machine called a cultivator. Hitched to this were two fine horses. The man was not only sitting down, but was holding a large umbrella over him, and all the strength he had to expend was in holding the horses back to prevent their working themselves to death. This machine plowed up the ground, laid off the

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furrows, dropped and covered the corn. Besides, instead of planting one row at a time, two rows of corn were planted. On another occasion I saw a farmer plant corn in Alabama. Instead of being perched upon a cultivator, he had an old plow that was loosely tacked together, and about four inches wide. Hitched to this plow was an old mule that traveled about a mile an hour. Instead of riding this fellow was following this plow, barefooted, and carrying with him a long hickory pole which he occasionally laid on the back of the weary-looking mule. Nearly every time he reached the end of the furrow, he would have to stop and repair the plow, and very often the harness, which was composed partly of rags and partly of leather, and too, the mule had only one eye. In addition to ploughing the ground, he had to go over it with the same old one-eyed mule, and then another man came along to drop the corn and then another to cover it. He was what you call one of these "one-gallused" farmers, and he very often found it necessary to stop and repair his suspenders in order to keep his pantaloons in position. Now here was this farmer in Alabama competing with this Indiana farmer? (Laughter.) This man in Indiana had learned how to apply his education to agriculture. And still people tell me that the black man doesn't need industrial education. What I mean by industrial education is getting the black boy to the point where he can sit upon an instrument of that sort that the Indiana man used, and raise more corn than the Indiana farmer can raise. (Applause.)

        While education brings with it certain privileges, it brings with it also certain responsibilities and certain opportunities. Here it brings an opportunity to compete for the American dollar, and there is nothing that has so little sentiment, so little prejudice in it. We are going to be mortgaged in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and all over the South, we are going to continue buying corn from the Indiana farmers until we can get our boys to raise corn just as fast and just as cheaply as the man in Indiana.

        At Tuskegee we have in operation what is known as the Aladdin Oven, a machine or vessel for the purpose of teaching a woman how to cook a meal and take a nap at the same time. Wouldn't you like to cook that way? I claim that industrial education is meant to teach a person how not to work, how to make the forces of nature work for him; and in this vessel a woman can cook a piece of tough beef by putting a lamp under it, and by morning she will find it ready for the table, tender and nicely cooked. This is industrial education.

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        I was in a dairy a few days ago where I saw men making butter, and in only a few minutes after the milk came from the cow, it was put into a separator, out of which I saw the milk come out of one little tube and the cream out of another. This cream was then transferred to another vessel, a churn, I believe it was, and a man began to turn a crank for a while, and in a very few minutes from that I saw laid off in nice square blocks, some of the finest butter I ever saw. This man hardly touched the butter with his hands. The man who made this butter has had a college education, has studied chemistry. That is the way he applied his education. That is industrial education.

        To be a little more practical. There are some things which we have got to learn to do. If we are going to hold our own in this Southland, right about us, we have got to learn, in the first place, to dignify labor, and in the second place to put brains into labor. Now is it common sense to take a girl and teach her to analyze Mars, bound Jupiter and at the same time neglect to teach her? Now I don't say it is wrong, but is it common sense to teach a girl to do that, and at the same time neglect to teach her the composition of the corn bread that she is compelled to eat three times a day? (Laughter.) Is that common sense?

        It used to be true throughout the North, as it is now throughout the South, that a great many colored men made their living by white-washing. The old colored man came along with his pole and white-wash bucket, and would occasionally get a fence to white wash, and less frequently, some one would let him in their parlor to white wash the walls. He would not only white wash the walls but would also touch up the pictures, curtains and carpet. (Laughter.) When he was done the whole thing would be pretty well white washed. That sort of thing went on, and when anyone wanted any white washing done they always sent for Uncle Joe, and so for many years Uncle Joe was the chief white-wash monopolist. But soon the white man began to think. The white boy went to college, to the school of technology, and learned chemistry, geometry and physics, and came out and applied his knowledge of these branches to mixing materials, figuring and decorating. He went into the house which old Uncle Joe used to white wash and took his job away from him, and wherever that white man has gone Uncle Joe can never go again. But you don't call that young white man a white washer; you call him a house decorator. He has taken that once common occupation, raised it up, put brains into it.

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        You know it used to be true that every large and paying barber shop in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and other large northern cities, was in the hands of colored men. Go into either of these cities to-day and you will not find a single paying barber shop controlled by colored men. When the colored man had a monopoly of this business, he went on in the same old way day after day without thinking and educating himself, without planning how to enlarge his business and advance the work. The whiteman saw his opportunity and opened a barber shop in which he put a newly made chair, a nice carpet and hung some pictures on the walls, and then he published a journal relating to the interests of the trade. He had a desk put in the shop at which he sat and kept his accounts. Thus he dignified that labor. But you don't call that man a barber; you call him a tonsorial artist, but he has got the black man's job just the same. (Laughter.)

        I think I do not exaggerate when I say that three-fourths of the colored families in the cities of the South are supported by washing clothes. Recently I had an investigation made into the condition of twenty-seven families in the city of Montgomery, and there was not a single one that did not support itself in part by washing. We have had a monopoly of that, but, if you will notice closely, you will see that it is passing away. The white boy leaves school to-day with a knowledge of physics or mechanics. He sets up a steam laundry. He introduces a machine that washes two thousand shirts a day by electricity, and at a much less cost than many washwomen can do it. Now how long are we going to sit still and let this thing go on? The fact is, we have neglected too long to put our brains into these common occupations of life.

        We are a great race of consumers, but we produce very little. We consume steam cars, but produce none; hats, but produce none. Suppose a law was passed preventing colored people from wearing hats made by white men; how many of us would go bare-headed? (Laughter.) Did you ever see a colored man who manufactured toothpicks? Of course you have seen plenty of men manufacture one perhaps for his own use out of a piece of dry goods box. You con't afford to do that, can you? The idea of an educated colored man manufacturing toothpicks! He has got to teach or preach. I was up in the State of Maine a few months ago, and found there men who were many times millionaires, and I asked, in one case, how they got their start. I was told that a certain man, one of these rich men

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would go home at night after his day's work on the farm was done, and with a jackknife which he had bought whittled out several dozen toothpicks, and finally he was able to buy another jackknife which he gave his wife, and she whittled. Both would sit around the family fireside and whittle toothpicks, and they kept on in that way until they were able to buy a small piece of machinery, and after a while added another piece of machinery, then applied steam. Thus that man got to be a millionaire by making these little things that we chew up and spit out and think nothing of.

        You have perhaps heard the story told by Henry W. Grady of a burial that took place in Pickens County, Georgia. It is said that the grave was dug through a solid bed of marble, but the marble head stone came from Vermont. The burial took place in the midst of a pine forest, but the coffin in which the dead man was buried came from Cincinnati. An iron mountain overlooked that grave, but the picks and shovels used in digging it came from Pittsburgh, Pa. The wagon that hauled the dead man's body came from South Bend Indiana, yet there was an immense hickory grove near by. The shoes that the dead man wore came from Boston, his pants and coat from Chicago, his shirt from Troy, N. Y., and the cheap white cravat came from Philadelphia, and the old one-eyed mule that drew the corpse was bought years ago in the State of Tennessee, and the only thing that Pickens County produced for that burial was the hole in the ground, and the dead man, and had it been possible these would have been imported also. (Laughter.) I fear that as a race, we are pretty much in the same fix as those people in Pickens County.

        But I am talking about a practical thing, whether or not it is a practical thing for the teachers who know something of agriculture to take their knowledge and go into such counties as Lowndes and Wilcox where the schools are lasting but three months during the year and get the patrons to let you have their children for a half day each day and with their help raise enough cotton and corn to extend your school term four and five months, instead of the usual three months. If our young men and women who are taught agriculture cannot use it in extending the school term it does seem to me that that education is, to a large extent, useless. And the old colored people on these plantations are beginning to think about this thing. I was at the Georgia State Teachers' Association last year, and some one read a table of statistics relative to the colored people's educational progress, and it was stated that they were not giving so much attention

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to college education now as formerly. I do not say that this is true, but if it is, I think I know the cause. The old colored farmer worked hard some years ago, saved every cent that he could get hold of, sacrificed in order that his son might remain in college. But he noticed that as soon as John got his college education he was not satisfied to come and live with mother and father and help them, but wanted to go back to Nashville or Atlanta just as soon as possible.

        Since then John hasn't gone home any more. After awhile another son in that family wants to go to college; he wants to go to the same college that his brother John attended. He lets this boy go, but he thinks of John and his college education, of how much money he has spent on John, and that he has not seen John since he got his diploma. Very soon the time comes for the third boy to want to go off to college; but the old man refuses point blank.

        Now, what you want to do is to take that old man's boy in Wilcox county and so educate him that he will take his knowledge of chemistry and gemoetry, etc., and go back and show his old father and mother how, by reason of his education, by reason of his increased intelligence, on the same acre of land where only ten bushels of corn were formerly raised, to raise forty bushels on the same acre. Do that, and every man in the State of Alabama who was a son will be willing to sacrifice in order that his son may go to college.

        Now, somebody is going to say, "You are too utilitarian in your plea, you overlook the moral and religious." No, I don't. I know that I tell you that we must have a certain amount of industrial and material foundation on which to rest our moral and religious life. The most moral and religious people to-day are to be found in New England. It is easy for a man to be a Christian when he has a hundred thousand dollars in the bank.

        To come out flat-footed, as the old man said, the trouble with us is we are hungry. I don't mean to say that you people here in Selma are hungry, but in the broader acceptation of the term--shelter, clothing, provisions for a rainy day, we are a hungry people; and I know some of these ministers will agree with me. The hardest thing that the minister has to do is to make a good Christian out of a hungry man. You can't make a good Christian out of a hungry man; I don't care how much he gets up and shouts in church, if, after he goes home from church at night and finds nothing there, he is tempted (and very often succeeds) to find something before morning.

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This is human nature the world over, and I don't say that it is confined to the black man.

        As a race you know we are very emotional. The white man can beat us thinking, but when it comes to feeling the white man isn't in it. We can feel more in five minutes than the white man can in a day. The colored man spends much time in preparing to live in the next world. Analyze the average colored preacher's sermon, and you will find that three-fourths of it is devoted to an imaginary description of heaven. It tells about white mansions above, while the members of his congregation live in log cabins; about wearing golden slippers, when more than half his audience are barefooted. He talks about living on milk and honey in the next world, but when he goes to take dinner with one of his sisters he is given cornbread and peas. (Laughter.) I was on a plantation some time ago and heard a preacher preach, and the whole burden of his sermon was, "You get religion and give up the world." Now, I am not speaking irreverently; I have no patience with that sort of thing. I happened to know the people in that community, and I knew that there were not two persons in the whole community who owned land, hogs, cattle and who were not mortgaged. I said to this preacher: "My friend, what have these people to give of the world; what is it you want them to give up?" That is not the kind of doctrine to preach. The people want to be taught to get hold of the world, and mix in with their land, cotton and corn a good bank account, and when they get that, they have a religion that you can bank on seven days in the week.

        There is nothing that is going to be so effective in removing whatever friction that exists between the two races in this country as the idea that I have been trying to enforce, the idea of letting the colored man's education tend in the direction of producing something tangible, something that somebody can feel and see. When I went into the town of Tuskegee, fourteen years ago, there were some white people who wouldn't look at me. I went on for awhile. After a while these same white people wanted some bricks and they came to us to get them. That relation has gone on, so that now we have no warmer friends anywhere than in Tuskegee. When we began the manufacture of buggies they came to us. They came to our printing office to have their printing done, and to-day the main Democratic paper of Tuskegee is printed in our office. I don't say we edit it, we only print it.

        You will find that the friction will pass just in proportion as the

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black man gets something the white man wants. Nobody cares anything for a man that hasn't something that somebody else wants. A white man doesn't care anything about another white man unless he has something, property, influence or perhaps a daughter, and that something brings the two individuals together and makes friends and neighbors of them; and the same thing is true of races. I remember that when I first went to Tuskegee there were some poor white people who were always talking about driving that nigger school teacher away from town. I would meet one of these old fellows and try to impress my importance upon him, but it didn't work. I knew a little about Latin, Geometry and Physics, but what did they care? After a time we began to put up a large brick building. The building brought them and they became our best friends.

        And so we have gone on putting up building after building until now we have 37 on the school grounds, the larger part of them being built wholly by the labor of the students. Our property is valued at $215,000. The annual expense of carrying on the school is about $75,000 or about $250 for every day the school is in session. We have some 250 head of live stock of various kinds, three steam boilers, and thirty-five or forty buggies, wagons, carts, etc. In all the school owns nearly 1,800 acres of land, 600 of which are under cultivation. There are twenty-two industries including the following: Carpentry, wheelwrighting, blacksmithing, tinning, foundry and machine work, shoe making, harness making, dressmaking, millinery work, stock raising, horticulture, dairying, brick making, brick masonry, plastering, printing, cooking, laundering, agriculture, mattress making, agricultural and mechanical drawing, tailoring, painting and saw milling. These industries involve a thorough course in mechanical and architectural drawing. Since the organization of the school over a half million dollars have been collected and expended in building up the work. Students have worked out during the past year $41,000. The whole property as well as the control of the institution is in the hands of a board of trustees. There is no mortgage on any of the property.

        We try to surround students in Tuskegee with an air of thrift and business, so that the spirit of industry gets deep into one's blood and bones, as well as to make the institution an object-lesson as to the capability of the Negro and of Negro civilization. There are over 800 students, representing seventeen States and one Territory. Sixty-six instructors, all colored, are employed. The average

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age of the students is eighteen and one half years, none being admitted under fourteen.

        I have no patience with that class of people who say that the Negro cannot find use for his education after he has obtained it. There are opportunities all about us which we are not using. How many educated horticulturists among the colored people are there in this country? How many educated agriculturists and landscape gardeners are there? Not only are horticulturists needed, but mechanical and civil engineers, architects, brickmakers, trained nurses, educated cooks. If our educated young men and women will turn their attention more and more to the physical, they will find themselves more and more in demand.

        

Illustration

CASSEDY INDUSTRIAL HALL.

        My friends, there is an unexplainable influence about a black man's living in a brick house that you cannot understand. When the black man can make his education felt in producing a brick house or something that somebody wants to get hold of nothing causes friction to pass away so soon. Suppose someone would go into the city

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of Birmingham and make the assertion that the Germans as a race are lazy, shiftless, good-for-noting class of people. Will any heated argument be necessary to prove that he didn't know what he was talking about? No. Some one would say, "Do you see that large block of brick buildings over there? It is owned by a German. Do you see that large cotton mill? That is owned by a German." And there the argument will end. When Thomas doubted whether Christ had arisen from the dead, he did not enter into a long argument with him; he said, "Thomas, do you see where the nails entered my hands and feet?" That was the most convincing, the most tangible argument that could have been produced.

        We had just as well acknowledge that after the war we made some great mistakes. We began at the top when we should have begun at the bottom. We spent time and money trying to go to Congress that could have better been spent in becoming the leading real estate dealer in our town. We spent time in making political stump speeches that could have better been spent in operating the finest dairy or truck farm in the country. We spent all this time uselessly instead of laying a material foundation upon which we could have stood and demanded our political rights.

        Now in conclusion, my friends, there are a good many rights with-held from us, and wrongfully too, yet we must not spend too much time in giving attention to our grievances and neglect the many opportunities that are about us. We are denied the opportunity in many Southern cities of riding in a first-class car, even after we have paid for first-class fare, but in Dallas County, and all through the State, I tell you of an opportunity that is not denied us. We have the opportunity of living 365 days in the year in the neatest, most attractive and comfortable house in Dallas County, and nobody objects to that. The average colored man has the opportunity of being denied accommodation in a first-class hotel about twice in a year, yet at the same time he has the opportunity all through Alabama, of living and sleeping in the neatest and cleanest room to be found, and no low will say he cannot do it. The average colored man is denied the privilege of sitting on a jury about once in two years, but there is no law to prevent our young men and women who are being educated from owing and operating the finest dairy farm from which butter that is eaten by every man who does sit on the jury is raised. What I mean to say is that he who holds the dollars, brains and intelligence will, in the long run, hold the offices.

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        We expect too often to get things that God did not mean for us to have in certain ways. At one time an old colored man was very anxious to get a turkey, and he prayed and prayed for the Lord to send him a turkey. The turkey did not come, and finally the old man changed his prayer somewhat, and said, "O Lord, send dis nigger to a turkey," and he got it that night. (Laughter.) God means for us to get many things in about that same way, that is by working for them rather than by depending merely on the power of mouth.

        At one time a ship was lost at sea for many days, when it hove in sight of a friendly vessel. The signal of the distressed vessel was at once hoisted, which read, "We want water," "we die of thirst." The answering signal read, "Cast down your bucket where you are," but a second time the distressed vessel signaled, "We want water, water," and a second time the other vessel answered "Cast down your bucket where you are." A third and fourth time the distressed vessel signaled "We want water, water," "we die of thirst," and as many times was answered "Cast down your bucket where you are." At last the command was obeyed, the bucket was cast down where the vessel stood and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the Amazon river. My friends we are failing to cast down our buckets for the help that is right about us, and spend too much time in signaling for help that is far off. Let us cast down our buckets here in our own sunny South, cast them down in agriculture, in truck gardening, dairying, poultry raising, hog raising, laundrying, cooking, sewing, mechanical and professional life, and the help that we think is far off will come and we will soon grow independent and useful.

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TUSKEGEE NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE-- THIRTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT.

TO THE TRUSTEES OF THE TUSKEGEE NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE, TUSKEGEE, ALABAMA.

GENTLEMEN:

        THIS report marks the closing of the thirteenth year of the history of this Institution. Beginning July 4, 1881, without a dollar except an annual appropriation of $2,000 from the State for tuition, during the thirteen years there has come into our treasury $511,955.42 in cash from all sources. Of this amount $73,000 has come from the State; $5,162.50 from the Peabody Fund; $15,500 from the John F. Slater Fund; $51,450.91 from the students toward their expenses. The remainder, $413.842.01 has come in the form of gifts from individuals, organizations, concerts and the county of Macon. During the thirteen years the students have done labor for the Institution to the value of $203,612.52.

        Beginning in a small church and shanty with no property, the property of the Institution, including land, buildings, live stock, outfit and apparatus, is now valued at $215,000, and there is no mortgage on any of it. In all the school owns 1,810 acres of land. Counting large and small there are thirty-one buildings used for class work, industrial training and dormitory purposes. There are 256 head of live stock, consisting of horses, mules, cows, calves, hogs, etc. The first enrollment consisted of thirty pupils and one teacher. The enrollment for the present year is 809 students and 66 instructors. Including the present class 166 have graduated and are doing excellent work as teachers in the class room and as industrial teachers in other schools, farmers, mechanics, housekeepers, etc. Besides at least 400 under-graduates are doing excellent work in the lines just mentioned. The demand for our graduates is usually larger than we can supply. There are no loafers to be found among those who graduate at Tuskegee.

        Since May 31, 1893, the close of our last financial year, to May 31,

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1894, the income of the shool from all sources has been $73,107. Of this amount two-fifths have gone into the permanent plant, and three-fifths into the current expenses of the school; $7,911.28 has been paid in cash by the students toward their own expenses; $3,000 from the State, and the remainder has come from generous individuals and organizations. Students have done work to the value of $41,893.20 for this year. The average salary paid the teachers is $395.58 per year.

        In connection with the growth of the Institution, it is encouraging to note the following: During last year the John F. Slater Fund Trustee Board increased its appropriation to the school for the present year from $2,000 to $4,000. During the month of February, Dr. J. L. M. Curry, Chairman of the Educational Committee of the Slater Fund, in company with Dr. D. C. Gilman, the President of the Slater Trust, visited and thoroughly inspected the work of the school; and as a result of the visit and report, the Board has just notified us of its decision to increase the appropriation for the coming year to something over $5,000.

        

Illustration

Phelps Hall.

        Phelps Hall, the beautiful and commodious building given by Miss Olivia E. P. Stokes, of New York City, for Bible study, has been completed and furnished at a cost of about $12,000--the whole expense being borne by Miss Stokes.

        A lady who wishes to be known simply as an "Elderly Northern Friend," has given $2,000 toward a permanent fund of $10,000 to endow the Nurse-Training Department. $1,000 of this is invested in the Macon County Bank at 6 per cent interest.

        Following is an explanatory letter from the donor of this fund:--

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To the Trustees of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute:

        "Enclosed please find one thousand ($1,000) dollars toward the ten thousand ($10,000) dollars needed for the establishment of Permanent Fund for the Nurse-Training Department of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute; this Fund to be designated as the Lafayette Fund.

        "One-half of the annual interest on the above one thousand ($1,000) dollars, and, also, on whatever sums may be added to this Lafayette Fund from time to time by the present donor, or by other donor or donors, or by accrued interest, is not to be expended, but to be added to the principal, until the needed amount of ten thousand ($10,000) dollars accrues.

        "Meanwhile, the remaining one-half of the annual interest is to be used annually for the benefit of the Nurse-Training Department of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute.

        "After the required sum of ten thousand ($10,000) dollars has accrued, then the entire interest thereof shall be used annually to defray the expenses of the Nurse-Training Department of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute.

        "Or, at the discretion of the trustees of said Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, part of the annual interest of this said Lafayette Fund of ten thousand ($10,000) dollars, may be used for hospital needs of said Institute.

"May 12th, 1893."

        Mrs. Mary E. Berry, formerly of Macon County, Ala., but now residing in New York City, has given the Institution a deed to a plantation ten miles from Tuskegee, that contains four hundred acres of land; has on it several buildings, including one brick building with nine rooms. The estate with improvements is valued at $10,000.

        The Fund of $2,000, given some time ago by Miss Olivia E. P. Stokes, for investment--the interest to be used in helping students having the Christian Ministry in view--is invested as follows:

        $1,200 temporarily invested in the supply farm, "Marshall" Farm; $800 lent to A. A. Torbert, for building.

        A gentleman and his wife, residing in Boston, who do not care to have their names made public, have established the "Dizer Fund," the object of which is described in the following letter:

To the Trustees of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama:

        I hereby donate to the Trustees of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial

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Institute, Tuskegee, Ala., ($1,500) one thousand five hundred dollars, to be known as the "Dizer Fund," and to be used by them in the following manner:

        As fast as practicable, I desire the trustees to lend the above-named amount to colored people in sums of $50.00 to $300.00, in a way to enable them to secure comfortable homes. In all cases where loans are made, I desire that the Tuskegee graduates or students be given the preference. The loans are to be secured by mortgage on the real estate, and the rate of interest charged is to be 8 per cent. per annum. It is further my wish that the trustees so lend the money as to cause to be built in as many different communities as possible, at least one model Christian home. The annual income from the Dizer Fund is to be used by the Trustees of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in any manner that they deem best for the benefit of the Institution, and if at any time, in the judgment of the trustees, the good of the Institution requires it, they are at liberty to use the Dizer Fund for the immediate wants of the Institution, instead of in the manner specified in the foregoing."


        At present this fund has been loaned to graduates and others on the conditions named, and it is accomplishing great good. It is eagerly sought after by graduates, and there are many applicants now waiting to secure a loan.

        Mr. Henry L. Stearns, of College Hill, Mass., has established a scholarship in memory of his father, Maj. George L. Stearns, by the gift of one thousand dollars, which has been invested at 6 per cent. interest.

        A few years ago Rev. Frederick Frothingham, of Milton, Mass., who has been interested in this Institution almost from its beginning, left by will $20,000 to the American Unitarian Association, of Boston, the income of which was to be used for all time to promote education among the colored people. The American Unitarian Association, at a meeting last fall, voted unanimously to give the income from the Frothingham Fund to this Institution; $10,000 left the Institution some time ago by the bequest of Mr. Horace Smith, of Springfield, Mass., was paid by the executors during the month of March.

        Mr. A. H. Parker, of Brooklyn, N. Y., has recently given us a second mortgage for $1,000. The money, when collected, is to be used in erecting on the school grounds, a Model Home, to be occupied by the girls of the Senior Class. The mortgage is at present in the

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hands of Mr. Parker as a matter of convenience for collecting the interest and principal.

        Three new cottages for teachers' residences have been built on the school grounds during the past year. In connection with the literary work, there are at present 23 industries in operation, which are as follows: Carpentry, painting, architectural and mechanical drawing, brick-making, brick-masonry, saw mill work, plastering, wheel-wrighting, harness-making, farming, shoe-making, tinning, printing, mattress-making, nurse-training, dress-making and sewing, stock-raising, blacksmithing, laundrying, tailoring, house-keeping and cooking.

        There has never been a year in the history of the school when so much improvement has been made in the teaching of the industries. Most of the industrial work now has as its foundation a thorough course in mechanical and architectural drawing. The article to be manufactured in the shop is first drawn by the student and then manufactured in the shop. Every student now receives three-fourths of an hour each day bearing upon the principles and theory of his trade or industry in addition to the practical work. This has greatly increased the interest of the students in the industrial work as well as added to the value of the industrial work. One of the greatest needs in the industrial work is more teaching force, so that the head of the department can have more time for planning, research and study. The colored people throughout the world are beginning to demand industrial education in a way that they have never done before. All of our industrial departments have been full, and many students refused for lack of room.

        A large number of other schools and individuals are applying to this institution for information that will assist them in starting or improving an industrial department, and this furnishes another reason why everything at Tuskegee should be done in the best manner. In a word, an increasing number of institutions are using us as their model.

        The Bible Training School, founded by Miss Olivia E. P. Stokes, of New York, about eighteen months ago, is meeting with very satisfactory success. The enrollment for the present year is forty-three, consisting mainly of ministers or those intending to be ministers. Perhaps the most interesting and unique feature of the Bible Training School is the fact that theology in the usual sense is not taught, and the question of denomination is wholly ignored. The

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students, as a rule, are about equally divided between Baptists and Methodists, but other denominations are also represented.

        The teaching as far as possible is also confined to the simple truths of the English Bible. Special stress is laid upon having the students receive practical training in applied religion, especially in its relations to the industrial and moral needs of the masses of the colored people in the "Black Belt." The simple presentation of the abstract truths of the Bible from the pulpit is not all that the masses of the colored people need. Not much religion can exist in a one-room cabin and in an empty stomach. The prospects now are that the attendance in this department will be greatly increased next year.

        This institution perhaps never did a wiser or more helpful thing than when it inaugurated what is known all over the country as the "Tuskegee Negro Conference," which has now held three meetings, the objects of which have been the bringing together for quiet conference, not the politicians, but the representatives of the hardworking farmers, mechanics, teachers and ministers, to find out the actual condition of the race industrially, educationally, morally and religiously, and to suggest remedies for present evils. The conference devotes itself, not to the discussion of wrongs perpetrated upon the race, but to the race's opportunities to better their condition. The good these conferences are doing is very apparent.

        Some of the most urgent needs of the school at present are closer attention to the improvement in matters that concern the nicer and smaller details of the work in every respect; also during the coming school year much attention should be given to making the literary and normal work more thorough and effective.

        A building to contain sleeping rooms for young men and recitation rooms are badly needed; also a chapel that can be used for large gatherings. Greater efforts should be put forth in the future in securing an endowment fund upon which the school can rely in a large measure for its income.

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON,
Principal.

May 30, 1894.

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MISS LUCY LANEY

        AMONG the colored female educators of the South, the subject of our sketch stands pre-eminently first. In speaking of her, Rev. George C. Lowe, of Charleston, S. C., says: "Miss Laney is a graduate of Atlanta University, and has taught school for a number of years in various places in Georgia. She left Savannah in 1886 where she was receiving a salary of $400 per year, and went to Augusta for the purpose of establishing an industrial boarding school, without the promise of aid from anyone. She rented a large house, became responsible for the support of teachers and the boarding department and began work. The first year her school enrolled 140 pupils; the second, 250, and it has steadily increased in numbers, power, and influence." This school is under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church, but is open to all who will comply with the rules and regulations. A few years ago a benevolent Northern lady gave her $10,000 with which a site was purchased in a desirable locality and a handsome five-story brick building was erected, and four years after it was founded Miss Laney transferred her school to this handsome edifice. We are not surprised at the success with which Miss Laney is meeting since she has associated with her such competent assistants as Miss M. C. Jackson, Miss Irene Smallwood, and Mrs. Mary R. Phelps. Miss Laney is a model for her numerous pupils in everything that the word implies. The "Palmetto Poet," Dr. George C. Rowe, puts it this way:


                         Not on the height of Bunker Hill
                         Nor Concord's battle ground,
                         Nor on the field of Vicksburg, will
                         Our heroine be found.


                         Not in the annals of the wars
                         That history records;
                         Not in sayings 'neath the stripes and stars
                         Shall we hear her thrilling words!


                         But where the ranks of the coming men
                         And women may be found,
                         With books and slates and ready pen,
                         Lo, there is her battle ground!

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                         Not where the din and conflict reach--
                         Nor hidious bugle toot,
                         But where the patient teachers teach
                         Ideas how to shoot!


                         To reach the top her mind was bent;
                         Patience and faith her rule;
                         To-day she sits as President
                         Of Haines Industrial School!


                         Among the women of our race
                         We know of few, if any,
                         Who fill a nobler, worthier place--
                         Thou earnest Lucy Laney.

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Haines Normal and Industrial Institute.

        A VERY significant mission school in the South is that one located at Augusta, Georgia, and known as the Haines Normal and Industrial Institute. It is the life and effort of a young Negro woman, Miss Lucy C. Laney, who when very young conceived the idea of founding a school for the uplifting of Negro women. The idea was too noble to perish. Upon her own responsibility the school was founded in 1886 in rented buildings. Four years afterward the work was transferred to a handsome, spacious, five-story brick building.

        

Illustration

HAINES NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE.

        In that building together with a smaller wooden building are taught sewing, printing, and laundry work. The first story of the brick building contains a very large engine used for heating the different recitation rooms and the building in general. The second story consists of a very large assembly room, reception room, dining room, kitchen, music room, and two recitation rooms. The third story has

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six recitation rooms, one music room, library, cloak room and Miss Laney's office. The fourth and fifth stories are rooms neatly furnished and sufficient to accommodate about sixty young ladies, aside from the two bath rooms and reception room. There are small cottages used as dormitories for the young men.

        There are two departments of this school, viz.: A normal and college preparatory. The normal prepares the students for teachers and to fill the many openings for our young people. The college preparatory course fits those wishing a higher education to enter college. Sometimes the young men leaving Haines and going to Princeton, Harvard and Lincoln Universities, etc., on examination make the junior college course, so thorough is the training given in this Institution.

        We feel that we would do Haines an injustice not to mention the special training class for teachers presided over by Miss M. C. Jackson, the assistant principal of Haines. Those wishing a thorough knowledge of "theory and practice" and all or most of the new methods of teaching the young idea how to "shoot," will find themselves greatly benefitted by becoming members of Miss Jackson's training class. There is also a class for training nurses for the sick. How important it is to know how to care for the sick; many die because of ignorant nurses. I would that all Institutions had departments for training nurses. Some of the young women after having finished a course in the training class, nurse in private families for very good salaries, others attend in hospitals as matrons, etc.

        One of the recent features of the Haines school is the establishment of the Kindergarten department, which is so ably presided over by Miss Irene Smallwood, a graduate of the Kindergarten Training School in Buffalo, New York. In this school little children from three to six years old are taken and put through a thorough and practical drill in many things which train the intellect, direct the imagination, and tend to make the little ones skilled in the use of their hands. They sew, learn to call things by their names, learn to distinguish colors, and in a hundred things do they receive a training that is indispensable to them when they enter the school room proper.

        Haines' School is under the auspices of the Northern Presbyterian Board, with Miss L. C. Laney as its principal. The average enrollment of the school has been about four hundred. This is the only Presbyterian mission school in the State of Georgia, and for that reason it is a very interesting part of the Presbyterian Church.

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Illustration

        MRS. MARY R. PHELPS.
Augusta, Ga.

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MARY R. PHELPS.

        MRS. MARY R. PHELPS is the daughter of Hilliard and Adeline Rice. She was born in Union County, South Carolina. She could read when but four years old, at the age of five she entered the public school. She had a wonderful memory, could recite from memory every dialogue, every piece of poetry, and every page of importance in her school books. When only thirteen years old she was asked to take charge of a large school. With her parents' consent she accepted, was examined and received a teacher's certificate and taught the fall and winter term of said school. Her parents noting her improvement and aptness, notwithstanding her limited advantages, determined to have her educated. They sent her to Benedict Institute, Columbia, S. C., where she remained one term, making one hundred in her examinations. During that vacation she taught as usual, and the term of 1881-2 she entered Scotia Seminary, Concord, N. C., where she completed both courses, graduating from the higher course in 1885. While attending Scotia she was noted for her high style of writing, and for her worthiness received a two years' scholarship in Scotia Seminary. After graduating she was principal of the public schools at Glenn Springs, S. C., three years.

        In 1890 she resigned at Glenn Springs to accept a position in the Graded School, of Rome, Ga., where she taught a part of two terms. For the term of 1890-91 she was elected Assistant Principal of the Eddy School, Milledgeville, Ga. On the 25th of October, 1891, she was married to John L. Phelps, of Milledgeville, Ga., at her home, Helena, S. C. In 1893 she was elected Assistant Principal of Cleveland Academy, Helena, S. C., and resigned before the term closed to accept a position in Haines Institute, Augusta, Ga. Aside from these named schools she has taught school in Newberry, Chester, Union, Lexington, Laurens, and Spartanburg, Counties, South Carolina, and Gordon County, Georgia. She has taught more than a thousand children from the age of thirteen to the present. Mrs. Phelps is also a great Sunday school worker. She spends her vacations in the rural districts teaching the country boy and girl, and on Sunday you will find her gathering the children into the Sunday school. If

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the community has none she will organize a Sunday school. The women in the country look forward with eagerness to her coming for she assists in whatever they do, especially in dressmaking. She has written articles for several papers and some of her friends have urged her to write, but she holds to what she feels is her peculiar calling, that is, the school room.

"The Responsibility of Women as Teachers."

BY MRS. MARY RICE PHELPS.

        I HAVE a nature somewhat poetic, and might try to please you with simile, metaphor or trope, but the simplest way of saying things is best. To show you the importance of our subject, we would smite you with the wand of imagination and lead you through "Eden" of old to behold man as he languished, surrounded with all the beauties of nature, in a garden of variegated grandeur, till one more perfect came to bless his home in Paradise. Or we might wander with you through ancient days, in the dark ages of the world's history, and there, among the musty volumes of other ages, the dusty archives of long forgotten generations, read of woman's worth from one parchment, and on another behold the world's wretchedness while she is excluded from society. She was bound by fetters of corruption to endure that which was degrading in itself. Yet we find a sense of pure principle and noble purpose found wherever she is found.

        In the dawn of the Christian era she threw off the manacle which society had placed upon her and rose, step by step, from one degree of usefulness to another, filling almost every honorable position, till she comes forth as man's equal and companion. We wish to speak briefly of her responsibilities and the preparation necessary to meet them, trusting that we may say something or suggest some thought that will help the young women of our race to place more value upon opportunities, and to more thoroughly and thoughtfully prepare themselves for the great work of moulding a more perfect negro race. There are manifold reasons to pause on the threshold of womanhood and ask ourselves: "What is the responsibility of women?" If we

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ask this question it is because it is grave; because society asks it; because we have a responsibility. This in itself is significant.

        The first and most important question with every woman should be: "What did God mean for me to do? Am I preparing myself to meet the demands of my people? Am I equiping myself with the elements that make a true woman?" She who seeks to make herself what God intends her to be is sure of success. Woman's responsibility as teacher is great, grand and awful. Great and grand because of the material used; the thoughtfulness and discretion with which she must labor to make a success. The combined influences, the steadfast purposes, patience and several dispositions that constitute the true man and woman must be so simplified and so developed as to appear so desirable that they will in time become a part of those taught. The responsibility is awful because of the results that will follow. Have you ever thought what a fearful thing it is to shape a character for future usefulness, and instil right principles in an immortal soul?

        The field is vast; more than eight millions of negroes in America; the majority to be taught loyalty to one another, and what it is to be true men and women; for the time may not be far distant when they will be called to fill positions of trust. Who can tell what event will begin a new epoch in the history of our country? Who can tell when the balance of power will be equally weighed among American citizens, and the sons of Ham will be a power? We have everything to hope for, though we sometimes murmur and think that stern Justice takes his nap unusually long. So long, until we have cried in our inmost souls, "How long, O Lord, how long?" But this is deviating from our subject.

        To what extent does woman teach, and where does her tutorage begin? Every woman is a teacher, whether she be worthy or unworthy; whether educated or ignorant. In the home circle, and around the fireside, her teaching begins with the first dawn of intelligence. This is her inalienable right, the charter given by the Almighty hand. It is she who first points out those paths which are so full of pleasantness and peace, and directs the innocent minds to a heavenly Father. She makes her own life a daily example (we speak of the true woman) of all that is pure and ennobling. She it is who teaches those qualities that are so essential to any race or tribe of beings, morality, the cornerstone in the building up of any race; Christianity, the thread that must make the warp and woof of a prosperous people;

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economy, one of the foundation stones that cannot be dispensed with.

        It is woman's responsibility to teach the coming generations to live inside of their means, and to reserve extra pennies for rainy days (they will be sure to come), and secure a home for old age. How many are paid large salaries, "live high," unmindful of the future, and end their existence in the almshouse?

        The time is fast approaching, so near that we can hear his footstep in the distance, when nobody will care for that class of persons who are content to live in poverty. Such have neglected opportunities misused means and wasted time. They are content to know little, and possess less, a universal sentiment, because it is a universal experience. Woman's responsibility is great, and its importance vast, when we analyze it. She alone has the power to set at naught the monster, "ignorance," uproot "base desire," break down the barrier, prejudice, and bury the race problem under the black pall of oblivion, beyond the possibility of a resurrection. Why should they fill positions as public teachers? Why, because our educated men are needed for so many avocations that the work of teaching is left almost wholly to women.

        True we have little or no part in the political arena, but that gives time for preparation and thought. Seeing the awful blunders that politicians now make will but give a clearer insight to them when it is theirs to act and to do. While they may be debarred from the ballot-box, and we cannot even offer them a clerkship after having worked manfully to acquire an education, we know of other fields. We need jewelers, machinists, engineers, lawyers, merchants, physicians and an educated ministry. We need leaders, not only in politics, but in the pulpits, in the pews and everywhere.

        Thirty years have passed since we were liberated from a condition of servitude and extreme degradation to enjoy the rights and privileges as citizens of America. We have waited and looked for a leader these thirty years with such anxiety as did our ancestors two hundred and fifty years ago for the glorious light of freedom. It came. So will a leader. Woman's work in the world is great and multifarious. It is a work which she alone can do. We do not mean to compare her with a man, but compare woman with woman. Judge of what I can do by what I have done; of what women can do by what they have done. She can inspire when man fails. 'Tis hers to uplift, purify and adorn. What great cause of the world has brought about the desired result without woman's help? She did not bring

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down the lightning and connect electricity with thought, that different countries could talk to each other; but what did not the Reformation owe to the clear, womanly insight of Catherine Von Bora? Does not American independence owe much to the courage and steadfast resolution of the women of the Revolution?

        She did not soar on telescopic wings and poise on ethereal pinions amid the fiery planets of the blue canopy to make a catalogue of the stars and discover the laws that govern them, and "unlock their complicated movements;" but we find her shaping character and moulding the minds that sway the government of our country. What does not missions owe to the Christian women of our country? It holds true that


                         "Warriors and statesmen have their meed of praise;
                         And what they suffer men record;
                         But the long sacrifice of woman's day
                         Passes without a thought, a word of praise."

        'Tis woman's responsibility to teach the young men what it is to be true men; what it is to be a loyal man; "a man" in every sense of the word. To teach the young woman to be womanly; that it is honorable to work; that fashionable and frivolous women who live only in self-indulgence and to have a "good time" are a dead weight upon their parents and a blot in society. In the age of chivalry and knighthood the laws of human nature were expressed when the crowning of the victor was assigned to woman's hand. As on the knightly fields, so it is on the great battle-fields of life, contestants and combatants are animated and encouraged by woman's approval and cheering words. If you fail, young women, to use this power, you fail positively, not negatively; so fail that you will drag down instead of elevating. This power is yours, and you cannot change it. It belongs to you as women.

        Catherine de Medici urged and Protestantism died in France. The women of Rome became dissolute, and the Romans were conquered by the barbarians from the North. Esther pleads, and a doomed nation is rescued. Abigail intercedes, and her household is spared. She teaches the king to think of the folly of rashness. Young women, if you are weak, wicked and worldly, men will follow you. as if you were pure. They will seek you, learn of your wicked ways and follow you, even to destruction and death. Knowing these things, equip yourselves with all that make a true and noble woman.

        If you have never been a factor in the upbuilding of your race,

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count up the cost and begin to do your part. If you have never thought of race pride, think now. Not only think, but act well your part. Without the ennobling power of the woman we can never be a great and noble race. If young men aspire to reach the highest pinnacles of fame, they rise but to fall lower, unless the women are pure and will demand respect. Learn to resent insults, young women. Learn to respect and defend the women of our race, young men.

        I would that I had a thousand tongues, and every tongue a thousand voices, and every voice a thousand echoes that could reach from America to the utmost parts of Africa, and I would speak in loudest tone, with animating voice to every negro woman, and bid her take up woman's responsibility, come together and begin to act, begin to do, and exert their power in the right direction, and the world will feel it. Not as it would feel an earthquake shock, but as the globe feels that grand cohesive power which cements its heterogeneous masses and binds them in one harmonious band.

REV. GEORGE WYLIE CLINTON, A.M.

EDITOR OF THE "STAR OF ZION," THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL ZION CHURCH.

        THE subject of this sketch was born in Lancaster County, South Carolina, March 28, 1859. His father having died when he was but two years old, he was brought up in the home of his grandparents, with whom he and his mother lived until he was sixteen years old. He received the training of the common schools of Lancaster County and entered the senior class of the preparatory department of the South Carolina University, an institution which has sent out some of the first men of the South, in both the civil and the ecclesiastical spheres. He remained in the South Carolina University until he had completed his sophomore year in the classical department. This was the year 1876 when Wade Hampton was elected by the Democratic party Governor of South Carolina, and as a consequence colored students were compelled to withdraw from

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the university. His education being thus suddenly broken off he returned home, assisted his mother and grandmother in harvesting the crop of that year, and then began his career as a teacher in the public schools of his native State. It may be observed here that young Clinton was very much devoted to his mother, and that this devotion was largely the natural result of the pious training which she had given him. The death of his father when he was so young necessarily brought him more fully under the care and training of his mother and more constantly into her association. Without any disparagement to fathers, may not such a situation together with the fact that the boy must more largely rely on himself, explain the advancement and success of many a young man?

        

Illustration

REV. GEORGE WYLIE CLINTON, D.D.,
Salisbury, N. C.

        While at home young Clinton was appointed to the position of clerk in the office of C. P. Pelham, Auditor of Lancaster County, and remained in this position till called to larger fields as a teacher of his

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race. One incident in connection with his experience in this office deserves special mention, because of its suggestion of the guidance of the unseen hand of Providence. In connection with his other duties he began the study of law in the office of two leading Democratic lawyers of Lancaster, and, as it was recommended by Blackstone, he undertook a close and earnest reading of the Bible. His interest in the Bible soon outgrew his interest in Blackstone and Kent; and, having believed on Him who saves to the uttermost, he abandoned law as a profession and was licensed to preach on February 14, 1879. This was the turning point in his life. He continued preaching and teaching until November, 1891, when he joined the South Carolina Conference of the A. M. E. Zion Church, and forsook all and followed Him.

        From this time on Rev. Mr. Clinton's history is a part of the history of his church in South Carolina and in the nation as a preacher and religious teacher with both tongue and pen. His first appointment as an itinerant preacher was near Chester, S. C. He resided in the town and in order to complete his college course connected himself with Brainard Institute, a high grade institution located there. This was another characteristic and significant step. He must complete the foundation upon which he proposed to build the education of a lifetime.

        While studying in this institution he so commended himself as an earnest and successful student that he was given by Rev. Samuel Loomis, A.M., the principal, a position as teacher which afforded some remuneration and at the same time permitted him to carry out his resolution to complete his college course. He graduated with high rank, and entered more regularly upon the work of the intinerant ministry in his conference. He continued in this capacity seven years when he was transferred by Bishop S. T. Jones, D.D., to the Allegheny Conference to take the difficult appointment of John Wesley Church, Pittsburgh, Pa., perhaps the most important appointment west of New York. In this appointment he followed one of the most experienced and successful men in the entire connection and one who, it was thought, had carried "John Wesley" to its highwater mark. But out subject made a new mark for her, and gave her a record and standing which alike astonished and delighted the membership and the chief pastors under whom he labored.

        The proof of the success of his management of this church was given in the manner in which it entertained the great General Conference

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of 1892. This appointment may be considered to mark the end of the first stage of Rev. Mr Clinton's career as a rising young divine of his church.

        Before proceeding to review the second stage of his career, it would be proper to remark that during almost the entire period of Rev. Mr. Clinton's itinerancy in the South Carolina Conference he was without question the leading man of the conference, confessedly the standard by which the best material of the conference was gauged. He was a sort of standing secretary of the conference and perpetual compiler and publisher of the minutes. This distinction was due in no sense to an inclination to favoritism on the part of the conference. He won it by his merit as an accurate, painstaking, scholarly worker, and nobody thought of anything else than that this business of the conference was in his hands. When he was transferred he was conference steward or connectional treasurer of the conference, showing that his colleagues saw in him not only scholarship but sound business methods and unwavering integrity. These characteristics of Rev. Mr. Clinton had already opened up to him the columns of the leading papers of his State, like the Charleston News and Courier, the Charleston Sun, the Century, the Union Times, and the Landcaster Ledger, and all the colored journals sought him.

        His contributions to these periodicals always furnished evidence of thought, literary taste and scholarship. Editor Clinton's popularity in his conference and his influence in his State were the means by which the writer first came to a knowledge of his usefulness and prospects.

        Returning now to the beginning of the second stage of his career, we find him the accomplished, eloquent and popular pastor of John Wesley Church, Pittsburgh, Pa. From this time on South Carolina can claim him only in common with other portions of the great church of which he has now become a leading figure. Even before he left South Carolina, as a representative of his conference in the General Conferences at New York and New Bern, N. C., his merits were acknowledged by the general church in his being chosen assistant secretary at both these conferences; and at the latter he was also created one of the commissioners of the A. M. E. Zion Church to confer with similar representatives of the C. M. E. Church on Organic Union. But along with his appointment to Pittsburgh, the church urges consideration of his as a suitable man to succeed Hon. John C. Dancey as editor of the church organ, the Star of Zion.

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Rev. Mr. Clinton had long ago demonstrated his right to such consideration by his luminous contributions to the papers above referred to as well as to the Star of Zion, and in Pittsburgh as editor of the Afro-American Spokesman, to which position he was chosen by the colored ministers of Western Pennsylvania of all denominations, he proved beyond a doubt that he had talent and calling in that direction. But he gives further and conclusive demonstration of his fitness for the position that was evidently looming up for him by projecting, founding and runnning the A. M. E. Zion Church Quarterly. This effort showed not only his genius for organization but his ability to manage successfully a large and important literary venture. He ran the Quarterly on his own resources for two years and then turned it over to the General Conference in Pittsburgh without a cent of cost to the connection. The Quarterly is now one of the established institutions of the church, and if Editor Clinton had originated and established no other great enterprise this would be sufficient to give him perpetual fame in the church. But brilliant and creditable as is this effort of his it is only the door by which he enters into larger avenues of usefulness to his church and his race. At the General Conference in Pittsburgh in 1892, he was elected by a good majority to the place of editor of the Star of Zion, his church organ. He was by this choice elevated to one of the most responsible and distinguished positions in his church--a position of honor and one matched only by the Presidency of Livingston College in its requirements for scholarship, broad culture and sound judgment as a good business man and high executive officer of the connection.

        Editor Clinton's genius to originate is powerfully evidenced also by the following fact: In February 1893 while attending the Florida Conference, he conceived the idea, and planned its execution, which has culminated in the Varrick Memorial Hall and Publishing House of the A. M. E. Zion Church in Charlotte, N. C. He presented his plan to the Board of Bishops in its semi-annual session in Birmingham in March, 1893, and the fruit thereof will be the connection's great plant at Charlotte, N. C., which in its development will undoubtedly become an honor to the mind that conceived as well as to the church which carries it to success.

        By way of incident, but a very significant incident, it may be remarked that it was Editor Clinton who proposed the organization of our Sunday School Union and who headed the committee that formulated the plan for carrying out the organization. Editor Clinton has

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been progressive not only in the sense that contemplates personal advancement, but he has also manifested a noteworthy philanthropy and public spirit. As an evidence of his philanthropic spirit it may be related that he has assisted seven students through Livingston College, some of whom have gone forward to advanced scholarship and have already achieved considerable success in the professional walks of life. His public spirit was signally illustrated by the brave and courageous part which he took in the famous Flemon-Yeddell case. His earnest and untiring efforts to secure to Flemon justice and his perilous trip to Western South Carolina during the trial were no small part of the means which brought about the acquittal of Flemon.

        No sketch of Editor Clinton would be complete that did not include some reference to his relation as husband and to the influence of his wife on his young manhood. At the early age of twenty-one he married Miss E. J. Peay, of Rock Hill, S. C., who was also a student at Brainard Institute, the alma mater of her husband. This was a most happy union and it is but just to say that Mrs. Clinton was a large factor in the rapid progress and advancement of her husband. The writer was an eye witness of the halo of grace and gentle inspiration which her presence cast around the home of which she was the center. But alas! As the bud fadeth in the time of its sweetest fragrance her soul eluded the grasp of time and was transplanted to the great beyond where it fadeth not for evermore.

        The memory of the General Conference of 1892 becomes poignant only in the vididness of this other precious memory, but its poignancy becomes soothing when we remember what sister Clinton illustrated in her life and won in her death. But the picture must be changed for the final view. Editor Clinton's life has been hallowed in her taking away and his consecration is only increased. He is moving on to brighter goals of success. He is now bending all his energies toward making "The Star of Zion" thoroughly worthy of the great organization which it represents. He is a fair specimen of Zion's coming men, and is making a conspicuous record not only for himself but for his church. One of the proofs in point is the invitation extended to him by Principal Washington, of Tuskegee (Ala.) Institute, to deliver a series of lectures on the Bible in his institution. He is thus chosen as the representative of his church, to do this service calling for theological learning and a wide acquaintance with letters. It will be according to his custom to fill this engagement

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with credit to himself and profit to his hearers. He is characterized by a lucidness of speech and a forcefulness of utterance which mark for him a towering place among the leaders of his church as a preacher and public speaker, and his logical and earnest style together with his sterling integrity guarantees to him no decline in his ascent of the higher heights of Zion.

HON. H. C. SMITH.

[For eleven years editor and proprietor of the "Cleveland Gazette," and a member of the Ohio Legislature.]

        BY PROF. W. S. SCARBOROUGH.

        THE well known subject of this sketch was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia, on the 28th of January, 1863. He was taken to Cleveland, his present home, in 1865. Here he attended the schools of the city from an early age, finishing in 1882. During the next year he devoted his entire time to the study of band and orchestral music. In this he also reached distinction. The same desire to rise above mediocrity and thereby demand respect for himself and race because of his fitness and thorough preparation for the work of life, took possession of him here as in his earlier life. He lost no time, but continued to plod upward. The result is, that as a young man of scholarly attainments, of comprehensive views, as a journalist and musician--especially a cornetist--he stands to-day facile princeps among the first colored citizens in the State of Ohio.

        In addition to his editorial duties, for years Mr. Smith was leader and musical director of the famous Excelsior Cornet Band, of Cleveland, Ohio. His compositions have found ready sale, especially his song and chorus, "Be True, Bright Eyes," now known throughout the country.

        In August, 1883, H. C. Smith, with three other gentlemen, launched the Cleveland (Ohio) Gazette upon the sea of journalism. Since that time, however, he has become sole owner and proprietor. This paper has proved a success, and is now by far the best colored paper published in the State of Ohio, and is one among the best edited by colored

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journalists in the United States. It is vigorous in tone, fearless in its defense of right, an uncompromising enemy of predjudice in all its forms, a strong advocate of equal rights to all men without distinction, and a staunch Republican in politics, with principle rather than expediency as its basis.

        Mr. Smith has always wielded a fearless and able pen for right and truth. He has fought squarely in behalf of his race, demanding for it recognition wherever denied. No other proof of this is needed

Illustration

HON. H. C. SMITH.
Cleveland, Ohio.

than the Gazelte itself. The Hon. Frederick Douglass wrote: "In the midst of hurried preparations for a long tour in Europe, I snatch my pen and spend a few moments to tell you how completely I sympathize with your political attitude." Then, again, he adds: "I do exhort your readers to stand by you in your effort to lead the colored citizens of Ohio to wise political action."

        Though at times Mr. Smith has been severely criticised, he has never varied from what he considered his duty. He believes that the Republican party conserves the best interests of the Negro, and thereupon he becomes its able and active defender. His articles are read with both pleasure and profit, to which fact is largely due the increased and increasing circulation of the Gazette.

        The Republican governors of Ohio are indebted to Mr. Smith about

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as much as to any one journalist, colored or white, in the State. The colored members of the Ohio Assembly have always had a strong supporter in the editor of the Gazette. A few years ago he was appointed a Deputy State Oil Inspector, at Cleveland (the first Afro-American in the North so recognized) and held the position four years, until the election of a Democratic governor (Campbell). This appointment not only fittingly recognized the race, but the individual in the choice of one in every way qualified for the position and especially deserving of the appointment. The bond required was $5,000. This he soon secured in the persons of three of the oldest and most respected colored citizens of Cleveland. Mr. Smith is what we might call a self-made man, as it is through his own indefatigable efforts that he has reached his present position in life.

        He is the author of several pieces of music for the guitar, in addition to compositions for the voice and piano. His various public utterances rank him as an active, wide-awake observer of passing events. Broad in his views he is withal charitable, zealous and conscientious. He is, perhaps, the first colored member of a white press association in the North, and is one of the youngest of our leading editors.

        H. C. Smith is one of the young men of whom we all may feel proud and from whom we may justly expect an ever increasing career of honor and usefulness. His election to the Ohio Legislature at the election held November 7, 1893, by a majority of over 8,000 over his Democratic opponent (white) in a county (Cuyahoga) which polls over 40,000 Republiacn votes (about 2,000 being those of Afro-Americans), is indeed a fitting recognition of Mr. Smith's ability and worth as a man.

        In order to secure the nomination, he had to contest with a very popular white Republican who had served in the preceding assembly. Nominations are made in Cuyahoga County under what is termed "the popular vote plan." That is, Republicans go to the polls on the day of the primaries and vote direct to nominate as all voters do to elect on election day. The same care is taken by the Board of Elections with the vote of the primaries as with the election day vote. The following from the Indianapolis (Ind.) Freeman, is pertinent.

        "When the voters of 'Old Cuyahoga,' in Ohio, were casting about for a representative to send to the legislature, the Freeman shied its castor in the ring for Editor Smith, of the Gazette, as a proper and fit

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person to be selected for the honor. Mr. Smith received the nomination and was triumphantly elected, and his record as he has made it up to this time has amply vindicated the choice and judgment of his constituents. Mr. Smith has quickly and easily taken first place among the three Afro-American representatives selected by the voters of the Buckeye State to assist in making laws, and is in fact one of the few marked and growing young members who have succeeded in making themselves noticed and esteemed for the merit and value of their work. A few days since the colored citizens of Oberlin held a mass meeting, at which the following resolution was reported and adopted:

        Resolved, That we do most heartily commend Hon. H. C. Smith, our representative in the Ohio Legislature, for the manly stand in behalf of equal rights for all citizens of Ohio he has taken.

THOMAS JENNY, Chairman. GEO. W. M. LUCAS, Secretary.


        His bill against lynching drawn upon lines suggested by Judge Albion W. Tourgee, attracted even more attention than the Civil Rights bill he had passed. Mr. Smith did good work for his white constituents also which they thoroughly appreciate. His term expires November 7, 1895. It is customary to elect members for a second term who make a good record. There is no doubt of his renomination and re-election should he desire it. Two of Cuyahoga's eight legislators are Afro-Americans. Our lives are measured by what we accomplish and not by "paltry years of existence."

Shall I Take a Paper?

        AT this season of the year, when publishers are making special offers to the reading public, we are all debating the mental fare with which we shall spread our table in 1895. We ought to have first a good church paper thoroughly representative of our denomination.

        The Methodist ought to have the South- Western Advocate, published at New Orleans; the African Methodist ought to have the Christian Recorder, published at Philadelphia; the Congregationalist ought to have The Congregationalist, published at Boston, or the The Advance, published at Chicago, and so on for the Baptists, Episcopalians,

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Evangelists and other denominations among us. Each home ought to have its church paper. Next to that stands some good clean helpful race journal. Get one, in the columns of which the editors are seeking to help the race up, and not working to pull it down. When you subscribe for a race journal get one in which the editors display not pessimistic, but optimistic views of the race.

        It will be well to remember that it takes brains to edit a newspaper, and men who have not been trained to think are hardly men to be entrusted with the perilous task of giving direction to public opinion. The editorial chair requires more than that culture gotten from the reading of newspapers. The editor who is sending out week by week his paper into the world ought to be able to grapple with the problems of the day and think them through. There is too much guessing on the grave social problems of the day by editors. Riots and mobs are the result of false teaching, both on the part of the hotheaded anarchists and incompetent editors who are not anachists. In selecting your race journal for the next year find one whose editorial columns show moderation, and one which is not always squared off with a chip on its shoulder daring someone to knock it off. The paper which busies itself with fighting its contemporaries cannot be of very much help to you. When you raise the question about taking a race journal remember there are two reasons especially to be remembered why you should. The first is a duty you owe to yourself to keep up with the movements among your own people. Second, you owe it to the race to support laudable enterprises which look to the betterment of the race. Let us remember, too, that the press, the pulpit and the platform have been the great liberators of the nations In this land of ours we need the influence of all of these to plead our cause up and down the length of our land. Put some good race weekly on your list for 1895.--Cleveland (Ohio) Gazette.

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NEWSPAPERS

        The following is a list of newspapers and magazines edited and published by and for Afro-Americans. Alphabetically arranged by States:

        
ALABAMA.
1 Birmingham Harrison's Pet Weekly.
2 Birmingham Wide Awake Weekly.
3 Birmingham Southern Broadaxe Weekly.
4 Eutaw Weekly Blade Weekly.
5 Huntsville Huntsville Gazette Weekly.
6 Huntsville Huntsville Journal Weekly.
7 Huntsville Southern Freeman Weekly.
8 Huntsville The Independent Weekly.
9 Lovan The Eagle Weekly.
10 Mobile Southern Watchman Weekly.
11 Mobile Ferret Journal Weekly.
12 Mobile Weekly Sentinel Weekly.
13 Mobile West Alabama Advocate Weekly.
14 Montgomery The Argus Weekly.
15 Montgomery Baptist Leader Weekly.
16 Montgomery Odd Fellow's Journal Monthly.
17 Opelika The People's Choice Weekly.
18 Selma Student's Voice Weekly.
19 Tuskegee The Tuskegee Student Monthly.
ARKANSAS.
20 Fort Smith The Post Weekly.
21 Helena Helena Progress Weekly.
22 Little Rock Arkansas Dispatch Weekly.
23 Little Rock Baptist Vanguard Weekly.
24 Osceola Afro-American Leader Weekly.
25 Pine Bluff The Echo Weekly.
CALIFORNIA.
26 Los Angeles The Vindicator Weekly.
27 Los Angeles The Eagle Weekly.

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28 Los Angeles The Hustler Weekly.
29 Los Angeles Weekly Examiner Weekly.
30 San Francisco The Elevator Weekly.
31 San Francisco Western Outlook Weekly.
COLORADO.
32 Colorado Springs Western Enterprise Weekly.
33 Denver Exponent Weekly.
34 Denver Denver Statesman Weekly.
35 Pueblo Pueblo Times Weekly.
CONNECTICUT.
36 New Haven Zion's Trumpet Weekly.
DELAWARE.
37 Wilmington Twilight Weekly.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
38 Washington The Bee Weekly.
39 Washington The Colored American Weekly.
40 Washington The Globe Daily.
41 Washington The Pilot Weekly.
42 Washington Woman's Tribune Weekly.
43 Washington National Baptist Messenger Quarterly.
44 Washington The Zion Methodist Weekly.
FLORIDA.
45 Gainesville Florida Sentinel Weekly.
46 Live Oak Florida Baptist Weekly.
47 Jacksonville Southern Courier Weekly.
48 Jacksonville The Daily American Daily.
49 Jacksonville The Advocate Weekly.
50 Winter Park Winter Park Advocate Weekly.
GEORGIA.
51 Athens The Clipper Weekly.
52 Albany The Dispatch Weekly.
53 Americus People's Messenger Weekly.
54 Atlanta The People's Advocate Weekly.
55 Atlanta Voice of Missions Monthly.
56 Atlanta The Georgia Speaker Monthly.
57 Atlanta Spellman Messenger Monthly.
58 Atlanta Hope Spellman Seminary Monthly.
59 Atlanta Atlanta Times Weekly.
60 Atlanta Southern Appeal Weekly.
61 Augusta Georgia Baptist Weekly.
62 Augusta Augusta Sentinel Weekly.
63 Augusta Methodist Union Weekly.
64 Augusta The Haines Journal Monthly.
65 Blakely The Mouthpiece Weekly.
66 Brunswick The Gleaner Weekly.

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67 Cartersville The Negro Educational Journal Monthly.
68 Dalton Dalton Argus Weekly.
69 Eastman Negro Exponent Weekly.
70 Rome Baptist Banner Weekly.
71 Rome People's Journal Weekly.
72 Rome The Woman's World Semi-Monthly
73 Savannah Labor Union Weekly.
74 Savannah Recorder Weekly.
75 Savannah Tribune Weekly.
76 Valdosta Black and White Weekly.
ILLINOIS.
77 Chicago A. M. E. Record Weekly.
78 Chicago Appeal Weekly.
79 Chicago Bee Weekly.
80 Chicago Brotherhood Weekly.
81 Chicago Chicago Legal News Weekly.
82 Chicago Chicago Standard Weekly.
83 Chicago Chicago Clipper Weekly.
84 Chicago Church Organ Weekly.
85 Chicago Conservator Weekly.
86 Chicago Christian Science Monthly.
87 Chicago Free Speech Weekly.
88 Peoria The Negro Problem Weekly.
89 Springfield State Capital Weekly.
INDIANA.
90 Indianapolis The Freeman Weekly.
91 Indianapolis The World Weekly.
92 Terre Haute Afro-American Journal Weekly.
INDIAN TERRITORY.
93 Lee Creek Nation Weekly Sun Weekly.
IOWA.
94 Des Moines The Avalanche Weekly.
95 Des Moines The Bystander Weekly.
KANSAS.
96 Atchison The Blade Weekly.
97 Coffeeville Afro-American Advocate Weekly.
98 Coffeeville Kansas Blackman Weekly.
99 Kansas City American Citizen Weekly.
100 Leavenworth Leavenworth Herald Weekly.
101 Parsons Weekly Blade Weekly.
102 Topeka The Call Weekly.
103 Topeka State Ledger Weekly.
104 Witchita National Baptist World Weekly.

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KENTUCKY.
105 Hopkinsville Indicator Weekly.
106 Henderson Gleaner Weekly.
107 Lexington The Standard Weekly.
108 Louisville American Baptist Weekly.
109 Louisville National Baptist Messenger Quarterly.
110 Louisville Ohio Falls Weekly.
111 Louisville Zion's Banner Weekly.
LOUISIANA.
112 New Orleans The Crescent Monthly.
113 New Orleans Journal of the Lodge Weekly.
114 New Orleans Christian Herald Weekly.
115 New Orleans Crusader Daily.
116 New Orleans People's Reporter Monthly.
117 New Orleans South Western Christian Advocate Weekly.
118 New Orleans The Ferret Weekly.
119 New Orleans The Monitor Weekly.
MARYLAND.
120 Baltimore Afro-American Weekly.
121 Baltimore Church Advocate Weekly.
122 Baltimore Prohibition Advocate Weekly.
123 Baltimore The Colored Harvester Weekly.
124 Elkton The Dawn Monthly.
125 Marlborough The Crusader Weekly.
MAINE.
126 Augusta The Wide World Weekly.
MASSACHUSETTS.
127 Boston The Courant Weekly.
128 Boston Watchman Weekly.
129 Boston Advocate Weekly.
130 Boston Woman's Era Weekly.
131 Boston Woman's Journal Monthly.
132 Boston Woman's Column Monthly.
133 Boston Boston Banner Weekly.
134 Boston The Republican Weekly.
MICHIGAN.
135 Detroit American Catholic Weekly.
136 Detroit Detroit Plaindealer Weekly.
137 Detroit National Independent Weekly.
138 Detroit The Beacon Light Weekly.
MINNESOTA.
139 St. Paul The Appeal Weekly.

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MISSISSIPPI.
140 Columbus New Light Semi-Monthly
141 Columbus Baptist Reflector Weekly.
142 Jackson People's Defender Weekly.
143 Jackson The Jackson Light Monthly.
144 Jackson The Messenger Semi-Monthly
145 Meridian Fair Play Weekly.
146 Natchez The Brotherhood Weekly.
147 Natchez The Reporter Monthly.
148 Senatobia The Baptist Herald Weekly.
149 Shaw The News Weekly.
MISSOURI.
150 Hamilton Baptist Standard Weekly.
151 Kansas City Future State Weekly.
152 Kansas City Gate City Press Weekly.
153 Kansas City The American Citizen Weekly.
154 Kansas City Kansas City Messenger Weekly.
155 Independence The International Monthly.
156 Moberly Christian Recorder Weekly.
157 Moberly Western Optic Weekly.
158 Pine Bluff The Echo Weekly.
259 Sedalia Sedalia International Monthly.
160 Sedalia Afro-American Weekly.
161 St. Louis St. Louis Advocate Weekly.
162 St. Louis Missionary Record Monthly.
NEBRASKA.
163 Omaha Progress Weekly.
164 Omaha Enterprise Weekly.
165 Omaha Afro-American Sentinel Weekly.
NEW JERSEY.
166 Newark New Jersey Trumpet Weekly.
NEW YORK.
167 New York The Echo Weekly.
168 New York The Age Weekly.
169 New York The Examiner Weekly.
170 New York Union Times Weekly.
171 New York National Temperance Advocate Weekly.
172 New York Home Mission Monthly.
173 Brooklyn National Monitor Weekly.
174 Buffalo The Basis Weekly.
NORTH CAROLINA.
175 Charlotte Afro-American Press Weekly.
176 Charlotte The Messenger Weekly.
177 Charlotte Baptist Pilot Monthly.
178 Raleigh The Gazette Weekly.
179 Raleigh North Carolina Sun Weekly.

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180 Readsville Baptist Headlight Weekly.
181 Salisbury Star of Zion Weekly.
182 Salisbury Livingston Monthly.
183 Winston The Student Monthly.
184 Wilmington A. M. E. Zion Quarterly.
185 Wilmington The Afro-American Presbyterian Weekly.
OHIO.
186 Albany The Diadem Weekly.
187 Cleveland The Gazette Weekly.
188 Cleveland Ringwood Journal of Fashion Monthly.
189 Cleveland Voice of the People Weekly.
190 Cincinnati American Catholic Tribune Monthly.
191 Cincinnati Journal and Messenger Weekly.
192 Cincinnati The Race Problem Weekly.
193 Cincinnati Old Hughes Monthly.
194 Ringwood American Journal Monthly.
195 Springfield The Beacon Weekly.
196 Toledo Afro-American Standard Weekly.
OKLAHOMA.
197 Langston City The Herald Weekly.
PENNSYLVANIA.
198 Philadelphia The Christian Banner Weekly.
199 Philadelphia Astonisher Weekly.
200 Philadelphia The Speck Weekly.
201 Philadelphia The Christian Recorder Weekly.
202 Philadelphia Independent Advocate Weekly.
203 Philadelphia Masonic Herald Weekly.
204 Philadelphia Weekly Tribune Weekly.
205 Philadelphia Standard Echo Weekly.
206 Philadelphia A. M. E. Church Review Quarterly.
207 Pittsburg The Spokesman Weekly.
208 Pittsburg The Broadaxe Weekly.
RHODE ISLAND.
209 Providence New England Torch Light Weekly.
210 Providence The Sun Weekly.
SOUTH CAROLINA.
211 Aikin Court House Little Observer Semi-Monthly
212 Beaufort New South Weekly.
213 Bennettsville Pee Dee Educator Semi-Monthly
214 Brunson Hampton County Elevator Weekly.
215 Charleston Enquirer Weekly.
216 Charleston Messenger Weekly.
217 Chester South Carolina Herald Weekly.
218 Columbia People's Recorder Weekly.
219 Florence Baptist Herald Semi-Monthly
220 Valcluse South Carolina Tribune Weekly.

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TENNESSEE.
221 Athens Watchman Weekly.
222 Clarksville Montgomery Pilot Weekly.
223 Columbia Headlight Semi-Monthly
224 Fayetteville Colored Presbyterian (Cumberland) Weekly.
225 Jackson Christian Index Weekly.
226 Knoxville The Herald Weekly.
227 Knoxville Negro World Weekly.
228 Knoxville Weekly Gleaner Weekly.
229 Lebanon The Gleaner Weekly.
230 Memphis Head and Hand Monthly.
231 Memphis Afro-American Weekly.
232 Memphis The Baptist Messenger Weekly.
233 Memphis The Christian Herald Weekly.
234 Memphis The Living Way Weekly.
235 Memphis The Watchman Weekly.
236 Nashville The Citizen Weekly.
237 Nashville Fisk Herald monthly.
238 Nashville Central Tennessee College Record monthly.
239 Nashville Tennessee Baptist Weekly.
240 Nashville The Bugle Blast Weekly.
241 Nashville Immaculate Headlight ----
242 Nashville Hope Monthly.
243 Nashville The Bulletin Weekly.
TEXAS.
244 Austin Herald Weekly.
245 Beaumont Beaumont Leader Weekly.
246 Beaumont Weekly Advertiser Weekly.
247 Corsicana The Reflector Weekly.
248 Dallas Missionary Reporter ----
249 Dallas Southern Mercury Weekly.
250 Dallas The Baptist Star Weekly.
251 Fort Worth The Item Weekly.
252 Fort Worth The Organizer Weekly.
253 Galveston Freeman's Journal Weekly.
254 Galveston Galveston Witness Weekly.
255 Houston The Texas Freeman Weekly.
256 Hearn The Hearn Academy Monthly.
257 Kaufman Kaufman Pilot Weekly.
258 Navasota The Echo Weekly.
259 Prairie View State Normal Monthly.
260 San Antonio The Texas Globe Weekly.
261 San Antonio The Blade Weekly.
262 Leguin The New Test Weekly.
263 Waco The Searchlight Weekly.
UTAH.
264 Sult Lake City Western Recorder Weekly.
265 Sult Lake City Womens' Exponent Weekly.

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VIRGINIA.
266 Alexandria Zion's Leader Weekly.
267 Alexandria The Christian Clipper Weekly.
268 Boydton Midland Express Weekly.
269 South Boston The Boston Banner Weekly.
270 Birkley Atlantic Baptist Weekly.
271 Cappahossic Clancester Letter Weekly.
272 Danville The Methodist Weekly.
273 Graham Headlight Weekly.
274 Lawrenceville Southern Messenger Semi-Monthly
275 Lynchburg Counselor Herald Weekly.
276 Lynchburg The Laborer Weekly.
277 Manchester Manchester Weekly Weekly.
278 Newport News The Caret Monthly.
279 Norfolk The Speaker Weekly.
280 Norfolk The Rambler Weekly.
281 Norfolk Recorder Weekly.
282 Petersburg The Herald Weekly.
283 Petersburg The Recorder Weekly.
284 Petersburg Petersburg Lancet Weekly.
285 Petersburg V. N. and C. T. Gazette Weekly.
286 Petersburg National Pilot Quarterly.
287 Port Royal The Press Weekly.
288 Richmond The Planet Weekly.
289 Richmond Southern News Weekly.
290 Richmond Woman's Weekly--Virginia Reporter Weekly.
291 Richmond Young Men's Friend Monthly.
292 Richmond The Times Weekly.
293 Richmond The State Weekly.
294 Richmond The Weekly Cyclone Weekly.
295 Richmond The Performer Weekly.
296 Richmond Religious Herald Weekly.
297 Roanoke Roanoke Daily Press Daily.
298 Suffolk Christian Visitor Monthly.
299 Vanna Grove Henrico News Weekly.
WEST VIRGINIA.
300 Martinsburg Pioneer Press Weekly.
301 Montgomery The Baptist Pioneer Weekly.
302 Parkersburg The Freeman Weekly.
WISCONSIN.
303 Milwaukee Northwestern Recorder Weekly.
WASHINGTON.
304 Seattle The Seattle Republican Weekly.

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MRS. M. A. McCURDY,

EDITOR OF THE "WOMAN'S WORLD."

        In 1852, when all England and many persons in the United States were greatly enthused and cited to action in defense of the Negroes of this country, who were being crushed and demoralized by the cruel hand of slavery as portrayed by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe in her famous book known as Uncle Tom's Cabin, there was born to Alexander and Martha Harris, on the 10th day of August, 1852, in the little village of Carthage, Ind., a girl child who was destined to become an instrument in the hands of God for the defense of her people and the cause of temperance. I refer to the lady whose name graces the head of this article, which is a biographic sketch of her life. Mrs. M. A. McCurdy acquired the rudiments of an education in the mixed schools of Rush County, but deprived of the privilege of attending any other college, by the death of her father, nevertheless she was so determined to fit herself for usefulness that she sought diligently for knowledge obtained from books that prepared her for teaching a county school near her home, long ere she was nineteen years old. Soon after the close of her school she was wedded to J. A. Mason, and for more than eight years filled with profit and precision the worthy position of wife and mother, never failing in the meantime to embrace opportunities presented wherein she could glean knowledge necessary to fit her for the promotion of causes that honor God and elevate humanity.

        During the course of time mentioned the all-wise Giver of good gifts and one who doeth all things right took to heaven her four jewels and suffered her to become deprived of her husband. Thus left to herself she became more anxious to do something to elevate humanity, and accordingly became identified with other ladies of Richmond, Ind., in the temperance cause.

        In the year 1884 she became first the secretary, and in a few weeks the editress of the only temperance paper at that time in the city. Through the columns of the paper she became widely known as a staunch advocate of the temperance cause, and was the first person

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Illustration

MRS. M. A. McCURDY,
Rome, Ga.

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to sound the alarm of prohibition. At a public meeting held by the white people of that city, being of a philanthropic and missionary disposition, a desire to go South where the greatest good could be done for her race, seized hold of her, and through the kindness of Rev. J. M. Townsend, Bishop H. M. Turner and wife offered her a home. Therefore, on the 26th of January, 1886, she landed in Atlanta, Ga., the Gate City of the South, and became a member of the good Bishop's family, and when that learned divine caused to appear on the 25th of September, 1886, the neat journal, known as the Southern Recorder, she became its efficient secretary and served as editor pro tem of the same for at least half the time that it was the property of Bishop Turner, and was therefore styled the mother of the Recorder by many of its supporters. The good Bishop enjoyed frequent hearty laughs over many things said in other papers concerning the wise sayings in his paper that were thought to be his but were things said by Mrs. M. A. Mason, the secretary.

        She is neither a poet nor a fiction writer, but is indeed a ready writer upon subjects of solid and philanthropic character, as has been seen or proven by her utterances in papers South and West. During her four years' stay in Atlanta, Ga., she built up a fine mission in it, St. James A. M. E. Church, of that city. She served as superintendent of the Sunday school in the above church for three years; visited the chain gang in the interest of the temperance cause; acted as secretary of local and county W. C. T. U., and did so much other Christian work, that when Rev. C. McCurdy, of Rome, Ga., did on the 16th of July, 1890, take her unto himself as wife there were many hearts made sad in the Gate City of the South.

SKETCH OF HER LIFE AND LABOR IN ROME, GA.

BY REV. A. B. ALLEN.

        Her coming to Rome has proven to be a great blessing to all the people in many ways. Socially, she has contributed no little to society. She has entered the homes of the people and has been the means of inspiration as well as the means to incite them to greater excellence in morals and religion. She has never had in mind this

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thought, that virtue and intelligence are the greatest interests of a community including all others, and worth all others, and the noblest agency is that by which they are advanced. She is ever active in fostering the truths which are calculated to fit the people into whom she plants them, for the greatest usefulness to God and man. In this she has been eminently successful. She visits daily damp and dark cellars where the people are found in squalor and destitution, and like the good Samaritan she comforts the sorrowing, pours oil upon the wounds of the wounded, feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, and like a messenger from the celestial world points the lost and straying to Jesus, the world's Redeemer and heaven. No home is too humble for her to enter, no person too base for her to labor to save.

INDUSTRIAL WORK.

        The industrial work which has been done by her has been a blessing to the people throughout this city with its fifteen thousand inhabitants. An organization known as the "Rome Branch of the Needle Work Guild of America," was organized two years ago, in which time it has grown to an immense proportion. Three hundred and three garments have been made and distributed indiscriminately throughout this city and vicinity, also to orphans' homes of Atlanta, Ga.

SECRETARY OF STATE.

        She is now serving as Corresponding Secretary of State of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union for the State of Georgia, performing the arduous and difficult work with apparent ease, and certainly she gives the highest satisfaction. Her eminent fitness and ability to do the work make her one of the foremost women of the State, if not the foremost in the State. She has served as editress of the temperance column in the National Presbyterian. In this position she is apt to teach the reading public and thereby leaving upon them the impress or her noble spirit. One has only to read her articles to become a total abstainer. The truths which she has sent forth have at all times been sharper than any two-edged sword. Certainly if the people knew the good that has been accomplished by her they would be convinced more than at any age that "the pen is mightier than the sword." She is a cogent writer; always forceful and impressive whether writing or speaking. Her productions must always live because they will be read with interest by all the peoplle, whether erudite or otherwise.

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SUPERINTENDENT OF THE JUVENILE WORK OF THE KNOX PRESBYTERY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

        In this department of the great church which has for many years sought to secure the good of man and the glory of God, this great woman is actively engaged in leading the child out while his mind is pliant and susceptible and preparing him for his life work. She is beyond any reasonable doubt better qualified for so great a cause than any of whom it has been my privilege to meet. Her intellectual culture, her religious stamina and her interest in the youth of our land give her the essential merits which the importance of the case demands.

SUPERINTENDENT OF PRESSWORK FOR STATE W. C. T. U. NO. 2.

        All who know anything about this work know how difficult it is to do this work accurately. Yet the subject of this sketch has done this work most acceptably and creditably. Her broad experience upon all lines of work makes her useful almost to a limitless degree.

PRESIDENT OF MISSIONARY WORK IN THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

        In the first place she is loyal to her church. The pastor has ever in her a faithful ally; the church an unceasing and untiring worker; the Christian Endeavor and Sunday school, a loving, wise and diligent teacher, one who is in every way possessed with the sublime capability of pushing forward the cause which she so earnestly advocates. The work has been enhanced greatly by her effort. Indeed there is doubt in my mind as to whether anyone has been able to do so much work for God and the whole people as she has done.

EDITRESS OF THE "WOMAN'S WORLD."

        This is a paper devoted to the intellectual, moral and spiritual interest of the people. It has met with marked success as it has gone forth, laden with rich things to bless and uplift and strengthen the minds of the people in their home, like autumn leaves to enrich our earth. It has been wisely and ably managed. The editress is an ardent and firm advocate of woman's suffrage. Seeing she is president of the local W. C. T. U., she believes if women had the right of franchise the infernal liquor traffic would be banished from the land so as never to return to blot the pages of the history of our fair country. In either of these departments of work she has not only made herself known and felt in this city but throughout the State and in all of the important cities. She is the beginner of

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reforms in society; as such she is deservedly popular, esteemed and honored by all. During last Christmas the Mayor of this city had all of the barrooms and drunkerries of this city closed. It is known by many that such an achievement in the history of this city was never accomplished before. It was due to the strong Christian influence of this noble woman. She is an uncompromising foe of this liquor demon and is bent upon his utter destruction. The paper she edits is arrayed against him, her speeches, her articles and her prayers. The difficulty with which she has sustained and kept the W. C. T. U. in this place, where drunkerries meet the gaze of the eye, is in many respects remarkable and bespeaks volumes for her, and must finally result in the downfall of the monster and the final triumph of her tears, prayers, faith and work. She unconsciously throws herself into all she says and does. She is putting spirit into the age, old and young; she labors upon immortal nature; she is laying the foundation of unperishable excellence and happiness. Her work will outlive empires and the stars.

DUTY OF THE STATE TO THE NEGRO.

BY MRS. M. A. M'CURDY.


                         "What 'ere thy race or speech, thou art the same,
                         Before thy eyes duty, a constant flame,
                         Shines always steadfast with unchanging light
                         Through dark days and through bright."

        WHEN the Negro was brought to America as a slave and thus held for more than two hundred years, he was robbed of all privileges allotted to mankind to compete morally, intellectually and politically with other races, and as a natural consequence, his five senses became dormant to an alarming extent, and thus made him a subservient creature with but a faint hope of ever being relieved and allowed to exercise his faculties in common with other men. Time upon fleet wings rolled on, the Negro ever submissive and obedient to his earthly master, trustful, prayerful and always confiding in his Heavenly Father, did so ingratiate himself to many, as to cause them to conceive the idea of liberating the slave and then place him on equality to a limited extent with other races of this

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country. This being done, more than 4,000,000 souls found themselves in great need of improvement from a moral, intellectual and financial standpoint, and accordingly sought the aid of friends, who came from the North and other points to their rescue, and have assisted very largely in placing the Negro on the road of intellectual success by the public school system, the erection of colleges and other institutions of learning, that have benefited him quite materially. But all that does not suffice to make him the peer of others in character, morals and political requisites. True, churches can be seen with their spires pointing upward in every village, town and city throughout the United States, owned by the Negro, but they do not serve to save the great number of souls in the higyways and hedges who are starving for the want of that Heavenly Manna that is in the hands of the Anglo-Saxon and Afro-Americans, who employ them to serve in the capacity of servants and come in contact with them as they go about their daily avocations; neither do the churches serve to right the political wrongs. Duty in that respect has not shown itself, it seems to have taken leave of its "strong aid, champion conscience," consequently thousands of human beings are now writhing in the agonies of sinfulness in their forlorn and poverty-stricken homes, while the penitentiaries and other prisonhouses of the land, poorhouses, insane asylums and the few reformatory schools known are oftener crowded than otherwise by those who have been neglected at a time in their lives when they could have been approached and saved from sin and utter distruction of mind and morals, and thus escaped the pangs of deranged senses, the excrutiating pains and scorching fevers that prey upon the vitals of physical wrecks, the horrors of dungeons and cells in prisons, untimely graves and the judgment of an avenging God who says that none but righteous shall see his face and live with him in glory. Then more and more manifestly appears the Duty of the State to the Negro from a political standpoint. True the right of equal franchise is said to have been given to the Negro (males) in a very short time after his emancipation, and we doubt not but that his emancipators fully intended that he should take an unmolested part in the acts of life that make up the mighty drama, and in that way prove himself to be the equal of other races in thought, word and deed, and thus assist mightily in supporting the constitution of the United States, and die, if it need be, in defense of the flag of this great republic; but in many instances he has been deprived of a free exercise of his

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franchisement by office seekers and profligates, who ever take advantage of the ignorant by the use of money, whisky and other things as bribes, and have thereby caused men to cast votes for nominees and thus insured the election of many who otherwise would have been defeated by men more worthy of the position than they. Then again many have been cheated out of a free exercise of their franchisement by wicked men who seek to scare and drive men into subjection by the use of weapons of war. This and many other things have been allowed to come to pass, because of the fact that those who are in power and are acknowledged upright men have failed to do their duty toward the Negro from a strict sense of the word. The Negro forgets, it seems, that "men who sell themselves are slaves" and the buyers prove to be (beyond disputation) dishonest and unprincipled.

        The ignorant need to ever remember that they are always at the mercy of the unprincipled and allow the knowledge of the fact to serve as an incentive for high endeavors that will enlighten the mind, purify the morals and thus prepare them for usefulness and excellency in the political field of battle; notwithstanding all that and the possibility of great changes being made in the future by individual exertion in particular instances and locality, we realize that there is need to plead with those who are in power, to throw the law's strong arm of protection around the Negro. Do their whole duty in the premises and thereby give the Negro a chance to enjoy his freedom as other men. We realize that the Constitution of the United States is beautifully constructed and its diction perfect in every part, yet there is a lack of conformity to the spirit of the law practiced by many who profess to be one of its supporters, and it is the Negro who suffers most from the result of the non-conformity. Then we dare to insist upon the State doing its duty to the Negro (males), and in the meantime forget not the thousands of women who are pleading to-day for equal franchise. Yes, women who are worthy of much consideration; women who would prove most valuable to the State on account of their executive ability, their culture, learning and wisdom, the four great somethings that assist mightily in bringing to pass those things that make for the good of all concerned. Then, there are women who can expound the law of the State in a precise manner and are therefore fully equipped for service in that capacity in this progressive age, while in the performance of your duty to the Negro (males). Emancipate the Anglo-Saxon and the Afro-American

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women who are wearing a yoke of oppression, the equal of that which did hold the slave in bondage for more than two hundred years. Do this and cause such changes to take place as will result in the annihilation of many evils. With all that we remember that there are many moral and intellectual Anglo-Saxons and Afro-Americans who fail to remember that "man does not live for himself alone," and that the sphere of "duty is infinite;" but they go steadily on acquiring knowledge, amassing wealth, striving to save self, seeking honor and fame, and ever pushing aside the inebriate, the poor, the weak and sinful whom they could save in many instances by a kind look, a gentle stroke of the hand, a sixpense or more added to pleasant words, serving to remind them of God and his blessed commands. They (the moral and intellectual) seem to forget that the creatures whom they push aside carry with them the "hidden spring of force" and "creative power" to a large extent "the flower," "the germ," "the potency of life" that has never been cultivated, but could be quickened, caused to grow and to so expand, that there would be no occasion of our reminding the State of its duty to the Negro; but we would be able to exclaim in part as did Wordsworth of duty:


                         "Stern law giver! yet thou dost wear
                         The Godhead's most benignant grace;
                         Nor know I anything so fair
                         As is the smile upon thy face;
                         Flowers laugh before thee on their beds,
                         And fragrance in thy footing treads;
                         Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong,
                         And the most ancient heavens are through thee fresh and strong."

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Opportunities and Responsibilities of Colored Women.

[Delivered before the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Whittier Association, of Memphis.]

BY MRS. FANNIE BARRIER WILLIAMS, OF CHICAGO.

        MY heart has been so warmed by the generous kindness of welcome extended to me continuously since my arrival in your city that I shall always be happy to add my testimony to those who have been delighted by Southern hospitality. When some of your good women honored me with an invitation to visit Memphis and speak as best I might in behalf of our women who yearn for a larger freedom of development, I was not sure of my fitness to speak acceptably in a part of our country to which I am so much of a stranger, but your generous cordiality has given me such confidence of heart that I feel at home and in sympathetic touch with women who can do me more good by their soulfulness and suggestions of duty than I can return by any words of advice or inspiration. My own sense of happy surprise in this my first experience of Southern hospitality and eagerness of welcome suggests what we all need, who are respectively on the opposite sides of that imaginary line dividing the North and South is a more perfect understanding of our relationship to each other.

        It is said that genial essayist, Charles Lamb, that when he was asked on one occasion why he hated a certain person he answered, "I don't know him, that is why I hate him." The point of this story aptly suggests that a more perfect knowledge of each other will remove mistrust, hatred and conflict. This radiant Southland, so fair and full of the brightness and abundance of nature and promising, as I want to believe, all the excellencies of social order and human happiness, and yonder North, so buoyant and powerful, with its mighty sweep of commerce, vast intelligence and resources need a closer union of sympathies and interests in order that national progress may be broad enough and intense enough to helpfully reach, protect and inspire every man, woman and child under the flag of the republic.

        We of a peculiar race with our faces ever turned toward the Western

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star of hope and advancement especially need the help that comes from knowing each other better. We who live in the North need to understand better than we do the many peculiar advantages and disadvantages, promises and discouragements that belong to those of us whose homes are under Southern skies. We will think more and better of you and become more respectful in our interest in all that concerns you when we understand more clearly that in spite of the many agonies of the past and the many distressing limitations of the present the progress of the Negro race along the highest levels and in the most surprising instances has been right here in the South. That nearly all the money earned, accumulated and saved by the Negro race since emancipation has been accumulated and saved by our Southern men and women.

        

Illustration

MRS. FANNIE BARRIER WILLIAMS.
Chicago, Ill.

        That our men of real wealth are nearly all Southern men; that most of the men and women who have risen to public importance are of Southern birth and education, and that it is easier for our boys to learn a trade and successfully follow it in the South than it is in the North. I say when we of the North know and appreciate all this our sense of race pride will increase and we will be able to place a higher estimate upon the possibilities of our race. Men and women who can so proudly signalize their freedom and under conditions discouraging in the extreme by so many evidences of real worth are an inspiration to all mankind. On the other hand we of the North who have much freedom and little work, but who are in touch

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with all the forces of intelligence, morality and the regenerating spirit of reform that are fast making for the better weal of our republic, are not understood by our Southern kinsmen in a way that makes for race unity and progress. The young men and women who have been educated in those great free institutions of the North should be the great leaders and teachers of our generation. They are needed as the messengers of newer gospels of love and hope and inspiration. They should be encouraged and welcomed to this ample South where there are so many inspirations to high duties. These young men and women ought to be made to feel that here in the South where their talents are needed so much the highest premium is placed upon brains, character and industry.

        But without further comment on this line, I want to say that I come here in the spirit of good will. I want if possible to bring her a message of hope and inspiration to higher resolves. I gladly come at the bidding of your committee, not to attempt a discussion of the race problem. If I can say anything that is helpful it is not to suggest problems and difficulties, but to suggest duties and responsibilities that our women must begin to feel and exercise if we would become a part of the forces that are working everywhere about us for the things that deeply concern the kingdom of woman-kind. Nothing in the whole realm of questions that effect home, religion, education, industry and all phases of sociology command more interest than the growing power of woman. Interest in woman and her possibilities is so widespread and intense that whatever she does or says or proposes receives more public attention and comment than any other theme of current history.

        Does this absorbing interest in woman and her progress, does this advancing power of woman in all the important determinations of American life concern and affect colored women in any important way? Does the progressiveness of womankind in all things suggest to us any opportunities, duties or hopes that have failed thus far to influence us? Can we say that we are preparing ourselves sufficiently to use and exercise the privileges and responsibilities of that larger and more inclusive citizenship toward which other women are progressing, and for which they are fitting themselves by all kinds of experience? Is it too much to say that no class of women in the world have such rare opportunities for signalizing their worth as the colored women of America?

        If it can be a good fortune for women to come into possession of

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freedom when the heart of civilization is open and responsive to all the complaints, wants and demands of womankind; if it can help to make women strong in sympathy, in unselfishness and in the love of humanity to live in the midst of countless opportunities for heroic devotion, for self-sacrifice, and for the invention of ways and means to help a whole race of people to reclaim itself from the debasement of servitude, then our women are many times blessed. The thing for us to consider is what we can do to become a conscious part of all the agencies at work for the elevation of those of our women who are in, but not a part of, our civilization. Alas! to most of us this question suggests only discouragement and hopeless problems. Our philosophers and leaders have talked so much and confusingly about the vast difficulties in the way of Negro advancement in America that we too have been more or less unfitted to see and do the simplest duties incumbent upon us.

        There has been so much looking toward Providence and so little exercise of our senses and confidence in ourselves that most of us have become useless and stupidly indifferent to the inspirations of the hour. Surely we need no oracle to tell us what to do to be better than we are. A whole race of women whose only heritage has been ignorance and isolation needs no philosophers to lead them to a higher state. Their needs are elementary, and the duties of Christian women in their behalf are near, direct and easy of comprehension. If the colored women who are sufficiently intelligent and warm-hearted to share in the responsibilities of helping where help is needed, could be aroused from their do-nothing, unsympathetic and discouraged condition, and could be conscious of their opportunities for accomplishing good deeds, there would at once come the dawning of a new and better era for the American Negro. We would then understand that the question is not what we ought to demand; but what can we do, not what are our rights, but how can we best deserve them, not so much how to condemn prejudice, but how to remove its cause. The hour is not for the lamentations of Rachel, but for the hopes, courage and duty becoming women who are called by large opportunities to noble work. If we would have the public interested in us and our needs, we must become interesting, and we will become interesting just as soon as we begin to help ourselves to the utmost extent of our opportunities.

        One of our first duties is to inform ourselves as to what has been done, is being done, and what needs to be further done to help ourselves.

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It should never be said that colored women know less about the status of colored women than is known by women of another race. Nearly all the great churches of this country and scores of undenominational societies have for the past thirty years been carrying on missionary work that aims to reach every phase of the general condition of the colored people of this country.

        The reports and literature of these churches and societies are full of encouraging and sugsestive information. The facts and figures to be gleaned from this source form a most interesting history of the mental, religious and material development of the colored people since 1865. You will find in this annual library of interesting information a message, an invitation, an appeal and challenge to every woman's heart. These reports of work done, and to be done, are procurable without cost by any one interested enough to ask for them. I can but wonder how many of us avail ourselves of this opportunity to learn the lessons of our advancement and further needs.

        The one thing that should appeal most strongly to our hearts is the need of a better and purer home life among our people in many parts of the South. I scarcely need tell you that our most embarrassing heritage from slavery was a homelessness and a lack of home ties. All the sanctities of marriage, the precious instincts of motherhood, the spirit of family alliance, and the upbuilding of home as an institution of the human heart were all ruthlessly ignored and fiercely prohibited by the requirements of slavery. Colored people in bondage were only as men, women and children, and not as fathers, mothers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. Family relationships and home sentiments were thus no part of the preparation of colored people for freedom and citizenship. It is not agreeable to refer to these things, but they are mentioned merely to suggest to you how urgent and immensely important it is that we should be actively and helpfully interested in those poor women of the rural South who in darkness and without guides are struggling to build homes and rear families. When we properly appreciate the fact that there can be no real advancement of the colored race without homes that are purified by all the influences of Christian virtues, it will seem strange that no large, earnest, direct and organized effort has been made to teach men and women the blessed meaning of home.

        Preachers have been too busy with their churches and collections, and teachers too much harassed by lack of facilties, and politicians

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too much burdened with the affairs of state and the want of offices to think about the feminine consideration of good homes. Money, thought, prayer, and men and women are all freely and nobly given in the upbuilding of schools and churches, but no expenditures to teach the lesson of home making. Colored women can scarcely escape the conclusion that this work has been left for them and its importance and their responsibilities should arouse and stir them as nothing else can do. Let us not be confused and embarrassed by the thought that what needs to be done is too difficult or far away. There should be no limitations of time and space when man needs the helping sympathy of man. If our hearts are strong for good works, ways and means will readily appear for the exercise of our talents, our love, and our heroism.

        The first thing that should interest us, is the fact that thousands of colored families in the South are still living in one-room cabins. Though the South is filled with out professors, ministers, and smart politicians, yet few have attempted to teach these people the difference between a slave cabin and a Christian home.

        Booker T. Washington, who has done more for practical education of the colored people in all things than any other one man in America, tells us that the one-room cabin is the very root of all social evils in the South. It also appears that this indiscriminate huddling together of a whole family, large or small, in one room, is due more to ignorance of a better way than to poverty. The reform so earnestly needed in the mode of living in a large part of the South should not be left to a few chance individuals who are struggling to effect it.

        Colored women in every part of this country, who know what good homes mean to the well-being of the colored race, should come together in organization to study the situation, and earnestly put in motion every possible agency for reform. Such organization would learn at once, to their surprise and shame, how many things they could do that are not being done. They will learn that those who need our hearts, hands, and advice, are not suffering so much for want of equal rights, and political rights, and some easy escape from prejudice, as they are for the simplest necessities that make for decency, order, and the sanctities of home making. Thousands of our women in the South are eager to learn some of the primary lessons of houshold sanitation, moral guides, mental stimulants, and the purifying environments for the children of their hearts yet; these yearnings are heeded not by those who can help and comfort them.

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        Bright and promising children by the thousands all over the South are without clothing to attend either school or church, yet a dozen zealous colored women, in any small town of the beautiful North, or the larger towns of the South, could obtain and supply, almost without cost to themselves, clothing enough to clothe the mothers and children of a whole community.

        Thousands upon thousands of colored children in the South are out of school for want of schoolbooks, yet there are millions of secondhand books in all houses that are lost and wasted every year because no one asks for them to be sent where they are needed for the mental salvation of a whole generation of children. Thousands of capable young men and women, who are eager for enlightenment and culture, are without books, papers, and pictures, yet good literature and art of all kinds are prodigally wasted under our very feet, because there seems to be neither sense nor sympathy enough to know where to send them as rays of light into dark places. In short, there are a thousand sources of plenty and helpfulness for our fellow men and women, if we would but organize agencies to command and use them.

        It is easily possible to establish direct lines of communication between the crying need of every crude and impoverished home, and every philantrophic impulse of our hearts. This is no dream woven in fancy thread. The near possibility and reality of it all lie in the heart and brain of colored women.

        What I have thus suggested has already been accomplished, to a limited extent, by certain white women, whose vigilance and zeal in our cause should be an inspiration to us.

        Some of these women have happily assumed the responsibility of looking after the home interests of certain districts in the South. At regular intervals they send boxes of clothing, books, pictures, and home furnishings, medicines and other comforts, into many households of the darkest South.

        There are very few colored women, who, from time to time, add to their gifts of necessities their personal visitations with messages of sympathy, and deeds of blessed service. The brightness and joy of a new life follow everywhere in the wake of such practical beneficience.

        One of the young lady graduates of the Provident Hospital and Training School for nurses, in Chicago, went down to one of the Carolinas with her heart and hands open to good work in behalf of friendless and benighted women and children, and her letters to Northern friends are a startling revelation of the neglected opportunities for

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the helpful service of colored women. Such is the testimony of all women who have gone among our more unfortunate sisters in a like spirit of love.

        Heaven grant that our souls may be possessed by a consuming desire, by a restless anxiety, and a noble enthusiasm to see and discharge our responsibilities and duties to the Macedonian cry of our sisters in misery.

        In order to equip ourselves with knowledge, sympathy, and earnestness for this work, we need the soul-strengthening influences of organization. Women unorganized in the presence of the heart-stirring opportunities are narrow, weak, suspicious, and sentimental. Women organized for high purposes, discover their strength for large usefulness, and encircle all humanity with the blessedness of their sympathy. Organized womanhood to-day, the world over, is the spirit of reform incarnate. It impresses its reforming influence upon every existing evil, and its protecting power of love hovers over every cherished interest of human society. All combined institutions of Church, State, and civic societies do not touch humanity on so many sides as the organized efforts of women.

        In reference to the interests that especially concern us as colored women, we can receive much inspiration from the examples afforded by the more favored class of women in reformatory movements. In studying the aims, methods, and results of women's organizations, we will learn that no evil that menaces the purity of home, no lurking or open danger to the saving power of woman in all social aims, and no breath of possible harm to life, health, and culture of children, is without the opposing force of organized women. Art, literature, science, invention, and all other things of heaven and earth are made to pay tribute to the refining requirements of women, and children, and home. Take the cause of temperance as an example of the successful earnestness and practical value.

        When woman stood at her hearthstone, with caressing care and fond hopes for her children, and saw the invasion of her home by the dread spirit of intemperance, as she saw all things that were nearest and dearest to her heart menaced and falling beneath the blighting pestilence of drunkenness, she did not falter, or hesitate, or wait for a remedy or protection, but quickly uniting women everywhere in one common cause of resistance, and raising aloft the white banner of home, sobriety, and native land, she has triumphed over Bacchus in more ways than you can dream of. The prayers of women in a million

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homes, the songs of a million women making melody in the sweet influences of purity, and the steady, vigilant, and unyielding activity of women in behalf of soberness, have conspired to make temperance in all things the whitest sentiment of the century, and the saloon power the greatest indecency of our civilization. Whatever safety you may feel in your household against the destroying power of drink, you are more indebted for it to organized efforts of women than to any other cause. Would that colored women everywhere, and in vast numbers, who have homes to make and protect, could be imbued with this anxious, militant, and resistless spirit of temperance. If temperance could be the cardinal virtue of our race, nothing would be able to resist our advancement toward the enjoyment of all the equalities of freedom and citizenship of this country.

        Another fine example of how organization helps women to find work of usefulness in behalf of those who need our helping hand and heart is afforded by those devoted and heroic women of the Salvation Army. The frank and whole-souled sincerity of these women in the cause of a more practical righteousness has put to shame much that passes for religion and goodness in these days of ours. When we see these sisters of a more active mercy, with no shield for their protection save the holy purpose of doing good to others, follow wretched humanity as it slinks away in shame to its hiding haunts of vice, carrying either bread to the starving, a cup of water to the athirst, a blanket to the shivering, a gentle word of sisterly interest, or the uplifting voice of prayer, we can but feel a strong uplift of heart and a desire to be more genuine in our interest in humanity's ills. It is the chivalric spirit of these women, like true soldiers of the cross, extending the gracious influence of the Master into the highways of sinfulness, that our women need to make us eager to put our hearts into human relations, and our hands to good work. The example of these saintly women should say to us, "Be brave in your faith, wait not for duties that are afar off, look not to white women to do that which you can do, be not persuaded that you are too poor, too ignorant, and too humble to be a part of the highest usefulness that lifts up humanity, and remember, that your highest duty is that which is nearest your conscience and capacity."

        The outreaching of woman's heart to help woman is also beautifully exemplified by the wide-spread bands of King's Daughters and kindred societies. "In His Name," is the motto of the women and girls of a higher faith. They stand for the gospel of sincerity, and challenge

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the hearts of Christian men and women to give the impress of their faith to their conduct of life.

        These women have united to show by example, in an impressive way that it is not all of religion to pray and sing, and in soft pews listen to the Word. This new mission is to extend the meaning of the Christian religion so that the Church shall stand more for love than doctrine, more for human worth than for church name, and be wider open more hours in the week for humanity's good than the saloon is open for humanity's woe. So that what men and women do rather, than what they say or profess, shall be the standard of religion; and so that to give force and effect in all human conduct to the example of "Him who came to seek and save that which was lost" will be manifest as such in action out of the church as in worship inside its walls. I scarcely need to tell you all that I feel as to how much our women need the influence of such unions as these. If women who are superior to us in all the chances and advantages of life find it necessary to their advancement to be thus watchful, active and interested in so many ways, can we of greater needs and smaller resources and protections expect to advance by doing less than they? The ministers among us, who are unworthy of their calling, are largely responsible for the fact that our church women generally take less interest in the large field of practical religious work outside of their particular churches than any other class of women. Our women in the churches are organized, for the most part, only for one purpose, and that is to raise money for the churches. Thousands of our women never rise higher in their zeal for good works than the groveling aim of money-getting for the Trustees. Their heads and hearts and strength are all exhausted in devising church entertainments that are largely responsible for so much of the deplorable frivolity of our young people. Much of the needed charitable work among our unfortunate is left to white women because we have no time or interest outside the little church.

        Thousands of young girls who need moral protection of the church as much on Monday as on Sunday, who need instruction in the sacred responsibilities of womanhood and in all things that make for the moral integrity of women, are deprived of them all because so many of our women are to the stern necessity of money-getting to pay church debts. If our women could be released partially from this one narrow aim, and see the possible church in the neglected fields where the King's Daughters are garnering such rich harvests of

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good to humanity, our importance as women of worth in moral work would be wonderfully advanced. Our good church women as well as all women need to be saved from narrowness and its consequences, and the way to be saved is to know more of the resources and possibilities of one another. Our interest in each other as women has been too much gossip sort. The eaves-dropping and key-hole sort of knowledge of what is going on at one another's hearth-stones has almost unfitted us for united efforts. There must be an earnest, honest coming together of all our women to learn what are the essential causes of our common distresses and the great need of reform. Do you know that thousands of our bright young women, comely and capable, are without employment partly on account of American prejudice, partly on account of their own timidity, and especially because no effort is made to suggest or show to them the many new fields of employment that they know not of? Do you know that the tendency of our time is to make all work respectable and honorable that is well and honorably done? and that our girls who can do housework better than anything else, should be as much respected for doing it as they would be if making less wages as clerks? Do you know that thousands of our young men are reckless and unworthy of their privileges because they have no inspiration to better things and no rebuke from our young women? Do you know that our ministers would be nobler in all things, in all the best attributes of their calling, if our women were to insist upon it? Do you know that all things that are pure, healthful, and sacred in the relations of husband and wife and child depend primarily upon worthy women? All these things and many more of like nature are suggested to women who come together in a spirit of reform. Surely we have something more than sorrow, complaints, and tears.

        Out of the opportunity for womanly achievement we ought to be strong enough to inaugurate a new era of hope and endeavor. If we would but once look out from our own monopoly of race misfortunes along the highways traveled by all races of people, from the caves of security to the prominence of human excellence, we would be inspired by our opportunities. In this connection too much emphasis cannot be laid upon the necessity of more contact with the best type of American womanhood wherever it can be had, and especially in the North of course. The truly good women, and thank God their name is legion, are always open-hearted and eager to help those who need their strength of personality and interest. It

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is important for us to know that we cannot learn all about ourselves. We have been so much cut off from every refining influence, from every example and inspiration of good and great women, that our progress in all things womanly will be slow and uncertain unless we can win and deserve this helpful association.

        We are scarcely willing to admit the fact that our own prejudices and lack of self-assertion are largely responsible for our separation from the women who move the world by their intelligent progressiveness. If we would join these women in good works we should at least meet them half way by ridding ourselves of preconceived notions of their hostility and prejudice against us. It would add much to our strength and dignity of character and to our sense of importance among women if we could understand that white women can be strengthened in their generous impulses and made more exalted in their outlook to help weak and struggling women if they knew more of our condition, capabilities, and aspirations. The cause of women in all things needs the co-operation of all women of all races and colors in order to work out the conditions that all need and devoutly wish for. The larger interests of women that concern all that is vital in our civilization cannot be advanced and realized if the race line and color line and church line must always divide into petty fragments the moral strength of united women. Colored women of culture and force of character can do much to urge this thought upon women of the dominant race. If I may be pardoned a personal reference, I will say that my best reward in meeting and talking to representative white women at all times and places, is that they are so susceptible to the idea that they need us to some extent in the same way that we need them. All statements to them concerning our wrongs and how we suffer under all forms of injustice are received with startling surprise. I have been happily repaid for all my efforts by fewest assurances of many of the best women in the country that they have been converted to right thinking concerning us. We may feel safe in the belief that the women who are strong enough to resist the domination of fashion's nonsense and the snobbery of caste, are ever ready to lay aside their false presumption against us and accept the truth of our cause if we would but put ourselves more in evidence in their efforts to benefit humanity. I especially refer to the North of course when I say that a plucky competition for place and honor, a wide-awake interest in all public questions, a facility for making ourselves for good wherever

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and whenever it is proper for true and patriotic women to be, on the part of our women, would do much to change public opinion about us and open up new avenues of influence.

        Timidity, fear, and self-disparagement are not respected as virtues in this country. Heaven help us to appreciate that the liberties of this country are large, that its opportunities for progress are too great to excuse failures, and that here and now, as elsewhere in humanity's struggle for right, love, intelligence, character, thrift, and pluck are mightier for conquest than all the multiplied forces of injustice, prejudice, and ignorance. I know, of course, that to many of you this hopeful strain will seem to have no application to conditions existing here. It is true that what I have said is more prophetic than real to you. But remember, we must look upward. It is the business of a race to be self-respectful, ambitious, and aspiring for all that is best in human life. I would have these young women just looking out into the broad fields of possibilities, catch glimpses of the highland of our destiny. I would have them confident of the coming condition of race independence, and be strong in the conviction that the evils that now beset them are but the thorn-covered steppingstones to our eminence in the future; while it may not now be possible for white women and colored women of the South to unite for any common good, yet as I believe in the regenerating forces of education, as I believe in the ultimate reign of justice and good sense, so do I believe that even sooner than you expect, the right sort of women, on both sides of the color line, will suggest a way for this fraternal coming together in a way by which both will preserve their self-respect.

        To continue in this strain of self-criticism, I would say farther that our women have not as yet distinguished themselves by any large-hearted sympathy. There is no such thing as human progress without a large ingredient of the love principle in all human affairs; that kind of sympathy that knows no social lines, or race distinctions, or religious differences, but everywhere expands its wings of protection, and extends its warmth of helpfulness, is the kind of sympathy we need for our own advancement.

        Dr. Hartzell, of the Methodist Episcopal Society, exhibits among his panoramic views of the condition of the colored people of the South one picture that has always haunted me with a sense of guiltiness for our lack of sympathetic interest in women who are so much in need of it. The picture represents in the door of a Southern cabin,

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two or three children, the oldest not more than four years of age. This child of four years holds in her lap, and acts the part of nurse to a babe of four months old. The mother of these infant children is forced to be away from home and children from early morning till sundown. The life, care, and custody of this infant is entrusted absolutely to a child scarcely more than an infant herself. Alas! how cheap is life. How dear is a mother's love! An infant crying for a mother, and answered by the tears of an infant nurse, an infant crying out for one touch of tenderness from the great warm heart of humanity about it, but its little sorrows and distresses are neither heeded nor soothed. No such picture is possible where women are sympathetically interested in all the possible wants and misfortunes of women. When that white-souled woman, Margaret Etta Creche, saw the working women in our cities, like the hard-working mother of these children in this picture, compelled to leave her children to the uncertainties of fortune, she founded what is called a day nursery, provided with all possible baby comforts. Thus supplying the caressing cares of mother during the day, while the mother is necessarily absent. These day nurseries for children of working women are everywhere engaging the hearts of women, and are the most cherished of all the charitable institutions of city life.

        Surely there ought to be enough intelligence and love in the souls of colored women of the country to enter every home, every school-house, and every church, wherever women and children especially need the supporting arm of woman-kind. It may well be asked, How can we have the love and sympathy of women of another race, when we manifest so little sympathy for one another?

        Many of our more fortunate women seem to feel that any active interest in those who need their friendly interest, will identify them with the degradation of slavery. Others, in still greater numbers, act as if the responsibilities of our condition belong to white women, and that it is for them alone to exercise sympathy for colored women in distress. The wrong of this is too plain for argument. In the spirit of Wordsworth:


                         "The primal duties shine aloft like stars;
                         The charities that soothe and heal and bless
                         Are scattered at the feet of man like flowers."

        I would also appeal to the hearts of our women for a stronger sense of self-respect. I believe that it is an infallible rule that people are always weak who believe themselves weak. We help to make

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ourselves unimportant and underestimated by the habit of confessing our inferiority. We are everywhere hampered by the false and cringing notions that certain positions and achievements are beyond our reach. Hundreds of our young men and women graduate with high academic honors from schools and colleges and pass at once into obscurity as much because of their own low sense of self-importance as from the resisting force of popular prejudice. In nearly all American cities in the North there are libraries full of good literature, art galleries with their refining suggestion, the privileges of university extension, lectures and other institutions that minister to high thought and noble sentiment, but in them our young men and women are seldom seen.

        This general fault of living below our opportunities is largely the cause of the popular conclusion that our women have no interest in the things that appeal to the intelligence and good taste of other people. Non-use of these high privileges is quite as bad as mis-use of them. Our conscience is not as yet sufficiently alive to the fact that by the sanction of the supremest law of the land, by the highest maxims of morality and equity, liberty in all its completness, equality in its truest signification, and responsibility in its proudest implications are all ours to use and to enjoy to the fullest extent of our ability to appropriate them. I can but feel that in spite of the darkness that enveloped our past life, in spite of harassing hinderances to our present promotion, and in spite of our despair for the future, it is after all a great thing to be an American woman, even though she be colored. As I stood from time to time in the midst of the great Columbian Exposition and saw the unspeakable glories of it all rise like the celestial city out of the souls and energies of men and women who are free and brave, I was transported by the thrill of a new life as to how much it meant to be an American woman, as I felt myself swayed from one exalted emotion to another by this American passion for great achievements, by this American energy of soul making all things possible that to us seem impossible, and by suggestion of the infinite resources and opportunities of this America, and saw how all things that are true and exalting are coming faster and faster within the reach and touch of woman-kind, I was inspired by a new sense of trust and courage against all the odds and hate of opposition. And so, my fellow-women of a common heritage, I cannot bring you any message of despair; my best word for you is to seek by all the agencies of enlightenment about you so to broaden your views

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of life as to make you see and feel the forces that are making far better conditions; and that what we complain of is but transitory, and what we so devoutly wish for is surely coming by every highway of civilization.

        Thirty years ago we alone were in the wilderness of bondage crying aloud for freedom. Our happy release from that condition thrilled men and women everywhere with a most exalted sense of the value and sweetness of liberty. To-day we are not alone in any of our claims, disabilities, wants, and hopes. That large number of wretched women who are stitching their lives out in the sweat shops of our large cities in order to get a crumb of bread for their children, the toiling men and women of the land who groan and smart under the oppressions of wealth, women of all kinds and conditions who are restive under the restraint imposed by senseless customs and unjust laws, in fact all our countrymen who are conscious of being forced to live short of a complete enjoyment of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are with us in our every contention. We as surely have no monopoly of misery as we have no monopoly of fortune; there is somewhere and somehow a compensation for every difficulty we meet and complain of. Our poetry has opened the floodgates of philanthropy, prejudice has multiplied our friends and has tended to sharpen the mettle of our character, and all forms of injustice against us react in terms of justice for us. Indeed our advantages and opportunities are large, exalting, and a part of the very constitution of things.

        We are women claiming, yearning, and aspiring for rights at a time when woman's winsome voice of supplication or stern command is heard and heeded above the din and clamor of the times. Would you win the interest and confidence of the world? The answer comes from a thousand sources: Be brave in the consciousness of your own worth, be beautifully graced with all that virtue asks in woman and you shall in time remove from all laws, ways, and customs the darkening blight of woman's prejudice to woman.

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THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO.

BY REV. J. C. EMBRY, D.D.

        I WAS forcibly impressed by an editorial in the issue of the Recorder of the 14th inst., representing the need of higher literary work by the men of our race and times. To illustrate the force of this observation, reference need only be had to the work of two of the leading men amongst us. These have contented themselves with the modest gift of an autobiography, in which they closely "hug the shore" of personal experience and reminiscence. In none of these, in so far as I have been permitted to pursue them, is there the least attempt at a broad outlook upon the times in which they have lived and wrought out their own achievements. No comprehensive sweep or survey of the contemporaneous history out of which their own aspirations took rise. The conditions--moral, religious, civil--of the recent centuries, of which the issues of the present time are but the culmination, receive no comprehensive treatment, nothing save the mere coloring of local influence.

        Now when our youth who have been taught, justly, we think, to admire these men and to emulate them, shall have read these compositions, excellent in themselves as literary productions, the question is, What have they learned? Why, only this, that our gifted subject was born in the midst of a slave-holding community at a certain time, and was reduced to the condition of the captive race to which he belonged. And that thenceforth he had a rough time in recovering the liberty that God gave him at his birth. We are not even told how utterly unphilosophical it is, and in morals impossible, that any man can have been born a slave. How that every single case of slavery was a monstrous rape of human rights. The Declaration of Independence teaches both a philosophical and inspired truth, when it says: "It is self-evident that all men are born free." As soon as the new-born babe takes his first inspiration of vital air, he is endowed with the two-fold right of life and liberty. These rights are co-ordinate, and the complement of each other.

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They are natural, universal rights that cannot be combatted without violence to the very principles of our common nature. Then there are other subordinate rights, which may be held as conventional or constructive, but they are nevertheless natural, universal, and hence incontestable. They are:

        1. The right to live where one is born; that is, within the territorial jurisdiction of his birth. If he has not the right to live there, then where? Any attempt to expel him thence is an act of war.

        2. The right of safety, that is, protection for life and limb. Denial of this right is to jeopardize his life, implicate society itself, and forecast its dissolution. All schools of philosophy agree that where human life is less than sacred, there society, in civilized form, must soon dissolve. Now the civilized nature recoils from anarchy, just as physical nature recoils from a vacum; and it will--it must come to pass that the civil body will sooner or later fight the Anarchists in its own defense until it has completely vanquished them. And this is not a matter of choice; they will have to do so or else give up the civilized order.

        3. Along with the right to life and liberty goes also the right of removal from one jurisdiction to another. Wherever the emigrant goes he carries with him these natural rights. This, too, is the united judgment of all enlightened men. Now, in the light of these fundamental truths, feebly outlined, I most confidently affirm that no man can fail of hopefulness as to the future of our race in this land who has broadly studied the problems and the progress of human liberty and civil justice in the world during the last three or four centuries. There has been a constant warfare and many reverses, together with long seasons of gloomy doubt; but the dominant fact in the whole record is, that throughout the long contest, on the forum, in the sacred pulpit, in the hall of legislation, and on countless fields of bloody carnage the struggle has been substantially the same--a struggle for larger liberty for the oppressed multitude--a better chance for the average man. And this further, that in every century--aye, in almost every generation of this mighty conflict, something has been gained for the right. This gain once made has never been lost. These things being so, it is foolish to say that these victories, and this strifeful gain are matters of merely racial application. It is not so. Every inch of ground taken that is based on universal principles has become the property of humanity. They will never be banished from among men, nor effectually overborne while

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civilization, or Christianity endures. Now, as the old Romans used to say: "Quae cum ita sint,--Since these things are so," and since it is true that the best fruit of this long conflict is to be found here in this Western Hemisphere, I believe the future hope of the Negro race is to be found in the segment of that race providentially lodged on this soil. Say what we may about this or that, these United States have given us the most advanced, the most progressive Negro to be found on the face of the globe. And this is true for the reason that she is giving him the largest all-round opportunities, the highest civil ideals, and the steadiest aims. The troubles we suffer here, in our day, are only a part of the old, old conflict that has raged so long.


                         "Must we be carried to the skies
                         On flowery beds of ease,
                         While others fought to win the prize,
                         And sailed through bloody seas?"

        No, we cannot be, and will not be, though we may wish to ever so much. "Through conflict to the skies," is as true for dark humanity as for any other variety of men. Had we then not better learn this lesson and cease our shameful grumbling, as if the Almighty had done us some special wrong? God has given us minds to think, hands to work, and hearts to love. Let us subject these God-given powers to the regimen of a severe discipline, and walking with hope to the future, work out a noble destiny for ourselves and our children.--Christian Recorder.

NAMES AND AUTHORS OF MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED RACE PUBLICATIONS.

        Africa and America, by Rev. Alex. Crummell, D.D.

        A History of the Negro Troops in the Rebellion, by George W. Williams, LL.D.

        A Red Record, by Ida B. Wells.

        Anti-Separate Coach History of Kentucky, by Rev. S. E. Smith.

        Are We Africans or Americans? by J. F. Dyson, B.D.

        Apology for American Methodism, by Benjamin Tucker Tanner.

        Afro-American Women of Distinction, by L. A. Scruggs.

        A Voice from the South, by Mrs. A. J. Cooper.

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        African Letters, by Bishop Turner.

        Africa, the Hope of the Negro, by R. C. O. Benjamin, D.D.

        Aunt Linda, by Victoria Earl.

        A Brief Historical Sketch of Negro Education in Georgia, by Prof. R. R. Wright.

        Black and White, by T. T. Fortune.

        Black Phalanx (history of Negro soldiers), by J. T. Wilson.

        Book of Sermons, by Rev. J. W. Hood, D.D.

        Book of Sermons, by S. T. Jones, D.D.

        Church Financiering, by Rev. J. W. Stevenson, M.D.

        Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race, by E. W. Blyden, LL.D.

        Clarence and Corinne, by Mrs. A. E. Johnson.

        Directory of the A. M. E. Zion Church, by Rev. J. Harvey Anderson.

        Digest of Christian Theology, by J. C. Embry, D.D.

        Doctrines of Christ and the Church, by Rev. R. T. Brown.

        Domestic Education, by Bishop Daniel Payne.

        Emancipation, by J. T. Wilson.

        Earnest Pleas, by W. H. Smith.

        Freedom and Citizenship, by Hon. John M. Langston.

        From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capitol, by Hon. John M. Langston.

        From West Africa to Palestine, by Edward W. Blyden, LL.D.

        Future of the American Negro, by Rev. R. C. O. Benjamin, D.D.

        Grand United Order of Odd Fellows in America, by C. B. Brooks.

        Glimpses of Africa, by Rev. C. S. Smith.

        Hairbreadth Escapes from Slavery to Freedom, by Rev. William Troy.

        History of the Colored Race in America, by William T. Alexander.

        History of the A. M. E. Church, by Rev. D. A. Payne, D.D.

        History of the British West Indies, by R. C. O. Benjamin.

        History of the Negro Race in America, by George W. Williams.

        Hon. Frederick Douglass, by J. M. Gregory.

        Iola Leroy; or, Shadows Uplifted, by Mrs. F. E. W. Harper.

        Is the Negro Cursed? by Bishop B. T. Tanner.

        Living Words, by Alexander.

        Life and Labors of Rev. J. W. Early, by Sarah Early.

        Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, by Frederick Douglass.

        Life of Toussaint L. Overton, by R. C. O. Benjamin.

        Liberia's Offering, by E. W. Blyden.

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        Men of Mark, by William Simmons, D.D.

        Memoirs of Poems, by Phillis Wheatley.

        My Bondage and my Freedom, by Frederick Douglass.

        Methodist Polity, by H. M. Turner.

        Negro Civilization in the South, by C. W. Robert (white).

        Negro in all Ages, by Henry M. Turner.

        Negro Literature, by Bishop Arnett.

        Narrative of My Experience in Slavery, by Frederick Douglass.

        Nina; or, the Girl Without a Father.

        Noted Negro Women, by M. A. Majors.

        Not a Man and Yet a Man, by A. A. Whitman.

        Official Sermons A. M. E. Church, by D. A. Payne.

        Origin of Color, by J. F. Dyson.

        Our Father's House, by Rev. J. C. Embry, D.D.

        Origin of the Negro Race, by R. C. O. Benjamin.

        Oak and Ivy, by Paul L. Dunbar.

        Outline of History, by B. T. Tanner.

        Pastor's Annual and Financial Report, by Rev. Robert T. Brown, A. M.

        Plantation Melodies, by M. W. Taylor.

        Plain Theology for Plain People, by Rev. C. O. Booth.

        Poems, by Rev. A. A. Whitman.

        Political X Roads--Which Way? by J. F. Dyson.

        Patriotic Poems, by Rev. George C. Rowe.

        Poor Ben, by Mrs. L. N. C. Coleman.

        Plantation Melodies, by A. E. P. Albert, D.D.

        Recollections of Seventy Years, by Bishop D. A. Payne.

        Richard Allen's Place in History, by J. F. Dyson.

        Rise and Progress of A. M. E. Zion Church, by Bishop Rush.

        Sacred Heart, by B. F. Wheeler, A. M.

        School days at Wilberforce, by R. C. Ransom.

        School History of the Negro Race in America, by Edward A. Johnson.

        Science and Art of Elocution, by Prof. D. B. Williams.

        The Afro-American Press and Its Editors, by I. Garland Penn.

        The Underground Railroad, by William Still.

        The Sons of Ham, by Lewis Pendleton.

        The Work of Afro-American Women, by Mrs. N. F. Mossell.

        The New South Investigated, by D. A. Straker.

        The Negro Baptist Pulpit, by Rev. E. M. Brawley.

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        The Hazely Family, by Mrs. A. E. Johnson.

        The Rape of Florida, by A. A. Whitman.

        The Official Manual and History of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows in America, by Charles B. Wilson.

        The Semi-Centenary of the A. M. E. Church, by D. A. Payne, D.D.

        The Centennial Budget, by Bishop Arnett.

        The Poetical Works of J. E. Gordon.

        The Rising Sun, by William Wells Brown.

        The Negro's Origin, by B. T. Tanner.

        The Negro (African and American), by Bishop Tanner.

        The Negro in All Ages, by Bishop H. M. Turner.

        The Future of Africa, by Alex. Crummell.

        The Negro in the Rebellion, by William Wells Brown.

        The Southland, by Rev. R. C. O. Benjamin.

        The Boy Doctor, by Rev. R. C. O. Benjamin.

        The Model Homestead, by G. L. Blackwell.

        The Aim of Life, by Rev. George C. Rowe.

        Twenty-two Years of Freedom, by J. T. Wilson.

        The Negro Evangelist, by Dr. Albert.

        Theological Lectures, by Benjamin T. Tanner.

        Thoughts in Verse, by Rev. George Clinton Rowe, pastor Plymouth Congregational Church, Charleston, S. C.

        Universal Reign of Jesus, by Rev. A. E. P. Albert, D.D.

        Voice of a New Race, by J. T. Wilson.

"THE POWER OF THE PRESS."

BY MRS. N. F. MOSSELL.

        EVERY few months we find amateur literary associations discussing the question of the comparative power of the press and the pulpit. It used to be a standing subject for discussion and amusement, but the laugh, in the opinion of the religious world, has completely died out. That the press is entrenching on the power of the pulpit is growing more evident daily. People are coming to prefer to sit by their own cozy firesides and read sermons at their leisure to traveling in inclement weather to the house of worship;

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and the poor feel they are thus on a level with the rich; or, at least, are not pained by the contrast in their conditions as they often are when assembled in the house of God.

        What world of meaning in the phrase, "The Power of the Press!" Our colored men are realizing its latent force. Through this medium they are rapidly pushing their way, strengthening race pride, and making their wants and oppressions known. Every corporation or large business house now has its own journals advertising its goods, and delighting its patrons with its literary feast. The press is a sleeping lion which men are just awaking into life. We should estimate rightly the great obligation that is upon us to use this immense power rightly. We, of all people, can ill afford to make blunders. We must teach wisely and lead aright that the generation to come may bless us as we bless those who have passed before us. Our press association is well organized, and we should be able at its meetings to give each other wise counsel. The study of other journals from every point of view has its benefits; their circulation and where they circulate; the editorials, the news letters, the personals; every department; reading articles on journalism; noting our own experiences from day to day; and getting the advice of those who have grown gray, and perhaps lost fortunes in the cause. We should study the field from which our support must come. One New York publisher knows every county in every State, and the literary caliber of its inhabitants, and is therefore able to put each book he has for sale on the market at the best advantage to himself and the author. How many of our editors have thus studied the colored constituency of the various States?

        We must watch the signs of the times and show business tact. I am forcibly reminded that the white race, even the ignorant portion, possess this faculty largely beyond our own people, even the intelligent ones among us. A white man knowing it was a season for Negro revivals, furnished himself with a goodly-sized bundle of spiritual hymns, and went shouting them up and down the streets, and the colored people flocked to him with their pennies. Not a single white face did I see among them but that of the singer who was gathering in the dimes and nickels from our poor. It was a fit tribute to his businss tact.

        Our journals should improve greatly in the next decade. Let the work and field be studied, a policy marked out, and the greatest good to the greatest number be the aim of each. Get the intelligent

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sympathy and advice of all connected with publications. Form syndicates and pay for good articles on selected subjects from our best writers and authors. Secure the assistance of some wise, helpful, intelligent, and entusiastic woman. Do your best and success will surely crown your effort.

        Before closing we must speak of "Our Women in Journalism." They are admitted to the press association and are in sympathy with the male editors; but few have become independent workers in this noble field of effort, being yet satellites, revolving round the sun of masculine journalism. They still remain willing captives, chained to the chariot wheels of the sterner element, and deem it well if "united they stand." Let us have a few more years of co-operative work. Our women have a great field in literary work. Sex or color does not bar, for neither need to be known. As reporters, women are treated with the courtesy due their sex. They have tact, quick perception, and can readily gain access to both sexes. Again, we are "lookers on in Venice." We are not in the thick of the battle. We have time to think, frame our purposes, and carry them into effect, unlike the editor harassed with both literary and business work and other great responsibilities incident to such an enterprise.

        Women can do much to purify and strengthen life through the columns of the daily press, or the weekly, or the monthly journals. Right well do they seem to appreciate their opportunities; and a broad view of life and its purposes will come to them through this source. Let one who desires journalism as her life-work, study to acquire a good knowledge of the English language, and of others, if she so desires, but the English language she must. Be alive to obtain what is news, what will interest. Let the woman select her non de plume, or take her own name if she prefers, and use it always, unless for some special purpose it is changed. Write oftenest for one journal and on one subject or on one line, at least, until a reputation has been established. Work conscientiously, follow the natural bent, and the future will not fail to bring its own reward. Hoping that these few scattered, irregular thoughts on "The Power of the Press" may serve as seed-thoughts to lead to more serious thinking, I bid my readers adieu, believing that no brighter path opens before us, as a race, than that of the journalism of the present age.--Afro-American Press.

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INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION FOR NEGROES.

BY MRS. JULIA A. HOOKS, MEMPHIS.

        INDUSTRIAL education is the lever by which the Negro race is to be lifted up. "Give us more schools of industry," should be the cry of the dark sons and daughters of the South. The able, scholarly, and masterly address of Prof. Booker T. Washington, President and founder of the great Tuskegee Institute of Alabama, delivered here recently, has attracted the attention of our citizens in a most favorable manner. Indeed, no man in the country is better prepared than he to discuss the important topic and show its material worth and practical application as a factor in the solution of the great problem. That man has labored hard and long to develop the race along the lines of industrial pursuits, and he has won for himself and his race merited distinction for the work accomplished. We should all be ready and willing to give earnest heed and cheerful indorsement to his labors. I desire to offer a few thoughts, hopeful that they may be the means of arresting the attention of our young men and women to the worthy subject, who, perhaps, did not have the advantage of listening to the words as they fell eloquently from the lips of that great man.

        Before offering my thoughts and suggestions I wish to say that this is one great thing which called forth the most rapturous applause. Prof. Washington, though knowing of the difficulties which the Negroes have had to strive against, made no unsavory mention, no incendiary talk, but kindly advised his people to seek for peace with their neighbors, and cease hoisting the flag of distress. "Drop the bucket down where you are." Grand thought, good advice. It is my humble opinion that our system of education until recently has been largely at fault, and even yet it is to be regretted that so much attention is given to the education of the mind, without the application to matter. I mean this: In the schools where the masses must receive instruction there is no industry taught. The head alone is attended to in utter disregard of the hand. Boys and girls are taught that the only avenues in which to be really useful, that the

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only really honorable opportunities afforded to "make their mark," is to be considered "smart." Indeed, only "smart" enough to be a learned professor, teacher, or preacher. They are led to think that any other training is degrading and beneath the standard of true dignity. It is a fact that many of our boys and girls, after coming to the city to acquire higher educational advantages, often abhor going back to the country, as they should, to help the poor old father and mother to a better understanding of the worth of the "forty acres, a mule and plow." It is true that most of our children abhor the "sweat of human industry;" they look with disgust on the "horny hand of toil." They are ashamed of the title "servant;" and yet are not the possessors of the requisites to be the master or mistress. What is the use of learning? I insist that the great end of education is to prepare one for usefulness in life; and an education that does not accomplish this is worse than useless.

        Prof. Washington knows what is required in this age. It calls for the practical man and the practical woman. And the man who will continue to sit at his desk in his classroom and fancifully dream, or the young woman who will leave the schoolroom, after a long day's hard work, and go butterfly chasing the rest of the afternoon, or spend the evening supinely lying about with the novel or story paper in hand, constantly "dreaming dreams and seeing visions," and then looking for their fulfillment, will awake after the great procession of progress has passed, only to discover the awful dangers of the days spent in idly teaching, and dreaming, and failing to discover the true essentials of practical living. If schooling means anything, it means to prepare one for the highest standard of true greatness in its fullest sense. It is a fallacy to seek knowledge simply for the purpose of being smart. Prof. Washington did not dare discourage higher education; nor do I mean to decry the highest education of the mind, yet I say that I oppose any form of education for my boys that is not to be made practical, and carried into their generous life. Again, much of the education nowadays is misdirected. Boys and girls should be trained with an eye single to the place in life they are to fill. Casting a boy adrift upon the world with a mind stored with classic lore, and most of it only shamly crammed into his brain, and while neither he nor his parrents are prepared to find an honorable means of support for that classic mind, is nothing less than a crime. As a bread winner he is rendered a miserable failure. Idleness and uselessness naturally follow as a sequence. This leads to poverty

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and crime, which is feeding our jails, thronging our penitentiaries, and swarming the many houses of prostitution--by many considered a necessity. Industrial ignorance and antipathy, more than anything else, is the cause of anarchism, and, indeed, many of the great evils of the day come from the lack, the total ignorance, of industrial habits. Idleness and industrial ignorance is causing our people to lose their patriotism, and the perpetuity of our national life depends upon our knowledge and the usefulness of industrial pursuits.

        The only star of hope which is to shed the radiant light to illumine our darkened pathway here in the Southland, and open up a way into a new faith and a new inspiration, lies in the education of the hand as well as the head--"the grasping of matter and bringing from it something." The community has nothing to fear from the intelligent, industrious boy or girl. The man or woman who is an earnest, intelligent, and industrious owner of his "forty acres" and farming tools is not shunned. The vacant lands lying around here are calling to us, "Come and till; come and use us and we will do you good." Let us as patriotic people ask, nay, beg, our legislatures to legislate for industrial education in connection with the free school system, and also let us beg that a compulsory system of this education be demanded of parents and guardians. Then will our youths be thrice armed to combat with America's great evils--immorality, intemperance, ignorance, malice, and prejudice. An educated industry will make a man a truer husband, a kinder father, a better neighbor, and a nobler citizen. An intelligent, industrious woman will be a truer wife, a fonder mother, and a more faithful servant. Our State can better afford to found and give to its citizens of color industrial schools, than schools where tactics and athletics are taught. We have more need of carpenters than athletes, and a prosperous, well-educated farmer is worth more to us and to the State than a hundred well-drilled and disciplined soldiers.

        The Negro must look to industry as the bright ray of hope. The few industrial schools where industry is truly and properly taught must be supported. Such opportunities will be the means in many instances of saving from shame and disgrace our boys and will help in preserving the virtue and chastity of our girls. I trust and believe that the many right-thinking colored mothers who listened with marked appreciation to Prof. Washington will treasure the effort put forth by the Whittier Association in bringing him here, and that as they sing the little girl infant to sleep they may look forth to this industrial

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education as the safeguard which is to protect and save her for future usefulness. On my Sunday mission to the county jail I look with pity and remorse, with sorrow and disgust, upon our poor little boys and girls and our young men and women when I see so many of them with brilliant minds wasting their lives in idleness and profligacy, oftentimes dishonoring their parents, disgracing themselves and their race, bringing trouble and expense upon the State and county by their condition. I sit prayerfully considering and sorrowfully begging my Lord to show me some plan by which I can help uplift my people out of the low estate into which so many hundreds of them have fallen. I can but see a gleam of hope as I look forth to the industrial education, the applying of mind to matter, as the only and great lever which is to lift them up and make them a blessing, rather than a curse, to society; a blessing, rather than a curse, to posterity. Teaching our boys and girls of to-day, who will be the men and women of to-morrow, the true meaning of education is the only hope. Demanding of parents and guardians to see to the proper education of head and hand will prove a future blessing to the Southland's glory and greatness.--Commercial-Appeal.

THE NEGRO AS AN ECONOMIST.

        HOW HE IS COMING--THE DEPTHS FROM WHICH HE HAS COME.

        IT is said that the colored population of Georgia pay taxes on about $40,000,000 worth of real property. The amount of mortgage on the lands of the Georgia Negroes is not stated, but even if it should be one half of the value of the real estate, the result would be the possession by those people of $20,000,000 worth of land, which they have accumulated since the war. It is quite likely, though statistics on the subject are not available, that a similar, if not better, result would be shown in the other Southern States, and the probability is that the Negroes of the South own, free of all encumbrance perhaps $250,000,000 to $300,000,000 worth of real estate. Such a result as this is probably unprecedented in the history of our civilization. It should be remembered that less than thirty years

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ago the Negroes started with less than nothing, for as slaves, they acquired habits of thriftlessness, of wastefulness that almost unfitted them for the accumulation of property. In one generation they have managed to pile up an aggregate of wealth that is simply enormous. It is true that a considerable percentage of the race still retain the habits of idleness that characterized them as slaves. It is also true that no large percentage exhibit talent for accumulation, but are content to earn from day to day the wages of the day before, trusting to chance for the future of the morrow. But after these deductions have been made, there still remains a large number of them who have exhibited decided financial ability. Starting in the most humble way, with limited intelligence, and exceedingly circumscribed knowledge of the manner in which economy is to be practiced, they have nevertheless gone on from year to year accumulating a little until their savings, as represented by their property, have built churches, have erected school houses, they employ and pay preachers and teachers; and all out of the humble earnings of day laborers. Such results as these deserve honorable mention. When contemplating the race as a mass, it is usual to judge its members by its worst representatives, a method both unjust and untrue. The colored people of the South, as a class, should not be judged by the criminals among them who become conspicuous in the newspapers from the evil deeds that are often visited with swift and terrible justice; they should rather be judged from the honest, hard working men and women who, beginning with nothing, have in the course of one generation accumulated an amount of property, that even of our magnficent national wealth, form no inconspicuous portion.--St. Louis Christian Advocate.

IMPROVING NEGRO HOMES.

BY CARRIE A. BANISTER, IN THE "NASHVILLE CITIZEN."

        NOT long since the subject of improving the homes of the Negroes as a paramount factor in developing better men and women among them was discussed in a leading New York journal, and the habit of considering all Negroes as Negroes and not as men and women intrudes itself as usual. The writer says that the first need

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of the Negroes is the improvement of the "dark and cheerless abodes" in which these people live. For, says he, the Negroes who live in neat and well kept homes are thrifty and intelligent, self-respecting and respectable; and from this he deduces the conclusion that if the Negroes were placed in better homes they would at once become thrifty and respectable. The true deduction to be reached is that the Negro's thrift and self-respect made the home, and not the home which made the Negro.

        The Negro whose soul is free, like every other man, appreciates the sacredness and beauty which must be inseparable from a happy home. On the other hand the Negro debased and brutified by a servitude of centuries, has no comprehension or desire for home in any exalted sense. Perhaps the least desirable legacy bequeathed by slavery to the children of its victims, is the disintegrating and nomadic tendencies of a homeless and non-familied people. The improvement must begin with the people who are to make the homes, who do make them. Quixotic as seems to us there are those among the freedmen whom no wretchedness can impel, and no opportunity inspire, to alter or to make tolerable the places in which they and their families exist. More than one old Negro lives for years in a one or two-room cabin, declining to build another room "kase he won't be gwine to leave."

        In the same way the pure air and water of the vast open fields and hill sides call in vain to the denizens of the filthy and over-crowded tenements of the cities. In effecting any improvement all the formative and educative influences which touch the colored people must be called into requisition, the schools, the churches and the press. Of these influences none is so powerful or far-reaching in its results as the industrial school since it educates the whole man. The soul is schooled to higher wants and the hand is skilled to obtain them. When these influences have combined to make a generation of virtuous, clean, industrious women, though they may not shine in society or speak but one language, though they may be ugly in feature and unsophisticated in manner; and by their sides a generation of men who will care for and love their own firesides, what though their names are never heard outside the little limits of their own state or neighborhood, what though their hands are hard with toil, we will not need to discuss the improvement of homes; such women and men will improve their homes of their own volition.

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Illustration

Residence of R. R. Church,
Memphis, Tenn.

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SUNSHINE

VALEDICTORY ESSAY BY SARAH A. PAGE, DELIVERED AT TUGALOO COLLEGE, TUGALOO, MISSISSIPPI.

        WHAT would the world be without sunshine--sunshine from above us and from within us. If you can imagine so dark a picture try to think of yourself in a sunless world. Look around you, and see if anything like joy can be awakened by your surroundings. All is dark, dismal and chilly. As we look out upon our now verdant fields and forests, we cannot help thinking of the great body that has furnished light and heat for them and coaxed them to robe themselves in their spring dress. Our woods are full of fragrant flowers. Mother Nature has withheld nothing beautiful from us. But suppose that just as the little plants had peeped up from under the sod they had been deprived of the sunshine. For a time they would have struggled on against adversity, but with so little strength that they would have at last succumbed to the effects of cold and darkness. While living they would have been beautiful. We have seen plants that were deprived of sunshine. Were they rich in the beautiful colors which we see in our woods? No, they could not boast of colors. They were weak, dwarfed and pale. In them we see none of the beauty that characterizes our wild, free flowers. Where the shadow has been predominant, beauty cannot reach its full development.

        In this world we are all plants, and what is strange about it is that our sunshine is received in a large measure from others. We, too, must live and grow. And to support life in us we need sunshine.

        Let us notice, first, ourselves as sources of light or shadow. We are constantly in the presence of others. Whether we know it or not we are causing them to flourish by the genial rays from our hearts, or we are causing them to wither and fade by the gloominess of our looks and words. The little brothers, sisters, sons and daughters in our homes are tender plants. They need warmth and light to make them vigorous and beautiful. Give them this and you are nourishing the great roots of patience, love, trustfulness and self-reliance.

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Through these roots the great tree of manhood and womanhood is to draw its food. They are easily injured now, and too much shade will dwarf them for the rest of their existence. You are putting in the lovely colors such as no artist can portray on his canvas.

        Our parents need our sunshine. How could we have reached our present condition without their love and care? Let us show to them that their rays have been absorbed by us and not misspent. Let us throw our brightest beams in their pathway. They have had enough of the dark side of life. It is our great privilege to be the disseminators of light and cheerfulness to them. If we perform our duties faithfully in this respect, we will be a great power in lightening the burdens that will come to them from other sources.

        In the school-room, at the counter, at the work bench, there is ever a demand for sunshine. Your pupils are encouraged, your customers pleased if your service is given in a pleasant, light-hearted manner. Look among the happy homes and see if you can find the moody, silent, humdrum man. You will usually find him not in such a home as this, but in the home where shades from unloving hearts prevail. He may mount the ladder of fame but he has lost one of the most precious jewels of life. The happy laborer would not change places with him. He grows hardened and the bright rays which would have made his heart glad cannot at once affect him. He does not understand the worth of this treasure. He must be gradually brought to realize it. You may say there are many great men whose early lives were overshadowed. To this we will agree only in part. However dark may have seemed their way, some struggling sunbeams have reached them at some time, and these few rays, on account of their scarcity, were made more precious. There are lives which seem to have no glimmer of light in them, but many of them have some secret hope, some unknown comforter.

        We have been observing this agent as going out from us to others, let us now look at it coming to us from them:

        First, how do we secure it? Sunshine may be poured out upon us from others, and we may make ourselves impervious to its effects. We may cherish such gloomy thoughts that we will fail to be benefitted. When others are happy, do not cast a gloom over them by coldness. It freezes the heart of a friend to be observed with coldness when he is happy. We sympathize with others in their sorrow; can we not also share their joys? It adds to their happiness to have others happy.

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        You feel low-spirited sometimes. You do not to care relate your trouble to others, why then keep up a gloomy appearance? Throw off the shadow and let bright beams radiate from your countenance. If you are naturally of a gloomy disposition you can do no better than to imitate the example of others who are cheerful. If you have some trouble in which your friends can help you, show your appreciation of their kindness.

        What a world of darkness this would be, had we no kind friends to share our woes! How different would seem our surroundings. Nearly all our pleasure comes in having others share our feelings. There are innumerable ways in which we can give sunshine. Of some of them we have already spoken. The sharing of joys or sorrows, the pleasant word, or look, the warm handshake, all bear with them a message of cheer, and oh, how soothing to the heart, how welcome to the ear. There are many valuable gifts which we are unable to bestow, but kind deeds, one of the most precious, we can each give in abundance. We have seen faces from which there seemed to radiate all that was true and beautiful. Our world would know less of woe if there were more of such faces. If we are to be constantly sending forth bright rays, we must have a strong reservoir from which to get our supply. The light shines from our faces, but what is the source? Before we can do much toward giving the light to others, we must have within our hearts love and cheerfulness. One word spoken from the heart is worth more than many spoken from the tip of the tongue. "It needs the everflow of heart to give the lips full speech." We can distinguish between the shallow words of pretension and those of heartfelt interest. Surface words are revolting when we are in need of advice or encouragement. The light that lighteth all the world must be within us. Drawing from that never-failing Source, our supply of light is sure. The bright face is an index to the brighter heart. As we look into the faces of others we can judge whether they are usually happy or not. We notice their actions and judge them by their fruit. God judges them by their roots. We may be deceived as to their fruits, but he is never deceived as to the source of their strength.

        There is a beautiful custom among the natives of Madura. At evening-tide the mother trims and polishes her lamp and sets it on a table in the centre of the room. As the members of the family gather in, each one pays homage to the light before proceeding with the social joys of the evening. This custom is of course connected

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with some of their superstitious beliefs, but a lesson may be borne to us from it. What light have we that draws us together and exerts a binding influence upon us? Sunshine is the philosopher's stone that transmutes everything to gold. It is not miserly, but steals into every crevice and tries to awaken its occupants.

        Our sunshine should not be sparing, but for every one we meet there should be a bountiful supply. Life is too short for us to indulge in shadows. There will be enough of them howe'er the sunshine falls. In all our lives there must be some shadows, but they may be so regarded that we will be strengthened by them. Our sunshine is then made more glorious by contrast. There will be times when we must, with Longfellow--


                         "Be still sad heart and cease repining,
                         Behind the cloud is the sun still shining."

        Life cannot be one pleasant summer day. We each learn by experience that "some days must be dark and dreary." We might grow tired of the sunshine were there no shadows for contrast. Some flowers need all sunshine, some flourish on very little, and seem to require the shade. Out of seemingly dark recesses some beautiful lives grow, but their light comes from above and dispels all gloom. Their sorrows are borne in patience because they live in anticipation of the light to come. Like those flowers whose faces are constantly turned toward the sun, let us ever look toward the source of our light, hoping thereby to become more radiant and beautiful. To-day brings us to a point in our career which has both its sad and joyous features. When we think of the happy hours spent here with our teachers and fellow students, and when the thought comes to us that these hours have ceased to be, a feeling of regret fills our hearts; but we have not the time to look back, and so as we look off into the future and contemplate the work that is before us, we can but rejoice at the prospect of enlarging our work for the Master. Classmates, our pathway which for some time has been one and the same, to-day separates in many branches. We each pursue a different way, resolving to make the best of it, rejoicing in the sunshine, keeping cheerful in the shadow.

        We extend hearty thanks to these kind teachers who have had our interest at heart, and who have striven to aid us in attaining a higher life. Their efforts shall not be lost, for the inspirations which we have received from them we are trying to make part of our lives.

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        We hope that when report of our actions reaches your ears, you will recognize in them the principles of a noble manhood and womanhood.

        Fellow students, to you we must bid adieu. We hope that the good that you receive here may serve to make your path sunny. These opportunities are still yours.

        In saying farewell to-day, we do not feel that we are at the end. We have only laid the foundation; our building we have yet to construct. We go forth among our fellow-men to reflect the light that we have received here--to remove the darkness of ignorance and unhappiness; and in so doing we hope to follow out our Master's injunction, to "Shine as lights in the world."

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Illustration

"MAMMY" AND HER PET.

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TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

        IN the minds of many people religion is associated with gloom. It is something to which they may be compelled to resort to avoid worse evils, but of itself it is without zest or charm. Doubtless the austerity of the Puritan regime has done much to foster this impression. The lines between the church and the world were drawn with precision, and the discrimination was more against external things than against inward dispositions. The old Manichæn notion that matter was inherently sinful, and that material pleasures were seductions of the evil one, colored their conceptions, as they did those of the mediæval church. Gradually, however, the Christian churches have been coming to wiser views. They have been led to see that the world and all it contains is God's world, that he framed his creatures for many grades of enjoyment, and that, other things being equal, he is the truest man who is alive in every faculty of soul and body. We have also come to see that the Christian ideal of life is not one in which the faculties for physical enjoyment are sternly repressed, but one in which all powers are subordinated to spiritual claims and controlled by spiritual motives.

        Self-denial has as much place in the Christian life as it ever had; but we have learned to distinguish between self-denial for the sake of conserving the soul's power for some worthy end or for the sake of self-discipline, and self-mortification, as an end in itself. The former is one of the highest manifestations of the Christian spirit; the latter is heathenism. One essential mark of true self-denial is that it is not morose and gloomy. It sees the superiority of the spiritual end it aims to secure, and gladly surrenders the lower good to gain it. It is only the self-mortification which is always unintelligent, and a dash of superstition that is undertoned and repining. The Apostle Paul is an admirable illustration of the true Christian temper. Few man have sacrificed more than he for spiritual ends, but his letters abound with good cheer. Men constantly turn to them for courage. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the elder son who could say that while his brother who wasted his living, he had never had a kid to make merry with his friends, unconsciously disclosed

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closed the real quality of his life. He showed that he had all the time been longing for just such a life as that his brother had led. His brother's life was the kind of life he would have led if he could have given free play to his impulses. Inwardly he had wandered as far from his father as ever his brother had outwardly in miles or riotous excess. His heart had not been enlisted in the home life; it was some small motive of decency or self-interest that kept him respectable. The elder son is a type of the men whose religion is gloomy, and who represent it to others as a distasteful experience. They are not quite in the world, though they long to be, and they do not live in the Spirit.

        "The fruit of the Spirit is--joy." The more real one's religion is, the happier, the sunnier he will be. The man who enters into the spirit of Christ will be wary about making external prohibitions for himself or for others. Rather he will seek for himself and others that devotion to the highest things which remands the lower life and its pleasures to their proper place, and, in so doing, finds the deepest satisfactions.--Boston Watchman.

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Illustration

TURPENTINE FARM, NEAR SAVANNAH, GA

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TEMPERANCE.

TO THE COLORED WORKINGMEN.

        EVERY laboring colored man is called upon to choose between the saloon, with its attendant miseries and vices, and the home with its manifold blessings. In the Journal of United Labor, the following letter by Mr. T. V. Powderly, is worth your careful consideration. He says, "I know that in the organization of which I am the head there are many good men who drink, but they would be better men if they did not drink. I know that there are thousands in our order who will not agree with me on the question of temperance, but that is their misfortune, for they are wrong, radically wrong. Ten years ago I was hissed because I advised men to let strong drink alone. They threatened to rotten-egg me. I continued to advise men to be temperate, and though I have had no experience that would qualify me to render an opinion on the efficacy of a rotten egg as an ally of the rumdrinker, yet I would prefer to have my exterior decorated from summit to base with the rankest kind of rotten eggs rather than allow one drop of liquid villainy to pass my lips, or have the end of my nose illuminated by the bloom that follows a planting of the seeds of hatred, envy, malice, and damnation, all of which are represented in a solitary glass of gin.

        He (the drunkard), robs parents, wife, and children. He robs his aged father and mother through love of drink. He gives for rum what should go for their support. When they murmur, he turns them from his door, and points his contaminated drunken finger toward the poorhouse. He next turns to his wife and robs her of what should be devoted to the keeping of her home in comfort and plenty. He robs her of her wedding ring and pawns it for drink. He turns his daughter from his door in a fit of drunken anger and drives her to the house of prostitution, and then accepts from her hand the proceeds of her shame. To satisfy his love of drink, he takes the price

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of his child's virtue and innocence from her sin-stained, lust-bejeweled fingers, and with it totters to the bar to pay it to the man 'who does not deny the justness of my position.' I do not arraign the man who drinks because he is poor, but because through being a slave to drink he has made himself and family poor. I do not hate men who drink, for I have carried drunken men to their homes on my back, rather than allow them to remain exposed to the enclement weather. I do not hate the drunkard, he is what drink effected; and while I do not hate the effect, I abhor and loathe the cause.

        In the city of New York alone it is estimated that not less than $250,000 a day are spent for drink, $1,500,000 in one week, $75,000,000 in one year. Who will dispute it when I say that one-half of the policemen of New York City are employed to watch the beings who squander $75,000,000? Who will dispute it when I say that the money spent in paying the salaries and expenses of one-half of the police of New York could be saved to the tax-payers if $75,000,000 were not devoted to making drunkards, thieves, prostitutes, and other subjects for the policemen's net to gather in? If $250,000 go over the counters of the rumseller in one day in New York City alone. who will dare to assert that workingmen do not pay one-fifth, or $50,000, of that sum? If workingmen in New York City spend $50,000 a day for drink, they spend $300,000 a week, leaving Sunday out. In four weeks they spend $1,200,000--over twice as much money as was paid into the General Assembly of the Knights of Labor in nine years. In six weeks they spend $1,800,000--nearly three times as much money as that army of organized workers, the Knights of Labor, have spent from the day the General Assembly was first called to order up to the present day; and in one year the workingmen of New York City alone will have spent for beer and rum $15,600,000, or enough to purchase and equip a first-class telegraph line of their own; $15,600,000, enough money to invest in such a co-operative enterprise as would forever end the strike and lockout as a means of settling disputes in labor circles."

Ought to be Made Odious.

        "Intemperance, like treason," says Cardinal Gibbons, ought to be made odious in the land, and there is a close similarity between the two. The treasonable man endeavors to dethrone the rightful sovereign, and intemperance dethrones reason, the ruler of the soul."

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The A. M. E. Zion Church on Temperance.

        At the Nineteenth Quadrennial Session of the General Conference of the A. M. E. Zion Church, held in Pittsburg, Pa., May, 1892, the Committee on Temperance submitted the following report, which was unanimously adopted:

        "Temperance has narrowed itself down in these days so that at present it refers to the liquor traffic specially. We recognize the fact that while there are many evils to which our country is heir, and many evil spots of degradation and sin which besmirch the garments of fair Columbia--mistress of the West, pride of the world--there are none which so disfigure her fair garments as intemperance, by which are her garments not only besmirched, but in which they are bedraggled and polluted, and by which, if the cause be not curtailed or extirpated, she will be compelled to follow the path of the grand old government which preceded her, and be buried in the great sea of oblivion; be known as a thing of the past, the very action of whose language, mayhap, like Greece and Rome, be forgotten.

        We aver that above and beyond all the evils which pervade our fair land, this hydra-headed monster dominates them all, and subverts all things upon which it takes hold to become the menials of its will. It lurks in the lowly hovel, and revels in the palaces of the great; it perverts government from its high purpose, and makes it become a weakly, servile imbecile, unable either to direct the affairs of government, or to promulgate its laws. It desecrates the family altar, despoils the sweet influence of the family circle, rends virtue into shreds, and puts a premium on vice. It impels the infuriated mob to deeds of horror and crime more barbarous, heinous, devilish than those wrought by Nero, evidences of which fact may be seen in the many lynchings of recent occurrence.

        Therefore, because of these facts, together with many other vicious influences which it ingenders, the multifarious evils which emanate from it, we, the committee, submit that all means which can be reasonably and legally brought to bear to extirpate this great evil from among the people of our country be endorsed by our connection, and receive its continued support. We further recommend that Zion's ministry give more attention to the great cause of temperance, and that the laity be incited to greater work in a united effort to put under foot the great monster intemperance."


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Temperance Resolutions Adopted by the A. M. E. Church.

        The African Methodist Episcopal Church at its General Conference, held at Indianapolis, Indiana, adopted the following resolutions:

        "Resolved 1, That we discourage the manufacture, sale, and use of all alcoholic and malt liquors.

        2. "That we discourage the use of tobacco by our ministers and people.

        3. "That we discourage the use of opium and snuff.

        4. "That we endorse the great Prohibition movement in this country, also the work done by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and will use all honorable means to suppress the evils growing out of intemperance.

        5. "That it shall be a crime for any minister or member of the A. M. E. Church to fight against temperance, and if convicted of this crime he shall lose his place in the Conference and the church."

        The Bishops at this same conference said in their address: "We should allow no minister, or member who votes, writes, lectures, or preaches to uphold the rum trade to retain his membership, either in the Conference or in the church. And those who are addicted to strong drink, either ministers or laymen, should have no place among us. Visit our station houses, bridewells, jails, almshouses, and penitentiaries, and you will there witness the effects of this horror of horrors. Rum has dug the grave of the American Indian so deep that it will never be resurrected. If we would escape the same fate as a church and a race, we must be temperate.

        "Some of the loftiest intellects have been blasted and blighted by this terrible curse. The use of wine at weddings should never be encouraged by our ministers; it is often the beginning of a blasted life."

        Ordinary observation is sufficient evidence to convince any poor dram drinker that the use of liquor is detrimental to his interests.

Benjamin Franklin on the Analysis of Beer.

        In 1725 Franklin wrote this interesting reminiscence of his apprenticeship in Watt's printing house in London: "I drank only water; the other workmen, nearly fifty in number, were great drinkers of beer. On occasions I carried up and down stairs a large form of types in each hand, when others carried but one in both hands. They wondered to see, from this and several instances, that the

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[water-American, as they called me, was stronger than themselves, who drank strong beer. We had an ale-house boy, who attended always in the house to supply the workmen. My companion at the press drank every day a pint before breakfast, a pint at breakfast with his] bread and cheese, a pint between breakfast and dinner, a pint at dinner, a pint in the afternoon about 6 o'clock, and another when he had done his day's work. I thought it a detestable custom, but it was necessary, he supposed, to drink strong beer that he might be strong to labor. I endeavored to convince him that the bodily strength afforded by beer could only be in proportion to the grain or flour of the barley dissolved in the water of which it was made; that there was more flour in a pennyworth of bread, and therefore if he could eat that with a pint of water it would give him more strength than a quart of beer. He drank on, however, and had four or five shillings to pay out of his wages every Saturday night for that vile liquor; an expense I was free from. And thus these poor devils keep themselves always under."

A Temperance Lecture by Rev. J. C. Price, President National Afro-American League.

        "Remembering the circumstances in which the Negro was placed by the dreadful institution of slavery it is not to be wondered at that he now cultivates a taste, even a love for alcohol. Yet it is remarkable to note the progress toward sobriety that the race has made in the later years of its emancipation. A colored total abstainer is not a rare person in any community nowadays. The various temperance societies and nearly all the other secret organizations supported by the Afro-American race uniformly require those who seek admission to pledge themselves to be sober men and women, and in most cases to be total abstianers. The drift is more and more in this direction, and hence soberness in the race is constantly on the increase. It is remarkable, too, to observe the steadfastness and persistency with which colored teachers as a rule, hold to the idea that the race is to be uplifted morally, as well as materially and religiously improved, through total abstinence as a chief instrument. It is the rare exception, not the rule, to find a colored teacher who does not hold to this doctrine. The result is that many boys and girls in the school-room all over the South and in other sections as well are being trained to habits of temperance, and will in all probability develop into consistent temperance men and women. And it must not be forgotten that the true and most influential leaders of the race, the ministers, are moulding and shaping the opinions of both old and young in favor of soberness and total abstinence. The unanimity with which the churches of all denominations declare for

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the temperance reform is most encouraging. It is a very rare thing to find any considerable proportion of the ministry of any religious denomination exerting an influence in behalf of the extension and perpetuation of the liquor traffic. The church as a factor in this race development and elevation is laboring steadfastly and earnestly for the right. It is the one force that checks and holds the individuals of the race from following the evil propensities of their own hearts when every other force proves unavailing. In it is the chief hope for the present as well as the eternal salvation of the Negro. If the church is kept pure it can lift up and give honor and perfect freedom to the freedmen. The race has implicit confidence in the truth and value of God's word. This confidence must not be shaken but must be cultivated by the selection of clergymen well qualified by special training to teach wisely, acceptably and properly. Along with such cultivation will inevitably go a determination to strengthen the temperance cause more and more.

        I have watched closely the men who are recognized as the race leaders in various States and localities. It is acknowledged that they are generally shrewd, calculating and hard to circumvent when they attempt political manoeuvers. It is my observation that these leaders are strictly reliable and trustworthy when confined in and--however surprising the statement may be to some--that they are generally sober, upright and honest. I confess that in some localities this rule does not apply, but on the whole a more sober class of leaders does not exist in any race than in the Afro-American. One of the evils against which our people have to contend is the crossroads grocery store, to be found all over the Southland--the bane of this section. Here, with no city or town ordinance to make drunkenness an offense and to threaten certain punishment, they congregate and drink their fill, carouse, engage in free fights and do other hurtful and equally unlawful things, while no one dares molest or make afraid, and the grocery keeper finding his trade benefited, encourages the debauchery. This evil instead of becoming less increases. The business of many prosperous towns and villages is being injured seriously by the competition at the cross roads and the resulting vice, violence and impoverishment. The records of

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the courts would show that crime among our people is traceable to a large majority of cases to a too free exercise of the liquor habit. Of the men belonging to the race who are hanged, I think it entirely reasonable to say that at least four-fifths committed their offenses while under the influence of liquor. But speaking of the race broadly, and duly considering all the unusual circumstances that ought to be taken into consideration, I think it cannot fairly be charged with anything like gross intemperance. It is something out of the usual order to come upon a case of delirium tremens among the Negroes. Comparatively few of them drink anything of consequence during the week, but excessive imbibition is mostly indulged in on Saturdays. With their rigorous physical constitution they are able, in six days of comparative temperance, to resist the undermining effects of the seventh day's spree. Therefore this is not a race of drunkards, and there is abundant reason for believing that with proper education and training it may be made a race of sober people and abstainers.

        In all the prohibition and local option contests in the South numbers of colored men have been on the side of temperance and fought valiantly for its success. Many others would have thrown their influence the same way had they not been duped by misguided leaders who raised false cries of alarm, declaring that prohibition was a device to take away their dearly-bought liberty. It is customary to blame the Negroes for the defeats of prohibition in Texas, in the second Atlanta contest, etc.; but it must be remembered that without a large share of the Negro vote prohibition could not have carried in Atlanta at the first trial and would have been lost in hundreds of other fights.

        In order to strengthen the cause of temperance in the South nothing is more important than to treat the Negro fairly, to keep faith with him, to permit no pledge to be broken. Once won, the colored man is the most faithful and reliable of allies. It is of course needless to add that the suppy of temperance literature should be kept up and increased. Especially valuable is the work of arousing total abstinence enthusiasm among the students in the various educational institutions--young men (and women too), upon whom the future of the race and its influence for good or evil so largely depends. I am indeed hopeful for the future of the Afro-American race, and particularly hopeful that it will become a positive and influential contributor to the triumph of the temperance

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reform. It is estimated that Christendom has introduced 70,000 gallons of rum to every missionary. In the great Congo Free State there are one hundred drunkards to one convert. Under the maddening influence of intoxicating drink sent from New England two hundred Congoans slaughtered each other. One gallon of rum caused a fight in which fifty were slain.--Ram's Horn.

TOBACCO.

        SOON after the discovery of this plant it was introduced into many of the countries of Europe, and soon became an article of luxury. Its use, however, was condemned, and the Sultans of Turkey declared smoking a crime, and death of the most cruel kind was fixed as the punishment. In Russia the "noses of the smokers were cut off in the earlier part of the seventeenth century." Its use was described by King James I., of England, as "a custom loathesome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless."

        Dr. J. H. Kellogg, M.D., in Health Science Leaflet, No. 216, says: "Chemists, botanists and physicians unite in pronouncing tobacco one of the most deadly poisons known. No other poison with the exception of prussic acid will cause death so quickly, only three or four minutes being required for a fatal dose to produce its full effect. The active principle of tobacco, that is, that to which its narcotic and poisonous properties are due, is nicotine, a heavy, oily substance, which may be separated from the dry leaf of the plant by distillation or infusion. The proportion of nicotine varies from two to eight per cent. A pound of tobacco contains on an average 380 grains of this deadly poison, of which one-tenth of a grain will kill a dog in ten minutes. A case is on record in which a man was killed in thirty seconds by this poison. Hottentots use the oil of tobacco to kill snakes, a single minute drop causing death as quickly as a lightning stroke. It is largely used by gardeners and keepers of green houses to destroy grubs and noxious insects (its proper sphere of usefulness)."

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        The habit of smoking was discovered on the island of Cuba. The two sailors who were sent by Columbus to explore the island, report that: "Among many other strange and curious discoveries, the natives carried with them lighted fire brands, and puffed smoke from their mouths and noses, which they supposed to be the way the savages had of perfuming themselves. They afterward declared that they 'saw the naked savages twist large leaves together and smoke like devils.'"

        The use of tobacco in any form is both filthy and pernicious. "Keep thyself pure," was Paul's injunction to Timothy; and again he says, "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit." "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." 1 Cor. iii. 17.

HAVE A BANK ACCOUNT.

        EVERY man should make a point to lay up a little money for a "rainy day" which we are all liable to encounter when least expected. The best way to do this is to open an account with a savings bank. Accumulated money is always safe; it is always ready to use when needed. Scrape together five dollors, make your deposit, receive your bank book and then resolve to deposit a given sum, small though it be, once a month, or once a week, according to circumstances. Nobody knows without trying it, how easy a thing it is to save money when an account with a bank has been opened. With such an account a man feels a desire to enlarge his deposit. It gives him lessons in frugality and economy, weans him from habits of extravagance and is the very best guard in the world against intemperance, dissipation and vice.

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VALUE OF OLD COINS.

        COMPARATIVELY few people are aware of the value of old coins. These rare and valuable pieces of money turn up when least expected, and many persons have become suddenly worth hundreds and even thousands of dollars by making a lucky find. It is the scarcity of the coin, not its age, that determines its value. Following we give a table of quotations:

RARE AMERICAN COINS QUOTED AT THEIR MARKET VALUE.

        
HALF CENT.
1793 is worth from $ 1 00 to $ 10 00
1794 is worth from 10 to 3 00
1795 is worth from 25 to 5 00
1796 (Plain edge; without pole) 1 00 to 25 00
1796 (Plain edge; with pole) 5 00 to 50 00
1802 is worth from 25 to 5 00
1804 stemless wreath, is worth from 05 to 50
1811 is worth from 15 to 2 00
1828 thirteen stars, is worth from 02 to 10
1831 is worth from 1 00 to 8 00
1836 is worth from 1 00 to 10 00
1840 to 1848 is worth from 1 00 to 10 00
1850 is worth from 05 to 15
1852 is worth from 2 00 to 4 00
1854 is worth from 3 00 to 10 00
ONE CENT (COPPER).
1788 is worth from 40 to 65
1793 is worth from 2 00 to 3 00
1795 is worth from 75 to 1 00
1799 is worth from 4 00 to 6 00
1804 is worth from 1 00 to 25 00
1806 is worth from 05 to 4 00
1808 is worth from 05 to 5 00
1809 is worth from 25 to 7 50
1813 is worth from 05 to 4 00
1816 is worth from 01 to 45
1817 is worth from 02 to 1 00
1827 is worth from 01 to 2 00
1830 to 1840 (inclusive) is worth from 01 to 1 00
1856 is worth from 1 00 to 3 50

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1861 is worth from 01 to $ 05
1863 is worth from 01 to 10
1865 copper-nickel is worth from 01 to 45
1877 pure nickel is worth from 10 to 1 00
1881 pure nickel is worth from 10 to 1 00
TWO CENTS (BRONZE).
1864 is worth from 05 to 50
1865 is worth from 03 to 15
1866 is worth from 02 to 10
1867 is worth from 02 to 10
1872 is worth from 02 to 10
1873 is worth from 05 to 25
THREE CENTS (SILVER).
1852 is worth from 03 to 25
1854 is worth from 02 to 40
1855 is worth from 05 to 2 00
1856 is worth from 03 to 1 00
1863 is worth from 03 to 25
1864 is worth from 03 to 50
1869 is worth from 03 to 20
1873 is worth from 03 to 20
FIVE CENTS (NICKEL).
1866 is worth from 15 to 50
1867 is worth from 15 to 50
1869 is worth from 10 to 20
1870 is worth from 05 to 10
1883 is worth from 05 to 10
FIVE CENTS (SILVER).
1794 is worth from 1 00 to 10 00
1796 is worth from 1 00 to 11 00
1797 (fifteen stars) is worth from 50 to 5 00
1801 is worth from 1 00 to 10 00
1802 is worth from 50 00 200 00
1805 is worth from 2 00 to 20 00
1840 is worth from 10 to 50
1846 is worth from 50 to 3 00
1860 is worth from 05 to 25
1870 to 1873 is worth from 05 to 10
TEN CENTS.
1796 is worth from 50 to 5 00
1797 thirteen stars is worth from 1 00 to 15 00