Chapter II: Part 2

Be careful about the commands given; study, think, and pray. Be sure that it is a right command, and one that the child can obey. A mother said to her boy: "Bring in that stick of wood on the porch and put it on the fire." The stick was too large, and he came and said: "Mamma, it is too heavy." His mamma hit him a blow and told him that he was lazy; but when she came to look at the stick, it was too large. This mother should have apologized to her child, but she did not. Be sure that the child understands your command. Be patient and repeat the command, and then ask the child to tell you in his own words what you want done.

A child is not obedient if you find it necessary to tell him twice, provided he understands that you want it done immediately. Prompt obedience should be required. "John, bring me the broom," said a mother. "Yes," said the boy, and went on with his own work. "John, how often must I tell you before you obey?" asked the mother impatiently. Then John went for the broom. But he had disobeyed, and his mother should have laid down her work and taken John alone and explained what obedience meant; indeed, he deserved to be punished, if this was his usual way of obeying. But the mother never explained that needing to be told twice was disobedience. Most parents are thoughtless about commands, and after they have given a wrong or unwise command they are too proud to confess it. I heard a mother say these wicked words: "If I promise my child a whipping and find afterwards that he was not to blame, I will whip him anyway to keep my word good." No sensible child can have any respect for such a parent. A bad promise is always better broken than kept. "Thomas," said a mother in my hearing the other day, "I promised to let you and Mary visit Cousin John to-morrow, but I forgot that these clothes must be taken home to-morrow evening, and I will need you both to help. It was careless in me to make the promise without thinking. I am sorry to disappoint you." "Well, mamma," said Thomas, "sometimes I promise without thinking, and then I can't keep my promise; so all right. I will stay and help." "God bless you, my dear boy; I know we both see now how important it is to think before we promise," was the mother's kind reply. You can see how this plan brought the child in sympathy with the mother. When the child is old enough, you should take time to reason with him about the justice of your commands; but when very young, "Mamma says so" is reason enough. (Hope. Nashville, Tenn.)

HINTS FOR OUR GIRLS.

It's not such a difficult matter to keep your room in order. After your own particular domain is in order, learn to keep it so. Learn to dispose of things as you handle them, and while dressing yourself you will at the same time unconsciously be setting your room in order.

Have a dainty little catch-all upon the bureau, or hanging near it, and whenever you see a stray thread or bit of dirt, which you can pick up, don't neglect it, but let it's place be in the catch-all. This precaution will make sweeping an easy task and save your room from ever having a littered look. There will be no days of "putting things to right," for they will be right all the time, and your room will be a continual pleasure to you, as you will not count the time it requires to keep it so any more than you do that which you give to insure personal cleanliness.

It will be easier to keep your room nice than to let it go after you once know the pleasure of an orderly, dainty room, kept so by your own hands. (The Guide, Baltimore, Md.)

WHAT NEGRO WOMEN ARE DOING.

BY H. R. BUTLER, ATLANTA, GA.

There are, according to the latest statistics, 1,280 Afro-American women secretaries and clerks.

No less than one dozen newspapers are edited by intelligent colored women.

Seventy-five Afro-American lady dentists, some of whom have a large practice among the best white people, are an honor to the profession.

Sixty Negro women proclaim the gospel to dying sinners with telling effect.

There are 4,314 colored lady musicians in the land of the "Father of his country."

There are 111 colored women who are regular practicing physicians in the United States.

In 1870 there was not a colored lady bookkeeper in this country. To-day there are 347.

There are 18 Afro-American women who are competent land surveyors.

Statistics show that there are no less than seventy stenographers among the colored women, most of whom are employed on good salaries.

The census of 1890 shows that there are 3,949 actresses in this country, more than a score of whom are women of the race.

Besides the above-named avocations, we have sculptors, painters, lawyers, architects, merchants, and, in fact, our women are filling with success and ability almost every avocation and profession of to-day, and the day is in the near future when the service of thousands of others will be in still greater demand.

WHAT RACE NEWSPAPERS HAVE DONE.

(FROM BALTIMORE CHURCH ADVOCATE.)

The history of the colored newspaper is one of pathetic but vigorous struggle. Upon the whole, with all of its drawbacks and want of proper support, it has ever been one of the most potential arms of race progress. It has been the means of throwing open to the race the columns of the great Anglo-Saxon newspapers hitherto closed against them. It has educated both races. It has been a mirror to reflect the advance made by the race from time to time. Like the Negro pulpit, it is far from being perfect. But its slow but steady progress constitutes the very best commentary on racial life, its hopes and fears.

RACE EVILS.

BY REV. G. W. JOHNSON, AUGUSTA, GA.

One trouble with us as a race is that we are not enough interested in our progress, not enough interested in our standing among other races. We are too easily satisfied, and not very anxious to get far away from the fleshpots of Egypt. Every race must have its leaders, defenders, and champions. If they have them not, they must produce them.

We should begin with childhood. Every criminal was once an innocent child, and when he first commenced to do wrong, he found it hard and difficult. Conscience called, alarmed, and remonstrated; and even after wrongs were committed, conscience, the interior judge, held court on the inside. He arraigned the prisoner at the bar of reason for trial; but he continues to do wrong, and in early manhood he stands a criminal. Step by step he was led away.

Take the murderer. He occupies his cell hardened by crime. Sentence has been passed; the day of execution comes. The sheriff enters the prison, reads the death warrant, pinions his hands, and the slow and steady death march begins. The scaffold is reached, steps ascended, and the prisoner takes his place on the center of the death trap; the black cap is securely tied over his face, and the rope around his neck, and as the trapdoor is sprung, the unfortunate man leaps into darkness. This criminal was once the idol of a mother's heart, who bowed over his cradle, taught him to walk and to say his prayers. She looked forward to the time when he would grow up to manhood and make himself felt among the world's great men; but alas! those hopes are blighted. The boy begins the downward way keeping bad company, and staying out late at night. He associates with gamblers and drunkards, and soon becomes both. He goes to jail, to the chain gang, to the penitentiary, and finally to the gallows. Much of the dishonesty is due to the negligence of parents in early training.

I want to call your attention to that craze for fine dressing. If parents would teach their daughters that a beautiful character is the best and greatest ornament, and that a pure heart beneath the most common costume is to be prized above silk and satin at the price of virtue, we would have a better and purer race.

We have many enemies of the race who are members of the race. I will call your attention to them by classes.

We have a class of women who boast of their association with white men, and yet demand honor and respect from men of the race. Some of our churches have been so loose as to give them membership, and every now and then some fool Negro man will marry one. This class of women hinders the progress of the race, and is indeed a curse to it, and many of the white men who seek to lead astray every good-looking woman in our race frequently refer to the immorality of colored women. The race must frown upon this class of women, and make them feel their isolation at all hazards. They should be treated as the lepers were and are treated in the East to-day--put off to themselves; and all who associate with them should be pronounced unclean.

The next class is the professional pimps. This class is represented by a number of men and women who make a business of leading astray every girl they can, disregarding their destruction and the sorrow brought to the hearts of parents and friends, the disgrace to the race, just since they receive some money for their hellish work. Some of these professional pimps are members of some of our churches, I am told. I would suggest that every father and mother, and every man who has a sister, resolve to make it extremely hot for this class of the devil's agents. Hand them around; blackball them; sound the alarm of mad dog. Get them out of the church; have no association with them. Keep your daughters from about them. Greet them as you would the devil, for they are devils wrapped up in human flesh. I warn you against these men and women who carry notes to girls for white men, and who lay snares for the destruction of our girls. Have nothing to do with them.

The next class among our race that is a hindrance and a barrier is represented by a number of men. These men seem to regard themselves called to win the affections of light-headed and light-hearted girls, get engaged to them, and after destroying their characters betake themselves to others for marriage. The man who destroys the character of a woman has as much right to be put aside and excluded from society as the woman, and that society which recognizes such a man, and yet ignores the woman, is rotten and demoralizing. We can never purify society until we have good men as well as good women. We have too many men in our race who delight to speak disreputably of nearly every woman when they themselves have a very unsavory reputation, and should be regarded with great diffidence. There are many women in our race who are just as pure, and whose characters are just as irreproachable as the women of any race, and our men owe it to these women and to the race the duty of defending and protecting them, even to the risk of our own lives. We should always speak of them in complimentary terms, and allow no one to speak otherwise in our presence without positive resentment.

The next class I want to discuss is the idle, lazy, shiftless, vagrant class. The class I refer to are those who will not work, and yet hate every man and woman who will labor and strive to accumulate something. As a race, we are too jealous and grudgeful of each other's success and prosperity. The prophet in his vision saw the image of jealousy set up. In lifting the veil of futurity he must have seen the condition of the Negro in the closing years of the nineteenth century. Our children must be taught to work, and to love work. They must be taught that work is honorable. The working people of any community are the mainstay and backbone of that community. Paul said: "If any would not work, neither should he eat." Christ, our glorious example, was a working man, the carpenter of Nazareth, a busy man, a man distinctively of the common people. Christ did not have among his disciples a single gentleman of leisure. They were all working men. In the early history of the church the great majority of believers were from among the working people. Peter, Andrew, James, and John were fishermen; Paul was a tent-maker; Moses, the greatest human legislator the world ever produced, was once a shepherd; Elisha was a farmer, and was called from the plow to succeed Elijah. Joseph and Daniel were servants before they were made prime ministers. Martin Luther was a miner's son. Cardinal Wolsey was the son of a butcher. John Bunyan was a tinker. William Carey was a shoemaker. Jeremy Taylor was a barber. Dr. Livingstone was a weaver. Every man ought to engage in some kind of work, either braincraft or handicraft.

TWO CULTURED RACES.

The cultured class of white society in the South, as a rule, comes in contact only with the hewers of wood and drawers of water of the Negro race, and are prone to judge the rest by what it sees. A great mistake. There is a large and growing cultured class of Negroes in the South, which can mingle only with itself. When the strength of these cultured classes--living in the same section, but separate and distinct, and ignorant of each other--become more equal, as it surely will in the future under the present specially fine educational advantages now being engaged by the Negro, what is going to be the effect? I believe that, in time, we will have in the South two almost universally cultured races. That is the trend. (Smith Clayton [white], Atlanta, Ga.)

THE NEW COLORED WOMAN.

BY FANNIE BARRIER WILLIAMS, CHICAGO, ILL.

In nothing else is our progress more happily signalized than in the growing interest in the new usefulness of our women.

Ten years ago colored women were little heard of as useful members of society, except in the work of teaching, religious interests, and the domestic arts. Ten years ago the conscience of womankind among us was scarcely aroused to the opportunities presented for multiplying our activities in all the questions that concern social improvements. Ten years ago the interest of colored women in each other was personal or individual, and not racial or social. The great forces that are now shaping all things toward newer and better conditions, that teach new duties and suggest new opportunities for the exercise of all the virtues of heart and mind have begun to affect our women in a wonderful way. This year has witnessed a remarkable exhibition of the spirit of unity in colored women. They have effected a truly national organization of representative women. The organization is genuine in its representative capacity, sincere in purpose, and positive and practical in its proclamation of principles.

The National Colored Women's Association possibly means more to the social order and improvement of the colored race in this country than anything yet attempted outside of the churches. It has already succeeded in making important many things that have been too long neglected. It has succeeded in calling attention to the fact that the Negro race has a good deal more intelligence and virtue than it uses for its own advancement. The controlling spirit of this new association of colored women is first of all for self-improvement. It is the most distinct voice of self-admonition and self-examination yet uttered by a national body of Afro-Americans. In other words these women coming from all parts of our country and from various conditions of the people, seem burdened with an earnestness to make pure and strong and beautiful the home life and all the social relationships of the race. Perhaps it is not necessary thus to call attention to this association and its work after all that has been said and written about it. But it seems to me that it cannot be too strongly urged that the association needs for its success the enthusiasm and hearty support of all of our women. The special organ of the association and all of its other functions need the co-operation of colored women everywhere. The questions outlined in its resolutions and address to the public should be themes of wide and helpful discussion wherever our women meet together. The way to make a great national movement truly national, important, and effective is to talk about it and try to realize in each community the high and important purposes of that movement. That is the secret of the enormous success of such bodies as the W. C. T. U., the Federation of Women's Clubs, the National Council of Women, and others like them. Every community where earnest women dwell is made to feel the living and active presence of these organizations. Let our women everywhere give the National Association of Colored Women power and permanency by every available means of encouragement and support.

HAVE COURAGE.

If any race of people on this earth need to have courage, it is the Negro.

Have the courage to say "No" when you are tempted to drink.

Have the courage to wear the old suit of clothes, rather than go in debt for a new suit.

Have the courage to acknowledge your ignorance when asked about something of which you do not know.

Have the courage to pay a debt when you need the money for something else.

Have the courage to be polite, though your character may be assailed.

Have the courage to speak the truth, remembering the command: "Thou shalt not lie."

Have the courage to own that you are poor, and thus disarm poverty of its sharpest sting.

Have the courage to own that you are wrong, when convinced that such is the case.

Have the courage to be good and true, and you will always find work to do.

Have the courage to say your prayers, though you may be ridiculed by man.

Have the courage to tell a man why you will not lend him money instead of whipping the devil around the stump by telling him that you haven't a cent "in the world," calling one of your pockets "the world."

Have the courage of your convictions. "According to a man's faith, so be it unto him." This is true on every plane of life, from the lowest to the highest. A man's power in everything is measured by his convictions. The statesman who has the profoundest convictions is surest of bringing others to see as he sees on any question which he discusses before the public. The minister who can most completely identify himself with his people, if he has the courage of his convictions, is the one who is most likely to be successful. (Afro-American Encyclopedia.)

THE SOUTH GIVEN THE PREFERENCE

"It is a poor charity that closes its doors to honest labor on the one hand and opens its almshouses on the other." Such is the comment of a writer who recently compared the relations in the North and South, as regards their efforts to care for the poor, and especially the distresses of the needy among the colored people. While the North has an apparent balance in her favor in the matter of formal expenditures for charity among the colored people, yet the South has the advantage in true charity. It gives the helpless an opportunity to help themselves. Charity is wisest in her ministrations when the object of her beneficence is not deprived of the means of self-support and independence. In the North nearly all departments of labor are governed by trades unions, and the unfortunate Negroes, proscribed as they nearly always are, are forced to become paupers. The South does not bend the manacles of pauperism on his wrists, but instead opens to him many lines of industrial activity, such as other sections of our country do not afford. (American Baptist, Louisville, Ky.)

For seven successive years of almost continuous labor she was the leader of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers, of Nashville, Tenn., who traveled extensively, both in America and Europe, giving popular entertainment of a species of singing which originated among the slaves of the South. She possesses a soprano voice of rare quality that is always pleasing and in demand.

THREE GREAT NEGROES.

BY JOHN E. BRUCE, WASHINGTON, D. C.

The three greatest Negroes that the race has produced are dead. No three living Negroes fill so much space in books or in men's thoughts as Toussaint L'Overture, Richard Allen, and Frederick Douglass, and it will be a long while before three Negroes of equal intelligence and ability for leadership and organization will be able to take their places. There are others, but these represent the real greatness of the Negro on two continents, and each man's work stands out conspicuously for itself. Hayti, the great African Methodist Church, and Negro citizenship in the United States are the magnificent results in part or in whole of the agitations begun by each of these men in his appointed time. The monument to L'Overture's greatness, generalship, courage, and organizing ability is the black republic which he founded and consecrated with his blood.

Richard Allen's monument is the great African Methodist Church, with its hundreds of thousands of worshipers, its schools of learning, and its progressive and educated ministers, some of whom can hold a good deal more book learning.

The monument to Frederick Douglass is the new citizen--the Negro citizen, if you please--whose cause he eloquently pleaded in the presence of the great and the powerful, in whose interests he made thousands of sympathetic friends because the Almighty had given him an eloquent tongue and a powerful voice. There are others, but these three stand at the head of the list, and are better known to the world at large than any other three Negroes on earth. What a triumvirate!

L'Overture, Allen, and Douglass--what a mighty combination! Courage, piety, and eloquence. A bronze medallion with the heads of these great Negroes worn near the heart of the young Negroes of this generation might tend to fill their souls with loftier and nobler thoughts and drive them nearer to the race which these men dignified. The immortality of infamy is ours if we fail to produce a Negro in the next generation who will not at least measure up to the standard to which any one of these three immortals not only attained, but kept unsullied and unspotted until the angel of death gathered them unto their fathers, that they might sleep the sleep of the just.

POINTED PARAGRAPHS FROM RACE NEWSPAPERS.

Many of our young people might profit immensely by the careful and proper employment of their time in the reading and consulting of good books. (Woman's Messenger, Memphis, Tenn.)

* * * * *

Our girls and women can always render a great service to the race by their ladylike deportment upon the public highways. (The Light, Vicksburg, Miss.)

* * * * *

No race can rise above the morals of its women, and for that reason the women of our race should be careful, and strive to do nothing that will retard our progress. (The Informer, Louisville, Ky.)

* * * * *

We should endeavor to multiply the number of our white friends, in the South especially, because it is to them and to ourselves that we must look for our material advantage and practical welfare. (The Planet, Richmond, Va.)

* * * * *

Our children should know the history of the race. It will instill a spirit of race pride. They should know that the foundations of this republic were made secure by the blood of our fathers as well as that of the Anglo-Saxon race. (Clipper, Athens, Ga.)

* * * * *

The Negro is sadly in need of money. There can be no substitute for it. When a Negro man spends money and becomes important from a commercial point of view, the color of his skin and the fiber of his hair are all lost in the mad rush of the Caucasian to his pocket and its contents. (Texas Baptist Star.)

* * * * *

While man can boast of great physical strength, skill, and bulldog courage, woman carries in her weak frame a moral courage very seldom found among men. If our race is to be a great race in this great nation of races, our women must be largely instrumental in making it so. (American Baptist.)

* * * * *

There is a mistaken idea that "culture" means to paint a little, sing a little, dance a little, put on haughty airs, and to quote passages from popular books. It means nothing of the kind. Culture means politeness, charity, fairness, good temper, and good conduct. Culture is not a thing to make a display of; it is something to use so moderately that people do not discover all at once that you have it. (Colored American, Washington, D. C.)

* * * * *

One of the surest ways to make the average Anglo-Saxon respect you is to have him know that your check will be cashed at the bank or that your name is written in the tax book of the county wherein you have your habitation. He has learned that money talks, so to speak, and he is always ready to give it an audience. The records of the Southern States show up wonderfully well in favor of the Afro-American, and yet not as well as they might. There are arguments and arguments in favor of recognition, and the money argument is one of them. (Southern Age, Atlanta, Ga.)

* * * * *

The Columbian Exposition did not give the Negro a chance to demonstrate to the nations what he could do, but at the Cotton States Exposition he was given a trial, and so well did he succeed that he comes in for another showing at the Tennessee Exposition. Let the Negroes feel that it is important and necessary to make a fine display, and, imbued with this hope, let them press forward to eclipse all former efforts. (The Enterprise, Omaha, Neb.)

* * * * *

We cannot go to Africa and succeed with all our ignorance and poverty. Let our big men set out to break down immorality among Negroes. Get Negroes to have more refinement and race pride, use Negro books and papers, hang Negro pictures on their walls, get up Negro industries, and give deserving colored men and women employment; break down superstition and mistrust. Get Negroes to act decently, both publicly and privately. (Clipper, Athens, Ga.)

* * * * *

Every colored family should point with pride to the deeds of our great men. The walls of our homes should be adorned with the pictures of those of our own race who have proven that we are not deficient in men of noble and towering deeds. The tables should bear books of history and biography which would make our boys and girls acquainted with what has been wrought for and by the race. If we do not look out for these points, the next generation will not be what it should be. (Christian Clipper.)

* * * * *

The colored people of the United States pay taxes on $330,000,000 real property, $50,000,000 personal property, and have about $60,000,000 on deposit in savings banks. These figures are from carefully prepared statistics, and are a wonderful showing for a people the majority of whom have been out of bondage less than half a century. In Alameda County, of this state, colored people are on the assessment roll for upward of $1,000,000. Who says that the race is retrograding? If only one-tenth of this money could be put into manufacturing and commercial enterprises, what a commotion the colored man would make in the country! Talk about the Jew and the Chinaman; why, they would be at a discount! Let us all undertake to infuse a little of our business enterprise into the veins of the race. What do you say? (Elevator, San Francisco, Cal.)

* * * * *

The world is full of young men who want to succeed, but who are too lazy to put forth an effort in the right direction. He is truly an unlucky mortal to whom an opportunity never comes; and remember, the humblest employment is better than none. The man at work is infinitely more likely to get something better than the idler is to fall into an easy "snap." Do not growl at fate, but bear in mind that every one is the architect of his own fortune. (The Bulletin, Balfour, N. C.)

* * * * *

Mrs. Annie E. Walker, a graduate of the New York Art School, who went to Paris to further perfect herself in the art of painting, has returned to her home in this city after a most successful course in one of the highest art schools in all Europe. After Mrs. Walker had studied in Paris only four months she painted a picture from life which was accepted by the French Salon, where it was put on exhibition. When it is remembered that an art student is considered fortunate and proficient if she can get a pastel into the Salon after she has studied for years, it is most remarkable that an American lady, and that, too, identified with the depraved race, should have gone to France and broken all previous records. The painting which was readily accepted by the Salon is now at the residence of Mrs. Walker, in this city, and fortunate is the lady or gentleman who shall have an opportunity to see it, for it indeed has life in it, and evinces the fact that the artist is a genius of the highest order. (Colored American, Washington, D. C.)

* * * * *

If we are to have a literature peculiar to our necessities, then our men and women are to produce it. If they are to produce it, then our leaders are to encourage it. Kind words may go a long way, a little assistance in the amassing of data will prove invaluable, and helping to make a market for the literature will act as a stimulus. Let us encourage our men and women to write, and in a few years we shall have a literature of which we need not be ashamed. (Christian Index, Jackson, Tenn.)

* * * * *

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 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 forms no inconspicuous portion even of our magnificent national wealth. (St. Louis Christian Advocate.)

* * * * *

When we have a task to perform we should go about it with a cheerful heart, with an eye single to doing our best. Then duty becomes a pleasure. Let us aim to be first in the pursuit of our life's work. We cannot reach the topmost round at once, and if we get there at all there must be something in us worthy of the upper rounds. Can we ask Him to be our guide who noticed the falling of a sparrow to the ground? Do so; then we will not choose the wrong path, we will not stumble in our darkest hours. We will not think solely of our slavery, of our closing hour, or how we will spend the evening, but will put our mind on our duties and resolve that they shall have the best that is in us; and by and by we shall enjoy the reward which is laid up for the finally faithful. (Woman's World, Rome, Ga.)

* * * * *

Every law-abiding, self-respecting, hard-working colored citizen of the United States should denounce in unmeasured terms those young men of the race who do not work, but loaf; who do nothing to elevate, but everything to degrade, the race; who choose the sunny side of the street corners in winter and the shady side in summer; who use all kinds of vulgar and indecent language, insulting ladies as they pass. It is this loafing, nomadic young class that drifts to crime, caused by idleness, evil associations, and the fact that this class does not know the value of a dollar or the enormity of a crime. These young men are millstones welded by chains around the necks of those of us who are trying to be something and do something in the world. There are no palliating circumstances, no mitigating conditions--nothing on God's green earth--that will even to the slightest degree excuse this worthless class. (The Herald, Leavenworth, Kans.)

* * * * *

It is the "Item's" opinion that industrial schools for colored youths are, in a great measure, useless institutions. They can never become serviceable until there is a spirit among colored men to establish, own, and operate great industrial enterprises, and in that case youths can be given a practical training in the work, which is better than he could ever get in a school. Put forward the same amount of energy to build a factory of some kind that is put in endeavors to get industrial schools in working order, and more young men can learn trades and draw mechanics' salaries immediately after serving an apprenticeship; the owners will be making a profit and the commercial importance of the city, county, and state will be enhanced. We never hear of an industrial school for whites, and yet their youths are becoming artisans all the while. In the slavery days Negroes carried on all the skilled labor of the South, and no industrial schools existed; they applied themselves to the work, and were first-class workmen in every branch. (The Item, Fort Worth, Tex.)

* * * * *

The Bible upon which Maj. McKinley took his oath of office as President of the United States on March 4, 1897, was donated to him for this purpose by the A. M. E. Church. It was printed in Cincinnati, O., by the Methodist Book Concern. It was bound and lined, front and back, with silk, with a suitable dedicatory inscription upon the inside. On the outside was a gold plate in the form of a shield, on which the name of the President, the date, the name of the donor, etc., were engraved. The Bible was inclosed in a box made of native Ohio wood and gold mounted. It cost eighty-six dollars. The honor of presentation was conferred upon Bishop Benjamin W. Arnett, of Wilberforce, O. (Christian Recorder, Philadelphia, Pa.)

* * * * *

MADAM SISSIRETTA JONES.

The Black Patti of the Race.

The subject of this sketch was born in Providence, R. I. When quite a wee child she proved, beyond the shadow of a doubt, her fitness for the stage as a race representative, and has, among other things, maintained her ground, never weakening and giving down, but nourishing a faith fit only for the righteous, which has led her gently into the pleasant and peaceful paths of success.

Some say that greatness is sometimes thrust upon us; others, more liberal, say it is inborn; others argue that it is acquired. We say that this is an instance where classical musical ability reigned uppermost, controlling and directing the possessor as the mainspring of all her infantile life; but on becoming cognizant of this state of affairs, she was advised by good Northern friends to turn her whole attention to the pursuit for which her heart and mind thirsted. Hence, after a few weeks with the classic masters, the whole Negro race was applauded for the advent of one among us, and sufficiently black to claim our identity, that was destined to move the world to tears. Year after year our subject has won new conquests, and now she is termed the "Black Patti." Is this an instance of acquired greatness, thrust greatness, or inborn greatness? We are loath to say inborn or thrust. For every achievement made by our race that seems to attract the attention of the world we are caused to feel grateful to God. When Negroes are smart, as a rule, a characteristic spirit seems to predominate in them when very small. Her career, while brief, is nevertheless full of bright successes. (Dr. M. A. Majors.)

Mme. Sissiretta Jones sang at the residence of Judge Andrews, on Fifth Avenue, New York, before a party of thirty ladies, among whom were Mrs. Lord, Mrs. Fields, Mrs. Vanderbilt, Mrs. Stephens, and Mrs. Astor. The Chief Justice of India, who was present, presented the singer with a valentine, which, when opened, contained a check for one thousand dollars. She also received a solid silver basket filled with choice flowers.

MISS HALLIE Q. BROWN.

BY F. S. DELANY.

Hallie Quinn Brown is a native of Pittsburg, Pa. When quite small her parents moved to a farm near Chatham, West Ontario, Canada. At an early age, in the year 1868, she was sent to Wilberforce College, Ohio, to obtain an education the country schools of Canada could not give, and where her parents subsequently moved, and now reside at Homewood Cottage. She completed the classical scientific course in 1873, with the degree of B.S. in a class of six. One of her classmates is the wife of Rev. B. F. Lee, D.D., ex-President of Wilberforce. Realizing that a great field of labor lay in the South, Miss Brown, with true missionary spirit, left her pleasant home and friends to devote herself to the noble work she had chosen.

Her first school was on a plantation in South Carolina, where she endured the rough life as best she could, and taught a large number of children from neighboring plantations. She also taught a class of aged people, and by this means gave to many the blessed privilege of reading the Bible. She next took charge of a school on Sonora Plantation, in Mississippi, where she found the effort to elevate the minds of the people much hindered by the use of tobacco and whisky--twin vices.

But as she is an indefatigable worker she accomplished much, and at this place, as at all others where she is known, her influence for the better is felt. Her plantation school had no windows, but it was well ventilated; too much so, in fact, for daylight could be seen from all sides, with no particular regularity, and the rain beat in fiercely. Not being successful in getting the authorities to fix the building--shed, we should have said--she secured the willing service of two of her larger boys. She mounted one mule and the two boys another, and thus they rode to the ginhouse. They got cotton seed, returned, mixed it with earth, which formed a plastic mortar, and with her own hands she pasted up the chinks, and ever after smiled at the unavailing attacks of wind and weather.

Her fame as instructor spread, and her services were secured as teacher at Yazoo City. On account of the unsettled state of affairs in 1874-75, she was compelled to return North. Thus the South lost one of its most valuable missionaries. Miss Brown then taught in Dayton, O., for four years. Owing to ill health she gave up teaching. She was persuaded to travel for her alma mater, Wilberforce, and started on a lecturing tour, concluding at Hampton School, Virginia, where she was received with a great welcome. After taking a course in elocution at this place, she traveled again, having much greater success, and received favorable criticism from the press.

For several years she has traveled with the Wilberforce Grand Concert Company, an organization for the benefit of Wilberforce College. She has read before hundreds of audiences and tens of thousands of people, and has received nothing but the highest of praise from all. She possesses a voice of wonderful magnetism and great compass, and seems to have perfect control of the muscles of the throat, and can vary her voice as successfully as a mocking bird. As a public reader, Miss Brown delights and enthuses her audiences. In her humorous selections she often causes "wave after wave" of laughter. In her pathetic pieces she often moves her audience to tears. The following are a few of thousands of compliments paid to her by the public press:

Miss Brown, the elocutionist, ranks as one of the finest in
the country. (Daily News, Urbana, O.)

Her style is pure and correct; her selections excellent.
(News, Long Branch, N. J.)

Miss Hallie Q. Brown, the elocutionist with the company, was
loudly applauded. Many credit Miss Brown with being one of
the best elocutionists before the public. (Indianapolis
Times.)

Miss Brown, the elocutionist, is a phenomenon, and deserves
the highest praise. She is a talented lady and deserves all
the encomiums that she receives. (Daily Sun, Vincennes,
Ind.)

The select reading of Miss Hallie Q. Brown was very fine.
From grave to gay, from tragic to comic, with a great
variation of themes and humors, she seemed to succeed in
all, and her renderings were the spice of the night's
performance. (Monitor, Marion, Ill.)

"The select readings of Miss Brown are done to perfection.
She has an excellent voice and good control of it. She makes
every piece sound as if it were the author speaking, and in
many of them doubtless she excels the one she imitates."

MISS HENRIETTA VINTON DAVIS.

The Famous Elocutionist.

Miss Davis is native of Maryland, the state that has produced more noted colored people than all the other states combined. Her reputation is world-wide, and she stands to-day without a peer among her people as an elocutionist. Her charming manner and modest demeanor have endeared her to the hearts of thousands. She is not only interested in the artistic development of her race, but in their industrial advancement as well, and since her debut she has inspired many of the young people to make something of their lives that shall redound to the benefit of humanity.

INDORSEMENT.

I have many times been called upon to bear testimony to the
remarkable talents of Miss Henrietta Vinton Davis, and I
always do so with pleasure. In my judgment she is one of the
best dramatic readers in the country, and the best colored
reader that ever came before the American people. Her
personal appearance is strongly in her favor. She instantly
commands attention and sympathy, and when her deep, fine
voice is heard, her audience at once give themselves up to
the pleasure of hearing her. I am quite sure you will make
no mistake in having her read for you. (Frederick Douglass.)

This is to certify that Miss Henrietta Vinton Davis has been
known to me since childhood. She is in all respects a lady
of the first grade, spotless in character, polished in
manners, educated and finished in her profession. As a
dramatic reader she has no superiors, and should be
encouraged by all who favor the elevation of our race. I
commend her services to all ministers of the gospel, and to
the public in general. (Bishop H. M. Turner, Atlanta, Ga.)

Miss Davis is by far the most cultured and finished
elocutionist of the race. Her combination of catchy
recitations, replete with humor of an excellent quality,
continues from beginning to end to bring forth shouts of
laughter and rounds of applause. Her character-acting stamps
her at once as an artist. She is pretty, unassuming, and
full of common sense. (Star of Zion, Salisbury, N. C.)

I have heard Miss Henrietta Vinton Davis perform on various
occasions, and it is my candid judgment, reached after
mature deliberation, and a fair knowledge of the merits of
nearly all her set who essay to excel in the histrionic art,
that she has no superior in the race as a master of the
profession of her choice. (John C. Dancy, Wilmington, N. C.)

Miss Davis is a living example of what all may do by
improving their time and their talents. (Bishop Benjamin W.
Arnett.)

Among the elocutionists that I have known Miss H. V. Davis
holds the highest place in my estimation. Her
personification and rendition of character is complete in
whatever role she appears. (J. W. Hood, Bishop A.M.E. Zion
Church.)

TO HENRIETTA VINTON DAVIS.

As you stood in your womanly beauty,
In garments of glittering sheen,
Our hearts bowed down in gracious homage,
And we crowned you as our queen.

Although many have been before thee,
Thou beautiful dark-eyed queen,
None more worthy of allegiance
On the throne was ever seen.

For whether in joy or in sorrow
Thy magic art has been seen
We sat enslaved by thy sweet caprice,
Our fair, yes, charming queen.

We pledge thee our loyal allegiance,
We pledge thee our sympathy keen,
We pledge thee the love of a nation
And crown thee fore'er our queen!

(Katherine Davis Tillman, in New York Age.)

RICH THOUGHTS FROM GREAT RACE THINKERS.

Colored men should be encouraged by the outlook. Our friends are multiplying. It is only ourselves that we must learn to control. (John Mitchell, Richmond, Va.)

* * * * *

We are in favor of the saloons being closed twenty-four hours each day and seven days in each week. (Rev. R. W. E. Ferguson.)

* * * * *

Let parents do their whole duty in bringing up their children, for upon this depends the future welfare of our race. (Mrs. Virginia Broughton.)

* * * * *

Our lives are measured by what we accomplish, and not by paltry years of existence. (Prof. W. S. Scarborough.)

* * * * *

There is no such thing as black virtue, black intelligence or white intelligence, black goodness or white goodness. Virtue has no color. It is either virtue or no virtue, honesty or no honesty, and it behooves our readers always to remember this when they regulate the conduct of their lives. A bad act in a white man is not the less bad because he is white, and a good act in a colored man is not the less good because he is black. (Bishop W. B. Derrick.)

Reading is to the mind what eating is to the body. So to eat without giving nature time to assimilate is to rob her, first of health, then of life; so to read without reflecting is to cram the intellect and paralyze the mind. In all cases, dear friends, reflect more than you read, in order to present what you read to your hearers. (S. A. Wesson, Lincolnville, S. C.)

* * * * *

If you have never thought of race pride, think now. Not only think, but act well your part. Without the ennobling power of our women 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. (Mary R. Phelps.)

* * * * *

Let us as Negroes educate, let us survive, let us live up to our opportunities of doing good to ourselves and to others. So shall we work out a glorious destiny upon earth and contribute our share of the good and great immortals out of every nation that shall take their places among "the spirits of just men made perfect who are without fault before the throne." (Rev. William D. Johnson, D.D., Athens, Ga.)

* * * * *

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. (Hon. J. T. Settle.)

* * * * *

Young men, creation would be incomplete without you. From the beginning God made you ruler over every living thing. Do you properly appreciate the kingdom over which you reign? We know that these thoughts do not take hold of you in boyhood, but there is a time when they are fully realized and yet neglected. God has called you because you are strong. Then exercise that strength, both spiritually and temporally. (A. C. Davis, Rome, Ga.)

* * * * *

We have no great reason to be discouraged, cast down, or hopeless about our future, because of the many unfavorable happenings; we must not expect to be entirely free from the struggles necessary to be encountered to reach true greatness. It is our duty to use every possible and legitimate effort to avert dangers and troubles. We are earnestly persuaded to believe that the brightness of the future glory of the Negro of America is heightened by the darkness of the present clouds. All our sad experiences exhort us to proceed and inspire us with animating hopes of success, should we seek to "lay the foundation well." (Mrs. Julia A. Hooks, Memphis, Tenn.)

* * * * *

There is a future before the race--a great and useful future, a future fraught with results which shall touch every phase of the world's life and bring men into sweeter harmony with each other and with God. (Rev. George C. Rowe, Charleston, S. C.)

* * * * *

As soon as slavery ceased to be beneficial to the Negro, as soon as slavery lifted the Negro as high as it could lift him, God came and abolished it. When he was prepared for his deliverance the yoke of bondage passed away. The race then passed into the glorious sunshine of freedom, which has been getting more glorious every day since his emancipation. (W. H. Council, Normal, Ala.)

* * * * *

I am exceedingly anxious that every young colored man and woman should keep a hopeful and cheerful spirit as to the future. Despite all of our disadvantages and hardships, ever since our forefathers set foot upon American soil as slaves our pathway has been marked by progress. Think of it. We went into slavery pagans; we came out Christians. We went into slavery a piece of property; we came out American citizens. We went into slavery without a language; we came out speaking the proud Anglo-Saxon tongue. We went into slavery with slave chains clanking about our wrists; we came out with the American ballot in our hands. (Prof. B. T. Washington.)

* * * * *

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 halfway 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. (Fannie Barrier Williams.)

* * * * *