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.)

* * * * *

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. (Bishop Embry.)

* * * * *



I predict that the time will come and that 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 that 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. (Senator John A. Logan.)

* * * * *

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. (Booker T. Washington.)

* * * * *

Song is the music of the soul, the harmonious vibrations of the deep chords of the heart, and the melodies of the spirit life. It involves the elevation of the affections and the utterances of the lips, by which some theme, doctrine, or topic is proclaimed aloud and exultingly before and in the presence of others. It is the divinity in man rising to God. It is the better and higher nature of man springing forward and leaping heavenward. It is the soul plodding the deep blue sea upon its fiery pinions in search after God, its Maker, "who giveth songs in the night." (Bishop Holsey.)

* * * * *

If the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world, the home is a great field for woman. The Negro race needs homes, not hovels and pens. Christian character is built most largely there. Beautify the home, make it cheerful and cultured. Be economical in expenditures. Cultivate economy in all lines. Be thrifty and industrious housewives. We do not confine woman's work to the home. Her sphere is anywhere that she can do good. As women are doing most of the teaching now, here is a vast field for her activity that should be well cultivated. Next to the home the schoolroom is probably the greatest factor in character building. As Daniel Webster once said: "If we work upon marble, it will perish; if we work upon brass, time will efface it; if we rear temples, they will crumble into dust; but if we work upon immortal minds, if we imbue them with principles, with a just fear of God, and love of our fellow-man, we engrave on those tablets something that will brighten to all eternity." Teachers, be faithful. Dress neatly and well, if your income will allow. One can always be neat and clean, however. It is certainly a miserable mistake that makes the majority of our people think that they must dress so as to be conspicuous for blocks away, wearing hats that are veritable flower gardens. Tight lacing should be abandoned by all sensible women. The thinking, solid women of our race ought to take some steps to save the young girls of our race, especially that vast throng in the larger cities who have no gentle home influences; thousands are being dragged down to destruction every year. Raise the fallen, and so fulfill the law of Christ. (Lillie E. Lovinggood, in Afro-American Encyclopedia.)

* * * * *

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. 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 and private and public boarding house will furnish properly prepared foods, and universal cleanliness will be the law, and the death rate among our people will reach its minimum. (Dr. R. F. Boyd.)

* * * * *

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 and 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 facilities, and politicians 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. (Mrs. Fannie B. Williams.)



THE COLORED PHYSICIAN IN THE SOUTH.

BY H. R. BUTLER.

When the civil war was over and the smoke of battle had cleared away, the field in the South was occupied by the red-eyed voodoo, who styled himself a "doctor." There were at that time possibly two or three exceptions to this rule, but only two or three.

Should you ask one of these voodoo doctors, better known among the illiterate as "root workers," what might be his business, the answer would quickly be given something like this: "My trade? Dat am a doctor."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, sar; I is a root doctor from way back; and when I gits done standin' at de forks ob de road at midnight pullin' up roots, twixt de hollowin' ob de owls, and gittin' a little fresh dirt frum de graveyard—honey, dar am su'thin' agwinter drop."

The above is part of a conversation held with me by one of these "herb kings" in South Carolina in 1890. Hence you can see that, like all other evils, these voodoo doctors do not die fast; and even to-day not a few still live.

This being with his weird stories went forth among a people who were rocked, as it were, in the cradle of superstition, and early became monarch of all he surveyed. He or she was known and feared throughout the country. They claimed to be able to cure anything from consumption to an unruly wife or husband, and furnishing charms to make love matches and to keep the wife or husband at home was one of their specialties.

Every patient they called on they diagnosed the trouble thus: he or she was tricked; if pneumonia, they were tricked; if a fever, they were tricked; or if a case of consumption, they were tricked.

Their stock of medicines, if such we must call them, generally consisted of such things as small bags of graveyard soil, rusty nails, needles, pins, goose grease, rabbits' feet, snake skins, and many other such things.

I say that a little more than a generation ago this was the class of so-called colored doctors that predominated in the South, and which for many years was a great stumbling-block to the educated physicians of our race, because it seemed to be understood that all colored doctors were and must be root doctors. But, thanks to Him who holds the destiny of races in his hands, in the flight of years and in this electric age of progress this voodoo doctor has almost—not entirely, but almost—passed away; while his territory is being occupied by colored physicians whose qualifications in education, character, and honor are equal to similar qualifications in the physicians of any other race.

The colored physicians in the South to-day are men and women fully equipped in education, morals, and integrity for the high calling they have elected, as their noble work will show. In the United States to-day there are about one thousand colored physicians, men and women, and more than seven hundred of them are located in the Southern States. While they represent the homeopathic and eclectic schools, yet the regulars are largely in the majority.

The majority of the colored physicians now operating in the South took a college course of education before taking up the study of medicine. Hence, as a general rule, they are exceedingly fine scholars. It is a sad fact, yet it is a hard fact, that less than one-third of the white physicians now practicing in the South, together with those preparing to come out, are college graduates. This cannot be said of the colored physicians. We have them from the leading medical institutions in America. They are here from the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard Medical College, Yale School of Medicine, Meharry Medical College, Howard Medical College, Ann Arbor Medical College, Lenard Medical College, and many of the medical schools of Chicago, Cleveland, and New Orleans. The examinations they pass, often before a prejudiced board, and their excellent record as physicians go to show that these schools are sending us no mean material.

These good men and women are, by their skill and God's help, reducing the death rate of the colored people to a wonderful degree. They are teaching the people the common laws of hygiene, and many other things pertaining to the health of their people that they were never taught before. They are lecturing in the schools in their cities on important topics relative to the care of school buildings and school children. They are in many places school commissioners and city and county physicians. As skilled physicians the fame of some is known far and wide. The whites frequently call a colored physician now. The question now is not, What is his color? but, Can he do me any good? Right here in Atlanta, Ga., I am frequently called to see white patients. Think of it! a colored physician attending white patients here in a city where not forty years ago members of his race were sold like cattle. If thirty-five years have brought this change, what will thirty-five years more bring? Yes, it has not been three hours since two white patients left my office.

The white profession in the South, especially the better class of them, give the colored members of the profession a hearty welcome to the field. They always have a kind word for them. They will consult with them, lend them books or instruments, and do anything they can to push the colored brother forward. This, I say, is the best element. The poor, half-starved fellow will not do this; but, on the contrary, will do all that he can to pull the colored physician down. Hence we have this class to watch, and for this reason I always consult with the best in my city, and would advise all other colored physicians to do the same.

The colored physicians have fine horses, carriages, and beautiful homes. Some own plantations, and others run large bank accounts.

As professors, the colored physicians of the South are holding some high positions with honor to themselves and their race. At New Orleans University Dr. Mellin is dean of the medical department of that institution. At Meharry Medical College we have Dr. R. F. Boyd, professor of the diseases of women and clinical medicine; Dr. H. T. Noel, demonstrator of anatomy; Dr. W. P. Stewart, professor of pathology, and there are other professors in the pharmaceutical and dental departments. Dr. Scruggs is a professor at Lenard Medical School. Besides these, there are several of the colored physicians delivering courses of lectures on various topics in different schools.

The colored physician in the South, for fear of being refused, has never made an application to become a member of any of the medical associations; but, knowing the great good that comes from contact, in several of the states they have organized themselves into associations, and are doing a noble work in their yearly meetings. Texas, North Carolina, and Georgia have excellent state medical associations, composed entirely of colored physicians. One of the beautiful points about the colored physicians of the South is that the majority of them are Christian men and women. This has much to do with their success.

The South is the field for well-equipped colored physicians. If they want to do good work, let them come South; if they want to be felt as a leader of the people, let them come South; if they want to make money, let them come South; if they are looking for work, let them come South; and if they wish to do charity work, the South is the field.



THE FIRST COLORED SPECIALIST.

Dr. Samuel J. Harris is a young man of eminent ability and skill, and has the mental capabilities to become one of the leading physicians of this country. He is the first colored specialist of the eye, ear, and throat in the United States. He is not only a young man who demonstrated marked ability as a student, but he is a doctor who possesses ample means to supply himself with all of the instruments and literature which are required to advance him in his professional work.

Dr. Harris is the son of Mr. Sam Harris, the well-known merchant of Williamsburg, Va., who does probably the largest business of its kind of any colored man in the United States.



ESPECIAL COMPANY.

(FROM CHICAGO APPEAL.)

Should a young lady accept the attentions of one young man to the exclusion of all others before betrothal takes place? It is not wise to do so. A girl may be interested in a man and think that she cares for him enough to marry him, and yet there may be others whom she would love more dearly could she know them. She should not deprive herself of the opportunity to make comparisons. A young man is very foolish when he insists upon a girl receiving attentions from no one but himself, even after betrothal. A girl is equally foolish when she objects to her lover paying attentions to other girls. If either can become more interested in another, it certainly ought to be known before marriage. There would be fewer unhappy marriages and fewer divorces if young people of both sexes could be impressed with the idea that they must decide what characteristics their happiness requires in a life partner and that they must not marry until they have found some one possessing such characteristics. This can only be learned by companionship, and is seldom considered by those whose first thought is that no one else can be studied but the object of their present fancy.

Again, it places a young girl at a great disadvantage to be looked upon as the "exclusive property" of any young man. An honorable man hesitates to offer attentions to a young lady under such conditions, even though he may be sure that the man is not in earnest or that such a union could not be happy or that the young lady possesses exactly the qualities which he himself would find harmonious. Under present social conditions a girl may not make known her preferences unless the man first declares himself, and if she happens to make a mistake and is known as the sweetheart of the wrong young man, there is little chance that she may find the right one. Not only before, but after betrothal, both parties should feel free to associate with whomsoever they please, and no objection should be raised by the other simply on the ground that "we belong to each other now." That such freedom may be assured, I believe that the betrothal should be kept an absolute secret between the parties concerned.



THE SPHERE OF WOMAN.

BY MRS. R. E. LAWSON, WASHINGTON, D. C.

The time has come when woman no longer accepts the hearthstone as the circumscribed arena of her activities. Amid the busy whirl of this nineteenth century we behold her stepping with well-shod feet boldly across the threshold where hitherto her ambitions have been smothered or held in check by social customs and prejudice, taking her place in the various avocations which bring to mankind peace and happiness, through an honest dollar for its equivalent in honest toil.

If we will notice the index finger in the plane of human advancement and limit its progress to the strides made in civilization within the last forty years, it will be readily acknowledged that the woman movement during these years has made no insignificant ripple in the tide of human achievements. There is scarcely a profession which has not felt the impress of her presence; scarcely a moral reform, from the antislavery cause of the past to the great temperance movement of to-day, which has not received her sanction and hearty support.

Wherever she has gone forth she has acquitted herself creditably, and successfully lived down all attempts to ridicule and cast opprobrium upon her adventure. This forward march, which has been likened to a great tidal wave, has carried in its course higher education for woman, including her entrance to the medical, legal, and clerical professions, the position as trustee on school boards in various sections, the restoration to married women of a right to their own property, and various other reforms tending to broaden her sphere, increase her activities, and heighten her self-respect.

Side by side with this uniform impulse on the part of woman to know and to be known in life's arena have come to its twin sister the progress and unprecedented achievements of the Negro in America. The school may instruct and the Church may teach, but the home is an institution older than the Church and antedates the school, the place where the children should be trained for useful citizenship on earth and hope of holy communion in heaven.

Our hands have ever been firm upon the rudder, guiding and governing the education of our youth for years of future usefulness.

I take it that we, as colored women, must regard ourselves as a peculiar people in these advanced movements. We cannot afford to be swept along in the current of daily happenings without thoughtfully comparing our status and conditions with all that surround us, questioning for a moment whether the experiment will prove an expensive luxury or wholesome and digestible food. Economy of time, economy of means, economy of action, must be our constant watchwords. The Negro woman, being the most potent factor in the intellectual development of the race, must be aroused to a consideration of the fact that to improve the intellect and neglect the moral and physical growth of our youth will be to impose upon society dangerous citizens.



THE MOURNING PREACHER.

BY J. C. M'ADAMS, SHELBYVILLE, TENN.

Why do our educated ministers "mourn" when preaching? There are honorable exceptions, but the rule is as stated. We have heard ministers whose educational qualifications were all that could be desired, whose exegeses were faultless, who in their perorations would depart from all standards. They exhume the dead, they picture the beatific splendors of the New Jerusalem, they paint the horrors of hell, they describe deathbed scenes, etc. They do this whether or not it has any connection with the subject in hand. Then it is that the "spirit" comes. I do not think that I have overdrawn. I have heard some of our best ministers, and the general statement is true. Our educated ministers are making a serious mistake. This pulpit mannerism is a relic of the days of slavery, and the minister who indulges in it is simply perpetuating a barbarism and is retarding the religious progress of the race. It is true, perhaps, that in most of our congregations large numbers of people love to hear the "tone," but when and how are the people ever to become acquainted with higher religious ideas? How can a minister elevate his congregation when he persistently clings to the practices of thirty years ago?

These ministers seem not to know that nine-tenths of the young, educated, and progressive classes are disgusted with them. This explains the lethargy manifested by the above-minded classes toward the Church. The Church, like all other institutions, must be progressive. The fact that these men are keeping the Church back in the dingy past puts them out of sympathy with it. I recently heard a well-known minister, after howling and ranting and mourning to his heart's content, speak of himself as the "wild presiding elder." He certainly made that impression on several of his audience.



One of the great mistakes of our religious life is our mistaking noise for religion. With many of our unthinking classes it is the "mourn" which they enjoy in the sermons. Instead of carrying home some practical thought and trying to weave it into their lives, they become infatuated with certain tones and give vent to their "feelings" by making the welkin ring. If this is religion, I have been mistaken. If this kind of preaching is an inspiration, it is peculiar to us as a people. If noise and demonstrations are necessary parts of religious worship, then other races are largely wanting in this essential.

The mourning preachers will admit in private that there is no virtue in the mourn, and that they do it simply to "touch up" the old folks. They ought to be ashamed. Such conduct is sinful. They should hate the sins that make them mourn, and drive them from their breast. The religious status of a people is a pretty good index of their civilization. If there are idiosyncrasies in our religious life—in short, if we are not up to the standard—we will be judged accordingly. Though my voice be as one crying in the wilderness, I wish to suggest this religious slogan: "Down with the mourning preacher!"



OUR GREATEST DRAWBACK.

BY E. E. BROCK, NEW YORK, N. Y.

I doubt if there has ever been an enterprise started by Afro-Americans, no matter how lofty the aim or however honest the intentions, that there were not a few envious souls that stood ready to cry it down. This is to-day the greatest barrier to Afro-American success and the chief reason why we are no further advanced in commercial spheres than we are. In this advanced age of civilization and enlightenment such a state of affairs is sadly to be deplored, for we find that not only among the illiterate class does this exist, but in a greater and more marked degree by those who claim superior intelligence and are looked upon as leaders and shining lights of the race. If one attempts to gain a certain goal, there always stands another ready to pull him back. "You must and shall not get above me" seems to be their fixed motto. Ah! brothers and sisters, you have much yet to learn. If you cannot help another up the hill, you certainly will gain nothing by trying to pull him back. Enviousness is a demon and a monster, and until you learn to live in union and love thy neighbor as thyself, you may never hope to win the respect and esteem of other races.



THE RACE PROBLEM.

Views of Several Prominent Negroes.

In a speech recently delivered before the graduating class of Meharry Medical College, at Nashville, Gov. Taylor said: "There is no Negro problem of the South. That has been settled long ago. I belong to a generation that has grown up since the war, a generation of young white men who thank God that the shackles of slavery have been stricken from the limbs of the black man." I have observed that in any community where our people respect themselves and encourage the enterprise of each other the white people not only patronize and encourage us, but they treat our women respectfully, and the lives of our men are as safe as if we were white; but where we act the brute and traitor to each other the race, both good and bad, fare hard, and nothing more is to be expected by any sensible person. It is human nature for the strong to prey upon the weak. Hence the Negro must be his own first strength by his moral life and faithfulness to each other. Unless this, we are as a race doomed either in Africa or America. (Caesar A. A. Taylor, Ocala, Fla.)

* * * * *

The race problem is a moral one. It is a question entirely of ideas. Its solution will come especially from the domain of principles. Like all the other great battles of humanity, it is to be fought out with the weapons of truth; it cannot be settled by extinction of race; no amalgamation process can eliminate it. The social idea is to be entirely excluded from consideration. It is absolutely a personal matter, regulated by taste, condition, racial or family affinities, and there it must remain undisturbed forever. (W. H. Council)



The colored race of this country should aim at the highest success and make themselves the best citizens and the most useful members of society. We should be guided by right principles and prove ourselves worthy of the liberty granted us by the emancipation. There should be no better schools than ours, no grander statesmen, no more shining lights in professional life, no happier homes, no more cultured women, no people more moral and upright. It is safe to say that we can do it, because many noble and worthy men and women of our race have already achieved great success. They have climbed high in their endeavors, have grasped the prize held out before them, and by their brilliant achievements have conferred honor upon their people and have written their names indelibly upon the hearts of their countrymen. Where are our rising young men and women? We call them to come forward. We bid them lift their eyes to the highest of knowledge and power. We point them to those whose names have become household words, and bid them press on to the front rank in the struggle for life. Here lies our hope for the future; and the Negro problem, which is one of the greatest problems of the present age, will have solved itself. (Harvey Johnson.)

* * * * *

All that we want is the unmolested enjoyment of the rights and privileges guaranteed us in the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the national constitution. If we are allowed the exercising of these in every state in the Union, we will be satisfied, and will in an almost incredibly short period of time solve for our white brethren that ever perplexing race problem which, like Banquo's ghost, will not down. Our Southern white brethren need entertain no fears of "Negro domination" or "black supremacy" in the government of the Southern States, for the Southern Negro is rapidly leaving the low and uncertain plane of political honor or gain for a higher one of morals, education, and the amassing of wealth. During the past, with the rights guaranteed us by the constitution nullified in the states containing the larger portion of the colored population—the black belt of the South—we have made marvelous progress along the lines of securing classical and industrial education and the accumulation of wealth. With these restrictions or nullifications of our constitutional rights removed, is it either fair or reasonable to believe that a race with so grand and wonderful a record of progress along this line of prosperity as ours is at this late day going to drop into the quagmire of retrogradation? No. We have but begun, and though the wheels of Negro prosperity may continue to be checked by the brakes of race prejudice, we will nevertheless continue to climb upward to the very top of the hill of wealth, honor, and fame. (National Reflector, Wichita, Kans.)

* * * * *



The key to the solution of the race problem in the South is in the commercial and industrial development of the Negro, a development along this line that shall rest upon the broadest and highest culture. Under God, as bad as slavery was, it prepared the way for the solving of the problem by this method. Friction will disappear and the two races in the South will be as one in all their civil and commercial relations just in proportion as the Negro, by reason of skill and educated brains, produces something that the white man wants or respects; and when you pursue that question to its last analysis one white man cares little for another white man, except as the other has something that he wants. In all history we cannot find a race that possessed property, industry, intelligence, and character in a high degree that has long been denied its rights. If the possession of these elements does not bring to the Negro every right enjoyed by any other class of citizens, then the Bible and the teachings of the Great Jehovah are wrong. I propose that the Negro take his position on the high and undisputed ground of generosity, usefulness, forgiveness, and honesty in all things, and that he invite the white man to step up and occupy this ground with him. If the white man in every part of our country cannot accept this invitation, we will thus prove that the problem is a white man's problem rather than a Negro problem. (Booker T. Washington.)

* * * * *

The Negro problem, if there is any in the country, from an industrial standpoint may be resolved into two phases. In the South the race is allowed unfettered opportunity in almost all trades and occupations. Whatever other crimes she may be guilty of, she allows the colored people to work. There we find colored men who take large contracts for the erection of public buildings. Most of the finest hotels, private residences, and business blocks represent the work of colored labor from foundation to roof. In a recent visit to the black belt of Alabama I was told that in a certain town colored mechanics had constructed the courthouse and every other important building within the corporate limits. A Southern white man, pointing out this fact, remarked that such a thing would be impossible in the North. So strong is the prejudice against the employment of Negro labor that the presence of the Negro workmen on a brick wall would cause every white man to throw down his trowel and quit work. This thing is true in all the remunerative avenues of life in the North. In respect to the South, it is there that the Negro will work out his industrial destiny. He has been and will be the laborer. Such schools as Tuskegee and Hampton will prepare him to compete with other people in all trades. We speak so often of the "New South." It is time that we had a "New North." The Northern people, as generous as they have been in founding schools for the freedmen, seem to love them best at a distance. The North will educate us, but will not allow us to work. We need education, but we also need opportunity for industrial progress. We want a fair chance in the race of life. How can we ever make any headway if we are all shut up to one or two lines of service? A citizen of the town some time ago said to me that years ago the Negro and the Irishman came to Princeton with nothing. The Irishman has accumulated real estate, but the Negro still has nothing. One of the reasons is simply this: the Irishman has ten chances to the colored man's one. What is true of this community is practically true of the whole North. (Rev. J. Q. Johnson, in the Christian Recorder, Philadelphia, Pa.)

* * * * *

The Negro question is but another name for the labor problem in the South; and it is not so serious as the labor problem of the North. The Negro is the Southern laborer. His color preserves his class distinction. As a workman, he is fitted for the warm climate and agricultural pursuits of that region. He is shiftless and improvident because so long trained to live dependent upon a master. He is doing better work as an employee than he did as a slave. He is happy, peaceable, and content. There are no socialistic or anarchistic traits in his blood. His wants are few, and he is able to cover a life of hardship and penury with the flowers of melody and the foam of unceasing mirth. The troubles of the South do not arise in the Negro, but in the white men. There is a class of "white trash" who have all the fierce and unruly instincts of that robber race, the Saxons, at whose door the lynchings and political uproars may be faithfully laid. The better element of Southern people have no part in these. Thus it is the same class that raises disturbance in Alabama that does the same in Chicago. The Negro and the better whites have no part in either case. What the final outcome of the race question will be is impossible, of course, to surmise. The probabilities are that the African will remain a hewer of wood and a drawer of water until his face shall pale—and it is paling rapidly—and he shall cease to be a social factor. No two races ever lived antagonistic, yet in contact, without the stronger either annihilating or absorbing the other. (Chicago Conservator.)

* * * * *

The United States and not the Negro is responsible for the Negro's identity with this country and also for his past and present condition in America; and, having of her own accord made us citizens and participants of this government (because we have merited both as slaves in the forest and as armed soldiers and patriots on the field of battle, protecting a flag which up to that time had never offered us protection—by these means we have merited a citizenship) God and the civilized world will hold the United States and the several states responsible as our guardians to the heights of true civilization. As for adaptation to and responsibility of civilization, the Negro is receiving the highest mental and social culture. I call your attention to the thousands of colored professional men and women who are rare models of social culture and intellectual worth—men of learning and distinguished for intelligence, men known and honored by the civilized world for their mental merits. Blind Tom is the greatest musical prodigy the world has ever seen. Regardless of his race and identity, I believe that Rev. J. C. Price, D.D., was as fine an orator as America ever produced, and Douglass the peer of any statesman. There has been something very peculiar about the history of American issues for the last one hundred years. Though the Negro himself has kept silent, yet there has scarcely been in that length of time a decisive issue before the American Congress that would have affected the entire nation that was not either the outcome of our presence in this country or a corollary thereto in some phase. The nation, not the Negro, is responsible for the so-called Negro problem. Therefore it is the nation's problem, and the nation must solve it. America bought the whistle, and she must pay for it. The Negro has been and will ever be the Pharaoh's plague to America, until the nation recognizes the declaration of the fathers and the design of God in bequeathing to all men justice in equity and the fullest recognition of citizenship to all who are made a part of this government by constituency and responsibility. This done, we will have but one problem, and that will be how to better advance the glory of one common union. To-day we stand beneath the American eagle, which bears in his talons the stars and stripes, for which more than two hundred thousand of our fathers and brothers have fallen on yonder battlefields. We stand here begging for peace, protection, and a just recognition of manhood. We stand here under the flag for which our fathers fought in common with the white man, and plead for civil rights. Yea, in the name of God and the blood of our dead we ask a shelter beneath thy wing. Shall the stars of the American flag, our only hope as guides to higher manhood, the reflective rays of American civilization and liberty, hide their shameful faces behind the clouds of American prejudice and bring to us night at noon? Shall your red stripes, O flag! a worthy token of our fathers' blood, which has mingled with the white in all American conflicts, now be used as a signal of welcome and protection to non-Americans, anarchists, and socialists, while the sons of American slaves, soldiers, and citizens are left standing without protection and rightful recognition, reaching forth the brawny hands for labor in vain? O may the goddess of liberty hear us to-day, and may the true American pulse be found forcing life, liberty, and protection through every artery of American sentiment! (Bishop Petty, A. M. E. Zion Church.)

* * * * *

The most important topic that should engage the attention of every Negro throughout the land is, What method can we employ to bring the race problem more practically before the country, and how should we go at it? There must evidently, in all instances, be some way or means of placing all questions before the public in such a manner that all parties may plainly see both sides. As to the race problem, it has never been brought before the public so as to command any serious thought. We shall, of course, have to lay our foundation before we can proceed, as everything must have something to support it. We will say right here that the press is the foundation or starting place in all such cases. A general view of the Negro press will convince one that the race problem has not been handled as it should have been, but it is not too late to make the much needed amends, and now is the time to brace up and come to the front. The newspaper at this time and age of modern predisposition is looked upon as a mighty weapon, but the weak point in Negro journalism is the predominance of petty matters over the more momentous questions that obtain at this time. The race problem has never been appealed to the proper source, and we have never employed the proper methods to touch the pulse of the right class of people. The pulpit has never declared itself on this question, or else the Negro would have been much farther advanced than he is. My idea, or rather the thought that comes to me now, is that the Christian Church should be sounded on the subject of race equality, and there should be some movement instituted among the Negroes of the most populous cities and towns asking the ministers of the white Churches to set aside a special Sabbath to give their views thereon. We are of the opinion that the best step to take would be to organize a club in each city, which shall be invested with the power to appoint a committee to wait on the various ministers. We shall find out then from their pulpits whether the white man considers the colored brother as good as he is. To get the views of the ministers throughout the country on the same day would have a tendency to bring the question squarely and fairly before the nation. These questions may seem a canard to many, but this is the proper step to take and the proper appeal. If we cannot reach the people in this way, why, there are other courses to pursue. We should not despair. If we fail in accomplishing our ends in one manner, we must try other plans, and finally we may be able to touch the right chord. (Dennis S. Thompson, Kansas City, Mo.)



* * * * *

The Negro problem, like Banquo's ghost, will not down. Like the poor, it is always with us. True, some there are who declare that there is no problem at all, only such as exists in the imagination; but he who will take the trouble to investigate will find that there is plenty of the problem lying around loose, and it will not require a Diogenes to find it. The most live phases of the problem are those which relate to the Negro's moral standard, educational progress, and his physical condition. Some of the views in this connection are grossly exaggerated, but in the main they represent observations which cannot be dismissed too lightly. It is now a matter too plain for conjecture that the Negro must look to his physical interests, that he must make certain alterations along moral and intellectual lines if he would preserve himself. Scientists have gone so far as to hazard the prediction that ultimate extinction is the forecast for the race. The race itself is apt to receive this declaration with derision, but it must not count its position too sure. We have yet to see an intelligent refutation of the statements which the scientists are making in this regard. The Negro press promptly sat down upon Prof. Hoffman when he touched upon its moral standard, but it was rather by ridicule than argument. Only the properly qualified should speak on a question of this character. By that we mean those reasonably informed and who have given the proper time to an impartial investigation of the subject. Howls of protest and indignation cannot take the place of scientific reasoning, and before the press of the country takes Mr. Hoffman and his kind to task it should be prepared to know whereof it speaks. But, aside from this, popular interest is very much aroused as to the present educational needs of the Negro. Prof. Washington, the great apostle of industrial education, thinks it the Negro's greatest want just now. President Mitchell, of Leland University, thinks the higher education of the race the proper thing. The "Advance" is inclined to the former view. The Negro may not be top-heavy; his higher education has hardly gone far enough for that in a general sense, but he has given altogether too much time to the intellectual side of his development. He should become skilled in manual arts; he should learn something that he has left unlearned: how to labor correctly and profitably. His intellectual offspring each succeeding year realize more and more difficulty in finding places, so that the so-called higher avenues are becoming crowded to an uncomfortable extent. The colored man will find it not a whit to his disgrace to be a tiller of the soil; when he is an educated tiller he will find that he can produce better crops, make more money, and rear his children usefully. If he keeps up his present lick, he will find that he has all teachers and no scholars, all preachers and no congregations, all doctors and no patients, all lawyers and no clients. Several vital questions should now receive the race's closest attention—viz., (1) the investigation of its moral condition; (2) a system of education adapted to its needs; (3) the improvement of its physical status. (Alamo City Advance, San Antonio, Tex.)

* * * * *

A few years since we thought the Negro problem incapable of solution. We looked at it from various standpoints. Many suggestions as to an estimation in solving this intricate problem have been offered by many of our leaders. Booker T. Washington emphasizes the importance of industrial education as a means to an end of race antagonism, bitterness, and friction. It is a mistaken idea that Prof. Washington's critics have when they affirm that Mr. Washington believes in industrial education to the exclusion of a college or university education. He believes in both; but he especially emphasizes industrial education as a means to an end, and not as ultimatum in solving the race problem. It would pay Mr. Washington's opposers to come here and visit his school. We guarantee that he will receive and treat them kindly. We have no doubt that they will go away from here convinced that Mr. Washington is right. We just wish that you could see what our eyes now behold as we sit in the principal's magnificent residence. There is here an activity not suspected by the outside world. Draw upon your imaginations a moment and see if you can bring to your perceptions the scene: Eight hundred and fifty students at work, like busy bees in a hive, training in twenty-six different industries, and everybody at work; not an idle moment allowed. Here the shrill whistle of the sawmill and brickyard, bringing them in from the farm of six hundred and fifty acres, nearly all of which is under cultivation. How can any sane person say that this kind of education does not benefit the race? We will warrant that very few, if any, of Mr. Washington's students will ever be found in jail, the workhouse, the penitentiary, or on the chain gang. All this industry and activity is controlled by Mr. Washington and his eighty-one assistants, which makes him and his school an aggressive and conquering force in this the black belt of the Southland. It is impossible to estimate the good that this school is doing, and it is equally as difficult to attempt a description thereof. We do not envy the man who deems himself sufficiently enlightened to be able to frown down Booker T. Washington and his great work. We simply turn our heads and smile a great big smile and say in muffled tones: "The fool hath said in his heart that there is no hope for the Negro race in this country." There is hope. Get up and be doing; get religion, education, a trade, and a profession; buy property; "put money in thy purse," and you will be recognized as a full-fledged citizen of this country. Let us say what we believe to be a fact: The disciplined thought that the Negro is receiving at this school will give a freshness, a manliness, a hopefulness, and a faith which will deliver him from the tyranny of his surroundings, widen his views of his own capabilities, make him conscious of belonging to a race that has rich things in store for the world, and glorify his heart with a thousand strange and fruitful sympathies and with endless heroic aspirations. It is something so unique in the history of Christian civilization that wherever the existence of such an institution as that of Tuskegee is heard of there will be curiosity as to its character, its work, and its prospects. An institution suited to the exigencies of this race cannot come into existence all at once. It must be the result of years of experience, of trial, and of experiment. In order that you may form a correct idea as to the magnitude of this school, let us cull the following statement from a speech of Mr. Washington, who, among other things, said: "We have eight hundred and fifty students at Tuskegee from twenty-two states, eighty-one instructors, and a colony of one thousand people, together with literary training. We train in twenty-six different industries. Of the thirty-seven buildings, all except three were erected by the students. They have sawed the lumber, made the brick, done the masonry, carpentering, plastering, painting, and tin spouting. The property is now valued at $280,000, and is the work of students in the past fifteen years." All sound-thinking and unprejudiced-minded persons will agree that this institution is a very able instrument to assist in carrying forward the work so necessary to be done for the race. (J. Francis Robinson, Cambridge, Mass.)



MOTHER'S TREASURES.

BY MRS. F. E. W. HARPER.

Two little children sit by my side, I call them Lily and Daffodil; I gaze on them with a mother's pride, One is Edna and the other is Will.

Both have eyes of starry light And laughing lips over teeth of pearl. I would not change for a diadem My noble boy and darling girl.

To-night my heart o'erflows with joy; I hold them as a sacred trust. I fain would hide them in my heart, Safe from tarnish of moth and rust.

What should I ask for my dear boy? The richest gift of wealth or fame? What for my girl? A loving heart And a fair and spotless name?

What for my boy? That he should stand A pillar of strength to the state. What for my girl? That she should be The friend of the poor and desolate.

I do not ask that they shall never tread With weary feet the paths of pain; I ask that in the darkest hour They may faithful and true remain.

I only ask their lives may be Pure as gems in the gates of pearl, Lives to brighten and bless the world— This I ask for my boy and girl.

I ask to clasp their hands again 'Mid the holy hosts of heaven; Enraptured, say: "I am here, O God! And the children thou hast given."



GEN. ANTONIO MACEO.

The Great Cuban Negro Warrior.

Gen. Maceo was a born warrior. He came of a race of warriors. Of ten brothers, he was the last survivor who had escaped the bullets of the Spaniards in the ten-years' war, begun in 1868, and the present war. They were all soldiers and patriots, following in the footsteps of their father, and they all died fighting for Cuba.

The distinguishing characteristics of Antonio Maceo were intense love of Cuba, courage that knew no fear, and a natural genius for war. He was of Spanish and African blood, and his enemies often accused him of waging a race war, but this he always denied, and his friends believed him. He fought only for Cuban independence.

Gen. Maceo was the terror of the Spaniards. They feared him as they feared no other Cuban. They put a price of twenty-five thousand dollars on his head, dead or alive. The Spaniards could not capture or defeat him in open warfare, and the work of destroying him fell to the part of an infamous traitor in his camp: his physician, who betrayed him into the hands of the enemy.

Maceo was great in his life, and in the manner of his death he has raised up friends for his beloved Cuba all over the world.

His parents were both "pardos"—that is, light-colored mulattoes—and they were quite well off. Marcos owned and operated a cattle ranch and a pony express between the town and near-by estates. He was worth about forty thousand dollars. Antonio was well trained in contra-Spanish ideas. His father had been quietly interested in the small revolutionary disturbances that took place up to 1868, and Ascenio, his godfather, a prominent lawyer of Santiago City, was one of the most active promoters of the ten-years' struggle that began in 1868.

After a boyhood spent in the best schools of Santiago de Cuba, Antonio's seventeenth year found him engaged in business for his father. The preparations for the war were then secretly going on, and young Maceo, being thought to possess a discretion beyond his years, was initiated into the movement. He labored hard for the cause then, and when the time came for action he promptly took the field, at eighteen years of age, with a few men whom he had organized and armed.

Maceo was really idolized by his men. For one thing, his magnificent personal appearance and the halo of many glorious exploits had great effect; but the real reason for his popularity was the care he took of his men. No soldier was too poorly or too thinly clad to come right in and talk to the General at any time. Maceo talked familiarly with his stalwart men, listened patiently to all complaints, great and small, and settled them in a quick, decisive manner. Particularly was he an object of affection to his men because he was always the first rider in a machete charge. He was always the closest to the enemy in a mountain fight, and was never to be found in a pitched battle anywhere else but in the first trench when there was any firing going on.

Dispatches were received in this country on Saturday, January 16, 1897, confirming the report of the death of Gen. Antonio Maceo, the valiant Cuban leader, who, with the rest of his staff, was reported to have been brutally murdered through Spanish treachery. Having been invited by the Spaniards to a conference, with a view of bringing the terrific struggle for Cuban liberty to an end, he started for the place of meeting. When nearly there he found himself surrounded by Spanish forces, and received the command to surrender. Instantly realizing that he had been drawn into a trap, he and his followers made a terrible struggle for their freedom, but were outnumbered. As they were fighting, Maceo received his death wound, and shed his life's blood in the defense of his country, which he loved too well to desert by surrender. Thus died brave Antonio Maceo, one of the greatest generals of African extraction that ever lived.

Jose Antonio Maceo was born in the eastern province of Santiago, near the city of Santiago de Cuba, in 1850, being the oldest of eleven brothers. When yet a young man he fought for "Cuba Libre" in the late ten years' war, seeking to throw off the yoke of Spanish tyranny. His service in that war, as well as in the present struggle, showed him to be a born fighter, and earned for him the titles of Second General in Chief of the Forces of Liberty and General in Chief of the Army of Invasion. He had full charge of the civil and military jurisdictions of the western and most important portion of the island of Cuba, the place where the present struggle will either be won or lost to the brave Cubans.

As long as Maceo lived there was no prospect of the blacks and whites of Cuba participating in a race war. He loved his country too well to allow it, and could have easily prevented such a clash, as he had the implicit confidence and respect of the Negroes. He was very reticent in speaking of his wounds, of which he bore twenty-three. With one exception, these wounds were received in the ten years' war.

In the death of Gen. Maceo Cuba loses a man who was without fear, a man of rare intellect, an honest man, and a genuine patriot, whose death will doubtless be avenged by his faithful followers. By Maceo's death Cuba loses one of the most valiant defenders she ever had. After his participation in the ten years' war and his exile to Jamaica, at its unsuccessful termination, his subsequent career has been told in the following interesting sketch:

"Early in 1879 a brown-skinned, weather-beaten man arrived in New York on one of the Jamaica steamers. For a month or more he lived alone, without other companionship than that of books. It was Maceo, and the fire of liberty, still smoldering in his breast, was only seeking a favorable opportunity to burst into flame. In a few months he made his way to West Point, where he obtained employment as a hostler. Nobody in the academy dreamed for a moment that the broad-shouldered, dark-browed man who handled the horses so easily had ever smelled the smoke of battle or heard the song of rifle bullets. Day after day on the parade grounds the taciturn man watched the evolutions of the cadets, listened to the commands of the officers, studied the discipline of the place, pored over volumes of military tactics that he had managed to borrow, and added to his natural genius the knowledge of other great generals. Then the dark-skinned hostler, who was regarded as book mad, gave up his position and returned to New York. From New York he went to Costa Rica, taking a hundred or more weighty volumes with him. Some wealthy Cubans had settled in Costa Rica during the war, and they now offered Maceo a tract of land on which to colonize his brave followers. Here for ten years the exiled Cuban worked and studied and dreamed and instructed his fellow-veterans in the modern theories of war. At times he would lecture them; at other times he would give them practical lessons in drilling and in cavalry evolutions. With each day, each week, month, and year his dream of the freedom of Cuba was brighter than before. Never for a moment did he seem to forget the points of his purpose.

"In 1888, ten years after the close of the war, he began to scheme for another uprising in Cuba. He took the former officers into his confidence, and the little band of revolutionists spent almost a year in making plans for the overthrow of Spain. Finally Maceo sailed for Jamaica, and from Jamaica to Santiago de Cuba, disguised as a laborer. Not for a moment, however, during the entire ten years that had elapsed since the war had the Spanish Government lost sight of Maceo. The Spaniards knew him too well. Consequently when he disappeared from Costa Rica there was a hue and cry. 'Maceo has gone,' was telegraphed to Madrid; 'Look out for Maceo,' was the word sent to Havana. Search was made throughout the island. Finally the government got word of him around Santiago. Under torture, a Cuban confessed that he had seen Maceo in El Christo, disguised as a muleteer. In the meantime Maceo had become aware that his whereabouts had been discovered. His schemes were consequently frustrated. A fisherman who had fought under him during the long war sailed with Maceo for Kingston one dark night in his fishing boat. For many weeks thereafter the Spaniards searched in vain for the Cuban leader.

"Maceo returned to Costa Rica disappointed, but not discouraged. He saw plainly that the revolutionary ball must be set rolling by other hands than his. He entered into correspondence with prominent Cuban sympathizers in American cities, and with Gen. Gomez in San Domingo. This was kept up until local juntas were formed in almost every prominent city in the United States. Then Maceo and his little band of patriots in Costa Rica had nothing to do but possess their souls in patience and wait for events. The years between 1890 and 1895 were passed in hard work and in studying the possibilities of Cuba from a military standpoint. One day in February, 1895, word came that the Cubans had risen. Blood had been shed, and Julio Sanguilly had been arrested and imprisoned. At last, after many years, here was an opportunity to strike once more for Cuba. Freedom, the dream of a lifetime, would come later on. On the following day an emissary of the Spanish Government asked Maceo if he intended to join the movement. 'Join it?' he replied, 'I shall join nothing.' He did not think it necessary to say that he had joined it years ago. This is why the papers of the next morning all over the world published a statement that Maceo was not identified with the revolutionary movement in Cuba.

"A week later Maceo, his brother Jose, Flor Crombet, Cabreco, and sixteen other veterans sailed from Costa Rica for San Domingo. From this point, a week or so later, they slipped away for Cuba. They landed on the morning of March 30 at a point near Baracoa, where many times in years gone by Maceo had seen the flash of machete and bayonet. True to the traditions of the place, hardly had he touched his foot on Cuban soil before Spanish rifles were cracking and bullets were singing all about him. The force of Spaniards numbered about fifty. Maceo had with him only nineteen men in addition to his brother Jose, Crombet, and Cabreco. There was a running fight along the road in the direction of an old log house, where the Cubans finally took refuge. In this skirmish Crombet was killed. In the log house, surrounded by Spaniards, the Cubans fought for days. In the meantime word had been sent out that Antonio Maceo had been captured immediately upon landing on the island, and that Flor Crombet had been killed. This was Maceo's first death during the present war. On the night of the third day Maceo called the men together and told them that their only hope was in making a rush for the woods. The door had hardly been opened before the Spaniards discovered the movement. Then ensued a fierce running fight, in which several of the Cubans were killed, and Maceo received a bullet through his hat. Separating from the rest of his companions, Maceo wandered through the pathless forest for two weeks alone, living on plantains, guavas, and other fruits. One day he stumbled upon the band of insurgents led by Rabi. He was taken to the hut occupied by the leader.

"'Who are you?' he was asked.

"'One who will fight to the death for Cuba Libre,' was the reply.

"'Your name?'

"'Antonio Maceo.'

"At first Rabi was incredulous. When he finally recognized in the haggard and hungry man the dashing leader of the ten years' war the joy of the insurgent was boundless. In a few days all his old-time vigor returned. He was more of a leader than ever. His ten years of exile had only served to make him more cautious and calculating. He knew that he was a better soldier than when he was banished. In a fortnight he made his way to Guantanamo, to the spot where he had disbanded his men years before. The big tree was still standing, taller and grayer with age, rotted in spots, but quite as sturdy as ever. Under this tree he had sheathed his sword. Under its branches he once more drew it from its scabbard against the Spanish oppressor. In a few weeks he had recruited almost a thousand men. Starting out with this nucleus of a future army, he swept everything before him."



MARRIED LIFE—ITS JOYS AND SORROWS.

BY BISHOP ARNETT.

A good wife is the greatest earthly blessing. A wife never makes a greater mistake than when she endeavors to coerce her husband with other weapons than those of love and affection. Those weapons are a sure "pull," if he has anything human left in him. Forbear mutual upbraidings. In writing letters during temporary separation let nothing contrary to love and sincere affection be expressed; such letters from a wife have a most powerful emotional effect, sometimes little understood by those who write them. It is the mother who molds the character and destiny of the child as to the exteriors; therefore let calmness, peace, affection, and firmness rule her conduct toward her children. Children are great imitators; whether they have scolding or peaceful mothers, they are generally sure to learn from the example set before them, and thus the consequent joy or sorrow is transferred to other families. Therefore let mothers take heed to their conduct. It is not possible to exercise judgment and prudence too much before entering on the married life. Be sure that the affections on both sides are so perfectly intertwined around each other that the two, as it were, form one mind. This requires time and a thorough mutual knowledge on both sides. Marry into your religion and into a blood and temperament different from your own. Bend your whole form, and especially avoid everlastingly dishing up any unsuccessful past action that was done from a good motive and with the best intentions at the time. Let nothing foreign to the spirit of love and mutual affections intervene to cause distance between husband and wife. To this end let self-denial and reciprocal unselfishness rule over each. Avoid habitual fault-finding, scolding, etc., as you would perdition itself. Many men tremble as they cross their threshold into the presence of scolding wives. Let husband and wife cultivate habits of sobriety, and specially avoid drunkenness in every form. What a dreadful spectacle it is to see a husband transformed into a demon, tottering homeward to a broken-hearted wife, whose noble, self-sacrificing devotion to him seems to partake more of the nature of heaven than of earth! Never part, even for a journey, without kind and endearing words; and as a kiss symbolizes union from interior affection, do not dispense with it on such occasions, repeating it when you return. In one word, let love rule supreme.

In all your dealings with women take a lesson from the cooing dove. Speak softly, deal gently, kindly, and considerately with her in every way. Let every husband and every wife cherish for each other the heavenly flame of affection, and let no rude, harsh, or embittered expression on either side chill the sacred fire. If every adoration of the creature may hope for pardon, surely the worship rendered by man to a kind, pure, affectionate, and loving wife—Heaven's best gift—may invoke forgiveness. What countless millions of women have sacrificed health, strength, and life in attendance on sick and dying husbands, children, and strangers! How many have perished by rushing through fire and water to save their children, and starve themselves that they might live! In how many hospitals has she proven herself an angel of mercy, and her sweet voice uttered words of comfort and cheer! Therefore let woman have her full rights, even that of voting, if she desires it, for a good woman's influence will ever be used for a good purpose; but let woman act toward man as indicated in the above advice for man to act toward woman, and she would be all but omnipotent; for man, in a manner, would move heaven and earth to serve her, and would do unspeakably more for her than can ever be done by all the fussy croakers, old maids, and woman's rights associations and lectures in creation. Love in the family is the one thing needful to regenerate the earth and cause the wilderness to become as Eden and the desert to blossom as the rose. Reversed, love and discord have broken more hearts, caused more sorrow, estrangement, and downright death than war, pestilence, and all other causes combined. It palsies energy and ambition, engenders gloom and despair, and transforms manhood into an icicle. Statistics prove that the married live longer, on the average, by several years than the unmarried, a most satisfactory proof that the married state is pre-eminently the life designed for man. Therefore let all interested do their utmost to make it the happiest. (The Budget.)



INTEMPERANCE.

BY MRS. M. A. M'CURDY, ROME, GA.

Intemperance has so rapidly grown to be the crowning curse of all nations and has taken so deep root in the heart of many influential countrymen as to cause the impediments that are thrown in the pathway of those who try to promote the cause of "God, home, and native land" to appear to be legions.

The horrors of intemperance have never been fully portrayed. No pencil is black enough to paint the picture and do it full justice. No tongue is eloquent enough to tell the sad, sad story in all its details. It has so spread itself as to compel us to style it a wide and verily a withering curse. It is the parent of many physical disorders, that begin with bleared eyes, a blistered tongue, general derangement of the stomach, paralysis of the nerves, and hardening of the liver; and to so great an extent it poisons the blood as to cause coagulation of the brain. All of which, as a natural consequence, induce and aggravate many diseases, ending with causing to be dug a myriad of premature graves.

Intemperance is a mental curse, and it clouds the judgment, dethrones reason, promotes ignorance to the extent that to approach the unenlightened upon the subject of temperance is the means of incurring the displeasure of many, and in numerous instances causes vile epithets to be applied to those who are advocates of the cause of temperance.



Another great and startling reason why all persons should abstain from the use of intoxicating liquors is that it is a mental curse, because it produces imbecility and transforms its unhappy victims into maniacs and fools. Intemperance or the use of alcoholic liquors brings a curse upon the morals of all nations, and thereby proves to be a moral curse. It weakens the will and so influences the passions as to hush the voice of conscience and prepare the way for every vice and crime. Then, with all that, let us briefly review a few of the attendant miseries of intemperance that are about us like a swarm of locusts coming as a plague: In the slimy trail of this alcoholic serpent can be found everything that is dark and dreadful—yea, everything that is ruinous. In it can be found men without manhood, women without womanhood, infancy without hope, want and woe, rage and wretchedness, disease and death; and, furthermore, in the trail of this venomous serpent can be found broken vows and broken hearts, bad manners and bad morals, bad words and bad actions, bad parents and bad children, a bad beginning and a bad end. Then surely intemperance is the crowning curse of American society; and as such the traffic is, as has been often said, a gigantic crime. It came and continues to be an unwelcome intruder. It erects in our midst distilleries or dramshops. Everywhere we need the church and schoolhouse, these being uplifting and elevating forces, while the distilleries and dramshops are mediums through which distress and want, sorrow and death, are brought into our midst in an inconceivably short time, carrying to untimely graves and everlasting woe hundreds—yea, thousands—who otherwise might be saved.

The traffic is a temptation and a snare, a man trap and a woman trap, luring ever its victims to death and damnation. No wonder that Lord Chesterfield, in words as eloquent as they were burning, should say of rumsellers: "Let us crush out these artists in human slaughter who have reconciled their countrymen to sickness and ruin and spread over the pitfalls of debauchery such baits as men cannot resist." And his suggestions continue to be repeated, serving as a nucleus to which many cling and receive strength for present and future action. Yet there is room for more, as the battle is fierce and will possibly be long.

The traffic is a monster of cruelty. It has ever been one of tears and groans and blood, in vice, crime, and misery; ever conscienceless, unprincipled, and as cruel as the grave, while the trafficker is rarely ever moved by widows' woes, though they swell into rivers of tears. His heart seems to be incased in stone, while he applies his infamous trade and hoards his unhallowed wealth, regardless alike of the claims of God and the cries of his murdered victims.

For heartless cruelty and desolating results, the highway robber is not to be compared with the vender of alcoholic beverages, because the robber simply demands your money or your life, while the liquor seller demands your money and your life; and there being more than half a million of them, they seem to be determined to rule the remaining faction of sixty millions with worse than a rod of iron, even proving insolent and defiant to the last degree. Sitting supreme in our national Congress and walking with a swing of conscious triumph up and down our legislative halls, monarchs of all they survey, succeeding in every effort made to muzzle ministers, bribe lawmakers, control officers and business men of our country, and place the nation in great peril. The traffic is an intolerable burden to the state, a burden on every back, a blight on every industry, sapping the heartblood out of all concerned. Think of $900,000,000 as a direct annual drink bill, and an equal sum to cover the sad consequence. Two-thirds of this amount is expended by laboring men at the sacrifice of personal comforts and family necessities. Then why, O why, will not a greater number of our male relatives assist in striking every saloon until they are all crushed into hopeless flinders? and why will not a greater number of our women unite with those who are making efforts to raise up many who have fallen through and by the use of intoxicating liquors, and in many ways assist our husbands, brothers, and fathers in laying plans that will in the near future annihilate the demon rum? Last, but not least, the liquor traffic is a deadly foe to the Church. Well and truly did Charles Buxton say that "the struggle of the Church, school, and the library all united against the beer shop and the gin place is but one development of the war between Heaven and Hades." The traffic paralyzes the pulpit, hardens human hearts, alienates men and women from the Church of God, and in so doing rises like a mountain in the path of Christian civilization, and we agree with Rev. A. A. Phelps in saying: "It is a terrible fact, sad enough to make angels weep, that the two hundred thousand grogshops of this nation are doing more to damn the people than all the Churches are doing to save them." Then, in conclusion, let us rally to the cause of temperance and apply the prohibition as to the deadly upas tree of intemperance, taking God and his word for our guide, adopting our Creator's philosophy, imitating his example, and thereby build on those basic principles that underline the eternal throne, ever remembering that there is work for all to do, and that in God's universal system