churches, I would put in it the following petition: "From the superficial views and misleading statements of tourists through the South, or those who reside in a single locality, good Lord, deliver us!" [pg 176]Mr. Cable is not of either of these classes. He speaks from an intimate acquaintance with, and a long residence in, the South; better than this, he is familiar with the whole territory, and not with a single locality simply. This little book ought to be in the hands of every conscientious student of this Southern problem. Take a single quotation:

"To be governed merely by instincts is pure savagery. All civilization is the result of subordinating instinct to reason, and to the necessities of peace, amity and righteousness. To surrender to instinct, would destroy all civilization in three days. If, then, the color-line is the result of natural instincts, the commonest daily needs of the merest civilization require that we should ask ourselves, is it better or worse to repress or cherish this instinct, and this color-line?" There are forces at work, regenerative and ennobling, that will lead the Southern white people to be ashamed of their attitude toward the Negroes, and not the least of these are the life and works of Mr. Cable.

A letter came into my hand, when I was in the South, which is not only a commentary, but also throws a ray of sunlight where there is much darkness. It was a letter from an old mistress to her former slave. He is now a successful business man in Chattanooga. This earnest, Christian woman, rising above her prejudices, wrote her former slave a cordial invitation to visit her in her home. Her husband, his old master, had died in the Confederate service. She had seen her servants taken away from her through the success of the Union armies. Her property had been depleted, and her fertile plantation overrun by the loyal troops. It must have been with great sadness and a bitter heart, that she looked out upon this ruin, wrought as she believed, throughout the invading of the sacred soil of Virginia. But in these years that have passed, this bitterness has largely gone, and this sweet, Christian letter comes to her former slave. The ex-slave told me with tears in his eyes that he paid her this visit, and that she welcomed him, not to the Negro quarters, nor to the kitchen-chamber, but to her best guest-chamber, and said: "I want you to feel that you are welcome to the best hospitality of my home." "And she treated me almost as tenderly as she would one of her own sons," said the colored man. And so light is coming, little by little.

Dr. Haygood expresses a regret that the white women of the South are so slow to appreciate the importance of the moral elevation of the Negroes, and so slow to join hands with their Northern sisters in his education. But such facts as this kind, Christian letter furnishes, lead us to hope and to believe that better times are coming, and that the Southern Christians, interested as they are in the Negro in Africa, will, little by little, appreciate and minister more and more to the terrible need of the Negro in South Carolina and Alabama.

[pg 177]

MUSIC'S MISSION.

BY REV. E.N. ANDREWS, HARTFORD, WIS.

Suggested by the following words by Rev. B.A. Imes in the May Missionary:

"The Mozart Society at Fisk treated us to an excellent rendering of Haydn's great oratorio, 'The Creation.' Many came over from the city (Nashville),—whites from the "best families," all crowding in, listening, wondering, enjoying! How the music of those well-tuned instruments and voices caught us up and carried us away! Color-line melted and faded out. How we wished the politicians all might have been brought under that magic spell of solos and choruses!"

ITEMS.

Everywhere the colored contestants in Civil Service examinations succeed admirably in their work. In March just past, there was a competitive examination held in the Custom House at Newark, N.J., for clerkships. Out of forty-three contestants, Mr. J.N. Vandewall, a well known young colored man, [pg 178]stood No. 1, 96 per cent. There was only one other colored contestant, Mr. G.W. Harris. He stood fifth, with an average of 86 per cent.

Mr. A.C. Garner, our colored representative in the Chicago Theological Seminary, passed an excellent examination last week, and received praise not only from his Professors but from his student friends as well. Out of a class of forty, he was one of seven chosen by the Professor of Elocution to represent the class in oratory at the closing exercises held last week.

During the recent illness of one of our teachers in the South, the pastor of the Church called every Sunday for volunteers as watchers during the week. There was always a ready response from the church members. The teacher relates that before leaving him in the morning, these watchers would almost invariably kneel down by his bedside and offer up earnest, fervent prayers for his recovery. He was impressed with the simple faith and trust in God of these colored Christians, their belief in prayer and the contrast between them and an equal number of white brethren under the same circumstances.

THE SOUTH.

OUR SCHOOL WORK.

PROGRESS—OVER-CROWDING.

From Wilmington, N.C.—Instead of sixty pupils as a year or two ago, we now have over ninety, and next year the number will be fully one hundred or more, if we have room. The classes are very large.

From Grand View, Tenn.—The classes are full and the accommodations inadequate. The school numbers one hundred and eleven. It is necessary to crowd four boys into each room of the Boys' Hall. Four boys are boarding themselves in a shackly log building at the foot of the hill. Their grit is admirable.

From Tougaloo, Miss.—Both the dormitories are crowded. The Ladies' Hall is supposed to accommodate seventy-five girls. One hundred and six are crowded into it to-day. We have turned away nearly one hundred more because we had not room for them. Every indication is that the crowd of applicants will be greater next year than