A great many families are gathered in by getting their children interested.  A parent sends his little ones to our school and says:  “I never had no chance to git learnin’, but I wants my children to have it.”

There, after all this rambling, I have reached the one idea which I believe ought to stick in the mind of every A.M.A. worker and every A.M.A. supporter—­the children!  If we can only teach them, save them, the African in America and in Africa is saved.  It seems to me this is the solution of the problem.  The longer one labors among the colored people and learns them and their surroundings, the more difficult seems the solution of the negro problem.  Tourists in the South and people at a distance are very prolific in suggestions as to the best methods for elevating the negro.  Why! visitors who have spent hardly twenty-four hours in a Southern city can write home marvellous letters as to the wonderful progress of the colored race, and prophesy a speedy settlement of the matter of negro education and race prejudice.  It is a fact, however, that the longer one stays here the more puzzled he grows about these matters.  An old A.M.A. worker said to me, “The first year of your work you will think you understand the colored people pretty well; the second year you won’t know quite so much; the third year still less, and so on until by the tenth year you will think you don’t know anything about them.”  But we all come to one conclusion, that all the trouble arising from race prejudice will pass away as the negro rises.  When he is able to intelligently exercise all his rights, then the white man will have to acknowledge them.  This result is in the distance, and while due attention is given to the older ones, yet the destiny of the colored race is wrapt up in the rising generation.  They are terribly endangered, but they must be saved if the race is saved.  A new generation, who knew nothing of slavery but much of the dangers of freedom, are taking hold upon manhood.  They must be taught to read, to think, to work, to save and to love goodness for its own sake.  If all this can be brought about I believe the Negro question will be settled.  This must be done.  I trust that not all of the 1,500 who have lately signified a willingness to enter the mission field will suppose that all of the ignorant and needy millions are on the other side of the globe.  We hear a good deal just now about patriotism.  Now, how can one better prove his patriotism than by giving his money or service to save his country from ignorance and degradation?  It will pay you back in dollars and cents, to say nothing of the reward of learning that “it is more blessed to give than to receive.”

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Intemperance.

    The few lines below indicate the quality and flavor of the papers
    read by the graduating class at Atlanta University.

One of the great causes of intemperance in our land is that lack of self-respect which the present state of society induces among the poor and laborious.  Just as long as wealth is the object of worship and the measure of men’s importance, and is regarded as the badge of distinction, just so long will there be a tendency toward self-abasement and self-abandonment among those whose lot gives them no chance to acquire it.