Now, true patriotism is a positive power.  A new generation of colored people is growing up.  Upon these rests the future of the race.  These two defects, lack of education and unpatriotic surroundings, will best be remedied by the education of this new generation.

United States History should be a prominent study, even in the primary departments of our schools.  The vast majority of the colored children can remain in school only long enough to get a knowledge of the elements, and among these should be American history.  What if children cannot pronounce the names of all the cities in Siberia?  Teach them to speak intelligently of Lexington, Bunker Hill and Yorktown.  Hang the walls of the school-room with pictures of great Americans.  Let incidents from their lives be used as illustrations of moral lessons.  Explain the principles and form of our government.  Dwell upon the extent of its domain and its vast resources.  Define simply the privileges conferred, and the duties imposed, upon the citizens of our government.  Four things should be taught them:  the three Rs and American history.  What is needed among all our citizens, is a great lifting up where a broad view of our great land can be had.  Make the children feel that they dwell in a great and goodly land, that they enjoy great privileges under its government, and they will learn to love it.

When Independence Day arrives, arrange for public gatherings of the people, and in short addresses explain to them the meaning of the day.  Let it be a day of opportunity for instructing them in the history of our country and in the duties of citizenship.  These are some of the ways in which the colored people may be aroused from their apathy and indifference toward their country, and inspired with a patriotism, not blind and spasmodic, but intelligent and permanent.

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A NEGRO GIRL’S PROSE POEM.

In attendance at one of the ward schools of Indianapolis is a little colored girl nine years old.  She is miserable, indeed, for at home she is ill treated, and the shoes she wears, and often the clothes, are supplied by the teachers or some of her classmates.  There is a tender, poetic vein in her make-up, and it found vent in a composition.  The teacher took a little pansy plant to school one day and told the pupils of the flower.  Two days after, she asked them to write a story of it, and gave them the privilege of having the pansy talk and tell the story, and this is what the little colored girl wrote, the word pansy in the copy being the only one dignified with a capital: