to magnify the sacrifices, which were many, and to belittle the rewards, which were great, in the performance of an ordinary piece of work, by a class of persons now rapidly disappearing from the scenes that once knew them.  Their work is fast being transferred to the hands of colored men and women—­the pupil is taking the place of the master; the demand drawing upon the colored—­not the white—­supply, because “birds of a feather flock together,” more especially when one class is composed of chickens and the other of chicken-hawks.  When lines are drawn, men unconsciously, as it were, keep on their own side.  So, in colored churches and schools the whites are at a discount because it is easier and more congenial to employ colored help.  Colored people are like white people.  When they see nothing but white ministers in the white churches they conclude that it is best to have nothing but colored ministers in their own pulpits, and they are perfectly consistent and logical in their conclusion; the rule which actuates mankind in such matters being, not the biblical one, which enjoins that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us, but, rather, do unto others as they do unto us; and this latter rule would seem to be better adapted for worldly success than the former, because it has more of the practical than the theoretical about it, and is more earthly than heavenly in its observance.  The same is true of schools and school teachers.  The colored people everywhere are constantly clamoring for colored teachers, since the rank injustice of separate schools is forced upon them.

I would interject just here a few words on the separate-school system.  Aside from the manifest injustice of setting up two schoolhouses in the same ward or district—­injustice to the children in the spirit, false from every standpoint, that one child is better than another—­the double expense of maintaining two schools is obvious, and is sufficiently absurd to repel the sympathy or practical philanthropy of any man, Christian or Infidel.  Why should the people be called upon to support two schools within speaking distance of each other to preserve an infamous distinction, a sneaking caste prejudice?  Why!  Because the people are wise in their own conceit—­perfectly rational upon all other questions save the color question.  The South is weighted down with debt, almost as poor as the proverbial “Job’s turkey,” and yet she supports a dual school system simple to gratify a prejudice.  I notice with surprise that among the bills pending before Congress to give national aid to education it is not proposed to interfere with the irregular and ruinous dual caste schools; thereby, in effect, giving the national assent to a system repugnant to the genius of the constitution.  But it is nothing new under the sun for the Congress of the Nation to aid and abet institutions and theories anti-republican and pernicious in all their ramifications.