life in New York city. Nor were they worse t the illustrations and letter-press declared to be condition of a great multitude of families who k miniature truck-gardens about the suburbs of metropolis.

One of the saddest facts of their lot is that m of them are very ignorant. The vast majority them are untaught. (Many of our white peo are in the same condition.) Few ex-slaves read at all. While slavery lasted there was sm chance to teach them. For this state of thin the masters were not alone to blame. Some we taught, nevertheless. It would surprise some pe ple to know how many of them were taught b "young masters" and "young mistresses" to rea the Bible. I made a faithful effort on "Unc Jim," who taught me to ride and to plow; wh was my skillful instructor in the lore of the field and the woods. Whether he was too old, or hi teacher too unskilled, has never been determined but he never got beyond "words of one syllable. The house girl, Alice, made better progress; a siste had her schooling in hand.

A few ex-slaves have learned to read since they became free, greatly to their credit. There are some pathetic instances of old people learning, slowly and with difficulty, that they might read the Bible for themselves. Thousands of the younger race can read and write and cipher-if not after

wonder. In this little village of Oxford I h seen, time and again, very poor negroes help some of their neighbors still poorer than the selves. They have organized many "societies" the relief of the sick and the afflicted. Many tim I have known "burial expenses" met by these cieties. And there can be little doubt that th "finances" are generally well and faithfully ma aged. One of their "treasurers" has been for so years a trusted member of my household. He h given me insight of their methods. If he were n an honest man, as he is, he has to give such rig account that he would have little opportunity f "financiering" on the society's funds, even if 1 had the disposition. The picture must not drawn in colors too bright, for, alas! a colored trea urer now and then imitates some white treasurer cashier so closely that the society's funds are see no more by the society forever. This, however should be said for the negroes in such a case: the call their unfaithful treasurer "a thief," they do no say "defaulter."

race-problem. What we want is not a change blackboards, but a thorough study and a clear derstanding of the problem itself; also, the rig spirit all round.

The conditions of this problem will not be grea modified by the so-called "exodus"-a very lar word, by the way, for the fact it represents.

myself bound to modify my opinions in the lig of new facts, for facts must govern opinions as w as silence prejudices; but as the case now is, it very clear to me that the negroes as a body w never move to Kansas, to Indiana, to New Mexic or to any State or Territory, either so cold in climate, or so different in its population, or so verse in its conditions of living, from any thing the have ever known. A few thousands may go these States, a few thousands may scatter then selves through various northern and western State It is desirable that they should do so; it will e tend the knowledge of the difficulties of our n tional problem, and nurture patience in region where patience is as much needed as "toleration is needed in the South.

This we may certainly depend on; if the negroe were moved en masse to some other section of ou country, they would carry their race-problem wit them. The problem would, indeed, be modified perhaps it would lose none of its present difficul ties; certainly it would take on some new ones