generating influence of
charity to the recipient. The alarming death rate among the Negro
population is largely due to ignorance of the laws of health, and the
proper care of children. Such people need instruction in their homes,
for you will reach them nowhere else. They will not attend public
meetings nor church services; they feel out of place in them. Hence
there is no way to reach such people other than by going among them.
This act will not mar the reputation of a true leader, one whom they
can emulate, and in whom they have confidence. It rather increases her
influence; for they know she is NOT OF them, but WITH them in their
efforts to improve. The magnitude of the work may sometimes cause one
to shrink, when the progress seems slow. But all reforms require
deliberation, endurance, and perseverance. Occasionally we get an
encouraging comment which comes like a calm after storms of criticisms
and abuse. Two of the daily papers of Richmond, Virginia, made very
favorable statements in regard to the conduct of the colored people
during the week of the carnival--October 7th-12th, 1901. For
violations of the law there were about two hundred arrests, and not
one colored person of the number. The colored schools came in for a
liberal share of praise for their attendance during said week. All
colored groups of schools were way up in the nineties. Baker School
(colored), of six hundred and twenty-seven pupils, led the city
schools, with 98.9 per cent of attendance. We hailed the announcements
with delight, for they strengthened our belief that "Negro education"
may not always be considered "a failure." We are stimulated to more
earnest endeavor when we find persons of great minds and large hearts
voicing such helpful sentiments as expressed by Mr. Joel Chandler
Harris, in his article to the New York Journal, November 3, 1901, on
"Negro Education," from which I quote:

"What is called the Negro problem is simply the invention of men with
theories.

"The spectacle spread out before us is not in the nature of a problem.

"It is made up of the actual efforts and movements of a race slowly
and painfully feeling its way toward a higher destiny.

"The conditions and circumstances being without parallel or precedent
in the history of the world, it was inevitable that serious mistakes
should be made; that misunderstandings should arise, that philanthropy
should stretch out full hands in the wrong direction, that partisan
poli