y upward, braving and overcoming
obstacles and difficulties such as might well have cowed a youth who
possessed the courage and perseverance of a dozen men; but he was one of
a thousand, one who was destined to become a pioneer who would make the
way plainer and easier for those who followed after. However low down
they might be, the coloured race showed no disposition to remain where
they were; all along the line were seen signs of advancement. As
regarded the proportion who attended religious worship, and who were
Church communicants, the negroes compared favourably with the whites.
Persons who carefully took notice of the different phases of the new
reformation in progress were often having some new surprise. Thus, the
manner in which the funds were raised for the building and endowment of
Fisk University seems almost to belong to the region of romance, as is
proved from this opening passage in the popular volume which contains
the narrative:--

"The story of the Jubilee Singers seems almost as little like a chapter
from real life as the legend of the daring Argonauts who sailed with
Jason on that famous voyage after the Golden Fleece. It is the story of
a little company of emancipated slaves who set out to secure, by their
singing, the fabulous sum of twenty thousand dollars for the
impoverished and unknown school in which they were students. The world
was as unfamiliar to these untravelled free people as were the countries
through which the Argonauts had to pass; the social prejudices that
confronted them were as terrible to meet as fire-breathing bulls or the
warriors that sprang from the land sown with dragons' teeth; and no seas
were ever more tempestuous than the stormy experiences that for a time
tested their faith and courage. They were at times without the money to
buy needed clothing. Yet in less than three years they returned,
bringing back with them nearly one hundred thousand dollars. They had
been turned away from hotels and driven out of railway waiting-rooms
because of their colour. But they had been received with honour by the
President of the United States; they had sung their slave-songs before
the Queen of Great Britain, and they had gathered, as invited guests,
about the breakfast-table of her Prime Minister. Their success was as
remarkable as their mission was unique."

The University for coloured students, on behalf of which these efforts
were made, is situated at Nashville, a town which, on a