e Christmas week. There was
a widespread hilarity, and a free use of guns, pistols, and gunpowder
generally. The sacredness of the season seemed to have been almost
wholly lost sight of.

During this first Christmas vacation I went some distance from the town
to visit the people on one of the large plantations. In their poverty
and ignorance it was pathetic to see their attempts to get joy out of
the season that in most parts of the country is so sacred and so dear to
the heart. In one cabin I notice that all that the five children had to
remind them of the coming of Christ was a single bunch of firecrackers,
which they had divided among them. In another cabin, where there were
at least a half-dozen persons, they had only ten cents' worth of
ginger-cakes, which had been bought in the store the day before. In
another family they had only a few pieces of sugarcane. In still another
cabin I found nothing but a new jug of cheap, mean whiskey, which the
husband and wife were making free use of, notwithstanding the fact that
the husband was one of the local ministers. In a few instances I found
that the people had gotten hold of some bright-coloured cards that had
been designed for advertising purposes, and were making the most of
these. In other homes some member of the family had bought a new pistol.
In the majority of cases there was nothing to be seen in the cabin to
remind one of the coming of the Saviour, except that the people had
ceased work in the fields and were lounging about their homes. At night,
during Christmas week, they usually had what they called a "frolic," in
some cabin on the plantation. That meant a kind of rough dance, where
there was likely to be a good deal of whiskey used, and where there
might be some shooting or cutting with razors.

While I was making this Christmas visit I met an old coloured man who
was one of the numerous local preachers, who tried to convince me, from
the experience Adam had in the Garden of Eden, that God had cursed all
labour, and that, therefore, it was a sin for any man to work. For that
reason this man sought to do as little work as possible. He seemed at
that time to be supremely happy, because he was living, as he expressed
it, through one week that was free from sin.

In the school we made a special effort to teach our students the meaning
of Christmas, and to give them lessons in its proper observance. In this
we have been successful to a degree that makes me feel