Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-03-31
How 1t Looks from a virginia school
From the New YO.k Tribune.

kAAOM a. Z AOAh Jun
A brave young woman, of education
and refinement, who had left her home in
Brooklyn to devote herself to teaching
the freedmen in Virginia, gives, in a pri-
ate letter TO her brother, from which we
are permitted to make extracts, some
interesting incidents in hsr daily life.
She writes, march 10:
To-day, as 1 was quietly returning
from school alone, l was saluted with such
a vOlley of Osths that 1 involuntarily
turned my head Il see the speaker. A
man Instantly retreated within a gateway,
repeating: God damn you and send YOU
20 hell, you cursed bitch of a Yankee
teacherP Some eolored people, who had
evidently heard, said DO you know
who that is replied, No; but 1 should
be glad to know They then mentioned
his name. When he saw me speaking
with them herenewed his curses. | went
on, and meeting the Major (of the Freed
mems Bureau, of co.rse told him. He
will see what he can do, but not much l
expect. He says he was beset on Friday
night by a rowdy mob, who woke him
up with the cries Wake up and come out
you damned Freedmen's Bureau some
shouting, kill himr others, Tear him to
piecesl All this, however, is perfectly
natural. l looked for it. and look for
much more. 1t is the first time in my
life | have had the homer of AN open curse,
and do,feel it an honor in such a cause.
"9:45 P. Must in from sch Jol > = 3
We went on quietly with our work as
usual, when at nine o'clock a great crash
came against the window, and a large,
rough stone (which is now on the table
before mel fell on the floor. 1t came ex-
aetly in a line with the spot who're 1 was
standing, and l think we have to thank
the calico windew-blind, in part, for pre-
venting further damage. Something has
been thrown nearly every night lately,
but this is the first time a window has
been broken. L see they want to fright
en- our scholars away. Do you think we
are reconstructed down here? Ask Mr..
Beecher to come down and protect us.
Perhaps a little of his smooth ~eloauence
might soften those hard 1oyalists.' The
cOlOred people want to celebrate the fall
of Richmond, because it is their indepen-
dence Day. They are told if thew cele-
brate it ut all it shall be with blood. One
of the young men says he will celebrate
- - az ~ ~ aAOAAG- w AdL 10 YOU
think 1 should advise him? OF course 1
hold it to be their rights to celebrate their
freedom, and I don't like to see them
cowed down by the Whites. Yet Idon't
like to risk bloodshed, though l seriously
believe that more blood will have to be
split before these people wilIb be free.'
The writer of this letter little expected
it would ever find its way into print. Its
simple, unaffected statement, given in an
unreserved, sisterly communication, is
worth a ten-column speech of ever so able
a member of Congress, on Reconstruction.
The writer incloses in the letter an arti-
Gle from a Richmond newspaper, which
she had picked up somewhere, during the
war, "On the Treatment Of Prisoners"
Its first sentence is: yankee prisoners
who fall into our hands have no right to
expect from US any measure of sympathy
They are nc longer Rebels in Virginia
since Lee SURRENDERED, but the "cnrsed
Yankees" then are 'cursed Yankees" now.