The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-02-16
PICTURE OF A VIRaINIA LADY.
How Such Person Regards the
Teachers OF Negro sehoOIs--A scene

How Such Person Regards the
Teachers OF Negro sehOOIs--A Scene
I of Recent OeeurI enee-
FTOn q letter TO Tie NesO York Independent
1t has come at last, the lopged-for
Wednesday. To-day the cars are COM
ing! You should live in Dixie to know
all that means. You should sit by this
window, Tor days and months, looking
only on rock and ruin, longing for the
dear old places and the old familiar
faces to know all that whistle tells as
its piercing cry comes back in the ech-
oeS of those rugged hills, and its CAV
green train leeps from beyond yonder
sharp jutting angle of Maryland flights,
and rolls across the great iron bridge
which binds together Maryland and
Virginia. This train, with It's mail and
messages from home seems the only
bond between the old life and the new
The train is coming to-day-look out
for the teachers" says Mignonne.-
That is precisely what am doing, ma
eAers, and here they are. o dear! to
think they will walk so fast, and get ont
of sight so soonI lam sure they would
MT if they knew of the friendly north
ern eyes waiting and watching at this
upper window. But, what do see? A
troop of maidens, who, in some unde-
Unable way, suggest Tennyson,s tsweet
girl graduates with their golden hair, :"
and that their tresses are not all of the
sun. see jaunty hats and natty
jackets, gay scarfs and graceful robes.
L see elegance, beauty and youth all
come to brighten the lot of the lowly,
to deliver from ignorance and vice that
victim race which our brothers with
their blood delivered from chains.
Opposite my window they encounter
a Virginia belle. arrayed in the SPLEEN
dor of purple dress, and scarlet
shawl, green hat, and blue veil.
Her scornful eyes behold the object of
which of all others she despiseS most
she behoIds more than a dozen ''nigger
teachers" all together. tits dreadful,
an unbearabie sight, is it not, my dear?
1 suppose ought to be very sorry for
youi but am not sorry bit. 1t is an
afhiction ofgreat magnitude, to be sure,
that your whilom servants should be
taught by better and prettier teachers
than you ever had in your life; but it is
humiliation which you will have to
bear, and the only way you can lessen
1t IS TO improve yourself. But for you
to toss your head and flirt your dress
at these teachers is as silly as it is i'm
becile. This Virginia belle possesses
very positive convictions concerning
these teachers. Her first conviction is
that mo respectable woman ever comes
South to teach niggers." Her second
conviction is THAT every one who does
come, ought to be arrested and put into
prison." She is perfectly sincere in
these convictions, and perfectly free in in
expressing them. On the whole, we can
anord TO feel sorry for her. This old
house, once occupied by the superin-
tendent OF the armorieS, is now used as
the temporary abode of the superin-
tendent of the freed-people's schools
Rev Mr.. Bracket, of Maine. In
grand old room, defaeed by war, yet
frightened with pictures and books
from home, overlooking the prospect
which have just inadequately sketch
ed, saw yesterday scene not TO be for
gotten. That lovely Sabbath afternoon
no church-door opened to the teachers!
With their books in their hands, they
surrounded this wide room, holding a
simple service of their own. A room
full OF youthful women, far from home
and all its loves, sang the Lords song
In strange Land. Those old walls,
which within the last five years had re-
sounded so often to the oath and Jest of
dissOlute men, now sent back the sweet
womanly voices, through which loving
he1rts :rembled as they sung,
Nearer my God, TO Thee,
Nearer 10 Thee"
Here was the red-lipped schoolgirl,
just from school; here the young Wild
ow, holding in fearful love the memory
OI DuEleu nuSOaQU ana c0llu mere were
women in the prime of matured power,
with their rare beauty of sumptuous
womanhood-women whose elegance,
and grace, and fine mentality would
have lent luster to the highest sphere.
Such were the teachers Of the freed
slaves, who sat and knelt together;
whose soft eyes dimmed with tears as
they sang the hymns of home, and pray
ed for the blessing OF God upon their
work. After making due allowance for
all superficial enthusiasm and the ro-
nance which may be inseparable from
the womanly nature and missionary
labor, who can measure the significance
of the fact that hundreds of young, gift
ed, and cultivated women from the
North are now scattered through the
South as teachers of its former slaves
and, though much against their will,
and almost contrary to their knowl-
edge, teachers as we'll of the old-time
masters All unconsciously TO them
selves, in their mere presence, these
women are educators. Their very ap-
pearance on the street has won the re-
spect of people who at first despised and
hated them.