Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1880-04-01
LETTER FROM WASHINGTON.

WASHINGTON, d. C., March 25, 80.
Mr.. EDITOR: 1t was only short
time ago, no longer L may say. than
the period. when you and were boys,
squeezing the.mud through our school
boy toes, and able to see no higher
than where the wren built her nest la
the fence; it was not two dozen years
ago that the human auction block
stood in the streets of the nations
capitol. The very colored boys who
drive the teams on her streets, the
colored women who wash our shirts,
can tell us all about 1t. Some OF the
boys who black our boots answer when
we ask how old they are +:
Dunno, boss, can't tell muffin bout
case da done sold my nanny fore
eber / got old 'nough TO find out any
Ting bout it."
The old slave pens still stand at
Alexandria, where dealers In human
beings penned up their property until
it was disposed of. An incredulOus
stranger to events in this fast country
say a man from the moon-cOuld
slavery existed here such
little while ago; that the stat.
utes governing the sale, service and
punishment OF men and women
have not had time yet to crawl down
from the back shelves of our liOr a.
ries and march away to the curiosity
shopq. But time. that ever busy al
ways silent worker, las played "bull
in the chiua shop" with slavery, and
the freedmen are making favorable
progress in various directions. AS L
passed out X street not long since
Asbury coored M. e. Church was
pointed out to me. 1t was built about
1910 for the use OF such coiored people
as could find liberty to attend worship,
but 1t was then a primitive affair as to
architecture. When, in the years of
the war, the flood gates of liberty
were cut away and the whole
land was inundated with that
precious elsment, old Asbury was
much too email TO accommodate the
hundreds who came hither to return
thanks. So In '66 the old church un-
derwent repairs and was made large,
square building with suitable windo VS.
and doors. The "old Asbury and the
new very fifty represent the relative
conditions Of colored slaves before the
war and the colored citizens since the
war A bout thirty thousand blacks
live In this city. They come here,
drawn by q devotion to the idea of
freedom. Here they see the goddess
of liberty Standing on the capltoPs
dome. They see, In Lincoln park, the
statue of the immortal president as he
is represented standing over a slave,
breaking away the chains that bind |
him. They see the heroes of various |
wars, in bronze, and they see symbols
OF military power on every hand. |
They have their schools and churches,
aud hundreds of school children are |
seen on the streets going and coming,
attending school as freely as do the
whites. And their schools ara efficient.
The Howard University Is fine
school for this class. It's medical de-
partment is not surpassed In the city,
and strange to say, iaterly white stu
dents, gentlemen and ladies, yes, gen.
tlemen and ladies, attend here. This
10 the first school In this end OF the
world to admit female students to
study medicine. The law department
of Howard. University. Ia very foe.
But must tell you about
the colored Roman Catholic church on
10th street, to"wit: "St. Augustine's.
IL 10 one of the handsomest edIfices in
the city, one Of the most elegant inter-
nslly' Win Its paintings, Its gilded
aItAr, gorgeous stained glass, arches,
graceful columns and general lair OF