St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1894-08-02
OUR CoLoRED FELLOW CITIZENS.

OUR COLORED FELLOW CITIZENS.
What are the prospects and prom
Use of the Christian work among the
colored people of the South, in view
of that has been done for them?
More than fifty millions of dollars
has been expended since the war for
their improvement, in all wise and
helpful ways, especially in mechani-
cal and business directions, in liter
airy, normal and theological train
ing.
The above question is tentatively
answered, it would seem, in a very
satisfactory way, in a lecture by
Rev. DR.. S. Graves, a St. Johnsbury
boy, who has spent many years in this
work in the South; from which we
take the following extract -
We must be patient, and remem-
Der that with the Lord a thousand
years is as one day. Nations are
of slow growth. 1t took FIVE hun
dred years after the bondage in
Egypt to rear a Jew of Solomou's time
and as long to rear Greek Of Per
icles' time; seven hundred years to
make a Roman of the Augustlnian
age; and a thousand years to build
an Englishman, an Anglo American
of to-day. And what may five hun
dred years-nay, half that time,
when the world moves so much fas-
ter than of old, do for the cOlOred man,
If he but have a chance, and we but d D
our duty by him, and whose day seems
to be dawn1ng, or perhaps returning,
after cycle of four thousand years,
when Egypt taught Greece her let
tiers and was the leader of the
worlds thought?
Who knows that there may not
be, by the close Of the twentieth
century, civilization on the banks
OF the Congo, which shall command
the respect of the world and embodv
the best elements of that upon the
James or Potomac?
And now further, as to this, let me
quote a passage from a recent num-
Der of the North American Review.
A Southern man, writing on the |
Negro Question" had made use of |
these words, which the reviewer |
takes for his text. The negro has
made no progress since emancipa-
ton; not because he was a slave; but
because he has not the faculty to
rise above slavery. Twenty-seven
years have gone since the war, and
the negro is still the barber, the shoe
black, the hotel waiter, with here and
there lawyer or a DOCTOR"
In reply to this the reviewer SAYS:
years ago, forbidden
by law to read; without a school in
all the South. To-day $3.50
schools. Then not a child in school,
now 100000 have learned to read
and most of them to write; while
according to the census of 1890,
there were in colored schools 23S,-
229 pupils. Twenty-seven years
ago, negro school teacher would
have been a curiosity; to-day, by the
grace of God and their own grit,
there are 10000. Then it was
thought that the colored man was
incapable of higher educa ton; to-
lay they have 80 schools Of adj
vanced education. Among these
there are seven colleges presided over
oy colored men, three of whom were
once slaves. Twenty-seven years
ago and what was the colored min
stry? Now there are 1000 college
bred negro pastors in the land.
Twenty-seven years ago there were
.wo newspapers edited by colored
men. To-day, 154. Then there
were two negro attorneys, now,
l6O. Then, three doctors, now,749;
and, mark you, PAT colored students
n the Universities of Europe!
Look now at the question of prop
erty. Twenty-seven years ago the
entire taxable property of the negro
was 1900. To-day it is 1864, OOO,-
300!
And a change like this has taken
place in twenty seven years. What,
n this view, is the prospect and what
he promise of the colored man, if
We do our duty by him, as our weak
r brother ~