one. But there's good many good
schools now, and good many smart colored people by this time, sir.
There's a good many risin' all the time. Old Fred. Douglass is a right
smart man, you know; but then he sort o' left his race when he married a
white woman. We don't think so much of him as a leader as we used to."

The car rolled on. It was two hours late at my station. The bus man who
stood in the stage door and collected the fares was conversational. He
was unaware that by my ride and conversation in the car, I had forfeited
my "social equality" with him. Hence he did not ostracise me; but
smiling, said, "Train very late to-day, sir." "Isn't it usually as late
as this?" I asked. "Invariably, sir, except when it's later."

* * * * *

PARAGRAPHS.

Dr. Rankin, the newly-elected President of Howard University, writes:

"Everything at the University begins very promisingly. We had a crowded
preaching service on Sunday night, and are observing the week of prayer
at 12:30 noon. The meetings are full and impressive."

"If a donor should give a great material gift to the University, I am
sure I ought to write you. But the great Giver is giving us the choicest
of spiritual gifts. Eight of the students, one of them a senior, this
noon expressed a desire for prayers. We continue the daily meeting at
noon."

* * * * *

The immigration into the United States is steadily declining, as appears
by the figures reported in the papers, while the blending of the
foreigners here is steadily and rapidly going forward, rendering them
speedily one people. On the other hand, the colored population in the
Southern States is steadily augmenting, while the alienation between the
black and white races in the South is becoming more pronounced. The
Southern problem is the more difficult of solution.

* * * * *

A clergyman in a Southern town who is connected with families of great
influence, and who ministers to a large white church, is accustomed to
preach every afternoon in a colored church under the care of this
Association. He usually repeats to the colored church the sermon
preached in the forenoon to his own people, and finds that those who
hear it in the afternoon appreciate it fully. The two remarkable facts
in this incident are that the gentleman should consent to do this
gratuitous labor for the colored church, and that the colored churc