on. Because an inflamed sentiment drove black miners from
Pana, Illinois, every community is not repellent. Because a man rose
in the Christian Endeavor meetings in Detroit and tried to cast bad
reflections on our race, every Christian Endeavorer is not our enemy.
We shall be wise when we find our friends of whatever locality, of
whatever faith, of whatever rank, or of whatever race, and pour into
their open bosoms the full measure of our confidence. So shall we
hasten the day of our final disenthrallment There is one thing the
Negro must be proud of before he can reach the height and
possibilities that await him, he must learn to be proud of his race
and color. No race can be successful until it does these things. I
would not change my color, because I am proud of it. If there is any
one thing that will clog the wheels of our material progress, it is
the fact that some of us try to overreach ourselves. We should not
become dazzled at the splendor and magnificence of those who have had
hundreds of years to make this country what it is to-day. No man is a
success who has not a fixed sign post, an aim in life to attain unto.
A man should get that amount of education that will best fit him for
the performance and attainment of his object in life. Too much Greek
will do you no good with a white apron on. I do not say that you
should not study Greek if you intend to fill a chair in some
institution of learning. I do not say that you should not read
medicine if you intend to become a physician, or law if you desire to
follow the profession. If we watch our chances, and take timely
advantage of the opportunities offered us, our race will greatly
improve and we will be wage workers, skilled artisans, and eventually
land owners and a wealthy class of citizens of this country. I advise
you to learn trades; learn to become mechanics. We have the ability
and capacity to reach the highest point, and even to go further in the
march of progress than has been made by any people.

TOPIC XXXVII.

IMPORTANT LESSONS FROM THE AWFUL TRAGEDY.

BY E. E. COOPER.

[Illustration: E. E. Cooper.]

EDWARD E. COOPER.

For twenty-five years following Emancipation and the new
opportunities which that great event brought, many of the
brightest minds the colored race has produced had been
endeavoring to solve the perplexing and important problem of
how to make a newspaper, published in the i