teachers, but Mrs. Talbert was a
born teacher. The late Professor John M. Ellis, in writing
of her, said: "She is a lady of Christian character and
pleasing address. As a student she has an excellent record
and standing in her class, showing good abilities and
industry and fidelity in her work. She has the qualities
natural and acquired to make a superior teacher."

In January, 1887, she was elected Assistant Principal of the
Little Rock High School, the highest position held by any
woman in the State of Arkansas, and the only colored woman
who has ever held the position. Mrs. Talbert resigned her
place after her marriage to Mr. William H. Talbert, one of
Buffalo's leading colored young men, and was urged after
marriage to reconsider her resignation and take up her work
again.

Leading educators and literary men, such as Charles Dudley
Warner, Samuel A. Greene of Boston, L. S. Holden of St.
Louis, and others who visited her classes, and, having seen
them at work, registered their names with written comments.

Professor Albert A. Wright of Oberlin writes as follows:
"Mary Burnett received her education in the public schools
and college of this place, where her parents have resided
for many years. She has won the respect and approval of her
teachers by her successful accomplishments of the tasks set
before her." Mrs. Talbert received the degree granted to
students of the Literary Course in 1894, and is a member of
the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, being the only
colored woman in the city of Buffalo eligible.

As the hand upon the dial of the nineteenth, century clock pointed to
its last figure, it showed that the American Negro had ceased to be a
thing, a commodity that could be bought and sold, a mere animal; but
was indeed a human being possessing all the qualities of mind and
heart that belong to the rest of mankind, capable of receiving
education and imparting it to his fellow man, able to think, act,
feel, and develop those intellectual and moral qualities, such as
characterize mankind generally.

Let us glance at the intellectual Negro and see if he has made any
progress commensurate with his opportunities during the nineteenth
century.

Intuitively we turn to that great historian of our race--who for seven
years worked with such care and zeal to write a thoroughly tru