bush, I find a field of work where kindness and hospitality have
thrown their sunshine around my way. And Oh what a field of work
is here! How much one needs the Spirit of our dear Master to
make one's life a living, loving force to help men to higher
planes of thought and action. I am giving all my lectures with
free admission; but still I get along, and the way has been
opening for me almost ever since I have been South. Oh, if some
more of our young women would only consecrate their lives to the
work of upbuilding the race! Oh, if I could only see our young
men and women aiming to build up a future for themselves which
would grandly contrast with the past--with its pain, ignorance
and low social condition."

It may be well to add that Mrs. Harper's letters from which we have
copied were simply private, never intended for publication; and while
they bear obvious marks of truthfulness, discrimination and
impartiality, it becomes us to say that a more strictly conscientious
woman we have never known.

Returning to Philadelphia after many months of hard labor in the South,
Mrs. Harper, instead of seeking needed rest and recreation, scarcely
allows a day to pass without seeking to aid in the reformation of the
outcast and degraded. The earnest advice which she gives on the subject
of temperance and moral reforms generally causes some to reflect, even
among adults, and induces a number of poor children to attend day and
Sabbath-schools. The condition of this class, she feels, appeals loudly
for a remedy to respectable and intelligent colored citizens; and whilst
not discouraged, she is often quite saddened at the supineness of the
better class. During the past summer when it was too warm to labor in
the South she spent several months in this field without a farthing's
reward. She assisted in organizing a Sabbath-school, and accepted the
office of Assistant Superintendent under the auspices of the Young Men's
Christian Association.

Mrs. Harper reads the best magazines and ablest weeklies, as well as
more elaborate works, not excepting such authors as De Tocqueville,
Mill, Ruskin, Buckle, Guizot, &c. In espousing the cause of the
oppressed as a poet and lecturer, had she neglected to fortify her mind
in the manner she did, she would have been weighed and found wanting
long since. Before friends and foes, the learned and the unlearned,
North and South, Mrs. Harper has pleaded