er people into a
club, or conference, that held meetings every week. In these meetings
he taught the people, in a plain, simple manner, how to save their
money, how to farm in a better way, how to sacrifice,--to live on
bread and potatoes, if necessary, till they could get out of debt, and
begin the buying of lands.

Soon a large proportion of the people were in a condition to make
contracts for the buying of homes (land is very cheap in the South)
and to live without mortgaging their crops. Not only this; under the
guidance and leadership of this teacher, the first year that he was
among them they learned how and built, by contributions in money and
labour, a neat, comfortable school-house that replaced the wreck of a
log cabin formerly used. The following year the weekly meetings were
continued, and two months were added to the original three months of
school. The next year two more months were added. The improvement has
gone on until these people have every year an eight months' school.

I wish my readers could have the chance that I have had of going into
this community. I wish they could look into the faces of the people,
and see them beaming with hope and delight. I wish they could see the
two or three room cottages that have taken the place of the usual
one-room cabin, see the well-cultivated farms and the religious life
of the people that now means something more than the name. The teacher
has a good cottage and well-kept farm that serve as models. In a word,
a complete revolution has been wrought in the industrial, educational,
and religious life of this whole community by reason of the fact that
they have had this leader, this guide and object-lesson, to show them
how to take the money and effort that had hitherto been scattered to
the wind in mortgages and high rents, in whiskey and gewgaws, and how
to concentrate it in the direction of their own uplifting. One
community on its feet presents an object-lesson for the adjoining
communities, and soon improvements show themselves in other places.

Another student, who received academic and industrial training at
Tuskegee, established himself, three years ago, as a blacksmith and
wheelwright in a community; and, in addition to the influence of his
successful business enterprise, he is fast making the same kind of
changes in the life of the people about him that I have just
recounted. It would be easy for me to fill many pages describing the
influence of the Tus