r small prizes for the
cleanest and best-kept house, the best pea-patch, and the best ear
of corn, etc.

6. To aid each other in sickness and in death; for this purpose a
fee of ten cents will be collected from each member every month and
held sacred, to be used for no other purpose whatever.

7. It shall be one of the great objects of this society to
stimulate its members to acquire homes, and urge those who already
possess homes to improve and beautify them.

8. To urge our members to purchase only the things that are
absolutely necessary.

9. To exert our every effort to obliterate those evils which tend
to destroy our character and our homes, such as intemperance,
gambling, and social impurity.

10. To refrain from spending money and time foolishly or in
unprofitable ways; to take an interest in the care of our highways,
in the paying of our taxes, and the education of our children; to
plant shade trees, repair our yard fences, and in general, as far
as possible, bring our home life up to the highest standards of
civilization.

This society has several standing committees, as follows: on government,
on education, on business, on housekeeping, on labor, and on farming.
The chairman of these respective committees holds monthly meetings in
the various communities, at which time various topics pertaining to the
welfare and uplift of the people are discussed. As a result of these
meetings the people return to their homes with new inspiration. These
meetings are doing good in the communities where they are being held,
and our sincere hope is that such meetings may be extended. The ills
that most retard the Negroes of the rural South are sought to be reached
by the school and by the several organizations which have been organized
by it. These articles of the simple constitution go to the very bottom
of the conditions.

If one would again take the trip which I made in the summer of 1893, he
would find that two-thirds of the land lying between Snow Hill and
Carlowville, a distance of seven miles, is now owned and controlled
entirely by Negroes. In Carlowville, instead of the old one-room-cabin
church, there is a beautiful church with glass windows. An acre of land
has been bought, and a neat and comfortable schoolhouse with glass
windows has been erected, and a graduate of my school is the teacher.
Many families in that section are now own