marked feature, and which on yesterday, the occasion being an
official visit the Governor was pleased to pay me, I took pains
to extol; as you know industrial training is my pet. The
General wisely remarking, "we wish first to place the present
generation in a position to earn more money, so they will be
able to give their offspring a higher education if they wish."
The English, Norwegians from America, the Friends and other
missions, are doing something for their educational and moral
progress, but the appliances are meager compared with the
herculean task that awaits them.

There is, however, this difference in the problem here. There
are colored men occupying places of prominence as officials, as
tellers in banks, clerks in counting-houses and merchant
stores. Here it is condition, and not color, wealth and
position, the "open sesame." On social occasions the brother in
black is in evidence, without special notice of the fact, and,
strangest of it all, on the following day the sun and other
heavenly bodies seem to stand or revolve in their accustomed
orbits. My health has been good, although the bubonic pest,
periodical in its visitations, has been alarming in the
suddenness of its destruction of life. In the spring it is
again expected to alight without "healing in its wings." But I
will not longer dwell on Madagascan peculiarities, many of
which, as elsewhere, are not chastening. What I am interested
in, and want to know about is, how you are getting on with the
"old grudge?" If I judge correctly from the journals that reach
me, that during my near three years' absence, its status,
unlike renowned grape-juice, has neither dissipated or improved
by lapse of time, and that lynching and disfranchisement still
have the right of way.

The expansion of our sovereignty is fraught with complications,
and onerous duties from the statesman, the zeal of the
humanitarian, and of reformers and friends of equitable
government, unflinching determination are required, that
kindness and justice shall be ceded to the people thereof. But
is the prospect for the dissemination or ascendancy of these
virtues either bright or promising? If the exercise and
enjoyments of these attributes are not granted to millions of
the American household,