liberty, Wm. Lloyd Garrison. At its close Mr.
Douglass invited me to accompany him to his home at Rochester, and then
to join him in lecturing in the "Western Reserve."

Without salary, poor in purse, doubtful of useful ability, dependent for
sustenance on a sentiment then prevailing, that for anti-slavery
expression was as reserved as the "Reserve" was Western. I have often
thought of my feelings of doubt and fear to go with Mr. Douglass, as an
epoch in my life's history. The parting of the ways, the embarkation to
a wider field of action, the close connection between obedience to an
impulse of duty (however uninviting or uncertain the outcome), and the
ever moral and often material benefit.

[Illustration: HON. FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

"Sage of Anacostia."

The Most Distinguished Negro of the Race--As Statesman, Editor, Orator,
Philanthropist He Left an Indelible Mark on the Page of His Country's
History--Born in 1817 at Tuckahoe, Maryland--Died February, 1895--He was
Author of "My Bondage and My Freedom," "Life and Times of Frederick
Douglass," and Others.]

Rochester proved to be my pathway to California. Western New York, 50
years ago, then known as the "Western Reserve," was very unlike the
present as to population, means of travel, material developments,
schools of learning, and humanizing influences. Mr. Douglass, in the
Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark., a short time before his death, told
how, in 1849, we there traveled together; that where now are stately
cities and villages a sparsely settled wilderness existed; that while we
there proclaimed abolition as the right of the slave, the chilling
effect of those December days were not more cold and heartless than the
reception we met when our mission as advocates for the slave became
known; churches and halls were closed against us. Stables and blacksmith
shops would sometimes hold audiences more generous with epithets and
elderly eggs than with manly decorum. God be thanked, Douglass, the
grandest of "our grand old men," lived to see "the seeds of mighty truth
have their silent undergrowth, and in the earth be wrought." A family,
however poor, striving as best they may to give the rudiments of
knowledge to their children, should have, if but few, books descriptive
of the hopes and struggles of those no better situated, who have made
impress on the age in which they lived. We seldom remember from whence
we first received the idea which gave impulse to an honor