WINTER SUNSHINE. 21 



How far he has caught or is capable of being im- 

 bued with the Yankee spirit of enterprise and in- 

 dustry, remains to be seen. In some things he has 

 already shown himself an apt scholar. I notice, for 

 instance, he is about as industrious an office-seeker as 

 the most patriotic among us, and that he learns with 

 amazing ease and rapidity all the arts and wiles of 

 the politicians. He is versed in parades, mass meet- 

 ings, caucuses, and will soon shine on the stump. I 

 observe, also, that he is not far behind us in the ob- 

 servance of the fashions, and that he is as good a 

 church-goer, theatre-goer, and pleasure-seeker gen- 

 erally, as his means will allow. 



As a boot-black or news-boy he is an adept in all 

 the tricks of the trade, and as a fast young man about 

 town among his kind, he is worthy his white pro- 

 totype ; the swagger, the impertinent look, the coarse 

 remark, the loud laugh, are all in the best style. 

 As a lounger and starer also, on the street corners of 

 a Sunday afternoon, he has taken his degree. 



On the other hand, I know cases among our col- 

 ored brethren, plenty of them, of conscientious and 

 well-directed effort and industry in the worthiest 

 fields, in agriculture, in trade, in the mechanic arts, 

 that show the colored man has in him all the best 

 rudiments of a citizen of the States. 



Lest my winter sunshine appear to have too many 

 dark rays in it, buzzards, crows, and colored men, I 

 hasten to add the brown and neutral tints, and may 

 be a red ray can be extracted from some of these 



