No. 4.] THE COLORED RACE. 265 



such a point that the people of the community where the 



race lives will feel that they cannot dispense with the pres- 

 ence and the service of that race ; and, my friends, when you 

 have taught any man, black or white, to do a thing better 

 than somebody else, you have solved the problem so far as 

 that individual is concerned, and the same is true of races. 



Now, with a people in a state that the masses of my peo- 

 ple are in, 1 sometimes have the feeling that mere book 

 education, without that training which will make them love 

 the labor of the hands, which will make them see in that 

 labor natural dignity, beauty, and I am almost tempted to 

 say Christianity, — without that I am afraid we shall be 

 in danger of producing smart men. From one of the men 

 working at Tuskcgee I heard of a young colored man in an 

 adjoining town who had the reputation of being extremely 

 smart, and I had a craving to come in contact with that in- 

 dividual. One day that occasion presented itself, and being 

 in that town I inquired about this man, and they pointed 

 him out to me and said : " There he is now, standing on the 

 street." I said : " What is he doing? " They said : "Noth- 

 ing just now." I said: "Perhaps he has a farm in the 

 country?" " Oh, no, he hasn't any farm in the country." 

 I said: "Perhaps he is a carpenter." "No, no; he isn't 

 a carpenter.'' Well, I said: "Perhaps he is an architect." 

 "Oh, no; he isn't an architect." Then I said : "Perhaps 

 he runs a steam laundry." " No, he doesn't run a steam 

 laundry." " Well," I said, " What does he do? " " Why, 

 nothing. He is just smart, only smart, just a smart man, 

 just smart." 



1 had a friend some years ago who lived in the State of 

 Kentucky, and this man and his wife had by a great deal of 

 expense and sacrifice sent their only boy through the public 

 schools of that State, and at more expense and sacrifice sent 

 him finally to college ; and in due time this young man re- 

 turned to his Kentucky home with his college diploma in 

 his hand. But the old father, who was a man with no book 

 education, but a great deal of horse sense, watched his boy 

 after he came home from college ; and he remembered that 

 before John went to college he used to work on the farm, 



