1898.] ^ ESSAYS. 135 



you trade?" One thousand horses can be seen in Court week 

 all wearing saddles on their backs. It is much safer on horse- 

 back than in a wagon, as the roads are bad. 



Salisbury, North Carolina is a city of four thousand inhabitants. 

 They have nine churches, four for the colored people and five for 

 the white people. The colored people have a Normal school and 

 a graded school, and draw as much money per scholar as the 

 white children do. I think the colored children are fully equal 

 to the white children in learning and far ahead in behavior. 

 When I was in the graded white school, I noticed a bunch of 

 sticks, and very soon one of the teachers from another room came 

 in to borrow some sticks ; he said he had used up what he had. 

 When I was in the colored school no sticks were needed, and I 

 was surprised to see how quick the scholars would put an exam- 

 ple on the blackboard and explain it. Their recitations both in 

 the day and Sunday schools were very prompt. The little ones 

 not more than four or five years old had a short verse of scripture, 

 which they would recite as quick as their turn came. I attended 

 the Methodist Church most of the time I was there. The Sab- 

 bath-school was in a very prosperous condition, and the class 

 that got the largest collection was a banner class. The class that 

 had the most perfect lessons was a banner class also. The organ- 

 ist was a young lady from Amherst, Mass. The people are very 

 sociable, hospitable and entertaining. An invitation to tea is "I 

 want you to come to break bread with us." 



The city is nicely laid out in square blocks. The well-to-do 

 people take a whole block for a house lot. They have fine large 

 shade trees and their surroundings are very pleasant. The streets 

 and roads are not repaired and are in bad condition and there is 

 no pleasure driving. The soil is red and in the winter is very 

 muddy and sticky. Where the principal street crosses Main 

 street there is in the centre a well with a large wooden log pump. 

 This is public property and here is where people gather when 

 they come to town, every Saturday afternoon. One man came 

 riding an ox. When asked what he did with him he said he made 

 ten barrels of corn with him. 



The native whites and blacks of North Carolina are to be pitied, 



