“HAMPTON TRACTS.”
Among the excellent devices which have proceeded from the fertile brains and earnest hearts of our fellow-workers for the freedmen, none has for a long time commended itself to our hearty approbation more than the one indicated in the above heading. It appears that an English Sanitary Association has for twenty years been engaged in publishing and distributing simple sanitary tracts and leaflets, intended for use in schools and families. Following this excellent example, an editing committee, consisting of General Armstrong, his sister-in-law, Mrs. M. F. Armstrong, Miss Ludlow and Dr. Stephen Smith, of New York, propose, and have already begun, the same good work. They say—
“These publications will provide as simply and in as attractive a manner as possible, carefully prepared information upon all points directly connected with physical life, as, cleanliness of the person and house, ventilation, drainage, care of children and invalids preparation of food, etc., and, as in the case of their English forerunners, they are to be sold for a sum just sufficient to defray the cost of publication and to permit a certain amount of gratuitous distribution. They will be issued in a series, printed at the office of the Normal School Press, Hampton, Va., and will be known as ‘Hampton Tracts.’”
The need and use of such information among the homes and families of the Southern negroes is most apparent, though by no means confined to them. It is in their midst, doubtless, that they will first be distributed.
The American Social Science Association, convened in Cleveland this year, having examined the first three numbers of the proposed series of tracts in manuscript, by a unanimous vote passed the following Resolution—
“Resolved, That the American Social Science Association learns with pleasure of the work undertaken at Hampton, in Virginia, to spread among the people of Virginia, and of the South in general, a knowledge of Sanitary Science popularly set forth; and that from an examination of the three Sanitary Tracts of the proposed series, viz.: The Health Laws of Moses, The Duty of Teachers, and Preventable Diseases, the Executive Committee of this Association is persuaded that the important task, thus undertaken, will be well performed. We would, therefore, commend these Tracts to all readers, at the North as well as at the South, and would recommend their wide distribution in the way best suited to promote the circulation of them.”
Again, we desire to express our cordial commendation of the plan, and doubt not it will be carried out in all its details with wisdom and energy.