MRS. V. W. BROUGHTON, MEMPHIS, TENN.
Editor of Woman's Messenger and Chairman of Educational Committee Negro Department, Tennessee Centennial.
Reading is to the mind what eating is to the body. So to eat without giving nature time to assimilate is to rob her, first of health, then of life; so to read without reflecting is to cram the intellect and paralyze the mind. In all cases, dear friends, reflect more than you read, in order to present what you read to your hearers. (S. A. Wesson, Lincolnville, S. C.)
If you have never thought of race pride, think now. Not only think, but act well your part. Without the ennobling power of our women we can never be a great and noble race. If young men aspire to reach the highest pinnacles of fame, they rise but to fall lower, unless the women are pure and will demand respect. Learn to resent insults, young women. Learn to respect and defend the women of our race, young men. (Mary R. Phelps.)
Let us as Negroes educate, let us survive, let us live up to our opportunities of doing good to ourselves and to others. So shall we work out a glorious destiny upon earth and contribute our share of the good and great immortals out of every nation that shall take their places among "the spirits of just men made perfect who are without fault before the throne." (Rev. William D. Johnson, D.D., Athens, Ga.)
We have learned in the hard school of adversity that we are not the wards of any political body; that the improvement of our condition in life is not the solicitude of any particular section of our country, and that the days of our political bosses are over forever; that we are the architects of our own fortunes and the arbiters of our own destinies; that with the various walks of life thrown open to us we are to enter and win victories or defeats upon equal conditions with every other race or condition of people. (Hon. J. T. Settle.)