That parliamentary gymnastics were not entirely ignored is evident from the following quotation: “It was moved that the roll be called, for the purpose of members paying their dues. Thereupon quite a discussion arose, when the previous question was called for; the previous question was seconded, but the main question was lost.”
The report says of the address of the President: “He very graphically described the field in which we are to do the work that is to be done, and how it is to be done. He said that he felt sure that ‘the Great Disburser of Human Events’ held something good in store for the Negro. Teachers, you are the salt of the race; lose not your savor, but keep pushing on in this grand cause of education, and the heights may yet be reached in our day.”
The Committee on the Educational Condition of South-western Georgia gives the reins to its tropical imagination for a moment, when it says: “We are exceedingly sorry to find our people in some places sleeping on Poverty’s bedstead, covered with the blanket of Ignorance.”
Their statement that, in the eight counties reported, the public-school fund pays only from thirty-three and one-third to eighty cents a month per pupil, and that for three months only, would seem to indicate that the public-school system of Georgia is not very expensive or uniform in its operation. But it is to be hoped that this little plant, so cautiously set by the poverty-stricken farmer, may have a steady growth into a large and symmetrical tree.
We are glad to note the enterprise of our colored friends in sustaining and directing for themselves this Howard Normal School, and in holding these educational meetings, and we recognize in it one of the cheering results of our work.
NEGRO NOTES.
HOME.
—A colored gentleman of high standing and great influence—a life-long resident of Philadelphia—was invited by Mrs. Hayes to “be seated and talk on the political situation,” when the following conversation took place: “It is very quiet now at the South, we learn?” “Yes, madam; it is the quietness of death to the colored people. My son is in jail for the crime of aiding in carrying the State of South Carolina for the President.”
—Senator Blaine, in a speech at Hot Springs, Ark., put the Southern question aptly thus: “Perfect peace in the South will everywhere follow perfect justice. There is no man in the country who desires strife for the sake of strife, but there will always be strife so long as there is wrong.”