I sat opposite a boat’s crew, and they began to laugh; as they would use the knife, then the spoon (large), after that the fork, such laughing after the use of each of these pieces of cutlery I have never witnessed before. I began to inquire of the waiter, an interpreter, what they were so much amused at, and he informed me that they were laughing at their use of the knives, forks and spoons. The spoons did not hold enough, they said; the food rolled off the knife in their unsteady hands, and the fork was like putting water in a fish-net instead of a calabash. Every day since that, when they eat dinner, they laugh about those pieces of cutlery.
During Christmas-Day, services were had in the chapel; they were begun at 5 o’clock, and continued until daylight. At 10 o’clock, there was preaching to the prisoners through an interpreter. On Thursday, at the banquet, we had singing and addresses to the day and Sabbath-schools, for they both were invited. The girls were marched from the chapel two by two, as were also the boys. This was another new feature, and they were well pleased with it.
I have had an extensive medical practice here and at Avery, and have so much to do in this way, that I am compelled to ask you to give me written instructions whom to attend, and how to proceed.
COMMUNICATIONS.
EDUCATION OF THE COLORED PEOPLE.
REV. J. E. RANKIN. D. D.
The following paragraphs are from the paper read by Dr. Rankin at the anniversary at Syracuse. It was intended that it should be printed with the proceedings, but, by accident, it was not left in the hands of the committee. We hope to publish it in full in a series of documents which we have in preparation.
After valuable historical statements, and a vivid picture of the needs, and of the progress already made, among other good things, the Doctor says:
The southern portions of this country cannot always remain blind to the truth that their material prosperity depends upon the employment of educated labor. Sociologists claim that an educated laborer will produce twenty-five per cent. more than an uneducated one. If a colored man is worth $100 a year without an education, he is worth twenty-five per cent. more with one. The thrift of New England has been largely dependent upon the common-school houses there. Give a man education enough to transact ordinary business, to enable him to keep his accounts in writing, to improve his mind daily by reading, to understand the institutions of his country, to have an insight into the laws which shall govern him in relation to his neighbors and his God, to know his rights and his duties, and he is twenty-five per cent. better as a producer than he was before. The necessity of keeping the colored man ignorant, of keeping out discussions relating to human rights, involved the other necessity of keeping a population unintelligent, unthinking and, so far forth, unproductive, as appeared in the very implements employed for tilling the soil.