"'Never had a shoemaker.'
"'Have you any tailors?'
"'Never had a tailor.'
"'Any printers?'
"'Never had a printer.'
"'Any carpenters?'
"'Never had a carpenter. There is not a man in this prison that could saw to a straight line.'"
Now these facts seem to show that manual training is almost as good a preventative of criminality as vaccination is of smallpox.
The records of the South show that ninety per cent. of the colored people in prisons are without knowledge of trades, and sixty-one per cent. are illiterate.
There are few higher authorities on the progress of the Negro than Joel Chandler Harris, of the Atlanta Constitution, of "Uncle Remus" fame. Mr. Harris had opportunity to know the Negro before the war, and he has followed his progress closely in freedom. In a printed statement made some time ago Mr. Harris says: