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[392]

He said in substance about this educating the freedmen:

General Howard, do you not know that you are educating the colored youth above their business t You will only destroy them. Those young girls, for example; they will be too proud or vain to work, and the consequence will be that they will go to dance houses and other places of improper resort.

“ Why, my friend,” I replied, “do you really think that I am astonished That is not the way education affects the Yankee girls. Come with me to the Wayland school, across the street.”

We went together to the large school building and entered the commodious room where the school was just commencing its morning exercises. After extending a pleasant welcome, the teacher gave us seats well back, where we could see the blackboards, which were near her desk, and the open school organ at her left, ready for use. She first sent up two nice-looking girls, of about fifteen years, to the instrument. One played, and the other, like a precentor, led the school in singing. There was evident culture in the singing and playing, and none of the melody was wanting. My friend's eyes moistened; but he whispered: “They always could sing”

Next, we had a class of reading. It was grateful to cultured ears to have sentences well read and words correctly pronounced. Spelling and defining followed, with very few mistakes. The recitations at the blackboard in arithmetic that next came on were remarkable. To test the pupils beyond their text, I went forward and placed some hard problems there. With readiness and intelligence they were solved. The politeness and bearing of these young people to one another, to the

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