hanged, just as quickly as possible. But there was nothing in this crime, let us clearly understand, characteristic of one race rather than another; there was nothing in it characteristic of the negro rather than of the white man. Surely, we have not forgotton that in Washington county, a few weeks ago, an innocent, gray-haired old man was murdered in his sleep by white men; and another man murdered with him, in his sleep, because it was rumored-simply rumored that he had threatened to kill some one of the brave citizens of the neighborhood of Erwin! And let me say this: Get up a party of your friends; go with them to the home of some white boy, and shoot him to death; give his relatives no redress at law; and then ask yourself if you would not deem it necessary to guard the members of your family from the vengeance of that murdered boy's relatives!

The negro, then, is not lynched because he is addicted to crimes that are characteristic of him as a negro; not lynched because the hands of white men are clean of deeds that bloody his.

Is the negro lynched in Mississippi because when he has committed a crime it is hard to convict him of it-hard to convict him in a Mississippi court, before a Mississippi Judge and a Mississippi jury, composed for the most part, if not altogether, of Mississippi white men? Hard in Mississippi to convict a negro accused of crime, and send him to the farm, the penitentiary, or the gallows! Why, to think the thought even humorously were to trench upon the borderland of absurdity!

Do we lynch negroes or sanction the lynching of them in Mississippi lest they should get the upper hand of us; lest they should negroize our politics and our Government; lest they should forge to the front ahead of us, and thrust us into the backward place now occupied by them? Do we lynch them in order to keep them down and backward? Do we lynch them because we fear them? If that is the reason, what becomes of our oft-repeated boast of race superiority, our oft-uttered conviction that the white man, by virtue of the natural, inherent superiority of his intellect and character, is destined to lead and rule, and the black man, by reason of the natural inferiority of his intellect and character, to follow and serve? The politician wanting votes in solid blocks may afford to play upon the emotions of the dull and thoughtless with the bugaboo of negro domination; but can the thinking white men of Mississippi in this day afford to confess to themselves even that they are afraid of negro

domination? Can they afford to acknowledge themselves such ridiculous cowards? Can they afford to admit that, dealt with justly, dealt with in simple obedience to the laws of the State, the negro will rise to the top of things political, and hold them writhing and wriggling in subjection at the bottom? I cannot bring myself to believe that the dominant white people of Mississippi entertain any such puerile fear!

One more question, and then I am done asking for a solution of this problem, if problem it be. Are negroes lynched in Mississippi, lest, if they were dealt with when criminal as citizens of the State, in accordance with the laws that white men make and enforce, they might, perceiving their equality with white people before the law, gradually, by slow degrees, push on to something like equality with white people in the ways and byways of society? Are they lynched in order to keep solid and sound the mortar between the stones that build the barrier wall against "social equality"? Nay, nay, nay! This will not do. Why, white men of the sort that gather in mobs to lynch "niggers" are doing more right here in this town, in the year 1901-are doing more, doubtless, in every other town of Mississippi, unmolested-to batter down this barrier wall against social equality than has ever been done by the negroes in all their history as American citizens! I need not be more explicit; you know what I mean; and if possibly you do not, I need only say, keep your eyes open as you walk your street, keep them open night or day and you will know!

THE NEGRO IS LYNCHED BECAUSE HE IS A NEGRO.

For none of the reasons suggested is the negro lynched in Mississippi. He is lynched for the very simple reason that in race he is an alien to the people who lynch him, and by reason of the law, as respected and administered, their underling, powerless to appeal to the law for protection. Replace the negro in Mississippi by any other race of aliens, make them also underlings, and as certain as the sun shines, they would be lynched just as the negro is. And this means that the same essential spirit is dominant in Mississippiin Mississippi of the twentieth century—this was dominant in Europe in the dark ages

that ruled in France more than five hundred years ago, when pious Louis cancelled a third of the claims held by Jews against Frenchmen for the benefit of his soul; that ruled at Verdun, where the Jews, mad with agony, huddled together in a tower of refuge,

hurled down their children to the howling mob, hoping thus, vainly, to satiate their greed for Jewish blood!-essentially the same spirit that, five hundred years ago, lighted a fire for every Jew in whole French provinces, and dug that trench at Chinon, and raised that pile where nearly two hundred Jewish men and women were burned togetherburned because, fundamentally, they were not Frenchmen by religion, not Frenchmen by race!

Alas! alas! that we should do such boasting of our civilization putting to shame the centuries gone; such boasting of our progress, our freedom, our democratic ideals, our enlightened laws; such boasting, while we hark back to the dark age to copy its standards and methods; such boasting, and we are not yet enlightened enough to abstain from tramping under bloody feet the law we boast of; not yet masters sufficiently of the passions that fasten the fangs of one brute in the throat of another not his kind; that we are able to treat with simple justice, to deal with, even according to the forms of law, the members of an alien and weaker race dwelling among us by our own will, surely, as much as their own!

LYNCHING CAN BE STOPPED.

Can the lynching of negroes be stopped in Mississippi? Can it be stopped? It can be, just as soon as the people of Mississippi elect a legislature decent enough to want to stop it. We have elected a decent Governor, and all honor crown his head for the stand he has taken in this matter of negro-lynching, in the face of his blatant and venomous detractors! We have elected a decent Governor; now let the people of Mississippi elect a decent legislature and the lynching demon will be bound within its hell-den.

Elect a legislature with manhood enough, with moral backbone enough, to pass a law simply imposing a big money fine upon any county in which a lynching occurs; and lynchings, I doubt not, would be of rare occurrence even in our counties that civilization has most slighted. Probe the pocket of the lyncher and you speedily get at his conscience!

Elect a legislature with decency enough to want to stop lynching, manifested in the passing of a law vacating the sheriff's office and making the sheriff forever incligible to any office of any kind who surrendered a prisoner to a mob, or did not do all that could reasonably be expected of him, to prevent anybody charged with a crime from falling into the hands of a mob. That would discourage lynching for obvious reasons that I need not mention. In case neither of these

laws should discourage it sufficiently, let the leglislature give the Governor explicit power to send troops into any county where in his judgment the sheriff is clearly not doing his duty; is "standing in with "a mob; has not taken those precautions which the law allows him to protect a prisoner from would-be lynchers, or persons not prisoners from a mob's frenzy; to send troops into the county to handle the mob and run them down and drag them to prison, just as federal troops in the West have often run down and dragged to prison murderous Indians and white desperadoes.

I have always been, and am now, a StatesRights Democrat; but I say, with no sort of hesitation, that if Mississippi cannot put a stop to the lynching of negroes within her borders-negroes, let us remember, who are citizens of the United States as well as of Mississippi-then the federal government ought to take a hand in this business; for the constitution of the United States, along with the constitution and laws of Mississippi, is shoved aside and trampled down every time a lynching occurs in this State. If Mississippi cannot prevent its citizens, who are also citizens of the United States, from being deprived of life by mobs without any process of law, due or otherwise, then Mississippi has no right to the prerogatives of statehood. Let the United States Constitution be amended, if necessary, that Mississippi, unfit to be a sovereign commonwealth, may lapse back into the status of a territory!

While we are waiting for a Legislature to be elected decent enough to pass some law in restraint of lynching, there is one very practical thing that the respectable people of this county and every other county in the State can do to keep this blot upon our civi-lization from getting any bigger or blacker than it is. Law and order leagues should be formed in every county of men willing, if need be, to give up their lives in defence of the fair name of their State, sworn to stand together and see to it, as far as lies within their power that in their several counties there shall be no hangings of their fellow men, black or white, or yellow or brown, who have not been duly indicted, duly tried before judge and jury, with counsel to defend them, duly convicted and sentenced to death. I have no doubt that such a league could be formed here. I have no doubt that there is honest, brave, enlightened, respectable manhood enough here to form it of such quality that the cowardly mob demon would not show its head in Washington county.

Do we need such a league in Washington county-Washington, which breathes so much juster and finer air than blows about the Mississippi hills? I think we do need it in Washington county. Why, is it not said among us to-day, that if it were safe to use their testimony, negroes could tell something very important about that murder near Erwin? And why can't we let them tell what they know? Why isn't it safe to use their testimony? Because they would probably be murdered; because if they spoke we could not guarantee them protection from the friends of those midnight murderers of sleeping men-those murderers still basking in the sunlight of freedom, and thinking, doubtless, what fine fellows they are.

We do need such a law and order league in Washington county to protect these black people in their right to live; to see to it that, having lost the ballot, they shall not lose their lives except by command of the sovereign law of the State of Mississippi. If such a league is formed here I want to be a member of it. I don't want to be passed by because I stand in this pulpit on Sunday. I have stood here to-day and criticised the State of Mississippi. I am ready to-morrow or to-day to risk my life facing any mob to keep the blot upon the escutcheon of her statehood from getting any bigger or blacker.-The Sun, August 25, 1901.

Send Those Minutes Right Along.

What minutes? Those of Baptist State conventions and associations for this year, particularly, and of all other Baptist meetings generally, women's and young people's societies, Sunday school conventions, etc., etc. Who shall send them? The secretaries and clerks especially, and others generally. Where shall they be sent? To the American Baptist Historical Society, where they will be preserved after others of their kind have disappeared elsewhere, and be of great value to the denomination. Yes, send them right along as soon as you have read this, no matter if some one else may send the same. Duplicates do not disturb us. We have a place for them and some time they will be valuable. Now, all of you, secretaries and clerks, especially, please send those minutes right along. And, if you please, a postal card in each case, stating what you have sent.

Please address

BAPTIST HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 1420 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa.

Educational Department.

Virginia Unlon University.

GEORGE RICE HOVEY, VICE-PRESIDENT.

The session at Virginia Union University opens with promise of a larger attendance and a better spirit than in either of the two former years. At this writing, two weeks after opening, one hundred and seventy students are enrolled, which indicates a total of above two hundred for the year. These represent the island of Jamaica and almost every state from Texas through the South and up the Atlantic Coast to Massachusetts.

The theological department contains about thirty-five. This is a smaller school than it ought to be, but it should be noted that the small number is due, in part, to the large number of students who, under former conditions, would have entered directly upon theological work; but who, with the opportunities for academic study now offered, are glad to enter upon this preparatory work, which will give them a much better foundation for theological studies and for usefulness, whether in ministerial or kindred work. There are thirty such students in the academic department this year.

In a week or two the industrial department will be in operation. Instruction and practice in the use of tools and machinery employed in wood-work and in iron-work will be given. Mechanical drawing also will be taught. Some evening classes will be opened for young men in the city who are ambitious to improve their condition. Even when manual labor is not the means of earning a livelihood, industrial training is in these days generally recognized as providing a most valuable education of hand and mind and character. This department of instruction will hold a subordinate place, on a level with any other single subject. All students will be required to pursue courses in it, chiefly as a means toward the intelligent, christian manhood which the school aims to develop in those who are to become the leaders of the

race.

During the summer money was secured for a thorough equipment for the department of science, and this year much better work is done in chemistry, physics, botany and other sciences than was ever possible before. President MacVicar has been especially interested in the industrial and the science departments, and their fine condition is due chiefly to his untiring efforts in their behalf, and to the

generous gifts of a few friends of the work, of whom H. K. Porter, Esq., of Pennsylvania, and Byron E. Huntley, Esq., of New York, deserve special mention.

Everything points to a prosperous session. Three new teachers have been added to the faculty, greatly strengthening the departments of science, music and industrial training. If the school had another dormitory, there seems to be no reason why its usefulness could not be doubled in the course of two or three years. This would also prove very helpful in meeting the expenses of a plant which, in many respects, is on a scale adapted to twice as many students as we can now provide with rooms. A dormitory to accommodate one hundred and fifty students is the great need of the school. Even with our comparatively small numbers the expense per student for carrying on the school is, to the Society, only about one-third what the cost is in northern schools, or in the great colored industrial schools of the South. The denomination may feel assured that it is receiving large returns for the money expended.

Shaw University.

The enrollment to date is 310, with about 250 in the boarding department. It is the general opinion of the teachers that the students are better prepared for their work than last year. We are fully under way in all departments and everything is moving along pleasantly, and indications point to a year of active intellectual and spiritual life. The shortage in crops is so great that I am expecting a hard year financially.

Quite a number of improvements have been made and we hope to start the cooking school in a few weeks. The improvements made during the summer and plans for future growth will be the subject of a later communication.

CHARLES FRANCIS MESERVE, President.

DEAR BROTHER:

I send you two letters that I thought you might like to use in the HOME MISSION MONTHLY. I am very sure it will interest people in the North to know that such noble young people are being trained to usefulness in our Home Mission schools. CHAS. F. MESERVE, President.

MANTEO, N. C., Sept. 27, 1901.

MR. MESERVE: I am very sorry that I cannot be in school at the opening, as I had planned to do, as

my mother has been very sick, and is just able at present to sit up. The doctor says the crisis is past, but she needs me for a few weeks yet. If she continues to gain, I shall be in school in a few weeks. We sent sister right on, so as to be there at the opening. I thank the Lord that he has spared my mother's life, and for the opportunities he has given me. Mr. Meserve, I have felt so depressed over President McKinley's death, the causes, etc., and my heart and prayers are going out for the invalid widow. I thank God for his life, as I have heard and read of him, and I thank Him for the glorious way He enabled him to meet death. ONEDIA E. BAKER.

CHICOPEE FALLS, Mass., Sept. 23, 1901. I have been planning to return to Shaw ever since I left, last Spring. Recently my thoughts have been along the line of the Y. M. C. A. work, and to the end that I have decided to take the course this year. I have a chance to do work which will pay enough to keep me going, I think.

I need not tell you that I regret to give up work at Shaw. I know no place where I would like so much to be. The ties which bind me to Shaw are many and strong. To her I owe a debt of deep gratitude. I shall always cherish tender recollections of her, for she has largely made me what I am. If I had not come under the influence of Shaw the Lord only knows what and where I should be now. It is a rare privilege for any boy

or girl to come under the influence of such an institution. May this uplifting atmosphere continue to pervade the school, and may all whose happy lot it is to come within her gates fall in line with the spirit of the institution, and open wide their moral breathing organs, to the end that they shall become strong, sturdy, moral, intellectual, Christian characters. I regret that I cannot sit at the feet of her teachers longer. My prayers shall be for you all, and I desire to be remembered by you when in your prayer meetings. These shall cause me to think of you often.

I wish you all a happy, fruitful year. I hope the trip of the quartet will prove a financial success.

I should like to see you all and shake hands once more, but as my lot is cast here I shall make the best of it.

I desire to be kept in touch with the school and its movements, for its interests are mine.

Please remember me kindly to all the