GENEALOGY EXPRESS

 

Welcome to
Black History
& Genealogy

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MRS. ZELIA R. PAGE.
Dramatist, Teacher of Natural Science; Friend of the Poor.
pg. 50

     IT was in the old aristocratic city of Alexandria, Virginia that Zelia R. Page, nee Ball, first saw the light of day.  She was not a slave.  She was reared by her mother, a woman of remarkable ingenuity and foresight, who during the dark days of slavery helped many a poor bondman on his way to
Canada.  At one time whilst living with a wealthy Southern family in Washington City, she kept concealed for one week in the atic six slaves waiting for the password to march.  This mother, seeing and knowing the degradation and misery of slavery, was determined that her daughter should know as little of it as possible.  She having faith in the girl's future was deeply interested in her education.  Having many friends in New England and knowing of the educational facilities that colored youths had in that section of the country, she made up her mind to take this child to New England.  But the question was how to pass through Baltimore and Harve De Grace alone with her child.  Being intimately acquainted with the family of the celebrated Dr. Peter Parker who had recently returned to Washington City from China, knowing that they intended to visit the East, she consulted them about the matter.  Dr. Parker told her the only way she could travel with his family was to go as far as New York as their slave, she and her child.  She readily consented.  And thus one Saturday morning in the month of June the mother with her child arrived in Providence, Rhode Island.  She found, after reaching Providence, that the educational facilities were not as

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good for the colored youth, as those in Boston, so she sent Zelia to Boston to school.
     This girl possessed great dramatic and artistic powers.  During her stay in the New England school she would always be called upon to declaim in the' presence of visitors.  She

MRS. ZELIA R. PAGE

declaimed before the great educators Bigelow and Green.  They said to her, "Go on.  You have talent; improve it."  But alas, like many others, she had no one to depend upon but a poor mother for her support.  Her mother sent her to Wilberforce in 1870.  She was graduated in 1875.  She returned to Providence.  In 1878, June 27th, she married Inman E. Page, the

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first colored graduate of Brown University and now president of Lincoln Institute at Jefferson City, Missouri.
     Her life has not been one of continual sunshine, and yet it has not been at all times the opposite.  Having a strict moral principle, she could never wink at any thing that was wrong or seemingly wrong.  Perhaps if she had been so constituted as to be able to close her eyes to wrong doing she might have prevented a good many hard, false and cruel statements that have been made about her.
     She is a diligent student constantly seeking to add to her store of knowledge some new truths from the different departments
of learning.  She has written several excellent papers that have been read before the public and published by request.  Before she was twelve years old she had read the works of Scott, Milton, Dante and other noted authors.
     She has been at Lincoln Institute fourteen years, and during the greater part of that time she had served either as matron or as teacher of natural science.  She has been the means of doing much good in Jefferson City.  She organized a Union Training School for the poor children, Sept. 25, 1891, which meets every Saturday afternoon.  The value of the instruction which she gives to these children will be seen in future years.  I have often heard her say "O! if I was only rich.  I do not want money for myself, but I would like to be rich in order to do some good in this world.  I would build an institution of learning simply for the poor colored young men and women of my race and have them to learn everything that would enable them to vie with the Anglo-Saxon race."
     She is a devoted Christian, and always seeking to do what good she can and to help others.  Mrs. Page will long be remembered by the students of Lincoln Institute and especially the poor students for her deeds of kindness to them.

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MRS. OLIVIA DAVIDSON WASHINGTON.
Educator, Financier and Christian Martyr.

     MRS. OLIVIA DAVIDSON WASHINGTON was born in the western part of Virginia, June 11, 1854.  When quite young she moved with her parents to the State of Ohio, and the family made its home at Gallipolis, Ohio, and later at Athens.

MRS. OLIVIA DAVIDSON WASHINGTON

     From her earliest childhood she had an intense desire for education and by some means managed to remain in the common schools until she was fifteen years old.  When about fifteen, she had made such progress that she was able to pass an examination in Ohio for a teacher's certificate, and taught acceptably in the State for one or two terms.
     But it was in the South, among the lowly of her race, that she did her lifework and built a monument in the heart of the people that will be everlasting.  About the year 1874 she went into Mississippi and began teaching, and a little later she was given a position in the city schools of Memphis, Tenn., where she taught till 1878.  During the summer vacations she would teach in Mississippi and Arkansas.  It was the work among the ignorant but simple country people of her race that she enjoyed most.  In fact, she often said that she

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was scarcely ever so happy as when teaching in the country on a large cotton plantation; where she came in daily contact with those whose burdens she could lighten.  She lived in the hearts of the lowly.
     Often have her friends heard her tell how she has sat up all night with a sick pupil after teaching all day.  At one time when a neighbor was sick with the small-pox and others seemed
afraid to go to her relief, she volunteered her service and remained with the patient till she was well.
     In 1879 she resigned her position in the Memphis city schools with a view of more thoroughly preparing herself as a teacher.
     Soon after leaving Memphis and going to her home in Lee, Athens county, Ohio, the great yellow fever epidemic broke out in Memphis.  As soon as she heard of the suffering in Memphis she at once sent a telegram to the mayor of the city offering her services as a yellow fever nurse; but as she herself had not had the disease, the health authorities refused her services for the reason that her coming would merely serve to "add fuel to the fire."
     Seeing that she would be of no service to the Memphis sufferers, she decided to enter the Hampton Institute, at Hampton, Va.  In the fall of 1879 she entered the senior class of that institution, and remained at the institution one year, completing the course with the highest honors and winning the love and confidence of all with whom she came in contact.  General Armstrong says she was the strongest and most efficient woman ever graduated from Hampton.
     While at Hampton, Mrs. Mary Hemmenway, the millionaire philanthropist of Boston, visited the institution and became so interested in Miss Davidson that she told her that if she wished to extend her education she would gladly bear her expenses in one of the best schools in New England.  Accepting this proposition the following fall Miss Davidson entered the State Normal School, Framingham, Mass., where she remained two years and graduated with the highest honors of her class.  While at Framingham, as at Hampton, she won

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the love and confidence of all with whom she came in contact.
     In 1881, just before Miss Davidson's graduation from Framingham, Mr. Booker T. Washington had gone to Tuskegee, Ala., to found the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute.  Very soon after he arrived at Tuskegee, and seeing the field for work, he invited Miss Davidson to come to Tuskegee as an assistant teacher as soon as she finished her course.  This position Miss Davidson accepted and very soon after coming was made assistant principal of the Tuskegee School.
     At the time this institution was started it owned no property whatever of its own and had no resources except a promise of $3,000 a year from the State of Alabama to be used in paying teachers exclusively.  Mr. Washington and Miss Davidson soon began to make plans for the purchase of a permanent location for the institution and put up buildings suitable for class work and dormitories.  A large farm near the school was found and within a few months after they came to Tuskegee they had made a contract for the purchase of this farm.  Miss Davidson threw herself with all the energy and zeal possible into this work.  She not only went among the white and colored people of Tuskegee and collected money from them, but went North, and within two or three months was able to collect in cash several thousand dollars among her numerous friends in Massachusetts.
     While in the North she got acquainted with such men and women as Rev. E. Hale, Hon. Robt. C. Winthrop, Ex-Gov. John D. Long, Mrs. Mary Hemmenway and William Lloyd Garrison.
     Through the combined efforts of Mr. Washington and Miss Davidson within a few months after they came to Tuskegee they had secured not only enough money to pay for the farm on which the school was located, but over $6,000 with which to erect a large building.  In the meantime the number of students was increasing very fast and new buildings had to be provided.  Miss Davidson went North for a few months each year, and on these trips was most successful in securing money;

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and she had a peculiar talent for reaching and interesting wealthy people.  At one time she received $7,000 from two persons and on one of these trips raised $10,000.  Several persons who met her became not only interested in the school, but so interested in her person that they remembered her in their wills.
     On Aug.  11, 1886, Miss Davidson and Mr. Washington were married at Athens, Ohio.  After their marriage, she still kept up her work as usual.  She was never strong and much of the time was only able to keep on her feet by mere strength of will.  Persons who saw her in Boston and other large cities soliciting money often wondered how it was possible for a woman no stronger than herself to do such work.  She never seemed to think of herself in anything she undertook to do.  Sometimes when she would call on persons for funds, and while sitting waiting for them to come to see her, she would fall asleep—being so exhausted from her efforts.  After several months of sickness, Mrs. Washington died May 9, 18S9, leaving two bright little boys.
     It is said by those competent to judge, that not one colored woman in this country has done so much to further Negro education as Mrs. Olivia Davidson Washington.  The school at Tuskegee is her monument; for, without her work in its behalf, it could not be what it is.  As a result of her work, the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute is the largest institution in this country in the hands of colored people.  It has property valued at $160,000, consisting largely of 1,400 acres of land on which are eighteen buildings.  There are also eighteen industries and the school has an annual income of $70,000 a year.  There are 511 students representing thirteen States under thirty-four competent teachers.  On the occasion of her death Miss Mary F Mackie, late lady principal of Hampton Institute (Va.), speaking of her life and work says: "She gave herself without stint, and while her life has not extended over many years, she has crowded into it that which many of double her years will never do."
     Gen. J. F B. Marshall says of her: "Mrs. Washington

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was in my opinion a true Christian martyr; giving her life, as it were, a ransom for many."
     Gen. S. C. Armstrong says: "She was the finest woman who ever went out from this school.  Her work for Tuskegee was as perfect and beautiful an offering for the cause of the Negro as ever was made."
     Soon after her death the Springfield Republican contained the following notice: "Mrs. Olivia Davidson Washington, wife of the principal of the Tuskegee (Ala.) Normal School, who died recently, has done much for the cause of the Negro, and was an example of the capacity of the properly trained Negro to conduct wisely and successfully large educational enterprises.  She was a teacher in Memphis when the schools were broken up by the yellow fever epidemic.  Afterward she entered the Hampton Institute, to learn its methods, and through the kindness of a Boston woman took a course at the Framingham State Normal School where she graduated with the honors of her class.  Booker T. "Washington, a Hampton graduate, had just established the Tuskegee Normal School and thither Miss Davidson went as woman principal.  To the work of establishing this school she devoted all her energy, ability and strength; and her early death is doubtless owing to her overwork in its behalf.  She was successful as a teacher, and remarkably so in the wearing work of making appeals in the North for aid.  A few years ago she married Mr. Washington, and her early death is not only a great loss to her husband and his two motherless children, but also to the cause of Negro education."

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MRS. SARAH E. C. DUDLEY PETTEY.
Christian Temperance Advocate, Musician, Treasurer of Woman's Home
and Foreign Missionary Society of A. M. Zion Church in America,
Africa and the Isles of the Sea; Tourist, Linguist
and Experienced Teacher.

     IN the ancient town of New Berne, N. C., situated at the confluence of the beautiful sinuous Trint and historic Neuse, lived E. R. and Caroline E. Dudley, the former who by dent,

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energy and indomitable will secured for himself a practical education, rarely found in one who had endured the hardships of slavery, and been blunted by its curses.  For four years prior to the close of the war, he was foreman of a large tobacco factory at Salisbury, N. C.  After the war on returning home he was elected on the police force.  Shortly afterward he was elected first deputy high-sheriff; he then held positions of city marshal, magistrate and later was appointed postmaster of

MRS. SARAH E. C. DUDLEY PETTEY

New Berne by the postmaster-general, which he declined in favor of a colored friend who served his full term.  He served the legislature of his State; in fact, for many years he was a member of the house.  For ten years he was first deputy collector of internal revenue for eastern N C.
     In 1883 he retired from public life, having accumulated sufficient means to insure comfort and educate his children.  He invested most of his means in real estate.
     Mrs. Dudley as a slave enjoyed peculiar advantages and most favorable indeed in those poverty days of servitude.  She was taught to read and write in the great house, in fact her education at the close of the war became a mite in the great educational work of the Negro in the South, and indeed we may style her a pioneer heroine who, seeing the necessity of education, plunged in for duty and championed the golden rule.
     Along with the spirit of education which led her on she gathered strength and added to her domestic life the qualifications of an expert in needle work and embroidery.

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     To this couple was born the subject of our sketch, Nov. 9, 1868.
     At the age of six she was reading and writing, being taught at home by her mother.  She then entered the graded school.  After leaving the graded school she entered and completed the course in the State Normal under the instruction of the efficient and worthy professor, George H. White.  (At this writing he is now solicitor for the second judicial district of North Carolina, the only Negro in the United States filling such a position.)  At the age of twelve Miss Dudley entered Scotia Seminary at Concord, North Carolina; after graduating with first honors, she began teaching in her native city as second assistant in the graded school which she held for one year.  Her work thus demonstrated the necessity for her promotion to assistant principal, which position she held for six years, and for two years acted as assistant professor in the County Teachers' Normal Institute, which position she held until she married the Rt. Rev. Charles Calvin Pettey, A. M., D. D., Bishop of the A. M. E. Zion Church in America.  Her peculiar fitness for teaching brought her the coveted reward she justly merited.  At various times very many positions in academies, high schools and State normals have been offered her, which she declined, owing to her fondness for home and pleasant surroundings.  For four and a half years she gratuitously gave her services as organist for the church of her choice.  Sunday schools and missionary societies have always had in her a stanch friend and advocate.  Immediately after marriage she made a tour of the United States, Mexico and Continental Europe.  "We insert for our readers her own sketch of incidents by the way:
     " All is ready, at last comes the sailing day, the brass gong sounds and all continental passengers board the great iron-clad steamship— "City of Chicago."  The sails are hoisted.  The Stars and Stripes with King George's cross are unfurled to the breezes.  A signal is given when a little tug steams up and pulls us from the shore.  Such a waving of handkerchiefs on the pier.  Many were the eyes bedimmed with tears.

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     "The pilot goes with us down to Sandy Hook, and returns to New York City.  We pass briggs, barks, vessels and steamships in the harbor, from every known part of this inhabited globe.  Each in their way salute us as we pass.  Oh how sad it was when we reached the " bar" and our pilot was lowered into the tug and raising his cap bade us bon voyage across the deep and started back to pilot out a steamship for some other line.  Our first night out we. were a little too sick to enjoy the delicious supper prepared and served.  The second day dawned most beautifully.  The sun seemingly rose up out of the broad expanse of water.  The day passed along, all on board were feeling a little seasick.
     "The very heavens seemed black with ugly clouds torn and tattered by the raging tempest and dashed forward as an avalanche.  "We felt doomed to a watery grave, but He whose mandates the winds and waves obey was not yet ready to engulf us, and waft our spirits to the Beulah land.  The storm at last spent all its fury, and Sol's bright rays peeping over the eastern hills heralded the dawn mid thrones of sapphire beautifying and making more picturesque the landscape, bidding us once more enjoy the sublime tranquility of a glorious day.
     "Two days after the storm subsided, a huge whale followed us for ten miles or more and then becoming angry because no one chanced to fall overboard, he swam away toward Greenland's icy peaks, spouting water as he went, ten or twenty feet high.
     "At last on the morning of the 12th day we spied land, shouts of praise and laughter rent the air.  We glided along and at high noon were passing the reefs of Ireland.  A cannon was fired and a cablegram sent back to America saying that we had passed the Point.  About five o'clock in the afternoon we reached Queenstown, Ireland; a walled city with beautiful gardens, terraces and overhanging festoons artistically arranged by "Dame Nature."  After passing through the custom-house, where we were searched for fire-arms, etc., we started out sight-seeing.  We hardly planted foot on Irish soil when one of Kate Karney's daughters insisted on bishop's purchasing a piece of shamrock—the Irish emblem which, as she

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said, would give him good luck.  After visiting all of the prominent places we traveled for several miles along the banks of the river Lea.  Passed the tower containing the famous Shandon Bells of which Father Prout so beautifully sings.  At last Cork was reached.  We registered' at the Imperial Hotel where we met not a colored face.  All were white, and yet we were royally entertained.  Bishop preached at the French Wesleyan Church the following Sunday where we met a white minister and his wife.  We four formed a party to visit the continent.
     "Among the sights and wonders of the Emerald Isle we have the Giant's Causeway in the north and the famous Blarney stone.
     " 'If ye kiss it they say, from that blissed day ye may kiss whom ye plaze wid yer blarney.'
     "Next we would notice the beautiful Bantry Bay; it has a miniature Brooklyn bridge spanning it.  Then we see the charming scenes of Glengariff and the three lakes of Killarney, all famous for many legends.  We passed through the Gap of Dunloe, and upon making some inquiry our guide informed us that the giant of Ireland, wishing to visit the giant of Scotland, not desiring to go fifty miles around the mountain, drew his sword, and with one mighty stroke cut the famous Gap of Dunloe, and passed onward.  We traveled by hack and stage o'er the Prince of Wales route to Dublin and were followed by bonny Irish lassies, carrying goat's milk and brandy to refresh the weary traveler, for which they expected in return the tip of a penny, a sixpence or a shilling.   They were very desirous of coming to America, the basin in which flows the amalgamated tide of humanity.  Being weary of Home Bule, they craved the protection of the Stars and Stripes.
     "In rural districts some of the houses are low, built of stone, and thatched with straw Oft times we would find a man, his wife and eight or ten children living in one room, a pig under the table, a donkey in the corner and the chickens roosting o'er head; yet all seemed to be healthy and enjoying life.
     "Ireland is famous for its natural beauty.  You can roam at will o'er hill and dale, through meadows green, and pluck the

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flowers growing in rich profusion. One of the Irish legends goes that St. Patrick prayed all insects and serpents from his domain.  Our guide took us to the upper lake of Killarney, and where the water formed a little whirlpool; he pointed and said: "Look and see the box containing the last serpent which St. Patrick conquered and chained," and he verily believed it too.  Hurriedly leaving the Emerald Isle, we crossed the Irish channel and arrived at Holly Head in Wales.
     "Wales is a mountainous country, much given to mining; the people are kind and courteous to strangers.  The Welchmen gave us a right royal welcome.  On we go with all the steam velocity of the "Flying Dutchman." until we reached London, which has been justly styled the center of the terrestrial ball, for indeed it is a great sea of stone flats and moving faces.
     "Here we visit Westminster Abbey, the House of Parliament, the British Museum, London Tower, the National Art Gallery, Piccadilly Art Gallery, Hyde Park, Regent's Park, Crystal Palace and many places which space forbids our mentioning.  We took sacrament in the lamented Spurgeon's Tabernacle, also in John Wesley's old church.  We were received by Dr. Parker, Bishop, and by his Grace, the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, at Lambeth Palace.  Bishop preached and lectured in most all the prominent churches throughout the kingdom.  While in France we rode across the beautiful river Seine, went up the Eiffel tower, in Paris, visited the tomb of Napoleon, the Chambers of Court, the Morgue, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Hippodrome and various other places.  We had to hire an interpreter.  We walked into one restaurant and after many hard trials I made the porter understand what I wanted by flapping my arms.  He brought me a chicken.  And we enjoyed it, too.  While the porter was gone.  Bishop looked up and spied a large cat in one of the windows.  He said 'Kitty, kitty,' and the cat said 'Mieu,' and came to him.  He said: 'Bless my soul, the cat is the only thing in the house that understands a word of English.'  We visited all the prominent towns and cities in France, and then

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returned to Great Britian, spent some time, and then set sail for the home of the free and the land of the brave.  Our voyage home was almost without incident save the passing of many icebergs when nearing Labrador and the shores of Greenland.  Bishop often joked me about being seasick, but during the gale he received a wound which cost him just two gold guineas.  Of course he was not seasick.  Arriving in New York and planting foot on American soil we started southward, spent pleasant days in the Old Dominion, which has been justly called the home of presidents.  Passing on through the Carolinas we kept on and on until we reached El Paso, Texas, then we concluded to see something of real life among the Mexicans in their adobe houses.  After visiting many prominent points and securing some Mexican relics we left Mexico for the Golden Gate.  We traveled through southern California, visiting many orchards and vineyards; of times our iron horse was dashing along through fields of clover daises and alfalfa when we were gazing upon the snow-capped peaks of Mount Shasta."
     On arriving home (Newberne, N. C., U. S.) a grand reception was tendered the bishop and his lady, by the affable banker and broker, Isaach H. Smith.  After which they were tendered many grand receptions in all parts of the United States, including California and Oregon.
     Mrs. Pettey having turned her attention to the interests of the A. M. E. Zion connection, has become a great church worker and bids fair to lead the women of her church on this line.  At the last general conference held in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, May, 1892, she was elected treasurer of the Woman's Home and Foreign Missionary Society for the A. M. E. Zion connection, which position she now holds with great honor to herself and the church.
     While Mrs. Pettey is doubtless a good scholar, yet the ease and facility which characterize her instructions in the schoolroom caused a great educator to say of her: "She is a born teacher."  There are many young teachers whose erudition is quite sufficient, but yet there is something wanting.   Her

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education in every way apparently reaches farther, and gives her the reputation that many who surpass her in the classics never dreamed of.
     The English language has in her a champion and devotee.  The cadence, rising and falling inflections of her voice, in fact every accent portrays a musical rhythm.  While her teaching is limited by a few short years, many young men and women who have been under her instruction no doubt will come forth to bless the race.

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CLARISSA M. THOMPSON
Novelist, Educator, W. C. T. U. Advocate, Poetess.

     COLUMBIA, the capital of the Palmetto state, has been the home of many illustrious men.  It is a beautiful city, finely located on the right bank of the Congaree.  Crowning a lofty hill, with broad, level streets crossing each other at right angles, and ornamented by a double and sometimes triple row of shade-trees—with well-kept flower-gardens in which plants of almost every description flourish so luxuriantly as to give it the name of "City of Flowers,'' Columbia seems to merit the praise bestowed on it by tourists as the loveliest city in the South—if we take natural beauty as the criterion.  It is the seat, too, of many well-known institutions of learning; one of these, the South Carolina University, which has been the Alma Mater of so many men who have figured in the history of our country, was established as long ago as 1801.  An atmosphere of intellectuality has always characterized the town, and it is not surprising that, notwithstanding its lack of enterprise and its general conservatism, Columbia possesses a charm sufficient to attract to it a population far above the average in intelligence and moral worth.
     In ante-bellum times, Columbia was the aristocratic center of one of the most aristocratic commonwealths of the South; and as those Southerners with the bluest of blue blood in their veins are almost invariably the most courteous and considerate in their dealings with our race, Columbia has always been noted

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for the kindly feeling existing between the two classes of its citizens. 
     Since the dawn of anew and brighter era, Columbia has been the home of many of our leading Afro-Americans.  James Smith, who, way back in the seventies, knocked at the doors of West Point, and was the first colored youth to do so, was a native Columbian, and so were many others who have made their mark in different avocations of life.  Among the adopted citizens of Columbia, for a time at least, were R. H. Cain, who once represented South Carolina in the national councils,
and latterly was elected to the bishopric of the A. M. E. Church; the gifted lamented Bishop William F. Dickerson; Robert B. Elliott, than
whom the race has produced no greater or more eloquent statesman; Francis L. Cardozo, at one time filling the honored position of secretary, and subsequently treasurer of his native State; Jonathan J. Wright, the first and the only colored man ever elevated to the supreme bench of any State; the brilliant, cultured, genial Richard Theodore Greener; D. Augustus Straker, of whom the correspondent of a leading New York daily wrote: "One of the ablest speeches ever made before a criminal court was that made by D. A. Straker, a black lawyer from Bermuda;" and William Myrtenello Dart, one of the brainiest men the race can claim, whose early death ended a career rich in promise for himself and the people with whom providence had identified him.
     Immediately after the smoke of the conflict which trans-

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formed three millions of slaves into citizens of the mightiest country on the face of the earth had, cleared away, many of the former bondmen came to the front in their respective localities.  Among these was Samuel B. Thompson.  He was a man of much natural ability, and, for a time, his people "delighted to honor him."  During the Republican regime he held many positions of trust and emolument.  For eight years he filled the office of justice of the peace in the capital city, and for six years he represented his native county in the State legislature.  A newspaper, edited by men of Caucasian lineage, said of him, several years afterward: "He is a colored gentleman, in every essential."  His wife, Eliza Henrietta, one of the most amiable of women, was a worthy helpmeet, and to this happy couple were born nine children, one of whom is the subject of our sketch.
     Clarissa Thompson's opportunities have always been of the most excellent character.  Those Northern societies who have done so much for the amelioration of the condition of the freedmen sent some of their noblest and best to labor in the Palmetto State; and Columbia, with her usual good fortune, secured some of the choicest spirits among these.  Howard school, named in honor of the philanthropic General O. O. Howard, boasted of a fine corps of thirteen teachers.  Miss Carrie H. Loomis, of Hartford, Conn., had charge of the most advanced grade.  She was a born teacher, and manifested the deepest interest in her pupils.  Clarissa had just completed her ninth year when she entered this lady's department, and she has always regarded Miss Loomis as the teacher to whom she is most indebted.  A few years in Howard school, and then she is enrolled as a member of the South Carolina State Normal school, of which Prof. Mortimer A. Warren, of Connellsville, Conn., was principal, and Miss Loomis chief assistant.  Professor Warren was one of the best educators on this continent.  An enthusiastic believer in the inductive system of teaching, he founded his methods on those advocated by Pestalozzi, Froebel and Horace Mann.  While here, Miss Thompson had the privilege of attending lectures given by members of the faculty

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of the South Carolina University.  The standard of this university was high.  The board of regents had spared no pains to secure the services of the best talent in the country.  Its library has always been famous; its laboratory has always been considered one of the best in the United States, and its reputation, with such intellectual giants as McDuffie and Hayne, claiming it as their Alma Master, has always been enviable.  It was the aim of the board to put it on a level with what it was in ante helium times, and, judging from the graduates it turned out—such scholars as T. McCants Stewart and the lamented William M. Dart—their efforts did not lack much of being crowned with success.  The normal school was, de facto, a part of the university; and during the last year of their course the class of which Miss Thompson was a member pursued some of their studies in conjunction with the junior class of this institution.
     Immediately after graduation Miss Thompson began her career as first assistant in Howard school.  Having been elected principal of Poplar Grove School in Abbeville, S. C., she resigned ber position in Howard, and for fifteen months taught with gratifying success in Abbeville.  Bishop Dickersort was at this time making herculean efforts to build up the school he loved so well—Allen University and, at his request, Miss Thompson accepted a position there.  For fifteen months she was preceptress in Latin, algebra, physical geography, and ancient and modern History.  The work at Allen was very congenial.  But there has always been latent inner heart something of the missionary spirit, and, despite the entreaties of her friends, she resigned her position, and, in February, 1886, left her native home for Texas.  For three years she labored in Jefferson, the former metropolis of the lone Star State.  "The people of Jefferson were as kind to me as those of Abbeville, and that is saying a great deal," she writes concerning her stay there.  From Jefferson Miss Thompson came to Fort Worth, the busy, enterprising, rapidly-growing railroad center of Texas.  The school here has the reputation of being one of the best in the State, and she fills at present the position of first assistant.

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     Miss Thompson began at an early age to write for the press. "While a school-girl, she wrote several essays, which were published in the Christian Recorder.  Professor Warren spoke to her once: "I think you will be a good writer some day, Clarissa, but you must not make the mistake of rushing into print too early" But the "fury" was on her.  There were some things in the social life of her people that filled her mind with forebodings.  Knowing the salutary effect of a good novel, she determined to attempt one herself, to show up this "crying weakness."  With this end in view, she wrote "Treading the Winepress," a serial of forty chapters which ran for several months in the columns of the Boston Advocate*  A brief extract from this novel may not be out of place here.
     "Will De Verne, the hero, says to his aunt:
     "What a poor opinion you have of your 'brethren after the flesh,' Aunt Madeline!  One would never judge from your words that you form 'part and parcel' of that much-abused race."
     "Thank heaven, very few drops of that blood course through my veins," and Madame De Verne gazed with much complacency on her dainty white hands and finely-moulded arms.
     The playful look left Will's eyes.
     "And yet, Aunt Madeline," he said, with all the earnestness he was master of," as long as those few drops remain, it would be well to recognize a fact many of our people are in danger of forgetting, viz., that just one scintilla of Negro blood, be the possessor thereof as white as the driven snow, is sufficient to fix your status forever, as far as public opinion is concerned.  If some of our leaders could be made to see this, perhaps instead of isolating themselves from the race so sorely in need of their assistance they would come down from their eyrie and try to lift up the masses.  "We cannot hue out for ourselves a separate destiny.  It may seem to benefit us, but it will avail-

---------------
     * It was begun in the Christian Recorder, but, awaking to the fact that the plot and development of the story would scarcely become an ecclesiastical paper, it was withdrawn after three chapters had been published.

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our children nothing.  We must all rise together or fall together.  There is no middle ground.
     Later on, in the same dialogue, DeVerne says: "You should have been born on European soil, Aunt Madeline.  Your sentiments are entirely too Aristocratic to flourish under the American eagle. In an institution like ours, we could not tolerate, for a single moment, such exclusive ideas.  There we have, and can have, no aristocracy but the aristocracy of genius.  The aristocracy of blood must take a back seat, for blue blood does not always bestow brains; the aristocracy of wealth must follow suit, for, though money is a mighty factor in human progress, fortune is too notoriously blind and fickle for us to gauge a man's worth by the size of his pocket-book; and that peculiar aristocracy of which you and your friends are such ardent advocates—in both precept and practice—the aristocracy of color—should never be allowed to rear its serpent head among our people.  The day it does, our race is doomed. We are fighting the self-same monster without; we can not afford to let it come within and live.  Our social structure must have a different foundation.  Moral character should be the corner-stone; mental culture one of the main columns.  A man must be respected for his worth, not for the color of his skin or the strength of his bank account."
     This novel has never been, and will never be, published in book' form.  Miss Thompson regards it as a girlish protest against what seemed to be serious dangers threatening our race.  Her object was not to gain "name and fame," but to call the attention of thinking people to these blots in our social firmament.
     Since coming to Texas, Miss Thompson has written a temperance poem entitled "A Glass of Wine," which was published in the Texas Blade, and was favorably received by the critics.  Texas boasts of quite a number of race papers, and under the nom deplume of "Minnie Myrtle" Miss Thompson has contributed letters, poems, and, in one instance, a novelette called "Only a Flirtation," to several of them.
     But, while her tastes are literary, her chief desire is to accomplish good in her profession.  "We must work out our

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destiny, in a great measure, in the schoolroom," she says.  "Among most races, the mothers mould the character of the children; but so many of our women have been deprived of the opportunity to elevate themselves, and poverty compels so many of them to spend most of the time away from their families, that a large proportion of the children cannot receive the home training imperative for the production of grand men and noble women, with heart and head cultivated to the utmost.  It may seem a thankless task, and even the most enthusiastic among us ofttimes get discouraged; but, if we will only persevere, 'rich will the harvest be.'  The elevation of our race depends largely on the character of the work clone in the school-room.  The teacher can, by a few well-chosen words, touch the very chord that will inspire 'some mute, inglorious Milton,' some embryo physician, financier or mechanic to devote himself to the vocation for which Nature has designed him, instead of frittering away his talents on something to which he is entirely unsuited.  A teacher's influence may make a life, or it may mar it."

"She was my peer. No weakling gir, who would surrender will And life and reason, with her loving heart,

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To her possessor; no soft, clinging thing Who would find breath alone within the arms Of a strong master, and obediently Wait on his will in slavish carefulness; No fawning, cringing spaniel to attend His royal pleasure, and account herself Rewarded by his pats and pretty words. But a SOUND WOMAN, who, with insight keen, Had wrought a scheme of life, and measured well Her womanhood; had spread before her feet A fine philosophy to guide her steps; Had won a faith to which her life was brought In strict adjustment—brain and heart meanwhile Working in conscious harmony and rhythm With the great scheme of God's great universe, ON TOWARD HER BEING'S END."

--------------------

MRS. FRANKIE E. HARRIS WASSOM.
Teacher and Poetess.

     FRANKIE E. HARRIS WASSOM, daughter of Beverly and R. E. Harris, was born in Monroe, Michigan, and while quite small her parents moved to Oberlin, Ohio, so that their children might be educated.  Having sprung from a noble ancestry of which she may be proud, not many of her race can boast of such noble parentage.
     Her father figured very conspicuously in the underground railroad with Dr. Wm. Wells Brown, of Boston, and others, always trying to lend a helping hand to his race, while her mother was smart, intelligent and independent, always laboring for the good of her race.  Mr. and Mrs. Harris believed that freedom was a gift from God to every man, and that all children should be educated alike.  They left their beautiful home in Michigan, with their four children, and moved to Oberlin.  The oldest daughter, having gone on before, was in school.  Frankie was yet too young, but when she became of suitable age was entered into the city school, where she spent nine years; after which she entered Oberlin College and spent four years.  During this time she also studied music and fine

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arts.  When through studying, although not in the best of health, she had a desire to go out in the world and make her mark.
     We find her quite young, a mere child, going south to teach school.  She had that force of purpose, and strong, determinate will to conquer whatever obstacles might come, and fight life's battle, aiming to reach the goal some day.  She met with success, and was encouraged to go on.  We next find her

MRS. FRANKIE E. HARRIS WASSOM.

teaching in the public schools of Virginia.  During her vacation in '71, she went with her sister, then Miss Blanche V. Harris, on a visit to Knoxville, Tennessee.  Here they were both employed as principals of schools in Knoxville.  Frankie E. Harris remained teaching in the city schools of Knoxville for nearly three years, when she received a letter requesting her to go to Mississippi to teach.  Wages were better than in Knoxville, so she concluded to resign and go to Mississippi.  The board, finding out her reason for leaving, offered to raise her wages if she would remain, but she told them it was too late; she had accepted the position in Mississippi, where she went in February, '74.  Here she taught a successful term.  At the close, the superintendent asked Miss Harris to please return and teach for them the next year; but as she had another engagement in June, she told him she could not come back.  She left Mississippi June the 1st, and on June 10, 1874, was married to Col. George T. Wassom, who is one of America's bright sons, and who has won for himself a lasting

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reputation.  He is not only a politician, but a shrewd lawyer.  Although quite a young man, he has filled places of honor.  In
1878 he was appointed colonel of the Fourth battalion of eastern North Carolina, In 1882, under Arthur's administration, he
was appointed postal clerk; was also one of the delegates to the national convention held in Chicago which nominated Harrison; and we find him again reappointed as postal clerk.
     Frankie E. Harris Wassom published her first book of poems in '86.  She wrote a number of years for two periodicals, and was on the staff of the Goldsboro Star for three years.  After marrying, she stopped her school work for a short time, but feeling she must go back into this field of labor, resumed her teaching, and is still teaching.  During this time she has contributed to a number of newspapers, and since '85 has done a great deal of work in the fine arts.  In '86 she put on exhibition some of her crayon work at the North Carolina State Industrial Fair, and was awarded first premium.  At the same fair ex-Senator Blair delivered the annual address, and Mrs. Wassom composed a song and music in honor of Senator Blair's coming.  The piece was entitled "Coming to the Fair," and many were the compliments she received from friends and through the press.  We quote only a few: The Baptist Companion said: "At the Educational Convention held in Raleigh, in 1886, in the Metropolitan Hall (and which was fully attended) the exercises were of a high order.  Rev. J. C. Price, president of the Association, delivered an able address, after which ex-Senator Henry W Blair delivered a powerful address.  One of the most entertaining and inspiring features of the evening was afforded in a song entitled 'Coming to the Fair,' composed by Mrs. F. E. H. Wassom, who now resides and is teaching in Goldsboro, N. C.  It was a quartette, and most beautifully rendered, being very appropriate for the occasion.  No higher compliments need to be paid to the merits of this soul-stirring, highly musical composition than the enthusiastic applause tendered the author during and after its rendition at the fair.  The whole audience was intensely delighted.  Senator Blair, in honor of whose visit it was

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composed, evinced the keenest interest in its merits.  No one, especially in North Carolina, should be without this piece of music.  Senator Blair, at the close of the exercises, requested Mrs. Wassom to send him a copy."
     Mrs. Wassom's book of poems is highly meritorious.  The author possesses great proficiency as a poet, which is evidently
the bent of her genius.
     The Charlotte News, said: "The song composed by Mrs. Wassom, and sung by an able quartette in his honor, was loudly applauded at the conclusion of each verse."
     We could write many such compliments from different periodicals, but we have taken enough of your good time.  Mrs. Wassom is now teaching in the city graded schools of Knoxville, Tennessee, where she has been for the past five or six years.  We copy one of her poems:

LIFE'S STRUGGLE.
_____
 

If you wish to be successful      In the pathway of your life, Press forward ever seeking      The burden of the strife. If the struggle be a fierce one      Fight it with patience, vim, The end will come before you think      And in it you will win. If you struggle thus with courage      The barriers will surely fall, And you'll find a way to conquer      Be that power great or small. Let the maxims of your conscience      Guide and guard you in the fight, And with duty as your watchword,      You will ever go aright. Push onward then and upward,      Always strive to lead the van, " For as fire doth prove the metal"      So do struggles prove the man.

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ANNA BELLE RHODES PENN.
Pedagoge, Poetess and Essayist, Lynchburg, Virginia

     THE lady whose name we have chosen for our subject is a resident of Lynchburg, Virginia.  She belongs to that younger class of women in our national life who are slowly, but

ANNA BELLE RHODES PENN.

surely, making themselves an enviable place in the literary future.  She is one of that class that has been fitted for the arduous labor our women must encounter in the march to success by years of training at home and school, coupled with a few years of bitter mental experience.

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     The Afro-American must inevitably attain a place in the world of enlightenment and civilization, and in reaching such a place every human being of the race must share a responsibility.
     It will mete itself out as the ability to do demands.  In this respect some may do more than others.  Man will doubtless do more than woman, yet she has a work to do in purifying every sphere of our life which she alone can do.  Since emancipation the women of our race have not failed to begin this work and that our literary, our social and our moral life has been reaping the beneficent results of her labor goes without saying.  Madame Penn is a Kentuckian by birth, the place and time being Paris, Kentucky, June 18, 1865.  When very small she was taken to Virginia and located in Lynchburg, where her parents William and Sophia Rhodes are respected and well-to-do-citizens at this writing.  At the proper time our subject was entered in a private school taught by Mrs. C. C. Ellis; from this school she matriculated at Shaw University, Raleigh, North Carolina, when a mere child.  She was put under the care of Rev. H. M. Tupper D. D., LL. D., president of Shaw University, and his very estimable wife. She at once ingratiated herself in their favor, as did she in the favor of all others in authority. As a student she enjoys the record of having been a brilliant one, of having always pursued her studies with diligence and profit. She holds a full-fledged diploma from the scientific department of that university.
     It was while a student at this school her friends saw in her eminent literary qualities and bade her put them to use in the betterment of mankind and the lifting up of her oppressed people.  Her essays and poetical writings at this time gave every assurance that if continued with the same care and interest her life without the confines of Shaw would be decidedly a grand one and a fitting example of race possibilities.  For two years she taught in the normal department of her Alma Mater and voluntarily resigned in order to return to Virginia and home.  She afterwards taught in Chatham Virginia, and then in the primary department of the Lynchburo,

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Virginia, school where she is now.  She ranks among the first-class primary teachers in Virginia and is one of the three best salaried lady teachers in a group of eighteen or twenty belonging to the corps.  It is as an essayist and poetic writer Mrs. Penn has been brought into national notice.  In these fields of literary pursuits she is the possessor of some considerable notice which is only the result of her labor.  In other words, she justly merits all the notice she gets at the hands of her admirers.  The many occasions upon which she has figured as an essayist are two numerous to mention, save one.  At the closing exercises of the summer normal held at the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, Petersburg, Va., in 1886, Mrs. Penn was assigned the duty of essayist upon the occasion.  The title of the essay for the occasion was "ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD."  It was well arranged and winningly delivered in Madame's own particular style.  It was enthusiastically received.  The president, John Mercer Langston, LL. D., commenting on the essay, its delivery, etc., said that for chasteness of language, beauty of diction and composition it was one of the best he had ever heard.  He was very elaborate in his complimentary comment, showing that under its mellifluous flow he had grown rapturously dizzy.
     In her poetical compositions, Mrs. Penn has won an admirable place in her people's esteem.  It cannot easily be erased nor can it soon wither.  She has read original poems on very many great public occasions, the last of which was the Quarto-Centennial Celebration of Alma Mater Shaw University.  Upon invitation she was present December 1, 1890, and read a poem entitled "Light Out of Darkness," entirely of her own thought and composition, which would have done credit to any one claiming poetic ability.  It was fifteen verses of eight-line poetry portraying the Afro-American in ignorance and darkness and the light coming to him through the aid of Northern friends.
     The poem was well delivered and received at the hands of the president, Dr. H. M. Tupper, Hon. Elijah J. Shaw and Rev. Dr. McVicar many warm and congratulatory expressions.

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     We indulge the opinion that to insert a few stanzas of this poem here will be pleasing to the reader and at the same time substantiate our assertions:

LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS.
_____
 

Once this land of light and beauty      Was a blank, a perfect chaos, "With no call to life and duty      And no mortals crying, "Save us!" There were no radiant sunbeams      To brighten the wanderers' way; No beautiful silver moonbeams      To announce the death of day. But God, in his Divine wisdom,      From this chaos formed the world, Bid sun and moon in their season      Each its banner of light unfurl. When this was fully completed      And the Master about to rest, He remembered man secreted      In earth embrace, without a test.           *    *    *    *    *    * Thus the life of the world began      Surrounded by riches from God; Cursed by the wickedness of man      Which makes its progression still hard. But none seem to have felt the blow      More keenly than our forefathers, Who for two hundred years and more      Lived the life of slaves and martyrs.

     In poetical ecstasy she begins to line out the help which has come to us through our friends in the following stanzas:

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Was our noble Alma Mater      Who in the fall of '65 Amidst blame and cruel hatred.      Threw her college doors open wide To Africa's sons and daughters      Who for knowledge were then athirst. The enemy scorned and fought her,      But he found her on the alert. Year after year she has labor'd      To rescue the youth of this age, From Ignorance's thralling savor,      Which has darken'd History's page. Some are in the rural districts,      Where the light has recently gone, Where the neat and comely rustics      Are eager, anxious for the morn Some are in the busy city      Where the constant and endless buzz Makes the masses lose their pity      And many fathers void of love. Some have crossed the briny ocean,      And are now in the heathen lands With the. Gospel's fragrant odor,      A heeling from the golden strand. Some have gone to fairer regions,      Into the land of light and love; They have joined the heavenly legion      And the musical band above. Some of us are still remaining,      And we have gathered here to-day, Events of the past explaining,      Causing future dread to allay. God bless our faithful president,      Who in the night of '65, Regardless of the pestilence      Harken'd at once to our cries. And now since the night is over      And the light with the years have come, We will be no longer rovers      But a race with victory won. Farewell to you, midnight darkness,      Farewell to you, dreams of the past, Tis nearing the time of harvest,      Behold! the grain is ripening fast.

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Farewell to each comrade present,      Soon we may part to meet no more, Thoughts of to-day will be pleasant      We'll meet on the beautiful shore."

     "We also insert another of her excellent poems which has been published and read by several persons upon public occasions as an exemplification of Afro-American ability.  It is entitled:

GRIEF UNKNOWN.
_____

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Where rays of promise never stray      And the angels never soar. There, in the dusky twilight hour,      Seek a maiden mild and fair, Hid within a mystic bower,      Enrobed in dark despair; Whose downcast eye and pallied cheek      Are moments of distress, Whose twitching brow and nervous speech      Are tokens of unrest. And while her soul is thus confined      Within sorrow's dungeon cell, Strive to have her fully define      The grief she cannot expel. Why her young heart should thus repine      O'er joys past, but once beheld: When rays of hope deigned to shine      O'er that cottage in the dell. She may tell of a happy past,      Of a voice so sweet and low, Of a beautiful golden clasp,      Which united soul to soul; Of the gloom which was o'er her cast,      When the jewel was from her borne; And yet she has not told the half,      For the depth is still unknown. She may tell of a quiet mound      In the city of the dead, Where rest from labor is found      And strangers lightly tread. The secret she cannot expound,      Of sorrows from heaven sped. Only God, who is most profound,      Would dare to answer in her stead.

     "No Footsteps Backward" was the title of the class poem which Madame Perm composed and read at the graduating exercises of her class at Shaw.  It was looked upon by many as a very excellent effort, some of which declare it to have been the effort of her life, though she was then in her "teens."  As can be seen the writings, poetical and prose, of our subject are familiar for their rich and mellow sound.  While a tinge

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of the melancholy and sad pervades them, yet the language employed is so chaste, her periods so well rounded, the rhythm so true, the thought so pure as to attract and please one in the most felicitous manner.  Our subject's poems and prose writings have appeared at various times in our papers, such being eagerly sought for.  Expressions complimentary to her poetic and pedagogic ability have followed the publication of her efforts. Locally she is well known as an elocutionist, accomplished and able. Her aid in this field is very frequently called for wherever she is once heard. She has done very little traveling, though very flattering requests have been made to her
so to do.
     December 26, 1890, she became the wife of I. Garlan Penn, who is an author, pedagogue and editorial writer of national reputation.  She was of very much service to her husband in the preparation of his great work, "The Afro-American Press and its Editors."  But the best thought connected with this dissertation is the fact that the past career of this young woman can not give an accurate forecast of her future.  She is young, ambitious and able; not content to be anything less in the future than an equal of any of the literateurs of her sex.  The reading Afro-American must not be surprised if the Madame gives a book to the world of letters in the near future.

--------------------

MRS. NAOMI ANDERSON,
Lecturer, Poetess, Advocate of Woman Suffrage, Member of the W. C. T. U.,
President Orphans' Home.

     NOT in the nature of things can it be consistent for a race so depraved by slavery, so outraged by cruel humanity, to boast of genealogy.  Better it were not so for the oppressed in the days of such barbarism.  But fortunate, indeed, for those it may be truly said, that were born in a free state, a community of Christians, a land of enlightenment, a section where

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"Nature, mother alike to all, Still grants her bliss at labor's earnest call."

     In this respect, Mrs. Naomi Anderson was truly blessed.  She was born at Michigan City, Indiana, Mar. 1, 1843; her parents, Elijah and Guilly Ann Bowman, were natives of Ohio.  Christian people they were and possessed of moderate means.  Her mother hired a private teacher, as children of color were not allowed to attend the public schools anywhere in the State, except in localities where

MRS. NAOMI ANDERSON.

there were enough to have a separate school for themselves.  This was not the case in Michigan City, there being but two families of color in the town.  She early evinced a talent for versification, and this talent bespoke for her a place in the sympathetic hearts of people or communnity where she lived, and at the age of twelve she was admitted with the whites in the public schools, where she even amused her schoolmates by her poems.  It was the heighth of her mother's ambition to have her daughters graduate from Oberlin college.  But when Naomi was only seventeen years old the good Lord called her mother to rest from all earthly labors, and this sad occurrence changed her whole after life, for her father, though kind and indulgent, could not perceive the necessity of giving her a finished education.  She was married at the age of twenty to Mr. William Talbert, a tonsorial artist, of Valparaiso, Ind.  In less than two months after marriage she was called back to Michigan City to watch by the bedside, and experience another sad bereavement, in the burial of her

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only sister, her only brother having died some months previous at Jacksonville, Florida, in the Union service. Thus the
first five years of her married life was spent in the city of her birth (here also she buried her first-born boy).  In 1868 she moved with her husband, little boy and her father to Chicago.  Here she became actively engaged in the temperance work of the I. O. G. T., it being all the go at that time.  In February, 1869, she spoke from the platform of the first Woman's Rights Convention ever held in the West at Libra Hall, Chicago, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore presiding.  This stand injured Mrs. Naomi's popularity among her very peculiar people, and she was severely censured. But she never wavered from her principles, and at the earliest opportunity vindicated herself in an article published in the Chicago Tribune, March 6, 1869.  This indeed brought out her powers with the pen, proving that she could not only talk, but could write.
     In the autumn of '69 she made a lecturing tour through southern Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, and shortly after moved with her family to Dayton, Ohio.  Here she was true to the cause of woman, and spoke before the convention held in that city in April, 1870.  Her pen was active and her articles on the fifteenth amendment to the constitution were read by many and solicited by many thousands.  In the same year a very popular song appeared in the Dayton Journal from her pen.  She moved thence to Cincinnati, Ohio.  Here as elsewhere she was active as a speaker, a writer, an advocate for Woman's Suffrage and a worker in Christianity and temperance.
     Her husband's health having failed completely, she, restless and energetic and "true until death us do part," learned the hair-dressing trade, and moved with her afflicted family to Portsmouth, Ohio, working diligently to support her family.  There she organized a Children's Home, and successfully managed it for four months, but finding the county appropriation too scant, the work too hard with family responsibilities, laid it down; passed the board of examiners, and was employed as a teacher in the public school at the time of her husband's death, which occurred in December, 1877.

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In the spring of 1879, she moved with her three children and aged father to Columbus, Ohio, applying herself to her trade, built up an excellent business; here as elsewhere her pen was busy.  She worked with the Murphys, and spoke on a special occasion in front of the State capital.  Here also she met her present husband, Mr. Lewis Anderson.  She married this fortunate man at Urbana, Ohio, May 17, 1881, Rev. Phil. Tolwes officiating.  Shortly after, however, they retired to a farm near Columbus, Ohio.  There three happy years of married life were spent.  In the wave of Kansas fevers, they as many thousands succumbed to its ravage and scourge, and in the spring of 1884 moved to Wichita, Kansas, where Mr. Anderson enjoyed a lucrative situation in the citizen's bank which he has held for seven years.  By his christian life and sterling worth has influence worthy of any man.  Is a member of the craft and enjoys the confidence of all men.
     Mrs. Anderson, on leaving for Kansas, determined to find where she really desired to live, then she would drive a stob down deep and live there.  Wichita, thou fortunate city!  proud possessor of her citizenship.  Here she is known as a lecturer, poetess, and an advocate of Woman's Eights.  She is a member of the W C. T. U. and actively engaged in every good and public work, affiliating with the white women as if she was one of them.  Because, as she says, "Our leaders are wrong in fighting and clamoring for 'social equality' and at the same time holding themselves aloof and claiming to be a separate people."  She says: "We are one and the same people, made so by the strongest ties of nature, bone and flesh of every nationality of white men in this country;" that "We are not negroes, but Americans, because we were born here in America. Negroes are foreigners, we are not foreigners, hence not Negroes, but Americans, and not until we walk side by side with the white people claiming no nationality save that of American citizens and knowing no people but God's people, will we ever get our rights."
     The white women of Wichita organized a Children's Home and have managed the same for four years, but would not

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admit a colored child within its doors.  So Mrs. Anderson called a council of intelligent women of color, and they determined then and there to organize a home of their own, which was done scarcely two years ago, electing her for their president.  They now rent a comfortable little home, have a very efficient matron, and receive a monthly appropriation of $25 from the city, and $12 a month from the county, and all are jubilant at the success attending Mrs. Anderson's efforts.  All admit that to her belongs the triumph, and the financial endowment from both city and county as the fruit of her energetic labor.
     She is soon to engage in a biography of herself, in which will appear her productions in poetry and prose.
     In all of her writings concerning the American people of color she characterizes them in the same category as that of the children of Israel.
     The following is a poem written by her at Portsmouth, Ohio, 1876, on the event of the United States American Centennial, entitled:

CENTENNIAL POEM
_____
 

We come in this centennial year      And ask to be received      The praises of your brother men, The race whom you have freed. How different from our fathers!      They one hundred years ago Were chained down in slavery;      No talents did they know. I need not tell you of their trials,      You know how it has been: Forced from old Afric's clime,      Bold gold-designing men. But there were Christians on this land,      The hand of God did reign. Though we've groaned beneath the fetters,      We're thankful that we came.

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For over in our fatherland      The light of Christ was hid. Our fathers were benighted there,      Knew not what Christians did. But now we hail that bleeding lamb,      We send our greetings high. We feel the power of God at heart,      We know that Christ is nigh. He held us as an Israel band,      He's crossed us o'er the sea Of Rebellion's cruel war just past,      And now we know we're free. Our Moses sleeps beneath the soil      In yonder sister State; Abraham Lincoln, it. was he      Who first our bonds did break. Charles Sumner next did lead the van      Of equal rights to all; Here thanks we bring to all of those      Responding to his call. We come with gratitude to all      Who lent a hand to save Our starry banner, flaunting high,      From floating o'er a slave. We're free to do, as all are free,      All o'er this mighty land, And we will serve both Nation and State      As justice doth command. Heaven's greatest blessings here,      Education, you will find, Will bring our latent talents up      On level with mankind. We pledge ourselves, this July 4th      If ever called in wars, Our sable hands will ever      Uphold our Stripes and Stars. Then let us give to God the praise      For all that He has done— For giving us this land of bliss,      The best beneath the sun.

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MAY C. HEYERS nee REYNOLDS
Actress, Singer, Musician, Writer of Operas.

     MAY C. REYNOLDS (NEE HEYERS) is the wife of the noted S. B. Heyers and the first theatrical manager of the United States.  This worthy young woman is now before the public classed as the leader of her race as an actress.  In the year of 1882 she left her dear old home a mere girl, and

MRS. MAY C. HEYERS

the said parting will never be erased from her memory; how her loving, noble father, after having tenderly impressed upon her inexperienced mind the difference between the outer world and home, caressed his darling and turned to hide the tears.  She left a home indeed made cheerless by the death of her mother when but an infant, but made happy by an indulgent father and careful stepmother; luxury and refinement were ever before them.  We say them, as their were five little ones.  Miss Reynolds has three beautiful and talented sisters, and one brother, a fine musician.  They are all well educated and fitted for ornaments in society, or a noble cause in public life.  While attending school it was discovered that Miss Reynolds possessed a remarkable voice for singing.  Mr. Reynolds, her father, was advised to put her under training, which he accordingly did, sparing no means.  Madam Rose Cogeshall was her first teacher, and after a series of terms left, after which Mr. Reynolds placed his daughter under tuition of Miss Lulu Borden, a graduate of the Boston conservatory, where she received good

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and careful training; when the term of school ended the music lessons ended also for that season.  Miss Reynolds having the honor of being called a singer by every one at her little country home, Tioga, Pa., she did not seem to care or know the worth of the praises showered upon her by old artists, but went along with her favorite playmates, jumping rope, playing ball, running races and tagging after her big sisters.  Her last vacation was in June, 1882, having at that time entered into all the highest branches,  French being her last and favorite study.  She was a finished bookkeeper and elocutionist as well as a singer.  During vacation, with the permission of pa, she went to Hornellsville to visit her grandma and aunt , while there the famous "Hyers Sisters" company were billed to give an entertainment.  Her heart was heavily burdened, as she had just received a letter from her sister Almira to return home as school commenced the following Monday.  Everywhere she turned she could see the flaming letters: "Hyers Sisters."  It seemed to put a charm over her.  She, however, wrote to her papa pleading with him to let her remain to see the first stage show of her life. Her father in his loving way answered in the affirmative.  She staid and met her fate.  She went and heard them warble, and saw them dance and beheld their magnificent costumes.  She saw the awful funny man "Sam Lucas," who could make himself tall or short, and every one and everything was so new and wonderful that it set her brain in a whirl.  "Oh, if I could only leave the hateful old school-room and go on the stage," was her first thought.  Mr. Hyers called on her aunt the following morning., May was in the parlor playing on the piano and singing, "I Am Content."  The manager was startled with delight and asked who was singing.  He was shown into the parlor and introduced.  He declared she had the most wonderful contralto voice he had ever heard.  Asking her if she would like to travel with his company she said, "Yes sir, but pa would not let me."  The company left and May went home with a new idea.  Mr. Hyers corresponded with her father, gaining his consent.  Miss Reynolds joined the company in Cleveland,  She gained upon the stars rapidly and is now one of the most

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brilliant in the profession.  She was married to Mr. Hyers the following season at her father's home.  She composed a poem on the late "Johnstown Horror," which is quite dramatic, and she recites it with great success; she also wrote a play for her company entitled, "Tip the Wharf Rat," and is now engaged in writing another play entitled the "Dreaded Witch of Africa."  She thinks her profession a grand work, and when she secures the warm applause of every tongue she gives a deep-souled gratitude-filled look, and thanks her father for his tender training and her Creator for the talent he endowed her with

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MRS. REV. M. J. DYER, nee EMMA FISHER.
Singer - "Star of Evening"

     WE have seen those virtues which have, while living, retired from the public eye, generally transmitted to posterity as the truest objects of admiration and praise.  Such is the subject of our sketch, who was born in Catskill, N. Y., July 1, 1857.  She was reared in the American metropolis, educated and trained in music by Madam Messimore, a lady of rare musical accomplishments, who originally lived in England; also by Professor Reason.  Her father having died when she was only three years old, true to the instincts of nature, where a will forced by a necessity for action existed, Providence provided a way.  She suffering some physical deformity — that of a healthy body of excellent and elegant physique is minus one arm—in the place of this inconvenience God provided a rich and unparalleled voice, so at nine years of age she could sing from low soprano to E above the staff.  From the general concessions and praises heralded abroad by people who were intoxicated with melody such as they had never heard from one so young, people came for miles around to catch a marvelous and deep-reaching but dying note, the quintessence of melody itself.  This created rare excitement—we say rare, because such as existed at that time had never in the world's history produced such profound asser-

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tions — "a thrill of joy prophetic" of the possibilities of the colored race.  The press paid glowing tributes to her, and styled her the "Star of Evening."
     At the age of fifteen she suffered the misfortune of caring for her mother, who had become an invalid, and, true to her trust, as her voice never failed her, she bore her task bravely, and sang to eager and anxious audiences which crowded her concerts.  Her first concert was given Oct. 12, 1875, at Line church, on which occasion the door receipts alone were $550.  With the assured appreciation of this demonstration she was forced on and on by the current which had already taken control of her soul and body, "on toward her being's end."  She traveled and sang to appreciable audiences in all the large cities of New York, through the East, South, North and West, meeting with unbounded success everywhere.  She grew in public favor so rapidly that her name spread all over the States and her talents were boasted by the millionaire as well as the miner, in fact such an impetus was given to her progress that nowhere was there a church barred against her.  Suffering physical deprivation in the absence of an arm, she nevertheless plied the one God-given hand to the organ and piano, with the nimbleness of the applauded disciples of Excelsior.
     She sang several years with the New Orleans Jubilee Troupe, under the direction of Rev. Dr. W. D. Goodman, which traveled through the Eastern and Middle States. 
     In the year of 1884 the death of her invalid mother became the sad reality which tried her melancholy spirit and dejected heart, but in the midst of her despair hope pointed to her a star.  The next year she married Rev. M. J. Dyer, a very estimable man, a minister of power and concentrated ability, and a distinguished member of the Louisiana Annual Conference M. E. Church.

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FLORA BATSON,
Queen of Song.

     FLORA BATSON was born at Washington, D. C., in 1864.  Her father died from wounds received in teh war.  At three years of age her mother removed with her to Providence, R. I.  At nine years of age, as a member of the then famous Bethel Church choir of that city, she attracted hundreds to hear the child singer.  Her

MLLE. FLORA BATSON.

professional career commenced at thirteen years of age, singing two years in the interest of Stoore's College, Harper's Ferry, three years in J. W. Hamilton's Lecture Bureau for the People's Church of Boston, one year in Redpath's Lecture and Lyceum Bureau, one year in temperance work; and in 1885 Manager J. G. Bergen secured her services, and under his management Steinway Hall, New York, the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, and the largest music halls of the Eastern cities were packed to hear the new star, styled by the New York World the colored Jenny Lind.  On Dec. 13, 1887, Miss Flora Batson and Manager J. G. Bergen were married at the Sumner House, New York City, and since their marriage MRs. Batson-Bergen has sung with great success in nearly every leading city in the country, and probably no American singer has been more strongly endorsed by the press of the country.  The following are a few of her testimonials, which are only samples of hundreds that might be given:

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     The Patti of her race.  — Chicago Inter-Ocean.
     The colored Jenny Lind. — New York World.
     The peerless mezzo-soprano. — New York Sun.
     The unrivaled favorite of. the masses. — New York Age.
     A mezzo-soprano of wonderful range.— San Francisco Examiner.
     She carried the house by storm, and five times was recalled to the footlights. — New York Herald.
     A sparkling diamond in the golden realm of song. — San Jose Califomian.
     Her progress through the country has been one continuous triumph. - Denver Rocky Mountain News.
     All her numbers were sung without effort—as the birds sing. — Mobile {Ala.) Register.
     A voice of great range, and of remarkable depth and purity. — Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal.
     She will never lack for an audience in the "City of Seven Hills." — Richmond ( Va.) Planet.
     The sweetest voice that ever charmed a Virginia audience. — Lynchburg (Va.) Advance.
     Her articulation is so perfect, her renditions seem like recitations set to music. - Kansas City Dispatch.
     A highly cultivated mezzo-soprano, of great sweetness, power and compass, and of dramatic quality. Charleston (S. C.) News and Courier.
     The indescribable pathos of her voice in dramatic and pathetic selections wrought a wondrous effect. — The Colonist, Victoria, British Columbia.
     Though of pleasing presence, she is unaffected, almost child-like in her bearing; this, with her wonderful singing, captivates the heart of the listener, regardless of the "color line." — Californian.
     Her voice showed a compass of three octaves, from the purest, clearest soprano, sweet and full, to the rich round notes of the baritone register. — Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette.
     Flora Batson, with her wonderful voice, has a divine mission to aid in breaking down the stubborn walls of prejudice, which must sooner or later give way in our Nation's progress toward a higher civilization, — Boston Transcript.
     She scored a complete success as a vocalist of high ability, and fully justified the favorable criticisms of the Eastern press.—San Francisco Examiner. 
     The flexibility, metal and purity of her vocal organ justly entitle Flora Batson to the distinction of being called the colored Jenny Lind.—Pittsburgh Dispatch.
     In response to an encore she gave a selection from "_l Trovatore" in baritone, showing the extraordinary range of her voice, and producing a mel-

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ody like the low tones of a pipe organ under a master's touch.  — San Diego (Cal.) San.
     The press of the country, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, unite in crowning her the greatest singer of her race, and worthy to rank among the great singers of the world. — Portland Oregonian.
     She wore a crown, heavily jeweled, and diamonds flashed upon her hands and from her ears. Her singing at once established her claim of being in the front rank of star artists, and there is a greater fortune than that already accumulated in store for her. — Providence (R. I.) Dispatch.
     She sings without affectation, and has an absolute command of her voice, from the highest to the lowest register. She was a surprise to every one present, and established a reputation that will guarantee her full houses at her future engagements on the Pacific Coast. — San Francisco Call.
     Her voice is rich in the qualities most valuable to a singer The range is wonderful. It is clear and resonant, exceedingly flexible and pure. Her articulation is perfect, and she sings with a freedom from effort seen rarely, except in the most famous singers. The tones of her voice are powerful and thrilling. It is rather dramatic than emotional. Her renditions last night covered an extraordinary versatility and range. — Nashville American.

MRS. ABBIE WRIGHT LYON.
Gifted Pianist and Singer

     THE subject of this sketch, ABBIE WRIGHT LYON, was born in Stony Brook, Long Island, in the year 1862.  When seven years old she was removed to Harlam, New York, where she attended school, and subsequently to New York City, where she finished a common school education.  At twelve years of age she was employed as organist at the Melrose, St. Paul A. M. E. Church.  Having evinced special talent for music and adaptability for instrumental playing she was, by special arrangement of her parents, placed in a condition where she could receive the very best training from well known instructors.  She was organist for a Bethel A. m. E. Church, one of the largest and leading colored churches in New York City, for three and a half years.  She has been a successful teacher of music.
     She met and married the Rev. Ernest Lyon, a graduate of the New Orleans University, and now a prominent minister of

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the Louisiana Conference Methodist Episcopal Church, while he was serving his first year as pastor of the M. E. Church, at Baldwin, the seat of Gilbert seminary, in the year 1883.  Since then she has been with him, sharing in the toils and hardships which come to a minister's wife.  Three lovely children have been the issue of this marriage.  She has followed her husband to every appointment (he having held some of the most prominent in the city of New Orleans) and by her kind and affectionate disposition has made hosts of friends.
     Mrs. Lyon is a professional songstress, having been endowed by nature with a strong and lovely voice. Many souls have been converted and led into the new life, under the influence of her christian songs.
     Mrs. Lyon was the accomplished organist of the New Orleans University singers for some years. Through that connection she became acquainted with the gentleman who became her husband.
     The Rev. Ernest Lyon is now the popular pastor of St. Mark's M. E. Church, New York City, and Mrs. Lyon is among her old friends, who rejoice in her prosperity.
                                             W. D. GOODMAN, A. M., D. D.

--------------------

MADAME FRANCES E. PRESTON.
Elocutionist.

     MADAME FRANCES E. PRESTON, elocutionist, born in Richmond Va., came to Detroit, Michigan, July, 2, 1855.  The school advantages were then limited in this city.  She being the only daughter, her parents were not willing to have her leave home to go where a better education might be obtained.  The Detroit Training School in Elocution and English Literature offered an opportunity that she had long desired and although a widow with one child and a large business, that of hair-dresser, to demand her time and attention, she entered this school January, 1880, at the age of thirty-three years, taking a two years and a half course, graduating May

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19, 1882 standing second among a large number of graduates, the majority being young women with much better schooling to start with.  A position was secured her by the teacher Mrs. Edna Chaffee Noble, to travel with the Donivan Famous Tennesseeans.  The secretary of the school accompanied her to Delaware to complete the arrangement, so interested was the

MADAME FRANCES E. PRESTON

teacher in her pupil that in this new life she might be successful.  After traveling one year with them she returned home and was appointed a teacher in the school from which she graduated, which position she still fills when at home.
     In '84 she traveled through eastern Virginia, giving programs alone.  In October, '88, she went to Augusta, Ga., accompanied by her daughter, L, F. Preston, to open a Baptist school for

[Page 97]
girls. The school opened in January with one teacher.  Madame Preston with her daughter, traveling and giving programs, to raise means to support the school, was called from this field of labor by the illness of her mother.
     In July, 1890, Dr. Derrick of New York appointed her as agent to assist in raising funds for the foreign missionary board, and in April, 1891, a position on the W. C. T. U. lecture bureau was secured her, this being the first literature ever placed upon their bureau.
     Mrs. Frances Preston is prepared to make engagements with lecture associations, lyceums, clubs, churches, or other societies, for evenings of dramatic and humorous recitations.  Additional interest arises from the fact that she is a colored lady, who was formerly a slave.  She has educated herself, and has been fitted for her present work by a thorough course of study in the Detroit Training School of Elocution and English Literature, under the personal instruction of the well-known reader and teacher, Mrs. Edna Chaffee Noble.

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FLATTERING TESTIMONIALS

     The debut of Mrs. Frances Preston, at Abstract Hall, possessed peculiar interest, from the fact that she is the first colored lady in this city to essay public readings.  She is to be congratulated on winning a very emphatic success.  She has a melodious voice of excellent range and flexibility, enunciates with agreeable clearness, and manifests feeling and appreciation in selections, grave and gay.  A novel feature of the programme was the introductory Bible reading; it was excellent.  The miscellaneous selections were appropriate, and admirably rendered. — Detroit Free Press.

     Insufficient space made it impossible, yesterday morning, to speak of Mrs. Preston's debut, except in a general way. There is to be said specially: "The Black Regiment" and "Howard at Atlanta" were capitally rendered.  Perhaps the best read selection (certainly the one which awakened the heartiest response of an interested and appreciative audience) was Champney's quaint, half humorous, half pathetic dialect poem, descriptive of how the trusty little negro boy, " Persimmons," rescued his baby protege from the perils of the flood.  It is a favorite selection with Detroit readers, but we have heard none who could read it so well as Mrs. Preston.  The hall was crowded and the lady's reading desk was heaped high with choice floral tributes. — Post and Tribune.

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     A large and select audience greeted Mrs. Preston, at Abstract Hall, on Monday evening.  Mrs. Preston is a pupil of Mrs. Edna Chaffee Noble, and possesses elocutionary talent of no small order.  The principal charm of her readings is her naturalness and grace of manner.  All the selections were listened to with much interest, but her renditions of "Aunt Phillis' Guest," "Persimmons takes cah ob de Baby." and " How he saved St. Michael's," were undoubtedly her most successful efforts. In connection with this article it may be appropriate to state that Mrs. Preston was a slave in the Southern States during the days of bondage.  She is about thirty-five years of age, and is a widow. — Every Saturday.

     Mrs. Preston is certainly a very fine reader. Her reading, entirely devoid of rant, is simple and impressive. — Sandusky, Ohio, Daily Register.

     There was a large audience present at the First Baptist church, on Wednesday evening, to hear Mrs. Frances Preston, the noted colored elocutionist, who gave one of her celebrated entertainments for the benefit of that church.  When her recitations were over no one seemed inclined to go, but applauded and asked for more.  Mrs. Preston has a rich contralto voice, over
which she has perfect control.  She has a fine stage presence, and whatever the character of her selection—pathetic, sentimental or humorous—she portrays each with equal skill, and is one of the most finished readers before the public. — The Caret, Newport News, Va,

     The citizens of Lansing were highly entertained by the reading of Mrs. Preston, the well-known elocutionist of Detroit.  The selections were well received and elicited much applause.  Her rendition of humorous selections was admirable.  "How he saved St. Michael's" was read in such a manner that the vast audience was held spell-bound until its conclusion.  But the crowning event of the evening was the reading of "The Black Regiment," when the marvelous voice of the elocutionist was shown to its best advantage.   She has won the hearts of the people at Lansing. — Lansing Republican.

     Rev F. B. Cressey, editor of the Center, the organ of the prohibition party of Michigan, writes as follows: Mrs. Frances Preston, Detroit.  Respected Madam: Permit me, all unsolicited by yourself, to express my high appreciation of the readings and recitations which I recently heard you give.  I must say that for distinctness of enunciation and naturalness and beauty of expression you have powers which will surely obtain for you a wide patronage.  You have my best wishes and cordial commendation.
 

With kind regards, FRANK B. CRESSEY.

     Mrs. Preston read before the inmates of St. Vincent's Orphan Asylum, in Detroit, on Decoration Day.  The Michigan Catholic, in a column article says of the Scripture reading: "Mrs. Preston opened by reading from the Bible St. Paul's defense before King Agrippa, and listening to the eloquence thus depicted, one wondered he had not read that particular passage of the Holy Scripture with more frequency and enthusiasm."  Of her rendition of "Persimmons Takes Care of the Baby," the same paper says: "In this piece Mrs. Preston had an opportunity for display of her marked and varied

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elocutionary power, and held her audience in a state between tears and laughter."  Mrs. Preston's daughter, Miss Lillie, assisted her mother on this occasion, and speaking of her singing the Michigan Catholic says: "Miss Lillie has a remarkably sweet voice, showing good progress in cultivation."

     Powhatan Beatty, for many years connected with the theatres of Cincinnati, says: "Mrs. Preston is a pleasant reader, and thoroughly understands the principles of elocution.  Her gestures are graceful and full of expression.  At times one is forcibly reminded of that eminent actress, Clara Morris.  Her modulation is excellent, and in the lower and middle register of her voice she has not an equal. * * * I have heard all of the great readers, and so far as my judgment goes I would place her in the front ranks.  She has a voice full of pathos, and at times her audience are melted to tears, and at other times are convulsed with laughter.

     H. W Thompson, representative in the Michigan Legislature, from the Delta district, says: "I have listened with pleasure and profit to the readings of Mrs. Frances Preston, and do hereby recommend her to any who may desire her service in that direction."

     D. Augustus Straker, the eminent lawyer, formerly of Columbus, S. C, at present one of the most successful lawyers of Detroit, writes: "Mrs. F. Preston.  Dear Madam: It gives me pleasure to testify to your merit as an elocutionist.  I have listened to your renditions in public and in private, and regard them of the most exalted style and of profound conception.  It is only by such speaking as you give to the ideas of others that the hearer can fully understand and enjoy the depths of soul of our poets and other writers.
 

Respectfully yours,         D. A. STRAKER."

     W. Irving Babcock, State senator from the Ninth district of Michigan, says: "It gives me great pleasure to say that Mrs. Frances Preston is an elocutionist of commendable ability and training.  Her recitations are particularly pleasing."
     The Spring Valley Journal says of Mrs. Preston: "She is the greatest elocutionist of her race."
     The New York Globe, speaking of an entertainment given by Mrs. Preston, closes in these words: "One evening with Mrs. Preston will add more intellectuality to our children than many books, and we advise our readers to let no opportunity pass that will do so much for the little folks."

     Mrs. Preston attracts the greatest interest wherever she goes, not only by her wonderful talent, but from the fact that she has been a slave and has had innumerable difficulties to overcome in the vocation she has chosen and for which she is so admirably fitted. — Newport News Commercial.

		CINCINNATI, O. January 11, 1887

     Mrs. Frances Preston, elocutionist and teacher in Mrs. Noble's training school in Detroit, is well known to me, I having been her pastor two years in Detroit, Mich. During that time I have heard recitations both in the church of which she is a member and among the white people of the city.  She also

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gave two programmes in this city at the Union Baptist church, at which she received a perfect ovation.  The universal verdict here, entertained by critics and non-critics, is that she is "equaled by few and excelled by none," as she is at home equally in any part which she essays, pathetic, humorous or dramatic.  I cheerfully give this expression because I feel the lady is worthy of it.
                                                  WM. A. BURCH, Pastor Union Baptist Church.

     The Springfield, O., Republican, in noticing an entertainment given in that city by Mrs. Preston and her daughter, after paying highest compliments to Mrs. Preston, says: "One of the most attractive features of the evening's entertainment was the Æsthetic Gestures,' and 'Lyre Movement,' by Miss Lillie Preston, daughter of the elocutionist.  Her gestures expressing, profound grief, anguish, supplication and remorse, by turn, were so natural as almost to cause a person to feel as if he were witnessing a dire disaster o_ calamity.  Miss Preston has remarkable control over her audience as her performance was something entirely new to many."
     Mrs. Frances Preston's reputation is not confined to her home—Detroit — but is becoming national. — Springfield {Ohio) Republican.

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MISS LYLBROUNETTA F. PRESTON.
Vocalist and Pantomimist.

     SHE is the only and first pantomimist of her race on the stage.  Born in Detroit, Mich.  Attended the public school, studied music at the Detroit Conservatory of Music, at the same time taking

MISS LYLBROUNETTA F. PRESTON.

the junior course in the school of elocution, and finishing a thorough course of calisthenics, which thoroughly prepared her for the work of pantomimist.  Has traveled for four years with her mother.  Her early death disrobes the Negro race of one of its brightest meteors, and the world of an actress.
     Truly has the poet said "Death loves a shining mark."

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