I find the schools full of interest, and that in the higher institutions
the girls and young women are side by side in nearly equal numbers with
lads and young men in climbing up the steep hills of education. It is,
indeed, climbing. It takes more time, more patience and more resolution
than most white students with happier conditions can realize.

The characteristics of the student are changing somewhat from the
former days. Pupils are pushing into the more advanced grades earlier
in years. They have not the memories of slavery as had the generations
before them--only the traditions of it, and certain of its
influences--for influences do not die when institutions pass away. There
is not, for example, much old-fashioned Puritanism stalking about in New
York in these days, but considerable of Puritan influence is alive and
is just now contributing to the hopefulness of the times and the
interests of municipal reform and even of the State government.
Influences continue, and it will take time for those of slavery or the
effect on both races to pass away.

One may not particularize among so many schools and churches as were in
the path of my visitation, and one must generalize if he will keep
within limits. For ten years now it has been my privilege to study the
South as a personal observer, not only in schools and churches and not
only on the regular routes of travel, but in the bypaths of rural life
and in talks with all classes and conditions of men of every shade of
color. I may, therefore, be permitted to generalize.

First, it is often said that those who live among evils best understand
them and know how to meet them. This is a fallacy. The missionaries in
China knew better what was for the good of China than did the Emperor
himself. There are people in the United States, also, who could give