In 1862 she came out as a public reader, and shone like a very brilliant star. She showed that she was a perfect elocutionist by birth, and had been polished like a rich jewel. Her natural beauty and personal graces, engaging manners and richly-toned voice, drew the eyes of the whole country. Just as she had come to be well-known, she heard of the great destitution among the colored orphans at New Orleans at the close of the war. Hither she hastened, and in 1867 raised funds to build an asylum for the colored people of that city. This she did in her spirit of Christian love, and she won the hearts of all those who beheld her, like another angel of mercy, at her good works. But the yellow fever struck her down on the 10th of October of the above year, 1867, when she said so touchingly, "I belong to God, our Father," and then expired. Thus was this brave young woman cut off in her thirty-fourth year. But she lived long enough to show to others a brilliant example that will never be forgotten. CHAPTER XX. _Our First Great Men and Women—New Lights to the Front—Our Own Humble Beginning in 1865—Cleanliness and Industry—Music and Song—Immense Progress in Education, and a Mighty Advance Along the Whole Line—The Rapid Increase of Wealth—The Crime of Lynching—The Church and Sunday-School—The Colored Man’s Right to Vote, and to Rule the Nation._ Though I have only sketched the lives of two most eminent members of color, and two famous women of the same race, I must confess that I feel greatly tempted to go on with the subject, and speak of many others, some of whom have gone to their reward, and others remain alive unto the present day. At first sight the general reader might imagine that those first bright stars that shone in our intellectual firmament were brighter than the talented men and women whom we can see at this day and hour, walking up and down our streets, and shining like suns in their different professions, doing splendid service in elevating the colored race in America. We had Fred. Douglass, Bishop Payne, Mrs. Frances Ellen Harper, and some other bright, particular stars, who shone with apparently unusual brilliancy some fifty or sixty years ago, and they have been set down for the seven wonders of the world (Fred. Douglass, at least, was a genuine wonder for all time). But while we are inclined to look upon these worthies as towering geniuses, and most extraordinary lights in the heavens in but recently bye-gone days, we forget that the thick darkness that surrounded them went a long way in making their brilliance and splendor appear far brighter than they really were. This is quite true of all races, and is no detraction whatever from the real merits that were justly their own. I am safe in saying that 10,000 clever colored men and women, representing all the different arts and professions, could be picked out at this day, who would have passed for stars of the first magnitude, had they made their appearance upon the