“Now, no preaching, be it with the tongue of men or angels, could vanquish this ingrained, inexorable foe, this silent, overmastering force that rose up on every side to set at naught our preaching. [Illustration: A BLACK.] “After twenty-five years of Christian effort it remains the same, and at the end of a century of Gospel work it will still be there just the same. “And those who do not take into consideration this overwhelming power of antagonism between the races when they are considering the Southern question are fools. “The whites _will_ not look upon the negroes as their equals, and you cannot make them—” “Wall, they be!” hollered out Josiah. “The Proclamation made ’em free and equal, jest as we wuz made in the War of 1812.” “But oh, what a difference!” sez Cousin John Richard sadly. “The American colonies were the peers of the mother country. It was only a quarrel between children and mother. The same blood ran in their veins, they had the same traits, the same minds, the same looks, they were truly equal. “But in this case it was an entirely different race, necessarily inferior by their long years of degradation, brought up at one bound from the depths of ignorance and servitude to take at once the full rights awarded to intellect and character. “It was a great blunder; it was a sad thing for the white race and for the black race!” Josiah wuz jest a openin’ his mouth to speak in reply to Cousin John Richard’s last words, when all of a sudden we heard a knock at the door, and I went and opened it, and there stood Miss Eben Garlock, and I asked her to come in, and sot her a chair. I never over and above liked Miss Eben Garlock, though she is a likely woman enough so fur as I know. But she is one of the kind of wimmen who orniment the outside of their heads more than the inside, and so on with their hearts and souls, etc. She is a great case for artificial flowers, and ribbin loops, and fringes. And the flowers that wuz a blowin’ out on her bunnet that day _would_ have gone a good ways towards fillin’ a half-bushel basket. And the loops that wuz a hangin’ all round her boddist waist would have straightened out into half a mile of ribbin, I do believe. The ribbin wuz kinder rusty, and she had pinned on a bunch of faded red poppies on to the left side of her boddist waist, pretty nigh, I should judge, over her heart. Which goes to prove what I said about her trimmin’ off the outside of her heart and soul. Her clothes are always of pretty cheap material, but showy, and made after sort o’ foamin’ patterns, with streamers, and her favorite loops and such. And they always have a look as if they wuz in danger of fallin’ off of her. She uses pins a good deal, and they drop out considerable and leave gaps.