We simply turn our heads and smile a great big smile and say in muffled tones: "The fool hath said in his heart that there is no hope for the Negro race in this country." There is hope. Get up and be doing; get religion, education, a trade, and a profession; buy property; "put money in thy purse," and you will be recognized as a full-fledged citizen of this country. Let us say what we believe to be a fact: The disciplined thought that the Negro is receiving at this school will give a freshness, a manliness, a hopefulness, and a faith which will deliver him from the tyranny of his surroundings, widen his views of his own capabilities, make him conscious of belonging to a race that has rich things in store for the world, and glorify his heart with a thousand strange and fruitful sympathies and with endless heroic aspirations. It is something so unique in the history of Christian civilization that wherever the existence of such an institution as that of Tuskegee is heard of there will be curiosity as to its character, its work, and its prospects. An institution suited to the exigencies of this race cannot come into existence all at once. It must be the result of years of experience, of trial, and of experiment. In order that you may form a correct idea as to the magnitude of this school, let us cull the following statement from a speech of Mr. Washington, who, among other things, said: "We have eight hundred and fifty students at Tuskegee from twenty-two states, eighty-one instructors, and a colony of one thousand people, together with literary training. We train in twenty-six different industries. Of the thirty-seven buildings, all except three were erected by the students. They have sawed the lumber, made the brick, done the masonry, carpentering, plastering, painting, and tin spouting. The property is now valued at $280,000, and is the work of students in the past fifteen years." All sound-thinking and unprejudiced-minded persons will agree that this institution is a very able instrument to assist in carrying forward the work so necessary to be done for the race. (J. Francis Robinson, Cambridge, Mass.) MOTHER'S TREASURES. BY MRS. F. E. W. HARPER. Two little children sit by my side, I call them Lily and Daffodil; I gaze on them with a mother's pride, One is Edna and the other is Will. Both have eyes of starry light And laughing lips over teeth of pearl. I would not change for a diadem My noble boy and darling girl. To-night my heart o'erflows with joy; I hold them as a sacred trust. I fain would hide them in my heart, Safe from tarnish of moth and rust. What should I ask for my dear boy? The richest gift of wealth or fame? What for my girl? A loving heart And a fair and spotless name? What for my boy? That he should stand A pillar of strength to the state. What for my girl? That she should be The friend of the poor and desolate.