We are in the midst of the trying season for these poor people. The cold weather is coming on; but thanks to the kind women of Yarmouth, Mass., and Skowhegan, Me., we have a good stock of garments for the most needy. Two barrels have come and their contents been distributed in part. The Lord bless the generous hearts and fingers that filled them. I want to say to the friends of Tennie that she is making a grand record in school. I have another girl named Rosa for whom I bespeak an interest. If any Sunday-school or any body wants to take her off my hands, I will find another to take care of. Work done for these girls is good work. * * * * * Freedom's Day. The Band of Hope in Chattanooga observed the first day of January in celebrating the anniversary of the proclamation of Emancipation. The exercises were held in one of our largest halls, and were well attended. They consisted of speaking and singing, and the reading of the Proclamation. The principal address was given by Rev. Mr. Hurley, of the A. M. E. Church, and contained some excellent thoughts upon the situation of things in the South. After a brief introduction, in which he spoke of the propriety of the colored people's observing this day as the white people had been accustomed to observe the Fourth of July, as independence day, he proceeded to name some of the benefits that had come to the whole country, white and black, North and South--for we are one, and what really benefits one section, benefits all--from the emancipation of the slaves. 1. His first point related to the honor of the American name. For almost a century poets have sung and orators boasted of the national honor. The declaration of independence, "that all men are born free and equal," has been flaunted abroad as the pennant of the nation, while millions of our people were being born, living and dying in the worst form of slavery the world has ever known. In all those long years the nation lived a stupendous lie. Never was the declaration of independence true until Abraham Lincoln made it so the first day of January, 1863. It is a great benefit to the nation to be true to its professions; to have this great blot wiped out. 2. By the emancipation of the slaves, 5,000,000 pairs of hands were added to the wealth and defences of the nation--no small gift. We read of a time when a nation shall be born at once. It has come. What if the ex-slave has had to be nursed! All babes are nursed. Is not the babe a blessing to the household? Even its very helplessness is a blessing, educating the finest sensibilities of humanity. If the babe born January 1st, 1863, is nurtured aright, God alone can measure the benefits to the nation.