these homes, and to the kindling of a desire to do so. Historically and, perhaps, philosophically, dress seems to have been developed from ornament. All savages strut in paint, feathers, and skins, intended to set off their charms of person, long before either decency or comfort suggests clothing; and among the colored girls of the South, pains should be taken to develop a womanly pride which will be ashamed of a bare and squalid hut, a pride which, without care, will prove to be mere vanity, delighting in gaudy dress and brilliant pinchbeck. In its present stage of development the South is the Eldorado of the cheap jewelry peddler, and many a youth, who can without shame sleep on straw, live on corn and get along without shoes, is miserable for lack of a brass ring and pin. Dress for comfort and not as mere ornament, soap, towels, beds, regulated ventilation, the conditions and concomitants of true culture, these belong to a distinct epoch from that earlier and lower one characterized by love of display. The wise, Christian culture of our schools is intended to reduce this evil, to which the negro is specially inclined, to the least possible dimensions. We aim to make earnest, practical men and women, who shall value all they can acquire either of knowledge or of money, not in its relation to personal aggrandizement, but for its power to lift their homes, families and people out of their present degradation. But the work of the teacher needs to be supplemented by other saving influences. In no other way could the Southern States do so much for the elevation of intelligence and virtue of its poorer classes, white and black, as by inducing them to build for themselves better homes. In more northerly latitudes, climate compels the erection of houses that are at least well made, and excellence in one particular suggests and gradually secures it in others; but where a hut, floorless and windowless, proves sufficient, nothing better is suggested, and life sustained on that level rises to no higher plane except under special, extraneous provocatives. In the present impoverished condition of these States, and comparative indifference of the better to the degraded condition of the lower classes, nothing can be expected from them, and the suggestion is made to philanthropists who are seeking the welfare of the colored people, whether something might not be done by offering premiums for the erection of homes, and by furnishing, in some way, plans and suggestions which would be helpful to them. In some States, the negroes have, with good results, instituted agricultural fairs, and have thus stimulated each other to helpful rivalries. Cannot something be done by the offer, through these organizations, of suitable premiums for cheap, but suitable, homes?