You all know of the degradation of the colored women in the South. You are ready to believe in their dirty, comfortless huts, yet I could take you into many a pleasant home among the colored people, where neatness and order reign supreme, where man’s industry and woman’s taste have combined with charming result, and where it would be hard to say which was exerting the greater or better influence—the earnest Christian man, or his equally earnest wife. Tasteful pictures on the walls, books of standard authors on the table, shades at the shining windows, a clean, white bed, a clock, perhaps a cabinet organ, would meet your wondering gaze. With keen insight the women and girls recognize the primary cause of such a home and the influence that has molded its founders. So, in ever-increasing numbers, ignorant, uncouth girls, apply for admission to the missionary school, which, in some mysterious way, is to transform them; and their poverty-stricken mothers give of their scanty store all that can be spared, and more, and wait with joyful anticipation for the time when the daughters may become the teachers from whom they in turn may learn the more excellent way. To us, then, comes the work of educating them, not out of their positions in life, but for them; to train them in such habits that they may look upon uncleanliness, either physical or moral, with utter loathing, and yet to implant that Christlike spirit which shall lead them to count no home too repulsive, no work degrading, if only it is the Lord’s place and work for them. With such an end in view, school work means much. Not only is the dormant intellect to be awakened and the knowledge of books imparted, but also that practical knowledge of every-day life in which, strange to say, they may be even more deficient. Nor do they always come with that keen thirst for improvement that insures success. How can they, when the consciousness of their own shortcomings has not yet dawned upon them? Their acquaintances are as ignorant as themselves; their own bare home is as good as their neighbors’. Not until they have mingled in the school life with companions far beyond themselves in attainment do they realise their own need, and begin to climb. Personal neatness is to be inculcated; dress, deportment, speech, expression, manner, must be watched and toned by careful teachers. A sense of honor must be cultivated, and, above all, conscience aroused and trained, that the end of all our labor may be attained and Christ be found in them.