There are in the United States 9,945,916 families, of 5.04 persons to the family. There are only 8,955,812 dwellings, with 5.06 persons to the dwelling. It will be seen that there are 990,104 families, or five million people, without dwellings, either owned or rented--no where to rest their heads. Is this the result of over population? It is not. It will be centuries before our country will reach that stage. It is the result of shiftlessness and the inertia of population. If lands are high in the cities and older states, they may be had upon your own terms in the broad, open West. There are also hundreds of thousands of acres for homestead entry in the southern states. It is true that much of it is mountain land, but it will be gold to the man who will bear the privations of justifying his claim to it. There are also corporations with large means, as well as individuals, in nearly all of our cities who are willing to sell to thrifty persons lots or farms on reasonable terms. Now is the golden opportunity. The working men of the South will never have such an opportunity again to get homes. With the increase of population by birth and influx, lands must rise in demand and price. I have heard of one legitimate objection to selling lands to colored persons. It is said that they buy on mortgage transfer, soon become discouraged, allow ruin and dilapidation to follow, and then surrender the place in worse condition than delivered to them. This objection can easily be overcome by taking my pattern for the happy home. If this is done, the vendor would hardly foreclose a mortgage should you get much behind in your payments, as the property would be constantly increasing in value. XII. The Newspapers and the Negro. There is general complaint among the colored people that we do not get newspaper notices only of our misdeeds. This is not true. The best papers, North and South, publish whatever information they can get worthy of commendation. We are too sensitive on this point. My experience and observation are that the press is well disposed toward the Negro. It is true there are many papers of small reputation full of prejudice, or surrounded by a narrow-minded constituency, that do not wish the Negro well, but they are a weak minority. The following taken from the Huntsville (Ala.) _Daily Mercury_ of recent date, sufficiently proves my position. "The workmen employed on the Baker & Helm block on the corner of Washington and Clinton Sts., are workmen right, and deserve a word of kind praise for the 'big licks' they have accomplished in the erection of this building.