In  a  school  containing  twelve  hundred  black
children,  the  fire  alarm  was  given,  and  in  exactly
three  minutes  every  child  was  in  the  playground,
the  whole  school  being  ranged  in  ''  column  of
companies,"  or,  rather,  of  classes.  Assuredly,
such  discipline  cannot  but  be  salutary.  It  was
in  this  school  too,  that  I  heard  five  hundred  negro
children  (most  of  them  quite  small,  for  three-
fourths  of  them  drop  out  after  passing  througli
the  primary  classes)  singing  in  their  clear,  shrill
voices —

*'  In  Dixie  Land
I  take  my  stand,
To  live  and  die  in  Dixie."

Poor  quaint  little  mortals !     They  were  unconscious
of  any  irony  in  the  sentiment.
In  every  negro  school  or  college  that  I  visited
— at  Tuskegee  among  the  rest — I  saw  several
young  people  in  whom  my  eye  could  not  discern
the  slightest  trace  of  black  blood.*     But  it  was

*  iSeCj  howoverj  p.  1'2'j.
CHARLESTON  175

iu  Cliarleston,  at  au  endowed  school  for  negroes,
that  the  most  remarkable  instance  of  this  kind
came  under  my  notice.  I  was  present  at  the
morning  muster  of  the  whole  school ;  and  while
the  hymn  was  being  sung  I  could  not  take  my
eyes  off  two  boys  of  thirteen  or  fourteen,  evidently
brothers,  who  stood  side  by  side  in  one  of  the
upper  classes.  They  were  not  only  white,  but
(one  would  have  said)  peculiarly  and  resplendently
white.  Their  features  were  delicate  and  distin-
guished, their  eyes  blue  or  grey,  their  hair  a
light  brown.  They  were  slightly  built,  and,
although  their  dress  was  quite  plain,  they  had
somehow  an  air  of  grace  and  breeding.  They
could  have  gone  to  Eton  or  Winchester  and
excited  no  remark.
