Winds are God's most useful tools,
Moving as Ills wisdom rules;
Men are blind and stubborn fools,
Denying His control,
Heaven or earth is not our own;
This is wisdom seldom known
Till we stand before the throne,
Praying pardon for our blind and sinful soul
Why was I placed on this earth ?
Sin attends my life since birth ;
God in this world finds no dearth
Of erring flesh and crime.
Since I know both good and bad,
Each by willing can be had . ;
Good will make all mortals glad
And secure the immortality sublime
In this world of loss and gain,
Arid fields turned green with rain,
Sinful pleasures breeding pain,
Have a work to do.
Gathering what my talent earns,
Dropping food where hunger burns,
Friending who from evil turns,
I can thus God's course of wisdom best pursue
Eventide ! How sweet the hour I
Charged with heaven's divinest power
Melting hearts with a blissful shower
Of gratitude to God.
Sylvan tongues thy praise declare,
Floating hymns on perfumed air, '
Eager stars when sky is fair,
Pierce the twilight as a fiery sparkling rod.
THE NEGRO PROBLEM
EACH generation has its set of problems
and just as true each generation has
one problem pre-eminent among those which
perplex her leaders and for which she must
find a solution. This statement is an idiom
founded upon the history of the ages and
among no race' of people has this been exem
plified to a greater degree within our own.
Hence it is not surprising that we are to
day engrossed and agitated over the Negro
problem ; a problem which is not merely a
social, question, but one which touches , the
vital organism of our political being and
causes the harmony of our people as a nation
to tremble on the balance. From the begin-
THE FREE' LANCE.
ning our race has been a proud one, feeling
the majesty of superior intellect and power
as bestowed upon our forefathers, by circum
stances more favorable than those which sur
rounded the rest of mankind. As a race we
have deemed it beneath us to mix our blood
with other races ; to allow others to occupy
the same common plane with ourselves and
as is shown by the past we have not con
sidered it inhuman or irreligious to force races
back to their old state, if their advancement
threatened to make them our equals. This
spirit of our race accounts for the present
attitude of our brothers in the " South."
Our ancestors brought the negro from his
home and forced him into servitude upon our
shores and now we are seemingly about to
reap the consequence of their injustice.
Recognized by the Creator and law of this
nation as our equal, can we expect our arro
gant treatment to the negro to breed else but
discontent within the bosom ? Can we but
expect that some awful settlement of this
problem will be the result when we consider
that thy black race is such a prolific race.
Various have been the methods proposed
for the solving of this problem. Prominent
among these has been that of colonization,
but this is impracticable and absurd when we
consider the vastness of the race and we are
forced to believe •the black man is here to
stay and the question dwindles down to what
is the best course to avert the dangers aris
ing out of constant contact.
We cannot as some have suggested send
them to one state or territory as we have the
Indians for to this he will not consent and
the use of force would create civil strife and
such a result must be avoided. As a peac
able nation we hope for a bloodless settle
ment, but let us beware our present oppres
sion creates anarchy, it causes the use of the
firebrand, the dagger and the bomb.
Shall we absorb the race ? No ! precedent,
prejudice and hatred forbid and our Anglo-