question; it worries the others very little, and I believe the only
thing which at times sustains them is that they know that they are in
the right. On the other hand, this class of colored people get a good
deal of pleasure out of life; their existence is far from being one
long groan about their condition. Out of a chaos of ignorance and
poverty they have evolved a social life of which they need not be
ashamed. In cities where the professional and well-to-do class is
large they have formed society--society as discriminating as the
actual conditions will allow it to be; I should say, perhaps, society
possessing discriminating tendencies which become rules as fast
as actual conditions allow. This statement will, I know, sound
preposterous, even ridiculous, to some persons; but as this class of
colored people is the least known of the race it is not surprising.
These social circles are connected throughout the country, and a
person in good standing in one city is readily accepted in another.
One who is on the outside will often find it a difficult matter to
get in. I know personally of one case in which money to the extent of
thirty or forty thousand dollars and a fine house, not backed up by
a good reputation, after several years of repeated effort, failed
to gain entry for the possessor. These people have their dances
and dinners and card parties, their musicals, and their literary
societies. The women attend social affairs dressed in good taste, and
the men in dress suits which they own; and the reader will make a
mistake to confound these entertainments with the "Bellman's Balls"
and "Whitewashers' Picnics" and "Lime-kiln Clubs" with which the
humorous press of the country illustrates "Cullud Sassiety."

Jacksonville, when I was there, was a small town, and the number of
educated and well-to-do colored people was small; so this society
phase of life did not equal what I have since seen in Boston,