FROM OUR NEW YORK CORRESPONDENT.

NEW YORK, July 27th, 1855.

MR. EDITOR:—I must frankly confess that the absence from her post of your "Literacy Editor," has had much to do with my prolonged silence. Her incessant activity, and devotedness to "our paper," always touched whatever gallantry is in me, to do something in the way of writing; and—shall I admit it?—a lurking desire to tease and torment her literary tastes, by way of variety to the graver matters which pressed upon her attention would often send my old pen scrawling across the foolscap: this I consider the most candid of confessions, about a failing which I cannot help: from earliest childhood, "," has steadily and constantly rang in my ears and up to the time, when by general assent, there was "no use in whipping him," I dare say the words "," &c., were faithfully accompanied with switch and broomstick; for my own part, "memory runneth not back" to that part of the "don't," for whenever a piece of mischief is in the wind, I am for the time being as insensible to all other impressions, as a pointer on his lay—but, to cut a long story short, "I doot its in the bluid," for I hear, about house, every hour, when at home, the younger Communipaw saluted with "Don't, James," and other sounds that make me dream I am

"a boy again!" —hem!

I have read, with much interest, a series of articles in the , on

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION,

by the Editor, Peter H. Clark, Esq.: the earnest frankness of the writer is most commendable. He sets forth clearly and forcibly the need of higher aims for our youth than barber-shops, knife cleaning, and bone polishing: he believes that mechanical employments, as journeymen and master workmen, afford the desirable occupations which should tempt the ambition and employ the energy of our young men. He does not think (for reasons which will be examined directly) the Industrial College of the National Council at all likely to promote these higher aims, and proposes a plan of his own, which is, in brief, that colored mechanics, in various towns, who are of the same trade, should combine in an extensive copartnership, so as to take large jobs, compete with men of larger capital by their economized establishment, and thus give employment to a large number of colored youth in handicrafts—leaving the "head learning" of such to the common schools in the vicinities, (for instance, the schools he so graphically describes in his paper of the 14th inst.)

I will not say a word against Mr. Clark's plan: so deeply do I feel the need of some work in this direction, that I would gladly see any and every plan tried; reverencing them all, as the Persian does any piece of paper which he may pick up in the street—for it may contain the name of Perhaps it would not be amiss for Mr. Clark to carry out his own plan; suppose all the colored newspapers, conducted as they are by able and talented editors, instead of "each one hammering away in his separate little sanctum, (I quote brother Clark's words,) for which he pays a separate rent, catching each his little separate jobs, purchasing separate little stocks of material, and all only united in inveighing against—the hard times"—I say, suppose all these talented editors, instead of this, should "unite their fortunes," (I quote brother Clark again,) "the sums they pay for their little shops (sanctums) would hire a good office on a thronged street; and their little capitals clubbed together would enable them," &c., &c. You see, I quite fall in with brother Clark's views, an affectionately call upon him, and his brother Editors in Ohio and elsewhere, to give the world and our poor people a glorious and shining fact which may illumine the hard road we travel.

At the same time, and in the same spirit, I would beg brother Clark to let us try our

INDUSTRIAL COLLEGE.

Mr. Clark's objections to the plan—that is to say the strongest of them—are as follows:

1. "Why should we attempt that which the
learning and wealth of the country have failed
to accomplish?"

It would be about as pertinent to ask, why does Mr. Clark start an Ohio paper, when "" failed? The accomplished gentleman who projected the latter had all the learning of Oberlin, and, moreover, as he informed his readers, had abundant means to carry on the paper: yet it failed: therefore, learning and wealth failed, &c., &c.: and there is no more hardihood in our attempting the Industrial School, than there was in the establishment of the . Now, the truth is, that an Industrial College has no affinities with learning nor wealth: hence learning and wealth could not create an Industrial College: learning abhors dirty hands and grimy brows: wealth hates physical labor, eternally protests against the command "by the sweat of brow shalt thou gain they bread." Its creed is, "by the sweat of thy brow, shalt thou gain they bread." Hence the very attempt, in every case, in our land, of learning and wealth, to establish an Industrial School, has been the attempt of oil to mix with water.—And the establishment of such a school, to be successful, must spring from an iron will, as in Prussia; or, from the necessities of the people, as it will be in our land, where the marriage between "head learning" and "hand-craft" in Institutions where the fullest development will be given to both, will inaugurate a new Era in which the terms Wealth and Poverty will become things of the past.

2. "One vital objection is, that the range of trades to be taught is altogether too limited.—Broom and basket making, tailoring, and a few similar simple arts, are all that can be taught, unless they can locate in some large city," says Mr. Clark.

It would be sufficient reply to say, that a man of straw is here set up and knocked over.—Shoemaking has made Lynn a city, although it is thousands of miles from its markets for the sale of shoes: peg-making grew up along side of shoemaking. Last-making, much of which is done by very elaborate and skilful turning; rung-making, for table and chair legs; chair- bottom-making; scroll sawing of wood for ornamental chairs and sofas; veneer-sawing of our black walnut and bird's-eye maple; tanning, such as Zadock Pratt does; stave-making for barrels, casks, and butter tubs; and many other crafts, giving skill to hand and eye, and application of science to handicraft, could be carried on profitably and successful in any of the many regions in Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio, where there are plenty of woods and a waggon road to a railroad depot, or sloop navigation, or even raft navigation. And as to the economy of the matter, or the fear of being undersold, why the very presence of the woods on the spot, affords a saving of the cost of one transportation of raw and therefore heaviest material. A tool-shop, that is, black and white-smithing, would grow up alongside any one of the above crafts. There is now, in Washington Street, in this city, not only piles of planed and tongued and grooved boards, but vast quantities of chair, table and beadstead legs and posts, which have been delivered in New York, from the heart of Pennsylvania, at could have been delivered at the same spot: and I have in my desk, an order from London, for samples of these very articles, with a view to import them into that city in large quantities.

Then, as the timber is cut down from the school lands, there comes into use the soil, for the exercise of that noblest yet least understood and worst practised of all callings, Economic or scientific Agriculture: ten, or a hundred, or two hundred thoroughly educated colored farmers, would do more than as many Editors to revolutionize public opinion and command patronage and success. But I am writing too long a letter. The other objections of Mr. Clark, I will endeavor to meet in that spirit of fairness of which he has set the example and of earnestness which the nature of the question demands.

* * * * *

You would like to know what our literati are driving at in these canine days. Fylbel is gracefully reposing on his laurels after that CosmopoliteBell, Philip A.

Philip A. Bell (1808-89) was educated at the New York City Free School and worked as an agent for the Liberator and at a variety of occupations in his youth. He was secretary of a January 1831 public meeting of New York blacks that protested against the colonization movement. In 1837 Bell helped found and edit the Weekly Advocate, later renamed the New York Colored American, which was an important forum for black opinion until its demise in 1842. In the 1850s he operated an employment agency for New York City blacks and was active in literary, temperance, and mutual relief societies as well as the antislavery movement. Bell attended many of the antebellum National Negro Conventions and lectured for equal suffrage for blacks. Moving to California in 1860, Bell briefly ran a real estate agency before returning to journalism, first as associate editor of the San Francisco Pacific Appeal, and later as owner and editor of the San Francisco Elevator. In the 1870s Bell was president of the Equal Rights League of California, a politically independent group that lobbied Republican politicians for better treatment of blacks. While still in New York, Bell wrote to the North Star under the pseudonym "Cosmopolite." New York Colored American, 8 December 1838; San Francisco Elevator, 12 June 1868, 11 January, 15 November 1873; William Lloyd Garrison, Thoughts on African Colonization: or; an Impartial Exhibition of the Doctrines, Principles and Purposes of the American Colonization Society (New York, 1832), 13- 17; Penn, Afro-American Press, 32-34, 94-98; Robert C. Dick, Black Protest: Issues and Tactics (Westport, Conn., 1974), 84, 173-77, 267; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 20, 31, 95; Pease and Pease, They Who Would Be Free, 113-14, 175, 195, 210; James A. Fisher, "A History of the Political and Social Development of the Black Community in California, 1850-1950" (Ph.D. diss., State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1971), 72-75, 97-100, 140-46; Freeman, "Free Negro in New York City," 35, 46, 128, 175-76, 237, 299; "Black Elites and the Draft Riots," New York Times, July 13, 2013. Autobiography, My Life and Times, Part 2 effort, which shook the ribs of all Gotham. EthiopWilson, William Joseph ("Ethiop")

William Joseph Wilson (1818–?), a free black man from New Jersey, operated a bootmaking shop in New York City as early as the 1830s. In the 1840s he became a secondary school teacher and later a principal of a black school in Brooklyn. He was an activist on behalf of black education, encouraging access and attendance, and even opened his own library. Wilson also campaigned to secure the franchise for New York African Americans. He served as a member of the Committee of Thirteen, organized by New York black leaders to stop enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act. In the early 1850s Wilson’s letters appeared frequently in Frederick Douglass’ Paper, and Douglass referred to him as the newspaper’s “Brooklyn correspondent.” Wilson’s letters to the newspaper, published under the pseudonym “Ethiop,” were often part of an ongoing debate about the condition of blacks in New York and the United States. Wilson’s most frequent sparring partner in the war of letters was “Communipaw,” actually James McCune Smith, a prominent black physician in New York City. Carleton Mabee, Black Education in New York State: From Colonial to Modern Times (Syracuse, N.Y., 1979), 54, 63-67, 123, 129, 155, 158; Foner and Walker, Black State Conventions, 1:79-88; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 87, 212, 229; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 4:144-45n. ventured over to the flats the other day, having collected quite a nice penny to erect a monument to the "old Dutchman" he used to pommel so; but somehow he lost his way, grew hungry, could find nothing but sour-grass to eat, and arrived at the "Heights" late at night, quite ill: Doctor Tomwitt was immediately sent for and promptly prescribed Tscheep Tea: next day the patient broke out with the measles, and is now "doing well as can be expected."

Our Cadi (Mary Stick) has announced the "re-organization of the ." The Optician in Chief will have his office located in the coal-hole of the old City Hall, from which all light is rigidly excluded: here police-men are inspected in the following manner: the M.P. is brought in from outer sun-light, placed in the centre of the room, and a gong struck close to his head: be
ing asked if he heard anything, if he says "no," it is satisfactory: light is then let in, and right before him is placed a white man beating a colored one: he is asked," do you see anything?" if he answers "no," it is satisfactory: then the tableau changes to a drunken row, in which notorious bullies, under indictment for manslaughter, are beating screaming females: "do you see anything?" "no"—satisfactory: if he says "yes," and starts to rescue the women, he is seized, thrust back, and sent to undergo drill in Mercer Street or the V Points. The next tableau is a furious fight between half a dozen Irishmen and more a-coming; if the candidate leans back, buttons his coat over his star and looks another way, he is pronounced all right, and in a fair way to get a silver medel with a speech from the Mayor.

Au revoir,

COMMUNIPAWSmith, James McCune

James McCune Smith (1813–65), a prominent black physician, abolitionist, and writer, was born in New York City to an enslaved father and a self-emancipated mother. He attended the New York African Free School, but was denied admission to Columbia University, Geneva Medical College, and the New York Academy of Medicine. He turned to the University of Glasgow in Scotland, where he received a B.A. (1835), M.A. (1836), and M.D. (1837). Upon returning to New York, he opened a pharmacy and medical practice that catered to both blacks and whites. He became involved in the abolitionist movement, serving as an associate editor of the Colored American in 1839, contributed regularly to the Anglo-African Magazine, and wrote correspondence for the North Star and Frederick Douglass’ Paper under the pseudonym “Communipaw.” Smith also wrote the introduction to Douglass’s second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855). In 1861, Smith helped finance the revival of the Weekly Anglo-African to oppose black colonization and emigration, and he was a prominent member of the New York City Young Men’s Association, the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, and the New York African Society for Mutual Relief. He was the sole attending physician of the Society for the Promotion of Education Among Colored Children, a member and vestryman of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, and a trustee of the New York Society for the Promotion of Education Among Colored Children. In 1863 Wilberforce College appointed Smith professor of anthropology, but illness kept him from assuming his post. Lib., 1 June 1838; FDP, 18 May 1855; Douglass Papers, ser. 2:7–19; Miller, Search for a Black Nationality, 243; Pease and Pease, They Who Would Be Free, 90–92, 103, 110; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 115, 134; Rhoda G. Freeman, “The Free Negro in New York City in the Era before the Civil War” (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1966), 40–42, 177, 186, 195, 200, 247, 276, 286, 325, 353, 393; DAB, 27:288–89. .