The American Missionary, page 9 by Various Authors
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e any other survivors, they will write to us promptly, and if there are persons whose eyes fall on this little notice who happen to know of any person who was present at that meeting, we will be much obliged if they will send us the name and address.
OUR CHURCHES.
We intend to present to our readers from time to time brief sketches of some of our churches located in the South and elsewhere, with some account of the condition of the membership as to property and education, with glimpses of their poverty and hard struggles to support the pastor, with occasionally the cheerful story of those who reach self-support. On another page will be found a sketch by Pastor Snell of the church in Talladega, Ala.
THE TALENTED TENTH.
In the discussion concerning Negro education we should not forget the talented tenth man. An ordinary education may answer for the nine men of mediocrity; but if this is all we offer the talented tenth man, we make a prodigious mistake. The tenth man, with superior natural endowments, symmetrically trained and highly developed, may become a mightier influence, a greater inspiration to others than all the other nine, or nine times nine like them. Without disparagement of faithful men of moderate abilities, it may be said that in all ages the mighty impulses that have propelled a people onward in their progressive career, have proceeded from a few gifted souls. Sometimes these have been "self-made" men, so-called, whose best powers were evoked by rare opportunities. Oftener, they have been men of thoroughly disciplined minds, of sharpened perceptive faculties, trained to analyze and to generalize; men of well-balanced judgments and power of clear and forceful statement.
It is this talented tenth man of our colleges that in after years reflects more honor on his alma mater than the other nine; it is this tenth man that is the recognized leader in his profession and the leader of public opinion. To him, rather than to the other nine, the many