Page:Statistics of the colored people of Philadelphia.djvu/18

 and have paid $9,766 42 for taxes during the past year, and $896,782 27 for house, water, and ground rent. We have had incorporated 108 Mutual Beneficial Societies having 9,762 members, with an annual income of $29,600 00, and a permanent invested fund of $28,366 00, which is deposited in various institutions among the whites, who derive a large profit therefrom. One thousand three hundred and eighty-five families were assisted by these Societies to the amount of $10,292 38 during the year 1853. It is evident from the facts that these charitable institutions must materially relieve the distress of families and maintain a large portion of our poor under circumstances which would otherwise throw them upon public charity. Again, as to crimes among us, by a letter of Judge Kelley, written in answer to certain questions put to him, it is shown that for the three years up to 1854 the commitments of colored persons to the Philadelphia County Prison have gradually decreased, while those of the whites for the same, period have markedly increased.

The New York Independent published, a few years since, a series of six letters from a Philadelphia correspondent, over the signature of A. H. B. They are written in a very friendly spirit, and contain much valuable information respecting the colored population of our city. The last one is devoted in part to the subject of education. The concluding paragraph is so just and so hopeful in its tone, that we give it entire. "There is one idea that has often suggested itself to my mind in contemplating the condition and progress of these people, which may, perhaps seem strange in such a connection. It is the nobility of human nature, in itself considered. I have often, it is true, been struck with the same idea from other sources. It is a natural thought to any one who looks at what mankind have done, and especially what the great men of the world have done. When we think of Shakspeare and Gibbon, of Kant and Neander, in the world of books; when we remember the Reformation and the American Revolution, and the names of Luther and Washington, we cannot fail to be impressed at once with a feeling of awe and gratification at what man, as man, is, and what he can do. But when I see a people pinioned by so many discouragements, and bruised under such a complicated and heavy mass of difficulties as the colored people, steadily and surely elevating themselves above their circumstances; when I behold the immense mountain of prejudice that rests upon them, tottering and almost rising bodily from its base, I am struck with a degree of admiration and amazement that I seldom feel on any other occasion, at the intrinsic strength and infinite tendencies of humanity."