FLORIDA FOLKS AND


FAMILIES.


shamed manner and low tone, say, You jest put it down,
please, my hand is hurted and sort o' weak like-ahem !"
or they would remark that their hand was "so dirty." I
have seen them slyly wrap a bit of. cloth or a handkerchief
about their hand while awaiting their turn, so as have an
excuse for not signing.
 As a rule, the young blacks can read and write, and are
very proud of the accomplishment. They seize the pen
and delight to attach their autographs (generally of three
or four names, the Williams and Johnsons greatly in the


majority)
profoundly
a dignity
The black
provement
the reading
the letters
and wrote
" immense


in
r
t(
S
s.
g


an airy, rapid,
impresses the
 labor that is
are always sol
 In all their
 and writing;


careless sort of style; it always
assembled lookers-on, and adds
quite overpowering to witness.
id friends to all educational im-
camps were individuals who did
read the newspapers aloud, read


Received by their less intelligent companions,
the letter and postal-card replies-this class are
" on letters. Frequently these scribes (always


young) make a pretty good thing of it in this amanuensis
service.
 It was often a group quite worth seeing to visit one of
their camps in the evening. There the large fire of pitch-
pine knots was blazing brightly, lighting up their small
collection of queer little huts built of railroad-ties, in the
tall pine-woods, making a good picture indeed, with the
entire party all grouped about one of their number-all in-
tently listening to him reading the latest newspaper; they
always insisted that he should read it all. Such intense at-
tention, eager eyes, and various attitudes, such quiet, ear-
nest facial expressions, and such costumes-or lack of cos-
tumes-all frequently formed pictures that would delight
an artist.
 And after 'the reading was completed, then to hear the
Babel of arguments, opinions, and comicalities, was another