Thus, after a year's work, vigorously as it was pushed, the
problem looked even more difficult to grasp and solve than at
the beginning. Nevertheless, three things that year's work
did, well worth the doing: it relieved a vast amount of
physical suffering; it transported seven thousand fugitives
from congested centres back to the farm; and, best of all, it
inaugurated the crusade of the New England schoolma'am.
The annals of this Ninth Crusade are yet to be written,
--the tale of a mission that seemed to our age far more
quixotic than the quest of St. Louis seemed to his. Behind the
mists of ruin and rapine waved the calico dresses of women
who dared, and after the hoarse mouthings of the field guns
rang the rhythm of the alphabet. Rich and poor they were,
serious and curious. Bereaved now of a father, now of a
brother, now of more than these, they came seeking a life
work in planting New England schoolhouses among the white
and black of the South. They did their work well. In that first
year they taught one hundred thousand souls, and more.
Evidently, Congress must soon legislate again on the hast-
ily organized Bureau, which had so quickly grown into wide
significance and vast possibilities.
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