One of the greatest hindrances to our material advancement is improvidence. We spend too much money for picnics and excursions. When the sun shines we are too prone to forget that the frost will ever fly again. I do not say a man ought never to do anything that he cannot afford, but we ought to be more provident. If I was not afraid I would make you angry, I would say: We all dress up fine and look just as good as the people of the avenue, the only difference is, we cannot afford it and they can. We have not learned as we should the value of a dollar. I remember one time while I was spending a week with a friend, one morning at the breakfast table his father said to him: "My son, you have been to college and studied Greek, but you have not learned the value of a dollar. I am going to give you a dollar, don't spend it, take it out and look at it every day. Study the possibilities of this dollar. There are horses, farms, factories and railroad stock in this dollar, all that tends to wealth, study the value of it." We can learn this lesson with profit. Another field of endeavor is that of professions. The time has come when we must go out and gather more fruits in this domain. In the line of professions we have been able to take our stand and make a place; we can trust our cases with a colored lawyer just as well as with a white one. We have shown that we are able to make entrance and hold in that realm a place. We have lost enough money on real estate in Ohio and Pennsylvania to make 3 or 4 families rich, because we didn't have proper legal advice. But now with qualified lawyers this cannot occur. We have learned at last that we can trust our lives in the hands of colored physicians as well as in the hands of anyone else, but must learn this more and more, so that our men can take rank and standing among other men in this department. In Europe and in this country we are beginning to take rank and place among the foremost artists of the world.
A young colored man recently painted a picture which has been accepted by the Art Academy of Paris. They did not ask if the artist was colored, but is he an artist of genius. In the domain of art color is no bar. If you can equal or excel the masters the world will give you a place in the temple of fame.