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and asked for an assistant for him. I was notified sometime since, however, that no more teachers could be sent this season.
Please assure the school Board that there shall be no unnecessary delay in completing plan and Specifications for the Camden house. I mean to give them a building to be proud of. Before advertising for proposals I wish a reply from you mayor whom I addressed more than a month since. The Asst. Com. wants to be assured that the municipal authorities desire the proposed improvement.
Very respectfully, etc.
Wm. M. Colby
Supt. Education
L.R. 132 - 1868
L.S. 53 - 1868

Little Rock, Arkansas
March 27th 1868
#55
Getman, Miss D.F.
Rocky Comfort.
Arkansas.
Your favor of the 27th ult. enclosing report for February was duly received in my absence. We are gratified to hear that you arrived safely and reached your destination without sickness or accident, and we wish you the full measure of success in you work of love which your heroism merits.
Your report is quire satisfactory and you have my thanks for your promptness in forwarding it. If there is anything you need for yourself or your school that I can send you by mail, do not fail to write for it. Doubtless you will meet with some unexpected obstacles and trials, but I trust you will by God's grace prove equal to every emergency. You will need to be more careful of health when the hot weather comes on, avoiding those little exposures which in the North may be endured with impunity. Do not think of teaching more than five and

a half hours a day, and take all the sleep possible by retiring early. These precautions with the exercise of hope and a strong will, will prove far better than medicine.
With assurance of kind regard,
I am respectfully yours
Wm. M. Colby.
Supt. Education
L.R. 65 -1868.

Little Rock Arkansas
March 27th 1868
#56
Hitchcock, Mary B.
New Gascony, Ark.
Dear Madam:
Your letter of the 15th Jan'y reached the office the last of Feb'y at which time I was in another part of the state. I read with interest and with some sad reflections your account of the destitution among the freedmen. If I had not from early manhood been an abolitionist I could not now contemplate this state of things without self condemnation. The freed people are in a wretched condition all over the eastern part of the state and a mere political change will not, as some suppose, immediately relieve them.
The Vanguard Manual which was sent you contains quite explicit directions for the organization and management of the "Division" which you would if necessary modify to suit your circumstances. You will observe that the pledge prohibits tobacco and profanity - evils nearly as great as the use of intoxicating drink.
Is it not plain that the training of children in habits of purity and temperance helps their education - is auxiliary to it? or rather is it not a part of their education? So it seems to me, and I hope all our teachers whether they have an organization or not, are giving lessons daily in these things.