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LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS 313

which such a relation to a public journal must impose, caused me much
reluctance and hesitation; nevertheless, I yielded to the wishes of my friends
and counsellors, went to Washington, threw myself into the work, hoping to
be able to lift up a standard at the national capital, for my people, which
should cheer and strengthen them in the work of their own improvement and
elevation.

I was not long connected with this enterprise, before I discovered my
mistake. The cooperation so liberally promised, and the support which had
been assured, were not very largely realized. By a series of circumstances a
little bewildering as I now look back upon them, I found myself alone, under
the mental and pecuniary burden involved in the prosecution of the enterprise.
I had been misled by loud talk of a grand incorporated publishing company,
in which I should have shares if I wished, and in any case a fixed salary for
my services; and after all these fair-seeming conditions, I had not been con-
nected with the paper one year before its affairs had been so managed by the
agent appointed by this invisible company or corporate body, as to compel me
to bear the burden alone, and to become the sole owner of the printing estab-
lishment. Having become publicly associated with the enterprise, I was
unwilling to have it prove a failure, and had allowed it to become in debt to
me, both for money loaned, and for services, and at last it seemed wise that I
should purchase the whole concern, which I did, and turned it over to my sons
Lewis and Frederick, who were practical printers, and who, after a few years,
were compelled to discontinue its publication. This paper was the New
National Era, to the columns of which the colored people are indebted for
some of the best things ever uttered in behalf of their cause; for, aside from its
editorials and selections, many of the ablest colored men of the country made
it the medium through which to convey their thoughts to the public. A misad-
venture though it was, which cost me from nine to ten thousand dollars, over
it I have no tears to shed. The journal was valuable while it lasted, and the
experiment was full of instruction to me, which has to some extent been
heeded, for I have kept well out of newspaper undertakings since.

Some one has said that "experience is the best teacher." Unfortunately
the wisdom acquired in one experience seems not to serve for another and
new one: at any rate, my first lesson at the National Capital, bought rather
dearly as it was, did not preclude the necessity of a second whetstone to
sharpen my wits in this my new home and new surroundings. It is not alto-
gether without a feeling of humiliation that I must narrate my connection
with "The Freedman's Savings and Trust Company."

This was an institution designed to furnish a place of security and profit