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314 LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

for the hard earnings of the colored people, especially at the South. Though
its title was "The Freedman's Savings and Trust Company," it is known
generally as the "Freedman's Bank." According to its managers it was to be
this and something more. There was something missionary in its composi-
tion, and it dealt largely in exhortations as well as promises. The men con-
nected with its management were generally church members, and reputed
eminent for their piety. Some of its agents had been preachers of the "Word."
Their aim was now to instil into the minds of the untutored Africans lessons
of sobriety, wisdom, and economy, and to show them how to rise in the
world. Circulars, tracts, and other papers were scattered like snowflakes in
winter by this benevolent institution among the sable millions, and they were
told to "look" to the Freedman's Bank and "live." Branches were established
in all the Southern States, and as a result, money flowed into its vaults to the
amount of millions. With the usual effect of sudden wealth, the managers felt
like making a little display of their prosperity. They accordingly erected one
of the most costly and splendid buildings of the time on one of the most
desirable and expensive sites in the national capital, finished on the inside
with black walnut and furnished with marble counters and all the modern
improvements. The magnificent dimensions of the building bore testimony
to its flourishing condition. In passing it on the street I often peeped into its
spacious windows, and looked down the row of its gentlemanly and ele-
gantly dressed colored clerks, with their pens behind their ears and button-
hole bouquets in their coat-fronts, and felt my very eyes enriched. It was a
sight I had never expected to see. I was amazed with the facility with which
they counted the money; they threw off the thousands with the dexterity, if
not the accuracy, of old and experienced clerks. The whole thing was beauti-
ful. I had read of this Bank when I lived in Rochester, and had indeed been
solicited to become one of its trustees, and had reluctantly consented to do
so; but when I came to Washington and saw its magnificent brown stone
front, its towering height, and its perfect appointments, and the fine display
it made in the transaction of its business, I felt like the Queen of Sheba when
she saw the riches of Solomon, "the half had not been told me."

After settling myself down in Washington in the otlice of the New
National Era, I could and did occasionally attend the meetings of the Board
of Trustees, and had the pleasure of listening to the rapid reports of the con-
dition of the institution, which were generally of a most encouraging charac-
ter. My confidence in the integrity and wisdom of the management was such
that at one time I had entrusted to its vaults about twelve thousand dollars. It
seemed fitting to me to cast in my lot with my brother freedmen, and help to