shown some taste for elocution by converting a chair into a rostrum, the family and visitors at the same time composing her audience to which she would speak from this very modern platform, addressing herself to the question of slavery. Her speech was in the following words: "The negroes shall be free." At this time she was quite a child of three or four years.
She had evidently inbibed these thoughts from her mother, who had been a champion of the cause of abolition.
Mary's fondness for the public rostrum finally induced her mother to send her to the National School of Elocution and Oratory, at Philadelphia, from which she graduated as Bachelor of Elocution.
After this she took a course in Boston under the instruction of the well-known actress. Miss Rachel Naah, and later took lessons (under Miss Julia Thomas) in "Psycho-Physical Culture."
She has read in the principal churches of Boston; has traveled extensively in America, reading to the cultured people throughout the East, West and South. Many of the largest and best churches and halls have been opened to her.
The following are some of her press notices, and are very complimentary to her as well, as they bespeak much for her possibilities as an elocutionist. Miss Harper partakes of many of her mother's good traits as a public speaker, and is destined to do much good for her country and especially her race:
