stage costumes. The entire cantata was magnificently rendered, and it is said that never before had the colored people of Washington produced anything upon the stage to equal it, either in stage costumes and settings or in the perfect rendition of each part.
The presentation of the cantata entailed an immense amount of hard work upon Miss Tilghman and, coupled with the regular duties of the school-room, proved too much for her physically, and within two months she was stricken with a severe illness that prostrated her for Jive months. The following summer she was urged upon to go away as soprano leader of a company of singers, and it was during that engagement, and while scarcely more than half recovered from months of illness, she was again stricken down, and this time with a fearful accident, from which she has not fully recovered, and possibly never will. It was during the engagement with this company, while singing in Saratoga, that the terrible accident befell her which disabled her for teaching and possibly changed the whole current of her future life. Many are familiar with the story of that sad accident, and many more may learn of it for the first time.
While passing down Broadway, Saratoga, a brick fell thirty feet from the scaffolding of the Collamar building, striking Miss Tilghman on the head, felling her to the ground and fracturing her skull. From this fracture sixteen pieces of bone were removed. There are some lives into which it seems that all kinds of afflictions are thrust and still they are borne with such patience as is to many simply remarkable. And even with this our
