Part 3

The institution is in a more flourishing condition than at any previous period of its history. Its matriculates number two hundred and forty, representing ten different States and forty-seven counties in Georgia. The trustees hold sixty acres of valuable land adjoining the college edifices, which is in itself a splendid endowment. The other revenues cover $8,000 per annum from the State of Georgia, tuition fees (only $2 per month), and donations usually amounting to $2,500 from charitable institutions at the North. But recently the trustees have had quite a windfall from the Stone estate at Malden, Mass. The widow of Mr. Stone, who, by her husband’s will, was made the almoner of his bounties, has given $50,000 to the University. They have fallen heir also to another sum exceeding $10,000, from the estate of the late R. R. Graves, of New York, who had previously donated a valuable library to the University.

With these subsidies it is proposed to erect immediately another College building between the two present structures, to cost $40,000, and a large addition to the Girls’ Dormitory, which will include a dining-room capable of seating 300 pupils. The estimated cost of this improvement is $15,000.

The library of the Institute comprises 4,000 volumes, most of them excellent selections, with a balance on hand in cash of $700 for further augmentation, derived from the interest on the permanent library endowment, which is $5,000.

It will be seen from the above that the Atlanta University is on the high-road to prosperity.

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TALLADEGA COLLEGE.

The College, Farm, and Theological Seminary.

REV. TEMPLE CUTLER.

Talladega is beautifully situated among the hills of Alabama. It reminds one somewhat of Andover, Mass., only the hill on which the college stands is not as high. There is, however, the same outline of mountains in the distance, and the same soft light falling on the village nestling below, hidden among the rich foliage of trees. Talladega is by far the prettiest site for a college that I have seen in the South. Nature has done her part in fitting up the place for purposes of instruction. There is every incentive to mental improvement that nature can afford. If man will do his part, we may expect to find here one of the most important of those springs which are sending forth streams of moral and mental influence through all the wastes of this south country.

A week spent here has been exceedingly enjoyable. The teachers are an agreeable set of finely educated gentlemen and ladies, who spare no pains to make one’s stay a pleasant one. The hospitality is not made burdensome either to host or guest, but one quietly falls into the routine of life, and feels immediately at home.

There is a farm here of about 180 acres of land, most of which is under cultivation, called the Winsted Farm. This is being rapidly reclaimed from the waste of former mismanagement. The difference between Northern and Southern agriculturists is, that the land is improved under the former management, and wasted under the latter. In New England it is a sure sign of shiftless husbandry when the land runs out year by year. In the South there are but few farms or plantations that are not becoming poorer every year. The effort is begun on this farm to restore fertility, and in a few years we may expect to see a fine specimen of Northern enterprise in the products of its hitherto barren acres. The students work the farm in part payment for their education. How far this industrial department is going to succeed financially is a question that must wait for an answer. It is easy to theorize about the advantages of such a measure, but the surest proof that the pudding is good is found in the eating of it. One thing is certain: four or five hours a day of work in the hot sun does not fit a young man to bone down to real hard study. It takes a good deal of the remainder of the day to get rested and ready for work. It sounds pretty to talk about a man’s catching up his book between works, and so using up the odds and ends of time, _a la_ Elihu Burritt; but unfortunately there are not a great many Elihu Burritts left, and I am afraid they are not indigenous to this climate, nor found among boys and girls in these schools. It is a question whether we can afford to run a farm and school together. The drain on both the treasury of the college and the physical powers of the student must be taken into our calculations.

The collegiate exercises of the school were creditable to the students and their instructors. The examination exhibited the usual enthusiasm of these students in their studies. The day is past when we need to parade proofs that the negro has a brain capable of improvement. We can now quietly assume that the color of a man’s skin does not necessarily affect his mental calibre, and there we may leave it. I must say, however, that I have not attended a closer and more satisfactory theological examination in many a day than that of the nine theological students who will graduate from Talladega next year. I have attended examinations in seminaries and associations and councils, and been through several such trials myself, but I never was present at one that gave me better satisfaction than this. If all our theological teachers will pass over to us men as thoroughly posted in the fundamental doctrines of the Bible as these young men appeared to be, we will gladly put them into the ministry. Prof. Andrews has solved the question of the practicability of a theological department in this school. We have henceforth no excuse for putting men into the ministry who cannot answer the questions usually propounded to candidates for the sacred office.

The public appointments of this week embraced literary exercises by the Soronian Society on Monday evening, public exercises of the Model School on Tuesday afternoon, and College Address in the evening: Wednesday, graduating exercises of the theological department at 2.30 P.M., and at 8 o’clock, prize declamations and essays, closing with a spelling match: on Thursday, 10 A.M., the graduating exercises of the higher Normal department; at 2 P.M., an exhibition of the agricultural department; and at 8 P.M. a concert by the Musical Union closed the week. I was not able to remain through all the exercises of Thursday. Those that I attended were of a high order, and compared favorably with similar exercises of the same grade in other schools.

The attendance of the citizens from the town through all the public exercises was a very pleasant feature. Talladega has made a deep and lasting impression on the white people. They acknowledge the good work that it has done and is doing, and believe in the possibilities that are before it.

Last fall, arrangements were made for an Industrial Fair, which called together some of the best specimens of work done by colored men and women in this State and a part of Georgia. This, probably, gave more impetus to the industrial enterprise of the people than anything that has been done since freedom. May the good work go on. That is just what we want to see--the people waking up to do their level best.

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BEREA COLLEGE.

A Commencement Crowd--A Mixed School--Free Speech--Self-Support.

PRESIDENT E. H. FAIRCHILD, BEREA, KY.

Wednesday, June 25th, was a beautiful day. The dust had been laid by a grand shower the evening before, and the whole day was cool and bright.

At half-past seven in the morning the neighboring people began to enter the college campus, a beautiful grove of forty-five acres. At half-past nine, when the exercises commenced, they were bringing extra seats into the tabernacle, a rough but very substantial and commodious building, which accommodates two thousand people.

At half-past ten there were thought to be three thousand in and about the tabernacle, and nearly a thousand horses on the ground. As Berea embraces but eight hundred inhabitants, including students and infants, it appears that more than two thousand came from abroad.

But what came they out for to see? An exhibition of an impartial school in the centre of Kentucky. Sixteen students--twelve young men and four young ladies--delivered orations and essays. Only three of these were colored. This disproportion is accounted for partly by the fact that the great demand for colored teachers calls colored students away before they reach the higher classes. But it was partly accidental. It has never occurred before, and probably never will again. The colored students outnumber the white.

There were ten graduates--six from the classical department, three from the scientific, and one from the normal.

Two-thirds of the audience were white. A large portion of them were mountain people, but many were from the blue-grass region. The colored people generally gravitated to one side of the building, thus keeping up their country customs and gaining the approbation of their white neighbors. This is one of the relics of slavery. Generations must die before either white or colored people will feel like treating each other as equals. As master and slave they made no objection to the closest contiguity; as equals they cannot eat in the same dining-hall, though forty feet apart. This feeling has nearly passed away in Berea, as was perfectly manifest in a social farewell gathering of about three hundred of both races at the ladies’ hall in the evening. Equal rights, to the full extent, will never be enjoyed till this feeling is extinguished.

“Democracy Restored” was the subject of one oration, delivered by the only democrat in the institution. It was cheered by ex-rebels, and the college gained popularity among them for its liberality. Some of them thought the Faculty must have hired him to deliver his harangue to make a show of toleration. One young son of the democracy decided to attend the school. It will be a good place for him. The author of the oration has two years yet to study, and trying years they will be for him. His party had better get his faith insured.

The graduates are all professing Christians, though one has had his faith somewhat shaken, as was shown by his oration. He would be glad to study theology at an orthodox seminary. He is a son of the mountains, and an honest, earnest thinker, and a superior scholar.

The effort of the college to get on alone, without aid from the American Missionary Association, taxes all its energy and faith; but, thanks to God and its faithful friends, the past year it has not been left to suffer. The erection of the new chapel will commence immediately, though the necessary means are not all secured.

Berea College is a miracle of God’s grace and power. No other being could have established such a school, in such a community, with such instrumentalities, and made it such a power.

In this voting precinct of five hundred voters, where whiskey has reigned for many years, three-fourths of all the inhabitants have signed the Murphy pledge. Arrangements are made for a grand temperance rally on Friday, the 4th, which, it is confidently believed, will fill the tabernacle to its utmost capacity. Berea, a beautiful spot by nature, is growing more and more beautiful every year. It is a charming place for a college, and nothing but poverty prevents a thousand youth from flocking here for education. Expenses are very low: Tuition, $9 a year; board, $1.50 a week; free tuition for ninety pupils; yet many students must leave, unless they can contrive a cheaper way to live, and find work to meet their small expenses.

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SOUTH CAROLINA.

School Closing--Religious Life.

REV. W. L. JOHNSON, ORANGEBURG.

Our scholastic year closed on the 5th inst. Appropriate exercises were held at the “Independent Hall.” There was a very large and respectable audience of the children’s parents and white citizens who felt interested in our work. The exercises began about 8 o’clock, consisting of declamations, orations and music. After the exhibition, Rev. Professor Larrence, of Claflin University, by an eloquent address, in which he paid a splendid tribute to the value of learning and the excellence of the A. M. A. schools, its Principal and teachers proceeded to make the presentation of six silver-plated vases and beautifully ornamented butter-dishes to as many pupils. Those gifts were awarded by the Superintendent. Five were given for sustaining perfect examinations, and one for excellence in delivering a declamation. The whole affair was closed by a bountiful collation for the children and friends of the school.

During the term we have maintained religious meetings among the children, several of our scholars taking part by offering prayer. It has been a pleasure to see others mourning to know Christ as their Saviour. The neighboring ministers have, in general, been present, and expressed deep interest in our undertaking, besides impressing valuable lessons and pious sentiments upon the minds of the children.

Six pupils taught this year, in the free schools of Orangeburg County, an aggregate of 575 children, and were very acceptable to trustees and patrons of the schools. The whole number of days taught by them is about 375.

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GEORGIA.

A Revival--Call for a Lady Missionary.

REV. FLOYD SNELSON, M’INTOSH, LIBERTY CO.

We have had, and are still having, a precious work of grace. On Sunday, the 25th, our communion season, nearly a thousand people were present. The weather was very delightful, and everything else connected with the occasion. Sixteen persons, hopefully converted, united with the church. The church is much encouraged, and its future looks very hopeful. I am almost broken down in this long and hard pull, still I believe that with this interest around me I could go on five months longer.

In summing up the converts during this campaign we find twenty at Cypress Slash, 14 miles above in our new field, and thirty-five here, making fifty-five in all. Most of these are not only young in grace but young in years, being from eleven to twenty. Therefore, in order to make them successful and useful Christians, I deem it very necessary to give them uncommon care. A special meeting of a social and religious nature is held Friday evening of each week in my house for them, and each one is required to take a part and is made to feel at home.

A Literary Society is also held at the church on the second and fourth Wednesday evenings of each month. In the former meeting much is sometimes said to correct the errors of home life. The necessity of this arises from the secluded situation of their parents and themselves from the white people. They were not at all situated like those in the upper part of the State among the whites, whose ways they generally imitate, but were left to themselves, with no training except such as was given by overseers and drivers.

This important work is, therefore, left still undone. My wife did what she could in this line before we left for Africa, but since our return her health has been such that she has not been able to do anything. This work is of so much importance, and in such a promising field, that I now _earnestly_ ask, Will not some one of our churches or Sunday-schools send us a lady missionary who can do it?

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Actions and Reactions--Temperance and Religion.

WM. F. JACKSON, FORSYTHE.

Our school year closed May 30th, with encouraging results.

This was the first year of real systematic work in the Academy, the building having been finished too late to open at the beginning of last school year.

There is a growing interest in the work. Upon the close of the war, the schools established by the American Missionary Association were everywhere crowded with our people thirsting for knowledge: in the whole South the feeling for education ran high, so that the zeal of the Freedman for education became proverbial. But this proved to be not so much zeal as blind impulse. It is not so now. By a bitter experience, our people have been brought to see the errors of the past. Their present ideas respecting education plainly show this discovery. The people of our community feel that they and their children need it to make them useful. In our school were three women and two men of advanced age, who were diligent in studying, and compared favorably with younger pupils in their advancement, and who are now exerting their influence to bring in others, that a permanent class of aged persons may be formed. Again, many parents have sent children to school to me, evidently for no other purpose than to have them cared for; but now, some of these same parents express a different purpose, viz., to have them prepared for the duties of life. Then, too, there is a public spirit in favor of a better and higher education, manifested in the efforts now being made to establish here an African Methodist Episcopal College and a Methodist Episcopal High School.

Our pupils have been very regular in attendance compared with past years. There have been 113 students in school during the year, many of whom came from the adjoining counties, and will go out to take schools for the summer. There has been much earnest study done by these pupils, who seem determined to surmount the difficulties which present themselves. They have been encouraged to organize a Temperance society, which they manage themselves with credit. This organization is doing much in the school and community to encourage those who are striving to be temperate.

Amid all the flattering results of the year not much could be considered gained were it not for the great revival of religion among the pupils of our school. In April, very many became serious about their souls. They made earnest inquiries after the way of life. The Lord poured out his spirit in copious showers upon these precious souls, and nine were happily converted and added to the church. Thus we feel that God has richly blessed our labors, and that His approving smile rests upon us.

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ALABAMA.

Corner-Stone of a Church Laid--The School Work.

REV. WM. H. ASH, FLORENCE.

This week has been a blessed one for us. On Saturday last the corner-stone of the new chapel was laid, and on Sunday appropriate services were held. It was an occasion long to be remembered.

On the walls, at the front of the building, was erected a temporary platform, and on it a table. In the centre of it was a Bible and a large vase of beautiful flowers; back of this were seats for the speakers, and at the right was seated the choir.

The Rev. M. L. Frierson, of the Presbyterian Church, opened the services by reading the second chapter of Nehemiah, and led in prayer. The Choir then sung “What shall the harvest be?” The clerk of the church read the list of articles which were to be placed in the box prepared for the corner-stone, which has this inscription: “First Congregational Church, A.D. 1879. A.M.A.”

Next in order was an address by Hon. W. B. Wood, who said that he was a Methodist and a sectarian, too, but he loved _all_ who loved the Lord Jesus Christ. We are not of the same denomination, but Paul said, Be ye brethren. He said that the times were better, that some old fogies would have us believe that we are not as progressive as they were 40 or 50 years ago, but his experience was, that we are moving onward, for he, as a judge, did not have as many cases to decide as he had five or six years ago. Not that the people were afraid of the punishment of the law, but controlled by the power of the Gospel and its morality.

He said that he took pleasure in aiding to build churches, that he had an interest in every church of Florence, and that if a subscription book should be carried around and his house passed he would feel slighted; and he advised all present to aid in behalf of the church.

He said that he believed he could speak for the entire white population, that they, in sympathy, would encourage every good work.

Rev. Mr. Frierson also spoke. After a collection was taken, “Ye Christian heralds, go proclaim salvation in Immanuel’s name,” was sung by the choir, and the benediction pronounced.

On Tuesday the examination of the school took place, and on Wednesday night the exhibition occurred. We had many visitors during the examination, and on the night of the exhibition our building, used for church and school, was filled to overflowing; all around the building, at the windows and doors, there were many who were eager to see and hear the exercises.

It is the first year of school work in connection with the church. At the beginning of the year we had three scholars; at the end we closed with thirty-five.

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TENNESSEE.

Teachers’ Institute--Practical Education.

The Shelby County Teachers’ Institute or Convention was held in June. In regard to it the editor of the Memphis _Appeal_ writes:

The teachers of the colored schools of the city and county deserve especial commendation for the interest they take in the leading educational questions of the day, and for the efforts they are making to reach wise and correct conclusions, and if we may judge of the nature of their entire proceedings and discussions from the paper on practical education presented before the Institute yesterday, and printed in another column of this morning’s _Appeal_, the Institute has certainly been a success in point of ability. It is not often that teachers take the initiative in educational reforms, but we are glad to notice here that a company of teachers speak boldly and plainly in favor of a more practical course of study for the preparatory and common schools of the country. We would call the attention of educators and school boards to this paper, and urge that some system be devised for our schools, whereby the simpler of these plans, at least, be at once carried into effect with the opening of the schools in October. The actions and words of this Institute have an especial significance, coming as they do from the teachers of our colored schools, themselves belonging, with few exceptions, to the colored race. They certainly indicate a commendable earnestness in matters pertaining to the educational interests of the country and community, and they richly merit the encouragement and co-operation of all good citizens.”

The paper referred to was by Miss Laura A. Parmelee, of the Le Moyne School, and, after a historical sketch of much value, ended with the following recommendations: