Part 2

—It is reported, concerning the Chinese boarding-school for boys at Ningpo, that nothing has appeared for years that seems to so fully enlist the interest and co-operation of all the natives. Although the school is under native management, the foreign members of the Presbytery with which it is connected have a voice in its affairs. Contributions for its support have been given freely both by the converts and heathen people. It seems that the method pursued is similar to that carried on so generally in the A. M. A. schools South.

—Lai Tip, a Chinese laundryman, was recently murdered on Spring Street, New York, while returning from the Sunday-school of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. It appears he was set upon by two or three roughs, and while stooping to recover his hat, which had been knocked off, received from a knife fatal wounds from which he died on the third day. His funeral was attended by Rev. Drs. Hall and Crosby, and he was buried amid a large attendance of Chinamen at Machpelah Cemetery, Hoboken, N.J. The murder was most shameful and unprovoked.

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ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.

FLATONIA, TEX.—“The box you spoke of in your letter was received last week. Maps are just what we need and will be a great help. Almost everything was of use, and I consider it a very valuable box, unusually so. I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to the donors if I knew them. Please do so for me. I know that those who keep up the supplies at home like to be assured that their gifts are appreciated.”

COLORED SUNDAY-SCHOOLS, N.C.—“Happy Greeting” Union Sunday-school is the name of one of eight schools organized during the last two months by a missionary of the American Sunday-school Union in North Carolina. “This name,” he writes, “was adopted by a cheerful crowd of colored people.” Another of these schools is called “Valley Home.” Very few among those people were able to read the Bible. In a class of twenty-five, only one could tell the name of the first book in it. Some said that Jacob built the ark. When asked how the Israelites expressed their joy after crossing the Red Sea in safety, one said: “I s’pose, sir, dey shot off big guns and holler’d!” and all present nodded their assent.

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THE FREEDMEN.

REV. JOS. E. ROY, D.D., FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.

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ANNIVERSARY REPORTS.

HOWARD UNIVERSITY.

Commencement Exercises of the Theological Department of Howard University were held in the Memorial Lutheran Church, Fourteenth Street and Vermont Avenue, Washington, D.C., Friday evening, May 6th, 1881, at 7.45 o’clock. A large audience of white and colored friends was present, including various U.S. Senators and other persons of influence.

ORDER OF EXERCISES.

Music; Prayer by Rev. W. W. Patton, D.D., Pres. Howard University; reading of the Scriptures by Rev. J. G. Butler, D.D.; Music; Addresses by Graduates; The Perpetuity of the Church, by Emory W. Williams, Prince George’s Co., Md.; Man, a Religious Being, by William A. Shannon, Washington, D.C.; Music; The Christian Minister, by George V. Clark, Atlanta, Ga.; Our Duty to Africa, by Jarrett E. Edwards, Columbia, S.C.; Music; Address to Graduates, by Rev. Charles A. Stark, D.D., Lutheran, Baltimore, Md.; Presentation of Bibles to the Graduates, in behalf of the Washington Bible Society, by Rev. A. W. Pitzer, D.D.; Conferring Certificates, by Rev. J. G. Craighead, D.D., Dean Theo. Dept. The addresses were of a creditable character and gave promise of future usefulness.

The following persons connected with the Congregational, Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian denominations, having pursued studies in the Theological Department, now leave the University to engage in the work of the Ministry in their respective churches: George V. Clark, Atlanta, Ga.; Thomas H. Datcher, Washington, D.C.; Jarrett E. Edwards, Columbia, S.C.; John H. T. Gray, Prince George’s County, Md.; Thomas H. Jones, Baltimore, Md.; William A. Shannon. Washington, D.C.; Emory W. Williams, Prince George’s County, Md.

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HAMPTON INSTITUTE.

REPORTED BY JUDGE WATKINS, A VIRGINIAN.

Those whose good fortune it was to be present will “not willingly let die” the pleasant memories of the Commencement day at Hampton, Va., on the 19th May, 1881. Representatives of widely circulated journals have made public record of many good things said and done on this occasion. Some of the incidents will interest readers of the MISSIONARY.

The illness of Mrs. Garfield, regretted by all, prevented the President’s attendance. General Howard, Governor Holliday of Virginia, Rev. Dr. Potter, and other representative men and women, contributed largely to the pleasures of the day. The full and most interesting report to the corporation of Principal Armstrong gave satisfactory evidence of the God-blest success and continuing usefulness of this noble enterprise. A large edition of this valuable paper will be issued, and will, it is hoped, be widely circulated. No report of any year in Hampton’s history has been more satisfactory.

An account of the public exercises of the day for the MISSIONARY must necessarily be brief. At 8.30 a. m. the new Academic Hall was dedicated. Bishop Payne, of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, in most appropriate words and manner, offered the dedicatory prayer. General Howard followed in an address of marked ability, and of broad and liberal and most approved views, admirably presented, basing his brief and pertinent remarks upon the duties of the hour in reference to the negro on the editorial in the Memphis _Appeal_ reproduced in the May MISSIONARY. Governor Holliday, of Virginia, was introduced to General Howard. Both had lost an arm in battle. With their left hands in cordial grasp, they exchanged fraternal salutations. The incident gave unaffected pleasure to all who witnessed it.

The corner-stone of the Stone Memorial building, for colored girls’ industries (the generous donation of Mrs. Stone of Massachusetts), and the corner-stone of the Indian Girls’ building, were laid. The Rev. Dr. Strieby, president of the corporation, delivered the address in the first, and Rev. Dr. Potter, of New York, in the latter of the ceremonies. Both gentlemen performed the duty assigned them most acceptably to the friends of the institution.

The large and interested audience filled the chapel of Virginia Hall to its utmost capacity to hear the public addresses of six of the alumni. These performances were made in excellent taste, the elocution being exceptionally good, and the views were expressed in a style and range of thought above the average Commencement orator, and reflected honor on the _Alma Mater_ and her sons and daughters.

In appropriate terms General Armstrong introduced General Howard, Dr. Potter and Governor Holliday, of Virginia, whose words of wit and wisdom were enthusiastically received. His Excellency, who is a Christian gentleman of enlarged views and a broad-gauge statesman, gave cordial welcome to the strangers within the gates of the Old Dominion, and in fitting words of sincere and merited commendation approved and indorsed all that had been done and so well done at Hampton.

Much more might be said; less could not be said. God will, it is not doubted, continue to call from Hampton to His service Christian men and women, _workers_ in His vineyard, who will illustrate that

“Peace hath her victories No less renowned than War.”

The Hampton Institute is becoming more known and appreciated in Virginia and the neighboring States. Its alumni are occupying positions of practical usefulness, and discharge the high duties of good citizens well and faithfully. Virginians believe that Principal Armstrong is emphatically the right man in the right place, and that, with General Marshall, Miss Mackie and others on his staff, he will push forward the good work in which they are engaged, and will continue to merit and receive the grateful appreciation of the people of the commonwealth. Above all, they invoke that blessing of God in the future which has been so signally manifested in the past.

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FISK UNIVERSITY.

PROF. C. C. PAINTER.

No one can properly appreciate or understand Fisk University who does not take into account the model school whose unique anniversary exercises occurred on Thursday p. m., preceding those of the University proper. The school is under the management of Miss Irene Gilbert, who is assisted by students from the Normal Department. The excellency of her work is not found alone in the perfection of drill which every exercise shows, but in the exquisite finish of whatever work is done. A recent graduate from Williston Seminary and of the Sheffield Scientific School, with whom I visited this school one day when it was not on exhibition, and examined the children’s work in map drawing, declared that he had never seen any work of the kind that compared with it. The exhibition given by these children made it easier to understand the uniformly excellent work apparent in all the classes of the higher grades witnessed during the three days’ examinations of the next week. Miss Gilbert trains up the child in the way he should go, and in the higher departments he does not depart from it.

The Baccalaureate sermon of President Cravath on Sunday afternoon, from Heb. xi. 27, “For he endured as seeing Him who is invisible,” was able and timely; well calculated to inspire his hearers with the faith and courage requisite for the great work which lies before them as leaders of their emancipated people through the wilderness which still surrounds and stretches out before them, after sixteen years of wanderings.

A rainy evening gave a much smaller audience to hear Dr. G. D. Pike’s missionary sermon than would otherwise have greeted him. He must be a laggard indeed who, hearing the Doctor on his favorite theme of missions, does not become inoculated with something of his divine enthusiasm.

Space cannot be given for even a full programme of the exercises, which filled to the full Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; examinations in the mornings until 1 p. m., and exhibitions in the evenings by the Normal School, the Literary Society and the College Preparatory Class; and it would be exceedingly common-place to say, what simple truth demands should be said, that they were all excellent. One of the visitors said at the close of the Normal School exhibition on Monday, that he did not expect to hear anything better even from the graduating class; but on Thursday candidly admitted his mistake, as there was just such advance as there ought to have been to mark the advanced grade of the pupils. Perhaps, instead of giving a programme of these exercises, it will prove more profitable to state impressions derived from them.

This was the first time the writer has had the privilege of attending the closing exercises of this or of any school for the education of these people. Brought up among them, and always accustomed to regard them as inferior, he shared until recently the feeling so prevalent that in their education nothing more should be attempted than a fair common school training. This is not the place in which to argue that there is urgent need that the leaders of 7,000,000 people, who are to be redeemed from ignorance and lifted into a plane where they shall command the respect of those who are now unjustly prejudiced against them, shall be thoroughly disciplined and broadly educated; but it is the time to express the opinion of the writer, and of several others who attended with great interest these exercises, with something of his prejudices, that these students showed conclusively that they are capable of taking on the same culture, and under it of reaching the same excellencies of thought and discipline, as the more favored whites attain under like training; and that an objection to their higher education must be based on other ground than their inability to receive it, or the need of their race for such leaders as this school is sending out from year to year.

A gentleman, native of Tennessee, who has recently been called from the presidency of a Southern College to the management of the educational work of the State, was present during the commencement exercises, and contrasted them with those of the graduating class of the first institution of the State for whites, in terms so complimentary to the negro students, that, out of deference to the whites, his language will be omitted.

This work is no longer tentative. Both the possibility and value of it have been fully demonstrated, and the urgent demand is that the University shall be fully equipped for it. The point has been reached, in the estimation of all who know anything of its history, needs and opportunities, when it must be enlarged or suffer irreparably. It was, therefore, with gladness of heart that a large number of its friends, white and black, from the city and from other States, gathered to lay the corner-stone of Livingstone Missionary Hall on Wednesday afternoon.

Gen. Fisk presided most felicitously, and the address of Dr. Strieby was in every way happy and inspiring. It was a regular love feast, not simply because there was so much of the Methodist element in it, as represented by the General and his excellent lady, and Dr. McFerrin—“a rebel who fought on the last ten acres left for the rebellion to stand upon,” and who overcame great obstacles to get out to the exercises, despite attractions in other directions, and made a delightful speech, full of good feeling—but because there was such a flowing together of hearts and good-will from all classes as represented on the occasion. Dr. Strieby should be requested to print his speech in full and distribute it all over the land, and with it should go the eight or ten other excellent shorter speeches which followed, one of which was by the city’s treasurer, who came to represent the Historical Society.

There was a poem written for the occasion by Prof. Spence, and read by one of the pupils, Miss Allen, who has remarkable powers as a reader.

The address from Rev. C. H. Daniels, of Cincinnati, which followed the graduating addresses of the class, was able and timely. His theme was “The dignity and value of the individual man.” It was every way a manful presentation of a manly subject, and was a fitting _finale_ to the very able and manly addresses of the graduating class.

The diplomas were presented by Gen. Fisk in a brief address full of pathos and good sense, with happy allusions in each case to the theme of the recipient’s address. After this came the Alumni dinner, plain and substantial, and the speeches following, which were fully up to those of older and more pretentious societies.

And thus closed the fullest and most hopeful year in the history of this institution, which is beginning to excite the deepest interest among the people of the State, who are awakening to the fact that it is offering the only solution to many dark problems which to them seemed without an answer, or at least one that had anything of hope in it.

We cannot better close this article than by giving the following extract from an editorial from the _American_, the ablest and most influential paper of the State:

“In the proceedings at the Fisk University, yesterday, another step forward was taken in the way of providing material means for that moral and intellectual growth which is going on silently as a great institution grows and roots itself firmly in the society around it. Universities are not created in a day, nor at all by money, although money is a necessary agency. They grow. The Fisk is passing through with comparatively the early stages of growth, when we compare it with the ideal which finds place in the dreams of its enthusiastic laborers—dreams which enfold the future result. We doubt if the public, although it lend a hearty sympathy and approval, and expect good to flow from it, begins yet to realize the work this institution is to perform. We doubt if there is such appreciation anywhere existent or possible except in the dreams of its enthusiast laborers. These in some way comprehend its future. But the Fisk has had to adapt itself in more ways than one. At first it encountered, as a matter of course, but cold approval from the wealth and culture of Nashville—not hostility, but approval from a languid and cold judgment. But perhaps the hardest task has been to adapt itself to the negro himself. To secure the cold approval of intelligent judgment was apparently easy; to go a little further and secure aid, if it were necessary, would not be hard; but to lift the negro up to appreciate New England culture and conservatism and quiet labor, is like bringing him, in his early religious experience, to accept the calm conservatism and quiet demeanor of the Catholic, Presbyterian or Episcopal churches. In vain is he solicited to enter the intellectual stage of religious experience, when nature tells him that his stage is the emotional, if indeed it be beyond the sensuous. This is the task Fisk has set itself, and is performing, and performing well. It is encountering, and has encountered, a world of prejudice from the very race it seeks to elevate, and must content itself with working upon and with the _creme de la creme_ of the race in the South, while it cannot as yet reach the vast mass unless it let itself down, and we believe that so long as its present laborers are at the helm it will insist on drawing others up and never let itself down. It has a great and widening field, which it is worthily filling, and in the labor of regeneration of a race, no agency will have a higher, or indeed so high a place as this conservative school, which is filling so difficult a position.

“We are not unmindful also of the necessity for quite other laborers in the regeneration of this race. It is just as necessary in school as in church that this yet blind and emotional creature, ‘crying for the light with no language but a cry,’ shall have tendance suited to his condition and upon his own level.”

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TOUGALOO UNIVERSITY.

The annual examinations in this institution began on Thursday, May 26th, continuing Friday and also Monday forenoon. Many friends of students were present from various parts of the State. The forenoon of Sunday was taken up with the Sunday-school, with its very instructive lessons from the parable of the talents, and immediately following this a temperance Bible reading, with its intensely practical and stirring appeals. The latter was especially timely, inasmuch as a large number of temperance tracts, pamphlets and papers had been distributed to all the members, just before, for circulation as they return this summer to their own homes, or go forth to engage in teaching. Supplied in this way, the students from this school are the means of disseminating through the State a great deal of good temperance literature, and are enabled to organize a multitude of little temperance societies.

It will not be amiss to note the fact, as illustrating the high value of just this sort of work, that besides these societies established by the students of this University, there is no kind of temperance organization among the colored people in the State. At the same time, the prevalence of drunkenness, and of the habit of drinking among all classes, is appalling. The following incident shows the crying need of a _reform movement_: A colored church not far from here had communion service, and when it was concluded, the pastor and deacons tarried, and following, as they believed, (?) the instruction of the Bible, where it says, “drink ye all of it,” consumed what was left of the generous supply of wine, and thus made themselves beastly drunk.

Sunday was filled up with impressive services. In the afternoon the Lord’s Supper was commemorated, and five of the students united with the church, receiving the rite of baptism. In the evening, Dr. Strieby preached a sermon from the text. “And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree, therefore, which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” Every word was listened to with closest attention.

On Monday evening the Preparatory School Exhibition, under the management of the teachers of the Primary and Preparatory departments, was held in the chapel, presenting to a crowded audience a varied programme, made up of recitations, declamations, songs, &c. A prominent feature of this exhibition was a strong and well appreciated temperance dialogue.

It was a manifest disappointment to all when Tuesday dawned cloudy and dark, with every prospect of a rainy time. The exercises of the day were accordingly held in the barn, instead of the grove, for which all arrangements had been made. The forenoon was taken up with the commencement exercises of the Normal department. The orations and essays were presented by members of the Middle and Junior Classes, with the single exception of an oration by the one graduate from the Normal course. As was said on that day, what the graduating class lacked in quantity was well made up in quality. We expect a very high order of work and Christian influence from Henry Lanier.

In the afternoon the interesting ceremony of laying the foundation of “Strieby Hall,” the new boy’s dormitory, was followed by a procession to the chapel again, where the annual address was given by Dr. Strieby. This was a stirring presentation of the reason why the American Missionary Association is to-day in the field of Southern Freedmen education, and of exactly what it is aiming to do for the colored race. It was shown how this Association was pioneer in the work, and how, gradually, the most prominent and cultured of Southern gentlemen have come to regard the higher education of the race as possible, and, now, as a necessity to the prosperity and the material advancement of the region.

Col. Power, who with other gentlemen from Jackson had been present through the day to witness the exercises, was then called upon to speak. He alluded to the exercises of the forenoon with appreciation of the orations and essays presented, referring to one of the former as “eloquent,” and added a glowing word of tribute to the sweet music rendered by the students. He assured all present that the white people of the State are now in hearty sympathy with the work of the education of the colored race. Immediately after the war, he frankly admitted, the people were not attracted by the idea, but now a better opinion prevails, and they see that education must be given to all, white and black.

H.

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STRAIGHT UNIVERSITY.

REV. W. S. ALEXANDER, D.D., NEW ORLEANS.

We come to the close of another school year with a profound sense of gratitude to God for His guiding Providence, and for His blessing upon the work undertaken in His name. We have had 328 names upon our rolls, with a large average attendance. There has been a marked advance in scholarship, and we are justified in saying with regard to all the pupils, “Our labor has not been in vain.” There have been years of decline, since the first burst of enthusiasm after the war, in education; but a better and more hopeful era has dawned, when interest in the general education of the people, and the higher grades of scholarship, is in the ascendant. From this time on, the demand for education among the colored people will be more intelligent and abiding.

THE EXAMINATIONS.