Chapter 2

And now for a moment we will run down into the rice swamps of Georgia. Come into the house of old Aunt Peggy. A bed and two boxes form all the furniture of the room. The house is a borrowed one. Aunt Peggy is having a new one built. It will cost five dollars, and when we ask her how she is going to pay for it she tells us she has a quarter saved toward it, and she has promised the man who is building it her blankets, her only bedding beside an old comforter. But the weather is growing warm, she says, and "mebbe before it done turn cold I'll be in the hebbenly mansions." One of the saddest relics of the old slavery days is these childless, friendless, companionless old people, childless because slavery separated them from their children; husbands and wives were parted, and all family life rendered impossible. Two old people in the region of McIntosh, Ga., have recently died, each alone in a little cabin, and the tragedy was not discovered until the buzzards were seen circling around the place.

Aunt Peggy's sole comfort and dependence is a little boy eleven or twelve years old, whom she picked up by the roadside where he, a tiny baby, had been left by a heartless mother. Although then at least eighty years old, she strapped him on her back as she went to her "tasses" (tasks) in the field. She named him Calvary Baker, and now he has become her dependence and support, although the light in her shadowed cabin comes from the ministrations of the teachers in Dorchester Academy; and as she put her old, gaunt, claw-like black fingers on the face of the delicate, refined academy teacher, Aunt Peggy said: "Oh, you're my Jesus mudder;" and then, turning to me, she said, while a smile lit up the old black face, "Oh, missus, I bress de Lord for the Jesus school, for if it had not been for these Jesus mudders, I reckon hunger would have carried me off."

It is a wonderful work at McIntosh, as is true of all our schools. There are great lessons to be learned there. The student of the negro problem would do well to visit this section of the country with its historic interest, to note the influence of the old Midway Church, whose members were obliged to allow their slaves to attend church, so that at one time the black membership of this church was double the white; and to learn from a careful statistician that there is a less per cent. of crime and immorality, and a greater per cent. of full-blooded negroes here, under the influence of this old religious _regime_, than can be found in any like number of our colored population throughout the Black Belt, save where the Christian school has changed the life during this last generation.

We are solving the negro problem in the only way possible, in the opinion of all statesmen, all publicists and all philanthropists, by the farm and the shop, and the school and the church, and over them all the Stars and Stripes. But we are doing more than this; we are setting the solitary in families; the wilderness and the solitary places are being made glad, and the desert is rejoicing and blossoming as the rose.

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COMMENCEMENT AT FISK UNIVERSITY, TENN.

Fisk graduated classes of usual size. It deeply lamented the absence of President Cravath, who was ill in the East, and the late death of Prof. Spence. The Dean, J. G. Merrill, was deputed to preside at the varied functions of commencement week. The weather was unusually temperate, audiences very large.

The largest college preparatory class in the history of the university was graduated. It catalogued thirty-nine. Ten States were represented on its list, and a larger number of young women than have ever entered Fisk before were made Freshmen.

Commencement week included a missionary sermon, which was delivered by Prof. Brown, of Vanderbilt University, upon "Paul the Missionary;" baccalaureate, by the Dean, whose theme was "Moses, the Leader of his People." To these were added three "graduating exercises." In the program were over thirty speakers--young men and women, not one of whom had a syllable of prompting. A graduate of Princeton University, spending the day in Nashville, after hearing the four "Commencement" orations, said that each one of them was superior in thought and delivery to the one that carried off the prize at Princeton less than ten days before. These young men and their classmates are to make their careers--three as physicians, two as pharmacists, two as teachers, one as a business man, the other as a lawyer. The young woman graduate received two diplomas, the second being in music, her industry and ability being evidenced in the fact that her long hours with the piano did not prevent her receiving high honors in the classroom. One of the men had walked fourteen miles each day, summer and winter, besides doing the "chores" morning and night; another has had a chair in a barber shop every evening; others have taught schools in vacation, been Pullman porters and waiters at summer resorts. One, whose two grandfathers were Frenchmen, born in France, before coming to college loaded the rifle and stood by his father, who shot down three men who came to his home to mob him. He himself, a very Hercules by name and in appearance, champion on the college gridiron, pleaded on the commencement stage most persuasively for "Universal Peace."

Our commencement orator was Rev. H. E. Cobb, one of the pastors in the Reformed Collegiate Church of New York City. His address upon the "Open Door" disclosed to the young graduates their possibilities of success and failure, and captivated old and young.

Fisk enters upon a new year with high hopes. Her Jubilee Singers, whose music added greatly to the enjoyment of the week, return North in the late summer to keep alive the enthusiasm awakened by their last season's successes, while the Faculty know the hour grows nearer and nearer when the endowment which God has in store for Fisk is to materialize, and they will know who are God's chosen servants to do for the Negro what has been so gloriously done for the white young people of America--furnishing them a chance to secure an education at an institution throughly equipped to provide the leaders of a tenth of our population, men and women sound in mind and soul.

The Alumni had an enthusiastic meeting. They were addressed by Miss Nancy Jones, '86, who has served the A. B. C. F. M. in Africa, and by Dr. A. A. Wesley, '94, who spoke on "How to Overcome Prejudices," who, as surgeon in an Illinois regiment in the Spanish War, won such distinction as to have been appointed to read a paper before the National Army Surgeons' Association in New York City the week before commencement.

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COMMENCEMENT AT TALLADEGA COLLEGE, ALABAMA.

Coming away one afternoon from one of the exercises of commencement week at Talladega College, a prominent white citizen said in comment on a speech he had just heard: "There is a good deal of foolish talk about how much the Spanish-American war has done in bringing the North and South together; but the fact is, that schools like this, in which the Negro is taught to be law-abiding and to live a moral life, administered as this one is with such good sense and wisdom, are doing far more than any sentimental influences of the war to bring races and sections to mutual good understanding." On Sunday, at the big Chautauqua building, during the baccalaureate sermon, two white citizens were standing at the door watching the quiet, orderly audience of perhaps fifteen hundred colored people. One of them has not been distinguished for earnestness of desire to see the Negro educated. Said the other, "It looks like the niggers are coming up in spite of h--," to which the response, though possibly reluctant, was clearly affirmative.

Those who have been toiling all the year long, unable to appreciate the work in its perspective, discouraged sometimes because results hoped for do not immediately appear, are cheered by such testimony to the efficiency and value of the work, even if it is not always given in elegant and reverent form. And there was other testimony of the same kind from all sorts and conditions of visitors. Expressions of pleasure and approval came constantly from alumni, from teachers in other schools, from citizens both white and black.

Not as large a graduating class was sent out as usual, there being only nine in all--three young men from the college department, and six from the normal school, all young women but one. The parents of none of these students have graduated from Talladega. All of them were slaves, though most were so young at the time of emancipation as not to remember much of slavery days. The father of one of the college men, however, was, it is said, made by his master to run regularly before the bloodhounds to keep them in training. Sometimes it was hard running, and sometimes he had to take refuge in a tree to escape harm when the dogs had caught up with him. This young man, who carried off the A.B. degree, is planning to go to Yale for further study, and after a year or two to enter a Northern law-school.

Another of the same department is in some ways an accomplished fellow. He has read widely and remembers what he has read; he plays the violin; he is an excellent pianist, and he is a member of the college male quartet, which is to spend the summer in the North, endeavoring to raise money for new buildings greatly needed at Talladega. After this summer campaign he also hopes to begin the study of law at Columbia or Harvard. The third young man of the college class expects to take for a year a principalship in the public schools of a neighboring city, and then enter upon the study of medicine.

The young man who finished the normal course, being a good carpenter, has been for three years head of the college repair shop. For this summer he will return to a country school where he has taught for five consecutive summers, and in the fall hopes to enter a trade-school to perfect himself in carpentry and to learn what he can of architecture and building, purposing to devote himself to that line of work.

It is a matter of congratulation to the school that so many students, after finishing some course here, are ambitious to pursue their studies further in the best institutions of the country.

The young women who were graduated from the normal course are all to enter upon the work for which they have been trained, one or two already having positions in view in city schools, while the others will take up work in the country districts. It is not a large class, as has been said, but it is a good, earnest, ambitious class, in which there is large promise of solid usefulness.

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COMMENCEMENT AT STRAIGHT UNIVERSITY, LA.

The exercises of commencement week began on the morning of Sunday, May 20th, with an interesting address to the Christian associations by Rev. A. S. Jackson, D.D., of Dallas, Texas.

On the evening of the same day President Oscar Atwood delivered the Baccalaureate Address. The close attention which this address commanded showed how well chosen was its theme and interesting the presentation of its ideas.

On Monday the Industrial and Grade work was exhibited. Specimens of practical work in wood done by the young men and boys in the shop, articles both useful and beautiful from the sewing-room, together with fine drawings and written exercises done by members of the different grades, made up this exhibit.

The value of this branch of the university's work cannot be overestimated. The training given is of the most practical kind. Young men have been enabled, through the industrial education received at the university, to work at the carpenter's trade during their summer vacation, and thus earn the means necessary to take them through the following year of study. At the present time one enterprising young graduate, as a result of this very training, is putting up with his own hands the building which is to shelter the school he is founding in Southern Louisiana.

In the sewing-room the young women and girls, besides acquiring a knowledge of mending and darning, learn to cut, fit and make all kinds of garments. Fancy work is taught them after they have learned the more useful kinds of sewing.

Monday afternoon the Rev. Chas. R. Dinkins addressed the literary societies of the university, and on Monday evening one of the most interesting programs of the whole commencement season was presented--namely, the class-day program.

It was in these exercises that the love of the graduating classes for their Alma Mater, and their appreciation of her faithful and efficient instruction found fullest expression. We have known of schools where class-day was made an occasion for ridiculing the Faculty, students and instruction of the institution. Not so at Straight; class-day there is one of the occasions when the delightful relations that have existed between teachers and students, and among the student body, are revealed.

A short address by the President is followed by the class oration, well composed and ably delivered. Then we listen to an entertaining paper which gives us the history of the class. We review with the young historian its hardships and its triumphs, and conclude that, like all other classes whose history we have heard, it has had a remarkable career. The prophecy is a spicy bit of humor, and reflects much credit upon its writer, a dainty little miss, as bright and interesting a prophet as we shall meet in many a long day. A young man now steps forward upon the platform, of whose purpose in so doing we are not quite sure. The president of the class soon clears up our doubts, however, by requesting President Atwood to come forward. It is evident that this is a surprise to the head of the university. The young man makes a short speech of presentation and hands to the president a gift from the graduating classes. The singing of the class ode closes this part of the evening's exercises, and the college class now presents an excellent program consisting of an oration by the president, a history and a well-written poem.

One cannot help remarking upon the dignity and good taste which characterized the exercises of Class-Day. We doubt whether any class in a Northern school could have made a better showing.

On Tuesday afternoon the graduating exercises of the grammar department were held. On Wednesday evening, when the graduating classes received their diplomas, the other students received certificates of the work they had done.

The alumni of Straight held their annual business meeting on Tuesday evening.

The commencement exercises on Wednesday evening formed a fitting climax for a week so full of interest and inspiration. These exercises are held at Central Church because it can accommodate a much larger audience than the university chapel, and in the evening, because this hour permits many to be present who, on account of their work, could not attend commencement during the day.

Long before the hour appointed for beginning the exercises, all the seats were filled and all the standing room in the church utilized, and the air was alive with whispers, low tones and the flutter of fans as the audience waited, with the best patience it could muster, for the opening numbers of the program. When President Atwood rose and announced the first number, all sounds ceased, and the great audience gave close attention to that and all the twenty-one succeeding numbers on the program.

The program was one of which the university may be justly proud. The orations of the graduates from the college course on "The Mission of the Scholar," "Aims and Ideals," and "Does the Constitution Follow the Flag?" would have been considered exceptional in any of our Northern colleges, for their thought, expression and delivery. The three graduates from the theological department did credit to their teacher, Rev. G. W. Henderson, D.D., in their contribution to the program, and the sixteen students who were graduated from the normal and college preparatory courses likewise acquitted themselves with credit. The music of the program was furnished by the students, and consisted of piano solos and duets and choruses. The performers deserve much commendation. The presentation of diplomas formed an impressive close to the evening's program.

To have seen these students is to believe in the work which the American Missionary Association is doing in the South, and to become a promoter of that work; it is to have faith in the ability of the negro to become a useful citizen; it is to catch a glimpse of the true solution of the negro problem, and to see that the satisfactory solution of that great question is being worked out, not by our legislators, but by devoted Christian men and women, like President Atwood and his corps of teachers, who are giving the best years of their lives to the service of the Master in the Southland.

The graduating class is the largest in the history of the university, thirteen young men and twelve young women. Ten of these reside in New Orleans, and twelve are from different parts of Louisiana, North Carolina and Texas. Seven completed the college preparatory course, nine the normal, three the course in arts and three the theological.

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COMMENCEMENT AT TOUGALOO UNIVERSITY, MISS.

Commencement at Tougaloo University this year was characterized by an unusual quietness and the absence of the great crowds which usually attend. For many weeks smallpox had been prevalent in the regions about, so much so, that it was necessary to practically quarantine the school against incomers. Since February, nearly all pupils had been refused in the boarding department, and from the middle of March the day pupils had been excluded almost wholly. It is worthy of note, however, that notwithstanding this, the enrollment of the year surpassed, by one hundred and more, that of the year previous. It did not seem wise to issue any general invitation to the Commencement Exercises, and so the public stayed away. A few invited guests came from Jackson, among them Governor Longino, Secretary of State Power, ex-Congressman Hooker, and some of the pastors of the city. These gentlemen made brief addresses, heartily commending the school's work and that for which it stands. The annual address on "Wealth," by Dr. Cornelius H. Patton, of St. Louis, made a very deep impression.

Four students were graduated from the academy and normal course. Two of them, and possibly more, will take college work. Next year Tougaloo will, for the first time, have a full college course. Excellent work has been done in that department during the past year. It is interesting to note that one of the graduates represents the second generation at Tougaloo, her mother having been a student in the early days of the school. There are many such second generation students in the lower grades, and they distinctly show the effects of the influences to which their parents were subjected. All the graduates were country-bred.

Those visitors to the school who had been familiar with it in the past years were specially interested in the outward changes visible. The new Beard Hall, commodious and pleasant, well furnished and convenient, and the new Refectory, with its dining-room capable of seating three hundred students; the Emergency Building, now transformed into a spacious building for the manual training in wood and industrial drawing; the new building for iron and steel forging and masonry; the old shop metamorphosed into a most satisfactory laundry, all were commented on as great additions to the material side of Tougaloo's life. In passing from building to building, attention was paid to the industrial features of the work. The exhibits of iron and steel tools made by the students, among them a machine for cutting iron, of great strength and excellent workmanship; of chairs, desks, tables, tabourets, etc.; of needlework from the beginning steps to completed garments; of cookery and of millinery, were deemed very satisfactory. Much of the work cannot be surpassed anywhere. Leading Mississippians are proud of Tougaloo and its work, and esteem it the best school of its class.

Mention was more than once made of the fact that the new president of Alcorn College, the state institution for colored young men, which is now doing better work than for some years, and his accomplished wife, are graduates of Tougaloo. The teacher of iron and steel work there had his training in the Tougaloo shops.

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COMMENCEMENT AT GRANDVIEW INSTITUTE, TENN.

The exercises of the Fifteenth Annual Commencement of the Grandview Normal Institute opened with the baccalaureate sermon by the principal, Sunday, April 29th, in the chapel.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were occupied with examinations in all the grades and departments, which afforded abundant evidence of a year of faithful and fruitful work.

On Thursday evening, May 3d, the public commencement was held in the assembly room of the school building, and was attended by a very large audience. The graduates were only three in number, two young women and one young man.

Two of the graduates were genuine American Highlanders, and were residents of Grandview, the third came from Sequatchie Valley.

The orations and essays were without exception creditable performances.

One pleasing feature of the evening was the presentation by Rev. W. E. Rogers, County Superintendent, of State diplomas to twenty juniors.

The perfect order which prevailed throughout the exercises was in striking contrast to former days when pistols and "moonshine" whiskey were most fearfully in evidence.

Of the graduates, one of the young women will teach school the coming year, the young man will seek work somewhere for a year and hopes then to enter the State University at Knoxville and so fit himself for some useful calling in life. These graduates are earnest young Christians who will go out from their alma mater to reflect credit on the School and to do honor to those who have generously given of their means that the children of the people stranded on these mountains may "see a great light." The year just closed was the most prosperous one in the history of Grandview school. The enrollment was the largest the school had ever known and was considerably above two hundred.

Next year, if the juniors all return, as is expected, the graduating class will number about twenty.

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COMMENCEMENT AT PLEASANT HILL ACADEMY, TENN.

The graduating class of Pleasant Hill Academy numbered six--three girls and three boys--most of the number coming from the Highland Rim instead of from the mountains proper. There were four others in the class, one from Alabama, but ill-health and other causes reduced the number to six.

Two or three will continue their work at the University of Tennessee, one at the University of Missouri, one at Peabody Normal, Nashville. All expect to teach, and one expects eventually to become a trained nurse and missionary.

We have been interested in tracing their ancestry, which follows: one English, one Scotch-Irish, one Irish, one Scotch-Irish and Dutch, one English-Irish, one Scotch-Irish and French. In the class are Cumberland Presbyterian, Methodist South, Free Baptist, one Mormon and one of Unitarian preferences.

One of the women is the wife of a blind preacher who is doing a good work in this region.