LOUISIANA.
“Here am I; Send Me, Send Me.”
One of many Applications.
June 24, 1878.
Prof. A. K. Spence:
Dear Sir—I just received a catalogue from Fisk University, and I must frankly express myself as gratified at the noble work that is being accomplished by Fisk University.
I am anxious to attend the University so as to prepare myself as a missionary to Africa. I have a poor mother, and I am her only support, and I know not how I shall ever be able to make preparations.
Let me know the provisions made for those preparing to go on mission.
I have made quite an advancement in the English branches, but desire to pursue the High Normal course proscribed in your institute, and also the studies of the theological course.
I feel that I must go to Africa. “Here am I; send me, send me.”
See what can be done for me. I can bring certificates of my advancement made, and also of character. I shall patiently wait to hear from you, and trust you will not forget me.
Your brother in Christ,
F. C. L.
FROM NEW ORLEANS TO NEW YORK.
REV. W. S. ALEXANDER.
The Commencement season, marking the completion of a year’s work and the beginning of welcome and needed rest to the teachers in the South, is now well over, and those who have wrought so faithfully during the year, are enjoying the quiet of their Northern homes. While en route to New York, it was my pleasure to visit several of our most prominent institutions, and I shall be glad to speak of what I saw. By way of preface, let me say of
STRAIGHT UNIVERSITY
that the school-year closed happily and successfully. The examinations, which are the best test of scholarship and progress, gave great satisfaction to our friends, and the teachers were glad and grateful to feel that the year’s work had been a good one. We graduated ten young men from the Law Department, of whom eight were white, showing the appreciation of the manner in which this department is conducted. It is entirely self-supporting, the professors accepting the fees of the students as their compensation. Next year we anticipate a class of twenty-five. We graduated three young ladies from the Academic Department. They were superior scholars, and will be successful teachers. At our annual exhibition, and at the Commencement exercises on a subsequent evening, an audience of 800 were in attendance, to show by their presence their deep interest in the prosperity of our beloved institution.
Leaving New Orleans on Tuesday evening, June 4th, we were met at Jackson, Miss., by Brother Pope, with whom we went to
TOUGALOO.
What a delightful location! my first thought was. It does not require a great degree of self-denial to spend the winter in such a retreat as this. The mission-house is situated in the centre of a plantation of five hundred acres, and the approach to it is through a superb grove or forest of oaks, festooned with Spanish moss. Coming from parched and dry New Orleans, where the sun smites so fiercely in midsummer, the country around Tougaloo seemed delightfully fresh and cool. I found teachers and pupils in the midst of their annual examinations. I was impressed with the faithfulness and thoroughness of the instruction given here. There was no “coaching” and no prompting, but every student was put to a fair test of scholarship and proficiency. The singing was an important and interesting feature of Commencement week. Tougaloo could send out its troop of Jubilee Singers, who would win general favor. Great credit is due to the teachers of vocal and instrumental music. The institution, already in such good condition, should have, at the earliest day, increased accommodations for boarding-scholars, enabling them to receive a larger number of mature pupils from all parts of Mississippi. From Tougaloo I went to
SELMA, ALA.,
for a day only. This is one of the prettiest towns in Alabama. The county has a dense negro population, so that the school must always have abundant patronage. It was pleasant to find here Mr. Silsby, whose father was an efficient worker in the same field many years. Mr. Burrell, who is still living, has the great satisfaction of knowing that his benevolent gift has been so fruitful of good results. I reached
TALLADEGA
in time for my appointment on Sunday. This was another surprise to me. Situated in the mountain region of Alabama, with a grand outlook on every side, with fresh breezes from the hills, and with valleys clothed with verdure, it certainly seemed as though a Divine hand guided in the choice of this favored site. The Baccalaureate sermon by the college pastor, Rev. Mr. Hickox, was able and timely. The examinations were full of interest, and brought out the real merit of the instruction and the zeal and diligence of the students. I was particularly pleased with the theological examination conducted by Rev. Mr. Andrews. It covered a wide range of study, and showed that the young men had been taught to think and reason for themselves. I noticed with great satisfaction, in the boarding department, the orderly and polite deportment of the seventy-five young men and women who gather three times a day in the same dining-hall. It was like a quiet Christian family. The training received here will be beyond value, and will reach many families in the State. Were a boarding department not necessary, it would be very desirable for the culture of manners and the direct influence on character of the association of the sexes.
MEMPHIS.
It was a long and wearisome journey to Tennessee. I was never sure of making a railroad connection, as we do on the grand trunk lines. Le Moyne Institute has an interesting history. Dr. Le Moyne, the noted Cremationist, was the generous benefactor of this institution. Without him, it would not now exist. I was too late for the examinations, but in time for the Commencement exercises. They were held in the pretty Congregational Church, and were highly creditable. I found here a company of live, enthusiastic teachers. The mission-house is a most home-like place, and it was not difficult for me, on inquiring of citizens, to ascertain that Le Moyne Institute is thoroughly prized in Memphis. With the same corps of teachers as now, they can hardly fail of success. Here, as in many other points in the South, dormitories are urgently needed. They cannot secure, without them, the best class of students, and the school will remain, at best, a High or Normal School, when it might be the College, in West Tennessee, for the colored people. If some man of Dr. Le Moyne’s generosity would put up a fine building for a dormitory, he would be planting seed-corn which would yield many harvests in the coming years. A fact which touches our hearts at every repetition of it, is that, years ago, during the yellow-fever epidemic, two of the teachers heroically remained at their posts and ministered to those smitten with the fever, and cheerfully paid the forfeit with their lives. Such men and women are made of “good stuff,” and the cause they represent has a right to popular sympathy and support.
With regard to our general work in the South, I was glad to notice everywhere quickened zeal, followed by greatly increased prosperity. I believe the good work among the freedmen was never so efficient as to-day, and never so richly deserved the hearty sympathy and generous benefactions of the good people of the North. As it is no time to sound a retreat when an army has gained its earliest victories, so it is no time, in the work of education and evangelization among the freedmen in the South, to repress zeal or to slacken effort, or to retrench where retrenchment would be fatal; but to push forward till the highest results are achieved.