TOUGALOO UNIVERSITY.
African Macedonia—Usefulness and Needs—Work of Grace—Waiting for Supplies.
REV. H. S. DE FOREST, TALLADEGA, ALA.
A run into Mississippi, and two days spent at Tougaloo, have given me a fresh sense of the importance of our work in its entirety, and a special interest in Tougaloo. This institution, in the centre of the great cotton State, where the black soil seems the natural home of the black man, has a field as large, as needy and as hopeful as can well be desired. From Marion, Ala., at the east, to far beyond the Mississippi on the west, north from New Orleans and south from Holly Springs, each about two hundred miles away, Tougaloo sits alone, and has undisputed possession of a great, a populous, and a waiting African Macedonia, crying out, “Come over and help us.” The University, with meagre equipments and limited accommodations, is trying to answer that cry. It is doing much, very much; but how little compared with what might be done and ought to be done!
Tougaloo is seven miles from Jackson, the State capital, on the railway from New Orleans northward, having a location of wonderful beauty, and advantages peculiar to itself. The farm of five hundred acres is now under good cultivation. The facilities for marketing produce are good, and under judicious management it is believed the work of students may do much towards paying their expenses. The mansion house, built with great taste and care by a planter who was never to occupy it, crowns a gentle slope; while in front is a native grove, or forest, of as weird-like and enchanting beauty as can well be found on this rounded earth. The oaks are of the giant order, almost colossal in their proportions, while from the great arms hang abundant tassels of Spanish moss. Here, on June 3d, under this witchery of shade, on improvised seats, the exercises of Commencement were held. Horses, mules, and vehicles of all kinds, at an early hour, were hitched under the trees. Visitors came by the tens and the scores; but finally, a special train put down its brakes at the station, and hundreds, with lunch baskets in hand, were swarming through the woods, and massing themselves near the platform. Seven young men, after the ordeal of a searching examination, if I may judge from the little I was in time to hear, pronounced their orations and received their diplomas. The addresses of the graduates were thoughtful, full of moral earnestness, well delivered and well received by the great audience, among whom were representatives of the clergy at Jackson, the Board of Trustees, and the Superintendent of Education. Several of these visitors added words of hearty and well-deserved commendation. The impress of the instructors was manifest throughout the exercises. This thought pervaded all the speeches: there is work to be done, and we wish to have a hand in it. Back of the stage, as the class motto, hung the old, but not outworn, “Labor omnia vincit.” The motto suggested the theme of the first speaker. The address in the afternoon was on “The field and the victories of work,” and idleness had no mercy that day. Apparently, there is not much of it about the institution. Under the direction of the Principal, Rev. G. S. Pope, a man of long experience in this Southern field, singularly fitted for his post and well sustained by earnest co-laborers, both in-door and out-door industries have been greatly promoted. The farm and garden are beginning to show what good husbandry can do. Blooded cattle are taking the place of the native lean kine; improved groves are disclosing their richness; while the garden not only supplies the large family at the University, but is affording some surplus for others. Strawberries from nearly an acre of land have been picked this year, and largely sent to Chicago. This industry promises well, and will be increased in the future.
The needs of Tougaloo are as apparent as its present usefulness. Besides the mansion and the out-buildings, many of which are old, there is a chapel with a second story containing rooms for young men, and also a boarding hall, with dormitories for young women above. These three principal buildings are of wood, the mansion house occupying the centre. These accommodations are far too small. To meet a present necessity, a rough barrack has been put up, giving nine additional rooms. The attendance during the past year has been about two hundred, and nearly all have been boarders in the family. Increase the accommodations and the attendance might be doubled at once; but what would a school of four hundred be among the tens of thousands in this great State who are hungering for education? At mid-winter a work of grace pervaded the school, and not far from thirty, it was thought, of these pupils became Christ’s disciples, and they go forth with new purposes. The influences for good from Tougaloo are not easily computed; its grand possibilities reach out towards the infinite.
It seems strange to us who are on the ground, glad to man these out-posts and give what we have of life and vigor to the work, that needed supplies are not forthcoming. Give us adequate appliances, and we can greatly multiply our usefulness. We wish to be re-inforced, not relieved. Our commissariat is insufficient. We are glad to give ourselves to this work, but we need supplies. And we cannot think that life is cheaper than lucre; that men at the rear can afford to neglect those who are allowed to go to the front; and if America has any front in this nineteenth century, it is still down South. We wish to advance all our lines, and are simply waiting for supplies.