ANNIVERSARY REPORTS—Continued.
Atlanta University.
PROF. HORACE BUMSTEAD, D.D.
Anniversary exercises are apt to afford but meagre indication of the real work accomplished by any school. To those of us who know the work of Atlanta University, such exercises seem especially inadequate to the faithful telling of what is being done here. When our good Christian friend, Philander Veryrich, hints that he is ready to come down here with a hundred thousand dollars in each pocket, to be emptied out wherever they will do the most good, I shall not especially urge his attendance upon our Commencement exercises. I shall ask him to spend with us either the first or the last Sunday evening of the school year. I shall beg him to preserve a strict incognito, and allow me to conceal him outside one of the windows, or behind one of the doors of our assembly room, with a peep-hole conveniently arranged. If it is the last Sunday evening before the vacation, he will hear many of the scholars speak with grateful appreciation of what the year’s work has done for them, and with enthusiastic hope of what they mean to do for others during their summer’s work of teaching. The members of the graduating class will recall their experience of six or seven or eight years in the Institution, and tell what a home it has been to them, and how much of what they have acquired in the training of mind and character is due to the Christian home influence of the school. If it is the first Sunday evening of the new school year, our benevolent friend will hear many of these same scholars tell of their summer’s work—how they have succeeded in some things and failed in others; what they have done in Sunday-school and temperance work; what obstacles they have met and conquered; what increasing favor they have found in the communities where they have labored. At either of these Sunday evening family gatherings (for such they are), I think our visiting friend will be struck with the simple straightforward way in which our scholars express themselves, with the extremely limited amount of what is sometimes called “gush,” and with the clear revelation which will be made to him that before, behind, around, and underneath everything else, the development of a thoroughly Christian character, and of a true manhood and womanhood, is the all-absorbing purpose of our work. But I am stultifying myself in trying to convey an impression of these gatherings to others. Even to our own corps of workers here, they come, twice a year, almost as a surprise and as a most inspiring revelation to ourselves of what God is permitting us to do.
And still, however inadequate, our anniversary exercises have been full of interest, and have revealed much to those who have visited us for the first time. The Baccalaureate sermon was preached June 12th, by our college pastor, Rev. Cyrus W. Francis, from 1st Tim. i. 19, “Holding faith and a good conscience;” and it was an earnest plea for the supremacy of the higher motives in the Christian warfare upon which the graduates were about to enter. Three days of public examinations followed, each day’s session being concluded by an exercise in music and light gymnastics. On the last day there was a display of what our girls have learned in the way of head-making. The walls of the front hall and one of the stairways were covered with specimens of the students’ drawing and map-making, indicating great progress in this department during the year. The normal work also has been making a decided advance. It is evident that those of us who teach the Greek, Latin and other higher branches will have to look well to our laurels. Fewer visitors to the school ask to hear the classics translated; more wish to see how the three R’s are taught. No exercise of the examination days riveted the attention of our friends more firmly than the exercise in teaching one of the grammar-school grades, by one of the members of the senior normal class, with following criticisms from the other members of the class. However, we classical instructors rejoice in all this, for we know that hereafter we shall have better equipped pupils for grappling with Xenophon and Cicero. It ought to be mentioned here that one of the most valuable exercises of our winter term this year was a three days’ Teachers’ Institute, in which all the teachers and scholars participated, and in which much light was thrown upon the improved methods of teaching, now attracting such wide attention. A further impetus was given to thought and effort in this direction by the visit of our friend, the Rev. A. D. Mayo, co-editor of the Journal of Education, whose four lectures and one sermon before our students, and whose private talk and counsel with our teachers on certain phases of our work, will not soon be forgotten.
A very large audience, as usual, packed the Friendship Baptist church on Thursday, to listen to the essays of eleven of the graduating class, and to the address of the invited orator of the day. Five young men and twelve young women received the diplomas of the school. The Commencement address was delivered by Rev. Atticus G. Haygood, D.D., President of Emory College at Oxford, in this State. Those who are now reading his recently published book, “Our Brother in Black,” will not need to be told that his address was listened to with the greatest pleasure and approval by all who were present. It was a plain, forcible and thoroughly wholesome presentation of some of the ways in which the true greatness of the State must be secured, and the relation thereto of education and of such institutions as ours. Dr. Haygood represents, most nobly, that rapidly multiplying element among the Southern people which believes in the motto, “Look up and not down, out and not in, forward and not backward, and lend a hand.” May his tribe increase.
One of the most excellent features of the address was, as one auditor suggested, the fact that it would have been just as appropriate for delivery before the Athens (State) University as before the Atlanta University.
The Alumni meeting, Thursday afternoon, brought together a goodly number of the graduates of former years. The spirit of the remarks made at this gathering gives, every year, an increasing assurance of the stability and self-propagating character of the work in which we are engaged.
The report of the Visiting Committee, appointed by the Governor of the State, has just been published. It furnishes renewed evidence of the growing favor which our work is meeting with among the people of Georgia. The remarks made to the school on the last day of the examinations, by Rev. Mr. Wilkes, the chairman of the sub-committee, who prepared this report, were full of good sense and kindly feeling. The speaker told of his life-long service as a teacher, and how it had begun with the instruction of a little colored boy, his father’s slave, in the safe seclusion of the corn-crib, in the days when such teaching was a criminal offense. None who heard him could doubt the entire sincerity of his words of sympathy and encouragement. It is astonishing how rapidly and widely the work of Atlanta University is coming to be appreciated. Among the applications for teachers which have lately been received, have been several from county school commissioners, who say, in substance, “The teachers we have met with from your Institution are of such a quality that we desire now to supply all our schools from the same source.” Let our friends at the North take courage. Their investments, so far, are bearing compound interest at a high rate. When these lines reach the eyes of the readers of the Missionary, some ten thousand children, all over this great State, will be gathered under the instruction of our pupils. Next October we shall get the reports of this work. As soon as our friend, Philander Veryrich, will send me his address, I will give him the date of the Sunday evening gathering, from which he can learn more about our work than from whole volumes of the American Missionary.
TALLADEGA COLLEGE.
MRS. THOS. N. CHASE.
After following with tender anxiety so many classes through their graduating exercises at Atlanta, it has been very pleasant for me, this year, to witness the closing exercises of two similar Institutions. This one at Talladega I have been urged to report for the Missionary.
The sermon before the graduating class was preached by Pres. H. S. De Forest upon the worth of the soul. His eloquent review of the grand geologic ages told of the greater grandeur of Him for whom they were prepared. His allusions to the soul’s capacity to think, feel and choose, to its immortality and cost of redemption, must have brought to the class an overwhelming sense of their responsibility. In closing, they were asked to remember that what a man may be is infinitely more than what he can sell himself to get.
The Missionary Society had the promise of an address on Sunday evening by Dr. G. B. Willcox, of Chicago Theological Seminary. A telegram announcing his sickness was throwing its shadow over us, when, as unexpectedly, Rev. H. M. Ladd dropped in upon us, only a few days home from Africa. He hastened South to catch the last days of Talladega and Atlanta sessions, hoping to find recruits for African missions.
On Monday the examinations began. This Institution is fortunate in having an excellent primary school in the building. It is a constant object lesson to the little army of teachers who go out every summer to teach just such children, and also dignifies primary work, which, in spite of Frœbel, Pestalozzi and the truly wise and good everywhere, is too often considered of minor importance. The principal of the intermediate department has remarkable ability in bringing her pupils up to her high standard of excellence. In the rear of her school-room is a power for good which is inestimable. It consists in a long, low table with seats. On it are fastened, by a very simple contrivance, interesting and instructive illustrated papers and magazines, which the children are allowed to read after lessons are prepared. In an age when the best literature floods our land in such cheap forms that the humblest need never thirst, what nobler philanthropy than to allure these often worse than homeless children on to an early taste for good reading?
The normal work and classes in natural science are in charge of a graduate lately from Beloit College and Whitewater Normal School. The classical department is in charge of an Olivet graduate, whose three years here have proved him invaluable. A most interesting acquisition to the corps of teachers is a scientific farmer, a graduate of Massachusetts Agricultural College. To enjoy the delicious vegetables from his garden is enough to convert a sceptic in scientific agriculture. It really looks as though, under his skill, these unsightly acres of red clay were, in time, to blossom as the rose. The joy and pride of this Institution, however, is its theological department, and well it may be. Its class of eleven were examined two hours of one of their hot days, and nobody seemed weary. The clear, simple topics, recited in such an interesting, lucid style, tolerated no hovering fog, that I had supposed always, more or less, mystified a recitation in systematic theology. The accuracy of their knowledge in Bible history, too, was wonderful. None but a born teacher could have secured such results from a class of that grade of scholarship. Classes in geometry and rhetoric told unmistakably of thorough work.
We were entertained, Monday evening, by prize speaking and essay reading; Tuesday evening, by an interesting account of Mr. Ladd’s African experience, in place of the expected address by Dr. Willcox; Wednesday evening, by the ordination of two candidates; Thursday evening, by a musical concert. There are a few rare voices here that vocal training would develop into marvellous sweetness.
Thursday was graduating day, and as the class was much smaller than usual, five young men from the preparatory department gave orations. They were all excellent in matter and delivery. Their effect would have been more pleasing, however, had there been a greater variety of subjects or of treatment. Doubtless, in the depths of these students’ hearts, no subjects are so momentous as “The curse of Canaan;” “Cannot we, too, become great men?” “The ballot,” etc. But what has pleased me here more than anything else, however, is the excellent spirit manifested by the students in the family. There is, especially among the young men, an earnestness of purpose shown that is simply grand. Possibly it is, in part, owing to the fact that so many are from the country, schooled by hard work, away from the follies of city life. There is here no airing of exquisite broadcloth nor swinging of fancy canes. All are respectful, unassuming, and possessed of a modesty that seems to reach beneath their delightful demeanor and give them a true estimate of their abilities. At family devotions, the last morning before the school separated, one of the graduates led us in prayer. I cannot think that the thought and tones of that prayer will ever leave me. The ear of the Omnipotent must have heard those pathetic pleadings that his fellow-students might be sustained by the Everlasting Arms as they took up their heavy burdens, often in the midst of terrible temptations. We who send out these large numbers of young men and women to reach the masses, feel the need of your prayers and sympathies; but how much more do these young and inexperienced ones, as they go out to battle with ignorance, envy, intemperance and every form of vice! We never realize how great our hopes are for them till we occasionally get a great shock by the death of one, or the overcoming and fall of another. We reach but a few. Surely our work and the entire Southern work of the American Missionary Association centres in those who go out to reach the millions. If they fail, we have failed. How important that we hold up such a high standard of character, that they shall be beacon lights instead of tapers that shall soon go out in the darkness.
TILLOTSON INSTITUTE, AUSTIN, TEXAS.
(From the Daily Statesman)
Tillotson Institute is presided over by the Rev. W. E. Brooks, a gentleman of evident Christian piety, an accomplished scholar, and a man thoroughly impressed with the dignity and importance of his trust. Professor Brooks is ably assisted in the educational part of his work by Miss Hunt, an experienced and successful teacher of the young, as her class examinations, conducted at the Institute on the 9th inst., fully demonstrated; the boys and girls, in the careful and prolonged examinations to which they were subjected by their teachers and the visitors present, displaying an accuracy of information and a fullness of understanding highly commendable to themselves, and a just source of pride to their faithful and efficient teachers. The examination in English grammar, including analysis and parsing, was excellent, as was that also in geography. The result of the examination in arithmetic, algebra and Latin showed an uncommon proficiency on the part of the students, considering the fact that they have been at this school and under this training scarcely more than six months.
President Brooks has the real welfare of his pupils at heart, and is educating them in a practical as well as theoretical way. He is teaching them how to become useful and honorable men and women, and his labors have the cordial approval of all our best citizens. President Brooks is so much gratified with his success thus far that he visits the North shortly, hoping to get further aid in establishing this school, and proposes, if his expectations are realized, to add a mechanical and agricultural department to his present course of instruction. The school closed with an attendance of one hundred and seven pupils. This under-taking is a very praiseworthy one, and will, we doubt not, meet with the encouragement it most certainly deserves. In Virginia, Tennessee and Louisiana these schools for the colored youth are attracting the attention and securing the liberal approval of the legislatures and public men of those states, and so it will be here.
We noticed among the many visitors present at the examination, Gov. Pease, Rev. Mr. Wright, Judge Fulmore, Mr. A. P. Wooldridge, Profs. Winn and Johnson, all of whom expressed themselves highly gratified with the success of the school.
We recommend to our people who take an interest in education to visit this Institution. They can be assured of a polite and hospitable welcome, and most of them will be surprised and pleased to see what a superior school and school building we have in our midst.
AVERY INSTITUTE, CHARLESTON.
The school year at Avery Institute closed Thursday, June 30, the last three days being given to public exercises. Tuesday was “examination day.” I wish you all could see the school as it looked that morning from the rostrum. The bright eager eyes, the earnest faces, the neat appropriate style of dress, and the respectful scholar-like behavior of the students, even the tiniest ones, are a strong contrast to the appearance of the street children. You suppose our scholars belong to a better class than the street children? To be sure they do; but these same lower classes may become respectable, and have much more to encourage them to rise, than those had who have already struggled up. The visitors were, of course, friends of the school and of the scholars, and they said many kind and appreciative things about the school and the recitations they heard. We tried to make the examinations strictly honest. Every scholar was given a chance, as far as possible, to show what he had done in every study he had pursued; and to take the words of those who visited the different classes, the result was satisfactory.
Wednesday was “children’s day,” when the little ones in the lower rooms gave the entertainment, and the older scholars attended as guests, with other friends of the small entertainers. The affair was very child-like and pretty. The recitations and dialogues were such as the children could appreciate; the songs bright, airy little things; and the singing a half-shy dainty rippling of very sweet music. Through all there was no appearance of the “Now-all-are-looking-at-me” feeling that sometimes makes children’s exhibitions such pitiful things.
On Thursday was the Anniversary. The course of study having been extended one year, there was no graduating class. The exercises consisted of essays by members of the upper classes, the recitation of a few poems, one or two dialogues, and music. The music was very good, the dialogues natural, the recitations well chosen and well spoken, that entitled “Mona’s Water” being very strongly rendered; but the most interesting part of this entertainment was the essays. Three prizes had been offered, and three gentlemen of the city acted as judges, to decide on the merits of the different essays. All were called good, and with reason. Those of the youngest class in essay writing were delightfully child-like, natural and original. That on “Intemperance,” to which the prize was awarded, had besides a strong-hearted earnestness and depth of thought that were surprising. The essays of the middle class showed more mature thought, or, perhaps, a reaching out towards mature thought—a calm looking forward and trying to prepare for earnest living. The prize in this class came to the essay entitled, “We Learn not for School, but for Life.” The essays of the upper class seemed to have for a key-note a sentiment we always find among the best of our people here, when we get at their hearts and hopes and aspirations—the elevation of their race. Do not think there was any sameness in these essays. Each reached this thought in a different way. It gleamed out in “Everything was Made to be Happy;” it made itself felt as one of the foundations of “Progress;” and it formed the crown of the prize essay, “Nothing Great is Lightly Won,” when, after brave words calling to action, it closed with the quotation from Longfellow’s “Psalm of Life:”
“Lives of great men all remind us,
We may make our lives sublime,” etc.,
leaving one with the thought that helping others is the best and greatest work here, and that our lives must be right towards God if we would really help.
In the evening of this same day the Normal exhibition was held. Every part of the programme was well executed.
C.
LEWIS HIGH SCHOOL.
REV. S. E. LATHROP, MACON, GA.
The closing examinations occupied nearly two days, May 31st and June 1st. The attendance of parents and other visitors was larger than at any previous occasion for some years past, showing perhaps an increasing interest in educational matters. Most of the older scholars (about fifteen of them) had left previously to teach country schools; but the classes which were examined acquitted themselves remarkably well. The questioning by the teachers threw them upon their own resources, and proved the excellent instruction they have had. The noticeable quickness and readiness of answer, and the mastery of each branch of study, showed that they have been trained to think for themselves, and not merely to learn by rote. In reading, geography, history, grammar, composition, arithmetic, algebra, natural philosophy, and other branches, the scholars showed very commendable proficiency, and again answered the often-answered question, “Can the negro learn?”
One thing highly commended by all the visitors, and an important feature of the instruction, was the constant use of writing. The scholars spell out their lessons by writing on slate or black-board. They frequently prepare written compositions or reviews of lessons in grammar and geography, and in many ways are taught to express in written characters the thoughts drawn from their studies. Thus the facts are firmly fixed in mind, and they learn also by the same process to write, spell, capitalize, punctuate and compose. Some of the exercises written as ordinary lessons displayed handsome penmanship.
Several leading white citizens attended the exercises, and expressed themselves as being much pleased. Among them were Professor Williams, principal of the State Asylum for the Blind, located here, a firm friend of negro education; and Professor Link, a professional teacher of many years’ experience, who said, significantly, in private: “I attend all the white schools, and I don’t see any difference”—which is quite an admission for a native Southerner. There was also Rev. J. W. Burke, a leading Methodist Episcopal clergyman, publisher and assistant editor of the Wesleyan Christian Advocate, well known as an excellent Christian man and a true friend of the negro. All the visitors showed decided interest and pleasure. A violent rain-storm arising in the afternoon doubtless kept away many who would have attended.
The literary exercises were held in the church at 4 p. m., June 1st, in the presence of a large and attentive audience. The school, marching in to organ music, were massed together upon the pulpit platform, one tier above another, making a very striking and memorable group. As I looked into the bright eyes and smiling faces of all shades of color, from jet black to almost pure white, and noted the neat, tasty dress, and the beaming of intelligence from the animated features, and remembered the thoroughness of the examination they had passed, I looked back to another scene, sixteen years ago, when, as a soldier in General Wilson’s cavalry, we took possession of this city, and heard the rumors of peace confirmed, just at the end of the long and bloody war. That was my first sight of the negroes of Macon. Then they were uncouth, ragged, ignorant and untrained; but now what a change! I thanked God and took courage.
As the school stood in this grouped position, they sang beautifully the song “Our Motto,” in which the chorus of each verse was “Be faithful, firm and true.” Then repeating together the Twenty-third Psalm, and chanting the Lord’s Prayer, they took their seats in the body of the church, and the literary programme went on. The reading of selections and compositions, the declamations and music, were all well rendered. The singing was especially deserving of notice, as, on account of the severe illness of Miss Raynor, the music teacher, the scholars were deprived of their accustomed organ accompaniment and musical leadership. But they had been well trained, and acquitted themselves with much credit to their teacher and themselves. A song entitled “The Farmer’s Boy,” with a whistling chorus, was especially well sung and whistled. The senior class sang a parting song, and the benediction by Rev. J. W. Burke at 6 P. M. closed the arduous and successful year’s work of the school.
During the year there have been 162 pupils enrolled. Miss C. H. Gilbert, who has been principal for the past three years, is a very successful and experienced instructor, and deserves great credit for the thoroughness and progress of the school. The assistants, Misses J. A. Raynor and C. M. Park, have also done faithful and valuable work. The school has almost outgrown its present quarters, and much needs increased accommodations. The daily Macon Telegraph and Messenger published full and eulogistic reports of the closing exercises.
Mrs. Elizabeth Lathrop, wife of the Macon missionary, has been doing an important work in the industrial line among the girls during the year. Laboring simply as minister’s wife, she has accomplished a good deal of missionary work, not the least important of which has been the sewing school. Beginning last December with twelve pupils, the number increased to 133 on the roll, with an average weekly attendance of 55. Northern friends have contributed thread, needles and other material, and during the seven months the class have made, under the instruction of Mrs. Lathrop, three hundred and six garments (aprons, dresses, handkerchiefs and under clothing), besides twenty-six patch-work quilts, all but three of these completely finished. On June 4th there was an exhibition of these articles at the Lewis High School, an astonishment to all who beheld. The mothers sat there with glad, grateful tears rolling down their cheeks, at the thought of the benefits received in this manner. Speeches of eulogistic gratitude were made by the colored Methodist preachers, and the day closed with the distribution of the garments to the girls who had made them. Much good has been accomplished in this way, and this industrial training is receiving, as it should, more attention than formerly in different places.