BEACH INSTITUTE, SAVANNAH, GA.
BY H. H. WRIGHT, PRINCIPAL.
The work at Beach Institute is taking on more definite shape. This year a class has graduated, and the course of study for the remaining grades has been brought into something like symmetry. The Savannah public schools graduate the colored pupils from the grammar grade, above which no provision is made for their education. For the white pupils, however, a High School is maintained. Hence the ambitious colored youth, many of whom are as fair as their white neighbors, turn hopefully to the “Beach” as a school which will give them what the city fathers have denied them.
The first of the public exercises which have just closed the academic year was a public examination, held Friday, May 26. The programme was the regular daily programme, so far as the order of classes was concerned, but the questions put were given at random and without previous preparation from the work of the entire year. By this plan, of course, a few failures occurred, but the visitors felt that they had seen the classes fairly tested, and their hearty commendation was duly appreciated.
The second public exercise was a sermon preached in the Congregational Church to the graduating class on Sunday evening, May 28, by the pastor, Rev. Dana Sherrill. His earnest words of advice to rise above county and State lines and become at least national in their views of life were fitly spoken and well received.
The third public exercise occurred Wednesday, May 31, beginning at 11 o’clock A.M. An extensive programme of declamations, dialogues and songs was rendered in a most satisfactory manner and listened to by a crowded house. The tables, the organ and the lamps were most tastefully trimmed with a profusion of flowers, the gifts of the pupils. Jessamines mingled their fragrance with that of the late-blooming rosebuds. Pond lilies and Spanish moss were enlivened by the æsthetic sunflower. Upon the platform, during a part of the exercises, were the Hon. J. O. Ferrill and Mr. Murray. The former is a member of the City Board of Education and a firm friend of the colored people. He has frequently advocated in the Board, but with only partial success, more extended facilities for their education in the public schools, and better salaries for the colored teachers. Mr. Murray is a representative of the Savannah Daily Recorder. In the audience were numerous colored men of influence, who happened to be in the city attending the Baptist Missionary Convention. The music was furnished entirely by the pupils, and included songs, quartets, duets, solos and two instrumental pieces. The exercises were closed by the graduation of a class of two girls. The diplomas were presented by the principal. Then the pupils rose at the touch of the organ, and striking up a march, “The Christian Soldier,” sang their way to their various school-rooms, and the year’s work was ended.
PEEPING THROUGH.