BREWER NORMAL INSTITUTE.
REV. L. C. JOELL.
Greenwood is located at the junction of the Augusta & Knoxville Railroad with the Columbia & Greenville. The town is one of the prettiest in the upper part of South Carolina. With a population of one thousand, with one hotel, four white schools, two colored schools and several churches, a newspaper and other evidences of thrift, it offers an attractive locality to settlers, and especially as its climate is very healthful. The eleventh anniversary of the Brewer Normal School, which is located in this town, was observed June 28. This always creates a profound interest in the vicinity, and long before the hour of commencing, an anxious throng of every imaginable description of vehicle is seen wending its way thitherward. On Sunday the 24th, a special sermon was preached to the students and a large number of friends, from Galatians 5:9.
The exercises on the closing day were attended by an unusually large number of citizens and visitors from far and near. The students in attendance during the sessions were 157, an advance upon that of any previous year. The programme of the day was inviting. The principal, Mr. J. D. Backenstose, presided; vocal and instrumental music for the occasion was supplied by Mrs. W. W. Frazier, formerly Miss Mary Clark of Fisk University, and the trained classes of the school. Rev. E. W. Williams of the Second Pres. Church in Abbeville gave the address, taking for his subject “Reality in Morals, in Education and in Christianity.” It enlisted earnest attention during the hour consumed in its delivery. At the intermission between the morning and evening sessions, friends held fellowship with friends and betook themselves to the contents of abundantly laden refreshment baskets. Everybody seemed to manifest that the lines had fallen to him in pleasant places.
The afternoon exercises consisted of singing, recitations and dialogues from the little ones of the primary department. The evening was occupied with similar exercises by the older students of the school. The audience room was by far too small to accommodate the immense throng seeking admission. The year’s work has been a grand success.