TOUGALOO COMMENCEMENT.
The unsurpassed wealth of our roses had just left their vanishing fragrance on the air, only the Cherokees being left in profusion to lend their peculiar charm to our closing exercises, but the grand old oaks standing like guardian sentinels around the grounds, in all the freshness of their early leafage and festooned with the Spanish moss, ever faithful to all seasons, gave to the place a patriarchal appearance, and an air of seclusion from temptation. The healthful cedar boughs and buds bestowed their fragrance like a closing benediction.
Sec. Powell came to us with his strong earnest words of cheer and a lecture on Slave Music, which our young people could illustrate and well appreciate. Gov. Lowry expressed a hearty commendation of the exhibition of work from the industrial department, as well as the orations, essays, dialogue, and declamation. The colloquy on our reading-room indicated that good use had been made of that room, even if the number of volunteers for furnishing news items after dinner had not always been as numerous as might be desired. Supt. Smith told us that many of the best teachers in the State come from this school. Dr. Galloway and the city fathers of Jackson showed their appreciation of the sentiments expressed by the young people, and we heartily wished that the dear, good, noble-hearted workers of the North could have been present, who have so generously opened their purses to educate and fit "our brother in black" for leading his race from a darkness more than "skin deep" to noble citizenship. We wish you could realize, as you only can by seeing it, what a stimulus every such work is to the white people of the South, for as Dr. Haygood stated in his closing address, "though Northern money generously erected these buildings and pays a large share of the salaries here, yet the State pays the young men and women who go out from this school to teach in the country schools."
Dear friends, your investments are bringing in grand returns, but the needs of this race are very great yet. It is sad to see the number who come to this institution with means to pay their expenses for only a part of the year, hoping to come back another year, and trusting that in some way they may be able to continue their studies.
A students' aid fund is much needed to assist worthy pupils. Aspirations are aroused that cannot be quenched. The daily lessons in keeping rooms tidy, in personal habits, in doing thoroughly whatever is undertaken, cannot be lost, even if pupils remain but a short time. The sentiment, that to work is an honor, to be idle a disgrace, is so infused into their daily life that we fully believe greater progress will be seen in the coming years than has been seen in the past. The spirit of those who have labored with these ardent aspirants for higher, better, nobler things has so entered into and permeated their very being, that it cannot lie dormant. Arouse and cultivate the best there is in this race, and you have something worth making a sacrifice for. God is showing us, by the way, that this is His own blessed work. We do not have to wait long years to reap; the sheaves are abundant every year. In one of our late prayer-meetings special causes for thanksgiving was the topic. There were many expressions of gratitude "for the Christian influence of our school." One young man said: "I am just as thankful for what I have learned in the workshop as in the school-room." After hearing of the 700,000 one-room log-cabins of the South, and the need there is of skilled workmen, we felt like singing an added song of praise as we looked through the work exhibited in wood, tin, iron, and cloth, and saw the promise of better things. Surely the young men who can exhibit such work will not allow their mothers, wives, and sisters to live in cabins through whose open roofs the stars are visible when they shine.
You would travel far to find a more temptingly spread table than the girls of Tougaloo are taught to prepare—all the eatables of their own make, even the delicious butter. Nowhere in New England need you look for a nicer-kept cabin and yard than some of those on the little homesteads lately purchased by President Pope, for one of his ideas of missionary work is to help the colored man get a home, having for corner-stones "Industry, Economy, Temperance, and Family Virtue."