STATISTICS.

Chartered Institutions6
Normal and Graded Schools14
Common Schools36
Instructors250
Pupils8,823

Classifying the students, we have: Theological, 96; Law, 67; College, 52; College Preparatory, 113; Normal, 814; Grammar, Intermediate and Primary, 7,681.

The resignation during the year of Professor Salisbury, Superintendent of our school work, and the transfer to Chicago of Dr. Roy, Superintendent of our church work at the South, raised the question whether, in view of the system to which these brethren had reduced the work of their respective fields, the two departments might not be consolidated and their care assigned to one man. With much hesitation it was decided to try the experiment. Rev. C. J. Ryder, of Medina, O., has been selected to take the new position, and has entered upon its duties. His headquarters will be at Cincinnati, from which point, by reason of its central location and excellent railroad facilities, the whole field will be easily accessible. We regretfully part with Professor Salisbury. The three years of his service have been very valuable to our work, and it is largely because of this service we are permitted to report that our schools were never before so well organized nor so efficient as now.

The exhibit of our schools in the World's Exposition at New Orleans attracted much attention from visitors. The New Orleans papers spoke of it in very complimentary terms. Descriptions of it were written and widely published in the newspapers all over the country. President Hitchcock, of Straight University, Rev. S. E. Lathrop and several of our colored students, took charge successively of the exhibit, and were on hand to answer questions regarding the American Missionary Association, its schools and its work. A large number of pamphlets and tracts were distributed. Representatives from every State in the Union, and from nearly every nation on the face of the earth, dropped in to learn the object-lesson the exhibit taught of what Christian education had done for the Indian and the Negro.

At Midway, Ga., an additional building has been erected for the Dorchester Academy. The Storrs School, Atlanta, by the sale of bullets dug from the battlefields around the city, realized enough to secure a much-needed kindergarten building. Mrs. F. L. Allen, of Waterbury, Conn., has donated us a property in Quitman, Ga., containing three acres of land, on which stands a hotel building, nearly new and thoroughly furnished, to be used as a school for girls. The ladies of the First and Second Congregational churches of Waterbury promptly seconded Mrs. Allen's gift by raising $1,000 to make the necessary alterations to put the building in order for the school, and the ladies of the Congregational churches of the State have so far responded to an appeal for them to assume the support of the school, that it starts out with an assurance of success from the beginning. Rev. J. H. Parr, formerly of the Tillotson Institute, is to have the school in charge.

We have not been able to spend much money this year in brick and mortar. We have been obliged to put our funds almost exclusively into the more practical work of mind and character building.

Fisk University celebrated its twentieth anniversary this year by graduating from its college course fifteen, two of the number being young ladies. This makes 52 who have been graduated from Fisk. The Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of Tennessee, several State officials, many Senators and Representatives attended the Commencement exercises and alumni dinner. A series of speeches in commendation of the good work done at the institution were made by these gentlemen, who bore testimony to the high standing of the Fisk students as teachers and citizens throughout the State. Of the 37 graduates previous to the class of this year, the record shows that 24 of them are principals and teachers in different schools; 5 are pastors of churches; 1 is a missionary in Africa under the American Board; 2 are practicing lawyers; 2 are studying for the professions—1 in a theological, the other in a medical school; 1 is a member of the Tennessee Legislature; and 2, who were teachers, have died. Its roll numbers 427, including representatives of 21 States and 1 Territory.

Talladega College has had 365 students. This was more than it could comfortably care for. The girls' hall was crowded. Some applicants had to be refused for lack of room. The new Cassidy School building, having been used by over 200 pupils, continues to justify its right to be. Prosperity has marked the life of this college in all its departments.

Atlanta University maintains its well-earned reputation for school work of the highest order; 297 students have shared its privileges. Colonel L. W. Avery, Chairman of the State Board of Visitors, in his report last year, was so emphatic and strong in his praise of what he had seen and heard at the University, that the other members of the Board would not believe him, and he was compelled to modify his praises before they would accept his report. This year the whole Board was present at the examinations, and the result is that they have every one been converted, and are now ready to go even farther than the Colonel in testifying that "the proficiency attained in the scholastic results has been simply astonishing." The University continues to receive the annual appropriation of $8,000 from the State—a fact that is all significant respecting the undeniable worth of the school.

Tougaloo University, located on the Illinois Central R. R., about eight miles north of Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, receives State aid to the amount of $3,000 annually. Two hundred and sixteen students last year have taxed its utmost capacity for accommodation. Governor Lowry and the State Board of Visitors attended the commencement exercises, and were surprised at the evidence of the Negro's capacity for education. Four students took degrees in the elementary Normal course that requires ten years to complete it, and one took the degree from the higher Normal course, to complete which requires twelve years.

Straight University, New Orleans, notwithstanding the devastation of floods and the failure of cotton crops that last year so severely affected the very limited finances of the colored people of Louisiana, was filled with students at the beginning of the school year, and continued not only crowded, but overcrowded to the end; 584 scholars were enrolled, including representatives from Cuba, Honduras, New Mexico, Texas, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Illinois, and even Old England.

Tillotson Institute, Texas, has also had a very crowded and successful year. This is the youngest of our chartered schools. It has the modesty that in every way is becoming the youngest member of the family, but in all that is excellent in work it stands not a whit behind the oldest and the best. It has already outgrown the comfortable limits of its habitation. The crowding process has struck it, and its cry for relief is growing sharper and sharper. We shall have to heed its cry one of these days. The great and rapidly-growing State of Texas challenges our forethought and our care. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Hon. B. M. Baker, was present at the commencement exercises, and after commending the teachers for their faithful work and testifying that the best teachers of the colored schools in Texas were graduates of the Tillotson Institute, he publicly thanked the people of the North for the establishment and maintenance of the school. Judge Fullmore, a county school superintendent, who was also present, not only indorsed all that Mr. Baker had said, but added that in his appointments of teachers he always gave Tillotson graduates the preference, and that a certificate of graduation from Tillotson in the hands of an applicant was all the evidence of character and ability he needed.

Were we to continue sketching the salient points in the work of our other schools scattered all over the South, it would be simply to give fresh illustrations of the five facts already made prominent—crowded schools, growing necessities, faithful work, good results and outside commendation.

As compared with last year, the statistics in our school work show a falling off of two chartered institutions and seven common schools. On its face, this looks like loss; in reality, it is gain. The two chartered institutions dropped out of our statistics are Berea and Hampton, that, as a matter of fact, have been for several years self-sustaining and independent, and which, as formerly fostered by us, we have hitherto reported; they are still in the field, doing a greater work than ever, while the seven common schools, dropped because they ceased to be needed where they were located, are more than represented in the better work of the other schools, to strengthen which the money thus set free has been transferred.

We are steadily but slowly coming to the realization of the idea that was the inspiration of the American Missionary Association's school system—Christian colleges and Normal schools for the training of leaders, and Christian preparatory schools to furnish them with the right kind of material. The South is year by year, as its financial ability increases and its public sentiment improves, doing more for the rudimental instruction of its children. It is the duty of the State to provide elementary education for every child within its borders, and to that point the Southern States must one day come; but just in proportion as they come to that point, the necessities for our work increase. The demand for Christian teachers and preachers and professional men in all ranks at the South will grow as facilities for the elementary education of the children multiply. Our aim is not only to save the land from ignorance, but to save it from godless intelligence. Infidelity is as much the enemy of free institutions as ignorance; and when the children are intelligent, an ignorant leadership is almost as effective as an infidel leadership to raise up an infidel people; so that, as intelligence spreads among the youth of the South, we are placed under accumulating obligations, by virtue of our loyalty to the kingdom of our Lord, and by virtue of our interest in the perpetuity of republican institutions, to strengthen, enlarge and multiply this work. Of course, just now, and for a great many years to come, by far the greater part of our school work must be in the lower grades of instruction. So long as it can be said, that in the Southern States eighty per cent. of the colored and thirty per cent. of the white population are illiterate; that there are not educational facilities enough to furnish fifty per cent. of the children with even a chance to learn their letters; that there are whole communities and sections in which there are no schools whatever; that there are thousands and tens of thousands of children and youth who would be glad to go to school did they have opportunity; so long we must continue to furnish elementary instruction in all our schools, and as far as possible to open such small schools as may meet the present but transient exigency, to be dropped, as we have the seven common schools above referred to, when, from whatever cause, the necessity for them has passed away. The Executive Committee desires to emphasize and to have the constituents of the American Missionary Association keep it constantly before them, that as the cause and means of popular education extend in the South, the necessity for the work of the Association becomes stronger and stronger.

As seen from this stand-point, the desirability of bringing our larger institutions as speedily as possible, where they shall be able to take care of themselves, becomes clear and urgent. They should be at once so far endowed that the question of their permanence as conservators of the supremacy of Christian leadership in the thought, character and life of the people should be settled beyond peradventure for all time.

We commend these schools to the special regard of those who are looking about to invest money where, in the name of the Lord, it will yield rich and enduring returns.