SCHOOL ANNIVERSARIES.
We begin in this issue of the Missionary to print the reports of the anniversary exercises of our schools. They will occupy largely this number and the next, and will appear somewhat in the order of time in which the schools closed. When the whole are published, they will make an impression of the vastness, variety and usefulness of the work. It will show institutions of higher grade in nearly all the States of the South, normal and graded schools in nearly all the large cities, and parochial schools connected with many of the churches. The industrial feature of these schools will appear most conspicuously in the details given.
In the account of the larger schools, Fisk University, Talladega College, Tougaloo University, Straight University and Tillotson Institute, Austin, Texas, we give but in part the full extent of the plan originally laid down by the Association, for it does not include Hampton Institute, Atlanta University and Berea College, children of the Association which have set up and are conducting housekeeping on their own account.
The origin of Hampton Institute was in that first freedmen's school at Fortress Monroe, enlarged year by year, and at length falling under the sagacious eye of Gen. Armstrong, it opened to him in almost prophetic vision what his great genius and untiring industry brought to full consummation. Nor did the American Missionary Association send this child forth empty-handed. It turned over to its use the one hundred and twenty-five acres of beautiful land, with its buildings, permanent and transient, on which the wonderful plant is now established.
Atlanta University was founded by the Association, and under the wise leadership of President Ware, and the steady support of the Association for many years, it at length reached a condition of independence and self-support.
Berea College, founded by the intrepid John G. Fee, a missionary of the American Missionary Association, owned by its own Board of Trustees from the first, was for many years assisted by the generous contributions of the Association.
These three institutions, though independent of the Association and not under its care or support, if added to the list already given of our higher schools, will show a line of educational lighthouses stretching from the Atlantic to the Gulf and thence into the heart of Texas. Such was the original plan of the Association, and such has been the remarkably successful result.
But the work of the Association is not confined to the Negro race. In the mountains of the South it touches with the wand of Christian education the noble Highlanders of America with their proud achievements and yet with their long-neglected education, needing the inspiring uplift of the school and cultured church. To these influences they yield a most hearty response, and no brighter reports will be found than from these mountain regions.
The Indians have from the outset been the subjects of our watchful care, and with some variation in their activity, the services among them have brought forth some of the brightest results. Revivals during the past year of greater power than any reported from any other part of the field were experienced in these Indian churches.
The Chinese work on the Pacific Coast, under the admirable leadership of Dr. Pond, has made steady progress in the conversion of souls here and in carrying the gospel to China.
The mission in Alaska, brought to so sudden and terrible a close by the murder of Mr. Thornton, is expected to be opened again this summer by the return of Mr. and Mrs. Lopp to Cape Prince of Wales. With their knowledge of the language and of the people, and with the advantages of their past experience, we hope the mission will enter upon a new and much more successful life than heretofore.
We invite the friends of the Association to study this work in its variety and extent. We make no comparisons, but surely this work touches the sympathies of the patriot and the Christian, and calls for a steady and abundant support.