BURRELL SCHOOL, SELMA, ALA.
By Prof. A.T. Burnell.
The year 1895-6 will be long remembered by all connected with Burrell School, Selma, Ala., for the widespread religious interest gathering in nearly half of those attending in March; for the continued increase of enrolment, especially in the grammar and normal grades; and the closing of this year will be remembered as a great and successful financial endeavor, which netted for the school fifty dollars—"one jubilee share." It is to be said that Selma is a generous town, when entertainments come as at this season for the colored schools here. Burrell presented one for the primaries, in which an entire grade appeared upon the stage, some children impersonating trees planted by other children and growing as by magic, while still others played "hide and seek" about the trees or built nests therein.
On the second programme, intermingled with the usual dialogues and "speeches" so loudly demanded by all pupils, there were the essays of three who had completed the tenth grade, and some excellent music, with shadow pictures, etc.
But the chief interest centered in the drama, that brought a crowded house on Wednesday evening, and was repeated the next week.
Public examinations were held for three days, beginning Friday the 22d, when a good number of friends visited the different rooms, noted the work of the pupils, and shared with the teachers the quizzing of the pupils, who seemed to enjoy their part. Not the least interesting because thoroughly practical was the display of garments, stitching and mending in the sewing-room; and, in the blacksmith and the carpenter shops, articles manufactured by the boys. The school ground gives evidence of workmen—attending to fences, repairs on buildings, a shop, and two pump-shelters erected.
The catalogue just issued lists 287 students, a gain of twenty-four per cent. in two years; gives a history of Burrell from its start in 1869, and among former students names all the lady teachers of the city school, besides five on other faculties in Selma.