ST. AUGUSTINE'S SCHOOL.
While mission work of various kinds must be carried on, it is evident that, through the work of schools, the Church will accomplish its greatest work. The ambition of the people for education is very great, and it must be along these lines that the Church will not only satisfy the longings of the people, but also give them the greatest training in Christian discipline.
St. Augustine's School, at Raleigh, N. C., has led the way in this training. It has already sent out from its walls hundreds of teachers and over twenty of the colored clergy. A large number of the teachers and clergy now at work under the Commission for Work among the Colored People received their training here. It was founded just after the war by the Rev. J. Brinton Smith, D. D., from the diocese of Pennsylvania, with the hearty co-operation of Bishop Atkinson, of North Carolina. Dr. Smith secured money with which its land was purchased and buildings erected.
Its work is carried on along three lines—Industrial, Normal and Collegiate. With the exception of a cook and farm hand, with occasional assistance, the whole work of the school is done by the students. The girls have the care of the household, the young men the care of the grounds. Besides that, the girls receive thorough and systematic training in both cooking and sewing, the courses extending over several years. Instruction has been given to the young men in carpentering and in brick-laying. It is greatly to be desired that this trade instruction might be furthered by the establishment of a trade school, modelled after the New York Trade School, founded by Col. Auchmuty and so well endowed by Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. The skilled mechanics of the South were largely trained in the days of slavery, and, with the passing of this generation, it is important that younger men should be thoroughly trained and enabled to earn an honest living. The development of the South depends not alone upon its rich and various resources, nor upon the muscle of the colored laborers, but also upon the brain and skill of those laborers.
In its normal work, the school is continually sending forth a stream of teachers for the public schools as well as for the Church schools. There is little danger of carrying on higher education, as some have thought. The greatest difficulty is in securing, at this stage of the race's development, students who have the grit to persevere in their school work so as to reach the higher classes.
The school has an endowment of about $30,000, of which $25,000 reverts to the Board of Managers of Missions, in case of impairment or misuse. There are large buildings for both girls and young men. Two of the buildings have been erected almost entirely by the students.
CHAPTERS V. AND VI.
METHODIST SCHOOLS.