Montgomery, Ala.—Rev. Flavel Bascom, D.D., who commenced work for the winter December 1st, writes: “My first impressions are very favorable. My heart is drawn out toward the people, and I expect to enjoy my work for them very much.”
Selma, Ala.—Rev. C. B. Curtis has gone from Burlington, Wis., to the charge of the church here.
Shelby, Ala.—A Congregational church was organized October 10th, by Rev. G. W. Andrews, of the Theological Department of Talladega College, consisting of twenty-one members (twelve men and nine women). Rev. J. D. Smith, a graduate of Talladega Theological Department, is pastor.
GENERAL NOTES.
The Freedmen.
—Over 3,000 people attended the Agricultural Fair for colored people held at Talladega, Ala., in November, under the auspices of the college. Stock, farm products, cookery, needle and fancy work, flowers and pictures, were brought in for exhibition. Contests were held in athletic sports, and in spelling, declaiming, etc., between students of the different schools. Several hundred white people attended, and showed their interest by acting as judges on the committees with the colored people. The fair was kept entirely free from all the objectionable features which so often mar our State fairs, and indeed was opened with prayer, and, after the addresses and award of premiums, closed with the Doxology.
—Dr. Rust, the Corresponding Secretary of the Freedmen’s Aid Society of the M. E. Church, reports that its work during this year “has never been exceeded in any year of its history. It has erected more school edifices, more commodious and commanding; educated more teachers, prepared more ministers, led more souls to Christ, and set in operation more streams of elevating influence, done more and better work for Christ and humanity, than in any like period before.” The financial statement for the year ending July 1, 1878, gives its total receipts for the year as $63,403, and its expenditures, mainly for salaries and board of teachers and educational expenses, including $3,000 paid on its debt, at the same. The society has aided in the establishment of five chartered institutions having full collegiate powers, three theological and two medical schools, also chartered, and ten other educational institutions.
—Dr. Ruffner, Superintendent of Public Instruction in Virginia, claims that $850,000 was collected from the people and set apart by law for the support of the common schools, and charges that this, with the interest, has been diverted from its proper use and applied to the ordinary expenses of the State Government.
—A national colored Baptist educational convention was held last summer at Nashville, Tenn. In an address published by them they offer heartfelt thanks to Northern Baptists, who alone have helped them to what educational facilities they have enjoyed. To the Southern white Baptists they are grateful for the “good resolutions” they have passed in favor of the black man. They urge the colored Baptists to support their own publishing house, newspaper, and the educational enterprises of the American Baptist Home Mission Society.