ALABAMA.
Testimony as to Progress Already Made—The Situation and Equipment.
REV. F. BASCOM, D.D., MONTGOMERY.
I am much interested in my work and in my people. I see abundant proofs of the beneficent agency of your society here. Could its influence have been exerted in like manner among all our colored people of the South, the problem so perplexing to politicians and philanthropists, as to the future of this class in our country, would have been already solved. It seems to me that my neighbors here who have been under the influence of our school and church, for these few years past, are as well prepared for the duties and responsibilities of freemen and citizens as are the ordinary farmers and mechanics at the North. I am most happily disappointed in the intelligence of the men and the culture of the women, and in the neatness and comfort of their homes. But I see this elevation of the race is accomplished by the most laborious and exhausting efforts of your employés.
Dr. Bascom also writes to a friend, as appears in the Advance:
We greatly enjoy our situation and work in this place. The weather is charming. We should call it the perfection of our early autumn weather,—just cool enough for comfort with a nice fire in the grate, but bright and balmy through the day, making the shady side of the street preferable at mid-day. The frost has killed the elm and mulberry leaves, but the magnolia, mock orange and fig leaves are green as ever, and the hawthorn hedges and roses make the door-yards look almost like June. Their geraniums they are protecting with temporary board coverings, letting them remain out all winter.
Our Mission Home is a large and commodious mansion built by a slave-holder, whose fortunes went down with the lost cause, and it was purchased by the American Missionary Association. Our school, near by, has a building which compares favorably with some of the Chicago school-houses, two stories and a good basement, the whole accommodating from 300 to 400 pupils, with three noble white teachers and three colored, who have graduated from this school. I have just visited the school, and was greatly delighted. It is no disparagement to your excellent schools to say that, in point of order and apparent earnestness and successful work on the part of both teachers and pupils, these dusky boys and girls would not suffer in comparison.
Our church here is a neat, pleasant, wooden building, and our congregation appear fully to appreciate a preacher's best efforts. Their singing is, like ours, led by a good organist. Their prayer meetings are quiet and social, and very enjoyable. Our Sunday-school is flourishing, under a colored man for superintendent, who is teaching in the country. I enjoy my work, and hope to have a profitable winter.