At half-past ten there were thought to be three thousand in and about the tabernacle, and nearly a thousand horses on the ground. As Berea embraces but eight hundred inhabitants, including students and infants, it appears that more than two thousand came from abroad.
But what came they out for to see? An exhibition of an impartial school in the centre of Kentucky. Sixteen students—twelve young men and four young ladies—delivered orations and essays. Only three of these were colored. This disproportion is accounted for partly by the fact that the great demand for colored teachers calls colored students away before they reach the higher classes. But it was partly accidental. It has never occurred before, and probably never will again. The colored students outnumber the white.
There were ten graduates—six from the classical department, three from the scientific, and one from the normal.
Two-thirds of the audience were white. A large portion of them were mountain people, but many were from the blue-grass region. The colored people generally gravitated to one side of the building, thus keeping up their country customs and gaining the approbation of their white neighbors. This is one of the relics of slavery. Generations must die before either white or colored people will feel like treating each other as equals. As master and slave they made no objection to the closest contiguity; as equals they cannot eat in the same dining-hall, though forty feet apart. This feeling has nearly passed away in Berea, as was perfectly manifest in a social farewell gathering of about three hundred of both races at the ladies’ hall in the evening. Equal rights, to the full extent, will never be enjoyed till this feeling is extinguished.
“Democracy Restored” was the subject of one oration, delivered by the only democrat in the institution. It was cheered by ex-rebels, and the college gained popularity among them for its liberality. Some of them thought the Faculty must have hired him to deliver his harangue to make a show of toleration. One young son of the democracy decided to attend the school. It will be a good place for him. The author of the oration has two years yet to study, and trying years they will be for him. His party had better get his faith insured.
The graduates are all professing Christians, though one has had his faith somewhat shaken, as was shown by his oration. He would be glad to study theology at an orthodox seminary. He is a son of the mountains, and an honest, earnest thinker, and a superior scholar.
The effort of the college to get on alone, without aid from the American Missionary Association, taxes all its energy and faith; but, thanks to God and its faithful friends, the past year it has not been left to suffer. The erection of the new chapel will commence immediately, though the necessary means are not all secured.
Berea College is a miracle of God’s grace and power. No other being could have established such a school, in such a community, with such instrumentalities, and made it such a power.
In this voting precinct of five hundred voters, where whiskey has reigned for many years, three-fourths of all the inhabitants have signed the Murphy pledge. Arrangements are made for a grand temperance rally on Friday, the 4th, which, it is confidently believed, will fill the tabernacle to its utmost capacity. Berea, a beautiful spot by nature, is growing more and more beautiful every year. It is a charming place for a college, and nothing but poverty prevents a thousand youth from flocking here for education. Expenses are very low: Tuition, $9 a year; board, $1.50 a week; free tuition for ninety pupils; yet many students must leave, unless they can contrive a cheaper way to live, and find work to meet their small expenses.