THE FREEDMEN.
REV. JOS. E. ROY, D.D.,
FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.
AT TALLADEGA.
At the Faculty Meeting.—Three men and four women present. Prayer. The circle is passed around for matters of business. Besides minor things these results are reached; Will observe the day of prayer for colleges, with an address at morning worship, with a prayer-meeting in the afternoon for the male students, one for the females and one for the faculty, and with a general meeting at night; will hold a Normal Institute on the last two days of the present term, inviting the colored teachers in the region round about to come, and asking Mr. A. W. Farnham, Normal Professor at the Atlanta University, to be present and help; will have a series of familiar lectures, alternating on Friday night with the young people’s sociable. Surely all this looks like business.
At the Library.—The donation of books to the value of more than four hundred dollars, from Rev. W. H. Willcox, of Malden, Mass., attracts the eye, and feasts it, too. The books are new, of standard and current interest.
At the Prayer Meeting.—One of the colored young preachers reports the fine large old Bible which, as the gift of some Eastern friend, he had taken into his little church at the Cove on the preceding Sabbath. The people had requested him to express their thanks. Then President DeForest followed. There is a story connected with that book. It came with a box of things from the Congregational Church at Columbus, N.J., Rev. E. B. Turner’s. It came from Harriet Storrs, who is a cousin of my mother. Every page of the book has been prayed over. Out of the Sabbath-school of that old hill-town church, six ministers of the Gospel have been raised up, among whom, I suppose, they count myself, for that was my father’s home; and two wives of foreign missionaries have come from the same source. Surely that old nest must be kept warm for more of such productiveness.
At Evening Prayers.—It is in the dining-hall, where the students of both sexes and the teachers meet. The repast over, the President, as is his wont, gives a resumé of the current news, the discovery of the intro-Mercurial star, the day’s phase of the Maine affairs, and other such. Then the students at two of the tables recite each a verse upon a particular topic, temptation; then the sweetness of a religious song; then prayer; then a quiet and orderly retiring. It is alone the religion of Jesus that can present such a scene.
At the Farm.—You enter its enclosure, passing under a graceful arch that bears in large letters the emblazonment, “Winsted Farm.” So everybody knows what town it was in Connecticut that did a good deal toward the providing of that industrial department. The wheat and the rye and the oats are covering the fields with green, even at this mid-winter time. You can see that there is good farming in that locality. You can see it, too, by contrast.