The pioneers and principal workers in founding and carrying forward this noble Christian enterprise were present—John G. Fee, J. A. R. Rogers, E. H. Fairchild, and others. It is seldom that men live to see with their own eyes so great a revolution as that which Berea witnessed in the contrast of this Commencement day with the dark days of persecution, banishment and danger. Tales were told me at quiet tea-tables, of times of trial and deliverance, that moved the heart over scenes that occurred not in old historic times, but on spots within eye-glance, and participated in by the narrators.
Berea College is well equipped with buildings and a good corps of teachers. The Ladies’ Hall is modeled after, and about the size of, the similar building in Oberlin. Howard Hall gives excellent facilities as a boys’ dormitory. The new chapel is a model of neatness and convenience. Other and smaller buildings meet other wants, and while another edifice could be well used, yet Berea’s great need now is endowment; and to those who have the means, and are looking for a place to use it for the nation’s welfare and the advancement of the Redeemer’s kingdom, we can safely and unhesitatingly turn their attention to this worthy and growing institution.
TOUGALOO UNIVERSITY.
African Macedonia—Usefulness and Needs—Work of Grace—Waiting for Supplies.
REV. H. S. DE FOREST, TALLADEGA, ALA.
A run into Mississippi, and two days spent at Tougaloo, have given me a fresh sense of the importance of our work in its entirety, and a special interest in Tougaloo. This institution, in the centre of the great cotton State, where the black soil seems the natural home of the black man, has a field as large, as needy and as hopeful as can well be desired. From Marion, Ala., at the east, to far beyond the Mississippi on the west, north from New Orleans and south from Holly Springs, each about two hundred miles away, Tougaloo sits alone, and has undisputed possession of a great, a populous, and a waiting African Macedonia, crying out, “Come over and help us.” The University, with meagre equipments and limited accommodations, is trying to answer that cry. It is doing much, very much; but how little compared with what might be done and ought to be done!
Tougaloo is seven miles from Jackson, the State capital, on the railway from New Orleans northward, having a location of wonderful beauty, and advantages peculiar to itself. The farm of five hundred acres is now under good cultivation. The facilities for marketing produce are good, and under judicious management it is believed the work of students may do much towards paying their expenses. The mansion house, built with great taste and care by a planter who was never to occupy it, crowns a gentle slope; while in front is a native grove, or forest, of as weird-like and enchanting beauty as can well be found on this rounded earth. The oaks are of the giant order, almost colossal in their proportions, while from the great arms hang abundant tassels of Spanish moss. Here, on June 3d, under this witchery of shade, on improvised seats, the exercises of Commencement were held. Horses, mules, and vehicles of all kinds, at an early hour, were hitched under the trees. Visitors came by the tens and the scores; but finally, a special train put down its brakes at the station, and hundreds, with lunch baskets in hand, were swarming through the woods, and massing themselves near the platform. Seven young men, after the ordeal of a searching examination, if I may judge from the little I was in time to hear, pronounced their orations and received their diplomas. The addresses of the graduates were thoughtful, full of moral earnestness, well delivered and well received by the great audience, among whom were representatives of the clergy at Jackson, the Board of Trustees, and the Superintendent of Education. Several of these visitors added words of hearty and well-deserved commendation. The impress of the instructors was manifest throughout the exercises. This thought pervaded all the speeches: there is work to be done, and we wish to have a hand in it. Back of the stage, as the class motto, hung the old, but not outworn, “Labor omnia vincit.” The motto suggested the theme of the first speaker. The address in the afternoon was on “The field and the victories of work,” and idleness had no mercy that day. Apparently, there is not much of it about the institution. Under the direction of the Principal, Rev. G. S. Pope, a man of long experience in this Southern field, singularly fitted for his post and well sustained by earnest co-laborers, both in-door and out-door industries have been greatly promoted. The farm and garden are beginning to show what good husbandry can do. Blooded cattle are taking the place of the native lean kine; improved groves are disclosing their richness; while the garden not only supplies the large family at the University, but is affording some surplus for others. Strawberries from nearly an acre of land have been picked this year, and largely sent to Chicago. This industry promises well, and will be increased in the future.
The needs of Tougaloo are as apparent as its present usefulness. Besides the mansion and the out-buildings, many of which are old, there is a chapel with a second story containing rooms for young men, and also a boarding hall, with dormitories for young women above. These three principal buildings are of wood, the mansion house occupying the centre. These accommodations are far too small. To meet a present necessity, a rough barrack has been put up, giving nine additional rooms. The attendance during the past year has been about two hundred, and nearly all have been boarders in the family. Increase the accommodations and the attendance might be doubled at once; but what would a school of four hundred be among the tens of thousands in this great State who are hungering for education? At mid-winter a work of grace pervaded the school, and not far from thirty, it was thought, of these pupils became Christ’s disciples, and they go forth with new purposes. The influences for good from Tougaloo are not easily computed; its grand possibilities reach out towards the infinite.