On Monday evening the Preparatory School Exhibition, under the management of the teachers of the Primary and Preparatory departments, was held in the chapel, presenting to a crowded audience a varied programme, made up of recitations, declamations, songs, &c. A prominent feature of this exhibition was a strong and well appreciated temperance dialogue.
It was a manifest disappointment to all when Tuesday dawned cloudy and dark, with every prospect of a rainy time. The exercises of the day were accordingly held in the barn, instead of the grove, for which all arrangements had been made. The forenoon was taken up with the commencement exercises of the Normal department. The orations and essays were presented by members of the Middle and Junior Classes, with the single exception of an oration by the one graduate from the Normal course. As was said on that day, what the graduating class lacked in quantity was well made up in quality. We expect a very high order of work and Christian influence from Henry Lanier.
In the afternoon the interesting ceremony of laying the foundation of “Strieby Hall,” the new boy’s dormitory, was followed by a procession to the chapel again, where the annual address was given by Dr. Strieby. This was a stirring presentation of the reason why the American Missionary Association is to-day in the field of Southern Freedmen education, and of exactly what it is aiming to do for the colored race. It was shown how this Association was pioneer in the work, and how, gradually, the most prominent and cultured of Southern gentlemen have come to regard the higher education of the race as possible, and, now, as a necessity to the prosperity and the material advancement of the region.
Col. Power, who with other gentlemen from Jackson had been present through the day to witness the exercises, was then called upon to speak. He alluded to the exercises of the forenoon with appreciation of the orations and essays presented, referring to one of the former as “eloquent,” and added a glowing word of tribute to the sweet music rendered by the students. He assured all present that the white people of the State are now in hearty sympathy with the work of the education of the colored race. Immediately after the war, he frankly admitted, the people were not attracted by the idea, but now a better opinion prevails, and they see that education must be given to all, white and black.
H.
STRAIGHT UNIVERSITY.
REV. W. S. ALEXANDER, D.D., NEW ORLEANS.
We come to the close of another school year with a profound sense of gratitude to God for His guiding Providence, and for His blessing upon the work undertaken in His name. We have had 328 names upon our rolls, with a large average attendance. There has been a marked advance in scholarship, and we are justified in saying with regard to all the pupils, “Our labor has not been in vain.” There have been years of decline, since the first burst of enthusiasm after the war, in education; but a better and more hopeful era has dawned, when interest in the general education of the people, and the higher grades of scholarship, is in the ascendant. From this time on, the demand for education among the colored people will be more intelligent and abiding.