LE MOYNE INSTITUTE, MEMPHIS.
[A large amount of space is given in the Memphis Daily Appeal, the Daily Memphis Avalanche and the Public Ledger to reports of the anniversary exercises of the Le Moyne Institute. These, with accompanying editorial paragraphs, indicate the high esteem in which Prof. Steele and his corps of workers are held and the appreciation of his school. The anniversary was attended by two thousand people. The enthusiasm is represented to have been continuous from the beginning to the end of the exercises, and the effort of Prof. Steele to raise money for the Institute from the citizens of Memphis was endorsed by many present. We give below an extract from the Appeal which represents how our work is regarded by the better class of Southern people.—Ed.]
The feeling in this city in favor of universal education was never stronger than it is now. This is plainly shown by the interest everywhere manifested in the Le Moyne Institute or school for negroes, which gave so enjoyable an entertainment at the Greenlaw Opera-house Monday night. A number of prominent citizens who were present expressed the greatest surprise and astonishment, and the opinion was general that the inculcation of ideas such as those of which the graduates seemed possessed was bound to do good to them, and by reflection upon the balance of the community.
“Was the entertainment at the Opera-house just as you reported it?” asked a gentleman of an Appeal reporter yesterday.
“Justice was not fully done,” was the reply.
“And the Le Moyne is a colored institution?”
“Yes.”
“You surprise me,” the gentlemen replied. “I have heard the Le Moyne frequently spoken of, but had no idea it was accomplishing all it is said to have done. Why, the subjects chosen by the essayists could be handled only by those possessed of considerable knowledge.”
“Yes, it is a new idea in the South,” remarked a listener, who had been present at the entertainment, “and I find it difficult to say whether I was most surprised or delighted. I heard every essay and recitation from beginning to end, and there was not a break or stumble, no stopping to recover breath, no tedious repetitions. The absence of the parrot was noticeable. The novelty of the affair held my attention at first, but I soon forgot this, and found myself drifting along with the essayists as they waded into their subjects. Another thing that struck me forcibly was the absence of rant in the young men and the failure to giggle on the part of the young women. They seemed to take it as a matter of course that they were there, and that their audience would be interested in what they might have to say. I, for one am heartily in favor of keeping up the good work. No man who thinks can say that every negro in the land would not be better off and better fitted to cope with the age in which lives, if he had enough education to enable him to throw off the dense cloud of superstition—a mixture of ignorance and faith—in which he is now enveloped. The country would be better, its tone purer and healthier, if every man in it were educated.”