A students' aid fund is much needed to assist worthy pupils. Aspirations are aroused that cannot be quenched. The daily lessons in keeping rooms tidy, in personal habits, in doing thoroughly whatever is undertaken, cannot be lost, even if pupils remain but a short time. The sentiment, that to work is an honor, to be idle a disgrace, is so infused into their daily life that we fully believe greater progress will be seen in the coming years than has been seen in the past. The spirit of those who have labored with these ardent aspirants for higher, better, nobler things has so entered into and permeated their very being, that it cannot lie dormant. Arouse and cultivate the best there is in this race, and you have something worth making a sacrifice for. God is showing us, by the way, that this is His own blessed work. We do not have to wait long years to reap; the sheaves are abundant every year. In one of our late prayer-meetings special causes for thanksgiving was the topic. There were many expressions of gratitude "for the Christian influence of our school." One young man said: "I am just as thankful for what I have learned in the workshop as in the school-room." After hearing of the 700,000 one-room log-cabins of the South, and the need there is of skilled workmen, we felt like singing an added song of praise as we looked through the work exhibited in wood, tin, iron, and cloth, and saw the promise of better things. Surely the young men who can exhibit such work will not allow their mothers, wives, and sisters to live in cabins through whose open roofs the stars are visible when they shine.
You would travel far to find a more temptingly spread table than the girls of Tougaloo are taught to prepare—all the eatables of their own make, even the delicious butter. Nowhere in New England need you look for a nicer-kept cabin and yard than some of those on the little homesteads lately purchased by President Pope, for one of his ideas of missionary work is to help the colored man get a home, having for corner-stones "Industry, Economy, Temperance, and Family Virtue."
TILLOTSON INSTITUTE, AUSTIN, TEXAS.
The third of June witnessed the close of another year of successful work at Tillotson Institute. Written examinations were held May 26-29. The results of this work, in a shape convenient for inspection, were placed in the reading room, and attracted no little attention. Oral public examinations were held June 1 and 2. These showed faithful work on the part of both teachers and pupils. The classes in United States history and geometry deserve special mention. The excitement of the occasion was a little too much for some of the young people, leading one to say that Riel was the Governor-General of Canada, while another remarked that Florida, being discovered on Easter Sunday, and being a land of flowers, was named the "Mayflower." These blunders, however, were speedily corrected by the pupils themselves.
The rhetorical exercises of Tuesday evening called out a very fine audience. The chapel was filled to overflowing. The exercises consisted of the usual programme of choruses, quartets, recitations, declamations, essays, etc. Mr. Edward Wilson's rendering of his translation of Cicero's First Oration against Catiline is deserving of special notice, though all the parts were given without a single break or failure of memory. We observe our students have great capacity for "rising to occasions."
In the midst of the programme we were most agreeably surprised by the appearance of Secretary Powell, who happily closed the entertainment by a brief but stirring address.
The anniversary exercises of Wednesday morning made a fitting climax for the series of meetings. Though not a "commencement" occasion, yet it was distinguished from other days of the closing week, and from previous anniversaries, by the presentation of "certificates" to two young men who have completed the "Elementary Normal Course." These young men remain with us to pursue a further course of study. The address of one of them, Mr. A. S. Terrell, on the subject "Our Duty," is especially worthy of notice. The subject was considered from the stand-point of the advantages afforded colored people. "It is true," he said, "we must bear many hard things, but let us look on the bright side. Let us consider and improve our opportunities. Let us accept the good, from whatever source it comes. To join with Communists, labor-unions, and other discontented classes, in a chorus of fault-finding and censure, because we cannot have everything we want, is to take the sure road to the defeat of our most cherished objects." These are timely words, and they reveal a state of feeling among colored people which finds all too fertile a soil in the tendency to ignore, or discriminate, or, at best, grant but a supercilious recognition, which still in great measure controls Southern sentiment. The colored people are naturally loyal and conservative. It is possible, now, so to develop these qualities, that they shall be national bulwarks. Some time it may be too late, and if reaction comes it will be terrible.
The attitude of many representative men of the South, however, is most encouraging. Our anniversary exercises were honored by the presence of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction and the County Superintendent of Travis Co., Hon. B. M. Baker and Judge Fullmore. In their addresses at the conclusion of our programme, both gentlemen spoke with enthusiasm of the great progress in educational matters that has been made in Texas during the past five years, among both white and colored. The magnificent school fund of Texas, as rapidly as it becomes available, is devoted to the interests of both races without discrimination. Mr. Baker emphasized the fact that notwithstanding the liberal provision for a State system of schools, it would be many years before they could dispense with the schools maintained by benevolent societies. The latter must be the main agency for the training of teachers. For the present, the State must devote her energies to the building of school-houses, and the establishment and maintenance of common schools, without attempting very much in the line of higher education.
Both gentlemen spoke in high praise of Tillotson, and of the ability and trustworthy character of the teachers she has sent out.