THE SOUTH.
NOTES IN THE SADDLE.
BY FIELD-SUPERINTENDENT C. J. RYDER.
Le Moyne Institute, at Memphis, Tenn., like almost all of the A. M. A. schools this year, is full to overflowing. A large number of pupils have been turned away for the want of accommodations.
The Industrial department of Le Moyne Institute is receiving constant additions. A printing outfit has recently been procured, and the students are busy over “fonts” and “pi,” though no printer’s devil has as yet appeared. The scholars have done some good job work already and are thus turning their industrial training into immediate practical benefit. The other departments of the Institute are keeping step with its industrial development. Le Moyne is broadening its influence constantly and sending its roots deeper and deeper into the intellectual and religious soil of Memphis. It is recognized as one of the most beneficial institutions in the city by the citizens of all shades of political opinion.
The Congregational Church stands immediately opposite the Institute, and students are especially welcomed into its services and membership. If New England Pilgrimism of early days is reproduced anywhere it certainly is in the work of the A. M. A. The Church and the School are the joint and inseparable agencies for the building of character.
A trip down the Mississippi Valley is a revelation to one who has never passed over this route. This valley is the garden region of the old South, that is, those States east of the Mississippi. It is asserted, and truthfully, I think, that two and one-half bales of cotton are sometimes raised for every man, woman and child of the population of this valley. The land is a deep alluvial loam and produces crops of great variety. Cotton, corn, potatoes (sweet and Irish), wheat, oats, and sugar cane are some among the many products that grow luxuriously here. This region has been avoided by settlers in the past, because of its unhealthfulness. In the old slave days, planters lived in the highlands, back from the river, and worked their plantations by slave labor. The death of a slave was only unfortunate because of just so much lost live stock. God equalizes things in a strange way. Now, these very people who occupied these lands and tilled them for others are acclimated and can live here and gather the enormous wealth of this wonderful valley. The railroad company has offered unusual inducements to settlers of small capital to take lands here. Five thousand colored people have poured into this great garden spot during the past eighteen months and others are constantly coming. What an opportunity for A. M. A. work! Pleading invitations come to me from many places along the line of this valley, begging me to come and see their needs. Churches and schools and missions are demanded all through this region immediately. Tougaloo University was never so well fitted as to-day to meet the needs of these people. Its two new Ballard buildings greatly increase its accommodations and facilities. But other schools, less advanced and comprehensive, are needed, which shall meet the immediate wants of these new communities, and also be feeders to Tougaloo.