A Biblical department is preparing young men to preach the gospel, and as they have the industrial training too, they will be fitted for a very practical sort of evangelism.
A night-school supplies instruction for farm-laborers, laundry girls, etc.
All school-room work, except that of the Biblical class and a part of the Normal work, is women's work.
Let us step into the Ladies' Hall on the other side of the Mansion from Ballard Hall. This is a very hive of female industry. Here is the girls' dormitory, with a capacity of about seventy-five, and the boarding department. All the work of the household, with trifling exceptions, is done by the young women and girls of the school. Each one does an hour's work a day, having it changed every month, and many do more to help themselves along. The girls have the care of their rooms and generally take great pride in having perfect "reports" for tidiness. Everything is simple and cheap and common, but that does not prevent its being homelike.
Personal cleanliness is required of course. Some few have been accustomed to it at home. One large girl said, when told that she must bathe, that she had not washed all over since she could remember, and she still refrained until put "under discipline." Finally she yielded, but in the evening was heard crying aloud from a seat on the top stair. The matron asked, "What is the matter?" and she replied, "Oh! oh! I've wet my skin and it's made me sick." This is a very extreme case of attachment to dirt, but it is interesting and marvellous to witness the changes in appearance, expression and manners, during a prolonged stay in school.
Besides general housework, the girls are given special instruction in cooking, nursing and care of health, under their experienced matron. They sew for an hour a day in classes, under the supervision of another lady who also instructs a class in cutting by model and dress-making, and sees that all the girls attend properly to their mending.
A Girls' Industrial Cottage has been started on a small scale, in which the girls will have the entire charge of household expenses and management. The little girls from round about are formed into sewing-bands and make commendable progress. Their mothers meet with one of the teachers on Saturday afternoons.
Underneath all these departments of training, it is sought to lay the great foundation principles of character. The Bible is a constantly used text-book in literally every department. We seek to give a "Thus saith the Lord," for everything that we inculcate, from order, punctuality and cleanliness, up to honesty, personal and social virtue, temperance, industry and benevolence.
There was a time when some distrust was manifest among the colored people for what they called "book religion." They wished to hold fast to "ole time 'ligion," and that sentiment is not entirely gone. We had a very zealous little neighbor, more aged than she looked, so bright and spry was she, whose husband was said to be over a hundred. She was a seer of visions and dreamer of dreams. What we thought a bad feature of her trances was, that she would sometimes speak in meeting of having seen Tougaloo University marching in a procession down to torment with our devoted matron and president at the head, their open Bibles in their hands. That was years ago. Now, when she sees our matron in her visions, it is up among the angels; and I believe the conviction is spreading that book religion, taken into the head, sinking down into the heart, and working out through the hands in deeds of active piety, is an excellent thing.