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Atlanta University now welcomes its visitors to its beautiful green lawns and fields, which were once red clay washed into deep gullies. The buildings are convenient and well-kept. The Baccalaureate sermon, delivered by Professor Francis, was very appropriate and touching. The commencement exercises were held on Monday, May 28th, and were attended by a vast concourse of people, many going away because the building, though large, could not give them room. The aisles were crowded through all the services. The audiences were, as usual, made up mostly of colored people. Heretofore, at times, the dignitaries of the State and city have graced the platform, but Governor Gordon was out of town, and, perhaps, if he had been at home, he would not have attended. The recent excitement about the Glenn Bill, and the withdrawal of the $8,000, the annual grant of the State, have left the relations somewhat strained. There is, however, no excitement on that subject. The State authorities have not yet decided what to do with the fund, and in the meantime, the University goes quietly forward with its work. Prof. Bumstead has just succeeded in raising the $16,000 necessary to meet the current expenses of the year.
At the anniversary exercises there were no graduates from the college department this year. Thirteen pupils, all girls, from the normal department, read their essays and received their certificates of graduation. The number of the class is supposed to be unfortunate, but there was nothing amiss in the quality of the essays they read. They were all good, but the absence of any male voice left the class somewhat in the condition of a choir without a baas. There was a noticeable difference in one respect between the essays on this occasion and those at Hampton. Here there was no local or race tone. If I had closed my eyes, I might have thought myself at the anniversary of a Ladies' Seminary at the North. Scarcely a word or allusion indicated that these girls belonged to the colored race, and for that matter their faces scarcely showed it, for the white blood largely preponderated in most of them. I can well understand why these pupils should prefer to stand forth not as a distinct race, but as American and Christian girls. Perhaps that is the higher wisdom, but it makes the anniversary less distinctive, and inspires less sympathy and enthusiasm. These girls were plainly dressed, and in that respect would differ greatly from the graduating class in a Northern Female Seminary, but they would have no occasion to shrink from a comparison with their Northern sisters, if propriety of deportment, and excellence and force of writing were considered.
At the Howard University, we had the opportunity of attending only the exercises of the graduating class in college. This institution has a good claim to its title as a University, for it has collegiate, medical, theological, law and normal departments. The anniversaries of the theological and medical departments had been held a few days previously in [pg 202] churches down in the city, and were attended, as we understand, by large audiences. The college anniversary, on the other hand, was held in the college chapel, which, while it was well filled, contained a relatively small audience, and this was made up mostly of colored people. We hardly appreciate this discrimination as to the places of holding these anniversaries, for the orations in the chapel were of a high order, and might well have attracted the attention of members of Congress and of the numerous visitors in the crowded city. The graduating class consisted of six persons, one being a lady and she the only one of the class without apparent admixture of white blood. The addresses were all orations, and resembled somewhat the essays in the Atlanta school in presenting almost no touch or tone of race or local surroundings, the lady's being almost the only exception. I could not avoid the conviction, that if these well-trained minds had thrown themselves into topics more nearly related to their own life and race struggle, there would have been more fervor in the oratory. But some of these graduates will yet be heard from as useful laborers in some fields of active Christian work.
THE SOUTH.
NOTES IN THE SADDLE.
BY REV. C.J. RYDER, DISTRICT SECRETARY.
I promised, in my February "Notes in the Saddle," to give a brief account of the mountain campaign which had then just closed. It was full of most interesting experiences. We began the series of meetings in the Congregational Church, Jellico, Tenn. The Association was represented by one of its Corresponding Secretaries, a District Secretary, and the writer. Beside these brethren from abroad, the local force of A.M.A. workers was large, and several neighboring churches of our Congregational faith sent their pastors.