PROF. FRED. W. FOSTER.
We are beginning our year's work with much better promise than in any previous year. Our enrollment is a fourth greater now than at the close of October last year, when it was greater than ever before at that time. Our boarding department is also filling up much faster. Better than this is the very marked gain in the tone of the school and in the character of the work done, and the orderliness and studiousness of the pupils. It is cheering to look through the various rooms and note the cheerful diligence with which they are at work. The reverse side of all this is our lack of room, and the great poverty of our people this year, caused by a most unfavorable season. The generosity of our friends at the North can help us meet the latter, and Christian Endeavor Hall would completely remove the former difficulty.
FINANCIAL STATEMENT.
For the three months ending December 31, 1894, our receipts, as compared with the corresponding months of the previous year, show a slight increase in donations, but a falling off in estates, income and tuition. The last item is sad, but not surprising, for the people in the South are so utterly impoverished that the payment of tuition is well-nigh impossible. On the side of expenditures, as compared with last year, there has been reduction in all items, mission, publication, collecting agency and administration, and yet the balance of indebtedness for the three months is $15,671.10, which, added to the previous indebtedness of $66,360.97, makes a total of $82,032.07. We can only lay these figures before the friends of the poorest and most depressed of the people of our land and invoke such help as patriotism and Christianity will dictate.
LINCOLN MEMORIAL DAY.
We call the attention of our readers once more to the observance of Lincoln Memorial Day, February 10th being the Sunday nearest the birthday of the Great Emancipator. Last year, in accordance with the recommendation of our annual meeting, the churches interested in our great work were invited to observe the day in commemoration of the emancipation of the slaves in its bearings on the great work which emancipation involved—the preparation of these people for their new life. We regard the renewal of this observance as specially fitting now, because the colored people of the South are passing through a terrible ordeal, and need all the encouragement and help that is possible, to save them from utter discouragement. It is said that the work of this Association is among the agencies most helpful in their elevation. Last year a Concert Exercise was prepared in this office for the use of Sunday-schools, giving a sketch of the life of the Great Emancipator. We have copies remaining, which we will gladly forward when requested to do so. Pastors and school superintendents may vary this exercise by introducing other patriotic addresses or hymns in place of those given.