Perhaps it would be interesting to say, that the relation of the white people of the settlement to the school is most friendly. They respect Miss Davis to the highest degree, and are willing and glad to show any favors to her or her teachers.
Thus far, I have shown you only the favorable side of the picture, but I would beg my readers to remember that it has also a painful side. Those we are teaching are the children of ancestors who have lived for centuries in darkness and ignorance, with only eleven years of light; and there is still a great work to be done here. We find it necessary to instruct them, not only in books, but along the lines of all the virtues which go to make a man a man, and a woman a woman.
IMPARTIAL TESTIMONY.
BY REV. VINCENT MOSES, NEWBURY, MASS.
My wife and I recently spent about four weeks in New Orleans, La. While we were there, Straight University was constantly under our observation; and, without suggestion from any one, it comes to mind that testimony to the efficiency of American Missionary Association work in Straight would be welcome to you.
We not only attended more than once the general morning devotional exercises in the "Daniel Hand Preparatory School" and the "Central Building," but were also present during a recitation to nearly every teacher in the Preparatory, Grammar, Normal, College Preparatory, College and Theological Departments. The departments of music, woodworking, sewing and printing, and also the Boarding Department came under our observation.
The impression made upon us throughout was most favorable. The claims of the catalogue are fully sustained in every particular. We have been familiar with work in all these grades in the schools of several Northern States; but we have never seen more thorough work, never a school on the whole more satisfactory in deportment and scholarship. We cannot compare this with other American Missionary Association institutions. This is the only one we have visited. So we are glad to let this represent them all, and confess to a surprise in finding that we had never known better schools.