the pastor, Rev. Geo. E. Hill.
* * * * *
AFRICAN NOTES.
—Col. C. E. Gordon, who was for a time Governor-General of Soudan
for the Khedive of Egypt, made strenuous and successful efforts to
suppress the slave-trade in those parts of Equatorial Africa which came
within its influence. He was forced, as our readers know, to resign
his position, and in a pamphlet, published by the British Anti-Slavery
Society, states that the Khedive has permitted the resuscitation of
the slave-trade in Central Africa, and “every order he gave for the
suppression of this abomination has been cancelled.” He thinks that a
decided message from the French and English governments to the Egyptian
ruler would have great effect, but that the slave-trade will never be
put down voluntarily by the Khedive.
This slave-trade is one of those evils which time alone will not cure.
Nothing but bringing all the influences of Christian missions and
Christian governments to combine for its destruction, will overthrow
it. We are glad that the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society
continues its holy war against it.
—The Church of Scotland Mission at Blantyre, on the Shiré River,
Africa, has opened another station. The new station is at Zomba, on
the west side of the Shiré River. It is a very elevated and secure
spot, where thieves could be barred out. The station is on the borders
of Chemlumbe and Malemia, whose respective chiefs are hostile to each
other. The design is to reach both tribes. The neighborhood is quite a
populous one, and 4,000 people have asked the missionaries to become
their protectors. The Arabs carry on their nefarious trade between
Blantyre and Zomba, and frequently kidnap people from the latter place
to fill out their gangs. Refugees are almost constantly coming in at
Blantyre, but none are received at Zomba. A school has been opened at
Zomba, and it has forty scholars. The people are very attentive to the
preacher, and sit a long time unwearied.
—Encouraging news continues to come from Bishop Crowther’s mission on
the Niger. The station at Bonny, which was founded fourteen years ago,
and which for some years past has encountered opposition and severe
persecution, now is become a bethel. Archdeacon Crowther says the voice
of prayer is heard in nearly every house, night and morning. Several
persons have been baptized and there are over 200 candidates for the
sacrament.
* * * * *
THE FREEDMEN.
REV. JOS. E. ROY, D.D.,
FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.
* * * * *
ATLANTA UNIVERSITY.
=Baccalaureate—Commencement—Visit of the State Board—Report of Local
Paper.=
On Sunday, June 20, the baccalaureate of Atlanta University was
preached by Rev. M. E. Strieby, D.D., of New York. His subject was the
path of the just and the way of the wicked, the forming of character,
good and bad.
The examinations lasted three days.
The Commencement exercises, June 24, came off the same hour with the
nomination of Gen. Hancock. Orations were pronounced by six young
men, and essays read by ten young women, all of whom showed a fine
scholarship and a good degree of the art of elocution. The most
gratifying feature in these productions was a zeal to help their people
by precept and example in the way of economy, thrift, and moral reform.
The degree of A. B. was conferred upon three young men, and that of B.
S., with the certificate of graduation from the higher normal course,
was given to twelve students, male and female. The music, which was of
a high order, was by the students. One captivating piece was, “I am in
a strange land.” The college address was delivered by Rev. J. E. Roy,
D.D., and the diplomas presented by Rev. M. E. Strieby, D.D.
The State Board of Examiners, ten in number, came over, fresh from
the inspection of the State University at Athens, and gave four days
of faithful attendance upon the examinations and Commencement of
this Institution. Their Report is to be made to the Governor and the
Legislature, but it was understood that they were greatly delighted
with the thoroughness of the scholarship evinced, and the general
_morale_.
The _Constitution_, which reported each day, said: “The examinations
were heard by many visitors who showed great interest in all the
proceedings. The various questions were, as a rule, aptly answered, and
each student gave evidence of the progress achieved in this excellent
and yearly growing Institution. The familiarity with Greek which
was shown by the class, which was called upon to construe and parse
selections from Demosthenes, was quite astonishing. Everybody who has
grappled with the Greek language knows how difficult it is to render
the “Oration” properly. Special proficiency was shown in the several
other branches upon which the students, both male and female, were
subjected to rigid questioning. Our citizens are cordially invited to
visit the Atlanta University, and see for themselves the great good
which the management is doing for the colored people in our midst.”
* * * * *
TALLADEGA COLLEGE.
=Commencement Exercises—Standard of Instruction—Literary
Society—Needs.=
REV. O. W. FAY, MONTGOMERY, ALA.
The friends and patrons of Talladega College have great occasion for
encouragement and congratulation, in view of the present condition and
future prospects of that Institution, as evinced by the examinations
and exercises connected with its Tenth Annual Commencement.
Those exercises opened grandly on Sunday, June 6th, at 10.30 A. M.,
with a baccalaureate sermon by President De Forest from the text (1
Tim. i. 12), “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me,
for that he counted me faithful putting me into the ministry,” which
was a clear and inspiring argument for entering upon the work of the
Gospel ministry especially appropriate for the occasion, as it was
addressed particularly to the class of eight young men who this year
graduate from the Theological Department. At 4 o’clock P. M., a Union
Prayer Meeting of the Sunday-school classes was held in the College
Chapel, after which Prof. T. N. Chase, of Atlanta University, gave an
intensely interesting detailed account of his recent experiences while
visiting the Mendi Mission on the West Coast of Africa. The evening was
given to the missionary sermon by the Rev. O. W. Fay, of Montgomery,
on “The Divine Economy in the Gospel,” or the plan according to which
God has been working, and is destined to work for the redemption of
mankind. Text, Isa. xiii. 4: “He shall not fail nor be discouraged,
till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for
his law.”
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday occurred the regular examinations
which, for impartiality, thoroughness, and general familiarity with
the subjects considered, reflected great credit upon both teachers
and pupils. To one not familiar with the standard of instruction and
scholarship in the colleges of the American Missionary Association,
it might seem a little surprising to find examinations in moral
science, geometry, history, pastoral theology, and all higher branches,
conducted _topically_ and well sustained; but, when it is known that
Pres. De Forest and Profs. Andrews and Ellis, with their able corps of
lady associates, represent Yale, Olivet, Oberlin and Mt. Holyoke, he
is prepared to expect and find all that is standard and best, both in
theory and practice, at Talladega. There was no evidence of special
“cramming” on the part of the students, or of special favoritism on the
part of the instructors. On the other hand, the evidence was abundant
that all had been doing good work, thorough, honest and true. Ex-Gov.
Parsons, one of Alabama’s most distinguished citizens and a trustee
of the College, honored the examination of the graduating class with
his presence, and expressed intense gratification with what he saw
and heard. A few other white citizens of Talladega were present at
the various exercises from time to time through the week. It is to be
regretted, however, that so few were inclined, even by their presence,
to show their appreciation of what the College is doing for their
community and the State. While there was no great throng of colored
people in attendance, there was a goodly number present throughout the
week, who, by their remarkable appreciation of the exercises, showed
that the occasion was to them “a feast of fat things.”
The public exhibition of the “Adelphic Literary Society,” on Monday
evening, was an occasion of interest. The exercises consisted of
declamations, original essays, and a discussion of the question,
“Should capital punishment be inflicted for murder?” The essays were
good, the declamations and the discussion were presented with spirit
and a good show of ability, while the music was excellent, all showing
careful preparation and a laudable ambition to excel.
On Tuesday evening, the Annual College Address was given by Rev. J.
E. Roy, D.D., Field Agent of the A. M. A., on the “Incompleteness of
individual talent.” In his own inimitable style, the doctor entertained
his audience with happy illustrations, amusing anecdotes and solid
thought, showing the mutual interdependence of society, and how God
has really and practically given “to every man his work.” In the
afternoon of Wednesday, came the prize-speaking. The contestants for
prizes in declaiming and reading were eight young men and one young
woman. Two prizes were contended for; the first was tuition at the
College for one year, and the second, tuition for half a year. A good
deal of commendable ambition was aroused, and the contest was so sharp
that the Committee found some difficulty in awarding the honors, which
were finally conferred by giving the first prize to H. L. Bradford, of
the Normal Department, and the second prize to Spencer Snell, of the
Theological Department. Miss Dorcas White was also awarded a second
prize for an essay on education. At 8 P. M., as a part of the programme
for the week, was held the regular Wednesday evening prayer-meeting,
led by the pastor, Prof. G. W. Andrews—full, fresh, spiritual and
refreshing in its character. The subject of the hour was “Christian
education.”
The graduating exercises of Thursday were, indeed, a fitting
culmination of all that had preceded them. The orations of the eight
young men who graduated were in happy accord with the expectations
raised by their examinations the day before. They were all thoughtful
and manly efforts, well conceived and well delivered. As an
illustration of what _can_ be done as well as of what _is being_ done
for the colored race, the proficiency and promise of these young men
is highly encouraging. They all go forth with enthusiasm for their
work. They all have fields for immediate labor. It is quite confidently
hoped that at least one of this class will decide to go to the Mendi
Mission on the “Dark Continent.” But when we look about us and see the
almost innumerable fields already white for the harvest, the inquiry
involuntarily comes. What are these few “among so many”?
In accordance with her new motto, Talladega College is doing a grand
work “Pro Christo et Humanitate.” Her facilities and prospects were
never good as at present. She was never so well deserving of support
and patronage as now. Her location among the mountains of Alabama is
delightful. The long blue ranges of mountains, as seen in the distance
from the College campus, along with the bracing mountain air, strongly
remind one of New England. The only institution of its grade for
colored people in the State, its constituency is simply immense.
With a farm of nearly two hundred acres, her facilities are rare indeed
for aiding young men to obtain an education, who are disposed to help
themselves. She has an efficient corps of instructors, enthusiastic in
their work. Particularly is she fortunate in her new President, under
whose wise administration the College has assumed a new character
and taken a new position in the State. No one could listen to the
earnest yet tender and eloquent words of counsel addressed to the
graduating class by Pres. De Forest on presenting the diplomas, without
the feeling that he is just the large-hearted, scholarly. Christian
gentleman who is needed in the place which he occupies.
But notwithstanding all this, Talladega has very pressing needs. Her
accommodations for young men are altogether inadequate to the demand,
and such as she has are of a very indifferent character. A donation of
$15,000 from the Stone Estate, however, gives cheering prospects that
during the coming year this sore need will be met.
But $10,000 more is needed just as much for furnishing the new
dormitory, improving the College grounds, and making necessary repairs
on “Swayne Hall,” which, though originally costing $30,000, and a very
stately building, is literally going to ruin from lack of means to
repair it.
These facts being known, may it not reasonably be hoped that in the
near future, friends of humanity and of Christian education may be
found, who will recognize this rare opportunity for investments, and
come to the rescue of a worthy and suffering College? Who will be the
first?
* * * * *
BEREA COLLEGE.
Busy and Varied Scene—Range of Topics—Stirring
Addresses—Brotherhood—Pioneers.
BY SECRETARY STRIEBY.
The little village of Berea, Ky., presented a busy scene on the 16th
day of June. Commencement day brought together a crowd that for numbers
and variety is seldom collected on such an occasion. The gathering
began early in the day. Fine buggies and carriages came filled with
people, and with them were wheeled vehicles of almost every variety of
construction and in almost every stage of decay. But the larger part
of the crowd came on horseback in true Kentucky style, frequently two,
and in some cases three persons riding on the same animal. The College
campus comprises many acres, covered quite uniformly with a fine growth
of large trees. On the day before, I had noticed little slats nailed on
these trees, and their use was explained to-day by the horses hitched
to them. There must have been 800 or 900 horses on the campus.
The audience numbered probably 1,800 or 2,000 persons of both sexes,
both colors, and of every stage in social position. I judged that
two-thirds were of the white race, representing the well-to-do classes
as also the poorer farmers from the mountains. The dresses were not
uniform in style, nor always after the most recent fashion plates. I
noticed many old-fashioned sun-bonnets on the heads of the colored
women. There was a full supply of babies in the audience, with the
usual evidence of good lungs and voices—the essentials for future
public speakers. I particularly noticed that the white babies carried
off on this day the palm in this incipient oratory, yet I drew no
inference as to the future. The assemblage gathered in the Tabernacle,
a roughly built structure somewhat in the style of the tabernacles at
Martha’s Vineyard and other watering places, though, of course, less
expensive.
The public exercises of the forenoon were very creditable to the pupils
as well as their teachers in the essays and speeches. The range of
topics was wider than is usual in our institutions in the South, and
with less reference to the peculiar position and struggles of the
colored race. This was easily explained by the fact that about half the
pupils are white. The afternoon was occupied with addresses by Rev.
J. A. R. Rogers, Secretary Strieby, Pres. Fairchild, of Oberlin, and
two colored ministers of the vicinity. The previous evening was taken
up with a stirring address in the chapel by a Kentucky gentleman of
prominent position, the son of a former slave-holder. It was in hearty
sympathy with the work in Berea College, and concluded with some very
timely and practical advice to the colored people, which they heartily
applauded.
Berea College is doing, as may be seen, a peculiar work. No institution
in the nation approaches it in uniting the two races in the same
school. As a pioneer in the breaking down of caste prejudice, it has no
rival; nor is this purchased by lowering the one race at the expense
of the other, nor by any approach to the blending of the races in
marriage. It is simply a quiet, unpretentious and practical working out
of the brotherhood of man in educational and religious co-operation.
The pioneers and principal workers in founding and carrying forward
this noble Christian enterprise were present—John G. Fee, J. A. R.
Rogers, E. H. Fairchild, and others. It is seldom that men live to
see with their own eyes so great a revolution as that which Berea
witnessed in the contrast of this Commencement day with the dark days
of persecution, banishment and danger. Tales were told me at quiet
tea-tables, of times of trial and deliverance, that moved the heart
over scenes that occurred not in old historic times, but on spots
within eye-glance, and participated in by the narrators.
Berea College is well equipped with buildings and a good corps of
teachers. The Ladies’ Hall is modeled after, and about the size
of, the similar building in Oberlin. Howard Hall gives excellent
facilities as a boys’ dormitory. The new chapel is a model of neatness
and convenience. Other and smaller buildings meet other wants, and
while another edifice could be well used, yet Berea’s great need now
is _endowment_; and to those who have the means, and are looking for
a place to use it for the nation’s welfare and the advancement of
the Redeemer’s kingdom, we can safely and unhesitatingly turn their
attention to this worthy and growing institution.
* * * * *
TOUGALOO UNIVERSITY.
African Macedonia—Usefulness and Needs—Work of Grace—Waiting for
Supplies.
REV. H. S. DE FOREST, TALLADEGA, ALA.
A run into Mississippi, and two days spent at Tougaloo, have given me
a fresh sense of the importance of our work in its entirety, and a
special interest in Tougaloo. This institution, in the centre of the
great cotton State, where the black soil seems the natural home of the
black man, has a field as large, as needy and as hopeful as can well be
desired. From Marion, Ala., at the east, to far beyond the Mississippi
on the west, north from New Orleans and south from Holly Springs, each
about two hundred miles away, Tougaloo sits alone, and has undisputed
possession of a great, a populous, and a waiting African Macedonia,
crying out, “Come over and help us.” The University, with meagre
equipments and limited accommodations, is trying to answer that cry. It
is doing much, very much; but how little compared with what might be
done and ought to be done!
Tougaloo is seven miles from Jackson, the State capital, on the railway
from New Orleans northward, having a location of wonderful beauty, and
advantages peculiar to itself. The farm of five hundred acres is now
under good cultivation. The facilities for marketing produce are good,
and under judicious management it is believed the work of students may
do much towards paying their expenses. The mansion house, built with
great taste and care by a planter who was never to occupy it, crowns
a gentle slope; while in front is a native grove, or forest, of as
weird-like and enchanting beauty as can well be found on this rounded
earth. The oaks are of the giant order, almost colossal in their
proportions, while from the great arms hang abundant tassels of Spanish
moss. Here, on June 3d, under this witchery of shade, on improvised
seats, the exercises of Commencement were held. Horses, mules, and
vehicles of all kinds, at an early hour, were hitched under the trees.
Visitors came by the tens and the scores; but finally, a special train
put down its brakes at the station, and hundreds, with lunch baskets in
hand, were swarming through the woods, and massing themselves near the
platform. Seven young men, after the ordeal of a searching examination,
if I may judge from the little I was in time to hear, pronounced their
orations and received their diplomas. The addresses of the graduates
were thoughtful, full of moral earnestness, well delivered and well
received by the great audience, among whom were representatives of
the clergy at Jackson, the Board of Trustees, and the Superintendent
of Education. Several of these visitors added words of hearty and
well-deserved commendation. The impress of the instructors was manifest
throughout the exercises. This thought pervaded all the speeches:
_there is work to be done, and we wish to have a hand in it_. Back of
the stage, as the class motto, hung the old, but not outworn, “Labor
omnia vincit.” The motto suggested the theme of the first speaker. The
address in the afternoon was on “The field and the victories of work,”
and idleness had no mercy that day. Apparently, there is not much of it
about the institution. Under the direction of the Principal, Rev. G.
S. Pope, a man of long experience in this Southern field, singularly
fitted for his post and well sustained by earnest co-laborers, both
in-door and out-door industries have been greatly promoted. The farm
and garden are beginning to show what good husbandry can do. Blooded
cattle are taking the place of the native lean kine; improved groves
are disclosing their richness; while the garden not only supplies the
large family at the University, but is affording some surplus for
others. Strawberries from nearly an acre of land have been picked this
year, and largely sent to Chicago. This industry promises well, and
will be increased in the future.
The needs of Tougaloo are as apparent as its present usefulness.
Besides the mansion and the out-buildings, many of which are old,
there is a chapel with a second story containing rooms for young
men, and also a boarding hall, with dormitories for young women
above. These three principal buildings are of wood, the mansion house
occupying the centre. These accommodations are far too small. To meet
a present necessity, a rough barrack has been put up, giving nine
additional rooms. The attendance during the past year has been about
two hundred, and nearly all have been boarders in the family. Increase
the accommodations and the attendance might be doubled at once; but
what would a school of four hundred be among the tens of thousands
in this great State who are hungering for education? At mid-winter a
work of grace pervaded the school, and not far from thirty, it was
thought, of these pupils became Christ’s disciples, and they go forth
with new purposes. The influences for good from Tougaloo are not easily
computed; its grand possibilities reach out towards the infinite.
It seems strange to us who are on the ground, glad to man these
out-posts and give what we have of life and vigor to the work, that
needed supplies are not forthcoming. Give us adequate appliances, and
we can greatly multiply our usefulness. We wish to be re-inforced,
not relieved. Our commissariat is insufficient. We are glad to give
ourselves to this work, but we need supplies. And we cannot think that
life is cheaper than lucre; that men at the rear can afford to neglect
those who are allowed to go to the front; and if America has any front
in this nineteenth century, it is still down South. We wish to advance
all our lines, and are simply waiting for supplies.
* * * * *
BREWER NORMAL SCHOOL.
J. D. BACKENSTOSE, GREENWOOD, S. C.
The work of Brewer Normal Institute, for the past scholastic year,
closed very successfully, and, as far as we know, to the satisfaction
of all its patrons, on June 24th.
The two days’ examinations were unusually thorough and very
satisfactory.
The Annual Address was delivered on the morning of the 24th, by Prof.
J. Wofford White, of the Yorkville Academy at Yorkville, S. C., on “The
benefits of an education.”
The address was worthy the man and the subject, and will doubtless be
long remembered by the very large audience. On the rostrum beside the
speaker were clergymen of three different denominations.
At 3 P. M. the audience again assembled, and was addressed by several
of our former students, who have been engaged during the present year
in teaching.