Various

“ But, however divergent the views of different people may be upon these questions, there certainly is no immediate occasion for a howl against the higher education of the Negro, for there is not enough of it to feed the flames of a respectable controversy. Only a fraction of the so-called universities south of Washington open to colored students have a collegiate course of study, and the entire number of graduates from such a course can be expressed by two ciphers and a small significant figure. What are a hundred or two of college graduates among six or seven millions of people? ”

“ Education is the full development of the man, and we know that development is a gradual, almost imperceptible process. It is the leading out of the powers and capabilities which he may possess. You do not educate a man when you simply tell him what he did not know, but you do educate him when you make this knowledge imparted a part of himself, thus causing him to feel what he ought to feel—conscious power and manhood. Education which does not make a man more manly and independent, is a decided failure. ”

“ If three years of Latin and two and a third years of Greek and the mathematics that go with them double the value of the services of a colored youth, let us challenge studies that are usually considered more practical to show a better record and be careful how we speak sneeringly of higher education.
But are occupations for the fullest use of a higher education by colored people limited? They certainly are. ”

“ THE INDIANS. CLOSING EXERCISES AT SANTEE NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL.
A beautiful feature of the Commencement season here at Santee was the communion service of last Sunday, at which time six young Indian men came forward from among their companions and publicly united themselves to God’s people! We call them boys, but they are not boys; they are old enough to realize the position they now occupy, and it has come to them only after the long, hard struggle which seems always to insure earnest lives for the future. ”

“ A white pastor may minister to a colored church, a white teacher may instruct colored children, a white physician may prescribe for a colored patient, a white attorney may counsel for a colored client, a white mechanic may employ colored laborers, a white merchant may serve colored customers, but in none of these spheres does the rule work both ways except in a few rare instances. So the services of educated colored people in the professions and in business are confined to their own race, and in that they are crowded by their white competitors. ”

“ Then good-byes were spoken, students and visitors departed, and a sort of lonesome quiet settled over Tougaloo; but the chosen motto of our graduating class looks down in letters of unfading green from over the rostrum, “Life is earnest,” and carries our prayerful thoughts out to the army of young workers who, in their several homes, schools and places of labor, we trust are earnestly endeavoring to walk in the footsteps of our blessed Master and “overcome evil with good.” ”

“ Unless some one knows for certain that the Negro is the descendant of Ham, and that the descendants of Ham have not yet served their time in hewing wood and drawing water, why not test the virtue of this rather queer theory by trying, on a small scale, the experiment of giving Negroes the opportunity of acquiring all the education their mental capacity is capable of receiving, and looking on [220] to see what they will do with it, and what effect it will have upon the race, and not expect that every individual will be a success or achieve high place among men? ”

“ It was a demonstration, beyond all doubt, of the Negro’s intellectual capacity and of his willingness to use and improve it. One of our Atlanta teachers writing us about this convention says: “I wish our Northern friends could have attended it. I am sure, if they could have done so, those who are helping would want to help more, and those who never have helped would be stirred up to lend a hand in raising up a people, so many of whom have proven and are proving that they can be raised. Certainly those of us here on the field can but feel encouraged and strengthened to go on.” ”

“ Our closing exercises this year partook more of the nature of a Commencement than heretofore. This is the second year only that our school has turned out graduates from any of the higher courses. From the class of ten comprising the elementary normal class, seven—five young men and two young women—were graduated. One other young man, who failed to pass on account of being absent teaching during a part of the year, and who is working hard, determined to make up the lost studies before leaving the city, will probably succeed and be granted his certificate during the summer. ”

“ The third graduate is employed by a wealthy resident of Atlanta, at whose home he always has lived, as collector of rents, etc., and may be said to be “in business.”
So, instead of the young man in question having a university education, he did not finish his freshman year; instead of his being a member of a class of thirty, his class numbered only eleven; and instead of thirty falling from the sublime heights of university graduates to the low estate of porters in cotton houses, the three of that class who completed their college course are occupying the important positions mentioned above. ”

“ Fisk University must be endowed, and we her sons and daughters, who intend doing what we can in this direction, most sincerely trust that friends of years gone by will not forget, in the distribution of what God hath given them, this institution, which has all these years depended solely on God and a charitable public for its existence and a continuance of its blessed work. ”

“ Of the forty graduates from the classical course, five are dead, eight are in the service of the U.S. Government, four are pastors of churches, one is a lawyer, two are in the theological seminary, one is engaged in business in Atlanta, and the remaining nineteen are teaching. None are unemployed and all are engaged in occupations in which considerable education is required, and a thorough one is desirable. ”

“ Thoroughly trained and equipped colored lawyers and physicians will conquer the prejudice that now exists among their own people against them, and will conquer it the more easily if they are better prepared for work than their white competitors. ”

“ The mid-winter series of meetings, both at the college and the two mission chapels, were blessed to several conversions. Young people have been schooled in a vigorous Society of Christian Endeavor. Mission Sunday-schools and neighborhood prayer-meetings have been carried on with growing interest. The different benevolent societies have had their claims presented in turn; something has been given to all; and if the offerings have been small, they have, it is believed, been weighted with prayer.
Important repairs, so far as means are afforded, are to be made by industrial students. ”

“ But if such an education enables one who has it to get from sixty to one hundred and thirty dollars a month instead of seventy-five cents a day in the city whenever he can obtain a job, or ten dollars a month and “rashuns” in the country, it becomes to him an eminently and interestingly practical thing. Even in the case of this young Negro porter, the gentleman under whom he works says he could hire some one else to do the same work for half his wages, but he prefers his services at the double cost. ”

“ It means growth. It is a man’s duty to grow. Remember, then, that you have not apprehended—for what you must apprehend or [223] lay hold on, is Christian character and manhood in its highest sense.”
Such manly and discriminating counsel coming from a graduate to other graduates of his own race, proves that it is safe to appeal to the results in proof of the value of higher education among the colored people of the South.
Most refreshing news comes to us from a far-off church in Texas. “Last Sabbath,” writes the faithful pastor, “was a high day for the church here. ”

“ Students were seen painting, wood-working, draughting; some were type-setting, form-making, and at press-work. The garden, farm, wood-saw and feed-mill, stock and barns were examined. All our visitors are impressed with the results already secured in industrial training, and some are relieved who feared that the brain, if it gets much of a start, will paralyze the hand, forgetting that the hand must be inapt till there is a trained head to give it cunning. ”

“ Our workers have never been more untiring in their efforts to advance the cause of temperance and morality. A flourishing Band of Hope, taking in nearly every pupil in the three lower departments, has been doing its good work throughout the year. The society for the older ones, not strictly confined to the school, has also been doing its work. ”

“ THE SOUTH. NOTES IN THE SADDLE. BY FIELD-SUPERINTENDENT C. J. RYDER.
“Men are four: He who knows not and knows not he knows not, he is a fool; shun him. He who knows not and knows he knows not, he is simple; teach him. He who knows and knows not he knows, he is asleep; wake him. He who knows and knows he knows, he is wise; follow him.” So runs an old Arabic proverb. A sermon delivered by one of our A. M. A. pastors, before a class just graduating from one of our Southern institutions, proves that in educational matters this pastor was of the fourth class according to the Arabic classification. ”

“ Of the one hundred graduates from the normal department, six have died, seventeen are keeping house for their husbands, one is in a medical school, one is pursuing a college course, one is a mail carrier, one is still living at home, one is a hired housekeeper, and the remaining seventy-two are teaching. ”

“ These concerts grow in excellence and in favor from year to year, and our choir has, besides, won some modest laurels, singing outside the University, which it has worn as modestly.
Our Sunday-school is always delightful, and nothing else is ever permitted to take its place. At the close of this year we had the pleasure of disposing of seventy dollars of Sunday-school money. Forty dollars were voted to missionary work in Africa, twenty-five to library books, and five to the State temperance lecturer of Mississippi. A larger average attendance than ever before was reported. ”

“ The recitation showed that an Indian may have as clear and correct an idea of the formation of this earth and its divisions into hemispheres, countries, etc., as any white boy. The maps were accurately and admirably drawn. The language lessons were novel, and showed good work on the part of the teachers. Stories were read to the students which they were asked to re-write in as good English as possible. The following from a boy brought into the school last fall, is a good illustration of the way in which they think and speak in English: “We get all our silk from a little creature called worm. ”

“ An unusual number of graduates were present at Commencement, and enjoyed their own separate dinner and “the olive branches” about the table. There were never so many babies at Tougaloo before, and a well-behaved and promising little company we thought them, upon the whole. May God bless the little ones and make them every one burning and shining lights in His kingdom! Our graduating class was small this year—two young ladies from the Elementary, and a young man from the Higher Normal. The exercises were good. ”

“ Twenty minutes were given on Monday to the workings of a model normal class in botany. It was most unique, carried on wholly by the advanced students. They showed clearly the most approved manner and methods not only of teaching, but also of learning. The whole was skillfully and understandingly done.
Tuesday evening was devoted to a literary entertainment. Space allows only of a word or two in regard to it. A former graduate of Santee, who is now one of its teachers, read an essay on “Civilization” well worth repeating. He began with the earliest known civilization before Christ ”

“ What a surprising phenomenon in religious work at the North, but not so surprising for the South, for there most earnest Christian work is often done during the heated days of summer. The pastor who reports this encouraging work has charge of three churches, and travels every week some fifty miles by wagon in order to fill his appointments. ”

“ One of our older girls, who keeps a gem of a room here, felicitates herself on having a room to herself where she boards, even though tucked up and the walls full of other people’s clothes, a saddle, and sundries. ”

“ He is a stanch Democrat, and canvasses the State at every election for the Democratic ticket. He is not a man who desires to push himself forward because of any ambition to obtain social equality. He is modest and unassuming. ”

“ But in so doing we should not help ourselves at all, and we should hustle them back into deeper darkness and severer cruelty. A good argument, rather, as it seems to me, for pouring in with intenser zeal and more practical endeavor, the life-giving, freedom-giving light of Christ. ”

“ Music is by no means drudgery to the Indians. Passionately fond of it, they practice with patience, and the results have been more than satisfactory. Considering the lack of all discipline in their natures, the examinations this year, both in vocal and instrumental music, have been remarkable. ”

“ Between these dates were the sermon before the graduates; a missionary sermon by Secretary Powell, of New York; public examination of students in all grades, from secondary studies up to theology, including classes taught in Practice School by Normal Students; exercises of the three literary societies; an address by Dr. Powell on [227] “Over the sea”; one by Dr. W. H. Ward on “The testimony of ancient monuments to God’s Word”; exhibition of industrial work, with orations and essays by graduates from the Normal and Theological departments. ”

“ Board is now to be made cheaper, and, with, no less attention to fundamental branches, more is to be done in developing college studies; and theological training, a strong point from the beginning, is still to be kept in the foreground. ”

“ Some of the money given for the work in the South comes from very humble people. I have heard of a poor woman in ——, who earned her living by washing and scrubbing, yet saved out of her scanty earnings a half cent a day for the A. M. A. It would be a shame to any one to spend such money carelessly. ”