THE FREEDMEN.

REV. JOS. E. ROY, D. D.,

FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.

GLEANINGS.

L. A. P.

Letters from student-teachers often furnish truer insight to the homes and sentiments of the people than can be learned in the higher schools. Ten miles from a leading city a young lady writes: “This is such a wicked place that out of ninety day scholars I can get only forty to come to Sabbath-school. I begin school at eight, and close at half-past five in the evening. Parents think the children are not learning anything unless they stay in school as long as the field hands work.”

A young man, whose recitations in class are always excellent, says: “I have professed a hope in Christ, and joined the church. The letter you wrote me two or three years ago concerning religion was in my mind all the time before I professed hope. Please tell me where in the Bible I can find the place where a woman once cooked a Bible in a loaf of bread to keep it from being destroyed.”

This question aptly illustrates the lack of general intelligence in the community. It is quite possible for young people to leave school with fair knowledge of the text-books, yet profoundly ignorant of everything else, unless access to libraries and thorough Bible training accompany the regular school work, and are made a part of it.

Another young man reads books and papers, and induces his patrons to provide themselves with good reading matter. Under the same date as the foregoing letter, he writes: “I have an enrolment of 120 in day school. Sabbath-school numbers 143. I wish you could step into my school-room, and see how busy and earnest all seem to be. You cannot imagine how the colored people of this vicinity are grasping after education. I lectured to a large audience last Monday night. My subject was ‘Education in the South.’”

Another student records his experience thus: “The school had no black-board, no writing desks—well, in fact, it was not provided with anything. I now have a black-board, 8 ft. by 4; also very good writing desks. The children were very much surprised at the black-board, as they had never seen one before.”

GEORGIA.

Extracts from the Report of the Board of Visitors to the Atlanta University.

For three days we listened to examinations of the scholars conducted orally by the teachers, and written examination work from the higher classes was laid before us. We were also present at the anniversary exercises of the Institution. It is with pleasure that we bear testimony in behalf of the accuracy and thoroughness manifested both by the teachers and scholars. We have never seen stronger proof of careful and successful teaching, and the discipline and government cannot be surpassed in any Institution.

The scholars were neat in appearance, orderly in deportment, and serious in application. The teachers were remarkably proficient in their several departments, and the scholars seemed to be impressed with a deep-seated earnestness, calculated not only to advance the intellectual status of the colored race, but also to make of them better men and women.

The practical sciences are not neglected. A visit to the culinary department showed us that the female students had been thoroughly taught the art of cooking good dinners, without which even the intellect would pine and languish. Calisthenics, also, constitute a part of the training.

We found the buildings and grounds in the best of order, evidencing the same watchful eyes which overlooked the entire Institution.

The school-rooms and furniture were entirely free from defacements of any kind, showing a marked difference in this respect between the Atlanta University and most other colleges.

An interesting feature is the Library, composed of a collection of about five thousand volumes, selected wisely for the purpose of interesting as well as instructing the scholars. To the library there have been added during the past year, three hundred new books of recent publication.

In connection with the library is a reading room, in which can be found the leading magazines and daily papers.

The future of the University seems truly bright, and a better opportunity can never be given our colored citizens for a thorough education.

We commend the entire corps of instructors, and must express the confidence which we feel in the capacity of the president, Mr. Ware, and in his fitness for the position which he occupies.

In conclusion, we think it proper to dwell for a moment upon the fact that the Atlanta University, besides the influence which it wields directly upon its scholars, reaches, through the many who pass out from its walls as teachers, almost the entire colored population of our State. While the mental man is being developed, the moral man is carefully trained, and temperance and religion are important parts of the instruction given.

From this College, Georgia is sending out missionaries for the amelioration of a large class of her citizens. Who can doubt the wisdom of continuing the appropriation?

ALABAMA.

Church, School, and Brick-making.

MISS M. F. WELLS, ATHENS.

I reached Athens on Saturday, Oct. 2d, found very little advance on the brick-yard, the kiln of 118,000 being completed but not burned, everybody discouraged, young people and children scattered to the cotton fields, trying to earn enough money to buy their winter shoes. Of course words of cheer and encouragement in view of the great work (for them the making of 200,000 brick is a great work, however small it may seem to those who do not know their poverty, and the great sacrifice this has cost them) already accomplished, made their heavy hearts lighter, and in the three weeks since Oct. 1st a great change has come over the aspect of things.

Men and boys are in the woods cutting wood to burn the kiln made this season; women and girls are contributing their dimes, nickels, half dollars and dollars to raise a fund to haul the wood, and the prospect is that the brick will be burned before Christmas. But you will not wonder that down in my secret soul there is sometimes almost a moan. How long, O Lord, how long before the completion of the school-house?

During the summer the church has kept up the public worship once a day; a Cumberland Presbyterian Minister (colored) has generally preached. When he was not well enough to preach a prayer meeting was held.

The Sunday-school has been pretty well attended, and is now very enthusiastic. We are going over a short course of Bible History and Chronology, in addition to the regular lessons of the International course. We are to have an examination for promotions at Christmas and all are striving to complete the course. Our prayer meetings are increasing in interest and numbers, but we need a minister, indeed we must have one.

Two delegates have been appointed by the church to attend the Conference at Memphis. It would be a pleasure to me, as one of the appointees, to represent the church at that meeting, but there seems no possibility of my going, as the school is filling up rapidly, and the wood-cutters have to be provided with dinner, and it requires eternal vigilance to look after all the interests in such a way as to keep the “ark a moverin.” I should have written sooner, but every day has brought some unexpected emergency—so mixing church and school and brick-making, that no line of thought or action was marked with sufficient distinctness to express itself on paper. But now, things are more settled, all the interests seem harmonized, and the chaos has given place to order. We are all happy and busy day and night, bright faces and glad, earnest spirits inspire hope in the teacher’s heart, and give vigor to every effort to move forward.

MISSISSIPPI.

Patient Work.

REV G. S. POPE, TOUGALOO.

Sometimes we hear of incidents in the lives of our students plainly showing that what we have said to them about hard, patient work hasn’t ended with talk.

One of the graduating class last June spoke to us of “Labor.” A letter just received by one of the teachers tells how his school-house was so uncomfortable that he thought something must be done. He had a public entertainment to raise money to get lumber for ceiling. He did not realize enough and footed the bill himself. When the lumber arrived he asked the people to come together to do the work, but they did not respond and he ceiled the house himself.

Four of our girls taught near each other, their schools over 40 miles from the railroad. One of them had taught before 14 months in the same neighborhood. The people failed to pay her. At one time she needed some money and persuaded a man who was owing her to kill a hog and let her have it. She put it in a sack and started on horseback to peddle it out. She has an invalid mother and one or two brothers and sisters nearly dependent upon her. She is anxious to educate herself, but the outlook is pretty dark.

Two of them started together for their new field; went to B—— by railroad, paid a man $5 to take them 20 miles, reached town about dark and tried four places before finding any one who could keep them over night. The old woman who took them in was not able to give them anything to eat, but made a cup of coffee for each. One of them had a little lunch with her. They ate part of it and put the rest aside. The next morning one woman who had refused to keep them over night called and invited them around to see her; they took dinner there and went back to the old woman’s house to stay over night again, as they could not find any one to take them further before the Sabbath. They were going to finish their lunch for supper, but the ants had finished it for them, so they had nothing more to eat until about noon, the next day. A man charged them $7 to take them 22 miles. The Lord sent them some lunch through the same woman who fed them the day before. One of them only obtained a two months’ school. She received $36, and had to spend $13 in traveling expenses and $12 for board. She thinks she will have hard work to get through the year on what remains.

In one church there were three ministers and only one Testament. These girls induced them to buy several Bibles.

They wrote for the fourth one to come. She went as far as B—— and had to wait two weeks for her trunk. She then went half-way to her school with the mail carrier and waited there another week before she could get any conveyance to her school. She taught two months, and after purchasing what clothing she absolutely needed, and settling board bills, only had about five dollars. She has just written me that she is picking cotton now, hoping to get a bale to sell, so she can return to school. We have enough such incidents to make a book.

LOUISIANA.

Indications of Good in School and Church—Revival Meetings.

W. S. ALEXANDER, D. D., NEW ORLEANS.

We watch with peculiar interest the indications of the first month of church and school work, in their relation to the general results of the year. The first month has passed, and we have abundant reason to take courage and press forward. Never did a year begin with fairer prospects of success. Never before, perhaps, have so many students reported on the opening day of the University.

The completed roll of the Academic, Law, and Theological Departments would show nearly, if not quite 200 names. Many students are detained upon the plantations—new scholars are on the way, and we expect by the holidays to have all we can well provide for.

STONE HALL.

The new dormitory, which will bear the name of our generous benefactress, Mrs. Stone, of Malden, Mass., will soon be a reality. The plans and specifications have been completed, bids have been invited, and we shall soon hear the click of the mason’s trowel, and the welcome sound of the saw and hammer. If Prof. Chase, who will supervise the construction of the building, had any doubt of our joy at his coming, he has not the perception with which we credit him. Our most grateful thanks go out to Mrs. Stone for her large-hearted benevolence. The blessings of thousands of God’s poor people whom we are trying to serve will be part of her reward.

THE LAW DEPARTMENT

Numbers already 23 students, only four of whom are colored. This department is entirely self-sustaining, and a fee of $56 per year is exacted as compensation for the four able professors. It is a source of great regret to us that more colored young men, in whose interests the department was organized, do not avail themselves of its advantages. It is conducted with rare ability. One of the professors has been upon the Supreme Bench of this State.

CENTRAL CHURCH.

This church has paid all its expenses during the summer. The pulpit has been supplied by a young man of ability, Mr. Albert, formerly a student at Atlanta, and at present a member of our senior class. I found the church in a good spiritual state, the congregation somewhat scattered, but they soon rallied, and we have now fair and increasing audiences.

The one desire and prayer of the church is to witness an earnest and extended revival, and I am grateful to be able to say that this hope seems about to be realized. Three years ago, Mr. James Wharton, of Barrow-in-Furness, England, visited this city to engage in evangelistic work, if Providence should open the way, among the colored people. He is a business man, but an earnest Christian, endowed with fine gifts as a persuasive speaker.

He wrote to me in the summer asking if the way would be open for him to conduct revival services in Central Church if he should visit New Orleans in October. I lost no time in sending him a cordial invitation to come, and promised him our hearty co-operation. He has arrived in the city accompanied by Mr. Richard Irving, a man of kindred spirit, and next Sunday, Nov. 7th, they will begin a series of meetings which will be continued indefinitely, so long as souls can be gathered into the Kingdom. Printed notices of the meetings have been widely circulated, and earnest workers are canvassing, going from house to house, and entreating the people to come to this Gospel feast. Dear friends in the North, pray for us, and the success of this movement. As Bro. Wharton wrote me from England, “Pray mightily for us.” I pray God I may have glad tidings to send you soon. These dear brethren come at their own charges, and ask only the privilege of preaching a free Gospel to the needy and perishing.

TENNESSEE.

Fisk University.

REV. E. M. CRAVATH, NASHVILLE.

The sixteenth scholastic year of Fisk University has begun under very favorable conditions and with very encouraging prospects.

1. The number of pupils in attendance for the first two months of this year is greatly increased over that of last, although that of last year was larger than any previous year since the occupancy of Jubilee Hall. The number from outside the city of Nashville is thirty per cent. greater than at the same time one year ago.

The result is that the limit of our boarding accommodations has been already nearly reached, and the anxious inquiry is forcing itself upon us, What shall we do with the large number of students who desire, and are planning, to come during the next three months?

2. The grade of scholarship in the case of new students is considerably advanced over that of former years. There have been no additions to the regular college classes, but four have entered the senior, three the middle, and six the junior college preparatory classes. As advanced students are the ones desired in such an institution as this, it is a source of great encouragement that the number of such is steadily increasing year by year.

3. There is on the part of the students a growing comprehension of the value and of the necessity of a thorough education, and consequently a very much stronger desire and purpose to take long courses of study. This is one of the most hopeful facts connected with our work. It required a wonderful amount of determination and patience on the part of both professors and students to engineer the first classes through a college course of study. There was no public sentiment in the community, and no sentiment among parents or friends of the students, to encourage and stimulate to long courses of study. But a great change for the better has been wrought. The steady, persistent work of the past fifteen years, which has resulted in the graduation of five small classes from the college department, has created an atmosphere and established conditions which stimulate the desire for a liberal education, and foster the purpose of those who undertake to secure it.

The educating power of a considerable body of advanced, carefully disciplined and well-read students, is marked upon all the lower grades, and especially upon those who come to Fisk University for the first time. The present senior preparatory class promises to enter college in May twenty strong. This is double the number of the largest class that has ever before been entered.

4. The influence and power of the work done by our students while absent from the University during vacation or after completing their studies, become more and more manifest. The reports brought back by the students themselves, the testimony of Trustees and County Superintendents, the new students brought here through their influence, all reveal to us as we have not realized it before, the greatness of the service the University is rendering to the cause of education, morality, religion and social life throughout the great Southwest. Our students are our epistles; and becoming known and being read by the people wherever they go, are turning the thoughts and hearts of others to the University. It is largely because of the faithfulness and loyalty of our students that the steady growth in numbers continues from year to year.

We have, therefore, abundant reason to thank God and take courage. The great concern we have about the future is that our friends in the North will not be ready to meet the growing demands of this great work of uplifting the millions of recently emancipated people in the South, by a sufficiently large and constant giving. With the experience of the last fifteen years in mind, we can say with the full assurance of conviction that the call for the enlargement and strengthening of the University is in some vital respects more imperative now than ever before. Endowments are needed to adequately sustain the departments of study already established, and to found professional schools to meet the growing demands of a struggling and rising people.

These must come, or the best results of the labor already done, and the money already expended, will not be attained.

Mother and Daughter Gone.—Memorial Services at Fisk University.

The Sabbath services at this Institution, Oct. 24th, were hallowed by the touching and appropriate tributes to the memory of Mrs. Elizabeth Spence, mother of Prof. A. K. Spence, and of her daughter, Mrs. Julia Spence Chase, wife of Prof. F. A. Chase. Mrs. Spence had been boarding in the Institution four years, spending her last days with her children. She possessed a mind of unusual strength and vigor, and was somewhat distinguished as an author. Only a few days before her death, when eighty-three years of age, she composed a poem on the occasion of the Nashville Centennial Exposition, which was published. This mother of missionaries was born in Scotland, and in her girlhood was made familiar with the missionary endeavors of the London Missionary Society through an auxiliary which held its regular meetings at her mother’s house. She was a woman of much prayer, great faith and a sweet and beautiful charity.

Just eleven weeks from the day Mrs. Spence died, writes Miss Henrietta Matson, of Fisk University, Mrs. Chase followed her mother to the fairer country above. Her death was sudden, and a heavy blow to her sorely stricken family. She died on Kelley’s Island, Lake Erie, where the family had gone for summer rest. Mrs. Chase, with her husband, had been in Fisk University eight years; a part of the time in the earlier years had been an instructor, particularly in music, in which she was especially gifted and accomplished.

Her death was peaceful and beautiful. She sent loving messages to all her friends, to the teachers and especially to the students, whom she loved and for whom she had labored. With perfect calmness she bade each of her dear ones good-bye, and then passed from their sight, leaning upon the strong arm, and catching glimpses of the glory beyond, even while treading the dark valley.

At her own request, her remains were brought to Nashville, her heart seeming to turn to the very last to those with whom she had been associated, and to the people for whom she had labored. So we laid her to rest till the resurrection morn on the beautiful hillside, with southern skies bending above her, and not far from the earthly home of her own dear ones.

The message brought to us who remain, in the death of those who have been of us is, “The night cometh, when no man can work.”