THE FREEDMEN.

REV. JOSEPH E. ROY, D.D., Field Superintendent, Atlanta, Ga.

TENNESSEE.

INTERESTING EXERCISE IN FISK UNIVERSITY.

By Rev. H. S. Bennett, Nashville.

The first Friday night of the term we listened to reports from those of the students who had taught school during the vacation. It was expected that those who spoke would give as correct an idea as possible of the colored people, their interest in education, the condition of the crops, whether the people were getting possession of land, and all other items of interest relating to their work.

President Cravath read a letter from a county superintendent in Mississippi, who bore the strongest testimony to the honesty, morality and efficiency of the teachers who had gone out from Fisk University.

Mr. Mitchell, a new student, had taught in one neighborhood for two years, in De Soto, Miss. He had succeeded in building up a successful Sunday-school. He had in his school about 150 pupils and three assistant teachers. The citizens encouraged the education of the colored people and took great interest in his school.

Miss Murray had taught in Mississippi for five months. The people were very poor and the children were poorly clad. She taught in the Sunday-school very successfully; she did not think that the people had bought much land, but they had stock and wagons.

Geo. McLelland did not wish to exaggerate, but desired to tell the truth. He taught just above Vicksburg, Miss.; here there is little civilization. In their homes, the large majority of the people are virtually slaves; they pay $9 per acre, or 90 pounds of lint cotton for their lands; they raise nothing but cotton and corn, and often come out in debt; they buy their goods at the store on account, on fall time. In most cases last year they came out behind; in this condition they must give a lien on the next year’s work; some do better than this, but the majority are in this wretched condition. Government land is sold at 25 cents per acre, but the colored people do not buy it to any extent; this year they have done something of this, and have secured forty acres of good land. Saturday night the people go to the store and drink up an acre of government land at the rate of 25 cents a glass.

One church represents all. They worship in a very blind, ignorant, superstitious way. In the church he attended two out of five could read a little. One elder, in telling how we were to get to Heaven, said that after we were dead we must first go to hell and search all around, and if we did not find our names there we were to go to Heaven.

D. Donnel taught in southwestern Arkansas. He had much opposition, but he had, by persevering, found out that there was “a little man in him.” The people are getting homes and becoming owners of land. They had never been aroused before. They were all religious, but they all drank whisky, from the least to the greatest.

The white people did not believe in getting a good teacher from abroad, because he carried the money out of the country.

Queenie V. Moore taught in Illinois and had high ideas of the colored people, but she found them not nearly so well off as the colored people of the South. The young people spent their time near the taverns, smoking and drinking. She had a model school-house, which was also used as a church. The people were from all the Southern States. She tried to inspire the young people with a higher purpose than to wear fine dresses or smoke cigars, and succeeded in getting them into Sunday-school. The white people were very cordial and friendly.

Prof. J. D. Burrus tried to look upon the bright side at Murfreesboro, where he visited, and was surprised to find the colored people so prosperous in getting farms, houses and in educating their children. One man had paid $1,100 for his house and $1,100 for his shop. Within a radius of a few miles he counted up 30 families that owned their own homesteads.

H. C. Gray taught in Texas; was Superintendent of the Sunday-school. He had studied the land system of Texas. A man buys a piece of land and pays a little down and 10 per cent. interest on the notes. Many of them are in debt. The school law is such that each child may ask the judge to set aside his pro-rata for him to go to school upon, so that each child gets his chance to be educated.

GEORGIA.

STORRS SCHOOL.

By Miss Amy Williams, Atlanta.

During the summer the city of Atlanta erected a beautiful eight room colored school building not more than sixty rods from the Storrs School. We all said, surely the number attending our school will be greatly diminished by this new free school; consequently, only four teachers were summoned to be on the ground ready for the opening of school on September 5; but as 280 pupils filed into the school building, we saw that we had underestimated the force needed, and our fifth teacher was called in, and before the expiration of two weeks the sixth one was installed in her old place, and we are now hard at work with 350 pupils enrolled, and new ones are being admitted almost every day.

This new colored school, which we can see so plainly from our home, is a constant inspiration for us to work on with new courage, for its eight faithful teachers, with one exception, have been first trained at Storrs School and afterward at Atlanta University.

This good work loses none of its fascination for us; we only mourn that time and strength are not given us to accomplish more.

Mr. Kent, our new pastor, comes with perfect health, and is brim-full of enthusiasm and earnest desire to do the people good. His earnestness, supplemented by the experience and good judgment of Miss Stevenson, the city missionary, must tell upon the church and people generally.

MISSISSIPPI.

DEDICATION OF STRIEBY HALL.

By Mrs. M. E. H. Pope, Tougaloo.

Thanksgiving Day, 1881.

One year ago to-day we gathered in the old chapel of Washington Hall to recount the mercies of the year which God had crowned with goodness.

How little did we anticipate the changes which one year more would bring to us. We were trying to make the best of the (dis) comforts and (in) conveniences of the old building; but it could not hold half of the young men, and it seemed to us that the old rooms over the shop and wood-house, and the temporary barracks, had served their day and generation, and we needed—yes, there was no doubt of it—we needed a new building. We asked the Lord for one, and the beginning of the answer to our prayer was the sweeping away by the flames, in one short hour, of our main school building, which included chapel and boys’ dormitories. But, though cast down, we were not destroyed utterly, for we had a large new barn, out of which we turned the cattle; dubbed it “Ayrshire Hall,” and moved in. We were sure the Lord Jesus would not forget that His birthplace was a manger, and would glorify this refuge with His presence; and so He did.

Our numbers were larger than ever, and it was a wonder to us sometimes where they were all stowed away; but we were always able to find a place for “one more,” and so the year went on and ended. The boarding hall had been enlarged during the last half of the year by the addition of a wing and another story, so it could accommodate more than twice as many girls as before. And now followed a busy summer, during which the boarding hall was finished off and a substantial three story brick building erected. A good many buildings have been put up at various places by legacies and named for the dead, but we thought it right to give honor to the living as well, and by request of the Faculty, the Executive Committee voted to name this building after the Association’s representative man, Dr. M. E. Strieby. And so a tablet over the main entrance bears the words “Strieby Hall.” The work upon this building has been entirely done by colored men, except a few days work by the traditional “plumber.”

To-day we met to keep our Thanksgiving feast and to dedicate this building to the cause of Christian education. Oh, such gladness and thankfulness as filled our hearts, and was voiced by the choir in the opening anthem, “Praise the Lord!” After the opening exercises voluntary expressions of thanksgiving were called for. Mr. Hartsfield, our head carpenter, said he could not help comparing the present with twenty-five years ago, when he little dreamed of ever participating in such exercises as these, and said his heart was so full of thankfulness he could not express it. Others spoke of their gratitude for the blessings of the year and of this day. Mr. H. W. Hubbard, our genial Treasurer, who was with us, told the young people where the money to furnish them these advantages comes from.

An address was then delivered by Rev. B. A. Imes, of Memphis, which will be long remembered by us all, but especially by our students, to whom it has already proved a real inspiration. Dr. Roy followed in a wonderfully appropriate dedicatory prayer.

The day seemed all too short to express the joy and thanksgiving that filled our hearts. Truly He has brought “the blind by a way that they knew not.” We finished up the day with a lecture at night from Dr. Roy, who always has something good for us.

Our new building has, besides chapel and recitation rooms, family rooms now occupied by Prof. Hatch and wife, who have charge of the young men, and dormitories for sixty-eight young men.

And what will you say when I tell you that there are seventy-five here now, with a prospect for a much larger number after the holidays?

WORK IN THE SOUTH.

During my visit North last summer a friend asked: “Haven’t you had enough of life and work in the South? Aren’t you ready to come back and take hold of the Home Missionary work again?” The friend looked so incredulous at my expressions of satisfaction, and even of desire to get back into the work again as soon as the extreme heat was over, it occurs to me that a little glimpse of the past few days of life and labor in this especial corner of the great field might convince a good many that the work is not only very hopeful, but also exceedingly interesting. Previous to my restful vacation North, I had not been able to visit our people in their homes, but now, with renewed strength, I ventured a long, rough walk, leaning on my husband’s arm, to the home of one of our women, who was very sick. Down a steep, long hill, over deep ravines worn by swift-running brooks, with slender poles thrown over to serve for bridges, up the long hill beyond, and we had reached the little house where the sick one lay. We cheered her as best we could with sympathy and comforting words, spreading out the little delicacies we had brought to tempt her appetite, admired the new baby, and won the hearts of the other little people standing shyly back with the gingersnaps we had brought for their special comfort.

Just as we were leaving we noticed a young girl crouching near the door. “My sister Mag,” said the sick one. We shook hands cordially, said a few pleasant words to her, then came back to our home tired, so very tired, that the rest of that day and the next, which was the Sabbath, was full of weariness and pain.

Did it pay? Yes, a hundred-fold! Early Monday morning there was a tap at the door, and there stood “Mag,” neatly dressed, with a smiling face, and a basket of vegetables for me. It flashed instantly over my mind what I had heard concerning her. She had once been a Christian, was still a member of our little church, but for a long time past had seemed possessed with every evil spirit of sin and mischief that could possibly find lodgment in her heart. Nothing could induce her to set her foot inside the church door. She invariably vanished whenever the minister tried to see her, and she had long ago been given up as an utterly hopeless case.

With a swift thought of prayer to Heaven for wisdom, I greeted her most cordially, made her feel quite at ease, then led her on carefully step by step, until, before she knew it, she was actually confessing her sins to me, and I was talking kindly but most faithfully to her. Still she stayed on, with a wistful look in her eyes, and the thought came: “God surely sent her to me! I’ll do all I can for her!”

Rising suddenly I closed the door, went directly to her and said, “Mag, I want to pray with you.” I put my arm around her, drew her to her knees beside me, and poured out my whole soul in prayer for that poor child of sin.

When we rose from our knees her eyes were tender and full of tears. She clasped my hand tightly for a moment and was gone.

I sought out other homes that very day, where God permitted me to carry little gleams of comfort and strength to sad hearts.

Yesterday was the Sabbath. At four o’clock a white flag was fluttering at our gate. Five minutes after, fifty young people and children suddenly appeared, as if by magic, from the lovely grove near by, and came pouring into my largest room, filling every chair and bench, finally taking seats on the floor in the small space left about my chair. They were such a bright, eager looking company—at least a third of them young men and young ladies, ranging down to half a dozen little fellows at my feet.

How I blessed the Master for the gift of story-telling when I saw the eager faces, the almost breathless interest with which every one, from the oldest down to the least of all, listened to me as I carefully blended story and lesson with all the grace and power I possessed, until I had the joy of seeing the bright eyes grow tender and moist, and knew the dear Saviour was with us, laying big hands in blessing upon us all. Then all stood with bowed heads while I commended them to God’s mercy and loving care in an earnest petition in which all could join. After this, I sat down to the organ—a poor, wheezy little thing—which is, nevertheless, a great comfort and help. They gathered close about me while we sang together a beautiful new song, then went quietly away to their homes.

To-day the little white flag again fluttered at the gate, and one by one, or in little groups, the mothers came. I knew how tired they would be, what effort it must cost them to leave their work on Monday, to come to a meeting like this; so all day I had been asking the Lord for some specially helpful, comforting message for them. It would be simply impossible to describe the tender spirit that brooded over us. The Saviour was so manifestly with us that the room seemed the very gate of Heaven.

The Scripture lesson I had chosen grew so, unfolded itself with such hidden strength and sweetness, it was like a new revelation. The prayers that followed were wonderful to hear, coming as some of them did from lips untutored, ignorant in book lore, but wise in the hidden wisdom taught them by God himself. Beautiful prayers, full of deep feeling, of humble confession, of earnest pleading.

There were two strangers with us for the first time, who knelt with us in prayer, and manifested the deepest interest in all that was said. After the meeting there were hearty handshakings, kindly greetings to the new comers, who promised to come again; then they went away with shining faces, with hearts uplifted and strengthened for their hard, toilsome life.

Alone in the twilight, I returned thanks from a full heart to the dear Lord, who had honored our little gathering with His presence and blessing.

Does it pay? Yes, a thousand-fold!