The Portland daily press., 1866-12-11

the new building. felt that l could not be
idle. and knew there were children enough ior
more schools could they be gathered H. ooa
vestry was engaged Tor me III the colored M. II.
church and went out into the lane ana alleys
Of the CITY, where collected sufficient num-
har of children for school. If | should say
felt the courage all oozing from my fingers
ends it would Ill express the real state of my
lAind as 1 first entered that low dark room, with
but one window for light and air, and on look
ing toward that perceived board fence so near
and SO high that L could see the sky only by
pressing my face against the glass and looking
directly up. l felt sense OF suffocation and
thought of the open ward at Chimhorazo where
/ taught last year, and where we had supply
of Gods free air, if it biting cold some
times. l told the children to be seated, then
commenced repeating, Let not your heart be
troubled; but the choking in my throat COM
PEELED me to make so long pauses that the pu-
pills looked at each other with significance
which said, 81 reckon she's done forgot it..
However the idea of good cry was dispelled
| by turning round to find the cause of repeated
| sharp punctures on my arm. and catching bit
| of ebony, Dan by name, in the act of sticking
pin into me- while another fellow of like mate
| rial, who called himself Bob, had inserted the
tassel of my cape into his nostrils, and was
showing the boys his moustache Enough OF
| this first day in school. 1 soon succeeded in
| reducing them to law and order, and now have
| nothing of which to complain but lack of oxy-
gen, for YOU will agree with me that teacher
should possess large amount of endurance, to
stay in room fourteen feet by sixteen with
eight feet from floor to ceiling and but one
window, where forty living breathing colored
children are congregated.
| We have all felt the need of a normal depart
ment of the schools in Richmond; for if ever
| this people become self-educating, it must be
| by taking those most promising, and training
| them for the especial work of teachers; and
we must have a school building for that de-
partment Mr.. Manley, State Superintendent
of the Freedmen's Bureau, has the refusal of
| lot at avery reasonable rate, near the Home
and has had plan of the building made, esti-
| mating the cost at $4,000. The Freedmen's
Bureau will give $1,000. The Central Union
Commission will give ~ 800. Now with one
| thousand the building can go up. week or
two since, 1 saw Mr.. Manley looking toward the
lot designed for the school, and he turned away
sadly saying, 1--WE must give itup!"
1 asked why. He said, 'For wantof thous
and dollars" 1T must not be abandoned" l
replied 1 then told him L could go to the
State of Maine, tell them a simple, truthful
story of life among the freedmen, and get the
money. After talking the matter over, Mr. Man
lev wrote to Mr.. Kennedy of New York, who
replied, that l should be commissioned to go to
Maine, and secure the money. There is
teacher here as avisitor who will take charge
of my school in my absence. l am hoping the
Portland Association will appropriate sOme-
thing for this object. / firmly believe it
would be better to send one less teacher than
to let this plan of a normal school be failure
Oh think what monument to the SUI ccess of
Federal arms, to the triumph and spread of
Republican principles, normal school for col
cred persons would be, offering advantages for
intellectual culture equal to any offered to the
whites, and this in the Confederate capital
On the day when I can see the building COM
pleted and standing in its pride, famed by the
same breezessthat softly kiss the graves of our
martyred dead, just across the river, at Belle
Isle, in that day shall receive sweet revenge
on these people, who slowly and cruelty tor
tured to death, in one of their prison dens, the
brother dearer to me than my own life.
MERCIE N. BAKER