Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1869-09-24
TOT I
The University.

at Chapel Hill You, Mr.. Editor, as all
admirer Of the University, and it may be
somo Of your readera alBo, may be inter
ested in learning what [ saw ana heard
there. 1t was Just after the correspond
ence between Gov Holden and Mr. Pool
had appeared in the STANDARD D.; and az
Mr.. POOLS statement was very unlike what
/ had learned from other quarters about
the University, was curious to ascertain
what the facts are.
| The village looks gloomy enough. There
ia almost no business done there The
people seem grieved and detected and
| learned that many OF them would gladly
remove to other more pr oaperona places, if
they had money enough to get away with.
They spoke freely enough about the man.
agement of the College, some very anxious
to have it prosper, yet look for no pros
perity till the existing order of things is
changed. They seem not to have the
respect for the present Faculty which, as
neighbors, one would think they would
have.
| heard n GOOD many of them speak
abont the correspondence that have men
toned. They said that it was a cores
pondence across Gov. Holden's office-ta-
bic, and that Mr.. Pool invited it-as in
deed it would eeem-to give him q chance
"to splurge q little. They said. 40 l had
supposed the truth was, that the question
of the Governor was carefully wordetl, 80
that the answer might be, perhaps, true in
the letter and yet convey very untrue
impression. They roared with laughter
when suggested that possibly "fifty-two'
students had been at tho College since
March. 1t does not seem to be quito the
thing to speak in such terms of q grave
correspondence between the Governor of
North Carolina and the President of the
University, and one deliberately published
ty them for the information Of The public
yet some called it IL "grOss misrepresenta-
ton -; some said it was "a deception -;
some pronounced it SHOWING a fraudu-
lent purpose %; some, bluntly, "a fraud -;
and more than once / heard it styled, |
without any epithet, SIS lie."
Then | enquired what the facts were
about tho actual number of students there. |
am not concerned to reconcile Mr.. POOLS
statement with the facts but what l now
send you are the facts in the case and
nothing else. Ii the President does not
like what is declared here, let him only
tell us the truth az it is, and shall be sat !
isfied.
The whole number in attendance at the |
Institution, which is styled the Universe
ty, the first week in September, was TWEEN
| ty three. Two who were there in the first
session have left the school,, so that the |
whole number for the year is about twon- !
y-five.' Ii the list were stretched to the !
utmost it would be found that the lads /
who have actually received instruction
there, including every kind of study, and !
for any shortness of time, do not amount /
to thirty. How then does Mr.. Pool count |
tifty-two? No doubt by counting all
% who have applied for the benefits OF the |
Institution y" /. G. all whom he had talked
with about Joining, or who have written to
! hin. to make enquiries abOnt it, These
would easily make up the fifty two. |
For be it known that he haa ran
sacked the village ara! tho country for
! five to ten miles around, and urged ''the
bcnetita of the Institution" on all whom
he thought ignorant enough to receive,
! and poor enough to accept them. In this
/ way he has gotten in a dozen. Those
who rejected the offer may be understood,
with little atraining. to have applied.
In the number he has sought i'll this way
to enrol, l am told, are boys who can
barely road, and one at least hardly ten
years old They. however. might be
co,mted. Or he may have listed those
simply about whom some one has written
him. Even so he could perhaps make out
fifty two. 1t may be wonder to him why
of those who applied for the benefits of
the Institution" so few came to enjoy
them One reason. doubtless, is that some
waggish fellows at Chapel Hill have
amused themselves by writing him as
from abroad three letters of inquiry. 1t
was certainly Il sorry jest, but tho fact
solves that doubt.
But of the twenty three who did come,
what sort of College do they make p
Three of them arc ranked" as Sophie |
mores and four as Freshmen. The whole
number of his pupils, whom Mr.. Pool con-
siders fit to be Gin College" is then just |
seven, and this is all that in any just way !
of reckoning the University OF North
Carolina amounts to. Not Utty-ttoo, but
seren. OF the rest four are called there
Sub Fresh The peculiar thing about
this new class is that they are beginning
Latin Grammar. No one Of the tour ex-
poets ever ito Join College," The dozen
that arc left are called 'Preps," why
cannot imagine. They are not 'pre-
pairing for College" arc in the commonest
English branches some far enough ad
vanced in arithmetic to be ''going into
Emerson's Second Part ;" hardly any even
dreaming OF ever getting on so far as TO
"begin Latin" Many of these youths
are only, rs the people there call it, "bor-
rowed," that is, taken in the school Ito
COUNT for a few weeks, orlt may be months,
till they are needed On the farm again.
Sundry of thom, l was told, intend to quit
as soon as the fodcler is ready to be picked. |
SO you will sec what was once College is |
now only ''a common school," Were |
there any township schools in operation in
Chapel Hill the most of these University |
bows would of course 60 to them. That is
the proper place for them.
My visit was sad enough 1t was grievous
to find the University sunken to the level
of can old-feld school," We used to hear
men talk of raising the standard of
scholarship" What shall We say of the
President who has thus deliberately de-
| <o.orIod 80 of the TTniveraitv that Won