The weekly Oskaloosa herald. [volume] (Oskaloosa, Iowa) 1855-1885, 1874-12-10
EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED BY Z. @. TABER.
COLORED HIGH SCHOOLS AT HAIR.
PER'S FERRY.

This institution owes its origin, inciden-
tally, to old John Brown. During the
war that followed his famous raid, the
United States arsenals and armories were
completely demolished, aul st the conclu-
sion the government donated the public
lots and officers houses still standing on
Camp Hill to found school for the edu
cation of the recently emancipated race
The late John Storer, of Maine, aided the
enterprise by the endowment of ten thou
sand dollars, and in 1868, it was char
tered by the Legislature of West Virgin
ia with the title of ''Storer College"
The property comprises five buildings
containing about eighty good rooms, oc-
cupied by the teachers and families, and
a considerable number of students who
lodge and live there. One building con-
tains ample recitation-rooms, the library,
reading-room, and chapel The localityis is
eminently healthful, and one Of the most
beautiful that can be imagined. From
the rounded SUBMITS of those breezy
bluffs that overlook the town of Harpers
Ferry we may see the crystal waters of
the Shenandoah sparkling for miles
through its deep and rocky gorge, and just
below, where they meet and mingle with
those of the Potomac, We may see, from
point midway between base and sum-
NIT, the tremendous gateway through
which the married rivers, now one stream
forever and indissoluble, hurry down to
tho u thn folo ~
Here the professors and teachers are
whites; and the Principal, Rev. n c.
Bracket, is universally esteemed through
out the district for high personal charac-
ter, as well as the tact, patience, and abil-
ity with which he fulfills his difficult and
responsible mission.
1t requires three years to complete the
collegiate course, and the curriculum is
substantially the same as the village
schools-reading, writing and arithmetic
forming the basis of the studies from
first to last, varied with some preliminary
glimpses at history, geography, and po-
litical economy, literary composition, and
defamation, and finally instructions in
the art of teaching. And here we can
not fail to commend the sincere good
sense exhibited in the arrangement of
this course, which offers to the needy
freeman only the substantial necessaries
of education, without undertaking to daz-
| zle and delude him with its luxuries, van
tiles, and pretenses, which have for SO
many years emasculated and discredited
the educational system of this country.
In pursuance of the same idea, the ex-
penses of schooling at Harpers Ferry
have been reduced to the lowest practical
figures, costing for tuition and living
about twelve dollars per month, all told,
and sometimes less to those who board
themselves. To this end facilities are
furnished students for doing their own
washing and cooking, and in this way the
annual cost of living Clothing excepted)
ranges from fifty to one hundred dollaas.
We have the example of man and
wife who supported themselves respecta
bly, for school year of nine months on
eighty-one dollars and seventy-fve cents
the greater part having been earned by
manual labor during the term, and with
out losing single day from the school,
Is is so common for married couples to
apply for admission to the school that a
building has been set apart for their es-
pecial accommodation Parents and
children used frequently to come togeth-
er, and stand up side by side in the same
class, but the rising generation so far out
stripped their ancestors that the old folks
became ashamed Of themselves, and gave
it up, or, out Of pure flial respect, were
forced by their children to retire from the
unequal contest Harper's Magazine