Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-07-14
Reed,s eil.Edge TOnio pr0Yents maIarla
E,lucatiou An the south.

Washington Cor. New YORK IriDune.I
The University Of Virginia is an
institution worthy of the interest Of
cultivated and public spirited men
everywhere, north as well as south.
It is doing excellent work. Many Of
its students are poor, and are strug
Cling hard, with painfully limited
means, to acquire an education. 1t
greatly needs additional endowment.
/ have obtained by personal investi
CATION the KNOWLEDGE of several cases
of remarkable self-denial, Of heroic
endurance Of hardship among the
students of this university, and of
other institutions in the Southern
States. They are precisely such as
we're familiar in so many New Eng
land country towns in the old times
when the people in New England
country towns were poor, and boy
starved, and the whole family starved,
that he might 90 to college. While
visiting the colleges in Mississippi, in
Texas, in Alabama, North Carolina
and Virginia, | have been constantly
reminded of Horace Mann, and have
thought everywhere of the happy en-
thusiasm be would feel if he we're
alive to-day and could see what | have
seen of the work OF education in the
South. | do not wish, by naming the
University Of Virginia, to convey the
impression that other institutions in
the South are not worthy of sympathy
aud confidence. La all the other
States which | have visited excellent
work is being done, and the colleges
and universities, though sadly crippled
for want of means, are still everywhere
centers Of light OF wholesome vivify-
ing culture. Whatever "BourbOnism"
there may be in the South in other
things, / cannot find any of it in the
work or instruction Of Southern
schools and colleges. bourbon, by
the way, is a much used word through
out the South; it always means here
anybody that differs from you-any-
body that you dislike. 1t is a term OF
political reprosch which people Of all
parties and opinions apply to their
opponents.
EDUCATION OF WOMEN.
The female seminaries, or boarding
schools for young women are doing
good work throughout the South. The
one at Staunton, Va, is a good type oil
the class. / should like TO describe q
visit to this school, but what is best
about it is in SO great degree Of q
personal and domestic nature that
cannot speak of it very fully. But the
school, like several others which ]
have recently visited in different
Southern States, is the life work OF a
good woman, and everything about i
is pervaded and inspired by her per
sonal qualities. The education which
is given in these seminsries seems I
little old fashioned to a New England
man, little more feminine than il
given TO the daughters of the North
but it may be none the worse for that
| Certainly the spirit Of the pupils seem
every where remarkably wholesome
and satisfactory, as a visitor is some
times privileged to see when in tn
great hall with the whole school. Ii
several Of these schools | have observ
| ed that the rules forbid novel reading
during the term. Many changes ar
going en- in the South, and more vii
come in q few years; changes in th
education Of girls, and ia populs
taste and sentiment regarding tn
position, culture and work of women
Some things which the South ha
brought down from a former time ar
good, and it is to be hoped the south
ern people will not be in haste to re
linauish them.