Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-06-22
TOPICS FROM TALLAHASSEE.
commencement of the West Florida
Seminary and Other Notes.


TALLAHASSEE, June 19.-The season of
commencements Is upon us, and our
teachers and pupils are rejoicing at the
prospect of long summer vacation. Our
public schools closed little over month
ago. Some two weeks since the East
Florida Seminary, at Gainesville, held its
annual commencement, and the proceed
ings were heralded forth through that
portion of the State by the local press.
And now the pleasing duty devolves on
me of informing your readers of the COM
mencement exercises of the West
Florida Seminary. This is a State
institution, literally endowed from
the proceeds of the sale of lands donated
by Congress. 1t is governed by a Board
! of Education composed of several mem.
bers who are appointed by the Governor
for term of two years and confirmed by
the Senate. These appOintees do not all
! reside IN Tallahassee, but are from differ
ent sections of Middle and West Florida.
no less than five counties being repre-
| Sented in the board of seven members. In
| the act organizing the Seminary, each
county west of the Suwanee is
entitled to send such number of
beneticiaries as it may have members in
/
| cOrding to the ratio fixed by the Board of
| Education. AS this board has allowed
two such pupils for each member in the
! House, Leon county is entitled to eight
! beneficiaries, Wakulla two, and other
| counties in the same ratio. These benefi-
! ciaries receive their tuition free. 1t will
/ thus be seen that if every
| county west of the Suwannee avails
| itself of the privilege, fifty or more
| students can receive free instruction,
| This institution is now on a firm basis.
with an enlarged sphere of usefulness.
! Its curriculum of studies is extensive
and its competent instructors are
thorough in their methods of instruction.
| Its students who have entered college in
! other States have stood high, and not one
has ever been dismissed for lack of pre-
paration. Recently Miss Jennie Tatum,
of this city, graduated at the
! State Normal College in Nashville,
and George b. Glover at Emory Col
lege, Ga. Both were former pupils of
West Florida Seminary, and both took
high hOnOrs. For twentv-seVen years this
noble institution has been doing good
work, and numbers of our citizens now
filling prominent positions in life attest
the thOrOughness of instruction they
received in the halls of their alma mater.
On Wednesday, 18th, a large crowd had
assembled in Gallie's Hall to witness
the closing exercises of this cherished
institution. The people of Tallahassee
look with reverence and pride upon its
halls, for here many and most of them
have been taught the elements of that
knowledge that was to benefit them in
future life. Hence as the hour of 10 a. M
arrived the spacious hall was filled.
After prayer by Rev. IL. ii. Kennedy,
the accomplished President of the insti-
tuition, Mr.. K. r. Rivers made few felici-
arly inf tlo
first speaker. Then followed essays and
OratiOns, exercises in elOcutiOn and drill
by the cadets, interspersed with music by
the Tallahassee Brass Band. The eXer-
else in elocutiOn was unique. When the
curtain was raised there appeared on the
platform twenty of the cadets in their
bright uniforms and some eight or ten of
1.-The young ladies dressed in white The
President, after explaining the different
kinds of gestures and intOnatiOns of the
voice, then exercised his pupils therein,
thus exhibiting their great proficiency
and the painstaking of the teacher. The
manual of arms and bayOnet drill was
also a success. 1t seems that
a correspondent of the Times
Union, writing from Gainesville, re-
marked that the East Florida Seminary
was the only institution in the State
where the cadets were exercised in bayo-
net drill. Major Rivers remarked to the
audience that he had seen such a state
ment and that he had shown there was no
other school that practiced it. But as the
entire corps of cadets could not well go
through all the manRuYres for want of
space, after exercising the entire COM
pany he selected four and placed them on
the platform. There they went through
the entire bayOnet drill with a
precision that would have salts
ned the most eXacting martinez. And
When at It's conclusion the squad came to
"present arms" and the curtain was
rung down, the house shook with hearty
applause. The original oration of Cadet
Barnes, of jackson county, subject;
'SIempOrG nlUtdlt2tT, ct nos nlutdn11tr in
WiS," was both witty and we'll rendered.
and its appreciation was shown by the
number Of handsome bouquets thrown
him. After Cadet Barnes grafton, Hon.
Il. ii. M. Davidson was introduced to
the audience by Major Rivers, and
i'll an address abOunding in
rich thought and full of Interesting sta
tistics, he entertained his hearers as
only he could do. So impressed were
they with its beauties in rhetoric and
interesting facts that copy has been
solicited for publication, and it will prob
ably appear i'll our city paper. At the |
conclusion of Col. DavidsOn's address
Major Rivers announced that the Board
of Education had conferred the degree of
A. b. on Henry Noel Felkel, of Tallahas- |
see. Mr.. Felkel is Superintendent of
Public Instruction for Leon county, is a
ripe scholar, and the distinction confer |
red is well-merited one, and meets with
hearty approval in this community.
On Tuesday, the day before commence
ment, the Board of Education reelected |
the entire faculty, and, in addition, two |
others, so that now it has six chairs, to
wit: Mathematics and Civil Engineering:
Ancient Languages; English Literature |
and History; Political EcOnOmy Rotany |
and Chemistry, and Modern Languages. |
This institution now constitutes the |
literary departments of the Florida Uni |
Versity, and hencefOrth will offer superior
advantages to any i'll the State.
1t is natural for a community to pride |
itself on the good Ordep of its people, and |
for this reason some of our citizens are |
justly indignant in seeing telegrams to |
the Times Union of Jacksonville, and |
IineS-D Democrat, of New Orleans, repre- |
senting that murder had been commit |
ted in the streets of Tallahassee. The |
homicide was committed some twelve or !
fourteen miles from here, and, as was tel |
egraphed to the News, the party sscame |
in and delivered himself up to the Sheriff." |
Skipper, who killed Mcdaniel, was the |
father-in-law of the latter. He represent |
ed that he killed his sOn-in-law in |
self-defense, and that no one saw them.
The matter is now being investigated |
by the committing Magistrate, and it ap- |
pears that there were several persona |
who dia Witness the affair, and it is pos
sible these may tell different tale. The |
father of Mcdaniel is an old and highly |
respected citizen of this county, and was |
at one time a minister in the Methodist |
Protestant Church.
So far, we have had no case of small |