Morning journal and courier., 1885-02-18

olson puts in a year at the university.
Next year Mathis will be here and Nichol-
son will superintend the school. They got
twenty colored churches in the county to
pledge five cents head for each member
once in three months, and deacons were
chosen who are financially responsible for
this amount. In the course of one year these
boys had to show for the money thus col
lected: Thirty acres of ground free of debt;
school house 4Ox7O feet in dimensions, with
wing 16x20 feet, also free of debt; and a
girls dormitory, two stories high, accommo-
dating sixty girls, also free Of debt. This
dormitory is for the convenience of girls liv-
ing several miles away, and in it the girls
board themselves and learn all branches of
domestic service under the superintendence
of lady teacher.
The southern States only provide three
months schooling per annum rule, and
that in the enervating summer months.
The boys established an eight months school,
with vacation during the summer months,
so that their pupils might still learn if they
wished, and they might themselves teach
during the time that their private school was
closed.
The first year closed with an attendance of
300 pupils. There this year over 400
pupils, five teachers, and the prospect of a
large dormitory for boys before snow flies
next fall
The school was purposely located in the
country. The colored people are enthusiastic
in the matter of education and gave their
time for nothing when the buildings were
put up. Every Thursday afternoon the
school closes at 2 o'clock instead of 4 and the
remaining two hours are devoted to grading
the grounds, laying out drives or walks, dig
ging up stumps, cleaning and shaping some
springs in front of the buildings and culti-
waiting the large gardens back of the girls
dorrnitory. Then there are prayer meet
ings, a Sunday evening sacred con-
cert and praise service by the Sun
day school, temperance bands, debating So
cieties, ETC., innumerable connected with the
enterprise. I cannot begin to mention all
the branches of good which have been insti-
tuted by the boys; but these branches are
organized by nearly all of the two hundred
university students who go out each summer
to teach. I snail not soon forget how Mich
olsons face glowed when he said to me:
''Oh, it makes me SO proud to see our chill
dren reading and writing when even the
whites about us can't as a rule do either"
The scholars only have to pay fifteen cents
per month, SO that this private school is more
of a free school than great many of the State
schools in the South. The colored people of
the county are thoroughly in sympathy with
the school, and flock to it en- masse on exhi-
bition days. Recently ION the first day of
january a collection of over $3.50 was taken
up during the customary Emancipation
celebration, as thank offer
ing to further the work of
the school. The boys are now paying for
joint farm of 100 acres in the vicinity of the
school.
Who will limit the good which
these two penniless-and you would
say ignorant-young negro of TWEEN
ty years have thus accomplished in a
humble ways Perhaps, oh contemptuous
young man of the North, even you, with all
yf,11 oh md
superior advantages, have not done very
much greater work in your sphere. And all
this work would not have come to the sur
face if had not accidentally discovered it,
and probed till got detailed account of
it.
And who shall limit the good of parent
school like Atlanta university, two of the
200 pupils of which do such a work in an
obscure country place?
It is not true that Nicholson and Mathis
are exceptions, save in that they have had
special success in reaching visible results.
cannot conceive of anybodys welding
more influence then that welded by these
black young men and women who go forth
each summer into communities where they
have and usually exercise the power of up
lifting nearly everybody in the place.
Take girl here named Annie Waite. for
instance, who, despite obstacles that seem
insurmountable, is duplicating the work of
class of colored girls that need to be repressed
rather than stimulated in the work of self
improvement. Again and again has she
had to succumb to complete exhaustion on
account of overwork, and lay off for weeks
and months together. She studied herself
blind, and had to go to Boston for an optical
operation. Overtaken by illness she had to
leave the cars at Amherst, Mass, and was
there cared for by kind strangers for months
The operation on her eyes was partially sue
eessful and she can now see, although forced
to wear neutral-tinct glasses all the time. |
But twice since her return from Boston she |
had to give up again, and now she is laid by |
for the rest of the school year.
But the indomitable girl has cemented the |
Baptists and Methodists in her native town |
usually difficult task, and, with such aid
as she can get from few Boston friends, is
trying to put up buildings for the $50 pupils
whom she has got together in churches. Ths |
ground and the lumber already bought,
and she has ninety dollars on hand.
Think of that, you stroug, clear-visioned, |
aristocratic girls of the North and if you are |
not situated so to do like work your |
selves, organize society to help her pecun- |
other girls like, of whom there |
are plenty.
In conclusion let me plead for the educa- |
ton of eolored girls in cookery, sewing, and |
al the branches of domestic service. These |
young negro teachers have discovered the de- |
plorable need of female training in such |
practical departments, as the complement of |
regular industrial training for the boys. |
This is the one direction in which Atlanta uni |
versity ought to branch out next; and would |
but for the lack of funds, for the faculty |
recognize thoroughly the value of this kind |
Of instruction. The cottage system" fur |
nishes the desideratum in this line; system |
Of caring for girls in colonies in cottages, |
by matrons. By this system |
every girl attains a knowledge of practical |
nousework along with her normal or classical |
course of study. Since the abolition of sla-
very, has become almost lost art in the !
South. Some girls know how to fry things |
n grease, but the real art of cookery is little |
known or cultivated. Educators who now |
nave time to pause and survey the progress |
IF the two decades of southern work realize |
hat the greatest meet left unmet in the edu- |
,ation of the blacks to-day is in the direction |
If domestic training for the girls. A hint to |
nh iS SufficiaDt