Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va) 1886-1890, 1890-01-21
q HIGHER EDUCATION.
Address Of bishop Joyce at the opera
House.

Address CT bishop Joyce at the Opera
House.
The opera house last Sunday
night was filed to overflowing with a
deeply interested audience, assembled
there to listen to addresses from
Bishop j. w. Joyce, Of Chattanooga,
and Rev. DR.. j. G. Spence. Chancellor
of Grant university, on the subject Of
"Higher Education, +" the object of the
speakers being to induce our citizens
to aid the Methodist Episcopal church
in erecting a seminary on the lot in
Lewis addition belonging to the
church.
After singing by the choir, and a
prayer by the Bishop, the latter said
great interest is now manifested every
where in higher education. The state
goes to q certain point in educating
the people, and beyond that the peo-
pie must help themselves by sending
their children to schools and colleges.
Some years since the idea was con-
ceived, and that idea has been fol-
lowed up by the building of Grant
university at Chattanooga, and Is
colleges and seminaries in various
portions of the south with aD attend.
ance of 1000 students. The best OF
teachers were employed ct these in
situations. but Chancellor Spence, OF
Grant university, had spent twenty
five years in such work in this section
and was in thorough sympathy with
Il t1,air educational nd-
vancement.
Chancellor Spencer said five years
ago he visited Roanoke and he was
astonished at her progress, which he
believed would continue until she
would be the great central eity of the
great state of Virginia. The great
Catholic church had made wonder
full bound in the cause Of christianity,
and in order to keep up with that
church it was necessary for all the
Protestant denominations to stand to-
gether. The South was eminently
protestant because the purest native
American, and the time might come
when the North would have to appeal
to the South to aid her In putting
down the anarchical tendencies al
ready taking root there. Higher edu-
cation, he said makes leadership; the
cultured brain leads, and the quality
of the brain in the South is as good as
that of any country in the world. The
leading men all over the South are
demanding a higher education and
they will not be satisfied until the
public school system OF this section is
eqnal to if not better than that of the
North. At first the progress was slow;
but we are gaining all the time;
twenty-five years ago We were the
poorest people in the world but it is
changed now. In the past three years
over $500, 100000 of capital had been
inyt sted in this section. General Grant
was the first cash donator to Grant
University, and tears came into his
eyes when he spoke Of christian edu-
cation in the South.
In connection with the university
there are to be fifteen seminaries, two
in north Georgia, two in north Ala
bama, two in western North Carolina,
two in middle Tennessee, six in east
Tennessee and one in Roanoke.
The seminaries gave the students
three years preparatory work, after
which they could enter the UNIVERSE
ty in the freshman class. The object
of the school system is to educate the
brightest boys and fit them as lead
ers. The public schools are feeders
to the higher SCHOOLS. The great
river will not flow without springs
and smaller streams. The seminary
it was proposed to build in the Lewis
addition would educate $50 students
annually. These would spend thirty
thousand or more dollars every
year in the city. Co-education
would be the plan; the seminary
would be open to boys and girls.
The speaker then read statistics
showing the great increase of scholars
and schools in the south, after which
Bishop Joyce delivered q speech full
of facts and figures of southern adj
vancement and educational progress.
He said 16S. 200, 900 came into the states
south of the Ohio in 1883, and he be-
lieved when the financial history of
1889 is written it will show that ESQ.,
O00, 600 came here that year. His ar
gument in behalf of higher education
was fine one, and his plea for and in
the erection of college here was ir-
resistible.
Prof. Graybill at the conclusion of
the Bishops speech made as neat a
little speech as was ever delivered in
the opera house, approving the work
the Bishop and Chancellor were en-
gagged in, and wishing them God