Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-06-30

phatlC, InereIOro Will lHtrouuCo tho
subject Of this letter by quoting from
statistics found in the office Of the state
school commissioner of Georgia, situated
in the capitol building in this city.
The total number OF children Of school
ages in Georgia is by the last census 70
port 560, ,2S1. OF these 900, ,3ss are white.
263,2S colored.
Not all of these children attend school,
but it is safe to say that fully 400, 900 do,
and that 10000 of these are colored
children.
The school fund that educates these
children in the public schools amounts
to $03S, ,656.05. 1t is raised by direct
taxation on the properties Of the popu-
lation and one-half of the rental OF
the Western and Atlantic railroad. That
half is only 100000.
The total value of the property of the
people Of tho state is $445, 100000. The
colored people own only $l4,000,000
worth of this property. Practically this
makes the white population educate the
colored.
The colored children receive their full
share of the school fund Of the state.
There Is no discrimination in this. The
color line is drawn only by keeping the
schools separate. By law of the state,
no teacher in any school can receive pay
from the state fund for his or her serv-
| ices if children of both races receive in
struction in his or her school. There
| fore it follows that there are white
teachers in tho white schools and col
| ored teachers in the colored schools.
| The Institutes or normal classes for
the improvement Of the teachers are
also kept separate. The teachers OF
| both races submit to the same examina-
tions, under the Same rules and regular
tions. They receive tho same grade OF
| licenses, and the pay pro rata Is the
same under the Same circumstances.
In Atlanta there are thirteen large
public school houses. -Four of these are
for the colored children, and they are as
well built and equipped in every respect
as those of the whites. The attendance
is not quite so large nor SO regular.
The curriculum of study Is the same,
and the colored children compare fairly
with the whites in scholarship consid-
ering their difference Of circumstances.
home surroundings and the fact that
most of them are wage workers for o
part of the day or part OF the year at
J least.
Just here will remark that the old
time picturesque and pathetic attitude
of the darky is q thing Of the past.
There is no more banjo playing, no more
fiddle and bow, no moro bones and tam
BOURNE, no moro corn songs or Congo
dances. The young southern darkies OF
both sexes bear on their personalities,
: outside of color, hair and facial peculi-
? arities, as close likeness to the white
American school and college boy and
girl as it is possible to acquire. The
dress, manners and department OF the
northern and northwestern boys and
girls whose parents have settled down
: hero since the war, but particularly tho
northern white teachers who were the
! pioneers in the field Of the negro's edu'
cation, are initiated with fidelity TINT
! is at once edifying, amusing and COM
> ical. They are sedate and correct In do
pertinent
BY far the most interesting OF the four
o higher institutions of learning estab-
lished for the colored people here In At
lanta is the Spelman seminary. It Is.
indeed, pleasing sight to sec nearly O
thousand young colored women and
e girls assembled in beautiful and well
eI equipped institution, passing along the
corridors and up and down the stair.
cases. Seated in their classrooms, recit'
e ing with fairly trained voices lessons
e that would be creditable to any class OF
e students; taking their meals In the
a great refectories, with table manners as
. correct us those of the girls of Vassar o,
:, Wellesley, and performing the work ol
u the kitchen and laundry and sewing
II room in way that gives evidence ol
ID good training and receptive minds.
d The cost of board and tuition In THU
i, institution is only seven dollars month
=, The entire domestic service, all the worl
- of the house, is of course performed b!
le the students. In addition to the depart
IN ments for normal, literary and mission
le ary training and music, this school give
,e special training in sewing, dressmaking
an printing, housekeeping, cooking an
=. nursing the sick. The ladies' OF Atlant'
VI bestow high praise on the trained nurse
III sent out from Spelman seminary The.
are well equipped for their work an
are in demand at ten dollars week TO
OK their services. The Atlanta doctors sa
re that they are the best nurses In tn
world.
Now the 'fads" in Georgia are educa
ton. culture and society In all thes
/. the colored population are as deeply II
IL terested as the whites. Consequent
I'M the language heard in the streets OF A
to- lanta is generally grammatical, tn
ed pronunciation correct, and the maj
n ners of both races quite as ''swell"
those of the Four Hundred OF Ne
York.
From my own personal observation
as well as from the reports OF the count
school commissioners throughout Tn
state, and noticeably In the black be
or cotton producing isotherm, the =
Is terest felt in the cause OF educatae
,k. among the colored people keeps pas
with that Of the whites. Thousands
en- good school houses are found In To
belt. and during the summer montl
particularly after the crops are laid p
thew are filed with young darky chi
Pa dren who are Taught for the most pa
MAlu M by graduates of the four colleges for q
ow colored people in Atlanta, Though mot
NY few of these teachers are from q bran'
II. college of the state university.
u u. v, BATTEx.