Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1894-08-03
Hampton Commencement.
Editor of The Pbpnir.

The readers of The Phoenix will per-
| haps be interested in an account of your
correspondents visit to the commencement
of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural
Institute at Hampton, Va. Many Brattle-
borians have visited the school i'm their
outings at Old Point Comfort; many more
are interested in it through their gifts for
the support of colored or Indian students.
The Hampton anniversary is celebrated
in May to avoid the heat, and is the fore
runner of commencement season at the
North. In the North commencement
means a hurried, happy time, partly sad
and serious but mostly festive. There are
the proud father and mother and admiring
friends for every senior, and there is class
day and Spreads dances, base ball games
and the boat race. Even the serious
thoughts are bright and hopeful of a happy
home life for the girls, and for the men,
of success in fair fight for which they are
well equipped.
A commencement of very different
character and meaning was that celebrated
| at Hampton. 1t is a serious time, not
without its bright dresses and flowers, but
more full of advice and encoura cement for
lives of obscure, hard work. There are no
fathers and mothers present. They live
too far away in the black belt or on the
Indian reservations The visitors are
merely friends of the institution, and class
day and commencement exercises are filled
with the intense desire of the graduates to
uplift and educate their people in the face
of heavy odds frankly and bravely faced.
Do not imagine that commencement is
funeral or discouraging. Though the
names of the late General Armstrong and
Gilbert b. Monroe, president of the board
of trustees, were constatly mentioned it
was with thankfulness for their work and
examples. Though the colored and Indian
problems were still spoken of as problems,
it was with the courage of experience and
in the confidence of a prevailing faith.
Baccalaurate Sunday, the twentieth was
| preceded by dress parade of the students.
| The beautiful chapel given by Mr.. Monroe
was simply decorated with flowers and
| fresh ivy leaves were placed upon the easel
that supports marvelously lifelike portrait
of General Armstrong. After the sermon by
Mr.. Turner, chaplain of the school, the choir
sang number of those wonderful negro
songs, so plaintive and so profoundly
| spiritual.
Tuesday evening an opportunity was Civ
en- to get those songs at the fountain head
! The teacher who directs the missionary
work among the neighboring colored set
| Elements brought dozen of her old ladies'
from Shutdown and Goose Alley to sing
the 'old timey' spirtuals. They sat in
row, beating time and shouting in a wall
| ing tone to break the heart and split the
ear. First one and then another would
| take up the solo part, while the others
! joined in such odd refrains as "Done
change my name, :" "Sometimes my trouble
makes me trimble," Gwen all rise togeth-
er to view the risin' sun, O Lord, have
mercy, eff you please"
Glass day exercises were held on the
| piazza of the Mansion House and were
much like other class days. with an adj
dress on "Life's conflict a history and
prophecy, full of local illusions that meant
| little to outsiders, but were evidence of a
cordial class feeling. 1t is the custom at
Hampton to adopt tree already grown,
and around the tree of "a the class song
was sung. Rev. DR.. Parkhurst, who had
come down for trustees meeting, spoke to
the senior class after the exercises paying
a noble tribute to General Armstrong,
who, he said, had influenced him more
than any man except his own father and
eX-President Seelye.
After evening prayer the school listened
to addresses from the trustees, from Edwin
D. Mead of the New England magazine,
and from Mr.. Durham, formerly minister
to Hayti. The trustees present were DR..
McVickar and Robert Ogden of Philadel-
phia, DR.. Strictly of the American Mis-
sionary association, DR.. Mckenzie and
Prof. Peabody of Boston, and Charles L.
Mead, Mr.. Peabody and A. c. James of
New York. This used to be an occasion
for telling good stories. This year the
trustees were more in a reminiscent mood
and more disposed to express their salts
faction in the years work just completed
under the new principal, Rev. DR.. II. Is.
Frissell, long known to friends of Hamp-
ton as the chaplain of the school,
On Thursday morning the visitors at
tended the opening exercises of the school,
followed by a drill in tonic sol ia and a
newspaper class recitation on the silver
question. The shops were then visited
and the industrial exhibit, where there
was display of this years products from
the farm and shOps-tin shop, shoe shop,
carpenters shop, wagon shop, dressmakng
and tailoring department.
One of the prettiest features of COM
mencement day is the marching of the
students to dinner. The boys come first,
salute the colors and form in two lines,
while the girls in fresh ginghams march
between the ranks. In the afternoon
came commencement exercises. Any New
England school might well be proud OF
such essays, well written and well deliver
ed. The salutatory was by girl in the
Dixie school for training nurses, and the
excellent valedictory was by Bermuda
negro. There were addresses by graduates
and songs by Indian girls in costume.
The next day was given up to a confer
ence of graduates to discuss methods OF
lettering their race. After equipping her
students to lead and uplift their people,
!, Hampton does not leave them without
, sympathy and help. They return to hel
for council and consultation, bringing tC
, her the benefit of their experience and the
credit of their success.