Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1895-12-12
LITERARY NASHVILLE.
A City Of Schools, Colleges,
Flour and Cotton
Mills.
North Dakota Excursionists
Shown Many Pleasant
Attentions.
Northern Generosity the Main.
stay of the Colored.
Colleges.
NASHVILLE. Tenn. Dec. 2.

-. COIIegeS.
NASHVILLE, Tenn, Dec. 2.
EDITOR AnERr:-With the first jerk
of the cars in the St. Paul station the
seventy-two North Dakota press rerre.
sentatives that filed these cars south
ward bound, felt rush Of pity for all OF
North Dakota not press representatives
and not southwark bound. Not un.
mindful that this was case where it is
more blessed to give than to receive, I
nevertheless determined then and there
upon voluminous home letters to as
suage this pity.
The first event which marked the trip
was the appearance Of Santa Claus in
the undiseuised person of Mr.. Miller
distributing from his sack bon bons,
roses and cigars-wlth due respect to
the taste of the recipient-with compli-
ments OF st. Paul type foundry union.
Thus in the beginning festive and hol-
iday- like air was secured which time has
not withered nor custom dulled.
I had planned to introduce the con-
ventional Sunny South" illusions with
st. Louis. but those fates which take
especial delight In Frustrating premed-
itated impromptu speeches., saw to it
that the sun should be effectuslly hid
den just when euphoniously 1t was most
needed, and our Sunday at st. Louis,
the entrance to the Sunny South, lsvas
dark and rainy beyond all hope Of
sightseeing. Luckily the city's chef
d'oeuvre is the new station, conveniently
at hand. Largest in the world and fin.
est in America, this station cost Six and
a half million dollars, and Is indeed Q
wonderfully beautiful and immense
structure.
Fortune fairly beamed in Nashville,
where we were met and right royalty en-
tertsined by q committee Of citizens.
Mayor MoCann, "the lame miller" we'll
known in the northwest, introduced sew
eral speakers to the ''Hlawathas and
Mlnnehahas Of North Dakota" In q
few graceful and pleasing words these
speakers ikenei the press to the soul of
man, the five senses, the telephone
which gives an almost superhuman
power to the human voice, ETC., until it
was with the satisfactory feeling that we
were the world and all that in it ls. plus
several nineteenth century improve
ments that We went out to see what
Nashville bad to offer us.
wonder whether or not you will be
as surprised as to learn that Nashville
has been overmodest in calling herself the
"Athens of the South" She might just
" claim to be the "Athens of America"
One expects to find the South, noticea-
bic perhaps for native culture, but quite
Indifferent certainly, to matters educa-
tlonal. Instead find that the first city
you visit has greater number OF educa-
tional institutions in proportion to her
size than any other American city. In
9 population of something like one hun.
dred thousand the actual count OF
schools. colleges and the like is eighty
seven. This, however, IS not the only
one OF the interesting statistics with
which our hosts and guides today have
furnished U.S. Nashville claims to be
the third city IN the union in proper
ton to size, in wealth. and is secon d only
to Minneapolis IN the flour industry. In
accordance with these figures we divld-
ed our sightseeing between mills and
colleges. At each college our genial
guide. Mayor McCann, had new story
to tell, new lesson to impress. But
nothing impressed us so much as our
visit to Fisk University. You will re-
member how the FISK Jubilee Singers
worked to support it. Now it is admit
ted to be the best institution of learn.
ing for the colored people in existence,
and is it not interesting to show that
it is chiefly supported by northern
friends?
We attended morning chapel to hear
them sing their Jubilee songs and it
made the sympathetic little shivers creep
up ones back to hear three hundred of
the most intelligent, ambitious and
earnest of the negro race, sing: 'John
Brown died that the slaves might be
free, and his soul goes marching on"
To have made these students realize
that John Browns ''soul goes marching
on" for them must repay the friends of
the institution amply for their work and
help.
1t was at Vanderbilt university, founded
and maintained by the Vanderbilt family,
that We we're told the anecdote OF the
dishonest colored porter employed in the
theological department.. Being told that
his dishonesty would surely condeun
him to future life in hsdes and asked
what he would do under such lugubrious
circumstances be electrified the repri-
msnding theoloRs by mumbling out:
"Dun' no boss, wait on ministers, sans
here, reckon
At the Peabody normal school We
we're told Of the good old dean whose
students pasted several leaves of his
Bible together. Peacefully perambulat-
ing through the scriptures in chapel
the next morning ha read. MAnd Noah