Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-10-07
IN THE NEGRO BUILDING.
Interesting Evidence of the Indus.
trial Progress of the Race.

trial PrOSresS OF the RHce.
Special Correspondence of The Evening star.
ATLANTA, Ca. October ). 1895.
The negro building at Atlanta's big ex-
POSITION gives interesting evidence Of
the progrt SIS Of the negro woman since the
war. The various schools for colored youth
throughout the south are. with one excep-
ticn, coedpca tional. and every exhibit here
shows the work of the women in the
schools The institutions are all on the in
dustrial lires, and although the exhibits are
crude in many respects, they reveal the
fact that the negro woman is fast growing
to be skillful in needlework, dressmaking,
millinery and in other practical industries.
ana that in very many ways she is fitting
herself for higher usefulness.
The paintings and drawings shown are,
judged from an artistic standpoint very
poor, and the subjects are always of
tragical and iGrid nature; but in modelling
several women have attained fair success.
A bust of Charles Sumner by Edwina Lew
is, a woman now married to an Italian, is
really masterful piece of modelling This
woman is now living in Italy, and the ne
gro man who showed the bust to me re-
marked, with twinkle in his eye that she
now disclaimed her African blood; but,
anyway, the bust was done when she was
negro.
A number of statuettes and bas-reliefs by
Matte Williams. a girl seventeen years OF
age, are shown in the exhibit from the In
noticeable among them being a panel show
ing tire figures of three little newsboys,
duSky ana ragged, the study being from
life. In tris clay modelling 1t is interesting
to note the ferns and decorations which
the women have chosen. They very much
resemble The Indian and Egyptian styles of
decoration in pottery, and it seems that the
best results, in an artistic way, are to be
gained by The negro in this line of liberal
arts.
The Hampton Va) Normal and Agricul-
tural College has done q 81 eat deal Of emf
nently prao tical work toward the education
of the negro women Of their race. In this
school they are taught all things apper-
tanning to cooking, to house cleaning and
practical, domestic work. They are also
given a course in agricultural products and
practical farming. because" said the ex-
hibitor in speaking of the work, "our coun-
try is agricultural. and We think the wo-
ground that their husbands have to till"
A number of women from this college
have taken up the business OF Horticulture,
in which they have been very successful.
1t was always saying among the white
women in olden days that a negro seemed
to have magic for making flowers grow,
and their success with them has ever been
wonderful.
In Paramount, where the Hampton School
is, there has been established. under the
auspices of the Y. NJ. c. A, with John ].
Smallwood. the international lecturer at its
head, co educational school. at which wo-
men are learning telegraphy, shorthand and
typewriting, dreSsmaking scientific cooking
and all the wage-earning industries. II IS
an interesting fact that this school IL sit
uated on the spot where the first slave was
sold in America.
The Hampton School was established in
1865, and has an endowment fund of half
a million dollars. The wife of the orator
and educator, Booker T. Washington, was
educated there. was Prof. Washington
himself. and it was largely through her able
management and intelligent direction that
the school which he founded at Tuskeegee,
Ala, has attained such prosperity and sue
cess. This school at Paramount has a sort
of annex for Indian girls there being 10
in the school whose education is paid for
by the government. 1t was the first school
of its kind in the country, and has fifty
separate buildings
Besides these schools there are a number
of others, all Of them showing exhibits Of
woman's work. In the exhibit from a Men,
phis school there is an interesting case Of
African curios, brought from that country
by Georgia Mather Lee Patton, and also
quite an extensive exhibit of stuffed birds
end animals done by the female scholars, as
well as the males. They are most excel
lently done, too. and certainly there IS no
art in which the negro ought to excel more
than in taxidermy. His familiarity with
wild birds and beasts of the wood amounts
almost to k.nsh.p, and he surely ought to
know them better than any other people
The women in charge Of the various in
dustrial exhibits are young, educated
negresses, who were born after the war.
and really know very little of the past
There is an exception to these however to
be found in the Spellman Seminary DEPART
ment. This is school founded in Atlanta
fifteen years ago. The old mulatto woman
who has charge was in the -bellum DAYS
a servant of the late Governor Joseph E.
Brown, distinguished figure in southern
political life
This school has grown for fifteen years
until 1t is now the greatest school for wo-
men in the world.
They didn't just begin with the young
ones,' she said; they began teaching the
Many women my age would cook and wash
and iron all day and go there and learn at
night. They taught them how to take
pride in themselves and their homes how
to sew and keep things neat about them;
and, then. the school was founded on such
noble principles
She showed the work that the girls in
the school had done in embroideries and
fine needle work on linen, which is really
the best exhibit of its kind in the building
The school makes a speciality of training
nurses, and has sent from its doors many
faithful servitors whose kind hands and
willing hearts have ministered to the sicH
been excelled by the women of any other
race.
II told my people when any of them
seemed to be losing interest in having their
race represented here" she said, that II
they did not work for this thing they would
lose the opportunity of a lifetime. We
don't pretend to have much to make a
God has given US this chance to show that
we want to lie a people. Gods mill grinda
SLOW but / see some light before us. feel
as If We who are struggling for the enlight-
eminent of our race are just a little hand
full to ourselves against a vast majority OF