The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-25
TUSKEGEE NORMAL INSTITUTE.
What 1t Is Doing to Educate the Col
Ored Race.

What 1t Is Doing to Educate the Col
Ored Race.
w. E. Curtis, of the Chicago Record, in
describing President McKinley's reception
at the Tuskegee (Ala.) Institute, the great
colored school over which Booker T. Wash
ington presides says:
Governor johnson gushed over the institu-
ton, and with an air of patronage and pro-
prictorship expressed his qualification and
pride in its success, which provoked perth
nent retort from President Mckinley, who
hoped the Governor would persuade the Leg
lslature to increase the appropriation for its
benefit To understand the significance Of
this repartee it must be known that the State
OF Alabama contributes only $3.50 of the
$l00O0 which it costs to maintain the in
the Slater and Peabody educational funds;
the remaining $3.50 is furnished by friends
OF Mr. Washington in the Northern States
and upon his personal solicitation. The in
SttutlOn was started seventeen years ago
with one teacher and thirty pupils, in a
report of the principal the attendance last
year was 1,047 students-712 boys and 3S5
girls. These students came from twenty
four States and Territories. Nearly the
same number are in attendance at this time,
representing the same number of States and
Territories. and besides Cuba, Porto Rico.
Jamaica, England and Africa Nearly all OF
the students board and sleep on the school
grounds
Counting teachers and students. there is
upon the school grounds a population of 200
persons. The Industrial training is given in
twenty-six different divisions in connection
Three hundred and sixty-nine students have
received diplomas and certificates in the
academic, industrial and Bible schools. The
graduates are seeking to do a work similar
10 that of Tuskegee in twenty-five of the
States of the Union. Nearly 200 persons
who have attended Tuskegee during the
years Of it's industry without graduating are
in many sections doing excellent work,
N addition to the $50 graduates. The success
Of fhocn f1apI or06 fha
masses of the negroes of the South is the
answer to the value of the institution. The
value of the property of the institution is
about 100000. Insead of one building. as at
first the school now has forty-two, counting
large and small nearly all built by students
Ia Dor, and 2,267 acres of land of which about
SEQ acres are cultivated. On the two farms
conducted by the school are SIS head of live
stock, including horses, mules, cows, oxen,
completed by the students are the new
chapel and the Armstrong memorial agri-
stock raising, truck gardening. dairying and
practical farming are taught by a graduate
of the Iowa State Agricultural College for
merly presided over by the present secretary
of agriculture, James Wilson. An expert
ment station is conducted in connection with
this department. The TuSkegee method is
to allow students to acquire knowledge of
their several trades while working the
buildings and the farm. With their work
they pay their board and get their education
at the same time. This is especially hopeful
to those who find themselves unable to pay
any building, as in the instance of the
chapel money given for that purpose pro-
vides the material and enables the students
to learn plaster1ng, brick masonry, brick
making, painting, etc, and attend school at
the same time. The ordinary charge for
board, room, tuition and all the privileges is
So a month.
The pressing needs of the school are an
endowment fund of at least $50O.O00 for cur
rent expenses. One thousand dollars creates
a permanent scholarship, $500 enables a stu
dent to finish the four years course, $50
pays for year, $4,000 would enable Mr..
Washington to better equip the industrial
departments. There is also need of $4,000 for
a hospital building, $4,000 for a building for
teaching domestic science, $4,000 for an Of
flee and library building and $1,000 for the
rebuilding of the barn destroyed by fire.
There are two Chicago boys here as stu
dents-Warren Taylor and Joseph Madden
and one from Aurora, John H. Cooper.
Among the. faculty are Charles w. Wood,
sin; John ]. Wheeler and F. c. Johnson, of
Chicago, graduates of Armour Institute.
Daisy Walker of Galesburg, is teacher of
geography and grammar in the academic
department
Tuskegee is a picturesque old town in the
BLACK belt of Alabama, where the grass
painting. 1t IS one of the Oldest places in the
South and used to be famous as health re-
sort The sandy soil and dry climate are
especially favorable for aSthmatic and pull
monary complaints. You can find here some
of the choicest examples of old Southern
architecture, with broad piaZzas and big, fat
pillars, but the entire community seems to
be in state of dilapidation and decay. Both
animate and inanimate creation seems in
clined to lean up against something.
Tuskegee lies about half way between
Opeika and Montgomery, on the Western
Railroad of Alabama You get off at a town
that bears the classic name of ChehaW and
take a little Jay" road six miles long. 1t
used to be a narrow gauge and some over
courteous citizens assured us that this track
was relaid and Widened to standard gauge
in honor of the President, so that his train
could go up to the town, but l found by in
quiry that the change was made nearly
year ago, which somewhat dimfniSheS the
size of the compliment.
What impressed me most of all at Tuske-
gee was q collection of photographs, in Por-
ter Hall. of houses which the graduates CT
this institution have erected for themselves
after leaving here. Most of them are pretty
cottages, in excellent taste and containing
the comforts and convenience of modern
living. The greatest obstacle to the rise of
the negro in the South is the one-room cab
in. 1t is just step beyond the tepee of the
Indian, and both morals and modeSty are
sacrificed in mixing men, women and chill
dren Unfortunately in single apartment.
Under Mr.. Washingtons charge is an en-
downment known as the Dizer fund,
amounting to Sc O00 for the purpose of MAX
ing small loans from $50 to $500 to gradu-
ates of the institution who, when they go
out into the world want to build houses for
themseIves--simple and plain but substantial
cottages that are not only conducive to the
pursuit of happiness but an example for an
entire community to emulate.