The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-04-16
OUT AND ABOUT.

Miss Emma Wilson of Maysville, S.
c.. who has spoken several times in
Worcester recently in behalf of her
school for colored children in that
town. is an interesting woman, and her
work cannot be too highly commend
ed.
Maysville is a place of perhaps 100
inhabitants the chief industry of which
is the raising of cotton, corn and rice.
The people are largely colored, and are
poorer and more ignorant now than
they were % years ago, when things
We're booming for the negro race in
America. Miss Wilson's ambition as
a girl in Scotia seminary, North Caro-
lima, was to go to Africa as a mission
airy to her race, but when she returned
to Maysville, and soon the condition
of the people, she felt that her call was
to labor there. and there she has la
bored for the II years that have fol-
lowed.
She began with ten children, both
boys and girls the number of pupils
has increased steadily until now there
are 200 who are in charge of two teach
ers. Teachers in this part of the coun-
try consider themselves abused. if they
areegiYen so pupils to instruct and keep
in order, but the young colored man
and woman under Miss Wilson are not
staggered at 100 and more. The wages
of one teacher, amounting to $25a q
month, are paid out of the free school
fund. owing to the interest which the
leading white people of the town feel
in the school. and the wages of the
other come out of the tuition of 10
cents a month that each pupil pays.
This current school year it has been
very hard work to get even this trifiing
fee. the failure of the cotton crop hay
ing brought about very hard times
among the farmers. Nevertheless, q
new building is in process of erection,
the cornerstone of which was laid last
summer, and now the question is to
go on with it and get it paid for. Miss
Wilson has been north about six
months. and she thinks that, consider
ing the hard times, she has done we'll
to raise $500, but she hopes to raise
$4,000 before long, and then she will
feel like going home.
Miss Wilson's school aims to teach
its boys and girls everything that will
make them useful in life; that is to
say. it combines book instruction with
manual training. In the new building
arrangements will be made for teach
ing carpentry, blacksmithing, laundry
work, farming and cooking as well as
sewing which is included in the curri-
culum now. The building will be used
as a dOrmitOry for 40 or 80 girls, and
will contain q bed rooms. The fur
nishing of more than half has been
pledged by friends. 1t costs only S15
to furnish a room and each room will
be named after the donors.
Whites and blacks live in pleasant re-
lations in MaysVille. If it We're not So
Miss Wilson would have had a harder
time than she has in building the new
dormitory. All the business men in the
place without exception contributed to
it. those who could not give money don
ating so many pounds of nails or feet
of lumber, or what they could. One
mans gift will be the furnace. The
building will cost about $4,000 when
completed.
The condition Of the colored people in
and about Maysville is hardly ideal,
according to Miss Wilson, for they are
very poor, and are growing poor
err Certainly they are not as
well off as they were Is years ago. This
is largely owing to the lien system of
mortgaging the crops and farms, which
is weighing the people down. Many
who used to own their homes are now
homeless, for while emancipation has
bettered their condition on the whole.
doubtless it has intensified their strug-
gle for existence. Yet no one would ex-
change his freedom for the institution
Of slavery. Few colored men vote. and
when one ventures TO cut the democra-
tic ticket, his vote is thrown out. The
number of coiored voters is decreasing
there being far fewer now than there
were p years ago, for always fewer can
meet the statutory requirements.
In the race feuds Of the south Miss
Wilson believes that a great deal of the
responsibility for the trouble rests with
the negro VINO is easily led astray BY
evil influences. It is not for him 10 ct
the ieins Of government into his hands.