The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-04-30

resulting from the schooling methods
adopted. It say wis wisdom and
insight clearly born OF study and OBJ
s~ervation:
Intelligent observers have at last
realized that the public school has
done next to nothing IN the way Of
uplifting the negro. 1t has bred al
! swarm Of half-educated men and wo-I
men who know nothing thoroughly
and whose utmost possibilities for the
| future reside in the a n of becoming
| school teachers along the narrow and
| useless curriculum in which they have
| been qualified. These unfortunate peo-
pie learn just enough to make them
| worthless and disconnected"
That is true every way. Whatever
] ~fanatical enthusiasts may say thus far
the education impaired has failed
| egregiously to truly e~nlighten, improve
/ and elevate the recipients. They have
| obtained a meagre smattering, have
| failed to learn good have
| grown lazier and less efficient. There
are fortunately some worthy excep-
tons. The Post continues:
With the shabby equipment impart-
| ed to them by a fourth-rate scholastic
ii NLNy SAS~A an Va AS0A
life expecting to obtain public office,
| social distinction and civic eminence
as a matter of mere evolution. BY the
\ same token they reap only disappoint-
ment. chagrin and indignation. They
are not fitted for the part they hope
to play; and. on the other hand, they
have learned nothing to fit them for
| any legitimate and none making
pursuit. Education is a nuch-mis-
understood term. Ability to play the
| part of a parrot is not education in
| any rational sense of the word.
| knowledge of grammar. history, math-i
| ematics, ETC., in their rudimentary
| forms produces no results of social
elevation. Men and women must
| know how to make money, how to
| support themselves. to earn a living,
or they are useless and inconsidera-
| ble."
Negroes are vastly initiative. That
organ is abnormally developed. We
recall that a finely educated New Eng
land woman came to the south under
the inspiration of an evangel, to teach
the negroes and cause them to ascend
the intellectual and moral scale. After
some two years of suffering and bear
ing and trying, she wrote a communi-
cation for a Petersburg, Va, paper,
in which she frankly admitted her dis
appointment and regret. She said
their faculties amounted to but little
beyond that Of imitation-that Whe1t
they reached the studies requiring
close application and the constant ex-I
ercise of the reasoning faculty that
they were comparatively failures.
Booker washington is engaged in
work that will help those who are
taught in his Alabama school. They
will learn something that will be help-l
full and practical in after life. Julian
Hawthorne. a New Highlander and al
clever man of letters, has taken al
peep at the negroes and whites for al
few days, and thinks himself now fully
qualified TO advise the south what to
do as to Sambo. He Says the way tol
uplift the negro is 30 educate the
whites. His words are: Poor whites
in the south must be educated for the
sake of the negro 1t Is not import
tant as to benefits they are to received
for themselves. but they must by be-
ing educated have more tolerance for
the negro. He wrote from Winston n
long letter. He showed. as we see it'll
stated, for we have not seen. his letter,
how it is: I
He went on to- say that, in Greens-
boro. for example, there were twol
classes of negroes. the bad and worth
les class, and the better class, which,
desired enlightenment and the inn
provement of their condition; and
to the latter class only could schoolingI
be made useful, implying, apparently,
that the bad class was to he aban-
doned to it's badness. He affirmed that
some negroes were injured by educa-
ton, which rendered them dissatisfied,
and awakened evil impulses in them
which had before been dormant"
He thinks that industrial educationl
is best for them. That is sensible sol
far as the negroes are reached. Mr..
Hawthorne said h "a Principal Fris-
ell. of Hampton, told me hat the
careers of the graduates of that in-
stitution had teen carefully followed.
and hat 80 per cent of them had BEEN
successful. / believe the same high
percentage is ouoasd in the other
schools above named Each OF their
graduates becomes a center Of energyI
in the community whre he or she Isl
established"
The south has earnestly and sacri-
ficingly ~endeavore6 for more than
thirty years to help the negro race byl
giving them common school education.
They have had equal advantages with
the exception of teachers. They havel
often fallen into the hands of ignor-
ant. immoral n incapable teachers,
and little Of blessing has come TO manyI
of them. When there shall be improv-
ed schools. better teaching by morel
faithful and qualified instructors, bet-
ter results will follow in all p%robabil-
ity. The voting of moneys to try tol
make the negro race more useful and
more industrious and more honest and
more moral will continue. the whitesI