The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-11
SOUTHERN NEGRO SCHOOLS. TOUR OF INSPECTION. North Adams Blacksmith Who Left His Forge to
 Teach Negroes His Art.

I am to describe a trip among the higher institutions for the education of colored youth, under the care of our American Missionary association. It was a deputation of one sent by my self, and no investment J ever made re- turned me such compound interest in the way of knowledge of the work per formed by that organization, and of sympathy with the association. In the face of southern prejudice, negro sen- sitiveness and northern ignorance of local conditions, often under depressing climatic and hygienic conditions, brav- ing and even challenging the indiffer- ence it has often met among those whom it would benefit. The American Missionary association has given to the colored race, perhaps as it's first and very best gift, the idea and ideal of self-help, and secondly leaders, SC that
 to-day if it's work should stop, it's in- f1uence and the forces it has set in op- eration, would go to the ultimate and triumphant achievement of all its aims.
 The university buildings at Talla- QGeoctt 1Alc.y bul LOhllNEu Ny elll oUO-dtlC . farm and looking off upon the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains, line both sides of the street a mile from the de- pot. On the enc side are Stone hall
 (the boys dormitory), the high pillared and stately Swayne hall (the recitation
 building), Carnegie library, in yellow pressed brick, the industrial buildings and the professors residence, and op- posite, with a spacious campus between and cleft by the street, are the presi- dents house, DeForest chapel, Foster hall (the girls dormitory) and the Fry cottage of domestic science. The air was soft, the violets blooming, and the gardens we're being made, at the time of my visit 1 arrived at night, and the next morning at 5.30, "clang, clang'' went the bells to rouse the coll lege settlement of 200 boarders. It was still very dark, but when the 400 ''lo- eals' or day scholars, who live in the nearby village have come to prayers two hours or so later, it is indeed one of the most interesting groups of stu dents Here are representatives from southern states and Porto Rico. For the most part, the songs of the negro race are sung at chapel exercises, and as at Fisk, much is made of this fea- ture. The class in English was study ing Chaucer, Spenser, and the Miracle plays, and grasped the period with fine discrimination. The Latin class in Vir- gil under Prof. Piekens, a colored teacher and a graduate of Yale, was by far the best class of this grade I ever heard in knowIedgeF of the story, in scanson, in construction, in trans- lation, and in enthusiasm. The next "period' l spent with Mrs. Downs (sls- ter of Secretary Cooper in her sewing class, where all kinds of stitches were being taught, and where some of the girls were at work on garments. Other periods were devoted to the theological class, under the venerable Dr, An drews. The 20 theologues were a fine body of men.
 Talladega has a good endowment, fine organ, and splendid personnel of faculty and students. It's Carnegie li- brary is very attractive as to exterior but its shelves seemed to be filled with the cast-off contents of ministers H. braries. President Nyc6 is a sterling and charming gentleman, and under his masterful guidance, the institution has notceably progressed.
 Straight university, New Orleans, is on Canal street, in the main thorough fare, about a mile from the center of the city, and in tfiickly-populated section There is unfortunately no room for the expansion of the work of Straight in its present location. It's five buildings, the Stone and White halls, both dormitories, the academic building, the industrial and Daniel Hand schools fill every available inch of land the association owns in New steps should be immediately taken to see that the new Straight by the purchase of land out beyond the present city limits, and ultimately the present plant could be disposed of ad- or better retained for work of the lower grades.
 New Orleans is the great metropolis of the South destined with the cutting l of the Panama canal, to phenomenal expansion and the American Mission !