Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1907-03-24

sion when company OF these law
makers was spending the Sabbath In
the town OF Hampton they visited the
school, and one OF the speakers, a
representative from Texas. In his adj
dress to the students, expressed in
true Western style his appreciation
OF this object lesson. 1--WE read in
the Bible shid he, that 1t Is right
10 pun out an OK or an ass from Il
ditch on the Sabbath day, and ! sup
pose that is what Hampton Institute
is doing for u.s."
How Institute Was Started.
1t was as an agent Of the Freed
mans Bureau that General Armstrong
first came to the Virginia peninsula.
His duty was to adjust the affairs of
Doth whites and blacks, and the prob.
lem which he presented to himself in
the founding of the Hampton school
also concerned not one race, but two.
me question was not merely how the
black race could be uplifted, but how
1t could be helped to meet the condi-
tons In which ii found itself and how
It's members could learn to be OF serv-
Ice TO the communities In which they
lived. We used TO hear much in our
educational literature of how to make
an ideal man. mentally, morally and
spiritually, with little or no regard
TO his environment. Tho relation of
education and vocation rs more and
more considered. because the ideal
man can only be produced as he learns
TO adapt himself to his environments
General Armstrong came to rcaliz-
ing sense of this fact as he worked
among the crowds of negroes who had
come from Virginia and North Caro-.
Ina to put themselves under the pro-
lection OF the guns of Fortress Mon
roe. They We're huddled together. liv.
ing upon government rations. II mot
ley, improvident mass. The first u,ies-
tlon which presented itself was as to
now these people could he made self
supporting. for he felt, as did John
Smith, that they could make but lit.
tie progress until they worked for
their daily bread Hundreds OF them
he sent north, others he settled upon
the land. and still others were placed
at service among the white planters
OF the peninsula. Second, he On
deavored to provide homes for thcm,
Tor he realized that there could be no
morality as long as fathers, mothers.
dogs and strangers huddlcd
together In the one.ruom cabins.
Third. he provided schools and
churches, for he thoroughly appre-
ciated the necessity Of academic and
religious training. But to him from
the first education did not mean mere
~ knowledge of books. To him
education was life. He believed in,
making the whole of life m ednca.
ton. When, later, he was called by
the American Missionary Association
TO take charge of the Hampton school
his aim was Ito train selected
youth. who should so out and teach
and lead their people, first, by exam
pie, by getting land and homes; to
give them not dollar that they could
earn for themselves; to teach respect
for labor; to replace stupid drudgery
with skilled hands: and to these ends
TO build up an industrial system, for
the sake, not only of self-support and
intelligent labor, but also for the sake
of character"
The Study of Agriculture.
He realized that the great mass of
the blacks lived upon the land. He
knew that they could obtain what was
impossible to European peasants
land and homes of their own. He
knew that more than so per cent of
the population of the South lived in
the country, and that Intelligent
methods of agriculture were most
needed. He knew that the young