American Missionary | Page 6

The Ladies' Hall is supposed to accommodate seventy-five girls. One hundred and six are crowded into it to-day. We have turned away nearly one hundred more because we had not room for them. Every indication is that the crowd of applicants will be greater next year than ever. Already applications are coming in. The American Missionary Association has the lead in Mississippi to-day.
From Marion, Ala.--We need another grade established. Our primary has numbered nearly or quite one hundred pupils. The average attendance has been large and the school-room over-crowded. Three grades are now virtually working in the primary department. We may look for a large increase of attendance in all grades next year.
From Florence, Ala.--We need a building if the school is to be continued. We are now inconveniently crowded, one hundred and sixty children in a 20 x 40 room, with all the teaching to be done in the same. To fail in giving us a building will certainly narrow our usefulness in this field. Our school is constantly increasing in popularity. We can safely count on an enrollment of over two hundred next year, with someplace to accommodate them.
From Meridian, Miss.--The work of the school is hindered by lack of room. We have enrolled this year two hundred and thirty two pupils, and many have been turned off because we could not seat them. We opened in December of 1888 with twenty-eight pupils. A school for more advanced pupils is needed in this part of Mississippi. We have thirty young people in school who come from the five adjoining counties. They are boarding in good families and I have every reason to believe that they have used their time and opportunities well; most of them are this summer to teach.
From Straight University, N.O.--It has been a golden year for Straight University. Financially it has been our best year. A larger proportion of students able to pay came to us. We want to grow, and have every opportunity to do so save that our quarters are too small. We have turned away during the year probably two hundred applicants, many of them for the boarding department. We have had to put cots in nearly all the rooms, packing them too full for comfort, as it was very hard to say No! to young people who came hundreds of miles and begged tearfully for admission. The school has grown during the last eight years from two hundred to six hundred, and only is not one thousand because we had no room for them. Our graduates are filling important positions all over the South. Several are Superintendents in Texas, Kansas, Mississippi and Louisiana. One holds an important office in Honduras; others are doing good work in Cuba and Mexico. Eight are filling important positions in this city. We have no trouble in getting positions for our young people. Indeed, we cannot supply as fast as demanded. Often as many as twenty are called for when we have none to send.
From Fisk University, Nashville.--The evidence of progress in the educational department of the University is found in the very marked increase of numbers in the first year of our normal course and of our college preparatory department. Last year there were fifteen in the first year of the latter department; this year there are thirty-one. Last year there were thirteen in the first year of the normal department; this year there are thirty-one. Last year there were in the normal, college, preparatory and college departments, one hundred and forty-five students; this year there are one hundred and seventy-six. At the coming Commencement, we expect to graduate twelve young men, and from the normal ten young women and one young man; making a total of twenty-three. This is a little more than one-sixth of the entire number of present graduates from these departments.
From a Teacher in the Tennessee Mountains:--Let me tell you of the general interest manifest in several of the counties west and north of us in attending this school. One of our students visited many cabins over the mountains during his vacation, and found that school advantages were very scarce and poor. He found poverty and ignorance of the world and of books. Some of the people are still using the old-time method of kindling their fires by flint and steel instead of matches. He met many young people who were thirsting for books and schools, also numbers who had struggled up through the darkness to become teachers in the neighborhoods. These almost invariably wish to come to our school, and say they shall be here as soon as their schools close. Many are too poor to come. This is true of a large number of young girls, who would come if they could work for their board or in any