"Our four days' acquaintance with these young men, their professors, and the large number of visitors from the adjacent country, convinced us that President Dreher has not over-rated the importance of this fortress of the new education in new Virginia. With one exception Roanoke College is the only institution of the sort in a region as large as the State of Maryland, which is rapidly coming into notice as the mining, metallic, manufacturing, and cattle-grazing portion of the State. The new iron town of Roanoke is only seven miles away, and the whole country is alive with the omens of bright promise for a near future. It will be a great advantage if this young institution can offer, at its present moderate rates, a thorough college education to large numbers of the active young men of such a district."

Mr. Charles Dudley Warner, in his editorial "Notes on Virginia," in the Hartford Courant, July, 1883, says: "Roanoke College is animated by the modern spirit, has put the past behind it, and is keenly alive to the importance of the right sort of educational training for the new Virginia. There is nothing more important, just now, for the South, than the thorough educational training of the so-called middle class. Only by this means can it keep step with the great industrial movement of our time. In tone and standard the college is good, its students are there to learn, and the results, according to its means, are satisfactory. But it is an institution peculiarly happily situated to tell upon the new awakening life of the South, and no amount of money would be thrown away on it. I thought while we were there, in the midst of so much agricultural richness, with the mineral wealth opening up, and such signs near at hand of a vast industrial development, that here is just the place for a grand industrial scientific school, which would probably tell more than any other one agency on the development of the resources of Virginia."

Rev. Washington Gladden, D. D., LL. D., in a communication to the Springfield (Mass.) Republican, June 27, 1882, said:

"A large share of the students are from the middle class, and the spirit of the work and of self-reliance manifested by them is truly inspiring. In the baker's dozen of speeches by these young men in the contest for the prize medal in oratory, and on the commencement stage, there was a revelation of the temper of the new South that bodes nothing but good to that section and to the whole nation. Without exception, the speeches were brave, manly, forward-looking. The fact that a new day had come to the South was the undertone of all this young thinking; and it was evident enough that these hopeful fellows were ready to spring to the front of the new movement, and make the most of its opportunities. National matters were referred to by most of them, and not one word of bitterness was spoken, nothing that could have given pain to the most stalwart Northerner. In a literary way, the speeches were much more rhetorical than would be heard at Yale or Amherst, and some of them needed not a little chastening; but what

they lacked in finish they made up in manliness. On the whole, I was greatly pleased with the indications given by the young men of this college, representing several different States, of the public sentiment at the South."

PROFESSIONS AND DISTRIBUTION OF ALUMNI.

The triennial catalogue of the alumni of Roanoke College gives the names, occupations, and residences of the graduates of Roanoke College. It shows that at the close of its thirty-fourth year the college had graduated 278 men, of whom 261 are living. We give the distribution of the whole number (278) by professions and States.

By professions: Presidents, principals, professors, and teachers, 67 (of these 20 are clergymen); clergymen, 61; attorneys-at-law, 48; merchants and in general business, 23; agriculturists, 22; physicians, 20; editors, 4 (six clergymen and teachers are also engaged in editorial work); bankers, 4; civil officers, 3 (not counting lawyers who hold offices or graduates who are members of State Legislatures); United States Civil Service, 3; officers in United States Army, 1; missionary in Mexico, 1; studying in Germany, 1; unclassified, 20 (including a number of recent graduates). In this classification graduates preparing for a profession are counted as being already in it.

By States: Virginia, 135; North Carolina, 19; Texas, 18; Pennsylvania, 13; Maryland, 12; West Virginia, 9; South Carolina, 9; Tennessee, 8; Kentucky, 7; Mississippi, 6; New York, 5; Louisiana, California, and District of Columbia, 4 each; Alabama and Indian Territory, 3 each; New Jersey, Ohio, Missouri, Colorado, and Nebraska, 2 each; Georgia, Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon, Utah Territory, Mexico, and Germany, 1 each. This shows that the graduates of Roanoke are laboring in twenty-eight States and Territories and two other countries.

In so brief an analysis it is not possible to enumerate the prominent positions filled by Roanoke graduates. In estimating the work done by the college we must keep in mind the fact that, besides the graduates, nearly 1,500 students have taken a partial course at Roanoke, and that many of these fill prominent positions in professional and business life. When it is borne in mind that Roanoke College has done its work with almost no endowment and under many disadvantages, its faculty and friends certainly have good reason to be gratified at what has been accomplished. (Roanoke Collegian, July, 1887.)

An indication of professorial activity at Roanoke College is a History of Education, by F. V. N. Painter, A. M., professor of modern languages and literature. (International Education Series. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1888.)

CHAPTER XX.

RICHMOND COLLEGE.

BY PROFESSOR H. H. HARRIS,

Chairman of the Faculty.

Enduring institutions are commonly the result of slow growth, and that often from small beginnings. So it has been with Richmond College. In common with nearly all other seats of Christian learning, it owes its foundation to the desire for a better educated ministry.

ITS ORIGIN.

On the 8th of June, 1830, a few devoted men, who had gathered in Richmond for their General Association, met in the Second Baptist Church at 5 o'clock, A. M., "to devise and propose some plan for the improvement of young men who, in the judgment of the churches, are called to the work of the ministry." The slender means at their command were but as the faint light of the sun just rising upon them in comparison with the strength and beauty that were to follow. They organized the "Virginia Baptist Education Society," and for two years aided approved young men by placing them in private schools, nine with Elder Edward Baptist in Powhatan County, four with Elder Eli Ball in Henrico.

In 1832 the society bought Spring Farm, a small tract some four miles northwest of the city, and there, on the 4th of July, opened a manuallabor school called the "Virginia Baptist Seminary," with Rev. Robert Ryland teacher, and 14 students. During the second session, which began in February, 1833, the number of students ran up to 26, about twothirds of them preparing for the ministry, the rest for other vocations. The course began with arithmetic, geography, and grammar, and, running through four years, embraced algebra and geometry, Latin and Greek, natural and moral science, with theology as an optional study. All the classes yet formed were taught by Dr. Ryland and Rev. Eli Ball. In December, 1833, the seminary was removed to the site now held by the college, just within the present limits of the city, though then in the western suburbs, half a mile beyond the corporation lines. To this purchase of nine acres six more were added in 1836, making a location which was well described as "combining healthfulness, beauty, and convenience." The design in adding more land was to give larger scope