In the shops the boys are taught the principles of wood and metalworking, the use of wood-turning lathes and tools, glazing, and drawing. The facilities for the pursuit of this mechanical course have been greatly increased by the erection of the Knowles Industrial Building. This structure was the gift of Mrs. L. J. Knowles, of Worcester, Mass., through whose generosity it was erected in 1884 as a memorial to her husband. The building is of brick, one hundred by forty-four feet, and three stories high. It has a good outfit of tools and other appliances. One room contains eighteen cabinet benches, each with a set of tools ; another has twelve wood-turning lathes, run by steam-power; and a third, the forge room, recently put in operation, is supplied with twelve forges and anvils.

Special emphasis must be laid upon the industrial education afforded at this Atlanta University. It appears to be complete and satisfactory. The mechanical work of the shops is united with an agricultural training on the farm, embodying instruction in the methods of farm management and in the details of stock raising and gardening. The girls, ou the other hand, are taught various branches of household duties, such as sewing, cooking, dress-making, and general house-keeping.

The industrial department has always claimed the attention of, and received an honorable mention from the visiting boards. Referring to the progress it had made and its excellent workings, the visitors in June, 1884, said in their report to the Governor: "Your committee would state that there was no department of this University that struck them more favorably than the industrial education in all its various forms. The boys are taught practical agriculture and.gardening. * The house-keeping department, under a competent lady for the graduating girls, we especially liked."

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Again, in the report for 1886, we read: "The domestic arts of cooking, sewing, and dress-making are taught by competent instructors. Gardening and farming are closely looked after by a very capable and trustworthy agriculturist. * The results achieved in this direction are eminently satisfactory. In the mechanic arts, including carpentry and wood-turning, very gratifying progress has been made. With better equipments, we have the germ of a technological school that will be a blessing to the State." And in the report for 1887, we find that the agricultural exhibit, consisting of varieties of corn, wheat, grass, and the like, raised upon the farm, was very creditable;" and that "instruction in the art of printing likewise forms a part of the industrial training, though the appliances in this department are as yet incomplete."

CAPACITY FOR A HIGH GRADE OF CULTURE.

Thomas Jefferson has been credited with saying that no pure African could ever grasp the forty-seventh proposition of Euclid. This remark The rule has been for the boys to spend one hour a day in practical work on the farm.

was widely quoted through the South as a strong indorsement of the popular view regarding the mental incapacity of the negroes, and their inability to understand or appreciate the higher branches of education. Later developments, however, and the results arrived at by this and other schools, seem destined to bring about a modification of that view: for, while the course of study is almost as advanced as that of many of the white colleges, including, as it does, the Latin of Cicero, Tacitus, and Livy, and the Greek of Homer, Demosthenes, and Plato, trigonometry and surveying,' history, English literature, mental and moral philosophy, and approved text-books in political economy and the sciences, the students, by the testimony of the whites themselves, perform their work with commendable success. Witness, for instance, the confession contained in the report of Senator Joseph E. Brown, chairman of the first board of visitors appointed by the Governor:

"At every step of the examination we were impressed with the fallacy of the popular idea (which, in common with thousands of others, a majority of the undersigned have heretofore entertained) that the members of the African race are not capable of a high grade of intellectual culture. The rigid tests to which the classes in algebra and geometry, and in Latin and Greek, were subjected, unequivocally demonstrated that under judicious training and with persevering study, there are many members of the African race who can attain a high grade of intellectual culture. They proved that they can master intricate problems in mathematics, and fully comprehend the construction of difficult passages in the classics."

Note also the report of the committee of the board of visitors of the University of Georgia for 1874: "The progress made by the students, as a whole, is highly satisfactory, while there were not wanting many instances of superior merit and proficiency among their members."

Soon after the close of the Civil War, an unnatural feeling of hostility sprang up between the whites and the blacks in the South. A mutual sentiment of distrust was the inevitable consequence. To add to the difficulty of the situation, a horde of adventurers came in from other States, seeking wealth and political preferment through the instrumentality of colored votes. They were in many cases sharp and unprincipled, and fanned the slight flame of race prejudice into a mighty blaze, which it required years to subdue.

When, therefore, the whites were restored to power in Georgia, and the Legislature appropriated the money to Atlanta University, much dissatisfaction was manifested by the people of the State.2 It is even 1 Mathematics is only studied through the Freshman and Sophomore years.

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2 Objections have been urged against Atlanta University, on the ground that such a movement in favor of university education for the colored people is far in advance of the demands of the present condition of colored society;" and that "the money thus expended should be exclusively devoted to instructing and training teachers specially for the work of elementary schools." (State School Commissioner Orr's Report for 1875.)

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stated that some influential persons endeavored to prevent the appropriations to the school. The secret of this dissatisfaction lay in the circumstance that the teachers employed at the institution were all Northerners, who, it was alleged, sedulously instilled in the mind of the colored pupil feelings of dislike for his native State, and of bitter hatred for the whites.

But better counsels at length prevailed, and the State board of visitors adopted the rational plan of allaying the feeling of animosity on the part of the colored people. Their attention, in this connection, was first called to the manner of instruction in the school. They noticed the sectional books in use, and urged upon the president the propriety of changing the tendency of the teaching. The aim of the instructors, they said, should not be to alienate the affections of the pupils from their country, and induce a feeling of opposition to the whites, but to cultivate kindly relations between the two. They had enormous power over those who controlled almost one-half the votes in the Empire State, since their pupils were eminently "clay in the hands of the potter." The pupils trained there would go forth and exercise a great influence on the others whom they might teach; and it was highly incumbent on the instructors to make faithful, devoted citizens of them.

Such arguments had their weight with President E. A. Ware, and bore in time the desired fruits. The committee of visitors for 1877 reported: "Members of the Board thought that the animus of the pupils this year seemed much better." Again, in the report of the board for 1878-79, we find it announced that "the objectionable sectional books have disappeared from the library, and your committee are assured, not only that those Northern teachers do not try to alienate them [the pupils] from old masters and homes, and from their native State, but that every effort is used to counteract any tendency towards such alienation."

The reports on the educational work accomplished at Atlanta University have continued to be favorable to the present time. In all of them is evinced a sincere faith in the capacity of the colored race. In the report for 1883 occurs this passage:

"We confess to some degree of surprise and gratification at the proficiency exhibited by many of the pupils in every department of study in which they were examined before us. This was particularly true in relation to those studies which pertain to the higher culture."

Thus has this institution, in the brief period of its existence, become a large and influential medium for the education of the colored race. Commencing with only a preparatory and a normal department and eighty-nine students in 1869, it has by gradual steps risen to its present status1 of five courses of study, and an attendance of four hundred and thirteen. Its faculty, which in its early years consisted of but nine 1 Catalogue for 1886-87.

2 Of this number, one hundred and seventy-five were boys and two hundred and thirty-eight were girls,