66

of America.

The fun going on in the singing school was contagious, and added to the enjoyment of the audience.

THE

HE fifty members of the school band gave a social in the Museum on the evening of April 1, to which an equal number of girls was invited, the party being chaperoned by several of the teachers. The boys and girls came to the Museum in masks, which were removed after the identity of the wearers had been guessed. Mr. Dodd gave a short talk in which he described the bands of the various countries of Europe, and complimented the Hampton band on its excellence. The remainder of the evening's entertainment consisted of a selection by the quartet, guessing games, and finally a grand march.

66

18, the Douglass Literary and Debating Society gave a public debate on the question: Resolved that the Panama Canal should be fortified." The affirmative side, after giving a brief history of the construction of the Panama Canal, proceeded to show the relation of fortification to the protection of a work which has been carried out by the United States Government at very great expense. The action of Great Britain in building strong fortifications at Gibraltar, commanding the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, and thereby protecting the Suez Canal, was cited as an illustration of national foresight and expediency. The argument was advanced that while an increase in American naval power means the protection of American shipping, a gun on land is worth five on a ship, and that the cost of building and maintaining battleships is far in excess of that required for similar protection on land. The affirmative argued further that the United States cannot afford to take any chances so long as there is no prospect of universal peace. The Panama Canal, since it creates a new coast line, affects the commercial interests of the United States and requires that country to make the best use of its strategic advantages.

The negative side concerned itself chiefly with showing that since the United States is the advocate of world-wide peace, it should do nothing to arouse hostility among foreign nations. The economic cost, moral objections, and corrupt politics involved in fortifying the Panama Canal were offered as serious objections. One of the speakers on the negative side showed with what success the United States could use its money in assisting rural schools throughout the country, instead of spending large sums in buying guns and waiting for a war. The need of resources for

the parents and friends entered into a discussion of the points suggested by the Major, and this was followed by short talks by Rev. Mr. Graham, and the Methodist minister in Phoebus. A solo by Mrs. Evans was much appreciated, and the mandolin club from the Institute added greatly to the pleasure of the parents.

Visitors

То

sented.

Parents' Association of the

Whittier School was an unusually interesting one, especially as it was attended for the first time this

the author of "Eben Holden," "D'ri and I," and other books; Mr. and Mrs. Howell Cheyney, of South Manchester, Conn. Mr.

Cheyney is one of several brothers owning extensive silk mills, employing nearly five thousand people, for whom the owners of the mills have erected model cottages, schools for the children, and other improvements of a Wilder of Boston, son of Captain philanthropic nature; Mr. Herbert

Wilder who was associated with General Armstrong in the early

whom Mr. DeYarmett had excused for the occasion from work at the Trade School. Major Moton was the principal speaker, and in his helpful talk to the parents he urged the necessity of making companions of their children. At the close of his address several of

of Burkeville, Va.; and Mrs. Henry S. Russell of Milton, Mass., widow of Colonel Russell who was a member of the board of trustees from 1894 to 1898, with her

grandson, and Miss Randall of Baltimore.

A

graduate of 1904, Percival

Murray of Jamaica, is superintendent of sugar experiments in the Department of Agriculture and instructor in school gardens in the Department of Education of that island. He has about 330 school gardens under his care, where more than 17,000 children receive instruction. He is working very hard and is hoping sometime to see an industrial and agricultural school in Jamaica which will do for the people there what Hampton is doing in the States.

were very unprofitable, but, thanks to my training, they are now giving a good yield of eggs. He had a horse in danger of blood poisoning from a terrible, barb-wire laceration, and no veterinarian within thirty miles. He told me I could

do nothing with it, but the horse is now sound and almost well and working every day. He says that the cleanest pig he ever had butchered was one I did for him last week."

Mr. Murphy is also making a garden at the public school in Camden, where he is teaching

agricultural course in 1910, Harry S. Murphy, is a farm demonstration agent at Camden, S. C., formerly under Dr. Knapp. He has succeeded in getting the farmers to plant more winter and more soil-improving crops, and to take a greater interest in business farming. The Camden Chamber of Commerce is offering cash prizes for farmers raising the largest amount of corn at least expense under Mr. Murphy's direction. He writes: "My father, who did not believe in "book farming," both because of prejudice and because he wanted to see his son an M. D., is now thoroughly converted. During my off hours I amuse myself by doing "impossible" things around home. He had a crowd of lazy hens which

the agricultural page of a local Negro paper, and is actively engaged in church, Sunday school, and other organized work among the people.

AN

N ex-student, Thomas Crockett, who left Hampton as a Senior Middler in 1908, has returned to his home at Mt. Meigs, Alabama, where he is teaching cobbling in Miss Washington's school. He writes: "I left school without a penny and went to work in a hotel in Massachusetts. I left there with a clean record and went to Spartanburg, S. C., to work as journeyman in a shoe shop, but after being there a while and helping to start a Y. M. C. A., I found I could do better at home. I arrived there in October, 1909, and

found my father blind and my grandmother too old to work. I opened a shoe and harness shop and did well until the hot weather came and the people began to go barefoot. Then I took four acres of land and worked it from light till eight o'clock, when I went to my shop and stayed till six, working on my farm after that as long as I could see. A white neighbor gave me seed and I dropped it by hand.

cultivate one acre of land instead of two and get the same results. He is also trying to influence them to give up the crop-lien system and raise more of their food supply. He is building a new house for his family, which includes a niece who is a teacher and is of the same mind with her uncle. Together they are doing their best to induce the people to build a schoolhouse and extend the school term, so that the children at least may learn better ways of living. The teachers' salaries in his section are

I

21 chickens, some pototoes worth $59.85; and, last but not least, I have come out of that old one-room cabin and am now in a two-room house with an eight-foot hall. borrowed $200 to add to my $59.85 to build this house, but I hope this year to pay this debt and name my house "Hampton Cottage."

ANOTHER ex-student, Sterling

years

James, who lived North for

and was with General Marshall, for a long period Hampton's honored treasurer, at the time of

his death, has now come South to live. He finds the people of his community unprogressive and unwilling to tax themselves for the extension of the school term. He says there is plenty of work but little money in his section. He is working at his trade of carpentry as a contractor and is also farming, trying, both by precept and example, to teach the people how to

months.

Indian Notes

Julia De Cora, '96, is now occupying the position of seamstress at the Vermilion Lake School, Tower, Minnesota.

Eli Beardsley, who completed the steamfitter's trade at Hampton last year, has been working all winter in the shops of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé Railroad in Chicago, and has now gone West to take the position of engineer at the Grand River School in South Dakota.

John Baptiste, who was a student at Hampton a short time several years ago, is now interpreter for the Dutch Reformed Mission at Winnebago.

Elizabeth Bender, Post-graduate '08, writes from the Hahnemann Hospital in Philadelphia where she is taking nurse's training. She has over eighty associates. The work