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Among the Schools of Mississippi.
Somehow I had never spoken before on Missis
sippi soil. I approached my first Mississippi audi
ence feeling that I owed an apology for my tardy
entrance into that historic home of statesmen and
patriots.
Meridian Female College.
My first stop was Meridian—that brave and pros
perous city, recently swept by storm and cyclone,
but undaunted and conquering before it all, whose
rapid growth for a dozen years since bar-rooms were
•driven out, gives a refreshing lie to that preposter
ous claim of “the devil and his angels,” that sa
loons are necessary to the commercial growth of a
city.
President J. AV. Beeson has done a truly remark
able work in founding and fostering such an institu
tion as Meridian Female College. It is a clear case
of faith in God and love for Him and humanity.
Beeson is a godly man. His splendid culture is all
consecrated. He just honestly believed that there*
is too much fashion and folly in much that is called
education, and he determined to build a school for
the education of women in which he could have a
free hand in carrying out his ideals of common
sense and consecration.
And these ideals have triumphed in the growth of
his great school in ten years to more than four hun
dred students from eighteen States and Cuba be
sides. The meals are all cooked and served by
girls who mean business in their preparation to be
makers and keepers of homes.
Prof. Al. A. Beeson, brother of the president, has
built a school of similar ideals for young men and
boys, and it is a great thing to see more than seven
hundred young people practically under one man
agement being trained in the things of godliness
and .sensible culture.
The Newton Public School.
It was the invitation of an old Georgia friend that
earned me to Newton for a commencement address.
Prof. William C. Sams, whom I had known and
loved in the “olden, golden days,” had married a
Mississippi girl, and in addition to raising succes
sors to Jefferson Davis in his own home, I found
him sowing knowledge and inspiration in the hearts
and minds of yoting and old. Newton is another
growing town without saloons.
It was a great thing for a stranger to find himself
in such a charming home as George Walton’s; to go
driving with all the young lady teachers; to be
special guest at an ice cream function on the school
grounds; but “the rose leaf in my cup of joy” was
the fact that one young man at least determined to
take a four years’ course at college after hearing
me, and, best of all, after the fun of my platform
lecture was all over and I had honestly sought to
reach hearts for time and eternity, one bright young
lady came up to me in tears, saying she wanted to
be a Christian, and accepted Christ as her Saviour.
Jackson and Millsap’s College.
Think of it! The hustling, growing capital of a
great Southern State without saloons! Aly blood
began to tingle and I wanted to sing the doxology!
A delightful reception by Pastor Yarborough and
his people at the First Baptist Church, and then a
visit to Millsap’s College, the M. E. school for young
men, crowning a commanding eminence in the su
burbs of Jackson. President Murrah was away at
CTTWIK : WSB
The Golden Age for June 7, 1906.
the General Conference at Birmingham, but I heard
great things of him and his work, while Acting
President Moore, indeed all the faculty, gave the
stranger a cordial welcome. In my chapel talk I
told the boys that I had only one grudge against
them, and that was because when my own Mercer
University had won nine straight battles in debate
and oratory in Georgia and the South and we won
dered if there was anything on the earth, above the
earth or under the earth that could beat us, it took
a representative of Millsap’s College to do the deed.
Never mind that our man was “under the
weather” and out of physical condition at the time.
Millsap’s won, and that was enough to make her
deserve a crown.
It was refreshing, too, to look on the royal hand
work of such a practical philanthropist as Col. Mill
saps, who has given so largely to the institution.
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M. M. PARKS, President Georgia Normal and Industrial
College For Girls, Milledgeville, Ga.
and w’ho, living there now in Jackson, has the sen
sible joy of seeing while he lives where his money
has gone and rejoicing in the abiding ood that is
being done. May his tribe increase. Let men and
women of means everywhere learn a lesson from this
good man and others like him and ret wait until
their hoarded treasure drops from their nerveless
grasp or their broad acres fade from their failing
vision before they are willing (and then not will
ing) to see their wealth used for the good of others.
Mississippi College, A. and Al. and Blue Moun
tain, but they are good enough to keep until next
time. W. D. U.
Georgia Normal and Industrial College.
Again we have to chronicle the generous donation
of Air. Andrew Carnegie to a Southern educational
institution. The Georgia Normal and Industrial
College at Milledgeville is the latest recipient of
Air. Carnegie’s bounty, and the donation is again
that of a sum to erect a library building. The
amount, <515,000, is to be turned over to the trustees
as soon as a like sum can be secured from the col
lege itself, the State of Georgia or other sources,
thus securing $30,000 to the institution.
Mr. Carnegie’s donation, as well as the fulfillment
of the conditions which accompany it, have been
secured through the energy and ability of Prof. M.
Al. Parks, President of the college.
Prof. Parks is a young man, a graduate, first of
Emory College, and later of the University of Chi
cago and of Harvard University. He has held, from
time to time, positions of prominence in the field of
Southern education, being professor in Andrew Col
lege at Cuthbert, Ga., also at Wesleyan College at
Macon, instructor in the High School at Savannah,
as well as in the institution of which he is now
president.
The work of Prof. Parks during the summer
months, when he has not been actively engaged in
his regular duties, is well worthy of mention, for
he has been at various times a lecturer in the sum
mer schools at Knoxville, Tenn., at the University
of Nashville, the University of Georgia and the
University of Chicago.
It is a significant fact that in most of the institu
tions where Prof. Parks has been himself a student
he has been given a position as instructor or lecturer
which seems to evidence the high place he has won
in the estimation of the faculties of these different
institutions. It seems safe to predict that Prof.
Parks will become one of the foremost Southern
educators of the future, and his career will be
watched with deep interest by all who have been
associated with him.
Commencement Exercises of the Boys’
High School, Atlanta, Ga.
On Thursday, May 31, forty-six young men were
graduated from the Atlanta High School and the
occasion was a notable one in many respects.
Afany evidences of unusual ability were displayed
by the students and it is to be regretted that our
limited space prevents more than a passing mention
of these efforts though it must be said that all were
of>a high order of excellence.
Messrs. Jacob B. Gordon, Ralph B. Everett and
Young B. Smith were the orators of the evening and
their papers were not only well prepared but most
delightfully delivered.
The scholarships of the year were won as follows:
Mercer Scholarship, by Raphael F. Revson.
Emory College Scholarship, by Samuel Green.
AVashington and Lee Scholarship, by Jacob Mey
erovitz.
University of Pennsylvania Scholarship, by Alex
ander Koplin.
The medalists of the class were Jacob Meyero
vitz, who won the medal offered by the Thomas
Jefferson Chapter of the Daughters of the American
Revolution for the best examination on American
History, and Raphael F. Revson, who won the medal
offered for excellence in ready writing by AV. D.
Upshaw.
A feature of the Commencement this year was the
most creditable display of manual training work on
exhibition. The large grandfather’s clocks manufac
tured in the training school as well as other pieces
of handicraft bore ample testimony to the thor
oughness of the work of the class in the line of
manual training.
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