The Golden age. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1906-1915, June 07, 1906, Page 9, Image 9

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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. BBWtb V ■’ k ' ' '' ||||| : W ... 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. 0 £ 9