TILLOTSON INSTITUTE, AUSTIN, TEX.

 REV. W. M. BROWN.

The school year at Tillotson closed June 6th. The fourteenth annual Commencement was, of course, in many respects but a repetition of those preceding it. In some ways, however, it showed decided progress in the direction intended by the projectors of the school. Without any question whatever, the institution is doing a better grade of work than at any previous time in its history. None but those actually engaged in the service know how many have been the hindrances and the discouragements in the way of this advance. Tillotson does not pretend to be a show school. To make a display Commencement week is not the predominant thought through the work of the year. Whatever is brought out then is the result of the regular training, and is no better than the everyday work, only as it is the summing up of all that has been accomplished. This being the case, it was especially gratifying to hear a gentleman say after the exercises Commencement morning that, though he had been in the school-room forty years, and had attended a multitude of commencement*, he never had been at one more satisfactory in every way. . This man is a Southerner, and proprietor of a fashionable boarding-school for girls.

ORAL EXAMINATIONS.

Instead of written examinations for promotion, and public oral examinations in the chapel, a compromise was effected this year, which proved advantageous all around. The public was invited to attend the regular examinations, which were oral, in the various class-rooms.

TILLOTSON DAY.

Saturday, June zd, was enjoyed as Tillotson day. An address, by Henry Clay Gray, a colored man, was delivered in the chapel. He took for his subject " Stepping Stones to Fame." About one hundred and fifty students and friends were entertained at luncheon, after which opportunity was given to examine, admire and criticise the work done in

THE CARPENTER SHOP

through the year. Many were exceedingly surprised at the products of saw, hammer, plane and chisel. Some could not believe that boys could do such work. Book-cases, writing-desks, chests of drawers, music stands, a revolving book-case, cabinets, towel racks, etc., all showing workmanship and finish of which none need be ashamed. Considering the limitations of time, equipment and accommodations, the exhibit was certainly a credit to the instructor. Some of the carved work in the finishing of book-cases and writing-desks showed a most commendable degree of skill and knowledge in the use of carving tools on the part of the boys.

SEWING DEPARTMENT.

The work of the sewing department was on exhibition Commencement day. With the new building to afford more adequate accommodations, greater interest, with correspondingly more satisfactory results, may be expected in this department. It is to be hoped that such provision may be made in the near future, that more regular courses of instruction may be given in the various lines of needlework.

MUSIC AND DEMOREST MEDALS.

The Tuesday evening before Commencement is always anticipated with real pleasure. It is the time for the musical event of the year. On this occasion, in addition to the music, an oratorical contest for the Demorest gold medal took place. There were seven speakers, all of whom did very well indeed, the successful contestant winning but by a single point. Seventeen silver and three gold medals have now been won by Tillotson students, a proof that sound temperance principles are being incuicated here. It may be said, too, in passing, that much emphasis is laid in the physiology class-rooms upon the subject of temperance, and that the Temperance League of the school has, all through the year, done good service in impressing the pupils with the idea that tobacco and whiskey are splendid things to let severely alone.

" The Holy City," a sacred cantata, by A. R. Gauls, was chosen for rendition this year. This is a higher grade of music than is usually attempted on these occasions, but the cantata had been carefully prepared and was most creditably given to an audience that entirely filled the chapel.

GRADUATING CLASSES.

By 10:30 A. M. Wednesday, the school-room was again filled with students and their friends. The weather was delightfully cool. The graduating class consisted of one young woman and five young men. Five diplomas for having finished the normal course and one for the college preparatory were awarded. It is the largest class to receive diplomas since the school began.

The exercises of the fourteenth Commencement at Tillotson were very creditable, consisting of an essay by the young lady graduate, and orations by the five young men, the whole interspersed and enlivened by appropriate music. The catalogue shows that in the number of pupils enrolled, there was an increase over last year of nineteen, a state of affairs equaled by very few schools in this part of the country.

 

Tillotson Collegiate Institute, At Austin, Texas, with an enrollment of 186 pupils, 37 of whom were in the normal grades, and i in the college preparatory, completed its fourteenth year. In no previous time has its work been of equal grade. Here also the young men are instructed not only in woodworking and the use of tools, but also in the theories and principles of mechanics and in practical construction. The girls have daily lessons in housekeeping and in sewing. Tillotson begins its new year most auspiciously, with enlarged facilities for enlarged work.

These higher institutions and those of lesser grade are first and last positive Christian schools. The Bible is a daily text-book, and no day passes without appeal to the religious nature of the pupils.

In our normal and higher schools, as the years pass on there is an observable advance in student character and quality. The students are becoming more like unto students in Northern schools, in respect^ to their ages and ways, than their fathers and mothers were. Without losing their docility and teachableness, they are learning more easily and more understandingly, and are cultivating the reading habit increasingly. Their ambitions are higher. It may be that in some degree they fail to illustrate the simple and singular faith of the earlier days, but we think that their religious faith is now not only more intelligent, but more productive of the morality which belongs to a better comprehension of Christian life.

The past year in these schools has been a trying one to students in some respects. Many who have received student aid heretofore have found it necessary to leave school in the midst of their studies. Institutions have cordially assisted the Association in their economies, and from most of them there have been appreciative expressions of sympathy with our Association in the stress of these severe times. Those schools whose growth and necessities have called for enlargement have met our limitations cheerfully, and no enlargements have been made in our plants this year, with the exception of a new dormitory long needed at Tillotson Institute, in Texas, which was provided for before the hard times came upon us. . Three of our institutions have received $7,500 for normal and industrial work from the trustees of the Slater Fund, which we gratefully acknowledge.