e people of the community that they alone paid
every cent of the cost, not one penny coming from the outside. The
struggle was a long one, a hard one, with bad crops and other hard
conditions interfering with our plans.

This building is a two-story one, well ventilated, roomy, and
accommodates 300 pupils. From the first we have sought to follow in the
footsteps of the parent institution, and have had the industries taught;
agriculture was introduced at once.

A large Trades Building was soon erected and teachers from Tuskegee
secured to help in the work. Blacksmithing, wheelwrighting, carpentry,
painting, and agriculture have been provided for the young men, and
cooking, laundering, housekeeping, and sewing for the young women.

The following buildings we now have in addition to those named: a
dormitory for girls, a blacksmithing-shop, and a teachers' home. More
than 4,000 pupils have come under the influence of the school.

[Illustration: THE CULTURE OF BEES.

Students at work in the apiary.]

I have continuously, for seventeen years, with the exception of a short
period, been in charge of the school; during the absence referred to I
was studying in New York city, and afterward, through the generosity of
a friend, was able to spend one year in Queen Margaret's College,
Glasgow, Scotland.

I am pleased with the progress the people have made. Many now own their
own homes, and eight and ten persons are no longer content to sleep in
one-room log cabins, as was only too true during the earlier years of my
work. I have regularly had "mothers' meetings," and these have raised
the home life of the people to a higher standard. I know what I am
saying when I state that sacred family ties are respected and
appreciated as never before in this immediate region.

The emotional church life of the people no longer prevails hereabouts,
and the minister preaches forty minutes, instead of two hours as
formerly.

Many farmers are out of debt, and a mortgage upon a man's crop is as
disreputable as a saloon.

The Mt. Meigs Institute is the first school of its kind in Alabama to
demonstrate the fact that a school planted among the people in the rural
districts of the South will make for intelligent, honest, thrifty
citizenship. The success of this work made possible the establishment of
many similar schools that have been planted in Alabama and other parts
of the South.

Of the young men and women who have attended my scho