n since the days of reconstruction, and it is not too much to
claim that this better condition of things here is largely due to
the influence exerted by Avery.

[Illustration: NORMAL CLASS OF 1900, IN CHAPEL.]

Although it is in the strictest sense a school, in which all studies
in every department are prosecuted under a high pressure, which
knows no relaxation, yet religious teaching has ever been a
prominent feature, and the Bible is considered the best text book in
the school. It has never been sectarian, but always Christian in its
teaching and influence. No year passes without numerous conversions
among its pupils, and every church in the city has been blessed in
some measure by accessions to its membership from the students of
Avery.

The blessings which this school has brought to this people, and
indirectly to a far wider constituency, are not wholly a free gift
to them. A monthly tuition fee has always been required and
collected from all in attendance, except in special cases, in which
its collection would impose great hardship or compel the withdrawal
of worthy pupils from the school. But in spite of this monthly
charge and the sacrifices made to meet it and keep their children in
school, these people, out of their meagre earnings, which in so many
cases make accumulations impossible, have kept their children in
school, and to the end of a twelve years' course, in numbers that
would shame many a more prosperous community in more favored
sections of our land, where schools and books are entirely free. In
1895 twenty-four successfully completed its course and graduated
with honor; in 1896 twenty were added to the alumni roll; in 1897
twenty-eight; in 1898 thirty-one; in 1899 twenty-four; and at this
writing twenty-four are taking final examinations for graduation in
June. And from these large classes there is not one that is not an
honor to the community, scarcely one that has not found a position
as a teacher or in some useful calling or industry, while a few are
taking higher courses in other institutions. Are not these facts
sufficient answer to the charge so often made, that the colored
people are losing their interest in education, or that higher
education does not benefit them?

Our work has been mainly academic; that is the purpose for which
Avery was called into existence, to educate and train colored
teachers, and to fit them for honorable positions in trade or
business.

The dignity of labor ha