o do neat and
tasteful needle work or play a selection from Chopin. They can do
both.

All the exercises of Commencement were well carried out except the
Concert. The loss of an unusually fine musical treat was one of the
deprivations caused by the war, the singers of the Soldiers' Chorus
having become soldiers in earnest. It seemed a pity that every one of
the contestants for the prizes could not receive a prize, so original
and thoughtful were the orations and essays, and so good the
recitations. One of the best orations stated, that the way to elevate
the Southern farmer is not by means of teachers and preachers alone
but by the unselfish lives of scientifically trained farmers and their
wives who should be willing to live among the people and teach them by
example.

After the pleasant graduating exercises which sent out five more young
people, one of whom sent his oration from camp to be read, the Alumni
held a very delightful reunion. Many letters were read from graduates.
One wrote--"Every year, since I left Talladega, I have been more and
more convinced that many of the most prominent leaders of our people
lay too great stress on the possibilities of wealth and trades and too
little emphasis on the absolute and greater necessity of firm
Christian character. Neither wealth nor trades assure to us the favor
of God." Another writes from Texas of the work his wife is doing by
establishing a Woman's Rescue Society. From indifference, the women in
the town passed to curiosity then to sincerity, and nearly all soon
became actively engaged in the work which is accomplishing much good.

One of the college graduates, J. R. Savage, writes a letter of which
only the following extract can be given:

"It is hoped that the promising young manhood of the race will not be
satisfied with anything lower than the highest and best that the
schools have to offer. The first ten or twelve years of one's school
life are of necessity so largely mechanical that very little of what
is really education enters into them. Education is rather ability to
produce something and to think consecutively and coherently, than
capacity to receive something. Though a cultured mind may not create
anything, it is distinguished by its ability to combine two or more
elements in such a way as to form a new substance--to add something to
the world. Man sits at the feet of nature, learns her laws, and then
breathes into them his own soul, and nature become