pupils should prefer to stand forth not as a distinct race, but as
American and Christian girls. Perhaps that is the higher wisdom, but
it makes the anniversary less distinctive, and inspires less sympathy
and enthusiasm. These girls were plainly dressed, and in that respect
would differ greatly from the graduating class in a Northern Female
Seminary, but they would have no occasion to shrink from a comparison
with their Northern sisters, if propriety of deportment, and
excellence and force of writing were considered.

At the Howard University, we had the opportunity of attending only the
exercises of the graduating class in college. This institution has a
good claim to its title as a University, for it has collegiate,
medical, theological, law and normal departments. The anniversaries of
the theological and medical departments had been held a few days
previously in {pg 202} churches down in the city, and were attended,
as we understand, by large audiences. The college anniversary, on the
other hand, was held in the college chapel, which, while it was well
filled, contained a relatively small audience, and this was made up
mostly of colored people. We hardly appreciate this discrimination as
to the places of holding these anniversaries, for the orations in the
chapel were of a high order, and might well have attracted the
attention of members of Congress and of the numerous visitors in the
crowded city. The graduating class consisted of six persons, one being
a lady and she the only one of the class without apparent admixture of
white blood. The addresses were all orations, and resembled somewhat
the essays in the Atlanta school in presenting almost no touch or
tone of race or local surroundings, the lady's being almost the
only exception. I could not avoid the conviction, that if these
well-trained minds had thrown themselves into topics more nearly
related to their own life and race struggle, there would have been