This programme has become so fixed that to go over it in detail would be monotonous; let us rather note a few of the significant and interesting facts that belong particularly to this anniversary week. The comparatively large size of the classes entering and leaving college has been one marked feature and a source of great encouragement. Thirteen young men and three young women were received into the Freshman class, and a few days later thirteen young men and two young women, having completed four years of college work, took the degree of B. A. This is more than double the largest class ever before graduated from Fisk, and while the increase in numbers cannot yet be sustained with regularity from year to year, it does show a growth in our work and a strengthening of purpose on the part of our young people. In 1874, a class of six young men entered college, but only two ever got beyond the threshold: the others lost heart and purpose; of the present class three have fallen by the hand of death within the four years and only three have dropped out for other causes.
Commencement day revealed in the tone of the graduating orations a moral earnestness and uprightness of principle that called forth the commendation of our stranger guests. The best record of the class, however, is in the influence its members have exerted in the school during the whole of their Senior year.
It may be remembered that a year ago the Alumni Association adopted a plan by which, beginning three years after graduation, at least one per cent. of the earnings of each member is to be appropriated to an endowment fund for Fisk University. Whenever the sum reaches $1,000, it is to be devoted to some chair in the University. This year the Treasurer reported $140 on hand. The beginning seems small, but who can tell to what the stream may grow? Part of the Alumni anniversary was given up to a memorial service for one who, after six years of faithful work among her people, has died within the year.
On the evening devoted to the Normal Department, Prof. Salisbury was expected to address us on some educational topic. In his absence, Prof. Smith, of the chair of Greek in Vanderbilt University, kindly filled the place and gave us an excellent address on Thomas Carlyle. Prof. Smith is of Southern birth, but has manifested a cordial friendliness and an interest that has led him to really investigate the work of Fisk University.
