File:M. J. Sherman to Alice Mary Longfellow, 11 March 1892 (ee41f88a-866a-44df-9fed-39f1db9f418b).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1007.001/002.003-001#043

[printed letterhead: The Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute]
Hampton, Va., March 11, 1892.
Dear Miss Longfellow,-
It is with no small degree of gratitude that we send you the annual “scholarship letters,” for you have this year so generously contributed to our needs that these two letters seem a small expression of our appreciation.
Washington’s letter is very like him -- quite Indian. He is not a good scholar, but is our pride in the drawing classes. He has [p. 2] unusual ability in that direction, and is given extra opportunities to cultivate that talent.
Rebecca Jones is not in school. I think she is teaching although I have not heard from her directly to that effect.
Kate is a very nice girl doing fair work in class, and in all respects deserving a share in the benefits of your generous gift.
Very kindly yours,
M. J. Sherman-
[printed letter, opposite p. 2:] To Contributors of Scholarship Gifts of Seventy Dollars.
Please find enclosed a letter of acknowledgment, original and uncorrected, from a student who has been assigned this year as your beneficiary and who writes to express...... appreciation, and to give some account of........... While free tuition is thus provided, the student is responsible for board, books and clothes, the cost of which is chiefly worked out in the labor departments. Colored students earned last year on our farm and in our household industries and twelve workshops $57,198.71. The earnings of Indians (whose board and clothing is provided by the government) are given them that they may learn the use of money, one half being kept until they return home.
The course of study begins with one year in the night school, except that apprentices to the trades spend all day from two to four years in the shops, two years in the night school being about equivalent to one in the day school ; the work in the former being more earnest and satisfactory, even after ten hours of hard labor.
The Junior Class, made up chiefly from the night school, is followed by the Middle Class, the members of which are sent out for one year's practice, to teach in public schools of this and other states. Then those who desire come back and enter as Seniors. The plan has, for years, worked admirably, bringing back a class of thoughtful students, who know their needs, and graduate far better qualified to teach than if their course of study had been unbroken.
Among the best workers we have sent out are those who have been full-grown on entering but backward in study, poor spellers and writers, but faithful and steady. Dullness and character often go together; we are surest of the least brilliant-the plodders; while those of fine ability are not uncommon, and have made noble records among their people.
Many have to repeat their Junior or Middle year. The three years' course is too short for about one third of our students, the dull ones, who need to review the year's work to be well grounded in all its studies.
Unless a definite promise has been made, no one is considered as pledged ahead for a scholarship contribution.
No reply to this letter is expected, yet an answer would be greatly enjoyed. Much good has resulted from the relations established by these letters. Since students, especially new comers, need several months' training in expression by language and writing, scholarship letters are not sent until February; and then that the work of sending over three hundred may be done with the least interruption to teaching and study, they are all, or nearly all, prepared and sent at once. Hence the response to a scholarship gift made any time after July 1st, the beginning of the fiscal year, may be delayed for several months.
S. C. ARMSTRONG,
PRINCIPAL
Hampton, Va., February, 1892.
[printed letter, opposite p. 1]
More than one has said or thought, “The Hampton School has so many friends that it does not need a scholarship from me this year.”
So long as this school has the entire responsibility for board, clothing, etc., (besides tuition at $70.00 per year) of about five hundred Negro youth and the tuition of one hundred and thirty-four Indians, it must ask of its friends the sum of sixty thousand dollars a year.
Colored students earn annually in our sixteen industrial departments about fifty-five thousand dollars; but nearly half of it is non-productive, while most useful and instructive training; it saves the employment of outside labor. Of our eighty teachers and officers, about half are in the industrial work. This drill of hand as well as of head and heart is expensive, but pays in the end.
The total income from scholarships last year was $25,315.56. In 1890 it was $27,566.66, and in 1887 it was $29,800. Thus the school’s chief reliance is not holding its own, while the work is steadily improving, and as vital as ever to the country.
We are compelled to use unrestricted bequests, in sums of from $500 to $5,000 for current expenses, to the amount of $12,000 or $15,000 a year, which we would gladly convert into interest bearing funds. All legacies given for endowment or other specified purposes are strictly applied to the object designated.
It should be remembered that bequests referred to in the newspapers are likely to be several years in bearing fruit. These reports, in some ways, weaken us. The school to-day owes about seventeen thousand dollars, and its appeals for help must be as vigorous as ever.

• Keywords: long archives; document; alice m. longfellow papers (long 16173); education; hampton institute; correspondence; Manuscripts (1007.001); (LONG-Subcollection); Correspondence (1007.001/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Scholarship Student Correspondence (1007.001/002.003); (LONG-SubseriesName); Letters to Alice Longfellow (1007.001/002.003-001); (LONG-FileUnitName)