The apportionment among the institutions receiving aid from the John F. Slater fund in 1889-90 was as follows: The sum of $47,428.27 was received from the income of the Daniel Hand fund, and was used in extending aid to deserving and promising students, in providing good school buildings at different places, and in securing teachers for places where they could not otherwise be obtained. The Daniel Hand fund at the time it was granted consisted of interest-bearing securities to the amount of $1,000,894.25. It was placed in charge o the American Missionary Association, and only the income of it is to be used. The bonds and property are "to be received and held by said American Missionary Association upon trust, and for the following purposes, viz: To safely manage the said trust fund, to change investments whenever said association may deem it necessary or advisable, to reinvest the principal of said trust fund in such securities, property, and investments as said association may deem best, and to use the income thereof only for the education of colored people of African descent residing in the recent slave States of the United States of America hereinbefore specified. "Such income to be applied for the education of such colored people as are needy and indigent, and such as by their health, strength, and vigor of body and mind give indications of efficiency and usefulness in after life." In December, 1891, at his home in Guilford, Conn., occurred the death of Mr. Daniel Hand, the donator of the above fund, who with intelligent foresight gave from the living hand that which probably for years to come will confer its benefits upon deserving youth.' 1 Daniel Hand was born in Madison, Conn., July 16, 1801, and was therefore in the eightyeighth year of his age when he made his gift for the education of the colored people at the South. His ancestors resided in that town for several generations, and were always landholders, industrious, quiet, and respectable. To this ancestry Mr. Hand is probably indebted under God for his physical vigor, long life, strength of character, and success in business. He was the fourth son of seven, and was on the farm under his father's direction until he was 16 years of age, when he was put in charge of his second brother, Augustus F. Hand, who was then a merchant at Augusta, Ga., and whom he succeeded in business. In 1854 Mr. Hand went to New York in connection with his Southern business, and remained there in that capacity until the beginning of the war in 1861. He resided in some portion of the Southern Confederacy during the entire war, and was never treated with violence in any way, and no Confederate officer ever offered him indignity or even an unkind word. "Mr. George W. Williams, a native Georgian, was, at about the age of 16, employed by Mr. Hand as a clerk in Augusta, and in a few years was taken in as partner. Mr. Williams suggested a branch of the business in Charleston, and conducted it successfully. When the war came on Mr. Hand's capital was largely engaged in the Charleston business, which Mr. Williams, as a Southern man, continued, having the use of Mr. Hand's capital, which the Confederate government vainly endeavored to confiscate by legal proceedings against Mr. Hand as a Northern man of pronounced antislavery sentiments. After the war Mr. Hand came North and left it to his old partner, Mr. Williams, to adjust the business and make up the accounts, allowing him almost unlimited time for so doing. When this was accomplished Mr. Williams came North and paid over to Mr. Hand his portion of the long-invested capital and its accumulations. "Mr. Hand, having been early deprived by death of wife and children, decided to devote a share of his large fortune to benevolent purposes. At one time he intended to make bequests to some Northern colleges, but at length, recalling the fact that his property was accumulated in the South, and knowing so well the needs of the ignorant negroes, he turned his attention to them. The well-known and magnificent gift of $1,000,894.25, October 24, 1888, to the American Missionary Association, for the benefit of the colored people of the Southern States, was the result. George R. Smith College, Sedalia, Mo.-On March 27, 1888, two daughters of Gen. George R. Smith, Madams Smith and Cotton, donated 25 acres of land, valued at $25,000, in Sedalia, Mo., for the establishment of an institution of learning for the colored race, on condition that a $25,000 building should be erected on it by January 1, 1892. The building was partially erected within the required time, but the donors kindly extended the time to January 1, 1894. As the institution is to be in charge of the Freedmen's Aid and Southern Education Society of the M. E. Church, it will very probably be completed within the required time. It will be the first institution of higher grade in Missouri for colored people. INDUSTRIAL TRAINING. In nearly all, if not all, of the institutions for the secondary and higher education of the colored race of the South industrial training forms a very important part. It is one of the conditions required before aid can be received from the John F. Slater fund. The cost of its introduction was very considerable, in the purchase of sufficient grounds, in the erection of suitable buildings, and securing the necessary machinery and apparatus for the different kinds of work. And not only was its introduction expensive, but its maintenance as well, for it has not been the purpose to make profits, or even in many cases to meet expenses, but to impart the largest amount of useful and practical knowledge and to train in habits of carefulness, diligence, and order. But at the same time many indigent students were instructed in branches of industry by which they were soon able to contribute largely towards defraying their expenses, and afterwards to earn a good livelihood. It was found, too, that the physical exercise and the temporary mental diversion from studies was very conducive to health and vigor and was a source of enjoyment to students, while it in no way hindered progress in their studies. It also indicated that hard labor on the farm or in the workshop was not to be confined to the ignorant, poverty-stricken wretch, but that there was nothing in it inconsistent with an educated, progressive, Christian character. As to industrial training, Dr. A. G. Haygood, general agent of the Slater fund, says: "The essential goodness of industrial training in connection with the ordinary school training is now universally admitted by experienced and practical people. In the schools aided by the Slater fund during the school year 1889-90 as many as ten thousand young people were taught in books and in some branch of useful industries. This sort of training is vital now. Mere book schooling with poor and illiterate people breeds wants faster than it develops the ability to provide for them. The outcome is misery. Tool-craft helps to realize the aspirations that book learning inspires." TABLE 4.-Amount and distribution of the sums disbursed from the Slater fund, from 1883 to 1891, inclusive. |