seashores of the North. They have had the unbroken toil of eight or ten months in the South, far from their homes and friends, finding little companionship except with the pupils and their parents, sometimes ostracized and scorned by the whites—and yet not always—for we rejoice to say that there are many localities in the South where the work of our teachers is appreciated and where they are themselves treated with Christian courtesy by the whites.

We need not ask their friends at the North to welcome these returned workers with that kindness that is restful, but we do ask that the facts they reveal in regard to the South may be heard and heeded. There is no set of witnesses more competent to tell of the actual situation at the South, its home life, its industries, its struggle with difficulties, than these same teachers. Sometimes the teachers have been there but a short time and their labors may have been confined to one locality, but in that narrow range their observations among the colored people have been most minute. They have watched the operations of the pupils closely from day to day, and have been brought constantly in contact with the people in their cabins, in their work, and in their trials.

But many of the teachers have been there for years and in different locations, and their representation of the state of affairs is as reliable as any that can be found from any source whatever. If the observations and experiences of this corps of teachers could be set forth, they would furnish, with all its lights and shades, the most accurate picture that could be presented of the state of affairs in the South. Pastors and churches would do well to give these returned teachers an opportunity to present in the prayer-meeting and elsewhere the exact facts as they have found them in the South.

MR. WHARTON, THE EVANGELIST.

Under the head of "Church Work" will be found in these pages a sketch of the work of an evangelist in our churches during the past year, written by himself. That evangelist is so unselfish and consecrated to his work, and has been so long and so successfully employed in it that we are sure our readers will be glad to have some account of the man himself.

Mr. James Wharton is an Englishman, resident at Barrow-in-Furness, near to Furness Abbey and the English lakes. He is not an ordained minister, but a lay preacher, as Mr. Moody is. He accepts no salary for his services, and consents to receive only the amount of his traveling expenses. For over twenty years he has been thus engaged, residing at his home in the summer but busy in gospel work, and in the winters traveling to distant places. His labors have been in England, Ireland, Scotland, the Shetland Islands, Wales, Canada, Spain and America. During these ministrations he has traveled 88,000 miles, and has made eleven trips to America.

In 1876, he learned of the condition of the emancipated slaves of this country, and entered into correspondence with this Association with reference to work here. He has spent eleven years here, and has evinced great wisdom, good judgment and, as will be seen by the report of his work this past year, has had great success. He was the first man to attempt an open-air service in New Orleans after the war. He stood on a cotton bale at the foot of Canal St., and continued the service for several weeks, although the white people threatened to shoot him. In his labors among the blacks of the South, he strikes the happy medium between undue excitement and cold formalism. As he returns from year to year, he rejoices to find the converts of earlier years holding on their way with faith and a stable Christian life. Our readers will be interested to read the sketch which Mr. Wharton gives of his labors.

OLD SPANISH DOLLARS.

A friend sends, with the following brief note, two Spanish dollars of ancient date. We hope that some lovers of ancient coin will be able to make a good offer for them:

"I send you by express two old Spanish silver dollars of date 1786 and 1800, for the work of the American Missionary Association. They belong to my wife, who has had them a long time and now thinks they had better be sent out to help in the Lord's work through the American Missionary Association. Our hope is, that some lover of the great and good cause, who has also a fancy for old and rare coins, may appear, who would pay a liberal premium for them. If such should be the case, we would be much gratified to be informed as to how much they bring to the work."

THE SOUTH.

Anniversary Exercises.

TOUGALOO UNIVERSITY, TOUGALOO, MISS.

While, owing to hard times, the enrollment at Tougaloo this year, 362, was less than that of the two previous years, the average attendance has been better than before, larger numbers having continued until the close. The year has been marked by specialty good work on the students' part, only one having failed of promotion. It has been a notable year also in the religious development of many. One only of the Normal Department is not now a professing Christian, and at the farewell prayer-meeting he expressed the earnest desire soon to become one. In the new Theological Department nine have been enrolled. The prospect for next year is that this feature of the work will be largely developed. The new College Preparatory Department has made a most successful beginning, seven having been enrolled and having done good work. The past year has also been notable in the industrial departments. Great attention has always been given to these, though in the girls' industries, especially, the facilities have been exceedingly inadequate. During the year, Berkshire Cottage, the girls' industrial building, has been completed, and in it are pleasant accommodations for the needlework and cooking classes. Seventy girls have had class instruction throughout the year in these branches. In Berkshire Cottage is also carried on the work for which the building was specially designed—the model housekeeping. When the rooms are all furnished eight girls at a time, in two sets of four, will keep house for two months at a time, gaining a practical knowledge of household economies. This year sixteen girls have had this most important training, the last four in the new cottage. Of this four, three were in the graduating Normal class. The exhibits of the cooking and sewing classes at Commencement, consisting of cakes, biscuits, confectionery, etc., and a great variety of well made and useful garments, were highly praised, and a large number sold to visitors. Few schools have better facilities for the practical and most important work of developing homemakers than has Tougaloo. Upon the trained young women who can make good homes depends very largely the future of the Negro race.

From the earliest history of the school there has been attention paid to agriculture, and each year sees development in the acreage under cultivation and the quantity of produce raised. This year nearly all the fresh meat and the milk, sweet potatoes, molasses, vegetables, etc., needed by the large boarding department, have been raised on the farm, and some things have been marketed, besides the large amount of corn and hay needed upon so large a plantation. The need of a special agricultural building, to cost about $2,000, in which those students who work upon the farm can live, and where they may have special class instruction, is greatly needed.

The Manual Training Department has also this year received new impetus.