The bulletin of Atlanta University, 1896 no. 70

              NUMBER 70.                                    ATLANTA, GEORGIA.                           JANUARY,  1896. ATLANTA  UNIVERSITY, ATLANTA,   GA., Is a Christian Institution, uusec-tarian in its management and influence, wholly controlled by an independent Hoard of Trustees, and receiving no aid from city, state or national government, or benevolent society. Has 255 students in College, Normal, College-Preparatory and Sub-Normal departments, under 23 officers and teachers. Trains  teachers and leaders  of their race from among the sons and daughters of the Freedmen of the South. Has sent out 285 graduates from College and Normal courses, nearly all of whom, together with hundreds of fast undergraduates, are engaged in teaching and other useful work in Georgia and surrounding States. Owns four large brick buildings, on sixty-five acres of laud, one mile from the centre of Atlanta, Ga.; library of 8,000 vols., apparatus and other equipment—all valued at not less than a quarter of a million dollars. Having no endowment (except about $33,000, mostly for special objects), the Institution requires at least $20,000 a year in donations from its fiends, to continue the work now in hand, and a fund of about $500,000 to put that work on a permanent basis. Annual scholarships of $40 each are asked for to provide for the tuition of one student for one year, over and above the nominal tuition fees paid by the student. Subscriptions  of   $100 and up- wards, or any smaller sums, are solicited for general current expenses. Remittances of donations, or inquiries for further information, may be addressed to Pres. Horace Bumstead, D. D, Atlanta, Ga. A Negro in Coleton, S. C, is suspected of petty larceny. Four white men belonging to the best families in that locality seize him, beat him nearly to death with a harness tug, and then make him drink poisoned whisky. Then they treat his wife in the same way, and his aged mother also. All three die. The murderers have been arrested.    Will they be punished ? The victims of lynch law in our country are mostly Negroes. The bottom difficulty is the failure to recognize a Negro as a man and an equal under the law. One evidence of this is the custom in the courts on the part of attorneys, and sometimes even of judges, of failing to call a Negro witness "Mr.," however intelligent and respectable he may be. He is usually called by his first name, and if the last name be used the prefix is omitted. A special message of our Governor upon lynching has been printed in pamphlet form and circulated. He recommends that a law be enacted providing a penalty for the failure to obey the summons of a sheriff or to act as a fosse com -itatus; also a law under which a sheriff may be fined, imprisoned, or removed from office for failing to make an arrest. This is not enough. A community in which a large number do not fear hanging for a murder is not likely to fear fine or imprisonment for failure to respond to a call of the sheriff. What is loss of office compared with loss of life ? Moreover, what guarantee is there that these proposed laws will ever be executed in communities which systematically defy the present laws of the State ? A change of heart is needed more than a change of law. One evidence of a growing respect for the Negro is the improved tone of the Atlanta dailies in writing about him. The contemptuous expressions and caricatures that were so common in these papers a few years ago have largely disappeared. The Atlanta Constitution now speaks of Negroes in about the same way that it does of white people, except that it still refrains from prefixing "Mrs." or "Miss" to the name of a colored woman. One Southern newspaper recently printed a news item with reference to a meeting of the most prominent and worthy colored women of the city, as it is said, and in giving names referred to them for example, as "Mary Swift" and "Sarah King." The growing respect for Negroes to which we have referred is due very largely to the schools and especially those of high grade. So soon as the whites learn that the Negroes are susceptible of high attainments in literature, business, handicraft, morals, manners etc., due recognition in the main will be given them. For the past few weeks we have had ' crowds of visitors. While the presence of all has been most welcome, we fear that some have not received the attention that they expected and we would have liked to give. The pleasure of entertaining has had its bounds in time and strength. Will any who have been neglected please accept our apology and come again ? Miss Andrews of Boston, who has been giving exhibitions in cooking at the Atlanta Exposition, has also been giving lessons to our senior normal class, to the great delight and gratification of the young women and others who have seen, heard, and tasted. The officers of the University wished her to remain a few weeks and assist our efficient matron to evolve improvements in the always improvable art of cooking, but greater inducements elsewhere prevented. The principal address at the emancipation celebration in Atlanta on New Year's Day was made by Mr. Antoine Graves, who received his education at Atlanta University. He eulogized Northern philanthropists, complained of the meagreness of educational facilities afforded the Negro by the State of Georgia, and urged the colored people to become producers and employers The address was full of the results of long continued study and thinking. Among our exchanges has appeared The Parish Visitor, a little newsy and vigorous monthly, devoted to the interests of the First Congregational Church in Atlanta, and edited by its pastor, Rev. H. H. Proctor, a graduate of Fisk University and Yale Theological Seminary. In its last number, was a report of the annual meeting in this city of the Georgia Association of Congregational churches. We thank Mr. Proctor and the other members of the Association for holding an interesting morning session at the University. The act was all the more appreciated from the fact that the officers of the Institution had not thought to invite them to come.