.C. Hitchcock.


Last year was a "golden year" at Straight University in New Orleans. In
the first place, it is seldom the good fortune of any school to get a
corps of teachers so uniformly capable, and of such earnest Christian
spirit, willing to spend and be spent in the Master's service.

Then every year brings a better class of students; not more sincere,
perhaps, but year by year they learn what "getting an education" means.
A few years ago it was quite impossible to make them realize that
steady, uninterrupted attendance was absolutely necessary to good work,
but as they have opportunity to compare the positions taken and the work
done by those who were regular and who remained at school long enough to
be really fit for good service, with those who thought they could come
in January and leave in April, getting an imperfect knowledge of things,
to their credit be it told, they _learn_--some _cannot_ learn life's
lessons--and there has been lately a gratifying eagerness to be present
at every recitation during the whole year. I do not think one has left
this year who could possibly remain. When the floods came and many of
them learned that their homes were under water, in some cases the
savings of many years in buildings and stock washed away, they came to
us saying they must go as they could no longer pay, but we told them to
wait. White-winged missives flew over Uncle Sam's postal way, and back
from many a church and Sunday-school came the needed aid, and--save in
the case of some young men who had to care for helpless ones at
home--none left. From these last came many an interesting story of the
heroic efforts to save life and property. The skill to wield tools,
acquired in our shop, helped many a one to build a "flat" in which
family, stock and furniture could be floated to dry land. Many had to
work night and day up to the waist, sometimes to the neck, in water to
save what might be. It will be a hard year, the coming one, for many in
the parishes of this State, though no