THE ALUMNI.

The extent to which the institution has suffered by the interruptions of the war and between 1874-1877 can be seen by a glance at the list of alumni. The first graduates were in 1869. For the next six years there was an uninterrupted but not overlarge stream, making an aggregate of 58, a yearly average of not quite 10, a proportion hardly commensurate with the number of students. Such a falling off may have been due to the difficulty of the course, but it may also have resulted from the failure to arouse that enthusiasm which endureth all things, hopeth all things.

Graduation began again in 1882, since which time the number of graduates has again (1890) reached 58.

UNIVERSITY WORK.

A university, apart from its duties in giving instruction and extending culture, is expected to do something in the way of original research and discovery. The University of Louisiana which, in respect to its students makes no claim to do more than impart instruction, has, in the person of its professors, done some work of investigation.

In the summer of 1869 geological and topographical surveys of the State began to be made, the former by Prof. F. V. Hopkins, the latter by Col. Samuel H. Lockett, professors, respectively, of geology and engineering. Colonel Lockett's labors extended over several summers, his fourth report being printed in 1872. His survey bears a character for extreme accuracy, and has been, along with the very complete map he drew, of great value to the State.

The professor of modern languages, Americus Featherman, was engaged upon a botanical survey of the State about the same time. He classified the larger part of the flora of the State, and deposited many specimens in the museum of the institution.

THE FUTURE OF THE INSTITUTION.

The writer will not be thought to have drawn a very flattering picture of the past of the University of Louisiana. He will therefore be pardoned for indulging a somewhat roseate prospect for its future. The last three or four years have not been years of any brilliant growth, but they have been, perhaps, a quiet seedtime for a future harvest. The present outfit of the institution comprises several chairs of value for the agricultural and mechanical work, and it is in that field that the utility of the institution must eventually lie, as its recent developments have lain. Notice has already been made of the temporary abolition of the classical department. At present Greek and Latin are parceled out to the professors of modern languages and of English, respectively. [Written in 1890.]

Education in Louisiana happily does not rest on one institution alone. The State is also, in a certain sense, a patron of the Tulane University. In lieu of the relinquishment of taxes on the latter, and in return for the donation of buildings formerly occupied by the University of Louisiana, it was provided that each senator and representative should have the right of appointing one student who should be under no charge for tuition. To 124 students, at least, the Tulane University is open as a State institution without the payment of fees. For the present this would meet all the demands, at least for men who wished to take a classical education. Then the university at Baton Rouge might be made entirely polytechnic in its aims. Doubtless for a moderate annual donation Tulane University might be thrown open to all Louisiana students without the payment of tuition.

As it is, the State University is attempting what is beyond its means to carry out; in consequence, individual professors have far too many subjects to give adequate attention to any of them. A good example will be furnished by the announcements for the English literature, history and Latin courses, all given by one man.

Freshman class: Lockwood's Lessons in English; Sir Roger de Coverley, read in class; A. S. Hill's Rhetoric; a play of Shakespeare, read in class; compositions once a week.

Junior class: Shaw's New History of English and American Literature; Milton, and selections from the essays of Macaulay, De Quincy, and Carlyle, read in class; essays once in two weeks.

Senior class: Freeman's General Sketch of History; Hill's Jevons's Logic; D. H. Montgomery's Leading Facts of English History (supplemented by reference to the leading authorities); Chapin's Wayland's Political Economy; essays once a month.

Latin.-Latin is taught only in the literary course, beginning in the subfreshman year and terminating with the junior. The time allowed for the study of the language is brief, but it is the aim of the department to secure thoroughness in what is taught, rather than to go over a more extended course loosely and superficially.

Text-books Used.--Subfreshman class: Gildersleeve's Latin Primer.

Freshman class: Gildersleeve's Latin Reader; Cæsar; Exercises; Gildersleeve's Latin Grammer; Keightley's Mythology.

Sophomore class: Virgil; Cicero's Orations; Exercises; Gildersleeve's Latin Grammar; Allen's History of Rome.

Junior class: Livy; Horace; Metres of Horace; Gildersleeve's Latin Grammar. Every student must be provided with Harper's Latin Dictionary and Ginn & Co.'s Classical Atlas.

With professors so overtasked, and consequently such meager courses, the institution can hardly expect to attract ambitious students. Restricted, however, to polytechnic courses, a not insufficient outfit might be maintained. By the mere fact of its location in a large city the Tulane has very great attractiveness for classical and literary students.

THE HATCH BILL.

The best work done in the State University has proceeded from the agricultural experiment stations. Of this work Prof. William C. Stubbs, Ph. D., is director. Bulletins on various points connected with agriculture are issued from these stations. The preparation of sugar has received special attention, and a good number of young university students find remunerative employment in the sugar houses where the manufacture of sugar is carried on. This sphere of activity was rendered possible to the institution by the Hatch bill, approved by the President of the United States March 2, 1887. The object of this bill was to establish agricultural experiment stations in connection with the technical colleges established by the act of July 2, 1862, and for this purpose an appropriation of $15,000 annually was made for each State. In accordance with the provisions of this act 3 stations were located for Louisiana, under the general supervision of the professor of agriculture at the Agricultural and Mechanical College. One of these stations is located back of the campus of the institution. Bulletins are sent out by the director, giving the results of various practical experiments, and these must prove of the very greatest benefit to intelligent farming in the State. It is in this particular, as has been said before, that the greatest development of the institution must be looked for.

APPROPRIATIONS.

The subjoined table will show how much money has been granted the institution. The attempt is not made to separate the annuity funds from the grants of the State; neither are the sums realized from the annuity of the Agricultural and Mechanical College reckoned in until after its merging with the Louisiana State University:

Some small apropriations are not reckoned in this sum total.

57, 560.00 294,667.80

890.527.80

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS SINCE THE WAR.

After the war the constitution of 1868 provided, in respect of education, that:

ART. 135. The general assembly shall establish at least one free public school in each parish throughout the State, and shall provide for its support by taxation or otherwise. All children of the State between the ages of 6 and 21 shall be admitted to the public schools or other institutions of learning sustained or established by the State in common, without distinction of color, race, or previous condition. There shall be no separate school or institution of learning established exclusively for any race by the State of Louisiana.

ART. 136. No municipal corporation shall make any rules or regulations contrary to the spirit and intention of article 135.

The days of reconstruction were bitter days, and the memory of their bitterness is still green. The inexpediency of commingling the two races in social ways has since been amply demonstrated by the course of events. The laws above given were never really observed, lacking that indispensable requisite of popular government, the consent of the governed. As far as these laws were enforced it amounted to the exclusion of the whites from the schools altogether. The situation is very well discussed in the report of Mr. R. M. Lusher, superintendent of public instruction, in 1877:

The senseless inhibitions of articles 135 and 136 have generally been disregarded in the rural parishes of the State, and the system of public education has steadily gained favor from the popular mind only where separate schools for white and colored children, respectively, were established and maintained. Under the present law the parish directors have cheerfully opened and liberally sustained a white and a colored school apart in each ward, to the mutual satisfaction of both races, and only the continuance of this equitable plan can possibly secure contributions from taxpayers for the preservation and maintenance of any system of education whatever at the public expense.

It has long been apparent, in the city of New Orleans, that nine-tenths of our colored fellow-citizens prefer separate schools for the education of their children, and that the desire to enter white schools, in contravention of the natural law, is peculiar to children of mixed white and colored blood, whose parents have always been free. These children undoubtedly merit special consideration; and, as they have a strong aversion to association in the schools with children of darker hue, it would seem wise to establish a separate intermediate class of schools for their instruction. This the city board of school directors have already done by opening an "Academy No. 4," in charge of a very competent and deserving colored teacher and an experienced lady assistant, under whose skillful guidance a much larger number of such children than are now in attendance can be rendered thoroughly conversant with all the essential and liberal branches of education.

The mingling or disjunction of races, like the coeducation or separate instruction of the sexes and the grading of schools and other arrangements affecting the efficiency of a school system, are matters which should be left wholly to the discretion of the directors who are responsible for the success of that system. They are not proper subjects for constitutional enactments, but must be controlled and regulated by the enlightened conscience of the communities who are taxed for the support of free education.

ADMINISTRATION.

A further characteristic of the reconstruction era was the large amount of money consumed in the mere administration of the schools. In 1870, for example, the following sums were expended on this account:

In 1879 this staff of salary drawers was reduced to a superintendent of public instruction, with a salary of $2,000 and an allowance of $1,000 for office expenses. The superintendent of the New Orleans schools is a city and not a State official. There may be, however, parish superintendents (58), at a maximum compensation of $200 yearly, but the entire cost is under $15,000 annually for administration.

ENDOWMENTS.

The condition of the schools in 1890 must now be given.

A. The support of the schools proceeds from the education tax of 14 mills, which is thus apportioned:

First. To pay the interest on the free-school fund, under article 233 of the constitution.

Second. To pay the interest on the seminary fund, under the second clause of said article.

Third. To pay the interest on the Mechanical and Agricultural College fund, under the third clause of said article of the constitution.

The remainder of said public education tax shall be applied to the establishment, maintenance, and support of the free public schools throughout the State. (Articles 224 to 233, inclusive, of the State constitution.)

Total valuation of property in the State subject to valuation [sic] is about $226,000,000 for 1889 (Auditor's report for 1889). The 14 mills calculated on this amount will amount to considerably less than the $300.000 appropriated.*

The free-school fund is based on donations from the United States Government, described as follows:

ART. CII.-FREE SCHOOLS.-DONATIONS.

SEC. 1. There was allowed to Louisiana and other States, over what each State was entitled to by the terms of the compact entered into between them and the United States upon their admission into the Union, ten per cent of the net proceeds of the sales of public lands thereafter to be made within the limits of each State, respectively.

* Breaux, School Laws, p. 45.