she was in many respects a provincial copy
of rural England of that time. The clergy
of the Established Church had the low moral
tone and lack of spirituality which in the
reigns of Anne and the early Georges too
often disgraced their English brethren. There
was practically no town life, and the wretch
ed state of the roads was an obstacle to a
social intercourse such as was quickening
and developing the mental life of Colonial
New England. In a community so widely
settled, with no great centers of population,
the establishment of schools was necessarily
difficult. The sons of the wealthy were
taught at home, and perhaps completed their
education in England, or in the better-equip-
ped Colonies of the North; but among the
masses illiteracy was general. We find no
trace of that sympathy with popular educa
tion which from the first was characteristic
of the more northern colonies, but rather
signs of a selfish and aristocratic prejudice
against it. Sir William Berkeley embodied
this spirit when he wrote: “I thank God
there are no free schools, nor printing, and
I hope we shall not have these hundred
years; for learning has brought disobedience
and heresy, and sects into the world, and
printing has divulged them, and libels against
the best government. God keep us from
both.” Unfortunately this policy was not
confined to Berkeley. Throughout the en
tire Colonial period the South was without
any provision for general education. The
entire blame for these unfortunate conditions
cannot fairly be laid at the door of the
English Government; it is partly attributable
to an aristocratic and autocratic spirit among
the ruling classes of Virginia. A recent
writer declares that “thought was not free
In Virginia, religion was not free In Virginia,
and this by the explicit and reiterated choice
of the people of Virginia.”
New England encouraged learning, early
established schools, and made education com
pulsory. With Davenport Adams they said;
Educate your children, train with assiduous
affection their mental and moral faculties,
give them the very highest and broadest cul
tivation, and you will have fewer idle girls
In your drawing-rooms; they will be less friv
olous, and your sons will be inspired, refined
and ijurified by the examples and companion
ship of their sisters, and the whole tone of
thought and feeling' will be speedily and sen
sibly elevated.” Their schools and colleges
■Were established, not by a few men, but by
the entire colony. The people became so en
thusiastic and eager for education that they
^ere anxious to give individual aid to the es
tablishment of these institutions.
These New Englanders, however, felt that
they had a story to tell, and that they must
'eave something for posterity, Thinking, this
LOUISBURG e\:H0ES.
could best be accomplished' through their
pens, they early began to write. The keen,
stimulating atmosphere quickened the mind
and body with a restless and nervous energy,
changing the ruddy Englishman into the
alert, quicker-witted Yankee.
An early New England writer says truly
that their company of the elect had not been
led Into a land flowing with milk and honey,
but into a wilderness, where men must live
by their brain; so we note the early begin
ning of manufacturing and other industries
at a time when they were unknown in the
Colonies of the South.
The conditions of life and the climate were
unfavorable to any great achievement in lit
erature. As a rule, great writers have been
dwellers in cities; the best literature is apt
to be born amid the thronging centers of
human competition and activity, where life
moves swiftly and with a dramatic energy
and complexity, and mind is quickened by
constant contact with mind. In the South,
the focus of mental activity did not exist.
While the Puritans were intelligent, the
Cavaliers were hospitable, and by no means
lacking in virtues. The men were brave and
chlvalric, the women charming and devoted;
home life beautiful and family affections
strong.
Our affections for our homes, whether of
the North or of the South, are so strong
that in all sincerity we can say with
Whittier:
“Home of my heart! to me more fair
Than gay Versailles or Windsor’s halls, ,
The painted, shingly town-house where
The freeman’s vote for Freedom falls.”
ALUMNAE DEPARTMENT.
We shall need the sympathy and co-opera
tion of every member of the Alumnae Asso
ciation in the work we are undertaking.
Subscribe to your College paper, give it your
hearty support, and thus do your part in
lifting Louisburg College to the place she
so fitly deserves.
* * *
“IF.”
If any little word of mine
May make a life the brighter.
If any little song of mine
May make a heart the lighter,
God help me speak the little word
And take my bit of singing.
And drop it in some lonely vale.
To set the echoes ringing.
If any little love of mine
May make a life the sweeter.
If any little care of mine
May make a friend’s the fleeter.
5
If any little lift of mine may ease
The burden of another,
God give me love, and- care, and strength
To help my toiling brother.
—Mrs. M. P. A. Crozier, in Morning Star.
AliUMKAE NOTES.
Miss Nellie Radcllffe is teaching in the
Lilesville High School. Success to you,
Nellie.
« * «
Send your subscription to Louisburg
Echoes to Miss C. D. Bagley, Business
Manager.
« » «
We hear that the people of Leasburg are
much pleased with their new teacher—Miss
Edna Watkins.
« « »
The patrons of Lake Landing, N. C„ are
forunate in having secured the services of
Miss Lydie Long (‘03) as teacher this year.
* « :it
Miss Annie Smith, who has recently re
turned from New York, where she has been
studying music, has a music school in Rock
ingham, N. C.
« « «
Those who spent the Christmas holidays
of 1.905 in the College will not be surprised
to hear that Lelia Adams is now Mrs. Junius
Bolich, of Denver, N. C.
* » *
We extend our sincere sympathy to our
beloved President, Mrs. Julia Latimore Bar
row, in the death of her son, Mr. H. M. Bar
row, of Concord, N. C.
* » *
Maude Underwood proved that her ambi
tion was not so “High” as her class-mates
gave her credit for—and contented herself by
marrying only a “Barbour.”
♦ ♦ ♦
Mrs. M. J. Jackson (nee Mary Granger),
of Kinston, spent several days at the College
in September. This was her first visit to
Louisburg since she was a student here
in ’72.
Miss Beth Bagley, who has for several
years been the private secretary of Col. W.
T. Hughes, at the Mecklenburg, Chase City,
has recently accepted a similar position with
the John M. Koper Lumber Co., in Norfolk.
* * «
Miss Sarah Barnes (whom many of her
school mates remember as “President of the
Spell Club”) has been the very popular prin
cipal of a school at Conway, N. C., for the
past four years. vMiss Mary ThompsM. origi
nator of the far-famed “Smile Producer,” has
succeeded her. Our next issue may contain
an item of greater interest in regard to
Sarah.