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or six Industrial schools during the past winter but a very small sum, not a tythe of that of the winter before was expended, and the number of these schools has been reduced to three nominally, really to about one. I believe Mrs. [[underlined]] Griffing [[/underlined]] has continued something of a sewing school in connection with her intelligence office, and agency for the City public charity. I have received no report from her, and but meagre ones, and those only occasionally, from Miss [[underlined]] Susan Walker, [[/underlined]] who is said to have a school where she instructs a few women, and I presume does some good. The Lincoln Industrial school in the large new building corner of Vermont Avenue and 10th Sts, has done a good work. There, every week a large number of women and children have been taught sewing, and a few have been instructed to work with the sewing-machine. This is a school which commands the sympathies and cooperative labors of many of the best people of our City, and bids fair to have a healthy existence many years after the Bureau work has ended. It is well that some schools should be kept up where the various branches of industry shall be nearly gratuitously taught to the poor and unfortunate. To a very limited extent only do we need such schools go give employment, which can be easily obtained in every direction by those who are industrious, honest and capable. The Industrial schools in Washington are the only ones in my District. Normal and Theological Schools. There are seven schools of these classes with an average attendance for the last nine months of four hundred and forty-three (443) scholars: of these, three hundred and ten (310) are males, and one hundred and thirty-three (133) females. The importance of these schools is not, and hardly can be overestimated. Educated colored men from the ranks of the freedmen, in all the professions, are a demand of the times. I would not disparage the work of our northern teachers, male or female, white or colored: many of them have done and are doing a great work. But there are many places where our white teachers cannot go. The climate is unfriendly and so are the people of their own color. Some colored teachers from the north do exceedingly well, and some are easily discouraged. The homes and habits of these people among whom they must sleep, eat and teach are very different from those at the north. Some of these colored teachers are very indifferently educated, and know little of the best methods of teaching. The teachers as a class, who gather the largest and best ordered schools, and stir up the most interest among the people, are those who go out from our Normal schools with the enthusiasm of the school upon them, resolved to do well and work hard. They teach [[end page]] [[start page]] as they have been taught. Said the colored minister visiting the school at Cumberland with one, "The teacher brings up his classes, and goes through the exercises just like his old teacher, Mr. [[underlined]] Hartwell [[/underlined]] in the Normal school at Baltimore". Said our former agent, Dr. [[underlined]] Wilmer [[/underlined]] of Maryland, "The students whom you send from Mr. [[underlined]] Gregory's [[/underlined]] Normal school are not better educated than a certain other one not from a normal school, who has been in the County teaching some time, but they have been instructed in the art of teaching, they know how to classify their scholars, and they keep a still school". I approached one of these schools in the country not long ago. No noise was heard, and I thought the number of pupils must be very small. What was my surprise on entering to find more than forty in well arranged seats, with desks and books before them, studious and orderly. The question about boarding a new teacher came up in a school district in St. Mary's Co. Md.. A colored woman having a good house said, "Let the young student whom we have had remain, and I will board him for nothing". I would that all the schools could be supplied with colored teachers from our normal schools for the coming term. The Normal and Theological schoolls have averaged for the term about as follows. Howard University, Washington, D.C. | 70 Males | 40 Females | 116 Dr. [[underlined]] E. Turney's [[/underlined]] school " " [[dittos for: Washington, D.C.]] | 66 " [[ditto for: Males]] | 0 " [[ditto for: Females]] | 66 Rev. [[underlined]] S. M. P. King's [[/underlined]] " " " [[dittos for: school Washington, D.C.]] | 46 " [[ditto for: Males]] | 10 " [[ditto for: Females]] | 56 " [[ditto for: Rev.]] [[underlined]] S. B. Gregory's [[/underlined]] " " " [[dittos for: school Washington, D.C.]] | 26 " [[ditto for: Males]] | 0 " [[ditto for: Females]] | 26 Normal School, Baltimore, Md. | 45 " [[ditto for: Males]] | 25 " [[ditto for: Females]] | 70 Storer's College, Harper's Ferry, W. Va. | 20 " [[ditto for: Males]] | 17 " [[ditto for: Females]] | 37 Normal School, Wilmington, Del. | 37 " [[ditto for: Males]] | 35 " [[ditto for: Females]] | 72 I am happy to report that henceforth the two schools, one under Mr. [[underlined]] King, [[/underlined]] sent out by the Boston Baptist Freedmen's Association, and the other under Mr. [[underlined]] Gregory, [[/underlined]] sent out by the Baptist Home Mission Society, will be united, much to the credit of the denomination and the good of the cause. Dr. [[underlined]] Turney [[/underlined]] has, I am sure, a strong hold upon the affections of the colored people; and he is a hard working earnest man. I would that he could work in harmony with his denomination. One of the worst faults among the colored people is their tendency to divisions, and to distrust one another. Let them not learn this from their instructors. I regret to learn that this term closes the connection of Mr. [[underlined]] Hartwell [[/underlined]] with the Normal school at Baltimore. He has been a most faithful and efficient teacher in that very excellent school. The trustees of Storer's College at Harper's Ferry, have not
