Viewing page 36 of 49
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
68 ABBOTT'S MONTHLY [[page is in 3 columns]] [[line]] [[italics]] Lifting Himself by his Own Bootstraps (Continued from page 33) [[/italics]] [[line]] taught the boys how intelligently to talk, walk, eat, sleep, and even care for their personal appearance that brought about that remarkable change. To him the most of the credit is due for the transfiguration of those droll, languid, lounging farm boys into princely looking young men, who, after some years training under him, went into the world better men and fine citizens. And today, from Mexico to Maine, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, even to the Isles of the sea, are to be found men tottering to the grave of old age, who sing, and sing again, the praises of Dr. Hyram R. Revels, founder and first president of Alcorn University, who gave to them the first vision of a higher and nobler life. Thus did he so let his light shine that, he who run might read. THOUGH the students gave prima facie evidence of having made wonderful strides in their mental and moral improvements, yet there were the, not members of the faculty, but officially connected with the school, who did not have the future welfare of the Negro youth at heart, but labored for their own selfish and pecuniary gains, all of which was quite apparent to Dr. Revels, but he was powerless to stem the tide or change the current. It was then he became convinced he might be of greater service to the school by sojourning in Jackson, the state capital, for a season and he, therefore, temporarily withdrew from the presidency and accepted the office of Secretary of State to which he had been appointed. In this office he proved an efficient public servant, but while there, he was laboring with might and main on Governor Alcorn to induce him to make some needed changes at Alcorn University, which seemed to bore heading for the rocks, and in that, he made some slight headway. He refused to stand for the nomination a the convention, which nominated James Hill for Secretary of State, and as soon as possible he turned over the office to his successor and returned to the school for further service. Little or no improvement had been made in the financial conduct of the school during his absence and after a few months of battling against the wrongs being perpetrated on both the affairs of the school and the student body, he resigned and moved to Holly Springs, where he entered on an extensive career of religious work in the Methodist Episcopal church. It is useless to say Alcorn went from bad to worse after his departure until finally a revolution of the students against the officials drove them therefrom. Then for a period the institution seemed tottering to a final fall, but it hung on. In the year 1875 the Republicans lost the general election of the state and the Democrats were inaugurated in January 1876. As soon as things could be reached Governor Stone importuned Dr. Revels to again accept the presidency of Alcorn, which he did, and returned thereto in September, 1876. It may not be amiss at this time to reproduce Governor Stone's letter to Dr. Revels and like-wise a copy of his official notification as president of Alcorn University, which was signed by James Hill, Secretary of State. Mr. Hill at that time and for many years thereafter was one of the very prominent colored politicians of the South. All of the parties officially connected with this transaction have long since passed away. Here is the Governor's letter: STATE OF MISSISSIPPI Executive Office Jackson, July 20th, 1876 Hon. H.R. Revels, Holly Springs. Sir: You are hereby appointed to the office of President of Alcorn University, to take effect from this date. Very truly yours, (Signed) J.M. STONE Governor THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI TO all of Whom the Presents shall Come--Greeting: Know Ye, That by virtue of the authority in me vested by the CONSTITUTION AND LAWS OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI as Governor, I do hereby appoint H.R. REVELS--to the office of PRESIDENT OF ALCORN UNIVERSITY, State of Mississippi, and I do Authorize, Empower and Enjoin him, the said H.R. REVELS, to execute and fulfill the duties of said office according to Law, and to HAVE AND TO HOLD SAID OFFICE from the date hereof, with all the POWERS, PRIVILEGES and EMOLUMENTS thereto appertaining, until the said APPOINTMENT IS CANCELLED OR REVOKED by competent authority, or until his successor in office shall have been duly Appointed, Qualified and Installed in said office, in accordance with the Laws of the State. IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I. J. M. STONE, Governor of the State aforesaid, have caused these Letters to be made Patent and the Great Seal of the State to be hereunto affixed. [SEAL] GIVEN UNDER MY HAND, at the City of Jackson, the 20th day of July in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six. (Signed) J.M. STONE, BY THE GOVERNOR: (Signed) JAMES HILL Secretary of State SEPTEMBER 1876 found Dr. Revels once again at the head of Alcorn University, and its founder, it was hoped, would become its saviour and he did. On his return Dr. Revels had as his co-workers Prof. George B. Vashon and Prof. Oscar M. Waring, with John B. Vashon student tutor and William Landers boarding house steward. Though Dr. Revels put forth Herculean efforts to regain for the school some of its former prestige and popularity, yet, on opening day, but few students enrolled and but slight improvement was made during that scholastic year. Probably Alcorn never had two more brilliant professors than those mentioned above, but they were northern school room men, accustomed to students coming to them in perfect trim for college work, which was not true of the boys at Alcorn, and so it devolved upon Dr. Revels almost single handed and alone the task of converting those plantation hands into university students, and a most difficult undertaking was it. It is safe to say there were not to exceed forty or fifty students on the grounds during the school year beginning September 1876 and ending June 1877. The following September saw a slight improvement both in numbers and the make up of the student body. When the school closed in 1878 the faculty and the students were very hopeful for the future and the outlook not only appeared brighter, but the worst seemed behind them. In August of that year [[italics]] (Continued on page 73) [[/italics]] for JANUARY, 1931 69 [[line]] [[italics]] The Mummy's Jest (Continued from page 36) [[/italics]] [[line]] Thebes, Thebes that contained the ruins of an ancient civilization. The night was cool and its beauty great, and within me the desire to walk, to flee from my sorrow into the sombre shadows, burned with fervid intensity. I set out in the direction of Thebes. "I do not know how long I walked for I was lost in a profound sort of reverie during the whole journey. However, it seemed to have consumed but little time, and the walk appeared not to have been very long; for soon I came in sight of the city. Upon the horizon, in the distance, I saw the grand ruins of Thebes loom up into the slowly changing skies. "When I arrived at Thebes the last streak of darkness had gone, and the skies became aflame with the fierce color of the early dawn. The air was calm, and the ruins of the ancient city rose with a strange melancholy into the fiery light. Nowhere was a living thing visible, and I was alone in the archaic city, silent as the sheeted dead. "The long walk to Thebes had in a measure dispelled the feeling of depression, and having returned, in a degree, to my normal state, I was seized with a desire to explore the ancient ruins. So int he fiery light of the early morning I began to walk among the grand ruins of Thebes. "I had been walking for quite awhile in a leisurely fashion, absorbed in the romance of the ancient world, when my feet caught against a mutilated state of Anubis lying prostrate on several fragments of a marble column. The next instant I had fallen with a heavy thud to the ground. When I rose and looked confusedly about me I observed an enormous lidless sarcophagus lying several feet away from where I stood. My heart beat with excitement at this sight, for I felt that I had discovered something of great value. Now I was in a position, I felt, to repay Dr. Brenner for his great kindness. The sarcophagus was built of basalt of a dull yellow color, and it contained a mummy which had in no way suffered disturbance. "I dragged my find into a darkened corner of the ruins and repaired hastily to Dr. Brenner to inform him of my good fortune. He detailed two men to me, and late in the afternoon we had the mummy safely at our quarters. Because of the lack of appropriate space at that time Dr. Brenner requested that I house the mummy in my cabin. The work for that day was done, and each man had returned to his quarters. I returned to my cabin and read till midnight. Several times I glanced up from my reading and looked at the mummy. It was indeed a great prize and I congratulated myself on my find. "That night I went to bed, tired from the long day's walking, and sorely craving rest and sleep. But sleep was long in coming. The pangs of unrest and grief renewed themselves with vigor. The mummy, in its sarcophagus, was tilted up against the wall, and I envied it, separated from this world of sorrow. A full moon was hung high above the Nile, and into my room she flooded her silver splendor, making everything strangely clear and impish. The mummy, particularly, seemed bizarre in that flood of silvery beams. Somehow it enchanted me and caused me to regard it with fascination. "For several minutes I had been looking at the strangely pleasant sight when I began startled by a peculiar whiteness that had settled the mummy's face. It had come gradually and its culmination impressed me as with a queer suddenness. The mummy, Dr. Brenner had ascertained to be that of a young woman, probably a princess from the time of the Pharaohs. It was swathed in bandages, some of which had worn away inputs or become loose. Imitation eyes, brows and lips were painted on the wrappings in a strange fashion, probably an effort to simulate the terrible feature of a protecting guardian to ward off evil spirits during the body's journey to the other world. The figure which was plainly discernible from within its casing, was beautiful and lithely fashioned. The thumbs were slender, and the fingers, each of which was separately bandaged, were long and tapering. The neck was full and the chin displayed that firmness which is seen only in very beautiful women. While I was raptly admiring the beauty of the long departed princess, the glow on the face became whiter, and the imitation lips, brows and eyes on the wrappings grew more fearsome in the phosphorescent glow. "Gradually I became aware of the eerie stillness that filled the air, and intermixed with this was something strangely indescribable, something that reminded me of the catacombs of the primitive Christians. Fascinatedly I continued to gaze at the mummy, when suddenly from out of the deathlike stillness came a sob--low--weird--gentle. I became somewhat alarmed, for there was something uncanny and yet familiar in that sob. Several minutes dragged by, and again I heard that low gasping sob. Was the mummy alive? I strained my vision to detect any movements in the limbs but none was perceptible. I relaxed momentarily; then some unaccountable impulse caused me to turn my face to the opposite wall, then back again. My soul became convulsed with fear, every fiber in me trembled with horror. The mummy lived! Its bosom began to rise and fall! My terror was now supreme. I wanted to shriek, to scream, to cry out, but every muscle in my body seemed paralyzed with fear, and the sounds froze in my throat. Then out of the silence came that sob--soft--and low. A tremor ran through the mummy from head to foot. Then one of its hands began to move and the fingers began to clutch the air convulsively, as if the pain of awaken from a sleep of twenty-five centuries was great and unbearable. Quickly the bandages from the fingers began to all away. Finally the fingers were free from their wrappings, and in the phosphorescent glare they were plainly visible. They were long and slender, but there was something about them that struck me as strangely familiar. They possessed an individuality that I had known somewhere before. "Gradually the hands moved upward and searching the throat the fingers set to work to remove the bandages. Slowly and painfully they were removed. Then I beheld a [[italics]] (Continued on page 72) [[/italics]]
