Who says that the next 25 years will surely determine what Central Africa is to be. Considering what has been done in Uganda and Congo land, we ought fully to expect that the gospel tree will have so grown that its branches with healing leaves will overshadow the whole land. [Illustration] WORK OF THE HAMPTON INSTITUTE _Told at the 35th Anniversary Exercises of that Splendid Seat of Learning_ _By E. Jay Ess_ WRITTEN FOR ALEXANDER’S MAGAZINE Hampton Institute, Va., May 3rd, 1905.—This has been anniversary week at Hampton Institute. The spirit of Armstrong—the courageous and strong—has been all about and in everything. The famous Ogden Party headed by Dr. Robert C. Ogden, trustee of Hampton and of Tuskegee, has been in attendance and has given to the occasion an importance of overwhelming interest. [Illustration: DR. H. B. FRISSELL] First of all the weather has been perfect. Everything whether of exhibit or address has been in perfect good taste and the 35th anniversary exercises have been voted the most successful in the history of the school—made so in large part because of the presence upon Hampton’s grounds of her most famous and eloquent son, Dr. Booker T. Washington, who delivered the principal address upon both days—“Virginia Day,” May 2, when nearly 300 White Virginians from Richmond attended in a body—and upon Wednesday, May 3, when the anniversary exercises proper were held. He has been lionized wherever he has gone and has been as cordially sought after by banker, prelate, educator and what not, as by those who are students or have been students of Hampton. A report of Tuesday’s exercises may be interesting: The spacious room was handsomely decorated with flags and bunting. The exercises were of an exceptionally interesting character, the opening service being followed by plantation songs from the chorus of Negro and Indian students of the school. J. Enoch Blanton, a member of the class of 1905 in agriculture, read an essay on “Changed Ideas of Farming.” Francis E. Bolling, a graduate of the class of 1905, in domestic science spoke of “What Hampton Has Meant to Me,” paying a glowing tribute to his Alma Mater. Dr. John Graham Brooks of Harvard University, spoke on the “Fruits of Hampton.” He said that as the race problem is probably the hardest with which the world has to deal, and one of which we are the most profoundly ignorant, he would avoid the big and keep near the little. “One of the truest things about Hampton,” he said, “is that she is finding out her own business, the real business of Hampton is to learn how a race can be disciplined into independence and how success is to be won. In this Hampton succeeds admirably.”