* * * * * FISK UNIVERSITY. Early delays——Increasing favor——The five closing days. MISS ANNA M. CAHILL, NASHVILLE. Looking back over the past nine months, it seems a long time since the dark days of last September, when the school opened under the shadow of the pestilence, and we saw one of our own students, just returned from his summer work, stricken down by the fever. The firmness with which the few students then in the school stood bravely by their work gave some of us a confidence in their fortitude and faithfulness which, perhaps, we could not have gained without some such time of trial to develop it. As the autumn advanced the school began to fill up, though some who came to us after Christmas from the lower part of Mississippi assured us they came “as soon as it was safe.” Naturally the decrease in attendance resulting from the epidemic, was mostly seen in the number of new students. Those who have fairly started in the work of getting an education cannot be detained except by absolute necessity; others, who were thinking for the first time of going away to school, were easily led to wait another year. Notwithstanding the delay in getting the school started, one of the features of the year has been the steadiness in attendance, especially in the advanced classes. As the result of this regularity in attendance, the school work has gone on with rather unusual satisfaction. There has been little to interrupt the quiet spirit of study that has so much to do with the amount accomplished; a friendly spirit of rivalry between different classes and among members of the same class makes it from year to year more of a disgrace to fall below the standard of scholarship. The school has been growing in favor with the Southern people. The presence of a large part of the State Legislature at our public rhetorical exercise, in March, and the evident pleasure with which they listened to the young people, indicated an increasing interest in our success. We find that the aims of the University commend themselves to the best men of the State. The anxious question as to how these aims can be carried out, and the enlarging necessities of the work met, has been partly answered by the generous offers to the University of $60,000 and $20,000, which have made this year memorable. It is safe to say that no visit has ever been made to our school that left in the hearts of teachers and students more hope and encouragement and thankfulness than that of the gentlemen who, after inspecting the work of the school for a few days in the Spring, gave, at the close of their visit, the intimation of the former gift.