In 1867, only fourteen years ago, when the Freedmen’s Bureau was acting as Interex between past bloodshed and coming chaos, the building now known as Swayne Hall, with ample and beautiful grounds, was purchased, and the future College begun with spelling book and Bible primer. A few wise men of the East were there at its birth. They wore blue and carried swords, though in the scabbard. But many black men, who had been waiting through a long and starless night, thought they heard an angel chorus and forthwith were praising God. A white male high school building, reared by the unrequited labor of the slave, was bought at a mortgage sale and opened for the Christian training of all, without respect to color or sex. Men, black either in pigment or in figment, began to come, and the reconstructed building gave shelter to school and church. But a home was needed, and two years later, in 1869, Foster Hall was built, affording rooms for the girls and teachers, and also table accommodations for the entire family. From the beginning, Talladega has united the three great forces in shaping character, namely, the school, the church and the home. The foundations of the second building, Foster Hall, were laid while the Ku Klux Klan was brandishing its weapons and grating its teeth. The Nehemiahs of that time carried their weapons in one hand and wielded the trowel with the other. But they built, and the God of Heaven prospered them. From that time forward the quadrennial period has been observed. The year following a Presidential election, Talladega College has inaugurated some new thing. In 1873, Graves Hall with additional land was secured for the theological department. In 1877, when President Hayes was holding out the olive branch, we attempted more of the peaceful pursuit of agriculture, and Winsted farm was bought. And now in the beginning of President Garfield’s administration, the third brick building is reared, and Stone Hall opens its door to eighty young men. [Illustration: STONE HALL, TALLADEGA COLLEGE.]