The institution is well equipped for work. Stone Hall, Swayne Hall, Graves Hall, and Foster Hall are solid and comely, and have accommodated more than 298 students the present year. And of the campus, on which Swayne Hall sits, shaded with superb water oaks, it must be said we know of nothing finer in the South. Connected with the college is a farm of some 200 acres, mostly cultivated by the young men. Here they learn the art, as well as the science of farming, and here the supplies for the students’ table are principally raised. It may be doubted whether any school of the A. M. A. is occupying a more needy field, or has around it a larger constituency. Alabama has a colored population of some 630,000, for whom Talladega College is the only institution in the State offering to them the advantages of the higher education. For the supply of trained teachers, of educated ministers, and of intelligent and reliable leaders—for this immense multitude Talladega must be the main reliance. The college, therefore, has a mission at its own doors, and for the present has more than it can do to meet the home demand. Its students are scattered throughout the State, as teachers and preachers, and their influence is felt in every public interest. The Faculty of the college is able, clear-headed and intensely in earnest. President De Forest is an enthusiast in his work. Scholarly, inspiring, magnetic and full of faith in the capacity of the negro for the finest culture, and to reach the highest manhood, he does not mind the isolation of his position, nor the ostracism attending it, but finds perpetual joy in seeing the good work prosper in his hands. It was my good fortune to be present during parts of three days in Commencement week, though not permitted to witness the exercises on Commencement day. Of the general air of the school there can be only words of praise. The quiet of the students on the campus, on the streets, in the class rooms, the self-respect in their bearing everywhere manifest, was a token both of the discipline of the school and of the spirit of the scholars. We heard creditable examinations in grammar, in Virgil, in the evidences of Christianity and in the life of Christ. But the exercise which interested us most was the reading of six or seven essays by members of the theological class. These papers, we were assured, had received scarcely any alteration in passing through the hands of the professor. They were clear, sharp, radical in thinking and independent in style and expression. Two college presidents were brought to the bar of criticism, and it really looked as if the students had the best of the argument. Yet there was no appearance of arrogance or of self-conceit; only the air of honest, thoughtful men.