We are solving the negro problem in the only way possible, in the opinion of all statesmen, all publicists and all philanthropists, by the farm and the shop, and the school and the church, and over them all the Stars and Stripes. But we are doing more than this; we are setting the solitary in families; the wilderness and the solitary places are being made glad, and the desert is rejoicing and blossoming as the rose. * * * * * COMMENCEMENT AT FISK UNIVERSITY, TENN. Fisk graduated classes of usual size. It deeply lamented the absence of President Cravath, who was ill in the East, and the late death of Prof. Spence. The Dean, J. G. Merrill, was deputed to preside at the varied functions of commencement week. The weather was unusually temperate, audiences very large. The largest college preparatory class in the history of the university was graduated. It catalogued thirty-nine. Ten States were represented on its list, and a larger number of young women than have ever entered Fisk before were made Freshmen. [Illustration: SENIOR CLASS, FISK UNIVERSITY.] Commencement week included a missionary sermon, which was delivered by Prof. Brown, of Vanderbilt University, upon "Paul the Missionary;" baccalaureate, by the Dean, whose theme was "Moses, the Leader of his People." To these were added three "graduating exercises." In the program were over thirty speakers--young men and women, not one of whom had a syllable of prompting. A graduate of Princeton University, spending the day in Nashville, after hearing the four "Commencement" orations, said that each one of them was superior in thought and delivery to the one that carried off the prize at Princeton less than ten days before. These young men and their classmates are to make their careers--three as physicians, two as pharmacists, two as teachers, one as a business man, the other as a lawyer. The young woman graduate received two diplomas, the second being in music, her industry and ability being evidenced in the fact that her long hours with the piano did not prevent her receiving high honors in the classroom. One of the men had walked fourteen miles each day, summer and winter, besides doing the "chores" morning and night; another has had a chair in a barber shop every evening; others have taught schools in vacation, been Pullman porters and waiters at summer resorts. One, whose two grandfathers were Frenchmen, born in France, before coming to college loaded the rifle and stood by his father, who shot down three men who came to his home to mob him. He himself, a very Hercules by name and in appearance, champion on the college gridiron, pleaded on the commencement stage most persuasively for "Universal Peace." Our commencement orator was Rev. H. E. Cobb, one of the pastors in the Reformed Collegiate Church of New York City. His address upon the "Open Door" disclosed to the young graduates their possibilities of success and failure, and captivated old and young.