EDUCATION OF OUR COLORED CITIZENS. 797 



spark of the savage, which struck fire only by direct contact and 

 after much friction. Organized enthusiasm is the electric light 

 with the whole energy of the battery behind it. It is this organ- 

 ized enthusiasm of many people in many places which has made 

 Hampton what it is. General Armstrong's genius has lain in 

 understanding how to utilize emotion to be sure that it turned a 

 crank and did not escape in steam. For twenty-five years he has 

 toiled and thought and fought for the school — now traveling 

 hither and yon through the North to collect funds, and then fly- 

 ing back to inspire and direct the work at the South. No man 

 could stand such a strain forever, and last year, in Boston, paraly- 

 sis laid its warning hand on that tireless brain and said, " Be 

 still ! " But nothing short of death itself can enforce that com- 

 mand. The brain and voice are busy still, but not with their old- 

 time energy. Now he is calling for aid. " He has/' as Mrs. Julia 

 Ward Howe said, " been through two wars — the war of fire and 

 bloodshed, and the war of faith and zeal." Now he is struck 

 down, like Moses, at the entrance to the promised land of success, 

 and asks only to see into it. 



To each age its own problems. The men and women of Gen- 

 eral Armstrong's generation were carried above and beyond them- 

 selves by the impulse of a great, soul-stirring cause. The young 

 people of to-day can never know the electric thrill of patriotism 

 which ran through the country in successive shocks from the first 

 gun echoing from Sumter to the solemn day of Lincoln's death. 

 But there is a heroic work for them to do : 



" New occasions teach new duties, 



Time makes ancient good uncouth ; 

 They must upward still and onward, 

 Who would keep abreast of truth." 



" The Boys in Blue did a fearful but necessary work of destruc- 

 tion," said Lincoln of the heroes of Gettysburg. "It is for us 

 to finish what they began. Their task was destruction ; ours is 

 construction. Theirs was the emancipation of the slave ; ours the 

 enlightenment of the citizen." So widespread has been the feel- 

 ing of the dignity and worth of the work done in this great cause 

 at Hampton, that it has taken form in an association bearing the 

 name of the founder of the school, and known as the Armstrong 

 Association. Its whole purpose is to support the industrial edu- 

 cation of the negro and, incidentally, of the Indian. It aims to be 

 national, not sectional, and should prove a strong bond between 

 North and South. It does not propose to contribute a cent toward 

 philanthropy or charity at the South. Hampton Institute is no 

 more a charitable institution than Yale or Harvard. It is a noble 

 educational plant insufficiently endowed. Its alumni are poor; 



