It was thought best, however, to broaden the purpose of the school and locate it in the town or city that offered the best inducements. Several places vied for the location, and after a very interesting canvass of the State, Waco, by reasons of liberal donations, eligible and beautiful situation, was chosen as the site.
The promoters were, in the main, uneducated men, with no experience in, and but little observation of, school matters; but all were impressed with two things: first, the necessity of a school for higher learning in Texas; secondly, the need of the negro's assuming responsibility and depending upon self-help, if he would ever reach the full stature of manhood. While grateful for schools established in the South by members of the other race, and appreciating fully their benefactions, the founders of Paul Quinn thought that self-reliance was an essential part of a perfect education, and that could only come through the onus of managing enterprises calling for sacrifice, planning, devising, suffering, triumphing, in the first person.
Paul Quinn College is under Negro management, and is doing as much as any institution in the land to teach the lesson of self-help. It is an object lesson of Negro capacity to plan, manage, and promote enterprises involving self-denial and hard work.
The growth of the school has been steady and solid. Bishop Atticus G. Haygood, while agent for the Slater fund, visited it and said it was the best managed and conducted school he had seen.
The school property consists of twenty acres of land, worth $65,000; two brick buildings and one brick addition; ten frame buildings; eight teachers; 225 students enrolled.
For the second time in the history of this school Rev. I. M. Burgan, A. M., has been elected as President of Paul Quinn College. He is a graduate of Wilberforce, and the institution has just cause to be proud of him. His election this time is to succeed Prof. H. T. Kealing, who was elected as editor of the _A. M. E. Review_. The fact that Mr. Burgan has been the second time placed at the head of this institution speaks well for his ability as an educator.
WESTERN UNIVERSITY, QUINDARO, WYANDOTTE CO., KANSAS.
This institution is pleasantly located about four miles from Kansas City, Kans., on a high bluff overlooking the Missouri River. The location is one of the healthiest centres in one of the healthiest States in the American Union. It is in easy walking distance from the West Side Electric Line and has the advantages accruing to a suburb of a great metropolis. It offers a full course of instruction in the following departments: