which had cost him $550, Confederate, and damaged his watchchain.
Nevertheless he lived to take part in the last charge at Appomattox, and
the watchchain wasn't so badly spoiled but what, with the addition of
some new links, it could be worn." And he showed us where the chain,
which he himself was wearing at the time, had been repaired.

I must say something, also, of the North Carolina College of Agriculture
and Mechanic Arts, an institution doing splendid work, and doing it
efficiently, both in its own buildings and through extension courses.
Fifty-two per cent. of the students at this college earn their way
through, either wholly or in part. And better yet, eighty-three per
cent. of the graduates stick to the practical work afterwards--an
unusually high record.

The president of the college, Dr. D.H. Hill, is a son of the Confederate
general of the same name, who has been called "the Ironsides of the
South."

There are a number of other important educational institutions in and
about Raleigh, and there is one which, if not important, is at all
events, a curio. This is "Latta University," consisting of a few flimsy
shacks in the negro village of Oberlin, on the outskirts of Raleigh.

"Professor" Latta is one of the rare negroes who combines the habit with
white folks of the old fashioned southern darky, and the astuteness of
the "new issue" in high finance. Years ago he conceived the idea of
establishing a negro school near Raleigh, to which he gave the above
mentioned name. He had no funds, no credit and little or no education.
Nevertheless he had ideas, the central one of which was that New England
was the land of plenty. With the "university" in his head, and with a
miscellaneous collection of photographs, he managed to make a tour of
northern cities, and came back with his pockets lined. As a result he
procured a little land, put up frame buildings, gathered a few youths
about him, and was fully launched on his career as a university
president.

So long as the money held out, Latta was content to drift along with his
school. When he came to the bottom of the bag he invested the last of
his savings in another ticket north and, armed with his title of
"president," made addresses to northern audiences and replenished his
finances with their contributions.

Finally, as the great act of his career, Latta managed to get passage to
Europe and was gone for several months. When he came back he had added a
manuscript