| Show J AXAFRICANSCHOIjAJl 1 TUB riKV BOWAMO W ULYDCN OP LIUCRIA A 1tlll llliMMlril bete Utlil Ica Wo I lllllnMIwl lift mil lrM lllll flnanllwd Mm Aiwng lll < I rlmili No Click It HI Her ISdwnrd Wilmot Illyden of I t4a I ol I her In who li l I now paring n vlilt to America Is one V of the most eminent emi-nent scholars of the t negro race He It now 01 ears of age but though his 11 life he been buoy n n tI wearing tin only evidence of his age la found In bin hair which li beginning to turn gray Mil form In I Mill erect and lilt mote menu vigorous Ho hit n large hood with a lull forehead His color proclaim pro-claim him a futlbtoodeil negro lie Is mi Interesting oaker having a deep rich Ynlce end an cloy conversational manner lr Itlrdon was born In the Danish Inland of 8t Thomas In the Wet Indies on A tig 1 1UI Ills parents who were of pure negro Mock be longed to the Putch Itformed Church and the boy VIM baptized ai a member of this denomination till pastor the Itfv John P Knox formerly of Newton I 1 curly picked the boy out ns show ing exceptional promise and advised him to como to the United Stain and liter nn American college According 1 at the age of IS with the aulitance flit pallor Mr Illyden came to New York Thlt wn In 1810 Just after the passage of the fugitive slave law nnj in the height of the excitement over the slavery question The young negro HIUUP appuraiion for nilmlHlon to see ral colleges but all of them refuted 1 to ecelvo him It had been hla Intention III go to Africa as soon as ho had ob mined an education and when ho found the doors of American colleges closed agalntl him ho decided to go thither at once In the fall of ISM ho sailed for Liberia and two years later ho en toed tho Alexander high school nt Monrovia named after Or Archibald Alexander of Princeton At that time the colony of Liberia had been In ex lattnre about thirty years but the re r tfI 1 LR i 1 the im mYDIN ipubllc was less than ties years old In the Alexander school ho took a course In classics and mathematics and In 1S5S he became a teacher In the school In 18C1 ho was appointed professor of languages In tho newlyfounded Liberia Libe-ria college After live years service ho rebelled a lento of absence and oc copied I It In a trip to igypt and Palestine Pales-tine Ho alto visited the Protestant college at Ilelrut as the guest of Dr Jcsjup who Is now In this country Hero he took occasion to 1m provo the knowledge of Arabic which ho had begun be-gun to acquire In Arabia On his return to Liberia Dr Illyden continued his work of leaching until 1871 when lie resigned and went on a trip through Europe He was then appointed ap-pointed by ho llrltlih government as diplomatic agent to make trcatht with the powerful Mohammedan and pagan chiefs of the Interior tribes of Africa After three years of this work ho again took charge of the Alexander high school which had meantime been removed from Moniovla to the Interior tnemyflve miles up Bt Paula river In 1877 IT Uldrn was appointed minister min-ister plenipotentiary to Great llrltalu and served In this capacity for threw > ears On his return to Monrovia he was elected president of Liberia college col-lege Ho resigned In 1881 und took up Independent educational work among time Mohammed at Sierra Leone In 1892 ho was again appointed Liberian Libe-rian nprcscntatlio at tho Court of St James which olHco ho ttlll holds |
