The American Missionary

NEW YORK.

PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION,

Rooms, 56 Reade Street.

Price 50 Cents a Year, in Advance.

Entered at the Post-Office at New York, N.Y., as second-class matter.

PUBLICATIONS OF EUGENE R. SMITH, NEW YORK.

GOSPEL IN ALL LANDS.

The Gospel in All Lands was commenced in February, 1880, and was continued during 1880 and 1881 as a 48 page monthly. The only numbers of these years that can now be furnished are as follows:

1880.

1881.

Single numbers, 25 cents. Twelve numbers, $2.00. There are two volumes a year. The twelve numbers of 1881 bound in cloth, $3.00. By mail, $3.50.

1882.

Sixteen pages a week.

Single numbers, six cents. The 52 numbers of the year, $2.00. The 52 numbers bound in cloth, $3.00. By mail. $3.50.

1883 Gospel in All Lands.

Sixteen pages a week.

Single numbers, six cents. One year, two dollars.

THE LITTLE MISSIONARY is the Children’s Missionary Paper. Four pages a month, filled with pictures, stories about heathen lands and people, and stories that will increase the interest of the children in missions.

The principal part of each number is devoted to pictures and stories on the following:

One copy, 25 cents. Six copies to one address, 50 cents. Twenty copies and over to one address, each six cents a year.

MAP OF CHINA. It is on paper, 17 by 18 inches, showing each of the 18 provinces colored, and giving the names of mountains, rivers, and more than 5,000 cities and towns. The most complete map of China published. Price, twenty cents, postage paid.

THE MISSIONARY WORLD,

a missionary monthly for young people. Sixteen pages a month, profusely illustrated, containing interesting and instructive reading concerning all lands and all people, and stories that will awaken and develop the missionary spirit. It can be made a local paper by removing the four outside pages, and putting on it a cover containing local name, news, etc. One copy, 50 cents a year. Twenty copies and over, each 30 cents a year.

1883 MISSIONARY ALMANAC.

It contains a list of missionary books, missionary periodicals, missionary societies, with names and address of their secretaries, names and stations of all the foreign missionaries from the United States, maps, and other valuable information relating to missions.

Price, 25 cents.

SUNSHINE is a beautiful little eight page monthly paper, containing little pictures, little lessons, and little stories for little children. “A little treasure.” One copy, 25 cents a year. Six copies to one address, 50 cents. Twenty copies and over to one address, each six cents a year.

Inter-Seminary Missionary Alliance. A pamphlet of 64 pages, containing the proceedings and the addresses made before the first Inter-Seminary Missionary Convention (1880). Price, 25 cents.

INTERNATIONAL LESSONS.

My Picture Lesson, a beautiful four page weekly, (mailed monthly), containing pictures, lessons, and stories about the International Lessons for the children. “The Best for Primary Classes.” One copy, 25 cents a year. Ten copies, $1.50 a year. Twenty copies $2.60. One hundred copies, $13.00 a year.

International Lesson Quarterly, 16 pages a quarter, containing Scripture Text, Questions, Reviews, Hymns, Brief Notes, Opening Exercises, etc. Three cents a quarter; twelve cents a year. Twenty copies and over, each seven cents a year.

Light on the Lesson Quarterly, 33 pages a quarter, containing Scripture Text, Revised Text, Questions, Reviews, Hymns, Explanatory and Devotional Notes, Opening Exercises, Illustrations, etc. Five cents a quarter; 20 cents a year. Twenty copies and over, each fourteen cents a year.

Lesson Helper Quarterly, 48 pages a quarter, containing Scripture Text, Revised Version, Questions, Reviews, Hymns, Maps, Illustrations, Opening Exercises, Explanatory, Illustrative, and Devotional Notes, Opinions of the Best Commentators on the Lesson, etc. Eight cents a quarter; 30 cents a year. Twenty copies and over, each twenty cents a year.

All Lesson Helps are stopped at close of time paid for. Subscriptions amounting to fractions of a dollar can be paid in one cent U.S. postage stamps. Canadian stamps cannot be used. Address orders to Eugene R. Smith, Publisher,

74 Bible House, New York.

THE

American Missionary.

American Missionary Association.

ANOTHER YEAR.

With this issue The American Missionary greets its readers the thirty-seventh time on the threshold of a new year. For more than a generation it has participated in mighty struggles for the welfare of the church and the nation.

There is no more lofty tower of observation than that builded on the foundations of righteousness. From this eminence, the Missionary has cast its eye to the end of the earth and recorded the progress and change in events that have brought about this glad day.

The horrors of the slave trade, now happily passing away, have been unceasingly exposed and deplored. American slavery, so recently abolished, has been opposed with righteous and relentless warfare, and the elevation of the Freedman has been urged by every patriotic and Christian consideration. The rights of the Indians, now so generally recognized, have always been advocated; and the Heaven-given opportunity to evangelize the persecuted Chinaman on the Pacific coast, has been set forth without stint or abatement, while all along the line of the work which this periodical represents, the yoke of prejudice has been lifted from the necks of millions, and the curse threatened by national injustice, beaten back that it blast not the life of our free institutions.

The furrow of time is rapidly burying beneath the sod what is left of “unconquerable will, the study of revenge, immortal hate, and what is else not to be overcome.” The new generation, forgetful of the past, is concerned for its future. The flood of misjudgment and distrust that ingulfed the Southland is rapidly subsiding, and the peaks and hill tops are tipped with the effulgence of the Sun of Righteousness.

Surely those who wait on the Lord have reason to renew their strength and double their diligence for the toil, the sacrifices, and the rewards of another year.

[2]

We would respectfully call the special attention of our readers to the statement on the fourth page of cover, relating to our monthly magazine. Subscription price, 50 cents a year.

In common with other benevolent societies, we find many people quite ready to vote and to give sentiment for missions who are not willing to pay a cent for their support.

We are happy to make room in this number of the Missionary for copious extracts from two valuable papers read before the Woman’s Meeting in connection with our annual meeting at Cleveland. The gathering of ladies was so large as to fill the chapel where they assembled to overflowing, and the interest manifested such that the time allotted for the service was extended to occupy nearly all the forenoon. We commend the papers as worthy of the most careful consideration.

In an appeal sent to the churches from our office in Boston, Secretary Woodworth calls attention to the following facts, which are timely and suggestive:

“An average of one dollar each by the members of our churches would amount to more than $350,000. But when it is remembered that a large percentage of our churches are not annual contributors to our treasury, it will be seen that the ratio of giving, on the part of those which do contribute, must be considerably increased.

“That this matter be brought under the eye at a single glance, we tabulate below the number of giving and non-giving churches for the year closing September 30, 1882, for the New England Department:

“It will be seen, therefore, that less than one-half of these churches are on the giving list for the year. If this shall prove a surprise to the pastors, we are sure they will bear with us if we earnestly ask them to see that their people do not fail to contribute through lack of opportunity to do so. May we not reasonably ask two things? 1. A regular place and time for the American Missionary Association on the benevolent programme. 2. One annual contribution to its treasury. Grant us these two things, and we will have a reliable basis for our income, and an amount sufficient to meet the present and prospective needs of our work.”[3]

Our annual report for 1882 will soon be ready for distribution. We shall be happy to forward it to any of our friends who will send us their name and address, signifying their wish to have it.

RETIREMENT OF REV. DR. LADD.

EXTRACT FROM THE MINUTES OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

The Executive Committee of the American Missionary Association, in accepting the resignation of the Rev. Henry M. Ladd, D.D., wish to express and place on record their high sense of his worth as a man, his intrepid courage and perseverance as an explorer, and his skill and accuracy in reporting the details of his observations. His success as an explorer gave the strongest assurance that he would have been eminently fitted as Superintendent of Missions, had Providence permitted the Association to enter upon the work in Eastern Africa, and to continue that on the Western coast. But, as it now seems the call of God to the Committee to retire from the foreign field, it commends Dr. Ladd most warmly to the churches for any work in their service to which the Master may call him.

MENDI MISSION.—JOHN BROWN STEAMER.

Pursuant to the instructions given at the Annual Meeting, this Association has made arrangements with the United Brethren to conduct the Mendi Mission, giving them the income of the Avery fund for a term of five years. Mr. Flickinger, the Secretary, and Mr. Billheimer, the Treasurer of the Society, were at one time missionaries of the American Missionary Association in the Mendi country, and thoroughly understand the necessities of the mission.

Mr. Flickinger sailed Dec. 9th for Glasgow, to provide for the construction of the John Brown Steamer. After the contract for the steamer is given out, it is the purpose of Mr. Flickinger to proceed to Shengay, on the West coast of Africa, where the United Brethren have a mission. When the steamer is ready, this point will be within easy distance of the principal stations of the Mendi Mission. During Mr. Flickinger’s visit to the Coast, he will complete arrangements for the continuance of our work under the auspices of his society.

We shall place at the disposal of the United Brethren the money contributed for the steamer. We hope the funds we have on hand, with what has been pledged, will be sufficient to pay for the boat. We request, therefore, that those who have made pledges or collected money through Sabbath-schools or otherwise for this purpose, will forward their gifts to us as early as possible, in order that there may be no uncertainty as to the amount that can be relied upon.

[4]

The Gospel in All Lands has completed its first year as an illustrated missionary weekly. As a power for good we believe it has been of great value. Its editorial department, which not only canvasses the missionary fields at home and abroad, but gives attention to principles underlying the work, and current events and questions of interest, has been much improved. Persons seeking information concerning the work of Protestant missions throughout the world can readily find what is wanted in its files. May it have the encouragement it so richly deserves.

“Home Life in the Bible,” by Henrietta Lee Palmer, is the title of a large and attractive book of 401 octavo pages, illustrated with two hundred wood cuts, and printed on good paper, with handsome type.

The book is full of the family.

What is known of the habitations of the ancient Hebrews is brought out by the author—their mode of life, their food, their cookery, their dress, their amusements, their customs in marriage and in mourning, their education and their religious worship. We believe the book is worthy of study in every American household, and especially among the colored people of the South.

HOW LONG IS THIS THING GOING ON?

In a New England village, not many years ago, the custom prevailed of making personal solicitation from the members of the church there located, for contributions to the several benevolent societies in regular order and at stated times. To this end certain persons were designated in each of several districts to visit all the resident members. A visitor in one of these districts relates that, after a strong presentation of the claims of the heathen world had been made from the pulpit, he was encouraged to visit a member of the church who had not been noted for his liberality, and to solicit funds in behalf of the work of evangelizing the dark parts of the earth. In response he received a donation of twenty-five cents. No other call was made on the individual referred to during the remainder of the year; but when the usual season for soliciting aid for foreign missions recurred, the visitor called again upon him asking for a contribution. He was met by the inquiry: “Didn’t I give you twenty-five cents for this last year!” Answer was made in the affirmative, when the rejoinder came, “Well, how long is this thing going on?” Of course, there was but one answer to make, and that to the effect that so long as men are born with depraved hearts, this process of the more favored children of the Highest contributing funds and efforts for the elevation and conversion of less privileged ones should not cease “going on.” Deut. xv., 11: “For the poor shal never cease out of the land. Therefore I command thee, saying, thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother; to thy poor and to thy needy in the land.” * * *[5]

BENEFACTIONS.

The late Hannah G. Russell, of Boston, willed $2,000 to the Boston University, to be used in clothing poor students of theology.

Mrs. Sarah B. Jacobs, of Boston, has given $5,000 to the University of Vermont, for the endowment of five scholarships.

Columbia College gets $500,000 from the estate of Stephen Whitney Phenix, making its aggregate endowment $5,300,000.

Roanoke College, Va., is to receive $1,000 from the estate of Rev. Andrew Bigelow, D.D., of Southboro, Mass.

The University of Vermont is to receive the valuable library of the late Hon. George P. Marsh, of Italy, a gift purchased by the Hon. Frederick Billings, of Woodstock, an alumnus of the University.

The late Edward Clark, of Cooperstown, N.Y., left $50,000 to Williams College, his alma mater.

Howard University has received $5,000 from the estate of the late F. P. Schoals, Esq., of New York.

Mr. Thomas Beaver, of Danville, Pa., has given $30,000 to the endowment fund of Dickinson College, as a memorial of his father.

The Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., will receive $125,000 from the estate of the late Mrs. Sarah E. Atkinson, of Memphis, Tenn., of which it is the residuary legatee.

McGill University is to receive $40,000 from the estate of Miss Barbara Scott.

Mrs. William E. Dodge has given $2,000 to found scholarships for the daughters of clergymen in the Mills Seminary of California.

The emancipation proclamation was issued January, 1863—twenty years ago. Since then 800,000 colored children have been enrolled during a single year in the schools of the South. The demand for a higher education for some of these, in order that they may be competent teachers and leaders in society, is not only urgent but imperative. The institutions founded by the A. M. A. to promote Higher Education, however, are almost entirely without endowment.

GENERAL NOTES.

AFRICA.

—An official journal of Tripoli reports, from a letter received from Fezzan, a large repository of minerals of different sorts. Lead, tin, zinc, iron, copper, silver and gold have been discovered between Tripoli and Fezzan, and even diamonds.

—The new steamer, Henry Wright, destined to the mission at Mombas,[6] has been finished and will soon commence its trips between Mombas and Zanzibar.

—Late letters from Freretown say that fear reigns in that station on account of the near approach of a rebel named Mbaruk, who has established his camp near Rabai. He declares that he is not hostile to the mission, but his friendship would be much more dangerous for it than his hostility, in exciting the suspicion of the people of Mombas.

—The British Association has made a grant of 500 livres sterling to a naturalist, Mr. Atchinson, to take part in the expedition of Mr. J. Thomson, to the Victoria Nyanza by the country of the Masai. Mr. Atchinson will remain at Kilimandjaro to make botanical and zoological collections, while Mr. Thomson will proceed to Victoria Nyanza.

—Mr. Farler, missionary at Magila, has sent to the London Geographical Society an original map made by him from data furnished by the natives, and indicating the routes as far as known from the Pangani to the southeast side of Victoria Nyanza, across the country of the Masai.

—Dr. James Petrie, a graduate of the University of Aberdeen, has been sent to Magila, as medical missionary for Eastern Equatorial Africa.

—The missionaries sent out to reinforce the stations at Victoria Nyanza and Tanganyika have arrived safely at Zanzibar. Mr. Stecker had everything prepared for them to continue their journey without delay. The Sultan, Said Bargasch, has given safe conduct and letters of recommendation to Mtesa to those who go to Roubaga. They will go as far as Mamboya, the first station of the Church of England missions, with the missionaries of the London Society destined to Tanganyika under the conduct of Mr. Hore, accompanied by his wife and young child, who will probably remain in this healthy station while Mr. Hore will return with Mr. Swann to Zanzibar, to receive the steel steamer sent from England.

THE CHINESE.

—The steamship Coptic sailed for Hong Kong in November with nearly five hundred Chinese passengers, three hundred and seventy-five of whom had secured return certificates.

—The Japanese government has determined to establish 53,760 primary schools. The empire is divided into eight departments, with one college to each. Children are to be compelled to attend the primary school.

—Although Mongolian is the term usually applied to all people living in the Chinese Empire, yet the Mongolians proper live in a territory bounded on the north by Siberia and number only about 2,000,000. But few, if any of these, it is said, have emigrated to America.

THE INDIANS.

—Thirty-one Indians, five of them girls, were returned to their homes in[8] Dakota from the Hampton Institute last year. They are employed at different agencies at salaries of fifteen or twenty dollars per month. Of these, seven are farmers and herders, nine carpenters, three teachers, two office boys.

—The number of acres cultivated (not including the civilized tribes) by Indians in 1879 was 157,056; in 1881 it was 205,367. In 1879 they cut 48,333 tons of hay; in 1881, 76,763 tons. There has been from year to year a steady gain of products of all kinds among this class. Indians who are so inclined can earn money by freighting and as drovers.

—Private charity has already given $55,529.14 to buildings for, and expenses of, Indian education at Hampton. Meanwhile, the Government has furnished $33,128.04.

—The Indian Office cannot give a decided opinion as to whether Indians are increasing or decreasing, but think that they are about holding their own.

—The number of Indians at boarding schools, not including those in the Indian Territory, who attended one month or more in 1881, was 3,888. The number who attended day school one month or more, was 4,221.

—Rev. John P. Williamson, of Yankton, Dak., writes: “Give Indians protection of law. There is no earthly court having any authority to punish our Yankton Indians for murder, rape, arson or any other crime committed against the person or property of another Yankton Indian. And with a few exceptions this is the case with all these nations. This is a matter of immense importance, demanding immediate action, even more than education.”

TRAINING COLORED GIRLS.

MISS ANNA M. CAHILL, FISK UNIVERSITY.

If an astronomer wishes to show to any one through his glass the celestial visitor whose presence brightens our morning sky, he must arrange the instrument from his point of vision. Then, stepping aside, his friend will see the object nearly as he sees it. If now I am to bring nearer to you the work for the women of the South, whose interests are uppermost in our hearts to-day, I must adjust the glass from my own standpoint, at the risk of touching upon points that have been presented at other meetings, and without showing you some of the features which you are, perhaps, anxious to see.

Were I a physician among the people for whom I speak, I should urge upon you the physical wants, many and terrible, of that people, for which the ignorance of the women is so largely responsible, and from which they especially suffer.

Were it my mission to carry help and counsel to the lowly homes of our city, I might tell you such tales of the wretchedness and discomfort of many of these homes as would fill your hearts with pity—a wretchedness growing out of an utter lack of comprehension of the meaning of home, and showing the need of instruction in the simplest facts of household economy.

To carry so much of light and knowledge into these homes as would make them[9] abodes of health and thrift is a work worthy the noblest effort of any Christian woman.

But I come from no such special work among the women of our people. Only a few hours ago I stepped from the platform of my school-room, where were gathered before me a room full of upturned faces, some of them familiar from years of acquaintance, some just stamping themselves upon my memory by the interest they are awakening as I meet them in these first days of their stay among us. To an unusual extent this year the numbers on the boys’ side and on the girls’ side are the same, the one side gaining, then the other, as new pupils are added to the school. September’s report showed exactly the same total for each. I like this; it looks as if our girls are to stand side by side with their brothers in life’s battle; as if both were stretching out their hands for the same weapons to help them in the strife.

My interest and work are thus divided; justice to the school demands that I consider the good of the whole; that I assign lessons not for one side nor for the other; that I chide or commend without special reference to sex—in short, that I consider all as members of a common society, and plan for them as having common rights and responsibilities.

When, therefore, I bring this subject to you, it is that you may look at it from the teacher’s standpoint, that you may consider the colored woman of the future—the colored girl of to-day—in her relations as a part of the social organization of the new South.

That the South is new no one who even passes through her great centres can doubt. New railroads are opening up her resources and carrying her trade; the flames of her furnace light up the darkness of many a mountain valley; even her fields are blooming with new abundance under the improved husbandry and greater diligence of her sons. As the morning sunlight strikes the brick walls of factories in view from my window, and nearly all of which have grown up within a few months, I can almost imagine myself in a New England town.

Woman’s place in Southern society (I use the term society in its wider sense) has always been quite different from that which she holds in the North. Accustomed to be protected, and taught to consider a limited social life as her only sphere of activity, she was often beautifully womanly, but lacking in self-reliance; having no confidence in her own mental powers, and not considered as being able to plan or execute any important measures. This feeling is, I think, gradually giving way before a more just appreciation of her own power, and as that power is developed, to a change in public sentiment as to her capacity and her duty.

It was my privilege to count among my friends a young Southern girl, who not content with the average boarding-school of the South, has already partly finished a thorough course of study in a Northern school with the expressed intention of becoming a teacher at her own home.

In an Eastern city during the past summer I found several young ladies who were spending the three hot months at the North, and while there were hard at work on music and other branches of study. They were taking care of themselves, and with eyes aglow with enthusiasm were apparently enjoying their new experience.

Such cases, multiplied as they will be, show that a new leaven is working out an ambition on the part of the Southern lady to win her way by an intelligent and self-reliant womanhood, not simply to charm by her helplessness and amiability.

But all this has reference to white society; you are ready to ask what is its bearing on the colored girls? The humbler life in the old days reflected the ideas of the superior, as the second rainbow reflects the coloring of the first. It will[10] tend to do so now. When, by a sudden revolution the cords of the colored woman’s bondage were broken, and a new society of her own people sprang up around her, especially in the cities, the impress of old ideas was plainly seen. How quickly she copied the more artificial part of her white mistress’ life, exaggerating her elegance into display and her intellectual languor into utter indifference.

In the colored society of to-day, so largely an image of the old order of things, the colored woman does not realize what she has a right to expect or what she ought to require from the other sex among her own people. She has no knowledge of her womanly power or worth; why should she object to the outside gallantry which addresses her with flattering nonsense while it covers an underlying lack of genuine respect, and a sense of superiority that practically leaves her to do all the hard work and regards her as of lower intellectual grade?

Thus, from the impulse to imitate, the colored girl has a source of hope in the advanced position held by her white sister. But her new power of independent self-direction, unshielded by the safeguards that the white girl has, unguided by the intellectual culture that the other can obtain, may work incalculable harm.

What the colored woman’s place was under the old dispensation you know too well. Body and soul the slave of her owners; while her delicate mistress was shielded by all possible safeguards from evil, she was left exposed to all the storms of passion and sin, daring not to have any sense of her own value, her will for resistance growing weaker with each generation. What an element of moral weakness to both races this state of things was, neither race had any conception.

With the changing character and views of the South the colored woman’s position must change also, and she is an important agent in the change. She is no longer a captive, bound to the wheel, obliged to advance or retrograde with the chariot of her master. The place which she will take in the new civilization; the light in which she will be regarded by the white man, and her position among her own people, will be the result of her own choice—a choice which she, in the person of her best and most intelligent representatives, shall make within the next fifty years.

What choice she will make is a question of breathless interest. How to help her make the choice wisely and in time is the problem upon which we are at work. That she labors under great disadvantages in this decision of her destiny is plain. The vain and foolish life of a shallow society has all the ignorance of her nature to work on, to lead her to a life of the most empty frivolity. The door to greater evil is wide open at her feet. The tempter can no longer command, but he may allure—allure with deadly certainty, because inherited tendencies and customs of the past aid him to gain an easy victory. Over many a poor girl who comes to my thought now I could raise the prophet’s lament: “Oh, that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughters of my people!”

Sometimes it seems that the colored woman is willingly—or under the irresistible pressure of circumstances—making her choice so rapidly and so fatally that the slow processes which are her only safety cannot reach the surface in time to save her. But the final decision in this matter does not rest with the present generation; the young girls who are now in our schools, and the children whose ideas they will mold, shall make the choice of her moral standing in the South in relation to both races, and of her intellectual and social standing among her own people.

Our question is how to help her most toward the end we wish.

Realizing that the foundation of a strong moral nature must be laid first of all,[11] as the basis of true womanhood, shall we concentrate our work upon giving her religious instruction, and seek to bind her by bonds of Christian duty? Let me not seem for a moment to question the power of God’s grace to illuminate the heart and change the will; but until she better understands the force of Bible truth and has a nature more sensitive to receive it than is the case with many who come to us, religion, as she comprehends it, will do her no good. So divorced is it from morality, so satisfied as to the future, and so reckless as to the present are many who suppose they possess it, that I dare not present this last great motive of Christian principle until I see the moral sense working under direct and pointed Bible teaching, so that the Christian life may be grasped in its true meaning. Even then it will not do simply to see her converted and then to send her out to battle with evil, any more than Christian could have met Apollyon without the armor that was added to him after he had entered the wicket gate. The conscience, now in shattered ruins, must be built up that it may again perform its office in distinguishing right from wrong. A sense of her own worth—a genuine self-respect which recognizes degradation and flees from it; that will not even listen to evil, must arise as she comes gradually to know the duty and dignity to which God created her. But if we bring our girls to the point where they are inclined to choose honor and uprightness, we must make this choice possible by putting into their hands the means of supporting themselves; we must train them to habits of industry and to right ideas of labor.

The practical question is, “How shall we produce the results we seek?” Whatever of experience and knowledge I have of any one of our girls bids me answer, “Do with her just what you would do for some young girl in the North whom you wanted to save from the most corrupting influences. Take her early away from the home that oftentimes is no protection to her, and as there are no proper homes open to her, transplant her to as good a Christian home as our schools will afford; furnish her work to do when she has not money to meet the expense, and supplement this work by aid in money when necessary. Make her life in these homes as simple and true and elevating as genuine Christian culture will make it; throw around her the refinements of taste, that her own tastes may be improved; give her reading-rooms with wisely-chosen reading matter, music to refine and inspire; treat her with the courtesy and deference which she must learn to consider her due; give her training under suitable instructors in the industrial arts; and keep her through it all to a strict adherence to duty and a close and accurate course of study. Patiently and perseveringly hold her to this life until there begins to dawn upon her a vision of the noble and beautiful womanhood to which she may attain, and then help her to strive after it, through years of discouragement on the part of teacher and pupil, until a strong and true Christian character is built up to withstand the temptations and resist the tendencies that beset her.”

If you are tempted to say this is asking too much for our girls, that we ought to be content with less, at less expenditure of time and money, remember that the girls for whom I speak are the best among their people—the few who will ever have a chance to attain to higher things. Look just behind them and see the throngs, who, in ignorance and woe and sin, are turning their eyes toward you. Listen to them mutely pleading, “Do not set your standard too low, lest we who can only get a small part of our sister’s share of help, should be left to perish in our degradation.”

The objection is sometimes made that such training unfits our girls for their homes and surroundings. This is too often true. I used to think any education which placed them out of sympathy with their own lowly homes was false and wrong,[12] but more extended knowledge of some of these homes leads me to the belief that in the struggle which must go on to save these people, the Scripture shall again be fulfilled—the mother shall be divided against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

Much misunderstanding and suffering must result, perhaps to both sides, from this clash of the old and the new. In heathen countries, we find it unwise to change the customs which are foreign, unless some principle is involved; in our work, the differences that arise are wholly matters of knowledge or principle. The English civilization exists throughout our country, and what our girl finds as she goes to her home, that is contrary to her improved ideas of home, is the result of ignorance, or indolence, or sin. These, in a quiet, modest way, she must change. God grant her grace to be patient, true and firm through it all.

INDUSTRIAL WORK AT MEMPHIS.

BY MISS ELLA HAMILTON.

Two years ago, through the kindness of friends in the North, two rooms were fitted up in our building, at Memphis, for use in the industrial work among the girls. Will you visit these rooms with me this morning and see what is being done there? As we enter, we find ourselves in the midst of a dozen girls between the ages of 12 and 16, whose eyes and fingers are busy with their work, while their tongues are making sweet music as they sing some simple Sabbath-school hymn. Let us walk about among them, and see what it is that so engrosses their attention. Here, at our side, is a bright-eyed, pretty girl, who is patiently working on the long over-and-over seam, which, it may be, was quite as great a bug-bear to some of us in our childhood days as it is to this little one. Near her is another, busy with a child’s apron, destined, perhaps, for her own little sister. Another still is darning a stocking, while here, at the long table, stands a girl who is taking her first lessons in cutting. There is very little rest for the pleasant-faced teacher during this hour. She must straighten the gathered seams, show the awkward fingers how to take the tiny stitches, give the word of advice or encouragement where it is needed, and see that each one of these active girls is busy upon the task assigned her, and doing that task just as it ought to be done. This work has its place in the course and upon the programme of the school, just as any other school work. The class receives instruction forty minutes each day, for at least one school term. They are taught how to do plain cutting and sewing, and usually become quite expert with the needle. The materials for work have been obtained for the most part from the boxes sent our lady missionary. I had word, however, just before I left home, that these supplies were exhausted, and that they were very much in need of calicoes, needles and threads. Perhaps there are those who can help them in this need.

Adjoining the sewing-room is a kitchen, furnished with a range, a sink, a table and such other articles as are needed by the young ladies who are being initiated into the mysteries of cooking. This class meets four days of the week, two of which are used by the teachers in familiar talks on various subjects, such as the nature of the different foods, their adaptation to the wants of the body, the choice of meats, vegetables, etc. The other two days are used by the girls in actual experiments in the preparation of foods, of course under the supervision of the teachers. They learn how to prepare soups, to cook meats and vegetables, and to make bread, cakes and pies. Better still, they learn how to do this work[13] neatly and economically. Whenever any cooking has to be done, the two girls who have had that in charge are expected to wash the dishes, sweep, dust and air the rooms, and have everything in order for the next day. Sometimes the class gives lunches at noon to their schoolmates or supper in the evening, inviting in their friends. In this way they have raised money enough to pay for all materials used. At one of these entertainments they gave us sandwiches, coffee, chicken salad, cake and strawberries. The bread made by one of the girls was as light and sweet as any I ever ate. To make such bread is an accomplishment of which any one might be proud. Besides the cooking and sewing, we teach our girls how to care for the sick. They have books, and prepare their lessons in this subject as in any other. They learn how to care for the room, and person of their patient, how to prepare such light foods as may be used without harm, the simple home remedies to be administered for ordinary diseases, and the preventatives for such diseases. About all this industrial work the girls themselves are very enthusiastic, seeming to enjoy it quite as well as any other school work. The mothers, too, are very glad that their daughters are having an opportunity to learn how to do these necessary things which they have not the time, or ability, to teach them. In the homes of their parents the girls try to put into practice that which they learn in the school, and as they come to have homes of their own we are sure that they will be better in many ways than they could have been, but for the work they are doing now.

No people can be made very much better except as we reach that center of power and influence, the home. The schools can do something in this direction, and we believe that out from the homes, touched by our A. M. A. schools, will go an influence which will elevate and purify to some extent this whole mass of society.

THE SOUTH.

Rev. Joseph E. Roy, Field Superintendent.

Prof. Albert Salisbury, Superintendent of Education.

AVERY NORMAL INSTITUTE, CHARLESTON, S.C.

BY A. W. FARNHAM, PRINCIPAL.

With us the second of October dawned warm and bright. Before the last tardy risers were awakened, our school flag was hoisted over the building to beckon children and youth Averyward. And how they responded! Soon after the first stroke of the bell which announced that the gates were to be opened, more than three hundred children either walked, ran, or crowded, into the school yards. How they talked! Four months of vacation had dissipated all regard for established rules and usages. And who could scold the first day? It is true that many had been in summer schools during the greater part of vacation, but in many instances they were sent “just to keep them off the street, you know, sir.” Then the private houses in which these schools are “kept” have not school dignity nor school atmosphere, because they are not school buildings; hence they lack molding influence.

Another reason why the children talked was that a new principal (new and yet old) and five new teachers were to be met, measured, and, if possible, mastered. Every boy wants to know just how strong his teachers are; and as their strength is, so his respect will be.

Again the bell sounded, this time to announce the hour for devotions. As the[14] pupils filed into the chapel their eyes fell upon a new crayon likeness of Prof. M. A. Warren, a former principal. This work of art, costing about $50, was presented to the school by the Alumni at their last annual meeting, July 4th. It is a generous expression of their love for a faithful teacher and a true man.

With the children came a large number of patrons “to start them,” of course, but little was done the first day but to exchange greetings, hold chapel exercises, take names and addresses of pupils, assign former pupils to the classes which the previous principal had named for them, and to examine and grade a part of the new ones. Other examinations and grading, with the selling of books, and the collection of tuitions for the month, hindered our programme of work from being fully taken up before the second week.

It is now four weeks since our opening. In the time we have registered three hundred and thirty-six pupils, collected $332.85 for tuition, sold $462.64 worth of books, organized in addition to the common-school branches, classes in physics, chemistry, mineralogy, botany, zoology, physiology, school economy, political economy, history (U.S. and ancient), algebra, geometry, rhetoric, Greek, Latin, French, German, music, gymnastics, sewing, stenography, and Bible study. We have also had our monthly written reviews. A good number of pupils are fitting for college, some of whom will be ready to enter next October. Other pupils are preparing for teaching, and will enter upon their work after leaving us. Others still are intending to follow trades, and are studying that they may become intelligent tradesmen.

In response to our circular of information which we have sent out to friends, we have already received a box of chemical apparatus, a scroll saw with lathe attachment and a book of patents, a quantity of basted patch-work, fifty magnifying glasses, and a box of minerals. In addition to these gifts from abroad, our pupils are daily contributing to start natural history cabinets. Among our pupils’ contributions are many fossils, some of which we would like to exchange with other schools. We need several more scroll saws, and more work for our sewing class.

In the senior class, one of the incentives to study is the Alumni Prize of $50, which is to be given to the student who makes the best record this year, and intends to pursue his studies at some higher institution of learning.

The morning of the 25th (October), we met to join in the concert of prayer for the A. M. A. As a part of the exercises twelve members of the senior class gave brief recitations, in which much information of the Association was given. The recitations, each of which was closed with an appropriate Bible text, were in answer to the following questions: What occasion do we observe this morning? What is the object of this observance? When was the American Missionary Association organized? What led to its organization? What is the character of its work? What is the extent of its work? Name some of the results of its work. What relation do we bear to the A. M. A.?

A more quiet, earnest spirit pervades our higher classes than I have ever seen so early in the term. With the sympathy and prayers of friends, and honest persistent effort on our part, we hope to be signally blessed in the work of the year.

NEW BUILDING AT ATHENS, ALA.

TRINITY SCHOOL BUILDING, ATHENS, ALA.

Trinity school building at Athens, Ala., a cut of which is given herewith, has accommodations for 200 day scholars, and the family of missionaries who have charge of A. M. A. work at Athens. Its history is somewhat unique and altogether[16] encouraging. The old building, where Miss Wells, the principal, had managed the school since 1866, was insufficient and scarcely tenable. The debt of the Association and the claims of larger institutions were such that for a time it seemed almost inevitable that the school must be given up. Miss Wells, however, and the brave people whom she had been serving, determined to rally their forces and save the enterprise at all reasonable hazards.

Preparations were made for furnishing bricks; volunteers offered themselves for all sorts of needful work; some labored in clay pits, some in kiln, some went to the woods for the fuel required to burn the brick, while the women and girls contributed their dimes, nickels and half-dollars to raise a fund to have the wood hauled. In this way the colored people made two hundred thousand bricks, “mixing the clay by the tramp of their one small steer.” Meanwhile, Miss Wells spared no effort in interesting friends at the north to come to her relief. As a result the building was completed last spring at a cost of only $8,000 to the Association, in addition to what was furnished by the colored people. From the time the corner-stone was laid till the opening of the building, a good number of prominent towns’ people manifested their interest in and approval of the work.

THE GEORGIA ASSOCIATION.

We drop down from Savannah, thirty-one miles on the Florida railroad, to McIntosh, in Liberty County. Then it is four miles east over the old Yankee high-way to Midway and its “Lost Church Found,” and the brethren are on hand with their buggies to take us out. Pastor Snelson’s house and the teacher’s home are filled up, and the two rooms of the Academy furnish space for beds and cots for the lodging of eight persons.

Quite a village it is that has grown up there; the large church, the Dorchester Academy, and half a dozen houses and two or three small stores. Heretofore, the two teachers, Misses Kinney and Gibson, have been quartered in a cabin. Now, a new house is under process of construction for them.

All but one of the fifteen churches are represented. Pastor Kent, of Atlanta, preaches the opening sermon upon the Growth of Christian Character, a discourse which proved its fitness to the occasion by the fact that its truths were constantly bubbling up through the course of the meeting. The body changed its name from that of “Conference” to that of “Association,” elected Revs. A. J. Headen and J. E. Roy, with Revs. E. Kent and J. H. H. Sengstacke as alternates to the next National Council, made deliverance against putting churches on the color line, and had the full measure of essays, discussions, sermons, etc. During the Lansing temperance meeting, Rev. George V. Clark, of Athens, thrilled us all as he told of his being a saloon tumbler boy, of his going, full of liquor, to the Storrs School temperance meeting, and of his signing the temperance pledge at the solicitation of Miss Rose M. Kinney, who was at that time a teacher there, and who was then before him. Such a result was a reward of her fifteen years of service. The talks upon the converting power of the Sunday-school were stimulating indeed. The Association received the new Church at Athens, also Revs. George V. Clark and N. B. James.

On the Sabbath the fine large church, 50×60, which had been used several years as simply inclosed, and which had been brought to completion, was re-dedicated. The sermon by Superintendent Roy was upon the Glory of the Sanctuary as the place of Spiritual Nativity: “This and that man was born there.” The prayer of dedication was offered by Rev. E. T. Hooker, of Charleston, S.C. In[17] the afternoon a grand missionary meeting was held in behalf of the American Board, the A. H. M. S., the Congregational Union, and the A. M. A., with addresses made by Revs. E. Kent, S. E. Lathrop, E. T. Hooker, and J. E. Roy, all of them using Mr. Kent’s two big maps, one of the world, and one of our country. Miss Kinney read a paper written by Miss Hardy upon that whole missionary scheme. The ladies appointed the wives of Revs. E. Kent, S. E. Lathrop and Dana Sherrill as a Provisional Committee to prepare the way for organizing a State Woman’s Missionary Society at the next meeting of the Association, to be held at Athens. Meantime the ladies propose to organize in each of several of the churches an auxiliary society, and these will unite in the State Society. Between the two services of Lord’s Day I went out and counted the vehicles and the animals that had brought the great assembly to church; I counted 68 vehicles, of which 38 were buggies, 95 horses and 30 ox teams, 40 oxen in all, as some of the carts were drawn by a single ox. There were two other important gatherings in that region on that day, or, as some of the brethren said, you could not have seen the ground, for the animals and the carryalls that would have been there. As it was, we had, by fair estimate, six hundred people present, and their’s was truly, as they call it, “A Big Meeting.”

J. E. R.

THE CENTRAL SOUTH ASSOCIATION.

That is now the name, changed from that of Central South Conference, at the meeting held in Rev. William H. Ash’s church at Florence, Ala., Nov. 2 to 5. This change is in order to uniformity of title in the state ecclesiastical bodies. Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina yet retain the name “Conference.” The Central South, which was the original Congregational body at the South, having sent off two daughters, the Alabama and the Georgia, still holds good her title to the name, as she yet represents the central States of Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas and a part of Alabama.

The older members said that this last was the best meeting ever held by the Association. Papers were read by B. F. Foster on pastoral work; by William A. Sinclair on the need of cultivating the missionary spirit; by B. A. Imes on Congregationalism; by Mr. Singleton on school work; and the reading was followed in each case by full and animated discussion. President Pope led in a discussion upon the subject of revivals, and also reported the industrial departments of Tougaloo University. Superintendent Roy reported the recent annual meeting of the A. M. A., at Cleveland. One evening was given to a rousing temperance meeting. The preachings were frequent. Revivals were reported at Fisk and Tougaloo Universities, at Memphis and Chattanooga. Two churches were received, one at Meridian, Miss., Rev. J. L. Grice, pastor, and the Welsh church at Soddy, East Tennessee, Rev. W. H. Thomas, where the Welsh are the colliers. Rev. H. S. Bennett, B. A. Imes and William A. Sinclair were elected to the next National Council. Pastor W. H. Ash, who had made ample provision for the entertainment of the Conference, was laid aside through all of the sessions by a severe illness; but the results of his work were manifest to all. A neat gothic church, a pleasant parsonage, and the whole within a tasteful white fence, were the other signs of the work, while the growing membership and Sunday-school, and the day-school of seventy, taught by Mr. Ash and his estimable wife, were the symbol of the intellectual and moral process going on. At the dedication, two years ago, more than fifty of the prominent white citizens were present, among them Ex-Gov. Patton, three or four pastors and as many lawyers. On the Sabbath[18] the pulpits of the colored churches were supplied, and Messrs. Bennett and Roy preached at the Presbyterian church, where Gov. Patton is the S. S. Superintendent, an office which he has magnified for many years. The week before, the Memphis Synod had met in this church, when the appeal of Mr. Long from the Memphis Presbytery came up. By a technicality the appeal did not stand, and Mr. Long was permitted to withdraw from the denomination, to continue his service as pastor of the First Congregational Church of Memphis. The next meeting of the Association is to be with Rev. Joseph E. Smith, at Chattanooga.

J. E. R.

WYTHEVILLE, VA.

Wytheville, Va., is a representative mountain town, situated amidst a rich farming and mining region. Already Northern capital and enterprise have found their way to like portions of the South, where the climate is salubrious, the winters mild, and the rewards of labor immediate and sufficient for the wants of an industrious population. Very much, however, remains to be done for the vast areas of the mountain districts of the South. The school privileges of blacks and whites are as yet quite limited. The people, however, have been distinguished for their loyalty to the Government, and in some portions of the mountain country for their readiness to accept missionary endeavors, regardless of the color line. Prof. C. C. Painter, of Fisk University, and Rev. I. P. Dickerson, one of the original Jubilee Singers, now a missionary in the south of France, were born at Wytheville.

The Rev. W. H. Ash, pastor of our church, and teacher of our school at Florence, Alabama, died on the 13th of November. A protegé of Hon. A. C. Barstow, and a graduate of the Boston University, he began work for us at Mobile, Ala.[19] He was then transferred to Florence, which was in need of such a man as he. Mr. Ash was married to Miss Sarah Hale, of Montgomery, an accomplished lady, who was his helpmeet, not only as a wife, but as a teacher in the school, which they had developed to the great delight of their people, and to the approbation of all the citizens. Mr. Ash, on behalf of the church and of the A. M. A., had built a tasteful church edifice which was also used for the school, and a parsonage. He had commanded the high appreciation of all the best people in the community. During his sickness, the Central South Association had its annual session in his church. His wife took his remains to Montgomery for burial. As writes the stricken companion: “It was only going home to receive the reward of the faithful servant.”

THE INDIANS.

STATEMENTS RESPECTING INDIANS AND THEIR NECESSITIES.

BY GEN. S. C. ARMSTRONG.

Besides the 59,000 Indians in the Indian Territory, there are about 200,000, of whom 55,000 are wholly supported by the government; 45,000 are partially maintained, and 100,000 receive little or no aid. They occupy 250,000 square miles of land, nine-tenths of it grazing land, the rest suitable for agriculture. The constantly increasing value of this domain from its mineral wealth and the building of railroads presses hard upon its thriftless occupants, who stand right in the line of progress, and must either change or perish. Meanwhile their source of subsistence, game, is disappearing, and, more and more, they will depend either on public charity or on stealing their food unless taught to take care of themselves.

The Indian question is upon us as never before. Those in the Indian Territory and the few thousands in Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, North Carolina and other States, say 75,000 in all, are remnants of tribes who formerly lived east of the Mississippi River, are inclined to agriculture and domestic life, and have been considered superior to the nomadic tribes of the West. They long since ceased to trouble us, and are, at some places making commendable progress in education, stock raising and crops, besides generally holding their own in numbers. Still, to a large extent, they seem fixed in a half civilized, half pagan state, lacking their earlier manliness for the want of hardship and discipline in their lives, keeping up their heathen rites and dances, living in poverty, without law, demoralized more or less by annuities and destitute of the conditions that create character and self reliance.

They need practical education. A few are already at Hampton and Carlisle; five hundred should have such an opportunity.

More than this, their tribal relations should be broken up, homesteads inalienable for at least twenty-five years should be assigned, and they should be left as citizens of the several states in which they are, to vote and be voted on.

Reservations are merely places for herding Indians; temporary, necessary experiments, that, after a given time, may become growing evils. Herding negroes in like manner would have been a curse to both white and black races. There has been more sentiment than sense in treating the Indian as a separate people. It was kindly meant but a cruel plan in its results. This part of the red race has suffered most from the whites; their comfortable eastern homes have been broken up, their thrifty farms and fruitful orchards abandoned for a western wilderness[20] where thousands have died from exposure. Their record has been the saddest part of the “Century of Dishonor.”

THE WILD TRIBES.

The destruction of the buffalo has been more trying to the Indian than sudden emancipation was to the Negro. The latter changed the relations rather than the realities of life; the former the realities rather than their relations. The one remained on its old foundation of land and of labor—any shifting was voluntary. Game, the support of the other, has gradually failed and they have been roughly pushed from place to place till pauperism seems the only fixed fact of their life. The human machine after running for centuries does not readily reverse itself; the strain on the Indian is tremendous. Was greater ever put upon men?—force to control them, charity to weaken them. Justice demanded help, but wisdom demanded self-help as its condition. Exigency is man’s best teacher. “Necessity is the mother of invention;” it makes men creative. The facts of human nature, and of experience, have been ignored in our treaties with the Indians, probably because we never really conquered them, but purchased peace on the best terms we could make.

Carrying the Indian from helplessness to self support is the most difficult administrative problem of our country. The Negro has taken care of himself. “The forty acres and a mule” method would have ruined the race. He was thrown on himself and given a vote; dangerous as it once seemed, who would now have it otherwise? He struggled, suffered and succeeded.

The Indian is fed “till he shall become self-supporting,” which gives him a motive for not becoming so. He alone of all men on the earth, finds in industry not reward but a penalty. The Shoshone farmers, when a reduction of rations was suggested, threatened to stop cultivating their fields. A few may go to work, but the whole line will not move forward while rations and other gratuities are issued, as now, to lines of ragged, wretched-looking mendicants who are helped for the asking.

Treaties must be kept, but the treaties contemplate ultimate self-support and the necessity of education to that end. It is, I believe, quite within their spirit to withhold supplies from the lazy and intractable.

At Yankton, Devil’s Lake, Cheyenne River and at other points, efficient agents kept the schools full, and the Indians busy by the argument to the stomach, which is their weak point. It is, I believe, the starting point of Indian civilization. The plan is as excellent as it is unusual.

On the Fort Hall reservation, in Idaho, I recently saw fields of wheat, oats and potatoes; two-thirds of the tribe had become farmers, besides owning herds of cattle, because a former agent had issued the coffee and sugar rations, which the red man dearly loves, only as each one successively staked out, plowed and planted his allotted little farm. The nation’s gratuities may do the Indian as much good as they are doing him harm, if wisely administered, especially the luxuries, which afford the best leverage. He is managed now by a class of men whose title, in spite of shining exceptions among them, is a byword and a reproach. Decayed clergymen, hungry politicians, and the broken of every profession, are not the ones to make citizens of the red man. Fifteen hundred or two thousand dollars a year will not secure first-class men, who must travel far with their families, at their own expense, and be liable at any day to discharge and disgrace. By refusing adequate salaries, Congress (and Congress means the people) decides that the Indian’s greatest need shall be unsupplied, for lack of a trifling comparative cost. Millions for fuel and dry goods, but not one or two hundred thousand dollars more that men of repute and of capacity may go to the Agencies.[21] Good beef and flour and shoes, but second-rate men, whose average official life is less than two years, is the present provision for them.

The tender mercies of the Government to the Indian are cruel; the much-talked-of treatment of the slave owner was tender by comparison. The self-interest of the Southern barons was humanity itself, in contrast with the course of men sent in the name of a high duty, many of whom have been tempted, if not forced, into corruption. I would throw no slur on the better class among them, of whom the country is not worthy.

The Indian is a child and needs a Father; physically mature, he is mentally an infant. He stands proud but helpless on the track of a locomotive. He will not heed the advice of whites inferior in natural force to himself, and such, as a rule, he has to deal with. No wonder the young prefer their own leaders. In the school of civilization only object lessons are good for anything. What lessons we have given the Indians!

Recent agitation has chiefly concerned the education, lands and rights of the race, and progress has been made in the way of opportunities offered, but the Indian has not moved. He must be touched; the high and low must come together. Virtue will go out of the one into the other as it entered into her who touched the hem of a sacred garment. There is no salvation in acts of Congress; it is from the springs of action within. To awake these in the bosom of the Indian and consummate it in Christian character is the work of individual men by their contact and by their personal influence.

The Indian question is, first, one of organization, second, one of executive duty; of conditions and of action. In the former, of late years, there has been much progress. Respecting the latter there has been little. Crops and herds have somewhat increased and education has advanced, especially in the East; but the executive work drags, because there is nobody to do it. Men are the need of the hour, and money to provide for their wants.

At the northern frontier outposts, this summer, for the first time, the soldiers remained in their barracks. At the forts in Montana and Dakota which I visited, there was general respect for Indian prowess, and belief in his capacity and in his wrongs. “Were I an Indian I would fight” seemed the feeling of all.

So far as army officers are gentlemen of character, force and experience, and of humane ideas (for there are opposing views), I believe they are better fitted than any others to settle the Indian question. Their destructive work is nearly over: it has fitted them for the constructive work to be done. As officers they have peculiar advantages over civilians of the same capacity and worth, far less temptation and far stronger standing ground for the control of Indians. One-half of the sixty agencies might well be put at once under selected officers; not that it is strict military duty, but it is not an “old woman’s work,” as one of high rank said of Capt. Pratt’s effort. The latter is doing, indirectly, more than any two regiments for the pacification of the Indians—the army’s special business.

Railroads are doing the work of pioneers and of soldiers, peace is not far off. There will soon be need of the army only as a national police, and half of the 15,000 troops at the West may be dispensed with. What better service can a few of its accomplished officers undertake than building up a civilization at its weakest point?

The Indian can be rescued from a sad fate only by personal devotion; that has, under God, created the great results of missionary work throughout the world in recent years. The labors of the Riggses, Williamsons and of Bishop Whipple and others during the past half century, in the western wilderness, has been a[22] seed-sowing of which the results are now appearing. The men they have touched and taught are those who are now breaking from the old superstitions and asking for light, while official dealings have scarcely a moral result to show for armies of agents and vast annuities. Only the light of Christian truth and example steadily shining can lift men up. Mission work among the Cherokees and others, and for the Sioux at Sisseton and Fort Sully and Santee agencies in Dakota, where wild Indians are settled on so peaceful prosperous homes that “a stranger traveling through the country would not believe that he was on an Indian Reservation,” attest the complete success of the Congregational, Episcopalian, and Presbyterian societies. Peoria Bottom, which I visited in 1881, is a charming village of twenty Christian families, on thrifty homes, the result of the efforts of the Rev. Thos. L. Riggs. “In proportion to the aid and means employed no missions since the apostolic age have been more successful than those to the American Aborigines,” declares one of these bodies. There have been, however, weak and disappointing missions.

Such work cannot be inspired from Washington, though it may supply many of the conditions of it. A purified civil service would do more for the Indian than for any class in the country. Good agents would create a morale, like a favoring tide, for the Christian teacher.

The “gist” of the Indian question I believe to be honesty and capacity in dealing with them. Given these and the rest will work itself out.

THE CHINESE.

Rev. W. C. Pond, Superintendent.

HUMBLINGS.

BY REV. W. C. POND.

I had finished the preparation of the last annual report of our Mission. I had read it at the annual meeting. It was ready for the printer, and had even been placed in his hands. It was a report instinct throughout with good cheer. It could not be otherwise. It recorded the work of a prosperous year. No previous year of our whole history had approached this one, as to the numbers gathered into our schools and brought within reach of the invitations of the Gospel. Perhaps I was in danger of being “exalted above measure.” And, so, humblings were prepared for me.

It may be the dictate of expediency, but certainly it is not that of frankness and honesty, to speak to our benefactors only smooth things. There are shades as well as lights in missionary work. The tide is not always rising. The sun is not always at noon. And if possible, those who sustain the work ought to be made able to see the shadows and to understand the disappointments; ought to be admitted to acquaintanceship with even the mistakes which we, the workers, make. Daylight throughout our operations is essential. Without this, there are bred “bureau distempers,” petty falsities, self-seekings and the whole brood of faults into which even renewed natures get sometimes betrayed. One of the chief beauties and glories of the statements presented this year, both at Portland and at Cleveland, was their manifest frankness—the pains evidently taken to set before the people all the facts so far as the opportunity allowed.

But I am making a long preface. “What humblings have been prepared for you?” my readers are asking. One of our Chinese brethren, converted as we believed, and baptised some years ago—a young man in some respects specially capable and specially pleasing, who knows the way of life well, and can explain it clearly to his less instructed countrymen, is found to have been gambling on[23] (for them) a large scale, and, at first, with rare success. Rumor has it that not less than $3,000 had flowed from the depleted purses of his countrymen into his own; but that blind to the fact that the tide might turn, he had continued his sin until it left him stranded and wrecked. Inquiry shows this rumor to be founded on facts. We are made to blush at the congratulations the heathen Chinese have been proffering over the good-luck of the gambling Christian. We get the heart-ache as we see how sin breeds sin, how falsehood and profanity follow in the train of these dishonest gains. The heart-ache deepens as we see some others of our brethren swept away by sympathy or friendship, or possibly by some less amiable consideration into partial complicity with his wrong. It transpires that with several others as with this brother, there has been a forgetfulness of the assembling of themselves together, a self-assertion and self-trust, a disposition to debate but not to pray, a cooling of brotherly love and Christian zeal, all of which fore-shadowed like dishonors to be heaped upon the name of Christ, unless a breath of God’s dear spirit should soon inspire in them a freshened life.

Thank God, these humblings have not come alone. If the great body of our Chinese Christians had been insensible to them, if there had been no movement, or if only a ripple on the surface of an otherwise stagnant sentiment, I should have been discouraged indeed. But there was an immediate movement, a deep sense of shame, an almost too speedy discipline. And now, taking counsel together, we have undertaken, with the help of God, to withstand more faithfully those beginnings of evil; to make the first symptoms of coldness and inattention and wandering the signal for more earnest prayer and for kindly and cautious, but effective, watch and care.

In connection with this our schools in San Francisco propose to undertake something more general and more generous in the way of giving. Certainly the sum total of expenditures made by our Chinese brethren, in connection with their Christian work, is creditable already. When we consider their circumstances it is not a little thing that in this last year their offerings, one way and another, should reach a total of $2,000. But a scrutiny of the sources from which this amount had come showed that in some quarters the grace of giving had not been as generally cultivated or as fruitful in results as it might have been. And a recovery of lost ground in this regard, an advance beyond anything heretofore attempted is fully resolved upon. Plans are being laid, the mutual exhortations have begun, and it is believed that by the 1st of December they will show us definite and practical returns. One of the helpers writes me as follows: “Last night I have been spoken to the scholars and brethren about the gifts of the money for the missionary work and about the gas that you are going to put up instead of the oil lamps. They were so pleased to help. I can hardly know how to tell you how glad they feel to pay the gas and water bills and to help you pay the rent. I was surprised that I should receive a large sum of gifts last evening so soon as when I get through my sayings, and I expect another sum this evening, because great many have not any money with them last evening.” This same good spirit seems to pervade all the schools and I am greatly comforted by it.

Other encouragements are not wanting. Even now I am awaiting in my study the arrival of five Chinese who, with the approval and recommendation of our brethren, offer themselves as candidates for baptism and reception to our Bethany Church. Scarcely a month has passed without tidings of some one turning to the light and avowing himself a disciple of Christ. But I have been made specially glad this month by the news from two of our youngest and smallest schools. Mrs. Willett, of Santa Cruz, reporting for the first time two of her pupils as giving evidence of conversion, adds: “I am very hopeful concerning[24] the spiritual interests of four of my boys. Eight of them already own and study the New Testament. I give them Bible instruction two whole evenings each week, and they enjoy it.” And Miss Fulton, of Berkeley says: “In reporting that two of the pupils give evidence of conversion, I do not say that they have confessed it by word; but they attend so regularly to school, and to Sunday school, listen to all religious instruction so earnestly, and join in the Lord’s Prayer so heartily, that I feel assured they are earnestly seeking the truth.”

And so God has mingled encouragements with humblings, and not suffered us to be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.

WASHEE WASHEE.

BY JOAQUIN MILLER.

—The Independent.

CHILDREN’S PAGE.

THE LITTLE DINING-ROOM.

BY MRS. T. N. CHASE.

Often just before breakfast I hear a tripping step in our hall, then a light tap at the door, and our little John exclaims, “You’re ’vited, mamma.” As I answer the knock, happy Hennie’s voice rings out the welcome words, “You and Mr. Chase are invited to breakfast in the little dining-room.” Now, as the “big dining-room” is filled with about 150 students and teachers, and as board is eight dollars per month, the little dining room offers the most quiet, to say nothing of the superior variety and quality of the food.

Well, now, there has of late been rapidly growing what some of us staid teachers think is an industrial craze. I suppose any day the girls at the North may have to give up one of their studies for the old-fashioned patchwork. Oh! I don’t[25] mean old-fashioned. Isn’t it funny that old-fashioned things are the newest-fashioned things? I suppose, too, any day our grandmother’s beautiful samplers may again take their æsthetic places in the schoolroom to teach “marking stitch” from “sure enough” antique letters, and the boys may march into a recitation room, where they will learn to drive nails and shoe pegs. Well, this is a great question, and none but a parent can be more interested than the faithful teacher that the best methods should be used in developing their precious charge.

About two years ago the matron of Atlanta University selected two little dormitory rooms that opened into each other, and turned them into dining-room and kitchen. An old Stewart cook stove used in the big kitchen long ago, before the range was a necessity, was a large part of the little kitchen’s outfit. The clothes press was easily changed to cupboard, and an old flower stand was made into a tidy closet for pots and kettles. In the dining-room the floor was stained in alternate strips of dark and light color; a fly screen put in the window, a few pictures and a rough shelf covered with a pretty lambrequin brightened the walls; and, best of all, while this revolution was going on, an old friend happened to drop in, on her way to Florida. She was so delighted with the matron’s idea that she filled the China closet of the little dining-room with such pretty things that the dainty tea table at once put on airs in its new home. Well, in these two little rooms the two highest classes of girls are honored with practice in household arts, with the matron for their teacher. At first gatherings in the little dining-room were quite rare. The birthdays of the senior class were celebrated there, and guests sometimes entertained, but the girls are so proud of their housekeeping that now they are allowed all the practice they have time for. Absent graduates must remember the room with pleasure, as they send beautiful bouquets for the table. The senior girls take turns in being responsible for the breakfasts and teas, and in presiding at table. In addition to the two girls who preside, there is room for about a third of the teachers. So, as we cannot all go, there can be no general invitations, but each visit there has all the charm of a special invitation out to breakfast or tea. But the best of it all is the encouragement it gives the girls to practice the too often neglected art of good cooking.

So now you see why we are proud of the little dining-room, and why Hennie trips through the halls so merrily as she carries from door to door the coveted invitation.

RECEIPTS FOR NOVEMBER, 1882.

FORM OF A BEQUEST.

“I bequeath to my executor (or executors) the sum of —— dollars, in trust, to pay the same in —— days after my decease to the person who, when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer of the ‘American Missionary Association’ of New York City, to be applied, under the direction of the Executive Committee of the Association, to its charitable uses and purposes.” The Will should be attested by three witnesses.

AIM AND WORK.

To preach the Gospel to the poor. It originated in a sympathy with the almost friendless slaves. Since Emancipation it has devoted its main efforts to preparing the Freedmen for their duties as citizens and Christians in America, and as missionaries in Africa. As closely related to this, it seeks to benefit the caste-persecuted Chinese in America, and to co-operate with the Government in its humane and Christian policy toward the Indians.

STATISTICS FOR 1882.

Churches: In the South—In District of Columbia, 1; Virginia, 1; North Carolina, 9; South Carolina, 2; Georgia, 14; Kentucky, 7; Tennessee, 4; Alabama, 14; Kansas, 2; Arkansas, 1; Louisiana, 17; Mississippi, 5; Texas, 6. Africa, 3. Among the Indians, 2. Total, 88.

[29]

Institutions Founded Fostered or Sustained in the South.—Chartered: Hampton, Va.; Berea, Ky.; Talladega, Ala.; Atlanta, Ga.; Nashville, Tenn.; Tougaloo, Miss.; New Orleans, La., and Austin, Tex.—8. Graded or Normal Schools: Wilmington, N.C.; Charleston, Greenwood, S.C.; Savannah, Macon, Atlanta, Ga.; Montgomery, Mobile, Athens, Selma, Ala.; Memphis, Tenn.—11. Other Schools, 38. Total, 57.

Teachers Missionaries and Assistants.—Among the Freedmen, 336; among the Chinese, 31; among the Indians, 6; in Africa, 16. Total, 389. Students.—In theology, 72; law, 28; in college course, 104; in other studies, 9,404. Total, 9,608. Scholars taught by former pupils of our schools, estimated at 150,000. Indians under the care of the Association, 13,000.

WANTS.

1. A steady INCREASE of regular income to keep pace with the growing work. This increase can only be reached by regular and larger contributions from the churches, the feeble as well as the strong.

2. Additional Buildings for our higher educational institutions, to accommodate the increasing number of students; Meeting Houses for the new churches we are organizing; more Ministers, cultured and pious, for these churches.

3. Help for Young Men, to be educated as ministers here and missionaries to Africa—a pressing want.

Transcriber’s Notes:

Obvious printer’s punctuation errors and omissions silently corrected. Inconsistent hyphenation retained due to the multiplicity of authors.

Ditto marks replaced with the text they represent to facilitate eBook alignment.

Images have been moved outside of paragraphs, resulting in page numbers that are slightly off.

“Goverment” changed to “Government” on page 21. (The tender mercies of the Government)

Missing “s” inserted in “raised” on page 24. (And raised his little shaven head)

Missing “s” inserted in “Boscawen” on page 25.

Missing “l” inserted in “Wallingford” entry on page 26.