that field can appreciate the American Missionary Association and
its work. Withdraw the influence of this work from the South, and
it would prove a calamity more serious in its results than a dozen
earthquakes. The needs of the work grow greater year by year, and
we rejoice that the hearts of a generous Christian people are
expanding and enlarging to meet the demand.
GEO. C. ROWE.
* * * * *
SHOTGUN IN LOUISIANA.
[The outrage referred to in the following letter was perpetrated
only a few weeks ago. We suppress names and dates for obvious
reasons. We know the writer and can vouch for the truth of the
statement. We have in our possession additional and corroborative
evidence.—Ed.]
“My very last days at school were saddened by a most distressing
outrage in which the father and elder brother of one of my own
good, manly, big boys, were shot down in unjust, merciless and
indiscriminating slaughter; the other two grown-up sons obliged
to flee; the mother, grandmother and two younger children left
desolate but not unfriended, and the large, rich and heavy crop,
which would have sufficed to send all the children to school next
year, of necessity abandoned. That was the trouble: the white men
around were jealous of his business methods, his prosperity and his
determination to educate his children—said they were ‘getting too
smart for niggers’—so, when an alleged crime by another colored
man or boy furnished a pretext, they improved the opportunity for
wholesale massacre—six or seven in all were killed, some of them
resisting and killing two white men. I was amazed at the Christian
meekness shown by my boy, the elder of the two who escaped, a
large, strong young man. He spoke with gratitude of the two white
men who tried to save his father, and he seemed disposed to leave
the murderers entirely in the hands of the great Judge of all,
saying, ‘If the Lord saw fit to punish them He could _meet up with
them_ any time.’
“I said, with a view to learning how this severe tribulation had
affected his trust in Christ—for he is but a young disciple—‘some
people, when great trouble is permitted to come upon them, feel
that the Lord has deserted them.’ He responded at once, ‘I don’t
feel that way. I think the Lord must have been _very near_ me when
I was dodging through the young corn, neither high enough nor
thick enough to hide me in the bright morning light, and they all
shooting at me as if I had been a deer, or they would certainly
have killed me.’
“In answer to some remarks of mine, he said: ‘You needn’t be afraid
of my taking to any meanness on account of this. I never can find
it in my heart to be mean to anybody. I feel too sorry for people.’
His only anxiety was to find work and make enough to get the rest
of his people away from there.
“When I went into my school room after hearing of this
heart-rending affair, a horror of great darkness came over me for
an instant, and a sound was in my ears as of a knell; then the
students’ plaintive song seemed to vibrate through the air—How
long, Master, how long? These distressful experiences weigh heavily
on the hearts and nerves of our missionaries, who are here so
nearly all the year around and have such a care for everything that
affects the school or its members.”
A TEACHER.
* * * * *
DEATH OF REV. WILLIS POLK.
Died, at his home in Fayetteville, Ark., after a lingering illness,
Rev. Willis Polk, pastor of the Colored Congregational Church of
that place. He came to Fayetteville in the fall of 1884, and took
charge of the public school for the colored people; and up until
the time he was disabled by sickness, he labored in the school-room
during the week, and preached in the little church, which he
had organized, on the Sabbath. His education and his gifts as a
preacher were above the average of his race. He met death calmly
and peacefully, and died in the blessed hope of a home in heaven.
He was kindly nursed and provided for by the members of his little
flock and others, during his long sickness, and his mortal remains
were reverently laid in the tomb by the same kind hands. He leaves
a wife and four small children to mourn his loss, and the little
flock to which he ministered without a shepherd.
J. N.
* * * * *
THE INDIANS.
Away up in the northern part of the Territory of Dakota, on the
bank of the Missouri, live the Mandan Indians. They are a small
tribe, numbering not quite 400, are peaceably inclined, and are
somewhat ambitious. They have a tradition that “they came from
under the earth, where they lived near a subterranean lake. They
ascended by means of a grape vine, which a heavy woman broke, so
that part of the tribe were left below.” They are lighter in color
than many other tribes, and gray hair is often seen even among the
young people. They live with the Arickarees and Gros Ventres, in
a very friendly way, but are a distinct tribe by themselves, with
their old chief at their head.
Little can be said in praise of their morals; they are far below
the Sioux nation in this. Polygamy is very generally practiced,
although the younger people are beginning to adopt the white man’s
ways, and to give up this with others of their old customs.
They are doing quite well at agriculture, raising corn and wheat,
and storing hay. The Government supplies all those who seem
industrious with implements and machines for use in farming; and
some of the men learn quickly their use and manipulation, so that
the results of their labor would often do a white farmer credit.
The great drawback to their success is their natural tendency
to work awhile and then shirk awhile. They soon tire of steady
employment, and form all kinds of excuses for absence. Like the
Irish, they always have sick relatives who demand their attention
at the most inopportune times. This is not more characteristic
of the Mandans than of all Indians. The lack of discipline in
their natures is a very great disadvantage, and is something that
missionaries and agents have constantly to fight. Of course, for
generations back the Indians have followed their own sweet wills,
and have roamed the prairie and forest at pleasure, traveling
when they wished to travel, and halting when they wished to halt,
so that the idea of any necessity for steady toil day after day,
is one that they grasp with difficulty. They must learn first
that there is a to-morrow—a fact they have never realized. This
accomplished, a long step ahead will be gained.
Little missionary work has been done among the Mandans in their own
language, and few of them understanding other languages—even those
of the Arickarees and Gros Ventres—it is little they can learn
of the Christian’s God and religion. The fear of their own gods
arouses them to sacrifice and worship, often of the most horrible
kind, and even while they gaze with red, swollen eyes at the sun,
in painful worship, there is a yearning in their hearts for better,
higher things, and this it is that prompts their heathen prayers
to all nature, through their ignorance of the one true source from
which these better things can be.
While I have spoken of their ambitious attempts at agriculture as a
tribe, there are still many among them who are idle. Young Indian
men in the very prime of life, powerful, and abundantly able to
labor with the strongest, spend their days sitting around the camp
fires with the old men and the dogs, in among blackened kettles,
and all the filthy paraphernalia of their lodges—sit, and smoke,
and talk, and sleep. I asked, one day: “What are these people
saying—what can they find to talk so much about?” “Oh,” said my
Indian companion, “they talk of the old times—of their wars and
their dances!” Sad enough was the picture!
Among these Mandan people, whom he calls his children, lives an old
man—a chief. He stands somewhat between the wild Indian and the
civilized. With yearnings after the civilization of which he has
heard and known, he is yet tied to the old ways through the want of
a teacher and guide. He is intelligent, and anxious for a different
state of affairs among his people. Two sons had he of great
promise. The elder went out to war against some hostile Indians,
and died. It was a great blow to his father, who had looked to his
sons for the deliverance of his people. The younger son was sent
to the Normal School at Santee, to become educated, and to learn
of the white man’s ways. He is still there at school, and his old
father waits at home patiently, while the years of preparation go
on. He sends occasional messages of encouragement to his son, and
is doing all in his power to prepare himself and people for the
work ahead. In order that he may conform to the customs his son is
adopting, he has even had his long hair shorn, a year before the
boy’s return, that it may please him to see his father as white men
are. Long hair is to the Indian very much what the cue is to the
Chinaman—he is slow to part with it.
A short time ago Santee students were engaged in writing letters to
Eastern friends, and the old chiefs son, among the rest, wrote of
his home, his people and his plans. He was trying to tell what I
have told—the condition of his tribe, the lack of missionary work
among them, and their inability to understand the teachers of the
other tribes. As he wrote of this, and of his plan to go back to
them as a teacher, his head dropped forward on his desk and the
tears rolled down his cheeks as he realized the awful want of a
starving nation—a nation crying out for the Gospel of Christ. Yet
this was an Indian boy—was once a wild Indian, a savage! Why will
not Christian people believe that the Indian is a _man_—is a man
with a soul! Why are we all so slow to understand that the Indian
has a heart and a mind!
Surely God remembers the Mandans. God himself believes in the
Indian.
MRS. C. W. SHELTON.
* * * * *
THE CHINESE.
FRUIT AT PETALUMA.
Our Petaluma mission has for several years been apparently barren.
Its first years were by far its best ones. It would have been
abandoned but for the faith and self-denying persistency of its
excellent teacher, Mrs. M. H. Colby. Throwing off 50 per cent. of
the meagre salary promised her when she entered upon the work;
soliciting aid from friends in Petaluma; interesting, as far as
possible, her pupils to contribute, she has made her mission the
least expensive of them all; and she has hoped against hope that
the promise would sooner or later be fulfilled, and her labor be
not in vain in the Lord. Others grew discouraged. Chinese helpers
sent to work with her came back to urge that the work be suspended.
The hearts were too hard. The families or _clans_ represented in
the Chinese population of Petaluma were too hostile one to another.
There was too much gambling; there was too much opium. Even those
who had attended the school for years, seemed no less averse to
Christianity than those who had never entered the schoolroom door.
About three months ago the teacher was able to write me that she
believed the ice was broken, and that three of her pupils were
really asking after the true God and salvation. I had learned,
however, by hard experience that the “heathen Chinee”—among other
“tricks that are vain”—can play pious on occasions, and do it so
well as to deceive the very elect. More than once have I been
compelled, by the adverse reports of trustworthy Christian Chinese,
to decline to baptise, or in any way to encourage in Christian
profession, those whom American Sunday-school teachers had come to
regard almost as model saints; and I feared that Mrs. Colby’s warm
heart might have started hopes which a careful scrutiny would prove
unfounded.
Accordingly I sent Jee Gam to visit these young men. He spent
two Sabbaths with them. At another time Chin Kue, our faithful
helper at Oakland, spent several days with them. The result of
their inquiries brought joy to all our hearts. The new converts
were found to be sincere, fervent, courageous and though sadly
in need of instruction, yet earnestly desiring it. So they were
organized into a branch of our Association of Christian Chinese,
and were shown how to commence effective Christian work among their
countrymen. Three weeks ago word came of another who seemed to be
turning to Christ. His brethren were doubtful about him, but Mrs.
Colby hoped quite strongly. This time Loo Quong, who has done so
good service in an evangelistic way in our Northern missions, was
asked to go and spend a Sabbath with them. His experience I give
in something like his own idioms as he reported it to me. Speaking
of this new convert he said: “Before I have chance to speak to
him, the others told me that they had heard that he had been in
the gambling places, but they were not sure about it. So my first
question to him was this: ‘Do you wish to be a Christian?’ He
said ‘Yes.’ ‘Have you been gambling before?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Don’t you
know that gambling is wrong, and not fit for a Christian to do?’
‘Yes, I found that out some time ago.’ So we went on, question and
answer, till I found him truly sincere, and wanting to try to love
the Saviour. So I made arrangements for him to be brought into the
Association on Sunday evening. On Sunday morning five of us were
going to the Congregational church. While we were passing through
Chinatown some of our countrymen, about ten in number, standing by
the doors of the Chinese shops began to make fun of us, calling us
‘_cabbages_.’ This means, in Chinese, a very dirty word, and at the
same time, it has a sound very near to the word _Jesus_ in Chinese.
After they had called us all by this name, they turned especially
upon Wong Tim Ban (the young Christian) saying to him: ‘Come, have
a smoke of opium before you go to church.’ ‘Come play cards with
us once more.’ In all this he kept silent, and so did all of us.
After church was dismissed we came back the same way, and they came
out to meet us again. They called Wong Ban a very bad name. But he
only smiled and returned them a very kind word, saying: ‘Yes, I am
a Christian now, no matter what I had done before. I am going to be
a better man and do not mind your laughing.’” So when evening came
he was welcomed to the Association by the vote of all the members.
And so _we_ stand rebuked for unbelief; and the faithful teacher’s
perseverance is rewarded; and we take courage to work on though
hearts are hard and for the time the field seems like unbroken
fallow ground.
Those who remember my article of two months ago on _Imperium in
imperio_, will be interested to know that the young Chinese maiden
spoken of has been adopted into an excellent Christian family and
is now at home with them in an Eastern State. It would not be wise
perhaps to make a more definite publication of her whereabouts.
WM. C. POND.
* * * * *
BUREAU OF WOMAN’S WORK.
MISS D. E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.
We call special attention to the fact that in connection with our
Annual Meetings we always have a distinct presentation of our
Woman’s Work by lady missionaries from the field. We take the
liberty of suggesting that the various Ladies’ Missionary Societies
that contribute to our work should make an effort to be represented
at the approaching Annual Meeting in Portland. Conference
collectors and church collectors for woman’s aid to the A. M. A.
will find this meeting to be of special help in furnishing them
with a wide and inspiring view of our great work. Let the ladies of
Maine and the adjoining States have a large representation at the
Portland meeting.
* * * * *
The following, from a colored woman, shows what can be accomplished
by a single missionary; also the great need of faithful Christian
workers. Speaking of one of our missionaries, this colored woman
says:
“Miss ———— was with us last Sabbath. If we could have her here
for a while we could soon build up a work, and some of these poor
erring children who are being led astray by the world and the other
churches, which are no better than the world, would be reclaimed
and put into the right way. I have been with her studying for
six weeks, and have seen what a great work she is doing, and I
long to have her saintly influence at this place. There are in
this place about fifty or more young colored girls just coming to
womanhood, and out of all you will not find three respectable ones.
Drunkenness, gambling and licentiousness are so common that they
are not looked upon as sin. The church and the world are hand in
hand. The whites look on and smile. It is just as they wish it.
They say the Negro cannot rise above these things; but I do know
that this is false. I know that my people are as capable of leading
pure and holy lives as the whites are, but we need pure-minded
leaders—those who will put their whole heart and soul into the
work, as this dear friend has done. The colored people have no
truer friend than she.”
FROM A TEACHER.
_Dear Friends_: I would like to give you some facts which show the
need of the continued work of the A. M. A.
Let us visit a school-house where a large congregation is gathered
in and around the house. A dark man is preaching. Judging by the
loudness of voice and furious gesticulations, and the groaning and
fervent “Amens” of his hearers, he must be saying something very
important. But hark! He declares that Jesus cursed. His text, as he
read it and repeats it to prove his assertion, is: “I do _curse_
to-day and to-morrow,” etc.—Luke xiii, 32.
Another time we find the same man giving the history of the ten
commandments, saying that God gave Moses one set of commandments
and Moses went down and read them to the people. They said they
were too hard, so Moses broke the stones and went back and told the
Lord that his commands were too hard, so God gave him some easier
ones.
Again, this minister is proving that Jesus was baptized by
“mersion.” He says that when Jesus came up out of the water, he ran
so fast to the wilderness that no one could keep up with him, but
they tracked him by the water that dripped from his clothes. They
tracked him in this way forty days before they found him.
Some of the people near that school-house are anxious for better
instruction, and have applied to the Association for a minister.
Another school-house, two miles from one of the A. M. A., has been
used for meetings held by a regularly licensed minister who does
not know a letter. Some of his members say “his sermons beat the
’postle Paul,” and if noise and violent gestures count, probably
they are right.
There are many such preachers as those I have told you of, but
where the true light is brought by the American Missionary
Association and other missions, they are driven out, or are coming
to the light to prepare for better work.
* * * * *
FOR THE CHILDREN.
* * * * *
SANTEE AGENCY, NEB., June, 1887.
_To My Friends at the East:_
I want to write you a letter. First I want to tell you about
my home and my people, how they are, and their ways. I suppose
you know their old way of living, but let me tell you a part of
it again. The general way is to dance, and give away ponies,
and worship stones. They have “visions of the deer,” and think
themselves sacred. They have foolish “visions of the bear,” and
think themselves sacred. They do not go to war now. But when they
used to go to war, they first tied up parcels of tobacco and took
them around to the houses of the men they trusted in, and, opening
the door of the house, they led out the brave man. Then the women
appeared glad, and would dance and shout. So they did; and right
away they would go off to war, and kill men, and bring home their
scalps, or else the hands of the slain, tied to their horses.
But now the people do much better. Now, since the Word of God has
been preached among my people, they do better. And still there are
many who do not know anything. I have grown up but recently, and
yet I know something. I have been several years at Santee Normal
Training School, and have learned some things. Though I cannot talk
English much yet, I understand some, and I wish to keep on learning
as long as I can. And whether I learn or do not learn, I am always
going to try.
And my father and mother are now believers in God. They now have
understanding and knowledge. So that they have now sent my sister
to school, and very soon I shall get letters from her, and I shall
be glad.
And for myself, I wish to live having faith in God, and to learn
all I can here.
Now, my friends, I have told you all about how it is with me; so I
will say no more.
A. W.
* * * * *
RECEIPTS FOR AUGUST, 1887.
* * * * *
MAINE, $1,586.24.
Acton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. $7.00
Bangor. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 31.00
Bath. “A Friend” 20.00
Brewer. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 11.50
Brunswick. First Cong. Ch. 29.17
Castine. Rev. Alfred E. Ives 3.00
Castine. Class No. 9, Trin. Sab. Sch., _for
Student Aid, Tougaloo U._ 1.11
Cherryfield. John W. Coffin 30.00
Dennysville. Cong. Ch. 8.88
Foxcroft and Dover. Cong. Ch. 13.15
Gorham. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 67.58
Hallowell. Mrs. Simon Page, _for Williamsburg,
Ky._ 10.00
Hampden. Cong. Ch. and Sab. Sch. 18.00
Limerick. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 20.09
Limington. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.00
Machias. “Machias” 10.00
Newcastle. Second Cong. Ch. 60.00
North Waterford. Cong. Ch. 5.52
Portland. Seamen’s Bethel Ch. 42.75
Saccarappa. Second Cong. Ch. and Soc. 6.49
Sherman Mills. Washburn Mem. Ch. 5.00
Topsham. Cong. Ch. 6.50
Wells. B. Maxwell, 27.50; Second Cong. Ch., 12 39.50
Woman’s Aid to A. M. A., by Mrs. J. M.
Sturgis, Treas., _for Woman’s Work_,
1886–’87, “Women of Maine” 1,130.00
NEW HAMPSHIRE, $288.36.
Amherst. “Friend” 3.00
Atkinson. Cong. Ch. 14.50
Bedford. “G. E. O.,” 5; Presb. Ch., 1.85 6.85
Campton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.00
Concord. “A” 5.00
Goffstown. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 59.00
Hampstead. Misses H. T. and A. M. Howard, 5
each 10.00
Hanover. Dartmouth College Ch. 60.00
Lyme. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 20.00
Meriden. Cong. Ch. 13.00
Orfordville. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 7.01
Pembroke. Cong. Ch. 27.00
Penacook. Cong. Ch. 28.00
Piermont. Cong. Ch. 20.00
Wentworth. Cong. Ch. 5.00
Wolfboro. Rev. Sumner Clarke 5.00
VERMONT, $530.17.
Barton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 19.00
Barton Landing. Wm. Spencer 5.00
Brattleboro. Cong. Ch., 15; Mrs. Burnham, 1 16.00
Charlotte. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 35.00
Chelsea. Cong. Ch. 25.50
Chester. “A Friend” 15.00
Derby. Ladies, 3.60; Miss’y Concert, 1.40, by
Mrs. David Hopkinson 5.00
Essex. Cong. Ch. 7.60
Fairhaven. Ladies, _for McIntosh, Ga._, by
Mrs. Ellen D. Wild 5.00
Hubbardton. Sab. Sch. of Cong. Ch., 6.07; “A
Friend,” 2 9.07
Johnson. Cong. Ch. 3.00
McIndoes Falls. Cong. Ch. 15.75
Morrisville. Cong. Ch. 17.00
Orange Co. “A Brother” 10.00
Pawlet. “A Well-wisher” (5 of which _for
Indian M._) 6.00
Saint Johnsbury. North Cong. Ch. 191.00
Saint Johnsbury. Mrs. Olive W. Howard and Mrs.
E. D. Blodgett, _for Student Aid, Fisk U._ 50.00
South Woodbury. Cong. Ch. 5.00
Townsend. “A Friend” 10.00
Underhill. Cong. Ch. 13.25
Wallingford. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.00
Wolcott. Cong. Ch. 3.00
Westminster West. Rev. A. Stevens, 10; “A
Friend,” 5 15.00
MASSACHUSETTS, $2,866.92.