The American Missionary
* * * * *
JANUARY, 1888.
VOL. XLII.
NO. 1.
* * * * *
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL.
NEW YEAR'S GREETING--FINANCIAL
PARAGRAPHS
PROHIBITION ITEMS
PARAGRAPHS
THE SOUTH.
NOTES IN THE SADDLE
RELIGIOUS INTEREST IN LINCOLN CHURCH, WASHINGTON, D.C.
THE INDIANS.
THE FOURTH BROTHER. By Mr. Frank Wood
THE CHINESE.
DOES RESTRICTION RESTRICT?
BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.
FOUNDATION LAYING AND HOME BUILDING IN THE SOUTH. By Miss Josephine
Kellogg
THE SANTEE NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL AND INDIAN MISSIONS. By Mrs. Chas.
W. Shelton
THE DAKOTA MISSIONARY SOCIETY
RECEIPTS
* * * * *
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.
* * * * *
American Missionary Association
* * * * *
PRESIDENT, ---- ----
_Vice-Presidents._
Rev. A.J.F. BEHRENDS, D.D., N.Y.
Rev. ALEX. MCKENZIE, D.D., Mass.
Rev. F.A. NOBLE, D.D., Ill.
Rev. D.O. MEARS, D.D., Mass.
Rev. HENRY HOPKINS, D.D., Mo.
_Corresponding Secretaries._
Rev. M.E. STRIEBY, D.D., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.
Rev. JAMES POWELL, D.D., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.
Rev. A.F. BEARD, D.D., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.
_Treasurer._
H.W. HUBBARD, Esq., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.
_Auditors._
PETER MCCARTEE.
CHAS. P. PEIRCE.
_Executive Committee._
JOHN H. WASHBURN, Chairman.
ADDISON P. FOSTER, Secretary.
_For Three Years._
LYMAN ABBOTT,
A.S. BARNES,
J.R. DANFORTH,
CLINTON B. FISK,
ADDISON P. FOSTER,
_For Two Years._
S.B. HALLIDAY,
SAMUEL HOLMES,
SAMUEL S. MARPLES,
CHARLES L. MEAD,
ELBERT B. MONROE,
_For One Year._
J.E. RANKIN,
WM. H. WARD,
J.W. COOPER,
JOHN H. WASHBURN,
EDMUND L. CHAMPLIN.
_District Secretaries._
Rev. C.L. WOODWORTH, D.D., 21 _Cong'l House, Boston_.
Rev. J.E. ROY, D.D., 151 _Washington Street, Chicago_.
_Financial Secretary for Indian Missions._
Rev. CHAS. W. SHELTON,
_Field Superintendent._
Rev. C.J. RYDER.
_Bureau of Woman's Work._
_Secretary_, Miss D E. EMERSON, 56 _Reade Street, N.Y._
* * * * *
COMMUNICATIONS
Relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the
Corresponding Secretaries; those relating to the collecting fields,
to Rev. James Powell, D.D., or to the District Secretaries; letters for
"THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY," to the Editor, at the New York Office.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
In drafts, checks, registered letters or post-office orders, may be sent
to H.W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when more
convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House,
Boston, Mass., or 151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty
dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.
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.
* * * * *
THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
Vol. XLII.
JANUARY, 1888.
No. 1
* * * * *
American Missionary Association.
A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! It is an inspiring delight to
hear and speak the greeting. It is a phrase that comes down to us from
the ages. All the more gladly do we repeat it on that account. There are
some things, thank God, even in this world, that never grow old. The
greetings of Christmas and New Year are among them. This is because they
are connected with Christ and his kingdom. True happiness for mankind
first came into this world when Christ was born. In proportion as he is
received into human life, happiness is experienced. Therefore, in
wishing for our readers a happy New Year, we are wishing for them more
of Christ in their thought and life.
But Christ never comes into a life to be held there in confinement. He
seeks our life that it may become a channel through which he may flow to
bless and make happy other lives. He is not only our peace--he is our
righteousness as well. How miserable we would be in our sins and
shortcomings were this not so! But all the more on that account will we
desire to _do_ what we can to make up for our deficiencies. Loving him,
we shall want to do his will. He wills that all shall hear of the
salvation his gospel brings. We can proclaim the message. He wills that
all shall see the power of his gospel in the benevolent fruits of his
followers' lives. We can exhibit that power. Where we cannot go to tell
the story and exhibit the power in person, we can send. Therefore, in
wishing for our readers a happy New Year, we are wishing for them a
righteousness that will manifest Christ actually saving the world in
what they say and do. Happiness through service and sacrifice--this is
the happiness THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY wishes for all its readers,
because it is the only happiness worth having.
* * * * *
While January is the first month of the calendar year, it happens to be
the fourth month of the A.M.A.'s fiscal year. It is a good time for our
friends to make new resolutions in reference to what they will do in
support of our work the coming year. We closed last year out of debt. It
was a cause for joy and thanksgiving. The Portland meeting felt and
expressed it. Letters of congratulation came to us from all parts of the
country. But there is something about prosperity that almost inevitably
fosters decline. A woe seems to be attached to institutions as well as
individuals of which all men speak well. We need $25,000 a month to pay
necessary bills. We ought to have $30,000 a month to properly prosecute
the work at this moment on hand. Our total receipts at the end of the
first two months of the new fiscal year were $33,336. The lowest figure,
in order to enable us to meet our bills for the two months, is $50,000.
The result is, we are again obliged to report payments in excess of
receipts. We do it unwillingly. We want very much to be delivered from
the necessity of making special appeals along toward the end of the
year. This necessity can be avoided only through our friends' securing
increased receipts to our treasury the early part of the year. Now is
the time to resolve that it shall be done. Let every church vote to give
us a contribution. Let every individual friend resolve that he will, if
possible, increase his contribution over that of last year, and that in
any event he will by personal effort enlarge the circle of our
supporters by inducing some friend or friends to take an interest in our
work.
* * * * *
Memorial services in honor of our late President, Hon. Wm. B. Washburn,
were held at Greenfield, Mass., Gov. Washburn's home, November 29th,
under the auspices of the Connecticut Valley Congregational Club.
Addresses were made by U.S. Senator Hoar, Rev. Dr. Buckingham, and
President Seelye.
* * * * *
Thirty dollars constitute a Life Membership. Some of our friends utilize
their contributions in this way. One of these writes us: "This is my
thirty-first Life Member which it is my good fortune to make to your
society." A good example to follow.
* * * * *
Lord Shaftsbury once said: "I think it would be of the greatest value if
the reports of the various Religious and Charitable Societies were at
once, by Act of Parliament, elevated into the dignity of Blue Books. If
every Member of Parliament, under the most severe penalty--and more
particularly the ministers of the day--were compelled to study them
accurately, and then undergo a competitive examination, I am satisfied
that great good would accrue to themselves and benefit to their country;
their enlarged notions, and probably improved hearts, would be felt in
the legislation of the country."
A pertinent illustration of the force of this statement is the speech of
Senator Frye, made at the Portland meeting. The Senator confessed that
he had not been familiar with the history of the American Missionary
Association, that he had been reading its Annual Reports, and making
himself acquainted with its work. Thereupon, out of what he had learned,
he constructed a speech that was, in every way, worthy of the Statesman
that he is. We shall be much mistaken if Senator Frye does not find
occasion to use the knowledge obtained in the study of our Association's
history in some of his speeches or debates in the U.S. Senate.
* * * * *
The citizens of Macon, Ga., gave Jefferson Davis a rousing reception on
the occasion of his recent visit to that city. As a souvenir of his
welcome, they presented him with 126 bottles of wine, thirty-three
bottles of whiskey, fourteen bottles of brandy, and eleven boxes of
cigars. If these gifts suggest anything in regard to the habits of
Jefferson Davis, we can readily see that he was not a fit candidate for
having the ladies put upon his lapel a blue ribbon. No wonder he rushed
into print to assure the public that he was not in favor of total
abstinence. A campaign in behalf of prohibition would have a hard time
in the region of Macon.
* * * * *
Evan P. Howell and Henry W. Grady are among the owners of the _Atlanta
Constitution_. During the recent campaign on the liquor question in
Atlanta these gentlemen were on opposite sides, so that the papers
reported that while Mr. Grady was making a speech in behalf of
prohibition in one part of the town, Capt. Howell was making a speech
against it in another place. Two of Mr. Grady's speeches have been
published in pamphlet form, and they are worthy of that gentleman's
reputation as an orator. THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY is glad to find Mr.
Grady on the right side of this question, and regrets that prohibition
failed to carry the day in the election.
The colored people held the balance of power. We praised them last year
when, using that balance, they carried the city for temperance. We
regret that this year they have used it against temperance. There is no
use of concealing the fact. Ignorant people cannot be depended upon to
take the right side of any question. It will be a mere happening if they
do. The election in Atlanta gives additional emphasis to the necessity
of our work in the South.
* * * * *
White ladies so far overcame their caste prejudices as to join their
colored sisters in the campaign for prohibition. Together they prayed
and worked. Many of the white people were disgusted at this exhibition
of social equality. These white ladies have taken a step in the right
direction, and, when all their white sisters join them, reform will be
well advanced. May the day be hastened!
* * * * *
The rum advocates resorted to all manner of devices to influence the
colored people. They had a circular printed with a portrait of Abraham
Lincoln. The picture represented him standing, with a slave in chains
kneeling before him. Under the picture, in quotation marks, were the
words, as if spoken by Mr. Lincoln: "Prohibition is slavery; I will cut
the manacles from your hands." This was a mean trick. To put such lying
words into the mouth of a man whose name the colored people revere nest
to that of the Saviour, is a piece of wickedness that only rum-sellers
could be guilty of. It accomplished their vile purpose, however, in
leading a great many colored people to vote against prohibition.
* * * * *
A colored preacher who made anti-prohibition speeches, referring to a
statement that their meetings were not opened with prayer, said that he
would make as good a prayer as anybody. Thereupon he slowly prayed: "Oh!
Lord, I pray thee to help Atlanta in her extremity. Oh, do lift her up
and restore her to the proud place she once occupied before these
prohibition fanatics got her by the throat. Oh, Lord Jesus, do thou make
these deluded preachers see the error of their ways. Do help the sweet
inhabitants of this city. [Cries of 'Amen!'] Do restore to them pure
liquor, and not compel them to drink the vile stuff sold as 'nerve
tonic,' 'rice beer' and 'bitters.' [Applause and laughter.] Give us
power to win the fight. [Cries of 'Amen.'] Put to rout the miserable
hypocrites who parade as thy servants under the guise of
Prohibitionists. Oh, do save us and let us win this fight, for Jesus'
sake, amen. [Cheers, and cries of 'Amen.']" What can be expected of a
church with such a man for its pastor, and what can be expected of a
people if left to such leadership?
* * * * *
Rev. Geo. C. Rowe, of Charleston, S.C., in company with brethren
Snelson, Maxwell, Jordan and Herron, going to attend the Association at
Macon, Ga., by reason of a delayed train were in danger of missing
connection at Jessup, a junction. The authorities telegraphed for the
train to wait. When the little party reached Jessup, they found the
train in waiting, and boarding it entered a first-class coach. We let
Mr. Bowe tell the rest of the story:
"A burly white train-hand came in, and said, in a threatening way:
'The forward car is your car.' We gave him no answer, but kept our
seats. The conductor came through and looked at us, but said
nothing. At the door he asked, roughly, of a colored train hand,
'Why did you let those men go into that car?' They hardly knew how
to act, as we were the only passengers who came on the S.F. & W.
train, and they had been ordered to wait for passengers on that
train; so, doubtless considering discretion the better part of
valor, they left us severely alone, and we rode from Savannah to
Macon, an eight-hour journey in _Georgia_, first class, without
molestation. Of course, the white people who entered at various
stations stared at us, but we were good at that and returned the
compliment. First class, indeed! Men with turpentine clothes, or
rags, on; women chewing snuff, etc., etc. If I looked, acted and
talked like some of the people that I saw on that train, I should
certainly feel myself an appropriate subject for an ox-cart in the
backwoods, rather than for a first class coach on a railroad; yet
these are the people who object to respectable, well-dressed,
intelligent and Christian men and women riding in a decent coach,
on account of their color."
* * * * *
THE SOUTH.
NOTES IN THE SADDLE
BY FIELD-SUPERINTENDENT C.J. RYDER.
Pleasant Hill, Tenn., has now a school building worthy the growing
importance of that interesting field on the Cumberland plateau. The
teaching force has been enlarged and the influence of the school is
constantly widening. Another building to be used for boarding pupils is
in process of erection, and is greatly needed. Maine has joined hands
with Tennessee in this most important work, several of the churches
having given to this field.
A new church has just been organized at Crossville, Tenn. Many northern
families have come into this region within the past few months, and they
will greatly assist us in gathering the native mountain people.
* * * * *
Grand View Academy, occupying a most commanding site on the top of a
mountain overlooking the magnificent valley of the Cumberland River, has
also increased its school accommodations. There will be here, in the not
very distant future, a large college, reaching in its influence the
mountain people back on the plateau and in the coves, and those who are
rapidly filling the fertile valley along the foot of Cumberland Mountain
and Walden's Ridge. If we, as Congregational Churches, hold this grand
work, we must generously support it _now_.
* * * * *
A specimen, a hybrid of civilization and paganism, I saw on the streets
of Fort Smith, Arkansas. He seemed to illustrate the result of our
governmental efforts to citizenize the Indian without Christianizing
him. A tall Indian, of fine, commanding figure, walked down the street
dressed in the following fashion: His feet were cased in moccasins, his
legs in buckskin breeches. Both of these garments were highly ornamented
with quills and beads. He was purely Indian so far. His tall lithe body
was closely buttoned in a faded black Prince Albert coat. On his head he
wore a Derby hat. So much for civilization. The hat had a hole in the
crown, and in this hole the Brave had stuck a large tuft of eagle
feathers that stood several inches above his head and nodded and danced
above him as he walked with the royal dignity of a Mogg Megone. Here was
civilization and savagery in dress at least. This is about what our
Government is doing for this people; urging them to put on the faded
coat of imperfect citizenship, and at the same time forbidding that they
be instructed in the truths of religion in their own language. We can
never civilize the body while we leave the heart savage. A visit to Fort
Smith would convince anyone of the absolute failure of this method. In
the miserable prison pen, one hundred and forty-four were crowded like
cattle. Among this multitude of criminals were young boys, just entering
upon a life of crime, imprisoned for some paltry offence, and herded
with them were grey-headed murderers. All these prisoners were from the
Indian Territory, or the "Nation" as they call it. One man had just been
convicted of murder. Two beautiful daughters of an Indian mother stood
weeping beside him. A gallows stands constantly on the edge of the
"Nation," and is used with appalling frequency. A lawyer who courteously
introduced me into the esoteric mysteries of the law as executed in this
United States Court, pointed out the peculiar construction of the
gallows which increased its capacity. "Eight men can stand on that plank
and the drop will swing them all off at once," he said with evident
pride, then added apologetically, "I never saw but six hung at one time,
but they do hang eight."
"Hanging day," I was informed, was one of the great festival occasions.
Thousands of Indians, of more or less purity of blood, gathered from the
"Nation" to enjoy this treat. There is an excuse for a fence around this
perpetual gallows, but there are wide openings in it and the awful scene
enacted within its enclosure can be witnessed from surrounding
elevations.
No doubt an attempt at justice is made in the United States Court. I
attended the trial of a case and it seemed to me the accused had a fair
hearing, but what a comment on our Christian civilization: A court
overrun with cases; a prison pen with young boys and grey-headed
criminals herded together in it; a gallows standing ready the year
round; saloons and brothels permitted at every turn; bad men and worse
women appealing to the lowest passions of ignorant and degraded men--all
these the legalized representatives of a Christian civilization. Is it
strange that these Indians do not accept more readily our Christian
theories, when they come into constant contact with our most unchristian
practice? The Indian language is used in saloons and gambling hells and
brothels to lead these poor, heathen people to physical and moral
perdition, but is forbidden by Government to be used in mission schools
to lead them to the Lord Jesus Christ! We ought to plant a mission for
the Indians and the colored people at Fort Smith this year. The work is
painfully urgent.
* * * * *
RELIGIOUS INTEREST AT LINCOLN MEMORIAL CHURCH, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Rev. James Wharton, the English Evangelist, recently spent a little more
than two weeks with the Lincoln Memorial Church, Washington. The people
were deeply stirred, and the church was greatly quickened. About forty
persons professed conversion, and a large number are still inquiring the
way.
The conversions were mostly among the young people. There were eight or
ten adults who decided to live Christian lives, two of them being aged
men, one 61 years and the other 75 years of age. They are both very
happy in their new-found hope in Christ.
Many of the young people would gladly unite with us, but their parents
will not consent for them to do so, as they will not be convinced that
the children can be Christians unless they can give a _remarkable
experience_, and some will not be satisfied of their conversion unless
the child has seen a vision or heard a voice.
I called to-day to see the mother of a little girl who confessed Christ
as her Saviour in our meetings. She said that her little girls, one
eight years and the other twelve years of age, say that they are
Christians. When the mother told Josie, the youngest child, that she did
not have "_religion_," the little girl replied: "I love the Saviour, and
Jesus loves me. He died for my sins, and I have accepted him as my
Saviour and am happy in His love. Mamma, Mr. Moore says that that is
religion. If that ain't religion, then, mamma, what is religion? I want
to be an earnest Christian; will you show me how?" The mother says that
Josie sticks to it that she is a Christian, and that she does not know
what to do about it.
The most of these young people, some of whom are twelve and fourteen
years of age, will not be allowed to join any church, but will be
laughed at and persecuted and led to expect some remarkable experience
like "Saul of Tarsus," or to see a vision and hear a voice. We shall do
what we can to encourage them to cling to Christ.
We have succeeded in closing two saloons near our church, and are
hopeful of closing another notorious den about a square away.
There is no place where earnest Christian work is more needed than here
at the nation's Capital, where we have a colored population of nearly
80,000, the majority of whom are out of Christ, and thousands are still
shrouded in the darkness of ignorance and superstition.
GEO. W. MOORE.
* * * * *
THE INDIANS.
THE FOURTH BROTHER.
BY FRANK WOOD, ESQ.
I believe that if the Master were visibly present with us to-day, and we
should ask, "Where shall we go first with the Gospel?" he would say, "Go
to that fourth brother, the North American Indian;" and for the
strongest reasons.
First, because he is in the greatest need. There are no people in want
whose cry does not at once reach the heart of the American people. When
Chicago was burned, when there was an earthquake in Charleston, when
there was a famine in Ireland, public sympathy was immediately awakened,
and all that was needed was sent. The only people who seem to be in need
and do not receive help are the aborigines of our soil--the people whom
we have dispossessed; whom we have crowded from their homes; whom we
have shut into reservations until they are nothing but prisoners of war;
whom we have placed under the control of a despot called an Indian
agent, who is not controlled by law, who on that agency governs by his
own will, with no courts to protect those who are wronged. These Indians
are shut in on these reservations, kept from all civilizing and
Christianizing influences, kept from trade and commerce. A trader is
appointed over them, from whom they must buy everything they need,
paying whatever he may ask, to whom they must sell everything that they
would sell, taking what he may choose to give.
We have, it is true, a cumbrous system of machinery which is supposed to
educate and civilize the Indian, called the Indian Bureau. Some men have
studied it for years, and they fail yet to comprehend it. I believe it
is incomprehensible. I believe it was never intended to be understood.
Some men ask what it does. It does little, and largely shows how _not_
to do; and any effort to Christianize and elevate the Indians, so long
as the present system remains, will be a failure. Now, when our
philanthropists are endeavoring to lift them up, when our legislators
are taking favorable action, this Indian Bureau, through its Assistant
Commissioner, issues an order which says that the English language must
be the only language taught or _spoken_ in the mission-schools. The only
language the Indian knows is forbidden. Suppose we were to try to learn
a foreign language in that way? Suppose a Frenchman should come to teach
us French, and neither of us spoke a word of English--how rapid would
our progress be?
Thirty barrels of whiskey and one thousand scalping knives were issued
not many years ago as civilizing agencies by this department. An
instance given us last night by our friend from across the water, shows
that the English circumlocution office is a greyhound compared with our
Indian office. I remember a similar story that Bright Eyes told in
Boston some years ago.
She was then a teacher in an Indian school. She had little children in
her school that came some seven, eight, or ten miles barefooted, and
winter was coming on, and her heart sympathized with these poor children
who came so far to be taught. They happened to have a good agent, and he
said, "Send an order for shoes for these children;" and she sent an
order, with a request that they send the shoes, as they were really
needed, on account of the frost and snow. The order went to Washington,
went through the regular routine, and the next spring, after winter had
passed, a case of shoes came for these little Indian children. When it
was opened, she found it full of brogans, that had been made for the
Southern negro in the rice-fields; and every shoe in that case was so
large that there was not an adult Indian on the reservation that could
wear it. That is how the Indian Bureau provides for the little Indian
children when there is a case of special necessity. (Laughter.)
I could mention numerous illustrations showing that it is impossible to
do any work that is required immediately, through this Indian Bureau. If
people are starving, you cannot get food for them until they die.
Now, what is the remedy? I believe that Christianity is the only
remedy--the only solution of the Indian question. Where they have had
good Christian agents--and they have had some--where they have
missionaries, the Indian has made wonderful progress. I think we can
point to a few civilized and Christianized communities among the Indians
that can find no parallel among the whites of the country. There is less
crime, less immorality, more faithfulness to the requirements of the
Christian religion and better observance of the Sabbath, more sincerity
and earnestness in the performance of every Christian duty, than we can
find in the same number of whites anywhere. At Metlakatla, as told by
Mr. Duncan, the Indians now form a community of twelve hundred people,
who have their churches, their stores, their town-halls. They live in
houses, like other people; they appear like civilized people; they carry
on all the vocations of civilized life; and all this has been done by
the work of one man. There is no liquor-drinking or liquor-selling
there. A majority of this twelve hundred people are earnest, faithful,
consistent Christians. They get no help from the Government. They have
built up and support their churches. Where can you see anything among
the whites that equals it?
Then there is another reason why we should go to them with the gospel of
Christ. It is a good thing to engage in works of charity and
benevolence, but before we do this we should pay our debts. We owe so
much to the Indians of this country, that I think before we go anywhere
else we should do something to atone for the years of wrong, for the
centuries of injury, that they have suffered at our hands. We have taken
their homes from them. We have driven them from reservation to
reservation. We have taken their crops when almost ready to reap. We
have removed them into climates where they have died by hundreds. We
have not listened to their cries. We have on various trumped-up charges
frequently slaughtered these people, and treated them in the most cruel
manner. There is no question that I know of that so holds a man, once
interested, and so grows upon him, as this Indian question.
I was first interested in this subject about ten years ago in the city
of Boston, where Bright Eyes, Mr. Tibbles, and old Standing Bear came to
tell of the wrongs of the Poncas. They were to hold a public meeting.
Wendell Phillips was to speak. I went to that meeting more with a desire
to hear Phillips than from any interest in the Indian. At that time all
I knew about him was what I had learned from the current literature and
romance, and my idea was very far from correct. At that meeting a state
of affairs was shown to exist that seemed astounding and impossible. A
committee was appointed to investigate these statements. They found that
the half had not been told. That committee started measures that
rectified these wrongs done to the Poncas. It commenced suit under the
Fourteenth Amendment to see whether the Indians were citizens. The
Judges of the Supreme Court decided that the Indian was not a person
under the law. Then it tried other channels; to get legislation that
would help the Indian. Senator Dawes soon became interested in this
question, and from that time to the present he has been interested; and
how much the Indian owes to the legislation which has been started and
carried forward by Senator Dawes, but very few people know; but it must
be followed by other legislation before the Indian is safe.
In Boston, Mrs. H.H. Jackson listened to the statement of Bright Eyes
in regard to the wrongs suffered by her people. She came to her and
said, "It is not possible that these things can be true." Bright Eyes
showed her the official documents; she convinced her that it was true.
From that hour that woman's whole soul was in the work. She afterwards
wrote "A Century of Dishonor," and "Ramona," which has preached for the
Indians, and will continue to do so. She gave her life finally for the
Indians, the sickness that caused her death being brought on while
engaged in work for them. This work gets hold of a man, if he has any
blood in his veins and sympathy in his heart, and makes him feel, if he
would stand without condemnation before God in the last day, that he
must do something to redeem his country from dishonor, and deliver this
people from worse than slavery.
Suppose we do not do it. Suppose we allow the Government to care for
them. The Dawes Bill gives them citizenship, but what does the Indian
get? One hundred and sixty acres of land--and he as naked as a babe on
that land. He has had no training in education and systematic work of
any kind; he has no tools--and if he had he would not know how to use
them. He is in the midst of white enemies, who want his land. He has
turned his back upon all the traditions of his ancestors. He has turned
his face toward the whites, and his friends of the past are now his
enemies. He is in the midst of his reservation. His homestead is his
own, yet no American citizen has a right there. If you and I go to teach
him, we can be ordered off by the agent; and if we do not go he can put
us in prison.
If we do not give protection and Christianity to them, there is no hope
for these Indians. Their fate will be the same as Indians on the
reservation in the State of New York, who have been for one hundred
years in the midst of our best civilization, but are still lazy and
shiftless, their reservation being permeated through and through with
unmentionable vices. They have no interest in the civilization of the
present. They are living in the past, dreaming over the glory of their
ancestors. They cannot be reached through civilization without religion.
To an Indian there is nothing secular. Everything pertains to his
religion. When he goes on a hunt, if he has no success, it is because
the gods are opposed to him; and if he is successful, the gods were in
it. When we go to an Indian and seek to change him, we must first change
his gods. We must Christianize him if we would civilize him. There is
where many of our experiments have been wrong.
Is it not laid upon us, who know something of this work, to do this? I
believe if we will not do it, that in the last great day, as we stand
with the Indian before the judgment bar of God, our position will be
worse than that of the Indian. It seems to me that I can hear what the
Judge would say to him at that time. The Indian comes before God, a
pagan from a Christian land; he comes having improved none of the powers
that God gave him. The Lord might say to him: "Did I not give you as
good opportunities and as good capacities as the white man in whose
midst you were? This Christian nation is the foremost for missions. It
has sent to all the lands of the earth, and yet here you come a pagan,
not knowing God, uncivilized, a barbarian." Might not this Indian say:
"I was in prison. I was surrounded by a reservation around whose outside
lines were the soldiers of the United States, and I would be shot if I
went off this reservation. I had no business with which to support
myself; I had no chance for trade or commerce; I had to buy of and sell
to one man. What opportunity had I? When an occasional missionary came
to me with the gospel of Christ, I looked upon this man as one of my
enemies--a man from the nation that had robbed me of my opportunities;
and, my Father, why should I listen to him, especially when he spoke in
a strange language? Am I to blame that I come here empty? Am I to blame
that I must go away?" I believe the Lord would turn to us and say,
"Inasmuch as ye have not done it to one of the least of these my
brethren, ye have not done it unto Me." And, speaking for myself alone,
I would rather at that last day be in the place of that darkened
Indian---savage, barbarian, pagan, as he is--than in the place of the
Christian that knew of his need and would not help him.
* * * * *
THE CHINESE.
DOES RESTRICTION RESTRICT?
As a son of Maine, I am one of those who believe that prohibition _can_
prohibit, and will do so effectively, if you will give it a fair chance,
but I doubt whether restriction restricts, and have expressed that doubt
in these columns more than once already. But we have been favored with
fresh lessons on this subject, in its application to Chinese
immigration. Chinese women are held in our San Francisco market, at
prices ranging from nothing up to about $2,000. The soul, being that of
a woman, has no value at any time, but the body, till worn out, is held
at a fair percentage of its weight in gold.
Such being the demand, a supply became assured. No artificial barriers
could exclude them. There would soon come to be some "Open Sesame" which
no bolts could resist. As a matter of fact these women have been landed
in numbers so great, and with an effrontery so flagrant, that even the
Chinese Consulate now takes the matter up and puts to shame the
appointed executors of American law. As to persons of the male sex, they
come by various routes: some with certificates sent out to Hong Kong by
our own officials to be sold there and vise├ęd by themselves on this side
the sea; some come with strange stories of previous residence--stories
confirmed by their vivid recollection of deep _snow_ on Clay Street, and
of _Chinese_ conductors on our street-cars: some come smuggled from
British Columbia, across Puget Sound, and others cross the invisible
line between Canadian soil and that of our own _free_ land with none to
say them nay. Meanwhile some of our recent officials who have grown rich
with strange rapidity, or have spent money with lavish generosity, are
under arrest, and sensational developments are the daily promise of
"live newspapers" in San Francisco.
What shall be done? Some of these papers (however incredulous they may
be about prohibition prohibiting) are disposed to try it upon Chinese
immigration. Nothing else, they tell us, can deliver us from a perpetual
invasion by these Asiatic hordes. But, so far as I have seen, no ringing
or enthusiastic response has greeted this suggestion. So long as it
lives only in newspaper paragraphs, and no serious danger appears of its
being put into effect, few men will have courage, or zeal and
forwardness enough to contend with it, but let it be taken up in
earnest, and pressed to actual enactment, and it would soon go the fit
and ignoble way that the _boycott_ has travelled. There are multitudes
who do not object to cursing the Chinaman, but who don't mean to lose
the double eagles which Chinese labor, and that alone, enables them to
put to credit on their bank account.
It seems to me, however, well worth questioning whether a law that after
six years of trial has been found to be fruitful in little except
perjuries and briberies,--a law which cannot be shown to have benefited
a single American laborer, but has had some effect to compel
house-holders to pay larger wages to Chinese domestics, and to enable
Chinese fruit-pickers to make better terms with our fruit-growers:--it
seems to me a question whether a statute of that sort might not be
suffered to expire through its own limitations, without any damage to
the Commonwealth.
Whatever the fate of this law may be, it is sufficiently evident that
our gospel work need not be stayed for lack of souls to work upon, till
China herself and all her broad domain, becomes the Lord's.
* * * * *
YONG JIN AT SACRAMENTO.
I reserve a little space in order to give our readers a little sample of
this gospel work as it appears in a letter from our helper, Yong Jin. He
has recently returned from China where he did good service under Rev.
Mr. Hazen, and he has resumed service with us. "I will tell you what I
had to do with the brethren. Monday night after the school is out [i.e.
9:30] we have the Bible lesson of Chinese, and Tuesday night too.
Wednesday night we have a prayer-meeting after school is out. Thursday
night we have ten or fifteen minutes to speak the gospel before the
school is out. Friday night we have a Bible lesson in Chinese too.
Saturday night we have a prayer meeting again. Sunday night all the
same. But last Sunday noon I preach on the street where the Chinese
live. Perhaps I will preach in the street nest Sunday. By and by, if I
do not preach on the street, I shall preach in the mission-house on
Sunday noon. I shall do as best I can, and I hope God will help us to
do."
I will add that we are hoping to commence special evangelistic work
early in December. Loo Quong will go to our missions in Southern
California, and Chin Toy to those north of us, beginning in Stockton,
where the door seems to be opening wide, and an earnest spirit among the
brethren gives promise of good results. I wish these brethren might be
remembered by our Eastern brethren with special prayer.
WM. C. POND
* * * * *
BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.
MISS D.E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.
WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS.
CO-OPERATING WITH THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
ME.---Woman's Aid to A.M.A., Chairman of Committee, Mrs. C.A. Woodbury,
Woodfords, Me.
VT.--Woman's Aid to A.M.A., Chairman of Committee, Mrs. Henry Fairbanks,
St. Johnsbury, Vt.
CONN.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. S.M. Hotchkiss, 171
Capitol Ave., Hartford, Conn.
MICH.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. Mary B. Warren,
Lansing, Mich.
WIS.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. C. Matter, Brodhead,
Wis.
MINN.--Woman's Home Miss. Society, Secretary, Mrs. H.L. Chase, 2,760
Second Ave., South, Minneapolis, Minn.
N.Y.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. C.C. Creegan,
Syracuse, N.Y.
OHIO.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. Flora K. Regal,
Oberlin, Ohio.
ILL.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. C.H. Taintor, 151
Washington St., Chicago, Ill.
IOWA.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Miss Ella B. Marsa,
Grinnell, Iowa.
KANSAS.--Woman's Home Miss. Society, Secretary, Mrs. Addison Blanchard,
Topeka, Kan.
SOUTH DAKOTA.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. W.E. Thrall,
Amour, Dak.
* * * * *
FOUNDATION LAYING AND HOME BUILDING IN THE SOUTH.
BY MISS JOSEPHINE KELLOGG.
The estimation in which "woman's work for woman" is held by our more
thoughtful colored students, will be shown by some extracts from an
address by a graduate of Tougaloo University in Mississippi.
The effect of very unhappy experiences in early youth upon an
exceedingly sensitive temperament, was to make this son of a white
father and black mother cherish a feeling of intense hatred toward all
white people as he was growing up; but being led, in the good providence
of God, to a Christian training-school where he heard of One who
suffered every indignity, and when dying in torture and ignominy prayed,
"Father forgive them, for they know not what they do," new thoughts and
feelings came to him.
He thought there might be cruel men in the world now who know not what
they do. He was led to bow in penitence and submission at the feet of
Jesus. It is now his chief joy that since he entered upon the path of
learning, he has, as a teacher, given several thousand children a start
in the same path.
The little old chapel at Tougaloo having burned down in January, 1882,
he graduated in the spring of that year, from our elementary normal
course, in the new barn, Ayrshire Hall. He has since passed through our
higher normal and college preparatory course, and is pursuing further
studies in another institution, in the intervals teaching, and going
from place to place with the great desire in his heart of bringing about
a better condition of feeling and living, among the people of the State.
I quote from his printed speech: "We read of a time when 'a nation shall
be born in a day.' We have seen it come to pass, and this people is a
babe yet. 'Is not the babe a blessing in the house? Its very
helplessness is a blessing, in that it educates the finest sensibilities
of humanity.' The problem to be solved now is how to nurse this babe
aright. The thoughtful observer will be easily convinced that the
careful and proper education of girls is the first step in the solution
of this problem.
"The education of girls is of the most vital importance for the
uplifting of the colored people of the South. Yes, I venture to say that
_the whole South_ will depend upon their condition for its prosperity.
True progress depends upon the sacredness and sanctity of the home. That
a people or a nation may be happy or prosperous it must have enlightened
and intelligent homes, and for this purpose the girls must be educated
in virtue, industry and self-reliance.
"The colored woman in all conditions and under almost all circumstances
is abused by all races and classes. There are individuals who love and
respect her, but no one fears to _insult_ her as they fear to insult
other women. Let her turn wheresoever she may, she is met by all sorts
of evil influences of a character too indecorous to think about, and I
fear that I should never be forgiven if I should name them, yet we are
compelled to look upon them everywhere we go. Now a reform must begin in
the treatment of women, and it must be commenced by paying more
attention to the education of girls. Only wise mothers can train
champions for great causes like this. Therefore let our voices and our
influence be given to the work of elevating the women who have the care
of making and preserving society."
Thus it has come about that a larger and larger proportion of girls come
to our schools, and it has seemed much better that they should be
educated _with_ their brothers than _apart_ from them, for a great and
grievous lack among the colored people, is a pure, safe and wholesome
social life for the young people, and with all the other labors laid
upon these "universe--ities" is that of fostering such a social life
and, as far as may be, setting forth the pattern for it. Permit me to
introduce you to one of these schools which is in many of its features
doubtless like all the rest.
Tougaloo University is one of the six chartered institutions maintained
by the American Missionary Association with some aid from the State in
which it is located. It is but a few miles from the capital of the great
but undeveloped agricultural State of Mississippi, a State in which the
largest town had, at the last census, less than twelve thousand
inhabitants. This is very far south, in "the great black belt," where
the plantations are large, and upon the country roads you will
constantly see ten or more colored faces to one white one. It contained
at the last census, above two hundred thousand more colored people than
at Emancipation, and above one hundred and seventy thousand more colored
than white. Do you not see how rapidly Christian education and training
must go forward to keep pace with such facts as these?
Stepping off the afternoon train down the Chicago and New Orleans
railway at the little station of Tougaloo, we look up through a pleasant
vista about three-quarters of a mile and see the Mansion, Ballard Hall,
Ladies' Hall, and Strieby Hall, the latter a brick house three stories
high above the basement, dedicated Thanksgiving Day of 1881 in the
presence of the venerable secretary for whom it was named. The work on
this building was done by colored mechanics, students of the school
making the brick and the stone, a sort of concrete for the trimmings.
Strieby Hall has accommodations for nearly a hundred young men, besides
a teacher's family or two. It is kept in scrupulous neatness by the
young men under their matron's eye. She teaches them to nurse one
another in sickness; she also instructs them in the care of their
clothing and requires them to mend when the weekly wash comes in. One
young man became so proud of his skill in this line that he wanted to
put his darned old socks--old darned socks would sound better,
perhaps--into our industrial exhibit for the New Orleans Exposition,
among the chains and wheels from the blacksmith and wagon shops, the
brackets, step-ladders, etc., from the carpenter shop, the cups and
coffee-pots from the tinshop, and the girls' plain sewing and
fancy-work.
There are regular apprentices to all the trades named, and all the boys
of certain grades have lessons, one hour daily, in the several shops, to
get the use of tools and simple work; there is also a course of
industrial drawing running through the school grades for boys and girls
alike.
The school is upon a plantation of five hundred acres, worked by the
young men under the direction of the farm superintendent, a graduate of
the Massachusetts Agricultural College, who gives them "talks," as he
terms his lectures, upon practical themes pertaining to general farming,
fruit-growing, and the care of stock.
As we walk up from the station through, first a wood of water-oak,
sweet-gum and hickory, then an open glade with scattering persimmon
trees upon it, and lastly, a fine park of postoaks draped with Spanish
moss, we approach the old southern "Mansion," which was the only
building of any account upon the ground when the Association purchased
it in 1869, and which is still the handsomest one. It has a little
romance of its own, having been made spacious and beautiful for a bride
who never came into it; but, notwithstanding this disappointment of its
builder, it has in God's providence been greatly connected with
home-building.
Here live the President's family and some of the other teachers. Here
are business offices, a pleasant reading-room with an open fire upon its
hearth, and a small library adjoining. In this house is a guest-chamber
where all friends of the school are made welcome, and here are the
music-rooms, one containing a piano and one a cabinet organ.
More and more highly is the department of musical training esteemed by
those who understand the work. All receive training in vocal music as a
part of their daily school work, and would there were more with means to
take instrumental lessons!
The best of music is taught, from the primary grades upward; and it is
an inspiring thing to hear almost everybody who is at work or play, not
at books, singing and chanting the most beautiful compositions; the
girls from attic chamber to basement laundry, may be chanting,
"Thou who leddest Joseph like a flock," while the carpenter's
apprentices--perchance upon a barn-roof--may be rolling forth the
temperance Marseillaise, and our ears may distinguish from the
neighboring "quarters" the little children of the day and Sabbath-school
singing cheerily,
"Angry words, O let them never
From the tongue unbridled slip;
May the heart's best impulse ever
Check them ere they pass the lip."
Nothing, perhaps, more commends the school to the notice of our white
neighbors than its music, and greater numbers of them will come to a
concert than to any other exercise.