[Illustration: NOVEMBER, 1883.
VOL. XXXVII.
NO. 11.
The American Missionary]
CONTENTS
PAGE.
EDITORIAL.
ANNUAL MEETING—TWELVE MONTHS—THE HOUR 321
PARAGRAPHS 323
BENEFACTIONS 324
CHURCH AND PARSONAGE, ANNISTON, ALA. (cut) 325
GENERAL NOTES—AFRICA, CHINESE, INDIAN 326
CHINESE DRESSED FOR RAINY WEATHER (cut) 327
THE SOUTH.
VACATIONING 329
A WANT—READING ROOMS 331
GENEROUS WORD FROM THE SOUTH 333
APOSTOLIC SALUTATION—NOTICES ON THE OPENING OF
SCHOOLS 334
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD 335
THE INDIANS.
VISIT TO FORT SULLY INDIAN MISSION 336
MISSION HOME, FORT SULLY (cut) 337
THE CHINESE.
REPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT 339
BUREAU OF WOMAN’S WORK.
HELP AT PUBLIC MEETINGS—THE LORD’S GARDEN 340
CHILDREN’S PAGE.
THE STORY THAT SUBDUED HIM 341
BRING IN THE TITHES 342
RECEIPTS 343
CONSTITUTION 347
PROPOSED CONSTITUTION 348
* * * * *
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.
* * * * *
THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
* * * * *
PRESIDENT.
Hon. WM. B. WASHBURN, LL.D., Mass.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.
Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, D.D., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
TREASURER.
H. W. HUBBARD, Esq., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
AUDITORS.
M. F. READING.
WM. A. NASH.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
JOHN H. WASHBURN, Chairman; A. P. FOSTER, Secretary; LYMAN
ABBOTT, ALONZO S. BALL, A. S. BARNES, C. T. CHRISTENSEN, FRANKLIN
FAIRBANKS, CLINTON B. FISK, S. B. HALLIDAY, SAMUEL HOLMES, CHARLES
A. HULL, SAMUEL S. MARPLES, CHARLES L. MEAD, WM. H. WARD, A. L.
WILLISTON
DISTRICT SECRETARIES.
Rev. C. L. WOODWORTH, D.D., _Boston_.
Rev. G. D. PIKE, D.D., _New York_.
Rev. JAMES POWELL, _Chicago_.
COMMUNICATIONS
relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to
the Corresponding Secretary; those relating to the collecting
fields, to the District Secretaries; letters for the Editor of
the “American Missionary,” to Rev. G. D. Pike, D.D., at the New
York Office; letters for the Bureau of Woman’s Work, to Miss D. E.
Emerson at the New York Office.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
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 112 West 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.
* * * * *
[Illustration: COUNT RUMFORD.]
HORSFORD’S
ACID PHOSPHATE.
(LIQUID.)
FOR DYSPEPSIA, MENTAL AND PHYSICAL
EXHAUSTION, NERVOUSNESS, DIMINISHED
VITALITY, URINARY
DIFFICULTIES, ETC.
PREPARED ACCORDING TO THE DIRECTION OF
Prof. E. N. Horsford, of Cambridge, Mass.
There seems to be no difference of opinion in high medical
authority of the value of phosphoric acid, and no preparation has
ever been offered to the public which seems to so happily meet the
general want as this.
It is not nauseous, but agreeable to the taste.
No danger can attend its use.
Its action will harmonize with such stimulants as are necessary to
take.
It makes a delicious drink with water and sugar only.
Prices reasonable. Pamphlet giving further particulars mailed free
on application.
MANUFACTURED BY THE
RUMFORD CHEMICAL WORKS,
Providence, R.I.,
AND FOR SALE BY ALL DRUGGISTS.
* * * * *
MANHATTAN
LIFE INS. CO. OF NEW YORK,
_156 and 158 Broadway_.
THIRTY-THIRD YEAR.
DESCRIPTION—One of the oldest, strongest, best.
POLICIES—Incontestable, non-forfeitable, definite cash
surrender values.
RATES—Safe, low, and participating or not, as desired.
RISKS carefully selected.
PROMPT, liberal dealing.
GENERAL AGENTS AND CANVASSERS WANTED in desirable territory, to
whom permanent employment and liberal compensation will be given.
Address
H. STOKES, President.
H. Y. WEMPLE, Sec’y.
J. L. HALSEY, 1st V.-P.
S. N. STEBBINS, Act’y.
H. B. STOKES, 2d V.-P.
* * * * *
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
VOL. XXXVII. NOVEMBER, 1883. NO. 11.
* * * * *
American Missionary Association.
* * * * *
ANNUAL MEETING.
We are happy to inform our friends that very satisfactory
arrangements have been perfected for our Annual Meeting. Railroad
facilities and steamboat accommodations have been granted at
reduced rates and an able corps of speakers will be present and
participate in the meeting. As this number of the MISSIONARY will
reach our readers at an earlier date than usual, we give full
particulars on the 4th page cover.
* * * * *
_Twelve Months._—Receipts from collections and donations,
$186,200.56, from legacies, $126,366.73, making a total of
$312,567.29, an increase of $14,982.84 over the total for last
year. This encouraging showing is to be credited to legacies which
have been unusually large. Our payments for the year, less balance
in hand at the beginning of the year, have been $312,018.97,
leaving a balance in hand for the new year of $548.32. For this
result we rejoice and give thanks to God. We have not been able
to accomplish all that has been pressing upon us from our several
mission fields, but our faith is strong and we ask for still larger
gifts and more extended efforts in the fields now white for the
harvest.
* * * * *
THE HOUR.
The hour is at hand for the annual review of the work and wants
of this Association. The rapid progress of events amid which its
influence is a constant factor, necessitates vigilant study, wise
deliberation, and prompt action. There are divine favors to seek,
interests to hold, opportunities to embrace, and hindrances to
overcome.
Possibly nothing is more to be feared among the latter than apathy.
The belief that a work is well in hand, successful, hopeful,
helpful, often gives a sense of rest that fosters unconcern,
or little concern, for its entrenchment and enlargement. This
condition weakens the intensity of prayer and relaxes effort. More
than this, apathy among the friends of a work like ours is liable
to give way for misconception or lack of comprehension of its place
in the religious destinies of mankind.
We have a mission for the promotion of righteousness. Our success
is not to be measured by the rule, or the balance, but by what it
accomplishes in the establishment of right principles. It must be
judged of by the tone it gives, and not by the zone it occupies.
The business of this Association is not for one clime, but for
all climes. It aims to suppress ignorance, oppression, misrule,
poverty, sin and shame, and to plant and nourish those ennobling
truths which yield peace, plenty and life everlasting. Our very
fundamental principles debar us from doing anything less broad and
catholic than that directed alike against caste, oppression and all
injustice. We must be left free to apply our benefits where the
evils we seek to destroy have their strongholds. We are bound to
recognize moral conditions, but not color. Color is not guilt or
essential misfortune.
Another hindrance to fear is the attention likely to be drawn to
the political aspects of our work. These have their place and
rightful claims. Good government is helpful to good learning
and the interests of religion, but the object of a missionary
society is primarily to promote pure Christianity. While it enters
amid all shades of political opinions, it must contend with the
unrighteousness of all alike. It must not be allured or guided by
the possibilities of national events. Its kingdom is not of this
world.
Akin to political aspects are denominational interests. These have
their allurements also, which, if indulged excessively, only tend
to part the garment of Christ. Forms and ceremonies well may serve
the interest of missions, but woe be the day when missions are
wrested to serve the interest of a form or polity.
Still another danger lies in the allurements of expedients. The
constant fluctuations in human affairs serve to unsettle the
faith and to relax the hold on the steady, enduring methods which
alone can give success. It is never to be forgotten that while
the surface may have the appearance of a refluent stream when
contending with the elements, yet God’s cause is imbedded in the
deep under-current and moves right on despite appearances. Great
essentials, great faith, wisdom from above, and persistent action
alone can overcome these hindrances, and advance our work as it
should be advanced.
What is demanded most by the hour is a revival of missionary zeal.
Let there be a fuller sense of our responsibility to Christ, and a
greater realization of our duty to those without. Let there be more
constant exercise of the power of prayer. Let the spirit come upon
us that counts all things secondary to the grand triumph of the
Redeemer’s kingdom. Let us be willing to lose all, to spend all,
and to suffer all to hasten that, and God will not withhold His
blessing, neither shall His coming be delayed.
Our readers will find in this number of the MISSIONARY a copy of
our present Constitution, and also one of that proposed by the
Committee appointed for that purpose at our last Annual Meeting.
* * * * *
SUPT. SALISBURY has in press a pamphlet containing the new
uniform course of study of the A. M. A. schools, with explanatory
comment and general suggestions to teachers. It will be ready for
distribution to the teachers some time in October, and will, it is
believed, be of great utility to them in the partial reorganization
of work proposed.
* * * * *
THE WARNER INSTITUTE, located at Jonesboro, East Tennessee, was
formed by the Friends, under the lead of Yardley Warner, for whom
it was named. The building, of brick, upon a fine crest in that
hill country, was formerly a ladies’ college for white people.
Friend Warner having conducted the institute for several years,
proposed to transfer it to this Association. This has been done,
and the school is yet to carry along the good work begun by the
founder. His many friends in this country and in England, who have
aided him in the enterprise, may rest assured that the institute
will be kept true to its original mission. Mrs. J. B. Nelson, who
had formerly been employed by Mr. Warner, has been made principal,
with the needed assistants.
* * * * *
THE programme for a series of twenty-eight missionary meetings,
which our agent for New Hampshire and Vermont had planned to be
held in those States in August and September, under the auspices
of this Association was carried out, in due time, with great
completeness and success, the last of the course being held Sept.
28, afternoon and evening, in Manchester, N.H. The number of
sessions, counting those held in different places on the Sabbath,
was fifty-one. In almost every case the attendance, especially
at the second or evening session, was large and enthusiastic.
The addresses were varied, able and interesting. The brief but
touching story of Philip Page, who often told in broken English, in
a pleasing way, how and why he came to this country, what he had
found here, what he is doing, and how he hopes to go back some day
and tell his parents and others in Africa what Christ the Lord can
do for them, and the address of Rev. Joseph E. Smith, graduate of
Atlanta University, now pastor of the First Congregational Church
in Chattanooga, were always listened to with much interest. The
latter told of his bitter slave life, of his trials and struggles
and triumphs, in coming over from bondage into freedom, from the
slave pen and the auction block to the school, the college, the
pulpit and pastorate; addresses were also made by Prof. Thos. N.
Chase of Atlanta, Dr. Woodworth, of Boston, and by Rev. Mr. Grout,
who conducted the meetings.
The ready and hospitable welcome with which the speakers and
attendants from abroad were uniformly received by the churches
visited, the hearty and efficient co-operation of the several
pastors and other church officers, and the kindly notices of the
meetings given the public, from time to time, by the press of the
States and of the localities in which the conventions were held,
are reported as very cheering and indicative of a deep interest in
our great work.
* * * * *
WE give in this number a cut of the church and parsonage at
Anniston, Ala., Rev. H. W. Conley, pastor. This is the town of the
Woodstock Iron Company, located ten years ago upon the bare red
fields. Now it has two iron furnaces, a cotton factory, an immense
machine shop, two railroads, a newspaper and a wonderful thrift. At
the beginning the company gave the church lot, aided on the church
and built the parsonage, helping also in the support of the pastor
and teacher. The church and school have been a blessing to the
families of the colored operatives of the place. This mission is a
beautiful illustration of the work this Association is doing for
the colored people South.
* * * * *
BENEFACTIONS.
John Guy Vassar, of Poughkeepsie, has made a gift of $25,000 more
to Vassar College.
The Sheffield Scientific School of Yale College has recently
received a bequest of $20,000.
The will of the late David Gallup, of Hartford, Conn., gives
$20,000 to aid the Woodward High School in Cincinnati.
Edward Clark, of New York, has given $50,000 to Williams College.
The widow of Senator Chandler, of Michigan, has given $1,000 to the
Chicago Woman’s Medical College.
The sum of $2,000,000 has been subscribed for the new Catholic
University in Milwaukee.
Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, N.H., receives $17,000 from the
estate of the late James Boyd, of Antrim.
Mr. William Blackwell has endowed eleven scholarships of $1000 in
the Baptist Louisburg University of Pennsylvania.
The University of Vermont is to have a new building for its medical
department to cost $40,000, the gift of John P. Howard. This will
make over $400,000 that Mr. Howard has given to the University and
the city within ten years.
Mr. De Pauw, of Indiana, has made a conditional pledge of a million
dollars for the endowment of Asbury University.
_It is hoped that the time is not far distant when endowment funds
will flow into the treasuries of our educational institutions South
as freely as they do into colleges in other parts of the country._
[Illustration: CHURCH AND PARSONAGE, ANNISTON, ALA.]
* * * * *
GENERAL NOTES.
AFRICA.
—The Niger Mission reports 4,000 souls as under regular Christian
instruction.
—Three of Arabi Pasha’s children are in the United Presbyterian
Mission school at Cairo, Egypt.
—Mr. Stanley has discovered a lake on one of the tributaries of the
Congo which he has named Lake Leopold Second.
—The London Missionary Society has two mission ships that sail
between its stations in New Guinea, two in Africa, and one in the
South Seas.
—An English Methodist missionary laboring in Africa reports that
on going to the coast recently he was saluted by a trader with the
remark: “There must have been a lot of heathen joining your church
lately.” “Yes, it is so,” he was answered; “but how did you come to
know it?” “Oh, because there have been a lot of heathen people here
buying dresses, shawls, etc.”
—A new expedition, under German auspices, is being fitted out for
the exploration of the Upper Niger and the regions adjacent. It
starts out under competent leadership and promises good results in
knowledge of a portion of Africa as yet little known, but supposed
to be of large commercial importance.
—At the request of the Egyptian Mission, the last General Assembly
directed the Board of Publication to contribute $2,000 to aid in
the work of publishing a new edition of the Bible in Arabic in
large type. In compliance with this the Board of Publication on
the 5th of this month paid over the $2,000 to the American Bible
Society, who have the work now under way.
—According to a proposed treaty between Portugal and the Sultan
of Zanzibar, the two governments will engage that none of their
subjects buy or sell slaves in their respective territories. Any
one convicted of having violated the treaty will be delivered up
to the government, punished in consequence and his slaves set at
liberty.
THE CHINESE.
—The Hawaiian law prohibiting Chinamen from coming to the Islands
has been repealed, and 3,000 Chinese laborers have recently
contracted for their passage there.
—There is a Chinaman at work in Tahiti, in the South Sea Islands,
who is said to be a whole Bible Society in himself, expending
twenty dollars a month, out of a salary of twenty-five dollars, for
Bibles to distribute among his countrymen there.
[Illustration: CHINESE DRESSED FOR RAINY WEATHER.]
—M. Thiersant estimates the Mohammedan population of China to be
between twenty and twenty-one millions, and says he has arrived
at his figures from facts given by Mandarins, Romish priests, and
other prominent individuals. Mr. Blunt, in “The Future of Islam,”
allots fifteen million Moslems to China.
—According to Missionary Butler, of China, as Buddhism has no
heaven for women, the Chinese damsels labor with might and main to
lay up merits that they may prevail with the judges of the lower
world to let them be born again as men, so that they may have a
chance to get there.
—A Chinese Christian tailor thus described the relative merits of
Confucianism, Buddhism, and Christianity:—
“A man had fallen into a deep, dark pit, and lay in its miry
bottom, groaning and utterly unable to move. Confucius walked by,
approached the edge of the pit, and said, ‘Poor fellow, I am sorry
for you; why were you such a fool as to get in there? Let me give
you a piece of advice: If you ever get out, don’t get in again.’ ‘I
can’t get out,’ groaned the man. _That is Confucianism._
“A Buddhist priest next came by, and said, ‘Poor fellow, I am very
much pained to see you there. I think if you could scramble up
two-thirds of the way, or even half, I could reach you and lift
you up the rest.’ But the man in the pit was entirely helpless and
unable to rise. _That is Buddhism._
“Next the Saviour came by, and, hearing his cries, went to the
very brink of the pit, stretched down and laid hold of the poor
man, brought him up, and said, ‘Go, sin no more.’ _That is
Christianity._”—_Rev. Canon Stowell._
THE INDIANS.
—There are 296 church buildings among the Indians, including the
“five nations.”
—The religious bodies expended in 1881 the sum of $139,440 for
education and missions among the Indians.
—Out of the 260,000 Indians, there are 100,000 who have discarded
blankets and are wearing citizens’ dress, wholly or in part.
—The Ute Indians, who have steadily refused to send any of their
children to school, now have twenty-five in the training-school at
Albuquerque, New Mexico.
—The Indian reservations include 155,632,312 acres, of which
18,000,000 are tillable. Already the American Indians are
cultivating more than half a million acres of this land.
—The Indian Mission School at Fort Wrangle, Alaska, in which Mrs.
McFarland is teaching, has increased in numbers and interest the
past year, and many of the pupils have become Christians. One
of the oldest girls has been married to a Christian Indian, and
gone as a missionary to Upper Chilcat, where they both are doing
faithful service. Several more of the girls are prepared to engage
in mission work in their tribes as soon as the way opens.
—The Albuquerque _Morning Journal_ says: “The best thinkers all now
agree that education is the true solution of the Indian problem.
We have tried fighting them and feeding them, and both these plans
have signally failed, but education, in the few experiments we
have tried with it, has been thoroughly successful, and if we can
establish and maintain schools enough to educate the children that
are now growing up, our Indian difficulties will be at an end, and
the coming generation of Indians, instead of being savages, to be
hunted down by troops, or ‘corraled’ like wild beasts and fed at
the public expense, will be peaceful and useful citizens.”
* * * * *
THE SOUTH.
REV. JOSEPH E. ROY, D.D., FIELD SUPERINTENDENT.
PROF. ALBERT SALISBURY, SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION.
* * * * *
VACATIONING.
PROF. A. K. SPENCE, FISK UNIVERSITY.
“What did your students do during vacation?” Various things. But
with few exceptions they did not rest. Quite a number are young
and went to their homes in town and country—the girls to help
their mothers, the boys their fathers. Some hired out for house
and farm labor. One farms on his own account. One was head waiter
in a summer hotel in Tennessee. Two worked on a farm in Minnesota
and two, sons of a professor, on one in Ohio. Some ran on sleeping
cars in the North, and made up the beds you lay on. One worked in
the railroad exposition in Chicago. One kept store and studied law
in West Tennessee. One preached in Florence, Ala., with the usual
blessing of God on his labors. One was employed by the State of
Texas in holding institutes. Former students of ours were also
employed in the same way. But, as usual, the most of those advanced
enough to do so taught school. Not to mention those of low grade,
out of seventy-eight enrolled in the collegiate department last
year, fifty-seven taught school. The colored man seems by taste
and circumstances to be a school teacher. Occasionally a student
teaches who ought to rest. It is the thing to do. It is rather a
shame not to. The long-instructed desires to instruct. The young
fledgling wants to try its wings, the Demosthenes his oratory,
the Hercules his club. Long before vacation begins we teach
thinning classes, and lament many an empty seat the first Monday
in September. This is hard on scholarship, but necessary for the
purse, and good for their own manhood and the people whom they
teach.
Schools must be taught when they are held, and held when the
children can be spared from the farms. This varies with latitude
and the products raised. In the cotton region it is when the crop
is “laid by,” that is after the last hoeing and before the first
picking, and begins in April or May. In the wheat and grass regions
schools commence in June, July or even August. Those whom we lose
by early schools in the spring we get promptly in the fall, and the
reverse.
The most of the teachers who have returned report nothing
remarkable, no doubt the best kind of a report to have to make.
Honest, legitimate labor has never much to say for itself. Among
the things mentioned in addition to the paid labor of the work are
these: securing libraries, papers, Testaments for Sunday-school,
teaching infant class, teaching Bible class, leading singing,
superintending; and one did all this, organizing his entire school
into one class. He also rented an organ which he played. One or
more held prayer meetings. All had religious exercises in school.
A few gave temperance lectures. One had a temperance glee club.
Several gave musical entertainments, especially at close of school,
white and colored in attendance. One county in this State is
almost exclusively occupied by students from Fisk. They organized
themselves into an institute, meeting once a month for the
discussion of methods and the interests of education in general.
By invitation Prof. Bennett attended the last meeting, delivering
addresses and preaching on the following Sunday. He found the
colored people gathered _en masse_ and the interest up to fever
heat.
About the usual number of misfortunes has befallen our students
this year. One is shortsighted and wears spectacles; he is also
quite light colored. Both these damaged him. He was taken for a
Jew trying to pass himself off as a colored man. White and colored
alike looked upon him with suspicion. He succeeded in persuading
the colored people that he was one of them, but the whites had no
use for the “white nigger in spectacles.” By continued insult and
threats his nervous system was so worn upon that he fell sick and
left after teaching a month. Two young men teaching in a river
county in Mississippi had, briefly told, the following experience:
The boat could not land at the place sought, but they were put
ashore at midnight, three miles away. There were two houses at the
landing, one being unoccupied. In this they got permission to spend
the night. They lay on bags of cotton-seed. There being no means of
fastening doors, one of them put his money, two dollars and fifty
cents, in his shoe, under his foot, for safe-keeping. The next day
they walked through mud and rain to the town, and from there set
out in search of schools.
To secure a school is frequently a thing of no small difficulty.
The young men or women must make a journey of miles through
blind ways on foot or with such conveyance as can be found. The
neighborhood being reached, the leading colored people must
be approached as the first step. The community is Baptist or
Methodist, and the school will be held in the church. “What are
you?” “I am a Congregationalist.” “What is that?” If denominational
difficulties are overcome, the next thing to do is to meet the
white trustees. They may be in favor of _home talent_. These
foreign students carry money out of the country. They look
independent and may teach things not in the book. But here is
Sam. He can read. He owes ’Squire So-and-so. If he gets the
school he will pay him. We favor Sam. If, however, Sam cannot by
every contrivance pass the examination, the Fisk student appears
before the County Superintendent. But here a new difficulty. The
Superintendent holds an institute to prepare persons to pass his
own examination, charging them five dollars apiece. Those who
attend are quite sure to pass. It is wise for the Fisk student to
be at that institute, pay his fee and pass, for when that institute
is over the time for getting a school in that county is up. This
state of things does not exist in all places, let us hope not in
many, but it does in some. It is quite a common rule never to
give a first-class certificate, no matter what the scholarship,
to a colored student, as in most States it increases his pay, and
perhaps it would not seem fit for a colored boy or girl to get a
better certificate than some white young man or woman. There are
exceptions to this rule. In one examination in which there were
forty candidates, two got first-class certificates. These two were
from Fisk.
* * * * *
A WANT—READING ROOMS.
PROF. ALBERT SALISBURY.
It is hard to realize, even when we make the conscious effort,
how much of the general culture, intelligence, and power of the
American people is due to the habit of reading. That there is
not a more marked and easily discernible difference between the
intelligence and practical efficiency of the college-bred man and
of the man of less training is largely due to the fact that the
one reads as widely and continually as the other. Even superficial
and omnivorous reading is an efficient source of intelligence and
power. So universal is this habit of reading among the native-born
people of the Northern States, that it is hard for them to conceive
of its absence. It costs us an effort to imagine the mental status
of a person who cannot or does not read. Yet there are millions
of people in the South who cannot read and millions more who do
not. It is one thing to teach a child how to read; it is quite
another thing to make him _love_ to read, to give him the _habit_
of reading. And the first has comparatively little value without
the other. It is of little moment that a million children have been
taught the art of reading if they do not practice it freely.
Now the fact is that of the hundreds of thousands who have been
in the freedmen’s schools but a very small part have ever formed
the reading habit. And, as one consequence, even college graduates
of the colored race have far less general intelligence and
intellectual efficiency than white people of much more limited
education.
There is nothing singular or unaccountable about this. It is the
natural consequence of the circumstances existing. The parents of
these young people were slaves, to whom reading was a forbidden
art. In their houses, highly as the ability to read may be prized,
and earnestly as it may be sought for their children, there are as
yet no books, no magazines, no newspapers even. If, indeed, there
be any printed thing there, it is almost without exception of the
most trashy, crude, and worthless, if not vile and corrupting,
sort, from both the literary and the moral point of view. The dime
novel, the “Fireside Companion,” the sloshy, ungrammatical local
newspaper are, at the best, all that one may hope to find. In
cultured homes, children acquire the habit of reading by contagion.
It is fairly _bred_ into them. But in the homes of the freedmen
there is no contagious example, and there can be none. There is for
the colored youth no inheritance of culture in any way. Children
in Northern homes take in more of culture through the skin, by
unconscious absorption, in the first ten years of life than the
freedmen’s children can ever acquire except by long years of
schooling.
From the consideration of these facts, two conclusions
follow—first, that for the intellectual uplifting of the colored
race it is absolutely essential that the reading habit be
established in some way; and, second, that it should be the active
endeavor of all the missionary schools to devise and employ the
best agencies for stimulating and establishing this habit.
Now comes the practical question, What are the instrumentalities
by which we can implant and cultivate the love of profitable and
elevating reading?
Of course, something may be done in the regular course of
instruction. Reading in school may be so taught as to give real
culture of taste and appreciation. The sips of good literature
found in the reading-books may be so used as to create a desire to
drink freely at the fountain-head; though it is to be confessed
that many teachers fail lamentably in this direction. The student
of history or geography may and should be pushed out of his
text-book into the wide field from which text-books are gleaned.
Yet all this has much of the flavor of the daily task about it.
Can anything be done to make the act of reading more spontaneous,
to make it seem more like an indulgence and a recreation than an
exaction and a duty?
The answer need not be a negative. It is to be found in
reading-rooms, wisely placed and planned. And much stress is to be
laid on these qualifications.
The first requisite for a reading-room is accessibility. It must be
placed where it can be got at easily and continually. A locked-up
library, open only once or twice a week at a stated hour, with the
issue of books held under formal regulations is utterly futile as
a means of creating the reading habit; it is useful only for those
who have the habit already formed. A reading-room must not only be
conveniently placed where the pupils can not escape it, as it were,
but it must also be open at all times; so that in all the moments
of leisure, whether in the hours set apart for labor or those for
recreation, there may be the freest access, that even “he that
runs” may read a little. It, therefore, becomes almost a necessity
in a boarding-school that there be two reading-rooms, one for each
sex.
The second requirement for success is that the reading matter
be well chosen, selected with regard to the ends in view. It is
absurd to suppose that reading matter so stale, dull or obstruse
as to have no longer any value among a reading people should
be worth sending to a people who have not yet learned to read.
Musty libraries of defunct ministers are even more useless in a
freedmen’s school than at the North. Discarded Sunday-school books
are little better; for in any library the readable books are worn
to pieces before the rest are given away. Old files of religious
or other newspapers have their uses; but to make a reading-room
tempting is not one of them.
The matter in a reading-room should be fresh, interesting, and
adapted to the mental condition of those for whom it is provided;
otherwise it cannot be either profitable or inspiring. The
newspapers must contain _current_ news. The magazines must be
adapted to the pupil’s stage of development, which is, so far
as reading is concerned, usually the juvenile stage. Freedmen’s
children are not yet ready, to any considerable extent, for
philosophy or high art.
The books—for there should be books as well as papers in our
reading-rooms—should be fresh, well printed, and, above all,
illustrated. Good pictures, such as are found in the recent
publications of the Harpers and Scribner, illuminate the words
of the book for these young people as nothing else can. And a
book closely printed, on poor paper, without illustration, is a
tax on any reader but the confirmed book-worm. The books should
relate, largely, to the world in its external aspects and to human
achievement—books of travel and adventure, of history in its
romantic phases, the great deeds of great men, whether knights of
war or labor.
To be specific, such books as Knox’s Boy Traveler series, Coffin’s
Histories, Butterworth’s Zizzag Journeys, Swiss Family Robinson,
and even the productions of Jules Verne, placed within the easy and
constant reach of our pupils, would be the most effective means
imaginable for securing the valuable result desired.
Were they well printed and illustrated, I would add to the above
list the old-time “Rollo Books.” Indeed, the list given is but a
fragment of that which might now be made up. Among the periodicals,
_Wide Awake_, _St. Nicholas_, and _Harper’s Young People_ should
have a prominent place alongside the _Century_ and _Harper’s
Weekly_ and _Monthly_.
I have not time to dwell upon the moral results, even more
important than the intellectual ones, sure to come from the
employment of the means herein imperfectly indicated; but I am
sure that reading-rooms such as I have in mind can be made a most
valuable auxiliary of our work in its best and highest purposes.
If any persons chancing to read this, desire fuller information
with a view to co-operation in a good work, I shall be happy to
receive communications from them at any time.
* * * * *
A GENEROUS WORD FROM THE SOUTH.
FROM THE MEMPHIS APPEAL.
The Memphis _Appeal_, in an editorial column upon the Education
of the Negro, taking as a text the recent Episcopal Congress of
colored men in this city and the Louisville Convention, says to
certain representative men:
“We recommend them to get the annual reports of the American
Missionary Society, of the Southern and Northern Methodist
Churches, and of the African Methodist and Baptist Churches.
From these they will find that more than $20,000,000 have been
expended by these religious organizations since 1864 in building
and maintaining handsome school-houses in which the Negro has been
trained and educated and fitted for the noble task and important
duty of training and educating others. They will find, too, from
these reports that in all these years white men and women of
learning and culture have labored, often in the face of prejudice
and within earshot of contumely and hate. What these missionaries
have done, the world at large has made little note of, but the days
are not far distant when everywhere, through the South at least,
it will be acknowledged as the greatest of all the great works
accomplished in the United States since 1865. From the Potomac
almost to the Rio Grande the academies and colleges of the American
Missionary Society are to be found at nearly all the large centers
of population, and they are flourishing because their work is a
practical work and their purpose the plain one of widening and
deepening the stream of learning at which the once slaves of the
South may drink freely and at will. These institutions are the
results of a generous benevolence, and have been maintained by
a self-denying zeal worthy of the glorious Luther, whose birth
a grateful world is everywhere celebrating with gladness. We
recommend them to read the reports of the Rev. Atticus G. Haygood,
of Oxford, Ga., who, since he wrote the _Brother in Black_, has
launched into the work of furthering the education of the Negro
with the zeal of a missionary, and the spirit of a soldier in
a noble cause. Dr. Haygood, not long ago, made a tour of the
South in the interest of the fund for which he is the dispensing
agent, and the result is a more fervent devotion to the good work
and more fervid and appealing speeches in its behalf. A gallant
ex-Confederate, a Southerner by birth and breeding, and the son
of a slaveholder, brought up, too, in a wealthy planting section
of Georgia, he entered upon his, at first, self-appointed task as
a mere private, a volunteer in the ranks where he found so many
noble workers. But his knowledge of the Negro, of his capacity, and
his needs, and the best methods of reaching practical educational
results soon marked him for the high position he now occupies
as the trusted and confidential agent of a fund bequeathed by a
benevolent Northern man, whose desire for the advancement and
betterment of the Negro Dr. Haygood is furthering by helping
all the schools at the South that have these for their objects.
Already, in the first year of the existence of the fund, this good,
strong man finds encouraging results following upon what he has
expended of it, and he pleads on every possible occasion with voice
and pen for the extension of the practical system of education
so long pursued by the American Missionary Association, and in
which he sees the best possibilities of the dark race. Dr. Haygood
speaks plainly, as well as eloquently. He calls a spade a spade.
He does not spare any who set themselves in his way or in the way
of the work he has so much at heart. He knows that education makes
every man better, stronger and happier than he could be without
it and he contends for its dissemination by compulsion if other
means fail of making it general, of bringing it into every man’s
house as essential to the maintenance of the peace that passes all
understanding. It is in the nature of things that such a man should
encounter opposition; that he should even be reviled, abused and
misrepresented, but he has only to take counsel of those who have
occupied the field he is now in during the past twenty years to
find a sweet solace and a consolation for it all. He can read in
their lives the opening chapters of his own career in the field
of Negro education, but he can also read of a generous if tardy
recognition of their labors by the best educated men and women of
the South, who willingly acknowledge their indebtedness to them for
the patient, earnest, laborious work by which in so short a time
nearly forty per cent. of the Negro population has been taught to
read and write, and so many thousands have been trained and fitted
after the most approved technical methods to teach in Negro public
schools and thus perpetuate the blessings they rejoice in the
possession of.”
* * * * *
AN APOSTOLIC SALUTATION.—At Birmingham, Ala., a city of only
a decade, in its iron and coal interest worthy of its English
namesake, Field Superintendent Roy found Congregational
representatives of half a dozen of our other schools and
churches, who had been drawn to that busy metropolis, as so many
acquaintances of the Apostle Paul in Asia Minor had been drawn
to Rome to be addressed by name in the salutatory chapter of his
Epistle to the Romans before he had himself ever been to that city.
Canon Farrar argues that that chapter must belong to some other
Epistle, on account of the difficulty of the Apostle’s knowing so
many people at Rome. If the Canon of Westminster had only been a
Superintendent of Missions he would have had no such trouble. Dr.
Roy could have given the apostolic salutation to the Saints of this
new church.
* * * * *
NOTICES ON THE OPENING OF SCHOOLS.
SELECTED FROM CORRESPONDENCE.
Storrs School, Atlanta.—We have enrolled three hundred and seventy
pupils and have been obliged to refuse admittance to fifty on
account of room. We are all wishing for more room and an increase
in our teaching force so that we may receive all that apply. I have
thought for several years that the necessity of the continuance of
Storrs School would cease as the public schools for colored people
increased in number, but I am becoming satisfied that it is a
permanence. The increase in population of this fast growing city,
and the desire of the people for a thorough education keep all the
schools of any value full.
Talladega College.—So far as I can now judge we are to have all the
students we can find room for, and I think more will pay at least a
part of their expenses than heretofore.
Charleston, Avery Institute.—Our opening was admirable in order,
large in numbers, and blessed by the presence of parents and
patrons who gave me a most cordial welcome. There was every
evidence of sincerity about it, and I am delighted with my
induction and with the two days. The institution is one of the
grandest in design, scope, and progress, and is sufficient to
excite my highest pride.
Tougaloo University.—An unusually large number of independent
applications have been sent in, so that we are likely to have an
overflow of students. These will need to be provided for. You may,
therefore, hear from us again, asking for provisions of shelter to
meet the demand. We never had so many apply before the opening of
school.
Nashville, Tenn.—Fisk University.—We are now able to speak of our
opening as a very favorable one. The number of new students is
larger than usual and of a more advanced class, and the spirit was
never better.
* * * * *
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.
—Rev. Evarts Kent, of Atlanta, Ga., took his vacation in Vermont
visiting his father, Rev. Cephas H. Kent, of New Haven, and
preaching a historical sermon at Benson. He met a warm welcome upon
his return to his field.
—The brothers, Rev. A. W. and Rev. C. B. Curtis, of Marion and
Selma, Ala., having had their vacation in the Northwest, are back
again upon their chosen spheres of labor.
—The health of President E. A. Ware’s wife having been greatly
threatened, upon medical advice he spent the summer with her in the
Adirondacks and is much encouraged by the improvement attained. He
is now back at his post, as are also Professors T. N. Chase and C.
W. Francis.
—Rev. Dr. Horace Bumstead and wife, of the Atlanta University, have
been afflicted in the death of their youngest child, a son, which
occurred on Lookout Mountain, whither they had fled for relief in
the pure air of that locality.
—Prof. R. D. Hitchcock, of the Straight University, having been
called to the presidency of the Southern University, New Orleans,
has declined the same and remains at his post.
—Prof. Albert Salisbury, Superintendent of Education, having
taken as a wife Miss Hosford, a teacher in the Whitewater Normal,
Wisconsin, has installed his family in their Atlanta home, and he
is now going his Southern rounds.
—The “Cassedy Hall” has been built this summer at Talladega for the
use of the primary department and named for Mr. J. H. Cassedy, of
this State, who gave the $5,000 needed for its erection.
—The “Whitin Hall,” at New Orleans, has been built this summer as
a boy’s dormitory and named for the late Deacon J. C. Whitin, of
Whitinsville, Mass., whose estate paid in $10,000, which, for the
erection, was put with $5,000 given by Deacon Seymour Straight, for
whom the university was named.
—Prof. J. A. Nichols, lately Superintendent of Schools at Yonkers,
N.Y., has been made Principal of the Avery Institute at Charleston,
S.C., in the place of Prof. A. W. Farnham, who resigned.
—Rev. Milton E. Churchill, a graduate of Knox College and of the
New Haven Divinity School, a son of Prof. Geo. Churchill, of
Galesburg, Ill., has been made Principal of the Emerson Institute,
at Mobile, Ala.
—The Le Moyne Institute, at Memphis, Tenn., has been enlarged at
a cost of $2,000, one-half of which, upon the solicitation of the
Principal, A. J. Steele, was furnished by white citizens of that
place.
—At Macon, Ga., to accommodate the library, which Rev. S. E.
Lathrop has been gathering, a Library Building has been erected,
with a basement for an industrial department. For this project,
citizens of Macon, both white and colored, contributed liberally.
—Rev. B. A. Imes, pastor at Memphis, Tenn., having received an
appointment in the Alcorn University, Mississippi, with a tempting
salary, has decided to remain with his chosen people. He is popular
in that city, and the teachers of the Le Moyne Institute seem to be
as fond of their preacher as the parishioners who make up the body
of his church.
—At Little Rock, Arkansas, a school has been opened this fall in
the Congregational Church of Rev. Y. B. Sims, under Miss Rose M.
Kinney as Principal, a lady of large experience in our work. This
school is the precursor of the Edward Smith College, which is to
go along in that city. Miss M. E. Keyes is associated with her as
missionary.
—The new church at Mobile, Ala., was dedicated on the last Sabbath
of September, Pastor Crawford and Revs. J. C. Fields and F. G.
Ragland participating.
—Rev. O. D. Crawford, who has this summer had the supervision of
the erection of the new church at Mobile and of the Whitin Hall
at New Orleans, has resigned his pastorate at Mobile because of
the incompatibility of that climate with the health of his family.
He will be greatly missed upon the field. He will return to some
pastoral charge at the North.
—Theological students, who have been supplying churches during the
vacation, have now returned to their studies—Rev. S. N. Brown, from
Florence, Ala., where he participated in a revival, to the Fisk
University; Rev. F. G. Ragland, from Mobile, to Talladega; Rev. J.
R. McLean, from Savannah, to Talladega.
—The A. M. A. has appointed Rev. J. C. Fields to labor for one
year as an evangelist among the churches at the South. For the
last year and a half he has labored in this capacity, much to the
satisfaction of the churches. He will supply the church at Mobile
for a time.
* * * * *
THE INDIANS.
* * * * *
A VISIT TO FORT SULLY INDIAN MISSION.
BY REV. C. O. BROWN.
We had anticipated it with keenest interest, and Providence favored
us. A delightful morning of the first week in August smiled on
our programme, when our party of four persons was ready for the
carriage ride from Pierre to the mission,—Rev. S. Norton, pastor
of the Congregational Church of Pierre; Mr. J. Kimball, of Huron,
Dakota, missionary of the American Sunday-school Union; Timothy
Hudson, Esq.; and the writer, of Kalamazoo, Mich.
The scenery for the first six miles, from the heights which border
the Missouri River, was most charming. At our left, and beneath us,
was the river and its narrow strip of foliage and bottom lands,
having here and there a picturesque dotting of Indian tents; beyond
that, westward turned the grass-covered hills; to our right were
the boundless prairies, beautifully variegated with cultivated
squares of green and golden grain and settlers’ homes.
[Illustration: MISSION HOME, FORT SULLY.]
An abrupt descent from such an outlook brought us to the valley
beneath, through which the remaining eight miles of our ride
lay. We had only fairly entered the valley when we began to see
evidences of the faithful mission work which has here been done.
For several miles along the river we were constantly passing the
farms of mission Indians, where we saw established homes, quite as
good as those of their white neighbors. We saw full-blooded Indians
in civilized dress, riding their mowing-machines, raking their hay,
and stacking their grain.