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The American Missionary
APRIL, 1895
VOL. XLIX
No. 4
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL.
OUR FINANCIAL OUTLOOK--DEATH OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS, 121
ITEMS, 122
THE PROSPERITY OF THE SOUTH, 123
NOTES-BY-THE-WAY, SEC. A. F. BEARD, 124
THE SOUTH.
TOUGALOO UNIVERSITY, MISSISSIPPI (Illustrated), 125
LINCOLN MEMORIAL, SPECIAL METHOD, 133
LINCOLN MEMORIAL DAY IN THE SOUTH, 134
THE LOUISIANA ASSOCIATION, 135
FIELD ITEMS, 136
MISS AMY WILLIAMS, 137
THE INDIANS.
COLLECTION FOR THE DEBT AT SANTEE AGENCY, 138
LETTER FROM AN INDIAN, 139
THE CHINESE.
GLEANINGS FROM ANNUAL REPORT OF CALIFORNIA CHINESE MISSION, 139
BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.
THANK-OFFERING DAY, 141
RECEIPTS, 142
* * * * *
NEW YORK
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION,
Bible House, Ninth St. and Fourth Ave., New York.
* * * * *
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, MERRILL E. GATES, LL.D., MASS.
_Vice-Presidents._
Rev. F. A. NOBLE, D.D., Ill.
Rev. HENRY HOPKINS, D.D., Mo.
Rev. ALEX McKENZIE, D.D., Mass.
Rev. HENRY A. STIMSON, D.D., N. Y.
Rev. WASHINGTON GLADDEN, D.D., Ohio.
_Corresponding Secretaries._
Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, D.D., _Bible House, N. Y._
Rev. A. F. BEARD, D.D., _Bible House, N. Y._
Rev. F. P. WOODBURY, D.D., _Bible House, N. Y._
_Assistant Corresponding Secretary._
Rev. C. J. RYDER, D.D., _Bible House, N. Y._
_Recording Secretary._
Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, D.D., _Bible House, N. Y._
_Treasurer._
HENRY W. HUBBARD, Esq., _Bible House, N. Y._
_Auditors._
PETER MCCARTEE.
JAMES MITCHELL.
_Executive Committee._
CHARLES L. MEAD, Chairman.
CHARLES A. HULL, Secretary.
_For Three Years._
WILLIAM HAYES WARD,
JAMES W. COOPER,
LUCIEN C. WARNER,
JOSEPH H. TWICHELL,
CHARLES P. PEIRCE.
_For Two Years._
CHARLES A. HULL,
ADDISON P. FOSTER,
ALBERT J. LYMAN,
NEHEMIAH BOYNTON,
A. J. F. BEHRENDS.
_For One Year._
SAMUEL HOLMES,
SAMUEL S. MARPLES,
CHARLES L. MEAD,
WILLIAM H. STRONG,
ELIJAH HORR.
_District Secretaries._
Rev. GEO. H. GUTTERSON, _21 Cong'l House, Boston, Mass_.
Rev. JOS. E. ROY, D.D., _151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill_.
Rev. W. E. C. WRIGHT, D.D., _Cong'l Rooms, Y. M. C. A. Building,
Cleveland, Ohio_.
_Secretary of Woman's Bureau._
Miss D. E. EMERSON, _Bible House, N. Y._
COMMUNICATIONS
Relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the
Corresponding Secretaries; letters for "THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY,"
to the Editor, at the New York Office; letters relating to the
finances, to the Treasurer; letters relating to woman's work,
to the Secretary of the Woman's Bureau.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
In drafts, checks, registered letters, or post-office orders, may be
sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, Bible House, New York, or, when more
convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House,
Boston, Mass., 151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill., or Congregational
Rooms, Y. M. C. A. Building, Cleveland, Ohio. A payment of thirty dollars
constitutes a Life Member.
NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.--The date on the "address label" indicates the
time to which the subscription is paid. Changes are made in date on
label to the 10th of each month. If payment of subscription be made
afterward the change on the label will appear a month later. Please
send early notice of change in post-office address, giving the former
address and the new address, in order that our periodicals and
occasional papers may be correctly mailed.
FORM OF A BEQUEST.
"I GIVE AND BEQUEATH the sum of ---- dollars to the 'American
Missionary Association,' incorporated by act of the Legislature of the
State of New York." The will should be attested by three witnesses.
* * * * *
THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY
VOL. XLIX. APRIL, 1895. No. 4.
* * * * *
OUR FINANCIAL OUTLOOK.
Our debt is large, but we rejoice to say that during the last three
months it has been slowly diminishing. It reached its highest point
November 30--$82,425.58. December 31 it was $82,032.07; January 31,
$79,502.77; February 28, $76,431.49. The cause of this decrease varies
in the different months. Sometimes the legacies are in advance, and
sometimes the donations. The expenses have been largely reduced in all
departments.
While these figures are somewhat encouraging, yet the size of the debt
is ominous. The winter months, usually most fruitful in collections,
have passed away, and the time for the annual appropriations is near
at hand. Unless the debt can be greatly reduced, the cutting down of
the appropriations for the next year must be disastrous to this great
work. We do not lose our trust in God, nor our hope that the friends
of these ignorant and yet struggling people will not suffer the work
to be seriously hindered. We respectfully invoke pastors to secure for
us as liberal contributions as possible, and we ask individual donors
to remember the work with special gifts.
DEATH OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
The unexpected and sudden death of Mr. Douglass has awakened a sense
of profound sympathy never before expressed toward a person identified
with the negro race, and seldom toward one of the white race. We are
not surprised at the manifestations of profound respect and sorrow of
the colored people, and we rejoice, too, that the white race has shown
almost equal regard for his memory, by their attendance when he lay in
state in Washington, and when his body was interred in Rochester. The
press has voiced the sentiment of the nation in the full and
eulogistic notices of his life. Frederick Douglass deserved it all.
No man, perhaps, in this country has broken through so heavy a crust
of ignorance, poverty and race prejudice as was done by this boy born
on a slave plantation, stealing his education, fleeing from his slave
home and then achieving for himself a rank among the foremost men of
the nation in intelligence, eloquence and of personal influence in the
great anti-slavery struggle of this country. He has achieved honors in
the public service of the nation, and has faithfully and honorably
fulfilled every trust laid upon him.
Mr. Douglass is among the last survivors of that band of Abolitionists
that were so potent in their influence in arousing the nation to the
evils of slavery. The recent death of Theodore D. Weld, in his
ninety-first year, recalls a name now almost forgotten, but that two
generations ago indicated the foremost orator in the anti-slavery
ranks. The poet of anti-slavery, Whittier, has gone recently, and now
the most conspicuous name left of that noble band is that of Mrs.
Harriet Beecher Stowe.
The American Missionary Association has reason to congratulate itself
that its last annual meeting was made memorable by the presence of Mr.
Douglass, and its vast audience stirred most deeply by his eloquent
address. In that address he expressed his gratitude for himself and
his people for the work done by the Association in their behalf. And
in a letter subsequently addressed to the senior secretary of the
Association, he says, in speaking of that address: "I am very glad to
have been able thus publicly to record my sense of the value of the
great work of the Association in saving my people. I am a friend of
free thought and free inquiry, but I find them to be no substitute for
the work of educating the ignorant and lifting up the lowly. Time and
toil have nearly taken me from the lecture field, but I still have a
good word to say in the cause to which the American Missionary
Association is devoted."
ITEMS.
Of the twelve millions of families now in the United States, it is
said that one million cannot secure the needed work to procure the
luxuries and comforts of life. On this basis the one and a half
millions of colored families are at a special disadvantage. They have
to contend not only against the hard times, but against the immense
disadvantages of race prejudice.
* * * * *
The appointment of Bishop Whipple, of Minnesota, to be a member of the
Board of Indian Commissioners was an appointment eminently fit to be
made. Few men in this country stand higher in their knowledge of the
Indians and their wants, or have shown a more intelligent and
self-sacrificing interest in their behalf.
* * * * *
The Indian Territory, occupied by what has been regarded as the
Civilized Tribes, is in a precarious position. The recent
investigation by the Committee under ex-Senator Dawes has brought out
the facts in startling distinctness. The recommendations of the
Senator are very clear and radical, but it is feared that delay in the
settlement of the question will only protract and aggravate the
difficulty.
* * * * *
The "Missing Link" has been discovered. It was found, we are told, in
some fragments of skeletons dug up somewhere in Java. What an
attraction this will be to lead scientific doctors to neglect living
beings and wrangle over these old bones. In this country the real
"Missing Link" is that charity on the part of the white people that
recognizes the colored man as a fellow-citizen and a fellow Christian.
Let that link be found and burnished up and a good many serious
problems will be solved.
THE PROSPERITY OF THE SOUTH.
From time to time there loom up prospects of great advancement in the
Southern States. Iron and coal are found in close proximity and in
unlimited quantity. At once the boom starts and great cities spring
into existence with busy foundries and added railway facilities. But
somehow or other the boom loses its fervor and the bright hopes are
delayed. Yet the South _has_ vast resources, though they can only be
developed gradually, and as capital shall become assured that the
labor problem in the South is satisfactorily adjusted.
We are told again that cotton mills are to be transferred from the
North to the South. Hitherto cheap cottons have been the product of
these Southern cotton mills. But now the promise is that the finest
grades of cotton will be produced. Labor is cheap in the South, but
skilled labor is very scarce, and no cheaper than at the North, and to
transfer such labor from the North will be at the additional cost of
transportation.
Great efforts are made from time to time to induce immigrants to
settle in the South, and high hopes have been built on such endeavors.
But immigrants continue to go to the North and West, and do not go
South. This is not because the South is not rich in minerals, in a
productive soil and a beautiful climate. Why is it? Capital in the
hands of the whites in the South continues to crush labor in the
person of the black man under the heel of prejudice. Perhaps the
laborer from Europe may dread the same thing.
In spite of all drawbacks, the South _is_ improving, and will
continue to improve, and the process will be hastened as the white
man lays aside his race prejudice and the black man lifts himself
above it by acquiring property, intelligence and character. Whatever
helps this consummation does more for the future good of the South
than can be done in any other way.
NOTES-BY-THE-WAY.
SECRETARY A. F. BEARD.
Among places of greatest interest which I visited in my late Southern
tour one was Tougaloo University. Its location is unique, and its work
is also. In the very heart of the black belt of Mississippi, it is
sending out its light among thousands who are in darkness. It would
quite repay one who would study the problem of saving these children
of the rural districts of the black belt to go far out of his way to
visit Tougaloo. He should take time for it, to ride over its broad
acres of cultivated land, its cotton fields, its fields of sugar cane
and corn, its hay fields, all under the care of those who are being
educated. They should see its shops for iron working, for wood
working, and its varied other industries. They should see those who
work by day, diligent students at the books all the long evenings
until late. They should see the self help of all. They should go
through the grades and notice the quality of the work done and its
character, its classes in mathematics and in languages, and its work
in the physical sciences. It is a great school--Tougaloo--and if
people could see it, they would quote it more for its economy and
efficiency. Not always are efficiency and economy found pulling
equally in the same harness.
A little incident in Tougaloo interested me. A discussion of the
topic, "How can we improve our homes," called from one student these
words: "I find the negro lacks race pride. He despises his own makeup.
Who of you ever heard any negro say that he thought the general
characteristics of his race were as becoming as those of other races?
Nor are they. The Anglo-Saxon is proud of his race characteristics.
The Indian is, also, but the negro despises himself and would be
anything else than what God has made him. But how can we escape hell
if we hate ourselves because we are negroes, when this is the divine
wisdom of a just God? We may talk about improving our homes by getting
an education as much as we please, but we will never be anything until
we have a race pride and try to carry out the great plan of God who
made us and knew what is best for us. Let us be genuine negroes, pure
and good, and not desire a drop of other blood in our veins."
This seems to be the spirit of Tougaloo. Its graduates whom I have met
are manly and womanly, self-respecting and self-helping.
TOUGALOO UNIVERSITY, MISSISSIPPI.
BY PRES. F. G. WOODWORTH, D.D.
[Illustration: MANSION.]
[Illustration: GIRLS' DORMITORY.]
The chartered schools of the American Missionary Association, though
doing an essentially similar work, are yet strongly individualized.
Tougaloo University is emphatically the black belt plantation school
of the Association, located in the country, in the midst of America's
darkest Africa, touching that by far most numerous and important class
on which the future of the negroes mainly rests--the plantation
negroes. Forming the bulk of the colored population, least tinged with
white blood, they are at once the most ignorant and the most hopeful
class. Within seven miles of Jackson, the State capital, on the
Illinois Central road, easily accessible, not only from Mississippi,
but from large regions of Louisiana and Arkansas, it draws pupils from
a wide area and sends its trained teachers and graduates to a region
still wider. Its location is healthful and one of beauty, and, removed
from town distractions and temptations, it is admirably situated for
efficient work. The school was established in the autumn of 1869, and
the early reports show a surrounding region which in its drunkenness,
fighting and iniquity, is quite in contrast with the present
condition of affairs. Five hundred acres of land were purchased and
with them a fine mansion (page 125), then not many years old, intended
for the finest plantation house of the State and built for a bride who
came not. As the illustration shows, it is a handsome structure--the
only one with any decided architectural pretensions in the place. It
served at first for school rooms and dormitory purposes, and has been
thus used during most of the life of the school. Now it contains the
offices of president and treasurer, the main library--which greatly
needs more books--music rooms, the doctor's office, teachers' rooms,
and the president's home. There are now nine large buildings for
school use, with several smaller ones. The next oldest of the large
buildings is the girls' dormitory, just south of the mansion, where is
the common dining room, with the necessary kitchen, laundry and bake
house appliances, and dormitory room for several teachers and eighty
to ninety girls.
[Illustration: BALLARD HALL.]
[Illustration: BOYS' DORMITORY, STRIEBY HALL.]
[Illustration: THE PLANTATION BARN.]
[Illustration: BIBLE HALL.]
Washington Hall, built just north of the mansion about the time of the
girls' dormitory, was burned some years ago, and now on its site
stands the Ballard Building, containing the study and recitation rooms
of the grammar and intermediate departments, which lead up to the
normal and the chapel, where all general exercises and Sabbath
services are held. One of the greatest needs of the school is a church
building, that can be specially devoted to religious purposes. There
is a grand chance for a memorial building. A little northeast of
Ballard is the boys' dormitory, Strieby Hall, erected in 1882, a
brick structure 112 x 40 feet, and three stories high, with a basement
which has a laundry and bathrooms. In this building the normal and
higher work is carried on, with a fairly good physical and chemical
laboratory and reference library, but needing great enlargement and
additional facilities. The normal work is of chief importance, for the
future of the race lies largely with the trained teachers of the
common schools. Those who have gone from Tougaloo have won golden
opinions from both races and do a work which in its scope and
missionary character multiplies greatly the influence of the
supporters of the school. Strieby has, by crowding, dormitory room for
seventy to eighty boys. A separate building for normal work is greatly
needed, one having a library, reading room, recitation room, museums
and laboratories. Just northwest of Strieby is the large barn, which,
with the picture of the cattle, will suggest the large agricultural
department of the school with its stock, garden, fruit raising, etc.
Here, too, a building is greatly needed for the farm boys and a
foreman, where a special course of instruction can be given in fitting
out good farmers. Not a few graduates and former students have been
successful in the conduct of farms and market gardens, some of them in
connection with teaching. Back of the mansion is a little and not at
all beautiful building that has been a slave pen, day nursery for
slave children; then, under the American Missionary Association, a
dormitory known as Boston Hall, then a carpentry class room, then
girls' "Industrial Cottage" and is now dignified as Bible Hall, and
houses the theological department, which was established two years
ago. This department has the beginning of a library, but needs books
and maps very greatly, and has two courses based on the English Bible,
one of two and one of four years. Though having this year but few
pupils in the regular course, it is doing very thorough work. The
evening class for outside preachers has been for some years a power
for good. A glance at the picture will convince anyone that theology
should have better quarters. Who will give them? Berkshire Cottage, of
which a picture is given, accommodates the industrial training work
of the girls. Here are classrooms for needlework and cookery, with
courses extending over four years, and which all girls in the grammar
grades are as much obliged to take as they are the English branches.
To the normal girls special instruction in dressmaking is given.
Berkshire, besides accommodating several teachers, has a kitchen,
dining and sitting room, and several bedrooms, devoted to practical
housekeeping, where, at present, four girls at a time keep house
practically for six weeks at a time, so becoming competent for
homemakers. Not far from this cottage is the Ballard shop building,
where the manual training of the boys is carried on. Here to the small
boys of the Hand school instruction in knifework is given, and to the
boys of all higher grades careful instruction, in accordance with the
best manual training methods, in wood-working, with excellent
accommodations for more than twenty boys at a time. Forging, at which
eight at a time can work, and mechanical and architectural drawing,
with tables and tools for two dozen. The outcome of this work and of
the girls' industries, teachers of which are supported by the Slater
Fund, which has done, and is doing, so grand a work, has been most
satisfactory and encouraging in the skill manifested, the increased
earning capacity imparted, the greater ability to gain and maintain
homes, and the development of character.
[Illustration: BERKSHIRE COTTAGE.]
[Illustration: BALLARD MANUAL TRAINING SHOP.]
[Illustration: CARPENTRY.]
[Illustration: FORGING.]
One other picture, the Hand Primary building, suggests the practical
work of the Normal department, for here the Normal students have
practice during the two closing years of their course, gathering
pupils from surrounding cabins.
Underneath all the work of the school is the dominating thought of the
development of Christian character. The preaching, the Sabbath school,
with its class prayer meetings directed by the Sabbath school
teachers, the religious societies, the Covenant for Christian service,
the personal influence of teachers and older pupils, all tend in that
direction with most blessed results. Upon the surrounding region
growing influence is exerted through the four Sabbath schools from two
to four miles away, in which teachers and students from the University
assist. A picture of one of the schools, McCharity, is given here.
Mention should also be made of the "Tougaloo University Addition to
Tougaloo." One hundred and twenty acres of land have been divided into
five-acre house lots, which are being sold at $100 each to former
students and those who wish to educate children at the University. In
a few years it is expected that a fine community will be there.
[Illustration: DANIEL HAND KINDERGARTEN AND PRIMARY SCHOOL.]
Around three great fundamental ideas the work of Tougaloo, with its
nearly 400 students and 23 instructors, with its theological, college
preparatory, normal, agricultural, industrial, musical, and nurse
training departments, its religious work, is grouped and carried on
with notable success. These are the development of the family and
home, leadership, and pure religious life. Who will endow a chair? Who
will endow the University, and perpetuate one's influence in a most
fruitful way? Successful as Tougaloo has been, its largest, widest
work is yet to come.
LINCOLN MEMORIAL--SPECIAL METHOD.
MRS. G. W. ANDREWS, TALLADEGA, ALA.
[Illustration: McCHARITY SUNDAY-SCHOOL MISSION.]
There has been much enthusiasm here since Sabbath morning in starting
an "Abraham Lincoln Cent Association" in order to give the _poorest_
among our people an opportunity to do something toward helping to lift
the debt of the American Missionary Association. There will be four
departments of giving, one cent per day, one per week, one per month,
and five dollars will constitute one a memorial member of the
Association. The collection from those who pay a cent a day will be
taken at the time of devotional exercise in the schools in the
morning; the cent per week every Tuesday morning, the cent per month
on the twelfth day of each month. Every quarter the treasurer will
gather the different sums and send to the American Missionary
Association treasury. The twelfth day of February each _year_ will be
a rallying day, when we trust much more will be realized. It is hoped
by those who have this plan in hand, and we are all working in unison
here in it, to extend it throughout all of our schools and churches in
the South, that the present debt of the American Missionary
Association may be brought close to their hearts, and kept there, as
the proposition is that this association shall continue until the debt
is lifted.
LINCOLN MEMORIAL DAY IN THE SOUTH.
BY REV. W. J. LARKIN.
On Lincoln's birthday most of the churches connected with the American
Missionary Association in the South took occasion to make a
contribution to it, and many gifts not large in themselves, but
representing a great deal of sacrifice, have been received by our
treasurer in New York. The pastor of our church in Marion, Alabama,
sends a contribution of over $16 from his church, which amount
represents more sacrifices than thousands of dollars would represent
from many of our more favored churches. He writes: "We had a Lincoln's
exercise on Lord's day, 10th, by the school at the church. It was a
very cold, dark night, but our offering was $16.09. You will consider
the hard times here--and they are hard, indeed, this year--we have had
intense cold now nearly two months with the mercury nearly to zero.
When ice is six inches thick in this part of Alabama it means intense
suffering for the half-clad and half-fed negroes. We add to this
$16.09, $11.26, which we have collected at our missionary prayer
meetings, making in all $27.35."
"I called on a few of the old ex-slaves for some experiences of bygone
days. Among others here is one: 'When I was a boy about twelve years
of age there were several boys together telling what we would do when
we became men. I said, "I am going to be free and keep a store, and
perhaps employ some of you boys as my clerks." Among these boys
standing there was a white boy, who, when he went home, told his
father what I had been saying. Shortly after a lady, when I was
passing her house one day called me in and said, "Steve, is that you?"
"Yes, marm." "I want to see you; I hear you have been talking some bad
talk with other boys." I said, "What is it, marm?" "You said that you
were going to be free some day. Now let me tell you, if you do not
stop talking such talk you will be hung and nobody can possibly save
you. Let me tell you, you were ordained from the foundation of the
world to be a slave; that is your destiny."' He continued, 'Although I
never employed any of those boys as clerks, yet from that white boy,
who reported my conversation, I have bought thousands of dollars'
worth of goods since. I began by selling cakes on the railway cars. I
remember down in Tennessee about the year 1852 a man came and
preached, and was said to have abolition ideas. The white people took
him and hung him. Oh! children, if I only had had the privileges you
now have! I thank God for the American Missionary Association. It took
my children and made men of them. When I was a boy a good Christian
man taught me to read a little. The white people discovered it and
said, "You stop teaching niggers," and cut off his forefinger for
teaching us to write.'"
THE LOUISIANA ASSOCIATION.
BY REV. G. W. MOORE, FIELD MISSIONARY.
The Louisiana State Association held its twenty-sixth annual meeting
with the church at Thibodeaux, February 1-4. It was one of the best
meetings in interest and attendance in the history of the association.
The reports from the churches showed a steady growth and hopeful
outlook, in spite of the hard times. These churches of Southern
Louisiana are in the black belt of the State on plantations and in
towns adjacent to the large sugar plantations. Many of the planters
have become bankrupt by the changed conditions of giving up the sugar
bounty, while the poor colored laborers have been the greatest
sufferers.
The stories of their hardships and struggles in their efforts to live
and carry forward their church work are full of pathos, heroism and
self-sacrifice. Laborers have had to take fifty cents a day and board
themselves, to keep the wolf of starvation from their door, and many
of them are unable to get work at any price.
It was a revelation to the brethren to hear the report of Rev. James
Herod, of the American Missionary Association meeting at Lowell,
Mass., and of Mr. E. H. Phillips, of the Cleveland Christian Endeavor
meeting. It was the first time these colored men had been North or
East, and had come in contact with Northern civilization. First-class
trains, hotels and Christian hospitality from "our brother in white"
were all new to them.
Mr. Herod is a graduate of Straight University, and is our pastor at
Abbeville, La. His face beamed with grateful joy as he told the story
of the meeting and the wonders of the North, and of the warm welcome
of Northern friends, while the brethren of the Association were held
spell-bound by his graphic recital. It is hard to tell which was the
happier, the speaker or the audience.
Mr. Phillips, of Morris-Brown Church, New Orleans, is a zealous
Christian Endeavor worker. The State of Louisiana was represented at
the Cleveland Christian Endeavor Convention by two colored delegates,
Mr. Phillips and Dr. Nelson. The reception these colored Endeavorers
received at Cleveland made all of our hearts glad. It was so
refreshing to see this star of hope rising in the hearts of our long
oppressed brethren, and to have them realize somewhere in the land the
meaning and sweetness of the words of our Lord, and the Christian
Endeavor motto: "One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are
brethren."
The report made by our field missionary of the Sunday-school
Convention held in London, Eng., also inspired the brethren with the
hope that the good time coming will come ere long, when they will be
measured by their worth and _work_, and not always be despised and
oppressed because of the accident of birth and condition. The Woman's
Missionary State Union, with Miss Bella Hume as president, held an
interesting meeting. They are assisting in the support of a missionary
at our Indian Mission at Santee, Neb. The Sunday-school State
Association, Rev. J. W. Whittaker, moderator, also held an inspiring
meeting. Mr. Alfred Lawless, Jr., was appointed general Sunday-school
superintendent to visit needy Sunday-schools in the State, and
especially to assist in organizing Sunday-schools on the sugar
plantations.
The neat little chapel built a year ago by the American Missionary
Association at Thibodeaux was dedicated Sunday, February 3. An
impressive and helpful sermon was preached by Rev. Prof. G. W.
Henderson, of Straight University, followed by addresses by the
pastor, Rev. J. E. Smith, Trustee Matthew Dickerson and the field
missionary.
As the train left the little town the delegates sang, "God be with you
till we meet again." The coach was curtained off, to separate the
white and colored passengers, but as this song of benediction rang out
on the train the curtain was lifted by the white passengers, and for a
season we were all one company. May the angelic song of the Nativity
of "peace on earth and good will toward men" so abound that the
curtains that separate men will be raised and its refrain of "peace
and good will" extend to our common humanity, that we may all be bound
together and united to Christ.
FIELD ITEMS.
The organization of Young People's Societies of Christian Endeavor
among the young people in the mountains is being carried on very
successfully by the missionaries and superintendents of the American
Missionary Association in that region. A recent report from one of the
superintendents gives a list of nine places at which Endeavor
Societies have been recently organized. The American Missionary
Association has been especially active in this work of spreading the
Endeavor movement among our young Highlanders of the South. The
Endeavor Society meets just their need, and furnishes opportunities
for development and growth which are greatly appreciated.
* * * * *
Extract from a letter, Andersonville, Ga.: It is pitiful to see the
children come so regularly four or five miles to school, their feet
protruding from their broken shoes, bringing their baskets of tuition
in the way of chickens, eggs, etc., to pay their school bills. One
longs to cook up the things brought and give food to the poor children
and wrap them in warm clothing, but I know the only way to make them
self-reliant and keep them from the spirit of mendicancy is to require
them to pay.
* * * * *
NEW ORLEANS, LA.--Rev. Geo. W. Moore writes: About thirty of
the boarding students and fifty of the day students have avowed their
faith in Christ since Friday evening, when I first began the Gospel
exercises in their behalf. All of the boarders of Straight University
are now in the Christian household of faith.
MISS AMY WILLIAMS.
On Sunday, February 24, at Rochester, N. Y., another of our valued
missionaries passed on beyond the work and opportunities of this life
to her blessed reward.
Miss Amy Williams entered the service of the Association in 1868 as
missionary teacher at Augusta, Ga. The next year she was transferred
to Atlanta, Ga., where she was for many years the principal of the
Storrs School. Retiring from this principalship in 1885, she spent a
few years North, but her heart continually turned to her loved people,
and in 1893 she accepted appointment as principal of the Slater Normal
School, at Knoxville, Tenn., where her work was characterized by the
same thoroughness and ability as that at Atlanta. Finding that her
health would not permit her to return the second year, she wrote in
December: "My heart just aches to go back South. Every other work
seems insignificant."
Mrs. T. N. Chase, of Atlanta, Ga., writes as follows:
"Nearly twenty-five years ago, in the beauty of her young womanhood,
she took charge of Storrs School, shaping it through those plastic
years, and leaving the impress of her grand life upon it. At supper
table to-night I ventured to ask one of the older girls who sits
beside me if she remembered Miss Williams. How her face lighted up as
she said: "Oh yes; she gave me my first Bible." Hundreds of boys and
girls have entered the college preparatory class at Atlanta University
who, but for her, would never have gone beyond the grammar school. In
the early days, before electric cars, she often walked out here,
nearly two miles, to see how her Storrs children were getting on. One
day I wanted to walk back with her a little way, but she said: "I must
go on a mile further to the home of a poor boy who ran away and has
been sleeping in my schoolroom two nights, because his father beats
him so he does not dare to go home." That boy is now Rev. John W.
Whittaker, class of '84, and pastor of First Congregational Church,
New Orleans, La. I think of hosts of others who will rise up to call
her blessed. So, as much as I loved her, I cannot grieve for her, but
only sit and wonder how that one crown can contain all the stars that
must be circling round her brow."
The Indians.
COLLECTION FOR THE DEBT AT SANTEE AGENCY.
The response of an Indian church to the appeal for help in view of the
financial distress upon the Association, is certainly worthy of any
Christian church anywhere. In reporting their collection, Dr. A. L.
Riggs writes as follows:
"On February 10, our mission people and Pilgrim Church responded to
the call of the American Missionary Association, and made a
subscription of two hundred and sixteen dollars. This subscription
will be paid in before the first of April, and it will likely be
increased some. Of course the larger part is the gift of the
missionaries, but the Indians did well, a number contributing five
dollars apiece."
In giving an account of a service the day this large collection was
taken at this Indian church, Mr. F. B. Riggs writes:
"Two of the mission people started the pledge with twenty dollars
each. That rather startled the people, but several soon ventured ten
dollars each. Then one pledged ten dollars on condition that nine
others pledged the same. The nine were found. One Indian woman pledged
ten dollars. Several Indians put down four, five, six and seven
dollars each. We would sing and then call for pledges; speak and sing
again, and then pledges again. The committee was instructed to canvass
the matter farther immediately. The work is now going on outside. In
the meanwhile the pledges are being paid very fast, and I expect to be
able to remit to you soon. This contribution from Pilgrim Church means
much from the hearts of our members. They have gone right down to the
suffering point in this giving. The pupils in the school have done
well in helping, too. I have been astonished that many members of
America's great churches think that missionaries and people in our
mission fields are only recipients. I wonder if the good people in all
our large churches did as much to lift the debt of the American
Missionary Association on Lincoln Memorial Sabbath as did the members
of this Indian Mission Church on the prairie. If so, the debt is wiped
out."
LETTER FROM AN INDIAN.
David Tatankaota recently wrote the following letter to Miss M. C.
Collins. David is the missionary in Thunder Hawk's village, a new
mission recently opened by the American Missionary Association. Miss
Collins writes that David sent his report together with this letter
and a collection of $5.50 from the Indians in his mission:
"January 26, 1895.
"WINONA, MY FRIEND:
"I will give you a letter. My children and wife we are all well.
Every Sunday brings praying. Some are beginning to understand the
Bible. At the second service on Sunday I ask some to pray and
some to talk. Also at the Wednesday prayer meeting these are
ready to respond. Chasinghorse, Flyinghorse and Whiteagle.
"Thunderhawk is growing a little stronger (spiritually). He and
his family are always at church. I have said enough.
"Your friend,
"DAVID TATANKAOTA.
"This is written with my own hand. Amen."
Translated by Miss Collins.
The Chinese.
GLEANINGS FROM THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CALIFORNIA CHINESE MISSION FOR
THE YEAR ENDING AUGUST 31, 1894.
BY REV. W. C. POND, D.D.
This is old news. But the report has been delayed in order that the
treasurer might keep his books open till the very last offering
pledged to us in aid of the work for that year could be collected, and
thus, as much as possible be paid of the salaries which remained
unpaid at the end of the year. We had no deficit. The mission does not
run in debt. It never uses the resources of a new year to pay the
arrears of the one preceding. Consequently there was only one thing to
do when it became apparent that our resources would not be equal to
our needs, viz., to authorize our workers to cease work and close the
schools, and to say that should they continue in the work, we could
promise them only this, that we would do for them all that was
possible to us. The final result was that our workers--steadfast and
faithful--after having given their usual donations, squared accounts
in January by extra gifts amounting to $374.90.
And while we are on this matter of the finances, we will give an
abstract of the treasurer's final statement respecting current
expenses in our general work:
I. RESOURCES:
On hand last Report $49.95
Appropriation American Missionary Association 7,499.90
Receipts at Treasury California Chinese Mission 4,973.80
Transferred from Permanent Prop. Account 24.55
Sale of Tracts and Books 4.40
II. DISBURSEMENTS:
Salaries of Superintendent, Teachers
and Helpers $8,480.25
Rents of Mission Houses 3,013.85
Incidental Expenses 1,058.50
-------- --------
$12,552.60 $12,552.60
In addition to this, the work for Chinese mothers and children cost us
$557.70, a little less than one-half of what we could have used with
rigid economy and good results.
The statistics of the work show twenty-one missions in which schools
have been maintained, as follows: Fourteen during the entire year,
except as recesses were taken at Chinese and American holidays; four
with but one month's vacation; two during the four months that the
fruit men have comparative leisure, and one--that at Watsonville--a
new mission which commenced work four months before the fiscal year
closed.
The total number of months of labor was 431.
The aggregate enrollment of Christian Chinese connected with our
missions, so far as reported, is 596. The number concerning whom we
may hope that they have been led to Christ during the past year is 60,
making the total number of whom this hope has been cherished, and who
have given "credible evidence of faith in Christ" from the first more
than 1,100. How many of these will appear in the church of the
first-born "clothed in white robes" it is not for human judgment to
decide. Sometimes the human, the frail, we may almost say the
_devilish_ crops out in a way to put hope and courage to a test that
is terribly severe, but never anything to compare with that which Paul
had to confront in those at Corinth, whom he nevertheless denominates
"the sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints." The Good Shepherd
knows his sheep, and those thus given to him by the Father shall
_never perish_, neither shall anyone pluck them out of his Father's
hands.
The limits of our space forbid that we follow the report into its
accounts of the year's work in each one of these missions. Two points
deserve special notice. One of these has been referred to in a
previous number of THE MISSIONARY. More attention must be
given to preaching in the street and in our schoolrooms, which make
very comfortable little chapels. The other is that many Chinese
children--native-born Americans--are growing up not only in the great
centers, but also in interior villages, and we must open the doors of
our schools to these; make such arrangements as will secure their
attendance, and so bring it about by the grace of God that they grow
up not in darkness, but under the healing beams of Him who said, "I am
the light of the world."
* * * * *
OFFERINGS OF OUR BRETHREN.--It is not possible to segregate
their gifts to our treasury with perfect accuracy, but we are within
the truth when we place them at $1,905.40. In addition to this they
have given for the local expenses of their several Associations
$1,134.10, for Missionary Work in China $675.65, for their Worldwide
Missionary Society (through the American Board) $63.60, and for relief
to needy brethren and others $358, making an aggregate of $5,136.75 as
their offerings for the year; and this, be it understood when the
pressure of the times cannot but be felt by them, on the average, more
severely than by any others. The goods a Chinaman has to sell are
likely to be those that in hard times we dispense with. If wages are
to be reduced, the reduction begins with the Chinaman. It is no great
sin in the view of many to steer clear of paying a Chinaman. If
anybody is to be dismissed from service when economy begins it is the
Chinaman. We cannot but think that under the circumstances the
financial showing at this point is highly creditable.
Bureau of Woman's Work.
WOMAN'S MISSIONARY UNIONS.
THANK-OFFERING DAY, APRIL 12.
It is heart cheering that the Women's Unions have planned for thought,
prayer and special offerings on Friday, April 12, or Easter Sunday,
the 14th, the day which, in the words of the resolution adopted by the
State organizations at their annual meeting, "commemorates Christ's
gift of Himself to the world."
Surely liberal offerings must follow sober thought and earnest prayer
for the redemption of those whom God seems to have given into our
special charge here in our own country. Our Lord Himself said, "Ye
have done it unto Me." What if it does cost self-denial? Shall we not
plan more liberally for Christ than for self?
"How much owest thou my Lord? That is the question which the giver
has to face. Sometimes in commercial circles a man will assign a
debt that is owing to him to someone else out of friendship that
he may take it when he has collected and use it for himself. Much
in the same way, I think, the Lord Jesus has assigned a large
portion of the debt which we owe to Him to those who are around
us, to the unconverted at our doors, to these races among whom we
labor. Let us see in those for whom appeal is made to us through
this Association the representatives of Christ."
DR. WILLIAM M. TAYLOR.
"When men know the grace of Christ they will never feel that they
have given Him enough. Until they know it they will never give
_Him_ anything. They may contribute to keep up appearances so as
to be like other people or to gain a reputation, but they will
never give to _Him_ until they know His grace. Before men give to
Christ they must receive from Him, and when they have received
Christ Himself into their hearts they will be impelled to give,
_im_pelled not _com_pelled; for the delight and the duty will
co-exist, or rather the duty will be merged in the delight."
DR. WILLIAM M. TAYLOR.
* * * * *
WANTED, to supply demands for libraries, copies of THE AMERICAN
MISSIONARY for January, February, March and April, 1862, January,
1866, January, 1867, and January and August, 1875. Also, copies of The
Annual Report for 1860, 1861, 1862, 1863.
RECEIPTS FOR FEBRUARY, 1895.
THE DANIEL HAND FUND
For the Education of Colored People.
Income for February $4,197.35
Previously acknowledged 18,322.50
----------
$22,519.85
==========
CURRENT RECEIPTS.
MAINE, $524,10.
Alfred. Cong. Ch., 10.50; Y. P. S. C. E. of Cong. Ch., 2.22 12.72
Andover. Cong. Ch. 5.00
Auburn. Samuel J. M. Perkins 10.00
Augusta. "A Friend" 30.00
Bangor. Hammond St. Cong. Ch. 100.00
Biddeford. Second Cong. Ch., L. M. Circle, Bbl. C.
_for Blowing Rock, N. C._
Boothbay Harbor. Mrs. M. Alice Beal, _for Gospel Work_ 8.00
Brewer. Jun. C. E. S., 2 boxes Christmas Gifts, _for
McIntosh, Ga._
Freeport. Miss G. B. Lewis 1.00
Gardiner. Cong. Ch., _for Student Aid, Pleasant Hill
Acad., Tenn_ 24.00
Gorham. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 118.29
Gorham. H. H. Soc., _for Student Aid, Talladega C._ 20.00
Harpswell Center. Bbl. C., by Mrs. E. R. Morse, _for
Blowing Rock, N. C._
Harrison, Cong. Ch. 3.37
Litchfield Corners. Y. P. S. C. E., by Walter T.
Earle, Treas. 2.50
Litchfield Corners. Bbl. C., by Mrs. D. F. Smith,
_for Blowing Rock, N. C._
North Bridgton. Cong. Ch. 5.50
Phippsburg. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 6.27
Portland. "A Friend," _for Student Aid, Talladega C._ 40.00
Portland. W. M. Soc., _for Student Aid, Gregory Inst._ 8.00
Portland. Second Parish Cong. Ch., Ladies' Soc., Bbl.
C. _for Greenwood, S. C._
Robinston. Ladies' Aid Soc., of Cong. Ch., Bbl. Bedding,
Freight 1.85, _for Talladega, Ala._ 1.85
Rockland. Woman's Aid Soc., of Cong. Ch., Bbl. Bedding,
etc., Freight 2, _for Talladega, Ala._ 2.00
Searsport. Sab. Sch., Cong. Ch., 5; Jun. C. E. S., 4,
_for Dorchester Acad., McIntosh, Ga._ 9.00
Wells. Barak Maxwell, 20; "A Friend," 1 21.00
West Cornville. Addie Bicknell .50
West Paris. Miss Mary L. Dana, "Youth's Companion"
for one year, _for Macon, Ga._
Woodfords. Carl Coffin, S. S. Class, _for Student Aid,
Talladega C._ 2.10
Woodfords. Bbl. C. and Bedding, _for Lincoln Acad., N. C._
Woodfords. 2 Bbls. C., by Mrs. Ida V. Woodbury, Sec.,
_for Blowing Rock, N. C._
Woodfords. Bbl. C., _for Marion, Ala._
Yarmouth. First Cong. Ch. (5 of which from Mrs. E. D.
Freeman, Memorial Miss Sophia Carleton) 40.00
Maine Woman's Aid to A. M. A., by Mrs. Ida V. Woodbury,
Treas., _for Woman's Work_:
Cumberland Center 22.00
Lewiston, Pine St. Ch. 25.00
Turner. Mrs. S. L. Bird 1.00
Pownal 5.00
------ 53.00
NEW HAMPSHIRE, $1,098.04
Amherst. Edward D. Boylston, 100; Cong. Ch., 80; Sab. Sch.,
Cong. Ch., 11.46 191.46
Boscawen. Mrs. Mattie P. Webster, Freight, _to Pleasant
Hill, Tenn._ 1.00
Claremont. Y. W. Soc., Bbl. C., etc., _for Wilmington, N. C._
East Brentwood. Rev. H. H. Colburn 10.00
East Jaffrey. Cong. Ch., 14.50; Christian Endeavor Soc., 5.42 19.92
Farmington. First Cong. Ch. (30 of which from Y. P. S. C. E.)
_for Student Aid, Nat, Ala._ 35.40
Greenville. Cong. Ch. (of which F. W. Ely 25). 40.00
Jaffrey. "Lilies of the Field," by Miss L. S. Adams,
_for Storrs Sch._ 10.00
Littleton. First Cong. Ch. 24.83
Londonderry. Chas. S. Pillsbury 1.00
Manchester. First Cong. Ch. and Soc., to const. REV. L.
GOODRICH, MRS. J. B. ESTEY and MRS. J. G. JONES L. M.'s 102.12
Merrimac. Geo. S. Parkhurst, _for Student Aid, Talladega C._ 10.00
Nashua. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 60.00
New Castle. Willing Workers, _for Straight U._ 10.00
Pembroke. Sab. Sch. Cong. Ch. 15.34
Peterboro. Union Cong. Ch., Y. P. S. C. E. 10.00
South New Market. Miss H. L. Fitts, _for Student Aid,
Gregory Inst._ 32.40
Stratham. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 12.00
South New Market. Miss H. L. Fitts, _for Freight_,
1.71 Ladies of Cong. Ch., Bbl. C., _for Wilmington, N. C._ 1.71
Troy. Trin. Cong. Ch. 10.86
--------
$598.04
ESTATES.
Lyndeboro. Estate of Jotham Hildreth, _for benevolent
and charitable purposes of the A. M. A., among the Colored
People of the South_, by William R. Putnam, Trustee 500.00
--------
$1,098.04
VERMONT, $388.00.