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[Illustration:
VOL. XXXVI. JANUARY 1882 NO. 1
THE
American Missionary
“THEY ARE RISING
ALL ARE RISING,
THE BLACK AND
WHITE TOGETHER”
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.
* * * * *
CONTENTS.
* * * * *
EDITORIAL.
SALUTATION, 1882 1
PARAGRAPHS—A GOOD WAY TO DO IT 2
JOHN BROWN MEMORIAL STEAMER (with cut) 3
BENEFACTIONS 4
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD 5
INDIAN GIRLS AT HAMPTON (with cuts) 6
GENERAL NOTES—Indians, Africa, Chinese 7
TRAINING GIRLS FOR HOME LIFE: By Miss M. L. Sawyer 10
RELATION OF THE FAMILY TO THE NATION’S WELFARE:
by Miss E. B. Emery 12
FREEDMEN.
TENNESSEE—Interesting Exercises in Fisk University,
Nashville 14
GEORGIA—Storrs School, Atlanta 15
MISSISSIPPI—Dedication of Strieby Hall, Tougaloo 15
WORK IN THE SOUTH 16
AFRICA.
EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL OF REV. H. M. LADD 18
CUT OF CAIRO 19
THE CHINESE.
CALIFORNIA AND CHINA: By Rev. W. C. Pond 21
CHILDREN’S PAGE.
HOW A STRAIN OF MUSIC CALLED A WANDERER HOME 23
MISSIONARY VEGETABLES 24
RECEIPTS 25
CONSTITUTION 29
AIM, STATISTICS, WANTS, ETC. 30
* * * * *
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
VOL. XXXVI. JANUARY, 1882. NO. 1.
* * * * *
1882.
We welcome the advent of the new year with praise and thanksgiving.
The toils and burdens of 1881 are past. The husbandman has garnered
his sheaves. The sower has cast in his seed, and awaits the spring
time. We greet our friends with hope and gladness. The prosperity
of the past is significant. We have a fuller experience, enlarged
facilities for work, and a place in the confidence and esteem of
the church and the nation that brings with it not only cheer and
courage but an added weight of responsibility.
We are, doubtless, on the eve of great events in the world of
missions. He who has taught all Christendom of every sect and every
age to pray, “Thy kingdom come,” has never decreed such immense
strides in the material world as our eyes have seen, without a
purpose to overmatch them all by spiritual achievements.
The current of events does not tarry; it rushes on more mightily
than ever. We may pray expectantly. We may accustom ourselves
to meditate upon vast plans for enlarged work in fields already
occupied, and for new and fruitful enterprises in regions beyond.
Such gifts from the living as have been bestowed by Mrs. Stone and
Mr. Seney, such legacies for missions as were left by Mr. Otis,
reveal to us what floods may come when all things are ready, while
such revival waves as have swept over Madagascar and the Telagoo
people in India are earnests of the power of the Holy Spirit to
subdue speedily islands and continents to Himself.
Girt with the promises, and armed with all prayer and faith, we
shall go forth to conquer. The day is dawning, the morning star
is piercing the twilight, and dark night will shortly be rolled
away. Over the continents, over the islands, over the seas, victory
is watching and waiting to come; but tarry it will, tarry it
must, till we, or such as we ought to be, win the battle in God’s
appointed way.
Heaven grant that the day of its coming be hastened gloriously, as
never before, by the efforts and events of 1882.
OUR Annual Report for 1881 will soon be off the press and ready for
distribution. We shall be happy to forward it to any of our friends
who will send us their name and address, signifying their wish to
have it.
* * * * *
WE are happy to give our readers in this number of the MISSIONARY
copious extracts from the Journal of Superintendent Ladd, who,
at last reports, was at Cairo, Egypt, in company with Dr. Snow,
awaiting passage to Souakim, on the Red Sea. The reception they
received in Egypt was very encouraging.
* * * * *
THE _Gospel in All Lands_ is to be published as a weekly,
commencing with January, 1882. It will contain one-third of its
present number of pages, but will undergo no other change. The
appearance of an illustrated missionary weekly, relying upon
its subscription list for support, will mark a new and cheering
departure in the missionary literature of the times. We bid the
enterprise Godspeed.
* * * * *
OUR annual meeting discouraged, for the present at least, a
movement for the establishment of a mission in China, under the
auspices of this Association, and in this it accorded with the
recommendations of the Executive Committee. But something may
ultimately be done in this direction, and that our friends may know
more at length the facts in the case we publish in this MISSIONARY,
Brother Pond’s earnest plea in its behalf.
* * * * *
A GOOD WAY TO DO IT.
A few months since, the cause of this Association was presented
to a church in Central New York, after which the minister in
charge addressed the congregation substantially as follows: “Every
family belonging to this church must wish to give, according to
its ability, to the cause which has been so clearly and ably
presented. In order that this may be brought about, I have placed
a slip of paper in each pew, and desire that each family present
subscribe the amount it will give, and state when the money will
be ready. At the close of the service I will gather the slips,
and compare them with the church-roll. If any families have not
responded, I will take a carriage, if need be, and, before the
close of the week, call on those whose names have not been handed
in, so no one shall fail to have an opportunity for assisting in
the great work of advancing the Redeemer’s Kingdom.” The result
was a cheerful and liberal donation, made up probably from all the
families in the church. The clergyman who adopted this thorough and
self-denying plan was a pastor from Nebraska, on an exchange for a
few months with an Eastern brother. It fell out that he had trained
his Western church in the method described above, until all its
members cheerfully rejoiced in it, and put it into practice on all
occasions when money was to be raised for either home or foreign
objects. So that, although his church numbered but eighty-five,
its contributions to benevolent objects exceeded those of any
other Congregational church in the State. Moreover, this was not
brought about by neglect of things needful at home. A new organ was
purchased at a cost of $1,000, the money being raised by the same
method. The blessing of Heaven was not withheld; seasons of revival
strengthened the church, and its membership at present is over
a hundred. The perseverance and fidelity of the pastor were not
overlooked. Where every one was schooled to give, it was an easy
matter to gather what was wanted to purchase a beautiful gold watch
as a Christmas present for the minister. The appreciation of pastor
and people was mutual—so much so that the church was able to retain
its minister, though he was repeatedly called to other places,
where a larger salary was offered.
We commend the example of this clergyman and his people to the
large number of devoted pastors who are always prayerfully seeking
for—“A good way to do it.”
* * * * *
JOHN BROWN MEMORIAL STEAMER.
[Illustration]
We call attention once more to the John Brown steamer. Scarcely a
day passes that we do not receive contributions for it, and yet, as
the sums are small, it will require much more to furnish the amount
needed. As to the value of the steamer we give below a letter from
the Rev. Geo. Thompson. No man in the world is a better judge than
he of its necessity for the use of the mission. He was for many
years a missionary at the Mendi Mission, was indefatigable in his
labors, made wide explorations in the regions round-about, exerted
a vast and wholesome influence over the people, exposed himself
to the dangers of the climate, and only gave up the work on which
his heart was so much set after the failure of the health of his
family. His gift, so large in his circumstances, for the John Brown
steamer is as strong an attestation of his appreciation of its
worth, as his earnest and eloquent words. Read his letter and help
us to complete the amount.
DEAR BRO.—I notice the intention to build a steamer for the
Mendi Mission; Glory to God! My heart rejoices. This, more
than almost any other human means, will help the mission. I
well know the need of such a craft, having been back and forth
so many times in canoes, sometimes old, leaky ones, and my wife
and many others have suffered greatly in those long and rough
canoe voyages from and to Sierra Leone, often terrible and
dangerous. Speed the steamer, and may the blessing of the Lord
rest upon the enterprise.
My heart leaps for joy at the prospect. I hasten to send my
first earned money (by hard labor) since reading the last
MISSIONARY, to help build this John Brown memorial steamer. I
send it with joy and thanksgiving.
In order that old and young may have a part in this work, we have
arranged to issue four grades of shares, as follows: First Grade,
$100; Second Grade, $10; Third Grade, $5; Fourth Grade, $1.
All donations for this purpose should be forwarded to H. W.
Hubbard, Treasurer of the American Missionary Association, 56 Reade
St., New York.
* * * * *
BENEFACTIONS.
—The late George G. Fogg bequeathed $5,000 to Dartmouth College.
—Mr. Reed, of Boston, has given $10,000 to Hampton Normal and
Agricultural Institute.
—The will of John Amory Lowell contains bequests to Harvard College
amounting to $40,000.
—William Bicknell, of Philadelphia, has given $50,000 to the
University at Lewisburg, Pa.
—Wells College, Aurora, N.Y., receives a bequest of $100,000 from
the estate of Col. E. B. Morgan.
—Mrs. Jennie McGraw Fiske has left to Cornell University $290,000
for library fund, building and other purposes.
—The University of Sydney has received a gift of $25,000 for the
endowment of scholarships.
—Hon. John Evans, Ex-Governor of Colorado, has given $40,000 to the
University of Denver since the beginning of the enterprise.
—Howard University is to receive $5,000 from the estate of Francis
P. Schoals of New York City, which amount is to be paid at the
death of his widow.
—Mrs. Noah Wood, of Bangor, Maine, has left $5,000 to Bowdoin
College to found the Blake scholarship in memory of her son.
—Kenyon College has received $15,000 for scholarships from Mr. H.
B. Curtis, of Mt. Vernon, Ohio.
—Col. Charles H. Northam bequeathed $75,000 to the general fund of
Trinity College, Hartford, Ct., and $50,000 for the endowment of a
professorship.
“_If there is any place in this world where a great deal of
money, wisely used, can work incalculable good, even tested by
the simplest maxims of political economy and cent per cent, the
endowment of the Christian schools for the Freedmen is that
opportunity._”—_A. D. Mayo, D.D._
* * * * *
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.
_Orangeburg, S.C._—The people here are rejoicing in a new $50 bell
bought by themselves. They have also put up a bell tower.
_Tuskegee, Ala._—Mr. B. T. Washington writes: “Please allow me
space to express the thanks of this school to the _Smith American
Organ Company_, of Boston, for the donation of one of their
superior cabinet organs. It is a valuable addition to our school.”
_Athens, Ala._—Rev. H. S. Williams writes of a union effort in the
churches at this place, which has proved a success. Twenty-seven
conversions are reported as the result.
_Savannah, Ga._—The Sabbath-school has begun to yield excellent
fruit. Having $30 in the treasury they voted to send one of their
number to Atlanta University for a year. After a spirited contest
on the part of several members of the school to win the prize the
decision was finally favorable to Palmer Lloyd, a boy of about 15
years. He went to Atlanta in time for the opening of the term.
Fifty dollars in all were needed to insure him a year’s study.
To raise the remaining $20 the Sabbath school gave a musical
entertainment and ice-cream supper and were successful in raising
the amount needed.
_First Impressions of a New Teacher._—After nearly two months’
work I feel that I am more interested than when I came, which I
thought would be impossible. The work is more vast and _awful_
in its importance. I do not wonder, as I did at first, at the
careworn faces of the teachers who have been long in the work. The
possibilities for good or ill of the race are to be contemplated
by us only with fear and trembling, unless God works through and
by us. I enjoy the work heartily. It consists, more than I could
before understand, in laying foundations.
_Impressions of a Teacher of Long Experience South._—I am sure,
in our busy and crowded life, most of us teachers especially fail
to realize how broad and comprehensive our work at the South is;
how what we do, well or poorly, is to affect the whole educational
interest at the South where everything is in a transition state.
Should we not, in view of what our work and influence have
accomplished in the past, and in view of our greater and growing
opportunities for the future, should we not be aroused to a sense
of these things that we may make the most of our chances in this
direction?
INDIAN GIRLS AT HAMPTON.
[Illustration: _From Harper’s Monthly._]
The accompanying cuts were published in Harper’s _Monthly_, April,
1881. The improvement made in the appearance of Indian students,
boys and girls, by a three years’ course of study at Hampton has
convinced more than one observer from the Western frontier that
there is something better to do for the red man than to shoot him
on sight. Miss Helen W. Ludlow, one of their teachers, says of
the two older girls that appear in the picture: “They have been
among the farmers of Berkshire County, Mass., working for their
board, sharing the home life and improving in health, English and
general tone; they have won a good report from the families which
have taken them, even better this year than last, and have done
much to increase public sympathy for their race. The Indian girls’
improvement has been as marked as the boys’. Their early inuring
to labor has its compensation in a better physical condition
apparently, and their uplifting may prove the most important of
factors in the salvation of their race.”
[Illustration: _From Harper’s Monthly._]
GENERAL NOTES.
THE INDIANS.
—The Indian Bureau reports that the number of self-supporting
Indians cannot be precisely stated, but gives the following as a
fair estimate: Wholly or almost entirely self-supporting, 105,939;
partially self-supporting, 44,119; wholly dependent on government
rations, 50,882; these figures do not include the five civilized
tribes in the Indian Territory, numbering 59,187. At Crow Creek
Agency, Dakota, 60,000 of the 500,000 acres of reservation land
had been taken up by 235 out of 325 neighboring families, of whom
208 had broken ground, cultivating an average of five acres apiece.
Their title is a certificate from the Secretary of the Interior,
and can be made valid only by an act of Congress.
—Rev. A. J. Biddle, in speaking of the American Indian, gives the
following incident with which he was personally acquainted, as a
typical case: An Indian and his wife left their tribe in the state
of Oregon, came among the white settlers upon an excellent farm,
built their cabin, assumed the garb of civilization, and were
exceedingly earnest in their endeavors to be as their neighbors.
The wife eagerly sought instruction from her white sisters in
housekeeping. The husband was as eager to know how to farm. They
were succeeding nicely, contented and happy in their new home and
new civilization. One day two white men came along, saw this farm;
it was fertile and well improved; they coveted it; asked the Indian
to sell it; he refused. They determined to have it; so, a few days
later, they returned when no white witnesses were present, shot the
Indian in his own door-yard, drove the frightened wife away and
took possession of the property. Nor were they ever molested. No
one saw the crime but the Indian wife. No court would listen to her
story, so the matter ended, with the pleasant home desolated, the
murderers eating the fruit of their crime.
* * * * *
AFRICA.
—The whole Bible has been translated into eight African tongues,
and portions of it into 24 others, making 32 in all.
—According to the _Agence Reuter_, M. Roger will set out with the
Belgian expedition and 135 natives to rejoin Stanley upon the Congo.
—Three Roman missionaries, of Ouroundi, have been massacred in
their houses, near Tanganyika. Three others escaped. The last
letters of the missionaries tell of the perils which they run on
the part of the blacks from the calumnies of the Arab merchants in
regard to those who endeavor to abolish the treaty.
—The Livingstonia Central African Company has established a factory
at Inhamissengo, at the mouth of the Zambeze. It found there
already two European companies, one Portuguese and the other French.
—Messrs. Creux and Berthond, of the Swiss mission at the north of
Transvaal, are attempting to open a direct route from Valdezia to
the Delogoa Bay.
—A company has been formed in Transvaal, with a capital of 200,000
livres, to explore the silver mines of Tati.
—The London Missionary Society’s mission on Lake Tanganyika has
been carried on since its commencement, in 1876, at an expense of
$100,000. There have been three deaths, and three have been obliged
to retire on account of ill health. The society proposes to send
out five new men in the Spring to recruit the mission.
—Mr. Adam McCall, leader of the Livingstone inland mission on the
Congo, died at Madeira on November 24.
—Direct communication was to be established by submarine cable
between Calle and Bizerte early in October.
—A scientific French mission at Thebes has discovered recently 36
sarcophagi of kings and queens inclosing mummies, rolls of papyrus,
thousands of jewels and talismans, from which much may be learned
of importance in the history of ancient Egypt.
—M. Ledoux, Consul-General of France at Zanzibar, reports a great
famine in equatorial Africa. The tribes, in despair, have pillaged
the caravans.
—M. Succi, delegate of the Italian Society of Commerce with
Africa, has returned to Milan after a voyage to Madagascar and the
Comores. The sovereign of one of these islands has granted to him a
concession very advantageous for the Italian Society.
—In an exploration of Quango three great cascades have been
discovered, to which the names of the emperors of Germany and
Austria and the king of Portugal have been given.
—The military French administration has placed forty kilometres of
railroading of the Decanville system from Sousse in the direction
of Kaironan.
—After having been dangerously ill of bilious fever, Stanley has
recovered sufficiently to go to Manyanga, and from there to Stanley
Pool.
* * * * *
THE CHINESE.
—The American Board has rendered good service to the cause of
missions by issuing a large map of China, suitable for use at
monthly concerts and other meetings.
—The Chinese merchants of San Francisco have received from the
Emperor of China an elaborate and beautiful scroll, in recognition
of their liberal gifts for the relief of sufferers from the famine
in China three years ago.
—“I love money first and God second,” was the confession of a
Chinaman in Boston, who was quite ready to argue that his was the
best way, as he was giving an account of his nephew’s preparation
for a public profession of religion.
—The Chinese Sunday-school, held in the chapel of the Mount Vernon
Church, Boston, had an average attendance last year of 48 pupils,
the largest number present at any one time being 71. The total
number of Chinese in Boston is said to be about 300.
TRAINING GIRLS FOR HOME LIFE.
BY MISS MARY L. SAWYER, BOXFORD, MASS.
At our annual meeting at Worcester, a part of Thursday
afternoon was devoted to the reading of papers and to the
delivery of addresses on Women’s Work for Women.
We gave in our last issue some brief extracts of the addresses
on that occasion by Rev. A. H. Plumb and Rev. E. N. Packard.
In this number we publish portions of the papers read by Miss
Sawyer and Miss Emery, which our readers will find to be
interesting, pertinent and profitable.
You all know of the degradation of the colored women in the South.
You are ready to believe in their dirty, comfortless huts, yet I
could take you into many a pleasant home among the colored people,
where neatness and order reign supreme, where man’s industry and
woman’s taste have combined with charming result, and where it
would be hard to say which was exerting the greater or better
influence—the earnest Christian man, or his equally earnest wife.
Tasteful pictures on the walls, books of standard authors on the
table, shades at the shining windows, a clean, white bed, a clock,
perhaps a cabinet organ, would meet your wondering gaze. With
keen insight the women and girls recognize the primary cause of
such a home and the influence that has molded its founders. So,
in ever-increasing numbers, ignorant, uncouth girls, apply for
admission to the missionary school, which, in some mysterious way,
is to transform them; and their poverty-stricken mothers give of
their scanty store all that can be spared, and more, and wait with
joyful anticipation for the time when the daughters may become the
teachers from whom they in turn may learn the more excellent way.
To us, then, comes the work of educating them, not out of their
positions in life, but for them; to train them in such habits that
they may look upon uncleanliness, either physical or moral, with
utter loathing, and yet to implant that Christlike spirit which
shall lead them to count no home too repulsive, no work degrading,
if only it is the Lord’s place and work for them.
With such an end in view, school work means much. Not only is
the dormant intellect to be awakened and the knowledge of books
imparted, but also that practical knowledge of every-day life
in which, strange to say, they may be even more deficient. Nor
do they always come with that keen thirst for improvement that
insures success. How can they, when the consciousness of their own
shortcomings has not yet dawned upon them? Their acquaintances are
as ignorant as themselves; their own bare home is as good as their
neighbors’. Not until they have mingled in the school life with
companions far beyond themselves in attainment do they realise
their own need, and begin to climb. Personal neatness is to be
inculcated; dress, deportment, speech, expression, manner, must be
watched and toned by careful teachers. A sense of honor must be
cultivated, and, above all, conscience aroused and trained, that
the end of all our labor may be attained and Christ be found in
them.
Much of their future usefulness depends on the industrial training
which is becoming more and more a feature of our schools. The
difficulty of uniting this branch of instruction with the regular
school duties was long ago recognized by so eminent a teacher
as Mary Lyon; and what was hard in New England is even harder
in Georgia and Alabama. But the need is greater, too; and on
missionary ground the question cannot be, “Is it difficult?” but
only “Is it best?” and, since there could be but one answer,
all over the South, this work in many forms is being carried on
to-day. Due attention is paid both to theory and practice. Lectures
on cooking, for instance, are followed by conversations on the
subject, where questions can be freely asked and difficulties
explained, after which the pupils are required to test their
knowledge by making bread, cooking meals and the like. This
practice is repeated day by day, and the examinations are as rigid
as in any other department. Sewing is as carefully taught, a part
of each day being devoted to it. Darning and patching become an
art, until some specimens of their skill in this line could be
ranked almost as ornamental needlework. Not only sewing, but the
cutting of garments, is taught; and this affords good opportunity
for those wise counsels on economy, simplicity and kindred subjects
which these girls need so much.
Housekeeping in its minutest details receives careful attention,
and here, as everywhere else, precept follows precept and theory is
supplemented by practice.
Another and no less important branch is that of nursing the sick.
The ignorance of the very simplest remedies and of hygienic laws on
the part of many of the colored people is appalling. The treatment
of a cold, or a slight accident, is as much beyond their knowledge
as the most complicated disease would be, while a sudden emergency,
as a case of poisoning, would paralyze them with fear. Medicine
to them is simply medicine, and one kind as good as another. “I
didn’t have no sugar,” said the mother of a sick baby to the
missionary who was attending to its needs, “and so I put a spoonful
of the medicine that didn’t want sweetening into a spoonful of the
medicine that did want sweetening and it seemed to do him good.”
That this ignorance was not unusual may be inferred from the
estimate that in the city where this mother lives the death rate
among the negroes is three times that of the whites.
The method of imparting this knowledge of nursing varies in
different schools. In every case opportunity for practice is
abundant; sometimes in their own homes, sometimes among the poor
of the city or in the women’s wards of the hospital. A prominent
physician of Memphis, noting the examination questions required of
the girls of Le Moyne School, said: “If your girls answered those
questions, they ought not only to make safe nurses, but also fair
physicians.” The object, however, is not to make physicians, but to
give a thorough acquaintance with the details of nursing, including
all those little thoughtful attentions to the sick which Northern
girls learn from the lips and the practice of gentle, efficient
mothers, but of which the colored women seem as ignorant as their
daughters.
You can hardly imagine a more desolate scene than a case of
sickness in a cabin home. There is no isolation—all family work
performed in sight of the patient, the glaring light falling
full on the bed, water either for drinking or bathing seeming an
unknown luxury, and noise everywhere. Into such homes these eager
girls penetrate, adapting their knowledge to the surroundings with
wonderful tact, hanging an old quilt or shawl to give isolation,
shading the light, preparing with neatness and dispatch some
tempting morsel of food, and administering with their own hands
that thorough bathing which is often the most potent medicine.
No wonder that after such treatment one poor old creature should
ejaculate, “Thank the Lord, when we get to Heaven we shall all
get on clean clothes.” Alas, that in so many homes the inmates
seem perfectly content to wait till that time for the delightful
sensation!
Of course cleanliness and other hygienic laws are placed first
in importance, and just here we are finding one answer to the
question so near our hearts, “How can we make the _homes_ better.”
The lessons learned by the daughters at school are duly repeated
to the mothers at home, who are the more ready to receive new
ideas of _house_-keeping from the young teachers who have first
revealed to them the secrets of _health_-keeping. It is idle to
hope to accomplish the greatest good for these girls unless for a
time they are wholly under our control. Evil influences cannot be
forgotten or overcome in a month or a term. They must come into our
boarding-schools for a term of years, and the money to keep them
there must come in part from you. By the industrial system, they
can be helped to some extent and the idle and careless sifted out;
but after all is done, the last hard-earned penny paid over, the
last work tried, there is still need.
But there are so many calls, and you are so busy. Yes, so was one
of old, and you remember, “As thy servant was busy here and there,
he was gone.”
Just so will it be here. The work for these girls must be done
_now_. If we do not help them, there is no help for them, and
instead of life and light there is nothing but blackness of
darkness before them. Their influence will widen and deepen just
the same, only instead of a blessing it will bring a curse, until
the old sentence may be repeated for us, and our lives go for their
lives and our people for their people.
* * * * *
THE RELATION OF THE FAMILY TO THE NATION’S WELFARE
BY MISS E. B. EMERY, GORHAM, ME.
The materialist boldly tells us that physical law is the only law,
and that there is no sin but the violation of the laws of our
physical being, and that if these were understood and obeyed by
all, there would be no sorrow, suffering or disorder in the world.
But with a deeper insight, we do not need to live long on earth
to learn that violation of moral law for a time will bring into
fearful disorder, and actually subvert, physical law. If any truth
in this world is manifest, it is that a nation is well balanced
and secure just in proportion to the observance of the moral law
respecting the _family_; that a commonwealth is prosperous and
invincible, in its material as well as spiritual interests, exactly
in proportion to the strength and purity of its homes, even to the
humblest. Naught can bring such dire confusion and destruction as
laxity of family relations; what, then, can you expect of those
for whom the family was obliterated, and that by legal statute,
for many generations? The freed people are by no means the only
sufferers, for in obedience to the divine principle just referred
to, precisely to that degree that the colored woman refuses to
recognize marriage and a home, just so far is the whole region
demoralized; and this obliquity over wide extent threatens the
very vitals of our great republic. Educate, Christianize, inspire
the young colored woman, and you save and elevate not only the
entire colored race, but you brace up the white people of the
South to moral standards far from universal now; you save all, in
all their interests, temporal and eternal. The domestic relations
are the deepest in life; they dictate and control all others.
Make the _home_ pure and powerful, and the soil will yield, and
demand and supply will adjust themselves; cities will rise, and
laws will protect, and schools will flourish, and the church will
grow apace, and there is work and education and salvation for all.
This is no idle picture; every one of us knows the reality of it.
And it is because the home is the basis and centre of all earthly
life—and who makes the home? Mainly, it is the woman. Therefore,
save the woman; build her up hour by hour; feed her with wisdom
of every kind; regulate her passion and emotion, discipline her
reason, fortify her will, nerve her with principle, fire her with
enthusiasm, and make her tender with Christ’s own love. In every
mighty movement on earth, woman is at the bottom, and the problem
which more than any other agitates this whole country to-day, is
because of woman. She can wreck this nation, and she can deliver
it. Man fought to save it; woman prays, teaches, suffers and
sacrifices to save it.
One day at the South, while on a solitary walk, I stepped through
the crazy paling, and spoke to a jolly black woman who was getting
dinner in the yard just before the front door. She was about
forty-five, with a superb physique, quite unfettered by fashion,
for she wore but one garment, which did not hang in flounces, but
in strings. The fire, or rather smoke, for I saw no fire, puffed up
from a little heap of sticks, and over this swung a broken kettle,
which, apart from the gourds lying about, was the only dish of the
household. Into this kettle she had put a piece of grimy salt pork,
with a share of bristles remaining on it, making a firm rind, and
with it turnip-tops and cabbage-stumps, and she was then washing
sweet potatoes; and such a nest of children in every stage of dirt
and nakedness and hunger, and every one in densest ignorance and
heathenism! The little hut couldn’t hold them, so they were ranged
inside the paling, all in a row, forming a kind of animated hedge,
their little bare, shining bodies flashing as they whisked in the
sun, their big, round eyes gleaming with curiosity, and every
single body of them poised to turn a somersault or two and ask me
for a penny. The woman made a low courtesy, and a graceful one it
was, and as I greeted the children the whole batch of them squealed
and cackled, stood on their heads and came right side up with the
wildest kind of a grin, in my very face.
“How many children have you,” I asked. “These are not all yours?”
“Yis, ma’am, dey is ebery one mine. I’se got fourteen.”
“Is your husband at home?” I inquired. I thought I spied a man in
the cabin.
“He’s sick mos’ times,” she replied, “a’nt good for not’in’ but
eat; he kin eat mo’n any nigger in all Car’line, though he don’ git
de luck berry offen, dere’s so many ob us,” and she gave a chuckle.
“But how do you take care of so many?” was my question, as the
vision of more than one overworked mother at the North, with her
solitary child, flashed across me.
Such a loud, musical laugh!
“Why, bress yer soul, honey, I don’ car’ ob dem, dey takes car’ ob
demselves,” and she leaned back and again she sang and rippled and
rolled at the absurd idea of a mother’s taking care of her children.
I ask you to-day, what do you expect those children will do and
become? It is for you to say.
Destitution and ignorance like this may be found all through the
South, but just such families have been reached and redeemed by
our missionaries, and if all are not reached, it is simply because
we do not send the missionaries, for allowing every discouragement
that exists the fact still remains that there is no missionary work
on the earth so hopeful and so rich and so rapid in its results as
work among the colored people South.
THE FREEDMEN.
REV. JOSEPH E. ROY, D.D., FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.
* * * * *
TENNESSEE.
INTERESTING EXERCISE IN FISK UNIVERSITY.
_By Rev. H. S. Bennett, Nashville._
The first Friday night of the term we listened to reports from
those of the students who had taught school during the vacation. It
was expected that those who spoke would give as correct an idea as
possible of the colored people, their interest in education, the
condition of the crops, whether the people were getting possession
of land, and all other items of interest relating to their work.
President Cravath read a letter from a county superintendent in
Mississippi, who bore the strongest testimony to the honesty,
morality and efficiency of the teachers who had gone out from Fisk
University.
Mr. Mitchell, a new student, had taught in one neighborhood for
two years, in De Soto, Miss. He had succeeded in building up a
successful Sunday-school. He had in his school about 150 pupils and
three assistant teachers. The citizens encouraged the education of
the colored people and took great interest in his school.
Miss Murray had taught in Mississippi for five months. The people
were very poor and the children were poorly clad. She taught in the
Sunday-school very successfully; she did not think that the people
had bought much land, but they had stock and wagons.
Geo. McLelland did not wish to exaggerate, but desired to tell the
truth. He taught just above Vicksburg, Miss.; here there is little
civilization. In their homes, the large majority of the people are
virtually slaves; they pay $9 per acre, or 90 pounds of lint cotton
for their lands; they raise nothing but cotton and corn, and often
come out in debt; they buy their goods at the store on account,
on fall time. In most cases last year they came out behind; in
this condition they must give a lien on the next year’s work;
some do better than this, but the majority are in this wretched
condition. Government land is sold at 25 cents per acre, but the
colored people do not buy it to any extent; this year they have
done something of this, and have secured forty acres of good land.
Saturday night the people go to the store and drink up an acre of
government land at the rate of 25 cents a glass.
One church represents all. They worship in a very blind, ignorant,
superstitious way. In the church he attended two out of five could
read a little. One elder, in telling how we were to get to Heaven,
said that after we were dead we must first go to hell and search
all around, and if we did not find our names there we were to go to
Heaven.
D. Donnel taught in southwestern Arkansas. He had much opposition,
but he had, by persevering, found out that there was “a little man
in him.” The people are getting homes and becoming owners of land.
They had never been aroused before. They were all religious, but
they all drank whisky, from the least to the greatest.
The white people did not believe in getting a good teacher from
abroad, because he carried the money out of the country.
Queenie V. Moore taught in Illinois and had high ideas of the
colored people, but she found them not nearly so well off as the
colored people of the South. The young people spent their time near
the taverns, smoking and drinking. She had a model school-house,
which was also used as a church. The people were from all the
Southern States. She tried to inspire the young people with a
higher purpose than to wear fine dresses or smoke cigars, and
succeeded in getting them into Sunday-school. The white people were
very cordial and friendly.
Prof. J. D. Burrus tried to look upon the bright side at
Murfreesboro, where he visited, and was surprised to find the
colored people so prosperous in getting farms, houses and in
educating their children. One man had paid $1,100 for his house and
$1,100 for his shop. Within a radius of a few miles he counted up
30 families that owned their own homesteads.
H. C. Gray taught in Texas; was Superintendent of the
Sunday-school. He had studied the land system of Texas. A man buys
a piece of land and pays a little down and 10 per cent. interest
on the notes. Many of them are in debt. The school law is such
that each child may ask the judge to set aside his pro-rata for
him to go to school upon, so that each child gets his chance to be
educated.
* * * * *
GEORGIA.
STORRS SCHOOL.
_By Miss Amy Williams, Atlanta._
During the summer the city of Atlanta erected a beautiful eight
room colored school building not more than sixty rods from the
Storrs School. We all said, surely the number attending our school
will be greatly diminished by this new free school; consequently,
only four teachers were summoned to be on the ground ready for
the opening of school on September 5; but as 280 pupils filed
into the school building, we saw that we had underestimated the
force needed, and our fifth teacher was called in, and before the
expiration of two weeks the sixth one was installed in her old
place, and we are now hard at work with 350 pupils enrolled, and
new ones are being admitted almost every day.
This new colored school, which we can see so plainly from our home,
is a constant inspiration for us to work on with new courage, for
its eight faithful teachers, with one exception, have been first
trained at Storrs School and afterward at Atlanta University.
This good work loses none of its fascination for us; we only mourn
that time and strength are not given us to accomplish more.
Mr. Kent, our new pastor, comes with perfect health, and is
brim-full of enthusiasm and earnest desire to do the people good.
His earnestness, supplemented by the experience and good judgment
of Miss Stevenson, the city missionary, must tell upon the church
and people generally.
* * * * *
MISSISSIPPI.
DEDICATION OF STRIEBY HALL.
_By Mrs. M. E. H. Pope, Tougaloo._
THANKSGIVING DAY, 1881.
One year ago to-day we gathered in the old chapel of Washington
Hall to recount the mercies of the year which God had crowned with
goodness.
How little did we anticipate the changes which one year more would
bring to us. We were trying to make the best of the (dis) comforts
and (in) conveniences of the old building; but it could not hold
half of the young men, and it seemed to us that the old rooms over
the shop and wood-house, and the temporary barracks, had served
their day and generation, and we needed—yes, there was no doubt
of it—we needed a new building. We asked the Lord for one, and
the beginning of the answer to our prayer was the sweeping away
by the flames, in one short hour, of our main school building,
which included chapel and boys’ dormitories. But, though cast
down, we were not destroyed utterly, for we had a large new barn,
out of which we turned the cattle; dubbed it “Ayrshire Hall,” and
moved in. We were sure the Lord Jesus would not forget that His
birthplace was a manger, and would glorify this refuge with His
presence; and so He did.
Our numbers were larger than ever, and it was a wonder to us
sometimes where they were all stowed away; but we were always
able to find a place for “one more,” and so the year went on and
ended. The boarding hall had been enlarged during the last half of
the year by the addition of a wing and another story, so it could
accommodate more than twice as many girls as before. And now
followed a busy summer, during which the boarding hall was finished
off and a substantial three story brick building erected. A good
many buildings have been put up at various places by legacies
and named for the dead, but we thought it right to give honor to
the living as well, and by request of the Faculty, the Executive
Committee voted to name this building after the Association’s
representative man, Dr. M. E. Strieby. And so a tablet over the
main entrance bears the words “Strieby Hall.” The work upon this
building has been entirely done by colored men, except a few days
work by the traditional “plumber.”
To-day we met to keep our Thanksgiving feast and to dedicate this
building to the cause of Christian education. Oh, such gladness and
thankfulness as filled our hearts, and was voiced by the choir in
the opening anthem, “Praise the Lord!” After the opening exercises
voluntary expressions of thanksgiving were called for. Mr.
Hartsfield, our head carpenter, said he could not help comparing
the present with twenty-five years ago, when he little dreamed of
ever participating in such exercises as these, and said his heart
was so full of thankfulness he could not express it. Others spoke
of their gratitude for the blessings of the year and of this day.
Mr. H. W. Hubbard, our genial Treasurer, who was with us, told the
young people where the money to furnish them these advantages comes
from.
An address was then delivered by Rev. B. A. Imes, of Memphis, which
will be long remembered by us all, but especially by our students,
to whom it has already proved a real inspiration. Dr. Roy followed
in a wonderfully appropriate dedicatory prayer.
The day seemed all too short to express the joy and thanksgiving
that filled our hearts. Truly He has brought “the blind by a way
that they knew not.” We finished up the day with a lecture at night
from Dr. Roy, who always has something good for us.
Our new building has, besides chapel and recitation rooms, family
rooms now occupied by Prof. Hatch and wife, who have charge of the
young men, and dormitories for sixty-eight young men.
And what will you say when I tell you that there are seventy-five
here now, with a prospect for a much larger number after the
holidays?
* * * * *
WORK IN THE SOUTH.
During my visit North last summer a friend asked: “Haven’t you had
enough of life and work in the South? Aren’t you ready to come
back and take hold of the Home Missionary work again?” The friend
looked so incredulous at my expressions of satisfaction, and even
of desire to get back into the work again as soon as the extreme
heat was over, it occurs to me that a little glimpse of the past
few days of life and labor in this especial corner of the great
field might convince a good many that the work is not only very
hopeful, but also exceedingly interesting. Previous to my restful
vacation North, I had not been able to visit our people in their
homes, but now, with renewed strength, I ventured a long, rough
walk, leaning on my husband’s arm, to the home of one of our women,
who was very sick. Down a steep, long hill, over deep ravines worn
by swift-running brooks, with slender poles thrown over to serve
for bridges, up the long hill beyond, and we had reached the little
house where the sick one lay. We cheered her as best we could with
sympathy and comforting words, spreading out the little delicacies
we had brought to tempt her appetite, admired the new baby, and won
the hearts of the other little people standing shyly back with the
gingersnaps we had brought for their special comfort.
Just as we were leaving we noticed a young girl crouching near the
door. “My sister Mag,” said the sick one. We shook hands cordially,
said a few pleasant words to her, then came back to our home tired,
so very tired, that the rest of that day and the next, which was
the Sabbath, was full of weariness and pain.
Did it pay? Yes, a hundred-fold! Early Monday morning there was
a tap at the door, and there stood “Mag,” neatly dressed, with
a smiling face, and a basket of vegetables for me. It flashed
instantly over my mind what I had heard concerning her. She had
once been a Christian, was still a member of our little church, but
for a long time past had seemed possessed with every evil spirit of
sin and mischief that could possibly find lodgment in her heart.
Nothing could induce her to set her foot inside the church door.
She invariably vanished whenever the minister tried to see her, and
she had long ago been given up as an utterly hopeless case.
With a swift thought of prayer to Heaven for wisdom, I greeted
her most cordially, made her feel quite at ease, then led her on
carefully step by step, until, before she knew it, she was actually
confessing her sins to me, and I was talking kindly but most
faithfully to her. Still she stayed on, with a wistful look in her
eyes, and the thought came: “God surely sent her to me! I’ll do all
I can for her!”
Rising suddenly I closed the door, went directly to her and said,
“Mag, I want to pray with you.” I put my arm around her, drew her
to her knees beside me, and poured out my whole soul in prayer for
that poor child of sin.
When we rose from our knees her eyes were tender and full of tears.
She clasped my hand tightly for a moment and was gone.
I sought out other homes that very day, where God permitted me to
carry little gleams of comfort and strength to sad hearts.
Yesterday was the Sabbath. At four o’clock a white flag was
fluttering at our gate. Five minutes after, fifty young people and
children suddenly appeared, as if by magic, from the lovely grove
near by, and came pouring into my largest room, filling every
chair and bench, finally taking seats on the floor in the small
space left about my chair. They were such a bright, eager looking
company—at least a third of them young men and young ladies,
ranging down to half a dozen little fellows at my feet.
How I blessed the Master for the gift of story-telling when I saw
the eager faces, the almost breathless interest with which every
one, from the oldest down to the least of all, listened to me as
I carefully blended story and lesson with all the grace and power
I possessed, until I had the joy of seeing the bright eyes grow
tender and moist, and knew the dear Saviour was with us, laying
big hands in blessing upon us all. Then all stood with bowed
heads while I commended them to God’s mercy and loving care in an
earnest petition in which all could join. After this, I sat down
to the organ—a poor, wheezy little thing—which is, nevertheless,
a great comfort and help. They gathered close about me while we
sang together a beautiful new song, then went quietly away to their
homes.
To-day the little white flag again fluttered at the gate, and one
by one, or in little groups, the mothers came. I knew how tired
they would be, what effort it must cost them to leave their work
on Monday, to come to a meeting like this; so all day I had been
asking the Lord for some specially helpful, comforting message for
them. It would be simply impossible to describe the tender spirit
that brooded over us. The Saviour was so manifestly with us that
the room seemed the very gate of Heaven.