disciplined and well-read students, is marked upon all the lower
grades, and especially upon those who come to Fisk University for
the first time. The present senior preparatory class promises to
enter college in May twenty strong. This is double the number of
the largest class that has ever before been entered.
4. The influence and power of the work done by our students while
absent from the University during vacation or after completing
their studies, become more and more manifest. The reports brought
back by the students themselves, the testimony of Trustees and
County Superintendents, the new students brought here through their
influence, all reveal to us as we have not realized it before,
the greatness of the service the University is rendering to the
cause of education, morality, religion and social life throughout
the great Southwest. Our students are our epistles; and becoming
known and being read by the people wherever they go, are turning
the thoughts and hearts of others to the University. It is largely
because of the faithfulness and loyalty of our students that the
steady growth in numbers continues from year to year.
We have, therefore, abundant reason to thank God and take courage.
The great concern we have about the future is that our friends in
the North will not be ready to meet the growing demands of this
great work of uplifting the millions of recently emancipated people
in the South, by a sufficiently large and constant giving. With
the experience of the last fifteen years in mind, we can say with the
full assurance of conviction that the call for the enlargement
and strengthening of the University is in some vital respects
more imperative now than ever before. Endowments are needed to
adequately sustain the departments of study already established,
and to found professional schools to meet the growing demands of a
struggling and rising people.
These must come, or the best results of the labor already done, and
the money already expended, will not be attained.
* * * * *
Mother and Daughter Gone.--Memorial Services at Fisk University.
The Sabbath services at this Institution, Oct. 24th, were hallowed
by the touching and appropriate tributes to the memory of Mrs.
Elizabeth Spence, mother of Prof. A. K. Spence, and of her
daughter, Mrs. Julia Spence Chase, wife of Prof. F. A. Chase. Mrs.
Spence had been boarding in the Institution four years, spending
her last days with her children. She possessed a mind of unusual
strength and vigor, and was somewhat distinguished as an author.
Only a few days before her death, when eighty-three years of age,
she composed a poem on the occasion of the Nashville Centennial
Exposition, which was published. This mother of missionaries was
born in Scotland, and in her girlhood was made familiar with the
missionary endeavors of the London Missionary Society through an
auxiliary which held its regular meetings at her mother’s house.
She was a woman of much prayer, great faith and a sweet and
beautiful charity.
Just eleven weeks from the day Mrs. Spence died, writes Miss
Henrietta Matson, of Fisk University, Mrs. Chase followed her
mother to the fairer country above. Her death was sudden, and a
heavy blow to her sorely stricken family. She died on Kelley’s
Island, Lake Erie, where the family had gone for summer rest. Mrs.
Chase, with her husband, had been in Fisk University eight years;
a part of the time in the earlier years had been an instructor,
particularly in music, in which she was especially gifted and
accomplished.
Her death was peaceful and beautiful. She sent loving messages to
all her friends, to the teachers and especially to the students,
whom she loved and for whom she had labored. With perfect calmness
she bade each of her dear ones good-bye, and then passed from their
sight, leaning upon the strong arm, and catching glimpses of the
glory beyond, even while treading the dark valley.
At her own request, her remains were brought to Nashville, her
heart seeming to turn to the very last to those with whom she had
been associated, and to the people for whom she had labored. So
we laid her to rest till the resurrection morn on the beautiful
hillside, with southern skies bending above her, and not far from
the earthly home of her own dear ones.
The message brought to us who remain, in the death of those who
have been of us is, “The night cometh, when no man can work.”
* * * * *
THE INDIANS.
INDIAN EDUCATION IN THE EAST.
AN ADDRESS BY GEN. S. C. ARMSTRONG.
It is now two and a half years since Indian students were enrolled
at the Hampton Institute; but I never saw a more radical change of
life than appears in these men. They represent the worst stock in
the Indian territory: the class that the West declares can’t be
elevated any more than the buffalo. If the West knows anything, it
knows that you can’t improve the prairie Indian.
Crossing the continent twice, of late, I found the universal creed
to be “There is no good Indian but a dead one,” which has been
adopted by over half the intelligent people of the East.
Capt. Pratt writes as follows from Carlisle, Pa.: “Of the Florida
boys who were formerly at Hampton, five have died; three,--Bear’s
Heart, Etahdleuh and Roman Nose--are still East: the two last being
here render valuable assistance to me by example and effort. The
others have all returned to their tribes, and, with the exception
of Tounkeuh, are reported us doing well for themselves and for
their people. Several are mentioned as specially useful.
“We have 139 boys and 57 girls, 196 in all. The readiness of
children to come is in advance of the willingness of parents to
send at Miles’ Agency, and probably at the Kiowa too; but there
is in general such desire for education that I believe no great
difficulty would be experienced in getting nearly all the children
in the schools from most of the tribes.”
The Carlisle School was established by an act of Congress,
accompanied by an official report from which I extract as follows:
“Experience has shown that Indian children do not differ from
white children of similar status and surroundings, in aptitude or
capacity for acquiring knowledge; and opposition or indifference
to education on the part of parents decreases yearly: so that the
question of Indian education resolves itself mainly into a question
of school facilities.”
Sons of Indian Chiefs, at Carlisle, are now making a portion of the
shoes, harnesses, wagons, tin-ware and other supplies needed by the
Department of Indian Affairs.
Indians think. Their wise ones know that there is no hope for them
but in taking the white man’s road. But there is also a stubborn,
unyielding class. There are progressives and conservatives, as
among all thinking people.
The braves will not fight the people who are educating their
children. Every Indian child at school is a hostage.
I recently met an army officer who told me that in the summers of
1877 and 1878, five hundred thousand dollars had passed through
his hands, as Quartermaster, in payment of Oregon settlers, for
supplies and services in Indian wars; and that the past summer they
had been trying to get up another war for the sake of another five
hundred thousand.
Our system of treaties, annuities and rations is an acknowledged
failure. Distribution is without regard to merit, and encourages
idleness among the one hundred and fifty thousand beneficiaries of
the Government.
The Indians are grown-up children; we are a thousand years ahead
of them in the line of development. Progress is measured by
development. Education is not progress but is a means of it. A
brain full of book knowledge, whose physical basis is the product
of centuries of barbarism, is an absurdity that we do not half
realize, from our excessive traditional reverence for school and
college training. We forget that knowledge is not power unless
it is digested and assimilated. Savages have good memories; they
acquire but do not comprehend.
Indians are easily taught, for their minds are quick; their bodies
are a greater care than their brains; but morals are the chief
concern of their teachers. Hence their education should be first
for the heart, then for health, and last for the mind, reversing
the custom of placing mind before physique and character. This is
the Hampton idea of education.
Apply sanctified common sense to the Indian problem and you will
save them in spite of the steam engine and the threats of fate.
The Indian question has been put wrong end first. It points to us,
not to them.
The possibilities of sound educational methods are not dreamed of.
The power of mind over matter is everywhere seen, but the power of
mind over mind, of man over man, is little shown in all our proud
progress. That three years’ work of Captain Pratt at Fort Marion,
Florida, is the best illustration of it I know of. Yet he never had
over two years’ schooling, and went from his workshop to the war.
Work for the ex-captives was so encouraging, the need of educated
Indian girls so obvious, that resolving to push our effort further,
Mr. Schurz was interviewed, entered heartily into the scheme, and
sent Capt. Pratt to Dakota Territory, whence he brought to Hampton
in Nov., 1878, forty boys and nine girls, since increased to
twenty-two girls and forty-eight boys. Indian girls lead a slavish
life, do all the drudgery, and parents have hated to spare them.
Boys do nothing till they can fight. “I would send a hundred boys,
but not one girl,” said a chief to Capt. Pratt. But now one agency
alone, Yankton, would fill our school with Sioux girls. Agent Miles
says he could enroll Cheyenne children from the Indian Territory
for eastern schools as fast as he could write their names.
Co-education of the sexes will succeed with Indians as well as with
colored people in the six largest institutions for negroes, in
which for ten years it has been tried with the best results.
The death rate at Hampton has been serious but not discouraging.
Out of ninety-six, in twenty-two months seven have died at school
and three since returning home. The tribe, gathered as they are in
unnatural conditions at the agencies, away from the chase and the
fight, without action or buffalo beef, fed on government rations,
weaken.
Indian students have in almost all cases died of diseases
implanted before leaving home; their friends have not been
surprised or discouraged.
Chief Wizi, on hearing of the death of his adopted son at Hampton,
called his tribe together and said: “If only one of our children
returns to us with knowledge, we shall be repaid for the loss of
all the others.”
While this eastern work at Carlisle and Hampton is incidental to
the general educational effort which must be made at the West,
it is, more than anything else, pushing the Indian question to a
proper settlement by creating public sentiment. For a Congressman
to see an Indian hoeing corn, does more good than piles of
documentary evidence. The hundreds of clear-headed, hard-handed
young red-skins who will, ere long, be settled among the tribes,
will, we think, be strong enough to sustain each other and to
teach the rest. They will not return home scared by our great
guns and arsenals, but stimulated by contact with the spirit that
lies at the bottom of our progress. They must see civilization to
comprehend it.
What is given for them will come back with usury. Not the least
return to us may be the educational methods which, inspired by
exigencies and unchecked by tradition, shall be worked out to
meet the emergencies thrust upon the country by the destruction
of the buffalo, which has brought the Indian to face the issue of
civilization or destruction.
* * * * *
THE CHINESE.
* * * * *
“CALIFORNIA CHINESE MISSION.”
Auxiliary to the American Missionary Association.
PRESIDENT: Rev. J. K. McLean, D. D. VICE-PRESIDENTS: Rev. A. L.
Stone, D. D., Thomas C. Wedderspoon, Esq., Rev. T. K. Noble, Hon.
F. F. Low, Rev. I. E. Dwinell, D. D., Hon. Samuel Cross, Rev. S. H.
Willey, D. D., Edward P. Flint, Esq., Rev. J. W. Hough, D. D., Jacob
S. Taber, Esq.
DIRECTORS: Rev. George Mooar, D. D., Hon. E. D. Sawyer, Rev. E. P.
Baker, James M. Haven, Esq., Rev. Joseph Rowell, Rev. John Kimball.
SECRETARY: Rev. W. C. Pond. TREASURER: E. Palache, Esq.
* * * * *
A CHAPTER OF GOOD THINGS.
REV. W. C. POND.
_Our Annual Meeting._--It was a very diminutive affair, compared
with that which, at the same time, was going on so grandly at
Lowell; or with the one which, just now, as I am writing, is--I
trust--in successful progress at Norwich. What a privilege and a
joy I should feel it to be if I were there, instead of here! That
is denied me, so far as bodily presence is concerned; but I am
free to be there in thought, and, in the solitude of my study,
to mingle my prayers with yours. They meet before one throne of
grace. _Our_ annual meeting is one of the features of the annual
convocation of our Congregational churches in California, which was
held this year with the First Church in Oakland. The time assigned
us in the programme was from 10:45 to 12:30 on Thursday, Oct. 7th.
I should think that 250 persons were present. Rev. J. K. McLean,
D. D., pastor of that church, and President of our Mission, occupied
the chair. After a hymn and prayer, the reports of the Treasurer
and of the Board of Directors were presented. The principal facts
set forth in these reports have been laid before the Association
at its meeting now going on, and need not be re-stated here. There
was, however, a novel feature in the Treasurer’s report--novel
to us, however it may be to others--which stirred some of our
friends not a little. We have always had more work at hand than
we could possibly do with the means at our command; but we have
tried to “cut the garment according to the cloth,” and have so
far succeeded as never to report a _deficit_, in current expenses
till this year. This was our novelty. Our friends did not like its
looks any better than we did. The President took it in hand and
shook it, at an expense to himself of $10. Rev. Dr. Mooar followed
with another shake, at the same cost to his exchequer. Then good
Dea. S. S. Smith, and minister after minister, followed in quick
succession, till not a shred of it remained, and we find ourselves
now with every bill paid, and a balance of $24.25, which we
transfer to our Barnes Mission House Building Fund. Cold water was
never more refreshing to a thirsty soul than was this spontaneous
and unexpected offering--whether considered with reference to its
_personelle_ or its results--to the heart of your Superintendent.
We don’t mean to give our friends an opportunity to repeat the
operation; but we shall remember it with gratitude and pleasure as
long as we live. Following this were volunteer speeches, containing
earnest expressions of good will and sympathy, and crowding one
upon another in such a way that the time allotted proved to be all
too short, and the only regret with which we closed the meeting was
that so many who wished to speak, and whom we earnestly wished to
hear, failed to have that opportunity.
_The Chinese Fishing Villages._--It is several years since I first
visited a village of Chinese fishermen. I cannot say that the mere
pleasure of the thing would prompt me to repeat the visit very
frequently. There is nothing in the character of the dwellings, the
appearance of their denizens, or the odors rising from their work,
to tempt one to a protracted stay. But I thank God that I cannot
go through even such a rude and motley and ill-odored settlement,
without seeing the immortal souls of which these ill-kept bodies
are the habitations, or without beginning to query if some way
cannot be opened to pour in upon them the healing light of that
world which needs no sun.
A few days ago a message came from one of them, by a Providence so
marked that I ventured to think it a Macedonian Call, and to read
in it God’s _promise_ of success. This village is on a little cape
jutting out into San Francisco Bay and known as Point San Pedro.
Mr. Charles W. Otis, my warm personal friend,--whom, with his
excellent wife, it was my privilege many years ago, while pastor
at Petaluma, to welcome to the fellowship of saints--has recently
been placed in charge of the “ranch” of which this Point San Pedro
is a part, and is thus brought into business relations with the
Chinese who are tenants upon it. His heart is stirred for them, and
he asked me if something could not be done to save them. I sent Wah
Yene, our devoted helper at Petaluma, to explore, and he brings me,
not only his own favorable testimony, but the following message
from Mr. Otis: “Wah Yene has been here a few days canvassing in
the Chinese school. He will report the prospects. That there is a
field here for work among the more than 400, there is no doubt.
We will furnish a house free, and I think I can get lumber from
some building for furniture, seats, &c. My wife and I will assist
all we can, though I shall be busy much of the time, but I can add
something that, will help the good work along. * * * “I know so
little of the ways and means and plans of the Chinese Mission that
I am unable to say more than to promise a hearty co-operation in
every possible way. We are very much pleased with Wah Yene, and
Mrs. Otis is ready to ‘adopt’ him, and says she would feel safe
with him near when I am compelled to be absent, as I shall be
two or three times each week.” Mr. Otis goes on to intimate that
he could give employment to Wah Yene for a part of each day, and
assume a proportionate part of his support if we desire; or if we
want him to devote his whole time to missionary service, he will
provide him a room comfortably furnished, free of charge. And so
Wah Yene starts to-day for a month’s trial of the work; and we, on
our part, will do our best to make the trial a success.
* * * * *
CHILDREN’S PAGE.
* * * * *
A SLAVE-GIRL’S FAITH.
A TRUE STORY.
“Chillen, git on de bo’de,
Chillen, git on de bo’de,
Chillen, git on de bo’de, bo’de, bo’de,
Dere’s room for many a mo’,”--
were the words that came in high but not unmusical tones from the
depths of the kitchen, where I knew Jule was struggling with the
week’s ironing.
After puzzling over them for some time I cried, “What _does_ she
mean, auntie?”
Auntie laughed. “Oh, you Yankee! Will you never learn negro talk?
Do they never sing about the ‘gospel ship’ in Boston? That is what
Jule means.”
“Oh, is that it?” I replied, laughing in my turn. “I couldn’t
imagine how she was going to ‘get on a board’ with her two hundred
pounds of flesh.
“I’m tired of sewing: I guess I’ll go down and talk to her a little
while.”
Jule welcomed me to her snug kitchen, with a smile which disclosed
her shining white teeth; and I seated myself by her ironing-table,
and begged her to tell me of the days “befo’ de wah.”
“Tell me how you became free,” I said, as she resumed her work.
“Were you set free, or did you run away?” hoping secretly that the
latter was the case.
Her black eyes sparkled, and she tossed her gayly turbaned head, as
she answered--
“’Deed, miss, I just runned away.”
“You did, Jule? How did you do it? Weren’t you frightened?”
“Well, honey, de good Lord just done helped me.”
“The Lord helped you? How?”
“Ah, chile, de Lord just as powerful now as when He showed de
chillen of Isr’el de way to de promus land!”
“Of course,” I replied; “but He doesn’t interpose in the affairs of
men as He did then. We have no pillars of fire, and no parting of
the sea.”
“‘Deed, miss, I don’t know nothin’ ’bout your ’posing, and we
didn’t have no pillow of fire; but de Lord done helped me hisself.”
“Well, tell me all about it, please.”
“You see, miss, we lived just outside dis yere city. One night
somehow de cullud people hearn tell that Pres’dent Linkum was gwine
to set all de niggahs in de District free, and ole mars was gwine
to run us all down South to git clar ob de proclamashun. David, de
dining-room boy, was a likely fellar; he had been about with young
mars, and could read and write; so he heard de talk, and made up
his mind to run away to Washington dat very night. Any one who
wanted to could go ’long. Well, most of ’em was ready to go, my
mammy among ’em. She said I could go too: but we didn’t know how
I was to git away; fur, you see, miss, I was nurse to young mars’
chillen, and slept with dem in a room that you couldn’t git out’en
’thout gwine through his and Mis’ Virginny’s room. De do’ that went
out into the hall was right at de head of their bed, and creaked
mighty loud. I asked mammy what I should do, and she said, ‘Trus’
de Lord.’
“Well, we niggers went to bed same as ever, and de house was shut
up. I didn’t go to sleep, but tried to trus’ de Lord. De chillen
was sleeping sound, and so was young mars and Mis’ Virginny, when I
heard a little tap on de winder, and knew it was de signal. I got
on my knees in de bed, and I prayed hard, and I prayed strong. Then
I took my shoes in my hand, and crep’ frou de do’ into young mars’
room, and round to de hall-do’, and put my hand on de knob. ’Deed,
miss, but my heart was a-beatin’; for, if de do’ should creak, we
were lost. ‘Good Lord, don’t let it creak,’ I whispered, and turned
de knob. Bress yo’ heart, honey! that do’ opened jest as soft as
a white baby’s bref,--that do’ that had always screeched like a
nigger when he’s hurt. I stepped into de hall, shet de do’ behind
me, went down stairs, an’ out by de smoke-house, an’ dare they all
were; but, if de good Lord hadn’t helped me, I shouldn’t have been
among ’em. Bress de Lord! Hallelujah!”
“But what did you do after you got to the smoke-house?” I asked.
“Oh, I was de las’ one; so we started right off. It was snowing,
and I couldn’t stop to put on my shoes; but I was a stout girl,
gwine on fo’teen, and didn’t mind de cold, for I was gwine to be
free.”
“Weren’t you pursued?”
“Oh, yes, miss! By and by we heard horses come pounding along. We
were nigh de cross-roads where de woods was thick; so we crep’
under de branches of de fir-trees. Pretty soon young mars and de
overseer come ’long, and stopped to wonder which road we had taken.
They swore and cussed right smart for a while, and then took de
aqueduct road to Georgetown. When they had been gone a little
while, we crep’ out, and took de other road that led all ’round
’cross de creek to Washington. ’Bout morning we saw de Yankee
tents, and at noon we was free, bress de Lord!”
“Well, Jule, I’m much obliged for your story,” I said, rising to
go, for auntie was calling me.
“‘Deed, honey, you’s welcome. Always put yo’ trus’ in de Lord,
chile, He’ll keep de do’ from creaking.’”
As I went up stairs, she began to sing in a high key and with great
fervor,--
“I’ll lub my Jesus till I die,
_Hal_lelujah!
He leaned from out de hebbenly sky,
_Hal_lelujah!”
--_Well-Spring._
* * * * *
RECEIPTS
FOR OCTOBER, 1880.
MAINE, $227.79.
Bangor. First Cong. Ch. $38.90
Blue Hill. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.00
Bridgeton. Mrs. Rebecca Hale 4.00
Brownville. ---- 6.00
Cumberland. Cong. Ch. and Soc. to const. SILAS
M. RIDEOUT L. M. 30.00
East Madison. Eliza Bicknell 5.00
Eastport. Central Ch. Sab. Sch. 5.00
Gardiner. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 24.89
Garland. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 7.00
Hallowell. Fannie A. Davis, _Stu. Aid, Fisk U._ 25.00
Houlton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.00
Lewiston. C. C. Cobb, for Talladega, Ala. 10.00
Portland. Williston Ch. and Soc., to const
REV. FRANK E. CLARK. L. M. 40.00
Thomaston. Cong. Ch. 5.00
Woolwich. John Percy 2.00
------
217.79
Legacies, Hallowell--Mrs. Julia Talpey, by L.
D. Emerson, Ex. 10.00
------
227.79
NEW HAMPSHIRE $316.75.
Amherst. L. and L. K. Melendy, $20; Miss Lucy
Blunt, $10, _for Chapel, Wilmington, N. C._ 30.00
Antrim. “A Friend” 5.00
Candia Village. Jona Martin 5.00
Charlestown. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 7.00
Dover. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 97.36
Greenville. E. G. Heald 6.00
Hancock. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 25.00
Hanover. Dartmouth Religious Soc. 24.45
Hinsdale. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 14.53
Hollis. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.89
Merrimac. Cong. Ch. (ad’l) 5.00
Milford. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 18.36
Nashua. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 15.15
New Boston. Pres. Ch. and Soc. 4.00
New Ipswich. Proceeds of Children’s Fair 13.00
Peterborough. M. R. 1.00
Pittsfield. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 24.01
Temple. Cong. Sab. Sch. 16.00
VERMONT, $615.17.