VOL. XXXV. NO. 8.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”
* * * * *
AUGUST, 1881.
_CONTENTS_:
EDITORIAL.
PARAGRAPH—The Mendi Mission 225
ILLUSTRATION—Mission Home, Mendi Mission 228
DEATH OF REV. KELLY M. KEMP 230
AFRICAN NOTES 230
FREEDMEN FOR AFRICA: Rev. Lewis Grout 232
ADDRESS AT NASHVILLE: Sec’y Strieby 233
BENEFACTIONS 236
CHINESE AND INDIAN NOTES 237
THE FREEDMEN.
ANNIVERSARY REPORTS—Continued.
Ga.: Atlanta University 238
Ala.: Talladega College 240
Texas: Tillotson Institute, Austin 242
S.C.: Avery Institute, Charleston 242
Ga.: Lewis High School, Macon 243
THE CHINESE.
ANNIVERSARY AT STOCKTON 245
WOMAN’S HOME MISS. ASSOC’N.
TWENTY MINUTES A-DAY WORKING SOCIETY 247
CHILDREN’S PAGE.
GRACIE’S MISTAKE: Mrs. Harriet A. Cheever 248
RECEIPTS 250
LIST OF OFFICERS 254
CONSTITUTION 255
AIM, STATISTICS, WANTS, ETC. 256
* * * * *
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.
[Illustration: MAP OF PROTESTANT MISSION STATIONS IN AFRICA.]
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
VOL. XXXV. AUGUST, 1881. NO. 8.
* * * * *
_American Missionary Association._
* * * * *
We publish on the opposite page a map of Africa, upon which is
represented, by crosses, the location of the different Protestant
mission stations of that continent. The Mendi Mission on the West
Coast, and the proposed Arthington Mission in the Nile Basin, are
specially indicated by dotted lines. We give, also, elsewhere a cut
of the Mission Home at Good Hope Station, Mendi Mission.
* * * * *
THE MENDI MISSION.
SUGGESTIONS, WITH EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL.
REV. H. M. LADD.
Much of the mission work in Africa, at least upon the West Coast,
has a basis in industrial work of some kind. Many causes have
conspired to hinder this branch of civilizing work at the Mendi
Mission. Without stopping to specify what these may have been,
no one can doubt that the chief reason why the saw-mill at Avery
has failed to be a source of income to the Association, is the
difficulty of transporting the lumber to market. This mill, with
a circular and an upright saw, with a good head of water during
the larger part of the year, and with timber near at hand, is the
only mill of the kind on the West Coast. There is a good demand for
such lumber as the mill can produce, but the chief market is 120
miles distant. No one in Africa, however much he might want lumber,
would be guilty of going 120 miles for it, nor even 120 rods, if
he could help it. In former times the lumber was taken to the
market in a large boat, propelled by oar and sail; but the climate
and the worms have claimed that boat as their own. Here is a most
potent agency, an attractive centre for goods. The mill might be
producing thousands of feet of lumber a day, and yet if there were
no way to carry this lumber to the point where it could be sold,
its production would only become a burden. What is needed to insure
the best success of the mill, and of all the industrial departments
connected with it, is an easy and quick means of transportation.
This would not only make the mill a really civilizing institution
and a paying piece of property, but if a small steamer or tug-boat
were thus in use, it would more than pay its own way in the
regular trips it would make, and by the incidental services it
could render to other mission stations where similar industrial
work is carried on. There are promises enough to insure the
successful running of such a steamer. It should be adapted to
towing a lumber boat of large capacity to and from Freetown, and
should also be adapted to carrying passengers up and down the
rivers. It would accomplish more work in a given time than any
other project yet proposed on this coast, would dispense with the
small army of boatmen and fleet of boats now maintained, and would
be the solution of the question in regard to the mill. But why keep
up this mill? Why have an industrial department? Simply because the
spiritual interests of the mission are involved in it and demand
it. There must be a physical basis for any successful work upon
the minds and hearts of the people in this part of Africa. This
has been demonstrated in other missions than our own. The people
need a place to tie to, and something to draw them to that place
in order to receive any lasting good. They need to learn habits of
industry along with the Gospel. They need to be lifted out of their
barbarism by increasing their wants and showing them how to supply
them.
These are a few of the considerations that make this industrial
work a sort of entering wedge for the Gospel. The situation of
things at the Avery Station is, however, such as to convince
those who have considered the matter, that the keen edge of this
entering wedge must be the sharp prow of a little steamer. There
can be scarcely a doubt, that the facilities afforded by such a
steamer would give a much needed impetus to the whole work of the
Association upon the West Coast.
JOHN BROWN MEMORIAL STEAMER.
Here is now an opportunity to turn to account the latent forces
that lie pent up within easy reach. But how shall the steamer
preach its practical sermon unless it be sent? Some one must send
it. Many hands make light work, especially when they contain the
contributions of willing hearts. Why may not the many little
rills, and springs, and even drops of love for the colored race,
flow together and float this steamer? Why not send, as some one
has suggested, old John Brown, of Harper’s Ferry, in a memorial
steamer over to Africa, to carry forward in a higher sense the work
of freedom which he began here, and which shall never end till
his soul has ceased its marching on? About $10,000 are needed to
furnish such a steamer as is required. Who will take the first $100
share in the steamer “John Brown” soon to leave for the coast of
Africa?
ADVANCE TO THE INTERIOR.
If we may believe one-half of the glowing accounts which come to us
regarding the high table-lands of the interior, one or two hundred
miles back from the coast, the region is full of rich promises
as the scene of future missionary operations. It is said that
the land is rich, the country wonderfully beautiful and healthy,
the population dense, and cattle and horses abundant. There are
difficulties in the way of reaching this country, but they are
not insurmountable. One of our missionaries (Mr. Williams), well
fitted for the work, has pushed his way back into this region, and
reports very strongly in its favor. He brought back a horse with
him as corroborative evidence of his statements, and there can be
no doubt that in this healthier upland region the natives are more
intelligent, more industrious, and every way superior, while they
are also ready to welcome any who come among them for purposes
of peace. Our present stations upon the coast, three in number,
furnish excellent starting points and bases of supply, and should
be maintained largely as such. But it should be our aim to work
back from the low, malarious coast into these healthier and more
promising highlands just as soon as the proper men and the means
can be found. Starting from the stations already established, it
would seem to be a wise thing to locate a chain of stations within
easy distances of each other, stretching back to the mountains.
At these points the missionaries could reside two by two, with
mutual helpfulness and support. The natives of this region talk
the same general language as upon the coast. They are said to be
remarkably fine singers, and are fond of music. They manufacture
great quantities of cloth and various other articles of a superior
quality. They are, however, reported to be the husbands of many
wives, counting their honors by the number of their wives. The
rivers that drain this region afford an imperfect approach to the
country, but are available for considerable distances. Let the
means and the men be found, and this healthier and more promising
country can soon be captured for Christ. It is only a question of
time. This push for the interior must soon be made, and a larger
and better work must soon be inaugurated.
BRIEF EXTRACTS FROM THE JOURNAL.
On Wednesday, March 23d, we sighted the point of Sierra Leone by
early dawn. The country as approached from the sea is beautiful.
The serrated Lion Mountains slope to the water’s edge, covered
with a luxuriance of tropical vegetation. The city of Freetown at
a little distance appears comparatively well built. The public
buildings are large and attract immediate attention, the streets
are wide and regularly laid out; and the whole external aspect
strikes one as much finer than what is naturally expected on this
coast; but a nearer view suggests the truth of the old saying that
“Familiarity breeds contempt.” The stay here was short, but into
the time was crowded a variety of strange and novel experiences.
From this point the mission boat “Olive Branch” carried us to
Good Hope Station, on Sherbro Island, where we landed late in the
evening of March 30th. This trip of about one hundred and twenty
miles occupied three days and two nights, and was, perhaps, the
most trying part of our journey. We experienced several severe
tornadoes on the way, and suffered from the intense glare of the
sun, now nearly vertical, and the difficulty of procuring proper
food. Having reached the mission house, we at once made ourselves
as much at home as possible. Thursday, March 31st, we were all
up at an early hour, and went out before the intense heat of the
day to inspect the grounds and buildings. The fine property of
the mission had evidently suffered in many ways from neglect. All
the buildings stood in need of repairs, and a large portion of
the grounds, including the little cemetery where Barnabas Root is
buried, was overgrown with bush. The spiritual condition of the
church and station seemed also to bear some resemblance to its
outward condition. It was not hopeless, but somewhat depressed.
The grounds in the immediate vicinity of the mission house gave
evidence, however, that the missionaries had neither forgotten to
exercise their taste, nor been wasteful of the small force and
slender means at their command. So, also, the spiritual condition
of the station presented some encouraging features. The warm
reception which Mr. Kemp and his wife received on every side gave
some reason to hope that the church would yet nourish under his
judicious care.
[Illustration: MISSION HOME, MENDI MISSION.]
Friday, April 1st, was emphatically a day of calls. It had been
quickly noised abroad that the new missionaries from America had
arrived, and many availed themselves of the first opportunity to
bid them welcome to Africa. Possibly a little curiosity was mingled
with their politeness, but we did not care to analyze too closely,
and were glad to see them all. The people we met were generally
fine looking, of a rich, brown color, and not burdened by any
superfluity of clothing. They talked a broken English, which was
almost as difficult to understand as a new language.
To say that Sunday, April 3d, was a warm day would convey but a
slight idea of the truth. When the thermometer indicates over 90°
in America we are apt to call it rather warm; but a new adjective
is needed to characterize African heat at 90°, for it is something
so entirely different from the summer broils of other countries.
No wonder that this is an unhealthy climate. The land is low, the
water stagnant, the air moist, vegetation thick, and the heat
intense. In the morning I preached in the mission church to an
attentive audience on “The light that shineth in a dark place,” and
was present at a service in the Mendi language at the school-house
in the afternoon. The prayer meeting in the evening was well
attended and full of interest.
On Monday, April 4th, we went in the “Olive Branch” to Avery
Station, on the Mahna River, a branch of the Bargroo, forty miles
inland. The trip took all of one night, the boatmen rowing and
keeping time to their oars with a weird, monotonous singing all the
way.
The inspection of the station at Avery consumed the early morning
hours of Tuesday. We visited the mill, the boat houses, the coffee
farm, the cassada fields, the rice houses, the boy’s department,
the store, the church and school-room, and last, but not least, the
“faki,” or native village, situated on the mission grounds, and
under the control of the missionary. The situation of the mission
house is a fine one, but the adjacent country is wilder than at
Good Hope. The house stands on a high promontory, and commands
a very picturesque view both up and down the river. This river
abounds in fish and alligators, while the banks are alive with
monkeys.
I was up at three A. M. on the 7th to help receive Mr. Kemp, who
arrived from Good Hope Station at that hour. Later we visited the
school together, examined the pupils in their various branches, and
gave them a little talk, which they seemed to enjoy. Some of them
were honored by such names as Wm. E. Gladstone and M. E. Strieby.
Their appearance and behavior were very gratifying. The prayer
meeting in the evening was fully attended, and indicated a marked
degree of earnestness, the leader having some difficulty to bring
it to a close. If hand-shaking is a means of grace, we enjoyed
special privileges at the end of this meeting.
I found oysters growing on trees (April 8th), and plucked a large
branch. Bread and butter also grow on trees in this strange land.
I had occasion to turn doctor to-day, and prescribed some fearful
doses, right and left, with marked results, due probably to faith.
After the ordination exercises at Good Hope (April 10th), a number
of the ministerial brethren of the council went in a boat-load
to attend service at the out-station of Debia, and although a
severe tornado threatened to break up the meeting, we enjoyed an
interesting and precious season together. The work at this point is
full of encouragement, but greater facilities are needed to carry
it on.
* * * * *
The painful news has just been received through Rev. O. H. White,
D.D., of London, of the death of Rev. Kelly M. Kemp at Good Hope
Station, Mendi Mission. Thus one more bright name has been added
to the long list of missionary heroes and martyrs whose dust
hallows the soil of Africa. No particulars have been received,
and we cannot speak confidently as to the cause of his death.
Those who have read the recent accounts of his ordination and
reception at Good Hope need not be reminded of the high hopes
that were entertained in regard to the work upon which he had but
just entered with so much zeal. Mr. Kemp’s earnest consecration
and varied experience and sweet Christian character had not only
endeared him to all who knew him, but had given rich promise also
of great good to the people among whom he had counted it all joy to
labor.
* * * * *
AFRICAN NOTES.
—The Sultan of Zanzibar is about to study the organization of the
French navy. He was expected at Marseilles in July for that purpose.
—Dr. Stacker is attempting to explore Lake Tsana in Abyssinia. If
he succeeds in accomplishing this he purposes to push on to Ghera.
—M. Viard, who has already explored the Niger and the Bénvé,
in company with the Count of Semellé, is just attempting a new
expedition for penetrating into the interior, and establishing
there commercial stations.
—Captain Neves Fereira, Governor of Benguela, and some other
officers, have placed themselves at the disposition of the
Geographical Society of Lisbon, for a new Portuguese expedition
from the west to the east, upon an itinerary like that of Serpa
Pinto.
—P. Francisco Autuses, charged with establishing the mission of
Zoumba upon the Zambeze, has set out from Lisbon for Mozambique.
After studying theology and natural sciences at Louvain, he will
devote himself to taking meteorological observations. He will
establish a station for this purpose at Zoumba. In a little
while he will be joined by a number of Portuguese workmen, whom
government will send there to make the necessary buildings for a
commercial office.
—The Portuguese Commission of Public Works has constructed in the
Province of Angola a telegraphic line of 344 kilometers from St.
Paul de Loanda to Dondo and Calcullo. It has already rendered good
service to commerce and the navigation of the Quanza. At Dondo
everything is ready to prolong the line as far as Poungo Andongo.
—The Sultan of Zanzibar has just explored the upper country of the
Loufigi with an expedition, the command of which was entrusted
to M. Beardall, who formerly studied the region of the Rovouma,
and more recently has had under his care the construction of the
Dar-es-Salam road.
—The society formed at Sfax will establish at the most important
points in the rich countries of Haussa, Bornou, Darfour, &c.,
commercial stations, which will be at the same time scientific
stations, and between which will pass regular caravans, well armed,
to which will be joined special men, furnished with all necessary
instruments for making topographical and meteorological surveys.
—Four Roman Catholic missionaries have gone to the Baptist mission
at San Salvador. They were brought by a Portuguese vessel to the
point where the Congo ceases to be navigable, and escorted from
thence to San Salvador by a lieutenant and a detachment of the
navy. They carried with them some holy water, fire-arms, silver
vases and a golden crown, and offered them to the King of San
Salvador from the King of Portugal. The king received them and
returned thanks, saying that it was the most beautiful present
he had ever received. He has promised his protection to the
missionaries.
—Mr. James Stevenson, Esq., has offered £4,000 to the London
Missionary Society and the Livingstonia Mission, provided they
will, without delay, establish stations and maintain them on the
line of road between Lake Tanganyika and Quilimane on the coast. It
is expected that merchandise will be transported over this route
by steamer up the Zambezi and Shiré to the falls of the latter
river. There will also be steamboat facilities on the upper Shiré
and the Nyassa lake, leaving only about three hundred miles for the
transportation of goods by porters or domestic animals in order to
reach the Tanganyika.
FREEDMEN FOR AFRICA.
REV. LEWIS GROUT.
The Freedmen, properly educated, will make capital missionaries for
Africa. After a careful study of the race for thirty years—fifteen
on their own ancestral shores, and now fifteen in this land of
ours—such is my conclusion concerning them. They have, naturally,
some of the best traits to fit them for mission work. They are
hopeful, for one thing, as every missionary should be. During all
the long years of their bondage, and then during all the war, how
did they hope on and hope ever that deliverance would come, till
come it did! They are naturally a social people. Getting a new
idea, a new truth, they talk it over, pass it on, keep it going.
The missionary must be social, if he will do the most good. They
are a sharp-minded, quick-witted people. For ability to read
character, make a quick turn, a good use of passing events, or take
a good illustration from nature, the Africans have no superiors.
They are of a tropical constitution, most happy, healthy, and
most at home in just such a climate as that of Africa. It is
their native clime—a fact whose value can neither be denied nor
over-estimated.
Now keeping all these natural qualifications in mind, let us
briefly notice some pertinent points in that most unique, varied
experience and divinely appointed discipline through which God, in
His providence, has been causing the Freedmen to pass for all these
years, as giving them a yet more special preparation for the great
mission work He has in store for them.
First, experience in suffering. I know not how it may be with
others, but for myself I have come, long since, to think that
there is no discipline in this world like that of suffering,
rightly used, to fashion us after the image of the Divine. In
this way the Saviour himself is said to have been made perfect
and fitted for His great redemptive work, (Heb. v., 8, 9). And
when, in olden time, God would make choice of a people to be
conservators and propagators of His truth in the world for ages,
how did He prepare them for their mission? Not by sending them to
college, but by sending them down into Egypt; and there, for long
generations, did He keep them in bondage, and then for other long
years in wanderings in the wilderness, till He had fitted them for
His work, and ground into them a character which all the fiction
of the ages has not yet ground out of them. So with the people
of whom we speak—what an experience have they had in suffering!
Surely, God must have in store for them some great and wondrous
mission, for which He has intended this experience to be both
presage and preparation. Then notice the discipline they have had
as soldiers in the camp, on the march, on guard, in the battle,
shoulder to shoulder with our men, sons, brothers, fathers, bravely
fighting for the Union, that they might know what war is, and
what it sometimes costs to secure liberty and save a nation from
anarchy and ruin. See, too, what experience and discipline they
are getting in civil and political life, in the use of the ballot,
in the forming and reconstructing of states, in the framing of
constitutions, in making and executing laws, in all the varied and
complicated duties of citizens, magistrates, judges and rulers,
that they may know how laws, states and nations are made and
sustained, and so be prepared to go and plant these institutions
and principles in the land of their fathers. And then, last and
best of all, what an experience are they getting in the work of
organizing and running Christian schools and pure churches among
their own people, under the lead of our teachers and preachers in
the South, that they may be prepared to do this same blessed work
in that dark land which is so imploringly calling to them, as her
own sons and daughters, to come with the school and the church to
her help.
I love to look at the work of the American Missionary Association
in this Divine light. I love to come up in this way upon these
highlands of God’s movements in Africa, and among her sons on our
shores in this our day, and to get, as I think I can, in this way,
some good look at the sweep and the purpose of His providence
in the otherwise strange revolutions through which Africa, the
Africans, and we ourselves are so swiftly passing.
And now, what is wanting to bring this divinely planned enterprise
to a speedy and glorious consummation, but that we do all come
quick and glad into line with God?—that the Freedmen, the American
Missionary Association, all its noble constituency of churches, the
whole rank and file of God’s American army, tread firm and true to
the music of His providence? So shall be generously furnished the
men and the means He now asks, by which to hasten, in His time, the
redemption of Africa unto Himself.
* * * * *
ADDRESS AT NASHVILLE,
AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE OF LIVINGSTONE MISSIONARY HALL.
BY SECRETARY STRIEBY.
As we are about to lay the corner-stone of a new school building,
it is proper that I should answer the question, Why do we come down
from the North to erect these buildings in the South?
Before answering the question, I may say that if we come at all,
it is not strange that we should select so beautiful a spot as
this for a location; nor that we should come to Nashville, for
there seems to be some sort of educational lodestone that attracts
schools to this city. Joshua conquered a Moabite city called
Kirjath-sepher, which scholars tell us means “Book City.” What
could have given it that title in that remote era, whether the
possession of one book or several books, when letters had probably
not long been invented, must remain forever a mystery. So when
Macaulay’s New Zealander, after having meditated on the ruins
of London Bridge, shall come to this spot and meditate upon the
ruins here, or when some Layard or Cesnola or Schliemann shall dig
down deep into their foundations, this place may be denominated
the “School City;” for at the earliest date of the settlement of
Nashville, good schools were formed, and now the hill-tops are
crowned and the streets are adorned with schools of the highest
character. Nor are these for the white race alone. The Methodist
Central Tennessee College, the Baptist Normal and Theological
Institute, and neither last nor least, Fisk University, crowning
these heights, attest the interest taken in the Christian education
of the colored race.
But why do we come here from the North to build these buildings?
First, we come as fellow-citizens, who have shared in the agony of
the late civil conflict, at the bottom of which lay negro slavery,
and for which North and South were responsible, though it may be
in different degrees. In the piping hot days of the anti-slavery
contest, the Evangelical Alliance met in London. An English
gentleman took the platform and delivered a scathing rebuke to
America for slavery. Dr. Cox, our most celebrated off-hand orator
of that day, took the floor, saying that of course America had
her view as to who was responsible for negro slavery in America,
whether Britons or Americans; “but,” said he, “I propose to take
one corner of the mantle, and let the brother who has just spoken
take the other corner, and we will walk backwards and throw it
over the originator of negro slavery in America.” We come as
fellow-citizens in a like spirit, ready to throw the mantle of
charity over the past. But emancipation has introduced a new
element. The ex-slaves need Christian education and elevation, and
we come as Christian brethren and say to our friends at the South:
We will take one corner of the mantle of Christian education, if
you will take the other, and we will go _forward_, with our faces
lifted to Heaven, and will throw that mantle over the emancipated
slaves.
This is the work we propose to do in the South, and wise and
candid men both North and South are beginning to realize that the
education of the negro race is the paramount duty of the nation
to it. Presidents Hayes and Garfield have voiced the feelings of
the North on this subject, while Col. Preston and Dr. Ruffner of
Virginia, Sen. Brown and Pres. Haygood of Georgia, have nobly
re-echoed the sentiment from the South. This Association goes
farther than mere intellectual education. It believes that the
Christian element lies at the foundation of all true character, and
that character is the basis of all true manhood and citizenship.
It has been the aim of this Association not merely to lift up the
individual, but to apply the levers to the elevation of the mass,
and hence it has founded in every large Southern State, schools
fitted for the training of teachers, preachers and missionaries of
the colored race. At Hampton, where the first slave-ship entered
the continent, in the same year in which the Pilgrims landed on
Plymouth Rock, the Association opened the first Freedman’s school
in these United States. Under the energetic administration of Gen.
Armstrong, Hampton Institute, with its broad lands, its large and
commodious buildings, its steam-engine and multiplied mechanical
employments, gives educational and industrial training to its large
company of students, graduating about fifty pupils each year,
ninety per cent. of whom go into the State as teachers, carrying
with them, into the school, the Sunday-school, the prayer-meeting
and the church a healthful Christian influence; while the noble
old state of Virginia responds to the effort by a gift of $10,000
a year for the support of the school. Atlanta University, with its
two commodious buildings, and another soon to be added, imparts
a higher range of teaching, including classic instruction to its
pupils, and the state of Georgia responds with its gift of $8,000 a
year. If you would see what is done at Fisk University, look around
you and examine the classes under instruction in Jubilee Hall. But
time would fail me to speak of Talladega, Ala.; Tougaloo, Miss.;
Straight University, New Orleans; Tillotson Institute, Austin,
Texas; and of the other schools, normal, grammar and primary, which
the Association sustains. From all these institutions we believe
there are pupils now engaged in teaching, who have under their
care 200,000 children, and that there are pastors in churches that
we have founded, and in others not under our care, whom we have
prepared to be intelligent and faithful preachers of the Gospel in
this land and in Africa. We believe that the providence of God is
bringing to pass a wonderful combination of discovery in Africa
and of Christian education among the Freedmen, that is to have an
immeasurable influence on the long neglected races of the Dark
Continent.
In these efforts for the colored people, we do not wish to make
them vain nor to pauperize them. We believe our efforts have led
thus far to neither of these results. The scholars going from our
schools are not troubled with what is so aptly called the “big
head,” and my observation shows that around our schools and others
like them the colored people are inclined more than anywhere else
to buy land, build houses and make comfortable Christian homes. Our
purpose in erecting these buildings, in addition to the good that
is done to the scholars under immediate instruction, is to inspire
hope in the whole race. And we are doing it. A good colored deacon
in one of our churches said that he expected no greater change to
come over him when he entered Heaven than came over his race when
the doors of the school-house were opened to it.
In the prosecution of this, our great work, we have spent over
$3,000,000, and to secure that sum we have had providential
helpers. First on the roll and steadiest in the ranks are the
Christian friends at the North and in Great Britain, whose firm
support has been the stability of our efforts. We mention also
the Freedmen’s Bureau, with its large and wise distribution of
Government funds for educational purposes. This Bureau has not been
popular at the South; but we believe the time will yet come when
our Southern friends will learn to appreciate the work of Gen.
Howard, the head of this Bureau, and of Gen. Fisk, who administered
so wisely and impartially for both races the Bureau work in this
and adjoining States. The Jubilee Singers need no eulogy in this
presence; their monument stands before us in Jubilee Hall; yet
no list of the providential helpers of this Association, and
especially of Fisk University, could be complete without their
names. And last, but not least, mention must be made of the noble
generosity of Mrs. Valeria G. Stone, attested not only in the gift
of $60,000, which is to build Livingstone Hall, whose corner-stone
we lay to-day, but in like gifts throughout the land. God rejoices
in the coming spring, when the frozen ground and the ice-covered
streams give place to the springing grass and the budding leaves,
coming forth to adorn and beautify the earth and to presage the
approaching harvests. And so, without presumption, may His child,
the giver of the bounty which rears this building, be permitted to
rejoice as it sends forth its annual company of students, trained
and adorned for a useful life that shall gladden and bless the
world.
* * * * *
The Vicksburg _Herald_, rebuking a narrow-minded correspondent,
says: “We are heartily in favor of the South from the Potomac to
the Rio Grande being thoroughly and permanently Yankeeized. Yankee
energy, Yankee schools, Yankee cultivation, Yankee railroads and
Yankee capital are badly needed in the South, and will be welcomed
by every Southern progressive patriot.”
* * * * *
BENEFACTIONS.
—John P. Howard, of Burlington, has given $50,000 to the University
of Vermont—the largest individual gift ever made to the institution.
—The Hon. Robert H. Pruyn, of Albany, N.Y., has offered to give
$100,000 toward the general endowment of Rutgers College, New
Brunswick, N.J., provided the remaining trustees contribute
$400,000.
—Dr. Hoffman, Dean of the Faculty of the General Protestant
Episcopal Theological Seminary of New York, with his family, has
given $75,000 toward the endowment of that institution.
—Mr. John R. Buchtel, of Acton, Ohio, has added $75,000 to his
gifts to the Buchtel College, making the entire amount about
$200,000.
—Mr. Wharton has given $100,000 to the Wharton School of Finance
and Economy in connection with the University of Pennsylvania.
—A benevolent lady has given $3,000 to Lincoln University for the
erection of a tabernacle for the accommodation of visitors on
anniversary occasions.
—A lady, who does not wish her name published, has just given
$100,000 to Princeton Theological Seminary.
—Winthrop Hillyer, of Northampton, has given $35,000 to Smith
College for an art building.
—_Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., has Jubilee Hall completed
and over-flowing with students, and is now erecting Livingstone
Missionary Hall, by the gift of Mrs. Stone; but endowments are the
great necessity. Twenty-five thousand dollars will provide for a
professorship, and there are seven such needing endowment._
* * * * *
CHINESE NOTES.
—Chicago has fourteen naturalized Chinamen.
—Dr. Chalmers reports that the native church in Hong Kong has
increased in numbers from 83 to 216 during the decade, although,
during the same period, no fewer than 77 members have removed to
other parts of China, or have gone abroad.
—The girl’s school in Shanghai, under the auspices of the London
Missionary Society, numbers 100 scholars. A female missionary is
employed at this point, who devotes her time to work among the
women. Two ladies are also employed with marked success in the same
branch of work at Hong Kong.
—A Consul of the English Government in China, writing from Chefoo,
says: “A great change has come over all classes in regard to
Christianity; it has made vast strides in the land, in spite of the
fewness of the missionaries; and whether we are inclined to rejoice
in or deplore the fact, the spread of Christianity is inevitable.”
—It is an interesting evidence of the growing power of Christianity
in Japan that the people feel it necessary to bolster themselves
up by mutual pledges so that they may be kept from becoming
Christians. A Japanese paper reports that a number of citizens
of Kioto, grieved at the rapid spread of the new religion, have
established a society in which each member binds himself by
solemn oaths never to embrace the Christian faith. Any member
who disregards his vows will be ostracized. Men would not so set
themselves did they not feel the power of the current.—_Missionary
Herald._
* * * * *
INDIAN NOTES.
—At Hampton there are seventy-nine Indian students, representing
_sixteen_ different tribes.
—Chief-elect Wildcat, a Shawnee boy, in the middle class at
Hampton, is improving his spare time by compiling a small
English-Indian dictionary. He says that his tribe has no such book,
and one is greatly needed.
—In the British possessions it is estimated that the total Indian
population is less than one-tenth of the number found by the first
European settlers.
—Rev. John Sunday, an Indian preacher at Hamilton, Ont., is
reported to have closed a recent address with the following
language: “There is a gentleman who, I suppose, is now in this
house. He is a very fine gentleman, but a very modest one. He does
not like to show himself at these meetings. I do not know how long
it is since I have seen him, he comes out so little. I am very much
afraid that he sleeps a good deal of his time, when he ought to be
out doing good. His name is Gold. Mr. Gold, are you here to-night,
or are you sleeping in your iron chest? Come out, Mr. Gold, come
out and help us do this great work, to preach the Gospel to every
creature. Ah, Mr. Gold, you ought to be ashamed of yourself to
sleep so much in your iron chest. Look at your white brother, Mr.
Silver; he does a great deal of good while you are sleeping. Come
out, Mr. Gold. Look, too, at your little brown brother, Mr. Copper;
he is everywhere. Your poor little brown brother is running about,
doing all that he can to help us. Why don’t you come out, Mr. Gold?
Well, if you won’t show yourself, send us your shirt, that is, a
bank note. That is all I have to say.”
* * * * *
THE FREEDMEN.
REV. JOSEPH E. ROY, D.D., FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.
* * * * *
ANNIVERSARY REPORTS—CONTINUED.
Atlanta University.
PROF. HORACE BUMSTEAD, D.D.
Anniversary exercises are apt to afford but meagre indication of
the real work accomplished by any school. To those of us who know
the work of Atlanta University, such exercises seem especially
inadequate to the faithful telling of what is being done here.
When our good Christian friend, Philander Veryrich, hints that he
is ready to come down here with a hundred thousand dollars in each
pocket, to be emptied out wherever they will do the most good, I
shall not especially urge his attendance upon our Commencement
exercises. I shall ask him to spend with us either the first or the
last Sunday evening of the school year. I shall beg him to preserve
a strict _incognito_, and allow me to conceal him outside one of
the windows, or behind one of the doors of our assembly room,
with a peep-hole conveniently arranged. If it is the last Sunday
evening before the vacation, he will hear many of the scholars
speak with grateful appreciation of what the year’s work has done
for them, and with enthusiastic hope of what they mean to do for
others during their summer’s work of teaching. The members of the
graduating class will recall their experience of six or seven or
eight years in the Institution, and tell what a home it has been
to them, and how much of what they have acquired in the training
of mind and character is due to the Christian home influence of
the school. If it is the first Sunday evening of the new school
year, our benevolent friend will hear many of these same scholars
tell of their summer’s work—how they have succeeded in some things
and failed in others; what they have done in Sunday-school and
temperance work; what obstacles they have met and conquered; what
increasing favor they have found in the communities where they
have labored. At either of these Sunday evening family gatherings
(for such they are), I think our visiting friend will be struck
with the simple straightforward way in which our scholars express
themselves, with the extremely limited amount of what is sometimes
called “gush,” and with the clear revelation which will be made to
him that before, behind, around, and underneath everything else,
the development of a thoroughly Christian character, and of a true
manhood and womanhood, is the all-absorbing purpose of our work.
But I am stultifying myself in trying to convey an impression
of these gatherings to others. Even to our own corps of workers
here, they come, twice a year, almost as a surprise and as a most
inspiring revelation to ourselves of what God is permitting us to
do.
And still, however inadequate, our anniversary exercises have been
full of interest, and have revealed much to those who have visited
us for the first time. The Baccalaureate sermon was preached June
12th, by our college pastor, Rev. Cyrus W. Francis, from 1st
Tim. i. 19, “Holding faith and a good conscience;” and it was
an earnest plea for the supremacy of the higher motives in the
Christian warfare upon which the graduates were about to enter.
Three days of public examinations followed, each day’s session
being concluded by an exercise in music and light gymnastics. On
the last day there was a display of what our girls have learned
in the way of head-making. The walls of the front hall and one of
the stairways were covered with specimens of the students’ drawing
and map-making, indicating great progress in this department
during the year. The normal work also has been making a decided
advance. It is evident that those of us who teach the Greek, Latin
and other higher branches will have to look well to our laurels.
Fewer visitors to the school ask to hear the classics translated;
more wish to see how the three R’s are taught. No exercise of
the examination days riveted the attention of our friends more
firmly than the exercise in teaching one of the grammar-school
grades, by one of the members of the senior normal class, with
following criticisms from the other members of the class. However,
we classical instructors rejoice in all this, for we know that
hereafter we shall have better equipped pupils for grappling with
Xenophon and Cicero. It ought to be mentioned here that one of the
most valuable exercises of our winter term this year was a three
days’ Teachers’ Institute, in which all the teachers and scholars
participated, and in which much light was thrown upon the improved
methods of teaching, now attracting such wide attention. A further
impetus was given to thought and effort in this direction by the
visit of our friend, the Rev. A. D. Mayo, co-editor of the _Journal
of Education_, whose four lectures and one sermon before our
students, and whose private talk and counsel with our teachers on
certain phases of our work, will not soon be forgotten.
A very large audience, as usual, packed the Friendship Baptist
church on Thursday, to listen to the essays of eleven of the
graduating class, and to the address of the invited orator of the
day. Five young men and twelve young women received the diplomas of
the school. The Commencement address was delivered by Rev. Atticus
G. Haygood, D.D., President of Emory College at Oxford, in this
State. Those who are now reading his recently published book, “Our
Brother in Black,” will not need to be told that his address was
listened to with the greatest pleasure and approval by all who
were present. It was a plain, forcible and thoroughly wholesome
presentation of some of the ways in which the true greatness of
the State must be secured, and the relation thereto of education
and of such institutions as ours. Dr. Haygood represents, most
nobly, that rapidly multiplying element among the Southern people
which believes in the motto, “Look up and not down, out and not in,
forward and not backward, and lend a hand.” May his tribe increase.
One of the most excellent features of the address was, as one
auditor suggested, the fact that it would have been just as
appropriate for delivery before the Athens (State) University as
before the Atlanta University.
The Alumni meeting, Thursday afternoon, brought together a goodly
number of the graduates of former years. The spirit of the remarks
made at this gathering gives, every year, an increasing assurance
of the stability and self-propagating character of the work in
which we are engaged.
The report of the Visiting Committee, appointed by the Governor of
the State, has just been published. It furnishes renewed evidence
of the growing favor which our work is meeting with among the
people of Georgia. The remarks made to the school on the last
day of the examinations, by Rev. Mr. Wilkes, the chairman of the
sub-committee, who prepared this report, were full of good sense
and kindly feeling. The speaker told of his life-long service
as a teacher, and how it had begun with the instruction of a
little colored boy, his father’s slave, in the safe seclusion
of the corn-crib, in the days when such teaching was a criminal
offense. None who heard him could doubt the entire sincerity of
his words of sympathy and encouragement. It is astonishing how
rapidly and widely the work of Atlanta University is coming to be
appreciated. Among the applications for teachers which have lately
been received, have been several from county school commissioners,
who say, in substance, “The teachers we have met with from your
Institution are of such a quality that we desire now to supply all
our schools from the same source.” Let our friends at the North
take courage. Their investments, so far, are bearing compound
interest at a high rate. When these lines reach the eyes of the
readers of the MISSIONARY, some ten thousand children, all over
this great State, will be gathered under the instruction of our
pupils. Next October we shall get the reports of this work. As soon
as our friend, Philander Veryrich, will send me his address, I
will give him the date of the Sunday evening gathering, from which
he can learn more about our work than from whole volumes of the
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
TALLADEGA COLLEGE.
MRS. THOS. N. CHASE.
After following with tender anxiety so many classes through their
graduating exercises at Atlanta, it has been very pleasant for
me, this year, to witness the closing exercises of two similar
Institutions. This one at Talladega I have been urged to report for
the MISSIONARY.
The sermon before the graduating class was preached by Pres. H.
S. De Forest upon the worth of the soul. His eloquent review of
the grand geologic ages told of the greater grandeur of Him for
whom they were prepared. His allusions to the soul’s capacity to
think, feel and choose, to its immortality and cost of redemption,
must have brought to the class an overwhelming sense of their
responsibility. In closing, they were asked to remember that what a
man may be is infinitely more than what he can sell himself to get.
The Missionary Society had the promise of an address on Sunday
evening by Dr. G. B. Willcox, of Chicago Theological Seminary. A
telegram announcing his sickness was throwing its shadow over us,
when, as unexpectedly, Rev. H. M. Ladd dropped in upon us, only
a few days home from Africa. He hastened South to catch the last
days of Talladega and Atlanta sessions, hoping to find recruits for
African missions.
On Monday the examinations began. This Institution is fortunate
in having an excellent primary school in the building. It is a
constant object lesson to the little army of teachers who go out
every summer to teach just such children, and also dignifies
primary work, which, in spite of Frœbel, Pestalozzi and the
truly wise and good everywhere, is too often considered of minor
importance. The principal of the intermediate department has
remarkable ability in bringing her pupils up to her high standard
of excellence. In the rear of her school-room is a power for good
which is inestimable. It consists in a long, low table with seats.
On it are fastened, by a very simple contrivance, interesting and
instructive illustrated papers and magazines, which the children
are allowed to read after lessons are prepared. In an age when
the best literature floods our land in such cheap forms that the
humblest need never thirst, what nobler philanthropy than to allure
these often worse than homeless children on to an early taste for
good reading?
The normal work and classes in natural science are in charge of a
graduate lately from Beloit College and Whitewater Normal School.
The classical department is in charge of an Olivet graduate, whose
three years here have proved him invaluable. A most interesting
acquisition to the corps of teachers is a scientific farmer, a
graduate of Massachusetts Agricultural College. To enjoy the
delicious vegetables from his garden is enough to convert a sceptic
in scientific agriculture. It really looks as though, under his
skill, these unsightly acres of red clay were, in time, to blossom
as the rose. The joy and pride of this Institution, however, is its
theological department, and well it may be. Its class of eleven
were examined two hours of one of their hot days, and nobody seemed
weary. The clear, simple topics, recited in such an interesting,
lucid style, tolerated no hovering fog, that I had supposed always,
more or less, mystified a recitation in systematic theology. The
accuracy of their knowledge in Bible history, too, was wonderful.
None but a born teacher could have secured such results from
a class of that grade of scholarship. Classes in geometry and
rhetoric told unmistakably of thorough work.