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THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY
MARCH, 1890.
VOL. XLIV. No. 3.
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL.
REMOVAL
"KEEP PEGGING AWAY"
$500,000--CALLS FOR ENLARGEMENT
NOTES FROM NEW ENGLAND
THE SOUTH.
REVIVALS--A WATCH NIGHT MEETING
A DIFFERENT WATCH NIGHT MEETING
THE INDIANS.
THE RAMONA SCHOOL
THE CHINESE.
THE UNBELIEVING WIFE SANCTIFIED IN THE BROTHER
ADDRESS.
THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO IN OUR COUNTRY, BY C.H. RICHARDS, D.D.
BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.
PARAGRAPHS--CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE IN HUMBLE LIFE
WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS
RECEIPTS.
* * * * *
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION,
Bible House, Ninth St. and Fourth Ave., New York.
* * * * *
Price, 50 Cents a Year, in advance.
Entered at the Post-Office at New York, N.Y., as second-class matter.
American Missionary Association.
* * * * *
PRESIDENT, Rev. WM. M. TAYLOR, D.D. LL.D., N.Y.
_Vice-Presidents._
Rev. A.J.F. BEHRENDS, D.D., N.Y.
Rev. ALEX. McKENZIE, D.D., Mass.
Rev. F.A. NOBLE, D.D., Ill.
Rev. D.O. MEARS, D.D., Mass.
Rev. HENRY HOPKINS, D.D., Mo.
_Corresponding Secretaries._
Rev. M.E. STRIEBY, D.D., _Bible House, N.Y._
Rev. A.F. BEARD, D.D., _Bible House, N.Y._
_Recording Secretary._
Rev. M.E. STRIEBY, D.D., _Bible House, N.Y._
_Treasurer._
H.W. HUBBARD, Esq., _Bible House, N.Y._
_Auditors._
PETER McCARTEE.
CHAS. P. PEIRCE.
_Executive Committee._
JOHN H. WASHBURN, Chairman.
ADDISON P. FOSTER, Secretary.
_For Three Years._
S.B. HALLIDAY,
SAMUEL HOLMES,
SAMUEL S. MARPLES,
CHARLES L. MEAD,
ELBERT B. MONROE.
_For Two Years._
J.E. RANKIN,
WM. H. WARD,
J.W. COOPER,
JOHN H. WASHBURN,
EDMUND L. CHAMPLIN.
_For One Year._
LYMAN ABBOTT,
CHAS. A. HULL,
CLINTON B. FISK,
ADDISON P. FOSTER
ALBERT J. LYMAN.
_District Secretaries._
Rev. C.J. RYDER, _21 Cong'l House, Boston, Mass._
Rev. J.E. ROY. D.D., _151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill._
Rev. C.W. HIATT, _64 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, Ohio._
_Financial Secretary for Indian Missions._
Rev. CHAS. W. SHELTON.
_Secretary of Woman's Bureau._
Miss D.E. EMERSON, _Bible House, N.Y._
COMMUNICATIONS
Relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the
Corresponding Secretaries; letters for "THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY," to the
Editor, at the New York Office; letters relating to the finances, to the
Treasurer.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
In drafts, checks, registered letters, or post-office orders, may be
sent to H.W. Hubbard, Treasurer, Bible House, New York, or, when more
convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House,
Boston, Mass., 151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill., or 64 Euclid Ave.,
Cleveland, Ohio. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a
Life Member.
NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.--The date on the "address label," indicates the
time to which the subscription is paid. Changes are made in date on
label to the 10th of each month. If payment of subscription be made
afterward, the change on the label will appear a month later. Please
send early notice of change in post-office address, giving the former
address and the new address, in order that our periodicals and
occasional papers may be correctly mailed.
FORM OF A BEQUEST.
"I bequeath to my executor (or executors) the sum of ---- dollars, in
trust, to pay the same in ---- days after my decease to the person who,
when the same is payable shall act as Treasurer of the 'American
Missionary Association,' of New York City, to be applied, under the
direction of the Executive Committee of the Association, to its
charitable uses and purposes." The Will should be attested by three
witnesses.
THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
VOL. XLIV. MARCH, 1890. No. 3.
* * * * *
American Missionary Association.
* * * * *
REMOVAL.
The Rooms of the American Missionary Association are now in the Bible
House, New York City. Correspondents will please address us
accordingly.
Visitors will find our Rooms on the sixth floor of the Bible House,
corner Ninth Street and Fourth Avenue; entrance by elevator on Ninth
Street.
* * * * *
The Association opened its office first in humble quarters in Spruce
street, and since then it has occupied rooms in Beekman, John and Reade
streets. These down-town locations have served some valuable purposes.
They were accessible to the teachers and workers in passing to and from
the South, and in the shipment of goods to the South and to Africa--once
a large item in our business. In the change now made, we shall gain the
advantage of more convenient rooms, of association with our brethren of
the other missionary societies and more frequent opportunities of
fraternal greetings with pastors and friends coming to the city.
* * * * *
"KEEP PEGGING AWAY."
Abraham Lincoln packed into these homely words the expression of his
heroic faith and indomitable perseverance. When victory forsook our
armies, when elections at the North pronounced against the
administration, and when timid and disloyal people were clamoring for
"peace at any price," this great man, discerning clearly that only by
arms could the rebellion be crushed, acted upon this motto. He did not
mean by this that a mere idle pretense of doing something should be
kept up; he meant a steady pressure growing constantly more intense and
effective; when volunteering flagged, he offered bounties; when bounties
failed, he resorted to drafting. The army _must be_ kept up and it must
be fully equipped, and never did a more splendid army tread the earth,
and never was money poured out with so lavish a hand. The end came, and
it was worth all it cost.
The war settled two things--the unity of the nation and the freedom of
the slave. One thing it did not settle--the future of the Negro. That
question must be settled by his Christian education. This is just as
plain to thoughtful men as it was to Lincoln that military force only
could save the nation. But now as then, there are men who are
discouraged and who say that this process of education will take a long
time, and so, once more, the air is full of impracticable remedies--to
take the ballot from the Negro--to transport him to Africa, to the West,
to the North! The cry is, "the white man's supremacy" at any price. Now,
again, is the time for Lincoln's motto, "keep pegging away," and that
not merely in a perfunctory way, but by pushing more and more
vigorously. In this moral warfare, volunteers must be encouraged. There
is no need of special bounties, nor of drafting; only furnish the means
to meet the meagre salaries, and the recruits will crowd to the field in
abundance, but their numbers _must be_ greatly enlarged. Hence the great
need, as in the dark days of the war, of multiplying the means of
equipment. The money should be poured out with a lavish hand to sustain
a vastly enlarged working force. Money can never be spent at a better
time, nor for a better purpose.
* * * * *
$500,000.
This is the sum recommended for the use of this Association by the
National Council, and by our own Annual Meeting. These figures have not
only these indorsements, but also the far greater one of the needs of
the field. Some of our schools are packed to overflowing and scholars
are turned away because there is no room, places are opening for
enlarged church work which we ought to have the means of entering, and
industrial facilities should be increased. The need for such enlargement
is illustrated in part by the items which follow.
* * * * *
CALLS FOR ENLARGEMENT.
Our schools, with scarcely an exception, are asking for more teachers
for their over-crowded rooms, and two or three pulpits stand vacant
because we have not suitable pastors for them. We are able to report
great enthusiasm along every line of our work and a spirit of uncommon
consecration among all our teachers this year. We are having a noble
year of thorough work.
From Greenwood, S.C., comes this word: "For the last month we have had
over two hundred and thirty students, and have refused between
seventy-five and one hundred applications for admission because there
was not one inch of room for them."
Our school at Meridian has outgrown the building erected for it, and has
overflowed into the church. It is another illustration of the fact that
the children of the emancipated freedmen are as earnest for education as
were their fathers and mothers when they swarmed into the temporary
schools provided for them.
A letter from Wilmington, N.C., says: "Without another teacher, I do not
know what to do, unless it be to send away about twenty-five pupils.
This I would be very sorry to do, as I would hardly know which ones to
send and there would be no school for them to re-enter, as the public
schools are full to overflowing; besides, many would consider it a
calamity to be thus dropped out."
We have just opened anew the Storrs school, which was not re-opened in
October with the other schools. The Principal writes us: "The joy of the
people at witnessing the preparations is extravagant. One old man said
to-night, 'There will be seven hundred scholars there when you open.'
These are not 'the words of soberness,' probably, but the enthusiasm
with respect to the re-opening of school is beyond all expectation."
Five teachers have been sent and more are called for.
Our teachers in Troy, N.C., write us: "Can you not send us a pastor?
There is such an earnest need of one. We really do not think the work
here can prosper unless we have a pastor. We do the best we can. The
prayer meetings are all well attended, but it makes one's heart fail, to
think of these 'sheep without a shepherd.' The work is very absorbing.
Is there no one you could send here, if only for a time?"
Through certain interferences with one of our schools at the South, on
the part of some ambitious people there, it seemed at one time that we
should feel it a necessity to reduce the grades and place two or three
teachers in some other schools which are calling on us for help. We
telegraphed them to remain, however, and the result is thus given: "Your
telegram came this afternoon and the children were half wild when they
got out of the school-house, running up and down the streets to tell the
good news. A company of them met the chairman of the local school board,
whom they did not regard as altogether friendly, and they shouted to
him, 'We have got our teachers! We have got our teachers! The man says
they can stay.' One old auntie came this afternoon to say, 'I'se heerd
how they is trying to get the teachers away and I prayed and prayed to
the good Lord to keep 'em.' Some of the boys are waist-deep in the water
after clams to get their fifty cents for their week's tuition. It has
been a great joy to me to see the character of the people when the
unfriendly ones tried to break us up. They have shown much thought and
ability, and they win our hearts by their faith in God."
* * * * *
NOTES FROM NEW ENGLAND.
BY REV. C.J. RYDER, DISTRICT SECRETARY.
An exceedingly good plan for increasing the collections for benevolent
objects has been hit upon by some members of a Boston church. They have
what they call an "Extra Cent-a-Day Band." Each member pledges himself
to lay aside one cent each day for some benevolent object. They elect a
treasurer and put into his hands this "Cent-a-Day" fund, as they please,
some paying frequently, others waiting until considerable has
accumulated. At a given time each month they divide the accumulated
contributions among the different societies as they may elect. The
American Missionary Association has occasion to be grateful for this
"Extra Cent-a-Day" plan in the pledge of about thirty dollars to its
treasury. I pass it along in these "Notes," as these friends hold no
patent right upon the method, and would gladly see it adopted in many
churches.
* * * * *
There seems to be a great localization of patriotic Christian thought in
New England upon the Southern problem now, as there has not been since
the war closed. I bought recently one of the leading magazines on the
train, and the leading article in it was on the Southern problem. I
picked up the _Forum_, and the leading article was on the Southern
problem. Mr. Grady comes from the South to address the business men of
Boston, and turns aside from questions which would naturally be
discussed to speak of the Southern problem. At a recent meeting of the
Old Colony Congregational Club at Brockton, Massachusetts, they invited
two Secretaries to speak upon this Southern problem, and listened with
patience to two long addresses. The discussion which followed indicated
that the churches represented in that large and intelligent club were
most earnestly pondering this Southern problem. In its importance, it
overtops every other consideration before the citizens and churches of
America to-day! Thoughtful people are coming more than ever to realize
this. The processes of thought through which they have passed already,
and the facts they have settled in their own minds, indicate a very
hopeful condition of things. In the first place, they are sure that this
is not a local or sectional question. It is a National question, and
will involve the whole country in anarchy and misrule, unless the
anarchy and misrule of the Southern whites are stopped. New England's
voice will be heard in solemn and earnest protest, unless there is a
radical change in the conduct of the dominant race of the South very
soon. Such outrages as those at Barnwell, S.C., and Jackson, Miss.,
which are only types of many such, must be stopped.
Another fact that has been settled in the minds of the people here, is
that the education and moral elevation of the Negroes is a matter of
painful exigency; that the forces employed by the American Missionary
Association in that field must be largely multiplied. The President of
the Old Colony Club summed up the discussion of the evening by saying
most earnestly that all this meant that the contributions to the
American Missionary Association must be largely increased among the
churches represented in that Club, if we would solve this terrible
Southern problem, and save our country from this threatened danger.
* * * * *
In this connection I was interested the other day in making an
investigation as to the per cent. of church membership in the South and
North. I discovered the following rather surprising comparison. The per
cent. of church membership in some of the New England States as compared
with that in the Southern States is as follows, not including the Roman
Catholics: Massachusetts, 13 per cent.; Connecticut, 20 per cent.; New
Hampshire, 19 per cent.; South Carolina, 32 per cent.; Georgia, 28 per
cent.; Florida, 25 per cent.
It is evident from the comparisons that a larger percentage of the
population in these Southern States are members of Protestant churches
than in the Northern States. Notwithstanding this, this horrible system
of persecution goes on. There are noble and true men who protest against
it, but if the churches united in condemning it, we all know it would be
stopped. What they need is not more churches, but better churches, those
who emphasize the brotherhood of man as well as the fatherhood of God in
this Southern portion of the land.
* * * * *
The stereopticon lectures which are being delivered by Rev. S.E.
Lathrop, are attracting much attention and receiving general
commendation. Last Sunday, at Peabody, the people were so enthusiastic
that they took a special collection of nearly one hundred dollars. Many
churches in New England have enjoyed this treat, and receive the
inspiration which the facts of the American Missionary Association must
always give when really known and understood. Brother Lathrop is on his
way into New Hampshire and Maine, where arrangements have been made in
many churches.
* * * * *
Some benevolent New England friends who have been in Florida, and have
seen the destitution of the colored people there, have put into our
hands five thousand dollars for the establishment of anew school in one
of the destitute regions of that State. The good friends who are
interested so largely in this move desired that the Secretary should go
from New England with Secretary Beard, to determine just where this
school should be located.
* * * * *
THE SOUTH
* * * * *
REVIVALS.
A gracious revival in Straight University, New Orleans, brings us glad
tidings of the hopeful conversion of about fifty students.
Interesting reports from Talladega College give us information of a
revival of religious interest in the school and church there. The
college is looking forward to an enlargement of its theological study
and Faculty.
Rev. Sterling N. Brown writes from Washington, D.C.: "We are in the
midst of a most precious awakening. Forty-six souls have accepted the
Saviour. Our meetings have been quiet, orderly and heart-searching. The
Master is leading us."
Professor Payson E. Little, of McIntosh, Ga., reports an interesting
work of grace in connection with the church and school at McIntosh. This
is the place where the pretended Christ last summer appealed to the
superstitions of the Negroes advanced in age and ignorant. It is
pleasant to know that nearly all of those who were brought under the
influence of this crazy fanatic, have now returned to their churches
thoroughly ashamed of their experience.
* * * * *
A WATCH-NIGHT MEETING.
The very interesting sketch given below shows that the "old-time
religion" in the South has not passed away, for this scene took place in
one of the large cities and where schools have been sustained for years.
The picture of the honored and worthy old preacher stands out
conspicuously in the midst of this confused worship.
After the New Year's entertainment in our own church, we thought it
would be interesting to some of the new teachers on our force to attend
a watch-meeting at one of the churches near, so we started for a large
barn-like structure bearing the imposing name of ----. We found the
building filled to its utmost, and instead of slipping into some seats
in the rear unnoticed, as we had hoped, we found ourselves forced to the
front bench where the stewards held posts of honor, which were
immediately vacated for the "teachers." Many of these men then went
behind the railing and stood in solemn state around the pastor as he
exhorted the people in most earnest words to get their records clean
before the opening of the new year.
I wish I could picture him to you as he stood before us that night, his
hair just turning gray, indicating in one of this race extreme old age;
a real "Uncle Tom" in appearance, and in character, I think; his history
taking in much of slavery and of life as Presiding Elder. Many times has
he stood on guard between Northern teachers and Ku Klux Klans. He told
us that night that the grace of God in a man's heart would make him
shine all over; he had seen it make a man who had not combed his hair
for a year, grease his boots and his hair too, and then what a shining!
And so on through his talk were the most earnest exhortations with his
striking illustrations.
One of the members there once in praising a sister to me spoke of her
having the ability to "groan so beautifully," and that night it seemed a
special gift bestowed upon all. All through the pastor's exhortation the
audience were keeping up a sort of rhythmic accompaniment with both body
and intonations. Their responses during the prayers certainly have the
virtue of fervency, if not of intelligence. At some times so great was
the noise it was almost impossible to distinguish any leader whatever.
One old "Father in Israel" seemed to be specially delegated to encourage
the praying ones by calling out above all the din, "Come on, son, come
on," right in the midst of the prayer. One woman near us "got the power"
and went off into spasms. Then the pastor gave the invitation for all
"mourning ones" to come to the altar, and about sixty answered the call.
Then the groans and ejaculations became more intense, until at least
three whom we could see were in religious spasms or frenzies. I know not
how many others had the "power," that is, were able to scream above all
the groaning at certain intervals.
At midnight a hush fell upon all, and the pastor's prayer told us a new
year had begun. Then all started up an old-time plantation song, the
only words being "A Happy New Year" in all its changes, and we found we
were expected to shake hands with everyone, and not any ordinary shaking
hands was it, but the tighter our hands were clasped, the better did it
show the individual's religious zeal. Before this, it had seemed as
though some of our teachers would get struck by the mourning ones as
they threw their arms around in their frenzy, but when the hand-shaking
began and each one danced up to us, keeping time with the music and
shook our hands in time, until the measure changed and they passed on to
the next, we realized that we had, indeed, been taken right in. Thus the
meeting closed, and many left--two, rigid in their spasms, lying on the
benches.
But we found that the more devoted ones were to stay longer still, and
as one of the sisters came up and asked me to stay and see them get real
happy shouting, we did so. And now commenced a religious dance,
perfectly indescribable, and as long as I have been in the South it was
perfectly new to me. The leader started down one of the aisles chanting
a weird plantation song, and every joint in his body moving in time with
the measure; the sisters took it up and followed two by two until there
was a complete circle all around the church, all dancing in time with
the music. We were told that they would keep that up until morning.
It is rarely that we attend anything of this kind, but I think we had
enough of the old-time religion to last us through 1890 at least. We
have a number of scholars from this church, and it makes my heart sad
when I think how hard it will be for them to put what they are taught in
school with the example of their parents in this church. We have had
many inquiring ones in school lately, and it is difficult for them to
see how simple is the entrance to the narrow way contrasted with all the
excitement in their church religion.
* * * * *
A DIFFERENT "WATCH NIGHT" MEETING.
Since the foregoing article was in type, we have received the following
sketch of a "Watch Night" meeting in one of the churches of our
Association.
It is quite a custom among the colored people to hold "Watch Night"
meetings. These meetings are largely attended and are full of fervor and
interest. Our "Watch-Night" was a very precious one--it was held from 10
to 12 o'clock: it was divided into four half-hour services, viz:
1--Prayer and praise; 2--Bible reading; 3--Address by pastor, and 4--A
testimony meeting. The last five minutes was spent in silent prayer, and
at 12 o'clock, when the New Year was announced by booming of cannon and
the ringing of bells throughout the city, we united in singing our song
of New Year greeting, "What a Happy New Year," while extending to one
another the right hand of fellowship. At the close of the service all
present pledged themselves, by standing, to abstain from the use of
intoxicating liquors as a beverage during 1890.
* * * * *
THE INDIANS.
* * * * *
THE RAMONA SCHOOL.
BY DIST. SEC. J.E. ROY.
I had the pleasure, in Santa Fé, January 13th, of attending an
entertainment given by the Ramona pupils in honor of Miss Platt, one of
their teachers. Gov. Prince and his wife, and several of the citizens,
were present as invited guests. After the singing of several songs, and
a statement made by Prof. Elmore Chase, the Principal, fourteen of the
scholars rendered, in the action of nature and the speaking of English,
Mrs. Bentley's dialogue, "The Old Year's Vision and the New Year's
Message," as found in the January number of _The Youth's Temperance
Banner_. One of the large boys first came in as an old man, clad in a
mantle and trembling on a staff, to repeat the "Old Year's Vision." Then
came in, one after another, a dozen boys and girls, to recite the
greeting of the several months. It was a temperance exhibit, and so each
one had a testimony for that cause. January, bearing a New Year's card
in hand, declared: "I've promised that not a drop of wine shall touch
these temperance lips of mine." February bore a fancy valentine, with an
appropriate motto. March lifted aloft a new kite, with "Kites may sail
far up in the sky, but on strong drink I'll never get high." July,
bearing a flag and a bunch of fire-crackers, declares:
"I tell you I mean to celebrate, with something that won't intoxicate:"
while December resolves: "No brandy fumes in my Christmas pie; no
wine-sauce in my pudding, say I."
Then comes in a beautiful maiden, clad in white and crowned with
flowers, to be greeted by a chorus of voices: "The king is dead; long
live the queen!" and then to recite the "Message of the New Year."
Then comes another song in English, and then the second unloading of the
Christmas tree, which has kept its place in the chapel since its proper
day of Christmas cheer. Then the whole occasion is honored by an address
from the Governor, in simple words, with smiling face and transparent
good feeling. It is not every children's holiday that has a Governor at
hand to grace the occasion. As the President of the Board of Trustees
which, under the A.M.A. fosters the Ramona, and as Governor of a
territory which has nineteen Pueblo villages and the reservations of the
Navajoes and the Mescalero and Jicarilla Apaches, he is a faithful
friend of the Indians. This is apparent from his first report just made
to the Secretary of the Interior. The 21,000 of the Navajoes he reports
as possessing 250,000 horses, 500 mules, 1,000 burros, 5,000 cattle,
700,000 sheep and 200,000 goats. Their wool-clip the last year reached
2,100,000 pounds. Here is a grand field for a mission.
* * * * *
THE CHINESE.
* * * * *
"THE UNBELIEVING WIFE SANCTIFIED IN THE BROTHER."
I Cor. vii: 14. (Revision.)
Our Chinese brethren have their full share in the family feeling which
for ages has been nurtured in their race. This feeling is even
intensified by their new life in Christ. They long for what they hope to
make a Christian home, and greatly desire to perpetuate themselves in
children who may follow them in following Christ. But what are they to
do for wives? Many live in a virtual celibacy that is hopeless, because
enforced by the betrothals made for them in China by their parents or
elder brothers. These are accounted sacred, and are honored by our
brethren with an oblivion of their own fancies or affinities that will
be adjudged to be either stolid or heroic, according as the person
judging is disposed to think kindly or unkindly of this people. Many
have returned to China for the express purpose of consummating this
betrothal in marriage. They remain a few months with their wives, and
then return to California to find work and provide for them. Such
persons are obliged by their principles to live in virtual celibacy.
Some greatly desire to send for their wives, but not only does the
Restriction Law bar the entrance, but the father in China will probably
raise effectual objection. A son is as much the property of his father
at sixty as at six, and all he has, not only in property, but in wife
and children as well, is under the father's control. The
daughter-in-law, if strong and willing, is a very serviceable person
about the old homestead in China, and the appeals of the son for the
enjoyment of his wife's society in California are answered with the
advice to get him another wife here. One in China and one in America
seems to them a very safe arrangement. Eight thousand miles of ocean
intervene and assure against domestic broils.
Some, however, of our brethren have in one way or another been set free
from these early betrothals, and are at liberty to seek wives for
themselves. Such are very glad if among the inmates of the mission-homes
for Chinese women they can find a Christian for a help-meet. But this is
often impossible. There are not enough Chinese Christian women to meet
the demand. And therefore it has seemed to me not to be my duty
strenuously to insist on the restriction placed on union with
unbelievers, but rather when such a union has been arranged for, and is
to be consummated, to hold out a hope that the unbelieving wife may be,
not only in form and in her relation to the church--which seems to be
the sense of the text cited--but in truth and fact sanctified in the
brother.
This hope was fulfilled some years ago in the home of our oldest
missionary helper, Jee Gam. His father having at last yielded to the
son's entreaties and sent his wife to him, the narrow quarters in our
Central Mission House to which the bride was brought became at once a
sanctuary, and the Family Altar was established and the Family Saviour
recognized and worshiped. When a son was born to them, he was brought in
due time to our Bethany to be baptized, the heathen mother consenting
and attending. It was not long after that the mother herself stood with
us to enter into covenant and be baptized, and since then,--though
preferring to live in her home in a seclusion which American ladies
would regard as imprisonment and torture,--she has sought there to do
service to her Master in bringing up her children in the nurture of the
Lord. In her husband's absence from home she takes his place at the
family altar, and many an American mother might well pattern after her
fidelity in teaching her children the good and right way.
Several years ago, one of our steadfast Chinese brethren in Sacramento
requested me to come and conduct his marriage service. He had procured
the bride in Marysville, purchasing her (I suppose) of her parents after
the Chinese custom. I obeyed the summons; obtained for him the necessary
license, and then at the Mission House awaited the coming of the bride.
That which at length arrived resembled more a moving package of rich
and brilliant dry-goods of Chinese manufacture than a bright and
blushing bride. Something could be seen of the shoes she wore, and when
at length, in the course of the service, I somewhat firmly insisted on a
joining of hands a hand was made to appear, but there was no bridal
kiss, nor any sight or semblance of a face beneath the quadrupled or
quintupled veils. However, the marriage was effected in a Christian way,
and the next morning there came to me an invitation to call upon the
bride. I found her to be the most beautiful Chinese girl I had ever
seen, with manners all the more pleasing because so very shy. Her
husband had prepared quarters for her which, as compared with the
average Chinese home, were almost palatial, and everything seemed to
promise a future peaceful and joyous.
After a few months the mother-in-law made her daughter a visit as she
passed through Sacramento on her way back to her native land. What
passed between mother and daughter we do not know, but a few days after
her departure, Fong Bow returning to his home was shocked to find his
little wife suspended by the neck in an attempt at suicide. He rescued
her, and when she was restored asked for the reason. She acknowledged
that she had a good home and a kind and generous husband, but there was
no shrine in the house, no ancestral tablet, no Joss, and she was
convinced that some great evil must be impending from spirits thus
neglected and provoked. She preferred to sacrifice her present comfort
rather than incur the woes approaching,--all the more dreadful in her
apprehension because utterly unknown. Whereupon Fong Bow told her that
while he himself could not worship such things, and knew that an idol
was "nothing in the world," he did not and would not forbid her to do
what she thought right, and thus she provided herself with a shrine and
gods and was comforted.
Meanwhile, the husband lived a Christian life before her, and she
herself was willing to receive instruction from Mrs. Carrington and
others. It is not improbable that she saw the difference between a home
even half Christian, like her own, and those where heathen customs made
of a husband less a protector than a lord. Doubtless she thought much in
silence before coming to the decision which changed the current of her
life. It is singular that the crisis came in consequence of her
observing at a marriage of Chinese persons making no profession of
Christian faith, the absence of the rites which had been, in her view,
the only safeguards against evil. This brought her to decision. With her
own hands she removed the shrine she had erected, and then declared her
purpose to worship her husband's God. Those who know her--both Chinese
and Americans--see in her the tokens of a real and radical change; and
it was with great joy that I heard, some weeks ago, that she had been
baptized and welcomed to the Congregational Church in Sacramento, to
which her husband has belonged these many years.
WM. C. POND.
* * * * *
THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO IN OUR COUNTRY.
_Address at the Annual Meeting in Chicago_,
BY THE REV. C.H. RICHARDS, D.D.
Deeper than the question, what shall we do with the Negro, lies the more
fundamental question: What does God mean to do with the Negro in our
country? Many a so-called solution of the "race problem" has been a
foredoomed failure, because it ran counter to the Providential plan.
Some have hoped that time would settle the burning question; if people
would only stop talking about it, especially meddlesome people far away
from the real pinch of the trouble, they fancy that somehow the mere
flight of years would adjust differences and secure to all their rights.
Others think the short way to peace is by force, keeping the Negro down
with a strong hand, and keeping the Anglo Saxon on top by any vigorous
means that may be needed. Others, again, think there never can be any
solution of the problem so long as the two races occupy the same
territory, and they propose some mammoth scheme of colonization to take
the blacks away to some quarter of the world where they can be by
themselves. But these and other remedies are utterly futile, because
they are in collision with God's plan, as indicated by certain manifest
facts. Meantime, while men are so busy trying to get around the
difficulty instead of solving it in a straightforward way, the problem
gets a little bigger every year. The caste question agitates our great
religious assemblies. The spoliation of the civil rights of the Negro is
one of the most menacing features in our politics. Bitter race
prejudices keep Southern cities in a ferment, and even break out in
dreadful massacres. This race problem will continue to be one of the
most momentous and disturbing questions in American public life, until
somehow we learn how to get into line with Providence, and find some
solution that harmonizes with the great movements that have the hand of
God in them.
It is time to ask then, with searching inquiry, What is the divine plan
with regard to the Negro here, or, in other words, What is to be the
future of the Negro in America? In certain significant facts and
tendencies of his past and present, we may see the finger of Providence
pointing on to that future. Let us look at some of these facts and their
bearings.
First of all, the Negro is here, and that not of his own consent. He has
not forced himself upon the country; he has been forced to make this his
home against his will. We of the white race are responsible for his
presence. We invited him here in the most pressing manner, and would not
take "no" for an answer.
And he is here to stay. All the ingenious schemes for settling this
troublesome question by taking up the black race bodily and dropping it
in some roomy region far away from all possible contact with white
people, are utterly delusive. The Negro does not want to go elsewhere.
Having been compelled to make his home here for two centuries, he is
domesticated here, and has as good a right to remain as the white man.
Moreover, he can see as well as any one that this is the best country in
the world to live in--the land offering greatest opportunity for
advancement, the poor man's Paradise. Brought by force, he will not
relinquish his rightful hold here except by force. And we may be sure
that our National Government will never undertake the chimerical
experiment of deporting him to some other land, and pay the enormous
expense of it out of the National Treasury. Having been brought by the
providence of God to expiate its former wrongs to the black man at such
immense cost of treasure and blood, the Nation will be slow to tax
itself enormously to do him another wrong.
Moreover, it is not necessary that the races should be separated in
order to settle the difficulty that now disturbs us. All the Negro asks
is to be treated with justice and equity, and to be given a fair chance
in life. We have simply to apply the elementary principles of our common
Christianity to the problem and deal with the Negro in the spirit of the
Golden Rule and the whole difficulty vanishes. It looks as though God
had made this a polychromatic country--red, black, white and yellow--on
purpose that we might give a gospel illustration of the essential unity
of all races, and show how these rainbow tints are to be blended in the
white light of Christian brotherhood.
Nor is it desirable that the black man should leave us, even if he
wanted to. It would impoverish us in no small degree and cripple us in
our advancement. He is the natural laborer of the South, and has added,
as we shall see, immensely to its prosperity since the war, and he is to
be one of the chief factors in securing the future wealth of the
country. These reasons combine with overwhelming force to show that an
exodus is undesirable and impossible, and that the Negro is here to
stay.
And he is to be here in greatly increased numbers. The fecundity of the
race is remarkable. The 4,000,000 blacks that were freed by the
emancipation proclamation are 8,000,000 now. They multiply by births
alone 7 per cent. faster than the whites by births and immigration
combined. It is estimated that they are increasing at the rate of 500 a
day and that their numbers are now doubling every twenty years. This may
be a little exaggerated, but it is not far out of the way. If they are
increasing and continue to increase at this rate, in twenty years they
will be 16,000,000 strong, or nearly as many as the entire population of
the whole country in 1840; by 1930, they will number 32,000,000, or more
than we had of all races here at the outbreak of our Civil War; by the
middle of the next century they will number 64,000,000, or more than our
present population within the borders of the Republic. Discount this
estimate as much as you please, the increase in the colored race is sure
to be tremendous, and it is plain that the race problem will increase in
difficulty and in momentous consequences to the Nation until it is
settled on Christian principles. And the work of settling it admits of
no delay.
The Negro is to be a very important factor in promoting the future
prosperity of the country. Already it is manifest that his value to the
South as a freed man is far greater than the price formerly set upon him
as a chattel. The unrequited toil of the slave is seen in the light of
history to be the dearest kind of labor. It was frequently said after
the war that the emancipated Negro would be worthless as a laborer; that
he was naturally lazy, shiftless, and a shirk, and that he would relapse
into a vagabond. But, as a matter of fact, far more good work has been
done in the South since the war than before, and for the most part the
Negro has done it. Great crops of cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco, corn,
and other staples have been raised and marketed; mines have been
developed, railroads built, manufactories established, and hundreds of
other industries opened and pushed in the new era of prosperity which
has dawned in the South; and while the capital and brains for this have
been furnished by the whites, and largely from the North, the manual
labor has been done mainly by the blacks. They have made the New South
possible. Take the single item of the cotton they have raised: The
twenty-one cotton crops from 1841 to 1861, raised by slave labor,
amounted to 58,500,000 bales; the twenty-one cotton crops from 1865 to
1885, raised by free labor, amounted to 93,500,000 bales. There was a
gain, with free labor, of nearly 35,000,000 bales, worth $2,000,000,000,
or about the full estimated value of all the slaves set free by the war.
These facts show the value of the Negro to the South simply as a common
laborer.
But his importance as a factor in securing a National prosperity is much
enhanced when we note his remarkable capacity for improvement. Grant
that the great bulk of these eight millions are still in a pitiable
condition, poor, ignorant, sometimes vicious, the victims often of
barbaric superstitions, living often in hovels rather than houses,
without thrift or cleanliness, in crying need of kindly hands to help
uplift them to a better life. Yet, granting all this physical and moral
destitution among them, it must be said that history gives no record of
a race, stripped and stranded so completely as these freedmen were in
1865, that has shown such marvelous progress in a quarter of a century.
They have responded wonderfully to every effort made to elevate them,
and have shown in themselves such versatility and vigor of intellect as
give high promise for their future.
Their own advancement in material prosperity is an indication of this.
Never was there a people left in worse plight than they were at the
close of the war. In a country ravaged and denuded by a long and
destructive conflict, themselves penniless, with none of the knowledge
and training that would fit them for competition with shrewder and abler
classes, there seemed small hope of their getting more than a bare
livelihood. But ambition, mother wit, and a rare aptitude for learning
have helped them on till the gains they have made for themselves are
quite astonishing. Not long ago the New York _Independent_ made
extensive inquiries through the Southern States with regard to this
matter, and the replies showed that the disposition to accumulate
property was very strong among the colored people, and that industry and
economy and forecast for this purpose were virtues rapidly developing
among them. A large proportion of them are owners of their own homes,
the proportions differing widely in different localities, ranging from
10 per cent. in North Carolina, to 20 per cent. in Virginia, 50 and 60
per cent. in some parts of Georgia, and 75 per cent. in some parts of
Florida. A writer from Montgomery, Ala., even claimed 90 per cent. of
home-owners among his acquaintances.
Many, also, are coming into the ownership of land. Mr. Morris stated
four years ago that colored people owned 680,000 acres of land in
Georgia, and 5,000,000 acres in the whole South. Dr. Haygood estimates
that they own about $10,000,000 worth of taxable property in Georgia,
and it is stated that "within twenty-five years the colored people of
sixteen Southern States have accumulated real and personal property
estimated at more than $200,000,000." This, certainly, is a most
remarkable showing for a people of whom it was freely prophesied that
they would never be more than an indolent race of beggars. It shows that
if they can only be given "a white man's chance" they will be as thrifty
and prosperous as their Caucasian brothers, and that the wealth which
this rapidly increasing race will produce in the next half century will
much of it be their own property. Poverty is no more an essential
characteristic of the African than of the white American, and it looks
as though the Negro was likely to win his fair share of our prosperity
in the years to come.
The capacity for improvement is also indicated by the large variety of
occupations which the Negro is successfully pursuing. It has been
imagined by some that the work he could do is exceedingly limited in its
range, and that he must needs be a barber, a waiter, or a small farmer.
But at the New Orleans Exposition not long ago, an entire gallery across
one end of the building was assigned to the colored people, and they
more than filled it with an astonishing array of their products in all
sorts of work. There were exhibits of mechanical, agricultural and
artistic skill; specimens of millinery, tailoring, painting,
photography, sculpture; many useful inventions; models of engines,
steamboats, rail-cars; specimens of all kinds of tools, pianos, organs,
pottery, tinware, and so on. It was made manifest that the Negro can
succeed in any trade or occupation that the white man follows. They are
diversifying their labor more and more. They are physicians, lawyers,
master-mechanics, bridge-builders. They edit, own and manage a hundred
newspapers.
The avidity with which they receive education, and profit by it, is
another indication of their capacity for advancement. True, there is
still an appalling illiteracy among them, some 70 per cent. of them in
the South being unable to write. But we must remember that hardly a
quarter of a century ago it was a crime to teach one of them to read;
they were sedulously kept in compulsory ignorance, and since the ban was
removed, poverty, lack of schools and teachers, and other causes have
prevented their advancement as rapidly as we may expect in future. But
much has been done for them in this particular. Dr. Haygood estimates
that about $50,000,000 has been spent for the education of the Negro
since the war, nearly half of which has come from the benevolence of the
North. Through the American Missionary Association alone some
$10,000,000 has gone into the school and church work for the Negro, both
alike educational. There are some 200 schools carried on in the South by
different benevolent organizations, having over 28,000 colored youth in
them. Of these, ninety are colleges or high schools, and furnish
teachers and educated leaders for this race. Three-quarters of a million
dollars a year flows southward from Northern generosity to this work.
And besides this, is the work being done by the South itself for the
colored youth in its public schools. A million Negroes are in the 15,000
colored schools of the South to-day, being taught by 15,000 teachers of
their own color, the best of whom have been educated in these schools
nurtured by Northern benevolence. And what is the result? The illiteracy
in this race diminished 10 per cent. between 1870 and 1880, showing the
eagerness of the people for improvement. It is estimated that two
millions of the blacks can now read the Bible for themselves. And the
universities for higher education find the Negro as susceptible to the
best culture, as capable of receiving thorough discipline and of being
highly educated as the white boys and girls in our Northern colleges.
The time is not far distant when colored college graduates, instead of
being reckoned by hundreds as now, will be numbered by thousands, and
when we shall see some Mark Hopkins in ebony.
The time has gone by when intelligent men can talk about the inferiority
of this race. When representative Southern men declare that they were
mistaken in their former view, when such men as ex-Governor Brown, of
Georgia, convinced by the examinations of our Atlanta University,
publicly declares, "I was wrong; I am converted," that ought to be
enough. But if not, the men of recognized ability and success among the
blacks refute the old misrepresentation, now being revived in some
quarters. When our Government sends its ministers abroad, Frederick
Douglass and John M. Langston; when Senator Bruce and Representative
Lynch are regarded as peers of their white brethren in the political
arena; when college chairs are ably filled by such men as Professor
Gregory, of Howard University; when colored delegates captivate a
National council by their eloquence and ability; when Harvard University
and Cornell University, by the choice of the students themselves, elect
colored men to be their representative orators, surely it is much too
late in the day to talk of the inferiority of the colored race. They are
as well endowed by the Creator as any people in the world, and with
training, culture, and a fair chance they will play their part in the
world as well as any. It is such a people that we may predict will have
a large share in adding to our National prosperity in the future.