This number was increased to nearly 90 during the first week, and
there will be constant additions until Christmas. Many of the
poorest pupils are busily picking cotton, to earn something for
school expenses, and will arrive within a month. Ten or twelve
of the older scholars of last year have now gone to Atlanta
University, so that there are not yet as many grown pupils as there
will be after cotton picking is over. Among the new students is a
young Methodist preacher, in charge of a circuit in an adjoining
county. He seems quite in earnest to learn. Another of our
excellent young men was converted while teaching during the summer,
and has done good work in Sunday-school, temperance and revival
meetings. Another taught school in the same county, and both
labored earnestly in the temperance cause. A bill was passed by the
legislature this summer, allowing the people of that county to vote
on the question of prohibiting the sale of liquor within their own
limits. These two young teachers, aided by another former pupil
teaching in an adjoining county, who has considerable talent for
public speaking, worked hard for prohibition. The result is seen in
the news that comes this morning, that prohibition carried the day
by a majority of nineteen votes.
Several new scholars have come into our school, and a larger number
will yet come through the efforts of these young teachers. The
attendance at opening is larger than for several preceding years,
and indications point toward a steady increase. Atlanta University
being within one hundred miles, draws off many of the older
students, but what is our loss is their gain. The dark and ignorant
communities of our common-wealth are being enlightened slowly but
surely, by the earnest young teachers from this and other schools,
and their influence is not small on the side of morality, religion
and progress.
The school opens more favorably than for several years before,
with an increase in the corps of teachers, and general prospects
for extended usefulness. There is a growing number of those who
desire advanced education, whose purpose it is to fit themselves
to enter some of the higher institutions. Their greatest hindrance
is their poverty; but the pay for school teaching is improving
somewhat, although most have to wait six or eight months before
receiving what they earn. There is, however, general progress in
most localities, and we are glad to believe that the Lewis High
School is doing its share, reaching out to uplift this whole region
of country.
* * * * *
BURRELL SCHOOL.
MR. E. C. SILSBY, SELMA, ALA.
We had feared that the effect of a prolonged season of drought,
occasioning small crops and high prices, would be to lessen
the attendance considerably. In this, however, an agreeable
disappointment was in store, as the number present upon the opening
day was four larger than the preceding year, and nearly twice that
for 1879. We opened with an attendance of 153, 19 of which number
are members of the advanced grammar and high school departments.
A number of last year’s advanced pupils have indicated their
intention to re-enter shortly. As yet, last year’s scholars who
have been employed in teaching have not returned. From a number
of these we have received word with reference to their work, and
learned of their expectations to be with us again.
One young man wrote of establishing a temperance society,
and laboring in a revival in the local church. He had a good
Sunday-school which he had supplied with “Quarterlies” containing
notes on the lessons, and he seemed to be accomplishing much good.
His location is one where for many years he has taught school. He
writes that he expects to return to Burrell.
Another young man, who says that he will re-enter, was last year in
school here for the first time, and was brought through the agency
of the former. He has written intelligently of his Sunday-school,
and has also sent on funds to me to be expended in papers.
Twin brothers from a town in an adjoining county, and last
year’s pupils, were converted at a special revival season in
the Congregational church here during the winter. To one of the
teachers, one brother wrote that he was “doing the best he could
teaching in the Sunday-school.” The other said that “the people out
there did not know much about managing a Sunday-school properly,
but he was working in it, and lent his “Quarterly” around among
others, showing them how to study their lessons from it.” These
brothers are about 15 years old.
We learn of the expected return of a pupil of ’79 who has
been laboring very acceptably for some time in Louisiana in
Sunday-school, church and temperance work. He brings a recruit for
Burrell also. Another last year’s pupil of ours, from the High
school grade, leaves the scholar’s seat to occupy a position behind
the teacher’s desk, in the building where for years she has been a
studious learner. She is a teacher in the A. M. E. Sunday-school
of this place, and a member of the choir. Two other young ladies,
former classmates of hers in Burrell, are, for the second year,
teaching with us also.
The nature of our school being, as it is, a city school, we have
not tried to crowd our work upon the attention of non-residents.
We have had, however, pupils from the country and adjoining
counties, every year for some time, with rare exceptions. New
pupils from elsewhere, brought through the agency of others, have
been referred to above. A very promising young man entered this
year from a county adjoining this one on the east, who had heard of
the school from former pupils. Three persons from a northern county
are, I am informed, to come in company with a last year’s pupil.
The condition of the cotton crop is such, that some are probably
remaining away to assist in gathering and storing the same. This is
often the case with country scholars.
The second day of the present session, one came to us as a pupil
who has sat in the legislative hall of this State as one of our
county’s representatives. He has been a teacher since then, and
realizing his deficiency, comes to learn along with children.
We think he shows a commendable spirit, and judging from his
persistency, predict his success.
* * * * *
TOUGALOO, MISS.
MISS K. K. KOONS.
The year opens full of promise to us. The school is not only much
larger than at the same time last year, but larger than at the same
time in any previous year except the first few, before the zeal
of this people on the subject of education had had time to abate.
Though Strieby Hall is not yet finished, the lower floor, chapel
and recitation rooms lack but the finishing touches and furniture,
the first of which it is rapidly receiving, the last of which we
look for daily.
We held our opening exercises in the chapel, fitted up with
temporary seats. Our overcrowded Girl’s Hall and dining-room of
last year prepared us thoroughly to enjoy the room which the
enlargement to the building affords. Though neither building is
completed, the work is being rapidly pushed forward. A number of
our students, who came expecting to enter school at once, were glad
of the opportunity to help themselves, and are putting in a month
of work upon the buildings before entering, thus somewhat lessening
the number enrolled at the opening.
Reports of the summer’s work given by our student teachers at
our weekly prayer meeting were very encouraging indeed. It has
been an unusually hard summer for many of them. Delay in finding
vacant schools, the failure of people to keep engagements made
with teachers, and hard fare, were very common. But though these
things came to us in our letters from them during the summer, they
were scarcely referred to in their reports. Interest in their work
and the people with whom they labored entirely overshadowed the
hardships. The disposition to take a cheerful view of things, and
cheerfully and earnestly to meet and work against difficulties and
discouragements, is becoming more manifest. Perhaps this is _one_
of the good results to be wrought in them by the sacrifice and
self-denial so bravely made after the burning of our chapel last
spring.
The interest in the Sabbath-school work is greater. Fewer
signers to the pledge are reported than in previous years. The
temperance work is the “pons asinorum” of our young people. And
well may it be, in view of the almost universal habit of drinking
and using snuff and tobacco. In this work they do grow greatly
“disencouraged.” But the number of signers to the pledge is, after
all, no criterion by which to measure the quiet work done in the
line of temperance.
The number enrolled at the opening last year was 46, this year 74.
The number of day scholars taught by our twenty student teachers
was 1,539; Sabbath-school scholars, 795; signers to pledge, 160;
conversions, 32.
* * * * *
FISK UNIVERSITY, NASHVILLE, TENN.
BY REV. H. S. BENNETT.
Fisk University has opened this year with unusual prosperity.
There are at this early date in the year 285 pupils in the entire
school. There are in Jubilee Hall 121 boarders, which is within 30
as many as have ever boarded in the hall. Judging from applications
which have been made, there will be by the middle of January next
75 more. Last night, at the faculty meeting, the question was
earnestly discussed, “What shall we do with those who apply, when
the hall is full?” as it is likely to be within a very few weeks.
It is felt by all of the faculty that if the crops had not been
cut short by the drought we should have had a rush of students
altogether unprecedented in the history of the University.
It is felt by those who have known the students for a number of
years that those of this year are a superior class. The quality
of the students improves with every year, showing that others are
at work elsewhere. We have received already this year several
students of advanced grade, who have come prepared to enter the
college classes. At this time we are negotiating with one who
desires to enter the senior college class and graduate next
commencement. We expect him in a few days.
The past years of schooling are beginning to tell upon the higher
training of the colored youth, and those who come to Fisk for the
first time take much higher grades than new students were wont to
do a few years ago. Most of the old students have been engaged in
teaching during the summer vacation. It is estimated that of 85
in the collegiate department, 60 or 65 taught school during the
summer. Wherever these teachers go, they secure a good name for
industry, conscientiousness, ability and energy. We are constantly
getting good words from white people, directors, superintendents
and private citizens in regard to the faithfulness and acceptance
with which our students discharge their duties. Almost all those
who teach are Christians and engage in Christian work, as a
matter of course, when they begin their day schools. As a general
thing, they enter at once into the Sabbath-school if there is
one, and start one if there is not, and generally get the entire
neighborhood enlisted.
There are two interesting features in relation to the students, the
like of which we have never had before. During the past few years
the trustees of the Peabody fund have sustained a Normal school for
white pupils. The effort has been made to secure an appropriation
from the State for this school in the years that are past. At the
last session of the Legislature an appropriation of $10,000 was
made for Normal schools, $2,500 for the colored children of the
State, that being their relative share. The Board of Education for
the State, to whom the disbursement of this fund was left, decided
that the fund for the colored students should be divided among 50
pupils, and that they should have the privilege of choosing between
five schools to which they should go. Each pupil would thus be
entitled to $50, and each school would receive on an average 10
students. Up to the present time Fisk has received 18 out of the
50, and it is well known that many of the Senators who had the
power of appointment had not taken action. We have no doubt that
others will come as the year passes by.
The other feature is this. Several colored men were elected to the
last Legislature, and as members had the right to appoint cadets to
the East Tennessee University, of course they all appointed colored
cadets. Some other republican members also appointed colored
cadets. This threw the trustees of the East Tennessee University
into great perplexity. It is against the law of the State to
educate white and colored pupils in the same institution: it is
also very much against the traditional prejudices not only of the
trustees of the University, but also of the people of the State.
The trustees met, and after a thorough discussion determined to
make arrangements with Fisk University if possible, to take their
colored cadets at $30 apiece. Fisk University was not averse to the
arrangement, and so the question was settled. We have now in the
University seven cadets, students of the East Tennessee University.
It is accepted by all here as an important truth, that the longer
we can keep a student the better it will be for him and the
institution and the work. The students in the collegiate department
give tone to the whole institution. Every department is lifted to
a higher standard by the high standard of the college department.
As the college graduates go out into the world, they have, without
an exception, taken advanced positions as teachers or other
professional men.
Livingstone Hall is now having its roof put on, and all are
watching its progress with the greatest interest, as promising a
time when the facilities of the institution will be almost doubled.
What we shall next need will be an ample endowment. Who will
provide this for us?
* * * * *
OBITUARY.
DEATH OF MRS. T. C. STEWARD.
On the 3d of July last Mrs. T. C. Palmer Steward passed away to her
rest, leaving behind a devoted husband and three young children.
She was born in Windham, Portage Co., Ohio, August 10th, 1839.
She commenced teaching school when fourteen years of age and was
graduated from Lake Erie Female Seminary, Painesville, Ohio, July,
1862, having secured her education largely through her own efforts.
In October, 1866, she was commissioned by the A. M. A. as a teacher
among the Freedmen, and for ten years continued to labor in the
South under its direction, being at Chattanooga two years, at
Marion four years and at Fisk University four years. In 1868 she
was married to Hon. T. C. Steward, who was stationed at Marion,
Ala., in charge of the work of the Association. Mr. Steward took an
active part in the work of reconstruction in Alabama, and in the
most trying and dangerous period in the political history of the
State, after the war, represented his district in the legislature.
In those times of imminent peril Mrs. Steward stood unflinchingly
by her husband’s side and manifested the highest qualities of true
Christian heroism. In 1876 Mr. and Mrs. Steward retired from the
service of the A. M. A. and moved to Chattanooga, Tenn., where Mrs.
Steward’s death occurred in their new and pleasant home on the
crest of Missionary Ridge.
Mrs. Steward was a remarkably efficient and successful teacher, and
a most devoted and earnest Christian worker.
DEATH OF REV. G. W. WALKER.
DIED.—At Centreville, Pa., August 23, 1881, Rev. G. W. Walker,
formerly a teacher at Atlanta University, aged 46 years. He was a
graduate of Oberlin College and Theological Seminary. Of Mr. Walker
it may be said, without biographical exaggeration, “A good man has
fallen in Israel.” As a man, he was quiet, modest, unostentatious,
affable and gentlemanly. Sustaining to him the close relation of
class-mate for three years, the writer cannot remember a harsh or
unkind word as ever having fallen from his lips. As a Christian, he
was always calm, serene, happy. His piety seemed like the flow of
some sweet, peaceful river. The same traits of character he carried
into the ministry. As a preacher, he was Scriptural, earnest and
impressive. He was true and faithful to his trust, no flatterer,
but outspoken. As a pastor, he endeared himself to all by his
gentle manner and lively sympathy. He labored very successfully for
a few years in the service of the American Missionary Association.
In lowliness and self-abnegation he toiled faithfully, earnestly,
for souls wherever the Master placed him, and his memory will not
soon be forgotten by his intimate friends, and especially by those
who were hopefully saved through his instrumentality. He bore his
sickness with a sweet, Christian patience, his greatest trial
being that he was deprived of working in the service of Him whom
he loved. Through a long and tedious decline, covering nearly two
years of painful struggle for life, he found the God he served able
to comfort and sustain him and give him at last the victory. He
leaves a fond wife and son, who have met with a loss that cannot be
measured, and who share the sympathies of a multitude of friends.
May the precious Saviour, whom he served, remember the widow and
the fatherless.
EXTRACTS FROM MINUTES OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
SEPTEMBER 13TH, 1881.
Rev. Henry M. Ladd and Dr. E. E. Snow, who were about to proceed up
the Nile for locating the Arthington Mission, were brought before
the Committee and instructed as follows:
The Executive Committee of the American Missionary Association,
which has commissioned you to explore the basin of the Upper Nile
in Africa, with reference to the locating and the working of the
Arthington Mission, would give you these few words of God-speed and
of instruction.
We furnish you a letter from the U.S. Secretary of State, which
in response to a request from this office, assures you that upon
arriving at Cairo, you will find the U.S. Consul General stationed
there, Mr. Simon Wolf, instructed to facilitate the labors of your
expedition and to protect your rights as American citizens in such
ways as are consistent with his duties and with due regard to local
laws. With his assistance and your English endorsement you will
seek from the Khedive of Egypt the essential protection of his
authority.
It is our impression that near the mouth of the Sobat, where the
Nile comes in from its great western bend, within the Arthington
district, and perhaps upon the very spot where Sir Samuel Baker had
his camp, you will locate the headquarters of the mission, whose
stations in time will be extended into the country beyond; but we
leave this matter of location to your discretion. In determining it
you will consider the navigability of the river, the elevation and
healthfulness of the site, and the friendliness and condition of
the people. You will negotiate with the heads of the people, among
whom you locate, for the use of land needed by the mission. You
will investigate the feasibility of our owning and running a small
steamer between Berber and Sobat.
Upon all these matters you will report as frequently as possible
to this office. A journal, kept and furnished us, such as that
reported by Sup’t Ladd, in regard to the visit to the Mendi
Mission, will be greatly helpful.
Returning, Dr. Snow will stop in England to superintend the
construction of a steamer for the Nile service, provided your
reports shall warrant the Committee in ordering such an expenditure,
and Sup’t Ladd will come back to this country to report in person
and to secure colored missionaries to go back with you in the early
autumn of 1882.
If the way shall not appear closed up, the plan for the second
expedition will be that, with your recruits, you take along your
steamer as freight to Berber, where you will put it together and
launch it to carry your party and materials for building and for
subsistence to the chosen site, upon which you will set up the
house of the mission.
While the Superintendent, like the Apostle Paul, will have his
“beloved physician” to travel with him as associate missionary,
in our prayerful solicitude for your health and safety, we wish
to enjoin upon you the utmost diligence in seeking to preserve
yourselves from sickness, and in keeping yourselves in that
enervating climate from overstrain in travel and work.
We bless God that he has given you a heart to assume this great
undertaking in the name of His dear Son. We commend you now to
the Divine care, and shall ever pray that you may be preserved in
health and in life, and prospered in your mission, until you shall
see that heathen people coming to the standard of the Cross which
you shall have set up in equatorial Africa.
WOMAN’S HOME MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
Room 20, Congregational House, Beacon St., Boston.
MISS NATHALIE LORD, _Secretary_.
MISS ABBY W. PEARSON, _Treasurer_.
* * * * *
MONTHLY REPORT.
When Livingstone, at the age of twenty-seven, had accomplished his
task of fitting himself for a missionary, had taken his medical
diploma, and was ready to start for Africa, “a single night,” says
his biographer, “was all that he could spend with his family, and
they had so much to speak of that David proposed they should sit up
all night. This, however, his mother would not hear of. ‘I remember
my father and him,’ writes his sister, ‘talking over the prospects
of Christian missions. They agreed that the time would come when
rich and great men would think it an honor to support whole
stations of missionaries, instead of spending their money on hounds
and horses. On November 17th we got up at five o’clock. My mother
made coffee. David read the 121st and 135th Psalms, and prayed. My
father and he walked to Glasgow to catch the Liverpool steamer.’”
How fitting the setting of this prophetic talk of David and
his father—the completed hard labor and sterner sacrifice of
preparation, the hurried visit by night, and the long walk in the
November dawn! No wonder, with their inspiration, that these two
“agreed that the time would come when rich and great men would
think it an honor to support whole stations of missionaries.”
The autumn is here and a new year of work begins. We are all
promising ourselves redoubled efforts and larger success, each in
his sphere, for the coming season. But what can we do new, what can
we do more, what fresh successes can we plan for missions, and for
home missions? This is one of the questions for us all to ask. Can
I start a new auxiliary? I will not neglect the opportunity nor
lose time. Can I myself make a larger contribution to the funds
this year than last? Then I will, and if I have to give something
of less value in exchange for the privilege, so much the better.
Shall I read more regularly the news that comes from missions, and
so help myself and others to become more interested in the work
by the knowledge of what is being done? Yes, I will make a point
of this. Can I pray more sincerely for the progress of the cause,
remembering with affection and sympathy those who labor in the Lord
in the more toilsome parts of the vineyard?