Go with me some evening through the Chinese quarter of our city; note
the faces of the loungers in every door-way and at every corner. Watch
the expression, or the want of expression, in these stolid, brutal,
repulsive faces of opium-smokers and gamblers. Then step over with me
to the Chinese mission-house two squares away. Before you enter, look
in through the half-open door and take a survey of the scene within.
The room is well-lighted, and contains, among other things, two long
tables, a dozen benches, a cabinet organ, and a few chairs. The walls
are bright with Scripture texts and illustrations from sacred history.
About fifteen young Chinamen are seated at the tables, all reading and
studying aloud in true Chinese fashion. Just as you enter the teacher,
touches the bell. Books are closed and all take seats on the benches
in front of the organ. A Chinese evangelist is present, and while he
makes an impassioned address, accompanied by most expressive gestures,
you are free to study the faces upturned to listen. What a contrast to
the faces you have just left in Chinatown, idly staring at the
passer-by, or, vacant of all interest, staring at nothing! At a glance
you perceive effects which must be seen to be appreciated. You feel
that not only is the whole atmosphere of this place essentially
different {104} from that of the Chinese quarter, but there is also an
essential difference between those who frequent the one and the other.
Socially, intellectually, spiritually, the Chinese mission-school does
its beneficent work. It must be borne in mind that the Chinaman in
California is away from home. He is exposed to all the temptations of
a stranger in a strange land, removed from the restraining influences
of a community where one is known. Subject an equal number of men of
any other nation to this severe test, and I doubt much if they would
bear it as well. The mission school serves the purpose of a strong
social support. So far as possible it takes the place of a home. It
practically separates its attendants into a community by itself. It
does much to keep them from contact with their vicious countrymen in
Chinatown. It does much to bring them into contact with those whose
influence upon them will be good. It does much to furnish a healthy
social atmosphere in which to pass the hours of the afternoon and
evening, which every Chinese servant is at liberty to spend as he
will.
Intellectually the work in the Chinese missions is already far beyond
the elementary stage, and is growing more virile every year.
But everything is made but the means to the spiritual end. Not for an
hour is this lost sight of. The whole drift of the teaching, the
songs, the pictures, the Scripture text, is to make known Christ.
Every evening's lesson ends with worship. For a month or more the
Chinese preacher to whom I have referred, has held evangelistic
services in the Santa Barbara mission. To-day he leaves for points
farther south to do the same work elsewhere.
In no year, may I add, have there been so many conversions among the
Chinese on this coast as in the one just past.
* * * * *
BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.
MISS D.E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.
WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS.
CO-OPERATING WITH THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
ME.--Woman's Aid to A.M.A., Chairman of Committee, Mrs. C.A. Woodbury,
Woodfords, Me.
VT.--Woman's Aid to A.M.A., Chairman of Committee, Mrs. Henry
Fairbanks, St. Johnsbury, Vt.
CONN.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. S.M. Hotchkiss, 171
Capitol Ave., Hartford, Conn.
N.Y.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. C.C. Creegan,
Syracuse, N.Y.
OHIO.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. Flora K. Regal,
Oberlin, Ohio.
ILL.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. C.H. Taintor, 151
Washington St., Chicago, Ill.
MICH.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. Mary B. Warren,
Lansing, Mich.
WIS.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. C. Matter, Brodlhead,
Wis.
MINN.--Woman's Home Miss. Society, Secretary, Mrs. H.L. Chase, 2,750
Second Ave., South, Minneapolis, Minn.
IOWA.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Miss Ella K. Marsh,
Grinnell, Iowa.
KANSAS.--Woman's Home Miss. Society, Secretary, Mrs. Addison
Blanchard, Topeka, Kan.
SOUTH DAKOTA.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. W.H. Thrall,
Amour, Dak.
{105}
* * * * *
THE BLACK WOMAN OF THE SOUTH.
The Rev. Alexander Crummell, D.D., formerly a missionary in Africa and
now Rector of St. Luke's Church in Washington, D.C., is a native of
Africa, a graduate of one of the leading Universities of England, who
adds to the strength and graces of a sound scholarship, the devotion
of a noble Christian character.
From an address made by him upon the "Needs and Neglects of the Black
Woman of the South," we quote his plea for "Woman's Work for Woman."
Referring to the Negro woman in slavery days, he says:
"She was a 'hewer of wood and a drawer of water.' She had to keep
her place in the gang from morn till eve, under the burden of a
heavy task, or under the stimulus or the fear of a cruel lash. She
was a picker of cotton. She labored at the sugar mill and in the
tobacco factory. When, through weariness or sickness, she had
fallen behind her allotted task, then came, as punishment, the
fearful stripes upon her shrinking, lacerated flesh.
"Her home life was of the most degrading nature. She lived in the
rudest huts, and partook of the coarsest food, and dressed in the
scantiest garb, and slept, in multitudinous cabins, upon the
hardest boards!
"There was no sanctity of family, no binding tie of marriage, none
of the fine felicities and the endearing affections of home. Few of
these things were the lot of the Southern black woman. Instead,
thereof, a gross barbarism, which tended to blunt the tender
sensibilities, to obliterate feminine delicacy and womanly shame,
came down as her heritage from generation to generation; and it
seems a miracle of providence and grace that, notwithstanding these
terrible circumstances, so much struggling virtue lingered amid the
rude cabins, that so much womanly worth and sweetness remained, as
slaveholders themselves have borne witness to.
"Freed, legally, she has been; but the act of emancipation had no
talismanic influence to reach to and alter and transform her
degrading social life. The truth is, 'Emancipation Day' found her a
prostrate and degraded being; and, although it has brought numerous
advantages to her sons, it has produced but the simplest changes in
_her_ social and domestic condition. She is still the crude, rude,
ignorant mother. Remote from cities, the dweller still in the old
plantation hut, neighboring to the sulky, disaffected master-class,
who still think her freedom was a personal robbery of themselves,
none of the 'fair humanities' have visited her humble home. The
light of knowledge has not fallen upon her eyes. The fine
domesticities which give the charm to family life, and which, by
the refinement and delicacy of womanhood, preserve the civilization
of nations, have not come to _her_. She has still the rude, coarse
labor of men. With her rude husband, she still shares the hard
service of a field-hand. Her house, which shelters, perhaps, some
six or eight children, embraces but two rooms. Her furniture is of
the rudest kind. The clothing of the household is scant and of the
coarsest material; has oft-times the garniture of rags, and for
herself and offspring is marked, not seldom, by the absense {106}
of both hats and shoes. She has rarely been taught to sew, and the
field-labor of slavery times has kept her ignorant of the habitudes
of neatness and the requirements of order. Indeed, coarse food,
coarse clothes, coarse living, coarse manners, coarse companions,
coarse surroundings, coarse neighbors, both white and black, yea,
everything coarse, down to the coarse, ignorant, senseless
religion, which excites her sensibilities and starts her passions,
go to make up the life of the masses of black women in the hamlets
and villages of the South. This is the state of black womanhood.
"And now look at the _vastness_ of this degradation. If I had been
speaking of the population of a city, or town, or even a village,
the tale would be a sad and melancholy one. But I have brought
before you the condition of _millions of women_. And when you think
that the masses of these women live in the rural districts; that
they grow up in rudeness and ignorance; that their former masters
are using few means to break up their hereditary degradation, you
can easily take in the pitiful condition of this population and
forecast the inevitable future to multitudes of females, unless a
mighty special effort is made for the improvement of the black
womanhood of the South.
"I am anxious for a permanent and uplifting civilization to be
engrafted on the Negro race in this land. And this can only be
secured through the womanhood of a race. If you want the
civilization of a people to reach the very best elements of their
being, and then, having reached them, there to abide as an
indigenous principle, you must imbue the _womanhood_ of that people
with all its elements and qualities. Any movement which passes by
the female sex is an ephemeral thing. Without them, no true
nationality, patriotism, religion, cultivation, family life, or
true social status, is a possibility. In this matter it takes two
to make one--mankind is a duality. The male may bring, as an
exotic, a foreign graft, say, of civilization, to a new people. But
what then! Can a graft live or thrive of itself? By no manner of
means. It must get vitality from the stock into which it is put;
and it is the women who give the sap to every human organization
which thrives and flourishes on earth.
"I plead, therefore, for the establishment of at least one large
'_Industrial school_' in every Southern State for the black girls of
the South. I ask for the establishment of schools which may serve
specially the home life of the rising womanhood of my race.
"I want _boarding schools_ for the _industrial training_ of one hundred
and fifty or two hundred of the poorest girls, of the ages of
twelve to eighteen years.
"I wish the intellectual training to be limited to reading,
writing, arithmetic and geography.
"I would have these girls taught to do accurately all domestic
work, such as sweeping floors, dusting rooms, scrubbing,
bed-making, washing and ironing, sewing, mending and knitting.
{107}
"I would have the trades of dress-making, millinery, straw-plating,
tailoring for men, and such like, taught them.
"The art of cooking should be made a specialty, and every girl
should be instructed in it.
"In connection with these schools, garden plats should be
cultivated, and every girl should be required daily, to spend at
least an hour in learning the cultivation of small fruits,
vegetables and flowers.
"It is hardly possible to exaggerate either the personal, family or
society influence which would flow from these schools. Every class,
yea, every girl in an out-going class, would be a missionary of
thrift, industry, common-sense, and practicality. They would go
forth, year by year, a leavening power into the houses, towns and
villages of the Southern black population; girls fit to be the
wives of the honest peasantry of the South, the worthy matrons of
their numerous households.
"I am looking after the domestic training of the _masses_; for the
raising up of women meet to be the helpers of poor men, the _rank
and file_ of black society, all through the rural districts of the
South.
"A true civilization can only be attained when the life of woman is
reached, her whole being permeated by noble ideas, her fine taste
enriched by culture, her tendencies to the beautiful gratified and
developed, her singular and delicate nature lifted up to its full
capacity, and then, when all these qualities are fully matured,
cultivated and sanctified, all their sacred influences shall circle
around ten thousand firesides, and the cabins of the humblest
freedmen shall become the homes of Christian refinement through the
influence of the uplifted and cultivated black woman of the South."
The above appeal is in the line of our American Missionary Association
work. While we have higher schools and institutions for more thorough
education, which these Negro women need as much as any women in the
world, we are increasingly developing this idea which Dr. Crummell
eloquently pleads.
We remind our friends and those Christian women who are interested in
the uplifting of Negro womanhood, that the American Missionary
Association, the _ordained agency_ of the Congregational Churches for
this work, could do much more of it if the means were forthcoming. The
marked success of the domestic training in our schools at Tougaloo,
Miss., Talladega, Ala., Thomasville, Ga., Memphis, Tenn., and other
points, shows the advantage gained in the twenty-five years'
experience which the A.M.A. has had in its work for the Negroes.
We need the co-operation of all Christian women in carrying on these
Industrial Schools already established, and to enable us to establish
and carry forward _many more_.
* * * * *
{108}
YOUNG FOLKS.
WHAT SUSIE FOUND AT TOUGALOO.
(SEE FEBRUARY AMERICAN MISSIONARY.)
A roomful of girls of various sizes and complexions, all very much
intent upon their work, and no one thinking just at that moment of a
traveled fairy daughter, to adopt and love as her own, sent by a
beneficent and tender-hearted northern "Fay." I doubt if Susie ever
before saw so many "little women" laboring with needles and trying to
set the troublesome stitches straight and even, to keep the thread
from tangling and the seam clean. The results are far from perfection,
but they are encouraging.
Some of the children _wear_ thimbles, and some set them upon their desks
and _wiggle_ the needle through without their aid. Here is a child so
tiny that no thimble in the box will serve her. She has a delicate
face, with big brown eyes, and her fingers are the slenderest of
appendages to her atoms of hands. Her sister, a year or so older, has
a round, chubby face, with plump, dimpled, brown hands, but these fat
fingers also must grow to the smallest thimble. Here is a quiet,
modest little girl whose five baptismal names, Cynthia Ann Finetta
Bloomfield Celeste, furnish her nothing prettier for every day use
than "Lusty." She could not thread a needle or tie a knot when she
joined the Hope Band, and the second year she wore one of the smallest
thimbles with a bit of cloth inside for "chinking" to keep it on. Here
Susie's sympathies are drawn out towards a thin, nervous-looking
little Frances, who has a hand and foot crippled. She walks painfully
along to her place and holds her work at a disadvantage in the poor
little cramped left hand, but she likes to be there with the others.
Most of the heads are covered with little tight braids, on some heads
standing at every angle, on some laid smoothly down, one braid tied to
another. A few have their curly hair cropped close, and here is a
little girl with a bushy mass overshadowing her lively face. She takes
but a stitch or two until she goes up to the front and holds her work
out for her teacher's inspection. Some time elapses before that lady
can notice it and say, "That is pretty good, Lena; now go right on
carefully." Lena returns slowly to her place, takes a stitch or two
more and repeats the performance. When will the work be completed? O
no, that is the way she used to do, but _now_--
A middle-sized "Topsy" comes pushing rudely forward, tossing her head
and whispering disagreeable things to those she has to pass, and Susy
hopes she will not be brought into any closer relations with _her_, when
she happens to see her tenderly fondling a broken-armed, broken-legged
dollie, while her work is being adjusted, and thinks somewhat better
of her. There are several Lilies and Roses in this growing garden. The
lilies are not white and the roses are not red, but more attractive
and interesting to their teacher's eyes than the black pansies the
flower gardeners {109} labored so long to produce. Their teacher is
fond of flowers and has her windows full, even in winter, but she does
not smile upon them with such a heartful of affection as upon these,
nor can those bask in the light of her merry face more freely. As her
short, round figure moves down the aisle and back, and Susie gets a
good look at her, she says to herself, "Why surely this is Mrs. Santa
Claus! How glad I am!" and it is not a strange conclusion, for her
figure and expression _are_ like the poet's description of dear Saint
Nick.
Here is a girl in one of the side seats a good deal taller than her
teacher. Through the long, bright, warm summer she works in the cotton
and the corn, alongside of father, brothers, uncles, men and women,
boys and girls. Her hands are enlarged and roughened with toil, but
she is taking pains to learn how to do this useful indoor work
skillfully too.
There is a goodly company of these larger girls, but Susie does not
feel any more afraid of them, nor of "the middle-sized bears and the
wee tiny, small bears" than did little Silverhair in the nursery tale.
She doubts, however, if these largest ones have not laid aside
dollies, and thinks she must look among the "leaster" ones for the
little _step-mother_ who will respect her own little Fay-mother's
request to "take good care of her." But when the sewing-lesson is
ended and she notices one and another bring to light a little
dollie-daughter to hug in her arms as she walks homeward, and sees the
sociable interest of all the rest, she feels no further doubt about
the mother-love in all these little Southern bosoms and resigns all
care as to which one shall be hers, leaving the whole question to Mrs.
Santa Claus.
Perhaps some day we may call upon her when she is fully domesticated
in her new home. There will not be many comforts and conveniences in
that home. Possibly when we ask for Susie, her mamma will draw a
little old box from under the head of her bed, as once when I called
upon one of these little girls and asked her if she had a doll. It had
lost some of its limbs and it was dressed in odds and ends, tacked
together by the untaught little mother, but when I set the dollie on
my knee and pretended to drink tea out of one of the tiny toy cups set
forth from the same treasure-box, you could not find a more hilarious
little mamma anywhere, though you should pick out one with all nursery
stores at her command.
* * * * *
A LETTER FROM ONE OF OUR INDIAN PUPILS IN NEBRASKA.
SANTEE AGENCY, NEB.
_Dear Eastern Friends_:--We have had five good prayer meetings during
two weeks, and I am very glad to tell you dear friends that some of
our school-mates said they will try and do as God wants them to do.
And some pray who never did before. No words can tell how I felt one
evening {110} after we came home from meeting. Just before I went up
stairs I asked the Matron if I could talk Dakota to tell my room-mate
about the meeting. The subject was, "What must I do to be saved?" I
told it to her the best I could. After I was through talking I asked
her if she understood all what I meant and she said "Yes." We both
were silent for one minute. I was praying to God in my heart to help
me to help this dear school-mate of mine. Then in a little while she
said, "I believe in Jesus and now I will always try and be a
Christian." When she said that, I couldn't do anything more, I was so
glad that my tears came. And before we went to sleep I ask her to pray
after I did, and she did; this was the first time she prayed in her
own words. It was so dark and I couldn't see anything but I knew she
was crying by the way she spoke. After long time I thought she went to
sleep; but all at once she call my name and said, "I wish tomorrow
morning they would sing in Dakota, '_Ring the bells in heaven, there is
great joy to-day_.'" Dear friends we kindly ask you to remember us when
you offer prayer to our dear God.
Your friend,
----
* * * * *
RECEIPTS FOR FEBRUARY, 1888.
MAINE, $1,119.63.
Auburn. High St. Cong. Ch. 117.28 of which for Indian M. and 39.74
for Chinese M. 302.85
Augusta. Joel Spalding, to const. HON. WM. P. FRYE L.M. 30.00
Bangor. Central Cong. Ch. 75; Hammond St. Cong. Ch., 2, for Pleasant
Hill, Tenn. 77.00
Bridgeton. By Mrs. Hale, Pkg. Basted Work, for Selma, Ala.
Castine. Wm. G. Sargent, for Pleasant Hill, Tenn. 5.00
Center Lebanon. Sab. Sch. Class., for Pleasant Hill, Tenn. 4.10
Denmark. Box of C., for Mobile, Ala.
East Orrington, Sab. Sch. 2; Miss M.F. George, 1, for Pleasant Hill,
Tenn. 3.00
Edgecomb. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 13.00
Farmington Falls. By Miss Susan G. Crowell, for Freight 0.65
Hampden. Cong. Ch. 4.80
Harpswell. Mrs. John Dinsmore. for Pleasant Hill, Tenn. 7.00
Island Falls. Miss D. Merriman, for Pleasant Hill, Tenn. 2.50
Limington. Cong. Ch. 12.50
Monson. Rev. R.W. Emerson, for Pleasant Hill, Tenn. 5.00
Newcastle. Mrs. Wm. Heath, for Pleasant Hill, Tenn. 1.00
New Gloucester. Ladies of Cong. Ch., Bbl. and Box of C., 1.75 for
Freight, for Selma, Ala. 1.75
New Sharon, Cong. Ch. 3.00
North Bridgeton. Cong. Ch. 2.25
Norway. Mrs. Amos. I. Holt, Bbl. of C., for Wilmington, N.C.; ---- 2,
for Freight 2.00
Orkland. H.T. and S.E. Buck, 20; Mrs. Trott, 3; "A Friend," 1 24.00
Portland. "A Friend" (10 of which for Rosebud Indian M.) 15.00
Saco. First Parish Ch. and Soc., to const. MRS. ELLA C. INGALLS L.M.
30.00
Scarboro. Cong. Ch. 5.16
Skowhegan. Ladies of Miss'y Soc., Bbl. of C., for Selma, Ala.
South Paris. by Mrs. Austin, Pkg. Work, for Selma, Ala.
Union. 2 Classes, little girls in Sab. Sch., by Mrs. F.V. Norcross for
Pleasant Hill, Tenn. 5.00
Wells. B. Maxwell. 25.00
Westbrook. Second Cong. Ch. 25.57
Wilton. Ladies of Cong. Ch., Bbl. of C., for Selma, Ala.
Yarmouthville. Rev. Amasa Loring, for Pleasant Hill, Tenn. 2.00
----. "Friend in Maine," bal. to const. MRS. JULIA A. MERRILL L.M.
10.50
By Mrs. C.A. Woodbury, Treas. W.A. to A.M.A., for Woman's Work:
Ladies of Maine 500.00
NEW HAMPSHIRE, $291.01.
Amherst. Rev. A.J. McGown 10.00
Auburn. Benjamin Chase, for Indian M. 2.00
Candia. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 17.50
Colebrook. "A Friend," Pkg. of Coats, Val. 16.16.
East Derry, First Ch. 18.03
East Jaffrey. "A Friend" 15.00
Enfield. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.00
Epping. Cong. Ch. 37.00
Goffstown. Bbl. of C., Val. 30, for Greenwood, S.C., 1.40 for Freight
1.40
Great Falls. Mrs. J.A. Stickney, Bbl. and Box of C. and Christmas
gifts, for Storrs Sch., Atlanta, Ga.
Greenfield. Cong. Ch. 15.50
Greenfield. "Friends" for Storrs Sch. 8.50
Greenland. Cong. Ch. 15.56
Hancock. By Miss B.D. Robertson 5.63
{111}
Henniker. By Miss B.D. Robertson 5.80
Lyme. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 19.81
Manchester. First Cong. Ch. and Soc., to const. ALLEN L. FRENCH L.M.
53.18
Mason. Ladies of Cong. Ch., Bbl. of C., for Storrs Sch., Atlanta, Ga.
Nashua. Miss Sarah Kendall, for Greenwood, S.C. 3.00
Nashua. 2 Bbls. of C., for Greenwood, S.C., 2 for Freight 2.00
Newport. Cong. Ch. 40.10
Pittsfield. Box and Bbl. of C., etc., for Marion, Ala.
South Newmarket. For Freight 2.50
West Lebanon. Tilden Sem., Box of C. and Christmas Gifts, for Storrs
Sch., Atlanta, Ga.
By George Swain:
Amherst. Cong. Ch. 1.50
Greenville. Cong. Ch. 10.00
Mason. Mrs. P.S. Wilson 2.00
.----
.13.50
VERMONT. $174.06.
Bethel. Sab. Sch. of Cong. Ch., for McIntosh, Ga. 3.43
East Hardwick. O. Paine 0.50
Fairhaven. For McIntosh, Ga. 5.35
Irasburg. Mrs. J.E. Chamberlin 5.00
Jamaica. Ladies, for McIntosh, Ga. by Mrs. Ellen D. Wild 2.00
Lyndon. Dr. L.W. Hubbard 2.00
Middlebury. Bbl. of C., and 2 for McIntosh, Ga. 2.00
Montpeller. Bbl. of C., for Storrs Sch., Atlanta, Ga.
North Thetford. Cong. Ch. 7.00
Norwich. Cong. Ch., 15; "A Friend," 5 20.00
Peru. Dea. Edmund Batchelder, 3; Rev. A.B. Peffers, 2. 5.00
Pittsford. Mrs. Nancy P. Humphrey 10.00
Post Mills. Cong. Ch. (3 of which for McIntosh, Ga.) 8.00
Quechee. Bbl. of C. and 1.75 for McIntosh, Ga. 1.75
Saint Johnsbury East. Cong. Ch. 6.50
Shoreham. R.H. Holmes 5.00
Stratford. Cong, Ch. 25.00
Townshend. Cong. Ch. (5 of which from Mrs. Anna Rice) 25.53
Wells River. Cong. Ch. 20.00
West Brattleboro. Ladies of Cong. Ch., 15; A.L. Grout, 5, for
McIntosh, Ga. 20.00
MASSACHUSETTS, $5,925.07
Amesbury. Union Evang. Ch. 4.03
Amherst. "A Friend," to const. JOHN RICHARDS L.M. 30.00
Andover. Rev. F.W. Greene, 20; A Friend, 10 30.00
Andover. Juv. Miss'y Soc. of West Parish, for Indian Student Aid 15.00
Andover. Ladies of Free Ch., Bbl. of C., for Marion, Ala.
Ashfield. "A Friend" 1.16
Auburn. Infant Class. Sab. Sch. of Cong. Ch., for Conn. Ind'l Sch.,
Ga. 7.00
Belchertown. Mrs. D.B. Bruce, to const. REV. CHARLES R. BRUCE L.M.
30.00
Beverly. Dane St. Sab. Sch., for Student Aid, Fisk U. 50.00
Boston. J.H. Nichols, A.A. Lawrence and S.W. Marston, Val. Sch. Books
and Sch. Apparatus
Dorchester. Miss Mary A. Tutle, for Marie Adlof Sch'p Fund 0.40