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[Illustration: JULY, 1887.
VOL. XLI.
NO. 7.
The American Missionary]
* * * * *
[Illustration: CONTENTS]
EDITORIAL.
FOURTH OF JULY,—DEATH OF MRS. PARR, 187
PARAGRAPHS, 188
THE JOHN BROWN SONG, 189
AT THE MONUMENT OF LINCOLN, 191
THINGS TO BE REMEMBERED—NO. 2, 192
THE IMPRESSIONS OF TEN YEARS, 193
THE SOUTH.
NOTES IN THE SADDLE, 195
ATLANTA UNIVERSITY, 197
STRAIGHT UNIVERSITY, 198
TWO EXAMPLES OF PERSEVERANCE, 199
THE INDIANS.
CHARGE AT THE ORDINATION OF REV. GEO. W. REED, 201
THE CHINESE.
EVANGELISTIC WORK, 204
MISSIONS IN CHINA, 206
BUREAU OF WOMAN’S WORK.
TEMPERANCE WORK IN OUR SCHOOLS, 206
ENGLISH AS SHE IS _Not_ TAUGHT, 208
FOR THE CHILDREN.
CHILDREN’S TEMPERANCE WORK, 209
RECEIPTS, 209
* * * * *
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
Rooms, 56 Reade Street.
* * * * *
Price, 50 Cents a Year, in Advance
Entered at the Post-Office at New York, N.Y., as second-class
matter.
AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
* * * * *
PRESIDENT, Hon. WM. B. WASHBURN, LL.D., Mass.
_Vice-Presidents._
Rev. A. J. F. BEHRENDS, D.D., N.Y.
Rev. F. A. NOBLE, D.D., Ill.
Rev. ALEX. MCKENZIE, D.D., Mass.
Rev. D. O. MEARS, D.D., Mass.
Rev. HENRY HOPKINS, Mo.
_Corresponding Secretary._
Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, D.D., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
_Associate Corresponding Secretaries._
Rev. JAMES POWELL, D.D., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
Rev. A. F. BEARD, D.D., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
_Treasurer._
H. W. HUBBARD, Esq., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
_Auditors._
PETER MCCARTEE.
CHAS. P. PEIRCE.
_Executive Committee._
JOHN H. WASHBURN, Chairman.
A. 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.
A. S. BARNES.
J. R. DANFORTH.
CLINTON B. FISK.
A. P. FOSTER.
_District Secretaries._
Rev. C. L. WOODWORTH, D.D., _21 Cong’l House, Boston_.
Rev. J. E. ROY, D.D., _151 Washington Street, Chicago_.
_Financial Secretary for Indian Missions._
Rev. CHARLES W. SHELTON.
_Field Superintendent._
Rev. C. J. RYDER, _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
_Bureau of Woman’s Work._
_Secretary_, Miss D. E. EMERSON, _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
* * * * *
COMMUNICATIONS
Relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the
Corresponding Secretaries; those relating to the collecting fields,
to Rev. James Powell, D.D., or to the District Secretaries; letters
for “THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY,” to the Editor, at the New York
Office.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
In drafts, checks, registered letters or post office orders may
be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York,
or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21
Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 151 Washington Street,
Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a
Life Member.
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. XLI. JULY, 1887. NO. 7.
* * * * *
American Missionary Association.
* * * * *
This year the Fourth of July is on Monday. Last year, being on
Sunday, Dr. Dana’s suggestion to take up a contribution to help
the A. M. A. out of debt was acted upon by many of the churches.
The result was a large increase to our receipts. Why not repeat
the effort this year? It is certainly in order that patriotic
sermons should be preached July 3d. It is just as certain that a
contribution taken in connection with such a service in behalf
of the A. M. A. would be neither burdensome nor inappropriate.
It would be an easy matter certainly for that $5,000 deficiency
that we carry from last year to be provided for. We throw out the
suggestion.
One other thought. Vacation days are now upon us. We make the
request that our friends will bear our work in mind as they visit
the country churches. A little effort to circulate the AMERICAN
MISSIONARY and to make the people acquainted with our work, would
go a great way to help us.
* * * * *
In the June MISSIONARY we mentioned a watch sent us by a widow.
It was a cherished memento. Not being able to make an offering of
money, she gave us that which represented to her more than money.
A reader of the MISSIONARY, noticing the gift, has kindly sent us
more than double its market value in redemption.
* * * * *
We are pained to record the death of Mrs. J. H. Parr, which
occurred in Chicago, April 3d. Mrs. Parr first went South under
appointment of the A. M. A., in November, 1884, to take charge
of the musical department at Tillotson Institute, Austin, Texas.
At the close of that school year, with her husband she went
to Quitman, Ga. The trying experiences in connection with the
persecution of our missionaries, and especially the incendiary
burning of our school-house at Quitman, gave her nerves such a
shock that she never fully recovered from it. The last six months
of her life she seemed to be improving. They were months marked by
special Christian activity, aiding her husband in his work as a
pastor. But death came suddenly, and it was clearly manifest that
her nervous forces, so fearfully overtaxed and shattered by the
experience of that terrible night in Quitman, were very far from
being restored. We commend the bereaved husband to the benediction
of the loving Father who sympathizes with all his children in the
day of their affliction.
* * * * *
The _Herald_, of Greenville, Miss., is responsible for the
statement that a Negro who was serving out a small fine on the
chain-gang at Vicksburg, for refusing to work had $100 added to
his fine. The same paper also states that George Young (white),
convicted of forgery and confined in Kemper Co. jail, was taken
from prison and set at liberty by a party of masked men. This may
be taken as a sample of the difference between the way justice is
meted out to white and black criminals in Mississippi. The color
line is certainly drawn. A good thing for Justice that her eyes are
blinded. The hand in which she holds her sword would certainly move
to smite the discriminators, could she have a sight at the outrage.
* * * * *
A committee of the U.S. Senate, consisting of Senators Platt,
Blackburn and Cullom, have been investigating Indian matters. A
long telegram, every point of which tells against the Indians,
professing to be based on the investigations of this committee, has
been sent out all over the country. Depend upon it, when so lengthy
a telegram is sent over the wires of the Associated Press, there
is an agency behind it that has an axe to grind. The dispatch was
so one-sided that any careful reader could not help seeing that
in so far as it stated facts, they were but partially stated. It
said the committee had witnessed a dance among the Osages, and that
“it was especially sad to learn that two of the sprightliest of
the dancers, covered almost all over with little looking-glasses,
sleigh-bells, rings, feathers and ribbons, were graduates of the
Carlisle Indian School, who have relapsed into shameless savagery.”
If this language, taken in connection with its setting, means
anything, it means a slur at Indian education. But suppose the
telegram had said that there had been connected with the Carlisle
School, in all, eighty-four Osages; that none of them stayed in the
school over _three_ years; that more than a half of them remained
_less than a year_, and that there have been no Osages at the
school since August, 1885; had the telegram made that statement,
there would be nothing “particularly sad” in the discovery that two
out of the eighty-four had yielded to the tremendous temptation to
fall back into ways out of which they had never been lifted. It is
_sad_, of course, that these people are savages, but the spirit
that lurks behind this telegram is far sadder. It is absurd to talk
of these youth as _lapsing_. Indian education is not to be judged
by the conduct of those who have been in school from less than one
year up to three years at most; nor, even had they been in school
for ten or fifteen years, is it to be condemned should it be proved
that two out of eighty-four, yielding to temptation, had fallen.
* * * * *
It will interest the readers of the MISSIONARY to learn that the
Act of Congress for the allotment of lands in severalty to Indians
provides that every head of an Indian family shall be settled on
160 acres; every unmarried person over eighteen years of age,
and every orphan, shall have 80 acres; and every single person
under eighteen born before the President issues the order making
allotments, 40 acres. The allotments so made are to be inalienable
for 25 years, and the lands remaining over are to be bought of the
Indians by the Government and opened to homestead settlement only;
such homesteads in tracts of 160 acres to be inalienable also for
five years. When the allotments have been made, all the Indians are
declared to be citizens of the United States, entitled to all the
rights, privileges and immunities of such citizens.
* * * * *
THE JOHN BROWN SONG.
The claim has been made that the melody of the John Brown song was
the product of the colored people. Our readers will see from the
following article, which we take great pleasure in publishing, that
Mr. Frank E. Jerome, of Russell, Kansas, is the author of this
famous war song. He has written the article, at our request, for
the MISSIONARY, and in a private letter he says that at the time he
composed the song he was only thirteen years of age.
ED.
On the first day of February, 1861, I arrived in Leavenworth,
Kansas, from St. Louis, Mo., and took an engagement in a theatre
there. Leavenworth at that time was under the greatest excitement.
All sorts of rumors of war were coming in, and the soldiers seemed
to be concentrating from all sides. Bonfires and stump speeches
were the nightly occurrences, and stirred up the patriotism of
the people to fever heat. As a boy, I naturally fell into the
excitement, and every chance I had I would attend these public
meetings. At one of them I heard an impassioned orator thunder out:
“For Freedom and Right will surely win the day!”
This sentence remained with me. I pondered over it, and finally got
to singing it in different ways in several songs. Some time after,
I heard a prominent citizen say that “John Brown was dead, but the
rebels would find that his soul would roll on and crush them!”
Before either of these occurrences, I heard a number of soldiers
on a South-bound steamer singing, as they swept by:
“Go tell Aunt Susey! Go tell Aunt Susey!
Go tell Aunt Susey old John Brown is dead!” (_Etc._)
This tune I had picked up and learned thoroughly. One gift of
nature to me has been the art of combining two tunes of different
kinds and thereby producing a new one. I had combined this tune of
“Go tell Aunt Susey” with the old Sunday-school hymn, “I love to go
to Sunday-school,” and the union of these two tunes produced the
air of “John Brown’s Body,” as sung everywhere since that time. I
sang this tune long before I put any words to it. But when I heard
“Freedom and Right will surely win the day,” and that John Brown’s
soul “would roll on and crush them,” I found with delight that I
could fit them neatly into my tune.
The play in which I gave “John Brown’s Body” was designated as
“Jeff. Davis in the Camp.” It represented a number of Northern
Negroes going down to capture Jeff. Davis, and during the march
southward they build a camp fire, and while the bean soup is
boiling the sentinel sings a song, and the rest of the “soldiers”
on the stage join in the chorus. I was the sentinel, and gave
the song at this time. A company of soldiers was present in the
audience, and I was quite startled at the reception my song
received. They hurrahed, yelled, laughed, stamped, and called me
out time and again, until the proprietor of the theatre interposed
and quieted the excitement. But that night, every time I appeared
on the stage another storm of applause would greet me.
After the show was over, the soldiers cheered and went out singing
“John Brown’s Body” in all sorts of ways, and for several days
after I heard it on the street in many different ways. The tune has
always remained as I first composed it, but the soldiers changed
the words to suit their own convenience and ideas. The song as I
sang it was as follows:
John Brown’s body lies slumbering in the grave;
John Brown was noble, loyal and brave;
His mission on earth was to rescue and to save,
And his soul goes rolling on!
CHORUS: Glory, glory, Hallelujah! (_Etc._)
The Rebels in the South can never make it pay
While John Brown’s mission speeds on its way,
For Freedom and Right will surely win the day,
As his soul goes rolling on!
This was all the song—but two verses. A short time after this a
little newsboy stopped me and told me that he had made up a new
verse for my song; and upon asking him to sing it, he sang:
“We’ll hang Jeff. Davis on a sour apple-tree!”
repeating the same line three times. I laughed, and told him I
would think it over.
In the theatre when I gave the song was a Frenchman named C.
Francois, well known to the early settlers of Leavenworth, who
was the leader of a glee club, composed of the actors, who sang
nicely many national airs and ballads. Mr. Francois, about the
time I sang the song, went to New York, and, I learn, returned by
way of Massachusetts, and I am led to believe that it was through
his means that the song reached the Eastern States as quickly as
it did; and I also have good reason for believing that the Seventh
Kansas and Fiftieth Illinois regiments carried the song South a
little later.
These are the facts as they occurred; and I may say, in closing,
that I am pleased to note that the little acorn has developed into
the mighty oak, and John Brown’s name is one of the imperishable
monuments that now adorn a free and united country; and the colored
people of the South and North can unite under the glorious banner
of Liberty in preserving the name and love for him who freely gave
his life for their liberty and freedom.
I have heard severe criticism on the part of Southerners regarding
the illustrious dead, but I often remember the olden story, in the
Holy Book, of similar criticism made by the enemies of Christ, and
I also read that “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man
lay down his life for his friends.”
So, in our homes, in our workshops, in the fields, in the churches
and schools, through the pages of history, and within our own
hearts, we will never forget the boys in blue who saved the Union,
and the glorious hero who laid down his life willingly and freely,
that the curse of slavery should be forever extinguished from
the bright, fair pages of our history. And while we strew bright
flowers over the graves of the departed heroes, we shall always
remember, with swelling heart and deep affection, the great work
accomplished by old John Brown of Ossawatomie.
Russell, Kansas. FRANK E. JEROME.
* * * * *
AT THE MONUMENT OF LINCOLN.
The General Association of Illinois, at its recent meeting in
Springfield, as it had done once before, went in a body to that
shrine of patriotism, the monument to Abraham Lincoln. That
patriotic song, now turned to a Christian psalm, “My country, ’tis
of thee,” was sung by the people, and a prayer of thanksgiving was
offered by Dr. G. S. F. Savage, who has now come to be one of the
veteran ministers of the State.
Words of welcome were offered by the Attorney-General of Illinois,
Mr. Geo. H. Hunt, and these were gracefully responded to by the
Moderator, Rev. W. F. Day. Addresses were also made by Rev. E. K.
Alden, D.D., Hon. Wm. H. Collins, and Rev. Jos. E. Roy.
At the former visit of this body, the Jubilee Singers were present
to voice the gratitude of the emancipated race.
The colored troops, after their muster-out, gave for the monument
more than $50,000, one-fourth of the whole.
The scroll held in the left hand of the bronze statue of Mr.
Lincoln bears on it, in large letters, the word “Emancipation,” and
the pen in his right hand indicates the signing of that talismanic
instrument, while the coat-of-arms, set into the pedestal,
represents the eagle as holding in his beak the broken chain of
slaves.
Of the 178,000 colored soldiers, 80,000 had, with their great
Liberator, laid down their lives for the life of the nation. And
so it seemed well that one who was identified with the work of
supplementing that edict of freedom should stand there to recount
their deeds of valor and to relate with what enthusiasm they
celebrate all over the South not only Emancipation Day and the
Fourth of July, but Decoration Day itself. Who in that Southland
shall be found to offer psalms and prayers, and scatter flowers
over the graves of the 321,369 soldiers buried in the eighty-two
national cemeteries there? As God would have it, the people are
found there, numbered by millions, who delight to render this
service of gratitude and of love—a people whose patriotism has
never been tarnished with a breath of disloyalty.
What shall be done for a people who have been so true to the
nation? Let them be confirmed in all the rights and emoluments of
our Christian citizenship.
* * * * *
THINGS TO BE REMEMBERED—NO. 2.
_The Want_: Nothing so nearly concerns the welfare of this land,
and of all lands, as the thorough merging and assimilating of all
the races here into one Christian commonwealth. This is needed
for the unity and strength of our own nation, and for an example
and influence upon the nations abroad. The despised races, in
particular, need to be thus fused and absorbed, in order that they
may be inoculated and empowered with the spirit of the Republic
to carry its freedom, its learning and light, to the lands in
darkness. They are part and parcel of our people, _fused or not_,
and the character of the nation will be affected by their presence
and influence. The measure with which we mete to them shall be
measured to us again. We are in a partnership which involves common
gains and common losses. What we put into them of intelligence,
piety and moral power, we put into the nation not only, but we put
into the mightiest of the unbaptized races of men. We have little
conception, indeed, of the immense inertia of the heathen races;
or how much sympathy, money and labor, will be needed to move them
into new lines of thought, or of moral action. But it is a work
to which we are specially called, and for which we have special
facilities. It may tax all our patience and charity, and then we
shall barely touch the necessities of the case. The churches, the
school-houses, the intelligence and the character that will be
needed for the uplift of these races, we have only begun to supply.
Indeed it is a question as to whether we have yet formed any
adequate idea of a work, _as for races_, in distinction from a work
which deals merely with individuals. But if we could bear in mind,
in dealing with the Chinaman, the Indian and the Negro, that it is
the races we are after, the turning of single souls to God would
not seem the small thing that it does. We should then comprehend,
perhaps, how much more favorable was a Christian land for the
conversion of men, and for the raising up of broad, intelligent,
and thoroughly equipped teachers and preachers for the benighted
and perishing, than were heathen lands. The activities of our daily
life, the forces of our liberty, learning, piety, government,
_must_ do immensely more for a man in America than the feeble
pulses of gospel life and light can do for him in China and Africa.
How much easier, then, the conversion of heathen under the blaze of
our Christian sky, and how much stronger and better men can we make
of them to undertake the salvation of their own lands!
The great want is the means—both men and money—to throw upon
the Pacific slopes, upon the Indian reservations, the Southern
savannas, a Christian force large enough to put these races under
thorough Christian culture. Anything less than this will fail of
the end. It is an opportunity to lay hold of the unsaved races,
such as is likely never to come again; which it would not only be
unwise to neglect, but deeply criminal not to improve. God sets
before us this open door, and not to enter in is to peril _their_
future as well as our own. A responsibility greater than this could
hardly be given to men, and an eye to see it and a soul to feel it
are what, beyond all things, our people need.
C. L. WOODWORTH
* * * * *
THE IMPRESSIONS OF TEN YEARS.
BY PRESIDENT PATTON OF HOWARD UNIVERSITY.
The present educational year completes the tenth of my connection
with Howard University, and thus with the work of educating the
Negro race. An “Abolitionist” since the spring of the year 1837,
I have ever felt a deep interest in the welfare of this oppressed
people, and the fact of their present freedom has only changed the
direction of my anxiety and effort. For I know that the brightness
of their future depends upon industry, education, morality and
religion. And to this end they must have Christian schools and
churches, and an industrial training in shop and store as well as
in garden and farm. My experience as president of an institution
which in its seven departments—industrial, normal, preparatory,
collegiate, legal, medical and theological—covers well the entire
range of instruction, except the primary branches, has given
opportunity to observe the capacity and the actual progress of the
Negro, and to study the wants of the race in this country.
The result is encouragement not uncoupled with anxiety. A great
work has been accomplished, beyond question—great in immediate
effect, though more so in its prospective bearing. It is rather a
great seed sowing than a great harvest. Thousands have been taught
the rudiments of knowledge, and a select few have received a higher
training. Some ambition has been roused in the masses, and a little
progress has been made in supplying them with more intelligent
leaders in church and in state. No doubt remains that the Negro
may be rendered capable of filling all the stations in life which
are occupied by white men. Ordinary acquirements are made with
creditable ease. The higher education can also be acquired by the
proper proportion of students, but this effort is only partially
successful as yet. Poor material is too commonly offered, not only
as to native talent, but especially as regards thorough drill in
primary studies and the commencement of genuine mental discipline.
With an imperfect drill in the lower schools, we can do no perfect
work in the higher branches, and we find it difficult to develop
and sustain in the mind the idea of a true scholarship, and of the
lofty aims of a liberal education. It is but slowly that such an
intellectual atmosphere can be made to pervade the colored colleges
of the South as is found in the white colleges of the New England
States. But the work must be pushed till such a result shall be
secured.
Progress always entails added labor and expense. What has been
already accomplished by the A. M. A. must not be lost, and the
vantage ground must be used to gain new results. When students
graduate, their places are more than occupied by others, who have
been moved by their example to seek for knowledge. As the spirit of
caste is overcome, and places of honor and profit begin to open to
colored men, fully qualified persons must be ready to embrace the
new opportunities. Every educated and earnest Christian minister
sent forth from our institutions will not only supply his immediate
church, but will probably organize in the outlying neighborhood one
or two others, requiring similar pastors in a short time. And he
will also inspire the uneducated preachers of that region to aim
at higher work, and to seek school privileges. It is a frequent
remark, that the theological department of Howard University has,
by direct and indirect influence, revolutionized the preaching in
the colored churches of all denominations in Washington, which
number about eighty, it is said. Thus the A. M. A. is a leaven
hidden in the Southern meal, and destined, with similar influences,
to leaven the entire mass.
And this ought to be appreciated by the intelligent
Congregationalists of the North, who will rejoice in two obvious
results of the operations of the A. M. A. One is, the gradual
increase of their own churches and educational institutions, which
are becoming respectable in number and great in influence; the
other is, the modifying effect upon other denominations, which are
thus inspired and toned up to our standard of education, morals and
religion. This is secured not only by our example and competition,
but also by the enlightening and liberalizing influence exerted
upon their own men, who, as teachers and preachers, have been
trained in our schools. These are not false to their own sects;
they labor faithfully and successfully in their respective charges,
but they have gained enlargement of view and a wider charity, and
they will be found always on the side of progress in thought and in
action, and ready for Christian co-operation.
The movement in progress in both political parties, to obliterate
the race-line at the polls, is significant in many respects. It
points to a decrease of prejudice, but it also renders imperative
increased efforts to furnish the Negroes with intelligent,
well-principled leaders, of their own race, to save them from being
made tools of by wily politicians among the whites, and by corrupt
vote-mongers among themselves. In a section so rapidly developing
as is the South, great changes may soon be expected. It is our
American Japan. Let us not be backward in supplying the formative
influences. The work of the American Missionary Association was
never more needed, or more certain to be successful, than at this
very moment.
* * * * *
THE SOUTH.
NOTES IN THE SADDLE.
BY FIELD-SUPERINTENDENT C. J. RYDER
A colored preacher of the old style stumblingly read for his
text, the following:—“Wine is a moccasin and strong drink is a
rattlesnake.” The sermon which followed was in keeping with the
text which he read. This is sound temperance sentiment even if
it is a little faulty as a rendering of Scripture. The question
is often asked:—What is the A. M. A. doing toward the grand
temperance upheaval of the South? This question has been put
to me recently:—“Is the A. M. A. keeping step to the march of
present reform, as it did in the great anti-slavery agitation?” An
unhesitating _yes_ can be given to this question. In the “Notes in
the Saddle,” for June, a few hints were given concerning the part
the representatives of the A. M. A. were taking in the temperance
movement in Texas. This was only a hint. It was intended as
such. Much more could have been said, and truthfully said; for
instance:—one pastor of an A. M. A. church is devoting a large
part of the summer to stumping the State in favor of the proposed
Temperance Amendment to the State Constitution. He goes out under
the commission of a committee of temperance workers appointed for
the special purpose of stirring up correct sentiments among the
people. The colored people are a large factor in the settlement
of this question in Texas. This pastor will do his utmost to lead
them to vote right. Other pastors and teachers are giving portions
of their time this summer to the same good work. In the South at
large every A. M. A. school is the center of pronounced temperance
agitation. “Bands of Hope” among the younger pupils and temperance
societies of various names among the older pupils are the universal
rule. The “Three Pledge” cards, including abstinence from tobacco,
intoxicants, and profane language, are signed by almost every
pupil in the A. M. A. schools. These pupils, when they go out as
teachers in the public schools, take these pledges with them, and
secure signatures from their pupils, and in this way carry the
work far beyond the limits of the enrollment of our own schools,
in this aggressive temperance agitation. Not a single pastor of an
A. M. A. church uses intoxicants or tobacco so far as my knowledge
goes. The example of these pastors, as well as their preaching,
is right and safe. In one community, the rigid rules adopted by
the Congregational Church concerning these indulgences, brought
the other colored churches into line first, and, finally, the
white church of the same community found it necessary to take this
radical position in order to maintain its hold upon the people.
Their wise method of reaching the people and securing a correct
public sentiment concerning this question, is made use of both by
pastors and by schools. Instruction in Coleman’s and Richardson’s
Manuals is provided for in the course of study. Honest, earnest,
and persistent Christian effort is put forth by the representatives
of the A. M. A. all along the line.
* * * * *
While walking down the streets of Florence, Ala., a few weeks ago,
a little white boy came trotting along at my side. We easily fell
into conversation. “How old are you?” I said. “Nine years old,” he
replied. “What Reader do you read in?” “I never read in no Reader.”
“Do you go to school?” “No, sir.” “Can’t you read?” “I can pick out
some words right smart.” This is the exact testimony of a Southern
white boy of the middle class of society to-day! A few rods farther
down the street of the same village, a little colored boy overtook
me. I invited conversation with him, with the following result:
“How old are you?” “Nine years old, Boss.” “Go to school?” “Oh,
yes, sir; been going to school for a long time.” “What Reader
are you in?” “The Second, sir.” “Can you read right along in the
Bible without any trouble?” “Yes, sir; I don’t have any trouble
in reading ’most anything.” This incident is true to the letter.
It is not very exceptional. The colored children are improving
faster than the white children in the South. If this state of
things continues very long, the Southern people will be obliged
to hire colored young men and women to teach their white schools.
Think of it! “In New York State 55 white men in a thousand, and in
Massachusetts 62 in each thousand, make their mark when they sign a
document,” says the New York _Post_, “while in Kansas only 31 in a
thousand, and in Nebraska only 30 in a thousand are so illiterate.
But in Kentucky 173 white men in a thousand cannot write their own
names!” The A. M. A. schools in the South are seeking to correct
this appalling state of things. They not only educate, but they
inspire also a desire for education in those reached by their
influences. It is unfortunate that these influences are mostly
confined to the colored people, but that is not because the whites
are excluded from our school privileges. “None are so blind as
those who will not see.” None are so hopelessly ignorant as those
who do not desire to learn.
* * * * *
ATLANTA UNIVERSITY.
The eighteenth anniversary of this institution has just passed. No
year in the history of the school, perhaps, has witnessed a broader
and better work than that of the year now closed.
The exercises incident to Commencement week were inaugurated with
the baccalaureate sermon, preached by Sec. Woodworth, of Boston,
Sabbath morning, May 22d, in the chapel of the University, packed
to the full with the students and their friends.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were occupied with the usual
examinations of the Normal and College departments, in the presence
of the State Board of Examiners appointed by the Governor for that
purpose. Every opportunity was given and taken to test the students
in their thorough knowledge and mastery of the subjects reviewed;
and it is but simple justice to them and to their teachers to say
that they bore the test superbly. In addition to the ordinary
school work, there were exhibitions in handicraft of various
kinds. First came an exhibit in the principles and practice of
wood-working, including carpentry and turning, which would have
gratified the advocates of manual labor connected with our public
schools.
Next came an object lesson, by the Senior and Normal classes,
in nursing. They brought in, upon a stretcher, one of their own
number, and illustrated how different kinds of bandages should be
made and applied; how plasters and poultices should be mixed and
spread, and also how deftly and easily the clothing of the sick bed
could be changed and renewed without removing or disturbing the
patient.
Then came an exhibit in artistic and scientific cooking, by
the Senior Normal class. If the quality of the cooking were to
be judged by the rapidity with which the different articles
disappeared after reaching the hands of the committee, it must be
pronounced a great success.
And last, but not least, came a look at the farm, and an inspection
of the barn, the crops, and the stock. The conclusion was that the
whole establishment was a credit to the State, and worthy of the
study of all the farmers thereof.
At the close of the examination on Wednesday, P. M., the school
assembled in the chapel to listen to the report of the examiners on
what they had seen and heard. They had nothing but praise to bestow
on the literary work of the University; the evidences of hard and
accurate study; of clear, inspiring teaching, and of the scholarly
bearing and quiet, orderly spirit in all departments of the school.
They were specially gratified with the manual training given in
so many directions, and its promise of future value to the State.
One of them, who seemed to voice the feelings of the others, said:
“I believe that, take it all in all, Atlanta University is the
best-equipped school in the State of Georgia.”
Wednesday evening, Rev. A. D. Mayo, of Boston, delivered a very
able and quickening address, taking for his theme: “American brains
in American hands.”
Thursday was the great day of the feast, when five young men and
six young women delivered their orations or read their essays
from the Commencement stage. The services were held in the Second
Baptist Church, before an audience of twenty-five hundred people.
One of the examiners remarked at the close that he never before
witnessed, on such an occasion, such perfect order and decorum. And
of the orations and essays it is praise enough to say that not one
of them contained a weak or foolish thing.
It will interest the friends of Atlanta to learn that the
presidency, made vacant by the death of the lamented Ware, two
years since, was filled by the election of the Rev. Erastus
Blakeslee, of New Haven, Conn. Mr. Blakeslee was a classmate at
Yale College of Mr. Ware and of Prof. Bumstead, who has been acting
president during the past year; and it is believed he will enter
heartily into the spirit of the institution, and will bring to it
new enterprise and enthusiasm and power.
C. L. W.
* * * * *
CLOSING EXERCISES AT STRAIGHT.
A Young Men’s Christian Association has been organized during the
year, and the first of our closing exercises was a public meeting
of this association, conducted by its officers at Central Church.
Addresses were made by Prof. Olds and Rev. Dr. Berger, and a fair
audience was present. This was on the morning of Sunday, May 25,
and on the evening of the same day the Baccalaureate sermon was
preached by Dr. Berger. It was a grand sermon, and was listened to
with profound attention by a large audience.
On Monday evening the societies, the old “Sumner Literary
Association,” which is almost as old as the school itself; the
“Philomathian,” of later birth, but great usefulness; the “Band of
Mercy” and “Band of Hope,” united in a public anniversary meeting.
A programme, consisting of recitations, orations, reading of
essays, and debate, was presented, and a large audience testified
to its entire success.
The annual concert and exhibition came on Wednesday evening. The
young people were greeted by a full house, and money enough was
realized to nearly pay off the indebtedness on the printing outfit.
The music was conceded to be excellent, and all the exercises were
applauded.
Friday was Commencement. The exercises are held in the evening, as
most of those interested in the school being working people, many
who would desire to attend could not do so in the daytime. In New
Orleans, especially in summer time, audiences are not noted for
assembling early, but people have come to know that when Straight
University says 7 o’clock, that is the hour when exercises will
commence; and as soon as the doors were open, the crowd was ready
to go in. No such an audience ever before occupied that church. At
the opening of the doors nearly enough were there to fill the main
audience room, and soon galleries, aisles and doorways were packed.
It is estimated that a thousand people were present, and a great
number were unable to get in.
Formerly, on all gatherings of this kind, it was found necessary to
have a force of policemen present; but when getting my permit from
the Mayor, I was asked what policemen would be required, I ventured
to say “none,” and I am rejoiced to be able to say that during the
entire series of meetings no disturbance of any kind occurred. It
must be remembered, in order to give force to this, that Central
Church is situated in the very heart of the most densely populated
portion of the city.
It was a long programme, but so quiet and attentive was that dense
audience, that every word could be heard in any part of the room.
The exercises from the platform were such as we were proud of, and
the audience was not less a subject of pride.
Ten students were graduated, the largest number ever completing
the course in any year, and all their exercises were marked by
a simplicity and force quite in contrast to the floridity and
fluffiness often attributed, and sometimes with justice, to the
colored people. Some fine music by the choral and glee clubs, and
by individuals, gave variety to the exercises.
The diplomas were presented by Hon. Thomas J. Woodward,
vice-president of the board of trustees. A few remarks were made
by President Hitchcock and Secretary Chas. Shute, followed by
a neat and forcible impromptu address by Rev. A. E. P. Albert,
D.D., an alumnus of Straight; closing by singing “The Heavens are
Telling,” by the choral club, and benediction by Dr. Berger. Of
the graduating class, all but one will for the present engage in
teaching; several hope to return and take post-graduate courses.
All are working Christians.
R.C.H.
* * * * *
TWO EXAMPLES OF PERSEVERANCE.
The current talk concerning the Negro makes the entire race to
consist of improvident ne’er-do-wells, with no care for the
future and with no power of denying present gratification for
future good. Whatever of truth or falsehood this assertion may
contain, and probably it has much of both, very many instances of
perseverance come under our observation among our students in the
schools of the A. M. A.
A. H. is an orphan girl of about eighteen years, whose desire for
education brought her into our school a few months last year. By
hard work and careful saving through the summer, she earned enough
money to keep herself in school a year. At the close, however,
of the first month she brought her books to my desk, saying she
must leave school at once; and the poor girl broke down, and
began to cry. Little by little I learned the story: Her aunt had
been sick, and A. had given to her the earnings hoarded for the
year’s tuition. It was now impossible to get the money back, or
even enough to meet one month’s demands, and A. had resolved to go
out into the country, where she could earn a little by picking up
potatoes. By hard work she hoped to save enough to return again
at Christmas time. The next day it was my pleasure to send her
word that for the present she might remain in the school with
free tuition. On Monday she was again in her place, grateful and
studious, and kindly offering to give up her desk when the room
became full, and herself take a stool or a chair.
In one of our advanced classes there is a young man of nearly
thirty years, whose story is equally interesting. In the spring he
thought he should not be able to return to school this fall, for
lack of money. He went out, however, resolved never to spend an
idle day; he would work, even if wages were low. Whenever he failed
to secure better work, he went to the woods, splitting rails.
Days and days he worked there, through the heat, and found that,
by arduous labor, he could clear exactly thirty-five cents a day!
“I should have kept on,” said he, “had it been but twenty-five!”
The result of his summer’s work was that he found himself, at
school time, with more money saved than at any previous fall; and
now he is again at his place, studious and faithful, volunteering
even to work extra hours each day and Saturday, in the Industrial
department, for the sake of the practice with tools.
Instances might be multiplied, but these two are sufficient to show
the industry and the sacrifice of many of the scholars, and the
need in our schools for a fund to help such to secure the education
they desire.
A TEACHER.
* * * * *
THE INDIANS.
Mr. George W. Reed, of the last class of the Hartford Theological
Seminary, has been appointed by the American Missionary Association
a missionary to the Dakota Indians. He was ordained a minister of
the gospel of Christ, on Tuesday, May 17th, by a council called
by the Olivet Congregational Church of Springfield, Mass., at
Springfield. Mr. Reed is a member of the Olivet Church. The sermon
was preached by Prof. Llewellyn Pratt, of the Hartford Seminary.
Ordaining prayer by Rev. Wm. Thompson, D.D., also of the Hartford
Seminary. Right hand of fellowship by Rev. Michael Burnham, of
Springfield. Charge to the candidate by Secretary Powell.
By request, we publish a portion of the charge to the candidate:
I charge you to remember that the interest which this Council
expresses in Indian missions is in the line of our historic
development. Away back in the year 1644, the General Court of
Massachusetts ordained “that the County Courts in this jurisdiction
shall take care that the Indians in the several shires be
civilized, and the courts shall have power to take order from time
to time to have the Indians instructed in the knowledge of God.”
In 1646 John Elliot, a Congregational minister, was at work as
a missionary among the Indians. He translated his famous Indian
Bible, the first and for many years the only Bible printed in
America, gathered the Indians into communities by themselves,
and in 1647 had 14 Indian villages, with 1,400 praying Indians,
organized into 24 regular congregations, in charge of 24 native
pastors, and the discipline of the churches and the qualifications
of the ministers were fully up to the Puritan standard then
required. In 1743 Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, of Lebanon, Conn.,
another Congregational minister, took up the work where Elliot
had laid it down, and out of his missionary labors grew Dartmouth
College, an institution that stands to-day a proud monument of New
England Congregationalism’s early interest in the education and
evangelization of the Indian.
In 1810 the American Board came into existence, and in 1815
we find it adopting measures for carrying the gospel to the
Indians. So rapid did its work grow in that direction, that in
1830 three-fourths of all the church members in its missions were
Indians. In 1846 the American Missionary Association was formed,
and of the 30 missionaries who held its commission the first year,
11 were missionaries to the Indians. In 1883 the American Board,
deciding to prosecute its work exclusively in foreign lands, turned
over its Indian missions to the American Missionary Association. So
that you see what this Council has done to-night is in the line of
our historical development, and connects your life and work in an
unbroken line with the early history of Congregationalism in its
efforts to reach the Indians.
I charge you to remember that in your special mission, justice,
as a Christian principle to be observed in all our dealings with
our fellow men, must find in you a champion. This because of the
fearful wrongs that, in the name of religion, have been committed
against the people to whom you go.
In the person of the poor Indian, entitled to all his rights as a
man, Christ has been standing in the presence of the white man’s
civilization on this continent for upwards of three hundred
years, asking for justice, and it has not yet been accorded him.
A most shameful record is the history of the white man’s dealings
with the Indians, whether read in the conduct of individuals or
in the conduct of the Government. The white man, by reason of his
intelligence, his resources and his numerical superiority, had the
ability to cheat, rob, and overpower the Indian, and putting his
sense of justice out of sight, he has proceeded to cheat and rob
and overpower him. Between the years 1778 and 1871, the people of
the United States have made with the Indians 649 treaties, and the
majority of them they have violated. By these treaties nearly all
of the territory of the United States has been acquired—a territory
that by reason of its vastness is at present the home of 50,000,000
white men, prospectively to become the home of at least 150,000,000
more—a territory that by reason of its marvellous resources of
climate, soil and minerals, has produced a wealth already rivaling
that of the oldest nations, and promising in the not far distant
future to surpass them all. This territory has nearly all of it
been deeded by the Indians to the people of the United States, _on
condition_ that the Government should compensate them by money
annuities in cash payment, or their equivalent in food, clothing,
agricultural implements, and instruction in farming and trades;
by establishing and maintaining schools for the education of
their children, and rigidly excluding white intruders from their
reservations.
Well, we have got the territory, but what about the conditions?
The money agreed upon has not been paid; the rations stipulated
for have not been issued; the schools promised have not been
maintained, and white intruders upon the reservations have not
been excluded. From pillar to post these children of the forest
have been driven. As fast as the white man has wanted the Indian’s
land, a reason has been speedily found for violating the treaty
and consummating the robbery. The savage has been goaded to go
on the war path by white men’s villainy, and then the Government
has been obliged to go out and whip him into submission; and, as
a punishment for crime he never would have perpetrated had he not
been driven to it, move him elsewhere, and divide up his land among
his despoilers.
My brother, remember as you stand to preach the gospel among the
Indians it will be your precious privilege to show that the wrongs
and injustice they have suffered at the hands of the white man have
been inflicted in opposition to the teachings of Christianity and
in defiance of its commands.