VOL. XXXIV. No. 1.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”
JANUARY, 1880.
_CONTENTS:_
EDITORIAL.
SALUTATIONS 1
OUR ENLARGED WORK 2
PROF. CHASE IN AFRICA 3
INDIAN BOYS AT HAMPTON 4
PARAGRAPHS—SATISFIED 5
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD 6
GENERAL NOTES 8
THE FREEDMEN.
VACATION REPORTS: Prof. T. N. Chase 9
WOMAN’S WORK FOR WOMAN: Miss L. A. Parmelee 12
THE GEORGIA CONFERENCE 14
THE CENTRAL SOUTH CONFERENCE 15
GEORGIA—Thanksgiving Services and First Impressions:
Rev. C. W. Hawley 16
ALABAMA—Emerson Institute, 1865 to 1879: Rev. O. D. Crawford 17
ALABAMA—Shelby Iron Works—A Revival 19
TENNESSEE—A Student Aided: Rev. E. M. Cravath 19
TENNESSEE, MEMPHIS—Health, Business, &c.: Prof. A. J. Steele 20
THE INDIANS.
S’KOKOMISH AGENCY—Homes and Schools, Lands and Titles:
Edwin Eells, Agent 22
THE CHINESE.
SANTA BARBARA MISSION—Chin Fung: Rev. W. C. Pond 23
CHILDREN’S PAGE.
AMATEUR HEATHEN 25
RECEIPTS. 27
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NEW YORK:
Published by the American Missionary Association,
ROOMS, 56 READE STREET.
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Price, 50 Cents a Year, in advance.
Entered at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., as second-class matter.
American Missionary Association,
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PRESIDENT.
HON. E. S. TOBEY, Boston.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
Hon. F. D. PARISH, Ohio.
Hon. E. D. HOLTON, Wis.
Hon. WILLIAM CLAFLIN, Mass.
ANDREW LESTER, Esq., N. Y.
Rev. STEPHEN THURSTON, D. D., Me.
Rev. SAMUEL HARRIS, D. D., Ct.
WM. C. CHAPIN, Esq., R. I.
Rev. W. T. EUSTIS, D. D., Mass.
Hon. A. C. BARSTOW, R. I.
Rev. THATCHER THAYER, D. D., R. I.
Rev. RAY PALMER, D. D., N. J.
Rev. EDWARD BEECHER, D. D., N. Y.
Rev. J. M. STURTEVANT, D. D., Ill.
Rev. W. W. PATTON, D. D., D. C.
Hon. SEYMOUR STRAIGHT, La.
HORACE HALLOCK, Esq., Mich.
Rev. CYRUS W. WALLACE, D. D., N. H.
Rev. EDWARD HAWES, D. D., Ct.
DOUGLAS PUTNAM, Esq., Ohio.
Hon. THADDEUS FAIRBANKS, Vt.
SAMUEL D. PORTER, Esq., N. Y.
Rev. M. M. G. DANA, D. D., Minn.
Rev. H. W. BEECHER, N. Y.
Gen. O. O. HOWARD, Oregon.
Rev. G. F. MAGOUN, D. D., Iowa.
Col. C. G. HAMMOND, Ill.
EDWARD SPAULDING, M. D., N. H.
DAVID RIPLEY, Esq., N. J.
Rev. WM. M. BARBOUR, D. D., Ct.
Rev. W. L. GAGE, D. D., Ct.
A. S. HATCH, Esq., N. Y.
Rev. J. H. FAIRCHILD, D. D., Ohio.
Rev. H. A. STIMSON, Minn.
Rev. J. W. STRONG, D. D., Minn.
Rev. A. L. STONE, D. D., California.
Rev. G. H. ATKINSON, D. D., Oregon.
Rev. J. E. RANKIN, D. D., D. C.
Rev. A. L. CHAPIN, D. D., Wis.
S. D. SMITH, Esq., Mass.
PETER SMITH, Esq., Mass.
Dea. JOHN C. WHITIN, Mass.
Hon. J. B. GRINNELL, Iowa.
Rev. WM. T. CARR, Ct.
Rev. HORACE WINSLOW, Ct.
Sir PETER COATS, Scotland.
Rev. HENRY ALLON, D. D., London, Eng.
WM. E. WHITING, Esq., N. Y.
J. M. PINKERTON, Esq., Mass.
E. A. GRAVES, Esq., N. J.
Rev. F. A. NOBLE, D. D., Ill.
DANIEL HAND, Esq., Ct.
A. L. WILLISTON, Esq., Mass.
Rev. A. F. BEARD, D. D., N. Y.
FREDERICK BILLINGS, Esq., Vt.
JOSEPH CARPENTER, Esq., R. I.
Rev. E. P. GOODWIN, D. D., Ill.
Rev. C. L. GOODELL, D. D., Mo.
J. W. SCOVILLE, Esq., Ill.
E. W. BLATCHFORD, Esq., Ill.
C. D. TALCOTT, Esq., Ct.
Rev. JOHN K. MCLEAN, D. D., Cal.
Rev. RICHARD CORDLEY, D. D., Kansas.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.
REV. M. E. STRIEBY, D. D., _56 Reade Street, N. Y._
DISTRICT SECRETARIES.
REV. C. L. WOODWORTH, _Boston_.
REV. G. D. PIKE, _New York_.
REV. JAS. POWELL, _Chicago_.
H. W. HUBBARD, ESQ., _Treasurer, N. Y._
REV. M. E. STRIEBY, _Recording Secretary_.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
ALONZO S. BALL,
A. S. BARNES,
GEO. M. BOYNTON,
WM. B. BROWN,
C. T. CHRISTENSEN,
CLINTON B. FISK,
ADDISON P. FOSTER,
S. B. HALLIDAY,
SAMUEL HOLMES,
CHARLES A. HULL,
EDGAR KETCHUM,
CHAS. L. MEAD,
WM. T. PRATT,
J. A. SHOUDY,
JOHN H. WASHBURN,
G. B. WILLCOX.
COMMUNICATIONS
relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the
Corresponding Secretary; those relating to the collecting fields to
the District Secretaries; letters for the Editor of the “American
Missionary,” to Rev. Geo. M. Boynton, at the New York Office.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
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 112 West Washington Street,
Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a
Life Member.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
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VOL. XXXIV. JANUARY, 1880. No. 1.
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American Missionary Association.
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SALUTATIONS.
We extend to our friends the salutations of the season, and rejoice
that we can do it with more of gratitude and hopefulness than we have
been privileged to do for many years. Like Bunyan’s Pilgrim, we have
passed through the Slough of Despond, and the heavy load of Debt has
fallen from our shoulders; but, as in the case of the Pilgrim, this
is no signal to us, or our friends, for rest in the Arbor, but for
addressing ourselves to the real Christian life-work before us.
1. In this we have many things to encourage us:
(1.) The renewed prosperity of the country puts it into the hands of
our friends to aid us in the needed enlargement of the work before
us. We are grateful for the help given in the dark days of business
stagnation, and we hope that with the reviving industry and commercial
activity, gratitude to God and love for His cause will stimulate the
friends of the poor to increased liberality.
(2.) There is a more full realization of the importance of our work.
Never before since the war has the North so well understood that the
only real solution of the Southern problem is in the intelligence and
real piety of the FREEDMEN. Every day’s developments make this the more
plain. In like manner the rights and wrongs of the INDIAN never forced
him upon public attention with a more imperative demand for answer.
So, too, the right of the CHINAMAN to a home and legal protection
on the Pacific coast, has never become more clearly defined or more
intelligently recognized. Constitutional enactments and hoodlum mobs
have only set forth his wrongs more sharply and made our duty more
plain. Africa looms up with more distinctness as a field of Christian
labor. Not only triumphant exploration and crowding missionary
enterprises stir the Christian heart, but the very difficulties and
disasters arouse new zeal. Our hopeful endeavors to introduce the
colored man of America as a missionary to the land of his fathers adds
a new element of hope and activity.
(3.) The most encouraging outlook before us, however, is in the deeper
spiritual and prayerful interest which our work awakens. Among other
signs of this fact are the aroused attention of the praying women of
the North to the woes and wants of the colored women and girls in the
South, the increasing volume of prayer going up from the churches of
the North for Africa, and the prayer and consecration awakened in its
behalf among the colored people of the South. But above all, we believe
that the followers of Christ are coming to realize that in this whole
range of work it is only in the Divine arm that effectual help can be
found.
2. We have a great work before us.
(1.) In our own special field we have the urgent call to make the
repairs and improvements which we were compelled to refuse when in
our great struggle for the payment of the debt. These can no longer
be denied, in some cases, without sacrificing the health of the
missionaries and teachers, as well as the progress of the work.
(2.) The call for _enlargement_ confronts us on all sides. We cannot
meet the demand in the public mind at the North if we stand still, and
still less can we meet that of overcrowded schools and for new churches
in the South. We refer our readers to the following article for some
stirring details on this subject.
(3.) Our friends need to be on their guard against one incidental
drawback. The Presidential election occurs this year, and the
experience of this, and all other missionary societies, shows that such
years mark diminished receipts. We can only say to our friends: Do your
duty at the ballot-box, but do not forget the contribution-box and the
prayer for missions!
* * * * *
OUR ENLARGED WORK.
We have been saying for a long time, when we are free from debt we will
do more work, and now that we are free, we have felt constrained at
once to begin the fulfillment of that promise. The great question is
to find the just mean between cowardice and rashness. No organization
like ours can say, we will never spend a cent that we have not in our
treasury, for we have to make engagements amounting to many times the
sum at our present command. We must follow the leadings of Providence
not only, but its indications, and rely on God’s people to sustain us
in our anticipations of what they will do.
In our Salutation to our friends, we spoke of the call for the
enlargement of our work that confronts us on all sides. During the
struggle of the past few years for the payment of our debt, we could
have but one answer for the pressing appeals that came to us for more
room and better accommodations—an answer which was hard to give and
hard to receive, for those who saw so clearly the great good that would
result from a comparatively slight expenditure of money.
But now that the debt is paid, our friends must tell us whether we can
venture to make a different and more cheering answer to our appeals.
These appeals are coming to us from Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama,
Georgia, North Carolina, &c., as may be seen by noticing the “Items
from the Field,” in this number of the MISSIONARY. These items were
taken without any special reference to this article, and surprise us,
as we glance over them, by the needs which they disclose.
In addition to these, we give just here a few extracts from letters not
quoted in our “Items.”
One teacher writes:
“Our school opened with a _rush_. It reminded me of the time
when I used to attend lectures at L—. A crowd would assemble,
and as soon as the doors were opened they would press in, each
intent on the best seat. So it was in my schoolroom, each
parent striving to get the first chance to enter his child or
children; and ever since the opening, I have had to turn away
applicants, though they begged with tears to be admitted.”
Another:
“If our number increases this year in the same proportion as
two years ago, in February we shall have 121 boarders; if the
same proportion as last year, we shall have 134. We can not
find room for any such number. From present prospects we shall
reach that number. If anything is going to be done by way of
enlarging this year, we ought to order lumber immediately.”
And in a subsequent letter:
“We have more young women boarding than we have had at any
time before since I have been here, and several others have
engaged rooms. Every room in the Ladies’ Hall is _filled_. Two
rooms have four in them. Miss E. expects to arrange beds in the
sitting-room. We cannot put four into our 10 x 14 rooms. The
new scholars this fall have mostly come from schools that have
been taught by our pupils, and have been able to go into the
Preparatory Department.”
Still another:
“Something must be done for our relief at once. We are
overrunning full.”
From another the story is:
“I wonder if all your stations have such increasing wants as
this one has! We trust that our request for another teacher is
honored by an appointment. We intimated that our wants would
still increase. This is verified. The question now before us is
this: How much enlargement of this work can you make? Are your
means equal to the demand? Now, we wish that our building were
larger by two rooms; especially so, since many tell us that a
large number are planning to begin school after Christmas. We
submit very earnestly the proposal that we be authorized to
rent a building that is contiguous to our grounds, and that
you send a sixth teacher to occupy it. If we do thorough work
this year, the demand another year will require a permanent
enlargement of room. We unite in the most earnest wish that you
not only send us the fifth teacher, but also the sixth.”
We have already appropriated several thousand dollars more than in
previous years upon the Southern field, and that mainly in the work of
Christian education. If our readers only knew the many things we have
not done, they would count the expansion to be very little. Among other
things, as was indicated in the Annual Report, and as is set forth more
explicitly elsewhere, we have enlarged our Indian work, not in the far
West, but in Virginia. We have allowed something more for the foreign
field, and added a few hundred dollars for the Chinese Mission in
California.
Our friends will have the satisfaction this year of knowing that their
gifts all go to do the work which presses now; no more is needed to
fill up the hollows of the land through which we travelled long ago.
They must not fail us, then, who have helped us in our distress; but
much more, stand by us, now that they have enabled us to give ourselves
wholly to the wants to be met and to the work in hand.
* * * * *
PROFESSOR CHASE IN AFRICA.
It has for some months seemed desirable to the Executive Committee that
an experienced man, in the carefulness of whose inspection and the
calmness of whose judgment they might fully rely, should go to see for
them, with his own eyes, the field on the West Coast of Africa, the
missionary band, and the work it is doing. The great difficulty has
been to lay hands upon a man who should unite with the qualifications
required the willingness and the ability to go. That obstacle has given
way at last, and an embassy is on the way.
Prof. Thomas N. Chase had been detailed from his duties as an
instructor in Greek at Atlanta, where his eminent abilities have
been most fully proved by the annual examinations of his classes,
and where his presence has been valued for his manifold service, for
special duties in superintending the plans and erection of buildings
in the Southern field. Some important preliminary work had been
accomplished in that direction, when it was found that the money which
was anticipated for this purpose would not be at the disposal of the
Association for some months. Prof. Chase being thus open to our call,
and being the man of all men we should have chosen for this post, the
proposal was made to him that he should take this trip to the Mendi
Mission, and inspect the work. After some hesitation, but with much
less than was anticipated, and regarding the circumstances and the call
as of the Lord, he consented, with the full agreement in his decision
of his excellent and devoted wife.
On the sixth of December he sailed from New York for Liverpool,
expecting to take the steamer thence to Freetown on the twentieth
of December, and to be in the field at Good Hope by the middle of
January. He is accompanied by the Rev. Joseph E. Smith, a graduate of
Atlanta, who has been for three years in charge of important churches
in the South, and in whom we have every reason to place the highest
confidence. Mr. Smith will, we hope, conclude to remain with the
mission, although that matter is left to his decision. We believe that
he will do what he thinks the Master wishes. Meanwhile he will do good
service as a companion of Prof. Chase, to care for him and aid him in
the accomplishment of his work.
Important questions as to the permanent location of the stations,
the distribution of the work among the missionaries, and their more
complete equipment will be decided, and with the Lord’s blessing on
them we hope for results of lasting value from this embassy.
It is just the time of the year when such a mission can most safely and
effectively be prosecuted. They will reach the country and have three
mouths of the dry season, if so long a time shall be needed, before it
will be necessary that they should come away. They realize, as we do,
that there is always some peril in going to the West Coast, especially
for a white man; but the professor is in his prime, of sound health,
and we believe will be so prudent in all matters of exposure and of
living that we have no great fears for him. And yet, when we remember
those who have fallen, we pray the Lord, and beg all the friends of
Africa to join with us in the prayer, that He will keep these His
servants from harm, will prosper them in their mission and bring them
back in health.
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OUR INDIAN BOYS AT HAMPTON.
The Association has, after conference with General Armstrong, decided
to make appropriations to aid the Indian work at Hampton as follows:
(1.) It agrees to pay the salary of a teacher, whose time is wholly
devoted to this work, and whose enthusiasm and success in it no one
who attended the last commencement can have failed to remember.
(2.) It will support these three boys: James Murie, a Pawnee from
the Indian Territory, a bright boy, who is now in the Preparatory
Department, and will be able to enter the Junior Class next year;
Jonathan Heustice, a Pawnee with some colored blood, apparently a
very good boy; and Alexander Peters, a Menomonee from Wisconsin, who
comes well recommended by his teachers, and is proving an interesting
scholar. (3.) It will clothe the eight boys from Fort Berthold Agency,
sent by the Government last year, and for whose support it is mainly
responsible. The total expense will be $1,450. We shall be very glad
to receive contributions to this work, or for any of these boys in
particular, from those who are specially interested in this new work of
educating Indian boys in our colored schools. The success of the effort
has been so marked, that we no longer look on it as an experiment. It
is the application to this class of the same principle on which we
believe the solution of the great problem of negro citizenship depends.
Let us educate the teachers and the leaders for these races, keeping
them constantly surrounded by the most elevating Christian influences,
and they will have great power in lifting up the masses, who must be
taught and Christianized at home.
* * * * *
The news of the destruction of Academic Hall at Hampton, has reached
the friends of that Institution long ere this. The origin of the fire
is unknown; it was discovered in the attic, and was already beyond
control. In a couple of hours all was over. An insurance amounting to
about three-quarters of the expense incurred in building will, in the
lower prices now prevailing, replace it to a great extent. Still it is
a severe loss.
The value of the excellent organization of the school was made apparent
in the perfect order which prevailed. The honesty and loyalty of the
students were thoroughly tested and triumphantly proved. Only a single
day of school work was lost. About $3,000 will replace the loss on
apparatus, furniture, library, &c. The students lost about $1,200 of
personal property. We trust that the friends of Hampton—and they are
many—will come generously and promptly to its relief.
* * * * *
Our Sunday-schools are in great need of special helps for their work,
and that of all sorts: books for the library and for the service of
song; Sunday-school banners, maps and every thing of the kind. Are
there not Sunday-schools who have such material they have outgrown or
laid aside, and which they can send to us for the dark-skinned children
of the South?
* * * * *
SATISFIED.
_He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be
satisfied._—There are many motives which combine to urge the
disciples of Christ to energy and fidelity in the missionary work:
the wretchedness of those who lie in the darkness of heathendom, and
especially in the black night of savage superstition; the wrongs and
crimes which the introduction of a Christian civilization would in
time efface; our sad anticipations for those on whom we must believe
the Lord will look with merciful and just consideration, and yet who
are surely not fit for the kingdom of God. The fact of the command
of Christ were enough, and especially that this was His last and
parting charge. But, amid all these, is there a motive so sweet and
still so energizing as that which we have written above—that in the
contemplation of His salvation accomplished among men, the joy of our
Lord shall be full, the purpose of His love attained, and He content
to have endured the flesh and the cross? If we love Him because He
first loved us, let us remember that His love was not a sentiment, but
a sacrifice; that it was measured by what He did for us, and for our
salvation; and that it is the sacred claim of His love upon ours, that
what sacrifice by us of time, or strength, or means, or life itself,
may contribute to the fullness of His joy, to the completeness of His
satisfaction, we should give with cheerful and continuous readiness.
Other motives may bear upon us with now greater and now less force;
special calls may be heard with more or less distinctness; unusual
disclosures of need may make us eager to relieve; but through all, and
under all, and greater than all, is this, that we may please our Lord,
and contribute somewhat to the completeness of His redemption, and to
His satisfaction in the result of all that He has borne and done for
sinful men.
* * * * *
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.
TALLADEGA, ALA.—The Southern Industrial Association held its second
annual fair at Talladega, Ala., November 11-14. This Association is
officered in part and largely helped by Talladega College, and its
object is to promote the industry and physical good of the Freedmen.
The weather was favorable, the attendance was large, many coming
quite a distance, and the display of articles was unusually good. In
agricultural and garden products, in fancy articles, in needlework,
both plain and ornamental, and in the culinary department, especial
excellence was shown. The exhibition of stock was meagre, with the
exception of fowls, which were numerous and remarkably fine. Some
blacksmith’s hammers, tables, and an upholstered chair, would compare
well with similar productions from the best Northern workmen. More than
seven hundred entries were made, and the premiums awarded were worth
about three hundred dollars. The fair stimulates industry, and marks a
real advance in the condition of the people. Many of our white friends
paid well-deserved praise, and one late slaveholder, said to have owned
nearly a hundred negroes, was so pleased as to make a cash contribution
to the treasury, and offered to double it should there be a deficit.
On the last evening, the College chapel was full to overflowing, while
Rev. C. L. Harris, of Selma, gave a very bold and moving and powerful
address of more than an hour in length, on the African in America.
The address showed what an African can do, and it pointed out what an
African should become. Take it all in all, the Fair marks a good step
upward and gives fresh hope for the future.
* * * * *
MCLEANSVILLE, N. C.—Our school is growing larger—double what it
was at the corresponding time last year. Many expect to come after
Christmas from abroad. Must enlarge our accommodations.
* * * * *
TOUGALOO, MISS.—We now have seventy-nine boarders, and have had to go
into the barracks again. A prospect of increased attendance, and what
to do with the students we can none of us imagine. We ought to enlarge
our accommodations immediately.
* * * * *
MOBILE, ALA.—School overflowing. If we have room and teaching force
enough, we shall have three hundred in attendance by February 1st.
Without increased room and help we shall be obliged to turn away many
that would enter the intermediate and normal departments. We have
already begun this at the primary door.
* * * * *
ATLANTA, GA.—Mr. A. W. Farnham, late principal of Avery Institute, has
become principal of the Normal department of the University, to assist
in making the best teachers possible for that region.
* * * * *
FISK UNIVERSITY.—The number of pupils is rapidly increasing, and there
is a prospect that the students will be too many or the accommodations
too few.
* * * * *
WOODVILLE, GA.—Our school is crowded. If you had not built the
parsonage, the pupils could not have been accommodated. You have done
a great deal of good for the people at this place. Almost every day,
children are refused admittance, because we are so full. The only hope
of our church, so far as I can see, is in the children educated in our
schools.
* * * * *
NEW ORLEANS, LA.—“I wish you could have heard some of the expressions
of gratitude to the A. M. A. in our services during your Annual Meeting
in Chicago. The church observed the day by remembering the Association
in their Tuesday evening prayer meeting.”
* * * * *
MARION, ALA.—In one envelope yesterday, the collection being for the
A. M. A., was $5 from a hard-working man, this being one-tenth of
the man’s crop—one bale of cotton, which brought $30—showing that
your work for this people is not wholly unappreciated. We made the
A. M. A. a special subject of prayer at our church meeting last week.
Sixty-three at Sunday-school yesterday. Boys’ meeting at the Home
fully attended. We have had a “reception” at the Home—all our people,
men, women and children, including babies. We only want the special
influences of the Holy Spirit.
* * * * *
FLORENCE, ALA.—On the Sabbath, November 23d, a new church edifice
was dedicated at this place. Pastor Wm. H. Ash was assisted by Field
Superintendent Roy; by student Anderson, from Fisk University, who
had preached for the church the year before Mr. Ash came; by the
Presbyterian pastor, who offered the prayer of dedication; and by the
M. E. South Presiding Elder. Fifty of the best white citizens of the
place were present; among them, besides the ministers named, two other
Methodist preachers, ex-Governor Patton and four lawyers. These friends
contributed freely to the balance needed ($70) to put in the pulpit
and pews, which had not yet been secured. It was all raised in a few
minutes after the sermon. The house is spoken of by the citizens as the
only modern church in the place. It is indeed a gem. It is twenty-five
by forty feet, with a brick foundation, a steep roof and a little
belfry. It is well painted on the outside, and on the inside ceiled
in varnished yellow pine. The total cost was $950. It was built with
great economy under the supervision of Mr. Ash. “Howard,” of Boston, is
a man who knows how to make fine investments in this line, as several
of his ventures of this kind have proved. To his $300, the Central
Congregational Church, of Providence, R. I., to which Mr. Ash belongs,
added $100. One year ago, more than twenty of the influential and
well-to-do members of this church removed to Kansas, else so much of
aid would not have been needed. We learn that those people are highly
respected in the communities where they have settled. Pastor Ash and
his educated wife are greatly devoted to their people. They are also
teaching a parish school, which is much approved.
* * * * *
GENERAL NOTES.
Africa.
—Quite full accounts of the Nyanza Mission are given in the last two
numbers of the _Church Missionary Intelligencer_. Mr. Wilson set out
August 23, 1878, from Kagei, at the south end of the lake, for Mtesa’a
capital, at its northern extremity, in the Daisy, but was wrecked on
the way, and compelled to take out a section of the boat with which to
repair the rest of it. Eight weeks were thus occupied, during which
they received great kindness from the chief and people of Uzongora,
a tribe which met Stanley with great violence. They arrived November
sixth at Uganda. Mtesa continued to treat them well, despite the
efforts of the Arabs to prejudice him against them. Mr. Wilson had gone
to meet the three missionaries who were coming to reinforce them by
way of the Nile. Mr. Mackay was teaching reading by charts to a large
number of old and young. Some valuable conclusions have been reached
by their experience—that they do not need ordained men yet so much as
those experienced in practical work. “Unless we succeed in elevating
labor, we shall get hearers, but no doers. Hence slavery—domestic,
at least—cannot cease; and if slavery does not cease, polygamy
will remain.” The need of English traders to take the place of the
Arabs, who want slaves, is emphasized. The cost of maintenance is
very trifling: small presents secure an abundance of goats, coffee,
plantains, sugar-cane, etc. It is hoped that long ere this, seven
missionaries are together in Uganda, viz.: the Revs. O. T. Wilson and
G. Litchfield; Messrs. Mackay, Pearson, Felkin, Stokes and Copplestone.
Sixteen in all have been sent, of whom six have died and three have
returned sick.
—The _English Independent_ of October 30 says: “It would seem, from
communications which have just been received, that the wiles of French
Jesuits have already brought trouble to these missionaries. A letter
of introduction, written by Lord Salisbury to King Mtesa, was read,
and gave great satisfaction. Soon after the arrival of the Jesuits
the aspect of affairs was changed. The king accused the missionaries
of playing him false, an untruthful report having reached him that
the Egyptians were advancing their posts more to the south. Some
months passed in a very unsatisfactory manner, and at length one of
the missionaries was allowed to go to Egypt to prepare the way for
the king’s messengers, who were to be accompanied by Mr. Wilson; two
more were permitted to return to the south side of the lake, ‘on
condition that they would thence send on to Mtesa some mission stores
left there.’ At the end of June, three remained at Uganda, without
the necessary facilities either to carry on their mission work or to
withdraw. With such troubles they are beset, through the combined
intrigues of the enemies of corporeal and spiritual freedom.”
—The same paper says that no direct tidings have been received from
the London Missionary Society’s agents at Ujiji on the Tanganika,
and ascribes this break in communication to the Arab slave traders,
and only hopes that their hostility has been limited to intercepting
letters. Dr. Kirk, the consul at Zanzibar, has been instructed
to institute inquiries. Dr. Laws, of the mission at Livingstonia
(Scotch), has been requested to send messengers to Ujiji to learn the
condition. Great solicitude is felt, and a day of special prayer for
Divine guidance and help has been appointed. The last accounts in the
_Chronicle_ of the London Missionary Society report the death of Rev.
A. W. Dodgshun seven days after his arrival at Ujiji, on the way to
which place he lost nearly all the goods belonging to that part of
the expedition, and the successful progress through Ugogo of Messrs.
Southon and Griffith: they were in good health, and confident of
reaching their destination shortly.
—The _London Telegraph_, of Oct. 22, says: “All alike will be
interested in the following extract from a letter which has just
been received from Mr. Stanley, the famous African explorer, by an
intimate friend. The letter is dated from Banana Point, at the mouth
of the Congo River, Sept. 13, and says: ‘All this year I have been
very busy, and have worked hard. I have equipped one expedition on the
East Coast; have reconstructed another—namely, the International—of
whose misfortune we have heard so often, and have explored personally
several new districts on the East Coast. Having finished my work
satisfactorily to myself, my friends and those who sent me, I came
through the Mediterranean and round to this spot, where I arrived two
years and four months ago, on that glorious day on which we sighted
old ocean after our rash descent of the Livingstone. * * * And now I
begin another mission seriously and deliberately, with a grand object
in view. I am charged to open—and keep open, if possible—all such
districts and countries as I may explore for the commercial world.
The mission is supported by a philanthropic society which numbers
noble-minded men of several nations. It is not a religious society,
but my instructions are entirely of that spirit. No violence must be
used, and wherever rejected, the mission must withdraw to seek another
field. We have abundant means, and, therefore, we are to purchase the
very atmosphere, if any demands be made upon us, rather than violently
oppose them. In fact, we must freely buy of all and every, rather than
resent, and you know the sailor’s commandment—‘Obey orders if it
breaks owners’—is easier to keep than to stand upon one’s rights.’”
* * * * *
THE FREEDMEN.
REV. JOS. E. ROY, D.D.,
FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.
* * * * *
VACATION REPORTS.
PROF. T.N. CHASE, ATLANTA.
A stranger could hardly obtain a more vivid and correct idea of the
far-reaching influence for good that one of the higher institutions of
the American Missionary Association is exerting, than by listening to
the reports of the students as they return from their summer’s work of
teaching. At Atlanta University the first Sunday afternoon of the fall
term is devoted to these reports, and to the teachers it is one of the
happiest and most inspiring occasions of the whole year. We wish that
many of the readers of the MISSIONARY could have been with us on last
Sunday, and seen with their own eyes and heard with their own ears,
since the full rich tones of voice, dignified composure and simple
earnestness of these student-teachers cannot be transferred to paper.
But I did not see you present, and so will give you the benefit of some
notes I took down, departing from my original plan of arranging and
classifying the “testimony,” omitting quotation marks, and introducing
the successive speakers simply by beginning on a new line.
I taught in Tatnal. Other pupils were afraid to go there because it was
a democratic county. People did not want a teacher from outside of the
county, because they did not want the money to go out of the county.
They liked me very much. Colored people have from one acre to 2500
acres of land, and are about as well educated as the whites. Children
are compelled by their parents to come to Sunday-school. I kept up a
Sunday evening prayer-meeting. Several of the children acknowledged
Jesus and _turned over_ to the church. I made two or three speeches on
temperance.
My Commissioner is well disposed toward this Institution. I made two
or three lectures against intemperance, and encouraged the people to
educate themselves and accumulate property. At my exhibition three
lawyers were present and forty or fifty other whites.
The Commissioner did not examine me, saying that this school was the
best in the world and he never intended to examine a pupil from it.
He was a Saturday-Sunday man and did not do any business on Saturday.
I tramped a week and a half for a school and found one on Col. ——’s
place. Parents want their children whipped, and do not think they are
taught any thing unless they are whipped.
Some of us had a convention on temperance, tobacco and morals. The
colored people own a good deal of land and make lots of cotton. One man
made twenty-one bales, but saved only eighty dollars.
Col. —— said Atlanta University must be the best disciplined school
in the State. The poor whites do not want to go to school, and are more
intemperate and degraded than the blacks. If the colored man would only
stand up for his rights, he would not be _hacked_.
I taught in a district called “Dark Corner.” I think I gave them a
right start. Had a prayer meeting which was largely attended. Poor
whites use more whiskey than the colored people. Whites seem kind to
blacks, lend them money and horses, and help them in every way.
I had an average attendance of thirty-three and a night-school of
fifteen. Taught on an old plantation, on which there used to be five
hundred slaves. Ignorance has great sway there. People have good stock,
but cannot buy land. There is a temperance lodge in Camden of one
hundred and forty members.
It was a bad county where I taught. I was _careful_ about teaching
there. They never had a school before. No land is owned by colored
people. There is much opposition to their education. The immorality of
the place is explained by the fact that they formerly had stills there.
Preachers are not moral men. They are opposed to “foreign” teachers.
Poor whites create a good deal of disturbance. Land is owned by those
who owned it during slavery times, and they will not sell it to white
or colored.
I was the first lady teacher that taught in the county and was quite a
novelty. They had bad teachers. One white one was intemperate. White
people were friendly. Three whites raised their hats to me, which
was quite a new thing. I had a very good Sunday-school; white people
attended my exhibition. They like this University very much, and the
Commissioner wanted me to encourage the boys and girls to come up.
Most everybody uses whiskey and tobacco. I talked on temperance,
distributed temperance papers and read to them. Took the New York
_Witness_ and read it to the people. I think I did some good among
the children. The children of the poor whites are _knocking about_ on
the road all the time. They had a school one month, then gave it up.
Young men spend Sunday in gambling; guess they are doing it right now.
Some said I was not teaching them anything because I did not use the
blue-back speller. The houses of poor whites are just like the colored,
but their clothes are not so good.
The people where I taught are intelligent and well-to-do. Most of them
own their own homes. The whites want the colored people educated. A
speaker at an exhibition of a female seminary said that the colored
people were leaving them in the dark, and if they did not look out, the
bottom rail would be on the top. Six or eight colored people own from
one hundred to five hundred acres and stock. The Commissioner’s wife
asked me into the parlor and gave me a rocking-chair.
Where I was last winter, the people kept Thanksgiving. Of course
I enjoyed that, because I knew you were keeping it here. I had a
Sunday-school that was quite large at first, but when big meetings came
on it grew small.
I had seventy-five pupils. I cannot see that I did much good, but I
hope some good will come out of my summer’s work. Public sentiment
seems to sanction the worst things there are.
The people where I taught said they must have a man, that females could
not teach, and they could not stand ladies. The whites, on the whole,
are better to the teachers than the colored people are. I succeeded
in getting six men to stop using tobacco while attending school, and
then they said if they could stop fifty-five days they could all their
life-time.
Somehow they looked at me like they looked at Columbus when he first
came to America. Preachers are all intemperate men, and some of them
said they could not preach well unless they had some whiskey in them.
I taught four times in the same place, and have had a larger school
each time. The morals of the colored people depend on the morals of
the whites. I opened school at eight and closed at six. I saw no
intemperance, because it was the wrong time of the year. I talked
temperance and acted it. There is but little difference between the
whites and colored; they eat together, sleep together, and have the
same kind of houses.
Now to these reports, only a small part of which I have copied, I will
add a few comments:
1. There is no diminution of the desire of colored children to learn,
and of their parents to have their children educated. Parents want
teachers to teach from early dawn to candle-light, and even to _beat_
knowledge into the pupils.
2. Intemperance and licentiousness abound to a fearful extent, not only
among the laity, but also among the clergy.
3. The poor whites need education and moral and religious instruction
as much as the colored people, and our students are reaching some of
them in their influence.
4. Public school privileges in the South are limited, and it will be a
long time before suitable buildings are provided and efficient teaching
secured.
5. The whites are, in the main, well disposed toward the colored
people, and in favor of their being educated.
6. Many of the colored people are acquiring homes and other property,
although in some places the owners of land will not sell it.
7. In some instances the colored people are cheated out of the benefits
of their labor, and ill-treated in various ways.
8. Atlanta University stands high in the estimation of the people,
and needs liberal pecuniary support from its friends to keep up its
reputation and do the great work that lies before it.
9. Social prejudice seems to be yielding somewhat, although the fact
that a white lady invited a colored girl to sit in a rocking-chair in
her parlor, is not so common an occurrence as to make it unworthy of
mention. Tidiness, gentility, intelligence and morality will yet be
considered superior to a light complexion.
10. The hope of this race, as well as of any other, lies in the
training of children, and hence the value of good schools, both day and
Sunday.
11. The American Missionary Association is doing a valuable work among
the _whites_, by showing them what education will do for poor people,
and stimulating them to try to keep the “top-rail” where it is.
12. No one can estimate the influence our school is exerting in favor
of education, industry, economy, temperance, Sabbath observance,
chastity, social order, and, in short, morality and religion.
* * * * *
WOMAN’S WORK FOR WOMAN.
MISS LAURA A. PARMELEE, MEMPHIS, TENN.
We give the closing portion of a paper read at the Woman’s Meeting,
held in connection with the Annual Meeting at Chicago. In the opening
portions of it, Miss Parmelee describes with frank truthfulness the
perils which encircle the colored girls of the South by reason of the
family habits, the laxity of the marriage relation, the ignorance
of the laws of health, the late hours of their religious and social
gatherings, &c. We print her statements and suggestions as to the
remedy and protection.
Of special agencies for training colored girls to better habits,
boarding schools claim the first place. If there had been seventy,
instead of seven homes of this kind, we could to-day report a fairer
record of virtue and purity. Under the constant supervision of faithful
teachers, who regulate the hours, walks and visits of those in their
charge, there is opportunity to acquire a love for systematic ways
and a pure home life. With the instinctive imitation of their race
they adopt the manners and sentiments of the ladies living under the
same roof and sitting at the same table. Yet with this help, there has
been frequent occasion for teachers to ponder the story of the young
crabs that went from the sea-side to a seminary among the mountains,
where they became ashamed of their own gait and diligently tried to
learn the new way of walking, succeeding to the entire satisfaction of
their teachers as well as themselves, and seeming to have forgotten
the old ways, but, upon returning to parents and friends at the shore,
relinquished the accomplishment and walked backwards as in other days.
In two or three schools—possibly more, but I speak only from personal
knowledge—it is the duty of one of the lady teachers to give the
girls instruction in dress, manners, morals and health, particularly
in matters relating to their peculiar physical organization. Once
a week the regular lessons are postponed or laid aside, that the
pupils may have a half hour for listening to the lecture that has
been thoughtfully prepared for their exclusive benefit. Commencing
with points of etiquette, dress, sketches of lives of famous women,
announcing the latest fashion items when they happen to be suitable,
and so winning the confidence and arousing the interest of the class,
it is comparatively easy to come to graver counsels concerning morals,
health, danger of association with people of loose principles, the
lowering of standards of personal honor, and finally the teaching
properly due a daughter from her mother’s lips.
This branch of work is neither light nor pleasant. False delicacy,
fear of speaking injudiciously and of being misunderstood by the girls
and their mothers, too long kept us silent. We shrank from meeting our
full responsibility in this direction, and nerved ourselves to the
task only when circumstances convinced us that it was an imperative
duty. The ordinary study of physiology is good, but in colored schools
something more is needed. Teach young girls to reverence the body,
to regard all its functions as gifts of God, and the possibilities
of motherhood to be sacredly guarded, and they are transformed from
animals to thoughtful women. Do any regard this as dangerous argument?
Those who have tried the experiment are satisfied of its worth. More
sensible and healthful modes of dress, increasing discretion of manners
and modesty of deportment, are immediate results of a plan that a few
regarded as an innovation, but which has abundantly justified itself.
If every well-established school of the American Missionary Association
could be furnished with models for this purpose, far more good would
be accomplished than with empty hands, however wise the teacher’s lips.
These health talks include cookery, sanitary measures, medical hints,
and a thousand items of common information in a land of newspapers, but
unknown to people who depend upon neighborhood gossip for all their
knowledge.
As teachers became better acquainted with the needs of their fields,
sewing lessons were given, or sewing schools established in connection
with daily work. While teaching deft use of the needle, to mend old
garments and cut new, there is opportunity to speak apt words about
love of finery, habits of wastefulness or extravagance, and improper
hours, all of which find quick lodgment in minds eager for new ideas.
It is no slight gratification to teachers that, in large assemblies,
they can select their students by a more quiet, suitable dress and
dignified bearing.
House-to-house visiting is another important means of elevating the
homes and making “life among the lowly” cleaner and purer. In the
early days of labor for the Freedmen, ladies were commissioned by the
American Missionary Association for this purpose. It is encouraging
to note that, through the parent society, the Christian women of the
North are adopting representatives to carry on this branch of work more
systematically. Year by year there are changes in methods, and teachers
have less time than formerly for this outside visiting.
Honorable mention must be made of the part Congregational churches
bear in this work of regeneration. Too much time would be consumed in
explaining the opposition they meet, or the great need of planting this
little leaven that is already moving the mass of blind superstition.
Suffice it to say, that one of the two denominations claiming the
religious loyalty of the Freedmen insists that, once in Christ, a soul
is forever safe, and can commit sin with impunity, because forgiveness
frees from all restraints of the law. The other great body of believers
is equally false in its explanations of truths held by followers of
Whitefield and Wesley.
These are the principal agencies operating for the redemption of
the colored homes, and through them for the emancipation of Africa,
latest called of nations, now stretching out imploring hands for the
light, and health, and hope, streaming from the cross of Christ. I
will not stop to detail incidents illustrating various phases of the
one great plan, nor recount successes attained, nor introduce you to
the homes—truly homelike in peace, purity and domestic love; or to
the little centres of social influence, where refinement and virtue
invite your respect and friendship. There are such homes and circles,
although they are not sufficiently numerous to have the power in their
communities that they deserve.
Between the graduates of Atlanta or Fisk, and the toilers in cotton
patch or rice swamp—between the better homes of Memphis or Charleston,
and the cabins in piney woods or Louisiana glades—there is a great
gulf, to be spanned only by the prayers and labors of Northern
Christians. I have chosen not to paint prospects and aspirations of the
dwellers _this_ side of that chasm; but rather to give you a glimpse of
life beyond in the darkness, that you may comprehend in some degree the
urgency of the need to chase away the clouds that obscure the light of
hope and purity.
I have thought it possible for women to do more than they have
heretofore in distinct efforts for their own sex; that some new effort
might be made to efficiently supplement the work of schools and
churches.