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THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
OCTOBER, 1889.
VOL. XLIII. NO. 10.
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL.
ANNUAL MEETING
VOTING MEMBERS
CLOSE OF FINANCIAL YEAR
LETTERS FROM CONTRIBUTORS
COMPROMISES AND THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES OF GEORGIA
INDIAN CONTRACT SCHOOLS
A MINISTER'S TESTIMONY
NOTES BY THE WAY
* * * * *
"FREELY YE HAVE RECEIVED, FREELY GIVE"
THE SOUTH.
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD
VACATION AT TOUGALOO
FROM A TEACHER IN THE TENNESSEE MOUNTAINS
SIGNS OF PROGRESS
OBITUARY
STUDENT'S LETTER.
A BIT OF EXPERIENCE
THE INDIANS.
FORT YATES, DAKOTA
THE CHINESE.
OUR CHINESE IN CHINA
BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.
WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS
PARAGRAPHS
GLIMPSES FROM THE FIELD
OUR YOUNG FOLKS.
SCHOOL INCIDENTS
RECEIPTS
* * * * *
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, Rev. WM. M. TAYLOR, D.D., LL.D., N.Y.
_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, D.D., Mo.
_Corresponding Secretaries._
Rev. M.E. STRIEBY, D.D., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
Rev. A.F. BEARD, D.D., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
_Recording Secretary._
Rev. M.E. STRIEBY, 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.
ADDISON P. FOSTER, Secretary.
_For Three Years._
J.E. RANKIN,
WM. H. WARD,
J.W. COOPER,
JOHN H. WASHBURN,
EDMUND L. CHAMPLIN.
_For Two Years._
LYMAN ABBOTT,
CHAS. A. HULL,
CLINTON B. FISK,
ADDISON P. FOSTER.
ALBERT J. LYMAN.
_For One Year._
S.B. HALLIDAY,
SAMUEL HOLMES,
SAMUEL S. MARPLES,
CHARLES L. MEAD,
ELBERT B. MONROE.
_District Secretaries._
Rev. C.J. RYDER, _21 Cong'l House, Boston._
Rev. J.E. ROY, D.D., _151 Washington Street, Chicago._
Rev. C.W. HIATT, _64 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio._
_Financial Secretary for Indian Missions._
Rev. CHAS. W. SHELTON.
_Field Superintendents._
Rev. FRANK. E. JENKINS.
Prof. EDWARD S. HALL.
_Secretary of Woman's Bureau._
Miss D.E. EMERSON, _56 Reade St., N.Y._
COMMUNICATIONS
Relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the
Corresponding Secretaries; letters for "THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY," to the
Editor, at the New York Office; letters relating to the finances, to the
Treasurer.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
In drafts, checks, registered letters, or post-office orders, may be
sent to H.W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 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.
NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.--The date on the "address label," indicates the
time to which the subscription is paid. Changes are made in date on
label to the 10th of each month. If payment of subscription be made
afterward, the change on the label will appear a month later. Please
send early notice of change in post-office address, giving the former
address and the new address, in order that our periodicals and
occasional papers may be correctly mailed.
FORM OF A BEQUEST.
"I bequeath to my executor (or executors) the sum of ---- dollars, in
trust, to pay the same in ---- days after my decease to the person who,
when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer of the 'American
Missionary Association,' of New York City, to be applied, under the
direction of the Executive Committee of the Association, to its
charitable uses and purposes." The Will should be attested by three
witnesses.
THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
VOL. XLIII. OCTOBER, 1889. No. 10.
* * * * *
American Missionary Association.
* * * * *
ANNUAL MEETING.
The next Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association will be
held at Chicago, Ill., in the New England Church, commencing at three
o'clock Tuesday afternoon, October 29th. Rev. R.R. Meredith, D.D., of
Brooklyn, N.Y., will preach the sermon. Fuller details regarding the
reception of delegates and their entertainment, together with rates at
hotels, and railroad reductions, will be found on the last page of the
cover.
We are anxious that the Churches, Local Conferences and State
Associations should be fully represented at the meeting. This
Association is the almoner of their bounty and seeks their aid and
counsel at its annual gatherings. We believe that the work of the past
year will not only meet their approval, but increase their enthusiasm
for pushing forward with renewed interest what still lies before us. We
request the pastors of churches to secure the appointment of delegates,
and all local Conferences and State Associations whose meetings have not
been held, to name their delegates.
For notice of Woman's Meeting, see page 295.
* * * * *
VOTING MEMBERS.
Life members and delegates chosen by contributing churches, local
Conferences, and State Associations, constitute the Annual Meeting, as
will be seen by the following article of the Constitution.
ART. III. Members of evangelical churches may be constituted
members of this Association for life by the payment of
thirty dollars into its treasury, with the written
declaration at the time or times of payment that the sum is
to be applied to constitute a designated person a life
member; and such membership shall begin sixty days after the
payment shall have been completed. Other persons, by the
payment of the same sum, may be made life members, without
the privilege of voting.
Every evangelical church which has within a year contributed
to the funds of the Association, and every State Conference
or Association of such churches, may appoint two delegates
to the Annual Meeting of the Association; such delegates,
duly attested by credentials, shall be members of the
Association for the year for which they were thus appointed.
* * * * *
THE CLOSE OF OUR FINANCIAL YEAR.
These pages may fall into the hands of some of our constituents before
the close of our fiscal year, September 30th. We hope that the
opportunity will be embraced by church treasurers to remit promptly
funds designed for us, and that benevolent friends who have intended to
aid us during the year will carry out their purpose at once. The outlook
is encouraging and we shall hail with joy and gratitude the day of
deliverance from debt.
* * * * *
LETTERS FROM CONTRIBUTORS.
"Again I have the pleasure of enclosing for the general use of the
American Missionary Association a draft of one hundred dollars. The Lord
bless the work of the dear workers in the field. My love to them."
* * * * *
"Many years ago I used to contribute to the funds of the American
Missionary Association. My husband and I supported a teacher under its
auspices, but times have changed and we are not able to do that now. For
many years I have ceased to send any money to your treasury, for I
thought what little I could afford would do no good at all. But seeing
in the September MISSIONARY some contributions of a few dollars, I send
the enclosed five dollars. If each one interested in the cause would do
that, it would help some. My interest is unabated in your great and
glorious work for humanity and immortal souls."
FROM A MISSIONARY IN CHINA.
"Enclosed we send twenty-five dollars, which please accept as our
subscription to the American Missionary Association work for the current
year. We are more and more interested in this work, especially in view
of the hateful prejudice that exists in many parts of the South against
the colored people and those who have so nobly espoused the cause of
their education and Christianization. This low-minded prejudice is very
similar to what we have to endure here in the interior of China, yet it
is harder to bear because coming from those who pretend to be
enlightened Christians, while here those who indulge in personal abuse
are mostly of the lowest and most ignorant heathen, though they are
often backed up by the literati."
* * * * *
COMPROMISES AND THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES OF GEORGIA.
Americans are much addicted to settling difficulties by compromises; but
these compromises, in State and Church, especially in regard to slavery,
have so often been the sacrifice of principle to expediency that the
word has come to have a sinister meaning--implying such a sacrifice; and
they have so often proved failures as to show them to be unwise, even as
a matter of expediency.
A brief sketch of some of these past compromises, with their motives and
failures, may throw some light upon the compromise proposed for the
Congregational churches in Georgia.
POLITICAL COMPROMISES.
These have usually been made from more than one motive:
1. One strong plea is that the expediency is so urgent that a small
sacrifice of right is justifiable. In that celebrated law case of
Shylock the Jew _versus_ Antonio the merchant, so ably reported by
William Shakespeare, Esq., this reason was plainly stated. The
defendant's attorney, Bassanio, in order to avert from his client the
dreadful forfeit of a pound of flesh taken nearest his heart, appealed
to the judge:
"I beseech you
Wrest once the law to your authority;
To do a great right, do a little wrong."
The "wise young judge" knew the law, human and divine, too well to grant
this plea.
But that plea had its influence in securing the adoption of the Federal
Constitution. Among other difficulties in the way, a constructive
guarantee of slavery seemed necessary to secure the assent of some of
the Southern States. How strong the plea! Slavery was wrong to be sure,
but the terrible seven years' war was ended, and a great nation was
ready to come into existence! The compromise was made and the Union was
formed. But did the compromise save it? No! The "pound of flesh" was at
last the price. After a struggle of seventy-two years the crisis came,
Sumter was fired upon and the compromise was found to be a failure. "A
pound of flesh!" Nay, the flesh and blood of a million of men saved the
Union.
2. Another motive for a compromise is the expectation that while it is
all that can be done now, it will be a step towards the ultimate. This
was strongly urged in that first compromise. It was said that the
Declaration of Independence, the enthusiasm for liberty, and the
world-wide boast of equal rights, must work a universal consent to the
abrogation of slavery. Jefferson voiced the general sentiment when he
said: "I think a change is already perceptible since the origin of the
present revolution. The way I hope is preparing, under the auspices of
heaven, for a total emancipation." But slavery grew stronger, instead of
weaker, under the compromise, and from time to time required more
compromises, and more surrenders. The Missouri Compromise, the
Annexation of Texas, and the Fugitive Slave Law, each extorted under
threats of the "dissolution of the Union," are examples. But no
compromise ever wrenched an inch of territory from the clutch of slavery
and gave it to freedom. Freedom _held_ the whole Northwest, by the
_un_-compromising requirement: "There shall be neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude" there!
3. Another strong plea for compromise is the hopelessness of gaining
anything better. This was the consideration urged so vehemently against
the early Abolitionists. It was said: "Slavery is wrong--that we all
admit--but it is a fixed fact, invulnerable, backed up by wealth,
talent, pride and political influence, and all opposition is vain. You
Abolitionists are mere sentimentalists, visionaries, doctrinaires." This
had great influence with the indifferent, the timid, and especially with
those who vaunt themselves as "practical men," who boast that they care
nothing for abstractions, but take business views of things. This plea
and these men were largely influential in carrying forward some of the
most iniquitous compromises preceding the war.
ECCLESIASTICAL COMPROMISES ABOUT SLAVERY.
This glance at the compromises in the political history of the nation
prepares us to look at those in the Church. Here, too, compromises on
the subject of slavery were made as in the State, and generally from the
same motives and always with the same disappointing results.
The Churches before and during the revolutionary period were emphatic in
their utterances against slavery. Their accredited leaders and official
convocations used such terms as these: Methodist, "The sum of all
villanies;" Presbyterian, "Man stealers: stealers of men are those who
bring off slaves or freemen and keep, sell or buy them;" Baptist,
"Slavery is a violent deprivation of the rights of nature;"
Congregational, "Slavery is in every instance wrong, unrighteous,
oppressive, a great and crying sin, there being nothing equal to it on
the face of the earth."
But there were slaveholders in the churches, and as population increased
they became more numerous and naturally chafed under such denunciations.
But their impatience reached its climax under the modern anti-slavery
doctrine that immediate emancipation is the only remedy for the sin of
slavery. The South was alarmed and soon became imperious and exacting;
the North was timid and yielding. Then began the special era of
ecclesiastical compromises. Let me specify:
1. The utterances as to the guilt of slavery were modified, reaching at
length the point where some of the most eminent doctors of divinity and
the most learned professors in theological seminaries tried to vindicate
from the Bible the toleration of slavery.
2. Disclaimers were made as to the right to interfere with slavery. As,
for example, a large ecclesiastical assembly by vote disclaimed "any
right, wish or intention to interfere with the civil and political
relation between master and slave, as it exists in the slaveholding
States of this Union." A distinguished bishop is reported to have said:
"I have never yet advised the liberation of a slave, and I think I never
shall;" and an eminent doctor of divinity declared: "If by one prayer I
could liberate every slave in the land I would not dare to offer it."
3. Fine distinctions were drawn in behalf of slaveholders. It was
warmly urged in their defense that while slavery was a sin, the
individual slaveholder might not in every case be a sinner--a charity
that was made to cover a multitude of sinners. One large religious
assembly declared that it could not "exclude slaveholders from the table
of the Lord;" it would rather "sympathize with and succor them in their
embarrassments." An elaborate report was adopted at another large
convocation, in which it was suggested that the convert should be
admitted into the church while still a slaveholder, an oppressive ruler
and a proud Brahmin, in the hope that under proper teaching, "the master
may be prepared to break the bonds of the slave, the oppressive ruler to
dispense justice to the subject, and the proud Brahmin fraternally to
embrace the man of low caste."
The great motive for these concessions was the desire for church
enlargement. Slavery was a sin, but the slaveholder might not always be
guilty, and if church unity and church extension were to be secured in
the South, some concessions must be made. Then, too, there was
undoubtedly the hope that concessions and fraternal intercourse in
public assemblies and in Christian work would win the confidence of the
slaveholders, and perhaps prepare the way for the gradual removal of
slavery; and above all there was the cogent plea that compromise or
division was the only present choice. The "_half-loaf_" argument was
wielded most effectually, and here, especially, the "practical men" came
to the front, while on the heads of the devoted Abolitionists were
showered without stint the epithets "fanatics" and "visionaries."
So much zeal for the slaveholders, and so much sacrifice of
self-respect, not to say of conscience, surely deserved a better fate;
but all was in vain. The slaveholders scorned the compromises, and
ruthlessly rent asunder the great national churches and missionary
societies. The Congregationalists, never numerous in the South, clung
with great tenacity to their few churches, but at length surrendered
them.
ECCLESIASTICAL COMPROMISES ABOUT CASTE.
So ended the first chapter of humiliating and fruitless Church
compromises; but a new chapter has begun to be written, and so far
promises to read just as the other did, both as to the facts to be
recorded and the end that will be reached. Slavery is dead, but the son
and heir and legitimate representative, _race prejudice_, arises to take
its place. This does not propose to remand the colored race back into
slavery, but to hold them as inferiors, to be discriminated against as
to equal rights and to bear with their color the perpetual ban of
separation and degradation. This might be expected in the political
world, but not in the Church where "_all are one in Christ Jesus_." And
it would be a specially sad fact if the Church should be more tardy than
the State in the recognition of the equal manhood of the two races.
One great effort in the present ecclesiastical struggle is to secure the
reunion of the sundered Churches; and, as in the case of slavery, other
issues have been waived or compromised, leaving race-prejudice as the
real point in the contest. Great have been the endeavors for harmony.
Committees of Conference have been appointed, have met and conferred;
enthusiastic public meetings have been held; communion services have
been celebrated jointly, and great feasts have been spread to welcome
visiting delegations. But the South has been inflexible on the
color-line. The Northern leaders have made concessions, and in some
instances have been ready to surrender the main point, but the mass of
Northern Christians seem unwilling to deny the Saviour in the person of
the man whose ostracism is demanded for no fault of his own, but only
because God made him black.
The Presbyterian Church (North) deserves special mention for having, in
the last General Assembly rejected a compromise that approved "the
policy of separate churches, presbyteries and synods." The prize was
nothing less than the ultimate reunion of the Northern and Southern
branches of that great Church. The leaders in the Church and in the
Assembly were committed to it and warmly advocated it, but when the test
vote came, it was rejected by an overwhelming majority! _God grant that
when the test comes for the Congregationalists they may show as much
back-bone!_ The present stage of the controversy finds the Methodists,
Baptists and Presbyterians still divided, with little prospect of
reunion. The Episcopalians in South Carolina have surrendered on a
compromise that permits the one colored minister in the Convention to
remain in it, but utterly forbids the admission of any others.
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS IN GEORGIA.
The Congregationalists are considering the question practically, but
with a division of sentiment. Some stand firmly against all race
distinctions, while others are disposed to compromise on a plan that
keeps the two organizations in Georgia still separated by the
color-line, but that provides for the appointment of a few delegates from
each, to form a new body that shall have charge of the interests of the
denomination and be represented in the National Council.
We are not careful to criticise the _details_ of this plan, nor are we
anxious to secure any particular modification of them. The cardinal fact
is that the plan itself keeps the two bodies in Georgia apart for no
other assigned or assignable reason than race prejudice; for who
supposes for a moment that if these bodies were both white there would
be this elaborate plan devised to touch each other with the tips of the
fingers, instead of giving at once the whole hand-grasp of Christian
fellowship? And so long as this plan makes or retains the line of caste
distinction or practically delays or evades its rejection, it is a
compromise that should not be endorsed. But already the old pleas for
compromise are urged in its behalf:
1. It is said that this is a first step towards the ultimate--a bridge
to facilitate a future coming together. But a bridge is not possible,
nor if possible, necessary. There is no doubt that since the New
Testament was written there have been great improvements in bridge
building, both mechanical and theological; but between equal manhood on
one side and race prejudice on the other, "there is a great gulf fixed,"
and no bridge can span the chasm. _The Negro must surrender his manhood
or the white man his prejudice._ There is no half way. But when either
is surrendered, there is no gulf, and no bridge is needed. If the Negro
will take his place as an inferior, he and the white man can ride on the
same seat in a buggy: if the white man will surrender his prejudice, the
Race-Problem is settled. Which shall be surrendered--the manhood or the
prejudice? The Congregational churches have no doubt on that question,
and if we are to educate men in right principles we must stand firmly
upon them ourselves. To begin with a compromise is to yield the very
point at issue.
2. But now also the opposite tack is taken. We are told that race
prejudice is a fixed fact--that the Southern people will never yield,
and that hence if we are to plant Congregational churches in the South
at all, we must compromise. And once more we have with us the "practical
men," who claim to take common sense views, and they urge us again to be
content with the "half-loaf." But this compromise "half-loaf" is very
much like the famous "little book" that John ate that was indeed in the
mouth "sweet as honey" but afterward proved to be exceedingly "bitter."
The truth is that this half-loaf, and Ephraim's "cake not turned" and
the drink that was "lukewarm, neither hot nor cold," constitute a very
unhealthy diet for Christian people. The past has its lesson by which we
ought to have profited; and it will be a shame if, with all our
experience, we are found to need the reproof that "when for the time ye
ought to be teachers, ye have need that some one teach you again which
be the _first principles of the oracles of God_."
We have to deal once more, in the history of this nation, with the
precious interests of the poor and neglected, and we must guard against
past mistakes. The issue before us is a square one, and no dodging and
no compromise will meet the case. We plead now for eight millions of
freemen as we once plead for four millions of slaves. God is their
Father, Christ is their Redeemer and the Church must recognize their
equal manhood. We hold with the _Christian Union_ that: "It were better
far that the Northern Church should not go with its missionary work into
the South at all, than that it should go with a mission which
strengthens the infidelity that denies that God made of one blood all
the nations of the earth for to dwell together."
* * * * *
The Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian churches North resist all
overtures for separating the colored and white people in churches and
ecclesiastical bodies in the South. The Episcopal Church, in Virginia
and South Carolina at least, have consented to the separation on the
color-line. The Congregationalists will soon decide the position they
will take. Will they range themselves with the Episcopalians now
standing alone?
* * * * *
INDIAN CONTRACT SCHOOLS.
The public has been made aware through the press recently that the
United States Government aids the Roman Catholics to support 2,098
Indian pupils and assists all Protestant denominations in the support of
only 1,146 pupils. Why is this discrimination, and who is to blame for
it? If the Roman Catholics give for plant, teachers' salaries, etc., an
amount proportionately greater than that given by the Protestants, then
the Protestants have themselves only to blame, and the difficulty can be
remedied by their giving an equal amount. But if, on the other hand, the
Government gives in proportion more to the Roman Catholics than it does
to the Protestants, then the Government is showing a wholly
unjustifiable partiality. Figures are in order on this subject. Who will
furnish them?
* * * * *
A MINISTER'S TESTIMONY.
"I have just been reading the AMERICAN MISSIONARY for August with
profound interest. I rejoice with you that the 'figures are still
improving'.
"Your 'practical thoughtful friend' is a suggestive example for us all,
I am not surprised that this year he 'has doubled his special
contribution.' 'Nothing succeeds like success,' is true also of
achievement in bringing ourselves to give to the Lord of what he is
constantly giving to us.
"I thank God for the simple, but singular and noble justice done by that
judge and jury in Chicago who maintained the civil rights of brother
Smith.
"Mrs. Regal's paper on 'The Local Society,' seemed to me full of
excellent suggestions. One in particular, that of a birthday offering
containing a cent for every year of age, is eminently practical, and
conducive to surprising results. How better can we set up our Ebenezer
than by thus saying from our purses as well as from our hearts,
'Hitherto hath the Lord helped us'?
"Finding it is best for myself to 'strike while the iron is hot,' I sit
down at once to send you a check. The signal mercy of the Lord enables
me to make my offering of dollars instead of cents, and has put so many
benefits already into the fraction of the current year that it may be
reckoned as a complete year. How small an acknowledgment does even a
dollar seem for a year of life, with all its escapes from peril and all
its experience of good! What a refreshing addition to the resources of
the church would result if each professing Christian would give such a
birthday offering of one cent for each year of life! May the Lord fill
us all with the spirit of him who gave himself unto the death for us.
"I pray earnestly that the American Missionary Association may continue
to enlarge, and its work to prosper."
* * * * *
NOTES BY THE WAY.
BY DISTRICT SECRETARY C.J. RYDER.
White Men and Red Men.
"THE ROUND UP!
INTERESTING HIGH SCHOOL COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES LAST NIGHT."
The above was the characteristic heading in a Dakota paper of an
editorial notice of the closing exercises of their High School.
Everything takes its color from the peculiar condition of society. A
rubber overcoat is a "slicker," and a native pony is a "broncho." Not so
inappropriate, either, is the term "The Round Up," for the closing
exercises of a school year. It ought to be the round up, a complete
circle or sphere of successful work and accomplishment, so far as that
period of school-life is concerned. The white men of Dakota are changing
perceptibly, I think, in their feelings toward the red men among them,
or among whom they are. A sense of responsibility for their
Christianization seems to have taken possession of the minds of the
intelligent Christian people. One is impressed with the abundance of
church buildings in these small white settlements. In one small village
of perhaps five hundred people, I counted eight Protestant churches.
With Christian churches so numerously planted as they are in these new
Western States, we may hope for large help from them in the Indian work
of the Association, before many years. They are now falling into line in
this great work. I rode on one side of the Missouri River for many miles
among the white settlements. Afterwards I rode on the other side of the
river a long distance among the Indian villages, and could not help but
contrast the condition of life of the two. The Government relations
differ materially. If the supplies were withheld from the Indians, and
they were compelled to take land in severally, and not hustled over the
prairie every month or two weeks for meat, sugar and coffee, I think the
change for the better would be perceptible in a twelvemonth. There is
general hopefulness on the part of the missionaries among the red men,
now that two Christian men stand at the head of the Indian Department.
It was my privilege to take a cordial letter of greeting from Supt.
Dorchester of the Government Indian Schools to the A.M.A. missionaries
at Santee Agency, Neb. It was an encouragement to these earnest toilers
in this far-away field to know that there was appreciation on the part
of the Government of the Christian work among these Indians. Great care,
intense study, great deliberation of action will be necessary if these
new Government officers succeed in bettering the condition of the red
men, as they are doubtless sincerely desirous of doing. They must know
what they are doing, before they do it.
The Government schools which I visited furnished abundant evidence that
considerable time would be necessary to correct the evils existing in
these, and to make them what they should be before any radical policy
could be safely adopted by the Government in reference to contract
missionary schools. The Roman Catholic influence seems to have been a
dominant power in the control of these schools for some time.
Wolf Chief, a Mandan Indian, called on me while at Fort Berthold and
begged that his tribe be protected against a Catholic priest who, he
said, wanted to compel them to send their children to a school that he
proposed to establish near them. "We Mandans are Congregationalists,"
said this Indian chief, "and we want to send our children to your
mission."
* * * * *
Incidents both amusing and pathetic are of frequent occurrence in this
Indian work. Such incidents throw light upon the inside life of the
Indians and missionaries, and are often useful in the "Monthly Concert,"
and so I record some of them here.
"Cherries-in-the-mouth," a somewhat aged and highly-painted Indian, was
very much taken with one of the missionaries. He came to the
Superintendent of the mission and offered eight ponies for her, or, I
believe, more correctly, said he would give eight ponies, if he had
them. His affection was larger than his pocket-book, as is sometimes
true of his pale-faced brother.
* * * * *
"Plenty Corn" was a sweet little Indian girl, who attended the mission
at Fort Berthold. She had won her way wonderfully into the hearts of the
teachers, and when she died last spring, there were sorrowful hearts in
the mission, as truly as in the Indian tepee. The parents had been
reached also by the influence of the mission. They permitted the
missionary to lay the body in a coffin. The Indians took up the little
white casket and bore it to the boat in which it was to be taken across
the Missouri River. The father rowed the boat, as the mother sat on the
opposite bank waiting for her dead darling, and from the boat there went
up the piteous wailing of the father, which was echoed back from the
bank in the piteous wail of the mother. It was a sad, sad sight, and
emphasized painfully the need of Christian instruction, that the hope of
the Gospel may break through the superstitious darkness of these sad
lives.
* * * * *
ECHOES.
An old man who teaches in the country heard we had a number of
Sunday-school papers, and asked us if we had any "overtures of
Sunday-school literature" to give him.
One of the older boys was obliged to leave school to work. In the last
prayer-meeting he attended he said: "It makes me feel very sorry when I
think that next week my seat will be filled with my absence."
Another prayed that he might walk more "citcumspotly before the world."
* * * * *
"FREELY YE HAVE RECEIVED, FREELY GIVE."
(_Written for a Missionary Concert held in the interests of the A.M.A._)
So free are the gifts of heaven,
So many the blessings which fall,
That, should we attempt to count them
We could not number them all.
For God is a generous Giver.
Who sows with a liberal hand
Shall reap a bounteous harvest
And gather the fruits of the land.
For 'tis God that gives the increase,
And oft it's a "hundred fold,"
And men are reaping in many ways
Aside from lands and gold.
The blessings of home and fireside,
Of friendship, of books, of health,
Of knowledge, of church, of worship,
All these are a part of our wealth.
But off in the sunny Southland,
In a part of our country large,
Are _needs_, which with us are _blessings_,
And to us there comes this charge:--
_Freely received are God's mercies;
And now will ye freely give?_
It will be a glorious mission
To help a nation live.
BLUEHILL, ME.
M.
* * * * *
THE SOUTH
* * * * *
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.
BY FIELD SUPERINTENDENT F.E. JENKINS.
NEW CHURCHES.
Two new Congregational churches in connection with our work completed
their organization with communion services on Sunday, September 1st.
Both were organized by Northern people who have settled in the South in
places which are likely to grow by immigration from the North. One is in
Roseland, La., and is under the pastoral care of Rev. C.S. Shattuck. It
starts with eleven members.
The other is in North Athens, Tenn., and for the present is cared for by
our general missionary, Rev. G. Stanley Pope. It begins with thirteen
members. Both will come into the regular State organizations of
Congregational churches.
The First Congregational Church of Alco, Ala., was organized August
25th, with twelve members. Rev. James Brown, a graduate of the last
theological class at Talladega College, is the pastor.
At Fort Payne, Ala., the first steps were taken August 21st toward the
organization of a church. It was voted to complete the organization as
soon as possible. Rev. Geo. S. Smith, recently of Raleigh, N.C., has
gone to Fort Payne to take charge of the work.
NEW CHAPEL.
The Plymouth Congregational Church of New Decatur, Ala., aided by the
American Missionary Association, is erecting a chapel which is to be
used as a church until the congregation shall become larger and
wealthier. This church has been organized by Northern people who have
gone to this new and growing town to make their homes. It is connected
with the Central South Association of Congregational Churches.
HYMN BOOKS WANTED.
The Plymouth Congregational Church of New Decatur, Ala., greatly needs
hymn books. It has a few copies of the "Songs of the Sanctuary," but not
enough to enable it to use them. Any church having copies of this book
which are not needed in its service could scarcely do better with them
than to send them to this courageous little church.
From Crossville, Tenn., we have this appeal: "It would be esteemed a
great favor if some church could furnish our people with a donation of
hymn books for church singing. You may know of some church having a new
supply of hymn books who would be pleased to give this poor flock on the
mountains their old books. If so, they would be thankful, and highly
appreciate the favor."
* * * * *
VACATION AT TOUGALOO.
BY FIELD SUPERINTENDENT E.S. HALL.
Awake? With the "Rat-a-tat Quir-r-k, tat-tat" of the great
crimson-crested woodpecker hammering just for noisy fun on the wide
cornice of the "mansion," with the summer sun shining in through the
window, and the five o'clock bell pealing sharply from Strieby Hall, the
seven sleepers would have to be awake and doing at Tougaloo University.
The mercury is passing the 72° point at sunrise; but the morning, as the
sunshine sparkles on the dewy grass between the wide-spreading live-oaks
of the grove, seems as cool as a morning on the Berkshire hills. The
wide-rolling plantation fields to the west give no hint of the long hot
mid-day hours when the cotton revels in a heat that sends all animate
nature to the deepest coverts.
The Tougaloo grounds are a paradise for all feathered life. The quail
with their cheery "Bob White" whistle in the kitchen garden, following
in plain sight the boys hoeing out the "grass." The blue-jays, martins
and mocking birds render a trip to the Paris Exposition entirely
unnecessary, if one wishes to hear all parties talk at the same moment
and in unintelligible syllables. Curious, is'nt it, that these shy
denizens of field and forest are so bold, in term as well as vacation
time, where these colored lads and lasses congregate, for people of a
low, brutal nature, incapable of any spark of generosity or ambition,
are no friends to innocent nature. The papers that characterize the
Negro as such, a creature unfit to live in a white man's country, cannot
be blinded by prejudice!
What of the human life at Tougaloo? College is out; the teachers are in
the far North. Miss Emerson, Preceptress of the Girl's Hall; Mr.
Hitchcock, Treasurer; Mr. Klein, Superintendent of the Farm; and Mr.
Kennedy, Superintendent of Carpentry; and Mr. McKibban, borrowed from
Macon school, are present to supervise the necessary work, for Tougaloo
cannot be closed a day. With its farm and forest and its shops, it is to
become for the Southwest what Hampton is for the Eastern South. May the
Lord prompt some of his stewards to make investments here which will
bring in a ten-fold interest for the nation and for heaven!
The dining-hall shows a number of tables well filled at meal times. Most
interesting are the ten little girls whom Miss Emerson has taken to
bring up to womanhood with habits of industry and economy, and with
characters pure and joyous. Each day has its routine for them; the
bedroom, the dining-room, the kitchen, the sewing-room, the lesson hour,
the play time and the period for personal advice and religious
instruction, have their appropriate but never-forgotten place.
There are a dozen of the large girls, young women who do the washing,
"clean house," cook the daily meals and can fruit from the garden and
orchard for the Sunday-night dish of sauce during the coming year. Part
of these are girls in the regular domestic course, a few are kept to
work for their board and instruction rather than have them obliged to go
into the cotton fields at home under unscrupulous overseers. These girls
have a long, busy day, for the work needed to keep any one of the great
boarding schools in efficient operation would surprise any one of our
contributing friends who has never been "thro' the mill."
The boys--_little_ fellows some of them only seventy-two inches tall in
their bare feet--comprise the regular students in the industrial
courses; the baker, the butcher or meat boy, the irrepressible John boy
of all work about the kitchen; then the stock, the farm, the carpenter
and blacksmith apprentices, together with several kept for general help,
for work of an unusual magnitude was to be undertaken this vacation.
The Girl's Hall, a great three story building with seven thousand five
hundred square feet of ground plan, had been slowly settling into this
treacherous alluvium, which is three hundred feet deep to the first sand
and gravel, until the building was in danger of falling. Southern
contractors advised taking it down because it could not be safely
repaired. But the American Missionary Association's force was equal to
the emergency. The weight, with the resulting strains and thrusts, was
calculated. Concrete footings of sufficient area were planned, brick
piers and heavy timbering were skillfully placed, and the building will
stand stronger than new and much improved in plan.
If these youths, who pulled on the forty-eight great "jack-screws,"
lifting and blocking up the building section by section, who excavated
exactly to the surveyor's stakes, who mixed concrete and mortar, who
framed and handled the huge "hard pine" timbers, who earnestly undertook
whatever was told them--for this was new and strange work--if these
youths had not been "Negroes," the outside world would have been glad to
picture them in magazine and review.
The writer has had a long experience as master of a boy's boarding
school in the North, situated in a village which also contained a young
ladies' seminary. Had those young people been as sober and in earnest as
these dusky-skinned ones, as free from midnight mischief, how many weary
vigils would he have escaped!
The religious life at Tougaloo does not cease with term time. Two or
three young men go out to hold Sunday services in the country cabins,
the Sunday-school is full and the older ones serve as teachers, for many
children come in from surrounding fields, making a school of nearly one
hundred teachers and pupils. The young people's society meeting each
Sunday afternoon, and the prayer meetings on Sunday and Wednesday
evenings are characterized by a quiet, earnest Christianity, that would
do credit to any circle in our Northern States.
* * * * *
FROM A TEACHER IN THE TENNESSEE MOUNTAINS.
Let me tell you of the general interest manifest in several of the
counties west and north of us in attending this school. One of our
students has visited many cabins over the mountains during his vacation,
and finds school advantages very scarce and poor. He finds poverty and
degradation, and ignorance of the world and of books. Some of the people
are still using the old-time method of kindling their fires by flint and
steel instead of matches. He has met many young people who are thirsting
for books and school, has also found numbers who have struggled up
through the darkness and have become teachers in their own neighborhood,
"the blind leading the blind." Such almost invariably wish to come to
our school and say they shall be here as soon as their schools close.
Many are too poor to come. This is true of a number of young girls who
would come if they could _work_ their board or in any possible way
pay for it. Whoever will provide funds to meet the expenses of these
neglected girls, and place them in our school and prepare them for the
future duties of life, will be doing an angelic work, and in the end
will do the greatest good that can be done to this people. Very much of
the money spent for this mountain people will be the same as thrown away
if this effort is not made to educate the girls.
The natives are having their big yearly meetings and lively times
shouting and actually chasing each other in and around their log
churches to pull them to the "mourner's bench," and, in their wild
efforts, they upset stove pipes and benches. It is so much like a circus
that everybody runs to the big meetings.
* * * * *
SIGNS OF PROGRESS.
BY PRES. R.C. HITCHCOCK.
Every little while, some article giving ultra views of "The Problem,"
gets into the papers, sometimes painting a roseate-hued picture, and
again some one, who does not find people of dusky hue all angels, writes
that there is no hope; that all experiments leading to intellectual and
especially to moral elevation are failures; and that she (as one wrote)
is ready or almost ready, "to throw away the Bible and advise the
negroes to be honestly heathen."
I will indicate a few plain signs of progress. The negroes are rapidly
learning self-control. Six years ago, if a package was left in the hall
over night, there would be signs in the morning that it had been meddled
with. The contents might be all there--I have not found them greatly
given to peculation, from the first--but they did not seem to have the
power to resist the temptation to peep. Now, this is never done; a
package of any kind may be left where it is freely accessible for weeks,
and it will be untouched.
The first time a fire occurred in our neighborhood, what a panic there
was! All were screaming and tearing about, trunks were dragged out of
rooms, and one boy threw his out of a second story window. It was all we
could possibly do to quiet them and restore order. Since then, there has
been a fire so near as to scorch the rear fence and no panic, no
screaming, hardly a student left his room. Formerly, on the receipt of
bad news, as the intelligence of the death of a friend, it was not
uncommon for one to have a fit of hysterics or something resembling it;
now, such news is received with deep feeling indeed, and with tears, but
no hysterics or fit of any kind.
There is, also, a grand growth in the sister virtue of gratitude. In
this, they have more to overcome, probably, than in any other matter,
for here they carry an inheritance of great weight, from the old slave
days. Why should they be grateful? What chance to exercise the feeling!
It became, like the eyes of the fish in the Styx of Mammoth Cave,
useless, and to all appearances disappeared. But the germ is there, and
with light it will again come to the surface.
I could cite scores of anecdotes. I will give but one, and I give this
because it also illustrates a most loveable trait of character which
abounds among these people--sympathy for suffering. Mrs. H. and myself
started one day, to drive from New Iberia to the Avery salt mine, some
ten miles distant. It was Monday following a hard Sunday's work
speaking; it was as hot as days can be out in the Teche country, and
when a little more than half way there, I was suffering from a terrific
headache. We were too far to go back, and so drove on. Arrived at the
"Island," we drove, as directed, to the boarding house, seeking a place
where I could at least lie down, to find only a shed filled with tables,
where the men ate, going elsewhere to sleep. I asked Mrs. H. to drive on
and, holding on behind the carriage, was groping my way along, more dead
than alive, when I heard a voice cry out, "Why, howdy, Professor, how
ever came you here?" Glad was I to hear a friendly voice. It was that of
a young girl who had been, some months before, a visitor at the
University, and to whom I had given a little book and spoken some
friendly words. My bread came back to me--a whole loaf for a crumb. All
day long, she and her mother, who left her wash tub to attend to me,
worked over my miserable head. A mile and more she ran in the burning
sun for ice, and no herb that grew on "Petit Anse" from which a
decoction could be made, was left untried, until ice, herbs, and a tough
constitution prevailed, and I was able to ride home. I offered pay, but
it was almost indignantly refused. I wish space would allow me to tell a
hundred stories to illustrate their kind-heartedness, not only to each
other, but to strangers, and even to their old masters and mistresses.
Their Christian faith is something wonderful. It has been my blessed
privilege to be at the bedside of several young people as the death
angel hovered near, and nowhere did I ever feel so near the pearly
gates. Such pure faith and perfect confidence, such perfect resignation,
one could almost hear the rustle of the wings as Azrael bent down to
take the sweet spirit home.
They have gained much in stability of character. Frivolity and silly
nonsense are not the rule. Our boys and girls who go out to teach, carry
a load of responsibility with them. Some of the parishes have been
almost entirely transformed by their work. Three of our boys last summer
built the school houses in which they taught, the people contributing
time, lumber and money, and they are the _only_ school houses in the
State, outside of the large towns, that were built for, or are fit for,
the purpose. Two of them have halls above for meetings, are fitted up
with blackboards, desks, etc. The stories our boys tell of their efforts
to introduce modern appliances and methods, remind me of those I used to
hear from the old veterans Barnard, Camp, and others, of their struggles
in the early days in Connecticut.
They have grown in cleanliness and industry beyond expression. When I
first came here, it was sometimes harder to get a bit of work done than
to do it myself. Now, it is a pleasure to work with them.
In nothing, perhaps, has there been so great a gain as in the habit of
reading. The progress in this is simply astonishing, and cannot be
described in a few words. Seven years ago, there was hardly a reader in
the school. Now, many of our young people come to my library and,
looking over my books, talk of them and their authors as intelligently
as young people of the same age in Massachusetts would.
I conclude by saying that, in this far-away corner, God has greatly
blessed the efforts made by faithful teachers, and there is every cause
for encouragement and hope.
* * * * *
OBITUARY.