urgent request of the churches, it was decided, after faithful
examination regarding the character, doctrinal views and
qualifications of the candidates, to license for the term of one
year Mr. Squire Williams, of Thibodauxville, and Paul Martin, of
New Iberia. In the case of Father Benjamin Fields, of Terrebonne,
who has suffered for his faith in Christ and his fidelity to
His service in the darkest days of bondage, the association,
by a unanimous and cordial vote, granted him a license without
limitation of time. The relation of his personal experience was
very affecting. When he had spoken of the torture inflicted
upon him by the lash, the paddle and the stocks, the Moderator
asked him if while he suffered for his faith he prayed for his
persecutors. He said: “I should not have been a Christian if I had
not prayed for them.” One of the new churches received, the St.
Rock Congregational church, earnestly requested that Mr. Humphrey
Williams, one of their number, be set apart to the work of the
ministry by the solemn rite of ordination, that he might serve them
as pastor, and administer to them the sacraments of the church.
The examination of Mr. Williams was approved, and his ordination
secured in the evening. The Moderator preached the sermon and Dr.
Roy gave a most excellent charge to the candidate. The ordaining
prayer was offered by Rev. J. K. Jones, of Napoleonville, and the
right hand of fellowship given by Rev. W. R. Polk, of New Iberia.
After the ordination service, Rev. Isaac H. Hall, of New Orleans,
the delegate of the association to the National Council at St.
Louis, made his report. His address was grand. As he described his
visit to the Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association
at Norwich and to the National Council, giving the salient features
of each as they impressed his own mind, the audience were aroused
to a high state of enthusiasm; smiles and tears were commingled;
and one loud “Glory to God!” broke forth from hundreds of lips.
I must relate one incident in Mr. Hall’s address. Speaking of
the election of a colored man as one of the vice-presidents of
the National Council, he said: “Just think of it, dear brethren!
There was Dr. Dexter on one side, and Dr. Sturtevant on the other,
and a colored man in the middle, saying, ‘Are you ready for the
question?’” You should have heard the hallelujah which greeted this
announcement. There was a colored Baptist minister in the audience,
with more enthusiasm than learning, who said: “Do you hear that? A
white man on one side, and a white man on the other, and a nigger
in the middle, saying, ‘Is you ready for de question?’ O Lord! is
we riz so high?”
The association adjourned on Friday morning to meet in New Orleans,
with Central Church, the first Wednesday in April, 1882. Dr.
Alexander was appointed to represent the association at the autumn
meeting of the Congregational Church in England. The religious
interest awakened by our annual meeting deepened to the last, and
at the urgent request of Brother Clay, several of the ministers
remained after the adjournment. At the meeting on Saturday night,
35 were brought under conviction of sin, and asked for the prayers
of the church. The good work still goes on.
The churches of the association need to be encouraged, instructed
and helped. I see to-day, as I have seen every year that I have
been in the State, opportunities of investing one hundred dollars
in a piece of ground for a church site, or to make the last payment
upon a chapel, or to save a discouraged frontier preacher, which
would pay a fabulous revenue.
While our bankers and statesmen are devising means for funding the
national debt, who in all this broad land, so rich in resources,
will decide to fund something of his surplus revenue in the way I
have indicated?
* * * * *
KANSAS.
The Condition of the Blacks at Topeka, Kan., and Savannah, Ga.,
Contrasted.
REV. R. F. MARKHAM.
I spent five years in Savannah, devoting my whole time to the
colored people. Savannah claims 30,000 inhabitants, of whom about
15,000 are colored. Topeka has 16,000 inhabitants, 5,000 of whom
are colored. Physical wants can be more easily supplied in Savannah
than in Topeka. In nearly all of the South the bare necessities of
life are more easily secured than at the North. The colored people
of Topeka have equally good schools with the whites, where separate
schools for them are established. The State Superintendent has
ruled that any district which does not supply equal advantages for
both white and colored can have no State appropriation. Savannah
has tolerably good public schools for a little over one half of the
colored children, but the poorest teachers are employed especially
outside of the city. Everywhere through Kansas the blacks are as
well supplied as the whites.
In Topeka a colored man can take jobs and superintend business when
he is competent, and all are willing he should, but in Savannah I
employed a very competent negro to superintend a job of mason work.
I asked a white mason a few days afterward if it would do to put
mortar on green lath. He replied, “I will not answer you. You have
got a nigger to do your work.”
It is all right for colored men to do the work South, but they must
have a white overseer. At the barber shops in Topeka they shave
both white and colored, but let a colored man shave a black man in
Savannah, and he will have no white customers. If a white man and a
colored man walk the streets of Savannah together, the colored man
must go behind, like a dog, not walk by the white man’s side. It
was a long time before I learned why even my deacons would always
walk behind me. That was their training. I said: “Walk by my side,
you are my brother.” My daughter walked the streets of Savannah
with a colored lady by her side. A white lady said to her, “You
cannot be respected; you should have the colored girl walk behind
you.”
In Topeka colored men and white walk side by side. Even the
Governor of the State does not hesitate to walk this way with
a colored man. I attended an election yesterday in Topeka.
Politicians were anxious for colored votes. So they are in the
South sometimes, but I observed the different way they have of
treating a colored man in Topeka from the one they practice in
Savannah. The politician says: “Mr. So-and-So,” but in Savannah
it is, “Jim, Jack, boy, come, give me a vote.” I never heard a
Southern white man “Mr.” a colored man. I wrote several articles
for the _Savannah News_ and called the colored girls Misses, and
applied Mr. to colored men. In every case they struck out Miss or
Mr., as applied to colored persons. I was told by a prominent man
in Savannah that any man who would sit at the table with a colored
man ought to be driven out of the city. A colored man cannot sue a
white man in Savannah and collect a debt; but in Kansas he is equal
before the law. A negro entered the Presbyterian church in Savannah
when Ralph Wells, of New York, was lecturing on Sabbath-schools,
and was called upon to pray, at which the black sexton said to
me, “The millennium must be here, a colored man prayed in the
Presbyterian church! I never heard of such a thing before in my
life.”
The Topeka Ministerial Association invites negro ministers to come
in and join indiscriminately in its deliberations. In Topeka every
white man encourages the colored man to save his money and get a
home; in Savannah it is right the reverse. In Topeka a majority
get homes; in Savannah but very few. In Topeka a majority of the
whites encourage temperance, and, as the result, the colored vote
goes nearly solid for temperance. In Savannah it is the reverse;
nearly all drink. The moral instruction in Topeka is deficient, as
the instruction is largely given by ignorant colored people, except
the Sabbath-school sustained by the A. M. A. I believe it a great
mistake of the A. M. A. not to put more laborers into the field in
Kansas, where there are nearly 60,000 freed people. By no means
neglect the South; all the work now being done is needed and twice
as much more, but do not neglect this important field in Kansas,
where all that pertains to true manhood can be far more rapidly
developed than at the South.
* * * * *
THE INDIANS.
* * * * *
LETTER FROM JAMES MURIE.
Dear Friend:—A year ago, when I was at home, I stayed at the
Agent’s office. I used to stay there and board at the school. I
had a room and had nice things in there. One day a white man came
to the office, wanted some children to go to Carlisle and Hampton
schools. He said he wanted to take the Chief’s sons. In the evening
I went to the school-house. A lady called me; she told me if I
wanted to go to school. “Why, yes,” I said. The next morning I
got two boys, and the Agent got two girls and a boy. We went to
the commersary and got some clothes, and got ready for the next
morning. We went to our homes the same day to see our friends. My
father talked to me, but my mother and sisters cried. The next
morning the wagon came up to the school. All the school-children
came out, and the teachers; we bade them good-by. We start off for
Arkansas city, which is about sixty-five miles from here. We had
a box of grub to eat on the way. We went on; we stopped at place
called “Poor Pawnee;” we had dinner there; the girls stopped crying
then. Dinner was over, we watered the mules, hitched them up and
went on. About five o’clock we got to Ponca Agency; we camped on
a small creek; all the grub was gone; we had to buy some more.
The man went to the Agent’s house to get some boys. They had a
council with him; they let him take some boys. We stayed in the
post-office all night; the next morning the boys were ready; there
were five boys, two Nez Perces and three Poncas. They had to get
another wagon for them. We went on. We got to Arkansas city about
six o’clock. We camped on the western side of the city. We went to
the town to buy some things which we had to eat that night. One
white man came to the camp and told us that Capt. Pratt telegraphed
to Winfield that we were to get to Wichita City before morning.
We started off for Winfield. I had to drive, for the man had to
walk to know which way we went. We got there in the night, and got
to the depot house. We laid down for a little while, and the man
told us that the train was ready. Before we got in the cars the
Indian man who brought us talked to us. He wanted us to be good,
and told us to remember what we were going away for. We got in the
train, and got to Wichita before morning. We went to the hotel and
found some other Indians there; we stayed there one day to rest.
The next morning we took another train; we did not stop at any
place till we got to St. Louis. I saw many white people there. We
had supper there. I do not know what other places we stopped till
to Harrisburg, Penn., and then went to Carlisle. I stayed there
little while, and then I went to Hampton. I got here last October,
which I entered in the lowest class. I think I improved my studies,
and am now in another class. I will now try and tell you about my
vacation this summer. School closed in June, Mr. J. C. Robinson,
who had charge of us Indians, divided us into groups, some to go
to Massachusetts, and some to change around. I mean there were
three crowds; each crowd had to go to a farm called Shellbanks,
to work out there a month. My crowd were the first to go out. We
used to work on the farm, hoe corn, beets and cabbages, etc. I like
to work on farm, though it was hot. Every evening we used to have
prayer-meeting with Mr. Davis, who had charge of us out there. We
had two Indian boys to cook for us. Every Sunday we used to go to
the church, though it is about four miles where we stayed, and went
to Sunday-school, too, and went back as soon as possible, so as to
rest. Month was out, we went back to the school. On the way we met
the other party of boys, to stay there a month like we did. When we
got to the school they sent us right in the orchard, to help the
men in gathering fruits. We got through, then Mr. Cocks took us on
the farm to plant some potatoes. Then I went in one of the training
shops to work. I worked in there till my time came on again. I went
out there again, this time we worked on a bridge which the colored
students were building to shorten the Normal School road. Some boys
help load the carts, but I haul dirt with a wheelbarrow.
When I went back to the school I went in the same trade or shop. I
went to learn the trade of printer that I might be able to start
a trade out there. But, friend, don’t think that I did not do
anything in the evenings of my vacation. Every Tuesdays and Fridays
Rev. J. J. Gravatt and Rev. Mayor use to come over to the Indian
Cottage, and there we would meet with them, read the bible and
prayed with them, taught us about God, I learned many things from
them. They are good friends toward the red men, for they want them
to know something about God and have faith in him. They are doing
this yet. I was glad when I saw some teachers here for I was ready
to study. I know it is my duty to study and I always try and have
good lessons. I work two days every week. There are more students
in school this term than there were when I first come here. I hope
I will learn all I can while here that I might be able to teach
my own people. I am getting along well in this school, I like the
colored students for they help us how to talk English. I am very
glad that some white people thinks that Indians can learn, I know
some thinks they can not learn, and thinks that it is no use for
them to come to a good school like this; if the old Indians had
been educated like the old white people, we would have been even in
schools. The Government have just started schools for Indians. When
these Indians at Hampton first came here, they did not know a word
of English, they were dressed in Indians’ cloths; but now they have
cloths like white people and they can read, cipher, and spell, and
we are learning how to work just as well as studying books; we are
getting along very nicely in our studys. Dear friends, I am glad
that you are helping me in school though I am an Indian, which some
people say that they can not learn anything. I have learned here
that we can learn though we were not raised in talking the English
language. I will now close, thanking you for what you have done for
me.
Yours respectfully,
JAS. R. MURIE, Young Eagle,
Pawnee Indian.
* * * * *
THE CHINESE.
* * * * *
“CALIFORNIA CHINESE MISSION.”
Auxiliary to the American Missionary Association.
PRESIDENT: Rev. J. K. McLean, D.D. VICE-PRESIDENTS: Rev. A. L.
Stone, D.D., Robert B. Forman, Rev. T. K. Noble, Hon. F. F. Low,
Rev. I. E. Dwinell, D.D., Hon. Samuel Cross, Rev. S. H. Willey,
D.D., Jacob S. Taber, Esq.
DIRECTORS: Rev. George Mooar, D.D., Hon. E. D. Sawyer, Rev. E.
P. Baker, James M. Haven, Esq., Rev. Joseph Howell, Rev. John
Kimball, A. L. Van Blarcon, Esq., George Harris, Esq., and the
Secretary ex officio.
SECRETARY: Rev. W. C. Pond. TREASURER: E. Palache, Esq.
* * * * *
JEE GAM ON THE MISSION IN CHINA.
[The sixth anniversary (eighth year) of our Chinese Schools
takes place next Sabbath, April 24th. The following address has
been prepared by Jee Gam to be delivered on that occasion. I
forward it as a sort of first instalment in our plea for the
commencement of a work greatly needed, and capable, if rightly
carried on, of yielding most blessed results.—W. C. P.]
In China proper, exclusive of Chinese Tartary, Thibet, etc., there
are eighteen provinces, among them Kwong Dioung, of which the
well-known city of Canton is the capital. This province embraces
77 districts, and almost all of our Christian Chinese come from
four of these districts, which lie in a cluster about eighty miles
south-west of Canton, and 100 miles west of Hong Kong. To these
districts our young men expect to return, and many of them already
have returned. Their faith has often been tried, but they have
stood firm, and have often come forth victorious, because the Lord
Jehovah has been with them.
I wish I could tell you all about the trials and persecutions of
these converts; but time will not permit, so I will briefly relate
the story of the marriage ceremonies of Lee Fon and Quong Jo. These
two brethren went home some three years ago. Not long after they
had arrived the time for their marriages was undesignedly appointed
on the same day. When they learned of this, and found that the
day for their marriages could not be changed, they were very much
grieved, for they did not wish the ceremony to be performed in a
heathen manner. The principal rites of a Chinese wedding are the
worshiping of ancestors, and of the household gods. The bride and
bridegroom are married separately at their own homes. After the
marriage of the bride, she is taken to the home of the bridegroom.
Then both worship the ancestors together.
Within a distance of eighteen miles there were only two
Christians—one of them a native preacher. The help of these men was
very much needed. There being such a long distance between them,
it would have been impossible for the native missionary and the
convert to attend both ceremonies. So Quong Jo decided to stand
alone, and oppose his brothers and relatives, who were urging him
to worship the ancestors. He would not do this. They reviled him,
and threatened to compel him. He still stood firm, for the Lord
was with him even there, alone in that heathen village. Finally
they left him to himself to worship whatever God he pleased. When
the time came to place the offerings before the ancestral tablets,
Quong Jo turned the opposite way, and prayed aloud to the true God
whom he had learned to worship in America. He was closely watched
by a crowd.
At the same time the marriage of Lee Fon was taking place in his
own village, about ten miles from Quong Jo’s home. The native
preacher and his convert were invited a few days previous, and
arrived early in the morning of the day of the marriage. As soon
as they entered the reception hall of the village, the cry on the
streets was: “Two barbarians have come to the wedding.” Fifteen
minutes afterwards the hall was filled. Among those present were
teachers and professors who had come to argue with the so-called
“barbarians.” For several hours the argument was kept up, but
each of these followers of Confucius was, in turn, silenced. His
brothers and relatives, who had been the chief persecutors, now
said, “We will let you worship the foreign Jesus.” After this
contest the missionary and the native convert returned with the
bridegroom and his friends to his home, where the marriage ceremony
was concluded by prayer and praises to God, instead of the worship
of ancestors. Thus these two battles for the right were gained by
four Christians.
From this, dear friends, you can see that a _native_ missionary
who understands the customs and manners of the people, and is
thoroughly acquainted with their language, is a very great help in
two respects: 1st, in preaching the Gospel to the people; and, 2d,
in helping and advising those who are already converted. We want
more of such missionaries; and we want more missionary stations in
these districts. Neither can be had, until we first establish a
General Mission or Seminary in that country.
Hong Kong would be the most suitable and convenient city for the
seat of such a mission. I will tell you why.
1st. The English language is used more in Hong Kong than in any
other port in China, and the Chinese living there, or those
visiting that place, could not be reached in a more efficient
manner than by opening the same kind of free schools for them
as you have opened for us here. They feel that they need to
know the English language. Of course, there are public schools
where both the English and Chinese languages are taught by the
British government, but all have their sessions in the day-time;
consequently, the children are the only ones benefited by these
schools. There remains the laboring class unreached. If a free
evening school is opened, I have no doubt that much good could be
done among them.
2d. Hong Kong is a great highway to all foreign ports, especially
San Francisco. Through Hong Kong nearly all the Chinese in the
United States have come and will return. If a General Mission
could be established at this port much co-operating work could
be accomplished between our mission here and that at Hong Kong.
Christian Chinese, returning home, would receive letters of
introduction to the superintendent of the Hong Kong mission. This
superintendent would have pastoral care over them, and be a very
great help in time of persecution. Converts would be made firmer
in faith, and more earnest in leading others to Christ. If this
mission prosper, as we have not the least doubt it would, these
converts could have preaching stations in these districts, and from
these stations reach every village; but the work would be carried
to a much wider extent by the aid of lady missionaries, who alone
could reach the women.
Many of our number will go back there to study; for if they return
they must be well versed in the Chinese Bible and in the classics
of Confucius. They will meet much opposition from educated men.
These will come and discuss with our brethren, and they should be
able to give a reason for the hope that is in them.
In regard to the cost of this mission, what we propose would not be
very expensive. There should be one missionary, a wise and earnest
Christian, with good business capacity, and one _well-educated_
Chinese helper; and as the school grew and scholars were prepared
to preach, the range of studies and the number of teachers could be
increased.
All our Chinese Christian brethren expect to do all they can
towards the establishment of such a mission, but we must have help
from our American friends, especially the friends of the American
Missionary Association.
* * * * *
WOMAN’S HOME MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
Room 20, Congregational House, Beacon St., Boston.
MISS NATHALIE LORD, _Secretary_.
MISS ABBY W. PEARSON, _Treasurer_.
One of the difficulties the W. H. M. A. meets with is to find
definite work for its auxiliaries. Although in general they have
fields of labor chosen by themselves, it often happens that they
look to the parent society to furnish them; and indeed one of the
chief offices of the Association is to bring together the need
and the supply, those who want help and those who have the heart
and the hands ready to help. So we are fortunate this month in
having something to offer to the party requiring work, and first
we present a call which may well enlist sympathy and effort. Miss
Carter, writing from Nashville, Tenn., asks in behalf of the
President of Fisk University, whether our Association, in any of
its auxiliaries, would be willing to assume the education of a
pupil there. She says:
"Let me tell you of an especially sad case. ———— is a little girl
about thirteen, her fair hair, blue eyes and white skin prove her
parentage. Her mother is a colored woman of the lowest class,
living and delighting in licentiousness. There are numberless such,
but this woman differs from the majority in this respect, it is
perfectly immaterial to her what becomes of this daughter. Usually,
if the mother seems hopelessly bad she will yet try to shield her
child from the same sin which has been her own ruin. * * * ————’s
mother is different. Her grandmother has seen the danger to the
girl of allowing her to remain with her mother, so has sent her
here. But the grandmother can pay only five or six dollars a month
towards her expenses. The tuition and board are twelve dollars, and
beside this is the expense of clothing her. If the girl can remain
here four or five years, such habits and good principles will be
formed in her that at the end of that time she will be morally
saved, perhaps. If during that time she could receive help she
could then begin to teach and so help herself. There is more than
usual religious interest in Fisk at present, and little ———— has
surprised all by showing deep interest.
“Will you not present her case to whomsoever will help her?”
This opportunity offered suggests also that there are many such.
We do not know of any better or more satisfactory work for an
auxiliary than to assume the support of a student at Hampton,
Carlisle, Fisk, or some other kindred institution. There is
certainly no surer way to have a hand in the strengthening and
purifying of our country as well as in saving individuals, for the
large majority of those so helped go directly into the work of
helping up their own race as teachers, and all so brought under
the power of a Christian education must be centres of good in the
nation.