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The American Missionary
(QUARTERLY)
OCT.}
NOV.} 1900
DEC.}
VOL. LIV.
No. 4.
* * * * *
[Illustration: AIBONITO, PORTO RICO.]
* * * * *
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION,
THE CONGREGATIONAL ROOMS,
FOURTH AVENUE AND TWENTY-SECOND STREET, NEW YORK.
* * * * *
Price 50 Cents a Year in advance.
Entered at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., as Second-Class mail matter.
* * * * *
CONTENTS.
* * * * *
PAGE
FINANCIAL 145
ANNUAL MEETING 145
EDITORIAL NOTES 147
LE MOYNE NORMAL INSTITUTE 149
REINFORCEMENTS FROM AVERY INSTITUTE 155
WHAT OUR GRADUATES DO 156
SCHOOL LIFE IN PORTO RICO 157
AMONG THE INDIANS 164
THE PRESENT CRISIS IN CHINA, FROM THE STANDPOINT OF A
CHRISTIAN CHINESE 169
CHRISTIAN ENDEAVORERS IN THE A. M. A. CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS 175
OBITUARY--PRES. E. M. CRAVATH, D.D. 177
MEMORIAL SERVICE AT FISK UNIVERSITY 178
RECEIPTS 179
WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS 190
SECRETARIES OF YOUNG PEOPLE'S AND CHILDREN'S WORK 192
* * * * *
THE 54th ANNUAL MEETING
OF THE
American Missionary Association
WILL BE HELD IN
SPRINGFIELD, MASS.
October 23-25, 1900.
Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis, D.D., preaches Annual Sermon.
* * * * *
The AMERICAN MISSIONARY presents new form, fresh material and
generous illustrations for 1900. This magazine is published by the
American Missionary Association quarterly. Subscription rate fifty
cents per year.
Many wonderful missionary developments in our own country during this
stirring period of national enlargement are recorded in the columns
of this magazine.
* * * * *
THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
VOL. LIV. OCTOBER, 1900. NO. 4.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Financial.]
The Association closed the year without debt and has a balance in the
treasury of $1,601.90 for current work, not including the balance in
Reserve Legacy Account for the periods when the receipts from
legacies fall below the average on which the Committee makes its
estimate of available receipts from this source for current work of
the year.
We go to our Annual Meeting in Springfield, October 23d, with faith
in the ability and devotion of those who sustain the work and with
full courage and hopefulness for still greater results in the new
year.
* * * * *
ANNUAL MEETING.
[Sidenote: Place.]
Springfield, Mass., is not only one of the most beautiful cities in
New England, but is especially adapted for a great convention like
the Fifty-fourth Annual gathering of the American Missionary
Association. With cordial hospitality the members of the churches and
citizens of Springfield have opened their homes and hearts to welcome
the delegates, life members, officers and missionaries who gather for
this meeting October 23-25th. State associations, local conferences
and contributing churches are all entitled to delegate representation
at this meeting. Each church should early select its delegates and
send their names to the Chairman of the Entertainment Committee. The
committee cannot promise to furnish entertainment for those whose
applications are received after October 20th.
It seemed probable to the friends in Springfield that no church was
large enough to hold the audiences which would gather for this
meeting. The Court Square Theatre, which has the largest auditorium
of any public building in the city, was therefore secured.
Springfield is the centre of a large population gathered in other
towns and villages as well as within its own municipal borders and
easy connection is made through trolley lines or railroads.
[Sidenote: Committees.]
Rev. Philip S. Moxom, D.D., is Chairman of the General Committee. Mr.
Charles D. Reid, 255 Main Street, is Chairman of the Committee on
Transportation. Mr. Clarence E. Blake, 11 Dartmouth Street, is
Chairman of the Entertainment Committee. Rev. Newton M. Hall is
Chairman of the Press and Printing Committee. Mr. Charles A. Royce is
Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements.
Those desiring information will receive it by writing to a chairman
of the proper committee given above.
[Sidenote: Transportation.]
Reduced fares amounting to one and one-third of the full fare have
been arranged on the certificate plan. When purchasing a ticket a
certificate must be received from the selling ticket agent and when
presented at the Annual Meeting will secure the reduced rate in the
return fare.
[Sidenote: Program.]
Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis, D.D., of New York, will preach the Annual
Sermon Tuesday evening, October 23d. The program has been prepared to
cover not only the reports of the work of the American Missionary
Association but also to provide for the discussion of large and
fundamental problems. Prominent clergymen and laymen of our own
denomination will be present. There will also be represented on the
platform societies and institutions working along the same line in
cordial and hearty Christian sympathy. This will add greatly to the
interest of the meeting and to the scope of discussions. Thus the
Fifty-fourth Annual Meeting will present a platform and not an organ.
[Sidenote: Jubilee Singers.]
A band of Jubilee Singers from Fisk University, Tenn., will be
present and add greatly to the sessions by their quaint and pathetic
music. This is always an interesting feature of the American
Missionary Association convention appreciated by all.
[Sidenote: Industrial Exhibit.]
An industrial exhibit containing samples of the work in
representative Association schools will present an object lesson of
this work. This exhibit will be in the chapel of the First
Congregational Church near by the place of meetings.
[Sidenote: Missionaries.]
The most interesting feature of the meeting, however, will doubtless
be the messages that come from the missionaries, a large number of
whom will be present. These men and women are on the advanced line in
this great movement for many races, including millions of peoples who
especially need the influence and power of an intelligent Gospel.
Among these missionaries will be representatives of different races.
Porto Rico, the new field entered a year ago, will be represented by
a missionary whose work has been especially valuable.
[Sidenote: Special.]
A special number of the _Springfield Union_ will be issued containing
a full verbatim report of the various sessions. This will be sent to
ministers so as to reach them, if possible, Saturday morning, October
27th. Pastors desiring to present the work of this Association to
their people will find this extra of great value.
In the scope of the discussions, the ability and variety of speakers,
the interesting and accessible places of note in and around the city
of meeting, and the great interest now taken in the problems which
the American Missionary Association is seeking to solve, the
Fifty-fourth Annual Meeting promises to be a large and even
epoch-marking convention.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: President Cravath.]
The death of President Erastus M. Cravath removes from the counsel
and service of the American Missionary Association one of its most
prominent and successful missionaries. Few men have so largely
affected the life of the nation through educational lines as has
President Cravath. After some years of service in the office of the
Association he became President of Fisk University, and has brought
that institution to the foremost rank in the intellectual and moral
development of the Negroes of this country. An extended obituary
notice is given on other pages of this magazine. Here, the writer,
having had close personal association with President Cravath for many
years, desires to bear his testimony with earnest and loving emphasis
to the large and strong character of the man, and his single and
unwavering purpose to accomplish the largest and best service
possible for those to whom he gave his ministry in unstinted measure.
No one can fill his place, for it was not only large but unique. He
was a leader who came to the front in the most trying period in the
history of the Negroes, and he led them with soundest judgment as
well as heroic fortitude. These people have lost not only a friend,
but a steady and strong guide.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Chinese Gifts.]
The work of the American Missionary Association among the Chinese in
America is illustrated in the financial statement of the American
Board. Rev. Jee Gam, who has charge of the work among his fellow
Chinamen in San Francisco, has just sent a check of one hundred
dollars to the American Board for the North China Christian Relief
Fund. This money was all contributed by members of the Chinese
churches on the Pacific Slope. Other contributions are promised. No
one can doubt that a large element in the evangelization of China
must be the Chinese of America.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Congregational Associations Among the Highlands.]
The Cumberland Valley Association of Congregational Churches met in
Jellico, Tenn., September 14th. The churches of the association were
generally represented. Churches of other denominations at Jellico
welcomed the meeting of the association and cordially entertained the
delegates. The increase in the population of Jellico and the
surrounding districts has greatly emphasized the importance of our
work in that region.
The Cumberland Plateau Association of Congregational Churches and
Sunday schools met with the church at Grand View, Tenn., September
26-27th. The meeting was one of unusual interest. The work on the
Plateau, as represented in the reports from the churches, was on the
whole encouraging.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Interesting Convention.]
An interesting convention of colored men was held in Boston, August
23d-24th. This convention, known as the Negro Business Men's
Conference, was a meeting of great importance and interest. Principal
Booker T. Washington and other prominent colored men were present,
and large attention was given to the consideration of the Negroes in
the business world, their place and opportunities. The topics covered
a large field bearing upon the self-support and business
opportunities and responsibilities of the Negroes. The gathering was
largely representative from different parts of the country, and the
discussions were able and comprehensive. A permanent organization was
formed to be known as a business league, the purpose of which is to
promote and develop business methods and to create larger confidence
on the part of the Negroes themselves in their own ability. As a
whole the convention was very encouraging and hopeful.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Texas.]
Several friends have sent contributions to this office to help those
who have suffered from the terrible storm in Galveston and the
interior of Texas. These gifts have been forwarded to a missionary
pastor near Galveston and will be wisely administered.
* * * * *
LE MOYNE NORMAL INSTITUTE.
PROF. A. J. STEELE, MEMPHIS, TENN.
The school bears the honored name of one who, in the long years of
the anti-slavery agitation, was known as an uncompromising friend of
human freedom. It stands, with its nearly thirty years of successful
work, a most fitting memorial of his life and labors for humanity. A
personal friend and an associate of Dr. Strieby of sacred memory, in
the anti-slavery crusade, Dr. F. Julius Le Moyne, of Washington, Pa.,
seeing the great need of education and practical training for the
freed people of the South and anticipating a bequest made in his
will, advanced to the American Missionary Association some twenty
thousand dollars for the establishment of the school at Memphis.
[Illustration: PRINCIPAL A. J. STEELE.]
The school building and a "Home" for the workers, made necessary by
the needs of the work and the adverse feeling toward teachers of
colored schools, were erected and the school was opened in October,
1871. From that time till now the American Missionary Association has
had charge of this school.
It was the wish of Dr. Le Moyne that the work of the school should be
prosecuted along the most practical lines, to meet the more pressing
demands of an untrained race, and to this end he stipulated that the
so-called "dead languages" should form no part of its course of
study, and that it should be adapted to the relief of the most
pressing wrongs and needs of the colored people in the struggle for
life to which emancipation had brought them. His wishes have been
respected and the school has remained distinctively an English
school, with as great attention to industrial training as time and
means would allow.
The growth of the school, in all that counts to strengthen and
confirm its influence and usefulness, has been steady and
uninterrupted from the beginning, with its attendance of 250 pupils
of low grades, to the present year, with an enrollment of over 700,
distributed through its twelve years of study and training, over 200
of whom are in the Normal Department fitting for the work of
teaching.
[Illustration: LE MOYNE INSTITUTE AND MISSION HOME.]
The first class of two was graduated in 1876; since that over two
hundred young people have received the diploma of the school, most of
whom are living useful, self-respecting lives in the many communities
where they have found homes.
To meet the needs of this constant growth the buildings have been
enlarged repeatedly and a separate building for manual training,
woodworking, printing, etc., has been erected.
Probably the most apparent work accomplished by the school has been
the training of teachers for the public schools, hundreds of whom
have gone out from our training and are now doing good work in
Tennessee and the adjoining States of Arkansas and Mississippi.
Under the direction of the same principal for all but the first two
years of its existence, the school has become the centre of many
lines of influence extending in many directions and affecting many
interests among the people. A library of some three thousand volumes
has been gathered and has proved of great value to the students and
to the community. Nothing else so directly and surely acts to train
to thoughtful and self-respecting lives as an acquaintance with the
literature of the English language and with the personalities of the
great minds who have produced it.
One of the cherished purposes of the school is to fit up a number of
"traveling libraries," each of a score or so of volumes, carefully
selected to place at the disposal, in routine order, of graduates of
the school teaching in country communities.
The public school teachers (colored) of the county have for years
held monthly meetings at Le Moyne Institute, and for the past year
have received regular instruction in the teaching of vocal music from
the director of music of the school.
[Illustration: GRADUATE TEACHERS, LE MOYNE INSTITUTE.]
The Alumni Association is an active and influential organization
which acts with the institution in many ways, carrying on a course of
lectures each term by prominent men of the community and assisting
materially by the contribution of money for its Industrial work. At
the present time this association has in hand a fund of over $200, to
be used in this way, while, at the same time, it is purchasing a new
piano for use in the Music Department. Few of our schools have more
loyal supporters among their graduates than Le Moyne. Coherence and
co-operation in racial interests are quite lacking and much needed
among the colored people, such co-operation as is best illustrated by
the Texas movement, described by the Hon. R. L. Smith, of Oakland,
Texas, in a recent issue of _The Independent_. Such work as has been
done at Oakland is, in many places, quietly being set on foot, with
varying degrees of success, by students and associations of students,
who had their training in schools of the American Missionary
Association. The immediate aim and end of all our work is the social
betterment of the people, and in the end its efficiency will be
measured according as it succeeds or fails in this respect.
The history of education in America, written largely during the past
thirty years, has few features of wider interest or deeper meaning
than the establishment and remarkable development of the "mission
schools" among the colored people of the South since their
emancipation. The spelling-book followed hard by the teachings of the
Bible, constituted the course of instruction at the beginning; this
simple beginning has developed into a great system of training and
instruction that exemplifies the latest and best methods of education
and of school administration known anywhere, from the kindergarten
through the common school branches, with manual or industrial
training, to the normal school and college. These ideas and methods
have very generally been extended and adopted into the common public
schools and the higher state institutions, mostly taught and managed
by graduates of the mission schools.
[Illustration: CHILDREN'S CHILDREN, LE MOYNE INSTITUTE.]
All this growth of educational institutions and facilities would have
been impossible except that along with it and acting as the
underlying cause of and reason for it, there has gone a corresponding
development of individuals of the race and of the race collectively,
for whose uplifting it has most providentially been brought into
existence.
The illustration entitled "Children's Children," accompanying this
article, shows a class of children whose _grandparents_, direct from
slavery, began with awkward, faltering steps to tread the "hidden
paths of knowledge," and whose parents in their turn were graduated
from the Normal department of Le Moyne School.
These grandchildren, one of whom in May, 1900, received from the
hands of the principal the same diploma that, more than twenty years
before, had been handed her mother, stand a proof positive, that may
be read by those who run, of individual and racial development, not
to be gainsaid or doubted. They possess a mental horizon far wider
and more luminous than that of their grandparents, direct from
bondage, and they are responsive to influences and emotions to which
both parents and grandparents were strangers.
These "children's children," and there are thousands of them
throughout the South, stand now as the hope and promise of the race.
They represent practically a new race, with new and higher ideals and
aims than their parents or grandparents could know. These ideals are
not only those of a wider intellectual life, they reach out to the
home, to industrial occupations and up to a purer, more practical
form of worship as expressive of the religious life.
If you would come at the fountain and source of this purer, broader,
safer life, in all these walks of life, come with me and look through
the various departments of Le Moyne Institute, or any one of a large
number of similar schools of the American Missionary Association,
founded and supported chiefly by the benevolent people of the North.
In the line of intellectual awakening a glimpse into classes in
history, in literature, science and mathematics, backed up by the
influence coming from personal association with trained, Christian
instructors, and you will not fail to recognize the means, entirely
adequate to produce the result in question before you.
Would you lay your hand on the springs that have transformed the
home, step with me to the sewing-room where, month after month and
year after year, the children are trained in needlework, in the
cutting, fitting and making of the wearing apparel that the home must
provide; into the experimental kitchen where every girl at the proper
stage of her training is taught the value of various foods and has
practice in preparing them, where in fact all that pertains to the
administration of the household is carefully studied and practiced
under the direction of a skillful instructor.
The well-equipped woodworking shop, with its orderly benches and its
system of drafting, of joining and of general construction, is giving
the boy the best use of his hands and placing within his reach the
power to build his own house and keep it in repair, or to go on to
the mastery of a useful trade and through it to the securing of a
means of livelihood. The printing office, too, gives yet another line
of hand training and at the same time of intellectual accuracy in
other directions and studies.
For the special Normal training of teachers the practice of teaching
in the lower grades and classes under the supervision of a regular
critic teacher, is carried through the greater part of the senior
year, after the study of psychology has been mastered and the
principles of school management have been taught.
And, finally, throughout the course the Bible, with its hopes and
promises, its warnings and denunciations of evil conduct, is
constantly taught and its sanctions utilized in the formation and
strengthening of character, and in most cases it is found powerful in
leading to the choice of the Christian life.
Thus is the work of Le Moyne Institute summarized, and such would it
be found any day in the year. Its teachers, in their life as a
family, in the teachers' home, comprise a "social settlement" that
was in successful operation years before the name came to have any
significance among the forces working for the social uplifting of the
poor and the outcast of society.
[Illustration: CLASS OF 1900, LE MOYNE INSTITUTE.]
One other feature is worthy of mention with the work at Memphis, that
is, the cordial and mutually helpful relations existing between the
church and the school. They supplement, each, the work of the other,
and pastor and teachers plan and work together for the same end, the
general betterment of all the people.
Finally, Le Moyne school has from the first been fortunate in gaining
and holding the respect and esteem of the best, most thoughtful white
people of Memphis, and of many other communities from which our
students have come and back into which they have again returned, to
act as regulating, renewing agencies among the people. Surely the
workers in the field should not be slow nor timid in asking for the
means to carry forward and to make more effective such a work as
this. It is not a losing battle we wage. Every heart and life that
has come into near and vital contact with the work has been itself
quickened and inspired by a service so effective and life-giving. It
is the old story ever repeated--"He that goeth forth and weepeth,
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless return again, bearing his
sheaves with him."
* * * * *
REINFORCEMENTS FROM AVERY INSTITUTE.
From Avery Normal Institute, Charleston, S. C., twenty-three young
men and women have entered upon the active responsibilities of life,
having been graduated from that institution. This constitutes a
valuable body of reinforcements to the work which the American
Missionary Association is doing in that State for the educational and
moral uplifting of the people. The heroism involved in securing their
education, both on the part of the pupils and their parents, is
emphasized in the record of the facts.
Nearly all of this interesting class are residents in the city, but
from one of the islands we had one young lady, and two came from the
country. In this band of twenty-three is represented every phase of
city life, also the life on the islands and on the plantations.
A few came from homes of comparative comfort and represent the better
phase of social life in the city; their parents know nothing
personally of the old system of ante bellum days. Others are children
of freedmen, who knew in younger years all the bitterness of bondage.
Representatives of such families are diminishing in numbers year by
year as the events of the war are being removed farther into history.
One of these graduates is the daughter of a government official, the
lighthouse keeper on Morris Island, where he has proved his fidelity
by long years of continuous service.
To nearly every one commencement day has been the goal of their
ambition for many years, while to the parents the keeping of the
daughter or the son to the end of the course has been a severe
struggle, demanding many sacrifices, which have been endured in the
hope or resolve to see their children have a better chance in the
start in life than was ever offered the parent.
Twenty of the class are faithful members of some evangelical church,
and have proved the sincerity of their profession by consistent,
Christian lives while in school.
Two of the men and as many of the young women planned to continue
their studies. These have taken the preparatory course along with the
normal in the hope that some way might be offered for a continuance
of study in one of the American Missionary Association colleges, but
stern necessity compels nearly all to enter at once the ranks of
wage-earners, and they must-seek positions as teachers or in some
other line of employment.
Several have won high standing as scholars and would distinguish
themselves if they had the opportunity for continued study. One has
already begun his course in pharmacy, and others are at some chosen
line of more or less skilled labor.
The commencement exercises here, as everywhere, were full of interest
and attracted an immense crowd. All who appeared before the public
acquitted themselves well, and the commencement of 1900 passed into
history as one of the most successful the Institute has known. Thus
we sow beside all waters; what shall the harvest be?
* * * * *
WHAT OUR GRADUATES DO--AN INTERESTING EXAMPLE.
PRES. OSCAR ATWOOD, NEW ORLEANS.
The case of Rev. James A. Herod, of Abbeville, La., is very
interesting. He came from Arkansas to New Orleans to enter Straight
University. He had been told that he could obtain an education there
at very moderate cost by working for the institution. When he arrived
he inquired for "the boss," being ignorant of the proper appellation
of the head of the school. He was admitted as a student and remained
long enough to complete the normal course and also the English course
in theology.
As a student Mr. Herod was not brilliant, but he was faithful. He had
excellent common sense and great moral power. His influence over his
fellow-students was strong and helpful. He won the admiration and
respect of all. We all predicted success for him as he went out from
the University to take up his life-work.
Mr. Herod became pastor of the Congregational Church at Abbeville. It
was then at a very low ebb. He was also made Principal of the public
school of the city. He has labored untiringly and with rare devotion
and his success has been very marked.
The writer had the privilege of visiting Mr. Herod in his field. He
found him pastor of a flourishing church with a comfortable church
edifice and occupying a very nice parsonage. He met the Mayor of the
city, the Superintendent of Schools and several of the representative
white citizens, with whom he had conversations relating to Mr.
Herod's work. These men bore willing testimony to its importance and
value. They affirmed that he had built up his church and had done
very much to elevate the colored people, that he had won the love and
esteem of his race and also the confidence and respect of the best
white people. Mr. Herod practises thrift; has a bank account and
teaches the people economy and business honor.
The white people treat him with courtesy and show their appreciation
of his work in many ways. There is now a very kindly feeling between
the two races, largely owing to the efforts of this devoted man.
There is very much to encourage in this case. There are other
graduates who are doing a similar work.
* * * * *
SCHOOL LIFE IN PORTO RICO.
PROF. CHARLES B. SCOTT, PORTO RICO.
I was sitting in my room at the hotel at Lares, tired out after two
days on pony-back, my first trip into the mountains of the interior,
and my first experience on horseback. My long ride and consequent
fatigue, my position, far from home, family and friends, in a new
region where language, food, customs, all were strange, made me feel
most lonesome. Only a good night's sleep could ward off a threatened
attack of home-sickness, a longing to see the land and hear the
language "that God made," as the boys in blue express it.
Suddenly a new sound aroused me, drew me to the porch, and brought a
relief which only travelers who have been far from the homeland can
realize. Four young girls on the next porch, scarcely visible in the
gathering darkness, were singing:
"Mee condree, teez os tee,
Shweet land of lee-bertee,
Os tee we zeeng.
Land where mee fathers died.
Land os tee peel-greem's pride,
From ef ree mountain side
Let freedom reeng."
[Illustration: SCHOOL BOY IN PORTO RICO.]
No one saw the tears that came or knew about the restful feeling
which followed me into dreamland. I had not left my country. Its
spirit, its love of liberty, the happy "songs in the night" which it
had put into the mouths of its sons and daughters, had preceded me.
Every night during my stay in Lares, the four girls, one of them a
daughter of the alcalde, or mayor, who made me understand that they
had learned this song from their teacher, sang America for "el
Americano," whose coming and talk about a possible school had made
such a stir in their beautiful village.
When we opened an American Missionary Association school in Santurce
and later in Lares, was it strange that America was the first song
taught to the children? How quickly they learned it and how they sang
it, with a spirit and enjoyment which I have rarely seen equaled.
Then followed: "Rally Round the Flag," "The Star Spangled Banner,"
and "Marching through Georgia." They were the best means of
instilling the spirit of patriotism and most effective agencies in
training the pupils to keep together and follow a leader.
One day I heard several Porto Ricans singing with such spirit and
earnestness a strange, rather weird melody; they told me it was
"Borinquen," their national song extolling the beauties of their
island home--called Borinquen by the original inhabitants. When I
proposed in school one day, after singing America, that we would try
Borinquen, if one of the older young ladies would lead us, the quiet
that came over the school, the brightening of faces and air of
expectancy, removed all possible doubt about their love of their
island. After that America and Borinquen usually came together. Every
Porto Rican and Spaniard learned to sing America.
[Illustration: PRIMARY CHILDREN, LARES, PORTO RICO.]
But the songs we sang impressed on these music-loving boys and girls
thoughts other than those of love of country. Within a month after
opening most children could sing "Jesus Loves Me," and the little
primary children rarely failed to ask for this when given a choice.
Later came "Jesus Loves the Little Children" and other religious
songs. When they afterward heard from the Bible, read in Spanish and
in English, the story of Jesus taking the children into his arms, the
song had prepared for the story and the story made the song mean
more. Nearly all learned to say, in Spanish or English or both:
"Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for
of such is the kingdom of heaven."
So the songs opened the way for Bible stories and Bible verses. The
little first grade children studied about Abraham, and the others
learned about David as a boy, a shepherd, a servant in the king's
palace, a fugitive from Saul and as being King of Israel. Nearly all
learned the Twenty-third Psalm and several of the Beatitudes.
We were afraid the parents might object to the religious songs and
Bible stories and withdraw the pupils from the school. But they did
not, not one, so far as we knew. Several told me that they wanted
their children not merely to learn to read and to become intelligent
Americans, but that they wanted them to grow up as good men and women
and were glad to have them taught these things. During the last two
months some time was given nearly every day, in each room, to Bible
stories or Bible study.
[Illustration: CARNIVAL, SAN JUAN, PORTO RICO.]
We soon found that our Porto Rican boys and girls know very little
about study or attention or self-control and obedience. In most homes
they do much as they please. In school they had been accustomed to
studying out loud, to learning by heart without understanding, to
reciting in concert, and to talking as much as they pleased. They are
quick-tempered and apt to fly into a passion. They lack greatly in
perseverance or "stick-to-it-iveness."
The schoolroom was a noisy, distracting place for a time; the
playground was the scene of frequent uproars and even fights. They
seemed to have no idea of playing together or following a leader or
of organizing and keeping up games.
But they were kindly and friendly in spirit and most courteous and
polite, much more so than most American children in similar schools.
They certainly appreciated warmly what we were doing for them and
were most anxious to do as the children do in American schools. They
lacked the life and tendency to mischief of American children. After
a few weeks there was little trouble about discipline or order, and
they learned to control themselves better and to pay better
attention. It took months to break the habit of studying aloud, and
will take years to instil habits of perseverance and self-reliance.
The most helpful means of training in attention, instant obedience
and self-control were the daily calisthenic exercises, which they all
enjoyed and entered into with spirit.
Space permits only hasty reference to other lessons taught without
books in our school, lessons in self-respect. Every child was
expected to pay a small tuition, in money or labor, only a peseta,
equivalent to twelve American cents, a week, but enough to inculcate
the feeling that they were paying for what they got. At first it was
hard to get the money. They had to be reminded again and again, but
week by week they became more regular and seemed to take more pride
in handing the teacher each Tuesday morning their silver coin. Much
to our surprise there was, toward the last, very little delay or
difficulty in getting the tuition.
In the Santurce school a sewing-class was organized to give fifteen
very poor girls, all colored, an opportunity to "earn their
tuition,"--as we told them--by sewing for us an hour or two every
Saturday. Most of them had rarely handled a needle. They did not make
many garments, but they learned considerable about sewing, were as
regular as clockwork every Saturday morning, and appreciated better
the education which they thus earned. Wasn't this better than some
book lessons?
Another lesson in self-respect came from the idea--which the children
gained without a word from us--that those who attended the American
school must be clean and must have clothes and shoes and stockings.
At least half of the children at the Santurce school came from the
poorer classes, most of them from the shack district. A walk through
this section would show most of the children under seven absolutely
naked, and nine-tenths of the parents and older children barefooted,
the girls and women bareheaded, with only indispensable clothing,
often ragged and dirty. A glance into our schoolrooms or at the
company trooping out at noon or at four o'clock showed only children
with shoes and stockings, as neatly dressed, as clean as those coming
from any school in the States. The dirty or ragged or barefooted
would not come. Before or after school, or on Saturdays or Sundays,
some of them could scarcely be recognized in their home-clothes. The
good clothes and the shoes were often worn only at school and at the
fiestas or on holidays.
How many times, looking up absent children, we found that they were
away because of dirty clothes, or because the one good suit was being
washed, or because shoes were worn out. Frequently we furnished them
with shoes or clothes, trying to devise some way by which they could
work for them, earn them. This education in neatness and self-respect
was not book education, but it was more valuable than much learned
from books.
[Illustration: NATIVE HOUSE. SANTURCE, PORTO RICO.]
During the school-year our two hundred and fifty school children
needed and used at least twice as much clothing as in any similar
previous period of their lives. Does not that show how education and
Christianity increase needs and develop business and commerce?
But we have been talking about schools and pupils with scarcely a
word about books or classes. We had them, much as in American
schools. At first, with children who spoke and understood only
Spanish and teachers who knew little Spanish, there were great
difficulties and progress was slow. The book and class-work were not
as interesting or encouraging as some of the other lessons I have
told about.
The children were quick and "picked up" English rapidly. When words
would not serve they could talk with hands and head and shoulders and
whole body, much better than can American children. They were patient
and had good memories, but found it hard to think. I judge that they
had rarely been expected or taught to think for themselves.
Arithmetic was hard for them. Reading in Spanish--where each letter,
vowel or consonant has, in general, but one sound and there are no
silent letters--was very easy. But reading and spelling in
English--where they could not know what sound to give to a letter,
and what letters had no sound--was most trying. However, they did,
even in reading English, as well as we had any right to expect.
[Illustration: SAN JUAN HARBOR, PORTO RICO.]
Were there no discouragements? Hosts of them. But the encouragements
were so much greater. It was hard to get them to study. Sometimes it
seemed that they would never learn to think. The noises of the
street, the curious crowds about the doors, the dogs which would
insist on making themselves at home in the schoolroom, were trying.
It was warm all winter--how odd that word sounded to us!--between 85
and 90 degrees on Christmas day. But most trying and discouraging of
all was the irregular attendance, day after day, one-fifth,
one-quarter, even one-third absent. There was much sickness. During
February and March grip and "catarros" or colds kept many away. But
much of the absence was due to carelessness, the almost weekly
"fiestas" or church feasts or holidays, the errands to San Juan, the
lack of clothing, the fear of rain, anything, everything and nothing.
And yet they were deeply interested in the school, and parents had
sacrificed much to send their boys and girls to school and were
anxious for them to get an education. But the lower classes have not
learned to do anything regularly or in order. They attend school as
they eat, work and sleep--as they live. This condition calls for
another lesson, outside of the books, a hard, slow lesson which the
schools must teach.
Did the American Missionary Association schools pay? Did we feel
rewarded for some sacrifices and privations? At Santurce a colored
mother came in just before we left the house for the boat to the
States to thank us for what we had done for her three girls. Her face
and eyes told more than her Spanish tongue could convey to us. At
Lares the whole afternoon and evening before our teachers left there
was a constant stream of children and mothers and sisters and
fathers, Spanish, many or most of them, coming to say good-bye, to
thank the teachers, the Misses Blowers, Blinka and French, for what
they had done; to beg them, many with tears running down their
cheeks, to come back to them in the fall.
And yet we have only begun to plow the ground and to sow the seed.
What will the harvest be? Only He can tell for whom the sowing is
done and who alone giveth the increase.
* * * * *
As this magazine goes to press our missionaries are leaving for the
work of the new year in Porto Rico. During the summer they have been
busy among churches, Sunday-schools and Endeavor Societies seeking to
stimulate a larger interest for the wonderful work opening in this
island territory. An extensive campaign has been carried on
throughout Ohio and Michigan by Prof. Scott and Rev. Mr. Edwards. In
the East, Miss Blowers has told the story of the needs and
possibilities of the Porto Rican children. We appreciate the cordial
interest manifested in this work. These missions need reinforcement
by the increase of the number in teachers and evangelists. There
should be buildings erected for the schools and chapels at different
points. New fields should be occupied in the near future. The work
demands a large place in the interest and contributions of our
Sunday-schools and Endeavor Societies as well as our churches.
* * * * *
AMONG THE INDIANS.
Missionary Work in Out-Stations.
REV. G. W. REED, NORTH DAKOTA.
In some of our Indian mission fields the name out-station is a
misnomer. It is especially so on the Standing Rock Reservation where
there has never been a mission boarding-school to make prominent a
central station. Ten years ago all of the 3,700 Indians came to the
agency every two weeks for their rations of meat, flour, etc. For
four or five days, including Sunday, they all camped in a radius of
five miles. Here was a fine opportunity for religious work. Here
naturally was built the first chapel which was the home of the first
church organization though the original members lived in South
Dakota, 32 miles from their chapel, which was in North Dakota.
[Illustration: GREAT EXPECTATIONS.]
But to-day the out-station is emphatically the in-station, in the
heart of the various Indian communities; for four sub issue stations
have been established, and with few exceptions the people are
compelled to travel not over twenty-five miles to get their bi-weekly
rations. There is no good reason why they should be away from home
more than two days for this purpose. This arrangement has given great
prominence to the so-called out-station--which is in charge of a
native preacher and his wife, both of like importance in the work, in
the heart of an Indian community, letting its light shine every day
in the year. The people are becoming more and more scattered, making
the day-school well nigh an impossibility and greatly diminishing the
attendance at all but Sunday religious meetings.
[Illustration: OUR FIRST CHAPEL, STANDING ROCK, N. D.]
It is no uncommon thing to find a family with no neighbor within a
mile. They have found it easier to haul a few loads of wood in
winter than many loads of hay 10 to 15 miles in summer. They are
living out where they can find a good range and plenty of hay for
their cattle.
In the day of villages the native preacher having his people closely
about him could have a well-attended school, where parents and
children learned to read the Word of God in their own language,
through the long evenings of the winter months.
[Illustration: SUMMER CAMP OF INDIANS.]
The compulsory attendance of all the children from 6 to 18 years of
age in school, mostly in boarding-schools, has closed the mission
_day_-school, and the native worker has become preacher and pastor
and no longer a school teacher. Ten years ago the work of our native
workers could be closely planned by the white missionary, but to-day
he must plan his own work largely to fit ever changing conditions,
and learn to make each day count most for Christ. These men must be
men of fidelity, men who have been trained in our Oahe or Santee
schools, men who have a much larger knowledge of the Bible than their
fellows. There have never been half enough of such for the work.
David Many Bulls, one of the best men we ever had, never went to
school a year in his life, but he was an exception in his successful
work. He was stationed 70 miles from a white missionary. Well do I
remember the starting of this out-station.
It was an out-station, away out from anywhere, but the few people
there were urgent for a teacher, and promised to help all they could
and furnish logs for a meeting-house. I travelled over 600 miles back
and forth before we had a house for the preacher and his family. At
first he lived in a tent, and in November it was cold. In the change
from one community to another he was cheated out of his beef issues
for a month. He suffered this with other wrongs rather than make
complaint which might make enemies for his new work. Few attended his
school and religious services even on Sunday, but he never lost
heart. When his little babe was sick, and all his people were away
for weeks, though sorely tempted to go back down the river 70 miles
to his relatives, he stuck to his post, and when the little one died
took this long journey for its burial and in a week was back at his
work.
Though not strong physically, he seldom failed to travel the 100
miles round trips with his people when they went for rations in the
cold of winter, and these, with his rides in house-to-house
visitations, hastened his death after one year of most faithful and
arduous work. Five men in succession have followed him, tried to do
the work and given it up as too hard. And it is hard, for the people
have done little in six years to help themselves.
An out-station work of 15 years' growth has been more hopeful, and
last year resulted in a church organization, and this year the people
have voted to pay in part the salary of their pastor whom they have
chosen for a year. There have been few changes in native workers at
this place and this fact has been a hopeful factor in the good
results.
In proportion to its membership their women's society has led all
others in its contributions. When they wanted a nice bell the people
raised two-thirds of its cost. When they built their chapel, they
raised two-fifths of its cost. When they wanted pews for it they paid
two-thirds of their cost. They were the first to build a good
cemetery fence, the first to enclose their chapel with a substantial
fence. One of their number placed in the edifice a fine memorial
window. From their number have been chosen most of the native workers
for other out-stations.
[Illustration: MESSIAH CHAPEL AND CONGREGATION, N. D.]
The Little Oak Creek people have set the pace in helping themselves.
I enclose a picture of their Messiah Chapel and congregation.
The out-station work among the Cannon Ball people began in 1891,
after the ghost dance trouble, and has had to contend with the
baleful influence of the Indian dance.
[Illustration: CANNON BALL CHAPEL, N. D.]
[Illustration: CANNON BALL OUT-STATION, N. D.]
For two years the native worker lived in a hired house, where all the
meetings were held and the house was generally crowded. Not 200 feet
away was a big dance-house, crowded every Saturday till late in the
night. This was the time given by the native worker and a few trusty
followers for most attractive praise services. The tired dancers, a
few at a time, would drop into the meeting for a half hour. Again the
dance would attract nearly all from the meeting. The result fully
justified the bold experiment, for in a year the dance-house was torn
down and has never been replaced. This people have been a long time
in beginning to help themselves, but in the last few years have given
well to missions and this year are enlarging their small chapel at a
cost of over $400, more than half of which they have given. A picture
of this with congregation is enclosed. With this people the mid-week
prayer-meeting has been the prominent feature, many coming over six
miles to attend. Here most have learned to read the Dakota Bible, by
studying in their own homes with the aid of the native preacher or
others who could read, and good work has been done in Bible study. A
picture of the meeting-house and congregation at our youngest
out-station shows the long dirt-roofed log-house which the people
hope to replace with a chapel, having in hand nearly $100. In such a
house, not always so good, have we begun every out-station.