[Illustration: OCTOBER, 1883.
VOL. XXXVII.
NO. 10.
The American Missionary]
CONTENTS
PAGE.
EDITORIAL.
ANNUAL MEETING—GOOD AS THREE WEEKS REVIVAL 289
CONCERT EXERCISE—REV. STEPHEN R. RIGGS, D.D. 290
OUR INDIAN WORK 291
A VISIT TO THE DAKOTA MISSION 292
THE RELATIONS OF THE CHURCH TO THE COLORED RACE 294
PAMPHLET NO. 8—A HYMN BOOK FOR OUR CHURCHES 296
A LIFE NOT TOO LONG—BENEFACTIONS 297
GENERAL NOTES—AFRICA, INDIAN, CHINESE 298
A MARAUDING PARTY IN AFRICA (cut) 299
REFLEX INFLUENCE OF A. M. A. 301
WHITE TOP MOUNTAIN, VIRGINIA (cut) 302
THE SOUTH.
NOTES OF AN EDUCATIONAL TOUR IN LOUISIANA AND
MISSISSIPPI 303
A WORD FROM TILLOTSON INSTITUTE 305
LETTER FROM FLORENCE, ALA. 306
LETTER FROM MCINTOSH, GA.—ITEMS FROM THE FIELD 307
THE CHINESE.
RECRUITS FOR THE SOUTH CHINA MISSION 309
BUREAU OF WOMAN’S WORK.
MEETING OF BUREAU OF WOMAN’S WORK—THE PAPER MISSION
AND WHAT CAME OF IT 310
CHILDREN’S PAGE.
A TALK WITH THE CHILDREN 312
TOPSY LEFT ALONE (cut) 313
RECEIPTS 315
PROPOSED CONSTITUTION 317
* * * * *
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.
* * * * *
THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
* * * * *
PRESIDENT.
Hon. WM. B. WASHBURN, LL.D., Mass.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.
Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, D.D., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
TREASURER.
H. W. HUBBARD, Esq., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
AUDITORS.
M. F. READING.
WM. A. NASH.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
JOHN H. WASHBURN, Chairman; A. P. FOSTER, Secretary; LYMAN
ABBOTT, ALONZO S. BALL, A. S. BARNES, C. T. CHRISTENSEN, FRANKLIN
FAIRBANKS, CLINTON B. FISK, S. B. HALLIDAY, SAMUEL HOLMES, CHARLES
A. HULL, SAMUEL S. MARPLES, CHARLES L. MEAD, WM. H. WARD, A. L.
WILLISTON
DISTRICT SECRETARIES.
Rev. C. L. WOODWORTH, D.D., _Boston_.
Rev. G. D. PIKE, D.D., _New York_.
Rev. JAMES POWELL, _Chicago_.
COMMUNICATIONS
relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to
the Corresponding Secretary; those relating to the collecting
fields, to the District Secretaries; letters for the Editor of
the “American Missionary,” to Rev. G. D. Pike, D.D., at the New
York Office; letters for the Bureau of Woman’s Work, to Miss D. E.
Emerson, at the New York Office.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York,
or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21
Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 112 West Washington Street,
Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a
Life Member.
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.
* * * * *
FINEST ARCADIA BEST
VELVETEEN.
GODEY’S
LADY’S BOOK
SAYS:
“The ARCADIA VELVETEEN. It is ... much sought after for jackets and
trimmed suits for children’s costumes and ladies’ dinner dresses.
Its cost is also an element in its success, as it can be purchased
at the same price as ordinary brands.”
[Illustration]
FOR CHILDREN’S COSTUMES,
THERE IS NOTHING IN THE MARKET
THAT CAN COMPARE WITH THE
ARCADIA.
_The advantages claimed for this Velveteen are not few. First, the
color, which is positive and lustrous in all shades. The appearance
is certainly very handsome and not easily distinguished from
velvet; it is thinner and finer in texture, and consequently less
heavy than ordinary velveteen, and takes the needle more easily
than any other make, and finally it will outwear any other material
of equal finish and dress._
[Illustration]
THE
BAZAR
SAYS:
“The ARCADIA VELVETEEN is an improvement upon ordinary velveteen
that is sure to be thoroughly appreciated, not only during the
coming winter, but for many seasons.”
For the protection of the consumer we stamp every yard.
ARCADIA
VELVETEEN
(REGISTERED)
Be sure and look on the back of goods, and see you find this stamp.
=SOLD BY= all Dry Goods Dealers, and at Wholesale by
SHAEN & CHRISTIE, 165 Church St., New York, U.S.A.
* * * * *
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
VOL. XXXVII. OCTOBER, 1883. NO. 10.
* * * * *
American Missionary Association.
* * * * *
ANNUAL MEETING.
Preparations for our forthcoming Annual Meeting, to convene in the
Central Church, Brooklyn, October 30, are progressing favorably.
The indications are that we shall have one of the most important
meetings ever held by this Association. We hope to be able to
announce through the religious press and otherwise, in good season,
such particulars relating to speakers and accommodations as will be
of interest to our readers. For the present we refer them to the
announcement on the 4th page cover of this MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
GOOD AS THREE WEEKS REVIVAL.
The value of the annual meetings of our great missionary societies
is not measured chiefly by the amount of business transacted,
important and necessary as that is. The information imparted might
be gathered otherwise, but the full benefit to mind and heart can
only be had by participating in the devotions, the instructions in
righteousness, and, indeed, the arousements that are found among
the vast throng that assemble on these occasions. Dr. Withrow said,
at the Saratoga meeting of the Home Missionary Society: “These
three days are worth as much as three weeks revival in giving
a spiritual uplift to the churches.” We believe this to be no
extravagant assertion. Great religious gatherings of some sort have
been common from time immemorial. These have varied according to
the developments of the age.
The problem of the church to-day is the world’s conversion. All
other questions are but side issues. The wonderful developments
of our modern civilization have been preparatory. They have made
it possible for the church to make rapid strides in hastening the
triumphs of the Redeemer’s kingdom. The facilities are ready.
Young men and women with trained faculties for the work are being
graduated from our schools of learning by the thousands. Nothing
is lacking but the disposition—the mind to work. The chief value of
these meetings is seen in their potency to impart this disposition.
It is not many years since there was but one truly great and grand
distinctively missionary annual meeting in our land—the meeting
of the American Board. Then there came well up to the front the
annual meetings of the American Missionary Association, and latest,
the meeting of the Home Missionary Society, which, in point of
attendance from abroad, possibly, outnumbered any one ever held by
the Congregational brethren. Other denominations are progressing in
this direction. There is a wonderfully encouraging development all
along the line. The morning cometh; they who turn their thoughts
to our great missionary enterprises are looking toward it, and not
toward yesterday morning, as men blinded by misbelief continually
look.
We call the attention of our readers to the fact that two of these
great annual meetings convene in October, and we trust that but
few obstacles will be deemed so weighty as to interfere with their
attendance.
* * * * *
THE demand for Our Temperance Concert Exercise, issued in the
May MISSIONARY, and also in circular form, has been steady and
encouraging. It was recently used in the First Church, Greenwich,
Conn., with gratifying success. Some features were introduced by
the pastor, Rev. Mr. Kellogg, not contemplated in the preparation
of the exercise. Selections were made from the communications on
temperance published in the same number of the MISSIONARY, and read
by different individuals. Words were adapted to Jubilee Songs,
giving a pleasing variety, and recitations introduced in addition
to, and in place of, those given in the paper. We again call the
attention of our friends to this Concert Exercise, with reference
to its use.
* * * * *
REV. STEPHEN R. RIGGS, D.D., LL. D., missionary to the American
Indians for forty years, died at the age of 71, at Beloit, Wis.,
in August. Like Livingstone, in early life, he was desirous of
becoming a missionary to China, but yielded to what he considered
the overrulings of Providence, and in 1837, with his wife,
went into the far Northwest among the Sioux. He reduced their
language to writing, compiled a dictionary and translated the
Holy Scriptures and hymns. Ten well-ordered churches and many
out-stations were established in the region of his operations,
reaching beyond the British line.
As an author, he did good service. His book, “_Mary and I—Forty
Years with the Sioux_,” has magnified the significance of Indian
missions. Another book, “_Gospel Among the Dakotas_,” portrays
vividly scenes of pioneer life. His memorial of Dr. Williamson is a
tribute worthy of the man and his successful efforts in behalf of
the Indians. Four of his children have labored among the Sioux, and
one of his daughters has entered upon work across the Pacific. Rev.
Alfred L. Riggs, principal of our school at Santee, and Thomas L.
Riggs, of Fort Sally, and Mrs. Martha Riggs Morris, at the Sisseton
agency, are carrying on the work so happily inaugurated by their
father. His life was one of incessant missionary toil, in which for
years he had been aided by his children, and to whom he bequeathed
its continuance, and in the midst of whom he passed from earth to
his reward on high.
* * * * *
OUR INDIAN WORK.
Never was there a more favorable time for enlargement on our
part. The new impulse to the general cause by General Grant’s
peace policy, augmented by the success of the schools at Hampton
and Carlisle, will be still more accelerated by the schools soon
to be completed by the Government at Chilloco, Indian Territory;
Lawrence, Kansas; and Genoa, Neb. When these are finished and
filled, the Indian schools throughout the country will accommodate
10,250 pupils of the 40,000 school population of the Indians at the
present time. Sec. Teller may be too sanguine in the expectation
that with adequate means the Indian problem will not be heard of in
the next generation, but never before could such a prediction come
so near being true. At all events, the nation and the Government
are fully aroused, and it becomes the American Missionary
Association to bestir itself to do its part. This Association
has now the responsibility of doing the Indian work for the
Congregational churches, the American Board having transferred to
it the whole of its Indian missions. A delegation of the Executive
Committee of the Association, consisting of Rev. W. H. Ward, D.D.,
Rev. Addison P. Foster, Charles L. Mead, Esq., and the Secretary,
made recently a thorough inspection of all the schools and missions
with very favorable impressions, a report of which follows.
Enlargement is imperatively needed in three directions, in addition
to the $20,000 for the current work:
1. At the old and well-established mission at the Santee Agency,
Nebraska, Rev. A. L. Riggs thus details the immediate wants of
that station: additional industrial accommodations; extension of
carpenter shop, $250; blacksmith shop, with five forges, $750;
outfit of tools for the same, $150; general dining hall for
200 boarders, with laundry rooms, $5,000; outfit for the same,
including heating arrangements, kitchen ranges, laundry apparatus,
$1,500; making in all $7,650. Boarding-school house for girls at
Oahe, Fort Sully, $2,500.
2. New mission stations and schools among the Indians now
unsupplied. Three station buildings for native teachers on the
Cheyenne River, $1,000; missionary’s house at Cherry Creek,
Cheyenne River, $1,500; mission among the Crows, $2,000.
We invite the friends of Indian progress to select from the items
above given in both fields of enlargement the specific object for
completing which they will aid us in whole or in part.
3. An agricultural, mechanical and Normal School, to be founded
perhaps somewhere in Peoria Bottom, a new Hampton located on the
border, with the white man’s civilization on one hand and the
Indian reservations close on the other. This, though it is an
urgent want and essential to the filling out of our general plan,
must await the careful search for a fitting location and the means
to give it a suitable inauguration.
Where shall the work be done for the Indian? One successful
teacher in Indian schools says that the children should all be
brought East, and trained amid the white man’s civilization;
another gentleman, long connected with a Mission Board, holds
that the education should be given wholly among the tribes, so
that the pupils would be trained amid their people and not away
from sympathy with them. We believe _both_ methods are necessary.
The youth trained at home elevates his people as he rises, and
is himself strengthened and helped by his friends who come from
the East with the higher touch of the white man’s culture. Our
schools and missions, those now in progress and the one proposed,
afford the advantages of both plans. We shall aim to combine the
industrial, normal and religious training so as to fit the pupils,
male and female, for the practical duties of life in the field, the
shop and the home, in the school room, in the pulpit and the church.
We have undertaken much. The hour has come for it, and we know that
the friends of the Indian will not suffer us to fail for want of
means.
* * * * *
A VISIT TO THE DAKOTA MISSION.
REV. ADDISON P. FOSTER.
The transfer by the American Board of its Missions among the
Dakota Indians to the American Missionary Association made it
desirable that some of the officers of the Association should
acquaint themselves personally with the work. Accordingly, Rev.
M. E. Strieby, D.D., Secretary of the Association, and Rev. Wm.
Hayes Ward, D.D., of the _Independent_, C. L. Mead, Esq., and
your correspondent, all members of the Executive Committee, met
by appointment at the Santee Agency. Three of the party then
visited the mission station at Oahe, D.T., connected with the
Cheyenne Agency, where the party divided, Dr. Strieby returning
by way of the Sisseton Agency, Dr. Ward and Mr. Foster, under the
leadership of Rev. Thomas L. Riggs, the efficient missionary,
entering the great Sioux Reservation and traveling in an open wagon
between three and four hundred miles, mostly in Indian country.
This last-named expedition had not a little of excitement and
adventure. Camping out at night, fording swollen streams, sleeping
in an Indian wigwam, driving across trackless prairies by the
aid of a compass, running the divides, killing a rattlesnake,
preaching to the wild Indians through an interpreter, spending days
in Indian villages, where hideous heathen mummeries were in full
view, visiting the Indians’ strange earth-built lodges, and their
offensive scaffold burying grounds, we passed through a series of
experiences not soon to be forgotten.
The American Missionary Association has become possessor of three
considerable mission stations among the Indians, in or near Dakota
Territory. At the Santee Agency, which is just across the Missouri
in Nebraska, about thirty miles up the river from Yankton, is a
large and very successful school, a church of Indians with an
Indian pastor, and one out-station with an immediate prospect
of a second. This school and mission work are under the general
superintendence of Rev. Alfred L. Riggs. The children in the
school come not only from the Santees on the Agency, but from long
distances, from the Sisseton Agency, Fort Berthold and Montana.
We were greatly pleased with the intelligence, the neatness and
Christian spirit of these students. They will certainly compare
favorably in every way with the bright young Indians we have seen
at Hampton.
Oahe is the centre of a wide evangelistic work, which has been
organized and is carried on with great energy and success by Rev.
Thomas L. Riggs. At Oahe itself is a mission home, a neat chapel,
also used as a school-house, and three miles away, a second
school-house. A native church is organized here, ministered to most
acceptably by Yellow Hawk, an exemplary and industrious Indian.
We were specially interested in a prayer meeting of Indian women,
which was fully attended and heartily sustained. Oahe is on the
east side of the Missouri, where a considerable number of Indians
have given up their tribal relations, taken up land in severalty,
and become voting citizens of the United States. Immediately
across the river is the Sioux Reservation. This is greatly cut
up by sizable streams which flow down from the Black Hills. On
every stream are extensive and very fertile bottom-lands. Here
the Indians are located, living mostly in tents, but some in log
houses. They are chiefly wild Indians, only a few years since being
on the war-path, mainly different sections of Sitting Bull’s band.
They still wear blankets, and are gaudy in bead-work, and paint
and feathers. But they are now in wholesome fear of the government
and, better still, are anxious to be as white men. Mr. Riggs has
established four stations in Indian villages on the Cheyenne River,
and a fifth on the Grand River. At three of these stations there
is preaching by native pastors, Solomon Martun (or Bear’s Ear),
Isaac Renville and Edward Phelps, by name; at the other places are
schools. The mission at Ft. Berthold is among the Rees, Mandans
and Gros Ventres. These three small tribes long since combined
in one village for protection against their ancient foes, the
Sioux. Rev. C. L. Hall is the missionary here. A mission home and
a chapel are the buildings, both in excellent condition. The work
at this mission is slow in developing results, not from any lack
of faithfulness or adaptation on the part of the missionaries,
for their consecration and fitness are marked, but because these
Indians by their tribal divisions are jealous of one another, and
by their contact in the past with white men of bad character are
corrupt and hard to reach. Mr. Hall has an out-station in his care
at Devil’s Lake, where Rev. David Hopkins, a Sisseton Indian, is
laboring.
THE ADVANCE.
* * * * *
THE RELATIONS OF THE CHURCH TO THE COLORED RACE.
BY REV. LEWIS GROUT.
Rev. Dr. J. L. Tucker’s speech on the above subject before the
Episcopal Church Congress, in Richmond, last October, has had
a very emphatic indorsement from professional and other men in
the South, and yet not without severe criticism from some of the
colored people, especially in Jackson, Miss., the home of Dr.
Tucker, where he made the speech. It seems that Dr. Tucker is a
man of Northern birth, that he was a soldier in the Confederate
army, after which he became a planter, then a rector, and that
he has had much experience and interest in the education of the
colored race, as planter, teacher and minister. And yet, with all
his acquaintance with that race, there are several important points
pertaining to their history, character and welfare, in which he is
sadly mistaken.
The first mistake of his that I will notice has respect to the
character of the native African. In Africa, he says, “human life
has no sacredness, and men, women and children are slain as beasts
are, and even more carelessly, as less valuable. Human suffering
excites no pity, and blood flows like water.” “That what we call
morality, whether in the relations of the sexes, or in the sense of
truthfulness, or in the sense of honesty, has no lodgment whatever
in the native African’s breast;” and that they have “no words” for
gratitude, generosity, industry, truthfulness, honesty, modesty,
gentleness and virtue, because they have none of these ideas.
Now all this, and much more of the same sort, is the baldest of
hyperbole, far from the truth. During my fifteen years of labor in
that land, I made the study of African character and language a
specialty; and I believe that words representing the ideas above
named may be found in every language and dialect on the continent.
As to humanity and all kindred virtues, they are abreast, if not
ahead, of any and every other people that have not had the gospel.
For honesty and morality, under pure native rule, in many respects,
the Zulus and cognate tribes would put to shame the people in every
part of this land of ours. I have no reason to believe that I
ever lost a sixpence worth of anything, through their stealing,
in all those fifteen years of my stay among them; and as to the
relations of the sexes, I believe there are ten illegitimate births
here in New England to-day, where there was ever one in Zululand
previous to the incoming of the Dutch and English. To be sure, all
African tribes may not be abreast of what the Zulus used to be, in
these things. And yet Rev. Dr. Crummell, for many years a college
professor and rector of a parish in Liberia, says: “All along the
west coast of Africa the family tie and the marriage bond are as
strong as among any _primitive_ people.” “Their maidenly virtue,
the instinct to chastity, is a marvel.”
2. Dr. Tucker says the colored people of the South are grossly
immoral. If he had made a very deserved exception of the many
who have been brought under the restraints of the gospel by good
mission work among them, within a few years, his charge would
have been more just. But whence came the great excess in vice
which he avers? Could anything else have been expected from long
generations of the peculiar training their bondage gave them? Under
the treatment they had, as Dr. Tucker says, “they quickly learned
to conceal,” “learned lying, stealing and adultery.” By a somewhat
minute detail, he shows how the familiarity and “the intrigues
which the white men” had with the black women wrought in them, as
he says, “the utter destruction of the very sense of virtue.”
3. Dr. Tucker says nothing of importance has been accomplished by
Northern benevolence for the colored people, except to make them
worse—to “build strongholds for the devil in disguise,” to “build
up the kingdom of evil.” Now all this, in which his speech abounds,
I repudiate as false and slanderous. In the course of forty years
I have seen a good deal of mission work, of one kind and another,
at home and abroad, and under the auspices of almost every society
in the world. I have also seen the work of the American Missionary
Association among the Freedmen; and, as the result of all, I am
free to say, I believe Dr. Tucker may go the world over, time
through, ransack all history, and not be able to point to a time or
place where mission work and money have done more, in proportion to
the means employed, than has been done by this Association among
the colored people since their emancipation, two decades since.
4. Dr. Tucker alleges that Northern missionaries are incompetent,
“don’t know what they are about,” or “how to reach the colored
people,” or “how to deal with them,” “barely know a Negro when they
see him.” Well, I am told there are some white people in the South,
who, themselves “don’t know a Negro when they see him,” in some
cases only as they trace his genealogy and find out who his mother
was. But how should Dr. Tucker, himself, be able to know all about
this matter, how to reach the colored people, how to lift them up,
how to heal them, better than other men of Northern birth?
5. The counterpart of the above charge is, that the Southern whites
are the “only ones” who know how to do good mission work for the
colored race, and that we of the North must put all our money into
their “control.” But what have they ever done to prove such special
fitness to inspire the Negro with confidence in their teaching and
treatment, to prove their own faith in his capacity for a high
order of improvement, to encourage us to put “every dollar” of our
mission money into their hands? Why, after they had had the black
man in their own special teaching and treatment for more than two
centuries, utterly dissevered from pagan Africa, all plastic,
docile and confined, as he was, to their exclusive training, has
his original heathenism been so little improved as to leave the
Negro no better than Dr. Tucker represents him to be. And even now,
what great effort have they made for his improvement in the two
decades that have passed since his emancipation?
Another mistake I find in Dr. Tucker’s speech, the greatest and
most fatal of all, and the last I will notice, is his color line
“plan” for all educational and religious work in the South—a school
and a church on this side of the street for the whites, a school
and a church on that side for the blacks—a double system, with, as
he says, “double the expense.” But neither a system such as that,
nor the spirit that desires or prompts it, will have any place on
earth when the gospel of Christ gets a proper ascendency in the
hearts and lives of men.
* * * * *
WE have issued Pamphlet No. 8, on _The Reflex Influence of the
Work of the American Missionary Association_, an address delivered
in Tremont Temple by Rev. S. L. Blake, D.D., Fitchburg, Mass.,
a quotation from which will be found elsewhere. Copies of this
Pamphlet will be supplied gratuitously on application, to those
wishing them for distribution.
* * * * *
A HYMN BOOK FOR OUR CHURCHES.
It is the “Manual of Praise,” published by E. J. Goodrich, Oberlin,
Ohio, compiled by the lamented Rev. Dr. Hiram Mead and J. B.
Rice. It has the cream of our hymnology, the worshipful, endeared
hymns to the number of six hundred. It has the wearing pieces of
Moody & Sankey. Compiled not by an ambitious amateur in musical
composition, it does not seek to force upon the churches a great
batch of new and unproven tunes. It was evidently put together for
practical purposes, and is small enough to go into a side or hip
pocket, a “multum in parvo.” It is cheap, coming by the dozen, for
introduction, so as not to cost over sixty cents a copy. It is
suited to all occasions. It has a logical arrangement, which will
be of constant advantage in the use of it, though those who have it
may not know just how the logic comes in, even as the perfection of
the art of elocution is to conceal the art. Where it has been used
in our institutions and schools, it has been much approved. It is
certainly a desideratum for our new churches in the South and in
the West.
* * * * *
A LIFE NOT TOO LONG.
One of our regular contributors, in transmitting his donation to
our treasury, accompanies his gift with the following cheering
words: “Through the goodness, mercy and truth which has not been
taken away from one highly undeserving, I am again permitted
the privilege of herewith inclosing a draft to your order for
the general use of the A. M. A., for $1,000. Whether now in my
eightieth year, I shall be permitted to repeat the pleasant
offerings, I know not. Shall I note the fact that coming from no
large store, I cannot see that they diminish it?”
* * * * *
BENEFACTIONS.
Mr. Robert L. Stuart has pledged $150,000 to Princeton College.
Lincoln University is to receive $10,000 from the estate of the
late David B. Small, of York, Pa.
Gen. A. G. P. Dodge has contributed $3,000 to be used in building
an academy at Jackson, Ky.
The late William Ward of Brixton Hill left $100,000 to the
Corporation of London for the establishment and maintenance of a
high school for girls.
Mr. C. F. McCay, formerly a professor in the University of Georgia,
has given that institution $20,000 in Georgia Railroad 6-per-cent
bonds.
Sarah A. and Emily B. Sumner, of Albany, N.Y., have given $2,500
each for an endowment fund for Rutgers College.
The Northwestern University at Evanston has received $25,000 from
ex-Gov. Evans of Colorado.
Ex President Wright, of the Northern Pacific Railroad, has given
$100,000 for the establishment of a boys’ and girls’ college at
Tacoma, W.T.
Carlton College, Northfield, Minn., has recently received $12,000
from Edward H. Williams, Esq., of Philadelphia, for Williams Hall,
built in memory of his only son.
Mrs. Lucy E. Tuttle, of Guilford, Conn., has given $10,000 to the
Olivet College Library Fund as a memorial of her gifted son, Willie
Sage Tuttle.
Buchtel College, Akron, Ohio, has received $25,000 from Mrs. Lydia
Messenger, making $56,000 in all donated by her for the benefit of
the institution.
_Christian intelligence is the most potent agency for obliterating
the barbarism of caste prejudice; and the endowment of schools for
those who suffer from it, the most safe and certain means for its
overthrow._
* * * * *
GENERAL NOTES.
AFRICA.
—The French Romanists have abandoned the country of Uganda.
—It is reported that King Leopold II. of Belgium, with no selfish
or personal object, with no view of gaining territory or commercial
profits, and with no other motive than the highest and purest
philanthropy, is spending $400,000 a year from his own private
purse for the benefit of Africa.
—A hydrographical expedition has been made to the coast of the
Maroc by Capt. Kerhallet and Mr. Dumoulin.
—The project relative to placing a submarine telegraphic cable
between the Island of Teneriffe and St. Louis on the Senegal has
been voted by the French Chamber.
—The Italian mission directed by Bianchi has safely arrived at
Samera, where they found the King of Abyssinia, to whom they gave
presents from the King of Italy.
Monseigneur Lasserre, coadjutor of the Apostolic Vicar of the
Gauls, has obtained from Menelik the authorization to establish
himself among the Ittous Gauls, who have submitted to him.
—Under the title of the French Factories of the Persian Gulf and
of Eastern Africa, a society has been formed for French oriental
commerce, of importation and exportation.
—The native chief Ghowe having committed incursions upon the
territory of Sherbro near Sierra Leone, Major Talbot has burned
the village of Kwatamaha, massacred the inhabitants of Kahun and
pillaged and burnt Jalliah.
—Some friends of the French mission at the Senegal have brought to
France three young negroes, who will be raised in the agricultural
colony of Sainte Foy, and prepared to return to St. Louis as
shoemakers, tailors, cooks, perhaps even teachers and evangelists.
—Upon the demand of many chiefs of the Slave Coast, a protectorate
of France has been established upon the territories of Petit-Popo,
Grand-Popo and Porto-Seguro between the English possessions of the
Gold Coast and Whydah, beyond which is the territory of Porto-Novo
upon which the French protectorate is already recognized.
—Major Machado, who has been at Lisbon to confer with the
Portuguese government on the subject of the railroad from Delagoa
Bay to Pretoria, has started for the Transvaal to complete the
track of the section from Incomati to Pretoria. A society has been
founded at Lisbon to ask the concession of this line.
[Illustration: A MARAUDING PARTY IN AFRICA.]
THE INDIANS.
—The Spirit of Missions urges the establishment of a Protestant
Episcopal Mission in Alaska, and the sending out of a Bishop from
the United States with a score of faithful priests and deacons to
second his efforts.
—A missionary laboring in the Indian Territory reports to
the Sunday-school of the Collegiate Church, New York, that a
Sunday-school which he organized eight years ago has grown to be a
church of seventy members. In one of the Indian families he found a
grand piano.
—Some years ago the pride of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe schools in
the Indian Territory, was their school herd of several hundred
cattle, which had been accumulated through a number of years’
effort, without material expense to the government. This furnished
employment and prospective income for the school boys. At its most
successful period it was destroyed by an order from the Department
at Washington, directing that the cattle be distributed among
the Indians. After being without the herd for several years the
Department has now started a new one, by purchasing 600 cows and
heifers and placing them again under the care of the Indian school
boys.
THE CHINESE.
—Not one in five hundred of the women of Shantung can read.
—There are twenty self-supporting Protestant churches in China, and
nearly 400 which are partially so.
—A Chinaman in a town called New-Bendigo, in Australia, where there
is a large Chinese colony, was asked recently what practical good
had been accomplished by the missionaries. He answered as follows:
Before, no one understood God’s Word. Good many work Sunday all
same as week day. Now, no work done on Sunday at New-Bendigo by
my countrymen. Perhaps chop little wood for house, or wash him
clothes; but no go work. No matter poor, every one no work on
Sunday. Before, all worship idols. Now, many come to church; he no
worship idols. When Lee Wah begin to read, good many had idols in
house; thirty more. Myself had one. Now, only ten houses and stores
in New-Bendigo with idols in them. Before, at old township, good
many Chinese steal fowls, everything. Now, no more steal; every one
work; go get job. Before, every night, Chinaman learn to practice
fight. I tell him too stupid fellow. You learn God’s Word you no
want to fight. Now, no more learn to fight. Learn God’s Word.
Before people no care for God’s Word; he no know or care. Now, good
many people like read God’s Word. Before, too much time, nothing to
do. Now, many say I learn to read God’s Word. Now, no more waste
time. I like to read. Before, good many make fun God’s Word; laugh.
Papers were put upon outside of store, make laugh at Christian.
Papers were put up on door of baptized men’s house. Now, heathen
men no more make fun; strong man’s hands tied up. Himself like it
now. Very quiet now.
* * * * *
REFLEX INFLUENCE OF A. M. A.
FROM ADDRESS BY REV. S. L. BLAKE, D.D.
The direct increase to the wealth of the country, in diminishing
the number of mere consumers, and increasing the number of actual
producers and property-holders, puts the business world largely in
debt to this society.
A few figures will help your understanding of the case. In
twenty-one years this society has spent $5,543,636.03—a yearly
average of $263,772.19. In seventeen years, from 1863 to 1880,
from not owning a single dollar’s worth of property of any sort
available for taxation, these people have come to hold property
taxed for $100,000,000, as appears from Southern tax-bills, which
show no respect of color—an average rate of increase from nothing,
of $5,882,352.94 a year. This is a yearly increase greater than
the whole amount spent by this society. That is, this society has
spent $1, and these people, from absolute pauperism, have come into
possession of over $21 of taxable property. These facts answer the
question whether the colored man can take care of himself, and show
that the labors of this society have a cash value which can easily
be computed.
There is still another phase of the cash value of the labors of
this society, as related to the productive wealth of the country.
Here this society touches and increases our material prosperity.
I refer to a more equable distribution of ownership in the soil.
Surely no one can deny that to change five or six millions of
people from paupers to property-holders, produces a very material
effect upon the prosperity of the State.
I believe that it is a settled canon of political economy that
a nation’s wealth is in its soil. Where there are but few
land-owners, and the tillers of the soil are tenants, wealth must
be in the hands of the few, and comparative if not absolute poverty
in the hands of the many. To this state of things belong social
classes, as widely separated from each other as continents. It
goes without saying that landed monopoly and general prosperity
of the people do not go together. I am no advocate of communism;
but I take the ground, and I believe it can be held, that the same
amount of property, somewhat evenly distributed among the people of
a country, adds more to its actual productive wealth and material
prosperity, than the same amount of money would do, held in the
hands of a few, who constitute an aristocracy of wealth and of
blood. Of course, in every state, some men must be vastly more
wealthy than others. But a comfortable competence in one’s hands
makes him entirely independent of his more wealthy neighbor.
It is among the proofs of the increasing material prosperity of
this country, that the average size of farms has decreased from
199 acres in 1860 to 134 acres in 1880; and that the amount of
capital invested in farms exceeds the money invested in railroads,
and in manufacturing, including supplies, by over $2,000,000,000.
Gradually this vast preponderance of wealth is being more equably
distributed among the people. The plantation system, previous to
the war, gives way to the small farm, tilled and owned in many
cases by the former slaves. Take a single case. Liberty County,
Georgia, in 1860, was mostly taken up by large plantations. There
were but 48 farms, “of from three acres to one hundred acres each.”
In 1880 the county was almost entirely owned by colored people, and
there were 1,500 farms. This is an illustration of the yielding of
landed monopoly and aristocracy to popular ownership in the soil,
and to a more general and evenly diffused prosperity. The average
size of farms in fifteen slave States has been reduced from over
368 acres in 1860 to a trifle over 149 acres in 1880, over 50 per
cent. If you precipitate upon the population of a country 1,000,000
citizens, who may become land-holders, you have struck a heavy blow
at landed monopoly, and taken a long stride toward increase of
material prosperity.
Let me give you two or three further facts. In 1878 the freedmen
of Prince Edward County, Virginia, owned 2,305 acres of land,
an increase in eight years of 1,847 acres. In the county of
Rockbridge, Virginia, two thousand blacks were assessed for $50,000
worth of real estate. In 1876 the colored people of Georgia owned
land valued at $1,234,104, and other property to swell the total
to $6,134,829. In the single State of Georgia these people, from
not owning a dollar, have come to possess property greater in value
than the entire sum spent by this Association in 21 years. Who says
that this alabaster box of ointment has been wasted?
Material prosperity indicates a certain degree of intelligence. The
ignorant are not the wealthy nations of the globe. The work of this
Association in bringing these people up to a degree of intelligence
somewhat commensurate with their opportunities, and in lifting
them to a level of citizenship co-ordinate with the welfare and
prosperity of the State, has directly aided in this increase of the
material forces of the nation’s welfare. For if the actual amount
of property were not increased, yet the prospective wealth of the
nation must be by converting 6,000,000 illiterate paupers into
educated, independent property-holders.
I find this in the last issue of the _American Missionary_, which
supports my position with high authority: “It has been estimated
at Washington that the annual profit to the country by the
conversion of illiterate into educated labor cannot be less than
$400,000,000.” This work has been done by this Association.
Money given to the endowment of its institutions at the South would
yield a hundred fold in half a generation.
[Illustration: WHITE TOP MOUNTAIN, VIRGINIA.]
* * * * *
THE SOUTH.
REV. JOSEPH E. ROY, D.D., FIELD SUPERINTENDENT.
PROF. ALBERT SALISBURY, SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION.
* * * * *
NOTES OF AN EDUCATIONAL TOUR IN LOUISIANA AND MISSISSIPPI.
PRES. W. S. ALEXANDER, D.D.
An experiment in the form of a brief educational campaign in
Louisiana and Mississippi has been attended with the most
gratifying results, and has been to those identified with it a
revelation of what may be accomplished in the same direction.
Hitherto in our educational work in Louisiana we have depended, so
far as the patronage of the country parishes was concerned, upon
the good reports of the students, and the dawning conception, in
the minds of those living remote from the city, of the necessity
of an education. It occurred to Prof. Hitchcock and myself, as
we were likely to be detained in New Orleans the greater part of
the summer, that we could in no way better serve the interests
of Straight University than by presenting the facts of education
directly to the people, and pleading its claims wherever there
was “an open door.” We not only found doors wide open, but were
greeted from many parishes with the Macedonian cry, “Come over and
help us.” Our University was represented in the most important
centers, either by our graduates or those still upon our roll.
They had borne to their homes a grateful sense of good received at
the school, and entered enthusiastically into the matter of the
meetings. They were our _avant-couriers_, and most faithfully did
they spread the tidings of our coming.
In the space of a single article we can do little more than
summarize, but we trust our enforced conciseness will not despoil
the narrative of its interest or value. The first important point
made was
_Baton Rouge._
The meeting on July 5 at the Capital of the State had been well
advertised, and was largely attended. The A. M. E. Church (Rev.
Mr. Jackson, pastor) was well filled. The majority of the audience
were young men, just the class we desired to reach. We had not
only a respectful, but an interested hearing. Mr. A. H. Colwell,
a talented graduate of Straight, who fills an important position
as teacher at Baton Rouge, presided at the organ, and at the
conclusion of the meeting made a neat address, moving a resolution
of thanks to the speakers. Rev. Mr. Jackson spoke with feeling and
intelligent appreciation of the demands of education. The ablest
white lawyer in Baton Rouge made a rousing speech, commending
heartily the objects of the meeting.
_Vicksburg._
The meeting at this point, July 9th, presents many facts worthy
of record. Our young men, Reynolds and Temple, graduates of the
present year, had been untiring in their efforts to make the
meeting a success. Every newspaper in Vicksburg had noticed it
editorially. Every colored pulpit had twice and thrice advertised
it, and urged the people to attend. Influential white people
had been invited, especially members of the School Board. The
Court-House had been applied for, and freely granted by the City
Council for the purposes of the meeting. On the day previous
(Sunday) it was my privilege to preach in two of the most important
colored churches of the city, while Prof. Hitchcock did good work
in the Sunday-Schools. On Sabbath evening I preached in the A.
M. E. Church (Rev. Mr. Carolina, pastor) to an audience of 800
people. It was a rare privilege, and great was the joy of preaching
on the blessed religion of the Lord Jesus to so many people,
and all eager and reverent in their attention. On Monday night
the Court-House an imposing building situated on “the heights,”
overlooking the city, and the first object that attracts attention
as the boat enters the harbor, witnessed the gathering of an eager
and crowded assembly of men and women, roused to no common degree
of enthusiasm by the simple announcement of an “_educational
meeting_.”
The Court-Room, with the wide halls approaching it and the deep
window recesses, was not large enough to accommodate the hundreds
who flocked to it. It was estimated that 800 entered and as many
more failed to get in. An organ had been brought from one of the
churches, a fine choir had been gathered, and very choice music was
rendered. The leading colored clergymen of the city were present.
The addresses which were made were plain matter-of-fact statements
of the nature and demands of education, the widespread illiteracy
of the colored people, the opportunity offered them of improving
their condition mentally, socially, materially and morally, and
the utter impossibility of their ever reaching a higher place in
any department of growth without the guiding and helping hand of
education. Great plainness of speech was used, and was not only
tolerated but approved by the audience.
_Rev. C. K. Marshall, D.D._, the author of the vigorous and able
pamphlet entitled “The Colored Race Weighed in the Balance,” a
gentleman of great influence in Mississippi, kindly called upon us
at the hotel, and not only was present at the meeting, but made
an eloquent and telling address, replete with good points. He has
always been a friend of the colored race, and they do not forget
it now. Rev. Dr. Woodworth, of the M. E. Church South, and Hon.
Mr. Chamberlin. President of the School Board, were also present,
and spoke kindly words of approval of the objects of the meeting.
The leading paper of Vicksburg devoted a column and a half to a
favorable account of the proceedings. An old colored man, whom I
saw violently gesticulating as I was going down Court-House Hill,
said, “That meeting was worth one million dollars to our people.”
God grant it may be so.
_Plaquemine._
The crowning meeting of the campaign was in the town of
_Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville_, on Saturday night, July 28th.
_Hon. T. T. Allain_, one of the most enterprising colored men in
the South, and one of the most consistent friends of education,
took the meeting in hand at the start, and spared neither time nor
money to bring it to the notice of the whole people. This meeting,
in all its appointments, was so unusual that I shall be pardoned
if I describe it quite minutely. We were met by a committee of
reception at the depot, and escorted to the hotel. One hour in
advance of the meeting, a large cannon, planted in the court-house
yard, made a tremendous salute, causing the very village to
tremble. Peal after peal went forth, each seeming louder than the
last. Torches were lighted and planted thickly in the court-yard,
which, by their glare and smoke, gave a weird look to the hundreds
of dusky faces gathering around them. A large brass band, with a
full complement of pieces, added to the novelty and effectiveness
of the scene.
Think of it, dear friends! This was not a political meeting. It was
not a barbecue. It was simply a meeting called in the interests of
education among the colored people of Southern Louisiana, which has
always been regarded a “_pretty dark strip of woods_.” Well, now
for the meeting itself! Mr. Allain gracefully and ably presided,
and made a speech which did credit to his head and heart. For two
hours that densely packed assembly listened to Prof. Hitchcock
and myself with unflagging interest, manifested by frequent
applause. The Court-House and court-yard were filled, and our
audience without and within the building gave us a respectful and
appreciative hearing. Plaquemine has been called the “banner” town.
_We_ certainly have no desire to dispute her claim to the honorable
distinction, for the treatment we received there was “_royal_.”
The meeting at _Donaldsonville_, July 12th, was a union of the
Baptist and Methodist congregations, and will result, we trust,
in the awakening of a new interest. I should be glad to speak
particularly, had I not reached the limit of my space, of meetings
held by Prof. Hitchcock at West Baton Rouge, St. Sophie, New Texas
and Beauregour, and visits to Monticello, Darrowville, and Point
a la Hache, where many of the families and homes of the students
were seen. Everywhere he was awarded a warm welcome. People rallied
to the meetings, sometimes from a distance of 12 miles. Genuine
enthusiasm was aroused, and the tide of public sentiment has been
turned, we believe, more strongly toward the “_School-House_,” and
that was our only object. The “door of opportunity” is fairly open.
Ought we not to enter it and tell the entire people the glad story
of education?
* * * * *
A WORD FROM TILLOTSON INSTITUTE.
PRES. W. E. BROOKS, AUSTIN, TEXAS.
It is due the many donors and friends of Tillotson that a brief
report of the work of the past year be made. It is a pleasure to do
this, both because due and because of the hopeful prosperity which
has attended the institution.