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The American Missionary
(QUARTERLY)
July }
Aug. } 1900
Sept.}
Vol. LIV.
No. 3.
* * * * *
[Illustration: COURT SQUARE THEATRE, SPRINGFIELD, MASS. PLACE OF
FIFTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING.]
* * * * *
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--NINE MONTHS 97
EDITORIAL NOTES 97
INDIAN PROGRESS 102
LIGHT AND SHADE 104
COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES:
FISK UNIVERSITY, TENN. 106
TALLADEGA COLLEGE, ALA. 108
STRAIGHT UNIVERSITY, LA. 110
TOUGALOO UNIVERSITY, MISS. 113
GRANDVIEW INSTITUTE, TENN. 115
PLEASANT HILL ACADEMY, TENN. 115
FORT BERTHOLD INDIAN SCHOOL, N. D. 116
A TRIBUTE TO REV. A. J. F. BEHRENDS, D.D. 118
RICHARD SALTER STORRS, D.D. 119
OBITUARY--PROF. A. K. SPENCE--REV. W. S. ALEXANDER, D.D. 121
PORTO RICO NOTES 122
LOSS OF SUPPLIES FOR ALASKA 124
DEPARTMENT OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR 125
RECEIPTS 128
WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS 142
SECRETARIES OF YOUNG PEOPLE'S AND CHILDREN'S WORK 144
* * * * *
THE 54th ANNUAL MEETING
OF THE
American Missionary Association
WILL BE HELD IN
SPRINGFIELD, MASS.
October 23-25, 1900.
SERMON: REV. NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS, D.D.
* * * * *
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. JULY, 1900. NO. 3.
* * * * *
FINANCIAL.
Nine Months, Ending June 30th.
The receipts are $237,141.25, exclusive of Reserve Legacy Account, an
increase of $24,922,63 compared with last year. There has been an
increase of $15,751.36 in donations, $5,800.96 in estates, $852,26 in
income and $2,518.05 in tuition.
The expenditures are $249,148.75, an increase of $21,699.95 compared
with last year. The debt showing June 30th, this year, is
$12,007.50--last year at the same time $15,230.18.
We appeal to churches, Sunday-schools, Christian Endeavor Societies,
Woman's Missionary Societies and individuals, and also to executors
of estates, to secure as large a sum as possible for remittance in
July, August and September. The fiscal year closes September 30th. We
hope to receive from all sources every possible dollar. The
Association closed the year 1897-98 without debt, and the year
1898-99 without debt, and it earnestly desires to close this year,
1899-1900 without debt.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Annual Meeting, Oct. 23d-25th.]
The Fifty-fourth Annual Meeting of the American Missionary
Association is to be held in Springfield, Mass., October 23d-25th.
The Court Square Theatre has been secured, containing the largest
auditorium in the city. A great gathering is anticipated. Rev. Newell
Dwight Hillis, D.D., will preach the sermon. Reports from the large
and varied fields will be presented by missionaries. The fields now
reach from Porto Rico to Alaska, and present various and interesting
conditions of life. The great problems of national and missionary
importance that are pressing themselves upon the attention of
Christian patriots everywhere will be ably discussed. Contributing
churches, local conferences and state associations are entitled to
send delegates to this convention of the American Missionary
Association.
[Sidenote: A New Departure Program.]
Santee Training School presented a unique and interesting program at
the closing exercises, June 15th, 1900. "A New Departure Program for
Closing of School" was the title upon the printed page. The program
was divided into two parts. Part first was confined to history. The
general subject presented in the papers was "The Development of
Civilized Ways of Living." One of the Indian pupils read a paper on
"First Ways of Getting Food and Clothing." Another on "First
Dwellings." The future as well as the past in race development and
elevation was considered. "Beginning to Provide for the Future" was
the subject of another paper. "Clothing" was discussed in relation to
its production and value.
The second part of this "New Departure Program" presented science in
a practical and helpful way. The general subject was "Natural Forces
are for Human Use." Interesting and valuable papers were presented on
such themes as "Wind Mills," "Non-conduction in Electricity," "Plant
Breathing," "Food Stored," and other suggestive and important
subjects. Throughout abundant illustrations were presented impressing
upon these Indian boys and girls important lessons in independence
and self-control and self-help essential to development and progress.
Santee is to be commended surely for this new departure, which must
prove not only interesting but of permanent value in race elevation.
[Sidenote: A New Departure Program.]
The attention of the whole world has been focalized on China during
the past few weeks. Many hearts are deeply anxious for friends who
are in the midst of this upheaval and whose lives are threatened.
Beginning with mobs instigated by a secret society, apparently
without preconcertion, a state bordering upon war now exists. Whether
the Empress Dowager is at the head of this movement it seems
impossible to decide. The conservative element of the Chinese is
certainly in sympathy with the Boxers in their effort to exterminate
the "foreign devils." What the outcome of this insane uprising and
mad onslaught involving substantial war against the civilized nations
of the world will be, no prophet of modern times can foretell. Many
of us wait with anxious and sorrowful hearts for messages which we
hope and yet fear to receive, lest they confirm our apprehension and
alarm.
We hope to present in the next issue of the MISSIONARY an article
from Rev. Jee Gam, the missionary of the A. M. A. in San Francisco,
giving his views and interpretations of the trouble in China. This
Association is closely related to the great work in this Empire
through the missions in our own country among the Chinese. How much
the civilized nations are responsible for the present condition
through their eager and often ill-advised efforts to absorb the
territory, or to gain political and commercial advantages, is a
serious problem. The need of aggressive and earnest work for the
Chinese who come to our own country is emphasized by these alarming
conditions. Hundreds should be sent back as missionaries to their own
people. We hold the key to the solution of foreign missions in
Africa, China and Japan in members of these races in our own country.
[Sidenote: A United Annual Meeting.]
Several state and local conferences have passed resolutions in favor
of one annual meeting for all our six missionary societies. Such a
convention would probably occupy a week. Each society would have
representation during such a portion of the time as the magnitude of
the work represented demanded. The general sentiment seems to be that
the Sabbath should be used as a day of missionary and spiritual
arousement, for the general interests of the Kingdom of God, as
represented through our denomination. This plan met the cordial
approval of the Home Missionary Convention in Detroit recently. It is
certainly worthy of the careful consideration of all our societies.
[Sidenote: The Testimony of Prof. Roark.]
Prof. R. M. Roark, of the Kentucky State College, at the commencement
of Chandler Normal School, Lexington, Ky., bore the following
testimony to the strength and value of the negroes of the South:
"Forty years ago the race had nothing; now property in the hands of
the negro has an assessed valuation of nearly five hundred million
dollars. Not a few individuals are worth seventy-five thousand to one
hundred thousand dollars. Forty years ago it was a violation of the
law to teach a negro; now there are thousands of children in good
schools; and there are two hundred higher institutes of learning for
negroes, with an attendance of two hundred thousand or more. There
are many successful teachers, editors, lawyers, doctors and ministers
who are negroes. All these professions are fully and ably represented
here, in conservative and aristocratic Lexington, and as regards
these men and women there is no race problem. Worth, honesty, clear
knowledge, self-respect and independent support lie at the foundation
of any citizenship, white or black. May these young graduates carry
these with them into the life conflict, and be the leaders of their
race into the widest opportunities of free American citizenship."
[Sidenote: Splendid Benefactions.]
Mr. Rossiter Johnson has recently compiled a list of bequests to
benevolent objects during the last year in the United States. This is
a remarkable showing. The grand total is nearly sixty-three million
dollars. The year previous it reached the good sum of thirty-eight
million, and in 1897, forty-five million. In three years, therefore,
over one hundred and forty million dollars have been bestowed by
generous men and women for charitable and educational objects. There
never has been a time in the history of the world when generosity and
riches were so often held in possession of the same person as to-day.
[Sidenote: Important.]
Mr. R. H. Learell, of the Class of 1901, at Harvard University, was
awarded the first prize in the Harvard Bowdoin Series. His subject
was "The Race Problems in the South."
An interesting and valuable lecture was delivered before the students
of Western Reserve University, Ohio, by Prof. O. H. Tower, Ph.D. His
subject was "The Food of the Alabama Negro and its Relation to His
Mental and Moral Development."
[Sidenote: A Useful Record.]
LeMoyne Normal Institute, at Memphis, Tenn., has just completed the
twenty-ninth year of its history. It was founded by the American
Missionary Association in October, 1871. The work of the school has
grown into large proportions. The enrollment of students for the year
has numbered 725 in all grades. More than 200 of these have studied
in the normal department. They are thus fitting themselves for
teaching among their people in the public and private schools of the
state.
The graduating class of 1900 consisted of twenty. Dr. LeMoyne, of
Washington, Pa., after whom the institute is named, gave the ground
and the buildings and the original outlay. The American Missionary
Association has maintained the work during these twenty-nine years.
The Alumni Association of the institute has contributed generously in
proportion to their means to the work at the school. The Alumni have
been much interested in the development of the industrial department,
and have contributed for that purpose. Woodworking, cooking and
nursing classes will be conducted in the school next year, offering
still larger opportunities for the training of these young people for
a larger and more useful life-work.
[Sidenote: Whittier High School.]
The closing exercises of Whittier High School were held in the
Congregational Church, on the 18th of May. This school is situated in
the Highlands of North Carolina. It reaches the young people of a
considerable area, and is an influence for large good among them.
Among the speeches or essays presented at the closing exercises, was
one entitled: "The South, Her Strength and Weakness." It is a hopeful
sign that the young men of the South, who are to be the leaders in
their section, are seriously considering these problems. In the "New
South," a large element of strength and progress will come from the
educated young men of the Highlands. They are somewhat slow to be
moved, but are strong, steadfast and courageous in the defense of
that which they believe to be right, when they do move.
[Sidenote: Grit that Wins.]
In one of our schools among the American Highlanders a young
mountaineer, then scarcely out of his teens, applied for membership.
When asked what funds he had to support him in his proposed study, he
replied: "Only fifty cents." He had dependent upon him two sisters, a
brother and his mother. It seemed rather limited capital for such an
undertaking. He went to work, however, cutting logs, built a
log-cabin, moved into it with his family, and with an eagerness that
can scarcely be appreciated by those who have had larger
opportunities, went to his study in the schoolroom. It is not
necessary to say that such grit and devotion won for him success. He
has fitted himself for Christian instruction among his people, and is
rapidly becoming a leader. This young man, however, is not an
individual but a type of hundreds of such Highland lads and lassies
who are struggling with great self-sacrifice for an education in our
American Missionary Association schools.
[Sidenote: Prepared for Life Work.]
The graduating class from Williamsburg Academy, Kentucky, numbers
three. They are all from the State of Kentucky, but from different
counties. The mountain people only are represented. One contemplates
the study of medicine next fall. One expects to teach. The other, a
young lady, will probably remain at home for a time. All are
Christians and in active Christian work.
[Sidenote: Grand View Institute, Tennessee.]
This school, among the Highlanders, has closed a most successful
year. The following item comes from the principal: "The young men
have held a mid-week prayer meeting twice each week during the
month. These meetings were well attended, and much interest was
manifested. At our last mid-week service, before the closing of the
school, our little church was well filled, and a large number took
part in the service. The topic for the evening was 'Some of the
benefits I have received during the school year in Grand View.' The
meeting was exceptionally impressive. Many of these students have,
during the year, taken Christ into their hearts and lives, and this,
after all, we feel is the 'one thing needful.'"
[Sidenote: Manual of Savannah Congregational District.]
Through the courtesy of the Moderator, the manual of this conference
has been presented to the editor of the MISSIONARY. It contains the
constitution and by-laws, and a brief historical sketch of this group
of churches in Georgia. It is an interesting document. Among other
things, it illustrates the desire of these churches to have an
educated and upright ministry. Article XII of their constitution
reads, in part, as follows: "Congregationalists have always believed
in a Godly and educated ministry. To meet the wants of local
conditions, a three years' course of study shall be provided for in
the by-laws, for all who are not graduates of normal, college
preparatory or college classes.... The by-laws shall provide a four
years' course of conference study, leading up to the printed
certificate. Any person holding a printed certificate shall be
addressed as Reverend, preach without annual examination, on
condition of good behavior, and may be ordained if called by a church
to be its pastor.... Ordained preachers coming to us from bodies
having a lower standard shall pursue our four years' course of study
and pass annual examinations, if they are under fifty years of age."
This is certainly an earnest and systematic effort on the part of our
brethren of these churches to establish higher educational and
ethical standards on the part of the ministers in that state. The
benefit will accrue not only to our Congregational Churches, but to
all others in the state.
* * * * *
INDIAN PROGRESS.
BY REV. C. L. HALL.
[Sidenote: Old and New.]
On May 26th there was a high wind over the prairie. It hindered the
carpenter who was trying to frame the bell-tower of the new chapel.
The chapel stands aloft in the center of the Ree Indian settlement.
It is a shining mark, seen in the June sunlight, for miles up and
down the Missouri bench lands. The prairie around it is dotted with
Indian homes. The winds could not stop the building nor overturn it.
Other work the wind did finish. That was the overthrow of the old
heathen place of worship which stood a little more than a mile away
from the new Christian chapel. Neglected for several years, it had
been gradually disintegrating till the wind threw down the remains of
the ruin.
The Ree Christian Indians are now looking with satisfaction at the
chapel which their own work has helped to build. It is the center of
a new religious and social order. It illustrates, also, the
co-operative work of the Women's Home Missionary Association,
Church-Building Society and the American Missionary Association. All
of these had a helping hand in the building.
It takes all that all can do together to provide new and better
things for the Indian as their hold of and faith in the old pass
away.
[Sidenote: Citizen Indians.]
The Fort Berthold Indians have recently become voters. The
coming fall elections are important; consequently the caucuses held
this spring were of some moment. In the county convention eleven
delegates out of twenty-six were Indians. They might have a deciding
vote of considerable consequence.
There was an effort to control the ignorant part of the community for
private interests. The better educated young men, however, were alive
to their duty and opportunity, and many of the older ones were
sensible enough to put forward the younger and better informed to
represent them. The consequence was that when the delegates arrived
at the county seat they were found to be an intelligent and
well-dressed company, who could understand what was going on. Two of
them went from the county to the Fargo state convention to nominate
delegates to the national presidential convention. One went to the
judicial convention, and two are to go to the coming state convention
at Grand Forks to nominate state officers. Three of these delegates
were from our Santee school, and one from Hampton.
The testimony of political leaders is that the Indian delegates made
a good impression, and were not led into the self-indulgences that
disgraced some whites.
Several years ago one of the older boys found it rather tiresome to
study "civil government" in the mission school. Now he says to his
teacher, "Civil government is all right." It always will be in the
hand of intelligent people who want to do right--all colors
included.
* * * * *
"LIGHT AND SHADE."
MRS. IDA V. WOODBURY.
The title of this rambling sketch of Southern travel does not refer,
as might be understood, to the wonderful picturesqueness of the
Southern mountains and valleys, their ever-varying beauty of sunshine
and shadow, nor to the spiritual, moral or intellectual condition of
the people; but is a salutation, embodying in its brevity an
invitation to the stranger to dismount from his horse, or step down
from his carriage, and rest himself beneath the shade of the trees.
"Light, stranger, light and shade," is the laconic, epigrammatic but
cordial and hospitable greeting.
In response to such a salutation, I "lit" from the buggy one
afternoon a few weeks ago in front of a one-roomed, windowless log
hut in the Kentucky mountains, where lived a man, his wife and eight
children. I was urged to "set by," so I went inside the house. The
mother was lying on a bed in the corner, and I said to her, "Are you
sick?" (You must never ask a mountaineer if he is ill, that is
equivalent to asking him if he is cross.) "Yes," she said, "I'm
powerful puny." "Have you been sick long?" was my next question.
"I've been punying around all winter." "Has it been cold here?" "Yes,
mighty cold." "Have you had any snow?" "Yes, we've had a right smart
of snow twicet, and oncet it was pretty nigh shoe-mouth deep."
These people rarely admit that they are well. The most you can expect
is, "I'm tolerable, only jest tolerable," while often they say, "I'm
powerful puny, or nigh about plum sick." And then with an air of
extreme resignation, for they seem to enjoy poor health, they add,
"We're all powerful puny humans."
We had supper on the night of which I write in one of these little
cabins--the young missionary of the American Missionary Association
and myself. The conditions were very primitive, the fare coarse, but
the welcome hearty, the hospitality bountiful. Then we had a
prayer-meeting in the "church house," and between fifty and sixty
people were present. The men dressed in homespun and blue jeans, the
women all with full-bordered cape bonnets and home-knit woolen mitts.
It is a great lack of "form" to go with the hands uncovered, but the
feet are often so; and I will venture to say that the missionary and
myself were the only persons in the "church house" whose mouths were
not filled with tobacco, a custom very much in evidence all through
the meeting.
I talked to them of our work among the Indians, and after the meeting
one man came to me and shook my hand right royally, as he said,
"I've never seen you before, mum, and I reckon I never shall see you
again; but we've been mightily holped up by what you've been saying,
and I reckon we ought to be doing something for them poor humans." In
his poverty, in his need, his heart went out to those who seemed to
him to be in greater destitution.
As we went to our buggy at the close of the meeting, the people
gathered around to say goodbye, and many were the kindly words and
the God-speeds. Many, too, were the evidences of hospitality, and one
insisted that we should go home with him and spend the night. He
said: "It's a mighty long ride to the school, and you'll be a mighty
sight more comfortable to come back and sleep with us." We had called
at his house in the afternoon. There were twelve people--father,
mother and ten children--in a windowless, one-roomed cabin, in which
were three beds ranged side by side. Just what sleeping
accommodations they were going to give us I do not know.
Where were we? Who are these people? Right in the heart of the
Midland Mountains, among our native-born American Highlanders, people
who have had as great a part in forming American history as any like
number of men in our country to-day, people who gave to this nation
Abraham Lincoln, who also produced Jesse James--they are capable of
either--who for a hundred and fifty years have been sitting in the
shade of ignorance, poverty and superstition, but are now coming into
the light of the school and the church as provided for them by the
American Missionary Association.
And now for a moment we will run down into the rice swamps of
Georgia. Come into the house of old Aunt Peggy. A bed and two boxes
form all the furniture of the room. The house is a borrowed one. Aunt
Peggy is having a new one built. It will cost five dollars, and when
we ask her how she is going to pay for it she tells us she has a
quarter saved toward it, and she has promised the man who is building
it her blankets, her only bedding beside an old comforter. But the
weather is growing warm, she says, and "mebbe before it done turn
cold I'll be in the hebbenly mansions." One of the saddest relics of
the old slavery days is these childless, friendless, companionless
old people, childless because slavery separated them from their
children; husbands and wives were parted, and all family life
rendered impossible. Two old people in the region of McIntosh, Ga.,
have recently died, each alone in a little cabin, and the tragedy was
not discovered until the buzzards were seen circling around the
place.
Aunt Peggy's sole comfort and dependence is a little boy eleven or
twelve years old, whom she picked up by the roadside where he, a tiny
baby, had been left by a heartless mother. Although then at least
eighty years old, she strapped him on her back as she went to her
"tasses" (tasks) in the field. She named him Calvary Baker, and now
he has become her dependence and support, although the light in her
shadowed cabin comes from the ministrations of the teachers in
Dorchester Academy; and as she put her old, gaunt, claw-like black
fingers on the face of the delicate, refined academy teacher, Aunt
Peggy said: "Oh, you're my Jesus mudder;" and then, turning to me,
she said, while a smile lit up the old black face, "Oh, missus, I
bress de Lord for the Jesus school, for if it had not been for these
Jesus mudders, I reckon hunger would have carried me off."
It is a wonderful work at McIntosh, as is true of all our schools.
There are great lessons to be learned there. The student of the negro
problem would do well to visit this section of the country with its
historic interest, to note the influence of the old Midway Church,
whose members were obliged to allow their slaves to attend church, so
that at one time the black membership of this church was double the
white; and to learn from a careful statistician that there is a less
per cent. of crime and immorality, and a greater per cent. of
full-blooded negroes here, under the influence of this old religious
_regimé_, than can be found in any like number of our colored
population throughout the Black Belt, save where the Christian school
has changed the life during this last generation.
We are solving the negro problem in the only way possible, in the
opinion of all statesmen, all publicists and all philanthropists, by
the farm and the shop, and the school and the church, and over them
all the Stars and Stripes. But we are doing more than this; we are
setting the solitary in families; the wilderness and the solitary
places are being made glad, and the desert is rejoicing and
blossoming as the rose.
* * * * *
COMMENCEMENT AT FISK UNIVERSITY, TENN.
Fisk graduated classes of usual size. It deeply lamented the absence
of President Cravath, who was ill in the East, and the late death of
Prof. Spence. The Dean, J. G. Merrill, was deputed to preside at the
varied functions of commencement week. The weather was unusually
temperate, audiences very large.
The largest college preparatory class in the history of the
university was graduated. It catalogued thirty-nine. Ten States were
represented on its list, and a larger number of young women than have
ever entered Fisk before were made Freshmen.
[Illustration: SENIOR CLASS, FISK UNIVERSITY.]
Commencement week included a missionary sermon, which was delivered
by Prof. Brown, of Vanderbilt University, upon "Paul the
Missionary;" baccalaureate, by the Dean, whose theme was "Moses, the
Leader of his People." To these were added three "graduating
exercises." In the program were over thirty speakers--young men and
women, not one of whom had a syllable of prompting. A graduate of
Princeton University, spending the day in Nashville, after hearing
the four "Commencement" orations, said that each one of them was
superior in thought and delivery to the one that carried off the
prize at Princeton less than ten days before. These young men and
their classmates are to make their careers--three as physicians, two
as pharmacists, two as teachers, one as a business man, the other as
a lawyer. The young woman graduate received two diplomas, the second
being in music, her industry and ability being evidenced in the fact
that her long hours with the piano did not prevent her receiving high
honors in the classroom. One of the men had walked fourteen miles
each day, summer and winter, besides doing the "chores" morning and
night; another has had a chair in a barber shop every evening; others
have taught schools in vacation, been Pullman porters and waiters at
summer resorts. One, whose two grandfathers were Frenchmen, born in
France, before coming to college loaded the rifle and stood by his
father, who shot down three men who came to his home to mob him. He
himself, a very Hercules by name and in appearance, champion on the
college gridiron, pleaded on the commencement stage most persuasively
for "Universal Peace."
Our commencement orator was Rev. H. E. Cobb, one of the pastors in
the Reformed Collegiate Church of New York City. His address upon the
"Open Door" disclosed to the young graduates their possibilities of
success and failure, and captivated old and young.
Fisk enters upon a new year with high hopes. Her Jubilee Singers,
whose music added greatly to the enjoyment of the week, return North
in the late summer to keep alive the enthusiasm awakened by their
last season's successes, while the Faculty know the hour grows nearer
and nearer when the endowment which God has in store for Fisk is to
materialize, and they will know who are God's chosen servants to do
for the Negro what has been so gloriously done for the white young
people of America--furnishing them a chance to secure an education at
an institution throughly equipped to provide the leaders of a tenth
of our population, men and women sound in mind and soul.
The Alumni had an enthusiastic meeting. They were addressed by Miss
Nancy Jones, '86, who has served the A. B. C. F. M. in Africa, and by
Dr. A. A. Wesley, '94, who spoke on "How to Overcome Prejudices,"
who, as surgeon in an Illinois regiment in the Spanish War, won such
distinction as to have been appointed to read a paper before the
National Army Surgeons' Association in New York City the week before
commencement.
* * * * *
COMMENCEMENT AT TALLADEGA COLLEGE, ALABAMA.
Coming away one afternoon from one of the exercises of commencement
week at Talladega College, a prominent white citizen said in comment
on a speech he had just heard: "There is a good deal of foolish talk
about how much the Spanish-American war has done in bringing the
North and South together; but the fact is, that schools like this, in
which the Negro is taught to be law-abiding and to live a moral life,
administered as this one is with such good sense and wisdom, are
doing far more than any sentimental influences of the war to bring
races and sections to mutual good understanding." On Sunday, at the
big Chautauqua building, during the baccalaureate sermon, two white
citizens were standing at the door watching the quiet, orderly
audience of perhaps fifteen hundred colored people. One of them has
not been distinguished for earnestness of desire to see the Negro
educated. Said the other, "It looks like the niggers are coming up in
spite of h--," to which the response, though possibly reluctant, was
clearly affirmative.
Those who have been toiling all the year long, unable to appreciate
the work in its perspective, discouraged sometimes because results
hoped for do not immediately appear, are cheered by such testimony to
the efficiency and value of the work, even if it is not always given
in elegant and reverent form. And there was other testimony of the
same kind from all sorts and conditions of visitors. Expressions of
pleasure and approval came constantly from alumni, from teachers in
other schools, from citizens both white and black.
Not as large a graduating class was sent out as usual, there being
only nine in all--three young men from the college department, and
six from the normal school, all young women but one. The parents of
none of these students have graduated from Talladega. All of them
were slaves, though most were so young at the time of emancipation as
not to remember much of slavery days. The father of one of the
college men, however, was, it is said, made by his master to run
regularly before the bloodhounds to keep them in training. Sometimes
it was hard running, and sometimes he had to take refuge in a tree to
escape harm when the dogs had caught up with him. This young man, who
carried off the A.B. degree, is planning to go to Yale for further
study, and after a year or two to enter a Northern law-school.
Another of the same department is in some ways an accomplished
fellow. He has read widely and remembers what he has read; he plays
the violin; he is an excellent pianist, and he is a member of the
college male quartet, which is to spend the summer in the North,
endeavoring to raise money for new buildings greatly needed at
Talladega. After this summer campaign he also hopes to begin the
study of law at Columbia or Harvard. The third young man of the
college class expects to take for a year a principalship in the
public schools of a neighboring city, and then enter upon the study
of medicine.
The young man who finished the normal course, being a good carpenter,
has been for three years head of the college repair shop. For this
summer he will return to a country school where he has taught for
five consecutive summers, and in the fall hopes to enter a
trade-school to perfect himself in carpentry and to learn what he can
of architecture and building, purposing to devote himself to that
line of work.
It is a matter of congratulation to the school that so many
students, after finishing some course here, are ambitious to pursue
their studies further in the best institutions of the country.
The young women who were graduated from the normal course are all to
enter upon the work for which they have been trained, one or two
already having positions in view in city schools, while the others
will take up work in the country districts. It is not a large class,
as has been said, but it is a good, earnest, ambitious class, in
which there is large promise of solid usefulness.
* * * * *
COMMENCEMENT AT STRAIGHT UNIVERSITY, LA.
The exercises of commencement week began on the morning of Sunday,
May 20th, with an interesting address to the Christian associations
by Rev. A. S. Jackson, D.D., of Dallas, Texas.
On the evening of the same day President Oscar Atwood delivered the
Baccalaureate Address. The close attention which this address
commanded showed how well chosen was its theme and interesting the
presentation of its ideas.
On Monday the Industrial and Grade work was exhibited. Specimens of
practical work in wood done by the young men and boys in the shop,
articles both useful and beautiful from the sewing-room, together
with fine drawings and written exercises done by members of the
different grades, made up this exhibit.
The value of this branch of the university's work cannot be
overestimated. The training given is of the most practical kind.
Young men have been enabled, through the industrial education
received at the university, to work at the carpenter's trade during
their summer vacation, and thus earn the means necessary to take them
through the following year of study. At the present time one
enterprising young graduate, as a result of this very training, is
putting up with his own hands the building which is to shelter the
school he is founding in Southern Louisiana.
In the sewing-room the young women and girls, besides acquiring a
knowledge of mending and darning, learn to cut, fit and make all
kinds of garments. Fancy work is taught them after they have learned
the more useful kinds of sewing.
Monday afternoon the Rev. Chas. R. Dinkins addressed the literary
societies of the university, and on Monday evening one of the most
interesting programs of the whole commencement season was
presented--namely, the class-day program.
It was in these exercises that the love of the graduating classes for
their Alma Mater, and their appreciation of her faithful and
efficient instruction found fullest expression. We have known of
schools where class-day was made an occasion for ridiculing the
Faculty, students and instruction of the institution. Not so at
Straight; class-day there is one of the occasions when the delightful
relations that have existed between teachers and students, and among
the student body, are revealed.
[Illustration: COLLEGE DEPARTMENT GRADUATING CLASS WITH PRESIDENT,
STRAIGHT UNIVERSITY.]
A short address by the President is followed by the class oration,
well composed and ably delivered. Then we listen to an entertaining
paper which gives us the history of the class. We review with the
young historian its hardships and its triumphs, and conclude that,
like all other classes whose history we have heard, it has had a
remarkable career. The prophecy is a spicy bit of humor, and reflects
much credit upon its writer, a dainty little miss, as bright and
interesting a prophet as we shall meet in many a long day. A young
man now steps forward upon the platform, of whose purpose in so doing
we are not quite sure. The president of the class soon clears up our
doubts, however, by requesting President Atwood to come forward. It
is evident that this is a surprise to the head of the university. The
young man makes a short speech of presentation and hands to the
president a gift from the graduating classes. The singing of the
class ode closes this part of the evening's exercises, and the
college class now presents an excellent program consisting of an
oration by the president, a history and a well-written poem.
One cannot help remarking upon the dignity and good taste which
characterized the exercises of Class-Day. We doubt whether any class
in a Northern school could have made a better showing.
[Illustration: COLLEGE PREPARATORY AND NORMAL GRADUATING CLASS,
STRAIGHT UNIVERSITY.]
On Tuesday afternoon the graduating exercises of the grammar
department were held. On Wednesday evening, when the graduating
classes received their diplomas, the other students received
certificates of the work they had done.
The alumni of Straight held their annual business meeting on Tuesday
evening.
The commencement exercises on Wednesday evening formed a fitting
climax for a week so full of interest and inspiration. These
exercises are held at Central Church because it can accommodate a
much larger audience than the university chapel, and in the evening,
because this hour permits many to be present who, on account of their
work, could not attend commencement during the day.
Long before the hour appointed for beginning the exercises, all the
seats were filled and all the standing room in the church utilized,
and the air was alive with whispers, low tones and the flutter of
fans as the audience waited, with the best patience it could muster,
for the opening numbers of the program. When President Atwood rose
and announced the first number, all sounds ceased, and the great
audience gave close attention to that and all the twenty-one
succeeding numbers on the program.
The program was one of which the university may be justly proud. The
orations of the graduates from the college course on "The Mission of
the Scholar," "Aims and Ideals," and "Does the Constitution Follow
the Flag?" would have been considered exceptional in any of our
Northern colleges, for their thought, expression and delivery. The
three graduates from the theological department did credit to their
teacher, Rev. G. W. Henderson, D.D., in their contribution to the
program, and the sixteen students who were graduated from the normal
and college preparatory courses likewise acquitted themselves with
credit. The music of the program was furnished by the students, and
consisted of piano solos and duets and choruses. The performers
deserve much commendation. The presentation of diplomas formed an
impressive close to the evening's program.
To have seen these students is to believe in the work which the
American Missionary Association is doing in the South, and to become
a promoter of that work; it is to have faith in the ability of the
negro to become a useful citizen; it is to catch a glimpse of the
true solution of the negro problem, and to see that the satisfactory
solution of that great question is being worked out, not by our
legislators, but by devoted Christian men and women, like President
Atwood and his corps of teachers, who are giving the best years of
their lives to the service of the Master in the Southland.
The graduating class is the largest in the history of the university,
thirteen young men and twelve young women. Ten of these reside in New
Orleans, and twelve are from different parts of Louisiana, North
Carolina and Texas. Seven completed the college preparatory course,
nine the normal, three the course in arts and three the theological.
* * * * *
COMMENCEMENT AT TOUGALOO UNIVERSITY, MISS.
Commencement at Tougaloo University this year was characterized by an
unusual quietness and the absence of the great crowds which usually
attend. For many weeks smallpox had been prevalent in the regions
about, so much so, that it was necessary to practically quarantine
the school against incomers. Since February, nearly all pupils had
been refused in the boarding department, and from the middle of March
the day pupils had been excluded almost wholly. It is worthy of
note, however, that notwithstanding this, the enrollment of the year
surpassed, by one hundred and more, that of the year previous. It did
not seem wise to issue any general invitation to the Commencement
Exercises, and so the public stayed away. A few invited guests came
from Jackson, among them Governor Longino, Secretary of State Power,
ex-Congressman Hooker, and some of the pastors of the city. These
gentlemen made brief addresses, heartily commending the school's work
and that for which it stands. The annual address on "Wealth," by Dr.
Cornelius H. Patton, of St. Louis, made a very deep impression.
Four students were graduated from the academy and normal course. Two
of them, and possibly more, will take college work. Next year
Tougaloo will, for the first time, have a full college course.
Excellent work has been done in that department during the past year.
It is interesting to note that one of the graduates represents the
second generation at Tougaloo, her mother having been a student in
the early days of the school. There are many such second generation
students in the lower grades, and they distinctly show the effects of
the influences to which their parents were subjected. All the
graduates were country-bred.
Those visitors to the school who had been familiar with it in the
past years were specially interested in the outward changes visible.
The new Beard Hall, commodious and pleasant, well furnished and
convenient, and the new Refectory, with its dining-room capable of
seating three hundred students; the Emergency Building, now
transformed into a spacious building for the manual training in wood
and industrial drawing; the new building for iron and steel forging
and masonry; the old shop metamorphosed into a most satisfactory
laundry, all were commented on as great additions to the material
side of Tougaloo's life. In passing from building to building,
attention was paid to the industrial features of the work. The
exhibits of iron and steel tools made by the students, among them a
machine for cutting iron, of great strength and excellent
workmanship; of chairs, desks, tables, tabourets, etc.; of needlework
from the beginning steps to completed garments; of cookery and of
millinery, were deemed very satisfactory. Much of the work cannot be
surpassed anywhere. Leading Mississippians are proud of Tougaloo and
its work, and esteem it the best school of its class.
Mention was more than once made of the fact that the new president of
Alcorn College, the state institution for colored young men, which is
now doing better work than for some years, and his accomplished wife,
are graduates of Tougaloo. The teacher of iron and steel work there
had his training in the Tougaloo shops.
* * * * *
COMMENCEMENT AT GRANDVIEW INSTITUTE, TENN.
The exercises of the Fifteenth Annual Commencement of the Grandview
Normal Institute opened with the baccalaureate sermon by the
principal, Sunday, April 29th, in the chapel.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were occupied with examinations in all
the grades and departments, which afforded abundant evidence of a
year of faithful and fruitful work.
On Thursday evening, May 3d, the public commencement was held in the
assembly room of the school building, and was attended by a very
large audience. The graduates were only three in number, two young
women and one young man.
Two of the graduates were genuine American Highlanders, and were
residents of Grandview, the third came from Sequatchie Valley.
The orations and essays were without exception creditable
performances.
One pleasing feature of the evening was the presentation by Rev. W.
E. Rogers, County Superintendent, of State diplomas to twenty
juniors.
The perfect order which prevailed throughout the exercises was in
striking contrast to former days when pistols and "moonshine" whiskey
were most fearfully in evidence.
Of the graduates, one of the young women will teach school the coming
year, the young man will seek work somewhere for a year and hopes
then to enter the State University at Knoxville and so fit himself
for some useful calling in life. These graduates are earnest young
Christians who will go out from their alma mater to reflect credit on
the School and to do honor to those who have generously given of
their means that the children of the people stranded on these
mountains may "see a great light." The year just closed was the most
prosperous one in the history of Grandview school. The enrollment was
the largest the school had ever known and was considerably above two
hundred.
Next year, if the juniors all return, as is expected, the graduating
class will number about twenty.
* * * * *
COMMENCEMENT AT PLEASANT HILL ACADEMY, TENN.
The graduating class of Pleasant Hill Academy numbered six--three
girls and three boys--most of the number coming from the Highland Rim
instead of from the mountains proper. There were four others in the
class, one from Alabama, but ill-health and other causes reduced the
number to six.
Two or three will continue their work at the University of Tennessee,
one at the University of Missouri, one at Peabody Normal, Nashville.
All expect to teach, and one expects eventually to become a trained
nurse and missionary.
We have been interested in tracing their ancestry, which follows: one
English, one Scotch-Irish, one Irish, one Scotch-Irish and Dutch, one
English-Irish, one Scotch-Irish and French. In the class are
Cumberland Presbyterian, Methodist South, Free Baptist, one Mormon
and one of Unitarian preferences.
One of the women is the wife of a blind preacher who is doing a good
work in this region.
Notwithstanding denominational preferences there has been unity of
feeling and co-operation in Christian work. We feel from expression
given that these young people will use their education for the
betterment of those who look to them for leadership.
* * * * *
FORT BERTHOLD INDIAN SCHOOL, N. D.
[Illustration: CHILDREN'S COTTAGE AND CHAPEL, FT. BERTHOLD, N. D.]
This school, as a whole, consists of a mixture of the three Indian
tribes, the Mandan, Ree and Gros Ventre. The pupils come from homes
scattered along either side of the Missouri River from Elbowoods to
Berthold, a stretch of some twenty miles.
[Illustration: GROUP OF PUPILS, FT. BERTHOLD, N. D.]
When one becomes acquainted with the children after they have been at
the school a year or two and considers the homes from which some of
them come, he is almost inclined to wonder at the transforming power
of Christian education. Most of these Indians have graduated from the
old-time tepee. Their houses to-day are of logs plastered with mud.
Sometimes they consist of one room, but frequently have two or three
rooms. A three-roomed cottage usually consists of a central room with
one outside door, and a room at each end connecting with the central
room, but having no outside door. The roof is made of rafters, upon
which poles are laid crosswise, and the whole covered several inches
with earth. The floor is sometimes of lumber, but more generally of
bare earth, which in very wet weather is apt to be turned into mud by
the rain that drips through the ground-covered roof. In the larger
houses two or three families often live, sometimes with two or three
grandmothers or grandfathers, or both.