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VOL. XXXV. No. 10.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”
* * * * *
OCTOBER, 1881.
_CONTENTS_:
EDITORIAL.
ANNUAL MEETING—PARAGRAPHS 289
TALLADEGA COLLEGE (with Illustration) 292
THE STRONG AND THE WEAK: Rev. G. N.
Marden 295
GIVING, FROM A COMMONPLACE STAND-POINT:
Rev. Samuel Scoville 296
BENEFACTIONS 297
GENERAL NOTES—Africa, Indians, Chinese 298
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD 300
THE FREEDMEN.
KENTUCKY—Work at Berea: Dr. Mayo in
_Journal of Education_ 301
KENTUCKY—Sowing in Tears and Reaping
in Joy: Rev. J. A. R. Rogers, Berea 303
TENNESSEE—Letter from Miss Alice E.
Carter, Nashville 304
ALABAMA—Letter from Mrs. M. V. Curtis,
Selma 304
GEORGIA—Extract from a Fraternal Letter of
Rev. T. L. Day 306
TEXAS—Death of S. B. White, Paris 306
AFRICA.
DEATH OF REV. MR. KEMP 307
THE INDIANS.
WORK ON A SHORT TOUR: Rev. M. Eells 308
THE CHINESE.
“STEADFAST, IMMOVABLE:” Rev. W. C.
Pond 310
GLEANINGS 313
CHILDREN’S PAGE.
A MISSIONARY POTATO 315
RECEIPTS 316
CONSTITUTION 319
AIM, STATISTICS, WANTS, ETC. 320
* * * * *
NEW YORK:
Published by the American Missionary Association,
ROOMS, 56 READE STREET.
* * * * *
Price, 50 Cents a Year, in advance.
Entered at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., as second-class matter.
American Missionary Association,
56 READE STREET, N. Y.
* * * * *
PRESIDENT.
HON. E. S. TOBEY, Boston.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
Hon. F. D. PARISH, Ohio.
Hon. E. D. HOLTON, Wis.
Hon. WILLIAM CLAFLIN, Mass.
Rev. STEPHEN THURSTON, D. D., Me.
Rev. SAMUEL HARRIS, D. D., Ct.
WM. C. CHAPIN, Esq., R. I.
Rev. W. T. EUSTIS, D. D., Mass.
Hon. A. C. BARSTOW, R. I.
Rev. THATCHER THAYER, D. D., R. I.
Rev. RAY PALMER, D. D., N. J.
Rev. EDWARD BEECHER, D. D., N. Y.
Rev. J. M. STURTEVANT, D. D., Ill.
Rev. W. W. PATTON, D. D., D. C.
Hon. SEYMOUR STRAIGHT, La.
Rev. CYRUS W. WALLACE, D. D., N. H.
Rev. EDWARD HAWES, D. D., Ct.
DOUGLAS PUTNAM, Esq., Ohio.
Hon. THADDEUS FAIRBANKS, Vt.
Rev. M. M. G. DANA, D. D., Minn.
Rev. H. W. BEECHER, N. Y.
Gen. O. O. HOWARD, Washington Ter.
Rev. G. F. MAGOUN, D. D., Iowa.
Col. C. G. HAMMOND, Ill.
EDWARD SPAULDING, M. D., N. H.
Rev. WM. M. BARBOUR, D. D., Ct.
Rev. W. L. GAGE, D. D., Ct.
A. S. HATCH, Esq., N. Y.
Rev. J. H. FAIRCHILD, D. D., Ohio.
Rev. H. A. STIMSON, Mass.
Rev. A. L. STONE, D. D., California.
Rev. G. H. ATKINSON, D. D., Oregon.
Rev. J. E. RANKIN, D. D., D. C.
Rev. A. L. CHAPIN, D. D., Wis.
S. D. SMITH, Esq., Mass.
Dea. JOHN C. WHITIN, Mass.
Hon. J. B. GRINNELL, Iowa.
Rev. HORACE WINSLOW, Ct.
Sir PETER COATS, Scotland.
Rev. HENRY ALLON, D. D., London, Eng.
WM. E. WHITING, Esq., N. Y.
J. M. PINKERTON, Esq., Mass.
E. A. GRAVES, Esq., N. J.
Rev. F. A. NOBLE, D. D., Ill.
DANIEL HAND, Esq., Ct.
A. L. WILLISTON, Esq., Mass.
Rev. A. F. BEARD, D. D., N. Y.
FREDERICK BILLINGS, Esq., Vt.
JOSEPH CARPENTER, Esq., R. I.
Rev. E. P. GOODWIN, D. D., Ill.
Rev. C. L. GOODELL, D. D, Mo.
J. W. SCOVILLE, Esq., Ill.
E. W. BLATCHFORD, Esq., Ill.
C. D. TALCOTT, Esq., Ct.
Rev. JOHN K. MCLEAN, D. D., Cal.
Rev. RICHARD CORDLEY, D. D., Kansas.
Rev. W. H. WILLCOX, D. D., Mass.
Rev. G. B. WILLCOX, D. D., Ill.
Rev. WM. M. TAYLOR, D. D., N. Y.
Rev. GEO. M. BOYNTON, Mass.
Rev. E. B. WEBB, D. D., Mass.
Hon. C. I. WALKER, Mich.
Rev. A. H. ROSS, Mich.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.
REV. M. E. STRIEBY, D. D., _56 Reade Street, N. Y._
DISTRICT SECRETARIES.
REV. C. L. WOODWORTH, _Boston_.
REV. G. D. PIKE, D. D., _New York_.
REV. JAS. POWELL, _Chicago_.
H. W. HUBBARD, ESQ., _Treasurer, N. Y._
REV. M. E. STRIEBY, _Recording Secretary_.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
ALONZO S. BALL,
A. S. BARNES,
C. T. CHRISTENSEN,
CLINTON B. FISK,
ADDISON P. FOSTER,
S. B. HALLIDAY,
J. A. HAMILTON,
SAMUEL HOLMES,
CHARLES A. HULL,
CHAS. L. MEAD,
SAMUEL S. MARPLES,
WM. T. PRATT,
J. A. SHOUDY,
JOHN H. WASHBURN.
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.
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.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
VOL. XXXV. OCTOBER, 1881. No. 10.
* * * * *
_American Missionary Association._
* * * * *
The Thirty-fifth Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association
will be held in Worcester, Mass., commencing November 1st, at 3 P. M.
For particulars see fourth page of cover and the religious press.
* * * * *
Our readers have already been informed of the death of Rev. K. M. Kemp
of the Mendi Mission, and it now becomes our painful duty to chronicle
the death of his beloved wife. The latest advices inform us that their
deaths were neither of them due wholly to the climate. Mrs. Kemp was a
brave, true woman, whose life and example will not soon be forgotten in
the field where so many had already learned to love her.
* * * * *
By the time this reaches our readers, Superintendent Ladd and Dr. Snow
will be well on their way toward the Arthington Mission. It is their
purpose to push directly for the region of the Sobat in the heart of
Central Africa, with the view of locating the new mission. It will
give us pleasure to keep the public informed of the movements of their
expedition in this interesting portion of Africa. Two missionaries
are under appointment to occupy this field at the call of the
Superintendent.
* * * * *
We take pleasure in announcing the safe arrival of Rev. O. H. White,
D. D., from England. After a continuous service of over six years of
earnest labor in the mother country, he well deserves the rest which
he now seeks. As Secretary of “The Freedmen’s Missions Aid Society,”
he has ably represented this Association in its great work for the
Negro, and has been enabled, we trust, to insure the success of the
Arthington Mission, by so far interesting our British friends in this
new and promising missionary enterprise, as to call forth many generous
contributions toward its support.
As this number of the MISSIONARY will be in the hands of our readers a
few days before the close of our fiscal year, September 30th, we make
this reminder to the churches and friends who have not yet made their
annual offering to our treasury.
We wish to pay every obligation, and report the year closed without
debt. If the gifts we have reason to hope for are promptly forwarded,
we shall be able to do this.
* * * * *
One obstacle in the way of establishing missions in the interior
of Africa is illustrated by the difficulties experienced by the
missionaries of the American Board destined for Bihé. Messrs. Bagster,
Sanders and Miller landed at Benguela on the coast, 250 miles from
Bihé, November 13, 1880; May 1st, they had only reached Bailunda,
200 miles on their way, where they were still encamped awaiting the
arrival of supplies. Five months and seventeen days had been exhausted
by preparations and delays, and the end had not come at last reports.
Possibly, however, the knowledge gained meanwhile of the peculiarities
of the country and the language and habits of the people will quite
compensate for loss of time, and enable them to lay the foundations for
their future work far more wisely in consequence of the difficulties
thus experienced.
* * * * *
The Le Moyne Institute, Memphis, Tenn., has established an industrial
department for the purpose of teaching the girls the art of cookery.
A kitchen has been furnished with all needful appliances. Lectures
are given on housekeeping and household economy, which are followed
by instruction in various methods of cooking different foods. The
girls all take turns in doing the work, and in this way get the full
advantage of the practice. The following list of questions on which a
class in cooking was examined at the last anniversary, illustrates the
scope of the work that is being done:
1. Name seven principal components of the human body.
2. Name some of the principal foods used to supply these elements.
3. At what time in the day is the most nutritious food required?
4. What is the object in cooking food?
5. Name three of the most healthful and economical modes of cooking
meat.
6. Why are fried meats not healthful?
7. What should be remembered in boiling or roasting meat?
8. Give general principles for making soup.
9. What is essential in making good light bread?
10. How may bread be made “light” without the use of yeast or soda?
11. Give general principles for mixing cake.
12. Give receipt for making gruel.
13. How should potatoes be boiled?
14. Give rule for washing dishes and putting the kitchen in order.
* * * * *
The work among the refugees in Kansas by the different agencies has
been carried forward with energy and success. According to the best
estimates there are upwards of 50,000 colored people in that State, and
the number is steadily increasing. The reports from our missionaries
are favorable, and indicate that much is to be done and that the
refugees are eager for the needed assistance. The interest taken in
behalf of the exodites by the English people is worthy of the imitation
of American philanthropists. During the last few months, friends in
Great Britain have sent to Mrs. Comstock for the Freedmen’s Relief
Association, $25,000 worth of supplies, consisting of wearing apparel,
household goods and kitchen utensils. There has also been received
from England during the last fifteen months $13,000 in money, making
a total amount of $80,000 for the treasury of the Relief Association;
two-thirds of this is said to have been given by the English people.
Our appeal, published some months since, for $2,500 to provide for the
work we have recently inaugurated in Kansas, has not yet met with such
response as we hoped to receive. When so much is being done by friends
abroad for this needy class of colored people, we believe the patrons
of the American Missionary Association would not have us do less
for the Kansas field than we have already undertaken. Will they not
contribute so liberally for this special object that we shall be able
to do a great deal more?
* * * * *
We clip from the New York _Tribune_ a paragraph relating to the work
of the American Missionary Association in the South. It comes from the
pen of a special correspondent, who, as the editorial in the _Tribune_
says, “has already written with great intelligence and fairness of the
South and the Southern people.”
SUCCESS OF COLORED TEACHERS.
“The educational work in the South of the American Missionary
Association is of the highest character, and deserves all possible
recognition and assistance. The leading Southern people everywhere
speak of it gratefully and enthusiastically. At the Normal and
Agricultural Institute, Hampton, Va., at Talladega College, in Alabama,
Tougaloo University, Mississippi, Tillotson Normal School, Austin,
Texas, and in several other colleges and normal schools which I have
visited, though the money endowment of the schools is scanty compared
with the amounts which are needed, the endowments in personal qualities
and character, as represented by the teachers, are of a remarkably
high order. This is indispensable indeed, for the peculiar nature of
the work of educating the colored people of the South requires the
best teachers that can be obtained. In many of these institutions the
boys learn something of various trades or mechanical occupations, and
of farming; and the girls are taught sewing, cooking and the care of
a house. I have visited a great number of the negro common and high
schools, which are taught by graduates and students of the colleges and
normal schools which I have named, and I think it very wonderful that
so many of these negro teachers are successful. They generally have to
struggle against many disadvantages, but nearly all whom I have seen
have the confidence and respect of the leading white citizens where
they are at work. I have found a few fools among them, of course, but a
great majority appear to be sensible, earnest young men and women.”
* * * * *
TALLADEGA COLLEGE.
PRESIDENT HENRY S. DE FOREST.
This issue of the MISSIONARY contains a view of Stone Hall, built of
Alabama bricks at Talladega. Its completion, it is believed, marks an
era in the history of the College. With better equipments than ever
before, with a field as large as it can wish, the College, backed by
the history of half of one generation, looks forward with hope to the
growing and unfolding future. From what has been we may attempt to
previse something of what may be.
In 1867, only fourteen years ago, when the Freedmen’s Bureau was acting
as Interex between past bloodshed and coming chaos, the building now
known as Swayne Hall, with ample and beautiful grounds, was purchased,
and the future College begun with spelling book and Bible primer. A
few wise men of the East were there at its birth. They wore blue and
carried swords, though in the scabbard. But many black men, who had
been waiting through a long and starless night, thought they heard an
angel chorus and forthwith were praising God. A white male high school
building, reared by the unrequited labor of the slave, was bought at
a mortgage sale and opened for the Christian training of all, without
respect to color or sex. Men, black either in pigment or in figment,
began to come, and the reconstructed building gave shelter to school
and church. But a home was needed, and two years later, in 1869,
Foster Hall was built, affording rooms for the girls and teachers, and
also table accommodations for the entire family. From the beginning,
Talladega has united the three great forces in shaping character,
namely, the school, the church and the home. The foundations of the
second building, Foster Hall, were laid while the Ku Klux Klan was
brandishing its weapons and grating its teeth. The Nehemiahs of that
time carried their weapons in one hand and wielded the trowel with
the other. But they built, and the God of Heaven prospered them. From
that time forward the quadrennial period has been observed. The year
following a Presidential election, Talladega College has inaugurated
some new thing. In 1873, Graves Hall with additional land was secured
for the theological department. In 1877, when President Hayes was
holding out the olive branch, we attempted more of the peaceful pursuit
of agriculture, and Winsted farm was bought. And now in the beginning
of President Garfield’s administration, the third brick building is
reared, and Stone Hall opens its door to eighty young men.
[Illustration: STONE HALL, TALLADEGA COLLEGE.]
Surely this is rapid progress. Not half of one generation has passed,
and the spelling book is supplemented by normal, college preparatory,
to some extent college, and theological studies. Some of those first
primary students are preachers now. The babes of those recent days
have become the leaders of their race. Figures are not juicy; but
it is noteworthy that one hundred and sixteen of our students were
teaching during the last summer vacation; that three hundred and
eighteen who had pursued something of Normal studies have gone thence
as pedagogues; that of our forty-two Theological students, fifteen
are pastors of A. M. A. churches; as many more are ministering in
other fields, and the remainder are still in training. Such facts are
inspiriting and full of hope. These results, let it be remembered,
have been realized with meagre resources and poor appliances. If
now our means could be made more commensurate with our necessities,
if our resources could compare with our opportunities, what a grand
work of patriotism and Christianity might not the College attempt and
expect in the near future. As regards the higher branches of learning,
the College has an unrivaled place in a great State, half of whose
population is black. It has in Alabama more than 600,000 colored people
from whom to draw its students. It cares for muscle as well as mind,
and for heart most of all. It teaches industry and thrift and economy.
It emphasizes the fundamentals, and believes that the foundations of
learning should be laid before the superstructure is attempted. Still
in its care for the masses, it is seeking for wise leaders, and wishes
to take certain elect souls through as long and as thorough a course of
study as the circumstances will allow. It aims especially to furnish
men well equipped for the Gospel ministry, and thinks it has found a
place for uplifting not only America, but Africa, and that by laboring
there among the foot-hills of our own Blue Ridge, it may help beautify
the Dark Continent with salvation. As long as cotton grows on those
black bottoms, or those hills yield their treasures of iron and coal,
so long will Talladega College be needed, and so long it hopes to stay.
It desires to grow with the generations and increase with the ages.
Already it feels its need of permanent investments, and is asking for
the beginning of an endowment. It calls for the personal service of
some, and asks for the gifts of others who cannot offer themselves.
In both cases it gives an opportunity for usefulness as large and as
lasting as can be desired.
* * * * *
Rev. A. D. Mayo, D. D., writes in _The Christian Register_ of Talladega
College as follows:
“This year the institution numbers two hundred young men, women
and children, of whom eleven are in the theological, eleven in the
preparatory college, forty-eight in the normal, fifty-nine in the
intermediate, and seventy-two in the primary department. Rev. Henry
S. De Forest is president, and Rev. George W. Andrews pastor and
instructor in theology. Three men and six women teachers in addition
make up the teaching force; and an abler, more devoted, and more
attractive people we have never met in any seminary of learning in any
part of the country. They are all white, and represent every section
of the Union and the Dominion of Canada. Talladega may congratulate
itself on its “negro college,” for probably no institution in the State
represents more thoroughly the best modern ideas of education.”
* * * * *
THE STRONG AND THE WEAK.
BY PROF. G. N. MARDEN, COLORADO SPRINGS, COL.
[Illustration:
Large outer square labelled: WHITE POPULATION.
Then three squares from bottom right.
- 35% side, labelled: COLORED POPULATION.
- 8% side labelled: INDIAN.
with bottom fifth shaded grey
- 5% side labelled: CHIN.]
Injustice seems never more flagrant than when committed by the
prosperous and powerful against the poor and weak. If the moral test of
civilization, as of society, is its care for its weakest members, we
hardly dare to measure our country by the history of its treatment of
the Negro, the Indian and the Chinaman.
The diagram above is designed to illustrate the numerical strength of
the white element of the United States, as compared with three other
elements of the population. The large bordered square (whose side is
ten centimeters) represents our country’s _total_ population—a round
fifty millions. The colored population—not less than six and a half
millions—is signified by the square in the lower right hand corner.
Close beside it is the little square which stands for the size of the
Indian—about three hundred thousand souls; the shaded portion of the
square means the _wild_ Indians—about fifty thousand. The dreaded
Chinese element of our population can be seen by looking for the minute
square, which represents one hundred thousand.
This diagram, in enlarged form, can be effectively used in the
Missionary Concert. To a large square of stout paper, smaller squares
of different colored paper may be pinned. Correct proportions for
paper or for blackboard illustrations would be, following the order
of the size of the population, 50, 18, 3.87 and 2.23 centimeters
respectively; or, in inches, about 19-2/3, 7-1/10, 1-1/2 and 7/8. These
figures denote the base lines of the respective squares.
How the powerful white man looms up and looms over the little group of
the three ill-treated races huddled in the corner!
The black block makes no insignificant figure, after all, and its
rapid growth suggests that to have, through neglect, a dense body of
such dimensions depressed by ignorance were a blunder matched only by
the wickedness of oppression. The size of the Indian and the Chinaman
suggests strongly the outrageous meanness of ill-using them; it makes
more striking the absurdity of a war policy against the red man, and
of the demagogue’s appeal to fear on account of the presence of the
Chinaman.
What an opportunity, on our own shores, for strength to help weakness,
for knowledge to help ignorance, for wealth to help poverty, and so to
fulfil the law of a Christian civilization!
Surely it is high time for us to heed the weighty saying of John
Milton: “_A nation ought to be but as one huge Christian personage, one
mighty growth or stature of an honest man, as big and compact in virtue
as in body; for look, what the ground and causes of single happiness to
one man, the same we shall find them to a whole state._”
* * * * *
GIVING, VIEWED FROM A COMMONPLACE STAND-POINT.
REV. SAM’L SCOVILLE.
We think this whole matter of giving is put so high sometimes that it
gets clear out of sight of common people. We love now and then to put
it down upon the basis of common virtues and moralities and see how it
looks.
Motives, springing from the highest spiritual insight and experience,
are good and always in order, but they are not essential to a fair
judgment nor to proper action in this matter. A man may have much less
than John’s spirituality or Paul’s experience to decide that there is a
glaring inconsistency in praying for the building up of God’s kingdom
on the earth, and then withholding the means necessary to that end; in
praying that the Gospel may fly to earth’s remotest bound, and then
refusing to contribute to the amount of a single wing feather to help
its flight.
It does not take a great deal of spiritual insight to see that we
cannot serve God and mammon at the same time in our churches with
advantage, any more than we can in our own hearts, and that if the
Judas of worldliness carries the bag, there is going to be a betrayal
of the Master some day. The most common of common sense judgment is all
that is needed for so simple a conclusion.
And it is not necessarily any high revelation required, but only an
appreciation and approval of square dealing, to convince us that a
church must so raise its money, and to such amounts, that it will be
able to do its share towards carrying on the great work of evangelizing
the world.
In these days of missionary spirit every church is to broaden out its
parish lines until they meet only at the antipodes. All the dark places
of the earth belong to us to do something for, to do what we can for,
and we are not to raise our money nor use it so that this part of the
work is neglected. To cheat the heathen out of his portion of the
Gospel is an immorality. To help carry the Gospel to the heathen in the
uttermost parts of the earth must be accepted by every church as a part
of its moral obligation. This may make it necessary to put less expense
into church choirs, into adornments and improvements—that the minister
and the sexton shall receive smaller salaries. So be it; let the whole
field be looked over, and let each receive the share adapted to him.
This is good morals in this matter.
* * * * *
BENEFACTIONS.
—Hamilton College receives $5,000 from Lemuel Brooks, of Churchville,
N. Y.
—Henry Villiard has given to the Oregon State University $70,000 to
relieve its indebtedness.
—D. O. Mills has given to the University of California $75,000 to endow
a chair of intellectual and moral philosophy.
—William H. Vanderbilt proposes to add to his previous gifts one-half
or two-thirds enough to erect and equip suitable buildings for the
Nashville Female College.
—Mr. George B. Babcock, of Plainfield, N. J., has recently given
$30,000 to Alfred University, and still later $10,000 to Wilson College
at Wilson, Wisconsin.
—The will of the widow of the late ex-President Millard Fillmore leaves
public bequests to the amount of $50,000, among which is one of $20,000
to the University of Rochester.
—Matthew Vassar, following in the good work of his uncle, bequeathed to
the college which bears the family name the handsome sum of $130,000;
to the Vassar Brothers Home for Aged Men, $15,000; and to the Vassar
Brothers Hospital, $85,000. These contributions are to be largely
increased by some residuary legacies.
—The following table shows the increase of endowments of the New
England colleges during the past year: Harvard, $500,000; Yale,
$250,000; Amherst, $75,000; Tufts, $120,000; Smith, $43,000; Dartmouth,
$110,000; University of Vermont, $50,000; Wesleyan, $100,000; Colby,
$30,000; total, $1,278,000.
—_Talladega College, Talladega, Ala., is erecting Stone Hall, by the
gift of Mrs. Stone—the fourth College building. Endowments now are
the great necessity. $25,000 will provide for a Professorship, and
there are four such needing endowment, one of these a Theological
Professorship._
* * * * *
GENERAL NOTES.
AFRICA.
—Forty light-houses of great range have been established in the Red
Sea, to render navigation less dangerous during the night.
—Dr. Schweinfurth has returned to Suez after a month’s exploration
in the Island of Socotora, where he found a very abundant flora. The
forests constitute the principal riches of the isle.
—Following the massacre of the expedition Giulietti, two Italian
vessels have been sent to Assab, to be stationed there during the
inquest that the Egyptian Government has ordered, with a view of
discovering the murderers and punishing them. They will be supported by
an English vessel.
—Dr. Southern, of the London Missionary Society, has been laboring for
more than a year at Urambo, the capital of the noted chief Mirambo. He
has been received with much cordiality, and is able to report results
of his work in terms which are suggestive of a bright future for that
station.
—The Governor of the Gold Coast has placed, as a condition to the
conclusion of a treaty with the King of Achantis, the abolition of
human sacrifices in the states of the latter. The king having demanded
that a representative of the Governor should visit him, M. Maloney, the
Colonial Secretary, has accompanied Prince Buaki, who has returned to
Coomassie.
—The necessary materials for the construction of the railroad of
the Senegal have been transported over the upper river, the King of
Foutah guaranteeing the security of the passage. There is still some
difficulty with the King of Cayor on the subject of the passage of the
road over his territory, but they hope for a satisfactory solution.
—A business house in Hamburg has sent out an agent to attempt the
culture of coffee in the region of the Ogove. A clearing has been
made near Corisco bay, where several thousand coffee trees have
been planted, promising an abundant harvest this year. The American
Presbyterians have a mission some hundreds of miles up the Ogove river,
and the project is on foot to open a route this way to Stanley Pool on
the Congo.
—The Universities Mission to Central Africa, which was first
undertaken in 1860 through the influence of Dr. Livingstone, and
afterwards suspended, has recently entered upon a very hopeful career.
Bishop Steere has now a well equipped staff of thirty-one European
missionaries, of whom seven are ladies. He already understands the
language of the tribes among whom he labors. The present work of the
mission is threefold: First, that on the island of Zanzibar, which is
now of a comprehensive character, including many agencies; secondly,
the work at Magila and its surroundings, some forty miles from
Pangani, on the main land to the north of Zanzibar; and thirdly, the
missions on the main land to the south in the Rovuma district.
—The _Missionary Herald_ for August, the organ of the Baptist
Missionary Society of London, contains an admirable map of the Congo
from its mouth to Stanley Pool. This Society already has a mission at
San Salvador, south of the Congo, between one hundred and two hundred
miles from the coast. It recently sent two of its missionaries, Mr. H.
E. Crudgington and Mr. W. H. Bentley, on an exploring tour to Stanley
Pool for the purpose of fixing a site for a mission at the latter
point. The report of their exploration is given almost entire in the
_Herald_, and constitutes one of the most interesting and profitable
narratives of perseverance and heroism that has been given to the
public in the annals of missions.
—The C. M. S. of London has established a new mission at Uyui, a
collection of villages under the control of a governor appointed by the
Sultan of Zanzibar. It is described as a very large town for Africa.
Mr. Copplestone, one of the early missionaries for Mtesa’s kingdom,
took up his abode at Uyui in 1879, and in June 1880 was joined by Mr.
Litchfield, who came south from Uganda for the benefit of his health.
Mr. Copplestone, who has learned the Unyamnezi language, has built a
school-room where he teaches the natives. He is assisted by one of the
Frere Town African Christians.
* * * * *
THE INDIANS.
—The Baptist Home Missionary Society has established at Tahiequah,
Indian Territory, the “Indian University,” and at present conducts a
school in their mission buildings. The society is out with an appeal
for buildings and endowments.
—The Board of Publication of the Presbyterian Church supports a Book,
Tract and Sunday-school missionary in the Indian Territory. Meetings
are held, families visited, and a large amount of religious literature
is scattered broadcast. The work is reported to be quite encouraging.
—Mr. Townsend, Special Agent of the Indian Department, has organized an
Indian police force among the Pimas. His squad consists of fifteen men
under the command of Captain Maichu, a very competent and trustworthy
Indian. The primary object of the force is to maintain order in a
quiet way, and to educate the tribe in the principles and practices of
civilization.
—Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D. D., to whom the country is so much indebted
for his admirable work on Alaska, is now on a visit to that territory,
superintending the building of two mission chapels, besides attending
to other duties. A recent gift of $1,000 from a lady in Zanesville,
Ohio, in aid of the one at Chileat, is mentioned as an important factor
in the movement.
* * * * *
THE CHINESE.
—The chief official at the custom house near Bangkok, Siam, is a negro.
The position is a very responsible one, and was given to him on account
of his education, honesty and capacity. He is said to discharge his
duties with much efficiency and satisfaction to the government.
—Mr. S. A. Butler, a pure negro, at one time a protégé of Anson
Burlingame, is in charge of one of the most important departments of
the Chinese Steamship Company. He is a natural organizer, and when
employed by the company, systematized the business, brought order out
of chaos, introduced economy, enforced discipline, and rivaled the
Europeans in their steamship service. The result is that after two
years’ work this Chinese Steamship Company, instead of running at a
loss, has earned over $1,000,000 net profit.
—Some gentlemanly Chinese laborers in Chicago gave a banquet to about
two hundred of their American Christian friends, not long since, in the
rooms of the Young Men’s Christian Association. The sons of the Flowery
Kingdom were in full bloom, quiet, radiant and attentive. The tables
were beautifully adorned and sumptuously loaded. Speeches were made by
Rev. James Powell, Franklin Fisk and Ah Sing Get. The entertainment
was enlivened by the singing of a number of “Moody and Sankey” songs,
which lost nothing by the slight Chinese brogue with which they were so
earnestly rendered.
* * * * *
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.
WOODBRIDGE, N. C.—Rev. W. H. Ellis reports a very interesting and
precious revival among the children growing out of the Band of Hope
temperance work.
BEAUFORT, N. C.—One of the colored bishops testified to a brother that
the church at Beaufort, though small, was a power for good that could
not be estimated.
MCINTOSH, LIBERTY CO., GA.—We feel especially thankful for the
beautiful organ presented to us by the Smith American Organ Company;
also for articles of clothing sent by the Ladies’ Benevolent Society,
2d Church, Keene, N. H., and the ladies of Framingham, Mass., to
distribute among the needy ones around us. A blind father, who has a
one-armed wife and seven children to care for, is just leaving us with
his quota.
WOODVILLE, GA.—Pilgrim church was crowded last night to witness the
reception of nine persons to the church. During the revival, still
going on, seven persons professed conversion, and two backsliders
returned home. Next Sunday night a thanksgiving service will be held
and a collection will be taken up to help rebuild three churches that
were blown down by the recent storm.
SAVANNAH, GA.—Special meetings were held in this church in the summer.
Rev. S. N. Brown, temporary supply, was aided by Rev. John McLean, of
Miller’s Station. More than a score of souls were hopefully joined to
Christ.
HELENA, TEXAS.—Rev. M. Thompson, pastor, rejoices over a revival in his
church. Nearly every unconverted person in the community was moved, and
not a few to a final reconciliation.
MEMPHIS, TENN.—Pastor Imes had his people come in upon him by way of
a surprise party, August 30th, to celebrate his wife’s birthday. Many
useful presents, of no small value, were the tokens of love.
* * * * *
THE FREEDMEN.
REV. JOSEPH E. ROY, D. D., FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.
* * * * *
KENTUCKY.
THE WORK AT BEREA.
Nestling in a charming “glade,” overshadowed by the North-western
foot-hills of the mighty Appalachian mountain world, is Berea College.
It is not exclusively a school for teachers, but includes the entire
organization of popular education from an effective primary school
up to a solid university class of twenty-five, with a normal course
for instruction in methods of teaching. Its pupils are of both sexes
and colors, and another year may possibly witness the white, negro
and Indian quietly at work in the same class-rooms, with no rivalry
except the honest pride to excel in good scholarship and manly or
womanly character. But in this, for the South, exceptional feature,
there comes in the most interesting peculiarity of this most “peculiar
institution.” With a few exceptions from the North and the blue-grass
region of Kentucky, the white students come from the great mountain
country that overlooks the college campus. This region, in Kentucky,
includes a country as extensive as the whole State of New Hampshire,
and not unlike it in shape. Here, in a mountain world, divided into
thirty counties, out of hearing of the railroad whistle, in many parts
traversed only on horseback, with no village containing five thousand
and very few one thousand people, dwells a population of nearly two
hundred thousand, more thoroughly isolated from the New America than
the settlers in Oregon or the latest hamlet in Dakota. Living almost
entirely from the land, in the narrowest way, on narrow means, with
few tolerable schools and a good deal of intolerable preaching, with
an almost total destitution of books, newspapers and ordinary means of
cultivation, completely shut off from social contact with the ruling
class of the State, this people is peculiar in many ways.
Out from this interesting region come the majority of the white
students of Berea. Few of them are able even to meet the yearly sum
of seventy-five dollars, for which their education is given them.
Many of them, even the girls, walk from their homes, and come in with
nothing but a stout suit of clothes, a good head and a brave heart,
paying their way as they go by such work as turns up, and the small
wages of mountain school-keeping in the long summer vacations. They
have no leisure to discuss the vexed topic of co-education that worries
grave professors and doubting students at Yale and Harvard; indeed,
the young fellow not unfrequently brings in his sister, cousin and
prospective “annex” to sit down at the same table of knowledge. He is
more anxious to lift his own end of a problem than to quarrel with the
colored boy who is tugging at the other end. Indeed, at Berea one seems
to be in that ideal university where an overpowering desire for study
lifts the entire body of students above a whole class of questions that
even yet convulse politicians and people, schoolmen and churches, South
and North. They live together; the girls, of course, under careful
supervision; study, work, recite, play and worship together; students
and teachers, children and grown men and women, in one family. Probably
no American school of three hundred and seventy students goes through
the year with so little disturbance, is so easily governed, or so
generally absorbed in the work in hand. This year the faculty consists
of thirteen professors and teachers under President E. H. Fairchild,
and three hundred and sixty-nine students, of whom nine are in the
college classical and twenty-five in the literary course, forty-five
in the normal, and the remainder in the preparatory department. The
average age is sixteen. Two hundred and forty-nine are colored and one
hundred and twenty are white; two hundred and six males and one hundred
and sixty-three females.
The instruction is excellent, probably equal in quality to any school
in the State; and the proficiency of the pupils remarkable, considering
their previous estate. The primary school-room contains twenty stout
fellows ranging from eighteen to twenty-five years of age; but it
is not uncommon for one of these boys to go forth as a tolerable
school-master among the colored people after two years’ hard work at
Berea. Indeed, if one were to look for signs of mental power, he need
not go outside the beautiful campus of this school. We positively
never witnessed such progress in learning as is the common talk
among these teachers. These stalwart young men and resolute maidens
from the mountains buckle to their books with a will that knows no
discouragement. They go back to their homes to become the pride of
their friends and the hope of their neighborhood. Nearly every student
is a member of the church and the temperance society, and the carrying
of arms is cause of expulsion. All classes of the Southern people are
good listeners. We never addressed an audience of three hundred people
that put us more decisively on our mettle than the crowd of students
and villagers that did us the favor to crowd the chapel on four
unpleasant nights to listen to our talks on education.
We do not propose to defend Berea against any objector. A school with
such tough Kentucky roots as Fee, Hanson, and their compeers; with a
history so romantic in its heroic past and so startling in its recent
growth; with a foundation on three hundred acres of “sacred soil,” two
hundred thousand dollars worth of excellent buildings, in a situation
unrivaled in beauty; a faculty representing the best culture and
character of the North-west, with the rising ability of the South; and
a population of five hundred friendly people within sound of chapel
bells; can be trusted to plead its own cause against all comers. It
is already commending itself to many of the best people of Kentucky,
receiving students from families of highest respectability in the
neighborhood, and on commencement days the great tabernacle is crammed
with three thousand people, from the humblest to the highest in the
proud old State. Berea is a great American fact, comprehensible only
to a man who has read, pondered and inwardly digested the Sermon on
the Mount and its corollary, the Constitution of the United States. If
no similar college should ever exist, this will live in its own place
in American history, a splendid evidence of the power of a consecrated
education to bind together all sorts and conditions of good women and
earnest men.—_Dr. Mayo in Journal of Education._
* * * * *
SOWING IN TEARS AND REAPING IN JOY—BEREA COLLEGE.
REV. J. A. R. ROGERS.
The rule is that a long time must elapse between the sowing and the
reaping. Abraham’s patience in Canaan for long years seemed destined
to be fruitless in those things which God had promised him; not a
foot of Canaan did he own, and he was still childless; his faith was
tried to the uttermost, and only by a great struggle was he kept from
despair. After centuries, that sowing began to produce a harvest,
not yet but partially reaped. The recent addition of $50,000 to the
endowment of Berea College calls to mind the long, weary days of
struggle and almost despair in its early history. The apparent success
for a time, to be followed by every sort of discouragement, was not
the least of the trials of those whose labors were the occasion for
Berea College. Churches were formed, and many seemed heartily in favor
of the Gospel of Christ, which commands and secures love; and then
persecutions would arise, and such a perfect torrent of public opinion
against the “abolitionists,” that large numbers would succumb to the
adverse influences, and the love of many would wax cold. Again, such
persecutions would arise, that for a time only women were regarded as
safe in attending the preaching services of Mr. Fee and others. After
the school was started in 1858, which culminated in Berea College,
there were still those great alternations of prosperity and apparent
defeat which are so hard to bear. One term, large numbers of students
would come, including the children of slaveholders, and the next, only
those would apply for admission who could endure the reproach of being
called “_nigger lovers_.” Even after the war, when two or three colored
children entered the primary department, there was such a stampede from
every department, that the principal, in sorrow, said to the few that
timidly remained, “Will ye also go away?”
Those years from ’55 to ’66 were years of sowing in great sorrow. The
missionaries of the A. M. A. were very poor; their salaries were $400
per year, and some of that sum must be expended for those still poorer.
They lived in almost constant terror of their lives. If for any cause
they were north of the Ohio River for a few weeks, they breathed such a
free atmosphere that it seemed almost like getting into Heaven. By many
they were regarded with suspicion and contempt. The writer remembers
what cringing of the nerves he often had to endure, in walking the
streets of one of the central towns of Kentucky. People would stare at
him as if he were a hyena let loose. It is not easy to describe what
were the sorrows of those years, the greatest of which was that so many
professed friends fell away in time of danger, and that so many bearing
the name of Christ at those times were ready to deny their faith.
But this sowing has in some respects given way to reaping, even in
the lifetime of those who watered the ground with their tears. Now at
Berea is a college in some respects unlike any other in the land. Here,
three hundred in all, are seen white and colored students in about
equal numbers. Here is a sort of Mecca for the colored people of the
State, and a door of hope for many in the mountain region, who, though
white, have had but few religious and educational privileges. Here is a
college ably manned, with the confidence of the North, and growing in
the regard of the South, sending forth its streams of blessing in every
direction. If the tears of sorrow were many, the tears of joy and
thanksgiving to God have been much more abundant.
* * * * *
TENNESSEE.
MISS ALICE E. CARTER, NASHVILLE.
Among the men of Tennessee, the great and crying need seems to be the
very practical knowledge of some trade; the range of their individual
usefulness is so often limited to gardening, grooming, rock-beating and
shoveling.
The talent for gardening is a dormant one in winter; rock-beating
cannot be followed in the coldest weather, and it is easy to see that
the other ranks may at times be filled to overflowing, and those not
fortunate enough to get in, are out of employment.
What a noble enterprise for someone to found an industrial school for
colored boys, which shall draw in the bright-eyed ragged boys, now
lounging on the street corners or quarreling in the alleys, learning
nothing except evil, daily!
To help a few such boys, though temporarily, I hold in my room,
one evening in the week, a little reception. Good stories, earnest
conversation, plenty of books and papers to look over while here, are
the means put forth to help those who come. When they go away they
carry with them text-cards and old numbers of _St. Nicholas_ from my
very primitive “circulating library.”
My cottage Sunday-school is a very interesting undertaking. Compassion
for the pitiful little street waifs, too small to find their way to
the remote city Sunday-schools, led me to try to make a bright spot in
their day. It was a simple thing to gain permission of a woman, with
four tiny girls, to hold Sunday-school in her cottage, and the simplest
matter to fill the small room with children. To walk through the alley
and say “Come” to any ragged, deformed or dirty little child was all
that was necessary. How well our Lord understood the willingness of the
people of the “highways and hedges!”
Each Sunday the little ones come with ludicrously solemn faces and
decorous manners; and sitting on the beds, or a board between two
chairs, and on the hearth before the fire-place, are as happy as can be.
Not one can read; not one knew the name of Jesus, except one boy whose
father’s oaths made him know it; yet all know and love the story now.
The teaching is necessarily by dictation, and my great wonder is that
the little minds remember so much.
Their singing they do with faces all smiles, and when the moment comes
for distributing the text-cards and child papers full of beautiful
pictures, their joy knows no bounds. These may be loaves and fishes
for which the children come, and yet, like the multitude of old, they
perhaps carry away with them something better.
* * * * *
ALABAMA.
MRS. M. V. CURTIS, SELMA.
Have I ever written for the MISSIONARY? Well, no; but then why not?
since I have something very particular to say to my friends in the
North; and I have neither head nor hand for all the letters I want to
write; for there is the concert for August 30, (proceeds to be put
into the winter’s supply of coal, this being the month when prices are
down); and the “Harvest Home” (a literary entertainment to be given by
our “Young People’s Guild” some time in October), to be arranged for;
also some appropriate music to be prepared for the evening when our two
“political refugees” are to lecture on Arkansas, where they have been
teaching and traveling during the past two years.
Why won’t it be a stroke of policy to let that press away off in
New York do the work for me, for manifolding letters is not easy,
and the inspiration is lost after the first recital? I wonder if my
correspondents will not count this as an individual letter and send me
letters in return.
How I do wish that you all could have been of the number that gathered
in our pretty church a week ago Sabbath night—our pretty church, with
its white walls, its wood-work of rich yellow pine, exquisite with
God’s own graining, and the crimson carpet for the two platforms, the
walnut table, vase and bracket, all the gift of the ladies of the
church.
The night was matchless, and at an early hour a good audience had
gathered (A. M. A. pastors have not always the encouragement of
numbers). We had reached out into the homes through the Sunday-school
children, and the result showed the wisdom of our course.