OCTOBER, 1883.
VOL. XXXVII.
NO. 10.
| Page. | |
| EDITORIAL. | |
| Annual Meeting—Good as Three Weeks Revival | 289 |
| Concert Exercise—Rev. Stephen R. Riggs, D.D. | 290 |
| Our Indian Work | 291 |
| A Visit to the Dakota Mission | 292 |
| The Relations of the Church to the Colored Race | 294 |
| Pamphlet No. 8—A Hymn Book for our Churches | 296 |
| A Life not too Long—Benefactions | 297 |
| General Notes—Africa, Indian, Chinese | 298 |
| A Marauding Party in Africa (cut) | 299 |
| Reflex Influence of A. M. A. | 301 |
| White Top Mountain, Virginia (cut) | 302 |
| THE SOUTH. | |
| Notes of an Educational Tour in Louisiana and Mississippi | 303 |
| A Word from Tillotson Institute | 305 |
| Letter from Florence, Ala. | 306 |
| Letter from McIntosh, Ga.—Items from the Field | 307 |
| THE CHINESE. | |
| Recruits for the South China Mission | 309 |
| BUREAU OF WOMAN’S WORK. | |
| Meeting of Bureau of Woman’s Work—The Paper Mission and What came of it | 310 |
| CHILDREN’S PAGE. | |
| A Talk with the Children | 312 |
| Topsy left Alone (cut) | 313 |
| RECEIPTS | 315 |
| PROPOSED CONSTITUTION | 317 |
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION,
Rooms, 56 Reade Street.
Price 50 Cents a Year, in Advance.
Entered at the Post-Office at New York, N.Y., as second-class matter.
PRESIDENT.
Hon. Wm. B. Washburn, LL.D., Mass.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.
Rev. M. E. Strieby, D.D., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.
TREASURER.
H. W. Hubbard, Esq., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.
AUDITORS.
M. F. Reading. Wm. A. Nash.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
John H. Washburn, Chairman; A. P. Foster, Secretary; Lyman Abbott, Alonzo S. Ball, A. S. Barnes, C. T. Christensen, Franklin Fairbanks, Clinton B. Fisk, S. B. Halliday, Samuel Holmes, Charles A. Hull, Samuel S. Marples, Charles L. Mead, Wm. H. Ward, A. L. Williston
DISTRICT SECRETARIES.
Rev. C. L. Woodworth, D.D., Boston. Rev. G. D. Pike, D.D., New York.
Rev. James Powell, Chicago.
COMMUNICATIONS
relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the Corresponding Secretary; those relating to the collecting fields, to the District Secretaries; letters for the Editor of the “American Missionary,” to Rev. G. D. Pike, D.D., at the New York Office; letters for the Bureau of Woman’s Work, to Miss D. E. Emerson, at the New York Office.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 112 West Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.
FORM OF A BEQUEST.
“I bequeath to my executor (or executors) the sum of —— dollars, in trust, to pay the same in —— days after my decease to the person who, when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer of the ‘American Missionary Association,’ of New York City, to be applied, under the direction of the Executive Committee of the Association, to its charitable uses and purposes.” The Will should be attested by three witnesses.
VELVETEEN.
GODEY’S
LADY’S BOOK
SAYS:
“The Arcadia Velveteen. It is ... much sought after for jackets and trimmed suits for children’s costumes and ladies’ dinner dresses. Its cost is also an element in its success, as it can be purchased at the same price as ordinary brands.”
FOR CHILDREN’S COSTUMES,
THERE IS NOTHING IN THE MARKET THAT CAN COMPARE WITH THE
ARCADIA.
The advantages claimed for this Velveteen are not few. First, the color, which is positive and lustrous in all shades. The appearance is certainly very handsome and not easily distinguished from velvet; it is thinner and finer in texture, and consequently less heavy than ordinary velveteen, and takes the needle more easily than any other make, and finally it will outwear any other material of equal finish and dress.
For the protection of the consumer we stamp every yard.
Be sure and look on the back of goods, and see you find this stamp.
THE
BAZAR
SAYS:
“The Arcadia Velveteen is an improvement upon ordinary velveteen that is sure to be thoroughly appreciated, not only during the coming winter, but for many seasons.”
THE
American Missionary.
Preparations for our forthcoming Annual Meeting, to convene in the Central Church, Brooklyn, October 30, are progressing favorably. The indications are that we shall have one of the most important meetings ever held by this Association. We hope to be able to announce through the religious press and otherwise, in good season, such particulars relating to speakers and accommodations as will be of interest to our readers. For the present we refer them to the announcement on the 4th page cover of this Missionary.
The value of the annual meetings of our great missionary societies is not measured chiefly by the amount of business transacted, important and necessary as that is. The information imparted might be gathered otherwise, but the full benefit to mind and heart can only be had by participating in the devotions, the instructions in righteousness, and, indeed, the arousements that are found among the vast throng that assemble on these occasions. Dr. Withrow said, at the Saratoga meeting of the Home Missionary Society: “These three days are worth as much as three weeks revival in giving a spiritual uplift to the churches.” We believe this to be no extravagant assertion. Great religious gatherings of some sort have been common from time immemorial. These have varied according to the developments of the age.
The problem of the church to-day is the world’s conversion. All other questions are but side issues. The wonderful developments of our modern civilization have been preparatory. They have made it possible for the church to make rapid strides in hastening the triumphs of the Redeemer’s kingdom. The facilities are ready. Young men and women with trained faculties for the work are being graduated from our schools of learning[290] by the thousands. Nothing is lacking but the disposition—the mind to work. The chief value of these meetings is seen in their potency to impart this disposition.
It is not many years since there was but one truly great and grand distinctively missionary annual meeting in our land—the meeting of the American Board. Then there came well up to the front the annual meetings of the American Missionary Association, and latest, the meeting of the Home Missionary Society, which, in point of attendance from abroad, possibly, outnumbered any one ever held by the Congregational brethren. Other denominations are progressing in this direction. There is a wonderfully encouraging development all along the line. The morning cometh; they who turn their thoughts to our great missionary enterprises are looking toward it, and not toward yesterday morning, as men blinded by misbelief continually look.
We call the attention of our readers to the fact that two of these great annual meetings convene in October, and we trust that but few obstacles will be deemed so weighty as to interfere with their attendance.
The demand for Our Temperance Concert Exercise, issued in the May Missionary, and also in circular form, has been steady and encouraging. It was recently used in the First Church, Greenwich, Conn., with gratifying success. Some features were introduced by the pastor, Rev. Mr. Kellogg, not contemplated in the preparation of the exercise. Selections were made from the communications on temperance published in the same number of the Missionary, and read by different individuals. Words were adapted to Jubilee Songs, giving a pleasing variety, and recitations introduced in addition to, and in place of, those given in the paper. We again call the attention of our friends to this Concert Exercise, with reference to its use.
Rev. Stephen R. Riggs, D.D., LL. D., missionary to the American Indians for forty years, died at the age of 71, at Beloit, Wis., in August. Like Livingstone, in early life, he was desirous of becoming a missionary to China, but yielded to what he considered the overrulings of Providence, and in 1837, with his wife, went into the far Northwest among the Sioux. He reduced their language to writing, compiled a dictionary and translated the Holy Scriptures and hymns. Ten well-ordered churches and many out-stations were established in the region of his operations, reaching beyond the British line.
As an author, he did good service. His book, “Mary and I—Forty Years with the Sioux,” has magnified the significance of Indian missions. Another book, “Gospel Among the Dakotas,” portrays vividly scenes of pioneer life. His memorial of Dr. Williamson is a tribute worthy of the[291] man and his successful efforts in behalf of the Indians. Four of his children have labored among the Sioux, and one of his daughters has entered upon work across the Pacific. Rev. Alfred L. Riggs, principal of our school at Santee, and Thomas L. Riggs, of Fort Sally, and Mrs. Martha Riggs Morris, at the Sisseton agency, are carrying on the work so happily inaugurated by their father. His life was one of incessant missionary toil, in which for years he had been aided by his children, and to whom he bequeathed its continuance, and in the midst of whom he passed from earth to his reward on high.
Never was there a more favorable time for enlargement on our part. The new impulse to the general cause by General Grant’s peace policy, augmented by the success of the schools at Hampton and Carlisle, will be still more accelerated by the schools soon to be completed by the Government at Chilloco, Indian Territory; Lawrence, Kansas; and Genoa, Neb. When these are finished and filled, the Indian schools throughout the country will accommodate 10,250 pupils of the 40,000 school population of the Indians at the present time. Sec. Teller may be too sanguine in the expectation that with adequate means the Indian problem will not be heard of in the next generation, but never before could such a prediction come so near being true. At all events, the nation and the Government are fully aroused, and it becomes the American Missionary Association to bestir itself to do its part. This Association has now the responsibility of doing the Indian work for the Congregational churches, the American Board having transferred to it the whole of its Indian missions. A delegation of the Executive Committee of the Association, consisting of Rev. W. H. Ward, D.D., Rev. Addison P. Foster, Charles L. Mead, Esq., and the Secretary, made recently a thorough inspection of all the schools and missions with very favorable impressions, a report of which follows.
Enlargement is imperatively needed in three directions, in addition to the $20,000 for the current work:
1. At the old and well-established mission at the Santee Agency, Nebraska, Rev. A. L. Riggs thus details the immediate wants of that station: additional industrial accommodations; extension of carpenter shop, $250; blacksmith shop, with five forges, $750; outfit of tools for the same, $150; general dining hall for 200 boarders, with laundry rooms, $5,000; outfit for the same, including heating arrangements, kitchen ranges, laundry apparatus, $1,500; making in all $7,650. Boarding-school house for girls at Oahe, Fort Sully, $2,500.
2. New mission stations and schools among the Indians now unsupplied. Three station buildings for native teachers on the Cheyenne[292] River, $1,000; missionary’s house at Cherry Creek, Cheyenne River, $1,500; mission among the Crows, $2,000.
We invite the friends of Indian progress to select from the items above given in both fields of enlargement the specific object for completing which they will aid us in whole or in part.
3. An agricultural, mechanical and Normal School, to be founded perhaps somewhere in Peoria Bottom, a new Hampton located on the border, with the white man’s civilization on one hand and the Indian reservations close on the other. This, though it is an urgent want and essential to the filling out of our general plan, must await the careful search for a fitting location and the means to give it a suitable inauguration.
Where shall the work be done for the Indian? One successful teacher in Indian schools says that the children should all be brought East, and trained amid the white man’s civilization; another gentleman, long connected with a Mission Board, holds that the education should be given wholly among the tribes, so that the pupils would be trained amid their people and not away from sympathy with them. We believe both methods are necessary. The youth trained at home elevates his people as he rises, and is himself strengthened and helped by his friends who come from the East with the higher touch of the white man’s culture. Our schools and missions, those now in progress and the one proposed, afford the advantages of both plans. We shall aim to combine the industrial, normal and religious training so as to fit the pupils, male and female, for the practical duties of life in the field, the shop and the home, in the school room, in the pulpit and the church.
We have undertaken much. The hour has come for it, and we know that the friends of the Indian will not suffer us to fail for want of means.
REV. ADDISON P. FOSTER.
The transfer by the American Board of its Missions among the Dakota Indians to the American Missionary Association made it desirable that some of the officers of the Association should acquaint themselves personally with the work. Accordingly, Rev. M. E. Strieby, D.D., Secretary of the Association, and Rev. Wm. Hayes Ward, D.D., of the Independent, C. L. Mead, Esq., and your correspondent, all members of the Executive Committee, met by appointment at the Santee Agency. Three of the party then visited the mission station at Oahe, D.T., connected with the Cheyenne Agency, where the party divided, Dr. Strieby returning by way of the Sisseton Agency, Dr. Ward and Mr. Foster, under the leadership of Rev. Thomas L. Riggs, the efficient missionary, entering the great Sioux Reservation and traveling in an open wagon between three and four hundred miles, mostly in Indian country. This last-named expedition had[293] not a little of excitement and adventure. Camping out at night, fording swollen streams, sleeping in an Indian wigwam, driving across trackless prairies by the aid of a compass, running the divides, killing a rattlesnake, preaching to the wild Indians through an interpreter, spending days in Indian villages, where hideous heathen mummeries were in full view, visiting the Indians’ strange earth-built lodges, and their offensive scaffold burying grounds, we passed through a series of experiences not soon to be forgotten.
The American Missionary Association has become possessor of three considerable mission stations among the Indians, in or near Dakota Territory. At the Santee Agency, which is just across the Missouri in Nebraska, about thirty miles up the river from Yankton, is a large and very successful school, a church of Indians with an Indian pastor, and one out-station with an immediate prospect of a second. This school and mission work are under the general superintendence of Rev. Alfred L. Riggs. The children in the school come not only from the Santees on the Agency, but from long distances, from the Sisseton Agency, Fort Berthold and Montana. We were greatly pleased with the intelligence, the neatness and Christian spirit of these students. They will certainly compare favorably in every way with the bright young Indians we have seen at Hampton.
Oahe is the centre of a wide evangelistic work, which has been organized and is carried on with great energy and success by Rev. Thomas L. Riggs. At Oahe itself is a mission home, a neat chapel, also used as a school-house, and three miles away, a second school-house. A native church is organized here, ministered to most acceptably by Yellow Hawk, an exemplary and industrious Indian. We were specially interested in a prayer meeting of Indian women, which was fully attended and heartily sustained. Oahe is on the east side of the Missouri, where a considerable number of Indians have given up their tribal relations, taken up land in severalty, and become voting citizens of the United States. Immediately across the river is the Sioux Reservation. This is greatly cut up by sizable streams which flow down from the Black Hills. On every stream are extensive and very fertile bottom-lands. Here the Indians are located, living mostly in tents, but some in log houses. They are chiefly wild Indians, only a few years since being on the war-path, mainly different sections of Sitting Bull’s band. They still wear blankets, and are gaudy in bead-work, and paint and feathers. But they are now in wholesome fear of the government and, better still, are anxious to be as white men. Mr. Riggs has established four stations in Indian villages on the Cheyenne River, and a fifth on the Grand River. At three of these stations there is preaching by native pastors, Solomon Martun (or Bear’s Ear), Isaac Renville and Edward Phelps, by name; at the other places are schools. The mission at Ft. Berthold is among the Rees, Mandans and Gros Ventres.[294] These three small tribes long since combined in one village for protection against their ancient foes, the Sioux. Rev. C. L. Hall is the missionary here. A mission home and a chapel are the buildings, both in excellent condition. The work at this mission is slow in developing results, not from any lack of faithfulness or adaptation on the part of the missionaries, for their consecration and fitness are marked, but because these Indians by their tribal divisions are jealous of one another, and by their contact in the past with white men of bad character are corrupt and hard to reach. Mr. Hall has an out-station in his care at Devil’s Lake, where Rev. David Hopkins, a Sisseton Indian, is laboring.
The Advance.
BY REV. LEWIS GROUT.
Rev. Dr. J. L. Tucker’s speech on the above subject before the Episcopal Church Congress, in Richmond, last October, has had a very emphatic indorsement from professional and other men in the South, and yet not without severe criticism from some of the colored people, especially in Jackson, Miss., the home of Dr. Tucker, where he made the speech. It seems that Dr. Tucker is a man of Northern birth, that he was a soldier in the Confederate army, after which he became a planter, then a rector, and that he has had much experience and interest in the education of the colored race, as planter, teacher and minister. And yet, with all his acquaintance with that race, there are several important points pertaining to their history, character and welfare, in which he is sadly mistaken.
The first mistake of his that I will notice has respect to the character of the native African. In Africa, he says, “human life has no sacredness, and men, women and children are slain as beasts are, and even more carelessly, as less valuable. Human suffering excites no pity, and blood flows like water.” “That what we call morality, whether in the relations of the sexes, or in the sense of truthfulness, or in the sense of honesty, has no lodgment whatever in the native African’s breast;” and that they have “no words” for gratitude, generosity, industry, truthfulness, honesty, modesty, gentleness and virtue, because they have none of these ideas. Now all this, and much more of the same sort, is the baldest of hyperbole, far from the truth. During my fifteen years of labor in that land, I made the study of African character and language a specialty; and I believe that words representing the ideas above named may be found in every language and dialect on the continent. As to humanity and all kindred virtues, they are abreast, if not ahead, of any and every other people that have not had the gospel. For honesty and morality, under pure native rule, in many respects, the Zulus and cognate tribes would put to shame the people in every part of this land of ours. I have no reason[295] to believe that I ever lost a sixpence worth of anything, through their stealing, in all those fifteen years of my stay among them; and as to the relations of the sexes, I believe there are ten illegitimate births here in New England to-day, where there was ever one in Zululand previous to the incoming of the Dutch and English. To be sure, all African tribes may not be abreast of what the Zulus used to be, in these things. And yet Rev. Dr. Crummell, for many years a college professor and rector of a parish in Liberia, says: “All along the west coast of Africa the family tie and the marriage bond are as strong as among any primitive people.” “Their maidenly virtue, the instinct to chastity, is a marvel.”
2. Dr. Tucker says the colored people of the South are grossly immoral. If he had made a very deserved exception of the many who have been brought under the restraints of the gospel by good mission work among them, within a few years, his charge would have been more just. But whence came the great excess in vice which he avers? Could anything else have been expected from long generations of the peculiar training their bondage gave them? Under the treatment they had, as Dr. Tucker says, “they quickly learned to conceal,” “learned lying, stealing and adultery.” By a somewhat minute detail, he shows how the familiarity and “the intrigues which the white men” had with the black women wrought in them, as he says, “the utter destruction of the very sense of virtue.”
3. Dr. Tucker says nothing of importance has been accomplished by Northern benevolence for the colored people, except to make them worse—to “build strongholds for the devil in disguise,” to “build up the kingdom of evil.” Now all this, in which his speech abounds, I repudiate as false and slanderous. In the course of forty years I have seen a good deal of mission work, of one kind and another, at home and abroad, and under the auspices of almost every society in the world. I have also seen the work of the American Missionary Association among the Freedmen; and, as the result of all, I am free to say, I believe Dr. Tucker may go the world over, time through, ransack all history, and not be able to point to a time or place where mission work and money have done more, in proportion to the means employed, than has been done by this Association among the colored people since their emancipation, two decades since.
4. Dr. Tucker alleges that Northern missionaries are incompetent, “don’t know what they are about,” or “how to reach the colored people,” or “how to deal with them,” “barely know a Negro when they see him.” Well, I am told there are some white people in the South, who, themselves “don’t know a Negro when they see him,” in some cases only as they trace his genealogy and find out who his mother was. But how should Dr. Tucker, himself, be able to know all about this matter, how to reach the colored people, how to lift them up, how to heal them, better than other men of Northern birth?
5. The counterpart of the above charge is, that the Southern whites are the “only ones” who know how to do good mission work for the colored race, and that we of the North must put all our money into their “control.” But what have they ever done to prove such special fitness to inspire the Negro with confidence in their teaching and treatment, to prove their own faith in his capacity for a high order of improvement, to encourage us to put “every dollar” of our mission money into their hands? Why, after they had had the black man in their own special teaching and treatment for more than two centuries, utterly dissevered from pagan Africa, all plastic, docile and confined, as he was, to their exclusive training, has his original heathenism been so little improved as to leave the Negro no better than Dr. Tucker represents him to be. And even now, what great effort have they made for his improvement in the two decades that have passed since his emancipation?
Another mistake I find in Dr. Tucker’s speech, the greatest and most fatal of all, and the last I will notice, is his color line “plan” for all educational and religious work in the South—a school and a church on this side of the street for the whites, a school and a church on that side for the blacks—a double system, with, as he says, “double the expense.” But neither a system such as that, nor the spirit that desires or prompts it, will have any place on earth when the gospel of Christ gets a proper ascendency in the hearts and lives of men.
We have issued Pamphlet No. 8, on The Reflex Influence of the Work of the American Missionary Association, an address delivered in Tremont Temple by Rev. S. L. Blake, D.D., Fitchburg, Mass., a quotation from which will be found elsewhere. Copies of this Pamphlet will be supplied gratuitously on application, to those wishing them for distribution.
It is the “Manual of Praise,” published by E. J. Goodrich, Oberlin, Ohio, compiled by the lamented Rev. Dr. Hiram Mead and J. B. Rice. It has the cream of our hymnology, the worshipful, endeared hymns to the number of six hundred. It has the wearing pieces of Moody & Sankey. Compiled not by an ambitious amateur in musical composition, it does not seek to force upon the churches a great batch of new and unproven tunes. It was evidently put together for practical purposes, and is small enough to go into a side or hip pocket, a “multum in parvo.” It is cheap, coming by the dozen, for introduction, so as not to cost over sixty cents a copy. It is suited to all occasions. It has a logical arrangement, which will be of constant advantage in the use of it, though those who have it may not know just how the logic comes in, even as the perfection of the art of elocution is to conceal the art. Where it has been used in[297] our institutions and schools, it has been much approved. It is certainly a desideratum for our new churches in the South and in the West.
One of our regular contributors, in transmitting his donation to our treasury, accompanies his gift with the following cheering words: “Through the goodness, mercy and truth which has not been taken away from one highly undeserving, I am again permitted the privilege of herewith inclosing a draft to your order for the general use of the A. M. A., for $1,000. Whether now in my eightieth year, I shall be permitted to repeat the pleasant offerings, I know not. Shall I note the fact that coming from no large store, I cannot see that they diminish it?”
Mr. Robert L. Stuart has pledged $150,000 to Princeton College.
Lincoln University is to receive $10,000 from the estate of the late David B. Small, of York, Pa.
Gen. A. G. P. Dodge has contributed $3,000 to be used in building an academy at Jackson, Ky.
The late William Ward of Brixton Hill left $100,000 to the Corporation of London for the establishment and maintenance of a high school for girls.
Mr. C. F. McCay, formerly a professor in the University of Georgia, has given that institution $20,000 in Georgia Railroad 6-per-cent bonds.
Sarah A. and Emily B. Sumner, of Albany, N.Y., have given $2,500 each for an endowment fund for Rutgers College.
The Northwestern University at Evanston has received $25,000 from ex-Gov. Evans of Colorado.
Ex President Wright, of the Northern Pacific Railroad, has given $100,000 for the establishment of a boys’ and girls’ college at Tacoma, W.T.
Carlton College, Northfield, Minn., has recently received $12,000 from Edward H. Williams, Esq., of Philadelphia, for Williams Hall, built in memory of his only son.
Mrs. Lucy E. Tuttle, of Guilford, Conn., has given $10,000 to the Olivet College Library Fund as a memorial of her gifted son, Willie Sage Tuttle.
Buchtel College, Akron, Ohio, has received $25,000 from Mrs. Lydia Messenger, making $56,000 in all donated by her for the benefit of the institution.
Christian intelligence is the most potent agency for obliterating the barbarism of caste prejudice; and the endowment of schools for those who suffer from it, the most safe and certain means for its overthrow.
—The French Romanists have abandoned the country of Uganda.
—It is reported that King Leopold II. of Belgium, with no selfish or personal object, with no view of gaining territory or commercial profits, and with no other motive than the highest and purest philanthropy, is spending $400,000 a year from his own private purse for the benefit of Africa.
—A hydrographical expedition has been made to the coast of the Maroc by Capt. Kerhallet and Mr. Dumoulin.
—The project relative to placing a submarine telegraphic cable between the Island of Teneriffe and St. Louis on the Senegal has been voted by the French Chamber.
—The Italian mission directed by Bianchi has safely arrived at Samera, where they found the King of Abyssinia, to whom they gave presents from the King of Italy.
Monseigneur Lasserre, coadjutor of the Apostolic Vicar of the Gauls, has obtained from Menelik the authorization to establish himself among the Ittous Gauls, who have submitted to him.
—Under the title of the French Factories of the Persian Gulf and of Eastern Africa, a society has been formed for French oriental commerce, of importation and exportation.
—The native chief Ghowe having committed incursions upon the territory of Sherbro near Sierra Leone, Major Talbot has burned the village of Kwatamaha, massacred the inhabitants of Kahun and pillaged and burnt Jalliah.
—Some friends of the French mission at the Senegal have brought to France three young negroes, who will be raised in the agricultural colony of Sainte Foy, and prepared to return to St. Louis as shoemakers, tailors, cooks, perhaps even teachers and evangelists.
—Upon the demand of many chiefs of the Slave Coast, a protectorate of France has been established upon the territories of Petit-Popo, Grand-Popo and Porto-Seguro between the English possessions of the Gold Coast and Whydah, beyond which is the territory of Porto-Novo upon which the French protectorate is already recognized.
—Major Machado, who has been at Lisbon to confer with the Portuguese government on the subject of the railroad from Delagoa Bay to Pretoria, has started for the Transvaal to complete the track of the section from Incomati to Pretoria. A society has been founded at Lisbon to ask the concession of this line.
—The Spirit of Missions urges the establishment of a Protestant Episcopal Mission in Alaska, and the sending out of a Bishop from the United States with a score of faithful priests and deacons to second his efforts.
—A missionary laboring in the Indian Territory reports to the Sunday-school of the Collegiate Church, New York, that a Sunday-school which he organized eight years ago has grown to be a church of seventy members. In one of the Indian families he found a grand piano.
—Some years ago the pride of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe schools in the Indian Territory, was their school herd of several hundred cattle, which had been accumulated through a number of years’ effort, without material expense to the government. This furnished employment and prospective income for the school boys. At its most successful period it was destroyed by an order from the Department at Washington, directing that the cattle be distributed among the Indians. After being without the herd for several years the Department has now started a new one, by purchasing 600 cows and heifers and placing them again under the care of the Indian school boys.
—Not one in five hundred of the women of Shantung can read.
—There are twenty self-supporting Protestant churches in China, and nearly 400 which are partially so.
—A Chinaman in a town called New-Bendigo, in Australia, where there is a large Chinese colony, was asked recently what practical good had been accomplished by the missionaries. He answered as follows: Before, no one understood God’s Word. Good many work Sunday all same as week day. Now, no work done on Sunday at New-Bendigo by my countrymen. Perhaps chop little wood for house, or wash him clothes; but no go work. No matter poor, every one no work on Sunday. Before, all worship idols. Now, many come to church; he no worship idols. When Lee Wah begin to read, good many had idols in house; thirty more. Myself had one. Now, only ten houses and stores in New-Bendigo with idols in them. Before, at old township, good many Chinese steal fowls, everything. Now, no more steal; every one work; go get job. Before, every night, Chinaman learn to practice fight. I tell him too stupid fellow. You learn God’s Word you no want to fight. Now, no more learn to fight. Learn God’s Word. Before people no care for God’s Word; he no know or care. Now, good many people like read God’s Word. Before, too much time, nothing to do. Now, many say I learn to read God’s Word. Now, no more waste time. I like to read. Before, good many make fun God’s Word; laugh. Papers were put upon outside of store, make laugh at Christian. Papers were put up on door of baptized men’s house. Now, heathen men no more make fun; strong man’s hands tied up. Himself like it now. Very quiet now.
FROM ADDRESS BY REV. S. L. BLAKE, D.D.
The direct increase to the wealth of the country, in diminishing the number of mere consumers, and increasing the number of actual producers and property-holders, puts the business world largely in debt to this society.
A few figures will help your understanding of the case. In twenty-one years this society has spent $5,543,636.03—a yearly average of $263,772.19. In seventeen years, from 1863 to 1880, from not owning a single dollar’s worth of property of any sort available for taxation, these people have come to hold property taxed for $100,000,000, as appears from Southern tax-bills, which show no respect of color—an average rate of increase from nothing, of $5,882,352.94 a year. This is a yearly increase greater than the whole amount spent by this society. That is, this society has spent $1, and these people, from absolute pauperism, have come into possession of over $21 of taxable property. These facts answer the question whether the colored man can take care of himself, and show that the labors of this society have a cash value which can easily be computed.
There is still another phase of the cash value of the labors of this society, as related to the productive wealth of the country. Here this society touches and increases our material prosperity. I refer to a more equable distribution of ownership in the soil. Surely no one can deny that to change five or six millions of people from paupers to property-holders, produces a very material effect upon the prosperity of the State.
I believe that it is a settled canon of political economy that a nation’s wealth is in its soil. Where there are but few land-owners, and the tillers of the soil are tenants, wealth must be in the hands of the few, and comparative if not absolute poverty in the hands of the many. To this state of things belong social classes, as widely separated from each other as continents. It goes without saying that landed monopoly and general prosperity of the people do not go together. I am no advocate of communism; but I take the ground, and I believe it can be held, that the same amount of property, somewhat evenly distributed among the people of a country, adds more to its actual productive wealth and material prosperity, than the same amount of money would do, held in the hands of a few, who constitute an aristocracy of wealth and of blood. Of course, in every state, some men must be vastly more wealthy than others. But a comfortable competence in one’s hands makes him entirely independent of his more wealthy neighbor.
It is among the proofs of the increasing material prosperity of this country, that the average size of farms has decreased from 199 acres in 1860 to 134 acres in 1880; and that the amount of capital invested in farms exceeds the money invested in railroads, and in manufacturing, including supplies, by over $2,000,000,000. Gradually this vast preponderance of wealth is being more equably distributed among the people. The plantation system, previous to the war, gives way to the small farm, tilled and owned in many cases by the former slaves. Take a single case. Liberty County, Georgia, in 1860, was mostly taken up by large plantations. There were but 48 farms, “of from three acres to one hundred acres each.” In 1880 the county was almost entirely owned by colored people, and there were 1,500 farms. This is an illustration of the yielding of landed monopoly and aristocracy to popular ownership in the soil, and to a more general and evenly diffused prosperity. The average size of farms in fifteen slave States has been reduced from over 368 acres in 1860 to a trifle over 149 acres in 1880, over 50 per cent. If you precipitate upon the population of a country 1,000,000 citizens, who may become land-holders, you have struck a heavy blow at landed monopoly, and taken a long stride toward increase of material prosperity.
Let me give you two or three further facts. In 1878 the freedmen of Prince Edward County, Virginia, owned 2,305 acres of land, an increase in eight years of 1,847 acres. In the county of Rockbridge, Virginia, two thousand blacks were assessed for $50,000 worth of real estate. In 1876 the colored people of Georgia owned land valued at $1,234,104, and other property to swell the total to $6,134,829. In the single State of Georgia these people, from not owning a dollar, have come to possess property greater in value than the entire sum spent by this Association in 21 years. Who says that this alabaster box of ointment has been wasted?
Material prosperity indicates a certain degree of intelligence. The ignorant are not the wealthy nations of the globe. The work of this Association in bringing these people up to a degree of intelligence somewhat commensurate with their opportunities, and in lifting them to a level of citizenship co-ordinate with the welfare and prosperity of the State, has directly aided in this increase of the material forces of the nation’s welfare. For if the actual amount of property were not increased, yet the prospective wealth of the nation must be by converting 6,000,000 illiterate paupers into educated, independent property-holders.
I find this in the last issue of the American Missionary, which supports my position with high authority: “It has been estimated at Washington that the annual profit to the country by the conversion of illiterate into educated labor cannot be less than $400,000,000.” This work has been done by this Association.
Money given to the endowment of its institutions at the South would yield a hundred fold in half a generation.
Rev. Joseph E. Roy, D.D., Field Superintendent.
Prof. Albert Salisbury, Superintendent of Education.
PRES. W. S. ALEXANDER, D.D.
An experiment in the form of a brief educational campaign in Louisiana and Mississippi has been attended with the most gratifying results, and has been to those identified with it a revelation of what may be accomplished in the same direction. Hitherto in our educational work in Louisiana we have depended, so far as the patronage of the country parishes was concerned, upon the good reports of the students, and the dawning conception, in the minds of those living remote from the city, of the necessity of an education. It occurred to Prof. Hitchcock and myself, as we were likely to be detained in New Orleans the greater part of the summer, that we could in no way better serve the interests of Straight University than by presenting the facts of education directly to the people, and pleading its claims wherever there was “an open door.” We not only found doors wide open, but were greeted from many parishes with the Macedonian cry, “Come over and help us.” Our University was represented in the most important centers, either by our graduates or those still upon our roll. They had borne to their homes a grateful sense of good received at the school, and entered enthusiastically into the matter of the meetings. They were our avant-couriers, and most faithfully did they spread the tidings of our coming.
In the space of a single article we can do little more than summarize, but we trust our enforced conciseness will not despoil the narrative of its interest or value. The first important point made was
The meeting on July 5 at the Capital of the State had been well advertised, and was largely attended. The A. M. E. Church (Rev. Mr. Jackson, pastor) was well filled. The majority of the audience were young men, just the class we desired to reach. We had not only a respectful, but an interested hearing. Mr. A. H. Colwell, a talented graduate of Straight, who fills an important position as teacher at Baton Rouge, presided at the organ, and at the conclusion of the meeting made a neat address, moving a resolution of thanks to the speakers. Rev. Mr. Jackson spoke with feeling and intelligent appreciation of the demands of education. The ablest white lawyer in Baton Rouge made a rousing speech, commending heartily the objects of the meeting.
The meeting at this point, July 9th, presents many facts worthy of record. Our young men, Reynolds and Temple, graduates of the present year, had been untiring in their efforts to make the meeting a success. Every newspaper in Vicksburg had noticed it editorially. Every colored pulpit had twice and thrice advertised it, and urged the people to attend. Influential white people had been invited, especially members of the School Board. The Court-House had been applied for, and freely granted by the City Council for the purposes of the meeting. On the day previous (Sunday) it was my privilege to preach in two of the most important colored churches of the city, while Prof. Hitchcock did good work in the Sunday-Schools. On Sabbath evening I preached in the A. M. E. Church (Rev. Mr. Carolina,[304] pastor) to an audience of 800 people. It was a rare privilege, and great was the joy of preaching on the blessed religion of the Lord Jesus to so many people, and all eager and reverent in their attention. On Monday night the Court-House an imposing building situated on “the heights,” overlooking the city, and the first object that attracts attention as the boat enters the harbor, witnessed the gathering of an eager and crowded assembly of men and women, roused to no common degree of enthusiasm by the simple announcement of an “educational meeting.”
The Court-Room, with the wide halls approaching it and the deep window recesses, was not large enough to accommodate the hundreds who flocked to it. It was estimated that 800 entered and as many more failed to get in. An organ had been brought from one of the churches, a fine choir had been gathered, and very choice music was rendered. The leading colored clergymen of the city were present. The addresses which were made were plain matter-of-fact statements of the nature and demands of education, the widespread illiteracy of the colored people, the opportunity offered them of improving their condition mentally, socially, materially and morally, and the utter impossibility of their ever reaching a higher place in any department of growth without the guiding and helping hand of education. Great plainness of speech was used, and was not only tolerated but approved by the audience.
Rev. C. K. Marshall, D.D., the author of the vigorous and able pamphlet entitled “The Colored Race Weighed in the Balance,” a gentleman of great influence in Mississippi, kindly called upon us at the hotel, and not only was present at the meeting, but made an eloquent and telling address, replete with good points. He has always been a friend of the colored race, and they do not forget it now. Rev. Dr. Woodworth, of the M. E. Church South, and Hon. Mr. Chamberlin. President of the School Board, were also present, and spoke kindly words of approval of the objects of the meeting. The leading paper of Vicksburg devoted a column and a half to a favorable account of the proceedings. An old colored man, whom I saw violently gesticulating as I was going down Court-House Hill, said, “That meeting was worth one million dollars to our people.” God grant it may be so.
The crowning meeting of the campaign was in the town of Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville, on Saturday night, July 28th.
Hon. T. T. Allain, one of the most enterprising colored men in the South, and one of the most consistent friends of education, took the meeting in hand at the start, and spared neither time nor money to bring it to the notice of the whole people. This meeting, in all its appointments, was so unusual that I shall be pardoned if I describe it quite minutely. We were met by a committee of reception at the depot, and escorted to the hotel. One hour in advance of the meeting, a large cannon, planted in the court-house yard, made a tremendous salute, causing the very village to tremble. Peal after peal went forth, each seeming louder than the last. Torches were lighted and planted thickly in the court-yard, which, by their glare and smoke, gave a weird look to the hundreds of dusky faces gathering around them. A large brass band, with a full complement of pieces, added to the novelty and effectiveness of the scene.
Think of it, dear friends! This was not a political meeting. It was not a barbecue. It was simply a meeting called in the interests of education among the colored people of Southern Louisiana, which has always been regarded a “pretty dark strip of woods.” Well, now for the meeting itself! Mr. Allain gracefully[305] and ably presided, and made a speech which did credit to his head and heart. For two hours that densely packed assembly listened to Prof. Hitchcock and myself with unflagging interest, manifested by frequent applause. The Court-House and court-yard were filled, and our audience without and within the building gave us a respectful and appreciative hearing. Plaquemine has been called the “banner” town. We certainly have no desire to dispute her claim to the honorable distinction, for the treatment we received there was “royal.”
The meeting at Donaldsonville, July 12th, was a union of the Baptist and Methodist congregations, and will result, we trust, in the awakening of a new interest. I should be glad to speak particularly, had I not reached the limit of my space, of meetings held by Prof. Hitchcock at West Baton Rouge, St. Sophie, New Texas and Beauregour, and visits to Monticello, Darrowville, and Point a la Hache, where many of the families and homes of the students were seen. Everywhere he was awarded a warm welcome. People rallied to the meetings, sometimes from a distance of 12 miles. Genuine enthusiasm was aroused, and the tide of public sentiment has been turned, we believe, more strongly toward the “School-House,” and that was our only object. The “door of opportunity” is fairly open. Ought we not to enter it and tell the entire people the glad story of education?
PRES. W. E. BROOKS, AUSTIN, TEXAS.
It is due the many donors and friends of Tillotson that a brief report of the work of the past year be made. It is a pleasure to do this, both because due and because of the hopeful prosperity which has attended the institution.
The land upon which to place the new dormitory and the buildings for the mechanical department, when funds shall be secured, has been bought at a cost of $5,000—$1,250 of which was from the Hon. J. H. Raymond, of Austin. Some progress has also been made in obtaining subscriptions for the new hall, which is imperatively needed to meet the pressing demands which are made upon us from all parts of the State. How urgent this call is may be inferred from the fact that on the 2d day of last October, one day before the opening of the school, Allen Hall was full to repletion, and the work of turning away began, and continued throughout the year, so that it is safe to say that for every one received one was refused. We had one hundred in our boarding department during the year. This necessitated placing four students in the larger rooms, and three in nearly every other—too many by far, but there seemed to be no other way. They begged to be received, while the two or three already in the room, urging us to admit one more, made it difficult to refuse. Put yourself, dear reader, in our place, and you will appreciate our condition, and why we allowed this crowding process. It was the best that could be done under the circumstances. Besides the one hundred in the boarding department, we had ninety-one day pupils, making our total attendance during the year 191. We have no primary department. Our numbers would have been very greatly increased if we had had the room to store them.
In educational and religious results the past year has been our best. More and better work has been done. The training has been more thorough and systematic, and the real progress more satisfactory. This was to be expected. Each year increases largely our own knowledge of the work and how best to do it.
Our religious services have been more largely attended and richer in results. A goodly number found Christ, and gave clear evidence of a change of heart. One in particular, who had been intemperate and profane to a sad degree, underwent[306] a complete transformation. Our Sunday school was well attended, drawing in quite a number from the outside, while our prayer meetings, on Sunday and Thursday evenings, were pleasant and profitable.
The temperance society, with a pledge prohibiting the use of both rum and tobacco, embraced nearly every student of the institution. They gave evidence that they had joined for life. Many of them are doing good work in this direction, in the schools where they are now engaged in teaching. We have reason to feel deeply grateful for the advancement along the whole line of our threefold yet one work.
Our closing exercises won the praise of the many who were present. Among these were Gov. Ireland, ex-Gov. E. M. Pease, Hon. Mr. Swain, Comptroller of State, Judge Delaney of the Court of Appeals, Prof. Hogg, at the head of the schools of Fort Worth, and many other prominent citizens of Austin.
Able addresses were made by all of the above gentlemen and others; but among them all none was more cordial and appreciative than that of Gov. Ireland. He urged the students to continue to press onward and upward, assuring them that the hour was close at hand when merit will determine every man’s position, and not the color of his skin. All, including those named, expressed themselves surprised and pleased at what they saw and heard. It was the brightest day in our history.
This brief summary of the work of the past year indicates, but cannot fully unfold, our need of more room. Young men and women in the same building is an unfortunate necessity. It is the best and only thing that can be done with safety to the work, and even this is full of danger. Then to be forced to refuse admittance to so many is unpleasant. We ought to keep the streams flowing toward us, and not turn them in other directions or cause them to cease flowing altogether. As our only institution in the great Empire State we ought to provide liberally for it, that it may carry forward the work so auspiciously begun. No field can be more inviting. Nowhere in all the South is there a more Catholic spirit. Everything conspires to insure large returns on all investments in this department of Christian effort. Are there not friends who will now come forward and render us needed help in the hour of our necessity? Twenty thousand dollars in cash or approved pledges and the new hall will be begun. Some two thousand are already secured. Monuments of finest brass will perish through the wearing passage of the ages, but those erected for the uplifting of a race are imperishable. Will you help erect this?
A person in attendance on revival meetings at this place writes to Dr. Roy:
“I hasten to tell you what a dear Saviour I have found. I have accepted Him as mine and I mean to serve and trust Him the rest of my life. Last Sunday the 20th year to a day since my marriage, I resolved to be a Christian, but thought I would wait till the middle of the week before starting. On last evening (Monday) I drove my team down to the boat for passengers, but on finding that I would probably have to carry them back and hence be kept from the meeting, I drove away and attended church. When the invitation was given I could wait no longer; went forward, gave my heart to Jesus, and to-day I am a new man, not ashamed to tell the world. I was so glad that I wish others could this afternoon in the praise meeting speak for my Saviour, whose pleadings I have so long withstood. I wanted to write you these[307] words, because I knew you were anxious for my salvation. How glad have I been always to meet you. No man would I rather see or hear talk than you. You have caused me to shed many a tear, but you didn’t know it. Oh I am so glad that the Lord spared me that I might return to Him. I mean to give the balance of my days to the blessed master. Shall do all I can to have others come to Him and live for Him; pray for me that I may be strong and useful. The Evangelist and his good wife are truly sent out by the Lord.
“Bro. Brown and they work nicely together. We just seem to be in a good way. No doubt many will be converted. Up to this time twelve have been brought out into the light. The Christians are strengthened, the church encouraged and a good feeling prevails among the people.”
FROM REV. FLOYD SNELSON.
Our school work has been vigilantly prosecuted this year, somewhat to the end that the great demand which is made upon us for persons to teach the public schools in this and adjoining counties might be met. We have twenty-eight students licensed and sent out to work this year, who have received all or a part of their training in our school. Still a great many more are wanted. I have appeals before me now for teachers for seven schools, made up and ready to begin at any time, that I cannot supply. I do hope to see the day when some lover of humanity will aid us with the facilities of a regular boarding-school here, that this great need of teachers in the common schools may be met. The twenty-eight that have gone out this year to teach are allowed from 20 to 40 pupils. With an average of 30 in each of their schools, they will be able to start a light in the dark minds of 840 needy ones.
Our church work, I am very thankful to say, has also received an additional Divine recognition. At our last communion season, which was held July 22, sixteen persons, hopefully converted, came into the fellowship of the church, and six children were brought to be baptized.
—An effort is being made by Rev. Mr. Roberts, of Paris, Texas, to organize a church at Dood City, where he has been holding special meetings.
—A new house of worship has been dedicated at Belle Place, La. Rev. Wm. Butler, pastor, was assisted by Rev. W. R. Polk, of New Iberia, in the dedicatory services. The A. M. A. furnished a portion of the funds for the building.
—Rev. B. F. Foster, who labored the past year as pastor and teacher at Fayetteville, Ark., will prosecute his studies at the Theological Seminary, Chicago. Rev. John M. Shippen, a recent graduate of the Theological Department of Howard University, has accepted an invitation to occupy the place vacated by Mr. Foster.
—Rev. George W. Moore, a graduate of Fisk University and Oberlin Theological Seminary, has assumed the pastoral care of the Lincoln Memorial Church, Washington, D.C., under favorable auspices. He is to supply Dr. Rankin’s pulpit one Sunday.
—Rev. Zechariah Simmons, a licentiate of the North Carolina Association, has been appointed to take charge of the mission at Woodbridge, N.C., with reference[308] to the organization of a church. The A. M. A. has recently purchased a parsonage for his accommodation.
—The church in Oaks, Alamance Co., N.C., is building a comfortable house of worship under the supervision of Rev. J. N. Ray, its pastor, who has received $100 from the A. M. A. for the furtherance of the enterprise. Miss E. W. Douglass, an experienced missionary teacher, has been appointed to labor at this point.
—Mr. G. W. Jackson and his wife (Rose McCutcheon) are pushing their mission day and Sunday-school work at Whiteside, Tenn. They have been visited by Rev. Jos. E. Smith and Mrs. Steele of Chattanooga, and meetings of much promise have been held.
—The Clarion, of Jackson, Miss., gives an interesting report of the colored Congregational Church, organized by the A. M. A. in that city, with Rev. C. L. Harris, pastor. The church has a membership of 16 and a Sabbath-school of 63. Services are held in the hall of the Hope Fire Company. The citizens of Jackson have subscribed liberally toward the erection of a house of worship.
—Rev. S. N. Brown, while furnishing a vacation supply at Florence, Ala., has been assisted by the evangelist, Rev. J. E. Fields, in a series of revival meetings, which has resulted in an addition of twenty members to the church. This is the church which was so much depleted by the Exodus.
—Rev. A. W. Curtis, of Marion, Ala., on invitation of Rev. Dr. Raymond, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, has preached on exchange with him. This is said to be the first expression of fellowship of this kind the A. M. A. preachers have received at the South. Mr. Curtis has also accepted an invitation to exchange with the pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church South in the same city.
—Rev. Geo. W. Clark of Athens, Ga., and his people, with aid from the A. M. A., have purchased a lot and are proceeding to build a house of worship. Up to this time they have held their services in the chapel of Knox Institute.
—The A. M. A. is building a church at Pekin, N.C., with accommodations for school purposes.
—The church at Chattanooga, Tenn. (Rev. Jos. E. Smith, pastor), have built a new fence about the meeting house, which has been painted outside and inside and beautifully frescoed.
—The St. Louis Globe-Democrat says, in connection with the Press Convention: “One remarkable paper was that represented at the Convention by its business manager, R. C. Edmondson. It was The Fisk Herald, a college paper published at the Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn.; in fact, the only college paper the colored people have. It is a nice eight-page tinted paper, well printed and generally well reading journal.” The Daily World says: “The present number is of neat typographical appearance, and is filled with interesting reading matter. A liberal encouragement should be extended to this enterprise.”
—The President of the Produce Exchange, Wilmington, N.C., speaking of the school of the A. M. A., says: “The boys, after leaving the institution, get employment more readily than others, because their moral principles are higher, and because they are generally better fitted for intelligent occupation than the majority of those who profess to have received an elementary education. The people of Wilmington have great cause for thankfulness that our Negro population is so law-abiding and faithful to duty; and to take courage from the results already accomplished in a transition so violent from a life of slavery to that of freedom and citizenship in the eyes of the law. The utmost harmony has prevailed between the races for many years past, and instances of disagreement between employers and employed are far more rare than among the whites in the North.”[309]
REV. W. C. POND, SAN FRANCISCO.
I trust that our friends do not forget how God has begun to fulfil the prayer which the motto of our mission, “China for Christ,” and the hearts of our Chinese Christians sent up during so many years, in the establishment by the American Board of a Mission in China to co-operate with ours, and to reach, first of all, the swarming millions in those districts from which our immigrants have come. In connection with the departure of Bro. Hager to this field, our Congregational Association of Christian Chinese gave $500 in cash, and one of its best members and my best helpers as a co-laborer. Bro. Hager has established his head-quarters at Hong Kong and has gathered there a school similar in all respects to ours in California. But this is only a rendezvous. The main work is elsewhere, preaching the gospel and scattering the word of life on the main land. Lee Sam is busy with this already; enduring hardness as a good soldier, and working almost alone. But he will not be suffered to work long alone. Our helper for years past at Sacramento, Lem Chung, sailed for China more than six weeks ago, and has already, we hope been welcomed at Hong Kong. Sustaining for years a relation to the Chinese of Sacramento every way equivalent to that which an American pastor sustains in the community where he labors, he so commended himself by his mental capacity, his faithfulness, his Christian spirit and consistent walk that while our Chinese brethren clung to him as few American churches do to their pastors, he was also “of good report,” or, as the revision reads it, “has good testimony from them that are without,” both Chinese and Americans. Whether he will remain permanently in China is not decided, but so long as he does remain, I doubt not he will be ready for every good word and work. And now three others among our helpers, Hong Sing of Santa Cruz, Wong Him Wong of Stockton and Lou Quong of the West School in this city, are making ready to depart. They go together. They hope to begin missionary work on the steamer. They hope to continue it when they reach their native land. We shall miss them greatly. They have approved themselves in our service, workmen that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth and illustrating its power in their consistent lives. But with reference to our great purpose, “China for Christ,” our loss is a gain, and we gladly take others to fill the vacant places, hoping that these too, trained to preach by preaching and to teach by teaching, will follow their brethren to the dark regions across the wide sea.
At the time of this writing, a fortnight remains before the close of our fiscal year. Toward the $12,500 which our work for the year must cost, we have received in cash and pledges $11,800. To find $700 more within these two weeks seems to be quite impossible, by virtue of any resources remaining within the superintendent’s reach. He repeats over to himself: “My God shall supply all your need;” he recounts to himself the many mercies past; and how, again and again, in his own experience, what seemed impossible has come to pass, and still he questions and he doubts, and asking, seeking, knocking, can do no better than to cry, “Lord I believe, help thou mine unbelief.” Before this reaches the eye of our readers, the fiscal year will have closed, and the account will be made up: yet not so closed but that if any of our readers are willing to share with me the load which open doors and proffered harvests have laid upon me, their help would be most welcome and most timely.
Miss D. E. Emerson, Secretary.
In connection with the Annual Meeting of the A. M. A. in Brooklyn, notice of which is given elsewhere, there will be a Woman’s Meeting in the interest of our Bureau of Woman’s Work. Report of mission work among the Chinese on the Pacific Coast will be made by Mrs. W. C. Pond, wife of Superintendent Pond; on Indian Missions, by Mrs Alfred L. Riggs, wife of the Principal of our Santee School, Nebraska; on work among the mountain whites of Kentucky, by Mrs. A. A. Myers, wife of Rev. Mr. Myers, our missionary in that region; on work among the colored people, by Miss Anna M. Cahill, late Principal of Normal Department, Fisk University. Other ladies will participate in the meeting, particulars concerning which, and also as to the hour of the meeting, will be given in the religious press at a later date.
BY MISS NANCY MARSH, PROVIDENCE, R.I.
Since we commenced our mission, May, 1880, we have received many letters asking “What can I do?” To such we have made various suggestions.
In Stoneham, Mass., the ladies felt they could not send boxes, but wished to do something, so organized the “Stevens Home Missionary Society,” and have sent to various places 779 papers and pamphlets, and 7 Sunday-school books. They have basted 1,465 blocks of patch-work and sent to seven teachers in Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and Ladies Island; have basted also 49 handkerchiefs “from pieces of cloth, to teach the children to sew, and give them what they needed.” Postage $5.22. They have also corresponded with several pastors and teachers. The Secretary says; “I am delighted with some of the correspondence, and enjoy the work very much; am so glad to help even a little in this good work. I love some of the dear teachers very much, and it has all come through their dear letters, heart touching heart, and all for Jesus. Thank you for all the interest you have taken to help us get started, and for your aid right along; we have had no names except what you have given us.” This society has proved very efficient, and they have been so grateful for the privilege of working, it has been a pleasure to find them opportunities; it has done them good as well as others. Some of these letters have been read in their missionary concerts, and awakened an increasing interest in the community.
A lady in Chesterfield, Ill., formerly a teacher in Utah, and some young friends have basted 300 blocks of patch-work for teachers in Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee, feeling, she says, “that our greatest privilege is to work for the Lord.”
A letter came to us from Middleboro, Mass., saying, “I am very anxious to do something for the missionaries, and, as I am an invalid, and unable to give money, I thought I could cut and baste patch-work if nothing more.” Recently we received a card stating “I have sent 600 blocks to Chattanooga, Tenn., I would be glad to do more, but am now unable to do any kind of work, but hope to sometime, if ever so little.” In answer to inquiries, this lady says: “The work I sent Mrs. S—— I did lying on my reclining chair nearly as flat as a bed; but have been confined to my bed many weeks at a time, and suffering more than words can [311]tell.” Surely this service performed for the Master, in such weariness and pain, shall not lose its reward.
From Claremont, N.H., the question came: “What can a mission circle do for Christmas?” We suggested a place as affording ample scope for their ingenuity and generosity; so “the Sunbeams” (the mission circle) 25 in number, from six to fourteen years, sent rays of light and gladness to cheer the hearts of these desolate people in the shape of picture-frames, book-marks, work and scrap-bags, mittens, pin-balls, spectacle-cases for the old ladies, etc. The ladies of this place also sent a box of second-hand clothing, which was greatly needed.
There has been much labor in corresponding with so many persons: 69 letters and postals have been written. This includes work only among the Freedmen, yet we have rejoiced in the interest awakened in various places by this means, and are glad to help this good cause in every way in our power. Aid has been given in various ways and different places, which, including postage, makes $37.24. This patch-work has become quite an institution, 2,504 blocks have been sent, greatly helping the teachers in their work, saving their time and strength, and helping to form habits of industry which are so essential to the well-being of these women and young girls, thus fitting them for usefulness in the future. One old lady, who is much interested in the young, and fond of patch-work, gave us 78 blocks very nicely basted, which were sent to Ladies Island, so meeting the needs of a young girl whose quilt had come to a standstill for want of materials.
In 1882, in order to enlarge our field of operations, we sent to Dr. Strieby for new names of pastors and teachers among the Freedmen, and are now able to report that we have forwarded to the Southern States 1,021 papers and pamphlets, 339 lesson papers, 122 tracts, 74 Scripture cards and 103 Christmas cards; postage $5.72. Besides these, papers have been sent by several persons in different States. A teacher in Texas writes, “I should like Sunday-school papers, temperance, and other tracts, to distribute as I visit among the people.” “Can make use of the patch-work and any other sewing prepared; thanks for encouraging words, and sympathy, we need your constant and earnest prayers.”
From N.C.—“Your Christmas cards reached us safely; the children enjoyed their gifts, and received them gratefully. My field is not an easy one, but I am endeavoring with the Master’s help to plant and replant fruitful seed. Any good reading matter is acceptable. I need material for my sewing school (one dozen spools of cotton and six crochet needles, were sent to this school by two young ladies). Your letter was full of encouragement and good advice, and strengthened me much. My work is chiefly among the children, have 50 or 60 in Sunday-school in the morning, and about the same number attend the Band of Hope every Sabbath afternoon. We have prayer-meetings every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday evenings. I have also a Bible-class for adults, which I teach an hour and a half every Wednesday evening. Have received the patch-work from Mrs. M., it is indeed a great help to have it basted, my time is so occupied.”
Ga.—The teacher writes: “Thanks for your interest in us, we pay for our Sunday school papers, for we think the people prize them more when they pay for them; but I can send what I receive into the country, where they are very glad of them; sent your roll last night out twenty-five miles to a place where they have nothing to help them; have several places to which I can send, and profitably use all I receive. We are trying to give the people a little instruction in mission work; and take up a collection once in three months; this people need nothing more than to understand that there are others as poor as themselves, and they certainly are very poor, but, as they receive, they must also give; true growth comes from looking out. Our day school has over 100, and our Sunday school nearly as many more,[312] some coming four or five miles, and have been very enthusiastic in their work. My scholars are looking forward to teaching. Last summer 14 were out, and more will probably go this summer. We are hoping to give them better ideas of religion, that they may help to change the character of the coming generation. We have organized a “Woman’s Missionary Society.” They are to meet from house to house, taking their supper with them; think it will go far toward making them better housekeepers, as well as teaching them to make things, which they will sell, and so get a little money into their treasury, then they can send a dollar to some cause in which they are interested. Pray for the success of this society for through it, I hope to reach the homes, and there is so much to be done in the homes before there can be much improvement.”
We have had cheering words from pastors in Arkansas and Kentucky, telling of souls converted, Christians revived and children gathered into Sunday schools. Our papers have been given where there is great destitution of reading matter.
At Christmas a few cards and papers were sent to a pastor in Childersburg, Ala. He writes: “I want to thank your class for their gifts to the children, who are destitute of such things. Our church was burned a year ago, after a temperance lecture, but the people are building better than before. We held services in our church last winter without a stove, and the house all open, yet we trust the Lord was with us; our school numbered 30 or 40 during the cold weather and a larger number when pleasant. There are many who cannot read, and many who can have no Bibles.”
We have been much interested in these pastors and teachers, some of them have made great sacrifices, and though not appreciated by those who should sustain and encourage them, future generations will rise up and call them blessed. We are very grateful to all the kind friends who have helped us in our work by papers, postage, patch-work, and in various ways and places, especially for the Christian sympathy extended to these pastors and teachers. It has been duly appreciated, and lightened many a burdened heart; so we trust our “Paper Mission” has not been a failure in the Southern States.
MISS IDA M. BEACH, SAVANNAH, GA.
“The lady asked me was I agoin’ to hear the children make their speeches,” said a little colored girl but just transplanted from her Southern home to this Northern land.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Why, it is breakin’ up day in the schoolhouse over yonder, and the children are goin’ to speak.”[313]
Sitting by my window the next day, voices of children attracted my attention. Looking up I saw two little ones—a brother and sister—trudging along followed by another little girl. I noticed the fresh white dresses and pretty aprons, and that they seemed to be very much in earnest about something. A half hour later the mother passed, and it dawned upon me, then, that it was the “last day of school.” Afterward, riding by the school-house, and peeping in, I saw rows of bright children and many happy parents and friends. It brought to my mind[314] another “last day,” where were children dressed by just as loving hands in their white lawns, and pink and cream buntings. Their songs were just as well sung—perhaps better—for a lady, after spending a day in a public school of a New England city, wrote: “The children are trained by a music teacher who receives $800 a year, but their singing could not be compared to that we heard by the pupils of ——,” referring to these of whom I am telling you. Their little “speeches” were recited just as distinctly; the teachers were just as proud; the parents just as happy, nay, happier. I’ll tell you why by and by.
Have you studied U.S. History? And do you remember the story of our late Civil War? Then you know that one result of it was that nearly four million slaves, who were owned by other people, to be bought and sold like any other property, were made free. They could go where they chose; work as they wanted to; receive the wages they earned; make homes for themselves, and not be afraid that their children would be torn away from them to go with another master.
If you should take the cars in Richmond and ride though—what States?—till you came to Florida, you would pass through miles and miles of pinelands scattered all along. Set right in among the pine trees are little log cabins, the homes of many of these people. Owning little farms, raising their rice and corn, cotton and sweet potatoes, they seem very happy indeed. I heard snatches of “Hold the Fort” coming from within one of these cabins, and remembered seeing a little church not far away, so I think they must have Sunday-school, and use the “Gospel Hymns,” don’t you?
Stopping over one train in a Southern city, and inquiring for the homes of the colored people, you will be directed to almost any lane. Shall I tell you about one I visited?
Clara told me where to find her. Hunting around among many houses which were nearly alike, I suddenly saw a face at a window which I knew must be that of Clara’s mother. I crossed the street and knocked at the door. It was old and weather-beaten, and fairly creaked as I rapped.
A little old woman, with a white turban bound about her head, opened the door. With a courtesy and warm greeting she offered me a chair. The floor was uncarpeted, but as clean as frequent scrubbings with soap and water could make it.
Two sticks were burning in the open fire-place, before which stood a half dozen flat-irons. Mrs. —— apologized for “bein’ a ironin’ on a Saturday,” and after giving a few finishing touches to a piece on the board sat down to tell me about Clara.
“My husban’ is dead, an’ it is very hard to get an hones’ livin’ an’ keep Clara in school. She ain’t strong, ma’am, Clara ain’t, an’ can’t do much hard work, but she love’ her books an’ want to teach. She was graduate’ las’ year, but nothing would do but I mus’ sen’ her this year. It is mighty hard to get the money, you know, ma’am, but I never can give her nothing but an education. I never had none myself, but, Clara, she is right smart in her books, ma’am. I wants her to be educated.” The same story oft repeated, “the children, the children they mus’ be educated.”
Do you know, now, why those mothers were so happy when listening to the songs and recitations of their children? Can you realize how proud they are when they find that Nehemiah and Charles Henry can read and write like any white boys?
Who will hunt up nine others and be one of ten to save ten cents each month to pay the tuition of one of these children?
| MAINE, $222.07. | |
| Bangor. First Cong. Ch., 18.61; Rev. Joseph Smith, 10 | $28.61 |
| Bluehill. Mrs. E. W. Mayo, 4; Mrs. H. W. J., 1 | 5.00 |
| Brewer. First Cong. Ch. | 12.85 |
| Brunswick. Cong. Ch. and Soc., 69.60; Marshall Cram, 10 | 79.60 |
| Brunswick. Mrs. John D. Lincoln, for Selma, Ala. | 2.00 |
| Dennysville. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 13.02 |
| Ferry Village. Rev. R. D. Osgood | 10.00 |
| Gorham. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 28.38 |
| Gorham. Miss E. B. Emery, for Macon, Ga. | 3.00 |
| Kennebunk. Union Ch. and Soc. | 21.61 |
| Limington. Miss A. Boothby | 4.00 |
| Waterford. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 14.00 |
| NEW HAMPSHIRE, $234.62. | |
| Amherst. Cong. Sab. Sch. | 20.00 |
| Candia Village. Jona. Martin | 5.00 |
| Derry. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 17.65 |
| East Jaffrey. Miss Eliza A. Parker | 20.00 |
| Goffstown. Cong Ch. 37.74, and Sab. Sch., 1.55, to const. Mrs. Hattie A. Paige L. M.; “A Friend,” 30, to const. Miss Luella D. Carpenter L. M. | 69.29 |
| Hampstead. Miss Ann M. Howard | 5.00 |
| Hancock. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 25.00 |
| Mount Vernon. Cong Ch. and Soc. | 5.00 |
| Pembroke. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 52.58 |
| Rindge. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 2.10 |
| West Concord. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 13.00 |
| VERMONT, $164.96. | |
| Barre. Cong. Ch. | 12.50 |
| Castleton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 31.00 |
| Jeffersonville. “A Friend.” | 25.00 |
| Johnson. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 15.00 |
| Ludlow. Cong. Ch. and Soc., 20.47; and Sab. Sch., 1.80 | 22.27 |
| Manchester. Miss Ellen Hawley, for Foster Hall Reading Room, Talladega C. | 20.00 |
| Pittsford. “D.” | 1.00 |
| Post Mill Village. Mrs. C. M. Holbrook | 1.00 |
| Saint Albans. First Cong. Ch. | 13.05 |
| Tyson Furnace. —— | 1.14 |
| Vergennes. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 20.00 |
| ——. “Rutland Co.” | 3.00 |
| MASSACHUSETTS, $2,078.81. | |
| Amesbury. C. F. Hovey, 10.40; E. P. Elliott, 50c. | 10.90 |
| Amesbury and Salisbury. Union Evan. Ch. and Soc. | 17.00 |
| Amherst. G. C. Munsell | 2.00 |
| Barre. Evan. Cong. Ch. Sab. Sch. | 17.00 |
| Belchertown. Cong. Ch. and Soc., adl. | 0.25 |
| Blackstone. H. Hodgson | 1.50 |
| Boston. “In memory of little Fannie,” 10; Mrs. Susan Collin, 1 | 11.00 |
| Bradford. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 40.57 |
| Brookfield. Ladies’ Benev. Soc., Bbl. of C., for Fisk U. | |
| Campello. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 54.27 |
| Coleraine. Mrs. Prudence Smith | 2.50 |
| Chicopee. Second Cong. Ch., 32.17; Mrs. Henrietta M. Daniels, 10 | 42.17 |
| Falmouth. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 45.00 |
| Granby. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 80.00 |
| Haverhill. G. Merrill and wife, 150; Centre Cong. Ch. and Soc., 34; Mrs. Mary B. Jones, 10 | 194.00 |
| Hopkinton. “Friends” | 2.00 |
| Housatonic. Cong. Soc. | 50.56 |
| Hubbardston. “A Friend” | 4.50 |
| Hyde Park. Heart and Hand Soc. of First Cong. Ch., Bundle of Goods, for Santee Agency, Neb. | |
| Ipswich. South Cong. Ch. Sab. Sch., for Indian Aid, Hampton N. & A. Inst. | 50.00 |
| Ipswich. South Cong. Ch. and Soc | 20.00 |
| Long Meadow. Gent’s Benev. Soc. | 21.60 |
| Lowell. Rodolphus Stevens | 15.00 |
| Lunenburg. “L. L. E. N.,” a Chronometer. | |
| Mattapoisett. Cong. Ch. & Soc. | 10.00 |
| Medford. Mystic Ch. and Soc., (30 of which to const. Rev. Theophilus Parsons Sawin L. M., and 30 from D. W. Wilcox to const. Miss Emma Josephine Wilcox, L. M.) | 122.15 |
| Middletown. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 12.00 |
| Millbury. Second Cong. Ch. and Soc. to const. Samuel N. Rogers and Albert W. Lincoln, L. Ms. | 72.35 |
| Mill River. M. R. Wilcox | 10.00 |
| Monson. Cong. Sab. Sch., 20; Mrs. C. O. Chapin, 5 | 25.00 |
| Monterey. Cong. Ch. | 8.00 |
| Newburyport. “A Friend” | 5.00 |
| Northfield. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 7.60 |
| Oxford. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 19.97 |
| Peabody. “A Friend,” to const. Miss Susanna Mills, L. M. | 30.00 |
| Phillipston. D. & L. Mixter | 2.00 |
| Randolph. Miss Abbie W. Turner | 10.00 |
| Reading. “A. H. M. S.” | 2.50 |
| Revere. “A Friend,” by Mrs. A. S. Steele, for Orphans from Chattanooga at Tougaloo U. | 50.00 |
| Rockport. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 33.30 |
| Roxbury. Immanuel Ch. Sab. Sch., for Student Aid, Fisk U. | 30.00 |
| Shelburne. First Cong. Soc. | 83.76 |
| South Easton. “A Friend” | 20.00 |
| South Hadley Falls. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 25.00 |
| South Weymouth. Union Ch. and Soc. | 36.64 |
| Springfield. First Cong. Ch., 23.92; Hope Cong. Ch. 39 | 62.92 |
| Sudbury. U. E. Ch. and Soc. | 20.80 |
| Sunderland. Cong. Ch and Soc | 40.00 |
| Sunderland. “M.” | 2.00 |
| Wakefield. “Mission Workers,” for Indian girl, Bird’s Nest, Santee Agency | 30.00 |
| West Boylston. Polly W. Ames, 3; Geo. W. Ames, 2.50 | 5.50 |
| West Springfield. First Cong. Ch. | 20.00 |
| Worcester. Hiram Smith and family | 30.00 |
| ——— | |
| $1,508.31 | |
| LEGACY. | |
| Milbury. Estate of Asa Hayden, by Harriet W. Hayden, Extx. | 570.50 |
| ——— | |
| $2,078.81 | |
| RHODE ISLAND, $584.00. | |
| Central Falls. Cong. Ch | 63.00 |
| Little Compton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 21.00 |
| Providence. Geo. H. Corliss | 500.00 |
| CONNECTICUT, $3,398.82. | |
| Berlin. Mrs. C. M. Jarvis, for Woman’s Work | 5.00 |
| Bethel. Cong. Ch. | 20.00 |
| Birmingham. Cong. Sab. Sch. | 5.00 |
| Branford. H. G. Harrison | 5.00 |
| Canterbury. Westminster Cong. Ch. | 4.15 |
| Central Village. Cong. Ch. | 10.00 |
| Chester. “I. O.” | 5.00 |
| East Hampton. Cong Ch. | 25.00[316] |
| Fair Haven. Cong. Ch. Bbl. of C. for Tillotson C. & N. Inst. | |
| Farmington. A. F. Williams, to const. Clarence Browning Vorce, L. M. | 30.00 |
| Goshen. Cong. Ch. | 14.78 |
| Greenfield Hill. Cong. Ch., adl. | 18.30 |
| Greenwich. First Cong. Ch. Sab. Sch. | 5.31 |
| Griswold. First Cong.. Ch. | 30.00 |
| Hadlyme. R. E. Hungerford, 100: Jos. W. Hungerford, 100; Cong. Ch., 7 | 207.00 |
| Kensington. Mrs. M. Hotchkiss | 5.00 |
| New Britain. Mrs. Alonzo Astor | 3.00 |
| New Haven. Nelson Hall | 50.00 |
| Norfolk. “B.” | 2.00 |
| North Guilford. Sarah R Fowler | 6.00 |
| Norwich Town. “*. Cong. Ch.” | 35.00 |
| Plantsville. “A Friend.” 300; E. E. Stone, 100; H. D. Smith. 100; Stephen Walker, 60; Geo. F. Smith, 25; E. W. Twichell, 25; O. W. Stone, 20; W. S. Ward. 10; Mrs. J. C. P., 5; C. L. Ames, 5; C. D. Smith, 5, for Atlanta U. | 655.00 |
| Putnam. Ladies, for Student Aid, Straight U. | 2.00 |
| Ridgefield. First Cong. Ch. | 32.14 |
| Salem. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 6.00 |
| South Britain. Cong Ch. | 36.00 |
| Stafford. Mrs. T. H. Thresher | 5.00 |
| Stamford. “A Friend ” | 5.00 |
| Terryville. Cong. Ch. 180, to const. Maggie McNaughton, Susie Belle Grannis, Lura Genevieve Bunnell, Annie S. Cook and Emma C. L. Castle L. Ms.; Elizur Fenn. 5; Mrs. Elizur Fenn, 5 | 190.00 |
| Thomaston. Cong Ch. | 24.46 |
| Tolland. Cong. Ch. | 13.59 |
| Trumbull. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 16.43 |
| Union. Cong. Ch. | 2.12 |
| West Hartford. Cong. Ch. | 30.40 |
| West Hartford. Anson Chappell | 5.00 |
| West Winsted. Second Cong. Ch. | 201.27 |
| Wethersfield. First Ch of Christ | 60.59 |
| Wolcott. Cong. Ch. | 10.03 |
| Woodstock. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 18.25 |
| ————— | |
| $1,798.82 | |
| LEGACIES. | |
| Goshen. Estate of Miss Sarah Beach, by Henry Norton, Ex. | 500.00 |
| New London. Trust Estate of Henry P. Haven (of which $300 for Talladega C. and $200 for Tillotson C. & N. Inst.) | 850.00 |
| Orange. Estate of Mrs. H. Coe, by L. W. Cutler. Ex. | 250.00 |
| ————— | |
| $3,398.82 | |
| NEW YORK, $22,720.10. | |
| Big Hollow. Nelson Hitchcock | 5.00 |
| Binghamton. Mrs. Chauncey Bean, for Woman’s Work | 5.00 |
| Blauveltville. “A Friend” | 1.50 |
| Brooklyn. Central Cong. Sab. Sch. for Missionaries, Fernandina, Fla. | 100.00 |
| Clifton Springs. Rev. Lewis Bodwell | 2.00 |
| Coventryville. First Cong. Ch. | 10.56 |
| Eaton. Cong. Ch. | 13.25 |
| Hancock. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 10.00 |
| Ithaca. First Cong. Sab. Sch., for Theo. Dept., Talladega C. | 35.00 |
| New York. “Friends” | 50.00 |
| Nyack. John W. Towt | 50.00 |
| Port Byron. Sarah B. Osburn, for Chinese M. | 0.50 |
| Poughkeepsie. First Cong. Ch. | 40.08 |
| Sherburne. Cong. Ch. | 59.41 |
| West Groton. Cong. Ch. 19.54 Sab. Sch. 1.46 | 21.00 |
| Wellsville. Cong. Ch. | 22.97 |
| Yaphank. Mrs. Hampton Overton, for Chinese M. | 5.00 |
| ——. —— | 60.08 |
| ———— | |
| $491.35 | |
| LEGACIES. | |
| Deansville. Estate of Mrs. Polly M. Barton, by D. W. Barton and Jos. F. Barton, Exs. | 500.00 |
| Victor. Estate of Emeline Lewis, by D. Henry Osborne, Ex. | 21,728.75 |
| —————— | |
| $22,720.10 | |
| NEW JERSEY, $1,110.00. | |
| Newfield. Rev. Charles Willy | 10.00 |
| LEGACY. | |
| Orange. Estate of John Hancock, by Exs. | 1100.00 |
| ————— | |
| $1,110.00 | |
| PENNSYLVANIA, $26.23. | |
| Cambridgeboro. Cong. Ch., 13.23; Ladies’ Miss’y Soc. of Cong. Ch., 10 | 23.23 |
| Troy. Moss Grove Sab. Sch. | 3.00 |
| OHIO, $302.87. | |
| Adam Mills. Mrs. M. A. Smith | 10.00 |
| Ashtabula. Cong. Sab. Sch., for Theo. Dept., Talladega C. | 28.20 |
| Chatham Center. Cong. Ch. | 26.37 |
| Cincinnati. Seventh St. Cong. Ch. | 51.09 |
| Garrettsville. Cong. Ch. | 12.00 |
| Medina. Cong. Ch., to const. C. B. Abbott and Frank Nettleton L. Ms. | 75.12 |
| Medina. Ladies Miss’y Soc. for Talladega C., Freight | 2.00 |
| Newburg. Welsh Cong. Ch. | 8.52 |
| Oberlin. Second Cong. Ch. | 20.57 |
| Toledo. First Cong. Ch. | 52.00 |
| Wakeman. B. T. Strong | 5.00 |
| Willoughby. Mary P. Hastings | 12.00 |
| INDIANA, $10.00. | |
| Auburn. James Adams | 10.00 |
| ILLINOIS, $508.46. | |
| Chenoa. Cong. Ch. | 13.35 |
| Chicago. First Cong. Ch. 108.83; N. E. Cong. Ch., 64.68; “A Friend” 50, to const. James W. Porter L. M. | 223.51 |
| Chicago. U. P. Cong. Sab Sch., for Student Aid, Talladega C. | 50.00 |
| Chicago. C. H. Morse, Scales, val. 31.75, for Talladega C. | |
| Geneseo. Cong. Ch. | 35.00 |
| Hutsonville. C. V. Newton | 5.00 |
| La Harpe. Cong. Ch. | 10.50 |
| Lamoille. Cong. Ch. | 24.41 |
| Lockport. First Cong. Ch. | 14.36 |
| Newark. Horace Day | 5.00 |
| Peoria. Rev. A. A. Stevens | 10.00 |
| Prospect Park. Cong. Ch. | 7.00 |
| Roseville. L. C. Axtell | 100.00 |
| Woodburn. Cong. Ch. | 10.33 |
| MICHIGAN, $126.33. | |
| Ann Arbor. Cong. Ch. | 31.41 |
| Benzonia. “A Friend” | 10.00 |
| Eaton Rapids. First Cong. Ch. (3 of which from Mrs. C. C. P. Taylor) | 30.92 |
| Kalamazoo. “*” | 3.00 |
| North Leoni. Cong. Ch. | 6.00 |
| Northville. D. Pomeroy | 5.00 |
| Olivet. Wm. J. Hickok | 20.00 |
| Ransom. Ladies’ Aid Soc. of First Cong. Ch., for Indian M. | 10.00 |
| Vermontville. “A Friend” | 10.00 |
| IOWA, $272.13. | |
| Alden. Cong. Ch. | 7.40 |
| Cedar Rapids. Mrs. T. M. Sinclair, for a New Mission, Poncas Indians | 200.00 |
| Eldora. Cong. Ch. | 4.68 |
| Grinnell. Prof. Fisk P. Brewer, for Raleigh, N.C. | 10.00 |
| Le Mars. Cong. Sab. Sch. | 4.61 |
| Lewis. Cong. Ch., 13; Mrs. O. C. Warne, 5 | 18.00 |
| McGregor. Woman’s Miss’y Soc. | 10.44 |
| Peterson. Cong. Ch. | 2.00 |
| Sioux Rapids. Cong. Ch. | 5.00 |
| ———— | |
| $262.13[317] | |
| LEGACY. | |
| Grinnell. Estate of E. Marvin, by W. B. & J. M. Dunn, Exrs. | 10.00 |
| ——— | |
| $272.13 | |
| WISCONSIN, $359.14. | |
| Alderley. Mrs. Anna Reid, 2.50; Mrs. E. Hubbard, $2.50 | 5.00 |
| Appleton. Ladies of Cong. Ch., 1.25; “A Friend,” 75c., for Lady Missionary, Montgomery, Ala. | 2.00 |
| Arena. Ladies of Cong. Ch., for Lady Missionary, Montgomery, Ala. | 2.46 |
| Beloit. Ladies of First Cong. Ch., for Lady Missionary, Montgomery, Ala. | 75.85 |
| Bristol and Paris. Ladies of Cong. Ch., for Lady Missionary, Montgomery, Ala. | 10.00 |
| Fond du Lac. Ladies of Cong. Ch., for Lady Missionary, Montgomery, Ala. | 10.00 |
| Janesville. Cong. Ch. | 19.51 |
| Madison. First Cong. Ch. | 75.00 |
| Milwaukee. Grand Av. Cong. Ch. | 43.32 |
| Racine. Mrs. Smith and Marsh | 10.00 |
| Whitewater. “Friends,” by Prof. A. Salisbury, for Reading Rooms | 106.00 |
| MINNESOTA, $131.27. | |
| Afton. L. I. Olds | 10.00 |
| Minneapolis. Plymouth Ch. 41.18; Mrs. W. K. Smith, 4.50 | 45.68 |
| Northfield. Cong Ch. | 56.59 |
| Northfield. Mrs. Knowlton, 5; M. Bryant, 2; G. M. Phillips, 2; Rev. A. Willey, 1.50; Mrs. Norton, 1; Mrs. Nourse, 50c., for Student Aid, Talladega C. | 12.00 |
| Sauk Center. Rev. J. C. Holbrook, D.D. | 5.00 |
| Springfield. Cong. Ch. | 2.00 |
| KANSAS, $34.34. | |
| Manhattan. First Cong. Ch. | 20.64 |
| McPherson. Cong. Ch. (ad’l) | 6.70 |
| Olatne. Rev. W. W. McMillan | 1.00 |
| ——. “W. H. M. S.” | 6.00 |
| MISSOURI, $17.75. | |
| Brookfield. Cong. Ch. | 7.75 |
| Kidder. S. O. Coult | 5.00 |
| St. Louis. Mrs. R. Webb, for Library, Straight U. | 5.00 |
| NEBRASKA, $11.70. | |
| Creighton. First Cong. Ch. | 6.70 |
| Plymouth. Cong. Ch. | 5.00 |
| DAKOTA, $10.06. | |
| Clark. Cong. Ch. | 10.06 |
| COLORADO, $10.00. | |
| Colorado Springs. Cong. Sab. Sch. | 10.00 |
| DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, $312.50. | |
| Washington. United States Gov., for Sisseton Agency | 312.50 |
| TENNESSEE, $121.00. | |
| Chattanooga. Sales, by Mrs. A. S. Steele, for Orphans from Chattanooga at Tougaloo U. | 107.00 |
| Knoxville. Second Cong. Ch. | 12.00 |
| Nashville. Howard Chapel Cong. Ch. | 2.00 |
| NORTH CAROLINA, $5.00. | |
| Wilmington. Cong. Ch. | 5.00 |
| SOUTH CAROLINA, $12.00. | |
| Charleston. Plymouth Ch. | 10.00 |
| Greenwood. Coll. by Rev. L. C. J. | 2.00 |
| GEORGIA, $82.50. | |
| Macon. Cong. Ch., 15; Mrs. Lizzie A. Hodge, 15 | 30.00 |
| Savannah. Concert, Beach Inst, 32.50; Rent, 20 | 52.50 |
| ALABAMA, $121.90. | |
| Marion. Cong. Ch. | 3.00 |
| Mobile. Emerson Inst., Tuition, 2.20; Cong. Ch., 55c. | 2.75 |
| Montgomery. Cong. Ch. | 10.00 |
| Selma. Cong Ch., 14.15; Temperance Concert, 1.75 | 15.90 |
| Talladega. Talladega C. Tuition, 74.65; Cong. Ch., 10 | 84.65 |
| Talladega. A. Bingham & Co., for Needmore Chapel, Talladega C. | 5.60 |
| MISSISSIPPI, $2.00. | |
| Jackson. Collected by Chas. L. Harris. | 2. 00 |
| INCOMES, $287.85. | |
| Avery Fund, for Mendi M. | 257.85 |
| Belden Fund, for Talladega C. | 30.00 |
| TURKEY, $50.00. | |
| Constantinople. The Missionary Children’s Missionary Soc. in Turkey and Bulgaria, by Miss Belle Bliss, Treas., for a girl, Dakota Home | 50.00 |
| INDIA, $4.85. | |
| Bombay. Women’s Benev. Sec., for Dakota Home | 4.85 |
| ——— | |
| Total for August | $33,333.26 |
| Total from Oct. 1 to Aug. 31 | $262,579.95 |
| ========= | |
| FOR THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY. | |
| Subscriptions | 32.74 |
| Previously acknowledged | 739.22 |
| ——— | |
| Total | $771.96 |
| ======= | |
H. W. HUBBARD, Treas.,
56 Reade St., N.Y.
Art. I. This society to be called the American Missionary Association.
Art. II. The object of this Association shall be to conduct Christian missionary and educational operations and diffuse a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures in our own and other countries which are destitute of them, or which present open and urgent fields of effort.
Art. III. Members may be constituted for life by the payment of thirty dollars into the treasury of the Association, with the written declaration at the time or times of payment that the sum is to be applied to constitute a designated person a[318] life member; and such membership shall begin sixty days after the payment shall have been completed.
Every church which has within a year contributed to the funds of the Association and every State Conference or Association of such churches may appoint two delegates to the Annual Meeting of the Association; such delegates, duly attested by credentials, shall be members of the Association for the year for which they were thus appointed.
Art. IV. The Annual Meeting of the Association shall be held in the month of October or November, at such time and place as may be designated by the Executive Committee, by notice printed in the official publication of the Association for the preceding month.
Art. V. The officers of the Association shall be a President, five Vice-Presidents, a Corresponding Secretary or Secretaries, a Recording Secretary, a Treasurer, Auditors, and an Executive Committee of fifteen members, all of whom shall be elected by ballot.
At the first Annual Meeting after the adoption of this Constitution, five members of the Executive Committee shall be elected for the term of one year, five for two years and five for three years, and at each subsequent Annual Meeting, five members shall be elected for the full term of three years, and such others as shall be required to fill vacancies.
Art. VI. To the Executive Committee shall belong the collecting and disbursing of funds, the appointing, counseling, sustaining and dismissing of missionaries and agents, and the selection of missionary fields. They shall have authority to fill all vacancies in office occurring between the Annual Meetings; to apply to any Legislature for acts of incorporation, or conferring corporate powers; to make provision when necessary for disabled missionaries and for the widows and children of deceased missionaries, and in general to transact all such business as usually appertains to the Executive Committees of missionary and other benevolent societies. The acts of the Committee shall be subject to the revision of the Annual Meeting.
Five members of the Committee constitute a quorum for transacting business.
Art. VII. No person shall be made an officer of this Association who is not a member of some evangelical church.
Art. VIII. Missionary bodies and churches or individuals may appoint and sustain missionaries of their own, through the agency of the Executive Committee, on terms mutually agreed upon.
Art. IX. No amendment shall be made to this Constitution except by the vote of two-thirds of the members present at an Annual Meeting, the amendment having been approved by the vote of a majority at the previous Annual Meeting.
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Address
H. STOKES, President.
THE
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ENTERED ITS
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January 1st. 1883, aiming as heretofore to be a safe and valuable aid in the family to an intelligent and practical knowledge of the world, and how to live in it. It will urge the claims of religion upon all, not forgetting the little children; and will discuss the practical questions of the day with candor; advocating earnestly the cause of temperance; speaking freely on all subjects, literary, educational, civil, social or financial, and aiming to speak wisely. Its reviews and articles, correspondence and comments, notes and summaries of news, will be carefully edited. It will seek to be useful to all whom it can reach and will deem it ample reward for much hard labor, if it can in any way serve the cause of Christ; having a special love for the old historic churches of Connecticut, commonly called Congregational, but rejoicing to be a co-worker with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ, and seek to bless and save men. We ask the co-operation and patronage of all who are in sympathy with our aim, and hope for an increase of subscribers, such as will enable us to work more efficiently in the field we are striving to cultivate.
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THE ART DEPARTMENT will be under the direction of Wm. McLeod, Curator of Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. All other departments under equally competent direction.
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For further information send for circular. Sample copy of GODEY’S LADY’S BOOK, 15c. Stamps taken. To avoid errors write plainly your address, giving County and State.
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ANNUAL MEETING OF THE A. M. A.
The Thirty-seventh Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association will be held in the Central Congregational Church, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Dr. Behrends), beginning Tuesday, October 30 at 3 P.M. and closing on the evening of Thursday, November 1.
The sermon will be preached by Rev. John L. Withrow, D.D., of Boston, Mass., Tuesday evening, at 7:30, to be followed by the communion service.
The citizens of Brooklyn will cordially welcome to their homes all persons in attendance at the meetings. Those wishing such hospitality are requested to forward their applications to Richard M. Montgomery, 169 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn, N.Y., before October 15, specifying in their letters the time of their proposed arrival.
Applicants will receive cards of introduction to families in which they will be entertained. Should any person after receiving a card of assignment decide not to attend the meetings, he will please notify the Committee at once, that his place may be given to some other applicant.
Negotiations are in progress to secure reduced rates of travel over different railway and steamboat lines, the results of which will be given at an early day.
Any further information which may be needed will be gladly furnished on application to either of the undersigned.
WM. G. HOOPLE, Chairman, 325 Greene Avenue.
RICHARD M. MONTGOMERY, Secretary, 169 Columbia Heights.
Atkin & Prout, Printers, 12 Barclay St., New York.
Obvious printer’s punctuation errors and omissions silently corrected. Inconsistent hyphenation retained due to the multiplicity of authors.
Changed “BEQEATH” to “BEQUEATH” on the inside cover (I bequeath to my executor).
Changed “us” to “as” on page 311 (there are others as poor as themselves).
Changed “enthusastic” to “enthusiastic” on page 312 (very enthusiastic in their work).
Changed “Woman’ Msissionary” to “Woman’s Missionary” on page 312 (Woman’s Missionary Society).
Changed “purned” to “burned” on page 312 (Our church was burned a year ago).
Changed “Fragance” to “Fragrance” on page 319 (Beauty and Fragrance)