The American Missionary

THE

American Missionary.

American Missionary Association.

This year the Fourth of July is on Monday. Last year, being on Sunday, Dr. Dana’s suggestion to take up a contribution to help the A. M. A. out of debt was acted upon by many of the churches. The result was a large increase to our receipts. Why not repeat the effort this year? It is certainly in order that patriotic sermons should be preached July 3d. It is just as certain that a contribution taken in connection with such a service in behalf of the A. M. A. would be neither burdensome nor inappropriate. It would be an easy matter certainly for that $5,000 deficiency that we carry from last year to be provided for. We throw out the suggestion.

One other thought. Vacation days are now upon us. We make the request that our friends will bear our work in mind as they visit the country churches. A little effort to circulate the American Missionary and to make the people acquainted with our work, would go a great way to help us.

In the June Missionary we mentioned a watch sent us by a widow. It was a cherished memento. Not being able to make an offering of money, she gave us that which represented to her more than money. A reader of the Missionary, noticing the gift, has kindly sent us more than double its market value in redemption.

We are pained to record the death of Mrs. J. H. Parr, which occurred in Chicago, April 3d. Mrs. Parr first went South under appointment of the A. M. A., in November, 1884, to take charge of the musical department at Tillotson Institute, Austin, Texas. At the close of that school year, with her husband she went to Quitman, Ga. The trying experiences in connection with the persecution of our missionaries, and especially the incendiary burning of our school-house at Quitman, gave her nerves such a[188] shock that she never fully recovered from it. The last six months of her life she seemed to be improving. They were months marked by special Christian activity, aiding her husband in his work as a pastor. But death came suddenly, and it was clearly manifest that her nervous forces, so fearfully overtaxed and shattered by the experience of that terrible night in Quitman, were very far from being restored. We commend the bereaved husband to the benediction of the loving Father who sympathizes with all his children in the day of their affliction.

THE JOHN BROWN SONG.

The claim has been made that the melody of the John Brown song was the product of the colored people. Our readers will see from the following article, which we take great pleasure in publishing, that Mr. Frank E. Jerome, of Russell, Kansas, is the author of this famous war song. He has written the article, at our request, for the Missionary, and in a private letter he says that at the time he composed the song he was only thirteen years of age.

Ed.

On the first day of February, 1861, I arrived in Leavenworth, Kansas, from St. Louis, Mo., and took an engagement in a theatre there. Leavenworth at that time was under the greatest excitement. All sorts of rumors of war were coming in, and the soldiers seemed to be concentrating from all sides. Bonfires and stump speeches were the nightly occurrences, and stirred up the patriotism of the people to fever heat. As a boy, I naturally fell into the excitement, and every chance I had I would attend these public meetings. At one of them I heard an impassioned orator thunder out:

This sentence remained with me. I pondered over it, and finally got to singing it in different ways in several songs. Some time after, I heard a prominent citizen say that “John Brown was dead, but the rebels would find that his soul would roll on and crush them!” Before either of these[190] occurrences, I heard a number of soldiers on a South-bound steamer singing, as they swept by:

This tune I had picked up and learned thoroughly. One gift of nature to me has been the art of combining two tunes of different kinds and thereby producing a new one. I had combined this tune of “Go tell Aunt Susey” with the old Sunday-school hymn, “I love to go to Sunday-school,” and the union of these two tunes produced the air of “John Brown’s Body,” as sung everywhere since that time. I sang this tune long before I put any words to it. But when I heard “Freedom and Right will surely win the day,” and that John Brown’s soul “would roll on and crush them,” I found with delight that I could fit them neatly into my tune.

The play in which I gave “John Brown’s Body” was designated as “Jeff. Davis in the Camp.” It represented a number of Northern Negroes going down to capture Jeff. Davis, and during the march southward they build a camp fire, and while the bean soup is boiling the sentinel sings a song, and the rest of the “soldiers” on the stage join in the chorus. I was the sentinel, and gave the song at this time. A company of soldiers was present in the audience, and I was quite startled at the reception my song received. They hurrahed, yelled, laughed, stamped, and called me out time and again, until the proprietor of the theatre interposed and quieted the excitement. But that night, every time I appeared on the stage another storm of applause would greet me.

After the show was over, the soldiers cheered and went out singing “John Brown’s Body” in all sorts of ways, and for several days after I heard it on the street in many different ways. The tune has always remained as I first composed it, but the soldiers changed the words to suit their own convenience and ideas. The song as I sang it was as follows:

This was all the song—but two verses. A short time after this a little newsboy stopped me and told me that he had made up a new verse for my song; and upon asking him to sing it, he sang:

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repeating the same line three times. I laughed, and told him I would think it over.

In the theatre when I gave the song was a Frenchman named C. Francois, well known to the early settlers of Leavenworth, who was the leader of a glee club, composed of the actors, who sang nicely many national airs and ballads. Mr. Francois, about the time I sang the song, went to New York, and, I learn, returned by way of Massachusetts, and I am led to believe that it was through his means that the song reached the Eastern States as quickly as it did; and I also have good reason for believing that the Seventh Kansas and Fiftieth Illinois regiments carried the song South a little later.

These are the facts as they occurred; and I may say, in closing, that I am pleased to note that the little acorn has developed into the mighty oak, and John Brown’s name is one of the imperishable monuments that now adorn a free and united country; and the colored people of the South and North can unite under the glorious banner of Liberty in preserving the name and love for him who freely gave his life for their liberty and freedom.

I have heard severe criticism on the part of Southerners regarding the illustrious dead, but I often remember the olden story, in the Holy Book, of similar criticism made by the enemies of Christ, and I also read that “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

So, in our homes, in our workshops, in the fields, in the churches and schools, through the pages of history, and within our own hearts, we will never forget the boys in blue who saved the Union, and the glorious hero who laid down his life willingly and freely, that the curse of slavery should be forever extinguished from the bright, fair pages of our history. And while we strew bright flowers over the graves of the departed heroes, we shall always remember, with swelling heart and deep affection, the great work accomplished by old John Brown of Ossawatomie.

AT THE MONUMENT OF LINCOLN.

The General Association of Illinois, at its recent meeting in Springfield, as it had done once before, went in a body to that shrine of patriotism, the monument to Abraham Lincoln. That patriotic song, now turned to a Christian psalm, “My country, ’tis of thee,” was sung by the people, and a prayer of thanksgiving was offered by Dr. G. S. F. Savage, who has now come to be one of the veteran ministers of the State.

Words of welcome were offered by the Attorney-General of Illinois, Mr. Geo. H. Hunt, and these were gracefully responded to by the Moderator, Rev. W. F. Day. Addresses were also made by Rev. E. K. Alden, D.D., Hon. Wm. H. Collins, and Rev. Jos. E. Roy.

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At the former visit of this body, the Jubilee Singers were present to voice the gratitude of the emancipated race.

The colored troops, after their muster-out, gave for the monument more than $50,000, one-fourth of the whole.

The scroll held in the left hand of the bronze statue of Mr. Lincoln bears on it, in large letters, the word “Emancipation,” and the pen in his right hand indicates the signing of that talismanic instrument, while the coat-of-arms, set into the pedestal, represents the eagle as holding in his beak the broken chain of slaves.

Of the 178,000 colored soldiers, 80,000 had, with their great Liberator, laid down their lives for the life of the nation. And so it seemed well that one who was identified with the work of supplementing that edict of freedom should stand there to recount their deeds of valor and to relate with what enthusiasm they celebrate all over the South not only Emancipation Day and the Fourth of July, but Decoration Day itself. Who in that Southland shall be found to offer psalms and prayers, and scatter flowers over the graves of the 321,369 soldiers buried in the eighty-two national cemeteries there? As God would have it, the people are found there, numbered by millions, who delight to render this service of gratitude and of love—a people whose patriotism has never been tarnished with a breath of disloyalty.

What shall be done for a people who have been so true to the nation? Let them be confirmed in all the rights and emoluments of our Christian citizenship.

THINGS TO BE REMEMBERED—NO. 2.

The Want: Nothing so nearly concerns the welfare of this land, and of all lands, as the thorough merging and assimilating of all the races here into one Christian commonwealth. This is needed for the unity and strength of our own nation, and for an example and influence upon the nations abroad. The despised races, in particular, need to be thus fused and absorbed, in order that they may be inoculated and empowered with the spirit of the Republic to carry its freedom, its learning and light, to the lands in darkness. They are part and parcel of our people, fused or not, and the character of the nation will be affected by their presence and influence. The measure with which we mete to them shall be measured to us again. We are in a partnership which involves common gains and common losses. What we put into them of intelligence, piety and moral power, we put into the nation not only, but we put into the mightiest of the unbaptized races of men. We have little conception, indeed, of the immense inertia of the heathen races; or how much sympathy, money and labor, will be needed to move them into new lines of thought, or of moral action. But it is a work to which we are specially called, and for[193] which we have special facilities. It may tax all our patience and charity, and then we shall barely touch the necessities of the case. The churches, the school-houses, the intelligence and the character that will be needed for the uplift of these races, we have only begun to supply. Indeed it is a question as to whether we have yet formed any adequate idea of a work, as for races, in distinction from a work which deals merely with individuals. But if we could bear in mind, in dealing with the Chinaman, the Indian and the Negro, that it is the races we are after, the turning of single souls to God would not seem the small thing that it does. We should then comprehend, perhaps, how much more favorable was a Christian land for the conversion of men, and for the raising up of broad, intelligent, and thoroughly equipped teachers and preachers for the benighted and perishing, than were heathen lands. The activities of our daily life, the forces of our liberty, learning, piety, government, must do immensely more for a man in America than the feeble pulses of gospel life and light can do for him in China and Africa. How much easier, then, the conversion of heathen under the blaze of our Christian sky, and how much stronger and better men can we make of them to undertake the salvation of their own lands!

The great want is the means—both men and money—to throw upon the Pacific slopes, upon the Indian reservations, the Southern savannas, a Christian force large enough to put these races under thorough Christian culture. Anything less than this will fail of the end. It is an opportunity to lay hold of the unsaved races, such as is likely never to come again; which it would not only be unwise to neglect, but deeply criminal not to improve. God sets before us this open door, and not to enter in is to peril their future as well as our own. A responsibility greater than this could hardly be given to men, and an eye to see it and a soul to feel it are what, beyond all things, our people need.

C. L. WOODWORTH

THE IMPRESSIONS OF TEN YEARS.

BY PRESIDENT PATTON OF HOWARD UNIVERSITY.

The present educational year completes the tenth of my connection with Howard University, and thus with the work of educating the Negro race. An “Abolitionist” since the spring of the year 1837, I have ever felt a deep interest in the welfare of this oppressed people, and the fact of their present freedom has only changed the direction of my anxiety and effort. For I know that the brightness of their future depends upon industry, education, morality and religion. And to this end they must have Christian schools and churches, and an industrial training in shop and store as well as in garden and farm. My experience as president of an institution which in its seven departments—industrial, normal, preparatory, collegiate, legal, medical and theological—covers well the entire[194] range of instruction, except the primary branches, has given opportunity to observe the capacity and the actual progress of the Negro, and to study the wants of the race in this country.

The result is encouragement not uncoupled with anxiety. A great work has been accomplished, beyond question—great in immediate effect, though more so in its prospective bearing. It is rather a great seed sowing than a great harvest. Thousands have been taught the rudiments of knowledge, and a select few have received a higher training. Some ambition has been roused in the masses, and a little progress has been made in supplying them with more intelligent leaders in church and in state. No doubt remains that the Negro may be rendered capable of filling all the stations in life which are occupied by white men. Ordinary acquirements are made with creditable ease. The higher education can also be acquired by the proper proportion of students, but this effort is only partially successful as yet. Poor material is too commonly offered, not only as to native talent, but especially as regards thorough drill in primary studies and the commencement of genuine mental discipline. With an imperfect drill in the lower schools, we can do no perfect work in the higher branches, and we find it difficult to develop and sustain in the mind the idea of a true scholarship, and of the lofty aims of a liberal education. It is but slowly that such an intellectual atmosphere can be made to pervade the colored colleges of the South as is found in the white colleges of the New England States. But the work must be pushed till such a result shall be secured.

Progress always entails added labor and expense. What has been already accomplished by the A. M. A. must not be lost, and the vantage ground must be used to gain new results. When students graduate, their places are more than occupied by others, who have been moved by their example to seek for knowledge. As the spirit of caste is overcome, and places of honor and profit begin to open to colored men, fully qualified persons must be ready to embrace the new opportunities. Every educated and earnest Christian minister sent forth from our institutions will not only supply his immediate church, but will probably organize in the outlying neighborhood one or two others, requiring similar pastors in a short time. And he will also inspire the uneducated preachers of that region to aim at higher work, and to seek school privileges. It is a frequent remark, that the theological department of Howard University has, by direct and indirect influence, revolutionized the preaching in the colored churches of all denominations in Washington, which number about eighty, it is said. Thus the A. M. A. is a leaven hidden in the Southern meal, and destined, with similar influences, to leaven the entire mass.

And this ought to be appreciated by the intelligent Congregationalists of the North, who will rejoice in two obvious results of the operations of the A. M. A. One is, the gradual increase of their own churches and educational[195] institutions, which are becoming respectable in number and great in influence; the other is, the modifying effect upon other denominations, which are thus inspired and toned up to our standard of education, morals and religion. This is secured not only by our example and competition, but also by the enlightening and liberalizing influence exerted upon their own men, who, as teachers and preachers, have been trained in our schools. These are not false to their own sects; they labor faithfully and successfully in their respective charges, but they have gained enlargement of view and a wider charity, and they will be found always on the side of progress in thought and in action, and ready for Christian co-operation.

The movement in progress in both political parties, to obliterate the race-line at the polls, is significant in many respects. It points to a decrease of prejudice, but it also renders imperative increased efforts to furnish the Negroes with intelligent, well-principled leaders, of their own race, to save them from being made tools of by wily politicians among the whites, and by corrupt vote-mongers among themselves. In a section so rapidly developing as is the South, great changes may soon be expected. It is our American Japan. Let us not be backward in supplying the formative influences. The work of the American Missionary Association was never more needed, or more certain to be successful, than at this very moment.

THE SOUTH.

NOTES IN THE SADDLE.

BY FIELD-SUPERINTENDENT C. J. RYDER

A colored preacher of the old style stumblingly read for his text, the following:—“Wine is a moccasin and strong drink is a rattlesnake.” The sermon which followed was in keeping with the text which he read. This is sound temperance sentiment even if it is a little faulty as a rendering of Scripture. The question is often asked:—What is the A. M. A. doing toward the grand temperance upheaval of the South? This question has been put to me recently:—“Is the A. M. A. keeping step to the march of present reform, as it did in the great anti-slavery agitation?” An unhesitating yes can be given to this question. In the “Notes in the Saddle,” for June, a few hints were given concerning the part the representatives of the A. M. A. were taking in the temperance movement in Texas. This was only a hint. It was intended as such. Much more could have been said, and truthfully said; for instance:—one pastor of an A. M. A. church is devoting a large part of the summer to stumping the State in favor of the proposed Temperance Amendment to the State Constitution. He goes out under the commission of a committee of temperance workers appointed for the special purpose of stirring up correct sentiments among the[196] people. The colored people are a large factor in the settlement of this question in Texas. This pastor will do his utmost to lead them to vote right. Other pastors and teachers are giving portions of their time this summer to the same good work. In the South at large every A. M. A. school is the center of pronounced temperance agitation. “Bands of Hope” among the younger pupils and temperance societies of various names among the older pupils are the universal rule. The “Three Pledge” cards, including abstinence from tobacco, intoxicants, and profane language, are signed by almost every pupil in the A. M. A. schools. These pupils, when they go out as teachers in the public schools, take these pledges with them, and secure signatures from their pupils, and in this way carry the work far beyond the limits of the enrollment of our own schools, in this aggressive temperance agitation. Not a single pastor of an A. M. A. church uses intoxicants or tobacco so far as my knowledge goes. The example of these pastors, as well as their preaching, is right and safe. In one community, the rigid rules adopted by the Congregational Church concerning these indulgences, brought the other colored churches into line first, and, finally, the white church of the same community found it necessary to take this radical position in order to maintain its hold upon the people. Their wise method of reaching the people and securing a correct public sentiment concerning this question, is made use of both by pastors and by schools. Instruction in Coleman’s and Richardson’s Manuals is provided for in the course of study. Honest, earnest, and persistent Christian effort is put forth by the representatives of the A. M. A. all along the line.

While walking down the streets of Florence, Ala., a few weeks ago, a little white boy came trotting along at my side. We easily fell into conversation. “How old are you?” I said. “Nine years old,” he replied. “What Reader do you read in?” “I never read in no Reader.” “Do you go to school?” “No, sir.” “Can’t you read?” “I can pick out some words right smart.” This is the exact testimony of a Southern white boy of the middle class of society to-day! A few rods farther down the street of the same village, a little colored boy overtook me. I invited conversation with him, with the following result: “How old are you?” “Nine years old, Boss.” “Go to school?” “Oh, yes, sir; been going to school for a long time.” “What Reader are you in?” “The Second, sir.” “Can you read right along in the Bible without any trouble?” “Yes, sir; I don’t have any trouble in reading ’most anything.” This incident is true to the letter. It is not very exceptional. The colored children are improving faster than the white children in the South. If this state of things continues very long, the Southern people will be obliged to hire colored young men and women to teach their white schools. Think of it! “In New York State 55 white men in a thousand, and in Massachusetts 62 in each thousand, make their mark when they sign a document,” says the[197] New York Post, “while in Kansas only 31 in a thousand, and in Nebraska only 30 in a thousand are so illiterate. But in Kentucky 173 white men in a thousand cannot write their own names!” The A. M. A. schools in the South are seeking to correct this appalling state of things. They not only educate, but they inspire also a desire for education in those reached by their influences. It is unfortunate that these influences are mostly confined to the colored people, but that is not because the whites are excluded from our school privileges. “None are so blind as those who will not see.” None are so hopelessly ignorant as those who do not desire to learn.

ATLANTA UNIVERSITY.

The eighteenth anniversary of this institution has just passed. No year in the history of the school, perhaps, has witnessed a broader and better work than that of the year now closed.

The exercises incident to Commencement week were inaugurated with the baccalaureate sermon, preached by Sec. Woodworth, of Boston, Sabbath morning, May 22d, in the chapel of the University, packed to the full with the students and their friends.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were occupied with the usual examinations of the Normal and College departments, in the presence of the State Board of Examiners appointed by the Governor for that purpose. Every opportunity was given and taken to test the students in their thorough knowledge and mastery of the subjects reviewed; and it is but simple justice to them and to their teachers to say that they bore the test superbly. In addition to the ordinary school work, there were exhibitions in handicraft of various kinds. First came an exhibit in the principles and practice of wood-working, including carpentry and turning, which would have gratified the advocates of manual labor connected with our public schools.

Next came an object lesson, by the Senior and Normal classes, in nursing. They brought in, upon a stretcher, one of their own number, and illustrated how different kinds of bandages should be made and applied; how plasters and poultices should be mixed and spread, and also how deftly and easily the clothing of the sick bed could be changed and renewed without removing or disturbing the patient.

Then came an exhibit in artistic and scientific cooking, by the Senior Normal class. If the quality of the cooking were to be judged by the rapidity with which the different articles disappeared after reaching the hands of the committee, it must be pronounced a great success.

And last, but not least, came a look at the farm, and an inspection of the barn, the crops, and the stock. The conclusion was that the whole establishment was a credit to the State, and worthy of the study of all the farmers thereof.

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At the close of the examination on Wednesday, P. M., the school assembled in the chapel to listen to the report of the examiners on what they had seen and heard. They had nothing but praise to bestow on the literary work of the University; the evidences of hard and accurate study; of clear, inspiring teaching, and of the scholarly bearing and quiet, orderly spirit in all departments of the school. They were specially gratified with the manual training given in so many directions, and its promise of future value to the State. One of them, who seemed to voice the feelings of the others, said: “I believe that, take it all in all, Atlanta University is the best-equipped school in the State of Georgia.”

Wednesday evening, Rev. A. D. Mayo, of Boston, delivered a very able and quickening address, taking for his theme: “American brains in American hands.”

Thursday was the great day of the feast, when five young men and six young women delivered their orations or read their essays from the Commencement stage. The services were held in the Second Baptist Church, before an audience of twenty-five hundred people. One of the examiners remarked at the close that he never before witnessed, on such an occasion, such perfect order and decorum. And of the orations and essays it is praise enough to say that not one of them contained a weak or foolish thing.

It will interest the friends of Atlanta to learn that the presidency, made vacant by the death of the lamented Ware, two years since, was filled by the election of the Rev. Erastus Blakeslee, of New Haven, Conn. Mr. Blakeslee was a classmate at Yale College of Mr. Ware and of Prof. Bumstead, who has been acting president during the past year; and it is believed he will enter heartily into the spirit of the institution, and will bring to it new enterprise and enthusiasm and power.

C. L. W.

CLOSING EXERCISES AT STRAIGHT.

A Young Men’s Christian Association has been organized during the year, and the first of our closing exercises was a public meeting of this association, conducted by its officers at Central Church.

Addresses were made by Prof. Olds and Rev. Dr. Berger, and a fair audience was present. This was on the morning of Sunday, May 25, and on the evening of the same day the Baccalaureate sermon was preached by Dr. Berger. It was a grand sermon, and was listened to with profound attention by a large audience.

On Monday evening the societies, the old “Sumner Literary Association,” which is almost as old as the school itself; the “Philomathian,” of later birth, but great usefulness; the “Band of Mercy” and “Band of Hope,” united in a public anniversary meeting. A programme, consisting of recitations, orations, reading of essays, and debate, was presented, and a large audience testified to its entire success.

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The annual concert and exhibition came on Wednesday evening. The young people were greeted by a full house, and money enough was realized to nearly pay off the indebtedness on the printing outfit. The music was conceded to be excellent, and all the exercises were applauded.

Friday was Commencement. The exercises are held in the evening, as most of those interested in the school being working people, many who would desire to attend could not do so in the daytime. In New Orleans, especially in summer time, audiences are not noted for assembling early, but people have come to know that when Straight University says 7 o’clock, that is the hour when exercises will commence; and as soon as the doors were open, the crowd was ready to go in. No such an audience ever before occupied that church. At the opening of the doors nearly enough were there to fill the main audience room, and soon galleries, aisles and doorways were packed. It is estimated that a thousand people were present, and a great number were unable to get in.

Formerly, on all gatherings of this kind, it was found necessary to have a force of policemen present; but when getting my permit from the Mayor, I was asked what policemen would be required, I ventured to say “none,” and I am rejoiced to be able to say that during the entire series of meetings no disturbance of any kind occurred. It must be remembered, in order to give force to this, that Central Church is situated in the very heart of the most densely populated portion of the city.

It was a long programme, but so quiet and attentive was that dense audience, that every word could be heard in any part of the room. The exercises from the platform were such as we were proud of, and the audience was not less a subject of pride.

Ten students were graduated, the largest number ever completing the course in any year, and all their exercises were marked by a simplicity and force quite in contrast to the floridity and fluffiness often attributed, and sometimes with justice, to the colored people. Some fine music by the choral and glee clubs, and by individuals, gave variety to the exercises.

The diplomas were presented by Hon. Thomas J. Woodward, vice-president of the board of trustees. A few remarks were made by President Hitchcock and Secretary Chas. Shute, followed by a neat and forcible impromptu address by Rev. A. E. P. Albert, D.D., an alumnus of Straight; closing by singing “The Heavens are Telling,” by the choral club, and benediction by Dr. Berger. Of the graduating class, all but one will for the present engage in teaching; several hope to return and take post-graduate courses. All are working Christians.

R.C.H.

TWO EXAMPLES OF PERSEVERANCE.

The current talk concerning the Negro makes the entire race to consist of improvident ne’er-do-wells, with no care for the future and with no[200] power of denying present gratification for future good. Whatever of truth or falsehood this assertion may contain, and probably it has much of both, very many instances of perseverance come under our observation among our students in the schools of the A. M. A.

A. H. is an orphan girl of about eighteen years, whose desire for education brought her into our school a few months last year. By hard work and careful saving through the summer, she earned enough money to keep herself in school a year. At the close, however, of the first month she brought her books to my desk, saying she must leave school at once; and the poor girl broke down, and began to cry. Little by little I learned the story: Her aunt had been sick, and A. had given to her the earnings hoarded for the year’s tuition. It was now impossible to get the money back, or even enough to meet one month’s demands, and A. had resolved to go out into the country, where she could earn a little by picking up potatoes. By hard work she hoped to save enough to return again at Christmas time. The next day it was my pleasure to send her word that for the present she might remain in the school with free tuition. On Monday she was again in her place, grateful and studious, and kindly offering to give up her desk when the room became full, and herself take a stool or a chair.

In one of our advanced classes there is a young man of nearly thirty years, whose story is equally interesting. In the spring he thought he should not be able to return to school this fall, for lack of money. He went out, however, resolved never to spend an idle day; he would work, even if wages were low. Whenever he failed to secure better work, he went to the woods, splitting rails. Days and days he worked there, through the heat, and found that, by arduous labor, he could clear exactly thirty-five cents a day! “I should have kept on,” said he, “had it been but twenty-five!” The result of his summer’s work was that he found himself, at school time, with more money saved than at any previous fall; and now he is again at his place, studious and faithful, volunteering even to work extra hours each day and Saturday, in the Industrial department, for the sake of the practice with tools.

Instances might be multiplied, but these two are sufficient to show the industry and the sacrifice of many of the scholars, and the need in our schools for a fund to help such to secure the education they desire.

A TEACHER.

THE INDIANS.

Mr. George W. Reed, of the last class of the Hartford Theological Seminary, has been appointed by the American Missionary Association a missionary to the Dakota Indians. He was ordained a minister of the gospel of Christ, on Tuesday, May 17th, by a council called by the Olivet Congregational Church of Springfield, Mass., at Springfield. Mr. Reed is[201] a member of the Olivet Church. The sermon was preached by Prof. Llewellyn Pratt, of the Hartford Seminary. Ordaining prayer by Rev. Wm. Thompson, D.D., also of the Hartford Seminary. Right hand of fellowship by Rev. Michael Burnham, of Springfield. Charge to the candidate by Secretary Powell.

By request, we publish a portion of the charge to the candidate:

I charge you to remember that the interest which this Council expresses in Indian missions is in the line of our historic development. Away back in the year 1644, the General Court of Massachusetts ordained “that the County Courts in this jurisdiction shall take care that the Indians in the several shires be civilized, and the courts shall have power to take order from time to time to have the Indians instructed in the knowledge of God.” In 1646 John Elliot, a Congregational minister, was at work as a missionary among the Indians. He translated his famous Indian Bible, the first and for many years the only Bible printed in America, gathered the Indians into communities by themselves, and in 1647 had 14 Indian villages, with 1,400 praying Indians, organized into 24 regular congregations, in charge of 24 native pastors, and the discipline of the churches and the qualifications of the ministers were fully up to the Puritan standard then required. In 1743 Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, of Lebanon, Conn., another Congregational minister, took up the work where Elliot had laid it down, and out of his missionary labors grew Dartmouth College, an institution that stands to-day a proud monument of New England Congregationalism’s early interest in the education and evangelization of the Indian.

In 1810 the American Board came into existence, and in 1815 we find it adopting measures for carrying the gospel to the Indians. So rapid did its work grow in that direction, that in 1830 three-fourths of all the church members in its missions were Indians. In 1846 the American Missionary Association was formed, and of the 30 missionaries who held its commission the first year, 11 were missionaries to the Indians. In 1883 the American Board, deciding to prosecute its work exclusively in foreign lands, turned over its Indian missions to the American Missionary Association. So that you see what this Council has done to-night is in the line of our historical development, and connects your life and work in an unbroken line with the early history of Congregationalism in its efforts to reach the Indians.

I charge you to remember that in your special mission, justice, as a Christian principle to be observed in all our dealings with our fellow men, must find in you a champion. This because of the fearful wrongs that, in the name of religion, have been committed against the people to whom you go.

In the person of the poor Indian, entitled to all his rights as a man, Christ has been standing in the presence of the white man’s civilization on[202] this continent for upwards of three hundred years, asking for justice, and it has not yet been accorded him. A most shameful record is the history of the white man’s dealings with the Indians, whether read in the conduct of individuals or in the conduct of the Government. The white man, by reason of his intelligence, his resources and his numerical superiority, had the ability to cheat, rob, and overpower the Indian, and putting his sense of justice out of sight, he has proceeded to cheat and rob and overpower him. Between the years 1778 and 1871, the people of the United States have made with the Indians 649 treaties, and the majority of them they have violated. By these treaties nearly all of the territory of the United States has been acquired—a territory that by reason of its vastness is at present the home of 50,000,000 white men, prospectively to become the home of at least 150,000,000 more—a territory that by reason of its marvellous resources of climate, soil and minerals, has produced a wealth already rivaling that of the oldest nations, and promising in the not far distant future to surpass them all. This territory has nearly all of it been deeded by the Indians to the people of the United States, on condition that the Government should compensate them by money annuities in cash payment, or their equivalent in food, clothing, agricultural implements, and instruction in farming and trades; by establishing and maintaining schools for the education of their children, and rigidly excluding white intruders from their reservations.

Well, we have got the territory, but what about the conditions? The money agreed upon has not been paid; the rations stipulated for have not been issued; the schools promised have not been maintained, and white intruders upon the reservations have not been excluded. From pillar to post these children of the forest have been driven. As fast as the white man has wanted the Indian’s land, a reason has been speedily found for violating the treaty and consummating the robbery. The savage has been goaded to go on the war path by white men’s villainy, and then the Government has been obliged to go out and whip him into submission; and, as a punishment for crime he never would have perpetrated had he not been driven to it, move him elsewhere, and divide up his land among his despoilers.

My brother, remember as you stand to preach the gospel among the Indians it will be your precious privilege to show that the wrongs and injustice they have suffered at the hands of the white man have been inflicted in opposition to the teachings of Christianity and in defiance of its commands.

I charge you to remember that your mission gives repeated emphasis to the faith of the Christian church in the redeemability of the Indian. Lack of faith in this truth has been the cause of much of the cruel indifference on the part of many good people—even Christian people—to the wrongs that Indians have suffered, and has occasioned lack of enthusiasm in the prosecution of Indian missions. It has paralyzed endeavor, and[203] prepared the way for the indulgence of enmity. But notice this: No body of Christians have ever put themselves on record as not believing in the Indian’s redeemability. Stories of massacre and one-sided testimony, when the Indian could not have a hearing, have led many Christians by their opposition to Indian missions, unwittingly to array themselves against the gospel. They did not think, in taking up the cry, “There is no good Indian but a dead Indian,” “The Indian cannot be civilized,” “The Indian should be exterminated,” and other such falsehoods, that they were denying the Christian faith and practically proclaiming that there was no salvation for themselves nor for anyone else; yet that was precisely what they were doing, for if the Indian cannot be redeemed, then no one can be redeemed. If the gospel cannot save the lowest, then there is no salvation for the highest. The Indian is a man, and Christ tasted death for every man, and he is able to save to the uttermost every man. That lowest savage, wretched and vile as he is, can be redeemed, and in this redemption can be raised to highest manhood. All culture and excellence of mind and heart are attainable to him whose soul has felt the redeeming power of Christ’s salvation.

Why, then, after 300 years of the presence of Christianity on this continent, have not the Indians been civilized? does any one ask. Rather, when we think of the way that the Indians have been treated, our surprise shall be that any of them have accepted the gospel. And yet despite all of the difficulties, Dr. Jas. E. Rhoades affirmed that there is no field of mission enterprise which has yielded larger returns than that of our native tribes. Indians have been reached by the gospel, and that, too, in a very remarkable degree. The “five civilized tribes,” as they are called, of the Indian Territory, are practically a Christian people; 81,621 Indians wear citizens’ dress wholly, and 59,695 wear citizens’ dress in part; 43,423 Indians labor in civilized pursuits, and of this number 9,612 are farmers; 21,232 houses are occupied by 40,000 Indians as dwellings; and the significant thing about all this is that this most promising state of things has chiefly come about since the inauguration of the Government’s Peace Policy during the Presidency of General Grant, when Christian missions and Christian schools were multiplied, and the Government, in co-operation, made an honest effort to keep faith with the Indian, and to give him, at least, a show of justice. When the Indian was given the chance, he was found ready to accept it. The facts are most encouraging. Wonderful has been the progress the gospel has made among these people during the last fifteen years. But the field is vast, and, in comparison with the needs, only a beginning has been made. There are 40,000 wild Indian children in the country. Of this number, all told, there are but 12,000 gathered in the Government and mission schools, leaving 28,000 children to whom no school opens its door, and to whom no Christian missionary comes. There are at least sixty whole tribes upon whose darkness no ray[204] of gospel light has ever fallen, as pagan and as savage as were their ancestors when the first white man landed upon these shores!

You have given yourself to this work, my brother, at an auspicious time—at a time luminously prophetic of grand results. God’s bell strikes the hour. Providential lines converge. The machinations of wicked men are growing less. Our government is shaping itself to do right. Our legislators are becoming more humane in their attitude. The voice of the people is rising louder and louder, and becoming more united in its demand for justice. The Christian church is awaking to a sense of its responsibility. The seed planted by Elliot, and Mayhew, and Wheelock, is fruiting in the reviving interest in Indian missions that to-day is seen spreading among the churches. The Indian turns his face towards the sunlight. He stretches out his hands for help. Confidingly he places his destiny in our keeping. To help him into the light and the manhood of the gospel is a work that an angel might covet. To that work you have given yourself, to that work this Council has consecrated you, and into that work we will all follow you with our God-speed and benediction.

THE CHINESE.

EVANGELISTIC WORK.

All that I can report on this point is that we are feeling our way towards something effective—praying continually, and watching diligently for an answer to our prayer, that God will raise up some Chinese believer and endue him with such power that he may not only disciple those already gathered in our schools, but may make his voice to be heard among the perishing crowds that now refuse to enter our opened doors, and love darkness rather than light.

For three months past we have had Loo Quong in the field—a faithful and beloved missionary helper, previously serving in our Central school in San Francisco. He spent one month in Oroville, one in Marysville, and is about completing a third in Stockton. At each of these points he was joyfully welcomed, and his abundant labors were rewarded by some measure of success. But that for which we pray we have not yet secured, though it waits for us, I am sure, in the gracious purpose of our Lord.

In March, I visited these three missions, and the one in Sacramento also, to which our brother will go as soon as his labors in Stockton are closed. As usual, my observations both lifted me up and cast me down. Most of what is discouraging might have been averted if we had fit Chinese helpers in sufficient numbers, and the means to sustain them. The American teachers at these points are specially faithful, skillful and devoted, but nothing can make up for the loss entailed by the absence of effective Chinese helpers.

[205]

Oroville is a rendezvous for the Chinese scattered over a very wide territory. Its resident Chinese population is also large; not less than six hundred. Loo Quong had done a good work here, and I found the school in better condition than ever before. It was on a week-day evening that we gathered round the table of our Lord. The room was well filled with Chinese, and we had several Americans with us also. I think that more than twenty communed. One was baptized and received to our little Chinese church. One other would have been baptized—a brother very well reported of—but he had been obliged to go away to his summer’s work, about eighty miles distant. One brother walked about fifteen miles to be with us at this service, and trudged back again early the next morning, gladly sacrificing for it most of his night’s rest. Very generous subscriptions (considering their deep poverty) were made in aid of our work. Three on that evening expressed their new purpose to live for Christ, by joining the Association of Christian Chinese—an act which involves a confession of Christ quite as explicit as, among us, attends reception to the church.

Lack of space forbids that I speak particularly of the other points visited, except to say that we had in Stockton, after the school session was ended—that is from 9 to 10:30 P. M.—a meeting with the pupils at which the presence of the Spirit was manifest to us all, and seventeen rose to express their full purpose to leave all and follow Christ.

I conclude with a single extract from a letter from Hong Sing, our helper at Santa Cruz, in which he speaks of several attempts of his heathen countrymen to catch him in his words. I ask our friends to read it, remembering that Hong Sing is a house-servant, working in the kitchen all day and teaching and preaching at night:

“I write a few words to tell you how we won the seven souls last month. Since they found the way of light, and so they came with us, with the same mind to worship the true God. Their cousins and acquaintances are full of hatred, and try many ways to make fun of them, to entice them to give up the worship of the Lord God. So was fulfilled the word our Lord has said: ‘When men shall revile you and speak evil of you for my sake.’ Sometimes one or two come to argue with me after the school has closed, and pick out the hardest questions to ask me—as this one: ‘Who made that God in Heaven? for you said, only one God; where that one made from?’ I answer them: ‘Suppose you count anything, do not you say, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on? Now, 1,000 come that way from 100; 100 come from 10, and 10 come up from 1; 1 is the beginning. If we add one more, that would be two. If that one God made from another God. So we go on—no end; but we all worship that only One that is at the beginning, who made all things.’ Then their tongues silent.”

Was it not “given him what he should say?”

WM C. POND.

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MISSIONS IN CHINA.

The Chinese Government has issued instructions to the local Governors, in pursuance of which these officials have put forth proclamations warning the people against the persecution of missionaries and Christians.

“Know all men,” says the Governor of Che-Kiang, “that the sole object of establishing chapels is to exhort men to do right; those who embrace Christianity do not cease to be Chinese, and both sides should therefore continue to live in peace, and not let mutual jealousies be the cause of strife between them.”

Likewise Kung, the Governor of the province in which Shanghai is situated, after explaining that, under the treaties, missionaries have the right to hold land and houses, on lease, and to travel about and preach, “their sole aim being the inculcation of the practice of virtue, and having no design of interfering with the business of the people,” goes on to say: “Such of the subjects of China as wish to become converts may lawfully do so, and as long as they abstain from evil doings there is no law prescribing inquisition into, or prohibition of, their actions.” For the destruction of chapels and houses, in disturbances increased “by local vagabonds and bad characters,” summary vengeance will be taken. “Bear in mind,” adds the Governor, “that when missionaries live in the midst of your villages you and they are mutually in the relationship of host and guest. Under ordinary circumstances it is your foremost duty to act toward them with courtesy and forbearance. Should any misunderstanding arise, let each submit his side to the local authorities, and on no account give rein to ill-considered resentment, and fall, owing to the impulse of a moment, in the net of the law.”

When we think of the sentiments that even some Christians in this country hold regarding the Chinese, and when we think of the treatment the Chinese have received at the hands of our nation, the reading of the above is enough to make our faces crimson with shame not unmingled with indignation.

SELECTED.

BUREAU OF WOMAN’S WORK.

MISS D. E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.

Our work is to preach the gospel and all that this implies. The gospel of Jesus Christ reaches head, heart and hand. Anything that is injurious to a human being, in any part of life, the gospel condemns. Temperance is a gospel doctrine. It is one of the great multitude of truths our missionaries proclaim. When in this magazine we report progress in our work, we are reporting progress in temperance, for that is a part of our work. If the word “temperance” doesn’t always appear, it is simply for the same[207] reason that the words honesty, chastity and truth, are not always appearing as words. They are always there in significance. It is the work of the gospel to advance these virtues. We make a few extracts showing the temperance interest as represented at some of our mission stations:

Sunday was a busy day. Our Sunday-school Temperance Workers held a meeting at a little Methodist Church, called Providence Chapel. The church was filled, and we had a very good programme. Several little girls spoke temperance pieces, and some of them spoke very beautifully and made a deep impression. Music and short, stirring addresses, and printed selections, filled up the time, and some new names were obtained for the pledge. The hardest task, almost, is to induce the older men to give up tobacco, but some of them came to that decision in the meeting. Providence Chapel is surrounded by saloons. The noble and energetic pastor spoke to the children of the Sunday-school in such words as these, “If your mother tells you to go and get a glass of beer, you tell her ‘No.’ If she whips you, come and tell me. I want to know who she is. Be brave enough to tell her ‘No.’” Such words would sound very strange in some places, but here they are needed, for some of those very mothers are members of that church, but they are getting aroused. That meeting Sunday did a great deal for them. It also did our young people good, by giving them an opportunity to do something and feel that they were doing something. The meeting was carried on entirely by the colored people, except that one of the teachers helped make out the programme, another played the organ and another made a short address.

Temperance is, just now, a subject of great interest in this State. The Legislature have just voted to submit the question of Prohibition to the people next fall. What a grand thing it would be if Tennessee could become a Prohibition State. Our little Sunday-school Temperance Workers are doing well. Our last meeting was held at a large colored Methodist Church. The house was nearly full, and we had a very enthusiastic meeting. Many of the children spoke recitations very beautifully. We had music, essays, and some words of counsel from the ministers of the two churches. Every one seemed to be very much interested. Mr. J. C. Johnson, a prominent white philanthropist of this city, was there, and seemed very much pleased. He said he wished we would go to some church every Sunday and thought we would do a great deal of good. The white temperance leaders feel the importance of securing the negro vote on their side, and such questions as these, which divide the white vote, will go a long way toward securing the political rights of the black man.

One of our regular studies in school is “Alcohol and Hygiene,” and our class have become very much interested in it. One of the class said to me a few days since, “I just thought people didn’t drink because they did[208] not want to become drunkards. I didn’t know there was so much harm in it, but I am convinced now.” I think this expression is the sentiment of the class. One of its members who could not sign the pledge four months ago, did so at our last meeting. She was influenced to the step by learning of the evil wrought by alcohol.

A Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was formed at Shelby, with twelve members, and there will doubtless be four or five more organized in other places, when the delegates can have proper instructions, and in no better way can the influence of our churches and work be felt, than in this direction. Nothing has brought about such a desirable harmony as the temperance work in churches of all denominations, and the mothers, wives and daughters see more and more the necessity of uniting their influence against intemperance.

ENGLISH AS SHE IS “NOT” TAUGHT IN OUR SCHOOLS.

NOTES BY A MISSIONARY TEACHER.

“I would like to have you checktise him.”

“It is the most instructivest book I ever read.”

“May we walk circumspeckle!”

“She has come thousands of miles across the briny ocean to lift us from our ignorancy and degradation.”

“I have outed [erased] my lesson from the blackboard.”

“I obedience my parents.”

“The avalanche [ambulance] has come.”

“She has come for her gosling.” [Gossamer].

“The preserved seats.”

“I don’t like a sit-up religion.” [In prayer].

“It was as neat a funeral as I ever went to.”

“Our much well-beloved classmate.”

“She is right smart better.”

“The sea air is very embracing.”

“Blessed are they that are prosecuted.”

“I have had to delay the correspondence on account of the inclemency of my health.”

“Will you rest your hat?”

“I have the misery in my head.”

“I return you a board of thanks.”

“She is the mattress.” [Matron].

“I went to the exception.” [Reception].

“I don’t lean against [toward] the Episcopalians.”

“He had twenty compulsions.” [Convulsions].

“He is deceasted.”

FOR THE CHILDREN.

I am quite confident that some of our Northern little folks will be glad to know how some of our little ones down here stand on the temperance question. We commenced having Band of Hope meetings over four years ago, but did not ask the children to sign the pledge for many months, for these little ones don’t have temperance papas and mammas to help them keep their pledges, so we did not wish them to sign till they knew well what was expected of them. Over fifty signed the first opportunity, and I came home with a very heavy heart lest many signed because others did, and did not realize the sacredness of their pledge. I felt especially worried about Johnny, a little six-year-old, whose father kept a hotel and had many men around him who drank. It wasn’t long before one of these men urged Johnny to take a drink from his bottle. He took some in his mouth, and then he thought of his pledge, and ran and spit it out; then took some water and washed and washed his mouth.

Little bright-eyed Willie loved the taste of whisky, and his father always gave him a sip of his drink. After he signed the pledge, he so stoutly refused his father when he urged him to drink, that it affected him so that he, too, has signed the pledge for one year.

Some little ones in another family, who had always had their “toddies,” as they call it in this country, have been so true to their pledges, refusing their grandfather, who urged them to drink with him, that it has influenced their mother to think she can do without whisky as a medicine, and to become an enthusiastic member of our N. C. T. U. And so we see “a little child shall lead them.”

MRS. A. A. MYERS.

RECEIPTS FOR MAY. 1887.