THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

NEW YORK:

Published by the American Missionary Association,

Rooms, 56 Reade Street.

Price, 50 Cents a Year, in advance.

American Missionary Association,

56 READE STREET, N. Y.

PRESIDENT.

Hon. E. S. TOBEY, Boston.

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, D. D., 56 Reade Street, N. Y.

DISTRICT SECRETARIES.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

COMMUNICATIONS

relating to the business of the Association may be addressed to either of the Secretaries as above; letters for the Editor of the “American Missionary” to Rev. Geo. M. Boynton, at the New York Office.

DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

should be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Ass’t Treasurer, No. 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.

Correspondents are specially requested to place at the head of each letter the name of their Post Office, and the County and State in which it is located.

[Pg 193]

The Boston anniversary day has come and gone again. The last hour of the morning was given to the work of this Association. Secretary Woodworth read a brief report of work. Rev. P. B. Davis, of Hyde Park, spoke from his observations in a recent tour among our schools and churches. Rev. Albert H. Heath, of New Bedford, spoke of this continent as the mens’ battle-ground for the settlement of the great questions which have never been decided, and argued that, having the opportunity and the ability, we are under obligation to help the three despised races.

We have no word to say in favor of intermarriage between whites and blacks in our country, but we desire to say an earnest word against the laws of Virginia in the South and of at least one State in the North, which makes a marriage between such parties a cause of imprisonment, but permits them to live together in illicit relations unpunished. The best restraint upon such miscegenation will be by punishing it when unlimited by law, and only allowing it when it does not violate the law of God.

A few barrels of clothing have been received by us for the Freedmen in Kansas. We forwarded them to the Kansas Freedmen’s Relief Association at Topeka, and have received their acknowledgments and thanks. Governor St. John, who is the President of the Association, in a recent letter says:

“Between three and four thousand refugees have arrived in Kansas, and have been distributed to various portions of the State, and I think, perhaps with the exception of say not to exceed one hundred of the entire number, they are now making their own living, and getting along without asking or receiving aid. I am inclined to [Pg 194] the opinion that the rush is over for the present, but will be renewed again in the fall; meantime, no doubt there will be small numbers coming in from time to time, but I think, as a general rule, will not require much aid. There are now between two and three hundred on the banks of the lower Mississippi desiring to come here, but the boats refuse to bring them. I think it very likely that measures will be resorted to that will end in transporting these people to the North, and in all probability to Kansas, and it is very likely that within the next few weeks they will have to be provided for.”

One of the best ways of aiding the poor negroes in Kansas, or anywhere else, has been devised by Mr. Montgomery, a colored planter in Mississippi. Visiting Kansas, he bought a section of land in Wabaunsee county. Four other sections have been divided into forty-acre tracts, and a colony of about fifty families will be established upon them. Until the colonists get their little farms in order, they will be given employment upon Mr. Montgomery’s 640 acres, and will thus be able to earn enough for their support. The settlers agree to pay $2.65 an acre for their land with 7 per cent. interest. Could there be a simpler or better way devised of helping poor immigrants or poor citizens to help themselves?

THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.

It seems to be a day of great bequests. While our country and others as well have been straitened by hard times, fortunes well planted have been growing silently, and those who have watched over them have been devising liberal things. The estate of Daniel Stone of Massachusetts, yields $1,000,000 for educational endowments; that of Asa Otis of Connecticut, at least $1,000,000 for foreign missions. Judge Packer of Pennsylvania leaves $2,000,000 to the Lehigh University; this in addition to $1,000,000 which it cost to found the institution. Gardiner Colby of Boston directs nearly $400,000 to be distributed among various Baptist institutions and societies. Dr. Hugh Miller of Scotland leaves some $140,000 for missionary purposes. Nor can we fail to mention here the $100,000 which Mr. Robert Arthington of England has given or offered to British and American missionary societies, of at least four denominations of Christians, for the planting of missionary enterprises in Equatorial Africa. The estate of Mr. R. R. Graves of New York, in addition to large gifts already made, has nearly $100,000 in process of distribution mainly for work in the South. These and others like them are significant facts, that from so many sources there should have been such large appropriations to such good work.

We are led to look, therefore, to the other end of the line. What is the motive which has moved these stewards of God to turn their benefactions in such directions in so large a measure? Rather, we ask, what is the corresponding providence which has called for them, or the preparation which has been making far away for their wise use, the signs of which were not seen, perhaps, by the givers at the time when they were thus carrying out the Lord’s will? What is the significance of it all in the divine plan?

Is it not that the world is suddenly opening for missionary work as perhaps never before in all its history? that in more than one direction the long twilight which has been slowly creeping over the eastern sky is breaking in a moment into glorious dawn? that the seed which has been growing secretly these many days[Pg 195] has come to be the bud, and now is bursting into the flower? Such crises do come in the history of God’s world, in the progress of the Gospel of his Son.

Three illustrations of this truth are just now conspicuous——India is clamoring for the Gospel; missionaries are beset with eager throngs begging for the bread of life; whole villages are calling each for a Christian teacher to come and dwell among them and lead them to the Christ. Thousands have been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus during the past year. Japan, too, which succeeded in keeping itself secluded from all interference from without until so late a day, has taken down its official threats published at every crossroad against “the Jesus religion,” and, as it throws away its idol gods, is ready to accept either the materialism or the Christianity of Europe and America; and Africa is no longer a region of unexplored darkness, but has been forced to give up its secrets to the Christian explorer as well as to the Arab slave-trader, who heretofore alone has shared them with the aborigines. Africa is known, and already has followed the death-blow to the internal traffic in human life; missionary expeditions are winding along its rivers and across its swamps, and, with the Arab out, the Christian may come in. For us, this last great continent is of peculiar interest, and its opening lends a new and wider meaning and reach to the work we have been patiently doing in the South? Are not these the complementing facts which stand over against those stated first, and which explain them?

God has brought his church into a crisis by which he will try its faith and its faithfulness. He has opened the doors wide for its entrance into new fields. No longer does the missionary have to push himself into the midst of heathendom; but the cry is heard on every side, “Come over and help us.” And then the Lord of both the fields and the fountains has shown us by these illustrious examples of both the living and the dead, how he looks to the men who hold his wealth to administer their trusts, and to lead on the hosts of those who may swell the stream with much or little, as he has prospered them. Will the church of Christ bear the testing? Let us hope that these large gifts are only the great drops which tell us of the coming shower which shall fill all the pools. Nay, rather, let us pray that this may be the beginning of “the latter rain.”

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF ANSWERED PRAYER.

The obligation which comes from offered prayer is apparent. It implies a complete subordination of our will to God’s will——a readiness for any self-denial and effort on our part necessary to the answer, through whatever trying ordeal that answer may come. But the process is essential to the result.

Once answered, the prayer brings the additional responsibility of walking in its light. We find ourselves straggling within the toils of some disaster. We ask the Lord, “How is this?” He gradually unfolds the meaning as indicating some transition in His plan for our life. Having carried us safely through, and having set us surely in the line of the new departure, He expects us to take up the full measure of its obligation. When, with Saul of Tarsus, we are dazed by the new experience and cry out, Lord, what wilt thou have us to do? we are, with him, to accept the labor and sacrifice implied thereby. David puts it thus: “I will pay Thee my vows which my lips have uttered and my mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble.” Hannah, with her prayer answered in the gift of a son, must fulfil her vow in devoting him to the service of the Lord. For a long time God’s[Pg 196] people were praying Him to open the way among the nations for the entrance of the Gospel of his Son. He answered by setting open the door to every land and to every island of the sea. It is our duty to enter and occupy. If we do not, we are grossly disobedient to the heavenly vision; we are found guilty of deserting in the battle of the great day of the Lord Almighty. The Christian world now rests under this obligation.

We wrestled with God in prayer for the deliverance of our brethren in bonds. We cried, Oh Lord, how long! how long! The answer came by terrible things in righteousness. We had scarcely expected to see it in our day. Our thought had stopped with the great burden of emancipation. Our vision scarcely took in the mountain of obligation looming in the horizon of our answered prayer. We thought that if we could only see our country delivered from its crime and shame of oppression, the millennium would be near at hand. We had not yet taken upon our hearts the burden of lifting up the emancipated race. We had not yet received our divine commission to lead this people through their forty years of training into the citizenship of the republic and of the kingdom of God. But this was all implied in the answering of our prayer. We asked for this child of liberty, and now it is but the instinct of nature and the demand of reason that we meet the obligation of its nurture. We prayed that the slaves might be set free, and this implies that we make good the conditions of freedom. In the words of the martyr-President, they are “the wards of the nation.” So also are they the children of the Church, given in answer to prayer, to be nourished into Christian character for service in this their native land and in the country of their ancestral home.

J. E. Roy.

AFRICA IN AMERICA AND AMERICA IN AFRICA.

We are glad to print the following letter, from an intelligent friend in New England, to a member of our Executive Committee:

My Dear Sir:

I have received and read with interest the paper you have sent me in relation to Africa and the colored people.

It has seemed to me a very remarkable indication of God’s recognition of His promise, “Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands,” that the two great events of recent years——the abolition of American slavery, and the brilliant explorations and discoveries in Africa, which have become epochs in history——have occurred nearly simultaneously; and the higher education of the colored young men and women seems to have progressed in relative proportion to the further opening up of Africa, with its immense population, suffering, dying for the Word of Life.

The climate of tropical Africa, taken as a whole, is evidently fatal to the white man. There is a region about those large interior lakes, though under the equator, which from its altitude (4,600 feet above the ocean level) at the Victoria Nyanza, is represented by Mr. Stanley to be salubrious. But the climate, even in this most highly favored part of the African continent, is enervating and ultimately destructive to the life of the white man. The missions upon the West Coast of Africa have been conducted for the past hundred years at a fearful sacrifice of the lives of white missionaries.

We may not forecast events for the Providence of God to follow. We do our duty when we faithfully perform the work He assigns us. But I cannot exclude the thought from my mind, that sometime at the proper time, the children of Africa now natives of our own country, must be prepared by education and the[Pg 197] Spirit of God to go with hearts of love, laden with the Gospel of Peace, to their own race in Africa, and elevate them from their degradation and barbarity, to the liberty wherewith Christ maketh free.

I feel deeply the wrongs which have been perpetrated upon poor, suffering, abused, down-trodden, defenceless Africa. Her country has been the foraging field for the violent, the cruel and bloody-minded for centuries. A dim light now dawns upon it. The slave trade is nearly, perhaps quite suppressed. A million of philanthropic hearts are beating high with earnest desire to repair the wrongs which inhumanity has inflicted upon it. God grant that the sun of righteousness may soon arise upon that benighted land.

The American Missionary Association is doing a noble work in the schools it has inaugurated for the education of colored young men and women to be teachers and missionaries, and should receive increased subscriptions from our New England States.

G. M.

CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE SOUTH.

4. Its Opportunities.

DIST. SEC. C. L. WOODWORTH, BOSTON.

We have now reached the point where attention may be well directed to the opportunity of Congregationalism for enlargement, and so for greater usefulness in the Southern States, and especially among the blacks. If the claim that our faith and polity lie in the very letter as well as spirit of the New Testament be anything more than pretense, then it is nothing less than cowardice to consent that either should be limited by lines of latitude. The other denominations have spread over the country, and have aspired to a national name and influence; but Congregationalism, until within thirty years, had hardly set foot outside of New England. It had clung to the early home, and lingered among the graves of the fathers, while other churches were pressing across the continent. Late in the contest it joined the grand march of the churches Westward, and has shown what fine work she can do as an educator and civilizer. Now the door opens Southward, and she will be recreant to every call of duty, to every impulse of patriotism and religion, if she does not widen her borders and diffuse her influence in that direction. The opportunity is before her for enlargement to the full dimensions of our country, and she should be satisfied with nothing less. The church of the Pilgrims has a right to a national name——the South has a right to any good she may have to bestow.

It has been intimated, indeed, that other churches hold the field, and that ours has no right to intrude. If the churches on the ground had fairly done all the work——had enlightened the ignorant, had lifted the degraded——there would be some place for such a sentiment. It may seem a cheap and almost contemptible thing to enter the South through the negro cabins and offer the poorest of the poor our culture and our faith. But nothing is contemptible that bears the image of the Son of God or carries His sanction. We simply follow the spirit of His own command: “If they receive you not in one city, flee ye into another.” We have no disposition to discriminate against the whites, but when they discriminate against themselves we have no alternative but to turn to the blacks. And perhaps it is as well; for if the whites had opened their hearts and their homes to receive us, what would have become of the race that needs us most of all; that showed such hunger for knowledge and eagerness for teachers as perhaps was never before seen in the history of races? As it is now, we can lay foundations at the very[Pg 198] bottom of Southern society. It is an opportunity to be useful to those who have made themselves useful to us.

They see in our teachers and missionaries the practical illustration of human brotherhood; and they find that just so far as the doctrines we teach prevail, they are recognized as men. They only need to know us fully, to turn to us by thousands.

We have an immense advantage in this work, too, because we are not hampered by any connection with the old colored churches, and are not tempted to cater to their superstition and confusion in worship. The temptation to count members in the Annual Report, and to sweep whole congregations into the church, is very great; but, fortunately, it has not lain in our path. There were no Southern Congregational churches, and so there were no churches of our name for which we were held responsible. It was our work to prepare a pure and intelligent seed with which to plant the Southern field. We antagonized no other church; “the land was all before us where to choose.” The 5,300 laborers we have sent into the South during these seventeen years were for the negro race; and the 2,000 more we have raised up out of that race are for the instruction of their people. The foundations we have laid, therefore, have been broad, and just those needed to start the race upward.

To those who are intent on merely propagating an ism, the results up to this time may seem small compared with the outlay of men and money; but to those who look deeper, the results cannot be counted in numbers of schools or churches; the churches founded represent but a part of the spiritual outcome. The old churches have been wonderfully quickened and elevated by the incoming of large numbers of youths brought to Christ under our teaching; these have carried back a more intelligent piety and a severer standard of morals. Such a result was to be expected, and, if the old churches are to be purified and saved, is not to be regretted. In estimating the good done, therefore, we must take into account not merely the new churches planted, but the old ones enlightened and cleansed. Our mission has been, and may be, largely to leaven the old, while we build up, over the South, the churches and schools to serve as lights and guides of the people into the new and nobler future. We oppose nothing that is good; we come with no Northern name to antagonize a Southern one; we come as a new spiritual force to help all true churches, and all good people, in working out the problem of the negro’s salvation. Our right to go, then, is the right to do good as we have opportunity; is to take advantage of most favoring circumstances for enlargement and usefulness.

GENERAL NOTES.

The Freedmen.

——A National Colored Convention met in Nashville, Tenn., May 6th, and continued in session four days. It was a body thoroughly in earnest and deeply impressed with a sense of the wrongs endured by the people of whom they were the representatives from all parts of the South. In an address to the country, adopted by them, they speak as follows in regard to their political condition: “Wholly unbiased by party considerations, we contemplate the lamentable political condition of our people, especially in the South, with grave and serious apprehensions for the future. Having been given the ballot for the protection of our rights, we find, through systematic intimidation, outrage, violence and[Pg 199] murder, our votes have been suppressed, and the power thus given us has been made a weapon against us.” In regard to the recent emigration they say in the same address: “The migration of the colored people now going on has assumed such proportions as to demand the calm and deliberate consideration of every thoughtful citizen of the country. It is the result of no idle curiosity or disposition to evade labor. It proceeds upon the assumption that there is a combination of well-planned and systematic purposes to still further abridge their rights and reduce them to a state of actual serfdom. If their labor is valuable it should be respected. If it be demonstrated that it cannot command respect in the South, there is one alternative, and that is to emigrate.”

At the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, at its recent meeting at Saratoga, the report of the Committee on Missions for Freedmen, contained the following items: receipts from churches, $52,921.93; receipts from the State School funds, $4,246.00; expenditures on account of missions, $40,360.27. There are 48 ordained missionaries (of whom 34 are colored), 9 licentiates, 25 catechists (all colored), and 58 teachers (of whom 36 are colored). Eight churches were organized last year, and 1,215 communicants were received. The whole number of communicants is 10,577. The total amount paid for self-support by churches and schools is $18,611.55. It was determined not to transfer this department to the Home Missionary Board.

The Indians.

——Judge Dundy, of the U. S. Court at Omaha, has made a decision which, if confirmed by the Circuit Court to which an appeal has been taken, will greatly change the status of the Indians. It declares the reservation plan a nullity, and that Indians cannot be held within certain boundaries. It was made in regard to the Poncas, who were removed two years ago against their will to the Indian Territory. A small number returned this spring to Nebraska, where, though peaceably engaged in agriculture, they were arrested by Gen. Crook and taken back to the Territory. On a writ of habeas corpus, sued out for their relief, the judge decided that the Indian is a “person” within the meaning of the laws of the United States, and has rights under the laws; that Indians possess the inherent right of expatriation, as well as the white race, and have the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, so long as they obey the laws; that no rightful authority exists for removing by force any of these Poncas to the Indian Territory, as Gen. Crook had been directed to do, and that being unlawfully restrained of liberty, they must be discharged. If this decision be confirmed and the principle established, the results will be far-reaching.

——A prominent citizen of Southern Kansas asserts that not less than 5,000 white persons are now in the Indian Territory. A despatch from Independence, dated May 5, says: “Over 150 wagons passed into the Indian Territory southwest of this point yesterday.”

The Chinese.

——Gen. Grant, in responding to a cordial reception given him by the Chinese merchants of Penang, said that he never doubted, and no one could doubt, that, in the end, no matter what agitation might for the time being effect at home, the American people would treat the Chinese with kindness and justice, and not deny to the free and deserving people of that country the asylum they offer to the rest of the world.

[Pg 200]

——The bill introduced into the Senate by Slater, of Oregon, seems to be of some interest to the Chinaman in America. It provides that after July 1, 1880, no Chinaman shall be allowed to “engage in, carry on, or work at any manufacturing or mechanical business, or to own or lease, carry on or work any mine, or to own or lease any real estate for any other purpose than that of lawful commerce and for places of residence.” As if this were not enough, the Chinaman is forbidden to “work or engage to work as mechanic, artisan, laborer, waiter, servant, cook, clerk or messenger, or in any other capacity or at any other kind of labor, skilled or unskilled.” And there is a heavy penalty inflicted upon the Chinaman or American citizen who violates it. If such a bill should become a law there would be nothing left for the Chinaman to do except to climb a tree and stay there.

Africa.

——The London Missionary Society has received advices dated Jan. 23d, from Mr. Dodgshun. Preparations for proceeding to the lake from Kirasa were begun in June, 1878. Various delays have made progress very slow, as lack of porters and war between Mirambo and the Arabs, and Mr. D. had only then reached Unyanyembe. Meanwhile, three of the six who set out in August, ’77, were left on the field, and they the juniors of the expedition. Messrs. Hore and Hutley are at Ujiji. Two students of the Society have been appointed to join the force——Rev. W. Griffith and Mr. Southon, M. D. Dr. Mullens, the Foreign Secretary of the Society, offered himself to lead the new expedition. The Directors allowed him to go as far as Zanzibar, hoping that it would not be necessary for him to go farther. Central Africa seems yet to be a great way off.

——The following illustrates the exposure of African missionaries to suspicion and violence: “At Mukondoku in Ugogo we were within an ace of being attacked by over 100 of the natives, fully armed, and thirsting for the blood of the white men. Their only ground of complaint was that M. Broyon’s little child had lost a toy——an indiarubber doll——in our camp, which they found, and persisted in calling ‘medicine to ruin their country!’ When convinced that they were wrong, and that we had not the slightest wish to injure them, they only grew the more violent, and told the pagazi to leave us alone that they might kill us. A heavy payment of cloth smoothed the way for peace, but we fully expected to have to fight for our lives, as we had not a single man to be depended on to stand by us.”

——Mr. Mackay, of the C. M. S., at Lake Nyanza, writes that after his two years’ march he found the goods of the expedition in safety, but mixed in indiscriminate confusion. Ten days brought some order out of this chaos. The engines are complete, and almost everything, though divided into 70 lb. parcels for the journey of 700 miles, is at hand and in place.

——Mr. Mackay speaks thus of the evil of intemperance in Africa: “Oh, how often will I enter in my journal, as I pass through many tribes, Drink is the curse of Africa! Useguha, Usagara, Ugogo, Unyamwezi, Usukuma, Ukerewe, and Uganda too——go where you will, you will find every week, and, when grain is plentiful, every night, every man, woman and child, even to sucking infant, reeling with the effects of alcohol. On this account chiefly I have become a teetotaler on leaving the coast, and have continued so ever since. I believe, also, that abstinence is the true secret of continued and unimpaired health in the tropics. Whoever wishes to introduce civilization into Africa, let a sina quâ non of the enterprise be that its members be total abstainers.”

[Pg 201]

——The expedition, under Dr. Laus, to explore the west side of Lake Nyassa, returned in December. Livingstonia is proving a city of refuge to natives escaping from slavery. The health record is good.

——“In Western Africa the climate is still our great difficulty. It cripples our work by prostrating our men. The Gambia Mission has been almost entirely deprived of its Missionaries during the year from this cause, and the River Mission has been obliged to be suspended. The Committee would gladly diminish, if possible, these risks, and improve the chances of health, and attention is being given to this subject; but the need is being felt more and more keenly every year of adequate and well-furnished institutions, in which the African shall be trained to win Africa for Christ. The education of the girls, the women of the future, is also most desirable here.”——From the Annual Report of the Wesleyan Missionary Society of Great Britain.

——The Church Missionary Society received last year $935,000, and expended $1,020,000. The Wesleyan Missionary Society reports receipts, $666,000; expenditures, $786,000.

OUR QUERY COLUMN.

1. How do you prevent truancy?

2. How do you prevent tardiness?

3. Do you allow anything but failures in lessons to be deducted from scholarship?

4. What is your standard in scholarship for promotion?

5. How much time, and in what manner, do you devote to religious exercises in schools wholly attended by resident pupils?

Answers to Queries in June Missionary.

Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary (Latham’s Edition, 1866-74, 4to, 4 vols.), probably surpasses all others in the English book market. Richardson’s is an accepted standard, especially in matters of definition and derivation. Walker’s is still a standard in pronunciation. Of American dictionaries, Webster’s leads in England.

Khedive is pronounced Kay-deeve.

So far as we know, Beaufort, S. C., alone is pronounced Bew-fort. Other places of the name, Bo-fort.

THE FREEDMEN.

REV. JOS. E. ROY, D. D.,

Field Superintendent, Atlanta, Ga.

THE HAMPTON ANNIVERSARY.

The Negro and the Indian——Co-Education of the Races——Addresses by the Rev. Dr. Hoge, of Richmond, and Secretary Carl Schurz, of Washington.

By the Editor.

More than the ordinary interest attaches this year to the anniversary exercises of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural School, just held. The experiment of negro education has been tried for the last 16 years, until it is no longer an unsolved problem, but one of which the once unknown quantities have come to have an ascertained value. But the question of the educability of the red man has been one not so conspicuously settled. What has been accomplished in that direction has been done so far away as not to have made much impression[Pg 202] on the American people. This year, the institution which has done so much to prove the responsiveness of the negro to educational training has been engaged in its first experiment with the Indian. Of its success thus far there can be no shadow of a doubt. The Indian boys are contented and making progress, and coming steadily up to a plane on which they can pursue the regular courses of study. It was said by many at the outset that the negro and Indian races would not associate with each other, but the case is as contrary to this as can be. The Indian boys at first seemed to be somewhat discontented, and Gen. Armstrong found that they wanted most of all to learn English. “Too much Indian talk,” they said. He asked them in class one day how many of them would like to room with the negro boys; every hand went up. He then went to his senior class and asked them how many of them would be willing to take in an Indian as a roommate, to help and teach him. A larger number than was needed of his very best young men expressed their willingness, and so, instead of standing aloof, the two races are completely mixed in their rooms and at table, to their mutual satisfaction. This is a notable element in the experiment. Some 12 of the Indian boys have joined the church connected with the Institute.

Is it needful to say a word about the Hampton Institute itself? Beautiful for situation it certainly is, with its front on the creek, and only a narrow point of land separating it from the famed Hampton Roads. Its buildings are simple but effective in their outline and grouping. Virginia and Academic Halls, and the new wigwam——the quarters prepared for the 70 Indian students; the cottages in which the boys live, in families of 30 or more, largely self-governed; the residences of the Principal and his assistants; and not least, the great barn, sheltering a fine collection of blooded stock——and all this on a farm of some 200 acres. It is but a few years since there were only small and temporary barracks to accommodate the applicants for admission; now about 200 negro and 70 Indian students are well provided with dormitories, recitation-rooms and workshops.

A creditable brass band, composed of students, greeted the visitors with their cheering strains, well rendered, considering the short time since practice was begun. Capt. Romeyne keeps the boys, both black and red, in good military drill, and under firm, though kind, government, and in their gray uniforms, cheap but comely, they presented no mean appearance. Work and study are the order of every day. The brightest and most inspiring teaching the writer ever saw wakens the intellect to an eager activity; and work on farm and in shop for the boys, in kitchen and laundry and with the knitting machine for the girls, both teaches them how to labor, and enables them to pay a considerable part of the expenses of their living.

The examinations, except of the graduating class, were not written, but were oral, and on the plan of the daily recitations. The Indians attracted perhaps the greatest attention from the many visitors, in the conversation classes, which were conducted with rare tact and skill. On a table was placed a mass of common plants and flowers. One of the band of Indians brought only a few months ago by Capt. Pratt was called up and asked to pick out some grass; its uses brought out the words eat and horse, and sentences were formed of these words. Beet, onion, potato and clover were selected in turn, and their uses brought out by skillful questioning. Then, in another lesson, working and earning money and spending it were illustrated, and the language taught necessary to express these ideas. At the other end of the gradation of studies were the very creditable recitations of the graduating class of colored students[Pg 203] in algebra, history, physiology and other higher branches; nor would it do to omit the class in teaching, where the seniors showed their skill in interesting and instructing the little children of the Butler Normal School.

In the afternoon the public exercises were held in Virginia Hall, which was crowded to overflowing. The addresses were manly and earnest; some of them quite forcible and free in thought and expression, and dealing with questions affecting their race. It was quite touching to see a black boy pleading for the extension of the privileges of education to the Indian, and one of the features of interest was a simple story of his home life in Indian Territory by an Indian youth. Music by the band, by a select few, and by the whole school, relieved the speaking.

But we must not forget to give the prominence due them to the visitors of the day. Most conspicuous among them was the delegation of Indians, in blankets and feathers, from Washington. Little Chief and six warriors with him of the Northern Chippewas were persuaded to come down to see what was being done for the boys of their own race. Just how they were impressed by it all, it is impossible to say, as their faces were covered with their blankets most of the time, and they acted like a group of shy old women. Probably they were a good deal bored, though they gave signs of occasional amusement. But there were other visitors of note. Chief among these were Secretaries Schurz and McCrary, of the President’s Cabinet; Senator Saunders and Representative Pound, of Wisconsin; ex-President Mark Hopkins, of Williams College; the Rev. Dr. Plumer, of Charleston, S. C., and the Rev. Dr. Hoge, of Richmond; the Rev. Dr. Armstrong of Norfolk, Va., and Judge Lafayette S. Foster, of Connecticut. After the diplomas had been presented to the graduating class by the Rev. Dr. Strieby, of this city, President of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Hoge was called upon to address the graduating class, and among other things said:

The Doctor closed with calling attention to goodness as the greatest element of success; that no man can afford to succeed by sacrificing it; illustrating it by reference to a humble girl who came during the yellow fever scourge to nurse the sick, and who died a victim to its poisons, and by the life of a colored Baptist minister who recently died in Richmond.

The Hon. Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior, was called upon to follow. He began thus:

With a benediction from the venerable Dr. Plumer, the assembly broke up. The visitors turned toward their homes, and the school resumed its work, which will continue for three weeks, to the end of its academic year. I need not say to the friends of the Indian and the negro,[Pg 205] perhaps scarcely to those who care for the welfare of our own Caucasian race in these United States, don’t forget Hampton and the institutions of which it is a shining example.

FISK UNIVERSITY.

Early delays——Increasing favor——The five closing days.

MISS ANNA M. CAHILL, NASHVILLE.

Looking back over the past nine months, it seems a long time since the dark days of last September, when the school opened under the shadow of the pestilence, and we saw one of our own students, just returned from his summer work, stricken down by the fever. The firmness with which the few students then in the school stood bravely by their work gave some of us a confidence in their fortitude and faithfulness which, perhaps, we could not have gained without some such time of trial to develop it. As the autumn advanced the school began to fill up, though some who came to us after Christmas from the lower part of Mississippi assured us they came “as soon as it was safe.” Naturally the decrease in attendance resulting from the epidemic, was mostly seen in the number of new students. Those who have fairly started in the work of getting an education cannot be detained except by absolute necessity; others, who were thinking for the first time of going away to school, were easily led to wait another year.

Notwithstanding the delay in getting the school started, one of the features of the year has been the steadiness in attendance, especially in the advanced classes. As the result of this regularity in attendance, the school work has gone on with rather unusual satisfaction. There has been little to interrupt the quiet spirit of study that has so much to do with the amount accomplished; a friendly spirit of rivalry between different classes and among members of the same class makes it from year to year more of a disgrace to fall below the standard of scholarship.

The school has been growing in favor with the Southern people. The presence of a large part of the State Legislature at our public rhetorical exercise, in March, and the evident pleasure with which they listened to the young people, indicated an increasing interest in our success. We find that the aims of the University commend themselves to the best men of the State.

The anxious question as to how these aims can be carried out, and the enlarging necessities of the work met, has been partly answered by the generous offers to the University of $60,000 and $20,000, which have made this year memorable. It is safe to say that no visit has ever been made to our school that left in the hearts of teachers and students more hope and encouragement and thankfulness than that of the gentlemen who, after inspecting the work of the school for a few days in the Spring, gave, at the close of their visit, the intimation of the former gift.

The year has had a religious history peculiar to itself. Without any thing that could be called revival interest, there has been a constant turning of the unconverted, and a quiet earnestness on the part of Christians, that leave us with the feeling that the Spirit of God has indeed been with us. Beginning with January, there have been several additions to the college church at every communion season, and fully as many have connected themselves with other churches.

As the closing exercises of a school must partake of the general character of the year, our commencement week was one of much interest. Our delightful Tennessee climate scarcely affords a more beautiful week than that in which the commencement occurred.

Beginning with Sunday, five days are occupied with the different exercises. Examinations continue through Monday,[Pg 206] Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday evening is given to the exhibition of the class finishing the common school normal course; Tuesday evening is devoted to the Union Literary Society; and on Wednesday evening the class finishing the preparatory course deliver their orations and are admitted to college. Thus there is a growing interest and importance through the entire week, ending with the college commencement on Thursday.

Dr. Roy reached us on Saturday, and stayed during the closing week, delivering, on Sunday evening, an excellent address before the Missionary Society. The baccalaureate sermon was for the first time preached by President Cravath, who for several years has been necessarily absent at the close of school. The shadow of death came once more into our household. One who five years ago came to the University to take the place of matron, but who for the past year has been suffering the weariness and pain of a long illness, was, on the morning of Commencement Sunday, called away from earth. The simple funeral services mingled strangely with the closing exercises, but the effect seemed to be only to give a deeper shade of earnestness to all our work, as one who had loved the work to the last passed from its labor into rest.

Among the visitors who attended the examinations were the superintendent and teachers of the white schools in the neighboring city of Edgefield, who expressed great pleasure at what they heard.

The evening exhibitions are always largely attended, the audience frequently changing every evening. Quite a large number of white people can be seen at almost any of our public exercises. The students of Vanderbilt University take a friendly interest, or perhaps curiosity, in hearing their darker brothers. The exercises of the Union Literary Society on Tuesday evening especially attracted their attention. Five of the students received certificates, and two of those admitted to college were absent teaching in Mississippi. The class entering college, ten in number, is the largest ever admitted to our college course, and we hope President Cravath’s admonition to have their number complete when they are ready for their degrees will be carried out.

Of Commencement day the following extracts from the Nashville American, of May 23d, will give the best account:

“The chapel of Jubilee Hall was beautifully decorated. Around the six iron pillars were twined ropes of cedar, while over the shield, upon which are the memorable words of Albert Miller, now a missionary in Africa, ‘Her sons and her daughters are ever on the altar,’ hung festoons of cedar. Draped along the entire length of the stage, and hanging in graceful folds, were the Dutch and American flags, while the British Union Jack stretched along the side of the room. Above the platform, in the centre, hung the beautiful portrait of Dr. David Livingstone. On either side were the portraits of the Earl of Shaftesbury and William Wilberforce. Between the portraits, in large letters of cedar, were the words, ‘Class of ’79.’ An hour before the time the highways were filled with the friends of the Institution on their way to Jubilee Hall.” After giving the opening programme, the account continues: “Preston R. Burrus, of Nashville, spoke of ‘The Power of Wealth’ with earnestness and good gesticulation, but a little too fast for the best expression. He was greeted with deserved applause as he closed. Miss J. H. K. Hobbs, of Nashville, read a well prepared essay on ‘What shall we Read?’ She read in a loud, clear voice. The excellence of the matter and the manner of reading enlisted the close attention of the audience. Austin R. Merry, of Nashville, spoke of ‘Ideals and their Influence.’ Mr. Merry’s production was an[Pg 207] elegant presentation of the difficult subject he had taken, and evinced the possession of a pen of no ordinary ability. The delivery was as vigorous and graceful as the production was well written.

“Miss Lulu F. Parker, of Memphis, presented an essay on ‘Genius and Labor,’ but owing to sickness was unable to read it. It was read by Miss Laura S. Cary, one of the graduates of the Institution, and at present assistant teacher of Greek.

“The commencement address was delivered by Rev. J. E. Roy, D. D. Dr. Roy announced as his subject, ‘The Incompleteness of Individual Talent.’ While there is adjustment of the powers of the mind——intellect, sensibility and will——these are not always equally developed. Unity in variety is the law of Nature. As no two faces are alike, so no two minds are alike. One mind supplements another; one man fails where another succeeds; the first man succeeds in some other calling. A Western farmer failed as a farmer and storekeeper, but became the greatest captain of his age. All gifts are not combined in one man. Great inventions are the growth of years and the contributions of many minds. Theology is a growth developed through the centuries and by many intellects. It is still open to improvement. This diversity of talent provides for a division of labor. All occupations are mutually helpful, each being dependent on the other. Men and women have each their sphere, or rather hemisphere; the family is the unit of society. The mail goes to the polls and deposits ‘their’ votes——the votes of the family. Each man has his own talent. This he should cultivate. ‘Act well your part, there all the honor lies.’ The address abounded in striking passages and terse statements.”

“President Cravath then, in behalf of the Trustees of the University, addressed the graduating class in fitly chosen words, and gave them their diplomas.

“At two o’clock the alumni dinner, one of the institutions of Commencement week, came off. About sixty guests, including former graduates, members of the college classes, and various ministers of city churches, sat down with students and teachers to an ample collation. After dinner an hour was occupied in listening to speeches, which abounded in wit, humor and pathos.

“Thus closed a series of exercises which are regarded by all those who witnessed them as unusually interesting and successful.”

STRAIGHT UNIVERSITY.

Commencement——A Local Notice——A Short Year——Needs and Hopes.

PROF. J. K. COLE, NEW ORLEANS.

A class of eight has just been graduated from the classical department of this University——the largest class yet sent out——of which seven were young men. Six members of the class pursued the entire course here; the other two had taken the greater part of their course at another school, and came here the last year to graduate. The size of the class and the corresponding large circle of personal friends excited more than usual interest in the commencement exercises, which were held Wednesday evening, June 4th, at Central Church. The body of the church was crowded to its utmost capacity, and many were forced to find seats in the gallery.

It is something entirely new that our school should be noticed in the local papers, and I shall be pardoned for taking the following from the New Orleans Times of the 5th inst. After giving the order of exercises, it says:

“The orations were of high order, and reflected great credit upon the young men. They all gave evidence of the thoroughness of training they had received in the University. They certainly gave promise of honorable success in the life-work to which they had devoted themselves. The essay and valedictory[Pg 208] of Miss Flemming deserves especial mention. It was well written and gracefully rendered.”

The singing, says the Times, “was exceptionally fine. Professor McPherron deserves great credit for the patient and thorough instruction which was manifest in the superior rendering of the anthems and glees.”

President Alexander conferred the diplomas in a brief address of commendation, encouragement and advice.

The school year has been too short to accomplish all that was desirable. Eight months, our usual time, seems a short school year, but to reduce this one-quarter is almost a disaster; and furnishing school-rooms and supplying furnaces, out-buildings, cisterns and much needed plank-walks after school opened, was for a time a great hindrance. But the end of the year shows, in many respects, favorable results, and leaves more hopeful impressions and anticipations for the future.

The need of buildings for a boarding department is as urgent as ever, but this need we hope may be met by the donation from the Stone estate. These accommodations will bring in a large addition from the country of just such material as we desire——young men and women from the better families who are unwilling to come to the city and board away from the influences of the teachers.

The unsettled condition of the public schools, too, is likely to add largely to the number of students here next year.

We can only hope that our good friends at the North will see, as we in the field see, the importance of not only keeping up our present work, but of extending it and making it better each succeeding year.

New buildings will certainly bring many new pupils. More pupils will require more teachers, and more teachers will increase the expenses of the A. M. A. But now is the time to do good among this people, and we trust the churches who sustain this work will not be weary in well-doing, but will furnish all the means that are needed to extend this work wisely.

TOUGALOO UNIVERSITY.

Sunday-School Convention——Farm and Normal Work——Compliments.

MISS ORRA A. ANGELL, TOUGALOO.

During my three years’ stay in Tougaloo, there have been many changes that deserve to be more widely known. One that is fresh in mind is our Sunday-school convention, held on June 1st. It was first assembled by our principal, one year ago, at that time an entirely new and unheard-of affair among our pupils. What a change was wrought in their estimate of Sunday-school work by last year’s teachings and convention. The heavy rains of Saturday last compelled our use of the chapel instead of the grove, and reduced the number in attendance, yet one of our students made a journey of fifty miles to be present, and we received word from others through the county who desired to come. A Sunday-school Union of our young men having been formed this term, its president opened the convention, and our principal was appointed chairman of the session. The forenoon was given to remarks and a temperance concert by our Sabbath-school. One fruit of the concert ripened immediately. One of the recitations was an extract from Colfax, upon the death following drunkenness, and the young man who gave it came to the office next morning to sign the pledge. Being asked if it had not been his business to sell liquor, he answered, “Yes, but I shall bust it up! I felt as if I was bound for death.” The two months he has spent here have prepared him to make this decision. The afternoon session from two to five consisted of addresses by the Faculty and students, followed each by discussion.

The good of the convention was not[Pg 209] merely in the considerable number present giving the people of this county the benefits of one day’s contact with a modern Sunday-school; but the efforts of our students will be far more intelligently directed as they disperse through this State to their summer teaching. Their desire to push forward their mission work will only be increased by the rude log churches, benches that tip uneasily, shuttered holes in the walls, and dearth of Sunday-school papers, books and Bibles. The needs of their people are becoming more and more plain to them as they observe the methods and efforts used for themselves at this school, and the example set causes them to use some efforts for the benefit of others. They draw their pupils with them on their return here. The pestilence of last summer kept from us an overflow of students whom our next term will see filling our rooms. Perhaps the cracked and leaning walls of our buildings will be severely tried, but all who wish to study will be welcomed with confidence on our part, that all needs will in time be met with a supply.

The young people enter on a busy life here, in many respects new to most of them. Their own hands do most of the farm and in-door work. We have a field of one hundred acres planted in corn; next on one side is the sweet potato patch of ten acres; and on a southeast slope were set strawberry plants last year, that will another season furnish a supply for some northern market. This spring ten acres were sown with grass, ten with clover that now feels revived by the recent rains. The new wire fence is already showing its merits by keeping in our own stock and shutting out others that have heretofore grazed in our grove and fields. Our stock is now of the best breeds, and instead of buying we shall be able to supply meats for our tables, that already have a variety of early vegetables from the garden. Ornamental trees have been set out upon the grounds, and the whole plantation has been brought to better use and improved appearance.

Less frequent change of teachers, a more regular attendance of students, and their promotion according to merit, have advanced the scholarship in this institution. Last summer for the first time it graduated a class. The present year opened two months later than usual, and the senior class will study another year before graduating.

Normal methods have been used this year in the seminary department, and proved a success, giving promise of better material for promotion to the preparatory department. The senior class in the normal department have had one lesson a week in the primary room; and in addition to this preparation for their work as teachers, all in the normal department have been formed into a practice class in grammar, each in turn being teacher of the rest. The examinations of this week in these and other classes have given pleasing evidences of the work accomplished.

After the examination closed on Thursday, students in the normal department have literary exercises, interspersed with music, before an audience numbering many of the parents and former students, some of the trustees and other friends of the institution.

At 3 P. M. the President of the Board of Trustees of the State Normal School and others gave congratulations and sound advice to attentive and appreciative listeners. The President of the Board referred to the fact that the State had made no appropriation for the school for the present year and last, saying it was not from any lack of interest in the work done here, but simply because the Board of Trustees found it impossible to perform the duties imposed by the State, while the school itself was under the control of another Board of Trustees or Society, and therefore had made no recommendations[Pg 210] to the Legislature. He said, as evidence of their appreciation of our work, that he would refer to what one of the members of the Board, who is also county superintendent of an adjoining county, said at the last meeting of the Board. He said that the moral influence of the teachers in his county who are students at Tougaloo is quite different from those coming from other schools; that almost invariably they start Sunday-schools as soon as they open their day-schools. He assured the teachers and pupils and friends present, that they might expect with much confidence an appropriation to the institution of a few thousand dollars from the next Legislature, with a visiting committee to see if it is well expended, and make report directly to the Legislature.

Rev. J. E. Roy, D.D., our Field Superintendent, in his address upon “Our Country,” gave an immense amount of practical information in regard to its history, vast area and resources, its wonderful development during the past century, its present condition and future possibilities. This address, as also his missionary address the night before, could not fail to inspire all with true patriotism, and the real gospel spirit.

Thursday evening an exhibition by the preparatory and primary departments closed the exercises of the week, and the delighted friends parted, feeling a greater interest than ever in their institution.

We feel grateful for the general good health and harmony of feeling during the past year, and we look forward with courage to the coming year.

HOWARD UNIVERSITY.

Commencement Exercises——Theological Department.

REV. W. W. PATTON, D.D., WASHINGTON.

The educational year at Howard University, Washington, D. C., closed with the last week in May. It has been one of success in all respects. The students instructed in the various departments were 236. The concluding exercises were largely attended and of great interest. At the college commencement the audience overflowed all accommodations, large numbers being compelled to stand, and various members of Congress who attended went away expressing the highest gratification at all that they saw and heard. The recent appropriation by Congress of $10,000 towards the maintenance of the University in the academic departments, is a great relief and encouragement, it having received the support largely of both political parties. The thoughtful Democrats are becoming convinced that the University is well managed, and is doing a good work, which could easily be quadrupled with suitable aid. At the recent annual meeting of the trustees, Hon. Thomas J. Kirkpatrick, of Lynchburg, Va., appeared for the first time, and at the close made very impressive remarks as a representative of the old slave-holders. He was an officer in the Confederate army, and is an elder in the Southern Presbyterian church. He pledged a hearty co-operation in our work, and declared the negro race to be a noble race and deserving of all that could be done for it. This brought to his feet another trustee, Frederick Douglass, the famous colored orator, now marshal of the district, who responded with great eloquence and pathos, and as an ex-slave cordially welcomed the ex-slave-holder to the common work of sustaining Howard University as a grand instrumentality for elevating the oppressed negro race. The scene was touching in the extreme, and ended with a prayer of thanksgiving by Bishop Brown, of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The Theological Department, which has been for the last two years largely supported by the Am. Miss’y Association, closed its educational year on the 30th ult. The theological students have[Pg 211] numbered forty-two, being eleven more than the previous year. Their number would have been still further increased could we have aided sufficiently all who were desirous of coming. Endowed and annual scholarships are a sore need of this as of kindred institutions. The young men have come from seven denominations of Christians, into each of which the leaven of intelligence and purity is thus being introduced. They have applied themselves well, and show commendable improvement. The most of them, not having enjoyed a training in Greek and Latin, are fitted for usefulness among the Freedmen by a prolonged English course of study; others take the full course pursued in any theological seminary. This year a class of seven studied Hebrew, and acquitted themselves most creditably. The anniversary exercises were held in the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian church (colored), a new and tasteful edifice, which was filled with an interested audience of both races, including several clergymen and Judge Strong of the Supreme Court of the United States. Four young men who had completed their course of study delivered orations. A Bible was presented to each by the President of the District Bible Society, and an admirable closing address was made to the students by Rev. Mr. Dinwiddie, of Alexandria, Va. Three of the young men go immediately to the care of churches which await them.

The indications are of a still fuller theological class next fall, the term beginning September 10th.

BEACH INSTITUTE.

Its History——Its Importance——Its Year’s Work.

MR. B. F. KOONS, SAVANNAH, GA.

Soon after the war, schools for the Freedmen were opened at Savannah in army barracks. In due time a suitable building was erected, and the school continued under the auspices of the A. M. A. until 1874, when the city rented the building and assumed the responsibility of the school. This arrangement continued until February, 1878, when the building was surrendered and the city school removed. The day after it was thus left, a stable standing near took fire, and the flames soon reached the building and destroyed the upper part of it. It was at once determined to rebuild and resume the work, strictly under the Association. During the summer, Pastor Markham remained and superintended the construction of the new building. When we landed here late last September, it was approaching completion, and on the last day of the same month a new corps of teachers began the work of the year. On the first day over 60 applied for admission, and the number has gradually increased to 338, in all grades from the Normal down.

There has been nothing specially marked in the year’s work. It has been one of very quiet, faithful, persistent labor on the part of both teachers and pupils, and a reasonable degree of success has attended their efforts.

The following facts may throw light upon the need of such an institution in this city.

The facilities afforded by the city were not sufficient to fit the persevering pupils to become teachers and leaders among their people, hence the need of Beach Institute. The good accomplished by this school is of a double nature, for the re-opening of it has led the city, for the present, to add one year more to its course of study, and to the enterprising it is an avenue to higher schools and wider culture, and so to greater usefulness.

There are some very efficient teachers in the public schools, but their hands are tied, first by the limited course of study, and then by unusual restrictions on their religious influence. There are[Pg 212] two schools for the colored people of the city. In former years the children have been turned away from these by the score for want of room, and even during the present year they have been refused admission in great numbers. We, too, have had all we could accommodate, and even more than we could do justice to with the present corps of five teachers.

One of these buildings was purchased by a wealthy citizen, and by him given to the School Board for a colored school, with the expressed stipulation that no religious exercises of any character should be permitted, not even the singing of “gospel hymns.” It is reported that the same gentleman contemplates the purchase of the other building, which is rented by the city now, and the presentation of the same to the city, and, we may reasonably conclude, with the same restrictions. These stipulations are displeasing to many of the colored people. Ignorant as some are, they feel the need of Christian training for their children. We do not doubt that this restraint is equally unwelcome to many of the School Board and citizens of the city, but as a corporation they are involved, and perhaps they are doing the best they can under the circumstances.

The Catholics have a small school for the colored people, but some of the parents (good Catholics) have applied for admission for their children to our school, saying, “I have concluded that the teaching of the Catechism and but little else is not an education for my child; I want something better.” It seems that the hold they are getting upon the colored people of Savannah is rather feeble.

That the position was well taken in re-establishing the Beach, there can be no doubt, for it was needed as a connecting link between the city schools and the University at Atlanta, as well as for the Christian training which it will be able to give to a large class of the youth of the city.

This week has been devoted to examinations and the closing work of the year. The greater part of the previous days were devoted to written work; but it had been announced that in the morning hours of to-day public oral examinations would be held. At an early hour a good number of parents and friends showed the interest they have in their children and the school by coming in to witness the day’s work. The morning was spent in the various rooms, many of the old people as well as the children showing a lively interest in the examinations. At twelve o’clock our commodious chapel was well filled by an attentive and appreciative audience, to witness the closing exercises of the school, which consisted of essays from the fine members of the normal class and recitations and music from the other departments. After a very enjoyable hour and a half in the chapel, the various grades passed to their rooms, the promotions were read, the school dismissed, the good-byes said, the doors closed; and thus, with its cares and its perplexities, its joys and its sorrows, its successes and its failures, endeth another chapter of the great volume of life.

GEORGIA.

The Work——Temperance——Superstition.

REV. J. R. M’LEAN, NO. 1 MILLER’S STATION.

Miss Douglass’ coming here has been a blessing to us all, and a great help to the work. Through her we have been able, as we hope, to get money enough to finish our church inside. Our congregation has not been so large as we think it ought to have been, and yet our work is felt by all the other churches. The Sabbath-school has been larger this year than at any time before since I have been here, and we have seen indications of the good it is doing. God’s word will accomplish that which He pleases.

The day school has been good all the time. We have on the list about 55; it numbered a month ago 41 daily. Some[Pg 213] of the larger ones have gone out of school to work on the farm. We have had a strong religious spirit in the school all the year. Some twenty or more have, as we hope, been converted; five of that number have been received into this church.

Five of the members of our church, who spent at least a dollar and a half a week for strong drink when I first came here, have left it off altogether and say they do not want to smell it now. One of them yesterday, at our communion, would not partake with us. When asked why, he said: “I wanted to take it the worst kind, but I was afraid it would make me want to go to drinking again,” and tears ran down his face as he spoke these words to Miss Douglass. You can see from this that some of the people are trying to leave off the habits of slavery, but it is done with no little effort, for the habits seem to have become a second nature.

A man who is a Jew, and cares nothing about religion, said to me, the other day, that he had been here thirteen years, and had never seen such a change as recently among the people. I am not able to say what has caused it. I feel sure that much of it has come from the labor of Miss D.; she has gone to see them in their homes and read the word to them, and prayed with them, and given them good tracts to read, and the blessing of God has been with her in the work.

But there is a dark side to my picture. We have so many Atheists here that it is very hard to do anything. The man who denies God’s word is just as much of an Atheist as the one who says there is no God. We find only a few who believe God’s word. They say the Bible does not teach us the way to come to Christ, but that He brings us to Himself through a dream interpreted by some old ignorant godfather or godmother. These foolish ideas have led many of the hopefully converted ones to doubt and caused many of them to go in darkness for weeks, and some of them do not see the light yet. Some of those who gave their hearts to the Saviour in our meetings, (and such changes were seen in their actions, that no one could doubt their being Christians,) before they could join the old churches must go off and dream, and hear the little voice say, “Oh, my little one, go in peace, and sin no more.”

I find many of those who have joined this church much worse than they were before they thought of becoming Christians. The cause lies in the fact that they have been led to trust in forms and not to trust Jesus. A knowledge of the Bible is the only thing that is to save the thousands of my people. Their ministers teach the same foolish ways of which I have spoken. Nothing but the grace of Almighty God can lead this people in the way everlasting.

TENNESSEE.

The Kansas Fever——Le Moyne Normal School.

MISS LAURA A. PARMELEE, MEMPHIS.

Memphis has been very little affected by the emigration movement, but from students who are teaching in Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, we hear enough to keep us interested.

From a neighboring village several families moved to Kansas in the winter. They are pleased with their prospects, and send word for a certain student to hold himself in readiness to come to them and teach as soon as they can get ready for school.

The following letter is from a member of last year’s class now teaching in Leota, Miss.:

“The Kansas fever, as it is called here, has reached our section of the country, and the people are entirely carried away by it. They quit their crops and sell their stock for little or nothing to get money to travel on. Fine milch cows and calves are selling for $10 or $12 at the highest. One man bought 125 chickens for $5.

[Pg 214]

“Having accomplished this much of their intention, about thirteen or fourteen hundred moved to town on May 2. In the evening, the white people became excited over the action of the colored people. They came to town and held a meeting. Then the colored people became excited over the action of the whites, and made ready to protect themselves.

“By night there were 2,000 persons in town, all armed. The sheriff was dispatched for; he came with many others. The next morning he went to the camp of the colored people and examined their arms. All but one submitted to his authority. The man drew his gun and the sheriff drew his pistol. If either of the two had fired there would have been trouble all around, but, thank God, there was none. This man was arrested and sent to jail.

“The town is crowded now and is guarded at night (every night) by the whites. It seems that they will not allow the boats to interfere and convey these poor people to St. Louis. They have been waiting on the bank four days. Yesterday (Sunday) it rained very hard, and the women with their little ones and household goods were out in all of the storm. We have had very heavy rains; the thunder and lightning was as if the world were coming to an end. The people are exposed to the weather, but determined to go to Kansas.

“The whites are doing all they can to get them back to their homes to stay this year. They go to the camp, talk and coax, but the people have not yielded yet, and it is doubtful if they will.

“I cannot relate the whole story; it is very long and sad.”

Another letter just received says the people returned to the farms for this year. Hunger and the necessities of the case compelled them to yield. Both the writer of this letter and the young man called to Kansas, expect to return to Le Moyne next year and graduate.

We do not graduate a class this summer, but shall give diplomas to a large and well prepared class next season. If we are denied the privilege——or deny ourselves——of graduating students, we find ample compensation in the excellent work and character of our young people. I wonder if Mr. Steele has told you of our five ministers scattered around in different classes——two Baptist, two Methodist, one Christian Adventist. Four of the five are settled over churches and are of excellent spirit, possessing fair ability.

Yesterday the churches had a grand union picnic. A procession headed by a band of music marched to Estival Park, which has opened its gates to colored people within the past fortnight. A few of our scholars were excused to attend, but all the older students preferred to continue at work and were entirely unaffected by the excitement. Three years ago, two days had to be given to Sunday-school picnics——the Thursdays when the Baptists and Methodists held anniversaries. We think it quite a triumph to have reached the point of ignoring such events.

We discuss plans for enlarging our work in the industrial department, and long for dormitories to accommodate the strangers that come to us. Miss Milton has charge of the sewing class, and informs you of its success. Next year we hope to have a text-book on nursing introduced as a regular study. Lippincott & Co. are issuing a book that meets our wants. Thursdays, after the regular lecture to the young ladies, recipes for plain and sick cooking are distributed. There is a demand for recipes for pies, cakes, etc., which has to be gratified once in a while.

We recognize the duty of endowing the colleges at the earliest possible moment, and rejoice that Fisk, Atlanta, Straight and Talladega can be established more firmly. We would not take anything from their strength. Certainly[Pg 215] they must be maintained, and we will help them by sending our students abroad as soon as possible. The young people who come to us are not able to pay the twenty-five dollars extra that is needed to carry them to Nashville. They must come here, or not go to school at all.

They will not go to Nashville until they finish the course at Le Moyne; and the better training we can give, the more will they be likely to desire instruction in other branches than are allowed here.

I will in a short time send you report of our library receipts and expenditures during the year. We did not think one year ago it could be possible to be in possession of so large and excellent an assortment of books as now stands upon our shelves. What more we can accomplish for it remains to be seen.

THE CHINESE.

“CALIFORNIA CHINESE MISSION.”

Auxiliary to the American Missionary Association.

THE NEW CONSTITUTION AND OUR MISSIONARY WORK.

REV. W. C. POND, SAN FRANCISCO.

The inquiry is raised with much anxiety by Eastern friends, what will be the effect on our missionary work of the adoption of our new Constitution.

That the spirit and intent of this instrument are intensely hostile to the Chinese is well understood. To find it providing as skilfully and malignantly as possible for forcing them out of the State will create no surprise. It stands alone, I apprehend, among all our State Constitutions in singling out one class among those upon whose industries the State lives, and by whose taxes its treasury is replenished, and making it the object of restrictive and oppressive legislation. One whole Section (XIX.) is devoted to this, and bears as its title “Chinese.” Stigmatizing them as “aliens who are or may become vagrants, paupers, mendicants, criminals or invalids, * * * or otherwise dangerous or detrimental to the State,” it directs the Legislature “to discourage their immigration by all the means within its power;” “to impose conditions upon which such persons may reside in the State, and to provide for their removal from the State” if the conditions are not fulfilled. It forbids any corporation from employing them “directly or indirectly in any capacity;” and requires that cities and towns be empowered by the Legislature to “remove the Chinese beyond their limits, or to locate them within prescribed limits;” and to “make and enforce all such local, police, sanitary and other regulations as are not in conflict with general laws.” These provisions are broad enough to admit any and every cruelty conceivable to be practised under the forms of law, and the Chinese cannot, as heretofore, appeal to our State Supreme Court with any hope of relief from oppressive enactments. The question is, what will the result be, and what can we do about it?

If a man values highly his reputation for sagacity, he does well to be careful how he prophesies; and if anywhere such caution is needed, surely it is here in California; but as I have no reputation to be anxious about, I will tell how the prospect looks to me.

1. There can be no question that these provisions, carefully framed though they are, are in conflict with the Constitution of the United States, and with not only our present treaty with China, but any other treaty that could possibly be framed. Of course, all this may amount[Pg 216] to nothing until the question of their constitutionality has been passed upon by the U. S. Supreme Court; but it seems to me that the interests involved are so many and so great that soon an issue must be made and be pressed through to decision. This done, that whole section——vile blot that it is on the fair fame of America!——becomes void, unless, indeed, the whole land can be dragooned by Californian politicians, overriding its treaties and trampling under foot the most sacred axioms of its civil polity——dragooned into a timid, restrictive, barbarous policy which we taught China years ago to discard. I do not believe this can be done. I have faith in a free people among whom the leaven of Christ is at work——faith that no question can get settled among them till it is settled right, and that however selfishness and oppression may triumph for awhile, their “latter end shall be that they perish for ever.”

2. If, however, the laws enacted in virtue of these new provisions are made to work, there cannot but be a large exodus of the Chinese from California. They will be starved out. We have come to the proud distinction of having, as a State, introduced starvation into our organic law. Those who can go, must go; and those who have not the means of travelling must starve or be removed at State expense. But as to the effect of that exodus, God is giving us beforehand an impressive object-lesson. The negro is scarcely more essential to the industry of the South than the Chinaman is to that of California. Let this exodus be large and simultaneous, and the backbone of business here is broken. There will be harvests that cannot be reaped, because the Liverpool price of wheat will not pay the cost of harvesting. There will be mills and other manufacturing establishments idle, because the manufactured goods can be laid down here from New England or Old England cheaper than we can produce them. There will be mines deserted, unless white men are found to work at Chinamen’s wages; for who wants to run off his gold-bearing dirt and thereby run himself off into bankruptcy? The hundreds of little businesses which, by the aid of the Chinese, yield men a small return, must be abandoned, for the higher wages will absorb the profits and the capital besides.

But, it may be said, white men have prospered elsewhere without the aid of the Chinese, why not in California? No doubt they can prosper here, but only as a new and lower level for American labor is found. Prices must fall, and the work must be steadier and harder than now it is apt to be. You see, perhaps, a good side to this in the frugality and industry to which it will compel our children; but my expectation is, that when this discipline begins to make us sore, when the real facts are forced upon men’s vision, then these provisions of our new Constitution will, by common consent, become inoperative, and Chinese labor or its equivalent will be welcomed back again.

I venture such predictions, but whether they prove true or not, this thing is certain, the Chinese still are here; and while they remain our work remains. If the time is short, so much the more urgent must we be in pressing upon their attention the Gospel of Christ. If the enmity against them rises with its opportunity and crowds them to the wall, so much the more must they hear from us the voice of Christian kindliness, commending to them Him who was the friend of publicans and sinners. If they are to be driven back to their own land, we must be the more earnest to let them know——not by our words only, but by our deeds rather——that it is not Christianity but the lack of Christianity that has exiled them; and we must see to it that as many as possible go to be self-sustaining missionaries, telling the story of redeeming love.

[Pg 217]

CHILDREN’S PAGE.

Dear Little Ones:

I know you would all like to hear about a sweet little girl who moved a big, big mountain out of my way a few days ago.

“How did she do it?”

“Was it a real mountain?”

“Who was she? and, and ——”

If you all keep asking questions, how can I get a chance to answer them? And then you don’t begin at the right end with your questions. Who was she? ought to have been the first, and it’s the very last. Never mind, we will take them backwards. Let’s see how many there are. There are three, counting either way. Now if you all sit as still as nine little white mice all in a row, I’ll answer every question. First, who is she? Her name is Clarissa Smith, and she is as black as a little blackbird, and has to look just as the wee birdies do to our dear Father in Heaven for her daily bread. I am sorry to say that she is not pretty to look at, but it’s a fact. Her clothing is old and ragged, she has no shoes and no hat, though the round basket she carries on her head, peddling berries or vegetables, makes a broad enough one, for that matter.

Now for question number two, Was it a real mountain?

Yes, it was a real mountain; far more real than one of earth and stones. It was one that has a habit of getting between us and the light of God’s sweet love, and its name is Discouragement. Sometimes it gets between little girls and their sewing and makes them say, “Oh, dear me, I can’t do it!” Sometimes it piles itself upon a little boy’s book and makes him say, “I never can learn this lesson.”

The third question is, How did she do it? With a song. How was that? Well, upon this particular morning I was feeling it weighing down upon my heart and making me wonder whether it was any good to visit people who were hungry and full of care, unless I had the money to relieve their wants. You see, the mountain had made every thing so dark that I couldn’t see Jesus. Now, as I walked on I heard a child’s voice behind me calling, “Strawberries——sweet, ripe strawberries——fresh, ripe strawberries,” going by; and then, after an instant’s pause, the voice came again, but this time it said:

I waited until she came up to me; and then, after we had spoken and shaken hands, I asked her as we walked together, why she put those few lines in her call.

“Cause it helps me and ’members me of Jesus,” was her answer.

“Why do you want to be reminded of Jesus?” I asked.

“Cause Him died so I could go to Heaven.”

“Why do you want to go to Heaven.”

“To see Jesus,” was the prompt reply.

We parted at the corner of the street, Clarissa going on, and I standing to listen until her song died away in the distance. Then I turned to find the ugly mountain gone and beautiful Faith resting where it had been so lately.

How many of you, I wonder, are going to become mountain movers from to-day? Remember, a loving word, a gentle act, a little bit of self-denial on your part, may move some ugly mountain out of your brother’s or sister’s or companion’s road, and make the holy angels glad because you love Jesus.

Do not forget, when you kneel down to pray, to ask Jesus to bless me, and give me every day more love to himself, so that I can have more and still more for all of you.

Lovingly your friend,

Lillie E. Barr,

Missionary of the American Missionary Ass’n.

[Pg 218]

RECEIPTS

FOR MAY, 1879.

Constitution of the American Missionary Association.

INCORPORATED JANUARY 30, 1849.

Art. I. This Society shall be called “The American Missionary Association.”

Art. II. The object of this Association shall be to conduct Christian missionary and educational operations, and to 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. Any person of evangelical sentiments,[A] who professes faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is not a slaveholder, or in the practice of other immoralities, and who contributes to the funds, may become a member of the Society; and by the payment of thirty dollars, a life member; provided that children and others who have not professed their faith may be constituted life members without the privilege of voting.

Art. IV. This Society shall meet annually, in the month of September, October or November, for the election of officers and the transaction of other business, at such time and place as shall be designated by the Executive Committee.

Art. V. The annual meeting shall be constituted of the regular officers and members of the Society at the time of such meeting, and of delegates from churches, local missionary societies, and other co-operating bodies, each body being entitled to one representative.

Art. VI. The officers of the Society shall be a President, Vice-Presidents, a Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretaries, Treasurer, two Auditors, and an Executive Committee of not less than twelve, of which the Corresponding Secretaries shall be advisory, and the Treasurer ex-officio, members.

Art. VII. To the Executive Committee shall belong the collecting and disbursing of funds; the appointing, counselling, sustaining and dismissing (for just and sufficient reasons) missionaries and agents; the selection of missionary fields; and, in general, the transaction of all such business as usually appertains to the executive committees of missionary and other benevolent societies; the Committee to exercise no ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the missionaries; and its doings to be subject always to the revision of the annual meeting, which shall, by a reference mutually chosen, always entertain the complaints of any aggrieved agent or missionary; and the decision of such reference shall be final.

The Executive Committee shall have authority to fill all vacancies occurring among the officers between the regular annual meetings; to apply, if they see fit, to any State Legislature for acts of incorporation; to fix the compensation, where any is given, of all officers, agents, missionaries, or others in the employment of the Society; to make provision, if any, for disabled missionaries, and for the widows and children of such as are deceased; and to call, in all parts of the country, at their discretion, special and general conventions of the friends of missions, with a view to the diffusion of the missionary spirit, and the general and vigorous promotion of the missionary work.

Five members of the Committee shall constitute a quorum for transacting business.

Art. VIII. This society, in collecting funds, in appointing officers, agents and missionaries, and in selecting fields of labor, and conducting the missionary work, will endeavor particularly to discountenance slavery, by refusing to receive the known fruits of unrequited labor, or to welcome to its employment those who hold their fellow-beings as slaves.

Art. IX. Missionary bodies, churches or individuals agreeing to the principles of this Society, and wishing to appoint and sustain missionaries of their own, shall be entitled to do so through the agency of the Executive Committee, on terms mutually agreed upon.

Art. X. No amendment shall be made in this Constitution without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present at a regular annual meeting; nor unless the proposed amendment has been submitted to a previous meeting, or to the Executive Committee in season to be published by them (as it shall be their duty to do, if so submitted) in the regular official notifications of the meeting.

FOOTNOTE:

The American Missionary Association.

AIM AND WORK.

To preach the Gospel to the poor. It originated in a sympathy with the almost friendless slaves. Since Emancipation it has devoted its main efforts to preparing the Freedmen for their duties as citizens and Christians in America and as missionaries in Africa. As closely related to this, it seeks to benefit the caste-persecuted Chinese in America, and to co-operate with the Government in its humane and Christian policy towards the Indians. It has also a mission in Africa.

STATISTICS.

Churches: In the South——In Va. 1; N. C., 5; S. C., 2; Ga., 12; Ky., 7; Tenn., 4; Ala., 13; La., 12; Miss., 1; Kansas, 2; Texas, 5. Africa, 1. Among the Indians, 1. Total 66.

Institutions Founded, Fostered or Sustained in the South.——Chartered: Hampton, Va.; Berea, Ky.; Talladega, Ala.; Atlanta, Ga.; Nashville, Tenn.; Tougaloo, Miss.; New Orleans, La.; and Austin, Texas, 8. Graded or Normal Schools: at Wilmington, Raleigh, N. C.; Charleston, Greenwood, S. C.; Macon, Atlanta, Ga.; Montgomery, Mobile, Athens, Selma, Ala.; Memphis, Tenn., 11. Other Schools, 18. Total 37.

Teachers, Missionaries and Assistants.——Among the Freedmen, 231; among the Chinese, 17; among the Indians, 17; in Africa, 14. Total, 279. Students——In Theology, 88; Law, 17; in College Course, 106; in other studies, 7,018. Total, 7,229. Scholars, taught by former pupils of our schools, estimated at 100,000. Indians under the care of the Association, 13,000.

WANTS.

1. A steady INCREASE of regular income to keep pace with the growing work in the South. This increase can only be reached by regular and larger contributions from the churches——the feeble as well as the strong.

2. Additional Buildings for our higher educational institutions, to accommodate the increasing numbers of students; Meeting Houses, for the new churches we are organizing; More Ministers, cultured and pious, for these churches.

3. Help for Young Men, to be educated as ministers here and missionaries to Africa——a pressing want.

Before sending boxes, always correspond with the nearest A. M. A. office, as below.

MAGAZINE.

This Magazine will be sent, gratuitously, if desired, to the Missionaries of the Association; to Life Members; to all clergymen who take up collections for the Association; to Superintendents of Sabbath Schools; to College Libraries; to Theological Seminaries; to Societies of Inquiry on Missions; and to every donor who does not prefer to take it as a subscriber, and contributes in a year not less than five dollars.

Those who wish to remember the American Missionary Association in their last Will and Testament, are earnestly requested to use the following

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 [in some States three are required——in other States only two], who should write against their names, their places of residence [if in cities, their street and number]. The following form of attestation will answer for every State in the Union: “Signed, sealed, published and declared by the said [A. B.] as his last Will and Testament, in presence of us, who, at the request of the said A. B., and in his presence, and in the presence of each other, have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses.” In some States it is required that the Will should be made at least two months before the death of the testator.

[Pg 223]

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[Pg 224]

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Transcriber’s Notes:

Obvious punctuation errors were corrected.