The American Missionary

American Missionary Association.

The next Annual Meeting of the Association will be held at Portland, Me., Oct. 25th to 27th. Rev. A. J. F. Behrends, D.D., of Brooklyn, will preach the sermon. The friends in Portland have already begun preparations for the reception of the Association. Life Members, Delegates chosen by contributing churches, Local Conferences, State Associations and the National Council, constitute the Annual Meeting. So far as possible, the Portland churches will entertain those who attend. Those purposing to be present and wishing entertainment are requested to write to Rev. C. H. Daniels, Chairman of the Committee of Entertainment, or Rev. S. K. Perkins, Secretary, Portland, Me. Applications must be made before Oct. 1st. Special rates will be arranged at hotels for those who desire to pay their own way. Railroad and steamboat favors will be secured as far as possible, and notices of reductions and other matters will appear later in the magazine and in the religious press.

We face an unpleasant fact. Receipts in July last year were a little over $42,000. This was unprecedented. It was owing to the special collection taken by the churches July 4th for the debt. Nevertheless, it became a part of our year’s work, and those heavy receipts entered into the total. There are now but two months remaining. Shall our total receipts be allowed to fall behind those of last year? At the end of June we were just about even with last year. But the outlook for July is not encouraging. However, we know that our friends have the money, and we do not believe they are going to allow us to fall behind. We ask them favorably to consider our request that they make a special effort to lift the watermark of our treasury at least as high as it reached last year, and, if possible, lift it up just a little higher.

In conferring the degree of D.D. upon Rev. Henry Hopkins of Kansas City, and of LL.D. upon Gen. Sam’l C. Armstrong, Principal of the Hampton[216] Normal and Agricultural Institute, Williams College can hardly be said to have added any special distinction. The college honors itself fully as much as it does these, her honored sons, in thus receiving them within the circle of those marked by an expression of her distinctive regard. Both of them years before had justly won their spurs. The Christian public, a circle wider than any college, and not apt to be at fault in its judgment, either, has for years honored these men because of their works’ sake. We are glad, however, that Williams College, their Alma Mater, has been first to voice this wider public sentiment. The American Missionary Association congratulates the college in what it has done, because the one, Rev. Henry Hopkins, D.D., is an honored Vice President of the Association, and the other, Gen. Sam’l C. Armstrong, LL.D., is at the head of one of the schools founded and fostered by the Association, and still gloried in as a monumental evidence of the grand work in which it is engaged.

We call the attention of our readers to Rev. Mr. Pond’s article, “Imperium in Imperio.” It is certainly a pathetic appeal to the Christian women of America from the heathenism that has come to us from China. It gives a new glimpse into our Chinese mission work, and emphasizes its importance. We venture the suggestion that this article would furnish interesting reading at ladies’ missionary meetings.

Mr. Grady’s famous speech before the New England Society, if things keep going on at the South as they have been, is likely to become infamous. He asserted for substance that the South had come to recognize the fact that in the war the North was right, the South wrong, that the Negro has the fullest protection of our laws and the friendship of our people.

Recently, Rev. Leonard W. Bacon, who, strange to say, has been for some time pastor of the Independent Presbyterian Church of Savannah, Ga., preached to his people a patriotic sermon. He emphasized the importance of national patriotism. He eulogized Washington, Lincoln and Grant. He intimated that in the late unpleasantness the South was wrong. The result of all this was an excited congregation, an excited community, and the development of such hostility that Mr. Bacon will probably be forced to resign.

Just a little while before the above incident, a colored gentleman by the name of Council was refused permission to ride in a first-class car, though he had paid for and held a first-class ticket on the Georgia Central Railroad. Mr. Council laid his grievance before the Interstate Commerce Commissioners. Commissioner Bragg, of Alabama, happens to know the complainant, and this is the way he testified concerning him: “I know Council well. He is one of the brightest and best of our colored citizens.[217] He is a stanch Democrat, and canvasses the State at every election for the Democratic ticket. He is not a man who desires to push himself forward because of any ambition to obtain social equality. He is modest and unassuming. He is a gentleman.” On another page, Field-Superintendent Ryder tells us of treatment received on a Georgia railroad by Rev. Wm. Sinclair, one of our missionaries. It is rather singular that these incidents happened in Georgia. Mr. Grady is the editor of the leading newspaper of that State. He ought to be able to testify as to its thought and feeling upon the great questions that grew out of the war. It seems to us that by this time he must begin to feel that his speech before the New England Society in New York was a most unfortunate affair. We shall be glad to find out what the New South is, but we shall not be willing to take Mr. Grady as an instructor. The question still remains: Is there a New South?

The Fifth Annual Convention of the Colored Teachers’ Association of Georgia was recently held in the House of Representatives Hall at Atlanta. Upwards of one hundred colored teachers formed what the local press called an “intelligent and decorous body.” The sessions continued for three days. The papers gave full reports of the proceedings. Much popular interest was taken. Many white people attended. The range of the discussions was wide. The science of teaching in all of its departments was introduced by papers and addresses, and evoked very general discussion. It was a convention of both interest and power. It was a demonstration, beyond all doubt, of the Negro’s intellectual capacity and of his willingness to use and improve it. One of our Atlanta teachers writing us about this convention says: “I wish our Northern friends could have attended it. I am sure, if they could have done so, those who are helping would want to help more, and those who never have helped would be stirred up to lend a hand in raising up a people, so many of whom have proven and are proving that they can be raised. Certainly those of us here on the field can but feel encouraged and strengthened to go on.”

A GRADUATE AND A PORTER.

There appeared in an Atlanta paper a few days ago, a paragraph stating that a young Negro man of Atlanta, who had the best university education, was acting as a porter in a cotton room, and that all but two of his class, perhaps thirty, had dropped back into just such work as he was doing, and saying that perhaps a good deal of higher education was wasted.

This paragraph has been copied by a large number of papers and is likely to injure the cause of education among the colored people, and for this reason it seems necessary to call attention to the errors it contains.

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The young man referred to has not a university education, but left school during his freshman year. He was not a member of a class of about thirty, although sometimes when his class recited with one in the normal department, the two combined probably reached about that number.

While he was junior preparatory his class numbered ten, and when he was college freshman, eleven. Of these eleven, three went through the course and were graduated. Two of these are teaching, one in Texas, and the other as principal of a school in Chattanooga. The third graduate is employed by a wealthy resident of Atlanta, at whose home he always has lived, as collector of rents, etc., and may be said to be “in business.”

So, instead of the young man in question having a university education, he did not finish his freshman year; instead of his being a member of a class of thirty, his class numbered only eleven; and instead of thirty falling from the sublime heights of university graduates to the low estate of porters in cotton houses, the three of that class who completed their college course are occupying the important positions mentioned above.

Unfortunately this instance of misrepresentation is not an isolated case, but one of a thousand of similar character. The statement that the graduates from colored colleges are all idle vagabonds, has become too stale to produce an impression any longer when made in the abstract.

Now what are the facts upon this point? Let the published list of graduates from the Atlanta University, with their occupations, answer.

This school has a classical course of study covering a period of seven years, for pupils who have completed the common English branches. From this have been graduated forty students in ten classes averaging four to a class. This university has also a normal course of four years, for admission to which the same is required as for admission to the classical course. From this have been graduated in thirteen classes one hundred pupils, averaging about eight to a class.

Of the forty graduates from the classical course, five are dead, eight are in the service of the U.S. Government, four are pastors of churches, one is a lawyer, two are in the theological seminary, one is engaged in business in Atlanta, and the remaining nineteen are teaching. None are unemployed and all are engaged in occupations in which considerable education is required, and a thorough one is desirable. It ought to be added that two of these graduates are professors in colleges, one is editing a respectable weekly newspaper, besides teaching, and one of those in the service of the Government has been promoted three times upon merit alone.

Of the one hundred graduates from the normal department, six have died, seventeen are keeping house for their husbands, one is in a medical school, one is pursuing a college course, one is a mail carrier, one is still living at home, one is a hired housekeeper, and the remaining seventy-two are teaching.

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With reference to putting an education to a practical use, how many schools in the United States can show a better record?

It may be said that a thorough education is not required to fit a person for a government position, such as clerks in departments, postal route agents and letter-carriers. But if such an education enables one who has it to get from sixty to one hundred and thirty dollars a month instead of seventy-five cents a day in the city whenever he can obtain a job, or ten dollars a month and “rashuns” in the country, it becomes to him an eminently and interestingly practical thing. Even in the case of this young Negro porter, the gentleman under whom he works says he could hire some one else to do the same work for half his wages, but he prefers his services at the double cost. If three years of Latin and two and a third years of Greek and the mathematics that go with them double the value of the services of a colored youth, let us challenge studies that are usually considered more practical to show a better record and be careful how we speak sneeringly of higher education.

But are occupations for the fullest use of a higher education by colored people limited? They certainly are. A white pastor may minister to a colored church, a white teacher may instruct colored children, a white physician may prescribe for a colored patient, a white attorney may counsel for a colored client, a white mechanic may employ colored laborers, a white merchant may serve colored customers, but in none of these spheres does the rule work both ways except in a few rare instances. So the services of educated colored people in the professions and in business are confined to their own race, and in that they are crowded by their white competitors. Furthermore they are not welcomed to these higher walks of life even among their own people by their neighbors of the more powerful race; but the general and almost universal public sentiment is in favor of keeping them down. More than this, many of their own race prefer the services of white lawyers, physicians, ministers, teachers, mechanics and merchants.

Under all these adverse circumstances and others that might be named, it requires great courage and perseverance in a colored youth to complete a full course of study.

But should they be encouraged or dissuaded?

If the philosophy of civilization teaches anything it teaches that Nature intended that every man should make the most of himself, and every race should attain the highest possible development; and if Christianity teaches anything it teaches the same lesson. Unless some one knows for certain that the Negro is the descendant of Ham, and that the descendants of Ham have not yet served their time in hewing wood and drawing water, why not test the virtue of this rather queer theory by trying, on a small scale, the experiment of giving Negroes the opportunity of acquiring all the education their mental capacity is capable of receiving, and looking on[220] to see what they will do with it, and what effect it will have upon the race, and not expect that every individual will be a success or achieve high place among men?

As the masses become enlightened the demand for well educated men and women must increase. The “cornfield preacher” who depends upon the “Sperrit” will step down and out, and the seminary graduate, with “Bible religion” will take his place. Thoroughly trained and equipped colored lawyers and physicians will conquer the prejudice that now exists among their own people against them, and will conquer it the more easily if they are better prepared for work than their white competitors. All this need not come about in one generation. We can transmit the work, with our faith and our hopes, as a legacy to our children.

But, however divergent the views of different people may be upon these questions, there certainly is no immediate occasion for a howl against the higher education of the Negro, for there is not enough of it to feed the flames of a respectable controversy. Only a fraction of the so-called universities south of Washington open to colored students have a collegiate course of study, and the entire number of graduates from such a course can be expressed by two ciphers and a small significant figure. What are a hundred or two of college graduates among six or seven millions of people? The shades of Hahnemann himself might echo the question.

T. N. CHASE, in New York Independent.

THINGS TO BE REMEMBERED—NO 3.

The Danger! Whatever of sentiment or of poetry may have appealed to the imagination in the work of foreign missions, has been pretty much dispelled by contact with foreign races at our own doors. We find that they are intensely human, and that the task of saving them is intensely real. The enchantment which comes of distance is simple commonplace and matter of fact when the object is near at hand. Hence the danger, now to be apprehended, is that of disgust, or of indifference. Indeed we are not sure that the feeling has not taken on a stronger form, and might not now be called hatred, or scorn. If it be not one of these, what name shall we give to the feeling towards the Chinese on the Pacific; towards the Indian, driven from his hunting grounds and chased to the death by our soldiery; towards the Negro, whipped and shot by midnight raiders, unprotected by the government he helped to save, and left in his ignorance, his poverty and his animalism by God’s people, on whom he is cast for enlightenment and elevation?

How shall we see the vastness and urgency of the work for these races with such repugnances and disgusts meeting us on the very threshold? Moral ideas are of slow growth, and churches and communities turn to new objects of sympathy and labor reluctantly and sluggishly. While we[221] hesitate and wait, the probability is that things will take shape and pass beyond our control; or, at best, that we shall but partially secure results which are now fully within our reach. At this moment the churches of America hold the key to the conquest of this world for Jesus Christ! Will they hold it a generation hence? Not unless they take advantage of their position to win these races to God before they are absorbed into the world, and are thus lost as a regenerating force with which to elevate the unsaved millions of mankind. Suppose, in our supineness, we see the Chinese driven back into heathenism; the Indian turned over to the soldiery for extermination, or a deeper barbarism; the Negro wrested from his rights, and unlifted from his passions, weaknesses and enthralments of mental and spiritual darkness: is there any reason to believe that the opportunity will ever return when it will be possible for us so completely to control, guide and mould them as we now can?

We are in jeopardy, therefore, of making the most fearful mistake in Christian ethics and in Christian practice. If these races pass from our hands uneducated and unsaved, the world will charge us with the commission of a crime against humanity itself. Now we can throw upon these fields, if we will, men enough to take possession of them in the name of Christ. Now, we can raise up out of these races the laborers to carry our learning, our art, our faith, to all who speak the same tongue, and to all in whose veins bounds the same blood. To this work Providence manifestly calls us—to do it is to walk with God, we verily believe. But whether the churches see it, or wish to see it; whether they are more ready to walk in their own light than in the light which shines from heaven, I cannot answer. I can only say the sun shines, and we have the eyes to see. If we miss the Divine plan and method it will not be for lack of light, but the mistake will be none the less sad, and the misfortune to the world none the less direful, because the ages may not undo it. From such a peril may the good Lord save his people, and open their eyes that they may see!

OBITUARY.

Rev. Sidney Hamilton Dale, pastor at Florence, Ala., died June 18th, and was buried at Talladega, June 25th.

Mr. Dale was graduated from the Theological Department of Talladega College, June, 1886, and at Christmas was ordained at Florence, the sermon being preached by Prof. G. W. Andrews, who also conducted the funeral services at Talladega. Some seventeen years before, Mr. Dale, then a little boy, was converted in a revival of very remarkable reach and power, at Marion, under the pastorate of Mr. Andrews, who was then beginning his many years of service in Alabama. After some time at the Lincoln Normal Institute, in Marion, he came to Talladega, where, in addition to normal and college preparatory studies, he pursued theology[222] under the same friend who had led him to Christ. He was diligent, growingly diligent; in his studies strong, active and persevering. He had a voice of remarkable compass and power, and he composed both the words and music of the Class Song sung at his graduation. He was devoted to the ministry, for which he had made years of laborious preparation, and which he had begun with large promise of usefulness. His illness continued but a few days, and death was not expected till the end had almost come. But his faith was strong. With exultant prayer and triumph he crossed the stream into the better land. But it seems as if the fields this side, so large and needy, could ill spare such a young and vigorous reaper; and a heavy sorrow falls upon the young wife and mother who mourns an unmeasured loss, yet not without the hope and comfort which God alone can give.

D.

THE SOUTH.

NOTES IN THE SADDLE.

BY FIELD-SUPERINTENDENT C. J. RYDER.

“Men are four: He who knows not and knows not he knows not, he is a fool; shun him. He who knows not and knows he knows not, he is simple; teach him. He who knows and knows not he knows, he is asleep; wake him. He who knows and knows he knows, he is wise; follow him.” So runs an old Arabic proverb. A sermon delivered by one of our A. M. A. pastors, before a class just graduating from one of our Southern institutions, proves that in educational matters this pastor was of the fourth class according to the Arabic classification. The text of the sermon was Philippians iii, 13-14, and the preacher spoke as follows, according to report in one of the local papers:

“There are important lessons in these words of the Apostle Paul for you. In finishing the course here you have only made a beginning. The real work and the prize are ahead. A foundation has been laid on which you must build, patiently, carefully, wisely. Healthy spiritual and intellectual life are characterized by progress. This is the touchstone, like a shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect day. Education is the full development of the man, and we know that development is a gradual, almost imperceptible process. It is the leading out of the powers and capabilities which he may possess. You do not educate a man when you simply tell him what he did not know, but you do educate him when you make this knowledge imparted a part of himself, thus causing him to feel what he ought to feel—conscious power and manhood. Education which does not make a man more manly and independent, is a decided failure. It means growth. It is a man’s duty to grow. Remember, then, that you have not apprehended—for what you must apprehend or [223]lay hold on, is Christian character and manhood in its highest sense.”

Such manly and discriminating counsel coming from a graduate to other graduates of his own race, proves that it is safe to appeal to the results in proof of the value of higher education among the colored people of the South.

Most refreshing news comes to us from a far-off church in Texas. “Last Sabbath,” writes the faithful pastor, “was a high day for the church here. Thirteen united with us, and many others were greatly revived. Meetings of intense interest are still being held, and many are coming forward for prayers and consecrating themselves to the Lord.” A revival in midsummer! What a surprising phenomenon in religious work at the North, but not so surprising for the South, for there most earnest Christian work is often done during the heated days of summer. The pastor who reports this encouraging work has charge of three churches, and travels every week some fifty miles by wagon in order to fill his appointments. He regrets his inability to visit all the stations in his field regularly at present, on account of the great interest at this one point and the imperative demands there are upon him for special services here. He begs the prayers of his brethren to whom he writes, and may I not ask, through these Notes, for the prayers of a much larger circle than those reached by his letter?

These Notes seem to be a scrap-bag, or a sort of patch-work quilt, made up of bits gathered from different letters. Let me add one more as illustrating two things: first, the extreme self-denial of many who are contributing to the work of the A. M. A., and also as illustrating the high appreciation of this self-sacrifice on the part of those who are doing the work in the field. A teacher whose economy in traveling expenses had been so marked as to call for commendation, writes: “It seems to me that we are in honor bound to be more prudent in the use of A. M. A. money than in the use of our own. Some of the money given for the work in the South comes from very humble people. I have heard of a poor woman in ——, who earned her living by washing and scrubbing, yet saved out of her scanty earnings a half cent a day for the A. M. A. It would be a shame to any one to spend such money carelessly.” There are noble heroism and self-denial on both sides of the line which divides the two classes of those engaged in the work of the A. M. A. When the new Acts of the Apostles is written, it will include in its records not only the Pauls and Peters who have gone out into this great Southern field, but also the Tabithas “who are full of good works and alms-deeds which they do” in their own homes.

“Where is the New South?” I repeat the question asked by the editor[224] of this magazine last month. Report just reaches us that Rev. W. A. Sinclair, while traveling with his bride, has been violently and brutally put out of a first-class railway coach and forced into a “smoker,” although he held a first-class ticket which he bought of the regularly appointed agent of the road. I do not know the circumstances connected with this new outrage, but I do know Rev. Mr. Sinclair, and know him to be a quiet, unostentatious, unobtrusive Christian gentleman. There could have been no excuse for this outrage. The “New South,” evidently, is not on the railway trains in Georgia.

HOWARD UNIVERSITY THEOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT.

The Theological Department of Howard University, Washington, D.C., held its anniversary exercises on May 27th in the First Congregational Church, in which was assembled a large audience of colored and white people. Ten young men were graduated, four of whom made interesting addresses. One of these was a Bulgarian, who has also taken the medical course in the University, and will return to his country as a missionary. Each graduate received a Bible and a copy of Finney’s Autobiography. There were thirty-eight theological students this year, and these included yet another Bulgarian, who was converted under the missionaries of the American Board, and was driven from his country by persecution, but who hopes eventually to return thither.

Most encouraging reports were received during the year from former graduates, who are hard at work in their respective fields, and who to preaching add Sunday-school instruction, teaching in day schools, temperance lecturing, and often housebuilding. No department of our University yields richer fruit than does this.

WM. W. PATTON.

COMMENCEMENT AT FISK UNIVERSITY.

BY REV. A. P. MILLER, AN ALUMNUS.

Being absent on Thursday and Friday, I did not take in the exercises of the Senior Preparatory Class and the literary societies of the University, but learned that the young men and women did themselves and their Alma Mater much credit in their addresses and essays.

The missionary sermon was preached on Sunday morning by Rev. David M. Harris, D.D., editor of a Presbyterian organ in Nashville. Dr. Harris, who is a Southern gentleman, with much feeling referred to the wrongs endured by the colored people in this country, saying that he was heartily ashamed of their treatment in the past, but that he had rather be the wronged than the perpetrators of the wrong. The Doctor was much pleased with what had been accomplished by Fisk University during[225] the trying years of her eventful history for the elevation of the African race in this country, and, through them, on the African continent.

The baccalaureate sermon in the afternoon, by Pres. E. M. Cravath, D.D., commanded the closest attention; and at the close, the President’s very feeling address to the graduates, four young men and two young women, was very impressive. The music provided for the services during the day by Prof. Spence and the Mozart Society was of the highest order.

The Rev. Dr. F. A. Noble, of Chicago, arrived on Saturday, and seemed to have taken in all round about him during his stay, visiting classes in all departments under examination. The exercises of the Normal Department of the University were richly enjoyed, degrees being conferred on six young men and two young women. The addresses and essays were thoughtfully conceived, timely, and well delivered; and to one who, nine years ago, was graduated from the University, showed marked evidence of advance. While one member was delivering his address, his fellow-townsmen were electing him to a position in their school on a salary of $75 per month.

On Tuesday the Alumni associations of the University held their anniversaries, addresses being delivered by Mrs. Ava Brown Dismukes, class of ’77, Normal, and the Rev. Albert P. Miller, of New Haven, Conn., class of 78, College. Mrs. Dismukes’ subject was “Local Missions.” She vigorously enforced the duty of graduates, wherever they may be, to make of themselves missionaries for the upbuilding of the race. The Rev. A. P. Miller spoke on “The duty of the hour,” and his address was listened to attentively throughout. Dr. Noble emphasized Mr. Miller’s remarks as to the Negro’s lack of sufficient moral courage to know and assert his rights. At the close of the Alumni meetings, Gen. Clinton B. Fisk and wife put in their appearance and were heartily applauded, and of course a speech was called for and received with wonted enthusiasm.

Wednesday, beautiful and clear, came, bringing Commencement Day. Teachers, students, friends and old graduates marched in procession from Jubilee to Livingstone Hall. The exercises began at 10 A. M. Music was grand. Addresses and essays gave evidence of deep thought and careful preparation. Dr. Noble, in his afternoon speech, said he never heard them excelled in any college, not even in dear old Yale. Six received the degree of B.A.; some of them having been in the institution fifteen years, and among those who had been longest connected with the University was Miss Mary E. Spence, only daughter of Prof. A. K. Spence, whom I found at Fisk on entering, seventeen years ago.

Dr. Noble’s address, “Christian Socialism,” was timely, and had a ring in it that thrilled the hearts of all who heard it. We who were privileged to meet and hear this noble man and minister of Christ cannot and will not soon forget him and his visit to Fisk.

After degrees had been conferred, Gen. Fisk delivered one of his characteristic[226] speeches, thanking and blessing God for Fisk University, with whose life he had been associated for more than twenty years. He was proud of its history and of the work done by its band of noble men and women and students, and urged graduates to be something. Master’s degrees were conferred on W. R. Morris, now teacher in Fisk; G. K. McIlvaine, of St. Louis, Mo., and Dr. A. A. Wesley, recently graduated from medical school at Chicago.

What impressed me most was the desire expressed by the alumni of Fisk to see their Alma Mater permanently endowed, and an intention to work in the future among themselves and former students to this end. The alumni have already pledged one per cent. of their annual income toward an endowment fund, and as a result several hundred dollars have been realized, and are now invested in a Nashville bank. The ball was again started a-rolling at Commencement dinner, Dr. Noble leading off, followed by Prof. Spence, with $10 each for the class of ’87, and the amount ran up, swollen by contributions of students, to about $150, and Gen. Fisk said he knew a gentleman in New York who would double the sum subscribed on that occasion. [This gentleman is doubtless Gen. F.] Rev. A. P. Miller was appointed by the college alumni as corresponding secretary to work up the endowment fund among the alumni and former students, and it is to be hoped that friends of Negro education whom God has blessed with means will turn their attention toward this University, whose teachers and students have done so much for the mental and moral regeneration of the South and the Negro race.

Fisk University must be endowed, and we her sons and daughters, who intend doing what we can in this direction, most sincerely trust that friends of years gone by will not forget, in the distribution of what God hath given them, this institution, which has all these years depended solely on God and a charitable public for its existence and a continuance of its blessed work. May the richest blessings of heaven come down on every one, whatever his or her creed, white or black, who will help to permanently endow Fisk University.

COMMENCEMENT AT TALLADEGA COLLEGE.

BY PRESIDENT H. S. DE FOREST, D.D.

Talladega’s seventeenth Commencement began Friday, June 10th, with exercises of the lower grades from the Cassedy school, and ended with the oration, essay, and a wedding at the Alumni meeting the Thursday evening following. Between these dates were the sermon before the graduates; a missionary sermon by Secretary Powell, of New York; public examination of students in all grades, from secondary studies up to theology, including classes taught in Practice School by Normal Students; exercises of the three literary societies; an address by Dr. Powell on[227] “Over the sea”; one by Dr. W. H. Ward on “The testimony of ancient monuments to God’s Word”; exhibition of industrial work, with orations and essays by graduates from the Normal and Theological departments. It was a large bill of fare, we thought well served, and many were at the table. The attendance all through was excellent, the house being usually crowded, and often the overflow was very great. The different examinations, it was conceded by all, gave evidence of thorough study and solid attainments. Certainly thoroughness is constantly sought, and those who visit the college bear witness to good success in securing it. Two, new this year, graduated from the Theological and thirteen from the Normal department. All are professed Christians, are exemplary in life, and go to their work with excellent preparation.

Tuesday afternoon was given to inspection of the industrial training. A display was made of the girls’ work in cutting, sewing and repairing; of what the young men had done in blacksmithing, carpentry and cabinet-making; while samples of cobbling were walking all around. Students were seen painting, wood-working, draughting; some were type-setting, form-making, and at press-work. The garden, farm, wood-saw and feed-mill, stock and barns were examined. All our visitors are impressed with the results already secured in industrial training, and some are relieved who feared that the brain, if it gets much of a start, will paralyze the hand, forgetting that the hand must be inapt till there is a trained head to give it cunning.

The mid-winter series of meetings, both at the college and the two mission chapels, were blessed to several conversions. Young people have been schooled in a vigorous Society of Christian Endeavor. Mission Sunday-schools and neighborhood prayer-meetings have been carried on with growing interest. The different benevolent societies have had their claims presented in turn; something has been given to all; and if the offerings have been small, they have, it is believed, been weighted with prayer.

Important repairs, so far as means are afforded, are to be made by industrial students. Board is now to be made cheaper, and, with, no less attention to fundamental branches, more is to be done in developing college studies; and theological training, a strong point from the beginning, is still to be kept in the foreground. At the close of another good year, the college looks hopefully towards the future.

COMMENCEMENT AT TOUGALOO UNIVERSITY.

Whatever else we may have or fail to have at our annual Commencement time, we always expect rain, and we are rarely disappointed in this particular. This year rain was so greatly needed, and had been so long devoutly wished for, that it was one of our causes of rejoicing. However, the showery character of the weather prevented our having the usual full[228] attendance on Commencement Sabbath; but by Commencement day we had many visitors from a distance, who, with our school family and people from our own vicinity, filled all the space of our new chapel—not quite so closely as it might have been packed, but comfortably full; the largest attendance being had at the concert, Wednesday evening, June 1. These concerts grow in excellence and in favor from year to year, and our choir has, besides, won some modest laurels, singing outside the University, which it has worn as modestly.

Our Sunday-school is always delightful, and nothing else is ever permitted to take its place. At the close of this year we had the pleasure of disposing of seventy dollars of Sunday-school money. Forty dollars were voted to missionary work in Africa, twenty-five to library books, and five to the State temperance lecturer of Mississippi. A larger average attendance than ever before was reported.

On Sunday afternoon a Home Mission Institute was held. A list of topics was presented two weeks beforehand, but no set speeches or prepared papers were given. The young people, led by President Pope, did nearly all the talking, and it was good to hear the earnest and practical way in which they discussed such topics as these:

“What can we do—

“To secure the better observance of the Sabbath?”

“To introduce good reading matter into the homes of the people?”

“To make our industrial training do home missionary work?”

“By what means can we best promote the interest of the people in schools, Sunday-schools, missions, temperance, personal and social purity?”

“What societies shall we seek to organize, or shall we combine all these aims in Societies of Christian Endeavor?”

In the evening President Pope delivered the sermon to the graduates, speaking with even more than his wonted force and fervor in view of his farewell to this field and the transfer of his labor to the mountain work in Tennessee.

Besides the oral examinations of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, there were black-board drawings and displays of written work in each room, so that those who passed through might see something of the work of each grade. There were also industrial exhibits of the young ladies’ work, and work from the shops. Col. Power, of the State Board of Visitors, spoke of our new school-house and shops themselves as being a most gratifying industrial exhibit, having been so largely the work of our apprentices.

On Wednesday afternoon the black-boards in one of the large school-rooms were seen to bear these scrolls, in dashing capitals: “Welcome, Alumni!” and “There’s no place like Home.” And presently about a score of Tougaloo graduates, with teachers and friends, were gathered to listen to an address by Mr. J. N. Granberry, one of the very first class graduated[229] here. He said, in beginning, that he had decided to take for his theme “That which most men try to shirk, namely: ‘Duty.’” He then spoke of the duty of the sons and daughters of this institution to themselves, to their school, to their people, to their country, to the world at large, basing all upon the thought of duty to God.

At a business meeting, next morning, of the Society of the Alumni, President Pope pledged funds with which to erect, within two years, an Industrial Cottage for Girls, and the Alumni pledged funds for the furnishing. This is with a view to placing our girls’ industries more nearly on an equal footing with those for young men. In the meantime our good friend, Mr. Ballard, of New York, has again come to our rescue and made it possible to set the enterprise of girls’ housekeeping on foot at once—that is, next year—in a small way, as we can with our present accommodations.

An unusual number of graduates were present at Commencement, and enjoyed their own separate dinner and “the olive branches” about the table. There were never so many babies at Tougaloo before, and a well-behaved and promising little company we thought them, upon the whole. May God bless the little ones and make them every one burning and shining lights in His kingdom! Our graduating class was small this year—two young ladies from the Elementary, and a young man from the Higher Normal. The exercises were good.

We have always listened with pleasure and profit, each recurring year, to our annual address, by whomsoever delivered, and faithful and eminent men have thus favored us; but never have we experienced greater delight in this part of our service than this year while being addressed by that grand, large-hearted, eloquent divine and stanch friend of the colored people from ante-bellum days, the Rev. Dr. C. K. Marshall, of Vicksburg. He seemed not at all to address himself to colored people as such, but from a glowing heart to pour forth universal truth for universal humanity, in the most genial spirit, counseling our young people as young people anywhere might rejoice to be counseled on the threshold of active life.

After so prolonged a “feast of reason,” the mortal bodies demanded refreshment, and the afternoon was far spent when all had been served. Then good-byes were spoken, students and visitors departed, and a sort of lonesome quiet settled over Tougaloo; but the chosen motto of our graduating class looks down in letters of unfading green from over the rostrum, “Life is earnest,” and carries our prayerful thoughts out to the army of young workers who, in their several homes, schools and places of labor, we trust are earnestly endeavoring to walk in the footsteps of our blessed Master and “overcome evil with good.”

J. K.

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GREGORY INSTITUTE, WILMINGTON, N.C.

Our closing exercises this year partook more of the nature of a Commencement than heretofore. This is the second year only that our school has turned out graduates from any of the higher courses. From the class of ten comprising the elementary normal class, seven—five young men and two young women—were graduated. One other young man, who failed to pass on account of being absent teaching during a part of the year, and who is working hard, determined to make up the lost studies before leaving the city, will probably succeed and be granted his certificate during the summer.

The exercises were held on Thursday evening, May 27th, in the church instead of in the hall, in order to get a larger room. It was needed, the largest number being present that were ever assembled within the walls of this beautiful building.

The exercises consisted principally of orations and essays by the members of the graduating class, interspersed with singing, all of which were rendered in a highly creditable manner. In addition to these were recitations by the school of the 23d Psalm, a Scripture catechism learned during the year, and a missionary colloquy beautifully rendered by girls from the different classes, representing, by their dress, many of the heathen nations.

Another and a very interesting feature of the evening’s entertainment, was a half-hour address by Rev. Geo. S. Smith, pastor of the Congregational Church, Raleigh, N.C. He was introduced to the audience as a colored man who had been trained in the A. M. A. schools, and a noble specimen he is, as an orator, as a scholar, and as a man. He chose for his subject, “Encouragement,” from which he delivered an address replete with sound practical thoughts and advice.

A better behaved, more attentive audience scarcely ever gathered than that at our Commencement. We feared that they might not like these exercises as well as those of the usual exhibition order, but many said this was the best exhibition we ever had. Everything passed off nicely, with nothing to mar the enjoyment of the evening.

As we looked at the people before us, we thought: “How could any one in this Christian land have ever said, ‘These niggers have no souls’; or, ‘You can’t educate a nigger to make anything of him’?” Even at this late day we hear these or kindred expressions. I tell you, friends, if you were thrown with this people as we teachers are, you would soon almost forget that they are colored. Please don’t forget that they are here to stay, 7,000,000 of them, and they need your help to rise from their despised, neglected condition. They are surely marching onward, but much, very much, yet remains for the Christians of our land to do.

Our enrollment for the past year has been 285, but the average attendance has not been quite up to the usual mark, owing to sickness, “hard [231]times,” etc. Death has entered the school, taking away two of the number, both youths of special promise.

Our workers have never been more untiring in their efforts to advance the cause of temperance and morality. A flourishing Band of Hope, taking in nearly every pupil in the three lower departments, has been doing its good work throughout the year. The society for the older ones, not strictly confined to the school, has also been doing its work. White Cross societies have been formed, and without doubt will prove of great help to their members. The Band of Mercy belonging to the First Primary Division should not be forgotten. The school prayer-meeting has been encouraging, and considerable time has been taken up in the study of the Scriptures.

GEO. A. WOODARD.

THE INDIANS.

CLOSING EXERCISES AT SANTEE NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL.

A beautiful feature of the Commencement season here at Santee was the communion service of last Sunday, at which time six young Indian men came forward from among their companions and publicly united themselves to God’s people! We call them boys, but they are not boys; they are old enough to realize the position they now occupy, and it has come to them only after the long, hard struggle which seems always to insure earnest lives for the future. Most beautiful of all was the baptism! Tears rolled down their cheeks as they bent for a blessing from the white man’s God and their God.

The eyes of the teachers, who had prayed and labored so earnestly for this very occasion, were filled to overflowing. Five different tribes were represented by these boys: Mandan, Ree, Assinaboine, Yanktonais and Titon. Two of the young men are the sons of chiefs still in their blankets, who, recognizing the great needs of their people, are urging their sons on to more earnest study, so that they may come back as missionaries to those who wait for them as for deliverers.

It would seem enough of an achievement that these scores of Indian boys and girls have been brought out of the superstition, the unbelief, the savagery of their tribes, into the customs, manners and religion of civilization, even if the work stopped there; but the three days following the communion Sabbath have shown such results in regard to a growth as well as change of mind, that to one seeing the work for the first time it is simply marvelous.

It is one thing to sit in an Eastern audience and listen to the most earnest recital of the needs of, and work among, the Indians, and to say, “O, yes, the needs are very great; the work is glorious; we fully understand [232]your solution of the ‘Indian problem’; we agree with you and aid you!” (while in a day the needs are forgotten, and the work is overlooked). It is another thing to stand here on the ground and listen to the silent appeals of these hundreds of thirsty human souls—appeals that are all the stronger because of their utter helplessness. Another thing is it to stand and behold the work already done, and the change already made! To see with our own eyes is to wonder and believe, in such a way that we can never forget. Would that all men might not only hear, but see!

On Friday, the 24th, began the yearly examinations of the Santee Normal Training School. Teachers and scholars were alive to the duties placed upon them, and the end of the seventeenth year found all active as ever. The recitations extended throughout Friday, Monday and Tuesday, and visitors from the Agency and surrounding towns were made welcome. The school-rooms, thrown open together, were well filled during most of the sessions. Especially interesting was the map-drawing and accompanying recitation by the older geography students. The recitation showed that an Indian may have as clear and correct an idea of the formation of this earth and its divisions into hemispheres, countries, etc., as any white boy. The maps were accurately and admirably drawn. The language lessons were novel, and showed good work on the part of the teachers. Stories were read to the students which they were asked to re-write in as good English as possible. The following from a boy brought into the school last fall, is a good illustration of the way in which they think and speak in English: “We get all our silk from a little creature called worm. The little creature is green color. She lay number of eggs and then died, and they have never seen their children and father.”

Music is by no means drudgery to the Indians. Passionately fond of it, they practice with patience, and the results have been more than satisfactory. Considering the lack of all discipline in their natures, the examinations this year, both in vocal and instrumental music, have been remarkable. Those thousands in the East who heard, last winter, the singing of the Santee quintette, can easily believe that this is true.

Gymnastics have been practiced as a means of teaching accuracy and quickness of thought. The precision acquired by the students shows that it has been a good discipline, and would do credit to any school.

The recitations in mathematics were good. The work in algebra deserves special mention. One thing is very evident in studying the school work here; that is, that while in everything requiring simple memory the Indian is fully equal to the white boy, perhaps more than equal, his reasoning faculties are much behind, on account of the lack of such faculties in the generations of his ancestors; so mathematical work requires patient plodding, month after month, for each step gained. There is very great need of such discipline among this people, and it is one of the most difficult things in this work of education and Christianization.

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Twenty minutes were given on Monday to the workings of a model normal class in botany. It was most unique, carried on wholly by the advanced students. They showed clearly the most approved manner and methods not only of teaching, but also of learning. The whole was skillfully and understandingly done.

Tuesday evening was devoted to a literary entertainment. Space allows only of a word or two in regard to it. A former graduate of Santee, who is now one of its teachers, read an essay on “Civilization” well worth repeating. He began with the earliest known civilization before Christ; came down through the centuries with examples proving Christianity to be the mainspring of modern civilization, ending with a touching picture of the angels of God looking down upon this, the greatest nation of the world, and watching anxiously to see it turn a listening ear to the plea of the poor Indian for this very knowledge of God, which he realizes is his only salvation, his only path to the civilization for which he longs. Beautifully pathetic were the words in which he spoke of our common brotherhood and of the longing of his people for better things.

On Wednesday morning the exercises opened with a battalion drill, and later, time was given to an exhibition of the industrial work of the students. The blacksmith, carpenter and shoe shops held proof of good solid work on the part of the boys; while the needle-work of the girls and small boys was exceptional. The talent for free-hand drawing is very general among the Indians, and the collection of specimens was good.

The exercises closed on Wednesday evening with a social gathering in the large dining hall. There were present all the boys and girls of the school, the teachers, employees, and many visitors. Blanketed Indians mingled with the rest, and many nationalities were represented. It was a novel company, but all were happy and glad. With the close of the evening, Santee finished a successful year. Very early on Thursday morning nearly a score of the students were busy with preparations for departure. In the quiet of the dawn some of us heard the sound of music, most unusual at this hour; and one of the teachers venturing to the chapel, found the young men holding a meeting for prayer. It was their own idea; they had waked one another quietly for it. It was the surest safeguard against the temptations they were going out to meet. This single incident shows better than words the missionary spirit pervading the whole school. And so, to-day, with the departure of the students, goes out the gospel influence of Santee—far North into Canada, East into Minnesota, and West into Montana, never to diminish, but to grow and spread until the white man’s God shall be indeed the God of all the Indians.

What is true of the advance of the pupils of Santee is indicative of the advance of the whole people. There is surely a bright day coming for the Indian.

MRS. CHAS. W. SHELTON.

[234]

THE CHINESE.

IMPERIUM IN IMPERIO.

The story which I have to tell this month may startle our readers east of the Rockies, though the hard fact underlying it has long been known to us on this Pacific slope, and especially in San Francisco.

On Sunday, June 5th, among seven Chinese who were baptised and received to Bethany church, was one young woman about fifteen years of age. She was the second female Chinese received to our fellowship, for out of more than 120 of that nation whom I have baptised, all but two have been males.

This young woman is remarkably beautiful in person, pleasing in her ways, and interesting in character. Her father is in China. Her mother, quite in accordance, perhaps, with the moralities of Chinese heathenism, had taken to herself another husband for the time being, and had gone to Arizona to ply her trade, the nature of which I do not certainly know, and therefore will not suggest. To raise funds she had pawned this girl for $250, but had paid $100 on her debt. A very estimable Chinaman, not a professed Christian, but one of whom we have hoped much, knowing the parties and hearing that little Ah Yung was being harshly treated, advanced the balance of the debt and took possession of the child. He placed her in the family of our helper, Jee Gam. Thus she became known to the lady teachers in our Central Mission, one of whom went up-stairs each evening to the apartments occupied by Jee Gam’s family, to give her a lesson, and also (as always) to speak to her of Christ.

At first indifferent and even hostile, she softened at length, and began to wish that she might become a Christian. With this softening of the heart towards Christ, there rose, of course, an abhorrence and dread of the destiny which, according to heathen customs, awaited her. She did not, however, at first open her heart fully to her teacher, but said that she would like to earn some money, and to work for wages in some American family. A place was found for her which, as being a little remote from the city, was likely to be a safe refuge. But when the time for her removal came, unexpected obstacles were interposed. Jee Gam, while quite willing to have her go, felt that it would be neither honorable nor safe for him to deliver her to any one except the man who entrusted her to him; and this one shrunk from the responsibility of letting her go where it might be difficult for her mother to resume possession of her. Meanwhile the case became more urgent because of a report that her mother would soon be in San Francisco, for, with her arrival, all possibility of legal protection for the child would be gone. Miss Jessie S. Worley, the principal of our Central School, suddenly cut the knot by causing herself, with no[235] one’s consent except that of the child, to be appointed her legal guardian, and she holds her under such protection now.

The day after Ah Yung’s baptism, I think it was, the mother appeared. Entreaties proving vain, she sought by other methods to bring her daughter under her own control, or else to get from some one the coin she was supposed to be worth; for such a girl, just budding into womanhood, in our Chinese matrimonial market, is said to be worth from $500 to $1,500. Last Saturday the Chinaman who had befriended Ah Yung appeared at my study. It was with great difficulty that he could maintain his self-control, though he is a man of strong and steady nerves. His lips quivered as he talked, and his athletic frame often trembled. The mother had appealed to the Six Companies, and his life was at stake. Since then, as I have been informed, a meeting of the representatives of the Six Companies has been held, and our friend was summoned to appear before them. He was given till to-day (June 17th) to restore the girl to her mother—an act entirely beyond his power. Meanwhile, the High-Binders were already on his track, and he scarcely feels safe even in Oakland and in his own employer’s house. He will probably be obliged to flee, perhaps to some point far East, for he will not be able, even if disposed, to surrender the dear child to the fate to which, in her mother’s hands, she would be doomed.

This has brought closer home to me than ever before the fact of an imperium in imperio in our Chinese communities. It stirs one’s blood to think that this young man can make no effective appeal to our Government against this secret tyranny. It may very likely be that if he should be murdered, his murderer, if convicted, would be hung; but this is at best a cold and shadowy comfort in the present emergency.

“A good argument, this,” some one avers, “for hustling the whole brood out of the land!” But in so doing we should not help ourselves at all, and we should hustle them back into deeper darkness and severer cruelty. A good argument, rather, as it seems to me, for pouring in with intenser zeal and more practical endeavor, the life-giving, freedom-giving light of Christ.

W. C. POND.

BUREAU OF WOMAN’S WORK.

MISS D. E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.

Our matrons and teachers find much to interest them in studying the characteristics of the students as exhibited in their school life, and especially are they interested in following the students during vacations to their homes and among the people on the plantations. Witness the following extracts from the correspondence of one of our matrons:

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I think you would be more surprised and delighted to make a tour of our Boys’ Hall, as I did one evening a few weeks before school closed, than to go through the Ladies’ Hall, because you might not expect so much of the young men. I must say, the absolute cleanliness, order and quiet that reigned as I went around in the time of evening study, was more than I expected.

Nearly every room had its pictures, every one its little case for books, some a window full of plants, and all the ordinary conveniences spick and span, with the beds beautifully made up. Some rooms, especially those of the apprentices, were full of ingenious little contrivances which they have made themselves, and so, of course, take double pleasure in. Their matron kept a diligent eye for something to criticise, and, sure enough, some of their books were wrong end up, and she asked the boys if they expected people to stand on their heads to read the titles.

The comfort, convenience and neatness of our plain little rooms, where the girls, and equally the boys, are required to have “a place for everything, and everything in its place,” form by painful contrast one of the special trials of our young people when they go out to cabin life in their teaching and other vacation work.

After they have learned to love the new way, it is very hard for them to have no room to themselves, no facilities for bathing, and small chance to display the good taste they have learned to use in the arrangement and care of their personal belongings.

One of our older girls, who keeps a gem of a room here, felicitates herself on having a room to herself where she boards, even though tucked up and the walls full of other people’s clothes, a saddle, and sundries.

Another of our girls passing through her first experience of “going out,” wrote a wofully homesick letter, saying there was no place to hang up or lay down anything where she was staying; that her trunk had to go under her bed, and after she had made her morning toilet she couldn’t even find room to put down her comb and brush, but had to haul out her trunk and put them back into it. We expect to hear a more cheerful song after her school fills up and she becomes busy and interested, for she is really a very energetic girl, practical and positive. We have written advising her to get her brother, who is skillful with tools and teaches near enough to visit her on Saturdays, to put up some shelves and other conveniences in her school-room, to make that as homelike as possible, have her sewing there, and gather her girls in to learn to sew, crochet, etc., if practicable.

[This brother is one of our Biblical class, and already beginning to preach. He had a tramp of a hundred miles or so after school closed, looking for work for himself and others, back from the railway in the more inaccessible regions, where the schools are not snapped up so quickly. In[237] writing of his search, he said: “I have had what some would call a hard time, but I have enjoyed it, and I know that the Lord is with me.” Blessed assurance!]

All the girls write, sooner or later, to their matron after going home. Some of the letters are rather amusing.

One harum-scarum little miss, who made no end of care when here, after being home a fortnight seems to have been visited with some sense of her shortcomings, and wrote: “If I live I am coming back in the fall, and try to be a better girl than I was before.”

She refers to the text of Scripture that had been given them all as a watchword, and says she often thinks of it; then, as if to confer a like benefit upon her kind friend, she opens her Bible at random and copies: “And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and wash himself in water that he may be clean.” After two or three more of similar tenor, she says: “Think of these verses as long as you live, and also of me,” and ends all by this new rendering of a familiar passage: “Be not overcome evil with good, but overcome good with evil.” Encouraging, isn’t it?

RECEIPTS FOR JUNE, 1887.