The American Missionary — Volume 36, No. 1, January, 1882 online

THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ***




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[Illustration:

VOL. XXXVI. JANUARY 1882 NO. 1

THE

American Missionary


“THEY ARE RISING
ALL ARE RISING,
THE BLACK AND
WHITE TOGETHER”


NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
ROOMS, 56 READE STREET.

Price, 50 Cents a Year, in Advance.]

Entered at the Post-Office at New York, N.Y., as second-class
matter.

* * * * *




CONTENTS.

* * * * *


EDITORIAL.

SALUTATION, 1882 1
PARAGRAPHS—A GOOD WAY TO DO IT 2
JOHN BROWN MEMORIAL STEAMER (with cut) 3
BENEFACTIONS 4
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD 5
INDIAN GIRLS AT HAMPTON (with cuts) 6
GENERAL NOTES—Indians, Africa, Chinese 7
TRAINING GIRLS FOR HOME LIFE: By Miss M. L. Sawyer 10
RELATION OF THE FAMILY TO THE NATION’S WELFARE:
by Miss E. B. Emery 12


FREEDMEN.

TENNESSEE—Interesting Exercises in Fisk University,
Nashville 14
GEORGIA—Storrs School, Atlanta 15
MISSISSIPPI—Dedication of Strieby Hall, Tougaloo 15
WORK IN THE SOUTH 16


AFRICA.

EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL OF REV. H. M. LADD 18
CUT OF CAIRO 19


THE CHINESE.

CALIFORNIA AND CHINA: By Rev. W. C. Pond 21


CHILDREN’S PAGE.

HOW A STRAIN OF MUSIC CALLED A WANDERER HOME 23
MISSIONARY VEGETABLES 24


RECEIPTS 25

CONSTITUTION 29

AIM, STATISTICS, WANTS, ETC. 30

* * * * *




THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

* * * * *

VOL. XXXVI. JANUARY, 1882. NO. 1.

* * * * *


1882.

We welcome the advent of the new year with praise and thanksgiving.
The toils and burdens of 1881 are past. The husbandman has garnered
his sheaves. The sower has cast in his seed, and awaits the spring
time. We greet our friends with hope and gladness. The prosperity
of the past is significant. We have a fuller experience, enlarged
facilities for work, and a place in the confidence and esteem of
the church and the nation that brings with it not only cheer and
courage but an added weight of responsibility.

We are, doubtless, on the eve of great events in the world of
missions. He who has taught all Christendom of every sect and every
age to pray, “Thy kingdom come,” has never decreed such immense
strides in the material world as our eyes have seen, without a
purpose to overmatch them all by spiritual achievements.

The current of events does not tarry; it rushes on more mightily
than ever. We may pray expectantly. We may accustom ourselves
to meditate upon vast plans for enlarged work in fields already
occupied, and for new and fruitful enterprises in regions beyond.
Such gifts from the living as have been bestowed by Mrs. Stone and
Mr. Seney, such legacies for missions as were left by Mr. Otis,
reveal to us what floods may come when all things are ready, while
such revival waves as have swept over Madagascar and the Telagoo
people in India are earnests of the power of the Holy Spirit to
subdue speedily islands and continents to Himself.

Girt with the promises, and armed with all prayer and faith, we
shall go forth to conquer. The day is dawning, the morning star
is piercing the twilight, and dark night will shortly be rolled
away. Over the continents, over the islands, over the seas, victory
is watching and waiting to come; but tarry it will, tarry it
must, till we, or such as we ought to be, win the battle in God’s
appointed way.

Heaven grant that the day of its coming be hastened gloriously, as
never before, by the efforts and events of 1882.

OUR Annual Report for 1881 will soon be off the press and ready for
distribution. We shall be happy to forward it to any of our friends
who will send us their name and address, signifying their wish to
have it.

* * * * *

WE are happy to give our readers in this number of the MISSIONARY
copious extracts from the Journal of Superintendent Ladd, who,
at last reports, was at Cairo, Egypt, in company with Dr. Snow,
awaiting passage to Souakim, on the Red Sea. The reception they
received in Egypt was very encouraging.

* * * * *

THE _Gospel in All Lands_ is to be published as a weekly,
commencing with January, 1882. It will contain one-third of its
present number of pages, but will undergo no other change. The
appearance of an illustrated missionary weekly, relying upon
its subscription list for support, will mark a new and cheering
departure in the missionary literature of the times. We bid the
enterprise Godspeed.

* * * * *

OUR annual meeting discouraged, for the present at least, a
movement for the establishment of a mission in China, under the
auspices of this Association, and in this it accorded with the
recommendations of the Executive Committee. But something may
ultimately be done in this direction, and that our friends may know
more at length the facts in the case we publish in this MISSIONARY,
Brother Pond’s earnest plea in its behalf.

* * * * *


A GOOD WAY TO DO IT.

A few months since, the cause of this Association was presented
to a church in Central New York, after which the minister in
charge addressed the congregation substantially as follows: “Every
family belonging to this church must wish to give, according to
its ability, to the cause which has been so clearly and ably
presented. In order that this may be brought about, I have placed
a slip of paper in each pew, and desire that each family present
subscribe the amount it will give, and state when the money will
be ready. At the close of the service I will gather the slips,
and compare them with the church-roll. If any families have not
responded, I will take a carriage, if need be, and, before the
close of the week, call on those whose names have not been handed
in, so no one shall fail to have an opportunity for assisting in
the great work of advancing the Redeemer’s Kingdom.” The result
was a cheerful and liberal donation, made up probably from all the
families in the church. The clergyman who adopted this thorough and
self-denying plan was a pastor from Nebraska, on an exchange for a
few months with an Eastern brother. It fell out that he had trained
his Western church in the method described above, until all its
members cheerfully rejoiced in it, and put it into practice on all
occasions when money was to be raised for either home or foreign
objects. So that, although his church numbered but eighty-five,
its contributions to benevolent objects exceeded those of any
other Congregational church in the State. Moreover, this was not
brought about by neglect of things needful at home. A new organ was
purchased at a cost of $1,000, the money being raised by the same
method. The blessing of Heaven was not withheld; seasons of revival
strengthened the church, and its membership at present is over
a hundred. The perseverance and fidelity of the pastor were not
overlooked. Where every one was schooled to give, it was an easy
matter to gather what was wanted to purchase a beautiful gold watch
as a Christmas present for the minister. The appreciation of pastor
and people was mutual—so much so that the church was able to retain
its minister, though he was repeatedly called to other places,
where a larger salary was offered.

We commend the example of this clergyman and his people to the
large number of devoted pastors who are always prayerfully seeking
for—“A good way to do it.”

* * * * *


JOHN BROWN MEMORIAL STEAMER.

[Illustration]

We call attention once more to the John Brown steamer. Scarcely a
day passes that we do not receive contributions for it, and yet, as
the sums are small, it will require much more to furnish the amount
needed. As to the value of the steamer we give below a letter from
the Rev. Geo. Thompson. No man in the world is a better judge than
he of its necessity for the use of the mission. He was for many
years a missionary at the Mendi Mission, was indefatigable in his
labors, made wide explorations in the regions round-about, exerted
a vast and wholesome influence over the people, exposed himself
to the dangers of the climate, and only gave up the work on which
his heart was so much set after the failure of the health of his
family. His gift, so large in his circumstances, for the John Brown
steamer is as strong an attestation of his appreciation of its
worth, as his earnest and eloquent words. Read his letter and help
us to complete the amount.

DEAR BRO.—I notice the intention to build a steamer for the
Mendi Mission; Glory to God! My heart rejoices. This, more
than almost any other human means, will help the mission. I
well know the need of such a craft, having been back and forth
so many times in canoes, sometimes old, leaky ones, and my wife
and many others have suffered greatly in those long and rough
canoe voyages from and to Sierra Leone, often terrible and
dangerous. Speed the steamer, and may the blessing of the Lord
rest upon the enterprise.

My heart leaps for joy at the prospect. I hasten to send my
first earned money (by hard labor) since reading the last
MISSIONARY, to help build this John Brown memorial steamer. I
send it with joy and thanksgiving.

In order that old and young may have a part in this work, we have
arranged to issue four grades of shares, as follows: First Grade,
$100; Second Grade, $10; Third Grade, $5; Fourth Grade, $1.

All donations for this purpose should be forwarded to H. W.
Hubbard, Treasurer of the American Missionary Association, 56 Reade
St., New York.

* * * * *


BENEFACTIONS.

—The late George G. Fogg bequeathed $5,000 to Dartmouth College.

—Mr. Reed, of Boston, has given $10,000 to Hampton Normal and
Agricultural Institute.

—The will of John Amory Lowell contains bequests to Harvard College
amounting to $40,000.

—William Bicknell, of Philadelphia, has given $50,000 to the
University at Lewisburg, Pa.

—Wells College, Aurora, N.Y., receives a bequest of $100,000 from
the estate of Col. E. B. Morgan.

—Mrs. Jennie McGraw Fiske has left to Cornell University $290,000
for library fund, building and other purposes.

—The University of Sydney has received a gift of $25,000 for the
endowment of scholarships.

—Hon. John Evans, Ex-Governor of Colorado, has given $40,000 to the
University of Denver since the beginning of the enterprise.

—Howard University is to receive $5,000 from the estate of Francis
P. Schoals of New York City, which amount is to be paid at the
death of his widow.

—Mrs. Noah Wood, of Bangor, Maine, has left $5,000 to Bowdoin
College to found the Blake scholarship in memory of her son.

—Kenyon College has received $15,000 for scholarships from Mr. H.
B. Curtis, of Mt. Vernon, Ohio.

—Col. Charles H. Northam bequeathed $75,000 to the general fund of
Trinity College, Hartford, Ct., and $50,000 for the endowment of a
professorship.

“_If there is any place in this world where a great deal of
money, wisely used, can work incalculable good, even tested by
the simplest maxims of political economy and cent per cent, the
endowment of the Christian schools for the Freedmen is that
opportunity._”—_A. D. Mayo, D.D._

* * * * *


ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.

_Orangeburg, S.C._—The people here are rejoicing in a new $50 bell
bought by themselves. They have also put up a bell tower.

_Tuskegee, Ala._—Mr. B. T. Washington writes: “Please allow me
space to express the thanks of this school to the _Smith American
Organ Company_, of Boston, for the donation of one of their
superior cabinet organs. It is a valuable addition to our school.”

_Athens, Ala._—Rev. H. S. Williams writes of a union effort in the
churches at this place, which has proved a success. Twenty-seven
conversions are reported as the result.

_Savannah, Ga._—The Sabbath-school has begun to yield excellent
fruit. Having $30 in the treasury they voted to send one of their
number to Atlanta University for a year. After a spirited contest
on the part of several members of the school to win the prize the
decision was finally favorable to Palmer Lloyd, a boy of about 15
years. He went to Atlanta in time for the opening of the term.
Fifty dollars in all were needed to insure him a year’s study.
To raise the remaining $20 the Sabbath school gave a musical
entertainment and ice-cream supper and were successful in raising
the amount needed.

_First Impressions of a New Teacher._—After nearly two months’
work I feel that I am more interested than when I came, which I
thought would be impossible. The work is more vast and _awful_
in its importance. I do not wonder, as I did at first, at the
careworn faces of the teachers who have been long in the work. The
possibilities for good or ill of the race are to be contemplated
by us only with fear and trembling, unless God works through and
by us. I enjoy the work heartily. It consists, more than I could
before understand, in laying foundations.

_Impressions of a Teacher of Long Experience South._—I am sure,
in our busy and crowded life, most of us teachers especially fail
to realize how broad and comprehensive our work at the South is;
how what we do, well or poorly, is to affect the whole educational
interest at the South where everything is in a transition state.
Should we not, in view of what our work and influence have
accomplished in the past, and in view of our greater and growing
opportunities for the future, should we not be aroused to a sense
of these things that we may make the most of our chances in this
direction?


INDIAN GIRLS AT HAMPTON.

[Illustration: _From Harper’s Monthly._]

The accompanying cuts were published in Harper’s _Monthly_, April,
1881. The improvement made in the appearance of Indian students,
boys and girls, by a three years’ course of study at Hampton has
convinced more than one observer from the Western frontier that
there is something better to do for the red man than to shoot him
on sight. Miss Helen W. Ludlow, one of their teachers, says of
the two older girls that appear in the picture: “They have been
among the farmers of Berkshire County, Mass., working for their
board, sharing the home life and improving in health, English and
general tone; they have won a good report from the families which
have taken them, even better this year than last, and have done
much to increase public sympathy for their race. The Indian girls’
improvement has been as marked as the boys’. Their early inuring
to labor has its compensation in a better physical condition
apparently, and their uplifting may prove the most important of
factors in the salvation of their race.”

[Illustration: _From Harper’s Monthly._]


GENERAL NOTES.


THE INDIANS.

—The Indian Bureau reports that the number of self-supporting
Indians cannot be precisely stated, but gives the following as a
fair estimate: Wholly or almost entirely self-supporting, 105,939;
partially self-supporting, 44,119; wholly dependent on government
rations, 50,882; these figures do not include the five civilized
tribes in the Indian Territory, numbering 59,187. At Crow Creek
Agency, Dakota, 60,000 of the 500,000 acres of reservation land
had been taken up by 235 out of 325 neighboring families, of whom
208 had broken ground, cultivating an average of five acres apiece.
Their title is a certificate from the Secretary of the Interior,
and can be made valid only by an act of Congress.

—Rev. A. J. Biddle, in speaking of the American Indian, gives the
following incident with which he was personally acquainted, as a
typical case: An Indian and his wife left their tribe in the state
of Oregon, came among the white settlers upon an excellent farm,
built their cabin, assumed the garb of civilization, and were
exceedingly earnest in their endeavors to be as their neighbors.
The wife eagerly sought instruction from her white sisters in
housekeeping. The husband was as eager to know how to farm. They
were succeeding nicely, contented and happy in their new home and
new civilization. One day two white men came along, saw this farm;
it was fertile and well improved; they coveted it; asked the Indian
to sell it; he refused. They determined to have it; so, a few days
later, they returned when no white witnesses were present, shot the
Indian in his own door-yard, drove the frightened wife away and
took possession of the property. Nor were they ever molested. No
one saw the crime but the Indian wife. No court would listen to her
story, so the matter ended, with the pleasant home desolated, the
murderers eating the fruit of their crime.

* * * * *


AFRICA.

—The whole Bible has been translated into eight African tongues,
and portions of it into 24 others, making 32 in all.

—According to the _Agence Reuter_, M. Roger will set out with the
Belgian expedition and 135 natives to rejoin Stanley upon the Congo.

—Three Roman missionaries, of Ouroundi, have been massacred in
their houses, near Tanganyika. Three others escaped. The last
letters of the missionaries tell of the perils which they run on
the part of the blacks from the calumnies of the Arab merchants in
regard to those who endeavor to abolish the treaty.

—The Livingstonia Central African Company has established a factory
at Inhamissengo, at the mouth of the Zambeze. It found there
already two European companies, one Portuguese and the other French.

—Messrs. Creux and Berthond, of the Swiss mission at the north of
Transvaal, are attempting to open a direct route from Valdezia to
the Delogoa Bay.

—A company has been formed in Transvaal, with a capital of 200,000
livres, to explore the silver mines of Tati.

—The London Missionary Society’s mission on Lake Tanganyika has
been carried on since its commencement, in 1876, at an expense of
$100,000. There have been three deaths, and three have been obliged
to retire on account of ill health. The society proposes to send
out five new men in the Spring to recruit the mission.

—Mr. Adam McCall, leader of the Livingstone inland mission on the
Congo, died at Madeira on November 24.

—Direct communication was to be established by submarine cable
between Calle and Bizerte early in October.

—A scientific French mission at Thebes has discovered recently 36
sarcophagi of kings and queens inclosing mummies, rolls of papyrus,
thousands of jewels and talismans, from which much may be learned
of importance in the history of ancient Egypt.

—M. Ledoux, Consul-General of France at Zanzibar, reports a great
famine in equatorial Africa. The tribes, in despair, have pillaged
the caravans.

—M. Succi, delegate of the Italian Society of Commerce with
Africa, has returned to Milan after a voyage to Madagascar and the
Comores. The sovereign of one of these islands has granted to him a
concession very advantageous for the Italian Society.

—In an exploration of Quango three great cascades have been
discovered, to which the names of the emperors of Germany and
Austria and the king of Portugal have been given.

—The military French administration has placed forty kilometres of
railroading of the Decanville system from Sousse in the direction
of Kaironan.

—After having been dangerously ill of bilious fever, Stanley has
recovered sufficiently to go to Manyanga, and from there to Stanley
Pool.

* * * * *


THE CHINESE.

—The American Board has rendered good service to the cause of
missions by issuing a large map of China, suitable for use at
monthly concerts and other meetings.

—The Chinese merchants of San Francisco have received from the
Emperor of China an elaborate and beautiful scroll, in recognition
of their liberal gifts for the relief of sufferers from the famine
in China three years ago.

—“I love money first and God second,” was the confession of a
Chinaman in Boston, who was quite ready to argue that his was the
best way, as he was giving an account of his nephew’s preparation
for a public profession of religion.

—The Chinese Sunday-school, held in the chapel of the Mount Vernon
Church, Boston, had an average attendance last year of 48 pupils,
the largest number present at any one time being 71. The total
number of Chinese in Boston is said to be about 300.


TRAINING GIRLS FOR HOME LIFE.

BY MISS MARY L. SAWYER, BOXFORD, MASS.

At our annual meeting at Worcester, a part of Thursday
afternoon was devoted to the reading of papers and to the
delivery of addresses on Women’s Work for Women.

We gave in our last issue some brief extracts of the addresses
on that occasion by Rev. A. H. Plumb and Rev. E. N. Packard.
In this number we publish portions of the papers read by Miss
Sawyer and Miss Emery, which our readers will find to be
interesting, pertinent and profitable.

You all know of the degradation of the colored women in the South.
You are ready to believe in their dirty, comfortless huts, yet I
could take you into many a pleasant home among the colored people,
where neatness and order reign supreme, where man’s industry and
woman’s taste have combined with charming result, and where it
would be hard to say which was exerting the greater or better
influence—the earnest Christian man, or his equally earnest wife.
Tasteful pictures on the walls, books of standard authors on the
table, shades at the shining windows, a clean, white bed, a clock,
perhaps a cabinet organ, would meet your wondering gaze. With
keen insight the women and girls recognize the primary cause of
such a home and the influence that has molded its founders. So,
in ever-increasing numbers, ignorant, uncouth girls, apply for
admission to the missionary school, which, in some mysterious way,
is to transform them; and their poverty-stricken mothers give of
their scanty store all that can be spared, and more, and wait with
joyful anticipation for the time when the daughters may become the
teachers from whom they in turn may learn the more excellent way.
To us, then, comes the work of educating them, not out of their
positions in life, but for them; to train them in such habits that
they may look upon uncleanliness, either physical or moral, with
utter loathing, and yet to implant that Christlike spirit which
shall lead them to count no home too repulsive, no work degrading,
if only it is the Lord’s place and work for them.

With such an end in view, school work means much. Not only is
the dormant intellect to be awakened and the knowledge of books
imparted, but also that practical knowledge of every-day life
in which, strange to say, they may be even more deficient. Nor
do they always come with that keen thirst for improvement that
insures success. How can they, when the consciousness of their own
shortcomings has not yet dawned upon them? Their acquaintances are
as ignorant as themselves; their own bare home is as good as their
neighbors’. Not until they have mingled in the school life with
companions far beyond themselves in attainment do they realise
their own need, and begin to climb. Personal neatness is to be
inculcated; dress, deportment, speech, expression, manner, must be
watched and toned by careful teachers. A sense of honor must be
cultivated, and, above all, conscience aroused and trained, that