THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

American Missionary Association,

56 READE STREET, N. Y.

PRESIDENT.

Hon. E. S. TOBEY, Boston.

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, 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.

DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when
more convenient, to either of the branch offices, 21 Congregational
House, Boston, Mass., 112 West Washington Street, Chicago, Ill.
Drafts or checks sent to Mr. Hubbard should be made payable to his
order as Assistant Treasurer.

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 289]

THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

American Missionary Association.

FINANCIAL.

When this number of the Missionary reaches our readers,
our fiscal year (closing Sept. 30) will be nearly ended. By careful
economy for two years past, we kept our current expenses within our
receipts, and we hope that the receipts of this month will make
this the third year in which our expenditures will not add a
dollar to our debt.

Our debt is now our great solicitude. Last year it was reduced,
by the sale of stocks, etc., from $93,232.99 to $62,816.90. This
year we have received to September 1, in cash, $14,108.22, and
in pledges (partly conditioned) $7,550, making $21,658.22, thus
reducing the amount—if the pledges are paid—to $41,158.68. Shall
not an effort, so nobly begun, be pushed forward to completion?

We feel called upon, as never before, to urge the wiping out of
this debt. We have retrenched in office expenses, and have been
very guarded in annual appropriations, that it might be paid.
Generous doners have given liberally—some of their abundance—more
of their poverty—and the amount is reduced within grasp. We have
rejoiced that the liberality of the churches and individuals have,
in one month, by special efforts, well-nigh relieved a sister
society—the honored American Board—of a balance on its annual
appropriation of $80,000. A little more than half that amount, if
given to the A. M. A., will pay off the remainder of a debt that
has hung upon it as an incubus for ten years. The payment of that
debt will honor the cause of the Master; it will unfetter our
hands; it will cheer us and our friends for future work; it will
be a boon to the ignorant and needy masses for whom we labor. We
appeal to the wealthy, the liberal, the self-denying, to all who
love God and His poor, to make a final effort, by special gifts, to
reach an object so near at hand and so important.

Our books will be closed promptly Sept. 30, for current receipts
and[Pg 290] expenditures, but for receipts for debt they will be kept
open till after the Annual Meeting; and we trust that meeting will
have the joy and glory of announcing the complete extinction of the
debt.

OUR ANNUAL MEETING.

The Thirty-second Annual Meeting of the American Missionary
Association will be held in the Broadway Congregational Church,
Taunton, Mass., October 29–31. The meeting will be organized on
Tuesday, at three o’clock P. M., and at half-past seven o’clock
in the evening the annual sermon will be preached by Rev. S. E.
Herrick, D. D., of Boston. On Wednesday, papers will be read by
Rev. George Leon Walker, D. D., and others. Wednesday evening will
be occupied with addresses and reminiscences by present and former
missionaries of the A. M. A. Thursday will be devoted to reports of
committees and discussions of the work.

The meeting will close Thursday evening, with addresses from able
and distinguished speakers, to be named hereafter.

The people of Taunton will undertake to entertain all the friends
who may attend the meetings. Those desiring hospitality can address
Charles H. Atwood, Esq., until Sept. 20th. Return cards, assigning
places, will be duly sent.

THE ROMAN CATHOLICS AMONG THE FREEDMEN.

The Independent closes a careful and, in the main, accurate
summary of the work of Christian education among the negroes, with
a view of what the Roman Catholics are doing. After speaking of
the large estimates of money expended, and pupils taught by that
church, it says:

“Nothing approaching a confirmation of these estimates has been
brought to our notice. We have carefully examined the Roman
Catholic papers with reference to this subject for a year past,
and have been able to glean from them only the most barren record
of facts and isolated movements…. We believe that, if the
Roman Catholics really had facts to prove that they have made
the progress they claim to have made, they would not hesitate to
publish them conspicuously. As they fail to produce them, we are
contented to believe, for the present, that they are doing no
more than their fair share of the work, if so much, and receiving
no more than their share of the conversions.”

In a later issue, the same paper says:

We, too, have been for more than a year making special inquiries.
We have read the large estimates, which have been through the
newspapers, of money expended, and pupils taught. The statement
that $600,000 in gold (nearly one million dollars in our[Pg 291] currency)
was given to this work by the Propaganda at Rome, in 1867, and
that, in the same year, sixty-six priests landed in New Orleans
to undertake missionary work among the blacks, we trace to the
Christian Intelligencer of that year.

The fact is, that it is extremely difficult to get at accurate and
authorized statements in regard to all Roman Catholic missions.
Their funds are not raised by appeals, based on special needs or
special encouragements, or addressed to the general public; and
their policy is one of quiet foundation-laying, rather than of
demonstrative up-building. It is not an easy task, even, to secure
reliable information of what they are doing here at our doors, or
behind their own.

Recognizing this difficulty, we are not ready to agree with the
Independent that, if the Roman Catholics had facts to prove, they
would not hesitate to publish them conspicuously. Nor are we ready
yet to congratulate ourselves that we “have been able to capture
and expose the spectre,” while we are obliged to confess that we
have not had it in our grasp sufficiently to take the measure of
its outlines, or tell its height and girth.

A careful reading of the ‘virtual concession’ of the Catholic
Review makes it amount to virtually nothing, except an ingenious
evasion of responsibility for any statements which may have
been made. It does not even say that the estimates have been
extravagant, but uses that expression as a quotation from the
Independent. It only suggests that assertions actually made by
missionaries (who are careful not to make assertions) can always be
substantiated.

We would merely caution the friend of the negro, and those who
fear the influence of Romanism over him, that an argument based on
ignorance is not very securely founded. And, while we would not
have omne ignotum pro magnifico, or believe because the spectre
is vague, it must be very large; on the other hand, we would not
say of one whose wont is to hide itself, “Because we cannot dissect
it, it is nothing.”

THE YELLOW FEVER.

The yellow fever, in its ravages in the South, pays no regard to
race, color or previous condition. Whites and blacks alike have
suffered from its sudden and malignant attacks. Death levels all
distinctions. The statement which has been often made, that the
negroes are proof against this pestilence, seems to have been
ill-based, as intelligent observers of its ravages in former years
utterly contradict it. At any rate, it is not true of this year’s
scourge.

Quite opposite assertions have been made in regard to the conduct
of the blacks during the panic which this deathly visitor has
occasioned. So contradictory, in fact, that we suspect the truth
to be that they have acted very much like white people of the
same intelligence. Some have stood at their posts, and done noble
work as nurses, as ministers, and in humbler stations. And some,
doubtless, like those of other races, have been carried by their
fears away from the most sacred of duties.

How has it affected our work? Of course, our schools in the
South are closed during the hot months, and most of the teachers
and white pastors are in the North. Straight University, at New
Orleans, La., is closed, and Rev. Mr. Alexander, the pastor of
the church, is at his New England home. At Grenada, Miss., which
has been almost depopulated by the fever, we had a school. The
two teachers, however, we believe went to the country before the
pestilence reached that beautiful town. The only one of our workers
whom we know to have been stricken down is Rev. W. W. Mallory, the
colored pastor of the church at Memphis, Tenn., who was still sick
at our last advices. We have reason to hope for his recovery and
restoration to full health.

We have transmitted some sums of money which have been put into our
hands for[Pg 292] special relief to the suffering colored people of these
infected districts, to which we have added what we felt justified
in doing from the funds of the Association.

But the peril is not over yet. Many days must intervene before the
thrice welcome frosts may be expected to kill the germs of this
fell disease, and famine always comes in the train of continued
pestilence. It is the Lord’s work to avert suffering and relieve
physical want. May the fountains of charity, which have been opened
so freely through the land, continue to flow increasingly until
there shall be no more thirst.

A FOUL CHANCE AND A FAIR CHANCE.

A correspondent writes us upon the subject of how the freedman is
getting on, as follows:

“On my way up the Mississippi, between the States of Arkansas and
Mississippi, I fell into conversation with a planter living on the
right bank of the river, and, after the manner of all Yankees,
asked him how the negroes were getting on. He was a short, chunky,
red-faced man, and his account was gloomy in the extreme. He said
that he would not undertake to tell me all the trouble he had with
his ‘help,’ for, if he did, I would not believe him at all. He
said that he could not advance them anything at the beginning of
the season, for fear of their running away and leaving him without
hands in time of harvest; that they were so lazy that all they
cared for was to get bread and meat for the least possible amount
of work; that, although all his hands were deacons or preachers
or ‘exalters,’ they stole so that he could not raise any pigs or
chickens; that the members of the church were more licentious than
the ‘world’s people’; that they got angry and burned his gin-house
every year, etc., etc. He was the first man that I had met, during
a residence of nine years at the South, who would admit that he was
sorry the slaves had been made free.

“On my way down the river, at about the same point, I had a
conversation upon the same subject with a man residing on the other
bank. He was a tall gentleman of fine form, with an intellectual,
genial, open face. In reply to my inquiries, he said the freedmen
were doing first-rate; were industrious, honest, temperate and
moral; were acquiring property in stock, tools and land; and he
found free labor more easily managed and more profitable than slave
labor. I referred to the conversation I had with his Mississippi
neighbor on my way up, and asked him why their reports were so
different. With a good deal of animation and emphasis, he replied:
‘I can tell you why it is: I just give my niggers a chance, and
he doesn’t. He has always brought them out in debt to him at the
end of every year, and has crushed out all their enterprise and
ambition, so that, as he says, the problem with them is how to
get a bare living with the least possible amount of work. All the
nigger wants is a fair chance.’”

INDIAN AGENTS.

Under the Peace Policy, the Government has entrusted to the
American Missionary Association the nomination of six Indian
agents. Vacancies in these occur from time to time, and
applications for nominations are desired. One vacancy now exists.

These Indian agencies afford an admirable opportunity for
usefulness to the right persons; but they are not sinecures for
incompetent men—whether laymen or ministers. It is desirable that
the applicant have some knowledge of farming and the simpler
mechanic arts, but it is essential that he present the best
of credentials as to piety, integrity, business capacity and
experience, and ability to influence masses of men.

The salary ranges from $1,000 to $2,000 per annum, according to
the responsibilities[Pg 293] and duties of the agencies. Bonds for the
faithful performance of duty will be required by the government,
varying from $15,000 to $20,000.

Applications or inquiries may be addressed to Rev. M. E. Strieby,
56 Reade Street, New York.

“INDIAN WARS.”

And so the latest Indian War is over! It is absurd to call such
chases and skirmishes by so dignified a name. Small bands of ten,
twenty, sometimes a hundred or two outlaws in revolt, are hunted
to death or surrender in the wildernesses of the Far West. We
call them nations, and this undignified pursuit a war. It is, in
reality, only the same thing which is continually being done in
our great cities by the police. Law-breakers, and men who avenge
their own wrongs, must be chased to their dens, and either caught
and chained, or shot like dogs. Only that, on the frontier, the
facilities for the violence, and then for the escape, are so much
greater than in the city; and that we have to send generals and
colonels in the army after them, instead of sergeants of police.

We pity the “braves” of the Territories more than we do the
“roughs” of the bloody sixth ward, because they are more ignorant
and more wronged, and because the hindrances to a better life are
even greater for them. And we pity the gallant men of the army, who
are compelled to do this police work, in dogging criminals to death.

Among the recent dispatches is one, telling of an encounter
between six cow-boys and eight Indians on the Nueces River, in
which four Indians were killed and one captured; one of the boys
had a flesh-wound, and the others only wounds in their clothing.
Generalship does not go for much in such guerrilla warfare. West
Point tactics are not of much avail. Often, in the brooks of New
England, the farmer’s boy, who goes fishing with a stick and a
string, when it rains too hard to work out of doors, will bring
home ten times as many trout as the city sportsman with eight-ounce
rod, a Conroy reel and a choice assortment of flies. Perhaps a
small army of cow-boys would serve us best on the frontier. It is
not fit work for real soldiers. We do not mean a word of disrespect
to them. They have our sympathy and admiration for their fidelity
and obedience, and for not resigning when they are set to such work.

But how much better it would be if, by fair treatment and
honestly-fulfilled pledges, we had made these Indians both friendly
and law-abiding—or, even, if now, with patience and forbearance,
we should be persistently kind and true, and see how long it would
be before we and they should find each in the other, “a man and a
brother.”

The difference between equal and identical rights is well
illustrated by the action of the Georgia Central Railroad
officials. Travel between Macon and Savannah is so light that only
one passenger coach is run. By a partition this is divided into two
parts, furnished exactly alike, one for white and the other for
colored passengers. The colored end being nearly empty one day, a
white man took a seat, or rather four seats, in it, upon which
the conductor told him that he was in the wrong end of the car, and
that the vice-president was very particular that no white persons
be allowed to ride in the apartment for colored people.

A similar arrangement formerly prevailed on the street-cars in
Mobile, and some of the old partitioned cars are still in use.
It is to be hoped that, in the course of human events, identical
rights on steam-cars will not be considered any worse than on horse
cars by the constituents of Georgia’s good Governor Colquitt.

[Pg 294]

AN INDIAN HYMN-BOOK.

We have just received a copy of the Hymns in the Chinook Jargon
Language, compiled by Rev. Mr. Eells, missionary of the American
Missionary Association. It is not a ponderous volume like those
in use in our American churches, with twelve or fifteen hundred
hymns, but a modest pamphlet of thirty pages, containing both the
Indian originals and the English translations. The tunes include,
among others, “Happy Land,” “Greenville,” “Bounding Billow,” “John
Brown,” and the “Hebrew Children.” The hymns are very simple, and
often repeat all but the first line. The translations show the
poverty of the language to convey religious ideas.

One hymn reads—

Another we give in full, and in both original and translation, as
part of the words of the Jargon will be seen to be English:

We only extract, further, the literal translation of the Lord’s
Prayer, some of the petitions of which seem to find admirable
expression in this version, especially the “lead us not into
temptation,” etc.:

“Our Father who lives in the Above, good thy name over everywhere.
Good if thou become true Chief over all people. Good if thy mind is
on the earth, as in the Above. Give to us during this day our food.
Pity us for our wickedness, as we pity any man if he does evil to
us. Not thou carry us to where evil is; but if evil find us, good
thou help us conquer that evil. Truly all earth thy earth, and thou
very strong, and thou truly very good, so we wish all this. Good
so.”

It is no little task to make hymns for such a people out of such
poor materials. Let it be understood that these are only hymns for
the transition state, for Indians who can only remember a little,
and who sing in English as soon as they have learned to read.

This little book is an interesting monument of missionary labor,
and full of suggestion as to the manifold difficulties to be
encountered in the attempt to Christianize the Indians of America.

[Pg 295]

INDIAN STUDENTS.

The fifteen Indian students who have been studying at Hampton
remain there through the summer. Many of our readers will look
with interest for some news of them, and be glad to hear of their
continued progress and content. Like the other students who remain,
they work through the summer, chiefly on the farm, thus earning
money for their clothing and support. They are allowed a day and
a half in school each week, and thus, under a regular teacher,
their instruction is kept up in the English language, with object
lessons, and phonetic practice, writing, arithmetic and geography.
They also meet for an hour every evening, from eight to nine,
with a few of the other students, under the care of a teacher,
for conversation, and games that are exercises in talking. This
conversation class is thus far a great success, enjoyed by the
Indians and the other students who take pleasure in helping them.

They also have their Sunday-school class, and a prayer-meeting, in
which most of them are very constant and devoted attendants. The
devoutness of their simple prayers in Cheyenne and Kiowa cannot be
doubted by a listener, though understood only by the Great Spirit
to whom they are addressed.

At their first meeting, a gentleman present spelled out the
question with the card letters for one of the young men to answer:
Why do you like to learn? Letter by letter the startlingly
impressive answer followed, “Because it makes me a man!”

THE WET SEASON ON THE WEST COAST.

It will be borne in mind by those who have special interest in our
Mendi Mission that it is still the rainy season, to which all the
peculiar perils of the West Coast of Africa are to be encountered,
and with great risk to the health and life of those who are not
fully acclimated. We have had weekly letters from our colored
missionaries there, to as late a date as Aug. 13th, who have been
passing the first test of their ability to endure the climate
and resist the African fever. None of them have entirely escaped
the touch of its hot breath and icy hand, and yet it seems to
have for the most part passed them lightly by. Two of the female
missionaries have been very sick. One, Mrs. Dr. James, died early
in the season.

Thus far, then, we are encouraged to believe that, as we hoped it
would prove, men and women of African descent endure the risks of
transplanting and of naturalization far better than those who have
neither themselves nor their ancestors been “to the manner born.”
And, if these perils at the threshold can be encountered better by
them than by others, we may surely hope that the less malignant
influences which pervade the atmosphere will not undermine their
strength, as it does with those who are foreigners by both blood
and birth.

It behooves their friends on this side the ocean, who believe in
the power of prayer, to keep these missionaries constantly in their
minds and in their hearts, and to pray the Lord of the harvest,
who has already raised up and sent forth these laborers into the
field, that He will enable them to bear the heat and burden of the
day.

They are doing well in their work. The schools are growing and
gaining in every way. A lack of proper text-books has hampered the
teachers, and an unfortunate delay has occurred by the loss of a
box containing a supply, which, with the boat which was conveying
it from Freetown to Good Hope, failed to reach its destination. The
church has received valuable accessions since Mr. Snelson and his
co-laborers reached the field. We hope to have more regular and
full correspondence to lay before our readers in future, from month
to month.

[Pg 296]

An honored New Hampshire pastor writes: “I should be glad to
see the A. M. A’s debt removed, and I am in hearty sympathy
with the Society. It seems to me to combine, in the persons of
the freedmen—to say nothing of the Chinese, etc.—the claims of
Home and Foreign Missions in a remarkable degree. Patriotism and
philanthropy meet and blend in its work.”

The same friend says: “Communism, so much, and thus far, perhaps,
so extravagantly dreaded, will find friends among the black race at
a future day, to an extent unexpected now, if we are not prompt to
enlighten and Christianize that vast army of ignorant and voting
laborers.”

When, at the opening of the war, the life of the infant Berea
College was sought, the Angel of Providence said: “Arise, and take
the young child and flee into the Egypt of Safety, and be thou
there until I bring thee word; for the Herod of Slavery will seek
the young child, to destroy him.” But, when Herod was dead, behold,
the angel appeared, saying: “Arise, and take the young child and
go into the land of Israel, for they are dead which sought the
young child’s life.” And they arose and took the young child Berea,
and went back into their own land. And the child grew, and waxed
strong in spirit. And other children were born to this household of
faith—Howard and Hampton, and Fisk and Atlanta, and Talladega and
Straight and Tougaloo, and several more. These do not have to flee
for their life; but they need to be nourished into maturity, that
they may do the mighty work assigned them in this and in coming
generations, here and in other lands.

Apropos—A judge from a Western city told us, the other day, that,
having had a black man to testify in his court, he turned and
complimented him from the bench as the most intelligent witness he
had ever had in that box.

He had been a colonel in the war. Since the coming of peace he
had remained in the South, to engage in the process of the social
and political reconstruction. He felt the desperateness of the
case, and yet was hopeful. In our office, he was setting forth the
Southern status, and arguing for patient endurance and vigorous
endeavor when, in his military phrase, he broke forth: “It is only
one shot in five hundred that hits.” Fire away, then, ye soldiers
of the Cross! Some of the shots will hit.

It was the Christmas of the year 1865. It was in a Southern city.
The preacher, though black, had the frosts of seventy winters on
his head. His text was the parable of the vine and the branches. In
the sermon of singular unction, he said: “My brethren, we has the
advantage of the vine and the branches. They get the sap only in
the spring and thro’ the season, but the Christian has the sap all
the year ’round.”

Old Whitey.—Lewis Tappan had nothing too good to be used for the
benefit of the colored people. While our new Field Superintendent
was in the last six months of his course at the Union Theological
Seminary, with aid from the American Home Missionary Society, he
preached back of Brooklyn for a Presbyterian church of “Americans,
falsely called Africans,” as Mr. Tappan was fond of styling that
people. His own family carriage and horse he furnished the young
preacher all that time for riding out and back. Storms and mud did
not prevent the cheerful bringing out of the rig. In later years,
upon meeting the preacher, he would always speak with pleasure of
the service of Old Whitey. In those days, or even now, how few men
would furnish their family turnout for such a purpose!

[Pg 297]

ITEMS FROM CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS.

Hampton, Va.—The Trustees of the Normal Institute have
decided to uniform the male students. A plain sack-coat, pantaloons
and cap of bluish-gray cloth have been selected. The suit will cost
about ten dollars.

—Seventy young men and twenty-two young women remain at Hampton
Institute this summer—a larger number than in any previous
year—finding employment on the school-farm, in the shops,
knitting-room, laundry, and at housework. The young people are
under watchful care and supervision; the family life of the school
is kept up, and regular Bible-class instruction on Sundays.

Byron, Ga.—Two united with the church during the month of
August; two infants baptised. Still, many are asking what must they
do to be saved.

Talladega, Ala.—A professor writes: “Never before were
our young ministers, as a body, so much in earnest as now, or
more successful than this summer in their Christian work. They
evince more tact in overcoming difficulties, and show more power
in removing obstacles than I have ever seen in them before. The
last two years have told powerfully on their mental and Christian
development.”

—Rev. Mr. Hill writes; “At the church prayer-meeting in the
chapel, September 3d, three girls, pupils in the college, rose and
expressed a hope in Christ. Two of them are in the family at Foster
Hall, for whom we have felt anxious, and have been praying all
summer. They seem now very decided and very happy. I have been much
impressed with the deep spiritual tone of the teachers here, and
their entire consecration to the work.”

—The Talladega College Industrial Department will hold a State
Industrial Fair at the grounds of the College, in Talladega, Ala.,
in November, 1878. This fair is intended as an exhibition of
what the colored people are able to do, as farmers, carpenters,
printers, manufacturers, musicians, housewives, etc. Any one who
has produced, or made, or who owns anything he considers especially
fine, is invited to exhibit. Three hundred dollars or more are
promised, and it is hoped the sum may be increased to one thousand
dollars, to be given as prizes.

Childersburg, Ala.—Rev. Mr. Jones was ordained here in
June. Between twenty and thirty have recently come out on the
Lord’s side.

Alabama Furnace, Ala.—A protracted meeting is now in
progress, with decided indications of good results; and also at the
“Cove,” there have been several marked conversions.

New Orleans, La.—A gentleman of high standing, in New
Orleans, writes to Mr. Alexander, the pastor of the Central
Congregational Church, who is now in the North: “Notwithstanding
the intense heat, and the excitement that prevails because of
the yellow-fever here, the congregation at Central Church have
not abated their interest, and, both on Thursday evenings and
on Sundays, they manifest by their presence that they will ‘not
forsake the assembling of themselves together as the manner of some
is.’ The good Lord is present to bless at every service, and the
faithful people are, as far as I know, conscientiously discharging
every known duty. They display a zeal that is truly commendable,
and must certainly meet your approbation and esteem.”

GENERAL NOTES.

The Freedmen.

—The Trustees of the Peabody Fund have just sent $1,200 to aid
schools in North Carolina. One thousand dollars of this amount is
to be used in Raleigh alone—$600 for a white graded school, and
$400 for the two colored graded schools. Dr. Sears,[Pg 298] agent of the
fund, said that the Trustees would have sent more money, but that
the income from it had recently fallen off 40 per cent.

—The North Carolina Legislature of 1876–77 provided for two Normal
schools—one for white persons and one for black persons. The latter
offers continuous instruction throughout the year at Fayetteville.
It is under the care of Mr. Harris, a colored man, who was prepared
for the work, which he does well, in Ohio.

—The Board of Education at San José, Cal., has abolished the
colored school, and the former pupils have been permitted to enter
the other schools.

—At Memphis, a telegram says the colored population are acting well
in the emergency, and heartily co-operating with the whites, and
adds:

“A meeting has been called by prominent colored men for the
purpose of organization, to assist the whites in relieving
distress and guarding the property, which the people, in
the panic of last week, left unguarded. Their action in the
present emergency speaks volumes, and has greatly increased the
confidence reposed in them by those who were their masters. Among
the most efficient on the police force now are the negroes.”

—When the better people of the North come to be understood by
the right-thinking people of the South, we shall have hearty
co-operation in the education of the negro.—Rev. Robert West.

—To “remove the colored man from politics”—in the sense of taking
him out of such an absorption in politics, and such a misuse of
them as does injury to himself and to others—it is only necessary
to put him into education and industry.—The Advance.

—No nation can possibly let twelve per cent. of its population grow
up in ignorance, superstition and vice, without reaping a fearful
harvest.

—Macaulay says: “The best remedy for the evils incident to
newly-acquired freedom, is freedom.”

Africa.

From all the west coast of Africa, in 1874, there were imported
486,544 cwt. of palm oil and kernels, valued at £518,134, or over
two-and-a-half million dollars; of India-rubber, 3,427 cwt. were
imported, valued at £25,792; of coffee, 11,502 cwt., valued at
£46,506; of spices and ginger, 8,803 cwt., valued at £20,908; and,
noticeable fact to Americans, of raw cotton, 11,315 cwt., valued at
£32,839.

The chief articles sent out to the islands and coasts were cottons,
arms and ammunition, haberdashery, hardware and cutlery. Of these,
cotton was king. The whole number of yards of cotton cloth, mostly
prints, sold at these ports for that year, amounted to 47,217,966,
or nearly forty-eight millions. Allowing thirty yards to a piece,
and thirty pieces to a bale, there were over fifty thousand cases
of calicoes, whose value was estimated at £745,179, or nearly four
millions of dollars. Shall America utterly neglect so rich a field,
with its hundreds of factories half idle, and not a few completely
at rest?—African Repository.

—The colored Republic of Liberia has 3,500 voters, 116
officeholders, besides petty magistrates and constables, and taxes
the people at the rate of twenty-nine dollars for every voter,
besides the cost of maintaining schools and government buildings.

—Stanley is said to have agreed to make another exploring trip
through the Continent of Africa, at the expense of the king of
Belgium.

—Mr. Williams, who accompanied the Azor’s shipload of South
Carolina negroes to Liberia, is unwilling to take the
responsibility of advising the colored people of the United States
to emigrate. It is a magnificent country, and money is to be made
there; but the risks of fever and disease are great, and the
climate is enervating. Thrift, patience and good management are
essential to success. No emigrant should[Pg 299] land at Monrovia without
a six months’ stock of provisions, a supply of simple medicines,
a little ready money, and all the bright calicoes, brass trinkets
and notions he can lay his hands on. Salt is always valuable, too.
In the interior, the natives lick visitors’ hands for the salty
taste of the perspiration. Those who have from $200 to $300 over
their passage-money will have a much better chance of becoming
independent in Liberia than in America; but those who expect to
find there a heaven on earth, where they will not have to work, and
who are unprovided with means, will soon become disheartened, and
be anxious to return to the United States.

The Indians.

—One fundamental principle in the management of the Indians should
be, that they are not to be massed together, but separated in small
communities, and as soon as may be, in homesteads. The more they
mix with us the less they will disturb us.

—The solution of the Indian problem will be found whenever a
policy founded upon justice shall be inaugurated, entrusted to a
separate department of the Government, free from political or army
interference, executed by men selected on account of fitness, who
shall be exempt from the accursed political dogma, “that to the
victors belong the spoils,” held to strictest accountability, and
subject to removal only by impeachment. When this is done so that
it cannot be undone, and the officers of the Department are clothed
with power to protect the Indian under the civil law of the land,
and the barriers to the citizenship of the Indian are removed,
and he stands upon the same plane with every other man, alike
responsible to law, and equally entitled to its protection, then,
and not until then, may we hope for peace with our native tribes.
When the army of the United States shall become what it ought ever
to be, the executive servant of the people, called into requisition
only when humane measures have failed, then it may fulfil its
mission—never as a humane civilizing power.—Col. Meacham.

—The number of Roman Catholic missionaries and teachers among the
Indian tribes in the United States is 117.

—Of the 8,000 youth of legal school age in the Indian Territory,
over 5,000 are enrolled as attendants at the common schools, and
an average daily attendance of over 3,000 is reported. There is a
per capita expenditure upon the total school population of the
Cherokees of twenty-five dollars, while New York State expends
but six. The total expenditure in all the tribes is very nearly
$200,000 a year. If money can make good schools, the Indians
certainly ought to have them.

—The Bannock war is over, and the Snakes are scotched. If we may
believe these last—though it was one of their tribe who deceived
our first mother—in the division of labor, the Bannocks did the
murdering, and the Snakes the stealing.

—The care of Spotted Tail agency was put into the hands of the
Episcopal Church, under the administration of Secretary Delano, in
the Interior Department. The present Commissioner of Indian Affairs
decides that this means that no other missionary religious teachers
shall go on this ground except Episcopalians. Consequently, three
Catholic priests have just been banished from the Spotted Tail
agency, against the wish and choice of that chief and his people.
So says the Advance.

Chinese.

—The number of children in San Francisco between the ages of
five and seventeen is 55,899, of whom 133 are negroes, and 4
Indians. The number under five years, of all classes, is 24,389,
making a total under seventeen years, of 80,288, of whom 1,505
are Mongolians. Of the white children of school age, who have not
attended any school[Pg 300] during the past year, there are 16,147. The
returns do not mention any Mongolian children as having attended
school.

—The Chinese Consul, Lit-Mium Cook, who has recently arrived at
the port of San Francisco, says that the Chinese Government has
no desire to abrogate or modify the Burlingame Treaty, and also
that it believes that the Government of the United States has
both the power and the will to protect Chinamen in the enjoyment
of their treaty rights in this country. Mr. Seward, United States
Minister to China, who arrived at San Francisco in the same
vessel, expresses himself as strongly opposed, on commercial and
international grounds, to any change of the existing treaty with
China. There is not the slightest danger, as he thinks, that
Chinese immigration will ever be so great as to give that race any
control in this country, or make it injurious to our industrial
interests.

—Chinese labor is discountenanced by the Legislature of British
Columbia. A resolution just passed declares that “Chinese laborers
should not be employed upon the public works of the province, and
that a clause should be inserted in specifications of all contracts
awarded, to the effect that contractors will not be permitted to
employ Chinese labor upon the works, and that, in event of their
doing so, the government will not be responsible for payment of the
contract.”

—Two Chinese young men are preparing themselves for the ministry of
the Episcopal Church, in San Francisco, Cal.

—The Chinese Ambassador is credited with the statement that the
Chinese will go to Ireland, as that is the only country that the
Irish do not rule.

OUR QUERY COLUMN.

One of our most experienced and successful teachers writes to us:
“Why not have a Query Column in the Missionary, which will
bring us in contact oftener? Have questions practical, and answers
concise, clear, and to the point.” To all which we say: Why not,
indeed?

Answer: We will.

Here is, then, already the beginning—a query and an answer. The
query practical, which is the only condition imposed by the writer.
The answer, although our own, we are not afraid to measure by all
the three conditions suggested. It is concise—not susceptible of
any very great condensation; clear—no vagueness there; and to the
point—indeed, a direct answer.

Our Query Column is, then, in its place. After the news and notes
will be a place for the interrogation marks. Who will ask the
questions? We suppose it will be he that wants to know. And who
will answer them? We do not profess to know everything at the New
York office; but we have a wise man in the East, at Boston, and
one who may occidentally know a thing or two at Chicago, a royal
correspondent in the South, who will be everywhere, and a whole
corps of intelligent teachers and pastors on the field, who, best
of all, can answer each other’s questions.

Seriously, then, we welcome the idea. We hereby open and inaugurate
“Our Query Column,” for all our friends and co-workers. Let the
questions be “practical,” germain to our distinctive work. Let them
be the real questions on which you desire light for yourselves,
and from some source we will try to secure you answers which shall
be “concise, clear, and to the point.” Of course, we (for the
editorial, like the kingly, “we” is a cover for much irresponsible
authority) shall answer, or cause to be answered, only such queries
as, in our judgment, will be helpful to the work we have in hand.
Who asks first?

[Pg 301]

THE PRESS.

UNCLE REMUS’ REVIVAL HYMN.

A BIT OF HISTORY.

There is nothing new under the sun—not even a Home Missionary
Society for Illinois. The American Missionary Association had three
auxiliaries—the Penobscot, in Maine; the Western Home and Foreign,
at Cincinnati; and the North-western, at Chicago. In 1854, the
North-western was modified to become the Illinois Home Missionary
Association. As such it was operated for five or six years, when
it was given up, and the whole work was transferred to the A. M.
A., with a District Secretary to have supervision of the missionary
churches and to push the collections. When that District Secretary
and the missionary churches, in 1861, were transferred to the A.
H. M. S., he retained in possession the record books of those two
auxiliaries. But these, together with other precious journals,
were consumed by the great fire, so that it will be difficult to
reproduce[Pg 302] that chapter in our State home evangelism. Rev. Epaphras
Goodman was the Corresponding Secretary. Rev. S. G. Wright and Dr.
Flavel Bascom both served as agents. Rev. A. L. Rankin, now of
California, was a general missionary along the southern portion
of the Illinois Central Railroad. Coming to one place in Egypt,
and inquiring for the religious element there, he got this as an
answer: “Religious element? You are the first man we have had
making that inquiry. We thought you were looking for land.”

We find by the Annual Report of the A. M. A. for 1855 that, of its
104 missionaries in the home department, forty of them were under
the Illinois Society. Among these were Revs. W. W. Blanchard,
Nelson Cook, George Bent, William Beardsley, S. Dilley, George
Gemmell, J. T. Marsh, M. N. Miles, Alfred Morse, W. A. Nichols, L.
Parker, George Schlosser, David Todd, E. E. Wells and David Wirt.
Among the fifty-four churches aided were the South, the Edwards,
and the Welsh, of Chicago; and those of Amboy, Henry, Providence,
Udina, Plymouth, of Ottawa; DeKalb, Lawn Ridge, Metamora, Roscoe,
Sterling, Bloomington, Byron, Kankakee, Newark, Milburn, Albany,
Urbana (now Champaign), Huntley, Victoria, Shirland, Dundee and
Sandwich.

The State Society investigated the necessities of the field, and
endorsed applications for aid, but did not make appropriations
to the churches. This was done by the A. M. A. in New York,
which issued the commissions. After a while the executive
committee—Deacons Carpenter and Johnston, and Pastors Patton and
Roy—finding that they were simply an additional committee for
endorsing applications, and not having the responsibility and the
stimulus of administration, made request to have the whole work
resumed by the A. M. A., and the State Society voted to discontinue
its operations. Herein is a confirmation of the wisdom of the new
Society in making itself independent and auxiliary, and not simply
co-operative. This piece of history, containing the argument of
experience, was not brought out in the late series of discussions.

That there was no alienation of feeling attending this separate
operation in home missions as a testimony against slavery, is
evident from the fact that the churches and the missionary pastors
of the A. M. A. were so readily turned over to the A. H. M. S.,
and by it so cheerfully received. That National Home Missionary
Society had all along borne more or less of testimony against
slave-holding; but when, in 1857, it passed a rule by which all
of its fifty-five Southern Presbyterian missionaries were dropped
from its list, then no one could question the soundness of its
position. So, again, the readiness with which testifying churches
returned to regular contributions in behalf of the American Board,
as well as of this Society, revealed an abiding love for these
very organizations with which for a time they had not walked in
fellowship. The First and the Plymouth Churches of Chicago, which,
from their organization, had taken each its two annual collections
for the A. M. A., one for the home and one for the foreign
department, fell in with the old Society and Board as naturally and
heartily as though they had always been among the more conservative
churches. On the other hand, the chief officers and supporters of
the old organizations were glad that the organic testimony thus
borne, along with other influences, had been able to tone up public
sentiment so that the satisfactory action could be taken by them.

And now everybody sees that, out of that testifying process, God
was bringing on another organization to be ready against the day
when He should open to it the special field of the South and of
Africa.

—Rev. Dr. Roy, in the Advance.[Pg 303]

THE FREEDMEN.

GEORGIA.

Brunswick—Risley School Exhibition.

AS SEEN BY A SOUTHERNER.

This school is taught by S. B. Morse, a graduate of Atlanta
University. The following account is from a local newspaper.

Mr. Editor: It has ever been a source of unfeigned
pleasure to me to observe any efforts tending to the elevation
and refinement of humanity. Hence, it was no less a pleasure than
surprise last evening when I found so marvelously successful
an effort in that direction, as evinced in the concert and
exhibition—the closing exercises of the Risley School. Mr. Morse
(a graduate of the University of Atlanta) may justly congratulate
himself upon the proficiency attained by his pupils, considering
the great difficulties and discouragements under which he has
necessarily had to labor.

The colored people are born natural musicians; but the time,
harmony and smooth rendering of the “part-songs” last night gave
indubitable evidence of thorough culture and faithful practice.
The declamation by the young scholars displayed good powers of
memory and hard study. Their enunciation was distinct and perfect.
The selections were excellent. With the single exception of an
interruption by a few disagreeable, unmannerly boys, who evidently
had as little respect for themselves as for propriety, the affair
went off without a break. Quite a number of white persons were
present. Just before closing the exercises, Mr. Morse made a short
and pertinent address, stating the numerous difficulties under
which he had labored, but offering “the fruits of his labors” as
the test of his fidelity and capacity for filling the position he
proudly claimed, of “teacher.” The Honorable President of the Board
of Education and Mr. Kenrick, the county-school commissioner, were
called upon for speeches, and expressed their hearty gratification
at the degree of proficiency and the evidence of faithful study
on the part of the school, and their satisfaction at the marked
improvement in order, manner, and the advance in education, as
clearly shown by their present exhibition.

We have to congratulate ourselves upon possessing a most quiet,
respectable and law-abiding colored element. Their comfortable
homes, with well-stocked gardens; their numerous churches, some
quite pretentious in architecture, and, above all, their large and
substantial free school, give proof that there is no question of
their enjoyment of all “the rights, titles and emoluments” of a
“free and independent citizen” in Brunswick.

ALABAMA.

Wanted—a Barn.

REV. E. P. LORD, TALLADEGA COLLEGE.

Meeting a lady recently who has long been interested in our work,
she remarked: “Talladega does not seem to have so many wants as
most new institutions—at least, we do not hear so much of them.”
Imagine my surprise, when I had feared that the Association and all
of our friends were wearied by our continual importunities.

What a list we have of not merely wants, but actual and pressing
necessities, for which some of us pray as continually and earnestly
as for daily bread. A dormitory, for the physical and moral
good of the young men, now crowded six and more in a room, in a
building intended and much needed for other purposes; a library, as
necessary in a college as steam in a factory; money, without which
none of the means of elevating a race or individuals can be made
effective.

But I want now especially to urge one vital necessity, even to the
continuance of one of our most important means of helping this
people. Last year good friends in the North gave us $3,566.52,
and some of the instructors advanced $2,000. With this amount
property valued now at about $5,000 has been purchased, and an
Industrial[Pg 304] Department, including farming, carpentering, printing,
and house-work of all kinds, has been carried on one year. By
this outlay sixty scholars have earned a large sum in payment of
their school expenses. They have also learned to do these various
kinds of work in a systematic and intelligent manner. But in the
growth of character the good has been greatest. The young people
have acquired earnestness, self-dependence and enterprise. During
the vacation they are disseminating this practical knowledge and
their spirit through the whole State. The Southern Educational
Society, composed of some of the foremost educators of the South,
recently pronounced “industrial education the hope of the South.”
It is certainly more necessary and more promising among the colored
people than among the whites. Already we can see the benefits of
the department in the improving material condition of the people
in the country about, in better and larger crops, cultivated more
skilfully with better implements, etc.

The Agricultural Department is one of the most useful, and it is,
also, one of the most remunerative parts of our work. At present we
are obliged to go three-fourths of a mile by the road to reach the
farm; $1,000 would buy a piece of land connecting the farm directly
with the college buildings. This would save annually a large
percentage of the cost in time required to reach the farm, to say
nothing of the use of the land. Who will make this very essential
addition to “Winsted Farm”?

The most profitable part of the farm-work is the dairy, and
raising beef for the College boarding department. We shall keep
fifty or sixty cattle continually, but we have now no barn. The
working stock, the implements and the feed must have a shelter.
We have nothing but sheds made of old lumber, which we fear the
autumn storms will destroy, with much property within. Besides,
if the farm is to be, as it should be, a model to the colored
people, we must not leave everything out in the rain and cold,
as is universally the case in the South. There is to be held, in
connection with the department, this fall, the first Industrial
Fair ever held by the colored people. We expect it to be a means
of education to 5,000 people. The barn should be ready for their
inspection and information. Fifteen hundred dollars will give the
farm the barn it needs, and furnish work to a number of young men,
by which they will learn the use of tools, under our very skilful
carpenter, and be able to pay their expenses in school. If friends
could appreciate how necessary these things are, we certainly
should have them at once.

TEXAS.

The Southwest Texas Congregational Association.

REV. B. C. CHURCH, GOLIAD.

The General Association of Congregational Churches, of Texas, at
its seventh annual session, doffed its name, and hereafter will be
known as the Southwest Texas Congregational Association.

Three churches were represented by their delegates and pastors.
Rev. Geo. Whitefort, of Red River Association, and agent of the
American Tract Society, added to the interest of the meeting, and
found himself more interested than in any other association.

The Rev. A. J. Turner, member of West Texas General Conference,
and pastor of the Congregational Church of Schulenburg, requested,
with his church, to be received into the Association. The church,
consisting of fifteen members, with Sabbath school of ninety-eight
scholars, had been gathered by him since last January. They left
former associations to find a church home of purity and morality,
and a more simple and Scriptural government. After examination,
conducted mostly by Rev. S. M. Coles, a graduate of Yale Divinity
School, he and the church were received.

At our morning and night sessions of each day we had preaching and
other devotional services. Sabbath morning, Rev. Messrs. Coles
and Whitefort spoke most earnest and profitable words to parents
and[Pg 305] children. This was followed by a love-feast, in which we had
forty-five talks, which, with singing, occupied about an hour and a
half. If several rose at a time, each waited for his turn. When the
people have been educated to speak of Christ and the joy of faith,
rather than of themselves, and “these low grounds of sorrows”
coming from their emotional nature, it is not strange that you see
smiles and tears, or that sinners’ hearts get into their throats.
When the opportunity was given, seventeen rose, saying, “Pray for
us.” After the Association adjourned, religious meetings continued
for a week, as a result of which, seven persons united with the
church.

The Helena Church was organized four years ago with three members.
Now there are fifty-four members, twenty-three of whom united
within the last twelve months. During the same time they have
raised seven hundred dollars, with which they have built a house
and furnished it. The other churches have had but little growth in
membership, but in Bible study and intelligent worship there has
been commendable improvement.

A Christian Church, worshipping God according to Bible rules, is a
light of untold worth in any country. This feature of our work is
encouraging. Even those who hate and persecute us gradually adopt
our views and modes of worship.

KENTUCKY.

A Vacant Church—The Seed Wafted—The National Problem.

REV. JOHN G. FEE, CABIN CREEK, LEWIS CO.

I am here, in the field of my early ministry, on my regular
quarterly visit. Twenty-four years since, I left this for my
present home in Berea, Ky.

Most of those who, as parents, heard me with trembling twenty-five
years ago have passed away, and those who were then boys and
girls are now fathers and mothers. These, by time, thought and
observation, have had their early impressions ripened into
convictions. The sympathies and convictions of these are for
loyalty to the union, liberty to man, and a gospel of impartial
love. They take no stock in the issues of mere denominationalism.
They assent readily to the proposition that manifested faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ, as a personal Saviour from sin, is the faith
of the gospel. On this faith the church was organized in 1847,
as it then separated from all slave-holding bodies. Some of the
members are still there. They have been without a regular pastor
ever since the year 1860. They still keep up a Sabbath-school, and
part of the time a prayer-meeting.

What they now need is a regular pastor—one who can visit the
families, and preach at least once in two weeks. I hope such an
one may be speedily found. This, together with the congregation
in Bracken County, would make a most interesting and promising
field. The effort to plant churches here thirty years ago was not
in any sense a failure. And the second temple can be made much more
glorious than the first.

Emigrations from these fields have been useful also. Five families
went more than a hundred miles into the interior to help build up
Berea; eleven others, young men and young women, have gone out
there as students in the college. Other families have gone to other
States to exert there an influence for liberty, justice, and a
gospel of impartial love. Many of these were “mere children,” and,
having had their birth in times of trial, they were not mutes in
the fields where, in the providence of God, they were cast.

In view of the debasing effect of slavery in the South, and the
communistic element in the North, I am often asked, “What is to
be the result of this effort to establish republican institutions
on this continent?” I answer, there is no hope but in sanctifying
the hearts of the people by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This will
direct aright the intellect, the wealth and the activities of the
nation, make the people a law unto themselves, and for good. Let
us pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into His
harvest.

[Pg 306]

A Teacher’s Vacation Correspondence.

When tired teachers flee for rest to their own homes, they do not
wholly escape from school duties or cares. Letters pursue them with
unmerciful rapidity. From a pile of fresh ones, let us cull a few
samples of requests that demand sympathy and aid.

“My school is to have an exhibition in a few weeks. Can you not
send me some interesting declamations and fresh music?” A favor
easily granted.

“The Sabbath-school has appointed me king of its celebration.
Please send me a nice piece suitable to speak, and a few dialogues
appropriate for the little folks.” An hour’s search through old
files of the National Teacher provides material exactly suited
for this occasion.

“There is to be a Sunday-school Convention at ——, the 24th of
this month, and I am expected to speak. I never attended such a
meeting. Please write me a nice speech, telling who introduced
Sunday-schools, and how much good they have done.” A modest
request! But, if there is really to be a Sunday-school Convention
in the heart of Southern Georgia, and this shy boy is to help make
it successful, ’tis worth while to look over Sunday magazines for
facts which the speaker can arrange and use.

“I wish I could go to school the whole of this year. My wages for
teaching public school three months will not carry me through.
Could you help me in any way?”

A determined worker, who holds Sunday-schools on door-steps when
no better place offers, seeks encouragement and papers. Here is
part of his story: “I have some hard trials, and ups and downs,
but I trusts in God, and tries to fight my way through. I have got
no learning of account, but to the best of my knowledge I means
to teach. God said where there is little known there is little
required.” Perhaps the angels could tell us that poor Jacob’s crown
will far outshine that of many a richly-endowed soul.

A “sweet-girl graduate,” folding away bouquets and compliments with
her pretty muslin, wishes to know how she can make her school-room
attractive. Speaking of future plans, she pens these words: “I mean
to work for the Master to the best of my ability. I think a life
not consecrated to God is no life.”

If sometimes burdensome, such letters do greatly add to the
sweetness of vacation rest. They give assurance that the seed
sown in weariness is yielding harvest, which, with the affection
breathed from every page, inspires to future faithfulness and zeal.

L. A. P.

AFRICA.

THE MENDI MISSION.

Eight Added to the Church—A Refreshing Sunday.

Rev. Floyd Snelson writes:

Last Saturday was our day for preparatory meeting, the following
Sabbath being the day of Communion. Ten persons presented
themselves as candidates for membership. All were examined
carefully, in open meeting; eight were received, as we believed
from their evidence that they were hopefully converted, and two
rejected on the ground that they were not married according to
law (this is one of the greatest evils that exist here, both
among the white and colored, there being no law to compel them
to marry). Sunday was, indeed, a day of great refreshing, there
being before us eight adults to be welcomed into the Church
of Christ, and seven children, in the arms of parents and
god-parents, to be consecrated to Him. And what increased the
joy was, that the whole week had been a rainy one up to late on
Saturday, when the good Master stopped the rain, and removed the
clouds gradually, and let the[Pg 307] light of the sun beam upon us.
I would say more upon this precious subject, but the time for
closing the mail has arrived, and I am compelled to stop. Pray
for us.

Mr. E. White writes:

THE INDIANS.

S’KOKOMISH RESERVATION.

REV. G. H. ATKINSON, D. D., PORTLAND, OREGON,

Superintendent A. H. M. S., for Oregon and Washington Territories.

The best way to study the Indian problem is to study the Indians
themselves. The agents and employees on the reservations have all
the means to test every element of this question.

Safety of Life and Property.

The agent, Edwin Eells, Esq., with wife and children, has lived
among the Indians here seven years. The employees and their
families have lived here from one to six years each, all without
harm or fear. At any moment the Indians could have killed them,
stolen their property, burnt the dwellings, and fled to the rugged
hills and mountains. The agent has traversed the country occupied
by his bands, alone, or with Indians, by day and by night, without
injury or alarm, leaving his wife and little ones at their mercy.
Whisky is excluded from the reservation, but outsiders have sold it
to the Indians, and exposed him[Pg 308] and his household and company to
danger from them, when excited by it, and the more when arresting
them and arraigning and convicting the sellers in the courts. But
in no case has he or one of the whites received a blow, or a stab,
or a shot, or a threat from an Indian during all these seven years.

Like facts can be put on record of the safety of agents and
employees, and their families, on most, if not all the reservations
in Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

Their property has also been safe. Agent Eells affirms that clothes
are left out day and night, tools are left in open sheds, doors are
never locked, and yet they have never had an article stolen. He
adds that they have had no occasion to use force, or show weapons,
except in the arrest or retention of criminals. For this police
service he commonly appoints Indian constables. What is true on
these counts of the S’Kokomish Indians, is true of other bands or
tribes placed on reservations in this region. Those who live near
them, or who have observed them in all conditions, both off and on
the reservations, for the last fifteen, and even for thirty years,
can bear witness that they are usually quiet, peaceable hunters,
fishermen, or workers on farms, or in mills, or lumber camps, or
in kitchens and laundries for the whites, exciting no fear among
families, and causing no danger to lone travellers on the prairies
or in the forests.

The Nez Percé reservation has been traversed for thirty years
by whites in safety. Prospectors have ranged alone among their
mountains, and through the gulches in all directions, in search of
gold and silver for twenty years, in entire safety. Miners have
followed and pitched their camps in every sort of lonely spot,
exposed to the attacks of these savages. Long caravans of goods, in
mule or wagon trains, in the care of a few teamsters, have passed
back and forth among these Indians, and most of the other tribes,
transporting merchandise of all kinds during the last twenty years,
unmolested by the Indians. Express-men have had no fear to go to
any mining camp of the upper country in charge of millions of
gold. The mail carriers, on horses, have crossed and recrossed the
whole Indian country unharmed. Stages, loaded down with mails and
passengers, have rolled along over many of the same routes, having
no more fear of Indians than of the white settlers, for whose
convenience the post routes were established by government. Flocks
and herds, in care of a few scattered men, have multiplied in all
those regions. The robberies and murders, as the records of the
courts testify, have been committed by white men. Sheriffs trace
nearly every crime and outrage to the white, not to the Indian race.

The charges of a thieving, savage, murderous spirit made against
the Indian in the public press, on the street, in the halls of
debate and legislation, are not borne out by the facts. It is like
charging a whole community with the vices and outrages of a small
number of its members. It is like putting the stigma upon the whole
South for the atrocities of Libby prison and Andersonville. It is
the charge of fraud upon the U. S. A. for the defalcations and
embarrassments of a few of her citizens.

In war or peace the Indian is cruel in revenge; but we cannot
forget the massacres of Memphis. The victim in his grasp is
tortured; but we remember the Chisholm and Hamburg horrors, and
those in the negro parishes outside of New Orleans. He destroys
without mercy, and devastates without remorse; but the Pittsburgh
riots, the New York mobs, and the Commune of San Francisco, belong
to the white race. He has burnt a few of our hamlets and settlers’
cabins. We have swept him and his household and his camps,—the
only houses and cities that he can call his own—with canister and
grape, the hail of iron and lead and fire. Having no commissariat,
he has starved his prisoners. Without transportation or fortress
for their safe keeping, he often raises the black flag and slays
them at sight. But again and again, at the outset of battle, the
order has moved along our line, “Take no prisoners!” Cold as
steel, we have made a[Pg 309] jest of his life, and hailed him good only
when dead. We have steadily driven him from one hunting ground to
another, over the rivers and beyond the lakes, hemmed him in from
the gulfs and the oceans, crowded him off the prairies into rugged
mountains, compelled him to sell his native lands, and have let
loose the dogs of war upon him, because, forsooth, he has had the
manhood to resist our march of doom against his race. If he has
counted us the aggressors and the outlaws, we have hurled back upon
him the fiercest invective known to human speech. If he, in the
wild delirium of madness, has outraged and mutilated his captive,
we have, in fiercer and more fiery passion, counselled, if not
plotted, his extermination.

Progress in Civilization.

Proofs press upon the eye and ear of agents and employees that he
does more and better with the means in his hand for the support
of himself and family than other men would. I visited ten Indian
families at their homes on the S’Kokomish reservation, on the
15th of August, and saw twenty more of their frame-boarded houses
enclosed within their small claims. About thirty of the Indians,
having finished haying, were away from home, most of them hunting
in the mountains, or fishing at the weirs. Those at home had neat,
well swept rooms, usually a sitting-room, bed-room and kitchen.
Almost every one had a cooking stove, with its furniture, and
crockery on the table, or in the cupboard a few chairs or benches,
a clock in every house (often two), occasionally a rocking-chair
and bureau, always one or two bedsteads, with beds and blankets,
and often covered with a neat quilt of the wife’s taste and make.
Cards and pictures were hung on the walls, and some of their
photographs, also. They were dressed in comfortable clothes, and
were glad of a call and a kindly greeting. They are adopting the
manners of their white teachers.

The school, in charge of Deacon G. A Boynton, has a list of
thirty-one pupils, twenty-four of them pure Indians, six
half-breeds, and one little white girl. In dress, order and
studiousness, they rank with many of our common-schools. In
reading, singing, writing, at the blackboard, or in mental
arithmetic, they evince ability to learn what white children learn.
It is done more slowly, partly because while reciting in English
they probably think in their own more familiar language, or in
the jargon, and thus fail to get or convey the meaning of words
quickly, and probably from lack of such mental training in their
parents. The laws of heredity hold in them as in other people.
Better shaped heads and finer brain power may be expected of their
children.

In church and Sabbath-school, Indian parents and children meet with
white parents and children, join in singing, listen to a sermon in
the morning, translated by the interpreter into the Twana Indian
language, and in the evening, to one in English. They exhibit a
desire to learn the word of truth, and are profiting by their
instructions. Several of the pupils in the school have become
Christians and united with the church.

The testimony of the agent, the missionary, the teacher, the
physician, the farmer and the carpenter, is uniform as to their
capacity, and desire to improve and live like the whites, and of
their real progress in industry and manner of living. They are
trusted more and more, and they honor the trust.

It is cowardly to despise them and cast them out like dogs. It is
noble to respect them as men and women, who have the rights of
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They have claims on
us for sympathy and help to secure these things. It is a credit to
lift up the lowest, if we count them so. Those who know them best
have most hope of them, if given a fair chance.

A Neglected Treaty.

No man will clear land and make a farm unless he owns it, or has a
lien upon it. The treaty pledges them an allotment for a homestead
on the reservation. It was[Pg 310] made by Gov. Stevens, in Jane 1855, at
Point-no-Point, and ratified by the government in 1859. In private
and public speeches, with one voice, they plead for their titles.
They want the patents promised in the bond nineteen years ago. With
these in hand, they will improve their homes still more. It is a
reasonable demand. The plan to remove them from these lands, where
they were born, excites their fears and their rebellion. We cannot
expect them to rest in quiet and work with energy until we give
them the motive of ownership in the soil they till and the timber
they cut. This is the question of the hour for the Indian. Shall he
own in law his garden and his field and his house, or hold it as a
tenant at the will of another, liable to ejectment? If government
grant the former, as it has promised, the largest factor of the
problem will be found that will solve the rest of it.

GREEN BAY AGENCY, KESHENA, WIS.

JOS. C. BRIDGMAN, ESQ., AGENT.

The Stockbridge tribe take very little interest in education. The
head men, not specially interested, voted to have only six months’
schooling, paying the teacher but $25 per month. As this tribe
receive $3,800 a year, the same being the interest on their funds
in the hands of the Government, this meagre sum is illiberal.
Rev. J. Slingerland, who has been both preacher and teacher for
this tribe for many years, is still retained. While the number of
children of school age is twenty-five, with nearly as many of the
“old citizen” party, who are not allowed privileges, the greatest
number attending any one month is thirteen, and the average for the
year is ten. The church membership is twenty-nine.

The Oneidas are making an unusually good record. Their crops
are nearly or quite one-third larger than last year. The school
attendance shows an increase of thirty-seven, and the church
membership fifty-three over last year.

The Methodist Mission-school is unfortunately located for reaching
even a fair number of scholars, and Rev. S. W. Ford, without
additional compensation, has opened a school a mile and a half
distant; his daughter, Miss Mary W. Ford, teaching the Mission
school without pay. The records of the two schools are seventy-nine
scholars enrolled, with an average attendance of forty-five,
against an average of twenty-six for the one school of last year.
I am urging upon the Department the wisdom of establishing this
new school, which was started as an experiment, with the result
as above. Unless thus sustained it will be abolished, as Mr. Ford
cannot give his time without reward.

The church membership, 178, has had some twenty-five additions the
past year, as the result of a revival in the fall and winter of
’77–78. Two or three of its members have been licensed to preach
the gospel. Exception to the rules of the Methodist Church is
made, and Mr. Ford is now on his sixth year at this post, being
found peculiarly fitted for work among the Indians, whom he well
understands, having lived with this and other tribes of the State.

The Episcopal Mission-school has enrolled 114, many of whom are
induced to come by gifts of clothing, etc., supplied by the
Episcopal Mission. Average attendance for the year forty-five and
two-ninths. The Episcopal Church is well attended by a serious and
devout congregation on the Sabbath. Membership 150.

Although there is a lodge of Good Templars with this tribe,
I regret to say that some of the members do not realize the
sacredness of their oath as they should, and falling from grace is
no uncommon occurrence; yet it has brought about a radical change
with some who have been confirmed drunkards for many years.

The Menomonees have shown a wonderful spirit of thrift and
enterprise the past year, putting 200 or more acres of new
land under cultivation. Permission having been granted by the
Department, it is proposed to hold a fair the last week in
September, with a list of prizes for the best and second best
productions of their crops, stock of all[Pg 311] kinds, and manufactured
articles by the women. Two hundred dollars in silver coin is to be
given. This is creating a spirited impetus to good work, and lively
times are expected on Fair-day.

The schools of this tribe have, we regret to say, taken a step
backwards. In 1876, through the advice of Inspector Watkins,
the day-schools were consolidated into a Manual Labor and
Boarding School at Keshena, which far exceeded our most sanguine
expectations in numbers and interest. The breaking out of the
scarlet fever, in the fall term of 1877, compelled us to close the
school, with but four or five weeks’ teaching. It was renewed on
the 6th of January, but, owing to the non reply to letters, and
the omission of instructions from the bureau, only eight weeks’
schooling has been had since January 1st.

At the present time we are waiting permission to employ a matron
(as necessary to the success of the school as a teacher). This
delay is to be greatly regretted, as fifty children could be
easily gathered (the limit of our poor accommodations), while the
day-school has an average of less than ten.

Crime and drunkenness is greatly on the decrease; not a case of any
magnitude of the former, and but a very few cases of the latter,
coming to my notice for the past year. This is a very hopeful sign
with this tribe, many of whom are wishing to become citizens.

With the exception of scarlet fever, in a very mild form, among the
Menomonees, the sanitary condition has been excellent with these
people.

As you are aware, the religion of this tribe is about equally
divided between the Pagan and Catholic, the former adhering closely
to their rites and ceremonies, as for worship and the burial of
their dead; and, when standing by, as they render their thanks to
the Great Spirit for “our homes,” “our friends,” “our food,” asking
His protection “from storms,” “from disease,” and, “when taken into
the happy hunting-ground,” to be “found in favor,” etc., one cannot
but feel that “He” who “is no respecter of persons” accepts their
thanks and hears their petitions, although accompanied with the
shaking of gourds and the pounding upon an Indian drum, instead of
the grand Te Deum from the organs of our city churches.

While the soil for Christian labor is unfavorable, and tares find
root, to the choking out of good seed sown, yet we should take
heart in the increasing desire on their part for better homes and
farms, and the laying aside of the wigwam for good houses, the gun
and rod for the plow and hoe. A slow and certain improvement in
their habits from year to year is observable, and with kindness,
honest dealing and right influence, the time is not so very far in
the future when they can and will take a place in our nation, not a
whit behind many pale faces.

THE CHINESE.

“CALIFORNIA CHINESE MISSION.”

Auxiliary to the American Missionary Association.

President: Rev. J. K. McLean, D. D.
Vice-Presidents: Rev. A. L. Stone, D. D., Thomas C.
Wedderspoon, Esq., Rev. T. K. Noble, Hon. F. F. Low, Rev. L. E.
Dwinell, D. D., Hon. Samuel Cross, Rev. S. H. Willey, D. D., Edward
P. Flint, Esq., Rev. J. W. Hough, D. D., Jacob S. Taber, Esq.

Directors: Rev. George Moor, D. D., Hon. E. D. Sawyer,
Rev. W. E. Ijams, James M. Haven, Esq., Rev. Joseph Rowell, E. P.
Sanford, Esq., H. W. Severance, Esq.

Secretary: Rev. W. C. Pond. Treasurer: E.
Palache, Esq.

We print the following letter from our Brother Pond, in regard to
the need and call for a mission work in Hong Kong, not because
the Executive Committee have formed any design of entering upon
such a work in the name of the American Missionary Association,
but only as these letters from converted Chinamen show to what
earnestness of missionary zeal they have been converted, and so
bear witness to the reality of their Christianization.

Even though we felt warranted in extending[Pg 312] our work to embrace
a limited foreign field on the Chinese Coast, as we do not,
there are questions of comity which would forbid it. The English
missionary societies occupy the Hong Kong field in force, and
the Presbyterian Board have missionaries in the Canton district,
from which the Chinese immigrants come to our Western coast. We
shall be very glad if they, or either of them, will supply the
want indicated by our correspondent, and for which the Chinese
converts show such deep concern.—[Ed’s Am. Miss.]

MORE ABOUT A MISSION AT HONG KONG.

While studying the proposition which I ventured to broach last
month, for a mission at Hong Kong, which should be in intimate
relationship with our Californian Mission, I requested our helper,
Bro. Fung Affoo, to consult the Chinese brethren on the subject and
tell me what they thought. Soon after, letters began to pour in
upon me, till now I have about twenty on file, and it has occurred
to me that extracts from these would interest the readers of the
Missionary. Some of them I can copy verbatim; some will
need to be retouched a little in their English in order to be
understood; but the ideas are their own, and the expressions will
be modified as little as possible.

First of all, Affoo himself says: “I told the brethren at the
meeting last Sunday what you said to me about establishing a
mission at Hong Kong. They were very glad; their faces beamed with
joy. They all wish, with one accord, that this enterprise will be
accomplished before long.”

The first letter which I take from my file is from Wong Sam. He
says “I wish you could establish a school in Hong Kong for a Young
Men’s Christian Association, as we have here. Then we could hold
all our brethren together when they go back to China, and they
would not all scatter abroad. I am sure all our brethren will be
glad to have one. I ask God all the time for it, if God is willing,
for He knows what is best. We cannot do anything without the
Holy One. Accept my warmest love and thanks for your kindness in
expending so much on our account, and bringing us out of darkness.
You will not lose your reward ‘in my Father’s kingdom,’ as Christ
says.”

The next one which comes to hand is from Hong Sing, and addressed
to Affoo. It reads as follows: “I heard you some time ago talking
about if we would like have one American Association school in Hong
Kong. I feel very glad, indeed, if we have one school in Hong Kong,
that we may go back to our China and find a Christian Home. Canton
and Hong Kong have two or three schools, but not our Congregational
Association. You know how many of our Christian brothers have gone
back to China. They find no Christian home; then they find very
hard to be good, and bye-and-bye feel cold with Jesus.”

Joe Lee and Chin Quong write to say: “I like the idea of having a
Christian school in Hong Kong very much, indeed. I think it will be
great benefit, not only to the Christian boys, but also to the poor
heathen boys there.” Chung Sun says: “I very glad; God very good to
me. I like bye-and-bye go back China; tell father, mother, sister,
brother, very good Jesus. If him all [i. e., his relatives] no like
me I go Christian house, call Christian friend Help me tell father,
mother, sister, brother, how very good Jesus is. If all man, woman
love Him, bye-and-bye go heaven. If he all beat and lick me, I go
to the Chinese Mission at Hong Kong; very good, all the same my own
church.”

Ah King writes: “Dear Mr. Pond—I am very glad in heart that I heard
missionary schools be opened in Hong Kong. I think you make these
things for our Christian brethren, just like builder build a stone
foundation of buildings—the wind cannot blow off it.” That is, the
mission work at Hong Kong will tend to secure the results of our
work here. Without this, the winds of contradiction and persecution
in China will tend to blow our brethren who return there off the
foundation.

Perhaps these will suffice as samples, and I think that all the
points made in the other letters are referred to in these. But[Pg 313]
the tone differs in different letters, and the fact specially
emphasized; thus, for example, the chief point with one is, “If it
[mission at Hong Kong] can be, it can keep us doing good when we
go back, and I thank God with all my heart.” With another, it is
sorrow that we been without such a mission so long. “We plead,” he
says, “our brethren to help us. I pray that God will bless you and
open a way to make a mission in Hong Kong.” Another says, “If men
can’t do it, we all hope God has an authority [has some way] do it
for us. I hope our parents hear the gospel, receive it all, come to
Him forever.” A refuge from persecution is often referred to. “We
have great many trials, and I hope the Christians do this thing,
then our brothers have a place to see each other. We are far from
each other in China.”

I conclude with the following from Jee Gam, whose name is familiar
to most of our readers—the helper longest in service with us; whose
good judgment, Christian spirit, and untiring zeal, I have learned
to greatly respect. He says: “I was very much pleased to hear that
you have written to the A. M. A., requesting its permission and aid
to establish a Chinese Mission in Hong Kong. Without attempting to
add anything to what you have written, I will tell you what Ting
Ki, the most active deacon of the London Mission at Hong Kong, said
to me while I was there: that the best way to accomplish the most
good is to open a mission and a Christian Association similar to
ours here. He also said that the great need of the English language
is now felt by most of the Chinese in that city, and in order to
aid them, such schools as we have here should be established. This
is the best way to reach them, so as to interest them in the Bible,
which is our chief aim. As many of the people in that city are
laboring people, they could attend school better in the evening
than through the day. Ting Ki was very anxious to have me remain
and establish such a mission-school, and teach them the English
language. The brethren in the Oakland school all feel as I do about
this matter, and they asked me to write for them, as well as for
myself.”

I will add nothing to these expressions. I confess that as I
read them over, they ring in my ears like the Macedonian cry,
and I cannot but hope that our Association, hearing it, will
endeavor immediately to go into this modern Macedonia, “assuredly
gathering that the Lord has called us for to preach the gospel unto
them.”—Acts xvi, 10.

THE CHILDREN’S PAGE.

From a Private Letter of a Pastor’s Daughter on a Visit to
Talladega College, Alabama.

By the Road-side, Aug. 24, ’78.

Dear Auntie: Where do you think I am? This morning, Miss
L. (the matron of the college) and Mr. W. (one of the teachers)
and I started out, with horse and open buggy, for Anniston, a
little town twenty-six miles away. We got up early, and ate
our breakfast before the rest, then put the three satchels and
water-proof, shawl, two umbrellas, two blankets and pail of oats
and lunch-basket in the bottom and back of the buggy. Then we
three piled in, stopping in the village just long enough to get
some lemons. We had a lovely ride—part of the way through the
woods—catching glimpses of the mountains in the distance, all along.

Perhaps you know that Alabama abounds in springs; so, whenever we
go out for a drive or a picnic, we always aim for a spring—taking
a gourd with us for a cup. We learned at a little town just below
here that there was a fine spring a little farther on; and here
we are now right in the woods.[Pg 314] I am writing on a Sabbath-school
Teacher, which doesn’t take the place of a desk very well. We
have eaten our dinner and washed the dishes, and have been reading
aloud. We are now just ready to pick up the blankets and things,
and start again, for we have eleven miles yet to go. So, bye-bye,
till the next stopping-place.

Anniston, Ala., Sunday.

I am going to write part of my letter Sunday, you see. I didn’t
tell you what we came here for, did I? Well, many of the scholars
at the college go out to teach in the summer, and sometimes the
teachers who are staying there through vacation go off to see their
old scholars, and encourage them in their Sunday-schools. They
do a great deal of good in this way. I have visited two of these
mission-schools; and this time we came to see Mr. M., one of the
theological students who has just been ordained here at Anniston.

We found him and his wife living in a neatly-painted house, close
by his little church. It did me so much good to go into his home
and see what it was. Not much like most of the colored people’s
houses—log-huts, dirty, low, and only one room, with so few
comforts. This was a house of two rooms—the front room carpeted
neatly; a nice bureau and bed in the room; a little table with
books on it (one of which was a copy of Shakspeare!) In one corner
of the room was his writing desk, with library over it—and a very
good library it was; books on Isaiah and Psalms; Gospels and
Epistles; several, or rather all of Barnes’ Notes; a book on Moral
Philosophy, etc. I suppose that doesn’t sound like much of anything
to you; but when you know how many of these people live, and how
ignorant they are, it seems so much. There were pictures on the
wall, a clock on the mantel, shades and curtains at the windows,
etc. The church has a good bell, and is to be painted very soon.

We attended Sunday-school this morning. Mr. M. has a little
blackboard, a review chart, question-books, Gospel-hymns, and all
such things. It did seem, this morning, when I was there, that
the colored people were advancing some. I am really interested in
them, Aunt Sarah. Have you heard of my little Sabbath-school? May
H., a girl a little older than myself, and three of the students
(girls), and a driver, start at half-past two o’clock every Sunday
afternoon, in a mule-wagon. The school is held in a Mr. Allen’s
house—colored—(not the house, but the man, you know). We have to go
jolting over the roughest kind of a road to get there, crossing the
railroad track twice. When we reach the place, we crawl through the
fence and enter the little house. We find the children seated on
benches made of rough boards. May and I take our places in chairs
at the head of the school. Sometimes we have over forty children.
We open the school by singing some of the Gospel-hymns, then
follows the prayer; after talking a minute or two to the scholars,
the teachers take their classes and benches out of doors, and teach
right among the bee-hives and hollyhocks!

The room is too small for so many scholars, especially as there are
two beds in it. After a while, the classes are called in, and one
of the scholars chooses a hymn to sing. Then I ask questions about
the lesson. Then we count the scholars and call their names, and
give out papers. Then I ask for verses from the children, which
they have learned in the classes. We then repeat the Twenty-third
Psalm together, and close by saying, in concert, the Lord’s Prayer.

Now, you know a little of my Sabbath-school. I take ever so much
pleasure in planning for it. Friday evenings we have a Teachers’
Meeting, just for us six teachers to talk over the school, and
study the lesson for the next Sabbath. Those are dear little
meetings. I enjoy them so much. I hope I am helping a little to
raise up these poor neglected people.

I will leave the rest of my paper for my next stopping-place.

By the Road-side, Monday.

Here we are again, at the same lovely spring where we took our
dinner Saturday. We have just lunched, and Miss L. is reading.
Leila, our horse, is taking her dinner,[Pg 315] and when she finishes it,
we shall start again for home.

This morning we passed a whole field full of cardinal flowers. We
picked some beautiful ones, which are now bathing in the spring.
When riding here, we see such different sights from what we do in
the North. There are such beautiful tall pines here. They grow up
fifty or sixty feet before putting out any branches. The sweet
gum-tree, too, is very pretty. In the distance it looks like a
maple. We often see wild grape-vines covering trees, the stems as
large at the bottom as my two fists. The English ivy seems to like
this climate, too, for when it is planted by the side of a tree, it
grows way up into the branches, and almost covers the whole tree
sometimes. The passion flower grows in the fields here.

Leila is just eating her last oat, so we must be starting. I
suppose my next stopping place will be Talladega. Good-bye. From
your loving niece,

Laura P. H.

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., 11; Ky., 5; Tenn., 4; Ala., 12; La., 12; Miss., 1; Kansas, 2;
Texas, 4. Africa, 1. Among the Indians, 2. Total, 62.

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, 7. Total, 26.

Teachers, Missionaries and Assistants—Among the Freedmen,
209; among the Chinese, 17; among the Indians, 16; in foreign
lands, 10. Total, 252. Students—In Theology, 74; Law,
8; in College Course, 79; in other studies, 5,243. Total, 5,404.
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 accomodate 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,” 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 319]