MONTHLY REPORT.

This Association has now become a corporate body. A meeting of the Association to complete the business of incorporation by adopting the Charter and By-Laws, was held in the chapel of Mt. Vernon church, on March 30. In spite of the stormy weather the meeting was a large one. Upon a motion to adopt the Charter, the opposition (to the so-called “restriction” policy) at once offered an amendment, to postpone the whole matter of incorporation for a few weeks. A lively and somewhat lengthy discussion followed, which resulted in the loss of the amendment and the adoption of the Charter by a large majority. The debate was renewed over the obnoxious “9th Article,” and an amendment to strike out the word “Home,” as defining the work of auxiliaries, was proposed; but this was lost by a vote of 87 to 30, and the original Article adopted by a vote of 97 to 15.

The Association feel that they have reason to rejoice, not only in the result, but in the whole course of the meeting. It was evident that the opposition steadily lost ground, while the sentiment that the policy of the Association thus far has been a wise and fitting one, made a constant gain. We hope and believe that this is an omen of the increasing good-will and confidence of Christian people towards the Association. While we are thankful for the steady growth of interest and the expressions of that interest in material aid, we pray and long always for more; and we beg that none of the friends of the work will remit, or intermit their interest, but that they will rather redouble their efforts as they see how the field opens before us, and how good a thing it is to help our neighbors in this way, and to serve our country and God.

We give an extract or two from a letter lately received from Miss Carter, at Nashville, telling us something of how she has used the contents of her last barrel, and of the working of her sewing-school.

“Wednesday evening,” she writes, “I had a reception in my room. The guests were dirty, ragged, pitiful boys; some of them can read, some cannot, but all of them are spell-bound by the wonderful stories of St. Nicholas and The Youth’s Companion. If the children who sent these papers and magazines sacrificed anything in so doing, may they be blessed for it; they would be could they see the happy, wondering faces of the children, who almost reverently turn the pages and spell out the stories.” * * * “I wish it were possible for you to come into my sewing-school of a Tuesday evening. At two o’clock the girls assemble—noisy, rough girls,—racing and laughing they burst into the room where I wait for them: a room where a family of father, mother and five children live, one of many, in some old barracks that were used in the war. We begin with reading of Scripture and a short prayer, and sometimes the girls sing with their rich, full voices; then we are all ready for the work, which is sometimes sewing, sometimes cutting. There is a great deal of commendable rivalry among the girls as to which shall sew best and fastest, so their tongues run fast until I silence them with a proposal to read or tell a story. They are deeply interested in ‘Pilgrim’s Progress,’ and beside we are having ten minute talks on Physiology, and the care of the body. The immorality among the women and young girls is something to make one’s heart ache, and my daily prayer is that I may do something to turn them to better, purer lives.

“When a garment is finished, the maker buys it for a trifling sum, within the means of the poorest. My other school meets Thursdays, in a school-house, and is conducted on nearly the same plan.

“Pure hearted Northern girls, with homes where every comfort and luxury abound, you cannot picture to yourselves the poverty and degradation of some of these homes where I go daily. Perhaps you read Dickens and Thackeray with moist eyes, and then, laying aside the book, comfort yourselves with the thought, ‘Well, after all there is no Nancy or Bill Sykes. There was never any one so miserable as ‘little Nell’ or ‘poor Jo;’ never any such frightful creature as one of these great hearts has wept over and the other has laughed over.’ But believe me, there are just such; no novelist’s pen has ever colored too highly possible poverty and degradation. What would you say, or rather what would you do, were you to enter a cabin where I have been many times? The first time I ever saw —— she was standing in her door-way on a snowy, cold day, her only article of clothing a calico wrapper. Within, the one room was as cheerless as a place well could be. In one corner stood a bedstead with only a dirty husk bed on it, in another, a table; there were two chairs, neither boasting a seat; on the table were a few broken dishes, and this list enumerates all there was in the room, absolutely all. This woman lives with a man many years older than she; he is a brute, and in his drunken passions beats her; she with one paralyzed and utterly powerless arm can do nothing to defend herself. Perhaps it is no wonder if she too, drinks at times, to forget her misery, yet no amount of persuasion or entreaty will induce her to separate from this man.

“How can other girls and women be saved? Certainly not by the efforts of one woman working single-handed among them, not by the efforts of many such, perhaps; yet possibly by the earnest prayers of pure hearts, that send help while they still pray.”

Receipts of the Association from March 1 to March 28, 1881:

From Auxiliaries	$377.63
Donations	90.95
Life Members	245.00
Annual Members	33.00
	—————
	$746.58

DONATIONS.

Through Cong. Pub. Society, from Hoosac S. S., Hymn books, papers, &c., for Miss Julia A. Wilson, Baxter Springs, Kansas, $15.88.

Bible Society, New York, 60 Bibles for Mrs. Amelia S. Steele, Almeda, S.C., $24.

From Park St. S. S., Boston, for land for church, to Mrs. A. S. Steele, Almeda, $30. From friends, for Mrs. Steele, new clothing, etc., $25.

Barrel valued at $37, sent to Mrs. Steele, from Ladies’ Benevolent Society, Piedmont Church, Worcester, Mass.

Two cases, valued at $100 each, to Western Missionaries, from Shawmut Av. Church, Boston.