YOUNG MEN IN THE SOUTH.
The friends of the South look to the young men for regeneration, and yet the situation is complicated by a peculiarly unfortunate circumstance. A Southern boy that was six years old in 1860 was allowed to run the streets, boss the slaves, and do anything but study. It can be stated as a general proposition that the Southern-born men in the prime of life in the South to-day—that is from 30 to 35 or 38—are uneducated. A man with gentle blood in his veins and a patch of weeds in his head, so to speak, is no ornament to any community, and the chances are that he will be a danger to it. If one would understand the full application of this fact let him run over the lists of the Southern Legislatures and note the ages of the members that make the most trouble. Again, the migration of young men is a cause of disquietude. Through the low country from the Carolinas to Louisiana, where agriculture is at a low ebb in consequence mainly of the credit system, the young men are continually becoming dissatisfied and leaving. Our Northwest is full of these ambitious Southern men. Certain Southern States are for various reasons putting premiums unwittingly upon emigration. Kentucky has been almost swept as with a broom, the better class of young men having been carried across the Ohio River. This is not the case with Tennessee, which is twenty-five years ahead of Kentucky in civilization. Tennessee seems destined to become one of the most important educational centers of the South, and it is in a fair way of holding its young men. Texas is another State which is holding its young men. This is a matter that the law-makers of the South will do well to consider. A commonwealth that cannot hold its young men cannot hold its own in the race for supremacy.—Springfield (Mass.) Republican.
A partial confirmation of the above views is furnished in the action of the Georgia Legislature respecting the co-education of the races. Mr. Glenn is a young man. His wild followers are in the main young men. Just now these youth are in the saddle and they are not backward to show the world what kind of men they are. In our opinion, there have been greater and wiser statesmen. It is something of an explanation, however, to know that in all probability they are men of no education. The works of ignorance are very apt to be works of darkness.
FRED DOUGLASS AT THE GOWDEN[A] GATE.
BY REV. J. E. RANKIN, D.D.
Fred Douglass, doffed this mortal state,
Stood waitin’ at the Gowden Gate,
Inquirin’ for St. Peter:
He heard within that gran’ auld hymn,
Like distant waters, breakin’ dim,
Old Hundred, in Long Meter.
He knocked, and knocked, and waitin’ stood
While white folks, a great multitude,
Went in, without cessation:
He thought he heard in undertone:
“This is the white folks’ gate, alone!”
Distract, in consternation.
They hurried through, without a glance—
He was to them na circumstance—
Upon the very canter:
He saw their backs were maistly labeled,
For places in advance they’d cabled,
And hailed doon from Atlanta.
At length, there came one martyr, Glenn,
And pointed to an auld slave-pen,
Fitted for nigger-quarters:
It stood against the city-walls,
Arranged within with auld-time stalls,
Just as before they fought us.
“Your name, I think, is Douglass, Sir,
An’ nigger poisons in you stir,
O hell itsel’ th’ infection!
Ten thousand æons you must wait,
Till you are purged withoot the gate;—
Submit, then, to inspection.
“For, Heaven no place, as well as earth,
Can find for those o’ nigger birth,
For Master or for Madam:
You married, too, on earth a white;—
And that deserves a deeper night,
Than first befell auld Adam!”
And sae the Gowden Gate was slammed,
And in yon pen was Douglass crammed,
For doom sae unrelaxin’:
Till he had passed from state to state,
Been bleached all white, from heel to pate,
An’ made an Anglo-Saxon!
FOOTNOTE:
[A] Golden
Mr. L. Maxwell, a graduate of Atlanta University, a member of the Hartford Theo. Sem., and who during the summer has had charge of our Congregational Church in Savannah, Ga., went with a friend a few weeks ago by railway to McIntosh. They paid for first-class tickets and went into the so-called “white car.” The conductor merely intimated to them that they were in the wrong car. This did not suit the white passengers, who, to the number of twenty-five, insisted that they should leave. They found the conductor and appealed to him. To his credit be it said, he came and informed the passengers that as conductor he was compelled to protect the colored men, and hinted that they better not interfere with them. This settled it. The boys took their first-class seats in the white people’s car and rode unmolested to their destination. This is certainly a report of progress. All that is needed is a little backbone on the part of railroad officials at the South, and the colored people will have their rights in railway travel.
The Kentucky Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church convened recently in Louisville. Bishop Miles having called the meeting to order, before proceeding to business startled the Conference by saying:
“I have received complaints against a great many of you preachers who do not pay your debts. You are liable to be arrested, and I fear I shall have to call a private session to consider the matter. If you don’t receive enough money for preaching, you had better quit and go to work at something where you can make more money. You need not say a word. I know you, and I’ll just give you until next Friday to get square with your creditors. I hope you’ll do this, because I don’t want to expose you, but if you don’t come up and do right the public will know it, and you will be left without an appointment.”
It is certainly a sad condition of things when a Bishop has thus to reprove ministers, and so many of them. It is no surprise to those who know the kind of men who are ministering to the colored people. There is no greater need among the colored people than that of a morally and intellectually competent ministry; but it is gratifying to know that there are such men in positions of influence and power as Bishop Miles. It is in the speedy multiplication of such men that the colored people’s future, under God, depends.
Our thanks are due and cheerfully rendered to Rev. and Mrs. John P. Cowles, of Ipswich, Mass., for one hundred copies of a book entitled “The Use of a Life.” These volumes are to be distributed among our missionaries. The life whose use these pages trace was that of Mrs. Z. P. G. Bannister, whose work as a Christian educator and missionary supporter has entered into the life of the nation and the work of the world’s evangelization. The inspiration of her work at Derry, where she was associated with Mary Lyon, and at Ipswich, in the education of young ladies, spread westward until from the Atlantic to the Pacific it has been felt. Mrs. Bannister was a most remarkable woman. She was rich in her intellectual endowments; rich in her knowledge of the Scriptures; rich in the strength of her consecrated life to magnify the kingdom of Christ and thereby make all her scholars the friends of missions. Scholarship, thorough and severe, she believed in, but it must be consecrated to Christ and used for the extension of his kingdom. The story of this book is an inspiring one, and its perusal is especially commended to Christian young women who are asking the question, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”
Of late there has been an effort made to revive the spirit of patriotism among us by organizations and by recalling war incidents. But we need a re-laying or re-enforcing of first principles. American patriotism must be a Christian patriotism.
And while on this theme, we can hardly help referring to the false patriotism prevailing in a portion of our country where the colored people are still so generally proscribed. Were they not the loyal ones in the civil war? And yet they have few rights. This is their native land, yet they are denied suffrage. They are manfully trying for an education, but little encouragement do they get from those around them.
Among the truest patriots to-day in our land are those teachers and preachers who have gone among this race to help elevate them, but they are still, as for these two decades past, ostracised by the whites, some of whom are altogether their inferiors, and who, if they themselves are to be elevated, it must, it would seem, be accomplished largely through the elevation of these colored citizens, by these same despised Northern teachers!
No! A true American patriotism must not ignore these six millions for whose condition the whole people are, and have been, responsible. And if the Government cannot be induced in some form to give federal aid towards educating those needy millions, then surely the true patriot of to-day, whether North or South, will individually contribute to support such organizations as the American Missionary Association, whose object it is to help the poor and oppressed now among us, whether they be the freedmen, the Indians or the Chinese.
FROM A SERMON BY REV. E. N. ANDREWS, HARTFORD, WIS.
FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
GENERAL SURVEY.
THE SOUTH.
Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, gave evidence of a keen and just appreciation of the needs of a race just escaping from centuries of bondage, when he said to his son-in-law: “Thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk and the work they must do.”—Ex. xviii, 20. These freed slaves, under the leadership of Moses, needed instruction in reference to religious duties, the conduct of their lives, and the larger work that opened to them as free men. This counsel of the old Midian Priest applies equally in its principles to the problem the A. M. A. is helping to solve among the freed men of the South to-day. This work must be fundamentally that of instruction. No revival excitements, no moral shocks, will effect the cure of superstitious ignorance which the social, political and religious forces of the past have united to make most dense. Slow and patient methods of instruction only can dispel this darkness. This fact emphasizes the importance of the
EDUCATIONAL WORK
in the South. The total number of schools planted in the Southern States is fifty-four. Six of these are chartered institutions, fairly entitled to the rank of Colleges. Sixteen are Normal and Training Schools. Thirty-two are common schools, scattered throughout nine different States. In these schools are 246 instructors and 8,616 pupils.
In analyzing these figures, we find not a few encouraging facts. One school has been added to the total number under the care of the Association during the last year. Two new schools stand in the list of Normal Institutes. Normal work was begun by the A. M. A. in 1866; now we have sixteen well furnished schools, one great purpose of which is to instruct instructors.
Large additions have been made to the accommodations of our schools during this year. Three school buildings, and two buildings used for industrial training, have been erected. Tougaloo rejoices in the completion of the two Ballard buildings, one used for class rooms and the other for industrial training. These two buildings were erected by the students, under the direction of the Superintendent of Mechanical Training, who was also the architect. The saving in expense of building was not less than $3,000, and the Industrial classes were thus given the best instruction in this department.
The Girls’ Industrial School at Thomasville, Ga., has just entered its new and commodious home. This building accommodates forty boarding pupils, and contains furnished rooms for teachers, two offices, dining-room, reception room, kitchen and laundry, and all the appointments of a complete boarding school.
The Academy at Pleasant Hill, Tenn., a school established for the mountain people, has just dedicated a new and commodious building, to be used both for school and church purposes.
At Williamsburg, Ky., we have added an Industrial Department to the course of study, and an unused factory has been purchased and fitted up for the accommodation of the classes. These mountain boys who become skillful in the use of carpenter’s tools in this school will scarcely be satisfied to occupy the poor log cabins in which their fathers and grandfathers have lived for generations. Missionary influences radiate from a carpenter’s shop now as in our Lord’s day. At Grand View, Tenn., the people themselves have rented an additional building for school purposes. The enrollment had already outgrown the accommodations of the old quarters. At Straight University, New Orleans, a neat Industrial building has been erected. In addition to these new buildings which have been put up this year, the Cassedy school building at Talladega has been materially enlarged, to meet the growing needs of this department. At Avery Institute, Charleston, S.C., the damage wrought by the earthquake has been repaired. There was serious interruption of the school work here, as the Institute could not be opened for months, and it was difficult even then to gather the usual number of pupils, on account of financial losses and the intense excitement of the public mind incident to the earthquake. The enrollment shows an attendance of ninety-two less than last year.
Notwithstanding these extensive enlargements, pupils have been turned away from several of our institutions because of lack in school accommodations and in teaching force. In one school the Principal tells us of a boy who applied for admission to the school. He could not take him. In a few days a leading business man of the city called to intercede in the boy’s behalf, but every corner of the school was full. “If there is a case of sickness or removal for any cause, will you not promise to let that boy have the first chance?” pleaded his earnest friend. But this boy was only one of many such boys and girls. At another Institution the Principal reported at one time during the year that there were twenty-five families who were waiting for an opening in the school, that they might send one or more pupils there.
In a school-room fitted to accommodate fifty-two pupils if every desk were full, I counted ninety-six, and the teacher reported shortly afterwards that one hundred and eight were present. It goes without saying that it is impossible to do the best sort of school work under such circumstances as these, and the A. M. A. seeks to do only the best work.
One of three things is evidently true in reference to the educational work of the Association: We must either sacrifice the character of the work, or reduce the amount of work done, or have more money. Which shall it be?
Industrial training holds a still more important place than ever in the course of instruction in our schools. The new Industrial buildings at Williamsburg, Tougaloo and Straight are already occupied with interested classes.
There are now taught at Tougaloo, in industrial branches: Farming, Tinning, Blacksmithing, Wagon-making, Carpentering, Painting, the use of Steam Power in Sawing and otherwise. The boy who completes a course of instruction in the wagon-making department can build, iron, paint and prepare for market, wagons or carriages, beginning with iron in the bar and timber in the rough.
The Industrial training for girls shows similar advancement. The work has been better systematized, and regular grades in housekeeping and sewing have been established. Kitchen gardening, which is the æsthetic name for all sorts of unæsthetic household work, has been introduced into several of our schools. In one instance the A. M. A. missionary has been invited to organize classes for Industrial training in the white public schools of the city, on account of her superior skill in teaching in this line.
The Connecticut Industrial School for Girls, already mentioned, which began its existence under the baptism of a fiery persecution at Quitman, rejoices in the great enlargement of its facilities for industrial training. Unlike the prophet’s experience, we can say that “the Lord was in the fire.”
Let us turn a moment now to note the record of the year’s work in our six chartered institutions.
Atlanta University has wrought throughout the year, under various embarrassments. No one has yet been found to take up the large responsibilities of the Presidency so successfully borne by the lamented President Ware. The schools of the prophets and the various fields of labor have been diligently scanned, but no Elisha has been found upon whom her Elijah’s mantle should fall.
The iniquitous Glenn Bill disturbed the quiet of the scholastic life of the University. It is not necessary to refer at length to the barbarous propositions of this bill. It failed to pass; but the bitter agitation, the obtrusive visits of politicians and the excited state of public feeling, have been a terrible tax upon the strength of those who were already burdened with the regular work of the University. Notwithstanding these discouragements, Atlanta University has increased the enrollment of pupils from 291 of last year to 413. “The wrath of men shall praise Him,” is a truth that is always true.
Fisk University has enjoyed a year of marked prosperity. The character of the work done here is of a high order. A scholarly French prelate of the Romish Church, who had visited many institutions in this country, recently found his way to Fisk University. He took in hand the classes in Latin and Greek, and put them through an exacting and exhaustive examination. He afterwards said to a friend that the work done in the class rooms at Fisk University was as good as that of any American school which he had visited. This is unsought testimony of high value. Fisk is constantly broadening and deepening her work. Here, too, the enrollment shows a decided increase over that of last year. The names in the catalogue number 437, as against 384 last year—a gain of 53. During the year there has been a quiet work of grace among the students, both hopeful and helpful.
Talladega College.—Among those who took the title of B. D. upon examinations at Talladega’s last commencement was a young clergyman who, during several years of successful ministerial labor in a large church, carried on systematic study and prepared himself for these examinations. Talladega College lays great emphasis upon thorough scholarship. The course of study includes Normal Training, College Preparatory, College and Theological Departments. The Intermediate and Primary grades of the Normal department have outgrown their accommodations, and the building has been enlarged to accommodate them. The industrial departments are an important feature of the school work at Talladega. The Winsted farm offers fine advantages for agricultural training, and the large Slater shop furnishes the students with opportunity for thorough knowledge of mechanical industries. The President writes: “Talladega aims at thoroughness and seeks to cultivate the hand, head and heart.” The enrollment in this college shows a slight increase over that of last year.
Straight University, at New Orleans, gathers among its students many from that bright and interesting people known as Creoles, who have so often furnished characters for song and story. The Romish influence is very strong at New Orleans, but during an interesting revival with which the school was blessed this year, not a few children of these Catholic homes professed Christ. One of these desired to join the University Church. Her parents gladly consented, saying that if their child could live a better Christian life in that church than in their own, they were rejoiced that she should take this step. The religious interest in the school this year has been deep and genuine.
The regular course of training at Straight includes Normal instruction, and teachers educated here are found in many Southern cities. At Vicksburg, Miss., the Superintendent of the colored public schools, having eleven teachers under his direction, is a graduate of Straight and is an honor to his Alma Mater. The year just closed showed an enrollment of 518 pupils in this school. Industrial classes have been organized as a part of the regular school work. In the Law Department at Straight we have the remarkable phenomenon of white and colored students sitting down side by side in the same classes. The whites come from the best Southern families, and are there because the instruction in the Straight Law Department is so excellent. A diploma from this department admits a student to the practice of law in the State, without examination.
Tougaloo, Miss., is situated only eight miles from the capital of the State. There has been added to the former course of study at Tougaloo a department of Biblical instruction during the year. The purpose of this department is to fit the students for more efficient and intelligent Christian work. The industrial departments of Tougaloo are especially complete and have been already mentioned. The appropriation of $3,000 from the State was almost the only one in the whole list of appropriations voted by the Legislature for school purposes which was not reduced this year. This fact is remarkable testimony to the value of the school by those who see its immediate results. Rev. G. S. Pope, who has been connected with Tougaloo as its President for many years, has been transferred to the general missionary work in the Tennessee mountains. His services as President of Tougaloo have been characterized by great energy and faithfulness.
Tillotson Institute, at Austin, Texas, is the only important school we have in that great empire of the Southwest. This is the youngest child among the chartered institutions of the Association, but even this child is crying out for enlarged accommodations. The enrollment of the school shows a considerable increase over that of last year, and the promise for the year now opening is still larger. One building only answers all the purposes of this institution. Here are the school rooms, the teachers rooms, the President’s residence and office, dormitories, rooms for industrial training of girls, library, chapel, dining room, kitchen and laundry, and it is not a large building either. Are not these facts potent arguments for a new building? An industrial department has been added to the Tillotson this year and a Superintendent of Mechanical Training has been appointed.
In addition to this goodly list of large institutions we point with pride to Berea and Hampton, planted by the Association. Howard University also receives support in its department of Theology.
Such is the brief record of the educational work in the South during the year. Thoreau paid a splendid tribute to John Brown when he said of him in reference to his neglect of the schools: “He let his Greek accent slant in the wrong way in order to set upright human souls.” But these heroic teachers of the A. M. A. are straightening Greek accents, solving mathematical problems, and teaching the spelling book and the alphabet, for the same grand purpose, that they may set upright human souls. Salvation is the guiding purpose of this educational work. This purpose is not forgotten amid the rush and fret of school cares and duties.
CHURCH WORK.
| Number of Churches | 127 |
| Number of Missionaries | 103 |
| Number of Church members | 7,896 |
| Added during the year | 1,197 |
| Scholars in our Sunday-schools | 15,109 |
These statistics show a substantial gain over last year. Seven new churches have been organized during the year. These are situated as follows: Decatur and Riverside Plantation, Ala.; Hammond, La.; University Church at New Orleans; Petty, Texas; Combs, Ky.; and Andersonville, Ga. The hills and valleys of the old prison pen at Andersonville doubtless sometimes echo with the songs, and with the prayers of these Negro disciples, loyal to the heart’s core to New England Congregationalism.
Five churches have been dropped from the list this year, as changed conditions of communities made it unwise to continue them.
There has been during the year a quiet Christian work throughout the South, which has borne gratifying fruits, over 1,000 having confessed Christ for the first time. The Sunday-school enrollment has increased by nearly 2,000. The contributions of these churches also show a healthful increase. They contributed this year for benevolence, outside of their own work, $2,322.51, and for their own church purposes, $16,014.50, making a grand total of $18,337.01. This was an increase over the previous year of $610.96 in their benevolences, and $3,075.61 in the total. This is an average contribution of $2.32 per member for every man, woman and child in these churches. The average membership of these churches, planted among a humble people who have no Congregational trend nor training, stands at the encouraging number of 62 for each church, while the average membership for each Congregational Church west of the Mississippi is only 43. And these people in the South are loyal Congregationalists. Although “a wild olive tree and graffed in among the branches, they already partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree.” The old argument urged by their Baptist brethren that the Bible tells of John the Baptist, but no where of John the Congregationalist, has lost its power to shake their faith in the church of Paul and John Robinson. An old black man recently arose in a prayer-meeting and most solemnly, with eager voice and emphatic gesticulation, exclaimed: “I am a Congregational, and I mean to continue a Congregational till I get up yonder,
‘Where congregations ne’er break up,
And Sabbaths never end.’”
They have found Congregationalism in their old hymn book, which is the next thing to their Bible.
At the annual meeting in Cleveland in 1882, in the report of the Committee on Church Work, is found the following: “The rate of progress during the last seventeen years has been uniformly constant, about five churches per year. * * The question now comes, whether it is not quite time to change the rate by doubling it; at least to quicken the pace.” Do the facts show that this suggestion has been followed? Since 1882 fifty-five churches have been organized, an average of eleven per year for the five years since 1882—more than double the old rate of five per year; another illustration of our Lord’s words, “Be it unto you according to your faith.” In 1882, 709 were added to the churches; in 1887, 1,197 were added. But the advancement in the Sunday-school work in our churches is still more remarkable. The total Sunday-school enrollment, as it appears in the annual report of 1882, was 7,835, but we are able to report this year an enrollment of 15,109, an increase in these five years of 7,274, or nearly 100 per cent.
These years have witnessed marvelous progress in systematic care for the children and youth by the churches of the Association.
The year just closing has been a year of building activity in the church work. Five new meeting houses have been erected; four of these are among the mountain people and one among the freedmen. One new feature in our church work is the organization of two churches composed principally of Congregationalists from the North, who have taken up their residence in the South. They needed help and organized under the care of the Association. Although we have no great Pentecostal baptism to record this year, we reverently speak our thanks “that the Lord has added to the church almost daily, such as are being saved.”
MOUNTAIN WORK.
When the Executive Committee of the American Missionary Association “decided to offer these mountain people the aid of our system,” probably even this far-seeing committee did not fully realize the magnitude of the work, nor the grand possibilities of the field. The few feeble churches that then existed are scarcely recognized now in the larger work that has grown up independently of them and miles away. Indeed, in entering this region in 1882 we were only putting the plow into the field, which had been already turned by pioneer laborers of the American Missionary Association. Before the war a brave man had pushed his way back into these mountain fastnesses in Christ’s name. He went under commission from this Association. He opened a school; his work was successful. Into his school he put a library for the use of his pupils. In this library there was a volume of Wesley’s sermons and, among these, one against the sin of slavery. This book got into the hands of a pro-slavery family. It was told that the preacher was teaching anti-slavery doctrine. Excitement in this back mountain region was intense. A mob was organized. They seized this missionary, bound him, beat him, and took him some two miles over the mountains and threw him into a cabin, and left two men as guards at the doors, while they, with their habitual delay, went to their homes for their dinner. They intended to return and inflict sorer punishment and perhaps hang him. Two mountain lads, brothers, heard of this outrage. They were pupils of this godly school-master and loved him. Each one, unknown to the other, went by a different path to the cabin with his rifle on his shoulder. They took out their teacher, cut the cords that bound him, and while he and his terrified wife at his side climbed the mountain, pushing their way to the Ohio river, these stalwart mountain lads kept back the mob with the threatening use of their unerring rifles. This missionary and his heroic wife finally reached the river and escaped. Now for the wonderful climax to that history. We have recently organized a Congregational Church where these thrilling scenes occurred. Among the original members who united in the bonds of freedom-loving Congregationalism were these two men who when boys defended this teacher at the risk of their own lives. A neat little church stands near this prison cabin of the past, and the bell that hangs in its belfry, whose tones fall now upon no slave’s ear, was contributed by the wife of this first missionary to this mountain region. Such was the heroic beginning of the Association’s work among these mountains. God had not forgotten during the years that passed, the tears and blood and prayers of these brave sufferers for Christ’s sake.
This mountain work now is divided into two well-defined fields, both important. The field in Kentucky has for its base the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, which has been built since our present missionary force began their work in this region. The central point of this work is Williamsburg. Here we have a large and prosperous academy and church. Eleven whole counties are easily reached from this center and only one of these has as yet been occupied. In addition to the work at Williamsburg, there are two primary schools and five organized churches and constantly increasing numbers of missionary stations in this field. Chapels have been erected in S. Williamsburg and Woodbine and are used for public service. A pastor has been settled over the church at Williamsburg and has taken up the work with great efficiency. The General Missionary has been relieved from the pastoral duties which he has borne before, and has larger opportunity for outside work which is pressing upon him. “Can we not have at least one pastor for each county?” is the painfully urgent plea of one of the faithful workers in this field.
The other field of mountain work lies along the Cumberland Mountains in Tennessee. Its base is the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, and the work extends far back into the mountains. Twenty-two counties are here accessible to our pastors and teachers. We have in this field two flourishing schools, one at Grand View and the other away up on the Cumberland plateau, at Pleasant Hill. Besides these schools, there are also churches at Grand View, Pleasant Hill, Pomona, Robbins, Slick Rock and Helenwood. Last year a new school was taken under the care of the Association at Sherwood, Tenn. We have thus surrounded this vast mountain region with our missionary forces. A General Missionary has been put into this field during the past year and the work opens upon him with constantly increasing magnitude. These people are Americans in every sense of the word, ninety-eight per cent of the population of some counties having been born where they still live. Those who come into the region from other parts of the same State they call foreigners. A missionary in writing recently from this field says: “I asked how many of them in the meeting had Bibles in their homes, and out of fifteen or eighteen families represented only two of them had Bibles.” Another missionary asked a girl seventeen years old if they had a book in her house. “A book, what is a book?” was the astonishing question. A book was described to her. “Oh! yes,” she said, “I believe there was one in the cabin before grandmam died, but it was lost so long ago I plumb forgot how it looked.”
This is our work. Only the edges of this great field have been gleaned. Will you not let us send our harvesters right into the heart of this ripening grain to gather in the name of our God?
INDIAN WORK.
The Indian work is chiefly in Nebraska and Dakota. The following is the summary for the year:
| Churches | 5 |
| Church members | 370 |
| Added during the year | 43 |
| Schools | 18 |
| Pupils in Schools | 608 |
| Missionaries and Teachers | 61 |
The report shows an encouraging increase in church membership. This means the redemption of souls from heathenism.
The three principal stations in the North are Santee, Oahe, and Fort Berthold. The work has been strengthened in each of these stations during the year. The Santee Normal School celebrated its seventeenth birthday during the past year. It was the first school of its kind established among this nation and its fruitful history abundantly proves the wisdom of its planting. Superior normal training is given the students in this school. The enrollment this year was 195. Twenty-six students were gathered in the theological department, many of whom will doubtless become missionaries to their own people. Pilgrim Church at Santee has enjoyed a year of prosperity. Eighteen have been added to the membership, eleven on the confession of their faith.
At Rosebud Agency three villages, including about 8,000 Indians, are open to missionary influence, and the work is being pushed with increased vigor. Jacob Good Dog, a converted Indian, was the Boniface in this field.
Among the Ponca Indians, in Nebraska, the work had been carried on with about the usual results.
Oahe.—This mission includes a training school and eleven out-stations on the Cheyenne and Grand rivers. Nineteen have been added to the Oahe church, on confession of their faith, during the year. A young man has been ordained as missionary to the Indians, and enters this field on Grand river for his life work. He has caught the spirit of Edwards, and Eliot and Brainard.
Fort Berthold has passed a year of prosperity. New work is opening in this field. I quote from a recent letter: “Since my last letter we have had very interesting and serious developments. The Gros Ventres and Mandan tribes, situated 20 and 40 miles from us, have little or no religious instruction, only as they come to us. These two tribes we are hoping some of our young men who are away at school will be ready soon to work with.”
S’kokomish Agency lies 1,000 miles to the west of Fort Berthold, in Washington Territory. The church here has also been blessed during the year with revival influences and four have united with it on confession of faith.
These Indian missions have been visited personally during the year by two of the Secretaries of the Association, and the work has been carefully inspected.
Santa Fe, New Mexico, still receives a fixed appropriation from the Association for the Indian department of its University, the Principal and teachers being appointed by the Association. Fourteen Apache girls have been among the pupils during the year—the first Apaches that have ever been gathered in our schools. They prove to be bright and docile pupils.
CHINESE WORK.
| Missions | 17 |
| Missionaries | 28 |
| Pupils enrolled | 1,044 |
| Hopeful conversions | 150 |
| Given up idolatry | 211 |
The report of the Superintendent is both joyful and sad. The numbers of those who have given up idol worship and those hopefully converted are the largest it has ever been our privilege to report; but the work has labored under great embarrassment in the serious diminution of funds. The resources for the current work were necessarily reduced by more than $3,000. New doors are opening in this Chinese work. The Japanese are now ripe for schools and churches, and a small beginning has been made in this direction. This work is open to us, and the command to enter is written in the imperative.
WOMAN’S BUREAU.
Only four years have passed since the Woman’s Bureau became a recognized department of our work, although it existed in reality for many years before. These years have abundantly proven its efficiency. It is useful especially along three lines: First, in assisting the women who are engaged as teachers to understand and grasp their work; again, in reaching the mothers and sisters of the pupils with purifying Christian influences, as they could not be reached in any other way; and also, in bringing information to the benevolent women of the North in regard to the special needs of their degraded and helpless sisters in the South. The shocking story of their degradation can be told only by women to women. Along all these lines of service the Woman’s Bureau has been especially successful during the past year. Its usefulness is greatly increased because it is an organic part of a larger Association, and thus gains a wider field of vision. The range of its operations is constantly enlarging.
FINANCES.
RECEIPTS.
| From Churches, Sabbath-schools, Missionary Societies and individuals | $189,483.39 |
| From Estates and Legacies | 52,266.73 |
| From Income, Sundry Funds | 10,561.07 |
| From Tuition and Public Funds | 28,964.81 |
| From Rents | 478.10 |
| From United States Government for Education of Indians | 17,357.21 |
| From Slater Fund, paid to Institutions | 7,650.00 |
| ——————— | |
| $306,761.31 |
The total disbursements for the year have been $298,783.80, a decrease in the expenditures of last year of $13,467. We entered this year with a debt of $5,783. The problem that taxed our skill and energies was this: How can we do the work which the Lord has put upon us, and at the same time not increase this debt? It looked, at times, as if it would prove impossible. For the month of February the receipts were $9,000 less than last year for the same month, and even so late as July there was a falling off of $17,000 for the month. The magnificent rally in September brought into the treasury a splendid sum, and the problem was solved.
Through carefully studied economy in the expenditures, by persistent efforts in the collecting field, and by the large and generous benevolences of the churches, all under God’s good providence, this has been accomplished.
The current expenses of the year are all paid; the debt with which we began the year is all cancelled, and we enter this new year with the good sum of $2,193.80 on the credit side of the ledger. But this will provide for the current expenses of the Association only about two days.
This has been a perilous experiment. The work has suffered, although none of it has been given up. The total number of missionaries has been reduced. Teachers and pastors have been overworked. New fields, “white to the harvest,” have been ungathered and left to possible blight. We praise God for this deliverance, but earnestly pray that we may not again need the chastening discipline of a like experience.
Such is the record of another year in the life of the A. M. A., as we read it from our human standpoint. The full significance of these simple facts as they stand related to the Divine plan for the redemption of the world, we cannot trace, nor need we. “What is written, is written.”