The Thin End of the Wedge—A First Thanksgiving Service.
REV. WILLIAM H. ASH, FLORENCE.
Our work here in Florence is the “thin end of the wedge,” and with sufficient facilities, the smiles of the Master, and patience in its workers, great good will result. The services are well attended, and sometimes the house is disagreeably filled, and we are without the proper means of ventilation. The members of the church begged me to express for them to the Association their sincere and heartfelt gratitude for the new organ sent them; it has increased the interest of our services greatly. Last Thursday, Nov. 28, the first Thanksgiving service ever held in this place among the colored people was observed in our church; therefore it has a history in connection with our work here. I made it a union service, inviting the Baptists and Methodists to worship with us. This congregation of Baptists, Methodists, and Congregationalists worshipped as though Christ was the Head of the Church, instead of any one of the denominations present. The service was solemn and intelligent. It truly seemed that the Lord was in His holy temple. After service a gentleman of about sixty or seventy years of age said, “I have been here forty years, but I never heard of such a thing as a Thanksgiving service among the colored people.” This is the “dawn of a new age.” Pray for us.
MISSOURI.
Free Schools in the State.
REV. J. E. Roy, D. D., Field Superintendent.
This noble Western State, plowed by war and sowed to freedom, is now coming on with harvests of temporal and moral prosperity. As I have been going over its territory, looking after the five school-houses of the Association, I have been delighted with the evidences of progress in the free school system. It is a great joy to see in these cities and towns the new, large, two-story brick school-houses of modern style and furnishing. The system works more slowly into the back settlements. But in a Kansas City paper I see it stated that in the country places of Jackson County there are one hundred and fifty of these schools. At Warrensburg I saw the imposing three-story stone edifice of the State Normal School, built by that town and its county of Johnson, and now occupied by four hundred pupils from every part of the State.
Special provision is made in the law for its enforcement in behalf of free schools for the colored children. These are managed by the same school board and are supported from the same tax fund. These officers are compelled to provide schools wherever there are fifteen of such scholars in the district. If they fail to do it, it is the duty of the Superintendent to require it to be done. I met one case where the out-districts declined to co-operate with the Board in this matter, when only a threatened appeal to the Superintendent brought them to terms. I have been gratified to see the heartiness with which the five boards I have dealt with are pushing the free school system in behalf of blacks as well as whites. Nor have I been deceived, as some may imagine.