It is a time of struggle here. People are so poor as to hardly have enough to eat of the poorest fare, and clothing is pretty scarce. No capital in the place. They spin and weave their own garments, even to the thread.
Macon, Ga.—Bro. B. arrived on the 23d of February, and we began our special meetings the next night. We had several extra prayer meetings the previous week, when much earnest prayer was offered for God’s blessing to come upon us. All things seemed to be in readiness, the brethren of the church are already quickened, and the meetings have been very encouraging from the start. The members have taken hold with commendable zeal, and seem to be thoroughly united. The meeting last night (March 3d) was almost a Pentecostal season. There are fifteen or twenty inquirers, of the most hopeful class of young men and women, and some intelligent middle-aged men. The work is quiet and deep, without noise or nonsense, and seems to be spreading every day.
Selma, Ala.—When I last wrote, I think we were anticipating the week of prayer with hope of some awakening. We observed the days with very good attendance and very good results in quickening members, still the expected ingathering of souls has not been realized. Otherwise we think the church is in quite a flourishing condition. Since the week of prayer, we have sustained three or four cottage meetings every week, with good results, and with the Literary Society, sociables, ladies’ weekly and monthly meetings, and regular prayer meetings and teachers’ meetings, we have managed to keep quite busy.
GENERAL NOTES.
The Indians.
—The House Committee on Indian Affairs has agreed to a bill which proposes to place all that part of the Indian Territory not set apart to, and occupied by, the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole Indians, under the jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the District of Kansas, held at Fort Scott, in respect to the crimes of murder, manslaughter, arson, rape, burglary and robbery. The exemptions, above stated, are placed by the bill under United States District Court for Arkansas. The bill further extends the provisions of the laws of the respective States wherein are located Indian reservations to the reservations themselves.
—A bill is now pending before the Indian Committee of the House, upon which Governor Pound, a member of the committee and an enthusiastic student of the Indian question, has made a favorable report, providing for a number of Indian schools similar to that at Carlisle; and it was in this connection that a visit of inspection was recently made by Secretary Schurz, several members of the House Committee on Indian Affairs, and two members of the Board of Indian Commissioners. Besides the general advantages to result directly from education of Indian youths, it is represented in support of the measure that the presence of a number of children from each tribe at schools in the East will be a most efficient guarantee of good behavior on the part of the tribes.
It would seem, judging from the meagre opportunities for inspection offered by a single visit to Carlisle, that the movement promises to be an effectual aid, if not ultimately one of the chief instruments, in settling the vexed Indian problem. If, however, only a part of that which is expected is actually realized, still it will have been a very profitable venture, both for the Indians and for the Government.—N. Y. Tribune.