MISS D. E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.
HOW TO ORGANIZE AND CONDUCT A LADIES MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
The Home Land Circle, Park St. Church, Boston, was organized a little more than two years ago. Three public meetings are held during the year. Funds are divided among the Am. Miss. Asso’n, the A. H. M. S. and the N. W. E. C., in such proportions as the ladies decide at one of these meetings. The names of the ladies in the church and society are taken, a band of collectors is appointed, and each lady is called upon, and offered the privilege of contributing. By mentioning the wish to the collector, any contributor can have the whole of her gift go to the specified society. Membership is constituted by an annual contribution, no amount specified. The meetings, we are informed, have been made very interesting by means of letters from the workers of the societies aided.
Referring to the value of these letters in mission circles, one lady writes: “While once we felt ourselves to be working blindly, with little idea of the work that was being done or of the manner in which we could best help, we seem now to have a personal and friendly interest, as well as an increased sense of our own responsibility.”
The Colored People are crazily fond of organization. Women and men alike are caught in the whirl. Offices with high-sounding names, processions, regalia and show, have a wonderful charm before which go down their better judgment. The evils of the Lodge, our missionaries meet on every hand. In the home and in the church, this insidious foe to piety and thrift is encountered. The love of organization may be utilized and turned to good account. Our teachers endeavor to impress upon their pupils the value of co-operation in doing good. The outcome of such instruction appears in one of our schools where the girls of their own accord, and without aid from their teachers, organized themselves into the Helping Hand Society, in which the members pledge, (1) Not to tell lies, (2) Not to steal, (3) Not to be selfish, (4) Not to quarrel, (5) Not to talk about the boys when together, and (6) To try and help every one they can.
On the other hand, the vice of “Secret Orders” may be seen in the following, written by one of our teachers:
A colored man with the title of Elder, recently visited this place and organized a secret society called the Universal Brotherhood. He had left one church with stains upon his moral character, but, as is too often the case, another fold had an open door for sheep, goat, or wolf, and, as he could operate better inside a church than out, he went in. The initiation fee to the society is one dollar, and the monthly dues are twenty cents. Small as this amount is, it is much to those who have families to provide for upon very small wages. If all the promises made by the organizer could be believed, membership in the society of Universal Brotherhood would be better than forty acres and a mule. All who are sick are to receive aid. When a member dies, his family will receive a thousand dollars. If any one of the family dies before the member insured does, twenty-five dollars will be furnished for funeral expenses. Heavy fines are imposed for absence from the meetings, which are held weekly. The name might lead one to suppose that this lodge is for men only, but it is composed of men and women. They have oaths and pass-words and secrecy, but one who is too wise to join such an organization says the great secret which they will never find out is where the money goes.