Sunday was a busy day. Our Sunday-school Temperance Workers held a meeting at a little Methodist Church, called Providence Chapel. The church was filled, and we had a very good programme. Several little girls spoke temperance pieces, and some of them spoke very beautifully and made a deep impression. Music and short, stirring addresses, and printed selections, filled up the time, and some new names were obtained for the pledge. The hardest task, almost, is to induce the older men to give up tobacco, but some of them came to that decision in the meeting. Providence Chapel is surrounded by saloons. The noble and energetic pastor spoke to the children of the Sunday-school in such words as these, “If your mother tells you to go and get a glass of beer, you tell her ‘No.’ If she whips you, come and tell me. I want to know who she is. Be brave enough to tell her ‘No.’” Such words would sound very strange in some places, but here they are needed, for some of those very mothers are members of that church, but they are getting aroused. That meeting Sunday did a great deal for them. It also did our young people good, by giving them an opportunity to do something and feel that they were doing something. The meeting was carried on entirely by the colored people, except that one of the teachers helped make out the programme, another played the organ and another made a short address.
Temperance is, just now, a subject of great interest in this State. The Legislature have just voted to submit the question of Prohibition to the people next fall. What a grand thing it would be if Tennessee could become a Prohibition State. Our little Sunday-school Temperance Workers are doing well. Our last meeting was held at a large colored Methodist Church. The house was nearly full, and we had a very enthusiastic meeting. Many of the children spoke recitations very beautifully. We had music, essays, and some words of counsel from the ministers of the two churches. Every one seemed to be very much interested. Mr. J. C. Johnson, a prominent white philanthropist of this city, was there, and seemed very much pleased. He said he wished we would go to some church every Sunday and thought we would do a great deal of good. The white temperance leaders feel the importance of securing the negro vote on their side, and such questions as these, which divide the white vote, will go a long way toward securing the political rights of the black man.
One of our regular studies in school is “Alcohol and Hygiene,” and our class have become very much interested in it. One of the class said to me a few days since, “I just thought people didn’t drink because they did not want to become drunkards. I didn’t know there was so much harm in it, but I am convinced now.” I think this expression is the sentiment of the class. One of its members who could not sign the pledge four months ago, did so at our last meeting. She was influenced to the step by learning of the evil wrought by alcohol.
A Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was formed at Shelby, with twelve members, and there will doubtless be four or five more organized in other places, when the delegates can have proper instructions, and in no better way can the influence of our churches and work be felt, than in this direction. Nothing has brought about such a desirable harmony as the temperance work in churches of all denominations, and the mothers, wives and daughters see more and more the necessity of uniting their influence against intemperance.
ENGLISH AS SHE IS “NOT” TAUGHT IN OUR SCHOOLS.
NOTES BY A MISSIONARY TEACHER.