The American Missionary Vol. 44, No. 4, April, 1890 by Various
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Various >> The American Missionary Vol. 44, No. 4, April, 1890
AMERICAN MISSIONARY
APRIL, 1890. VOL. XLIV. NO. 4.
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
REMOVAL--REV. FRANK P. WOODBURY, D.D.
INDIAN CIVILIZATION--EMIGRATION OF COLORED PEOPLE
A COMPARISON
THE STEREOPTICON IN NEW ENGLAND
MRS. JANE TWICHELL WARE--PARAGRAPHS
AN ENTERPRISING WOMAN
THE SOUTH.
DEDICATION OF CHANDLER NORMAL INSTITUTE
CONGREGATIONALISM AROUND PARIS, TEXAS
MISSION CHURCH--PROSPEROUS CHURCH
THE WHITE CROSS LEAGUE
BEREA AND TEMPERANCE--"BECCA MUST GO"
THE INDIANS.
STREAKS OF LIGHT--ELIZABETH WINYAN
AN EXEMPLARY MOTHER
THE CHINESE.
TWO CHINESE ANNIVERSARIES
ADDRESS.
A COLORED MAN SPEAKS FOR HIS RACE
REV. GEO. M. MCCLELLAN
BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.
PARAGRAPHS
NOVEL DISH--MANY-SIDED WORK
WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS
RECEIPTS.
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NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION,
Bible House, Ninth St. and Fourth Ave., New York.
* * * * *
Price, 50 Cents a Year, in Advance.
Entered at the Post Office at New York, N.Y., as second-class matter.
American Missionary Association.
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PRESIDENT, Rev. WM. M. TAYLOR, D.D., LL.D., N.V.
_Vice-Presidents._
Rev. A.J.F. BEHRENDS, D.D., N.Y. Rev. ALEX. McKENZIE, D.D., Mass. Rev.
F.A. NOBLE, D.D., Ill. Rev. D.O. MEARS, D.D., Mass. Rev. HENRY HOPKINS,
D.D., Mo.
_Corresponding Secretaries._
Rev. M.E. STRIEBY, D.D., _Bible House, N.Y._ Rev. A.F. BEARD, D.D.,
_Bible House, N.Y._ Rev. F.P. WOODBURY, D.D., _Bible House. N.Y._
_Recording Secretary._
Rev. M.E. STRIEBY, D.D., _Bible House, N.Y._
_Treasurer._
H.W. HUBBARD, Esq., _Bible House, N.Y._
_Auditors._
PETER McCARTEE. CHAS. P. PEIRCE.
_Executive Committee._
JOHN H. WASHBURN, Chairman. ADDISON P. FOSTER, Secretary.
_For Three Years._
S.B. HALLIDAY, SAMUEL HOLMES, SAMUEL S. MARPLES, CHARLES L. MEAD, ELBERT
B. MONROE.
_For Two Years._
J.E. RANKIN, WM. H. WARD, J.W. COOPER, JOHN H. WASHBURN, EDMUND L.
CHAMPLIN.
_For One Year._
LYMAN ABBOTT, CHAS. A. HULL, CLINTON B. FISK, ADDISON P. FOSTER ALBERT
J. LYMAN.
_District Secretaries_.
Rev. C.J. RYDER, _21 Cong'l House, Boston, Mass._ Rev. J.E. ROY, D.D.,
_151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill._ Rev. C.W. HIATT, _64 Euclid Ave.,
Cleveland, Ohio._
_Financial Secretary for Indian Missions._
Rev. CHAS. W. SHELTON.
_Secretary of Woman's Bureau._
Miss D.E. EMERSON, _Bible House, N.Y._
COMMUNICATIONS
Relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the
Corresponding Secretaries; letters for "THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY," to the
Editor, at the New York Office; letters relating to the finances, to the
Treasurer.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
In drafts, checks, registered letters, or post-office orders, may be
sent to H.W. Hubbard, Treasurer, Bible House, New York, or, when more
convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House,
Boston, Mass., 151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill., or 64 Euclid Ave.,
Cleveland, Ohio. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a
Life Member.
NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.--The date on the "address label," indicates the
time to which the subscription is paid. Changes are made in date on
label to the 10th of each month. If payment of subscription be made
afterward, the change on the label will appear a month later. Please
send early notice of change in post-office address, giving the former
address and the new address, in order that our periodicals and
occasional papers may be correctly mailed.
FORM OF A BEQUEST.
"I BEQUEATH to my executor (or executors) the sum of ---- dollars, in
trust, to pay the same in ---- days after my decease to the person who,
when the same is payable shall act as Treasurer of the 'American
Missionary Association,' of New York City, to be applied, under the
direction of the Executive Committee of the Association, to its
charitable uses and purposes." The Will should be attested by three
witnesses.
THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
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VOL. XLIV. APRIL, 1890. No. 4.
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American Missionary Association
* * * * *
REMOVAL.
The Rooms of the American Missionary Association are now in the Bible
House, New York City. Correspondents will please address us
accordingly.
Visitors will find our Rooms on the sixth floor of the Bible House,
corner Ninth Street and Fourth Avenue; entrance by elevator on Ninth
Street.
* * * * *
REV. FRANK P. WOODBURY, D.D.
It gives us great pleasure to announce the acceptance by Rev. Frank P.
Woodbury, D.D., of the position of Corresponding Secretary of this
Association. Since the death of our dear Brother Powell, with the large
increase of special resources and the general expansion of our work, an
addition to our administrative force has become an absolute necessity.
Dr. Woodbury brings to his new position special qualifications. His
eighteen years of successful work in his pastorate at Rockford, Ill.,
and his very effective two years' service in Minneapolis, have made him
acquainted with the work of a pastor and the needs of the churches. In
these pastorates, and in other services for the general interests of the
church, he has shown exceptional administrative gifts. These will find
ample range for activity in the Secretaryship. His public address at
several of our own Annual Meetings and on many other similar occasions,
attest his power as a platform speaker. He will meet with a warm welcome
to the duties of this office, and we are confident that he will receive
an equally cordial greeting in the churches, Conferences and
Associations.
* * * * *
INDIAN CIVILIZATION--NOW FOR A PUSH FORWARD.
The time has come for new vigor in the Indian service. Gen. Morgan has
been confirmed as Indian Commissioner, and his broad and well-matured
plans are ready to be put into operation. We hope that Congress will
make the necessary appropriations, and that nothing will hinder the
multiplication of Indian schools and the ingathering of pupils. With the
Sioux Indians, a great crisis has come. Their reservation is severed,
and a broad belt is opened in it for the incoming of the white man.
There will, of course, be the rush and confusion of new settlers, with
the almost inevitable demoralization of the Indians. But a still more
serious and protracted evil will grow out of the conflict of the two
races and the temptations to the Indians. If ever the friends of the
Sioux Indians needed to bestir themselves, it is just now. The helping
hand, the open school and the sanctifying Gospel, must forestall all bad
influences. So far as the work of the American Missionary Association is
concerned, the opening of this reservation to white settlement will
necessitate the removal of five or six of its out-stations, occasioning
spiritual loss and additional money appropriations.
While we hail with satisfaction the inauguration of Gen. Morgan's broad
plans, we feel that there should not be the least relaxation on the part
of the churches, in the "contract schools" and in the preaching of the
gospel. From John Eliot down, the gospel has been the great civilizing
power among the Indians, and it will be a fatal mistake to withhold it.
If the new Government policy is successful, the gospel is its essential
adjunct, and if there should be hindrances in carrying out that policy,
the steady stream of gospel influences will be all the more necessary.
* * * * *
EMIGRATION OF COLORED PEOPLE.
We have seen a large map of a Southern railroad, on one side of which
were some highly-colored pictures. The first showed the tumble-down
cabin of a colored man, himself, wife and boy carrying from it their few
belongings to the favored land of promise. The next picture shows him
and his family in the woods in his new location, getting ready to build
his house. The third picture represents a fine log house, with green
fields well fenced, a mule and pigs and chickens in the yard; and the
last picture presents a large frame house with a veranda, in which the
colored man is seated in a large arm-chair, reading a magazine, and his
wife sitting by his side in a rocking chair, while near at hand is the
capacious barn, with mules grazing in the adjacent lot.
By the side of each picture is a running comment, supposed to be made by
the colored man himself, describing his hard lot 'where he first lived,
then telling of his purchase in the new land of promise, stating the
price and the terms of purchase; then follows his happy rejoicing over
his new location, and finally his triumphant joy in his wealth and fine
mansion.
It is by such representations, we are told, that the colored people in
various parts of the South are tempted to leave their homes for new
locations. The experience of those of their number who have made such
migrations has not usually been encouraging, and we fear that thousands
more will acquire a good deal of bitter knowledge learned in that same
expensive school.
* * * * *
A COMPARISON.
_The French and the Negro._
A writer in the March number of The Forum has drawn a vivid picture of
France in its poverty, misery and tyranny in 1789, and contrasted with
this the thrift, the improved land culture, and the better clothing,
food, home and intelligence of the French peasantry of 1889. The
Revolution of 1789 broke the tyranny of the old crushing regime and
opened the way for the new world that brightens and gladdens the France
of to-day. But the Revolution did not itself make the great change; it
simply made it possible.
Two factors developed in French character were the practical forces in
the new prosperity--economy and the desire for ownership of lands and
homes. That economy was pushed, in many cases, almost to the extreme of
miserly hoarding. We give below a few brief extracts illustrating the
point in question:
"The life led by a comfortable English or American farmer would
represent wicked waste and shameful indulgence to a much richer
French peasant. I, myself, know a laborer on wages of less than
twenty shillings a week, who by thrift has bought ten acres of the
magnificent garden land between Fontainebleau and the Seine, worth
many thousand pounds, on which grow all kinds of fruits and
vegetables, and the famous dessert grapes; yet who, with all his
wealth and abundance, denies himself and his two children meat on
Sundays, and even a drink of the wine which he grows and makes for
the market."
"The French peasant has great virtues, but he has the defects of
his virtues, and his home life is far from idyllic. He is
laborious, shrewd, enduring, frugal, self-reliant, sober, honest
and capable of intense self-control for a distant reward; but that
reward is property in land, in pursuit of which he may become as
pitiless as a bloodhound."
"Take him for all in all, he is a strong and noteworthy force in
modern civilization. Though his country has not the vast mineral
wealth of England, nor her gigantic development in manufactures
and in commerce, he has made France one of the richest, most
solid, most progressive countries on earth. He is quite as frugal
and patient as the German, and is far more ingenious and skillful.
He has not the energy of the Englishman, or the elastic spring of
the American, but he is far more saving and much more provident.
He 'wastes nothing, and spends little,' and thus, since his
country comes next to England and America in natural resources and
national energy, he has built up one of the strongest, most
self-contained and most durable of modern peoples."
A very significant parallel is presented in these two pictures to one
that may be drawn between the Negro of 1861 and the Negro of 1961. The
Civil War corresponded to the Revolution in France. It broke the fetters
of the slave, and made his future a possibility. If, now, the Negro will
fill out the beautiful picture in imitation of the French peasant, he
must imitate him in rigid economy and in the ambition to own his own
land and his own home. We do not of course advise the penuriousness of
the miser, but the Negro is in little danger on that score. The grandest
impulse, even in economy and in obtaining property, is found in a
genuine Christian character. This is the work that our ministers and
teachers are endeavoring to accomplish, but we are sure It will aid them
to urge this practical saving of money, curtailing of needless expense,
and the making of most determined efforts to become owners of their own
homes.
* * * * *
THE STEREOPTICON IN NEW ENGLAND.
REV. STANLEY E. LATHROP, SHERWOOD, TENN.
Secretary Roy of Chicago started an excellent thing when he arranged the
Stereopticon pictures to illustrate the great work of our Association.
After two months spent in traveling with these pictures and giving
explanatory lectures concerning them, the writer desires to testify to
their usefulness, and to express his thanks to the good people of New
England for the interest they have shown, and the cordial reception they
have given him in his travels. Evidently the work of the Association is
"on a boom" in New England. Everywhere a great many questions were
asked, and great many expressions of hearty interest manifested. During
eight weeks, the audiences averaged over four hundred in number, in
spite of "la grippe" and the rainy, sloppy weather that prevailed. In
this time we traveled over five thousand miles, giving the Stereopticon
lecture in forty-three different places, and making twenty-three other
addresses upon the work, to audiences numbering in several cases nearly
a thousand, and a total aggregate of over twenty-five thousand people.
The descendants of the Pilgrims are thoroughly interested in our
missionary work. The pictures of the people, buildings, etc., among the
ten millions of people among whom our work is going on, in the West and
South, were greatly enjoyed, with an evident increase of interest and of
contribution. In view of all my past experiences, of four years of
military service in the South, and my twelve years of missionary work in
that region, this two months of travel and intercourse with so many
intelligent friends and helpers of our Association has been a privilege
and an enjoyment. God bless the good people of New England, and the
grand work of our American Missionary Association!
* * * * *
MRS. JANE TWICHELL WARE.
The early and honored workers under the American Missionary Association
in the South are passing away. But the sharp sorrow of parting from them
is relieved by the memory of their self-denying and useful work, and
especially where these dear friends threw over those dark days and
trying experiences the halo of personal excellence, sweetness of
disposition and a manner full of cheerful vivacity.
Such an one was Mrs. Ware. She entered the service among the Freedmen in
the autumn of 1865, and in Norfolk, Virginia; Charleston, South
Carolina; and Atlanta, Georgia, cast the radiance of her bright
countenance and cheerful spirits over her serious and most successful
work. She was a joy in the circle of her associates and an inspiration
to her pupils.
In 1869, the year in which the Atlanta University was founded, she was
united in marriage to Rev. E.A. Ware, its President, and they with
others gave the moulding touch to the University, and won for it the
confidence of the friends at the North, and an annual appropriation from
the State of Georgia. In her own pleasant home and in various services
to the institution, she made herself useful. In 1885 her husband died
suddenly from heart failure, and from that time onward she was left to
face alone the serious pulmonary trouble which two years before had
fastened itself upon her. Bravely and in hope did she battle with the
adversary, until at length in the home of her brother, Rev. Jos. H.
Twichell, of Hartford, she passed away February 17, 1890, in the
forty-sixth year of her age, and her remains were laid to rest among her
kindred in the village burying ground at Plantsville, Connecticut. A
bright light has faded out from earth, a brighter one has dawned in
Heaven.
* * * * *
PARAGRAPHS.
The mention of the fact, in the last number of the MISSIONARY, that Dr.
Patton was one of the members of the Convention in Albany that formed
the American Missionary Association, suggests the inquiry as to how many
of those then present are now alive? If those who know the facts, either
by their personal presence on that occasion or otherwise, will send to
us the names of such survivors, we will be greatly obliged.
An envelope containing a gift of five dollars was dropped into the
contribution bag recently among others, after an address concerning our
work. It was from a faithful colored woman who had spent her life in
domestic service, and represented as true and earnest self-denial as
money could. Not all the heroism and self-sacrifice are in the field
work, among the missionaries of our great Association, as true and
earnest as they are. There is the same spirit of devotion to the Master
in the collecting field. We thank God for it, and take courage to go
forward in this work of saving these destitute millions in our land.
"I enclose a draft for fifty dollars to be used by the American
Missionary Association in such way as they think wilt do the most good.
I am in my ninety-first year but when I read of the doings of the
Association in Chicago, it made me feel almost young. My prayer to God
is that he will continue his blessing on the Association."
In the February number of the MISSIONARY, mention is made of a beautiful
box, the workmanship of a friend of the Association, _fourscore_ and two
years old. It was the wish of this venerable brother that the box should
be sold and the proceeds devoted to our work. A gentleman in Boston
offered twelve dollars for the box. We have since received an offer of
twenty dollars from a friend, with permission, however, to hold the
matter open a little longer for a still higher bid. Who speaks next?
* * * * *
"You will be interested to learn that E.A. Johnson, of Raleigh, N.C.,
has just been admitted to the bar here. He passed a very good
examination, the only colored man among twenty-four whites. It made some
of them quite vexed to have him promptly answer questions on which they
failed, but when he received his license, the Judge commended him, and
the young men all congratulated him."
It is said that the colored pupils fail when they reach mathematics. A
scholar in one of our Southern institutions made an original
demonstration of an intricate problem in geometry, in a method different
from any known previously by his teacher, an accomplished scholar, and
it was correct.
From Le Moyne Institute, Memphis, Tennessee: Not a week passes that we
do not have to turn away earnest applicants from the school for want of
room. Fully two hundred such applicants have gone sadly away from our
door during the past months.
A colored minister in the South applying for a position as a preacher,
says, "I feel to say woe be under me if I preach not."
* * * * *
Rev. A.W. Curtis writes from Raleigh, N.C.: "It is estimated that thirty
thousand Negroes have gone South and West from North Carolina since the
exodus from this State began. Most of them are crowded out because of
repeated crop failures in the eastern counties. Many of them have joined
in the movement, with the hope of doing better, who were doing passably
well at home. Many have been discouraged by the attitude of the State
toward the colored people."
Rev. J.W. Freeman, of Dudley, N.C., writes: "The emigration casts a
great depression on all our spiritual work among the colored people now
In this locality."
* * * * *
AN ENTERPRISING WOMAN.
A letter from Louisiana says, "I visited a Negro family the other day in
a settlement where there is no school, and found the following condition
of things: A white lady was boarding with them and giving instruction
for her board. She is teaching them how to live. Eight months ago no one
in this family could read. The father only could speak English. Now all
speak some English. All except the youngest can read a little in the
Bible. They sang a gospel hymn for me and repeated quite a number of
Bible verses and the Lord's prayer. The colored mother I believe to be
one of the smartest women in America. With the help of her children--the
father spends all he gets for whiskey--she has built her house, supports
her family, makes her own furniture, spins and weaves cloth from cotton
she has raised, and has engaged this white lady to educate her and her
children, she herself leading the class. The children are all very quick
to learn. The home was tidy and well-kept. The children were clean and
neat. I shall look to see something grand come from that family."
* * * * *
LETTER FROM A SCHOOL GIRL TO HER PASTOR IN ONE OF OUR INSTITUTIONS.
"I am a Christian and I think I enjoy it better than being a sinner, and
always doing something on earth to please myself and not trying to
please my Saviour who died for me, that through him I might be saved. I
am enjoying this week of prayer, and it seems to me we would have better
Christians if we had more prayer. I feel as if I need your prayers both
night and morning. It does seem so hard for me to overcome my trials and
temptations which come to me so very often. I hope you will join in
earnest prayers to help me overcome my temptations."
* * * * *
The Negro, having all this promise and potency in him, is to be our
neighbor in these coming years. Whether we like it or not, he is to be
our fellow citizen, sharing with us the responsibilities and the
blessings of the republic. Before he was ripe for it he had the power of
a sovereign thrust upon him, and no man but by crime can take from him
the right and duty of joint rulership with us. It must be admitted that,
in the present condition of the average Southern Negro, he is not a
satisfactory neighbor nor a safe ruler. But that is not his fault; it is
his misfortune. His illiteracy is a National peril; his moral weakness
is a danger to himself and to the society in which he lives. But these
are the results of the cruel and corrupting system in which we held him
fast; the disabilities we have imposed upon him. And they suggest to us
certain helpful duties we owe to him; certain helpful ministries we are
under obligation to render him in order to enable him to attain that
large and splendid future toward which Providence seems to be pointing.
* * * * *
THE SOUTH.
* * * * *
DEDICATION OF CHANDLER NORMAL INSTITUTE.
BY DISTRICT SECRETARY C.W. HIATT.
The tenth of February was a great day in Lexington, Kentucky. It marked
two special events, the dedication of Chandler Normal Institute, and the
opening of a great "Hoss sale." Anybody who knows the "Blue-grass
region" will understand what the latter means. The world flocks to
Lexington on such occasions in quest of thoroughbreds, and the country
rids itself in consequence, at fabulous prices, of droves of genuine
Kentucky plugs. Buyers go home wiser, sellers richer. But not everybody
on this day was discussing "Abdallah" and "Hambletonian." Long before
the appointed hour, a stream of people began moving to a part of the
city where two pikes intersect, the point of attraction being a fine
three-story red brick structure known as the "Chandler Normal
Institute." This building occupies a commanding position on a hill which
overlooks the city. It was erected and furnished by the liberality of
one esteemed lady, Mrs. Phoebe Chandler, of Andover, Massachusetts, at
an outlay of some fifteen thousand dollars, and is given to the cause of
Christian education under the care of the American Missionary
Association. On this particular day, the building was formally
consecrated to its work with appropriate and impressive services. At two
o'clock in the afternoon the spacious chapel was filled to its utmost by
crowds of colored people, some of whom had come for miles in carriages,
to witness the event. The presence also of numerous whites, representing
the foremost professional and social circles of Lexington, was a
significant fact. These friends, by their close attention and frequent
signs of approval, as well as by their own eloquent contributions to the
programme, gave unmistakable evidence of earnest sympathy with the good
cause.
The exercises were opened with prayer and Scriptural reading, after
which the Principal, Mr. Frederick W. Foster, made an address of
welcome, marked for its practical force and fine discretion. The
visiting Secretary then, in an address of half an hour, gave his
understanding of the importance of Christian education as the solution
of National problems, both North and South, closing with a formal
God-speed to this institution as it started forth on its noble career.
To this address, Rev. Mr. Tate, of the African Methodist Episcopal
Church, made a scholarly, eloquent and touching response. He reviewed
the work of the Association for his people, eulogized the friend who had
made this special benefaction, and urged upon his hearers to make the
most, under God, of the high privileges thus brought to them from afar.