The American Missionary

Contents

EDITORIAL.
President of the Association.—Paragraphs
Indian Problem.—an Outrage
Wade Hampton
Mr. Cable's Pamphlet
Mrs. Ware
Three Commencements

THE SOUTH.
Notes in the Saddle, By District Secretary Ryder
Gregory Institute, Wilmington, N.C.
A Day at Tougaloo
Which will be the Under Dog in the Fight
Valued Appreciation

THE CHINESE.
School Life In China

BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.
Woman's Temperance Work in the South

OUR YOUNG FOLKS.
Children's Day at Talladega

RECEIPTS.

The American Missionary

President, Rev. Wm. M. Taylor, D.D., LL.D., N.Y.

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., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.
Rev. A.F. Beard, D.D., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.

Treasurer.

H.W. Hubbard, Esq., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.

Auditors.

Peter McCartee.
Chas. P. Peirce.

Executive Committee.

John H. Washburn, Chairman.
Addison P. Foster, Secretary.

For Three Years.

Lyman Abbott,
Charles A. Hull,
J.R. Danforth,
Clinton B. Fisk,
Addison P. Foster,

For Two Years.

S.B. Halliday, Samuel Holmes,
Samuel S. Marples,
Charles L. Mead,
Elbert B. Monroe,

For One Year.

J.E. Rankin, Wm. H. Ward,
J.W. Cooper,
John H. Washburn,
Edmund L. Champlin.

District Secretaries.

Rev. C.J. Ryder, 21 Cong'l House, Boston.
Rev. J.E. Roy, D.D., 151 Washington Street, Chicago.

Financial Secretary for Indian Missions.

Rev. Chas. W. Shelton.

Secretary of Woman's Bureau.

Miss D.E. Emerson, 56 Reade St., N.Y.

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.

In drafts, checks, registered letters, or post-office orders, may be sent to H.W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.

"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.

American Missionary Association

It gives us great pleasure to announce that, at a recent meeting of our Executive Committee, Rev. Wm. M. Taylor, D.D., Pastor of the Broadway Tabernacle, New York, was elected President of the American Missionary Association.

The death of our late honored President, ex-Governor Washburn, occurred so short a time before our last Annual Meeting, that no attempt was there made to elect his successor, but the matter was referred according to the Constitution, to the Executive Committee. After mature deliberation and with great unanimity, Dr. Taylor was elected. A brief extract from his letter accepting the position will indicate his sympathy with our work, and his heartiness in co-operating with us in this new relation.

"Your Association, alike by its history in the past and its work in the present, has a strong hold on my heart. It is doing a work much needed; one, too, which is intimately connected with the welfare of the nation, as well as with the future of the races among whom it specially labors. It has always been a joy to me to plead for it with my people from my pulpit, and I regard your selection of me as your President, as one of the highest honors of my life."

We are glad to be able to mention, also, the election of Mr. Charles A. Hull as a member of our Executive Committee, in place of the honored and respected A.S. Barnes, deceased. Mr. Hull was formerly a member of the committee, but was compelled to retire on account of pressure of business. He now returns to his place cheerfully and to our great satisfaction.

Who reads Missionary Magazines?—We are glad to know that THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY has appreciative readers with quick eyes. From the last numbers we have noticed extracts and quotations in the New York Observer, the Religious Herald, the Advance, the New York Tribune, and the New York Times. We are more than willing.

THE INDIAN PROBLEM.

A good deal of ingenious ciphering has been done in endeavoring to solve this problem, and, withal, there has been a good deal of honest and efficient work. The Government has largely increased its appropriations from year to year, the Dawes Bill and other valuable legislation have been secured, so that steps looking towards the citizenship of the Indian have been attained. Appropriations have been granted to aid him in farming and other industrial pursuits, and it is not unlikely that in a short time provision will be made for the education in the common English branches of every Indian child.

But all this is not sufficient. The Indian may have lands and citizenship and an English education, and yet, if he has no strong impulse towards civilization, no motive in his heart impelling him to be an industrious, self-supporting citizen—in short, if he has not a new heart looking to a new life as a citizen and a man, he will become a vagabond on the land granted him, and a skeptic in the school in which he is taught. The next few years will constitute a crisis in the rapidly changing condition of the Indian, and it is precisely at this point where the vital element of the Christian life must be infused into his character. To the Christian public, all other questions subordinate themselves to this, and this needs, not speculation, but hard work; legislation cannot do it, the church must; time will not do it, Christian teaching and example alone can. The vernacular question, so much agitated recently, is important only as it may hinder this practical work.

The Indian problem is not perpetual. The Indian must soon be merged into the American, and whether this shall be for good or for ill, the church must decide, and decide speedily. We trust, therefore, that our constituents will aid us to extend, as rapidly as possible, that part of the work entrusted to us. We do not ask for expensive buildings or costly plant. We ask for the means to push forward with the teacher and the preacher among these uncivilized people till, when they come forth from their present anomalous condition, they shall come forth practical Christians, as well as intelligent and industrious citizens.

AN OUTRAGE.

Prof. G.W. Lawrence, teacher of our school at Jellico, Tenn., a gentleman of quiet and unobtrusive manners, was brutally assaulted by a man of that place, and was shot in three places; one ball entered the wrist and followed up the arm, coming out near the shoulder, a second went into the back of the shoulder, and a third is probably lodged in the lungs. The assault occurred May 18th, in the church in which Mr. Lawrence was holding the school, in the presence of his wife and scholars. The only provocation [pg 197]alleged, was that he had gone the night before to ask for the tuition of one of his scholars. He was met in an angry way by the woman, and the next day the husband, who does not live with his wife, came to the school and fired the shots. Prof. Lawrence is the brother-in-law of our highly esteemed and active Christian worker, Rev. A.A. Myers, who has not only done so much in promoting school and church work in Kentucky and Tennessee, but who has also been so zealous in promoting the cause of temperance. Prof. Lawrence sympathized and co-operated with Mr. Myers in this good work, and it is believed that liquor and liquor influence had much to do in inspiring the deed. As all the parties in this transaction were white, it is not at all probable that the color-line question had anything to do with it.

The community was moved with intense indignation, and the assassin was speedily taken to the county jail to escape a lynching. A large meeting was subsequently held in the Baptist Church, and a committee was appointed to prosecute the perpetrator. Mr. Lawrence at this writing is in a very critical condition, but hopes are entertained of his ultimate recovery.

WADE HAMPTON.

We opened the June number of the Forum with the confident expectation that the article on "What Negro Supremacy Means," by Senator Wade Hampton, would furnish some well-considered and statesmanlike views on that important topic. We expected to find a fair, if not an encouraging, statement of the changes that twenty years have wrought in the educational and property qualifications of the Negro. But we confess our utter disappointment, in finding that Senator Wade devotes his entire article to details of the Acts of the South Carolina Legislature, from 1868 to 1876, in other words, to the reconstruction or carpet-bag period. He adds, it is true, a quotation from an address of Abraham Lincoln, but that dates back into the still remoter past, 1859. Mr. Lincoln learned something better before he died.

We make no defence of that carpet-bag Legislature, but does not Senator Wade recognize the change that has taken place in the condition of the Negro—a change that is going on at an increased ratio? Would an article be worth much on "What Anglo-Saxon Supremacy Means," based on extracts from Roman histories in regard to the ancient Germans? True, the comparison is an extreme one, but it must be remembered that more progress is now made in human civilization in one year, than in a century then. But let us confine ourselves to the facts as they now stand. The present generation of Negroes in the South has had the aid of the public schools, limited and inadequate as they are, and it has had the still more valuable aid of schools sustained by Northern benevolence, supplemented in some cases [pg 198] by aid from the Southern States, that have furnished instruction of the best quality in all ranges of study, from primary to college and professional. From Hampton, Va., to Austin, Texas, these schools, supported by various religious denominations, with carefully selected and thoroughly competent teachers from the North, have been sending forth their graduates as teachers, preachers, professional and business men. These schools of all grades number more than two hundred, and a large per cent. of their graduates become teachers who are giving a mighty uplift to their people. A colored editor could say truthfully two years ago, "We have preachers learned and eloquent; we have professors in colleges by hundreds, and school-masters by thousands; successful farmers, merchants, ministers, lawyers, editors, educators and physicians." To all this it may be added that careful estimates place the amount of property on which the Negroes in the Southern States pay taxes, at one hundred millions of dollars. Surely this race could now furnish legislators more intelligent and more interested in the assessment of taxes than in 1868, and the number and quality will be rapidly increased every year. Senator Hampton might have looked around and ahead, and not backward only! His article, as it stands, stamps him as a veritable Bourbon; "he has forgotten nothing and he has learned nothing."

MR. CABLE'S PAMPHLET.

Mr. Cable's Pamphlet, "The Negro Question," was sent to an educated Christian colored man in the South. We make some brief extracts from his letter acknowledging the receipt of the pamphlet. He says:

I have read "The Negro Question," by Geo. W. Cable, and appreciate it highly. It is the ablest treatment of the subject intellectually, morally and judicially that I ever saw. Mr. Cable has dealt with that great question with the insight of a statesman and a thinker, and the candor of a true Christian. Oh, how I am vexed and do smart when I think of the wicked treatment I and my people are subjected to on account of the God-given color, and by a people claiming and professing to be Christians! I can hardly believe that any other people ever bore the names freemen and citizens, and at the same time were shut out from so many of their rights and liberties as we are. Our manhood is outraged, our civil and political rights are abused, our women are robbed of their womanhood and their chastity is insulted, our aspirations are banded and proscription is held up to our eyes wherever we go, and enforced against us with Egyptian exactness and Spartan severity, and the most vexatious and grievous fact of all is, that the strong arm of the law of the land loses its power when it comes our turn to receive justice. The law either plays truant, or openly acknowledges that it has no power to defend us. But the God of law and [pg 199] justice, who broke down one form of slavery, will break down this, too. Still, there is a part for us to do. On this line, as on others, the man who needs help must help himself while he asks for help.

MRS. WARE.

We honor the memory of the early and self-denying workers among the Freedmen. They were ostracised at the South, and were scarcely appreciated at the North. Many of them have laid down their lives in the service, others were compelled to return home on account of ill-health, but others still are toiling on, seeing the fruits of their labors in the new impulse given to the Negro in his great race struggle. Among the earliest and most efficient of these workers was President Ware, of Atlanta, now gone to his reward. Mrs. Ware is still at the post of duty, and, though in feeble health, clings with undiminished interest to her chosen life-work.

At the recent anniversary of the Atlanta University, the meeting of the Alumni, (May 28th), was made pleasant and memorable by the presentation to Mrs. Ware of a large portrait of herself. It was wholly unexpected to her, and her impromptu acknowledgment of the gift was made in the vein of her characteristic vivacity and kindness. Among the addresses made at the presentation, was one by Mrs. Chase, herself one of our earliest and most honored laborers. From this address we are permitted to make a few extracts.

It is very significant that at any time during these twenty years of your life here, it would have been just as delightful to meet and say the pleasant words that leap to our lips, as it is to say them to-day. You, whom we delight to honor this afternoon, have held the same post of honor all these years, but many of us do not know how delightfully you hold that place, so I, who have known you so long, am asked to explain, and if this hasty sketch seems too flattering to be given in your presence, I fear you alone are responsible. If you had put less into your life for us to admire, we could put less into our expression of admiration.

We know how you lost early a good mother, and that your father was taken when you were only eighteen; but the missionary spirit of that father was repeated in the daughter. We know of your being discouraged by a missionary Board because applying so young, but of your being finally accepted, and going to Hampton, reaching that now famous school even before the veteran—General Armstrong.

Then came the year of teaching at Charleston, a year so full of privations in those pioneer days, that though repeated calls came to you from Florida and Georgia, as well as the old fields, you shrank from farther hardships and decided to remain at home, till one Sunday morning in Connecticut, twenty years ago, these words were unfolded in a sermon, "Simon, Son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my Lambs." How easy it is for us now to see the beautiful Providence of those wonderful words finding a swift response in your heart and bringing you at once to Atlanta. There are those before me now that greeted you then in Storrs School. How [pg 200 ] much we might say of that eventful year when you worked beyond your strength to fit the "A" class for Atlanta University. We can hardly see how it could have been otherwise than that the next year you should come to us, the bride of our beloved President. But position brought no exemption from hard work to either of you royal workers.

We shall never forget what hosts of friends have been won for the school by your ready pen and stirring words. And during those sixteen memorable foundation years of our school, which are so rapidly passing into history, who can ever know how much of their grand success was due to you for your devotion to him who created Atlanta University, and made it what it is? We may know in that "day when He makes up his jewels."

THREE COMMENCEMENTS.

It has been my privilege to attend in succession the anniversary exercises at Hampton, Va., Atlanta, Ga., and Howard University, Washington, D.C. Hampton, as usual, welcomed a crowd of visitors, and among these a number of distinguished men—Governor Lee of Virginia, and Senator Dawes, being those most widely known. The visitor sees here the magical touch of genius in these large and commodious buildings, the schools, the shops, the houses, the cottages, and, crowning all, the stately chapel. The plat of the village in which these are congregated realizes the words,

The effect of the whole, threaded by winding roads, shaded by trees, and interspersed with gardens and shrubs, is picturesque and practically convenient. The main value of Hampton, however, is found in what is done within these buildings—the teaching, the industries, the making of character.

The graduating exercises were the great attraction. The addresses and papers of the pupils did not, perhaps, as a whole, quite come up to what we have heard in other years, but all were good and some of them of great excellence. One is always impressed at Hampton with the tone and local coloring of the addresses. They are tinged and touched by the work done here, and the races for and by whom it is done. The titles of some of the pieces show this: "What is expected of a Hampton Graduate." "Hampton Girls." "Mission Work in Tennessee." "Way down in Georgia." "Progress of the Oneidas." Of the same sort was the closing tableau, "The Great Father and his Children," a representation by Indian students, with the implements or products of the industries they have learned, applying to the Great Father for admission to his country. The exercises were closed by eloquent addresses, given by Rev. Dr. Parkhurst, of New York, one of the Trustees, Governor Lee, of Virginia, and Senator Dawes.

Atlanta University now welcomes its visitors to its beautiful green lawns and fields, which were once red clay washed into deep gullies. The buildings are convenient and well-kept. The Baccalaureate sermon, delivered by Professor Francis, was very appropriate and touching. The commencement exercises were held on Monday, May 28th, and were attended by a vast concourse of people, many going away because the building, though large, could not give them room. The aisles were crowded through all the services. The audiences were, as usual, made up mostly of colored people. Heretofore, at times, the dignitaries of the State and city have graced the platform, but Governor Gordon was out of town, and, perhaps, if he had been at home, he would not have attended. The recent excitement about the Glenn Bill, and the withdrawal of the $8,000, the annual grant of the State, have left the relations somewhat strained. There is, however, no excitement on that subject. The State authorities have not yet decided what to do with the fund, and in the meantime, the University goes quietly forward with its work. Prof. Bumstead has just succeeded in raising the $16,000 necessary to meet the current expenses of the year.

At the anniversary exercises there were no graduates from the college department this year. Thirteen pupils, all girls, from the normal department, read their essays and received their certificates of graduation. The number of the class is supposed to be unfortunate, but there was nothing amiss in the quality of the essays they read. They were all good, but the absence of any male voice left the class somewhat in the condition of a choir without a baas. There was a noticeable difference in one respect between the essays on this occasion and those at Hampton. Here there was no local or race tone. If I had closed my eyes, I might have thought myself at the anniversary of a Ladies' Seminary at the North. Scarcely a word or allusion indicated that these girls belonged to the colored race, and for that matter their faces scarcely showed it, for the white blood largely preponderated in most of them. I can well understand why these pupils should prefer to stand forth not as a distinct race, but as American and Christian girls. Perhaps that is the higher wisdom, but it makes the anniversary less distinctive, and inspires less sympathy and enthusiasm. These girls were plainly dressed, and in that respect would differ greatly from the graduating class in a Northern Female Seminary, but they would have no occasion to shrink from a comparison with their Northern sisters, if propriety of deportment, and excellence and force of writing were considered.

At the Howard University, we had the opportunity of attending only the exercises of the graduating class in college. This institution has a good claim to its title as a University, for it has collegiate, medical, theological, law and normal departments. The anniversaries of the theological and medical departments had been held a few days previously in [pg 202] churches down in the city, and were attended, as we understand, by large audiences. The college anniversary, on the other hand, was held in the college chapel, which, while it was well filled, contained a relatively small audience, and this was made up mostly of colored people. We hardly appreciate this discrimination as to the places of holding these anniversaries, for the orations in the chapel were of a high order, and might well have attracted the attention of members of Congress and of the numerous visitors in the crowded city. The graduating class consisted of six persons, one being a lady and she the only one of the class without apparent admixture of white blood. The addresses were all orations, and resembled somewhat the essays in the Atlanta school in presenting almost no touch or tone of race or local surroundings, the lady's being almost the only exception. I could not avoid the conviction, that if these well-trained minds had thrown themselves into topics more nearly related to their own life and race struggle, there would have been more fervor in the oratory. But some of these graduates will yet be heard from as useful laborers in some fields of active Christian work.

THE SOUTH.

NOTES IN THE SADDLE.

I promised, in my February "Notes in the Saddle," to give a brief account of the mountain campaign which had then just closed. It was full of most interesting experiences. We began the series of meetings in the Congregational Church, Jellico, Tenn. The Association was represented by one of its Corresponding Secretaries, a District Secretary, and the writer. Beside these brethren from abroad, the local force of A.M.A. workers was large, and several neighboring churches of our Congregational faith sent their pastors.

At Jellico, the A.M.A. has planted both a church and a school, and built a meeting house. The interesting series of meetings, which began at Jellico, was for the purpose of dedicating the neat Congregational churches recently built by the Association along this line of railroad. Preaching services were held every afternoon and evening, the company of ministers taking turns, as they pushed on from one church to another. These churches are at Jellico, Pleasant View, South Williamsburg, Williamsburg, Woodbine, Rockhold and Corbin. Congregationalism, through the A.M.A., has taken possession of this whole region in the name of Christ. We can easily hold it in the interests of broad and evangelical Christianity, if our older Congregational churches in the East and North arouse themselves to meet the pressing exigencies, and realize the splendid [pg 203] possibilities that lie before them in this field to-day, but which will be denied them in the near future.

One very interesting feature of these meetings was the dedication of a chapel which has been recently added to the Williamsburg church, and which is used for the infant class of the Sunday-school. This class had outgrown all the accommodations of the church, in connection with the other departments of the Sunday-school. It had become a Sunday-school of itself. This chapel was, therefore, built and publicly set aside for the service of these little folks.

During these meetings, our honored Corresponding Secretary and District Secretary pushed through the storms and forded mountain streams together with the other brethren, that they might keep the appointments which had been made for them. Dr. Roy's stereopticon views, which have interested and instructed so many audiences in the North, he used with great profit during this mountain campaign.

Two men called upon Brother Myers, our general missionary in this mountain region, and requested that he and the writer visit the field, some fourteen miles away, from which they had come that morning. They told a thrillingly interesting story of how God's Spirit had entered their hearts, and stirred them up to desire better things for their children and their community than they had enjoyed. One of them was a son of a French Catholic mother, and had early adopted her faith. His life had been wild and reckless, until he found the Saviour in a meeting led by an A.M.A. missionary. He was an intelligent man of some education. He found others ready to join him in a movement for the elevation of the people. They established a church and organized a Sunday-school. We pushed over the mountain on horseback, after the other visiting brethren had left the mountain region, to inspect personally this field. We found it even as the men had represented it to be. A little church had been organized and Sunday-school gathered. I could learn of no other Sunday-school in that region. I heard afterwards, that one of the old-time preachers warned the people against the Sunday-school, saying, "It war a heap worse than a dancing place." This same preacher had a vision, and gave an account of it to his people. "Two devils," he said, "had been in that country getting up some sort of an institution that they called a church." He warned his people against them.

The two men who visited us at Jellico, together with others who had joined with them in this effort to Christianize and educate this community, we found busy on a hillside, laying the foundations of the new "church house." They were enthusiastic in this new movement, which promised so much to their community. They had drawn up a confession of faith and covenant, which were evangelical and Congregational. They reported [pg 204 ] three thousand people living in the coves and valleys radiating from the point upon which they had planted their "church house," absolutely without intelligent Christian instruction of any kind. There were hundreds of square miles without a church building of any denomination. This little company had been stirred up by God's Spirit, and were almost starving for spiritual food. There was a pathos even in their peculiar mountain vernacular, as one of them said to me, "I don't understand scarcely a word you uns say. I'm too old to larn now. I'se done left. But I does want my chilluns to know somethin'. I tell you, I'd sell my old farm down in the cove so's to help my chilluns to know somethin'." What a tremendous appeal this is from the very heart of our country! All they asked was one hundred dollars, to help them build this Congregational "church house" by the side of Hickory Creek.

While writing these "Notes," there comes flashing over the wires, the news of this horrible crime committed upon the person of Prof. G.W. Lawrence, at Jellico. I remember a conversation I had with Mr. Lawrence during this campaign of which I have been writing. He had just been offered an important and lucrative position as teacher in the North. He was a young man of only limited means, and felt almost that he must go. I told him we could not offer him financial inducements to remain, but it seemed to me that the Lord had called him to that work, and I did not know where we could find a man to fill his place. "Very well," he replied, "I will remain." The Christian hero that he was, he went patiently forward in this self-sacrificing labor. Now, he has fallen by the hand of a brutal assassin! This awful crime emphasizes the importance of this work, and calls aloud to us to send more Christian missionaries into this field, until Christian light shall displace the darkness of semi-barbarism.

Turning a moment from the field in which our missions are planted, to that from which they are supported, I give three interesting incidents. In a New England church two young girls came forward after hearing the story of the A.M.A. work in the dark places of our country, and pledged fourteen dollars, which they had themselves gathered by the sale of articles which they had made. A good example.

Another little girl, not ten years old, had one dollar which she had been saving for sometime. It was her total bank credit. When she heard of our pressing needs, she slipped her dollar into my hand, asking that it be spent for the poor children in our field.

A woman, for years an A.M.A. teacher, but now a bed-ridden invalid, pledges $100 to the work of the Association. What can we not do when there is so much of Christian self-sacrifice in both departments of our field?

ANNIVERSARY EXERCISES AT GREGORY INSTITUTE.

Our anniversary really began May 18, for on the evening of that date were held the public exercises of the "Gregory Band of Hope." There are at least 160 members of this Band and they hold fortnightly meetings.

One of the principal lessons which has to be impressed upon these children, is the sacredness of the pledge. We feel sure that much has been gained in this direction the past year. There were those who would come forward and manfully confess when they had violated any condition of the pledge. But the good done to the children is not the only benefit. Through these children, the parents become interested in temperance. One little boy said, "Since I joined the Band of Hope I got my papa and mamma to join the pledge too." Many families were represented by either father or mother, and in many cases by both. This topic is destined very soon to be of paramount importance in the training of the colored people.

The week beginning May 21 was given up to examinations. The pupils have in the main done well. Many of them in advancement and aptness will compare well with white children. By reason of a re-arrangement in the course of study, there was no graduating class this year. However, on the evening of May 25, we had an exhibition given by the scholars. The stage at the back was prettily draped with the national colors, and flowers were scattered in profusion everywhere. At the appointed hour the room was filled with the parents of the pupils and other friends of the schools. The programme was a miscellaneous one, made up of tableaux, songs, dialogues and recitations. Some of these reflected great credit upon the pupils and their teachers. I say some of them, because some parts were rendered so excellently as to astonish one who did not expect anything very good from negro scholars. One beautiful scene was, "Winding the May Pole," by twelve little girls dressed in white. Another striking piece was, "What Alcohol has done for the Nations." Different persons in appropriate costume represented the various nations of Europe and one represented Africa, each in a short speech stating what havoc alcohol had made. One young lad caused a good deal of merriment in declaiming "Theology at the Quarters," in which he drew a picture of the candidate for heaven being subjected to a close examination before he could be admitted through the "Alaplaster gate." "The questions," said the declaimer, "you must answer mighty straight. And de watermillion question gwine to cause a heap o' trouble." When one of these colored people declaims in the Negro dialect, it is a treat. There is nothing artificial about it.

The year has been a prosperous one. The school-rooms have been crowded to their utmost capacity. 312 different pupils have attended during some part of the year, and average daily attendance has been 230. [pg 206] Excellent progress has been made. Another teacher is needed. More and more are the colored people awakening to their real need—deliverance from the bonds of ignorance. You older people in the North gave your sons to free the slave from human task-masters. We who have arisen since the war look upon that as the noblest sacrifice which the history of our country presents. But there still remains the great problem of freeing the black man from the slavery of ignorance, superstition and sin. The work increases upon our hands. The South is struggling to rise. It has this problem of illiteracy to settle. We who have grown since the war could not carry a musket in '62, but we are willing to carry the Speller and the Bible now, and we do not consider this work one whit less honorable or necessary than the art of war. Do you?

Wilmington is a city with a population of 25,000. It is estimated that 14,000 of this is colored. Business is increasing fast and population is gaining proportionately. How what is the import of all this? Large numbers of colored people will be attracted here. It will be an objective point for educational work among them. If we already have 300 pupils, the opportunity will then be enlarged many fold. But even now we need more help. Cannot the friends at home enter upon a course of self-denial to extend us a little aid?

G.S.R.

A DAY AT TOUGALOO.

Jackson, Miss., May 26.—While the white Mississippians were laying the corner stone of a Confederate monument at Jackson, the black Mississippians were holding the closing exercises of their university at Tougaloo, only seven miles away.

TOUGALOO TO-DAY.

For a wonder the war spared Tougaloo. Less pretentious houses within sight of it were fired and destroyed by roving squads. But the mansion, in the midst of a grand grove of oaks, stood intact. When the war was over, the American Missionary Association acquired 500 acres of the estate, including the mansion.

At the beginning the building afforded accommodations for both teachers and students. But at present the mansion is used for the offices of the institution and for class rooms. Tougaloo has developed into one of the largest institutions for colored youth in the South. The mansion, which was the nucleus, is now only one of half a dozen large structures. To the north of it is Strieby Hall, a long three-story brick structure. The clay was dug, the brick made, and the walls laid, chiefly by student labor. To the south is another three-story dormitory. Another notable [pg 207 ] structure in the group is the Ballard School Building, every nail in which was driven by the students. About these larger buildings are grouped the Ballard Industrial shops and cottages.

Three hundred and twenty-six students were enrolled at Tougaloo the past year. The steady growth in the attendance more than keeps pace with the increase in accommodations. They come from all parts of Mississippi, Yazoo County of terrible memories furnishing a representation notable for its numbers. Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee are represented.

A MISSISSIPPI MYSTERY.

Nowhere in the South is the negro so totally a nonentity in politics as in Mississippi, and yet nowhere in the South is there a colored institution so heartily commended as is Tougaloo University by the white Mississippians. This seems odd, hardly credible. Tougaloo is not a State institution. Mississippi has a system of instruction including a normal school and other departments for colored youth. And yet every Legislature makes an appropriation for Tougaloo. The institution's management reports the use made of the money, and the Governor appoints a Board of Visitors. This is the extent of State supervision, and still Mississippi continues to make biennially an appropriation for the university. The last Legislature cut down the amount somewhat, but it cut some of the white institutions worse than it did Tougaloo.

Perhaps a stronger evidence of the esteem in which this university is held by white Mississippi is the social consideration bestowed upon those connected with the institution. The prejudice which ostracises "a nigger teacher" and which is so pronounced in most communities where there is a colored institution, is rarely observable here. On the Board of Visitors are men of the highest standing, like Col. J.L. Power, for almost a lifetime the head of the Clarion; Oliver Clifton, the Clerk of the Supreme Court, and F.A. Wolfe, the former Superintendent of Education. Mr. W.S. Lemly, one of the leading business men of Jackson, is a member of the Board of Trustees. To visit Tougaloo is not to lose caste in Jackson society, but is altogether a proper thing to do.

Of course there is an explanation for this. White Mississippians are much like white Georgians or white Carolinians in their views on the race problem and on negro education. Tougaloo's peculiar relation to the white people must be accounted for by the features in which it differs from other colored institutions maintained by Northern societies.

THE SECRET OF IT.

The Rev. Frank G. Woodworth, President of the university, was asked how he accounted for the exceptional esteem in which Tougaloo is held. His reply was: "I think the attention which we give to industrial education has a great deal to do with it. That, and the preparation of teachers, [pg 208] are two things which we make most prominent in our work. The white people can see the good effects of the training we give so plainly that they feel the work we are doing is good."

This view of President Woodworth was abundantly confirmed by subsequent inquiries among white Mississippians. It is the industrial education the negroes are receiving there which so thoroughly commends the university to the dominant race. The shops are considered fully as important as the class rooms at Tougaloo. Carpentry, painting, tinning, blacksmithing and wagon-making are taught, not only the rudiments, but to the extent of turning out finished workmen. The shops were built by the students and are admirably equipped with tools. Wagons from the Tougaloo apprentices sell for $60 in Jackson, and are preferred to the product of first-class wagon-makers.

The desk at which I sit, and which will compare with skilled work anywhere, was made by one of our students. In the blacksmithing and wagon-making they learn to take iron and wood in the rough and turn out a good, substantial wagon. The value to the colored youth of such training can hardly be over-estimated. They are trained to do skilled work, to be self-reliant and self-supporting.

THE FARM SCHOOL.

But teaching the trades is but part of the system of industrial education at Tougaloo. Each boy is required to work at least one hour a day on the university farm. For all work over that hour the student receives pay, the highest allowance being 7c. an hour. The farm is not run to make money, but to educate. The idea is to make the operation of the farm an object lesson to the students in the better methods of agriculture and stock raising. Several students, enough to take care of the steady and continuous farm work, are employed all day on the farm and attend the night school, but the bulk of the farm labor comes from the students, who give from one to several hours to it outside of school. Last year the farm was run with but one man outside of the student help. The boys, while getting their book learning, tilled eighty-five acres of corn, fifteen acres of oats, with a second crop of peas, seventeen acres of cotton, eight acres of peas, three acres of sorghum, two acres of garden and five acres of berries and orchard. The stock cared for included 100 head of blooded cattle, forty sheep and forty swine. The farm furnished the boarding department 14,000 pounds of beef and pork, 84,476 pounds of milk, and other products in proportion. The university farm stock has a reputation State-wide, and the exhibits are features of the annual fairs held at Jackson. While every boy in the institution has to do some daily work on the farm, there is set apart for the ninth grade a special course of a year in agricultural instruction designed to make good, practical farmers of those who take it. So much for the boys.

The girls get their full share of industrial training at Tougaloo. They have daily instruction in some branch of household duty, ranging from dish-washing to canning and preserving. Sewing is taught from the plain darning and mending to fitting and dressmaking according to the latest fashion plates. It has come to be well understood that the Mississippi lady of a house who gets one of the trained students from Tougaloo has "a perfect treasure."

THE STUDY OF HOUSEKEEPING.

One of the latest additions to the system of industrial training for girls at the university is a novelty. A cottage has been set apart—four girls are assigned to it for a month at a time. There they "keep house" in all details. They not only sweep and clean and cook, but they buy their supplies, keep account of all household expenses, and manage as they will have to do when they get homes of their own. A matron looks closely after the cottage feature, which is intended to teach neatness and economy and to develop executive ability.

With Tougaloo doing such a work as this, how could the white Mississippians feel otherwise than kindly toward her. The cry has been that "education ruins the nigger." It has been asserted over and over—so many times that most Southerners believe it as true as gospel—that higher education makes a negro too proud to work. But here is an education the very central idea of which is work—work with the hands and the eyes. Here is a university which gives to the State skilled mechanics vastly superior to those who "pick up" their trades; farmers who can make two bolls of cotton grow where one grew before; stockraisers who know all the fine points of the various breeds. Governor Lowry could well say in his last message to the Mississippi Legislature:

"This university, by its successful management, commends itself to your favorable consideration."

At the closing exercises of the year yesterday, Tougaloo took another step forward. Instead of turning out a class of graduates, the management increased the course and raised the standard. An institution which does that is certainly progressive.

Two of the notable things on the programme were an essay by Lucy Jenkins, on "What Tougaloo Does for the Girls," and an oration by James Miller on "Industrial Education." Both of them were well considered, well written and well delivered. The essayist and the orator were black, not yellow. Their efforts would have done credit to Anglo-Saxons of corresponding age, North or South. As for the musical part of the programme—ah, there was melody indeed.

A negro boy named Scott, with all the features of the African strongly marked, executed a difficult solo with an artistic appreciation which would have brought enthusiastic plaudits from an audience of critics.

A TRUE FRIEND OF THE RACE.

And then the Rev. Dr. William Hayne Leavell, of Meridian, arose to deliver the annual address. What a contrast! Dr. Leavell is a South Carolinian by birth and a relative of the great Nullifier Hayne. He comes of one of the proud old Southern families and has the highest social connections. He stands six feet high, a magnificent specimen of physical manhood, and as chock full of moral courage as he is of blue blood. This man left his home, declined an invitation to participate in the Confederate corner-stone ceremonies, and devoted his birthday anniversary to Tougaloo. Dr. Leavell is a son-in-law of United States Senator George, of Mississippi. He is the man who delivered an address before the Mississippi Legislature last winter, and denounced as cowards, men who go about with pistols in their hip pockets. And when the blank looks of amazement went round he rubbed his sentiments in on the Mississippians and their folly, of making themselves walking shooting galleries. Coming before the students of Tougaloo yesterday, Dr. Leavell said:

"My interest in you, in this whole work, grows out of a memory. Your fathers were the servants of my fathers. I remember that in 1861, when I was a very small boy, the sound of war went through this land. My father, kinsmen and friends went forth to battle to keep your fathers in servitude. I remember that not a few of your fathers knew what that war meant—that if my fathers succeeded, your fathers would be kept in servitude forever and my fathers would remain the master class. All the men that could protect the women and children were away. The fathers and brothers and friends were away fighting. We were in the power of your fathers and of some of you gray-headed people that I see. I remember that when they returned from that war your fathers gave back to mine the women and children without a hair of their heads having been harmed. I have remembered this with deep gratitude; and ever since that time I have felt a deep interest in you. It is therefore, that I have come in response to the call to be here to-day."

THE ONLY LOGICAL RESULT.

He proceeded at considerable length with such earnest advice as he might have given to the assembled students of a white university on commencement day. After a time he touched upon the special condition which his audience presented.

"I know," said he, "of no people who have ever lived with a more difficult problem before them. You have before you the duty of saving yourselves. Mark what I tell you, no man of another race ever saved a people. Some man of you, or of your race, has got to go with the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day, and, like Moses, lead you.

"God knows many a man of my race has given his life and service for [pg 211] yours. And not only these men who fought at the end of a gun to make you free have given their lives for you, but some of us from the South, who stood with breasts bared to the bayonets of those who were marching forward to the support of a great principle. We are anxious now to do all we can for your advancement. But we of the white race may do our best. After all we have done for you, it is as when a man goes with a friend to the brink of the grave; he can go no further. There is a limit beyond which we cannot go for you, no matter how great our interest in you. Some man with a skin darker than mine must take up the work and carry it on."

He said not a word about politics, but later in the day the question was put to him privately:

"Doctor, suppose these negroes to whom you talked awhile ago become what you urged them to be—useful, reliant, well-to-do citizens—what will be their status politically? Will the white people, with all this progress of the negro in education, in industry, in independence and in the acquisition of property, acknowledge his political rights?"

"They'll have to, sir," was the prompt and emphatic reply. "This present condition of affairs can't go on. We know that. As the negro becomes qualified we've got to admit him to full citizenship."

W.B.S.

WHICH WILL BE THE UNDER DOG IN THE FIGHT?

As a member of a Boston Raymond Excursion in January last, I spent three or four days in New Orleans. The President and a Trustee of Straight University visited our side-tracked train, and invited us to call at the University. Quite a number accepted the invitation, and in addition to being shown through the buildings, we were entertained by the students, under the supervision of the President and Professors, with hymns, songs and plantation music, with explanation by the President of the course of studies and progress of the students. At the close of the reception, it fell to my lot to acknowledge the civility shown us, which I did in the following words:

In behalf of visitors from the Raymond Excursion, it gives me great pleasure to express to the officers and students of Straight University our thanks for the interesting reception we have received at their hands. We have come from a long way off, for sight-seeing, and the study of the country, but here we find something more than the wild mountains, and desolate plains, and border towns, that are to make up so much of the interest of our journey. Through institutions like this, a problem suggested to me in one of your streets will find solution. I visited the Republican State Convention in session, to see ex-Governor Kellogg, whom I had known in his boyhood among the Green Mountains, and who was one of [pg 212] the officers of the convention. While there I listened to several speeches from colored men, which, for clearness of thought and pathos of oratory, would have done credit to any public speaker in the country. I have since learned, with great pleasure, that several of these gentlemen were graduates of this University. On leaving the convention, when scarcely a block away, I met a well-dressed gentleman, and naturally fell into conversation about the convention. The gentleman claimed to have inherited the blood of Boston, but had lived twenty years in New Orleans. With respect to the convention, he said: "I tell you, sir, the white people here will never consent to be governed by a lot of ignorant Negroes, like those in that convention!" I have thought on this statement, and coming here, I find its solution. Knowledge is power, whether its possessor be white or black, and unless the white people of the South make the education of their children more of a paramount interest than heretofore, they will find the learning and muscle, the precedents of wealth, combined in the colored race. The rural population will find that they need for themselves and their children a better knowledge than can be acquired from the court-house, saloon, or the village tavern.

It is an interesting thought, that these students will go from this institution back to their low-down homes on the borders of rice fields and cotton plantations, where their fathers and mothers have toiled in slavery, and by an inspiration that is divine, will dissipate the dark memories of the past, and will show, by precept and example, that sanctification of spirit and purity of life will shape the destiny of their race for coming time. Again we thank you for this interview.

JOHN M. STEARNS

VALUED APPRECIATION.

B.M. Zettler, Esq., who for many years has been in charge of the public schools of Macon, Ga., and who has, therefore, eminent qualifications for pronouncing judgment in regard to schools and school work, has written the following in reference to the Lewis Normal Institute of Macon. We are always glad to welcome the inspection of our schools by our Southern friends, and are specially gratified with their approval of our work.

Having had this year for the first time since Lewis School was placed under your charge, an opportunity to see the institution "from the inside," I desire to place in your hands a brief statement of my impressions concerning the school and its work. And while I do this (without solicitation) for the encouragement of yourself and associates, I have no objection to the use of the statement in any way that you may see fit. I confess I was not prepared to see so many practical, common-sense features in the school. I refer especially to the well conducted industrial departments, and the prominence given to moral training.

The teachers impressed me as being not only qualified, zealous and skillful, but as possessing a genuine interest in their work that is as inspiring as it is beautiful and becoming. The results of their labors as I witnessed them in the closing exercises were such as always follow where skill, good judgment and zeal are brought to bear.

I am satisfied that you, and the noble ladies associated with you, are doing a good work among our colored people, and that, too, in a way that leaves no room with fair-minded men for adverse criticism in any direction. In leaving our city for the summer vacation, you take with you my earnest wish that you may have a season of genuine rest and recuperation and that a kind Providence may return you to us in the fall, to continue your "labor of love" in Macon.

THE CHINESE.

Our missions in San Francisco observed their thirteenth (public) anniversary on Sunday evening, May 30th, at Bethany Church. The audience—partly American, partly Chinese—crowded not the pews only, but most of the aisles. The service was impressive and deeply interesting. Lack of space forbids my attempting to describe it in detail, but I forward for the readers of the MISSIONARY the following address, delivered by Fung Jung, who has recently entered upon work as a missionary helper.

WM. C. POND.

SCHOOL LIFE IN CHINA.

I suppose you would like to hear about the school life of the children in China. The girls are never sent to school, as the Chinese do not think it is necessary for girls to be educated. Nearly every boy is sent to school at about the same age as your American boys, six or seven. From this time the boy's playing days are over. If the teacher sees or hears that any one has been playing after the school hour, he would be severely punished. What would your American boys think of such treatment?

School begins at the first dawning of light, and closes when we can see to read no more. No intermission is allowed, excepting for the pupils to go home to get their meals. The first thing in the morning we begin to study the book of Confucius, all the pupils studying aloud. We shall have to recite to the teacher very soon. When we go up to recite, we must hand the book to the teacher and turn our faces from him. This gives no chance to see which word comes next. This is called backing the book. The consequences will be very sad should we fail in reciting our lessons. A new lesson is then assigned if we recite well. School dismisses for the pupils to go home for breakfast at 9 o'clock. The writing lesson begins as soon as we come back. We study again, and write again, [pg 214] and our copy books are examined by the teacher. The nest time we recite, the teacher picks out ten of the hardest characters from our lesson to see if we recognize them. We shall have much trouble this time if we miss. The teacher will inflict some curious punishment upon us and will say, "You know this very well, I suppose, but the trouble is, you are too old to study your lesson, and I am afraid you cannot see; I will give you a pair of spectacles for a present. Perhaps that may help you to see." Then he takes some red ink and draws a large circle around both eyes, and then we may go home for lunch. No one is allowed to clean it till coming back to school. Hardly any one with such marks wishes to go home for lunch; every one who saw you would know you had been in disgrace.

We come back for our afternoon's work. The first part we spend in writing, and the remainder of the day preparing our lesson for the next morning. For the slightest offense the children are whipped severely. The teachers are so strict, that it is no wonder the children run away from school; some go fishing, or else to the woods hunting birds' nests. If the boys see anybody not belonging to their company they will climb up a tree as high as the branch can hide them from view. All you boys will know the reason we are afraid any one should see us. I remember running away from school once, but unfortunately my father sent my sister to the school for me to go home on business. As she could not find me, my father knew I had not been to school that day. I went home for lunch about the time school dismissed. When I got home, the first question my father asked was, "School dismissed?" I answered, "Yes sir." He then said, "How did you get along with your lesson?" I answered, "First class." "And who was the first one in the class to-day?" I answered, "I am, sir." Then I noticed his voice seemed to have an angry tone, and he said, "Are you sure you have been to school?" I answered, "Of course I did, do you think I am a liar?" I got terribly whipped this time, and when I went to school in the afternoon, I also got a whipping from the teacher. I did not have any more chance for running away from school this year, for I was too closely watched. The children of China, you see, have no pleasant time as you American boys and girls.

The high schools are quite different from the primary. The students have to lodge and board in the school-house. We get up in the morning before daybreak to study; the teacher and all the students go to the explanation hall for our lesson. The teacher explains the meaning of the lesson, and in the afternoon we are expected to recite and give the explanation as given by the teacher. This is the hardest work of the whole day. Our evening lesson is studying essays and poems by Chinese Princes. About eleven o'clock school closes, and in a very few minutes I am sure you will find no one awake. In winter time we manage to get about six hours for sleep, but in summer only about four. We generally [pg 215] sleep a little while at the noon recess. It would not be surprising if when the teacher could not see us, we try to take a little nap in our seat. Each boy has a table to himself. None of the scholars sit erect as your American custom. Every boy leans his head upon his hands, so that he can manage to take a little sleep when the teacher is not looking.

We are allowed two meals a day only, and students cannot tell the cook to prepare any private lunch. We can have as much tea as we wish. The only way we can get anything extra is to try and get the cook to buy it secretly, then it is very hard to get a chance to eat it without the teacher seeing. I remember once my teacher made a visit to his friends; usually he came back in about half an hour. When he was gone, I thought I could make a little lunch, and eat it before he came back. He came sooner than I expected. When I saw him coming back, I ran to my seat as fast as I could and left the lunch in the kitchen. When the teacher found out he told the cook to dish it up and he ate it. When he finished, he came to us with a smile on his face and said, "Whose cooking is this? If he tell me I will give him back the money." When I heard that, I thought it was true, and I never thought the teacher of the high school would tell stories and deceive me. So I said, "It is mine." After I said that, he walked slowly back to his seat. I thought he was going to give me back the money. I did wonder he did not ask me how much it cost. So I watched him and saw him take up the bundle of rattans. I guessed what was coming, and I guess I need not tell you the result. The children of Christian lands have much to be thankful for. I earnestly hope that soon the children of China will enjoy all the privileges which the Gospel brings.

BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.

WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS.

ME.—Woman's Aid to A.M.A., Chairman of Committee, Mrs. C.A. Woodbury, Woodfords, Me.

VT.—Woman's Aid to A.M.A., Chairman of Committee, Mrs. Henry Fairbanks, St. Johnsbury, Vt.

CONN.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. S.M. Hotchkiss, 171 Capitol Ave., Hartford, Conn.

N.Y.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. C.C. Creegan, Syracuse, N.Y.

ALA.—Woman's Missionary Association, Secretary, Mrs. G.W. Andrews, Talladega, Ala.

OHIO.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. Flora K. Regal, Oberlin, Ohio.

ILL.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. C.H. Taintor, 151 Washington St., Chicago, Ill.

MICH.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. Mary B. Warren, Lansing, Mich.

WIS.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary Mrs. C. Matter, Brodhead, Wis.

MINN.—Woman's Home Miss. Society, Secretary, Mrs. H.L. Chase, 2,750 Second Ave., South, Minneapolis, Minn.

IOWA.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Miss Ella E. Marsh, Grinnell, Iowa.

KANSAS.—Woman's Home Miss. Society, Secretary, Mrs. Addison Blanchard, Topeka, Kan.

SOUTH DAKOTA.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. S.E. Young, Sioux Falls, Dak.

WOMAN'S TEMPERANCE WORK IN THE SOUTH.

We regret that the color-line is rigidly drawn in some parts of the South, at least, in the woman's work for temperance. Too much praise cannot be given to the white women in the South for their zeal in this good cause. The day will probably come when they will extend the hand of fellowship to their equally earnest sisters of the less favored race, but at present they do not recognize them as fellow-workers in the same societies. Some of the extracts given below tell this unpleasant story. All of them, however, show that the colored women, undeterred by this ostracism, are throwing themselves with zeal and success into this good work.

STORRS SCHOOL, ATLANTA, GA.

We have a W.C.T.U., also a Band of Hope. Our Union has increased very much in interest, as well as in numbers, during the year. The Band of Hope meets every Wednesday. It has a membership of one hundred and twenty-five, and an average attendance of seventy-five or eighty. Occasionally one or two ladies from the white W.C.T.U. will visit ours, but our Union is not recognized by the State Union. At one time a lady, acting then as President of our Union, went to the white Union, but she was so light that no one could know to what race she belonged, unless they knew her personally. There were no questions asked, and I don't suppose any one thought of her being colored. Our colored members would not be admitted. Our teachers would be, going by themselves.

TALLADEGA, ALA.

We have a W.C.T.U., also a Loyal Temperance Legion. Our Union is auxiliary to the Second W.C.T.U. of the State, and we are not recognized by the First, or distinctively white organization. Colored members would not be admitted. Indeed I understand that the First Union has withdrawn from the National, because colored delegates were received on the same basis as white.

LOUISVILLE, KY.

I endeavored when I first came to L——, to arouse an interest in temperance work among the people. I visited members of the white W.C.T.U. They assured me of their interest, and a Y.W.C.T.U. No. 2 was organized among the colored women. They were not anxious to be associated with the whites, but when the whites insisted that the name given them should be changed to Colored Y.W.C.T.U., the colored women refused, and the Union disbanded, since which time it has been impossible to arouse among them an interest in organized temperance work, much as it is needed. Colored women would not be admitted as members of a white Union.

WILMINGTON, N.C.

We have a Temperance Society of about eighty members, and a Band of Hope of one hundred and sixty members, no W.C.T.U., and if there were, it could not have any co-operation with the white societies. Colored members would not be admitted to white societies.

LETTER FROM A TEACHER IN ATLANTA.

When, last November, Atlanta voted to bring the deadly saloon back to our quiet streets, she brought also startling revelations of woman's power. We are accustomed to the refrain of "woman's sceptre," &c., with all its dulcet variations, but the wild threats of deluded wives if their sons or husbands voted for prohibition was a hitherto unheard of "wail from the inferno." Many an earnest Atlanta woman dates her re-consecration to the temperance cause from that awful Saturday night when her frenzied sisters in the public streets joined in the Bacchanalian revelries over the return of their cruel foe. Woman's Christian Temperance Unions at once sprang up in various parts of the city. So much has been done by colored women here, I feel that other A.M.A. centres may be encouraged by an account of it.

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union of East Atlanta, formed in 1885, is an inspiring gathering to visit, with a membership over fifty, and the programme of weekly meetings full and interesting. There are three female physicians in the city who cheerfully address the Union when desired. The pastor of the First Congregational Church, once a month, gives up the mid-week prayer meeting entirely into the hands of this Union. Last week at the close of one of these meetings, a young man told his sister it was the best prayer meeting he ever attended in his life. The Temperance Catechism has been thoroughly taught and illustrated. Committees of women are appointed to visit homes and solicit members or attendance on the Union. At the close of the meetings the women have access to a box of leaflets on social purity, training of children, &c., which they read and return.

Atlanta University has a Y.W.C.T.U., composed of over seventy girls in the Higher Normal department. I wish our Northern friends could look into their intelligent faces and watch their eager interest in this work. A committee for visiting the poor reports every week; the press superintendent reports her work, and if there is time reads what she sent to the papers; the social purity superintendent gives a little talk or has something read on the subject; and the most cheering thing of all is the report from our literature superintendents, who often report as many as thirty books or leaflets read during the week from our little circulating library. This library cost about five dollars.

Every officer in all these four Unions is a Negro except one. They preside with such intelligence, grace and dignity, that our Southern white [pg 218] ladies who sometimes visit them are enthusiastic in their praise. The Unions plan for a mass meeting every three months in some large church.

Its forty departments of organized work give each a place where she can do her best, and its opportunities for visiting the lowly are excellent. To give our money is generous, but to give ourselves is Christly. House-to-house visitation and personal contact of the ignorant and unfortunate with those who are only a little wiser and better, even, is a mighty elevator. A W.C.T.U. visiting committee with short terms of office, and so including a large number of women during the year, can, in an official capacity, call on a poor or wayward sister without antagonizing her or wounding her self-respect.

OUR YOUNG FOLKS.

CHILDREN'S DAY AT TALLADEGA.

A glorious sun ushered in the 29th of April, when for the first time Children's Day was observed by the College Church. Deft fingers had adorned the white walls, the chandeliers and the rostrum, with living green, and from pulpit and organ glowed and burned the roses which blossomed in rare profusion for this happy day. Early, from every quarter, flocked the children, many with faces "black, but comely," and all in attire neat and clean. Seats reserved for their use were speedily filled, and as their voices rose in songs of praise, canary and mocking bird from swinging cages swelled the glad sound. An ascription of praise to God by the choir opened the exercises, the pastor following with appropriate Scripture and prayer, and a word as to the object of the decorations and special service—not for a picnic or celebration, but that the children might ever remember this day with solemn and peculiar interest as their very own.

After the chanting by the choir, soft and slow, of "Suffer the little children to come unto me," twenty children were presented by their parents for baptism, two of the youngest belonging to officers of the College. Parents brought two, and even three, little ones, that the man of God might place upon their foreheads the seal of their consecration, and in solemn and tender words they were reminded of the meaning and obligation of the rite.

A second exercise of unusual interest was the presentation of a Bible to each of the baptized children of the church between the ages of seven and twelve. To sixteen children, the day was thus made memorable, the giving being prefaced with fitting remarks, and the hope being expressed that during the year the new Bible might be read entirely through. One recipient on reaching home immediately fell to work, and on being remonstrated with for using his eyes too steadily, said, "This is too good a [pg 219] Bible to stop reading." Doubtless all were appreciated in like manner, and will be sacredly treasured.

Short and pertinent addresses, suitable to childhood, were made by chosen speakers, hymns familiar and appropriate were sung, and the benediction, pronounced by a Baptist brother, closed a service unique and unusual.

A grandmother to twenty-three children, of whom three were presented for baptism, said to the writer, "Oh! I am so happy. We never had anything like this before, and the children and parents, too, are obleeged to remember it."

RECEIPTS FOR MAY, 1888.

[Transcriber's Notes:
Contents: Wilmington, D.C. corrected to Wilmington, N.C.
pg 219: Andover. Free Christain Ch. corrected to Christian Ch.]