Book: American Missionary, Volume 43, No. 3, March, 1889
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Various >> American Missionary, Volume 43, No. 3, March, 1889
The State had voted in February, by sixty thousand majority, to remain
loyal to the Union. These Highlanders had sought to save their section
of the State from rebellion, and to defend their cabin homes from
outrage and butchery. In doing so, they had burned bridges, and for this
the government at Richmond deliberately instructs its army officers to
hold a mock trial, to hang, and to brutally expose the bodies of those
who had been executed, so that surviving friends would have to look upon
these sickening horrors! It seems almost impossible that any man could
deliberately perpetrate such monstrous cruelties. But the order was
issued by the rebel government and carried into effect. Indeed, the
brutalities went even farther than this. In December, 1861, two men by
the name of Harmon, father and son, were hanged. Only one gallows was
provided, and the authorities compelled the father to stand by and see
his own son pass through the horrors of strangulation while awaiting his
own execution. (Page 151).
The diary of Parson Brownlow, from which abundant quotations are given
in this volume, furnishes many similar instances of cruelty perpetrated
against these loyal mountaineers; but they were true to the flag from
beginning to end. They left their homes, and camped in the forests and
"down the coves" of their own wild mountains. Parson Brownlow encamped
for days in concealment in Tuckaleeche and Wear's Coves in the great
Smoky Mountains. Had fair and honorable means been used, these loyal
mountaineers would have saved Tennessee from that disgraceful chapter in
her history which records the dark story of her treason. This book must
stir the patriotism and Christian enthusiasm of every one who reads it.
It ought to lead us to make genuine sacrifices to show our appreciation
of their supreme devotion to the country by sending to this Mountain
Work, opened by the A.M.A., generously of men and of means.
* * * * *
ENGLISH AS IT IS NOT TAUGHT.
He didn't crack a smile.
I feel many gratitudes to you.
His forgiven name is John.
Help us to bring forth meats for our repentance.
I won't fool with the Lord no more.
Help us to pray as the Republican did, "God be merciful to me a sinner."
* * * * *
At one of our schools, students had been learning the Beatitudes to
recite at the table, and one Sunday they were asked to write the meaning
in their own language. One wrote, "To be poor in spirit means weak but
willing." Another, "Poor in spirit means that a person who has religion
and don't make a great to-do over it, has as much as one who cuts up
over theirs." ("Cutting up" means the noisy demonstrations in meeting).
A pupil gives us the following insight into the precise appearance of
the beings of the future world. "An angel is two lines which intend to
meet," in response to the question, "What is an angle?"
According to one of our growing historians here, Gen. Gage, of
Revolutionary fame, didn't altogether believe in the then existing
styles, for we were told the other day, that, "Gage, learning that there
were millinery stores at Concord, at once sent a force to destroy them."
* * * * *
CLIPPINGS
FROM PAPERS EDITED BY COLORED MEN.
The only colored daily paper in America is printed at Columbus, Ga. It
is a four column folio, neat in make-up and well edited.
COLORED EXHIBITIONS TO THE FRONT.--At the recent Virginia Exposition Mr.
J.C. Farley, the colored photographer, was awarded the first premium for
his work, for which he is to receive a diploma and medal. Our esteemed
townsman has entered a new field and ascended to the topmost round of
the ladder at one bound.
A COLORED PRIZE WINNER.--Give a colored man a fair show and he is
certain to give a good account of himself. One of the notable college
contests in Illinois is known as the Swan Oratorical Contest, and is
held annually at Lombard University, at Galesburg. This contest was held
Thursday night of last week. The first prize was awarded to Burt Wilson,
a colored student, who lives at Galesburg, and is one of the most
promising scholars in the university. His oration is said to have been
an unusually brilliant effort.
WHAT THE NEGRO HAS DONE.--In the South there are now 16,000 colored
teachers, 1,000,000 pupils, 17,000 in the male and female high schools,
and 3,000,000 worshipers in the churches. There are sixty normal
schools, fifty colleges and universities, and twenty-five theological
seminaries. The colored people pay taxes on nearly $200,000,000 worth of
property valuation. This is a wonderful showing for a race that has two
hundred years of slavery and four thousand years of barbarism back of
it; it needs no silent sympathy or patient waiting, when in twenty years
it makes such a showing. American generosity has done for the South in
twenty years what statesmanship has failed to do in over a century; but
generosity should not be depended upon, as even that can reach a limit.
SUCCESSFUL IN BUSINESS.--North Carolina has a colored man whose business
success is hard to find surpassed by even the white people. The Concord
_Times_, a white journal, gives the following interesting sketch of his
career:
He was born a slave, and until he was twenty-one years of age, never had
a copper of his own. Possessed of a keen and adaptable mind, he has by
his energy and untiring efforts accumulated a competency, equalled by
few of his race in the South.
Warren Coleman commenced business here in 1879. He has lost everything
by fire three times,--one time meeting with a loss of $7,000 and no
insurance. Various purses of money were made up and sent him at this
time, all of which he very nobly returned. But by pluck and energy he
rose again.
He owns four farms, amounting in all to some 300 acres of land, and
employs on them twenty regular hands. He is the owner of ninety-eight
tenement houses and is still adding to the list, having in his employ at
this time twenty carpenters and eight or ten brick masons, laborers,
etc.
* * * * *
THE SOUTH.
* * * * *
REVIVAL AT LE MOYNE INSTITUTE.
PROF. A.J. STEELE.
It has been my privilege and my great joy to write you often during my
nearly twenty years of continuous service under the Association, of
God's blessing upon our work. We are now in the midst of one of the most
gracious visitations that I have ever experienced, and I recall "times
of refreshing" not a few. In 1875, the first great revival in connection
with this school saw over a hundred and twenty-five of our pupils
hopefully converted to Christ, and the young converts, by their
faithfulness, overcame all the fixed notions and ways of the old
churches on the subject of early conversions.
I have since that time, year by year, followed many of these young
people, and know that the great majority of them have proven faithful
followers of the Saviour, and many have lived lives of exceptional
influence and usefulness. Since that notable year in the history of the
school, but one year has passed without most evident tokens of God's
gracious presence in the conversion of pupils attending the school. In
some years the number has been large, and in others not so many have
made open profession of faith in Christ. I think I am safe in saying
that not a year, nor a month, has passed in which the school has not
been markedly under the influence of the Spirit, giving guidance and
instruction, and drawing, as with cords of love, many of our pupils to
see in the religion of the cross a peace and joy to be found nowhere
else. To this influence, the school owes all its success in every
direction. For myself I can truly say that in the midst of the sorrow
that has been my constant and only companion, besides my Saviour, the
joy of this work and the consciousness of its acceptance with God have
alone held me to the task laid upon me these years. I rejoice now, with
all my fellow workers, that we are in the midst of another season of
reaping, after months of sowing precious seed.
During the past week, two members of the senior class, young men,
professed their faith in Christ in the quiet prayer meeting of the
school, as did also a young lady of a lower class, and now, this week,
Brother Wharton is with us, and to-day, at the first meeting led by him
in the school, sixteen of our students, three more of the senior class,
quietly but hopefully profess to become followers of the Master, with
scores more earnestly seeking to enter in.
Since writing the above, two days of great but quiet interest have
passed in our work. Between thirty and forty of our scholars, including
five of the seniors and nearly every pupil of the other higher classes,
have learned the joy of Christian experience, and there are yet others
to follow.
The night meetings at the church are very interesting and in them
conversions are occurring in considerable numbers. The class work of the
school has not been interrupted, as half-hour meetings only have been
held, morning and noon. We rejoice greatly in this work that crowns and
confirms all the other work of the school.
* * * * *
EVERY-DAY LIFE.
MRS. A.W. CURTIS.
Put on your best glasses, dear friends, and take a peep at the regular,
every-day life of some of the workers among the colored people South.
Rap, rap, rap.
"Come in!"
It is a toil-worn, sad-faced woman, with hard, bony hands, and that look
of patient endurance that is so pathetic. She is poorly clad, with only
a thin bit of an old shawl around her shoulders, and a hat so
disreputable that she instantly removes it, and drops it behind her on
the floor. After a few kindly words of greeting, she tells her story. A
sickly husband, deranged for the last nine years of his life, whom she
had to support and care for; a daughter who married a wretch who treated
her so cruelly that she, too, lost her mind, when he left her entirely,
with their child. She kept the daughter confined to bed or chair, while
she worked out as cook, to support them all. She had several other
children. Finally the crazy daughter got away, and she does not know
whether she is dead or alive.
What had she come to us for? Money, old clothes, help of some kind?
No, indeed. She came to see if we would take her grand-daughter and her
own daughter, both about twelve years old, into our school. She had
never been able to make them fit to go to any school, so they could not
even read, but she would do her very best, if we would take them now. I
wish Mr. Hand could have seen her shining face and tearful eyes, when we
told her of the kind friend who had provided so grandly for just such
cases as these.
A patter of small feet, a hasty rap at the door.
"Please ma'am, send little sister some medicine."
"What ails sister?"
The little fellow looked puzzled for a moment, then confidently
answered, "Her stomach has settled on her bowels!"
It is a perplexing diagnosis, but a few skillful questions draw out the
fact that she has a bad cold, and some chamomilla is sent at a venture.
Word comes back the next day that "Sister is well: that medicine did her
_all_ the good."
Next comes, one after another, a perfect rush of small boys and big
girls, with now and then a man or woman for variety, on various errands.
"Please ma'am, give me a settin' of eggs. Our old hen wants to set, and
we haint got no eggs." The great brown eyes grow round with astonishment
when we tell them that the hens are A.M.A. hens now, and not ours, and
these hungry teachers eat every egg they lay. Two or three others, who
have been accustomed to rely on our good nature for their winter supply
of greens and salad, receive the same reply, and it is evident that the
new order of things is very unsatisfactory and perplexing to them.
"Please ma'am, give me some castor oil for the baby; she's awful sick;
Doctor says it's indigestion of the lungs."
She gets the castor oil, but soon comes back to say in most cheerful
tones--"Baby is dead. She died at ten o'clock, but she's better off, and
please, ma'am, give mother a black basque to wear to the funeral."
Heartless? Oh no. There was great wailing and moaning at the funeral,
and when the one carriage, with as many of the family as could crowd in
beside the poor little coffin, started for the cemetery, this same child
stood in the doorway, waving her handkerchief, and shouting tragically,
"Fare thee well, baby! Fare thee well!"
A half-grown girl came up the steps with two tiny chickens about as
large as pigeons, their legs tied together, their voices lifted up in
shrill squawks.
"Father sent you these two chickens for a Christmas present, and says
please send him a coat and pair of breeches, and a vest, too, if you
can. And mother sent you these eggs for a present, and please send her a
warm underskirt and a pair of shoes!" A modest request, surely.
Next, a great girl, barefooted, though it was a raw, cold day that made
us huddle gladly over a big fire, and with her a small boy, literally
naked so far as his bony little legs were concerned. A few fluttering
rags that had once been pants depended from the remnant of what had once
been a calico waist. An old bag was pinned around his shoulders, which
completed his entire outfit. "Please ma'am, mother says she'll send
Johnny to school if you'll give him a coat and some breeches." Alas,
there is neither on hand, nothing for the boy except a thin cotton
shirt, and a pair of thin overalls to make over, by a mother who is more
accustomed to the use of a hoe than a needle, and who has seven children
as ragged and miserable as poor Johnny.
A messenger rushes in without knocking. "Come quick--Mattie's baby
burnt!"
"Yes, I'll come. Wrap it in cotton and oil."
Away flies the messenger. I seize the bottle of morphine and a hat, and
follow to the child's home. The floor is strewn with fragments of burnt
clothing. A sickening odor of burnt flesh fills the room. The scorched
high chair, in which the child was tied and put before the open
fireplace, while the mother went to a neighbor's for milk, lay in a pool
of water, and beside it, the burnt whisk-broom that an older baby had
put in the fire, then dropped blazing under the baby's long clothes,
these told the whole sad story. They were all at the grandparent's house
next door--a crowd of screaming people. Upon the bed lay what was left
of the poor child, moaning in conscious agony. A drop of water
containing the precious anodyne which alone could ease it then, soon
brought blessed unconsciousness until death kindly bore the little soul
to God. But oh! the heart-rending grief of that poor mother! God grant
we may never witness such suffering again. We tried to comfort her with
our tearful sympathy and prayers, but God alone can ever heal her sore
heart.
A sad-faced man wants to see the minister. We know his pitiful story and
his errand before he speaks. A sick wife and six young children. The
desperate daily fight with the hunger-wolf at the door, spite of the
little lifts we try to give them. Now the wife is dead, and he comes to
ask for money to buy a coffin and a place to lay her away. He has tried
in vain elsewhere, so comes to us, and we cannot refuse. A few hours
after, the pitiful little procession passes by. The pine coffin in an
old cart, the husband and children, the minister and a few friends,
following on foot. Such calls are frequent. Does the money ever come
back? _Once_ it did.
So it goes on, day after day, twenty, thirty, sometimes forty calls, for
all these incidents are actual facts, and fair samples of our daily
experiences and only a small part of our work. There is a large
household to look after, and between times there must be flying visits
to the distant kitchen to see that everything is going on right there. A
watchful eye must look after the details of the dining room and see to
the comfort of the whole household. Supplies must be ordered; bills must
be paid; there are countless letters to write; there are sorrowful
hearts to be comforted; wayward church members to look after; cold, dead
prayer meetings to warm up; the Sunday-school to carry along; mother's
meetings and children's meetings and missionary societies. An unlimited
stock of patience, tact and good nature must be constantly on hand to
keep all the machinery running smoothly, while the work is exhausting,
wearing out body and soul far too soon.
Does it pay? _Yes!_ for slowly but surely this people is being lifted up
to a higher life, and while we sometimes grow faint and heartsick and
discouraged, still there are rifts in the clouds and bits of sunshine
now and then to cheer our hearts, and someday we hope to hear the Master
say, "_Well done!_"
* * * * *
CROWDED SCHOOL-ROOMS.
Perhaps some of our friends would be glad to hear a few words concerning
Brewer Normal School, Greenwood, S.C. The work goes on, but we are
hurried and crowded almost beyond endurance. We have only two
school-rooms and one recitation room. In one school-room fitted for
fifty-eight scholars, there are ninety-seven. They are obliged to sit,
three in a seat made for two, on chairs, stools and even on the teacher's
platform. Classes are sent from this room, and their recitation room is
the teacher's kitchen and dining-room--not very pleasant for the teachers,
but a necessity. The teacher of these classes is the Principal's
daughter, who has been taken from her own school to aid in this
emergency. In the other school-room, fitted for fifty-eight, there are
eighty-six--not quite as many as in the other room, but what is wanting
in numbers is made up in size. There are several men six feet tall, and
one minister six and a half. In many instances, we are obliged to look
up to our scholars.
Some of our classes in this room number thirty-five or forty. The
smaller classes from this room recite in the recitation room. It is with
difficulty that some of our men, weighing two hundred, get into the
seats in the school-room, but they bear the crowding and close packing
with great patience. The small boarding-houses in the yard are as badly
crowded as the school-rooms. In two small rooms, having two beds each,
there are twelve young men, six in each. Here they cook for themselves,
sleep and study out of school hours. One can hardly find standing-room
among the chairs, trunks, etc. Other rooms are crowded nearly as much.
And still the scholars come. What shall we do with them? Our cry is
_more room_. O, that God would put it into the heart of some one to give
the money needed for another building at Brewer!
* * * * *
PARAGRAPHS.
The congregation of Lincoln Memorial Church, Washington, D.C., rejoiced
in a renovated and newly-furnished church edifice, Sunday, Jan. 6th. The
pastor, Rev. George W. Moore, preached an interesting sermon on "The Law
of Christian Growth." At the conclusion of the services a statement of
the cost of the recent improvements was read. The total cost was $1,500,
about $200 of which was given by contractors and workmen. Hon. A.C.
Barstow, of Providence, R.I., presented the church with one of the large
and beautiful stoves, and gave the other at the cost of manufacture. The
present membership of the church is one hundred, ninety of whom are
resident members. The people have done nobly in their gifts and
self-denials, and Pastor and Mrs. Moore have in their hands a great work
which promises to be greater in the future.
* * * * *
From a pastor in a remote part of Georgia:
"I have seen more of the condition and wants of the people than ever
before, but whiskey and tobacco are the great evils of this part of the
country. The colored people are not very much in advance of what they
were twenty years ago, but the sad part of it is, that the leaders are
no better than the people. I think almost every minister about here uses
whiskey and tobacco, as far as I can learn, and of course the members of
the churches can see no harm in doing what their minister does. This is
a sad picture, but it only shows the need of intelligent and consecrated
leaders, such as the American Missionary Association is raising up for a
people who have been led by those who are neither intelligent nor
consecrated."
* * * * *
Mrs. Hattie B. Sherman, the daughter of Rev. R.F. Markham, died January
14th at her residence in Stockton, Kansas. For two years she was a
missionary of this Association at Beach Institute, Savannah, Ga., where
she rendered faithful and effective service in the education of the
colored people. We tender our sympathies to her father, who was for so
many years a useful missionary of the Association in the South, and to
her husband, in their great bereavement.
* * * * *
THE CHINESE.
* * * * *
LOO QUONG'S APPEAL.
Loo Quong is one of our Evangelistic Helpers. His special field
at present is Southern California. The appeal is not only
original, but spontaneous; written out of the anxious longings
of his own heart, and not upon any suggestion from me. I have
simply condensed it, to bring it within the limits of our space.
I ask for it a kind and responsive hearing.
WM. C. POND.
_Dear friends of the American Missionary Association_:
We, the Chinese, have appreciated the generous Christian acts of the
members of this great Association, who not only have done good to other
souls of the United States, but have saved hundreds of poor sinners of
our Chinese race, in which I, myself, was one of the lost and now am
found. It was through the generosity and God-loving heart of the
Association that the Chinese found Jesus Christ the Saviour of the
world. And it was through the hard labors and patience of our
Superintendent of the California Chinese Mission that the Chinese have
become partakers of the blessings of the gospel. Though it is here that
the good news is told, it has echoed back far away across the Pacific,
where the four hundred millions of heathen Chinese are living. Just as
our Lord said to his disciples, "There is nothing covered that shall not
be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known. Therefore, whatsoever
ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light, and that which
ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the house
tops." Luke 12: 2, 3.
Those who have been converted in California and who have visited their
homes in China, have seen the necessity of Christianity for their
countrymen in China. Within these ten years there were hospitals
established and missionary societies organized by native Christians and
by those who have returned to China from California. Contribution books
are often sent over to the United States to the different denominations
of Christian Chinese to raise money and send back to support the
hospitals and missionary societies in China. But this is not all; not
long ago the Congregational Association of Christian Chinese in
California organized a missionary society to Southern China, from which
part nearly all the Christian Chinese that are now in the United States
have come, and this is the most important part of China in which to do
the missionary work. There are now many native preachers and
evangelists. This society proposes to buy property in China, for a
headquarters must be established in some of the middle cities in the
south of China, and then to sustain some of those native preachers and
evangelists.
Now I must come back to our work in California among the Christian
Chinese. There are about one thousand Christian Chinese in California.
You may hear in our towns and cities Chinese preachers and Chinese
evangelists preaching the gospel to their countrymen. The American
Missionary Association has put three more Chinese missions in Southern
California during the year 1888, one of them in Tuscon, one in San
Buenaventura and one in Los Angeles. Each of these is doing good work.
As to our mission at Los Angeles, which was only opened April 1, 1888,
it has twenty-five Christian members, and it has nearly one hundred
pupils who attend the evening schools and preaching service at the
mission house from night to night. There are union meetings of all the
denominations of Christian Chinese at Los Angeles, and at San Francisco
and Santa Barbara. These meetings occur once a month; Chinese preachers
and speakers are appointed to address the meetings, a week beforehand.
We have found these meetings a great help to us. Street meetings were
often held in the Chinese quarters in many cities and towns throughout
the State. Thousands of Bibles and tracts in Chinese were given away to
Chinese readers, and thousands of heathen have heard the blessed gospel
of Jesus, and, perhaps, there are other thousands who may give their
hearts to Christ through this operation. Surely God is hastening the
time when His will will be done in all parts of the earth, since the
Chinese themselves have summoned their people to Christ. And now I
respectfully and earnestly request of all the friends of the A.M.A., and
even people of every name, race and creed of this Christian land of the
United States, to follow the example of our Master who has given himself
for us all, and we do ask for your prayers both for the Chinese in your
country and in China.