Book: The American Missionary Volume 50, No. 6, June 1896
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Various >> The American Missionary Volume 50, No. 6, June 1896
by Various
Edition 1, (November 21, 2006)
CONTENTS
Editorial
The Jubilee Year Fund.
FIFTY-DOLLAR JUBILEE SHARES.
THE ACCEPTABLE MITES.
NO COLOR-LINE IN CLEVELAND.
ORANGE PARK NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL IN FLORIDA CLOSED BY THE
SHERIFF.
OUR CHURCHES.
THE TALENTED TENTH.
ALASKA MISSION.
The South.
HISTORY OF A CHURCH IN ALABAMA.
MEETINGS AMONG THE HILLS AND AT A CONVICT CAMP.
A BRIGHT AND CANDID VIEW OF OUR MOUNTAIN WORK.
REVIVALS.
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.
The Indians.
REVIVAL--LIBERAL CONTRIBUTIONS.
Crow Agency, Montana
The Chinese.
Jubilee Year Fund, Additional Shares.
RECEIPTS FOR APRIL, 1896.
WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION,
Bible House, Ninth St. and Fourth Ave., New York.
Price, 50 Cents a Year in advance.
Entered at the Post Office at New York N. Y., as second-class mail matter.
AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
PRESIDENT, MERRILL E. GATES, LL.D., MASS.
_Vice-presidents._
REV. F. A. NOBLE, D.D., Ill.
REV. HENRY HOPKINS, D.D., Mo.
REV. ALEX. MCKENZIE, D.D., Mass.
REV. HENRY A. STIMSON, D.D., N. Y.
REV. WASHINGTON GLADDEN, D.D., Ohio.
_Honorary Secretary and Editor._
REV. M. E. STRIEBY, D.D., _Bible House, N. Y._
_Corresponding Secretaries._
REV. A. F. BEARD, D.D., REV. F. P. WOODBURY, D.D., _Bible House, N. Y._
REV. C. J. RYDER, D.D., _Bible House, N. Y._
_Recording Secretary._
REV. M. E. STRIEBY, D.D., _Bible House, N. Y._
_Treasurer._
H. W. HUBBARD, Esq., _Bible House, N. Y._
_Auditors._
GEORGE S. HICKOK.
JAMES H. OLIPHANT.
_Executive Committee._
CHARLES L. MEAD, Chairman.
CHARLES A. HULL, Secretary.
_For Three Years._
SAMUEL HOLMES
SAMUEL S. MARPLES,
CHARLES L. MEAD,
WILLIAM H. STRONG,
ELIJAH HORR.
_For Two Years._
WILLIAM HAYES WARD,
JAMES W. COOPER,
LUCIEN C. WARNER,
JOSEPH H. TWICHELL,
CHARLES P. PIERCE.
_For One Year._
CHARLES A. HULL,
ADDISON P. FOSTER,
ALBERT J. LYMAN,
NEHEMIAH BOYNTON,
A. J. F. BEHRENDS.
_District Secretaries._
REV. GEO. H. GUTTERSON, _21 Cong'l House, Boston, Mass._
REV. JOS. E. ROY, D.D., _153 La Salle Street, Chicago, Ill._
_Secretary of Woman's Bureau._
MISS D. E. EMERSON, _Bible House, N. Y._
COMMUNICATIONS
Relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the
Corresponding Secretaries; letters for "THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY," to the
Editor, at the New York Office; letters relating to the finances, to the
Treasurer; letters relating to woman's work, to the Secretary of the
Woman's Bureau.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
In drafts, checks, registered letters, or post-office orders, may be sent
to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, Bible House, New York; or, when more
convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House,
Boston, Mass., or 153 La Salle Street, Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty
dollars constitutes a Life Member.
NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.--The date on the "address label" indicates the time
to which the subscription is paid. Changes are made in date on label to
the 10th of each month. If payment of subscription be made afterward the
change on the label will appear a month later. Please send early notice of
change in post-office address, giving the former address and the new
address, in order that our periodicals and occasional papers may be
correctly mailed.
FORM OF A BEQUEST.
"I give and bequeath the sum of ---- dollars to the 'American Missionary
Association,' incorporated by act of the Legislature of the State of New
York." The will should be attested by three witnesses.
THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY
VOL. L.
JUNE, 1896.
No. 6.
The Jubilee Year Fund.
Extract from the appeal of the Executive Committee of the American
Missionary Association:
*Fifty Dollars a Share.*
It is proposed to raise during the next six months a special Jubilee Year
Fund of $100,000 in shares of $50 each, with the hope and expectation that
these shares will be taken by the friends of missions without lessening
those regular contributions which must be depended upon to sustain the
current work.
FORM OF A PLEDGE.
Share, $50.
$100,000.
THE JUBILEE YEAR FUND
OF THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
I hereby take ..... shares (Fifty Dollars each) in the Jubilee Year Fund
of the American Missionary Association, to be paid before the close of the
fiscal year, Sept. 30, 1896.
_Name_ . . . . . . .
_P. O. Address_ . . . . . . . .
FIFTY-DOLLAR JUBILEE SHARES.
In the last number of THE MISSIONARY we gave the gratifying report of 34
shares taken for this fund, and in the present number we have the pleasure
of adding 75 more. We are fully aware of the difficulties under which we
send forth the call for responses to this much-needed fund. Other appeals
have been made, and are still pressed upon the churches, all of them
worthy of the generosity with which they are met.
But the ability of the churches to meet the demands of their varied
mission work is not exhausted, and the spirit of consecration among the
followers of Christ, even when self-denial must be practiced, has not
reached its limit. We therefore urge our appeal with strong confidence
that we shall not be felt to be intruders, but that we are simply trying
to fulfill the duty imposed upon us in carrying the Gospel to the most
needy and destitute in our land.
We must repeat the plea made by our Executive Committee that in giving to
this Jubilee Fund, the contributions for our regular work, to which we are
committed and whose claims we cannot repudiate, may not be neglected.
THE ACCEPTABLE MITES.
ANDERSONVILLE, GA.--"Please find inclosed $2.31, which is a contribution
from our church toward paying the debt of the American Missionary
Association. It is very little, but more than I supposed the people would
raise, there is so little money in the place."
GREENWOOD, S. C.--"It is a great pleasure to me to hand you herewith bank
draft for $11, which is the amount of our collection for the Lincoln
Memorial Day. I have delayed the remitting of this amount somewhat to give
others an opportunity who wished to contribute, but were not quite ready.
The amount is not large, but it is from the people and expresses in a
measure their interest in the work of the American Missionary Association.
The collection represents offerings of the young and old from a cent to a
dollar. What was done was done with a free heart."
NO COLOR-LINE IN CLEVELAND.
The Methodist General Conference and the hotels in Cleveland, O., deserve
great credit--the hotels for according to all delegates, regardless of
color, equal accommodations, and the Conference for its hearty indorsement
of their action. If this greatest gathering of the largest Protestant
church in America had nothing else to do, it might go with its grand
meeting from city to city securing this recognition of the brotherhood of
man. It is ardently hoped that the generous and liberal-minded hotel
keepers in Cleveland may not "backslide," and that if any single colored
delegate, clerical or lay, should come alone to Cleveland, even before the
close of the "six months' probation," he might not find the door closed
against him.
The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church may be equally useful at
its meeting in Saratoga in preaching this same gospel of the brotherhood
of man, and in this case, too, permanency is very desirable, and it is
hoped, therefore, that in this event there may be the illustration of the
good old Presbyterian doctrine of the "perseverance of the saints."
ORANGE PARK NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL IN FLORIDA CLOSED BY THE SHERIFF.
It will be remembered that on Friday, the 10th of April, seven teachers
and two patrons of the Orange Park School, at Orange Park, Fla., were
arrested for violation of an enactment legalized a year ago by the State
Legislature under the instigation of William H. Sheats, the State
superintendent of education.
The enactment, which we protest is in no just sense a law, forbids not
only white and colored persons to be instructed within the same building
at the same time, but it also forbids a white principal or matron or
guardians of the school rooming or living within the same building where
their pupils are.
This enactment against the personal rights of education in a private
Christian school not supported or aided by the State, if sustained, would
destroy nearly all of the institutions carried on by Northern benevolence
in all of our Southern States. It would take the guardianship of manners
and morals out of the hands of those who have planted and sustained the
institutions until now, and who, in view of the millions yet uneducated
and untrained, are now needed as much as ever. It is not surprising,
therefore, that the National Council of Congregational Churches at
Syracuse in October requested the Association to take this question to the
highest courts, nor that the General Conference of the Methodist Church in
Cleveland has just passed a resolution denouncing this iniquitous
enactment, or that we are receiving constantly from our State and local
associations assurances of sympathy and support in our contest against
this reversion to barbarism. We quote a few of the opinions which have
come under our observation.
From the _Congregationalist_:
"The ethics of Christ, Pilgrim traditions, and the U. S.
Constitution seemed paramount to the opinions of Florida
legislators, and the highest officials of the American Missionary
Association decided to defy and test the law. That the
denomination stands back of them may be reasonably inferred from
the resolution passed by the last Triennial National Council. Let
the American Missionary Association have the sinews of war with
which to employ the ablest counsel."
From the _Outlook_:
"The State of Florida not long ago took action which is a disgrace
to itself and a blot on the fair fame of our republic. Let our
people squarely face this issue. While we are protesting against
the treatment of missionaries in Turkey and calling upon the
Government to use all its power in their protection, Christian
teachers widely known and honored in one of the great States of
this republic are arrested simply because they presumed to
instruct a few white children under the same roof with colored
children. It is hard to speak of such conduct in mild words. The
question as to whether this is in reality a free republic is once
more at issue. The action of the State of Florida is as barbaric
as the persecutions of the Middle Ages."
From the _Independent_:
"Let the reader observe that this is not a law applying merely to
the public schools of the State. Such a law we condemn, but we
could not be surprised at it. This law is directed at this
particular institution, which is not a public school but a private
academy supported by the American Missionary Association. We have
been amazed that in this nineteenth century Christians could be
massacred by the thousands for not accepting the Moslem faith and
no hand raised to defend them. But that was in Turkey. Here in the
United States more than thirty years after the Proclamation of
Emancipation in one of the sovereign States of the Union, half a
dozen men and women are arrested for the crime of treating black
children and white children alike, for not drawing a caste line in
their own private grounds in a school they conduct at no expense
to the State. It is a curious humiliating occurrence for this
Jubilee year of the American Missionary Association."
From the _Advance_:
"Florida's disgraceful Sheats law, specially designed for the
teachers and supporters of Orange Park Academy, has at last been
put in force. The teachers of the Academy, the pastor of the
church, and the parents of the white pupils have been arrested for
violation of this law, which forbids any one to maintain or
patronize a school in which white persons and Negroes shall be
taught or boarded within the same building.
And this is the State of Senator Call, who is declaiming so
eloquently in behalf of the Cuban insurgents, more than half of
whom are of Negro blood."
From the _Boston Standard_:
"A year ago the unconstitutional and vile Sheats law was passed by
the legislature of Florida. It was understood that this law was
particularly aimed at the Orange Park School, of the American
Missionary Association, whose fiftieth anniversary is to be
celebrated in this city next fall. This villainous statute was
enforced in the case of the Orange Park School on the entire body
of teachers, white men and women of spotless character and
self-sacrificing devotion to the mission, because of educating
teachers for the elevation of American citizenship. The normal
school is one of the best and most useful of the educational
agencies at work in the South, but had dared to ignore the
outrageous statute which makes it a crime for any school, public
or private, to teach black and white scholars in the same building
or have any white teachers to eat and sleep in the same house with
their Negro pupils. If these discretionary rights are not
guaranteed by our national Constitution to American citizens, then
the professed abolition of slavery and of the color line in
citizenship is a wretched farce. Nobody can question the intent of
the proclamation of emancipation of the constitutional amendment
that places the Negro on the same legal plane with the white
citizen of this country. We do not doubt the supreme and binding
authority of this legislature. We mistake the temper of the
American people if a blaze of indignation is not kindled by this
outrage from the Atlantic to the Pacific."
From _Frank Leslie's Weekly_:
"Under these provisions no citizen of Florida, it will be noted,
can under certain conditions educate his child. He is excluded
absolutely from the best educational institutions in the State if
these admit pupils of both white and colored parentage. The
defiance of the law was in obedience to a definite determination
on the part of the American Missionary Association to make a
distinct test of the statute."
From the _Boston Daily Advertiser_:
"The Sheats law in Florida was passed through the influence of
malice, prejudice, and partisan venom. Efforts have been made in
other Southern States to perpetrate similar outrages, but for the
most part without avail. The better public sentiment all over the
South is strongly against such meanness. This better sentiment has
asserted itself successfully elsewhere, and we do not doubt that
it will do so very soon in Florida."
From the _Boston Journal_:
"The American Missionary Association will be sustained by an
enlightened public sentiment in fighting to the last resort the
outrageous Florida law which makes it a crime to teach colored and
white pupils in the same school."
These comments are but samples of the sentiment which comes to the
Association respecting this attempt to challenge the constitutional
amendment which came with the emancipation of the colored people from
slavery. But now there is
A SECOND CHAPTER.
After the teachers were arrested it was supposed that this would be the
end of the persecution until the statute should be tested by the courts.
Accordingly they returned to the work in the school as before. On the 4th
of May the Sheriff was instructed by the State Attorney to inquire into
this continued violation of the law, and if he found the school to be
going on as before, to arrest and rearrest, as long as the school should
be continued. In consequence the school was forced to close its sessions,
as the teachers were informed that they would be arrested over and over
again, and that new bail would be required for every successive day; this
not only for the teachers but for the patrons, which would be impossible
in the case of those who are colored. This is in accordance with the
published pronouncement of Supt. Sheats that he will prosecute and
persecute this Orange Park School out of existence.
MEMBERS OF THE ALBANY CONVENTION.
We are desirous of securing the names of the survivors of the little band
that gathered in Albany fifty years ago, and formed the American
Missionary Association. A few years since, we made a similar call to this
in the pages of THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY, but the responses were very few.
At the present date, we know of only two persons, Rev. John H. Byrd,
Lawrence, Kan., and Rev. Peter B. Thayer, Garland, Me., who were present
at that time. We hope, if there are any other survivors, they will write
to us promptly, and if there are persons whose eyes fall on this little
notice who happen to know of any person who was present at that meeting,
we will be much obliged if they will send us the name and address.
OUR CHURCHES.
We intend to present to our readers from time to time brief sketches of
some of our churches located in the South and elsewhere, with some account
of the condition of the membership as to property and education, with
glimpses of their poverty and hard struggles to support the pastor, with
occasionally the cheerful story of those who reach self-support. On
another page will be found a sketch by Pastor Snell of the church in
Talladega, Ala.
THE TALENTED TENTH.
In the discussion concerning Negro education we should not forget the
talented tenth man. An ordinary education may answer for the nine men of
mediocrity; but if this is all we offer the talented tenth man, we make a
prodigious mistake. The tenth man, with superior natural endowments,
symmetrically trained and highly developed, may become a mightier
influence, a greater inspiration to others than all the other nine, or
nine times nine like them. Without disparagement of faithful men of
moderate abilities, it may be said that in all ages the mighty impulses
that have propelled a people onward in their progressive career, have
proceeded from a few gifted souls. Sometimes these have been "self-made"
men, so-called, whose best powers were evoked by rare opportunities.
Oftener, they have been men of thoroughly disciplined minds, of sharpened
perceptive faculties, trained to analyze and to generalize; men of
well-balanced judgments and power of clear and forceful statement.
It is this talented tenth man of our colleges that in after years reflects
more honor on his _alma mater_ than the other nine; it is this tenth man
that is the recognized leader in his profession and the leader of public
opinion. To him, rather than to the other nine, the many look for
suggestion and advice in important matters. He is an uncrowned king in his
sphere.
This being true, I repeat that not to make proper provision for the high
education of the talented tenth man of the colored people is a prodigious
mistake. It is to dwarf the tree that has in it the potency of a grand
oak. Industrial education is good for the nine; the common English
branches are good for the nine; but that tenth man ought to have the best
opportunities for making the most of himself for humanity and God.
The powers of this talented tenth man are often latent; unsuspected by
others and even by their possessor, and are evoked only under favorable
conditions, sometimes comparatively late in the youthful period of life.
In a symmetrical course of study calculated to bring into exercise every
mental faculty, somewhere, as by a touchstone, the particular aptitude of
the pupil may be discovered, the secret springs of power be opened; and
the man, having discovered himself, leaps forward to pre-eminence among
his fellows. Scores of such men and women are among the students in the
schools for the colored people of the South. A mere common education will
not disclose their uncommon powers; they need the test of the best. And
somewhere, at several central points at least, provision should be made
for the higher education of the talented tenth as well as ordinary
education for the other nine.
The great need of the colored people of the South is wise leadership along
all lines of development; men of large and comprehensive views acquired by
contact and communion with the world's great thinkers; such men are needed
to-day even more than nine times as many with a little more practical
knowledge concerning the use of the saw, the jack-plane and the
blacksmith's forge. In our educational work for the colored people,
therefore, proper provision should be made for the talented tenth.--DR.
MOREHOUSE in _The Independent_.
ALASKA MISSION.
The following sentences from a personal letter of Miss Anna L. Dawes state
a profound truth in terse and impressive form:
"If any one is willing to go up there and live with those Eskimos,
I think the rest of us may well enough agree to help. Indeed,
nothing has been so good for me for some time as his (Mr. Lopp's)
visit. It not only makes our Christianity (mine at least) look
like a mustard seed, but makes you wonder whether it isn't a
_dead_ seed at that! I have been to hear Mr. Moody to-day, but he
didn't begin to give me such "conviction of sin" as the urgent and
eager interest Mr. Lopp showed in going back to his people up
there. I wonder just what the Lord does think of us all--some of
us, anyway?"
Mr. Lopp, whom Miss Dawes refers to, is pleading for funds to make it
possible to open the mission among the Eskimos. The American Missionary
Association was obliged to discontinue it for a year on account of the
straitened condition of the treasury. We are now making every effort to
gather funds outside of the current income of the Association, that there
may be at least one Christian mission conducted by Congregationalists in
this great northern mission field. Mr. Lopp's plea for "_his_ people" and
abandon of self-sacrifice both on the part of himself and his wife,
impress every one, as they did Miss Dawes.
This is the only mission of the Congregational denomination in Alaska. No
other denomination plans to occupy this station if given up by the
American Missionary Association. The work requires about five hundred
dollars more than has been subscribed, and this must be in hand by the
first of June, when it is necessary for Mr. Lopp to sail, if he goes this
year.
THE SOUTH.
HISTORY OF A CHURCH IN ALABAMA.
BY REV. SPENCER SNELL.
The beautiful and healthful city of Talladega is located among the
Appalachian foot hills. The First Congregational church was organized in
the year 1868. The first members were people who came out of the colored
Baptist Church, and who had begun to look for a more intelligent mode of
worship and better religious instruction than it was possible to have in
churches whose pastors had been slaves and were uneducated.
The first pastor of the church was Rev. H. E. Brown, of Ridgefield, O.,
whom the American Missionary Association had sent into the South. Since
his retirement the pulpit has been occupied by several pastors, including
the acceptable services of professors of Talladega College. My pastorate
began in 1894.
There are friendly relations between our church and the other colored
churches near at hand. The pastor is often invited to preach in the other
churches. The pastors of two of the Baptist churches are graduates of our
school here, and the pastor of one of the Methodist churches is now taking
lessons in our seminary.
The present membership of the church is 219. Many of them are poor
students who have to be helped through school. The resident members have
but very little money. With one or two exceptions they receive small pay
for what they do. Those who have trades find but little here to do and
have to go away to get employment. Among the male members of the church
are farmers, mechanics, etc., and among the females those who do laundry
work, sewing, etc. Several of these women take the washing of families
home and work very hard for a very little money with which to subsist
their families, buy books, and pay tuition for their children in Talladega
College.
There are about thirty-five members of the church who own their homes, and
about eleven who rent the places where they live. Several of the homes
owned by the members of the church are fairly comfortable for Southern
homes, having from two to seven rooms. None of them are costly. I do not
suppose that one of them cost $1,000. Neither is the furniture in them
costly. Scarcely any of them have carpets on their floors. They look upon
carpets as a luxury which they cannot afford. Plaster on the walls is
almost as rare as carpets on the floors. In some cases there is not a
rocking-chair in the house. The furniture they have is of a very ordinary
kind.