Part 1

VOL. XXXII. No. 10.

THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

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“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”

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OCTOBER, 1878.

_CONTENTS_:

EDITORIAL.

FINANCIAL 289 OUR ANNUAL MEETING.—THE ROMAN CATHOLICS AMONG THE FREEDMEN 290 THE YELLOW FEVER 291 A FOUL CHANCE AND A FAIR CHANCE.—INDIAN AGENTS 292 “INDIAN WARS” 293 AN INDIAN HYMN-BOOK 294 INDIAN STUDENTS.—THE WET SEASON ON THE WEST COAST 295 PARAGRAPHS 296 ITEMS FROM CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS.—GENERAL NOTES 297 OUR QUERY COLUMN 300

THE PRESS.

UNCLE REMUS’ REVIVAL HYMN.—A BIT OF HISTORY 301

THE FREEDMEN.

GEORGIA—Brunswick—Risley School Exhibition 303 ALABAMA—Wanted, a Barn: Rev. E. P. Lord 303 TEXAS—The Southwest Texas Congregational Association: Rev. B. C. Church 304 KENTUCKY—A Vacant Church—The National Problem: Rev. John G. Fee 305

AFRICA.

THE MENDI MISSION: Rev. Floyd Snelson and Mr. E. White 306, 307

THE INDIANS.

S’KOKOMISH RESERVATION: Rev. G. H. Atkinson, D. D. 307 GREEN BAY AGENCY: Jos. C. Bridgman, Esq. 310

THE CHINESE.

MORE ABOUT A MISSION AT HONG KONG: Rev. W. C. Pond 311

THE CHILDREN’S PAGE 313

RECEIPTS 315

WORK, STATISTICS, WANTS, &c. 318

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NEW YORK:

Published by the American Missionary Association,

Rooms, 56 Reade Street.

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Price, 50 Cents a Year, in advance.

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A. Anderson, Printer, 23 to 27 Vandewater St.

_American Missionary Association_,

56 READE STREET, N. Y.

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PRESIDENT.

HON. E. S. TOBEY, Boston.

VICE PRESIDENTS.

Hon. F. D. PARISH, Ohio. Rev. JONATHAN BLANCHARD, Ill. Hon. E. D. HOLTON, Wis. Hon. WILLIAM CLAFLIN, Mass. Rev. STEPHEN THURSTON, D. D., Me. Rev. SAMUEL HARRIS, D. D., Ct. Rev. SILAS MCKEEN, D. D., Vt. WM. C. CHAPIN, Esq., R. I. Rev. W. T. EUSTIS, Mass. Hon. A. C. BARSTOW, R. I. Rev. THATCHER THAYER, D. D., R. I. Rev. RAY PALMER, D. D., N. Y. Rev. J. M. STURTEVANT, D. D., Ill. Rev. W. W. PATTON, D. D., D. C. Hon. SEYMOUR STRAIGHT, La. Rev. D. M. GRAHAM, D. D., Mich. HORACE HALLOCK, Esq., Mich. Rev. CYRUS W. WALLACE, D. D., N. H. Rev. EDWARD HAWES, Ct. DOUGLAS PUTNAM, Esq., Ohio. Hon. THADDEUS FAIRBANKS, Vt. SAMUEL D. PORTER, Esq., N. Y. Rev. M. M. G. DANA, D. D., Ct. Rev. H. W. BEECHER, N. Y. Gen. O. O. HOWARD, Oregon. Rev. EDWARD L. CLARK, N. Y. Rev. G. F. MAGOUN, D. D., Iowa. Col. C. G. HAMMOND, Ill. EDWARD SPAULDING, M. D., N. H. DAVID RIPLEY, Esq., N. J. Rev. WM. M. BARBOUR, D. D., Ct. Rev. W. L. GAGE, Ct. A. S. HATCH, Esq., N. Y. Rev. J. H. FAIRCHILD, D. D., Ohio. Rev. H. A. STIMSON, Minn. Rev. J. W. STRONG, D. D., Minn. Rev. GEORGE THACHER, LL. D., Iowa. Rev. A. L. STONE, D. D., California. Rev. G. H. ATKINSON, D. D., Oregon. Rev. J. E. RANKIN, D. D., D. C. Rev. A. L. CHAPIN, D. D., Wis. S. D. SMITH, Esq., Mass. Rev. H. M. PARSONS, N. Y. PETER SMITH, Esq., Mass. Dea. JOHN WHITING, Mass. Rev. WM. PATTON, D. D., Ct. Hon. J. B. GRINNELL, Iowa. Rev. WM. T. CARR, Ct. Rev. HORACE WINSLOW, Ct. Sir PETER COATS, Scotland. Rev. HENRY ALLON, D. D., London, Eng. WM. E. WHITING, Esq., N. Y. J. M. PINKERTON, Esq., Mass.

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

REV. M. E. STRIEBY, _56 Reade Street, N. Y._

DISTRICT SECRETARIES.

REV. C. L. WOODWORTH, _Boston_. REV. G. D. PIKE, _New York_. REV. JAS. POWELL, _Chicago, Ill._

EDGAR KETCHUM, ESQ., _Treasurer, N. Y._ H. W. HUBBARD, ESQ., _Assistant Treasurer, N. Y._ REV. M. E. STRIEBY, _Recording Secretary_.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

ALONZO S. BALL, A. S. BARNES, EDWARD BEECHER, GEO. M. BOYNTON, WM. B. BROWN, CLINTON B. FISK, A. P. FOSTER, E. A. GRAVES, S. B. HALLIDAY, SAM’L HOLMES, S. S. JOCELYN, ANDREW LESTER, CHAS. L. MEAD, JOHN H. WASHBURN, G. B. WILLCOX.

COMMUNICATIONS

relating to the business of the Association may be addressed to either of the Secretaries as above.

DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the branch offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., 112 West Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. Drafts or checks sent to Mr. Hubbard should be made payable to his order as _Assistant Treasurer_.

A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.

Correspondents are specially requested to place at the head of each letter the name of their Post Office, and the County and State in which it is located.

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THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

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VOL. XXXII. OCTOBER, 1878. NO. 10.

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_American Missionary Association._

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FINANCIAL.

When this number of the MISSIONARY reaches our readers, our fiscal year (closing Sept. 30) will be nearly ended. By careful economy for two years past, we kept our current expenses within our receipts, and we hope that the receipts of this month will make this the _third_ year in which our expenditures will not add a dollar to our debt.

Our _debt_ is now our great solicitude. Last year it was reduced, by the sale of stocks, etc., from $93,232.99 to $62,816.90. This year we have received to September 1, in cash, $14,108.22, and in pledges (partly conditioned) $7,550, making $21,658.22, thus reducing the amount—if the pledges are paid—to $41,158.68. Shall not an effort, so nobly begun, be pushed forward to completion?

We feel called upon, as never before, to urge the wiping out of this debt. We have retrenched in office expenses, and have been very guarded in annual appropriations, that it might be paid. Generous doners have given liberally—some of their abundance—more of their poverty—and the amount is reduced within grasp. We have rejoiced that the liberality of the churches and individuals have, in one month, by special efforts, well-nigh relieved a sister society—the honored American Board—of a balance on its annual appropriation of $80,000. A little more than half that amount, if given to the A. M. A., will pay off the remainder of a debt that has hung upon it as an incubus for ten years. The payment of that debt will honor the cause of the Master; it will unfetter our hands; it will cheer us and our friends for future work; it will be a boon to the ignorant and needy masses for whom we labor. We appeal to the wealthy, the liberal, the self-denying, to all who love God and His poor, to make a final effort, by special gifts, to reach an object so near at hand and so important.

Our books will be closed promptly Sept. 30, for current receipts and expenditures, but for _receipts for debt_ they will be kept open till after the Annual Meeting; and we trust that meeting will have the joy and glory of announcing the complete extinction of the debt.

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OUR ANNUAL MEETING.

The Thirty-second Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association will be held in the Broadway Congregational Church, Taunton, Mass., October 29–31. The meeting will be organized on Tuesday, at three o’clock P. M., and at half-past seven o’clock in the evening the annual sermon will be preached by Rev. S. E. Herrick, D. D., of Boston. On Wednesday, papers will be read by Rev. George Leon Walker, D. D., and others. Wednesday evening will be occupied with addresses and reminiscences by present and former missionaries of the A. M. A. Thursday will be devoted to reports of committees and discussions of the work.

The meeting will close Thursday evening, with addresses from able and distinguished speakers, to be named hereafter.

The people of Taunton will undertake to entertain all the friends who may attend the meetings. Those desiring hospitality can address Charles H. Atwood, Esq., until Sept. 20th. Return cards, assigning places, will be duly sent.

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THE ROMAN CATHOLICS AMONG THE FREEDMEN.

The _Independent_ closes a careful and, in the main, accurate summary of the work of Christian education among the negroes, with a view of what the Roman Catholics are doing. After speaking of the large estimates of money expended, and pupils taught by that church, it says:

“Nothing approaching a confirmation of these estimates has been brought to our notice. We have carefully examined the Roman Catholic papers with reference to this subject for a year past, and have been able to glean from them only the most barren record of facts and isolated movements.... We believe that, if the Roman Catholics really had facts to prove that they have made the progress they claim to have made, they would not hesitate to publish them conspicuously. As they fail to produce them, we are contented to believe, for the present, that they are doing no more than their fair share of the work, if so much, and receiving no more than their share of the conversions.”

In a later issue, the same paper says:

“We are glad to have been able to capture and expose the spectre which has been frightening Protestants so much. We mean the wholesale conversion of negroes to Catholicism. In a recent article in our ‘Religious Intelligence’ we gave all the information we could gather about the extent and results of Catholic missions among the freedmen, and there was nothing in it to alarm or annoy anybody. The _Catholic Review_ quotes liberally from the article, and virtually concedes the accuracy of our statements in the following sentences:

“‘Like our contemporary, we have noticed the “extravagant estimates” to which it refers; but we never happened to notice their having been made by any Catholic authority whatever. They usually make their appearance in papers of the _Christian Advocate_ stamp, and are employed as a stimulus to rouse missionary zeal in people who are much more readily moved to give money by their hatred of Popery than by their love for what they believe to be the truth taught by our Divine Lord. The _Independent_ wants facts to substantiate these boastings. We suggest that it can always be accommodated with facts enough to substantiate the truth of whatever assertions are actually made by our missionaries. They can hardly be held responsible for any wild stories which other people may circulate at their expense.’

“Those who have been most troubled by reports of the gains of Catholicism among the negroes may give to the winds their fears.”

We, too, have been for more than a year making special inquiries. We have read the large estimates, which have been through the newspapers, of money expended, and pupils taught. The statement that $600,000 in gold (nearly one million dollars in our currency) was given to this work by the Propaganda at Rome, in 1867, and that, in the same year, sixty-six priests landed in New Orleans to undertake missionary work among the blacks, we trace to the _Christian Intelligencer_ of that year.

The fact is, that it is extremely difficult to get at accurate and authorized statements in regard to all Roman Catholic missions. Their funds are not raised by appeals, based on special needs or special encouragements, or addressed to the general public; and their policy is one of quiet foundation-laying, rather than of demonstrative up-building. It is not an easy task, even, to secure reliable information of what they are doing here at our doors, or behind their own.

Recognizing this difficulty, we are not ready to agree with the _Independent_ that, if the Roman Catholics had facts to prove, they would not hesitate to publish them conspicuously. Nor are we ready yet to congratulate ourselves that we “have been able to capture and expose the spectre,” while we are obliged to confess that we have not had it in our grasp sufficiently to take the measure of its outlines, or tell its height and girth.

A careful reading of the ‘virtual concession’ of the _Catholic Review_ makes it amount to virtually nothing, except an ingenious evasion of responsibility for any statements which may have been made. It does not even say that the estimates have been extravagant, but uses that expression as a quotation from the _Independent_. It only suggests that assertions actually made by missionaries (who are careful not to make assertions) can always be substantiated.

We would merely caution the friend of the negro, and those who fear the influence of Romanism over him, that an argument based on ignorance is not very securely founded. And, while we would not have _omne ignotum pro magnifico_, or believe because the spectre is vague, it must be very large; on the other hand, we would not say of one whose wont is to hide itself, “Because we cannot dissect it, it is nothing.”

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THE YELLOW FEVER.

The yellow fever, in its ravages in the South, pays no regard to race, color or previous condition. Whites and blacks alike have suffered from its sudden and malignant attacks. Death levels all distinctions. The statement which has been often made, that the negroes are proof against this pestilence, seems to have been ill-based, as intelligent observers of its ravages in former years utterly contradict it. At any rate, it is not true of this year’s scourge.

Quite opposite assertions have been made in regard to the conduct of the blacks during the panic which this deathly visitor has occasioned. So contradictory, in fact, that we suspect the truth to be that they have acted very much like white people of the same intelligence. Some have stood at their posts, and done noble work as nurses, as ministers, and in humbler stations. And some, doubtless, like those of other races, have been carried by their fears away from the most sacred of duties.

How has it affected our work? Of course, our schools in the South are closed during the hot months, and most of the teachers and white pastors are in the North. Straight University, at New Orleans, La., is closed, and Rev. Mr. Alexander, the pastor of the church, is at his New England home. At Grenada, Miss., which has been almost depopulated by the fever, we had a school. The two teachers, however, we believe went to the country before the pestilence reached that beautiful town. The only one of our workers whom we know to have been stricken down is Rev. W. W. Mallory, the colored pastor of the church at Memphis, Tenn., who was still sick at our last advices. We have reason to hope for his recovery and restoration to full health.

We have transmitted some sums of money which have been put into our hands for special relief to the suffering colored people of these infected districts, to which we have added what we felt justified in doing from the funds of the Association.

But the peril is not over yet. Many days must intervene before the thrice welcome frosts may be expected to kill the germs of this fell disease, and famine always comes in the train of continued pestilence. It is the Lord’s work to avert suffering and relieve physical want. May the fountains of charity, which have been opened so freely through the land, continue to flow increasingly until there shall be no more thirst.

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A FOUL CHANCE AND A FAIR CHANCE.

A correspondent writes us upon the subject of how the freedman is getting on, as follows:

“On my way up the Mississippi, between the States of Arkansas and Mississippi, I fell into conversation with a planter living on the right bank of the river, and, after the manner of all Yankees, asked him how the negroes were getting on. He was a short, chunky, red-faced man, and his account was gloomy in the extreme. He said that he would not undertake to tell me all the trouble he had with his ‘help,’ for, if he did, I would not believe him at all. He said that he could not advance them anything at the beginning of the season, for fear of their running away and leaving him without hands in time of harvest; that they were so lazy that all they cared for was to get bread and meat for the least possible amount of work; that, although all his hands were deacons or preachers or ‘exalters,’ they stole so that he could not raise any pigs or chickens; that the members of the church were more licentious than the ‘world’s people’; that they got angry and burned his gin-house every year, etc., etc. He was the first man that I had met, during a residence of nine years at the South, who would admit that he was sorry the slaves had been made free.

“On my way down the river, at about the same point, I had a conversation upon the same subject with a man residing on the other bank. He was a tall gentleman of fine form, with an intellectual, genial, open face. In reply to my inquiries, he said the freedmen were doing first-rate; were industrious, honest, temperate and moral; were acquiring property in stock, tools and land; and he found free labor more easily managed and more profitable than slave labor. I referred to the conversation I had with his Mississippi neighbor on my way up, and asked him why their reports were so different. With a good deal of animation and emphasis, he replied: ‘I can tell you why it is: I just give my niggers a chance, and he doesn’t. He has always brought them out in debt to him at the end of every year, and has crushed out all their enterprise and ambition, so that, as he says, the problem with them is how to get a bare living with the least possible amount of work. All the nigger wants is a fair chance.’”

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INDIAN AGENTS.

Under the Peace Policy, the Government has entrusted to the American Missionary Association the nomination of six Indian agents. Vacancies in these occur from time to time, and applications for nominations are desired. One vacancy now exists.

These Indian agencies afford an admirable opportunity for usefulness to the right persons; but they are not sinecures for incompetent men—whether laymen or ministers. It is desirable that the applicant have some knowledge of farming and the simpler mechanic arts, but it is essential that he present the best of credentials as to _piety, integrity, business capacity and experience, and ability to influence masses of men_.

The salary ranges from $1,000 to $2,000 per annum, according to the responsibilities and duties of the agencies. Bonds for the faithful performance of duty will be required by the government, varying from $15,000 to $20,000.

Applications or inquiries may be addressed to Rev. M. E. Strieby, 56 Reade Street, New York.

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“INDIAN WARS.”

And so the latest Indian War is over! It is absurd to call such chases and skirmishes by so dignified a name. Small bands of ten, twenty, sometimes a hundred or two outlaws in revolt, are hunted to death or surrender in the wildernesses of the Far West. We call them nations, and this undignified pursuit a war. It is, in reality, only the same thing which is continually being done in our great cities by the police. Law-breakers, and men who avenge their own wrongs, must be chased to their dens, and either caught and chained, or shot like dogs. Only that, on the frontier, the facilities for the violence, and then for the escape, are so much greater than in the city; and that we have to send generals and colonels in the army after them, instead of sergeants of police.

We pity the “braves” of the Territories more than we do the “roughs” of the bloody sixth ward, because they are more ignorant and more wronged, and because the hindrances to a better life are even greater for them. And we pity the gallant men of the army, who are compelled to do this police work, in dogging criminals to death.

Among the recent dispatches is one, telling of an encounter between six cow-boys and eight Indians on the Nueces River, in which four Indians were killed and one captured; one of the boys had a flesh-wound, and the others only wounds in their clothing. Generalship does not go for much in such guerrilla warfare. West Point tactics are not of much avail. Often, in the brooks of New England, the farmer’s boy, who goes fishing with a stick and a string, when it rains too hard to work out of doors, will bring home ten times as many trout as the city sportsman with eight-ounce rod, a Conroy reel and a choice assortment of flies. Perhaps a small army of cow-boys would serve us best on the frontier. It is not fit work for real soldiers. We do not mean a word of disrespect to them. They have our sympathy and admiration for their fidelity and obedience, and for not resigning when they are set to such work.

But how much better it would be if, by fair treatment and honestly-fulfilled pledges, we had made these Indians both friendly and law-abiding—or, even, if now, with patience and forbearance, we should be persistently kind and true, and see how long it would be before we and they should find each in the other, “a man and a brother.”

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The difference between _equal_ and _identical_ rights is well illustrated by the action of the Georgia Central Railroad officials. Travel between Macon and Savannah is so light that only one passenger coach is run. By a partition this is divided into two parts, furnished exactly alike, one for white and the other for colored passengers. The colored end being nearly empty one day, a white man took a seat, or rather _four_ seats, in it, upon which the conductor told him that he was in the wrong end of the car, and that the vice-president was very particular that no white persons be allowed to ride in the apartment for colored people.

A similar arrangement formerly prevailed on the street-cars in Mobile, and some of the old partitioned cars are still in use. It is to be hoped that, in the course of human events, identical rights on steam-cars will not be considered any worse than on horse cars by the constituents of Georgia’s good Governor Colquitt.

AN INDIAN HYMN-BOOK.

We have just received a copy of the _Hymns in the Chinook Jargon Language_, compiled by Rev. Mr. Eells, missionary of the American Missionary Association. It is not a ponderous volume like those in use in our American churches, with twelve or fifteen hundred hymns, but a modest pamphlet of thirty pages, containing both the Indian originals and the English translations. The tunes include, among others, “Happy Land,” “Greenville,” “Bounding Billow,” “John Brown,” and the “Hebrew Children.” The hymns are very simple, and often repeat all but the first line. The translations show the poverty of the language to convey religious ideas.

One hymn reads—

“Always Jesus is very strong, So his Paper (the Bible) says.”

Another we give in full, and in both original and translation, as part of the words of the Jargon will be seen to be English:

HEAVEN.

1. Kopa Saghalie konoway tillikums Halo olo, halo sick, Wake kliminwhit, halo solleks, Halo pahtlum, halo cly.