Part 2

That the necessaries and comforts of life are to be bought, by those who need them, more cheaply in a market supplied with Chinese labor, is not deemed worthy of consideration; the great fact which demands attention is that Patrick must forego his numerous holidays, his whiskey, and his devotion to politics; must settle down to, and accomplish, a vast amount of honest and skillful labor, if he shall successfully compete with the Chinese, which is an evil the two political parties must promise to abate as the condition of having his support at the polls.

The fact comes back upon us that the ballot is necessary, under our Government, for the defence of every class of citizens; and the education of the voter is a necessary defence of the Government against the ignorance of the ballot. Neither the wisdom nor the virtue of the statesman can be relied upon, for he everywhere becomes a demagogue, if demagogy continues to be the road to office, as it is everywhere among ignorant voters. Our salvation must be found, not in the virtue of the statesmen, but in the intelligence and virtue of the people.

* * * * *

INDIANS, RESERVATIONS AND RAILROADS.

There are in all one hundred and twenty Indian reservations scattered over the country, chiefly west of the Mississippi River, aggregating more than one square mile of land to each man, woman and child of the 252,897 Indians, exclusive of those in Alaska, which compose our Indian population. This is equivalent to giving three times the area of New York State to one-half the population of Brooklyn; only these people do not hold this land in severalty, and, therefore, are tempted by its abundance to roam over it as hunters, and are discouraged from building on it and cultivating it as owners because of the uncertain tenure by which it is held. That there has been such a decided tendency toward civilized life, under all such discouragements, as is shown by the last Report of the Indian Commissioners, is most encouraging.

The five tribes longest settled in the Indian Territory, now called civilized, number about 60,000 souls. More than half of these can read. All wear citizens’ dress. They have a school-house for every 312, and a church-building for every 458 inhabitants. During the past year, they cultivated more than 22 acres of land for each family of five persons, raised more than 263 bushels of grain and vegetables, and owned five and one-sixth horses or mules for each family. This favorable showing would appear even more encouraging from a full exhibit of all the statistics given in this Report, to which our readers are referred.

The showing for the other tribes is fully as encouraging, when it is remembered that their circumstances have been much less favorable. In fact, it appears evident that the progress of these people has been great just in proportion to their opportunities; that what is lacking is not susceptibility to civilized life, but opportunity for adopting it, which we have denied them. Give the Indian the chance, and he will become a civilized and valuable citizen. About 77,000 among the remaining tribes wear citizens’ clothes and own more than 11,000 houses, 1,212 of which have been built during the past year. Eleven thousand and eighty-one can read, and 1,717 have learned the art within the same time.

It is significant that the five tribes above mentioned expended $156,856 of tribal funds for schools, while the Government added $3,500 for this purpose. Among the other tribes, $13,043 of tribal funds were raised for schools, and the Government appropriated $164,702. That is to say, these five tribes numbering 60,000 raised, in round numbers, twelve times as much for schools as all the other tribes, and only $12,000 less than the Government appropriated to all the others for school purposes; and the Government expended more than forty-seven times as much upon the other tribes as it did upon these five.

This would seem to indicate, even to an average Congressman, that the cheaper policy would be to give the Indian a chance to take care of himself. Aside from the discouragements to a civilized life furnished by the amount of land occupied by the Indian, and by the kind of title he has to it, it should be remembered that much of this land is valuable and presents a strong temptation to the white man’s greed, and that it lies, often, in the direct line of advancing civilization, an almost insurmountable barrier to its progress. We cannot reasonably be expected to double the length of our railroad lines, simply to build them around lands which ought to be opened up by them. The North-western and Milwaukee railroads, in their westerly march, have nearly reached the Sioux reservations. These cannot be entered except by force, or with the full consent of this tribe. The right of eminent domain, under treaty with our Government, belongs to it, not to us; to the individual members of the tribe, and must be surrendered with each one’s consent, or not at all. These roads are not willing to pay what is demanded for the right of way, and are preparing to enter without permission. The probable result will be this: the roads will enter; the Indians will resist; the army will be sent in to punish them for murder; and after a war that will cost many lives and millions of money, the roads will be built, and the remnant of Indians forced into some other reservation. Of course, we cannot allow this people to throw a barrier across the Continent; the road must be built.

The fact is, the whole policy of treating these people otherwise than as citizens who are to be fitted for the privileges, and from whom are to be exacted the duties, of good citizens, is foolish, wicked, costly and suicidal. Is it not time for the good common sense—we say nothing of the humanity—of the American people to declare that this shall be done now; that the rights of these people shall be wisely and righteously adjusted to both our and their highest interests?

* * * * *

BETTER HOMES FOR THE COLORED PEOPLE.

That the subject of village improvement was discussed in some of the essays presented at the closing exercises of the Hampton School last May is due, doubtless, to the fact that some of the teachers came from Stockbridge, Mass., and belong to the Laurel Hill Association, rather than to any spontaneous ideas on the part of the students themselves. The idea of village improvement comes as a development and outgrowth of such a degree of _home_ improvement as is yet unknown, not alone to the negroes, but to the vast majority of the Southern whites. Not until the log hut has been supplanted by something better, and the idea of improvement has put in floors and windows, has built a chimney and yard fence, has planted some trees and flowers about the house, can it be expected that much interest will be taken in public streets and cemeteries; neither can much be hoped for in the elevation and refinement of the people.

Man is so far a chameleon that he takes his color largely from his habitat, and the observant traveler through the South is slow to believe that much has been, or can be, done for the culture of the negro so long as he vegetates, rather than lives, in the miserable shanties, devoid alike of beauty and comfort, about which flocks of children like so many crows, or scarecrows, are roosting. From such homes our pupils come, and back to such they return. It has been despairingly said that the cultivated Indian gradually, but almost inevitably, sinks back to the level of the home-life by which he is surrounded; rarely has he strength to lift others to his isolated level. This is deplorable, but not surprising. It requires a vast amount of moral heroism to stand out against the universal customs of one’s people. It requires more than the strength of one or two men or women to lift up a whole tribe, and except for an evident and wide-spread desire among the Indians to better their condition and change their modes of life, but little could be hoped for from the experiments now being made at Hampton and Carlisle; neither can we doubt that much of the culture received in our schools for the negroes will be lost, or serve only to quicken a sense of degradation, unless special efforts are made to counteract the inevitable tendencies of surroundings when these pupils return to their homes. Educational effort should be largely directed to a practical knowledge of bettering these homes, and to the kindling of a desire to do so.

Historically and, perhaps, philosophically, dress seems to have been developed from ornament. All savages strut in paint, feathers, and skins, intended to set off their charms of person, long before either decency or comfort suggests clothing; and among the colored girls of the South, pains should be taken to develop a womanly pride which will be ashamed of a bare and squalid hut, a pride which, without care, will prove to be mere vanity, delighting in gaudy dress and brilliant pinchbeck. In its present stage of development the South is the Eldorado of the cheap jewelry peddler, and many a youth, who can without shame sleep on straw, live on corn and get along without shoes, is miserable for lack of a brass ring and pin.

Dress for comfort and not as mere ornament, soap, towels, beds, regulated ventilation, the conditions and concomitants of true culture, these belong to a distinct epoch from that earlier and lower one characterized by love of display. The wise, Christian culture of our schools is intended to reduce this evil, to which the negro is specially inclined, to the least possible dimensions. We aim to make earnest, practical men and women, who shall value all they can acquire either of knowledge or of money, not in its relation to personal aggrandizement, but for its power to lift their homes, families and people out of their present degradation.

But the work of the teacher needs to be supplemented by other saving influences. In no other way could the Southern States do so much for the elevation of intelligence and virtue of its poorer classes, white and black, as by inducing them to build for themselves better homes. In more northerly latitudes, climate compels the erection of houses that are at least well made, and excellence in one particular suggests and gradually secures it in others; but where a hut, floorless and windowless, proves sufficient, nothing better is suggested, and life sustained on that level rises to no higher plane except under special, extraneous provocatives. In the present impoverished condition of these States, and comparative indifference of the better to the degraded condition of the lower classes, nothing can be expected from them, and the suggestion is made to philanthropists who are seeking the welfare of the colored people, whether something might not be done by offering premiums for the erection of homes, and by furnishing, in some way, plans and suggestions which would be helpful to them.

In some States, the negroes have, with good results, instituted agricultural fairs, and have thus stimulated each other to helpful rivalries. Cannot something be done by the offer, through these organizations, of suitable premiums for cheap, but suitable, homes?

Christianity ought, in this 1880th year of our Lord, to be more than a “voice crying in the wilderness;” more than John clad in skins and living on locusts and wild honey. She ought to go forth clad in her beautiful garments. During these two centuries she has ripened much fruit which the world knows is good; she has developed much power of which the world feels its need, and it should not go to the nations and tribes of the earth empty handed, only to utter, as at first, the glad tidings which she was commissioned to proclaim. She should march forth in the greatness of her strength and magnificence of her beauty, panoplied in power and garlanded with her victories, commending herself to man by what she has gained for him. Other avenues have been opened for approach—other than through his hopes and fears for the future life; substantial gains have been achieved for that which now is, and these should be made the allies of Christ and the instruments of the Church. It has taken centuries to build a Christian home, the mightiest ally of the Church; let the Church take it with her along with the school, and not suffer the filth, and discomfort, and degrading influences of the old hut to hang as a millstone about the neck of those she would save. Of man’s home here, no less than of the heavenly, “the Lamb should be the light;” his surroundings, person, intellect, every part of him and every interest pertaining to him, should be acted upon by the accumulated influences, and appealed to by the developed advantages and benefits of Christianity. If by some means the log cabins of the negroes can be supplanted by neat and healthful cottages—surrounded by gardens and shaded yards—more than threefold efficiency will be added to the efforts we are making through the schools and churches.

Send back our pupils from the refining influences of our boarding-schools into the dirt and squalor and ugliness of these cabins, and a large per cent. of our work will be lost.

Attention to the subject, immediate and earnest, is demanded by all the interests we seek, and it is hoped that some one competent to deal with it will give it thought, and suggest some practical way of securing so desirable an end.

* * * * *

THE GROWTH OF IDEAS AMONG THE NEGROES AND INDIANS.

REV. ADDISON P. FOSTER, JERSEY CITY, N. J.

It is a truism to say that the welfare of our country depends on the ideas which are prevalent. No inquiry, then, can be more helpful in determining our condition as a nation than that which relates to the progress of ideas among these classes which give us most anxiety. The Freedmen and the Indians are not the worst classes among us, but they have been the most ignorant, and every patriot is desirous of knowing their present mental condition. A recent visit to the Normal Institute at Hampton, Va., on the occasion of its graduating exercises, gave your correspondent, as he listened to the addresses of the students and conversed with different colored people, an opportunity to collect facts which, though not decisive, are at least suggestive on this point. Undoubtedly, these ideas came largely through the influence of Hampton Institute, but it must be remembered that similar institutions of the American Missionary Association and other boards are scattered throughout the South, and that, through their educated students, these ideas are diffused far and wide among the colored people.

As to _work_, the colored man long since learned the Divine law, that if he would not work, neither should he eat. One could not sit for an hour on the wharf at Norfolk, as we did lately, and watch the colored men about the sloops and lighters and on the docks, without being impressed by the fact that they had learned to work.

The same lesson is just now being diligently conned by the Indians. Carl Schurz, in his speech at Hampton, declared that the Indians were discovering that they must work or starve, that hunting would no longer support them, and that the land must be cultivated for food. A similar truth was uttered by “Bear’s Heart,” an Indian youth, who made an interesting address in broken English on the same occasion. Said he: “Before I come here, I play; my mother and sisters work. When I go back, my mother and sisters do housework: I dig the ground”—a purpose which was loudly applauded. An amusing story is told of a certain great General who is supposed to sympathize with the barbarous sentiment, “The only good Indian is a dead Indian.” Driving out from Fortress Monroe to examine the progress of the Indians at Hampton, he was inveighing against them, and declaring vehemently that they could not be taught to work, when he cast his eyes on a field belonging to the Institution, and there were ten Indian boys vigorously hoeing corn.

As to _property_, the desire is coming to be very strong among both Indian and colored for the possession of land. It is well known that many Indians on Western reservations are seeking an ownership of land in severalty. A similar desire has long stimulated the colored man. We had the honor of talking with a man of unmixed negro blood, who owns in fee simple, about twenty miles from Norfolk, a good farm of 171 acres. He and a friend purchased together an estate of 342 acres of woodland, paying $1,300 for it. He took one-half, paid in cash $200, which he had saved up during the war, and the remainder in three years. He has since fairly stocked his farm, built him a little house, comfortably fed his family off his farm, and secured about a hundred dollars a year in cash. When we met him, he was on the way to Hampton to see his son graduate with valedictory honors. Geo. Sykes, of Lake Drummond, Va., is a man whose name deserves to go on record. Mr. Sykes affirms that eight years ago he was the first colored man in his township who owned land. Now twenty-five own from five to thirty acres each, and have their deeds without encumbrance, while twenty-five others have bought land and are paying for it.

As to _self-help_, we heard the most encouraging words from speakers on graduation day. “We must stand on our own feet,” said one speaker, “and must not trust alone to missionary societies or State or individual aid.” “No talk,” he added, “will make me equal to other men, but I must equal them, if at all, by my own exertions.” A striking instance of self-help is more conclusive testimony. We conversed with a certain young Hampton graduate who gave us a remarkable history. He was an orphan. After saving up $125 by farm work, he went to Hampton for study, receiving no aid, and working summers. At the end of two years, he found he had not more than forty dollars left, so he went to teaching. But he was paid only in orders on the State Treasury, which he could not get cashed except at a discount of generally twenty per cent. With business wisdom, he secured a living by farm-work in summer, saved up his orders on the Treasury, till at the end of three years the State cashed them in full, and then he went back and graduated. Not even Dr. Goodell, of missionary fame, carrying his trunk on his back to Andover for the sake of an education, showed more heroism than this colored boy.

The colored people’s desire for _education_ has long been known, and the incident just related well illustrates it. The same spirit appears in the support of the “Butler School,” situated on the grounds of the Institute, and taught by its graduates. The State of Virginia furnishes funds to keep this school open only five months; but the parents of the children, finding employment in a canning establishment on the Institution’s property, gladly pay ten cents a week for each child from their slender wages, and so keep the school open the rest of the year.

As to _responsibilities_, the colored students recognize their duties as leaders of their people. Some of them who would gladly be teachers have found that orders on the State Treasury, subject to ten or twenty per cent. discount for cash, are not very remunerative, and are looking in other directions for employment. Undoubtedly, as skillful farmers and successful merchants, no less than as teachers, they can elevate their people. But at Hampton, a stalwart black man, in a post-graduate address, gave the students a ringing exhortation not to desert, because of its hardships, the vocation of a teacher, “which,” said he, turning to President Hayes, who sat before him, “is a nobler position than even that of President of the United States.” The responsibilities of the negro for village improvements in the South and for the evangelization of Africa were points dwelt upon by other speakers.

We listened with peculiar interest to references made in the graduating addresses to the relation of the colored man _to other races_. It was pleasing to see the kind and forgiving spirit manifested. No bitterness was shown either publicly or privately because colored teachers had failed to secure their pay. An interesting essay on “The Advantage of Disadvantages” referred to their ill-treatment in the past, with no word of reproach. One speaker advanced the sentiment that the colored man need not feel specially troubled at his past deprivation of political privileges; that it was better for him not to have much influence in government until he had become fitted to exercise that influence wisely. Other like utterances were made, full of patience, modesty, loyalty, hopefulness and a worthy ambition.

As to _religion_, everything is most encouraging. We attended a revival meeting in a neighboring church, which was conducted with great decorum and genuine feeling, entirely different from the wild hurly-burly of war times. The students of the Institute are carefully trained in religious truths, and it is seldom that a graduate goes out who is not a sincere Christian. The spirit of the anniversary exercises was that of a deep, but unostentatious piety. The same influence is exerted among the Indians. We were told a touching story of “Walking Cloud,” an Indian boy whom nothing could move from his stolidity and his unwillingness to put away the badges of his barbarism—his blanket and long hair—till the chaplain of the Institution showed him a picture of Christ on the cross and explained its meaning. This boy, soon afterward taken sick and dying, gave expression in the peculiar metaphoric speech of his race to his desire to live a Christian life.

We are abundantly satisfied that these noble institutions through the South, of which Hampton is one of the best-known and most efficient, are surely and not so very slowly re-shaping the races which are under their influence. We think there was abundant reason for Governor Long, of Massachusetts, in his address at Hampton, to use these words: “Horace Greeley was wont to say that the way to resume is to resume, and so we would say, the way to solve the race problem in this country is to solve it;” and this is what the Hampton Institute is doing.

* * * * *

AFRICAN NOTES.

—The River Binue, one of the great confluents of the Niger, which Bishop Crowther and Dr. Blaikie ascended, in 1854, to a point 400 miles above its union with the other great branch, has recently been explored 150 miles beyond the furthest point before reached by any white man. This was done by the C. M. S. Steamer _Henry Venn_, under the command of Mr. Ashcroft. This voyage was recently described before the Royal Geographical Society of London, which awarded Bishop Crowther a gold watch, valued at £40, for geographical explorations on the Niger. Mr. Ashcroft considers the Binue a most interesting mission field. In no part of Africa has he seen so many flourishing towns—“a good-sized town every mile along the bank of the river for a long distance, thickly populated.” He says: “I spoke to the kings at many of the heathen towns, and they were all willing to learn the white man’s book, and that their children also should learn.”

* * * * *

—The Royal Geographical Society, on the 26th of April last, was visited by Rev. C. T. Wilson and Mr. Felkin, who had just arrived from Central Africa, and with them were three ambassadors from King Mtesa’s court in Uganda. These were introduced as “Earl Namkaddi,” “Earl Kataruba,” and “Earl Sawaddu,” nobles of the second rank at home. These men are described as of slight build, very black in color, and with features more bright and intelligent than in the common negro type.