Part 2

One of our missionaries, some time since, was applied to by a colored woman for admission to the church. At her examination before the committee, she had a wonderful dream to tell as proof of her conversion. The committee, not deeming it sufficient evidence, refused her application. She went immediately to one of the old ministers, and the day of her immersion was duly celebrated by a great gathering, of which she was the heroine. As she clambered up the bank of the river, shouting aloud, she suddenly encountered one of the deacons whose church had refused her admission. Giving a sudden pause to her religious fervor, she thrust her clenched hand into his face, exclaiming: “There, I am baptized,” and followed up with imprecations upon himself, pastor, and church, which were, to say the least, not saintly, and then resumed her shout of glory!

To one who has seen the negro often under religious excitement, it is evident that he seeks it as many men do intoxication, for the mere pleasurable excitement; he neither feels nor hears, nor does he know of reasons for being a better man morally because of his religion; if it only makes him happier, it meets his need, and the only demand he has to make of it.

This is a just idea of what conversion was under the old-style minister among the negroes. Of course, there were many among them who preached a purer Gospel, and sought renewed spiritual lives among their people, especially before emancipation, but with freedom came the hope of political or other power, which could be gained most easily by the preacher, and many sought and secured such positions who were utterly unscrupulous as well as ignorant. It is such a ministry as this which, more than anything else, opposes to-day our work among the Freedmen.

Dr. Sears stated last spring, in his address at the School Superintendents’ Convention, that he knew of the presence of one trained normal teacher in a village to necessitate the dismissal of seven old-fashioned teachers. Contrast and comparison revealed sad deficiencies before unknown, and the committee was forced to get rid of the poor teachers. And so it is chiefly by what we compel others to do, that we are to estimate the value of our intelligent and largely undenominational work in the South. The Freedmen are beginning to see that religion is something different from dreaming dreams or seeing visions, or shouting, or anything of the kind; that it means honest, pure, industrious lives, inspired and controlled by the spirit of Jesus Christ. Education is securing something better than such conversions, in fact is making them impossible with the new generation.

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INCONSIDERATE GIVING.

We deem it inaccurate to say “inconsiderate charity,” for such giving is not charitable giving. “To him that _knoweth_ to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” The obligation is as imperative that we shall give intelligently as that we shall give at all. The intolerable tramp nuisance with which we have been so grievously afflicted, was nourished and built up by the illy considered sentiment which found expression in the declaration of a well-known minister, who said he would refuse to give anything to the cause of missions before he would refuse a gift to the poor fellow who asked at his door for help, and in the custom of a good woman of wealth, who bought a set of crockery for tramps, and always kept a large coffee-pot full of that delightful beverage on the stove ready for the use of her frequent guests, a dozen of whom she has been known to feed in one day. There can be no doubt that a ready and full _supply_ of this kind will develop an almost infinite _demand_.

A lady, prominent and well-known in New York city, whose habit was never to give to any one asking at the door, but to take the address of the applicant and investigate the case, said that in seventeen years’ experience she had never found a single deserving one among the many who had so applied; in every case a fictitious address had been given.

We can do no safe and really charitable work until such work is intelligently organized, so that deserving cases are supplied with just the kind of aid needed, and fictitious and unworthy ones are exposed and punished. We must know, either by ourselves or accredited and trusted agents, what we are doing if we are to benefit rather than curse our fellows by our so-called charities.

The friends of the negro are in danger constantly of being imposed upon by impostors, who rob the cause they desire to promote of much-needed funds. It is very easy for one who comes soliciting aid for a prospective college or church to secure testimonials that said institution is greatly needed, and that the solicitor is seeking money for a most important purpose.

It is not necessary to show, which is by no means the case, that all who come from the South asking aid for such causes are frauds, in order to give weight to our words of caution. Many of these are attempting honestly a most important work, and ought to have sympathy and material aid, but the individual to whom application is made has neither time nor facilities for making the proper investigations to establish this fact. True, the applicant has testimonials, but they need investigation no less than the applicant himself.

We know of several cases where funds have been contributed, and have been expended in the erection and maintenance of schools, which are doing honest and most valuable work, concerning which nothing but praise should be spoken, and yet nothing but the life of one man stands between this present use of these funds and an utter perversion of them. The school property is the personal property of the individual who procured the funds, and at his death will of necessity pass into the hands of others, who can do what they choose with it.

We know of one case where a wealthy man from New York, spending the winter in the South, became interested in a negro public school near his hotel. He converted the rude building into a New England school-house, supplied with first-class apparatus, and took great satisfaction in what he had done for the poor negroes. Next year the negro school was transferred to another building, and the whites made this one, with its books, globes, and philosophical apparatus, the foundation of a higher school for their own race. We believe it best for the friends of negro education to work, through some one of the various organizations which are doing this work, who are in position to do it more wisely and efficiently than they could do it; and would call attention to the following suggestions from a correspondent of the New York _Tribune_, as being wise and of urgent importance:

“There are associations connected with nearly every religious denomination in the country, to meet the great and terrible need of education among the millions of the emancipated and their children. These associations are under the administration of the best and most sagacious business men in our communities, and it is safe to say that the moneys committed to the custody of these associations are judiciously, desirably and economically appropriated. Of one of these associations I have personal and familiar knowledge. It has extensive colleges or universities in Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, besides numerous schools scattered throughout the Southern States. Nearly $300,000 was expended by this association the past year, almost exclusively in the interest of these people, one excellent woman putting $150,000 in the treasury, to be expended in making much needed additions to colleges so utterly thronged by applicants that they were compelled to turn numbers from their doors.”

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THE INDIAN PROBLEM.

GEN. S. C. ARMSTRONG.

The Indian problem is upon us as never before.

The wrongs of the Poncas, both in themselves and as illustrating our country’s mode of dealing with the red race for generations, have touched and stirred the people.

The sum of six generations of slavery has been to the negro, oppression, offset by steady progress through it all, and only injury to the white man. The sum of six generations of Indian treatment has been a succession of wrongs, offset by little real advantage, and the steady gain of the white man.

The negro acquired our language and ways, and by becoming the industrial reliance of the South, became, even more than his master, capable of taking care of himself. We have destroyed the reliance of the Indian, his game, and have put nothing in its place. With all the justice and humanity intended in our annual outlay for the red race, there is a pauperizing, weakening tendency that is full of danger. Practically, has the politician been any better guardian than the slave-holder?

The country is waking up to a sense of justice. The shameful record of violated treaties and untold wrongs for the past hundred years is being brought out. From the outraged negro, for whom the country can now do nothing but help educate him, and who, indeed, needs nothing but intelligence to fit him to hold his own, our people are turning to the Indian and demanding that Government open before him the only way to manhood and citizenship—_rights_ and _education_. It must be done.

In the “Century of Dishonor,” just published by the well-known author, “H. H.,” she states that “To write in full the history of one of these Indian communities, of its forced migrations, wars, and miseries, would fill a volume by itself.”

As this shall be better realized, a stronger public sentiment will be formed and felt. Other forces are at work. The three hundred and fifty Indian youth who have come voluntarily from the West, many of them children of chiefs, and entered the Carlisle and Hampton schools, have already proved their capacity for mechanical and agricultural, as well as for mental and religious improvements. Not but that this has already been abundantly shown; but the work has been done at our doors; the evidence is thrust upon us.

How many know that of the 275,000 Indians in the United States, 150,000 are already self-supporting, 84,000 partly so, while only 31,000 are entirely dependent on the Government; that their numbers are hardly diminished since the landing of the Pilgrims?

Bishop Whipple, of Minnesota, says: “The North American Indian is the noblest type of a heathen man on the face of the earth. He recognizes a Great Spirit; he believes in immortality; he has a keen intellect; he is a clear thinker; he is brave, fearless, and until betrayed, he is true to his plighted faith; he has a passionate love for his children and counts it joy to die for his people. Our most terrible wars have been with this noblest type of Indians and with those who have been the white man’s friends.”

Nearly three years’ experience at Hampton has shown that the chief danger, the death-rate, while serious, is not discouraging. Our 80 Indian pupils are now in better health than ever before. They need in bodily ailments careful, prompt treatment; with that there is little danger. It is clear that the death-rate is not increased by transplanting them to the East.

Is not the story of our last communion service which I sent to the MISSIONARY last week evidence enough to stimulate Christians to the greatest effort for this race? I write this paper especially to urge upon the American Missionary Association and its friends some effort for Indians in connection with their institutions for colored people.

The mingling of races at Hampton has worked admirably. Our colored students increased in number last year by 37 in spite of the 70 Indians for whom separate and special pecuniary provision was made by Government and by friends.

Bringing Indians to negro schools is like putting raw recruits among old soldiers. The former are pushed along by a thousand indirect helpful influences; they are improved by contact with those always ahead of them in the march of civilization; and the latter are ennobled by what they do for their needy brethren. It works well; such mingling will strengthen and not weaken your schools, if Hampton experience is safe to go by. To make men of the savages on our frontier and to save their souls by putting them with the ex-slave of the country is a grand work, if it has been called “sensational.”

Why not take these twenty Indian children that the Indian department are ready to give you? This would be safe; then feel your way along. Let them study mornings and work afternoons, and play Saturdays. We do so. The labor is one of some delicacy and difficulty. But the Indian is like everybody else. That’s our experience. Treat him firmly, fairly, kindly; give him no second-rate teacher; he is keen and appreciative.

Why not go ahead? The Government will place them at your doors free of expense, and give you $150 a year for twelve months’ schooling and care—which will barely pay for their food and clothing. That’s all we can get. The people must pay in part the cost of such education to get it done. We try to obtain a yearly seventy-dollar scholarship for each one and have been fairly successful. You can get these by working for them. You say, “We have no room for them; where is the money with which to erect buildings?”

We hope next fall to have thirty more Indian girls, making fifty boys and fifty girls, and are now trying to raise twenty thousand dollars to put up next summer a suitable building for the girls, that shall have every appliance for practical education, including cooking, sewing, clothes-making, washing and ironing, and housework generally, furnishing room for seventy.

We have no idea where the money is to come from. We have faith that it will come, because such work is in the line of God’s providential movement. He who wisely works in that line cannot fail. The way to get it is to ask for it, prepare for it, push for it, be worthy of it, pray for it, and it will come. The people of the country will sustain a good work for Indians.

Some may object that it will trespass upon the negro. Has it been so here? How would our colored students feel to-day if our Indians were to be withdrawn? They would vote solidly against it; they would lose and not gain, and they know it. Is the mutual love and respect of these races of no account?

The American Missionary Association aims to destroy caste. This is our way to do it. Nothing here has ever filled me with more pleasure than watching our students’ recreations, in which race lines are utterly forgotten. They exist between them, and many feared, in consequence, disastrous results of their mingling. Two of our most important and successful Indian teachers are negroes, graduates of this school.

Three seventy-dollar scholarships are contributed by Virginia churches for this Indian work, from Petersburg, Portsmouth, and Hampton, respectively. Southern churches are aiding negro schools.

Have faith and go in for Indians!

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GENERAL NOTES.

Africa.

—A French school of archæology, like those which already exist at Rome and Athens, will be established at Cairo. M. Maspero, Professor in the College of France, has charge of the organization.

—M. L. Vassion, attached to the office of foreign affairs in France, has gone to Cairo; he will start from there for Khartoum and the river Blanc, where he will study the nature of the commercial relations which it will be possible to establish with Soudan.

—Dr. Pogge and his companion, M. Wissman, have sailed from Hamburg for Saint Paul de Loanda. The German Government has officially asked for them the protection of the Portuguese Government, by which they may traverse the African possessions on the western side.

—The mission of Algiers proposes to found two new stations between the great lakes and the Atlantic. The first will be upon the Congo itself, at the point where the river bends to the north; the second will be in the States of Mouata Yamvo.

—Messrs. Brazza and Ballay will descend the Alima in the transportable steamer which the latter has obtained from Europe, to complete the exploration of the Congo.

—The _L’Afrique_, in an article on the Sanitary Condition of Africa and the adjacent Isles, says, “Madeira is remarkably healthy, so that it has been for a long time chosen as a sanitarium for consumptives. Malaria is wholly unknown there; dysentery is rare and shows itself only in the epidemic form.”

—Bishop Crowther returned to Lagos, from a six months’ absence on the Upper Nile, just in time for his wife’s prayer, that she might die in his arms, to be answered. She did so, though unconscious of the fact, on the 19th of October last.

Adjai, afterwards Bishop Samuel Crowther, and Asano, afterwards Susanna, his wife, were children of the same tribe, kidnapped, rescued, and landed almost the same time, though not in the same party, at Sierra Leone, and were placed in the same church missionary school. They were married fifty-one years since, in 1829.

—_A Kaffir Girl’s Worthy Example._ One day a Kaffir girl in South Africa went to a missionary and dropped four sixpences into his hand, saying: “This is your money.”

“You don’t owe me anything,” replied the teacher.

“I do,” she answered; “and I will tell you how. At the public examination you promised a sixpence to any one in the class I was in who would write the best specimen on a slate. I gave in my slate and got the sixpence; but you did not know then that another person wrote that specimen for me. Yesterday you were reading in the church about Zaccheus, who said: ‘If I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.’ I took from you one sixpence, and I bring you back four.”

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The Indians

SISSETON AGENCY, DAKOTA TERRITORY.—Mr. Charles Crissey, the agent, in a brief report, says:

There have been built since I came here in 1879 seven new frame houses, and three others finished that were not habitable when I came, besides a number of log houses roofed and floored. A new engine has been procured and put in place for the flour mill, and the building enlarged to double its former capacity. A barn 21×70 feet has been built; the school building repaired, after six years’ use; the old engine converted into a portable saw-mill; and timber for a new church at Good Will sawed out. The people have been supplied with 95 yoke of work cattle, with yokes and chains complete; also with all the plows, wagons, harrows, etc., that they will need for some time.

I have also had thrown upon my care the Brown Earth Indians, formerly living here, 30 families, now 40 miles away, who are trying to get homesteads like white men. They have been supplied with 20 yoke of oxen, 20 wagons, all tools necessary, including portable forge and tools, also carpenters’ tools, and material for a new school-house.

The Drifting Goose Indians have been quietly disposed of and settled at Crow Creek, D. T., after being on my hands ten months.

Three Indians are now talking of building for themselves frame houses as good and large as the one I live in, provided the Government will furnish half the material required.

Our grain is not all threshed yet. From present indications it will reach about 28,000 bushels wheat and 10,000 bushels oats; potatoes, corn, etc., in abundance. I cut down the estimate on flour for this season 25,000 lbs. The Indians now furnish about 70 per cent. of what they eat.

My next step will be to introduce stock raising, by procuring cows and calves for this people.

WASHINGTON TERRITORY.—Hon. John McReavy has fitted up a hall at Union City for church purposes, and the people have procured an organ and bell for the same object.

The Clallam Indians at Jamestown, near Dunginess, Washington Territory, have bought a bell for their church, the first church bell in their county, although it has been settled more than twenty years, and has a white population of over five hundred and fifty.

The members of the church at Seabeck, at the close of the services on the first Sabbath in December, presented their pastor, Rev. M. Eells, with a purse containing forty dollars and fifty cents; and the ladies of the place who are not members of the church, presented his wife on Christmas with a box containing articles of clothing worth about thirty dollars.

Two persons at Jamestown were received into our church in December, and two more at S’kokomish in January, all on profession of faith.

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ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.

WASHINGTON, D. C.—_The Memorial Church_, recently known as the Lincoln Mission, has, as noted in the last MISSIONARY, just blossomed into a church, and begins its life as such in a renovated hall on the corner of Eleventh and R streets. The A. M. A. and the trustees of the Mission decided last fall that the building must be repaired, and the work was so far completed that it was occupied again by the church on the first Sabbath of the new year. The room will seat about 800 people, and with the expenditure of $75 for matting in the aisles, would be very attractive indeed. Mrs. Babcock, city missionary, has opened industrial schools in connection with this church, both for mothers and the younger girls, and proves a great help in the spiritual work of the church.

RALEIGH, N. C.—The winter has been unusually severe, and our people are so very poor and unprepared for it that the attendance at church services has been very small. A part of the time it has been so cold and muddy that it was impossible for the people to get about. The Sunday-school numbers 128.

WOODBRIDGE, N. C.—The young folks are wide awake and hard at work. There are three grades in school, the highest studying Mental and Written Arithmetic, Geography, Grammar, History, Physiology, Reading, Writing and Spelling. The school is working as never before. A Band of Truth and Purity has been organized, pledged to be temperate, truthful and chaste, and to observe the rules of good society. It meets weekly in a social way and strictly examines its members.

MACON, GA.—Some idea both of the sufferings of the poor who could not possibly meet the increased expense, and also of the drafts upon our appropriations for our school work in the South, necessitated by the intensity of the cold, may be gathered from the statement of Mr. Lathrop, of Macon, Ga., when he says: “For a week or more the mercury stood below the freezing point, going down to zero one night, and ranging from 8 to 30 degrees above, most of the time. In some places wood could with difficulty be purchased for $15 per cord by those who had the money.” Pastor Lathrop has opened a library of more than 1,000 volumes, open to all classes at the cost of five cents per month to each member. The cold winter here, as at all points in the South, has materially increased the expense of school and church work, and at the same time hindered its progress.