Part 1

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CONTENTS.

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PAGE.

EDITORIALS.

PARAGRAPHS 161 COLORED JOURNALISM IN THE SOUTH 163 KIND OF UNIVERSITY MOST NEEDED IN THE SOUTH. BY PROF. HORACE BUMSTEAD, ATLANTA, GA. 164 BENEFACTIONS 167 GENERAL NOTES--Africa, Indians 167 CUT OF INDIAN MEDICINE MAN 169

THE FREEDMEN.

AFTER THE SOWING, THE REAPING 170 THE ALABAMA CONFERENCE 172 BITS OF FUN AND FACT 173 MISSION WORK AT WILMINGTON, N.C. 174

AFRICA.

MR. LADD’S JOURNAL 175 WEST AFRICAN HABITATIONS (Cut) 177

THE CHINESE.

CLIPPINGS FROM CORRESPONDENCE 178 SELLING PRAYERS IN A CHINESE TEMPLE (Cut) 179

CHILDREN’S PAGE.

TED’S TEMPERANCE SOCIETY 181

OBITUARY.

MISS SARAH A. G. STEVENS 183

RECEIPTS 183

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American Missionary Association,

56 READE STREET, NEW YORK

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PRESIDENT, HON. WM. B. WASHBURN, Mass.

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, D.D., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._

TREASURER.

H. W. HUBBARD, Esq., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._

DISTRICT SECRETARIES.

Rev. C. L. WOODWORTH, _Boston_. Rev. G. D. PIKE, D.D., _New York_. Rev. JAMES POWELL, _Chicago_.

COMMUNICATIONS

relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the Corresponding Secretary; those relating to the collecting fields, to the District Secretaries; letters for the Editor of the “American Missionary,” to Rev. G. D. Pike, D.D., at the New York Office.

DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, Rev. C. L. Woodworth, Dist. Sec., 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or Rev. James Powell, Dist. Sec., 112 West Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member. Letters relating to boxes and barrels of clothing may be addressed to the persons above named.

FORM OF A BEQUEST.

“I BEQUEATH to my executor (or executors) the sum of —— dollars, in trust, to pay the same in —— days after my decease to the person who, when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer of the ‘American Missionary Association’ of New York City, to be applied, under the direction of the Executive Committee of the Association, to its charitable uses and purposes.” The Will should be attested by three witnesses.

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The Annual Report of the A. M. A. contains the Constitution of the Association and the By-Laws of the Executive Committee. A copy will be sent free on application.

THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

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VOL. XXXVI. JUNE, 1882. NO. 6.

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American Missionary Association.

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The receipts for April were $29,519.61, an increase of nearly 38 per cent. over those of last year. The total receipts for the seven months ending April 30, are $161,542.16, being $35,632.25, or 28 per cent. more than for the corresponding months last year. If this ratio of increase is continued for the remaining five months of the fiscal year, the $300,000 will be obtained, and we shall close the year without a debt, notwithstanding the unusually heavy expenses that the progress of our work has necessitated. These cheering facts, we hope, will stimulate our friends to realize the expectations of the annual meeting, and the pressing needs of the field.

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JOHN F. SLATER, ESQ., of Norwich, Conn., has enrolled his name with Peabody, Seney and others as the wise benefactors of mankind, by the appropriation of a million of dollars for the education of the colored people of America. This munificent fund he has entrusted to the care of a Board of Trustees, made up of persons well known for their patriotism and their philanthropy, and from whose honorable character a wise administration of the trust may be expected. Mr. Slater has not only shown his generosity in the gift, but his wisdom as well in the broad and liberal instructions to his trustees. The letter containing these directions is a model of wise forethought, guarding against the limitations so often imposed on executors and trustees, which, in changes of circumstances, often render the gift well-nigh useless. This letter, we believe, will have a salutary influence on other donors in this respect.

We have no means of knowing the benefit that may accrue to the A. M. A. from the income of Mr. Slater’s benefaction, which will probably amount to $50,000 or $60,000 per annum. We only know that the Association has a large educational work among the people whom Mr. Slater wishes to benefit, and we believe that the Board of Trustees will wisely discriminate as to the amount to which we are entitled. In any contingency, however, that amount will probably not be so large as to release our friends from the responsibility of continuing and even increasing their donations to meet the demands of our constantly enlarging work.

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AN earnest effort is made in Congress to secure a large appropriation for general education--the fund to be distributed on the basis of illiteracy. Something of this kind is imperatively needed to meet the demands of our growing and diversified population, and especially of the six millions of blacks recently emancipated and enfranchised, with nearly a million of their number unable to read or write the ballot they cast. In addition to these, about three-fourths of a million of the white population of the nation are equally illiterate. If to these we add the Indians, and the uneducated immigrants crowding to our country, we have an illiteracy of startling magnitude demanding the most efficient measures for its overthrow. There can be no question of the duty of the nation in this respect. A very marked change in public sentiment, especially in the South, is manifesting itself, and there is a fair prospect of the success of some well-digested bill for this purpose. The A. M. A. has taken an active part in pressing this matter upon the attention of Congress. No bill can benefit our schools directly, and the efforts we put forth are purely for the advancement of intelligence among the people. Our work is mainly in preparing educated and spiritual leaders, and the more rapidly the masses can be elevated the more effective and wide-spread will our efforts become.

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REV. J. E. ROY, D.D., Field Superintendent, is again in the New York office, where his assistance has been desired each summer by the committee; serving also in the absence of Rev. Dr. Pike, occasioned by sickness.

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THE Commencement of Berea College, Kentucky, will take place Wednesday, June 21. College exercises in the forenoon. In the afternoon an address from Rev. R. G. Hutchins, D.D., of Columbus, Ohio.

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REV. DR. HERRICK JOHNSON, of Chicago, has made a manly and Christian fight against theatres. A little volume of 82 pages, entitled “_Plain Talks about the Theatre_,” embodies his views, and is entitled to a candid reading.

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THOSE of our readers especially interested in the establishment of the Arthington Mission will be pleased to read in the African notes, published in this number of the MISSIONARY, reports of continued activity on the part of different organizations in the vicinity of Khartoum.

COLORED JOURNALISM IN THE SOUTH

Our colored brethren have been by no means lacking in journalistic ambition. Considering the short space of time they have had in which to develop the literary talent, I think they have done remarkably well. There have been many undertakings in this line, and of course a good many failures. Having seen in the Western States a great many ephemeral newspapers, which ran their course briefly and then vanished away, I am prepared to say that the percentage of newspaper failures is no greater among the negroes than the whites. Newspapers are very frail and mortal creatures, and to many of them it is appointed to die. Few of them can lay claim to immortality; like the human race, most of them die in infancy. Yet there are now more than fifty papers published by colored men, mostly in the Southern States. The State of Georgia has five; North Carolina has seven. As the general intelligence of the people increases, the usefulness of these papers also enlarges. There is a good deal of race pride among the colored people, and they greatly enjoy the achievements of their race, whether in the field of journalism or elsewhere. Of course they are not trained to habits of close criticism and literary discrimination. Like all whose education has not been very extensive, they delight in high-sounding phrases and long, sonorous words. Most of their editorials are somewhat open to criticism in this line, yet there are not a few examples of crisp, clear, terse, vigorous English which are refreshing to read in these pedantic days.

As a general thing these papers are edited by the younger generation of men, graduates from the A. M. A. colleges or elsewhere. No others have sufficient ability or perseverance to make a success in this line. They are mostly Christian men, and they print many articles upon temperance and other practical virtues, which are sadly needed here both among black and white. So these papers exert a widespread and generally beneficial influence, going into many homes that have no other reading. Like his white brother, the negro sometimes forgets to “pay the printer,” and hence there is an occasional suspension for lack of funds. So there is in the North as well.

More and more, as they increase in knowledge and in property, there will be a greater demand for good newspapers. The schools and colleges of the A. M. A. are calculated to have a wide influence in this field, training up writers and thinkers who shall through their periodicals exert a great deal of power. Besides preaching and teaching, there is to be in the future of the Anglo-African a vast field of usefulness in journalism. The power of thinking, and of putting thought into effective words, is to be more and more developed in these schools. Here then is a new argument for the thorough and adequate maintenance of the church and school work, to raise up men and women from among this patient race who shall prove, even as many of them are proving now, that “the pen is mightier than the sword.” The occasional crudity of expression, the extravagant adjective and preposterous grammar, must and will give place to true thinking and correct expression, under the steady polishing and mental training of our schools. Fresh vigor, greater power, wider and more salutary influence of the newspaper, will follow the inexact and “scattering” articles which have more or less prevailed, inevitably.

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THE KIND OF UNIVERSITY MOST NEEDED IN THE SOUTH.

BY PROF. HORACE BUMSTEAD, ATLANTA UNIVERSITY, GA.

A university, in the old-world sense of the term, is an institution where all the branches of the higher education are taught, and these alone. In our country the name is often adopted by institutions as a prophecy of what they hope to become, while their present work is almost wholly that of elementary instruction--a work which they expect eventually to outgrow.

So far as the institutions of the American Missionary Association are concerned, I am inclined to think that there is a nobler ideal to be realized under the name of university than any feeble imitation of older institutions. A field is open here in the South for the development of an institution such as the world has not yet seen, and which, in a somewhat new but not unnatural sense, would justify its claim to be called a university.

The university which missionary effort can make most useful in the South is one that shall represent, in their most perfect form, all the successive grades of education from lowest to highest. It should be prepared to train ordinary pupils of all ages rather than extraordinary ones of mature age only. It should also provide ample facilities for normal and industrial training, now so much needed in all the South. But especially it should magnify and dignify the work of primary instruction, regarding this as a permanent feature of its work, and not as an unavoidable evil to be shaken off as soon as possible. It should neither undervalue nor neglect the higher education. This should be held up as a worthy object of aspiration for all who show themselves fitted to receive it, by thorough work lower down. Such an institution would present, under one management, a kindergarten, or something like it, a graded school, a normal school, an industrial department, an academy, a college, and in course of time the professional schools.

In favor of such a university several reasons may be given. In the first place, the interests of the higher education would be better served by such an institution than by one devoted to the higher education alone. It is taken for granted that the Freedmen and their descendants, for whom largely our institutions are established, should, like all other people, have the opportunity of the higher education given them to the extent of their ability to receive and use it. The welfare of the masses demands that we train up leaders of intelligence and principle. That this work is not being overdone at present is evident from the fact that only ninety-one college students are reported in all the institutions of the American Missionary Association put together, and only about fifty in all have ever been graduated from our college courses since our work in the South began. Now, the principal reason why our work in the higher education has been so limited, has been the great scarcity of suitable material for college classes; and the reason of this scarcity has been that our preparatory departments have not been able to get hold of their pupils early enough. Pupils come to us heavily handicapped by a lack of proper training, moral and intellectual, in early childhood. Now, who can doubt but that the universities that are going to have the best college classes twenty years from now, and do the best work, will be those that soonest put the kindergarten, or some equivalent of it, underneath all their present courses of study, and thus manipulate the entire education of their pupils from the age of five onward? A thoroughness and symmetry of training could be realized by such an arrangement which would be scarcely possible under any other.

But a second reason in favor of such a university is the invaluable help it would render to the cause of general education. Here let it be explained that it would not be the purpose of the proposed institution to take the work of preparation for college out of the hands of preparatory schools elsewhere; nor would it expect to carry all its own beginners through to the end of its higher courses. It would, however, if properly manned and equipped, expect to show what might be called _specimen work_ from the bottom to the top of an education. Such work would be a stimulus to all other schools of whatever grade, and the methods employed in these schools would gradually come to be patterned after those in vogue at the university. The more the lower work of the university was duplicated elsewhere, the more would its own recruiting ground for the higher courses be enlarged, and the wider would its influence become.

A third reason in favor of such a university concerns the association of normal and industrial departments with the collegiate. It should be our aim to cultivate manhood and womanhood rather than mere scholarship. The culture we give must be guarded from selfishness. The practical uses of all education must be kept prominently in view, and especially the urgent need of trained teachers and artisans. The dignity of labor must be emphasized. On the other hand, our normal and industrial work should be guarded from the narrow and materialistic spirit into which such training is sometimes apt to fall. Now, the association of all these departments under one general management will surely bring to each from the others some salutary restraint or broadening influence.

In connection with the practical aim of such a university, I desire to specify two features which should characterize it, both of them rendered necessary by the same cause--the almost entire lack of true homes among the people we are seeking to uplift. In consequence of this deplorable lack, two duties press upon us: first, to obviate the difficulties arising from this cause in our present educational work, and second, to remove the cause.

The first of these duties suggests the kindergarten, already proposed. I use this term for the lack of a more convenient one; contending simply for _some_ system of training for children under the usual school age. Among cultivated people, and even the intelligent farmers and artisans of cultivated communities, every home is a kindergarten--a preliminary training-school for the eyes, hands, brains, and hearts of toddling and prattling humanity. Very few such are to be found among the poorer classes of the South. Hence arises the necessity of beginning our work earlier than elsewhere, and using appliances which elsewhere might seem superfluous. But it will not be enough to have the kindergarten composed entirely of day scholars from the neighborhood. There should be a special building for a children’s home, with an able matron and assistants in charge of it. Into this could be gathered from a wider territory as large a number of little boarders as might be thought desirable. The inestimable advantage of this arrangement would be that a considerable number of children would thus be separated from their unfortunate surroundings for twenty-four hours each day instead of six, and for seven days in the week instead of five. From this number, in after years, would undoubtedly come our best material for the college and normal classes.

But a second pressing duty is to help the growth of true homes among these people. This must be done largely through the girls who come under our care. For this also a separate building should be provided as a housekeeping school. It should be constructed like an ordinary dwelling-house, with such conveniences within and around it as civilized people aim to secure. It should not be too large, lest the coziness of home be lost. It should have a parlor with pictures and books. It should have a garden with flowers and shade trees. Above all it should have the most commodious and convenient kitchen and pantry that can be arranged. Let a dozen girls together occupy this house for a fortnight at a time--all those in the university taking their turn in the course of the year. Let some good woman, as near like Mrs. Cornelius or Marion Harland as can be found, be put at the head, and let her teach these girls how to cook, sweep, dust, make beds, set the table, wash the dishes, and in general how to make home as attractive as our Christian civilization knows how.

Finally let it be observed that such a university would be simply an expansion of what is now being done in our present higher institutions, and which the force of circumstances has compelled us to do. Why should we not accept it cheerfully as the mission which Providence has given us, and by a deepening and broadening process convert our present universities into something that shall bring new honor to the cause of Christian education?

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BENEFACTIONS.

The late Thomas M. Reed, of Bath, Me., bequeathed $3,000 to Bangor Theological Seminary.

Mr. Reed, of Boston, has given $5,000 to the Hampton N. and A. Institute.

Mr. Ahok has given £10,000 towards the Methodist College in Fuh Chou.

Sir Erasmus Miller has given £10,000 to endow a pathological chair at an institution in Aberdeen, Scotland.

Yale College is to receive $50,000 for a laboratory from Messrs. Thomas and Henry Sloan, in honor of their father, William Sloan.

Thomas McGraw, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., has given $50,000 for the endowment of the President’s chair at Amherst College.

Mr. Holloway, of England, has conveyed to the trustees of the Enghaman Institution, for the higher education of women, £400,000 for endowment purposes.

Iowa College has received $1,500 to be known as the Ellingwood Scholarship Fund for the education of ministers.

Hackettstown Seminary, N.J., has received $15,000 from Mr. Geo. I. Seney, of Brooklyn, N.Y., for the liquidation of its debt of $36,000, which is now entirely provided for. The property of the institution cost $175,000.

Mr. John F. Slater, of Norwich, Conn., has given $1,000,000 to a Board of Trustees, the income of which is to be applied for the education of the recently emancipated race in America.

_We are happy to report that our appeals for endowment for Talladega College have met with additional responses since the statement given in our February number. One friend has given $5,000 towards the endowment of the President’s Chair, and another has pledged $5,000 for the Theological Department._

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GENERAL NOTES.

AFRICA.

--W. F. Mieville has been appointed English consul at Khartoum.

--Ambassadors from Abyssinia have gone to Cairo to regulate the question of the frontiers and to seek the appointment of consuls of the two countries--of Egypt and of Abyssinia.

--After working with an indefatigable zeal to gather the means necessary to the establishment of a new mission, Mr. Coillard will set out with his wife in May to found a station between the Zambeze and Lake Bangueolo.

--Mgr. Taurin Cahaque, apostolic vicar, has made from Harrar an excursion among the Gallas and founded a station around which he hopes to gather a Christian colony.

--The council of ministers at Cairo has decided upon the complete abolition of slavery in Egypt. Abdelkader Pasha has been nominated Governor of Soudan. A special administration of the Soudan has been created at Cairo with the purpose of making out the statement of receipts and expenditures of that province and of re-organizing the military service with a view of maintaining order upon the Abyssinian frontier. It will take measures for the complete suppression of the slave trade.

--A company with a capital of 150,000 livres sterling has been formed under the name of River Gambia Trading Company, to develop commerce on the Gambia, which is navigable for 640 kilometers.

--The Church Missionary Society has established at Lokodja, near the confluence of the Niger and the Bénoué, a school to teach the native instructors the English language and the language spoken along the lower Niger.