Chapter 3

In regard to healthfulness of our mountain home, we have felt somewhat disappointed. Up so high, with nice springs and spring streams, one would expect a healthy climate. On the contrary, almost every one is ailing. Coughs and colds are universal. It is no wonder the natives are unhealthy; their habits of living would seem to prohibit health. They eat corn bread or hoe cake and bacon; some have flour, but it is always made up into hot biscuit, shortened with lard. They have this, with little variation, three times a day, 365 days in a year. In summer, green beans cooked with bacon is added to the bill of fare. Of course the blood becomes impoverished, and almost every one has scrofula. Calomel and pills are the great panacea for all their bodily ills. Pills are brought on by the quart, and sold by the merchants like any other commodity. Cleanliness of the person is an unheard of luxury; I doubt whether they ever bathe. Children come to the table with unwashed faces. They are put to bed with the same clothes they wear during the day. Then add to all this the fact that tobacco is used almost from the cradle, and whiskies and toddies from the time the poor child opens its eyes to this world, and it's no great marvel that gray-haired men are exceedingly rare, and it's the "_old man_" and the "_old woman_" when one has reached the age of twenty-five.

Now comes the question, What are we doing for the people? We have been with them nearly two years, and this has been our effort from the first, to get them to see that religion is a life rather than a sectarian belief. We have sought to impress upon them that joining a church is not Christianity. We have succeeded in getting a few to take part in our prayer meetings, and we have the assurance that _all_ the people are awaking to the fact that God has some demands upon them. We have from the first kept up regular Thursday night prayer meetings; have had good attendance, but often only Mr. Myers and myself to take part in them except as others read Scripture verses.

On the Sabbath we have Sunday-school at 9:30. Average attendance, 100; preaching at 11. I hasten home, saddle my horse, and ride six miles to the next railroad station (Pleasant View). Here I have met 100 or more young people. I have been surprised that in a land where a woman isn't expected to _know_ anything, or _be_ anything but a doll or a drudge that there has been so little prejudice against my school. Some, of course, have thought a woman entirely out of her sphere to undertake such work and have taken occasion to remark to my friends: "Why, Mrs. Myers opens the school by prayer, just as Mr. Myers would. I don't know but it's all right, but it don't seem just the proper thing for a woman to do."

Mr. M. has a mission in South Williamsburg or the mills, where numbers of children are growing up in the midst of gambling and shooting. Prof. W. has, about the same hour, a school two miles out in another direction. At night we have services again in Williamsburg. At these services we have more than can get into the house, and many are obliged to leave for lack of accommodation. Tuesday nights we go to Pleasant View and help them learn the Gospel Songs. Each alternate Wednesday evening, church socials; each alternate Friday afternoon, Band of Hope; Saturday evening, choir drill; Covenant Meeting once a month on Saturday afternoon.

Mr. Myers has preached during the year beginning with Oct. '82, one hundred and forty-two sermons. The services, together with the other public services just mentioned, have amounted to three hundred and forty. Have attended fifty or more meetings conducted by others. We spend all the remaining time our strength will permit in calling at the homes.

We have a neat modern church nearly finished, and so far without foreign help. But no one knows what an effort has been required. Mr. Myers would announce a working bee to draw stone or any such work; would try to enthuse the people as he has so often done in the North. But when the time would come he has worked all day alone. We have learned at last that this people don't enthuse.

We are hard at work in our high-school enterprise. We have Prof. and Mrs. W. and Miss G., all from the North, with us. We hope to get a school, the good influence of which will never die out of these mountains.

These are peculiar people. What I have said of them has reference to the _general_ class of society. But there are some who seem of better stock, who are shrewd, keen, far-sighted people. You cannot find their superiors in _native_ ability in any country. Though often lacking in culture and morality, they still hold a wide influence over the rest, so that something besides goodness is required in those who wish to come among them as helpers. There must be ability to adapt oneself to these widely diverse conditions. One needs wisdom and tact to get along with the shrewdest, and such a love for souls that he can come with a helping hand to the most degraded, nor be discouraged if, with a heart brimful of sympathy, he reaches the hand a long time only to see it rejected by those most in need.

The work is a work of time. The majority of the people are unstable, thriftless improvident and ignorant. Slavery left its blight of impotency and profligacy upon them. They come and go as did their fathers a hundred years ago. Their tools and utensils are the same their great-grandparents used, and they are content with them. We never worked harder and saw less result in the conversion of sinners than while in Kentucky, and yet never felt more satisfied that we were where God wants us, and doing an important work. Unless these people have help they will prove a fretting leprosy in our nation.

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WORK AMONG THE COLORED PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH.

BY MISS IDA M. BEACH.

No small part of the work undertaken by the A. M. A. is that among the colored people of the South. Perhaps we may judge something of how vast this work is in itself, and how far-reaching in its results, if we consider for a few moments the numbers and condition of the colored people. Twenty years ago about 4,000,000 people were liberated from bondage, with all the evils resulting from the system of slavery resting upon them. There was great rejoicing among lovers of freedom when the Proclamation of Emancipation was issued. The slaves themselves, wild with joy, shouted, "We're free! We're free! The year of jubilee has come!" Free! yes, free! but with the burdens of manhood and womanhood suddenly thrust upon them. Freedom brought the right and opportunity of establishing homes. Glorious privilege! But do we not all know how much good judgment and wisdom and thought and planning it takes to maintain a _true home_? Freedom gave them the right of keeping their little ones and seeing them grow to manhood and womanhood, but oh! how much of patience and God-given power it requires to train the little feet to tread the right way!

Four million people, half civilized, uneducated, untrained, with the judgment and reason of children, hitherto knowing little of the ways of the outer world, suddenly brought into life's conflicts! What an amount of instruction they needed!

Right here the American Missionary Association stepped in and assumed the work of training these people. Christian men and women, filled with love for the Master, went down among these lowly ones. They carried the Gospel of Jesus Christ, established schools and churches, teaching in the open air, or in rude huts and deserted cabins. For twenty years this work has been carried on, and much good has been done in the name of the Lord. But to-day there are between six and seven million colored people in our Southland. The work of the A. M. A., together with all done by other societies and by students going forth from the colleges as teachers, as yet scarcely begins to reach this great number.

Their first need is to be Christianized, for this alone lifts them up and gives a desire for better things. It is the religion of Jesus Christ alone which has given to us our high estate. How much we owe to the training of Christian mothers! Let us pity and stoop to lift up these ignorant ones. Send out those who can carry the glad tidings and point to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world.

Let us do all we can to teach them what the pure religion is. But we cannot stop here. We must teach them how to use it. "Woman's work for woman," surely, for this must be done in the homes.

Freedom gave them the _right_ to establish homes! They did the best they knew how, many of them, but they needed teaching--they need it to-day. They must be taught thrift and industry, and cleanliness and order. They want someone to come to them and help them to transform their huts into homes. Could you see their rags, their ugly, misshapen garments, you would agree with me that the women and girls greatly need to be taught the use of the needle.

Of course Christian schools need to be multiplied among them, where the rudiments of an English education shall be thoroughly given, where sewing and cooking, the care of the house and the care of the sick shall be carefully taught the girls, where the boys may learn the use of tools and all that pertains to good farming.

Our stronghold is the children. We can never eradicate the evils existing among the older generation. Slavery left too much ignorance and superstition to ever be driven from the minds of those who lived under its sway. But we are responsible for the coming generations.

The American Missionary Association aims to reach the young and meet their needs by the workers sent out.

Perhaps our work in Savannah will be illustrative of that done in many other parts of the field. We have there established a church and school. There are now in school over 200 pupils. The majority of these remain long enough with us to obtain a good common-school education. We have also a normal grade, where methods of teaching are taught those who desire to fit themselves for teachers. Besides this we have fitted up a sewing-room, where the girls learn every part of sewing and repairing, cutting and basting. Many schools have shops for boys; we look forward to the time when we may be able to have them, too.

We are just establishing a reading-room. Those who have read Prof. Salisbury's article in the November MISSIONARY understand how much this is needed. In our present circumstances we arrange it so that all pupils of higher grades have a daily reading hour, with teacher to direct. Then once in two weeks the older pupils meet for a social reading.

In our devotional exercises and school prayer meetings we aim to assist them in a knowledge of true religion. Last year we observed the Week of Prayer, and in the daily meetings held for several weeks some found the way to Christ and Christian life. Our Church and Sunday-School work reaches many who are not connected with our school. We have a devoted missionary who spends her time in visiting the parents and children in their homes, ministering to the wants of the sick and needy, and holding Bible and Missionary meetings.

This is a bare outline of our work. I presume many of you are saying. "Have there been no results during these last twenty years?" Oh yes, we have a bright side to the picture. When we are tired and discouraged, and wonder if harvest time will never come, we go to some of the pleasant homes where great changes have been wrought. We point to a scholar and tell her past history, and then thank God that the seed sown found a lodging place and good soil.

In the cities when the large schools are, and where there are fair public schools--where there is constant contact with civilized life, many of the colored people live well. Yet there may be a neat, cosy home just across the street, and a few doors beyond, a wretched hovel.

In the country, when the "Teachers' Home" and little school house are built beside their log cabins, they catch a glimpse of better things than they have known. The modest house, freshly painted, with the neat, cosy rooms inside--very simple and plain to us--seems like a palace to them. They begin to want the same. The children go to school and come home with wonderful things to tell. Faces and hands become clean, the woolly heads are more carefully combed, rents are mended, the girls put on clean collars.

The missionary shows the women how to fashion home-made lounges and stools, they are covered with some bright calico, the floor is scrubbed white, and they begin to live. The teacher says that they must work if they want to have homes, money begins to be saved, and before you know it little frame houses are going up beside the old cabin. A good horse or mule, with a bright shiny buggy, takes the place of the old steer and cart.

Yes, indeed, much has been accomplished. But we had very few workers in the early days among four million people, although just as many as could be supported with the means furnished, and to-day, among nearly seven millions, we have but 336 workers.

Millions sit in darkness right here in our own land. A mighty work is to be done, and the work in Africa must be done largely by these people, too.

We need more money; Christian men and women to go forth, and Christian men and women who are willing to send them. "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest." "He that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal."

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REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.

The information from the field, to which you have listened, explains to you the necessity for the organization of a Bureau of Woman's Work. It was organized in April, 1883, for the purpose, as was then stated:

1. To give information to the ladies in the churches of the variety of work sustained by the Association and to assist in devising plans of help.

2. To promote correspondence with churches, Sabbath-schools, missionary societies or individuals who will undertake work of a special character, such as the support of missionaries, aiding of students, supplying clothing, furnishing goods, and meeting other wants on mission ground.

3. To send to the churches, conferences or associations desiring it, experienced and intelligent lady missionaries to address them, giving fuller details of our methods of work.

It was believed that the growing interest on the part of the ladies of our churches, and their evident disposition to aid more effectively in the elevation of women, particularly the women of the South, called for such a department. Already the ladies of one State had organized the "Woman's Aid to the A. M. A.," that they might have their definite line of work in the support of lady missionaries, and inquiry had been made by many how best to assist in this work.

It was recognized that in no other way could a general interest be awakened and maintained so well as by giving direct information from the field, and the twenty years' experience of the Association in the South, during which time more than 3,000 different ladies had been employed as missionaries and teachers, the knowledge gained of the peculiarities of the field and best methods of reaching the people, and the thorough organization of the different departments of labor in home, school, and church, prepared us to bring before the ladies the information necessary, and to offer most excellent opportunities for special work for women. The ready response to this movement confirms the wisdom of the step, and we trust that ere long the Bureau will open new avenues of usefulness to the ladies of the churches, and give enlargement and efficiency to the work in the field.

Immediately following the organization of the Bureau, Miss Rose Kinney, of Oberlin, O., for many years engaged in the Southern work, and recently located in one of the dark corners of the field, McIntosh, Ga., was detailed for service in the North. She spent about six weeks in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and Iowa, addressing ladies' meetings at the General Associations, and with good results. In June the Secretary of the Bureau was present at the State Conferences of Vermont and Maine, and gave information of the work in the field, resulting in the appointment of a State Committee of ladies in Vermont, to secure funds for the support of a missionary. Early in September Miss Anna M. Cahill, for nine years connected with Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., was detailed for special service, and has recently attended a series of meetings in Michigan and Illinois.

It is our purpose thus to bring the work before the ladies whenever and wherever opportunity is given, through different teachers and missionaries whom we may be able to spare temporarily from the field.

Within the year just closed, Sept. 30, the Association has had special aid from ladies North in the support of seven missionaries, as follows:

Ladies of Maine, support of Miss Lunt at Selma, Ala., and Miss Farrington at Wilmington, N. C. $675.00 Ladies of First and Second Cong. Churches, Oberlin, O., support of Miss Stevenson at Atlanta, Ga. 387.00 Ladies of Illinois, support of Miss Clark at Mobile, Ala. 214.46 Ladies of Wisconsin, support of Miss Jillson at Montgomery, Ala. 254.33 Ladies of Congregational Churches, Chelsea, Mass., support of Mrs. Steele at Chattanooga, Tenn. 488.81 Ladies of Iowa, support of Miss Gerrish at New Orleans, La. 406.45 --------- Total $2,426.05

In this connection we would mention also that a lady missionary, Miss Clary, at Beaufort, S. C., was sustained to the amount of $300 by the Sunday-school of the Central Congregational Church, Brooklyn.

Supplies in the furnishing of Mission Homes and dormitories have been recently furnished, and there is very marked increase of aid in the furnishing of clothing, both new and second-hand, for the benefit of students who are struggling in the greatest poverty to obtain an education.

While, therefore, but a few months have elapsed since the organization of the Bureau of Woman's Work, its advantage is already manifest.

Since the field of missionary operations in our own country is large and diversified, and three leading societies exist, each having its distinct and important work,--viz.: The New West Education Commission, the American Home Missionary Society, and the American Missionary Association--no effort has been made by the American Missionary Association to organize local societies auxiliary to itself; but that a society should exist in every church, able to co-operate directly with this Association in its great work for the Chinese, the Indians, the negroes and the needy whites of the South, seems apparent.

To this end we urge upon the ladies, organization, as helpful to systematic giving, and to facilitate such movement we present a form of constitution for a co-operative society, that may be open to the call from all parts of our country. This we greatly prefer as avoiding complication and preserving fellowship and unity in the home work. Such is the pressure of claims upon us, however, through the needs of our field, that except as such opportunity is afforded for aid to the Am. Miss. Assoc., we feel that we may be constrained to ask for organization auxiliary to the A. M. A. exclusively--for the women and children of 6,000,000 of colored people of the South alone presents a field for missionary work in the elevation of women, which we must not ignore, from the responsibility of which we cannot escape.

We are just now entering upon a new year of work. Of the 175 ladies appointed to the various departments of missionary labor, twelve are engaged for special home visitation among the people. You can see at a glance that this number is insufficient for that line of duty. Although our teachers are missionaries, and accomplish much through the schools and various agencies set at work for the elevation of the people, yet we ought to have at least one experienced and efficient woman at every mission station, whose entire time should be given to special work in the homes of the people. Not only do we desire this, but the most urgent appeals are sent us from the field for help of this kind, not instead of that which we are doing in school and church, but supplementary to it, as necessary in securing the results we seek. Already fifteen applications are before us for lady missionaries to work in the homes, and we wait only for the women of the North to furnish us the necessary funds. As fast as we receive pledges of support the missionaries will be sent out.

May the heart of every Christian woman be quickened to new impulse for the development of womanhood in those in our own land, so degraded and helpless!

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FORM OF CONSTITUTION OF WOMAN'S MISSIONARY SOCIETIES.

ART. 1. This Society shall be called the Woman's Co-operative Missionary Society, ---- Church.

ART. 2. Its object shall be to co-operate with the established missionary societies of the Congregational churches of America, in diffusing missionary intelligence, increasing interest in prayer, and in raising funds for missionary work in this country.

ART. 3. The officers of this Society shall be a President, a Vice-President, a Secretary, a Treasurer, and an Executive Committee of ---- members. The Treasurer shall keep separate accounts for the different societies co-operating, or, if preferred, a Treasurer may be appointed for each.

ART. 4. Contributors to this Society may designate to which branch of missionary work they wish their contributions applied. Undesignated contributions may be assigned by vote of the Executive Committee.

ART. 5. Any lady may become a member of this Society by contributing a sum not less than one dollar annually, or ten cents monthly. Gentlemen elected at any regular meeting may become honorary members by the payment of ---- dollars.

ART. 6. ---- members present at any regularly called meeting shall constitute a quorum for business.

ART. 7. Meetings shall be held monthly, at which the Secretary shall give information of the work of the various societies assisted. Special meetings may be called by the officers and Executive Committee. Meetings shall be opened by devotional exercises.

ART. 8. A vote of two-thirds of the members present at any regular meeting shall be requisite for making any change in this constitution.

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THE BUREAU IN THE WEST.

BY MISS ANNA M. CAHILL.

One main object of the Woman's Bureau, as stated at the time of its organization, is to diffuse information among the ladies of our churches, as to our work in its various departments.

The carrying out of this purpose led to my eight weeks of itineracy among the conferences and churches of Wisconsin and Michigan.

If I went to inform I went also to learn--to see how fares our cause in these churches. Especially I sought to learn how strong a hold the work of the American Missionary Association has upon the sympathy and effort of the Christian ladies of that section, what organized system of helpfulness they already have in this line, or what in their judgment can be done and will be done toward incorporating this work in their regular plan of missionary operations for each year.