Chapter 3

The afternoon exercises consisted of singing, recitations and dialogues by the children of the primary department. Our large hall was bright with flowers, flags and happy faces, but was by far too small to accommodate the immense throng seeking admission. The calisthenic exercises and selections were well rendered and won many complimentary remarks. At 5 o'clock a memorial service was held for a member of the school who, the year before, took a very prominent part in our closing exercises, but who, after months of patient suffering, entered into rest April 6. The annual exhibition came off at 8 o'clock P. M. The programme consisted of sixteen parts, interspersed with music. We were favored during the day with music from two brass bands. By competent judges the declamations were pronounced superior to any heard on former occasions of a similar character.

The attendance of the citizens from the town was a very pleasant feature. Brewer Normal has made a deep impression on the white people. They acknowledge the good work that it has done and is doing, and believe in the possibilities that are before it. The students in attendance during the year were 168, an advance upon that of any previous year. We have had much for which to be thankful during the first year connected with this institute; but let this be an inspiration leading us to greater achievements during the year to come. On Friday morning, amid a "sweet confusion" of tears, laughter and farewells, the halls of the school were closed for the summer vacation, and the students boarded the trains to return to their homes.

J. D. BACKENSTOSE.

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STUDENT'S LETTER.

STRAIGHT UNIVERSITY, NEW ORLEANS.

The path along which the mind must travel to obtain an education, is much like that on which one goes to accomplish any desired end. The student will find in his way numberless difficulties which seem higher than mountains, lower than valleys, and darker than any forest glade. The Alpine traveler knows that he will meet many a rugged steep, that he must cross many a mountain torrent on slender footing, make his way through many a gloomy valley. He does not give up, but presses forward with eagerness and courage, until he reaches the summit and gazes as a victor on the glorious scenes around.

So is it with the student who is determined to become useful to his fellow-men and to God. His path is strewn with difficulties all the way. He meets discouragements and back-sets which seem to him sometimes insurmountable, and he will need all his courage to keep on to the end. In our Southern country there are, it seems to me, many difficulties which do not exist in all parts of our land; but as I hear our teachers tell of their struggles and trials, I conclude there is no broad, smooth way along which one may walk comfortably up to the temple of knowledge.

Many who are exceedingly anxious to become students have in early life lost their parents, and, being poor, are unable to provide for themselves, and unless some helping hand is stretched forth, must remain in ignorance. There are others, who, though in good circumstances, are not able to appreciate the value of learning, and so care nothing for it. Again, there are many communities in which the people, ignorant themselves, care nothing about the education of their children, and will make no provisions for schools. I know of settlements of five hundred or more inhabitants among whom there are scarcely any competent preachers, no good schools or teachers, no missionary work going on, and the people in a very degraded state. Ignorant parents, unless persuaded, are not apt to attend to the education of their children. It is a disadvantage to any one aiming to prepare for future usefulness to meet with either of these unfavorable circumstances that I have mentioned, and yet it is the case with thousands of our boys and girls. The principles which ought to be impressed upon the children's minds while young are neglected, and false ideas and degraded impressions are allowed to govern them. Thus, they are robbed of an early training in those things which are the true foundations of a noble character.

Here are the plantations in this Southland around many of which yet cluster the stains of slavery, and to look upon them in all their degradation is enough to cause a young man or woman who was once acting in accordance with their sinfulness, but now trying to aim higher, to give up and declare that it is useless to try to elevate the great mass of our people to a high standard of citizenship and usefulness, and it is only when we remember that the hand of the great God is in the work, that one can have any hope. How many to-day are idling away their time, breaking the Sabbath, engaging in sinful sports, violating the State laws, disturbing the peace of quiet citizens, disobeying their Supreme Ruler!

We have glanced at the dark side of this subject. Let us now turn to the bright. God has raised up noble men who have loved us and labored for us--men whose names are familiar to all, and who will be loved and honored through all generations. Can we be discouraged when we think it was for us John Brown died? When we think of Abraham Lincoln, Charles Sumner, and all that host of great men who saw the evils our race suffered and so nobly stood up for us, we will not despair.

Our Christian friends at the North have given us liberty and citizenship. Noble Lincoln and brave Grant were to us almost what Moses and Aaron were to the Israelites. These same people are mastering another great problem. As soon as hostilities ceased they placed institutions of learning within our reach. Under the A. M. A. and other associations, schools and colleges are erected in the South for our advancement and training. Here is Straight University, founded at the very centre of bitterness. From the regions round about she gathers young men and woman, teaches them the truths of Christianity, educates them, and then sends them abroad to fill the pulpits, to gather in the lost ones. Trained by those who have had the best education the North could give them, they go out to teach the children, who, but for them, could have no good teaching. The missionary cause carries light to the homes that are in darkness.

It is a great encouragement, not only to us but to our parents also, to know that we are acquiring an education from the hands of these Christian helpers, so that we can become useful in the world, good citizens, skilled in art and science, and in all branches of knowledge; to become recognized in the best society, and to secure comfortable homes for ourselves; to know that we are taught true principles of Christianity, so that we can use our learning aright, build up God's kingdom, promote peace and happiness upon earth, and by and by, when that Eye which looked down from heaven and saw the shackles of slavery struck from our hands and souls, sees fit, we shall be the instruments in carrying the gospel of Christ across the sea to our fellow-men who inhabit the dark continent. Difficulties there are, many and great; but nothing is too difficult for the Almighty, and He is our helper and always will help if we ask Him.

The chance to get a good training is in the reach of nearly every one, if he will only try. We are grateful to our benefactors and to God for these blessings. May His name be praised and may He reward his servants in the end!

C. W. JOHNSON.

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THE INDIANS.

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THE APACHE RAID.

BY GEN. C. H. HOWARD.

A private letter before me from a ranchman says: "Great excitement prevails all over this part of Arizona from the breaking out of the Chiricahua Apaches. We expected them here, as this is one of their old trails and watering places. We kept guard night and day. But they crossed into New Mexico, to the north of us."

The old roaming ground of the Chiricahuas was Southern Arizona. For many years they defied all attempts to subdue them. Their famous chief, Cochise, refused to make any treaty or even to parley with the representatives of the Government.

In 1873, under Grant's "peace policy," General O. O. Howard was sent to Arizona and New Mexico to make treaties with such of the Indians as could be reached. After he had visited many other tribes, including several of the Apache family, and located them peaceably, he determined to make one earnest effort to meet Cochise. The experience of twenty years proved that it would be vain to try to capture him. One white man was found, a scout and interpreter, known as Captain Jefferds, who spoke Apache and who was regarded by Cochise as a friend. He consented to try and bring about a parley with Cochise, but declared no troops must be near. General Howard took one aide-de-camp, and with Jefferds and two friendly Apaches, rode for two days until they came near the stronghold. Jefferds then sent forward the two Indians with a message. They went cautiously, kindling fires from point to point, and receiving answering signals. The next day one of them returned, bringing word that Cochise would see the General and his party, and that the messenger was to guide them to a designated place of meeting. Cochise was not there on the arrival of the party, but some of his head men appeared soon after, had a talk with Jefferds and were introduced to the General, all showing signs of a marked impression, from the fact that the General had lost his right arm and carried no weapons. His Apache name was ever afterwards the "The One-Armed Chief." Some of the Chiricahuas then mounted and rode away, and not long after a body of Indians came galloping up. A powerfully-built man, fully armed with rifle, revolvers and knife, dismounted and first took Jefferds by the hand, and then turned and frankly greeted the General. The details of that interview, of the stay of the treaty-party in the stronghold as Cochise's guests, for two days; their experience the first night, when they were awakened in the middle of the night and the entire camp was moved to a still more inaccessible natural fortification, far up in the mountains, owing to an apprehended attack from a militia company which had pursued some marauding Chiricahuas the day before--all would form an interesting and romantic chapter of Indian history.

The treaty stipulated that all raiding and marauding should cease; that the Chiricahuas should confine themselves to a certain defined tract of country; that Captain Jefferds, whom Cochise always called his brother, would be their agent, and that necessary food would be allowed them. A definite time was granted in which Cochise was to communicate the terms of the treaty to his absent chiefs, some of whom were in old Mexico or other distant places.

The treaty was kept by Cochise and the Chiricahuas for nine years, as long as he lived. They were greatly incensed and felt that they were wronged when Capt. Jefferds was displaced, the reservation marked out in the treaty was taken away, and they were removed from their traditional home and herded upon the San Carlos reservation with other tribes, some of whom they greatly despised. This, however, they still bore patiently or without manifest resentment until October, 1881. At that time there was trouble with other San Carlos tribes. The army marched upon the reservation. The next night the Chiricahuas left. They started in the direction of their old haunts, met freighting teams, murdered the drivers and took the horses, killed cattle and stole other horses from ranchmen, had one or two slight skirmishes with the United States cavalry and escaped into Mexico.

Gen. Crook's campaign into Mexico in pursuit of them is familiar to all. He captured their women and children and old people, and in order, doubtless, to induce the leaders, who were hidden in the fastnesses of the Sierra Madre mountains, to surrender, promised terms that have been severely criticised. Those leaders, like Geronomo, whose hands were stained with murder, were allowed to come back unmolested upon the reservation, to retain their arms, and to feel that, instead of conquered foes of the government, and criminals justly and duly punished, they had outwitted their white enemy and dictated their own terms of a peace to be broken at will.

Should not these Chiricahua leaders, having deliberately broken their treaty, and known to be incorrigibly criminal, have been at least confined where they could neither incite nor lead more murderous raids? It was neither a dictate of humanity nor of true statesmanship to set them loose with arms in their hands. One of the essential steps in the civilization of any tribe is to demonstrate that crimes are to be promptly and adequately punished.

But the utter neglect of the government, and of all missionary bodies, to send to these Chiricahuas any teachers or to make any earnest attempt to civilize them, during the entire nine years of their peaceable stay on the reservation, should, no doubt, be duly weighed when considering the question of ultimate responsibility for this outbreak.--_The Chicago Standard._

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THE CHINESE.

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A TOUR AMONG THE MISSIONS.

BY REV. W. C. POND.

Since writing my last account of our work for the MISSIONARY, I have visited several of our Missions in the interior of the State, and, as far as I can in the space at my command, I will recount my observations.

I. STOCKTON.--Except as, for a short time, more than thirty years ago, something was done by Rev. S. V. Blakeslee in San Francisco, Stockton was the first point in California occupied by the A. M. A. The work was continued there with scarcely a month's intermission from 1871 till about a year ago, when under financial pressure it was closed for a time. The intention was to resume as soon as the opening of a new fiscal year gave me the right to draw against a new appropriation. Meanwhile it was hoped that a temporary suspension might lead to a greater interest on the part of the Chinese themselves, and that we should begin to get urgent requests from them with pledges of coöperation such as had sometimes come to us from other places. It was all a mistake for which your Superintendent is chastened, and repents. When we were ready to resume, we found the convenient room which the school had occupied so many years rented for quite other purposes, and no quarters could be obtained except at a rental too exorbitant. Most of those among the pupils who had been specially benefited, and whose urgencies we should otherwise have heard, had moved elsewhere, and the Macedonian cry which we hoped would put us on vantage ground for future operations, did not come to our ears. The Chinese are very numerous in Stockton--at least 1,000 constantly there, and probably 1,000 more who, working here and there in the great San Joaquin Valley, make Stockton their rendezvous. I ought not to have suspended work among them, but rather with faith and courage I should have pressed it with greater zeal, and if hearts seemed harder there than elsewhere, I should have poured in upon them more abundantly the light and love of Christ. All that I could accomplish on this visit was to arrange conditionally for a room in a building not yet completed, and to intensify my own determination somehow to carry to those dark, needy souls "the _fullness_ of the blessing of Christ."

II. SACRAMENTO.--It was good to come into the warm spiritual atmosphere of our Sacramento mission. The tokens of God's blessing on our work there are unmistakable. Our readers have heard recently from our helper, Chin Toy, and I forbear going into details. The best result of my visit was in the decision of one of our pupils who had been highly commended to me by his brethren and by Mrs. Carrington, to enter into missionary work. His name is Chin Kel. I am all the more hopeful about him because he is distrustful of himself. This was the only ground of hesitancy with him. The fact that it involved a _very considerable pecuniary sacrifice_ does not seem to have weighed with him at all. He will be stationed at Marysville, relieving our excellent brother Joe Jet for work elsewhere.

III. MARYSVILLE.--Here, too, I found comfort with the brethren, and after the usual exercises of the school were finished, at nine o'clock P. M., we sat down together at the Lord's table. One brother was baptized and received to the church. All the resident members of the church were present, and, if I mistake not, we broke the bread not only at about the same hour of the evening, but with the same number of communicants as were gathered round the table in that upper chamber at Jerusalem when this sacrament was first observed.

IV. OROVILLE.--The next two evenings were spent at Oroville, twenty-eight miles further north. I took our faithful helper, Joe Jet, with me, and he will spend a month or more in that mission. Two of the Marysville brethren also accompanied us, and one other was already there. I invited them to be present because I proposed to organize our Oroville brethren into a church. Too long already--too long, not by months, only, but by years--we had waited, hoping that the church already existing in Oroville would open its doors and extend a brother's hand to these disciples; and we believed that they ought not longer to be debarred the privileges of the sacraments and of church fellowship. Several who in years past have given evidence of conversion in connection with this mission, are now elsewhere. Four young men, after careful examination, in which Joe Jet and the Marysville brethren shared, were constituted into "The Bethany Church of Oroville." Four others were believed to be Christians, but, as being recent converts, were held under probation awhile, as is the custom in our missions. When we sat down on Friday evening to the Lord's table it was found that four other churches were informally represented by members present, and thus, in some sense, the fellowship of the churches was expressed.

V. TULARE.--My next visit was made to Tulare, in the southern part of the San Joaquin Valley. I was greatly interested in what I found. My hopes were more than realized. Believing that our work will be permanent and fruitful, I bought, on my own responsibility, a lot, and contracted for the erection of a comfortable Mission-house, which having been put up with Californian speed, was dedicated on Monday, May 18. I could not myself be present at the service, but Rev. D. Goodsell, pastor of the Congregational Church, conducted it well. There were songs and Scripture readings by the pupils, an address by Ju Guy, the helper, giving in a brief and modest way his own religious experience; addresses also by Bro. Goodsell and by Rev. Mr. McMillan, of the M. E. Church; a collection which under the circumstances was quite generous; and finally a banquet which the pupils asked the privilege of providing for their friends.

VI. FRESNO.--My last visit was at Fresno, the largest and most promising town between Stockton and Los Angeles. Here I found fully 500 Chinese. Many more, doubtless, make their headquarters here. Ju Guy accompanied me from Tulare, and in about six hours found five of his countrymen who professed to be Christians. Three of these were Baptists from Oregon, one a Methodist and one a Congregationalist. All were ready to coöperate. The last one gave his name as Soo Hoo Foo, and said that about eight years ago he began to believe in Jesus, and united in San Francisco with our "Congregational Association of Christian Chinese." Soon after this he left the city, and ever since has been almost entirely destitute of Christian instruction and companionship. Yet he had not relinquished his purpose to follow Christ, and his heart warmed at once at the prospect of a mission in Fresno. Our school was started there May 1, and gives good promise of permanent usefulness. The teacher speaks in glowing terms about Soo Hoo Foo, believing that he might be trained for good service as a missionary. About this time will tell; but certainly our faith may well be strengthened and our hearts gladdened to see how the Good Shepherd knows and keeps His scattered lambs.

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BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.

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MISS D. E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.

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As the ladies interested in our Bureau of Woman's Work may wish to see the resolutions adopted by the representatives of the several woman's missionary societies at the meeting held in Saratoga June 4, we herewith print them:

_Resolved_, That we, the representatives of the several State women's home missionary societies present at the Saratoga meeting, entreat the women of all the States to form State societies, and add their contributions to those of the great national societies to carry on all branches of the missionary work in our own land, and to urge them also to make corresponding effort to increase intelligence in regard to home work.

_Resolved_, That a committee of three ladies be appointed to open correspondence with representatives in the different States where no societies now exist, and in all practicable ways to promote unity of interest and action in home work.

The committee appointed were:

Mrs. W. Kincaid, 483 Greene avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Mrs. C. A. Richardson, 123 Washington avenue, Chelsea, Mass.

Mrs. E. S. Williams, 1729 Eleventh avenue South, Minneapolis, Minn.

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THE PAPER MISSION.

This unique enterprise in missionary work was started three years ago by Miss Nancy Marsh, Providence, R. I. Miss Marsh writes:

"Our third year of labor among the freedmen has just closed. We have sent to about forty places 2,312 papers and pamphlets, 1,113 lesson papers, 1,006 lesson cards, 174 tracts, 393 Scripture cards, 109 Christmas and picture cards, 29 books of various kinds and 84 lithographs; 66 letters and postals have been written. A box was sent in October last to a pastor in Texas, with some articles of clothing, 'Barnes' Notes' and other books."

Miss Marsh has received many letters from the missionaries, gratefully acknowledging the help that the papers have been. One writes: "I wish you could step in and see the little ones in their several classes, how their eyes sparkle when the papers are given out." Another: "It did me good to feel that one whom I had never seen would interest herself in my work here in this isolated spot. I send you my sincere thanks." A pastor says: "Our new church was dedicated May 24. Our permanent existence began that day. The next Sabbath twenty joined our Sunday-school, and the Sunday following seven more. Nothing is so acceptable as your papers. Please send oftener, and more with pictures, as my school is largely made up of little ones."

The above are specimens of a great many letters that have been received by Miss Marsh. We should be pleased to give still further extracts from her interesting correspondence, but lack of space forbids. She is engaged in doing a good work, and she has the grateful appreciation of our missionaries in the field.

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INDUSTRIAL LETTER FROM LE MOYNE.