Part 1

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EDITORIAL.

ANNUAL MEETING—FINANCIAL, 215 PARAGRAPHS, 216 A GRADUATE AND A PORTER, 217 THINGS TO BE REMEMBERED—NO. 3, 220 DEATH OF REV. SIDNEY H. DALE, 221

THE SOUTH.

NOTES IN THE SADDLE, 222 HOWARD UNIVERSITY—FISK UNIVERSITY, 224 TALLADEGA COLLEGE, 226 TOUGALOO UNIVERSITY, 227 GREGORY INSTITUTE, 230

THE INDIANS.

CLOSING EXERCISES AT SANTEE NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL, 231

THE CHINESE.

IMPERIUM IN IMPERIO, 234

BUREAU OF WOMAN’S WORK.

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS, 235

RECEIPTS, 237

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NEW YORK:

PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.

Rooms, 56 Reade Street.

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Price, 50 Cents a Year, in Advance.

Entered at the Post-Office at New York, N.Y., as second-class matter.

American Missionary Association.

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PRESIDENT, Hon. WM. B. WASHBURN, LL.D., Mass.

_Vice-Presidents._

Rev. A. J. F. BEHRENDS, D.D., N.Y. Rev. F. A. NOBLE, D.D., Ill. Rev. ALEX. MCKENZIE, D.D., Mass. Rev. D. O. MEARS, D.D., Mass. Rev. HENRY HOPKINS, Mo.

_Corresponding Secretary._

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

_Associate Corresponding Secretaries._

Rev. JAMES POWELL, D.D., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._ Rev. A. F. BEARD, D.D., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._

_Treasurer._

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

_Auditors._

PETER MCCARTEE. CHAS. P. PEIRCE.

_Executive Committee._

JOHN H. WASHBURN, Chairman. A. P. FOSTER, Secretary.

_For Three Years._ S. B. HALLIDAY. SAMUEL HOLMES. SAMUEL S. MARPLES. CHARLES L. MEAD. ELBERT B. MONROE.

_For Two Years._ J. E. RANKIN. WM. H. WARD. J. W. COOPER. JOHN H. WASHBURN. EDMUND L. CHAMPLIN.

_For One Year._ LYMAN ABBOTT. A. S. BARNES. J. R. DANFORTH. CLINTON B. FISK. A. P. FOSTER.

_District Secretaries._

Rev. C. L. WOODWORTH, D.D., 21 _Cong’l House_, _Boston_. Rev. J. E. ROY, D.D., 151 _Washington Street_, _Chicago_.

_Financial Secretary for Indian Missions._

Rev. CHARLES W. SHELTON.

_Field Superintendent._

Rev. C. J. RYDER, _56 Reade Street, N.Y._

_Bureau of Woman’s Work._

_Secretary_, Miss D. E. EMERSON, _56 Reade Street, N.Y._

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COMMUNICATIONS

Relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the Corresponding Secretaries; those relating to the collecting fields, to Rev. James Powell, D.D., or to the District Secretaries; letters for “THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY,” to the Editor, at the New York Office.

DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

In drafts, checks, registered letters or post office orders may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.

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

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

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VOL. XLI. AUGUST, 1887. No. 8.

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_American Missionary Association._

The next Annual Meeting of the Association will be held at Portland, Me., Oct. 25th to 27th. Rev. A. J. F. Behrends, D.D., of Brooklyn, will preach the sermon. The friends in Portland have already begun preparations for the reception of the Association. Life Members, Delegates chosen by contributing churches, Local Conferences, State Associations and the National Council, constitute the Annual Meeting. So far as possible, the Portland churches will entertain those who attend. Those purposing to be present and wishing entertainment are requested to write to Rev. C. H. Daniels, Chairman of the Committee of Entertainment, or Rev. S. K. Perkins, Secretary, Portland, Me. Applications must be made before Oct. 1st. Special rates will be arranged at hotels for those who desire to pay their own way. Railroad and steamboat favors will be secured as far as possible, and notices of reductions and other matters will appear later in the magazine and in the religious press.

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We face an unpleasant fact. Receipts in July last year were a little over $42,000. This was unprecedented. It was owing to the special collection taken by the churches July 4th for the debt. Nevertheless, it became a part of our year’s work, and those heavy receipts entered into the total. There are now but two months remaining. Shall our total receipts be allowed to fall behind those of last year? At the end of June we were just about even with last year. But the outlook for July is not encouraging. However, we know that our friends have the money, and we do not believe they are going to allow us to fall behind. We ask them favorably to consider our request that they make a special effort to lift the watermark of our treasury at least as high as it reached last year, and, if possible, lift it up just a little higher.

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In conferring the degree of D.D. upon Rev. Henry Hopkins of Kansas City, and of LL.D. upon Gen. Sam’l C. Armstrong, Principal of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Williams College can hardly be said to have added any special distinction. The college honors itself fully as much as it does these, her honored sons, in thus receiving them within the circle of those marked by an expression of her distinctive regard. Both of them years before had justly won their spurs. The Christian public, a circle wider than any college, and not apt to be at fault in its judgment, either, has for years honored these men because of their works’ sake. We are glad, however, that Williams College, their Alma Mater, has been first to voice this wider public sentiment. The American Missionary Association congratulates the college in what it has done, because the one, Rev. Henry Hopkins, D.D., is an honored Vice President of the Association, and the other, Gen. Sam’l C. Armstrong, LL.D., is at the head of one of the schools founded and fostered by the Association, and still gloried in as a monumental evidence of the grand work in which it is engaged.

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We call the attention of our readers to Rev. Mr. Pond’s article, “Imperium in Imperio.” It is certainly a pathetic appeal to the Christian women of America from the heathenism that has come to us from China. It gives a new glimpse into our Chinese mission work, and emphasizes its importance. We venture the suggestion that this article would furnish interesting reading at ladies’ missionary meetings.

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Mr. Grady’s famous speech before the New England Society, if things keep going on at the South as they have been, is likely to become infamous. He asserted for substance that the South had come to recognize the fact that in the war the North was right, the South wrong, that the Negro has the fullest protection of our laws and the friendship of our people.

Recently, Rev. Leonard W. Bacon, who, strange to say, has been for some time pastor of the Independent Presbyterian Church of Savannah, Ga., preached to his people a patriotic sermon. He emphasized the importance of national patriotism. He eulogized Washington, Lincoln and Grant. He intimated that in the late unpleasantness the South was wrong. The result of all this was an excited congregation, an excited community, and the development of such hostility that Mr. Bacon will probably be forced to resign.

Just a little while before the above incident, a colored gentleman by the name of Council was refused permission to ride in a first-class car, though he had paid for and held a first-class ticket on the Georgia Central Railroad. Mr. Council laid his grievance before the Interstate Commerce Commissioners. Commissioner Bragg, of Alabama, happens to know the complainant, and this is the way he testified concerning him: “I know Council well. He is one of the brightest and best of our colored citizens. He is a stanch Democrat, and canvasses the State at every election for the Democratic ticket. He is not a man who desires to push himself forward because of any ambition to obtain social equality. He is modest and unassuming. He is a gentleman.” On another page, Field-Superintendent Ryder tells us of treatment received on a Georgia railroad by Rev. Wm. Sinclair, one of our missionaries. It is rather singular that these incidents happened in Georgia. Mr. Grady is the editor of the leading newspaper of that State. He ought to be able to testify as to its thought and feeling upon the great questions that grew out of the war. It seems to us that by this time he must begin to feel that his speech before the New England Society in New York was a most unfortunate affair. We shall be glad to find out what the New South is, but we shall not be willing to take Mr. Grady as an instructor. The question still remains: _Is_ there a New South?

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The Fifth Annual Convention of the Colored Teachers’ Association of Georgia was recently held in the House of Representatives Hall at Atlanta. Upwards of one hundred colored teachers formed what the local press called an “intelligent and decorous body.” The sessions continued for three days. The papers gave full reports of the proceedings. Much popular interest was taken. Many white people attended. The range of the discussions was wide. The science of teaching in all of its departments was introduced by papers and addresses, and evoked very general discussion. It was a convention of both interest and power. It was a demonstration, beyond all doubt, of the Negro’s intellectual capacity and of his willingness to use and improve it. One of our Atlanta teachers writing us about this convention says: “I wish our Northern friends could have attended it. I am sure, if they could have done so, those who are helping would want to help more, and those who never have helped would be stirred up to lend a hand in raising up a people, so many of whom have proven and are proving that they can be raised. Certainly those of us here on the field can but feel encouraged and strengthened to go on.”

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A GRADUATE AND A PORTER.

There appeared in an Atlanta paper a few days ago, a paragraph stating that a young Negro man of Atlanta, who had the best university education, was acting as a porter in a cotton room, and that all but two of his class, perhaps thirty, had dropped back into just such work as he was doing, and saying that perhaps a good deal of higher education was wasted.

This paragraph has been copied by a large number of papers and is likely to injure the cause of education among the colored people, and for this reason it seems necessary to call attention to the errors it contains.

The young man referred to has not a university education, but left school during his freshman year. He was not a member of a class of about thirty, although sometimes when his class recited with one in the normal department, the two combined probably reached about that number.

While he was junior preparatory his class numbered ten, and when he was college freshman, eleven. Of these eleven, three went through the course and were graduated. Two of these are teaching, one in Texas, and the other as principal of a school in Chattanooga. The third graduate is employed by a wealthy resident of Atlanta, at whose home he always has lived, as collector of rents, etc., and may be said to be “in business.”

So, instead of the young man in question having a university education, he did not finish his freshman year; instead of his being a member of a class of thirty, his class numbered only eleven; and instead of thirty falling from the sublime heights of university graduates to the low estate of porters in cotton houses, the three of that class who completed their college course are occupying the important positions mentioned above.

Unfortunately this instance of misrepresentation is not an isolated case, but one of a thousand of similar character. The statement that the graduates from colored colleges are all idle vagabonds, has become too stale to produce an impression any longer when made in the abstract.

Now what are the facts upon this point? Let the published list of graduates from the Atlanta University, with their occupations, answer.

This school has a classical course of study covering a period of seven years, for pupils who have completed the common English branches. From this have been graduated forty students in ten classes averaging four to a class. This university has also a normal course of four years, for admission to which the same is required as for admission to the classical course. From this have been graduated in thirteen classes one hundred pupils, averaging about eight to a class.

Of the forty graduates from the classical course, five are dead, eight are in the service of the U.S. Government, four are pastors of churches, one is a lawyer, two are in the theological seminary, one is engaged in business in Atlanta, and the remaining nineteen are teaching. None are unemployed and all are engaged in occupations in which considerable education is required, and a thorough one is desirable. It ought to be added that two of these graduates are professors in colleges, one is editing a respectable weekly newspaper, besides teaching, and one of those in the service of the Government has been promoted three times upon merit alone.

Of the one hundred graduates from the normal department, six have died, seventeen are keeping house for their husbands, one is in a medical school, one is pursuing a college course, one is a mail carrier, one is still living at home, one is a hired housekeeper, and the remaining seventy-two are teaching.

With reference to putting an education to a practical use, how many schools in the United States can show a better record?

It may be said that a thorough education is not required to fit a person for a government position, such as clerks in departments, postal route agents and letter-carriers. But if such an education enables one who has it to get from sixty to one hundred and thirty dollars a month instead of seventy-five cents a day in the city whenever he can obtain a job, or ten dollars a month and “rashuns” in the country, it becomes to him an eminently and interestingly practical thing. Even in the case of this young Negro porter, the gentleman under whom he works says he could hire some one else to do the same work for half his wages, but he prefers his services at the double cost. If three years of Latin and two and a third years of Greek and the mathematics that go with them double the value of the services of a colored youth, let us challenge studies that are usually considered more practical to show a better record and be careful how we speak sneeringly of higher education.

But are occupations for the fullest use of a higher education by colored people limited? They certainly are. A white pastor may minister to a colored church, a white teacher may instruct colored children, a white physician may prescribe for a colored patient, a white attorney may counsel for a colored client, a white mechanic may employ colored laborers, a white merchant may serve colored customers, but in none of these spheres does the rule work both ways except in a few rare instances. So the services of educated colored people in the professions and in business are confined to their own race, and in that they are crowded by their white competitors. Furthermore they are not welcomed to these higher walks of life even among their own people by their neighbors of the more powerful race; but the general and almost universal public sentiment is in favor of keeping them down. More than this, many of their own race prefer the services of white lawyers, physicians, ministers, teachers, mechanics and merchants.

Under all these adverse circumstances and others that might be named, it requires great courage and perseverance in a colored youth to complete a full course of study.

But should they be encouraged or dissuaded?

If the philosophy of civilization teaches anything it teaches that Nature intended that every man should make the most of himself, and every race should attain the highest possible development; and if Christianity teaches anything it teaches the same lesson. Unless some one knows for certain that the Negro is the descendant of Ham, and that the descendants of Ham have not yet served their time in hewing wood and drawing water, why not test the virtue of this rather queer theory by trying, on a small scale, the experiment of giving Negroes the opportunity of acquiring all the education their mental capacity is capable of receiving, and looking on to see what they will do with it, and what effect it will have upon the race, and not expect that every individual will be a success or achieve high place among men?

As the masses become enlightened the demand for well educated men and women must increase. The “cornfield preacher” who depends upon the “Sperrit” will step down and out, and the seminary graduate, with “Bible religion” will take his place. Thoroughly trained and equipped colored lawyers and physicians will conquer the prejudice that now exists among their own people against them, and will conquer it the more easily if they are better prepared for work than their white competitors. All this need not come about in one generation. We can transmit the work, with our faith and our hopes, as a legacy to our children.

But, however divergent the views of different people may be upon these questions, there certainly is no immediate occasion for a howl against the higher education of the Negro, for there is not enough of it to feed the flames of a respectable controversy. Only a fraction of the so-called universities south of Washington open to colored students have a collegiate course of study, and the entire number of graduates from such a course can be expressed by two ciphers and a small significant figure. What are a hundred or two of college graduates among six or seven millions of people? The shades of Hahnemann himself might echo the question.

T. N. CHASE, _in New York Independent_.

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THINGS TO BE REMEMBERED—NO 3.

_The Danger!_ Whatever of sentiment or of poetry may have appealed to the imagination in the work of foreign missions, has been pretty much dispelled by contact with foreign races at our own doors. We find that they are intensely human, and that the task of saving them is intensely real. The enchantment which comes of distance is simple commonplace and matter of fact when the object is near at hand. Hence the danger, now to be apprehended, is that of disgust, or of indifference. Indeed we are not sure that the feeling has not taken on a stronger form, and might not now be called hatred, or scorn. If it be not one of these, what name shall we give to the feeling towards the Chinese on the Pacific; towards the Indian, driven from his hunting grounds and chased to the death by our soldiery; towards the Negro, whipped and shot by midnight raiders, unprotected by the government he helped to save, and left in his ignorance, his poverty and his animalism by God’s people, on whom he is cast for enlightenment and elevation?

How shall we see the vastness and urgency of the work for these races with such repugnances and disgusts meeting us on the very threshold? Moral ideas are of slow growth, and churches and communities turn to new objects of sympathy and labor reluctantly and sluggishly. While we hesitate and wait, the probability is that things will take shape and pass beyond our control; or, at best, that we shall but _partially_ secure results which are now fully within our reach. At this moment the churches of America hold the key to the conquest of this world for Jesus Christ! Will they hold it a generation hence? Not unless they take advantage of their position to win these races to God before they are absorbed into the world, and are thus lost as a regenerating force with which to elevate the unsaved millions of mankind. Suppose, in our supineness, we see the Chinese driven back into heathenism; the Indian turned over to the soldiery for extermination, or a deeper barbarism; the Negro wrested from his rights, and unlifted from his passions, weaknesses and enthralments of mental and spiritual darkness: is there any reason to believe that the opportunity will ever return when it will be possible for us so completely to control, guide and mould them as we now can?

We are in jeopardy, therefore, of making the most fearful mistake in Christian ethics and in Christian practice. If these races pass from our hands uneducated and unsaved, the world will charge us with the commission of a crime against humanity itself. Now we can throw upon these fields, if we will, men enough to take possession of them in the name of Christ. Now, we can raise up _out of these races_ the laborers to carry our learning, our art, our faith, to all who speak the same tongue, and to all in whose veins bounds the same blood. To this work Providence manifestly calls us—to do it is to walk with God, we verily believe. But whether the churches see it, or _wish_ to see it; whether they are more ready to walk in their _own_ light than in the light which shines from heaven, I cannot answer. I can only say the sun shines, and we have the eyes to see. If we miss the Divine plan and method it will not be for lack of light, but the mistake will be none the less sad, and the misfortune to the world none the less direful, because the ages may not undo it. From such a peril may the good Lord save his people, and open their eyes that they may see!

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OBITUARY.

REV. SIDNEY HAMILTON DALE, pastor at Florence, Ala., died June 18th, and was buried at Talladega, June 25th.