Part 3

The exercises were held on Thursday evening, May 27th, in the church instead of in the hall, in order to get a larger room. It was needed, the largest number being present that were ever assembled within the walls of this beautiful building.

The exercises consisted principally of orations and essays by the members of the graduating class, interspersed with singing, all of which were rendered in a highly creditable manner. In addition to these were recitations by the school of the 23d Psalm, a Scripture catechism learned during the year, and a missionary colloquy beautifully rendered by girls from the different classes, representing, by their dress, many of the heathen nations.

Another and a very interesting feature of the evening’s entertainment, was a half-hour address by Rev. Geo. S. Smith, pastor of the Congregational Church, Raleigh, N.C. He was introduced to the audience as a colored man who had been trained in the A. M. A. schools, and a noble specimen he is, as an orator, as a scholar, and as a man. He chose for his subject, “Encouragement,” from which he delivered an address replete with sound practical thoughts and advice.

A better behaved, more attentive audience scarcely ever gathered than that at our Commencement. We feared that they might not like these exercises as well as those of the usual exhibition order, but many said this was the best exhibition we ever had. Everything passed off nicely, with nothing to mar the enjoyment of the evening.

As we looked at the people before us, we thought: “How could any one in this Christian land have ever said, ‘These niggers have no souls’; or, ‘You can’t educate a nigger to make anything of him’?” Even at this late day we hear these or kindred expressions. I tell you, friends, if you were thrown with this people as we teachers are, you would soon almost forget that they are colored. Please don’t forget that they are here to stay, 7,000,000 of them, and they need your help to rise from their despised, neglected condition. They are surely marching onward, but much, _very_ much, yet remains for the Christians of our land to do.

Our enrollment for the past year has been 285, but the average attendance has not been quite up to the usual mark, owing to sickness, “hard times,” etc. Death has entered the school, taking away two of the number, both youths of special promise.

Our workers have never been more untiring in their efforts to advance the cause of temperance and morality. A flourishing Band of Hope, taking in nearly every pupil in the three lower departments, has been doing its good work throughout the year. The society for the older ones, not strictly confined to the school, has also been doing its work. White Cross societies have been formed, and without doubt will prove of great help to their members. The Band of Mercy belonging to the First Primary Division should not be forgotten. The school prayer-meeting has been encouraging, and considerable time has been taken up in the study of the Scriptures.

GEO. A. WOODARD.

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THE INDIANS.

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CLOSING EXERCISES AT SANTEE NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL.

A beautiful feature of the Commencement season here at Santee was the communion service of last Sunday, at which time six young Indian men came forward from among their companions and publicly united themselves to God’s people! We call them boys, but they are not boys; they are old enough to realize the position they now occupy, and it has come to them only after the long, hard struggle which seems always to insure earnest lives for the future. Most beautiful of all was the baptism! Tears rolled down their cheeks as they bent for a blessing from the white man’s God and their God.

The eyes of the teachers, who had prayed and labored so earnestly for this very occasion, were filled to overflowing. Five different tribes were represented by these boys: Mandan, Ree, Assinaboine, Yanktonais and Titon. Two of the young men are the sons of chiefs still in their blankets, who, recognizing the great needs of their people, are urging their sons on to more earnest study, so that they may come back as missionaries to those who wait for them as for deliverers.

It would seem enough of an achievement that these scores of Indian boys and girls have been brought out of the superstition, the unbelief, the savagery of their tribes, into the customs, manners and religion of civilization, even if the work stopped there; but the three days following the communion Sabbath have shown such results in regard to a growth as well as change of mind, that to one seeing the work for the first time it is simply marvelous.

It is one thing to sit in an Eastern audience and listen to the most earnest recital of the needs of, and work among, the Indians, and to say, “O, yes, the needs are very great; the work is glorious; we fully understand your solution of the ‘Indian problem’; we agree with you and aid you!” (while in a day the needs are forgotten, and the work is overlooked). It is another thing to stand here on the ground and listen to the silent appeals of these hundreds of thirsty human souls—appeals that are all the stronger because of their utter helplessness. Another thing is it to stand and _behold_ the work already done, and the change already made! To see with our own eyes is to wonder and believe, in such a way that we can never forget. Would that all men might not only hear, but see!

On Friday, the 24th, began the yearly examinations of the Santee Normal Training School. Teachers and scholars were alive to the duties placed upon them, and the end of the seventeenth year found all active as ever. The recitations extended throughout Friday, Monday and Tuesday, and visitors from the Agency and surrounding towns were made welcome. The school-rooms, thrown open together, were well filled during most of the sessions. Especially interesting was the map-drawing and accompanying recitation by the older geography students. The recitation showed that an Indian may have as clear and correct an idea of the formation of this earth and its divisions into hemispheres, countries, etc., as any white boy. The maps were accurately and admirably drawn. The language lessons were novel, and showed good work on the part of the teachers. Stories were read to the students which they were asked to re-write in as good English as possible. The following from a boy brought into the school last fall, is a good illustration of the way in which they think and speak in English: “We get all our silk from a little creature called worm. The little creature is green color. She lay number of eggs and then died, and they have never seen their children and father.”

Music is by no means drudgery to the Indians. Passionately fond of it, they practice with patience, and the results have been more than satisfactory. Considering the lack of all discipline in their natures, the examinations this year, both in vocal and instrumental music, have been remarkable. Those thousands in the East who heard, last winter, the singing of the Santee quintette, can easily believe that this is true.

Gymnastics have been practiced as a means of teaching accuracy and quickness of thought. The precision acquired by the students shows that it has been a good discipline, and would do credit to any school.

The recitations in mathematics were good. The work in algebra deserves special mention. One thing is very evident in studying the school work here; that is, that while in everything requiring simple memory the Indian is fully equal to the white boy, perhaps more than equal, his reasoning faculties are much behind, on account of the lack of such faculties in the generations of his ancestors; so mathematical work requires patient plodding, month after month, for each step gained. There is very great need of such discipline among this people, and it is one of the most difficult things in this work of education and Christianization.

Twenty minutes were given on Monday to the workings of a model normal class in botany. It was most unique, carried on wholly by the advanced students. They showed clearly the most approved manner and methods not only of teaching, but also of learning. The whole was skillfully and understandingly done.

Tuesday evening was devoted to a literary entertainment. Space allows only of a word or two in regard to it. A former graduate of Santee, who is now one of its teachers, read an essay on “Civilization” well worth repeating. He began with the earliest known civilization before Christ; came down through the centuries with examples proving Christianity to be the mainspring of modern civilization, ending with a touching picture of the angels of God looking down upon this, the greatest nation of the world, and watching anxiously to see it turn a listening ear to the plea of the poor Indian for this very knowledge of God, which he realizes is his only salvation, his only path to the civilization for which he longs. Beautifully pathetic were the words in which he spoke of our common brotherhood and of the longing of his people for better things.

On Wednesday morning the exercises opened with a battalion drill, and later, time was given to an exhibition of the industrial work of the students. The blacksmith, carpenter and shoe shops held proof of good solid work on the part of the boys; while the needle-work of the girls and small boys was exceptional. The talent for free-hand drawing is very general among the Indians, and the collection of specimens was good.

The exercises closed on Wednesday evening with a social gathering in the large dining hall. There were present all the boys and girls of the school, the teachers, employees, and many visitors. Blanketed Indians mingled with the rest, and many nationalities were represented. It was a novel company, but all were happy and glad. With the close of the evening, Santee finished a successful year. Very early on Thursday morning nearly a score of the students were busy with preparations for departure. In the quiet of the dawn some of us heard the sound of music, most unusual at this hour; and one of the teachers venturing to the chapel, found the young men holding a meeting for prayer. It was their own idea; they had waked one another quietly for it. It was the surest safeguard against the temptations they were going out to meet. This single incident shows better than words the missionary spirit pervading the whole school. And so, to-day, with the departure of the students, goes out the gospel influence of Santee—far North into Canada, East into Minnesota, and West into Montana, never to diminish, but to grow and spread until the white man’s God shall be indeed the God of all the Indians.

What is true of the advance of the pupils of Santee is indicative of the advance of the whole people. There is surely a bright day coming for the Indian.

MRS. CHAS. W. SHELTON.

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THE CHINESE.

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IMPERIUM IN IMPERIO.

The story which I have to tell this month may startle our readers east of the Rockies, though the hard fact underlying it has long been known to us on this Pacific slope, and especially in San Francisco.

On Sunday, June 5th, among seven Chinese who were baptised and received to Bethany church, was one young woman about fifteen years of age. She was the second female Chinese received to our fellowship, for out of more than 120 of that nation whom I have baptised, all but two have been males.

This young woman is remarkably beautiful in person, pleasing in her ways, and interesting in character. Her father is in China. Her mother, quite in accordance, perhaps, with the moralities of Chinese heathenism, had taken to herself another husband for the time being, and had gone to Arizona to ply her trade, the nature of which I do not _certainly_ know, and therefore will not suggest. To raise funds she had _pawned_ this girl for $250, but had paid $100 on her debt. A very estimable Chinaman, not a professed Christian, but one of whom we have hoped much, knowing the parties and hearing that little Ah Yung was being harshly treated, advanced the balance of the debt and took possession of the child. He placed her in the family of our helper, Jee Gam. Thus she became known to the lady teachers in our Central Mission, one of whom went up-stairs each evening to the apartments occupied by Jee Gam’s family, to give her a lesson, and also (as always) to speak to her of Christ.

At first indifferent and even hostile, she softened at length, and began to wish that she might become a Christian. With this softening of the heart towards Christ, there rose, of course, an abhorrence and dread of the destiny which, according to heathen customs, awaited her. She did not, however, at first open her heart fully to her teacher, but said that she would like to earn some money, and to work for wages in some American family. A place was found for her which, as being a little remote from the city, was likely to be a safe refuge. But when the time for her removal came, unexpected obstacles were interposed. Jee Gam, while quite willing to have her go, felt that it would be neither honorable nor safe for him to deliver her to any one except the man who entrusted her to him; and this one shrunk from the responsibility of letting her go where it might be difficult for her mother to resume possession of her. Meanwhile the case became more urgent because of a report that her mother would soon be in San Francisco, for, with her arrival, all possibility of legal protection for the child would be gone. Miss Jessie S. Worley, the principal of our Central School, suddenly cut the knot by causing herself, with no one’s consent except that of the child, to be appointed her legal guardian, and she holds her under such protection now.

The day after Ah Yung’s baptism, I think it was, the mother appeared. Entreaties proving vain, she sought by other methods to bring her daughter under her own control, or else to get from some one the coin she was supposed to be worth; for such a girl, just budding into womanhood, in our Chinese matrimonial market, is said to be worth from $500 to $1,500. Last Saturday the Chinaman who had befriended Ah Yung appeared at my study. It was with great difficulty that he could maintain his self-control, though he is a man of strong and steady nerves. His lips quivered as he talked, and his athletic frame often trembled. The mother had appealed to the Six Companies, and his life was at stake. Since then, as I have been informed, a meeting of the representatives of the Six Companies has been held, and our friend was summoned to appear before them. He was given till to-day (June 17th) to restore the girl to her mother—an act entirely beyond his power. Meanwhile, the High-Binders were already on his track, and he scarcely feels safe even in Oakland and in his own employer’s house. He will probably be obliged to flee, perhaps to some point far East, for he will not be able, even if disposed, to surrender the dear child to the fate to which, in her mother’s hands, she would be doomed.

This has brought closer home to me than ever before the fact of an _imperium in imperio_ in our Chinese communities. It stirs one’s blood to think that this young man can make no effective appeal to our Government against this secret tyranny. It may very likely be that if he should be murdered, his murderer, if convicted, would be hung; but this is at best a cold and shadowy comfort in the present emergency.

“A good argument, this,” some one avers, “for hustling the whole brood out of the land!” But in so doing we should not help ourselves at all, and we should hustle them back into deeper darkness and severer cruelty. A good argument, rather, as it seems to me, for pouring in with intenser zeal and more practical endeavor, the life-giving, freedom-giving light of Christ.

W. C. POND.

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BUREAU OF WOMAN’S WORK.

MISS D. E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.

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Our matrons and teachers find much to interest them in studying the characteristics of the students as exhibited in their school life, and especially are they interested in following the students during vacations to their homes and among the people on the plantations. Witness the following extracts from the correspondence of one of our matrons:

I think you would be more surprised and delighted to make a tour of our Boys’ Hall, as I did one evening a few weeks before school closed, than to go through the Ladies’ Hall, because you might not expect so much of the young men. I must say, the absolute cleanliness, order and quiet that reigned as I went around in the time of evening study, was more than I expected.

Nearly every room had its pictures, every one its little case for books, some a window full of plants, and all the ordinary conveniences spick and span, with the beds beautifully made up. Some rooms, especially those of the apprentices, were full of ingenious little contrivances which they have made themselves, and so, of course, take double pleasure in. Their matron kept a diligent eye for something to criticise, and, sure enough, some of their books were wrong end up, and she asked the boys if they expected people to stand on their heads to read the titles.

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The comfort, convenience and neatness of our plain little rooms, where the girls, and equally the boys, are required to have “a place for everything, and everything in its place,” form by painful contrast one of the special trials of our young people when they go out to cabin life in their teaching and other vacation work.

After they have learned to love the new way, it is very hard for them to have no room to themselves, no facilities for bathing, and small chance to display the good taste they have learned to use in the arrangement and care of their personal belongings.

One of our older girls, who keeps a gem of a room here, felicitates herself on having a room to herself where she boards, even though tucked up and the walls full of other people’s clothes, a saddle, and sundries.

Another of our girls passing through her first experience of “going out,” wrote a wofully homesick letter, saying there was no place to hang up or lay down anything where she was staying; that her trunk had to go under her bed, and after she had made her morning toilet she couldn’t even find room to put down her comb and brush, but had to haul out her trunk and put them back into it. We expect to hear a more cheerful song after her school fills up and she becomes busy and interested, for she is really a very energetic girl, practical and positive. We have written advising her to get her brother, who is skillful with tools and teaches near enough to visit her on Saturdays, to put up some shelves and other conveniences in her school-room, to make that as homelike as possible, have her sewing there, and gather her girls in to learn to sew, crochet, etc., if practicable.

[This brother is one of our Biblical class, and already beginning to preach. He had a tramp of a hundred miles or so after school closed, looking for work for himself and others, back from the railway in the more inaccessible regions, where the schools are not snapped up so quickly. In writing of his search, he said: “I have had what some would call a hard time, but I have enjoyed it, and I _know_ that the Lord is with me.” Blessed assurance!]

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All the girls write, sooner or later, to their matron after going home. Some of the letters are rather amusing.

One harum-scarum little miss, who made no end of care when here, after being home a fortnight seems to have been visited with some sense of her shortcomings, and wrote: “If I live I am coming back in the fall, and try to be a better girl than I was before.”

She refers to the text of Scripture that had been given them all as a watchword, and says she often thinks of it; then, as if to confer a like benefit upon her kind friend, she opens her Bible at random and copies: “And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and wash himself in water that he may be clean.” After two or three more of similar tenor, she says: “Think of these verses as long as you live, and also of me,” and ends all by this new rendering of a familiar passage: “Be not overcome evil with good, but overcome good with evil.” Encouraging, isn’t it?

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RECEIPTS FOR JUNE, 1887.

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MAINE, $234.31.

Bangor. Hammond St. Cong. Ch. 76.98; Sab. Sch. of First Parish Ch., 14.32 $91.30 Bethel. Sab. Sch. of Second Cong. Ch. 11.00 Biddeford. Primary Dept. Sab. Sch. of Cong. Ch., _for Savannah, Ga._ 15.00 Blanchard. Cong. Ch. 5.00 Blue Hill. Mrs. H. W. Johnson, 1; Mrs. M. S. Mayo, 1 2.00 Brewer. M. Hardy (10 of which _for Pleasant Hill, Tenn._) 25.00 Castine. Mrs. C. M. Cushman, for _Tougaloo U._ 2.75 Gardiner. Ladies, _for Debt_. 4.65 Kennebunk. Union Ch. and Soc. 22.00 Lyman. Cong. Ch. 8.00 Machias. Center St. Cong. Ch., 6.70; “C. L.,” 5 11.70 Machias. Sara P. Hill’s Sab. Sch. Class, _for Indian M._ 1.25 Scarboro. Sab. Sch. of Cong. Ch. 10.25 South Berwick. Mrs. Lewis’ S. S. Class, _for Wilmington, N.C._ 1.50 Waterford. First Cong. Ch. 13.00 Winthrop. Bbl. and Box of C., _for Wilmington, N.C._; 1.91 _for freight_ 1.91 Yarmouth. Mrs. Reynold’s S. S. Class, _for Wilmington, N.C._ 8.00

NEW HAMPSHIRE, $374.79.