Chapter 2

Soon after dinner more than a score of students, mainly young men, with a few of our teachers, go out to seven different mission Sunday-schools, two of which are in our own tasteful chapels, others in country churches, and one in a private house, where they meet about 300 different pupils of all sorts, garbs and ages, but for the most part attentive listeners eager for instruction, as well as for the papers which Northern benevolence, through sundry boxes and barrels, enable us to supply. This mission Sunday-school work began with the first year of the College Church and has accomplished a large and growing good. Through these schools the college multiplies itself, carrying the Gospel, with opposition to tobacco and intoxicants, into needy places. These mission schools are a cordon of outposts surrounding the citadel. The most remote is five and a half miles away, and incidentally a good share of pluck is developed by those who, through cold or heat, mud or dust, regularly make their Sabbath day rounds.

Comparatively few are regularly in these mission enterprises. For those at home there is the quiet hour and prayer meetings, a gathering in the interests of purity or temperance--enough to employ the time to the early supper hour. After that comes the last public meeting of the day in the chapel, which for some time has been conducted by our Society of Christian Endeavor. The day is a full one, with large opportunities for personal growth and usefulness.

From a recent visit, I am able to write more fully of one of the meetings of the Young Men’s Christian Association. The hour was early, but the room was well filled. The leader took but little time and used it well. Prayers followed, with volunteer singing; other prayers, brief and earnest, and then a quartet sang a touching evangelical hymn. Seldom have I spoken to more attentive hearers than were furnished by these fifty young men. It was an inspiration to look into their faces and to feel that in a few years they would all be scattered, if they live, to the four quarters of the world and wielding a large influence among men. I could but hope that that influence would be for good. Many earnest prayers followed, and when an opportunity was offered three young men requested prayers. They were tenderly remembered. It seemed to me that some of these petitions had in them the fervor of Pentecost. Two young men were received into the Association, and when the hour was through I felt that we had been sitting together in heavenly places in Christ.

And now as a Roman could not end his speech without adding _Delenda est Carthago_, so I cannot close without saying that if this part of the world needs Christian schools, if Christian education is the hope of these regions, then Talladega College ought to be enlarged and endowed. Some who are giving themselves to this most blessed reconstruction wish that they had money to add also. May those who cannot come themselves send on supplies.

STORRS SCHOOL, ATLANTA, GA.

BY MISS ELLA E. ROPER.

We are so sure of your sympathy in our spiritual prosperity that I write you informally in relation to it.

Sunday, February 10, was a peculiarly happy one for us. In the morning we had studied together how the Saviour had set the little child in the midst. At the communion service following there was a large group of candidates for admission to the church, and then again were the children "in the midst." Eight were our present pupils; another, a last year’s graduate. Still another was a young man who came to renew his allegiance to the church of Christ. We wished that all interested in their welfare in years gone by could look upon them. Several of the younger people admitted became interested under the preaching of Mr. Moore over a year ago, and have stood to their post manfully ever since. The present severe weather causes much acute distress. A recent case had its humorous, as well as pathetic side. In the bitter zero weather of Friday’s blizzard a microscopic male beggar unfolded a doleful tale, as he basked in the warmth of the kitchen fire. He gave very unsatisfactory directions to his home, and we were unsuccessful that night in locating it. Early next morning he appeared again, and we made immediate preparations for running him to cover. As we started into the street he said hesitatingly, "Mother’s better now." "That’s good; run along." Presently, "She’s up and dressed now." "Run along," we admonished, and took care to keep our eyes upon him lest he vanish, since he was evidently trying to patch up a peace with his conscience. He presently darted within a cabin, and there we found a state of things to which he had hardly done justice, notwithstanding his remorse that his mother wasn’t exactly as he had represented her. A single stick of wood was wasting in the fireplace. Four children, smaller than the mite, were as near it as possible without being on it, eagerly scraping a tin dish with a spoon. A fifth, who had recently made the acquaintance of this world and its woes, was vigorously proclaiming his unfavorable opinion of it from the bed. "I cannot take him up in this cold," the mother explained.

I left them to see what could be done. On my return the last spark of fire had died upon the hearth. It was zero without and within. Our family of teachers had made up a sum sufficient for the present needs, however, and the family were soon made comfortable. At our last visit that day the room was warm, the baby was up, and evidently had changed his mind. As we were endeavoring to sort out and fit some garments, the mite (ten years of age, but apparently about eight) came to me, and, looking up with great solemnity, said, "If you want any work done, I’ll do it for you for nothin’." So you see there will be a man of business in that house as long as the mite lives.

We have our usual experience of pleasant classes in Storrs this year. The same families continuing with us, year after year, seem like our own. Our Junior Christian Endeavor Society, already quite large, received nine new members at the last business meeting, and is reaching out for more. Our industrial department is slowly working in the direction of a modest exhibit at the coming Atlanta Exposition, and doing considerable toward clothing the needy with plain garments.

ANDERSONVILLE, GA.

MISS M. E. WILCOX.

Thank you ever so much for the Hand Fund, I feel quite rich with it. These children are willing to work and the parents are glad to have them do so. They know very little about doing things properly, and the teaching which they have in industrial work may do them as much good as their books, but if you count that, then I am teaching from eight o’clock to five.

You may wish to ask if we feel isolated and lonely. No, we are too busy for that. The scholars begin to come on the grounds before we are through breakfast, and we don’t have time to wish for other company. You ask how I find things. One can’t find out everything in two months, but as far as I can judge it is as needy a field as we have heard about.

Of course the best work cannot be done in school until we can have another room, but now scholars come four or five miles, cross creeks on logs, or, when the water is too high, their folks bring them across the water and they walk the rest of the way.

So far, the parents find no fault with the governing at school. One girl had troubled me by laughing and playing, and I told her at noon if she couldn’t study more she would better stay at home and work. Somebody told her mother what was said, and the stepfather came down and begged me to keep her, said that they couldn’t read and write and needed to have her know how, that they would attend "stricter" to her, that she would behave better when they were through with her, etc. I consented to keep her and she confided to Jennie, when she came to school, that she had had four switches "wore out" on her that morning.

Everybody is very poor, of all races, and what is more discouraging they don’t know how to improve their condition. This year the Christmas freeze spoiled almost all their vegetables, and they lost all their melon crop last year, and the cold two or three weeks ago froze what garden things were started; what they are to live on till crops grow is not visible. The children evidently think our washbasins and soap and towels a great luxury, for they scrub and rub at every opportunity.

We are putting out flowers and trees and planting grass in the yard to make it more comfortable looking, the grass, partly to prevent the water from washing off so much. The church lot is higher than that of the house and in a heavy rain the water pours down on our lot, but I think we can stop it in part at least. Our "home" is an "unmixed" blessing. I don’t know how we could get on here without a pleasant resting place, and the people watch everything we do and everything we have.

THE INDIANS.

ITEMS FROM INDIAN MISSIONS.

SECRETARY C. J. RYDER.

At Santee Industrial School and Mission in Nebraska they have suffered a sad bereavement. The place left vacant by Mrs. Frederick B. Riggs, who has just been taken away from the loving circle of missionary workers at this station cannot be filled. Her absence will be much more than the loss of one faithful missionary. She was the life, the light and the inspiration of any circle in which she moved. The brief tribute in another column to her memory calls attention to her wide usefulness. When we met in the Mission Council last year at Oahe, S. D., Mrs. Riggs’s bright and confident faith lifted up all our hearts bowed down as they were by discouragement in view of the vast work to be accomplished and the retrenchment in funds. All who were present at this Council will remember how sure she was that light would come after the darkness, and that joy would come in the morning. There has come to her the richest, fullest light and joy of the better country. When we meet at the Council this year we shall be the richer for her strong faith and the abiding presence of her self-sacrificing love.

Santee Industrial School, through the rigid economy of Dr. Riggs and his faithful assistants, has enrolled more pupils than the appropriation permitted. Notwithstanding this, hundreds have been turned from the school because the funds were not sufficient to furnish them Christian instruction.

From Oahe comes the report that Rev. T. L. Riggs is gradually recovering the use of his eyes. Rev. James F. Cross, of Rosebud, has been assisting Brother Riggs during his sore affliction.

We are sometimes asked whether the hospital at Fort Yates is now in operation. It is not. Last year, by special solicitation, additional funds were gathered sufficient to conduct the hospital for one year. This was done. A hospital plant is always expensive, as it involves the salary of a trained physician and an assistant, together with medicines and other supplies. This year the funds have not come in outside of current receipts sufficient to provide for the expenses of the hospital, and it is, therefore, closed. This is to the serious loss of the religious work. Word comes from the prairie that the Indians, women and children especially, mourn sorely the loss of this hospital and the considerate and skillful care of our faithful physician.

Miss M. P. Lord, whose address at the annual meeting in Lowell attracted so general interest, remained in the East for some weeks presenting the Indian work to the churches, Christian Endeavor Societies and women’s missionary societies. Her work was confined to New England. She remained as long as it seemed wise for her to be absent from the pressing duties of her mission, to which she has now returned.

The following letter was recently received from her.

"IN THE LAND OF THE DAKOTAS, LITTLE EAGLE’S VILLAGE, March 25, 1895.

"During the past week I have been twice down the river to Flying By’s Village to attend their mid-week prayer meeting and Sunday morning service, and also to the Agency. My people seem to be active and earnest. Some of them are thinking they had better enlarge the little building they put up last year. A number of the people there are learning, teaching each other to read; and they are asking for a women’s missionary society to be formed there. Catch-the-Enemy, who is active in the young men’s society, said to me the other day that there were fifteen members at Flying By’s Village. Their quarterly dues are ten cents, but the others have nothing with which to pay, and so he paid them all.

"David, dear, good, gentle David, was here to-day from Thunder Hawk’s. I judge that he is getting on well there. As a teacher, I think he can not but be a success, he is so gentle, patient and good, and bright, too. A week ago we had a pleasant little visit from Mr. Reed over Sunday."

From this letter it will be seen that large opportunities are opening at this Indian mission, and most hopeful results are already being gathered. The Christian Indians are more and more realizing their own responsibility for carrying on Christian work, and are meeting it bravely. They are also responding to appeals for gifts to missionary work outside of their own tribes with self-sacrificing devotion. The collection of the Pilgrim Church at Santee, mentioned in the April magazine, increased to $241. This was to meet the debt on the treasury of the American Missionary Association.

Miss Collins, so well known to our readers, is now in the East in behalf of these needy Indian missions. Before leaving the prairies, she visited Oahe and Santee, and various missions aside from her own, that she might have the most recent information of the whole field. The object of her coming is to give the information, which she possesses so thoroughly, to the people and so stir them up adequately to support this field of Indian missions which is suffering so painfully for the lack of funds. There can not be any further retrenchment of the Indian work if it lives at all. It has been cut down two years in succession, and greatly suffered. Further curtailment would mean crucifixion.

MRS. ADELAIDE RIDEOUT RIGGS.

A beautiful life has gone out from our work, taking from it one who was loved and admired by the Indian people as well as by her fellow-workers.

Mrs. Riggs was born in 1867 in Dorset, Vt., graduating in 1887 from the Western Reserve Seminary, and after spending two years in Bradford Academy, Mass., she came as a teacher to the Santee School, Nebraska, where she made herself exceedingly useful and was afterward employed by Dr. Riggs as his secretary. In 1893 she was married to Mr. Frederick B. Riggs and took a trip with him upon the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Reservations, camping out and sharing the hardship of such travel. Failing health led to the employment of the best medical advice, and in November, 1894, she went to New Mexico to escape the rigors of the climate of Nebraska, where it seemed impossible that she could live through the winter. But in spite of all that could be done, Mrs. Riggs passed away March 12, 1895. She was admirably fitted for her work and full of enthusiasm for it. It seemed as if her usefulness had just begun, but God had prepared her for another and more glorious field.

The funeral service of Mrs. Riggs was held on Sunday afternoon, March 24, at Santee, Neb. The simple exercises were conducted by Rev. Mr. Dwin, Superintendent of the Government School, and Pastor Ehnamani. The latter is the venerable Indian pastor of the church at Santee. He referred feelingly to Mrs. Riggs giving her life to the work among his people and of her desire to be buried among those whom she loved.

AN INDIAN HELPING NEEDY WHITES.

The Indians have shown themselves full of sympathy, giving what they could spare of their annual issue of flannel, cloth, etc., from the Government. One of the native pastors, Mr. Francis Frazier, told that on his way here from his home at the Rosebud Reservation, he found at the homes of all the white families great need of food. He started with a good supply for the trip, but he left some at each white man’s home that he passed on the way. We have no conception of this suffering. The weather has been very mild compared with last year, which has been a great blessing to these poor people. What trust in God it needs to live through such extremities!

THE CHINESE.

STREET PREACHING IN CHINATOWN.

REV. W. C. POND, D.D.

Our brother Loo Quong writes from Fresno as follows: "I cannot help telling you about the interest we have taken in the street preaching here in Chinatown, and the interest of the Chinese who have attended our meetings from Sunday to Sunday. It was a beautiful sight to see the great big crowd of interesting faces, to hear us sing the songs of praise to the Almighty God, and to hear the preaching of the sweet gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who loves the Chinese as well as all mankind.

"I have taken more interest in my preaching on the streets in this city than anywhere else, because I could get more help to sing with us. Besides, our people here seem to be more interested in such meetings than anywhere else. We begin at 12.30 p.m. After a few hymns were sung a loud prayer was offered to our God and Master by Wong Gow. Then I mounted the chair and preached for half an hour. Then a hymn was sung, and Brother Wong Gow took the chair and preached another twenty minutes to the big and interested crowd. After this another hymn was sung. A young American boy who was a true Christian happened to pass along there, and made a stop to see what was going on. After he found out he too mounted the chair and gave the crowd a few cheerful words. Then we closed with the song: ’Are you Washed in the Blood,’ (in Chinese I suppose: W. C. P.) following this with the Lord’s Prayer in Chinese. During all this time there was not one ever did move away from the big crowd, but rather new-comers swelled it larger and larger. There were a great many Americans in it too, and they all seemed to be interested. I am sure that a great many of the Chinese hearts, at least, were touched by the preaching of the Gospel to-day. May the Lord, help them to understand it more clearly!

STREET PREACHING IN FRESNO.

"I believe that the street preaching has become the most important part of the missionary work in this State. For nowadays, with the Chinese, things are not like those of ten or fifteen years ago, when we could get a great many Chinese into our schools to be taught English, and so the Gospel times are getting harder for them in this country every day, and they are growing old, and therefore they have more cares in their hearts and so lose interest in study. I have tried this many times. When I succeeded to get them in for one, two, three, or four nights, they are not interested and do not come again, and when urged to do so, they offer some kind of excuse. So we must take the street meetings as the main point to fight sins, to sow the seeds, and use the schools as our reapers."

And so Loo Quong goes on to urge me to stir up the street preaching at all our missions, which thing I was and have been forward to do, even without urging. I believe he is right in saying that while we cannot dispense with the schools--indeed the whole work without these would be unorganized and fruitless--yet for "sowing the seed," for reaching those who are far off, we must depend on street preaching. The English primer has largely lost its power as a bait for the gospel hook. We must do our fishing for men on other lines.

Accordingly I am pressing our Chinese Christians into this work, and am providing them with cards printed in Chinese, on which they can sign their names to the simple statement: "I like the Jesus’ doctrine. I would be glad to study it. The preacher may call to see me at ----."

The reverse side of the card contains the location of the mission house, names of teacher, helper, etc. The intent is that no one willing to listen to the word of life as uttered in private and personal conversation, should fail to be found and to be urged to take his stand with the followers of Christ. We wish to follow up the public service with effective private and personal preaching.

Two of our Chinese brethren at Fresno are to be baptized and welcomed to the Church to-morrow.

Let no one imagine that street-preaching is a new feature of our work. We have practiced it on all our fields, and ever since we had Chinese Christians capable of doing it. But it has not been attended to as regularly and with as careful preparation: it has not been made a constant and prominent element of our missionary service, as with God’s help I mean to make it hereafter.

A friend writing from Santa Barbara says of Yong Kay: "For some time God has been laying the burden of Chinatown upon his mind and heart. He said that he ought to be like Paul--go to those who have not heard the Gospel. So, with some singers from the church, he has gone into their street on Sunday afternoons and held open-air services. A crowd has gathered, attracted by the singing, and Yong Kay has preached to them in Chinese. Those who were interested the first time came again yesterday, and one could tell by their earnest faces that they were _taking in_ the thought of the speaker. It was a touching scene; and not less touching, perhaps, that little group at the mission house about to start for the preaching place, as Yong Kay gathered us about him and said: ’We will have a short prayer.’ He went in the strength of the Lord, and he will doubtless come again, bringing his sheaves with him."

Mrs. Davis, our teacher at San Bernardino, writes likewise: "We had a song and preaching service in Chinatown last Sabbath, and the effort was most gratifying. About forty Chinese gathered and listened with the utmost interest, as you could see by their very earnest faces and close attention. We plan to have these services regularly if Gin Foo King can be continued with us. The longer I work with these people the more my heart goes out to them in their sad condition, out of Christ."

BUREAU OF WOMAN’S WORK.

MISS D. E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.

CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR IN THE BLACK BELT.

BY C. E. L.

One hundred and twenty-five happy black faces with eager eyes and glistening white teeth; one hundred and twenty-five little boys and girls marching into the schoolroom to go forth as Junior Endeavorers; thus began our society this morning.

How anxious we were to have the very best one of our number for president, and to choose wisely the lookout committee and the prayer-meeting committee! For a whole week we had been thinking just whom we would choose. The neatest and most careful writer was chosen secretary, the best singers were placed on the music committee, those whose mothers have beautiful gardens were placed on the flower committee; five of the very cheeriest of all these cheerful boys and girls make up the sunshine committee. Perhaps these children do not yet understand clearly the duties of the various officers, but the organization means something to them, and they are very careful not to do things unworthy of Christian Endeavorers.

This society is the outgrowth of the Wednesday morning prayer-meeting. The meeting this morning was unusually interesting. Our topic, "For what are you thankful?" we took from the GOLDEN RULE. We did find many things to be thankful for, so many, in fact, that the privileges we do not enjoy seemed to sink into insignificance.