Chapter 3

Our church and women's missionary organization have cheerfully contributed from exceedingly scanty means to all the branches of our Congregational work. While our school on account of the reduced appropriations has been reduced to forty-two pupils, our further outstation among the Mandan people, which for two years has been closed, has this fall been reopened, and one of the lady missionaries is already living among them in her little log house. Shall I speak of the needs of our school boys and girls? You patient mothers know so well what are the needs of forty-two play-loving active children, who wrestle, play football, tag, jump rope and barbed wire fences; and the needs of Indian boys and girls are nearly identical with those of the same number of white children.

I think I have never yet heard an Indian Christian man or woman offer a prayer in which I have not heard this petition, "Oh Father in Heaven bless all the white people who love us and send us these teachers to tell us of God's ways." Shall we not return their grateful thought, by loving prayers, generous and sympathetic interest and every practical aid?

* * * * *

EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESS BY MISS HELEN S. LOVELAND.

I have come to tell you something of Orange Park, the town, the school established there, and the trouble connected with it. The village is situated on the west bank of the St. John's River, which at that point is a beautiful expanse of water three miles wide. Nature has been very prodigal in that section. The trees and plants are of a luxurious growth. Flowers are numerous. Every kind of fruit is plentiful. Because of these natural advantages, general climate and apparent fitness for orange growing, a Northern settlement was made. The people were from various Northern States. The principal industry was orange growing.

Five years ago when the Association was looking for a favorable place in Florida in which to locate a school, attention was drawn to this town. The place was selected because of its healthful situation and beautiful surroundings. The people in the town were anxious such a school should be established. To secure this the town voted the Association a considerable tract of land on which to build, and in addition a large wooded park. This was done with the understanding that all children in the town should be allowed to attend school.

The buildings belonging to the institution are a church, in which both white and colored people worship together; the Girls' Hall, in which the girls, teachers and matron live; in the rear of this, connected by a passage way, is the dining-room and kitchen; next, to the west, is the school building, containing the chapel, study room and recitation rooms; yet farther to the west of this is the Boys' Hall, in which the principal and his wife live, in charge of the boys. Back of the two last mentioned buildings is the shop where the boys do the industrial work.

The school has entered upon its fifth year. It has grown steadily and surely. The work done has been thorough and of a high grade. Up to the present time there have been in all 252 pupils connected with the school. There have been five teachers aside from the music, sewing and manual training teachers, principal and matron.

The students are instructed in the common school branches. The work in the normal grades is designed to prepare them for teaching. The girls have classes in sewing, are taught to care for their rooms, and each one does her own laundry work. A certain amount of time, whether in the dining-room, halls, kitchen or laundry, is required. In this plan there are two objects; to aid the pupils in paying their school expenses and to teach them the arts of housekeeping. Each boy is required to give especial care to his room. A certain amount of work is also required of them. It consists of yard work, carrying mail, sweeping school buildings, attending to the lamps, etc.

When there have been white boarding pupils they have had separate rooms and a separate table in the common dining-room.

Bible lessons are given twice a week by the pastor. A school prayer meeting is held every Thursday afternoon in the school chapel. In this meeting the majority of the pupils take part, and much interest is shown. The Christian Endeavor, however, is the most enthusiastic meeting in which the students engage. It is held in the chapel of the church, and attended by both town people and the school. The colored students have shown themselves efficient committee workers and leaders. There have been several conversions in the society, and there is great reason to be encouraged. It is in this field that personal work is needed and is effective. So the school is educating the pupil in different lines, industrial, intellectual, and religious.

Last May the Governor of Florida signed a bill, now well known, framed by Superintendent Sheats, of the State Educational Department, which was aimed directly at the Orange Park school. What Mr Sheats' real intentions are in regard to the colored race is but too plain. One can but perceive, if his policy is followed, that their education in Florida practically ceases. During the last session of the Florida Legislature he requested it to enact a law prohibiting any others than negroes from teaching schools for negroes, except in normal instruction in institutes and summer schools. This did not become a law, but it was not the superintendent's fault.

Last May in Lake County only nine candidates obtained certificates. There were sixty-seven schools to be supplied with teachers. This closed the schools. During last year one hundred and sixteen schools in the State, mostly colored, for the want of teachers were not held at all. A county official remarked that this examination law would probably "result in retiring nearly or quite all the colored teachers in a few years." Such a law "is a barbarous souvenir to make the country remember its bloody dealings with its black brother." "Though slavery is dead, its spirit yet lives; 'the serpent's head is crushed, but his tail still writhes, and sometimes it lashes out spitefully.'" We who are engaged in teaching in Orange Park are glad that the American Missionary Association is to test, and is already testing, the validity of this law. In contesting this law aimed at the Orange Park school, the Association takes up a question which has arisen before, but has never been settled. Theoretically, in the United States all men, whether white or black, enjoy equal civil liberties; practically, in the South, they do not. If the law is found to be unconstitutional, that will go a long way in establishing equal liberties for all.

Meanwhile the school continues as before. The school and the Association need your assistance. The great work before the Association requires both the money and the prayers of the Christian people.

* * * * *

ADDRESS OF MRS. HARRIS,

GRADUATE OF FISK UNIVERSITY, NASHVILLE, TENN.

Miss Emerson has invited me to say a few words to this meeting in behalf of the women of my own race. As I have sat here and listened to the helpful and sympathetic words which have been spoken, I have felt that I bore upon my heart the burden of gratitude of all the negro women in the South, certainly of all the women and girls who have been under the influence of such schools and such teachers as the American Missionary Association has supplied. I do wish that I could show you enough of the need and tell you enough about the results to encourage you in the magnificent work you are doing for womanhood, wifehood and motherhood among us. My own father, years ago, studied for a time in Fisk University before it was really Fisk University; my mother's people, her brothers and sisters, also studied in Fisk University, so they were very anxious that their children should be in the same institution. For that reason, as it meant a good deal out of the family purse to board three or four children in such an institution as that, eight or nine years ago the family moved from a little town in the northern part of Kentucky to Nashville. We were reared in a quiet Christian home and early placed in Fisk University.

I did not have an opportunity to come into personal contact with the class of colored people who make up the great mass in the South until after I had left school and gone to a little town in western Tennessee to teach. There I was placed in charge of the young women in the boarding department, and I sought to come most intimately in contact with their lives. Many of these young women came straight from the cotton plantations, and, although they could not sing and play as well as we who had been at Fisk, many of them boasted that they could handle a plow as well as a man. We undertook mission work in connection with the circle of King's Daughters which I organized among the girls, and the condition of the people as we found it in the two years I was there among the poor negroes of the city was very painful to me. Very often I came in from my visits in the poorer districts and closed the door of my room, feeling that I must leave it all to the Saviour, it seemed so discouraging and so much more than we could do. We found, among other things, that we needed to teach the women the most common and necessary habits of life, how to put the children to bed, how to feed and clothe them. Yet I would say that it is through the students of such schools as Fisk University that the Northern teachers whom you send to us can hope to reach the masses of our colored people. We get the life from our Northern teachers and then the great mass of the colored people look to us for it, for we can get into the home and into the life of the people as they cannot. And we begin to feel the responsibility; we begin to realize how much the race depends upon the mother and the sister and the wife. We begin to realize that we as negro women must be especially alive to the quickening influence of all that is noble and grand and true. We realize that we are indeed

"Living in a grand and awful time, In an age on ages telling, To be living is sublime."

* * * * *

EXTRACT FROM ADDRESS OF MRS. WOODBURY.

Our eyes and our ears have been greeted during the last few days by those initial letters, "A. M. A.," and we have perhaps got a new meaning which was hinted at yesterday morning, "A Master Artist," because the American Missionary Association takes the black clay and transforms it into the immortal soul. But I like best of all the meaning given to the letters by a little boy who had just begun to study Latin. With that air of ownership which we are so apt to see in the boys and girls who have just begun the study of a new language, he came to his mother and said, "Here it is: A. M. A.--_AMA._, Love thou them." I like better than all the meaning given inadvertently by that little boy, because it seems to me that the American Missionary Association, working as it does among the poor and oppressed classes, striving to weld into one common brotherhood the black, the white, the red and the yellow, is the best exponent we have here in our own country of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and of that self-sacrificing love which brought Christ into the world to die for the rich and the poor, the high and the low, the black and the white alike. So it is entitled to write on all its literature and emblazon on its shield those cabalistic letters, "A M A"--"Love thou them."

I will not try to add to facts or multiply incidents. Here we have before us this great problem: ten millions of our people, one-sixth of our whole body politic, sunk in the depths of superstition, ignorance and sin. We may shut our eyes to this problem; we may ignore it; we may say it has been exaggerated; we may even say it does not exist. You and I in our quiet homes may not hear the mutterings or the moanings of these ten million souls in bondage; but their cry goes up to Him who in mankind's first morning uttered those two burning questions which have ever since determined the standard of the Christ spirit in humanity: "Where art thou?" "Where is thy brother?"

We are to make of these ten million people God-fearing, intelligent citizens. We are to leaven this mass of humanity with the leaven of the school and of the church, and, so doing, make of these two million whites, these stanch, stalwart Anglo-Saxon men, and of these eight million loyal, affectionate, docile negroes, all American-born citizens--we are to make of them a bulwark which shall resist the oncoming tide of socialism, anarchism and of atheism, which is trying to overwhelm our American institutions, rob us of our public-school system, profane our Sabbath and snatch the scepter from our fathers' God.

And how is this to be done? How is this problem to be solved? By just such work as this of the American Missionary Association, which has abundant facilities, plenty of energy, wisdom and experience, and even the consecration necessary for the great work before it--everything but the money. And where is the money coming from? The money is coming from the churches. How do we know? Because the American Missionary Association was born in the churches, is the child of the churches, was sent forth from the churches with the benediction and prayers and blessings of the churches to carry out the policy adopted by the churches. The Church will not forsake its own.

And this is our work. It is not the abolition of races, but the recognition of brotherhood. This is the work which Christ has given us to do; and if we would solve this negro problem, and all the thousand and one problems which are ever vexing the life of our free Republic, we must solve them by the principles of the Golden Rule and the democracy of the Lord's Prayer. It is not sufficient for us to stand with Thomas and say in rapt admiration, "My Lord and my God." Side by side with our black brother and with our white brother, with our yellow brother and with our red brother, we are to kneel and say, not "My Lord and my God," but "Our Father," and the spirit of common prayer to a common Father whom we have not seen will bind our hearts in closer brotherhood to those whom we have seen, and we will rise from our knees to carry out the principles of the Golden Rule.

* * * * *

WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS

MAINE.

WOMAN'S AID TO A. M. A.

_State Committee_--Mrs. Ida Vose Woodbury, Woodfords; Mrs. A. T. Burbank, Yarmouth; Mrs. Helen Quimby, Bangor.

NEW HAMPSHIRE.

FEMALE CENT. INSTITUTION AND HOME MISS. UNION.

President--Mrs. Cyrus Sargeant, Plymouth. Secretary--Mrs. John T. Perry, Exeter. Treasurer--Miss Annie A. McFarland, Concord.

VERMONT.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. J. H. Babbitt, W. Brattleboro. Secretary--Mrs. M. K. Paine, Windsor. Treasurer--Mrs. Wm. P. Fairbanks, St. Johnsbury.

MASS AND R. I.

[A]WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.

President--Mrs. C. L. Goodell, 9 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, Mass. Secretary--Mrs. Louise A. Kellogg, 32 Congregational House, Boston. Treasurer--Miss Annie C. Bridgman, 32 Congregational House, Boston.

CONNECTICUT.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Miss Ellen R. Camp, 9 Camp St., New Britain. Secretary--Mrs. C. T. Millard, 36 Lewis St., Hartford. Treasurer--Mrs. W. W. Jacobs, 19 Spring St., Hartford.

NEW YORK.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. Wm. Kincaid, 483 Green Ave., Brooklyn. Secretary--Mrs. Wm. Spalding, 511 Orange St., Syracuse. Treasurer--Mrs. J. J. Pearsall, 230 Macon St., Brooklyn.

NEW JERSEY.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION OF THE N. J. ASSOCIATION.

President--Mrs. A. H. Bradford, Montclair. Secretary--Mrs. R. J. Hegeman, 32 Forest Street, Montclair. Treasurer--Mrs. J. H. Dennison, 150 Belleville Ave., Newark.

PENNSYLVANIA.

WOMAN'S MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. J. W. Thomas, Lansford. Secretary--Mrs. C. F. Yennie, Ridgway. Treasurer--Mrs. T. W. Jones, 511 Woodland Terrace, Philadelphia.

OHIO.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. Sydney Strong, Lane Seminary Grounds, Cincinnati. Secretary--Mrs. J. W. Moore, 836 Hough Ave., Cleveland. Treasurer--Mrs. G. B. Brown, 2116 Warren St., Toledo.

INDIANA.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. W. A. Bell, 223 Broadway, Indianapolis. Treasurer--Mrs. A. H. Ball, Dewhurst.

ILLINOIS.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. Isaac Claflin, Lombard. Secretary--Mrs. C. H. Taintor, 151 Washington St., Chicago. Treasurer--Mrs. L. A. Field, Wilmette.

MISSOURI.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. Henry Hopkins, 916 Holmes Street, Kansas City. Secretary--Mrs. E. C. Ellis, 2456 Tracy Ave., Kansas City. Treasurer--Mrs. K. L. Mills, 1526 Wabash Ave., Kansas City.

IOWA.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. T. O. Douglass, Grinnell. Secretary--Mrs. H. H. Robbins, Grinnell. Treasurer--Miss Belle L. Bentley, 300 Court Ave., Des Moines.

MICHIGAN.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. J. M. Powell, 76 Jefferson Ave., Grand Rapids. Secretary--Mrs. C. C. Denison, 132 N. College Ave., Grand Rapids. Treasurer--Mrs. E. F. Grabill, Greenville.

WISCONSIN.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. E. G. Updike, Madison. Secretary--Mrs. A. O. Wright, Madison. Treasurer--Mrs. C. M. Blackman, Whitewater.

MINNESOTA.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Miss Katherine W. Nichols, 230 East Ninth Street, St. Paul. Secretary--Mrs. A. P. Lyon, 17 Florence Court, S. E., Minneapolis. Treasurer--Mrs. M. W. Skinner, Northfield.

NORTH DAKOTA.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. W. P. Cleveland, Caledonia. Secretary--Mrs. Silas Daggett, Harwood. Treasurer--Mrs. J. M. Fisher, Fargo.

SOUTH DAKOTA.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. A. H. Robbins, Bowdle. Secretary--Mrs. W. H. Thrall, Huron. Treasurer--Mrs. F. H. Wilcox, Huron.

BLACK HILLS, SOUTH DAKOTA.

WOMAN'S MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. J. B. Gossage, Rapid City. Secretary--Mrs. H. H. Gilchrist, Hot Springs. Treasurer--Miss Grace Lyman, Hot Springs.

NEBRASKA.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. D. B. Perry, Crete. Secretary--Mrs. H. Bross, 2904 Second Street, Lincoln. Treasurer--Mrs. James W. Dawes, Crete.

KANSAS.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. F. E. Storrs, Topeka. Secretary--Mrs. George L. Epps, Topeka. Treasurer--Mrs. E. C. Read, Parsons.

COLORADO.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. E. R. Drake, 2739 Lafayette Street, Denver. Secretary--Mrs. Chas. Westley, Box 508, Denver. Treasurer--Mrs. B. C. Valantine, Highlands.

WYOMING.

WOMAN'S MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. P. F. Powelson, Cheyenne. Secretary--Mrs. J. A. Riner, Cheyenne. Treasurer--Mrs. H. N. Smith, Rock Springs.

MONTANA.

WOMAN'S MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. O. C. Clark, Missoula. Secretary--Mrs. W. S. Bell, 410 Dearborn Ave., Helena. Treasurer--Mrs. Herbert E. Jones, Livingston.

IDAHO.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. R. B. Wright, Boise. Secretary--Mrs. E. A. Paddock, Weiser. Treasurer--Mrs. D. L. Travis, Pocatello.

WASHINGTON.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. A. J. Bailey, 323 Blanchard Street, Seattle. Secretary--Mrs. W. C. Wheeler, 424 South K Street, Tacoma. Treasurer--Mrs. J. W. George, 620 Fourth Street, Seattle.

OREGON.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. F. Eggert, The Hill, Portland. Secretary--Mrs. George Brownell, Oregon City. Treasurer--Mrs. W. D. Palmer, 546 Third Street, Portland.

CALIFORNIA.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

President--Mrs. E. S. Williams, 572 12th Street, Oakland. Secretary--Mrs. L. M. Howard, 911 Grove Street, Oakland. Treasurer--Mrs. J. M. Haven, 1329 Harrison Street, Oakland.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. Warren F. Day, 253 S. Hope St., Los Angeles. Secretary--Mrs. W. J. Washburn, 1900 Pasadena Ave., Los Angeles. Treasurer--Mrs. Mary M. Smith, Public Library, Riverside.

NEVADA.

WOMAN'S MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. L. J. Flint, Reno. Secretary--Miss Margaret N. Magill, Reno. Treasurer--Miss Mary Clow, Reno.

UTAH (Including Southern Idaho).

WOMAN'S MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. Clarence T. Brown, Salt Lake City, Utah. Secretary--Mrs. W. S. Hawkes, 135 Sixth Street, E., Salt Lake City, Utah. Treasurer--Mrs. Dana W. Bartlett, Salt Lake City, Utah. Secretary for Idaho--Mrs. Oscar Sonnenkalb, Pocatello, Idaho.

NEW MEXICO.

WOMAN'S MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. C. E. Winslow, Albuquerque. Secretary--Mrs. E. W. Lewis, 301 So. Edith Street, Albuquerque. Treasurer--Mrs. H. W. Bullock, Albuquerque.

OKLAHOMA.

WOMAN'S MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. J. H. Parker, Kingfisher. Secretary--Mrs. L. E. Kimball, Guthrie. Treasurer--Mrs. L. S. Childs, Choctaw City.

INDIAN TERRITORY.

WOMAN'S MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. John McCarthy, Vinita. Secretary--Mrs. Fayette Hurd, Vinita. Treasurer--Mrs. R. M. Swain, Vinita.

NORTH CAROLINA.

WOMAN'S MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. S. S. Sevier, McLeansville. Secretary and Treasurer--Miss A. E. Farrington, Oaks.

GEORGIA.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. H. B. Wey, 253 Forest Avenue, Atlanta. Secretary--Mrs. H. A. Kellam, Atlanta. Treasurer--Miss Virginia Holmes, Barnesville.

FLORIDA.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. S. F. Gale, Jacksonville. Secretary--Mrs. Nathan Barrows, Winter Park. Treasurer--Mrs. W. D. Brown, Interlachen.

ALABAMA.

WOMAN'S MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. M. A. Dillard, Selma. Secretary--Mrs. J. S. Jackson, Montgomery. Treasurer--Mrs. E. C. Silsby, Talladega.

TENNESSEE, KENTUCKY AND ARKANSAS.

WOMAN'S MISSIONARY UNION OF THE TENNESSEE ASSOCIATION.

President--Mrs. G. W. Moore, Box 8, Fisk Univ., Nashville. Secretary--Mrs. E. J. Lewis, 15 Echols Street, Memphis. Treasurer--Mrs. J. E. Moreland, 216 N. McNairy Street, Nashville.

MISSISSIPPI.

WOMAN'S MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. C. L. Harris, 1421 31st Avenue, Meridian. Secretary--Mrs. Edith M. Hall, Tougaloo Univ., Tougaloo. Treasurer--Mrs. L. H. Turner, 3012 12th Street, Meridian.

LOUISIANA.

WOMAN'S MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Miss Bella W. Hume, corner Gasquet and Liberty Streets, New Orleans. Secretary--Mrs. Matilda Cabrere, New Orleans. Treasurer--Mrs. C. M. Crawford, Hammond.

TEXAS.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President--Mrs. J. M. Wendelkin, Dallas. Secretary--Mrs. H. Burt, Lock Box 563, Dallas. Treasurer--Mrs. C. I. Scofield, Dallas.

FOOTNOTE:

[A] While the W. H. M. A. appears in this list as a State body for Mass. and R. I., it has certain auxiliaries elsewhere.

* * * * *

RECEIPTS FOR NOVEMBER, 1895.

_THE DANIEL HAND FUND_

_For the Education of Colored People._

Income for November $15,000.00 Previously acknowledged 1,460.00 ---------- $16,460.00

CURRENT RECEIPTS.

MAINE, $1,140.12.