Chapter 1

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The American Missionary

(QUARTERLY)

OCT.} NOV.} 1900 DEC.}

VOL. LIV. No. 4.

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NEW YORK:

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION,

THE CONGREGATIONAL ROOMS,

FOURTH AVENUE AND TWENTY-SECOND STREET, NEW YORK.

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Price 50 Cents a Year in advance.

Entered at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., as Second-Class mail matter.

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CONTENTS.

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PAGE

FINANCIAL 145

ANNUAL MEETING 145

EDITORIAL NOTES 147

LE MOYNE NORMAL INSTITUTE 149

REINFORCEMENTS FROM AVERY INSTITUTE 155

WHAT OUR GRADUATES DO 156

SCHOOL LIFE IN PORTO RICO 157

AMONG THE INDIANS 164

THE PRESENT CRISIS IN CHINA, FROM THE STANDPOINT OF A CHRISTIAN CHINESE 169

CHRISTIAN ENDEAVORERS IN THE A. M. A. CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS 175

OBITUARY--PRES. E. M. CRAVATH, D.D. 177

MEMORIAL SERVICE AT FISK UNIVERSITY 178

RECEIPTS 179

WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS 190

SECRETARIES OF YOUNG PEOPLE'S AND CHILDREN'S WORK 192

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THE 54th ANNUAL MEETING

OF THE

American Missionary Association

WILL BE HELD IN

SPRINGFIELD, MASS.

October 23-25, 1900.

Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis, D.D., preaches Annual Sermon.

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The AMERICAN MISSIONARY presents new form, fresh material and generous illustrations for 1900. This magazine is published by the American Missionary Association quarterly. Subscription rate fifty cents per year.

Many wonderful missionary developments in our own country during this stirring period of national enlargement are recorded in the columns of this magazine.

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THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

VOL. LIV. OCTOBER, 1900. NO. 4.

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[Sidenote: Financial.]

The Association closed the year without debt and has a balance in the treasury of $1,601.90 for current work, not including the balance in Reserve Legacy Account for the periods when the receipts from legacies fall below the average on which the Committee makes its estimate of available receipts from this source for current work of the year.

We go to our Annual Meeting in Springfield, October 23d, with faith in the ability and devotion of those who sustain the work and with full courage and hopefulness for still greater results in the new year.

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ANNUAL MEETING.

[Sidenote: Place.]

Springfield, Mass., is not only one of the most beautiful cities in New England, but is especially adapted for a great convention like the Fifty-fourth Annual gathering of the American Missionary Association. With cordial hospitality the members of the churches and citizens of Springfield have opened their homes and hearts to welcome the delegates, life members, officers and missionaries who gather for this meeting October 23-25th. State associations, local conferences and contributing churches are all entitled to delegate representation at this meeting. Each church should early select its delegates and send their names to the Chairman of the Entertainment Committee. The committee cannot promise to furnish entertainment for those whose applications are received after October 20th.

It seemed probable to the friends in Springfield that no church was large enough to hold the audiences which would gather for this meeting. The Court Square Theatre, which has the largest auditorium of any public building in the city, was therefore secured. Springfield is the centre of a large population gathered in other towns and villages as well as within its own municipal borders and easy connection is made through trolley lines or railroads.

[Sidenote: Committees.]

Rev. Philip S. Moxom, D.D., is Chairman of the General Committee. Mr. Charles D. Reid, 255 Main Street, is Chairman of the Committee on Transportation. Mr. Clarence E. Blake, 11 Dartmouth Street, is Chairman of the Entertainment Committee. Rev. Newton M. Hall is Chairman of the Press and Printing Committee. Mr. Charles A. Royce is Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements.

Those desiring information will receive it by writing to a chairman of the proper committee given above.

[Sidenote: Transportation.]

Reduced fares amounting to one and one-third of the full fare have been arranged on the certificate plan. When purchasing a ticket a certificate must be received from the selling ticket agent and when presented at the Annual Meeting will secure the reduced rate in the return fare.

[Sidenote: Program.]

Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis, D.D., of New York, will preach the Annual Sermon Tuesday evening, October 23d. The program has been prepared to cover not only the reports of the work of the American Missionary Association but also to provide for the discussion of large and fundamental problems. Prominent clergymen and laymen of our own denomination will be present. There will also be represented on the platform societies and institutions working along the same line in cordial and hearty Christian sympathy. This will add greatly to the interest of the meeting and to the scope of discussions. Thus the Fifty-fourth Annual Meeting will present a platform and not an organ.

[Sidenote: Jubilee Singers.]

A band of Jubilee Singers from Fisk University, Tenn., will be present and add greatly to the sessions by their quaint and pathetic music. This is always an interesting feature of the American Missionary Association convention appreciated by all.

[Sidenote: Industrial Exhibit.]

An industrial exhibit containing samples of the work in representative Association schools will present an object lesson of this work. This exhibit will be in the chapel of the First Congregational Church near by the place of meetings.

[Sidenote: Missionaries.]

The most interesting feature of the meeting, however, will doubtless be the messages that come from the missionaries, a large number of whom will be present. These men and women are on the advanced line in this great movement for many races, including millions of peoples who especially need the influence and power of an intelligent Gospel. Among these missionaries will be representatives of different races. Porto Rico, the new field entered a year ago, will be represented by a missionary whose work has been especially valuable.

[Sidenote: Special.]

A special number of the _Springfield Union_ will be issued containing a full verbatim report of the various sessions. This will be sent to ministers so as to reach them, if possible, Saturday morning, October 27th. Pastors desiring to present the work of this Association to their people will find this extra of great value.

In the scope of the discussions, the ability and variety of speakers, the interesting and accessible places of note in and around the city of meeting, and the great interest now taken in the problems which the American Missionary Association is seeking to solve, the Fifty-fourth Annual Meeting promises to be a large and even epoch-marking convention.

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[Sidenote: President Cravath.]

The death of President Erastus M. Cravath removes from the counsel and service of the American Missionary Association one of its most prominent and successful missionaries. Few men have so largely affected the life of the nation through educational lines as has President Cravath. After some years of service in the office of the Association he became President of Fisk University, and has brought that institution to the foremost rank in the intellectual and moral development of the Negroes of this country. An extended obituary notice is given on other pages of this magazine. Here, the writer, having had close personal association with President Cravath for many years, desires to bear his testimony with earnest and loving emphasis to the large and strong character of the man, and his single and unwavering purpose to accomplish the largest and best service possible for those to whom he gave his ministry in unstinted measure. No one can fill his place, for it was not only large but unique. He was a leader who came to the front in the most trying period in the history of the Negroes, and he led them with soundest judgment as well as heroic fortitude. These people have lost not only a friend, but a steady and strong guide.

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[Sidenote: Chinese Gifts.]

The work of the American Missionary Association among the Chinese in America is illustrated in the financial statement of the American Board. Rev. Jee Gam, who has charge of the work among his fellow Chinamen in San Francisco, has just sent a check of one hundred dollars to the American Board for the North China Christian Relief Fund. This money was all contributed by members of the Chinese churches on the Pacific Slope. Other contributions are promised. No one can doubt that a large element in the evangelization of China must be the Chinese of America.

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[Sidenote: Congregational Associations Among the Highlands.]

The Cumberland Valley Association of Congregational Churches met in Jellico, Tenn., September 14th. The churches of the association were generally represented. Churches of other denominations at Jellico welcomed the meeting of the association and cordially entertained the delegates. The increase in the population of Jellico and the surrounding districts has greatly emphasized the importance of our work in that region.

The Cumberland Plateau Association of Congregational Churches and Sunday schools met with the church at Grand View, Tenn., September 26-27th. The meeting was one of unusual interest. The work on the Plateau, as represented in the reports from the churches, was on the whole encouraging.

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[Sidenote: Interesting Convention.]

An interesting convention of colored men was held in Boston, August 23d-24th. This convention, known as the Negro Business Men's Conference, was a meeting of great importance and interest. Principal Booker T. Washington and other prominent colored men were present, and large attention was given to the consideration of the Negroes in the business world, their place and opportunities. The topics covered a large field bearing upon the self-support and business opportunities and responsibilities of the Negroes. The gathering was largely representative from different parts of the country, and the discussions were able and comprehensive. A permanent organization was formed to be known as a business league, the purpose of which is to promote and develop business methods and to create larger confidence on the part of the Negroes themselves in their own ability. As a whole the convention was very encouraging and hopeful.

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[Sidenote: Texas.]

Several friends have sent contributions to this office to help those who have suffered from the terrible storm in Galveston and the interior of Texas. These gifts have been forwarded to a missionary pastor near Galveston and will be wisely administered.

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LE MOYNE NORMAL INSTITUTE.

PROF. A. J. STEELE, MEMPHIS, TENN.

The school bears the honored name of one who, in the long years of the anti-slavery agitation, was known as an uncompromising friend of human freedom. It stands, with its nearly thirty years of successful work, a most fitting memorial of his life and labors for humanity. A personal friend and an associate of Dr. Strieby of sacred memory, in the anti-slavery crusade, Dr. F. Julius Le Moyne, of Washington, Pa., seeing the great need of education and practical training for the freed people of the South and anticipating a bequest made in his will, advanced to the American Missionary Association some twenty thousand dollars for the establishment of the school at Memphis.

The school building and a "Home" for the workers, made necessary by the needs of the work and the adverse feeling toward teachers of colored schools, were erected and the school was opened in October, 1871. From that time till now the American Missionary Association has had charge of this school.

It was the wish of Dr. Le Moyne that the work of the school should be prosecuted along the most practical lines, to meet the more pressing demands of an untrained race, and to this end he stipulated that the so-called "dead languages" should form no part of its course of study, and that it should be adapted to the relief of the most pressing wrongs and needs of the colored people in the struggle for life to which emancipation had brought them. His wishes have been respected and the school has remained distinctively an English school, with as great attention to industrial training as time and means would allow.

The growth of the school, in all that counts to strengthen and confirm its influence and usefulness, has been steady and uninterrupted from the beginning, with its attendance of 250 pupils of low grades, to the present year, with an enrollment of over 700, distributed through its twelve years of study and training, over 200 of whom are in the Normal Department fitting for the work of teaching.

The first class of two was graduated in 1876; since that over two hundred young people have received the diploma of the school, most of whom are living useful, self-respecting lives in the many communities where they have found homes.

To meet the needs of this constant growth the buildings have been enlarged repeatedly and a separate building for manual training, woodworking, printing, etc., has been erected.

Probably the most apparent work accomplished by the school has been the training of teachers for the public schools, hundreds of whom have gone out from our training and are now doing good work in Tennessee and the adjoining States of Arkansas and Mississippi.

Under the direction of the same principal for all but the first two years of its existence, the school has become the centre of many lines of influence extending in many directions and affecting many interests among the people. A library of some three thousand volumes has been gathered and has proved of great value to the students and to the community. Nothing else so directly and surely acts to train to thoughtful and self-respecting lives as an acquaintance with the literature of the English language and with the personalities of the great minds who have produced it.

One of the cherished purposes of the school is to fit up a number of "traveling libraries," each of a score or so of volumes, carefully selected to place at the disposal, in routine order, of graduates of the school teaching in country communities.

The public school teachers (colored) of the county have for years held monthly meetings at Le Moyne Institute, and for the past year have received regular instruction in the teaching of vocal music from the director of music of the school.

The Alumni Association is an active and influential organization which acts with the institution in many ways, carrying on a course of lectures each term by prominent men of the community and assisting materially by the contribution of money for its Industrial work. At the present time this association has in hand a fund of over $200, to be used in this way, while, at the same time, it is purchasing a new piano for use in the Music Department. Few of our schools have more loyal supporters among their graduates than Le Moyne. Coherence and co-operation in racial interests are quite lacking and much needed among the colored people, such co-operation as is best illustrated by the Texas movement, described by the Hon. R. L. Smith, of Oakland, Texas, in a recent issue of _The Independent_. Such work as has been done at Oakland is, in many places, quietly being set on foot, with varying degrees of success, by students and associations of students, who had their training in schools of the American Missionary Association. The immediate aim and end of all our work is the social betterment of the people, and in the end its efficiency will be measured according as it succeeds or fails in this respect.

The history of education in America, written largely during the past thirty years, has few features of wider interest or deeper meaning than the establishment and remarkable development of the "mission schools" among the colored people of the South since their emancipation. The spelling-book followed hard by the teachings of the Bible, constituted the course of instruction at the beginning; this simple beginning has developed into a great system of training and instruction that exemplifies the latest and best methods of education and of school administration known anywhere, from the kindergarten through the common school branches, with manual or industrial training, to the normal school and college. These ideas and methods have very generally been extended and adopted into the common public schools and the higher state institutions, mostly taught and managed by graduates of the mission schools.

All this growth of educational institutions and facilities would have been impossible except that along with it and acting as the underlying cause of and reason for it, there has gone a corresponding development of individuals of the race and of the race collectively, for whose uplifting it has most providentially been brought into existence.

The illustration entitled "Children's Children," accompanying this article, shows a class of children whose _grandparents_, direct from slavery, began with awkward, faltering steps to tread the "hidden paths of knowledge," and whose parents in their turn were graduated from the Normal department of Le Moyne School.

These grandchildren, one of whom in May, 1900, received from the hands of the principal the same diploma that, more than twenty years before, had been handed her mother, stand a proof positive, that may be read by those who run, of individual and racial development, not to be gainsaid or doubted. They possess a mental horizon far wider and more luminous than that of their grandparents, direct from bondage, and they are responsive to influences and emotions to which both parents and grandparents were strangers.

These "children's children," and there are thousands of them throughout the South, stand now as the hope and promise of the race. They represent practically a new race, with new and higher ideals and aims than their parents or grandparents could know. These ideals are not only those of a wider intellectual life, they reach out to the home, to industrial occupations and up to a purer, more practical form of worship as expressive of the religious life.

If you would come at the fountain and source of this purer, broader, safer life, in all these walks of life, come with me and look through the various departments of Le Moyne Institute, or any one of a large number of similar schools of the American Missionary Association, founded and supported chiefly by the benevolent people of the North. In the line of intellectual awakening a glimpse into classes in history, in literature, science and mathematics, backed up by the influence coming from personal association with trained, Christian instructors, and you will not fail to recognize the means, entirely adequate to produce the result in question before you.

Would you lay your hand on the springs that have transformed the home, step with me to the sewing-room where, month after month and year after year, the children are trained in needlework, in the cutting, fitting and making of the wearing apparel that the home must provide; into the experimental kitchen where every girl at the proper stage of her training is taught the value of various foods and has practice in preparing them, where in fact all that pertains to the administration of the household is carefully studied and practiced under the direction of a skillful instructor.

The well-equipped woodworking shop, with its orderly benches and its system of drafting, of joining and of general construction, is giving the boy the best use of his hands and placing within his reach the power to build his own house and keep it in repair, or to go on to the mastery of a useful trade and through it to the securing of a means of livelihood. The printing office, too, gives yet another line of hand training and at the same time of intellectual accuracy in other directions and studies.

For the special Normal training of teachers the practice of teaching in the lower grades and classes under the supervision of a regular critic teacher, is carried through the greater part of the senior year, after the study of psychology has been mastered and the principles of school management have been taught.

And, finally, throughout the course the Bible, with its hopes and promises, its warnings and denunciations of evil conduct, is constantly taught and its sanctions utilized in the formation and strengthening of character, and in most cases it is found powerful in leading to the choice of the Christian life.

Thus is the work of Le Moyne Institute summarized, and such would it be found any day in the year. Its teachers, in their life as a family, in the teachers' home, comprise a "social settlement" that was in successful operation years before the name came to have any significance among the forces working for the social uplifting of the poor and the outcast of society.

One other feature is worthy of mention with the work at Memphis, that is, the cordial and mutually helpful relations existing between the church and the school. They supplement, each, the work of the other, and pastor and teachers plan and work together for the same end, the general betterment of all the people.

Finally, Le Moyne school has from the first been fortunate in gaining and holding the respect and esteem of the best, most thoughtful white people of Memphis, and of many other communities from which our students have come and back into which they have again returned, to act as regulating, renewing agencies among the people. Surely the workers in the field should not be slow nor timid in asking for the means to carry forward and to make more effective such a work as this. It is not a losing battle we wage. Every heart and life that has come into near and vital contact with the work has been itself quickened and inspired by a service so effective and life-giving. It is the old story ever repeated--"He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless return again, bearing his sheaves with him."

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REINFORCEMENTS FROM AVERY INSTITUTE.