Chapter II: Part 2

We regret the absence of many girls, who prefer teaching to thoroughly fitting themselves for their work. With very limited qualifications, they secure positions in country schools, where they doubtless do fair work for present needs. Some time, they will see the mistake of not pursuing their studies further.

Our Thursday evening family readings have been resumed. This week the Alumni joined us. When two or three guests have come, it has been the habit to have an author designated, but this time the circle was so large it was thought best to invite each to contribute any selection he chose. The first offering was Joseph Cook’s remarks upon uneducated suffrage in the South. It provoked very earnest discussion. Every one was surprised at Mr. Cook’s familiarity with the true condition of affairs. A young man who has taught in the neighborhood, was inclined to dispute the educational statistics. “Go out into the country and you will find that most of the children can read a little,” was one remark. He admitted the ignorance of the adults. He is certainly mistaken in applying his statement to the country at large, however true it may be of the region within a radius of thirty miles from this city.

His hopefulness concerning the children is an offset to the report of another young man teaching forty-five miles away, where the children in Sabbath School could not tell who betrayed Christ, or answer similarly easy questions. I think it is the same place where the minister told his people, in a vivid description of the Flood, that “the rain drops fell as large as a flour barrel.”

Our student teachers have generally accomplished excellent work during vacation. Some of the least promising have shown capabilities which surprised us.

We commence the year with hope as to the intellectual progress to be attained, and trembling over the spiritual condition of the school. Several of the active Christians, heretofore leaders, do not return to us. Their influence is missed. The new element is earnest and determined so far as lessons and deportment are concerned, but indifferent towards higher interests. Yet, even as I write, there is a gentle movement, as if the south wind were blowing upon the garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.

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TENNESSEE STATE TEACHERS’ INSTITUTE.

PROF. A. K. SPENCE, FISK UNIVERSITY.

I think it may be a matter of interest to you and the readers of the MISSIONARY to know that, last winter, an organization was formed here called the State Teachers’ Institute. Its object is the promotion of education, and especially that of the colored people in Tennessee and adjoining territory. It embraces in its membership all those engaged in the work of colored education who may choose to join it. It unites all the forces so engaged in a general educational effort for lifting up the common schools, by improving those who teach them. It operates in accordance with the views of the State Superintendent of Education, by whom it is endorsed and to whom it reports.

The plan was first proposed by this institution, and the Methodist and Baptist institutions located here heartily responded. It thus forms a bond of union and a way of co-operation long felt to be desirable on the part of schools of learning occupying the same ground. It also unites these with the public schools, and combines all educational forces in the work among the freedmen.

During the summer, sixteen local institutes were held in Tennessee and North Alabama, with a total attendance of five hundred teachers. These institutes continued two or three days each and varied in attendance from fifteen to seventy-five each day. Two sessions were held in the day time, and one at night. The day sessions were for the professional instruction of teachers of schools. This was done by lectures, class drills and the like, adapting those exercises to circumstances and persons, aiming always at practical benefit to the teachers present. The sessions at night were made popular gatherings in the interest of education and sought to reach the masses. Men of influence, both white and colored, in the various localities, were invited to make addresses. Good music was provided when it was possible. One speaker called it _an educational revival_. This is what we sought to make it. This is what I think it was.

As you may suppose, there were many obstacles in the way of this good work—ignorance as to what an institute is, prejudice of white and colored, the sickly season of the year and the previous exhaustion of those who gave instruction. These were men who, in ordinary circumstances, should have been resting after the toils of the last school year in preparation for those of the year to come.

All sorts of misconception must be met. Frequently the lecturers arrived at the place, and found almost no one there. Yet by singing and speaking and work generally, success would come at last, but with an immense outlay of effort.

In other cases the house would be packed with people, but scarcely a teacher there. They came on horseback and muleback and in wagons and on foot, bringing their children and dinners with them, to stay all day. The infants were passed from one to another as nurses grew tired, or were quietly palleted on the floor or toddled about among the feet of the people.

What should be done with an institute like that? Turn the people away? By no means. The teachers present were taught how to teach by seeing these people taught the alphabet, and how to count and the like. One thing never failed—rote singing. Oh, what a wealth of music in voice and ear lies in this people! And it was a study for an artist to see those earnest dark faces, with their great, dreamy eyes, as they peered in at the portals of the temple of knowledge so long closed against them, and just got a glimpse of the glory beyond, and knew, if they themselves could not enter, their children might. Many a parent vowed then that his child should go to Fisk University or Central Tennessee College, or the Baptist Institute, as the crowded halls of these institutions, filled almost to bursting, now testify. I think that some of these strange, nondescript institutes were, perhaps, our best.

One case of zeal I may not omit. A man came seventeen miles across the country, staid the first day, and at the close of the night session, about eleven o’clock, started for home, woke up his friends and neighbors, and was back with them by nine the next morning. And, oh, the hand-shakings, and the God-bless-yous! Who would not be willing to re-enlist in so good a work?

But it was hard work. Night sessions could not begin till nine, or later, as the people could not be got together sooner, and so we were up till eleven or twelve. Add to this the thermometer in the nineties and up to a hundred, small rooms, impure air and many other things, and no wonder if nearly every one of the workers suffered.

As to actual expenses for travel, &c., we expect to get them from the Peabody Fund. They were only between two and three hundred dollars. We were, for the most part, kept free of expense, sometimes at hotels and sometimes in families, white or colored. This we left for the colored people of the place to decide. They generally thought it best for the cause that we stop with white people. We made some friends in that way whom it is pleasant to have.

We let politics alone, but kept ourselves to education; still, being Christian educators, we often preached Jesus. In one case a revival meeting was resumed each day at the close of the institute.

I have written thus minutely, thinking that our experience may lead A. M. A. workers to go and do likewise in other States. Great masses of our school teachers can never come to us. We must go to them.

But, dear Secretary, do not work us so hard in our schools that there will be nothing of us left for this or any other of the many things we see to do about us, that need so much to be done.

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TWO SIMPLE RULES.

We welcome with peculiar pleasure the volume just issued by
our old friend and co-laborer, Rev. J. P. Thompson, D.D., the
former pastor of the Broadway Tabernacle. It consists of six
lectures delivered in the leading cities of the continent during
the Centennial year. It is entitled “The United States as a
Nation.” Among many valuable things which it contains, we select
the following extract, giving from this life-long friend of the
colored race his counsel as to their treatment by the government
and their treatment of themselves:

“1. Let the general government refrain from all further legislation or interference on behalf of the negro as such. If riots arise that the State authorities cannot quell, the National Government, duly invoked, should interfere, to preserve the public peace; and also, if necessary, it should use the arm of power to sustain the courts in putting down injustice, outrage and wrong, by the arm of the law. But all this without making a point of caring for the negro in distinction from any other man; for the best way of caring for the negro is to cease to know him as a negro, and to treat him always and only as a man. Above all, should the government refrain from legislating upon social customs, instincts and prejudices. A legal injustice can be done away by law; a moral wrong, in the form of overt action, can be dealt with by law; but a taste, a sentiment, a feeling, an instinct, a prejudice—these pass the bounds of all legislation; and the attempt to rectify or regulate these by law serves only to irritate opposition. At these points human nature has much in common with the porcupine.

“2. The black race should be taught that they are to depend upon themselves. Having freedom, schools, the rights of citizens guaranteed by law, and the inducement to self-culture presented by opportunities of political action, they should be made to feel that their future is in their own hands; that, if they would rise to a position of respect and of responsibility as men, they must show themselves to be men. There is no other way for any race. If they cannot do this, they must go under. If they will not do this, they ought to go under. But no one who knows the negro race in America can doubt, that with time on their side, and patience and justice toward them on the part of others, they will rise to the full measure of their opportunities, and, with their capacity for work, their docility, their kindliness, their adaptivity, their mirthfulness, their religious faith, will form as good a part as any in the social system of the future. Time, patience, justice, will cause the friction of races to disappear in the working of the American system of harmonized humanity.”

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EXTRACTS FROM DR. PATTON’S INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

As “there is no royal road to learning” to suit dullards of kingly birth, so no peculiar and accommodating pathway to wealth and power, to civilization and culture, opens before those of African descent. Their own expectations, and the efforts of those who would assist them, must be based simply on their manhood. It is only as this shall be developed and brought to bear upon life’s duties and opportunities, that progress can be made in outward condition and in the estimation of mankind. There are no sudden results to be secured by artificial means. Neither special legislation, nor military protection, nor favor extended by those in power, nor the peculiar regard and effort of philanthropists, will, of themselves, avail to procure the abolition of caste-feeling, and the elevation of the colored people to an entire equality with the whites. The effects of ages of slavery are not to be removed in a day, by a mere legislative vote. An amendment to the Constitution alters no fact of ignorance, of poverty, of moral debasement. The prejudices of the whites, descending through generations, imbibed by individuals in infancy, and strengthened by universal sentiment, practice, and association of ideas, cannot be easily and soon overcome, and are not, so far as feeling is concerned, wholly within the power of volition, so as to be annihilated at will. They will vanish gradually in the presence of increasing evidence of a noble manhood. Developed intellectual power, the higher education, success in industrial pursuits, the acquirement of wealth and culture and character, will cause them to disappear as the sun does the heavy, chilly, obscuring mists which night generates in the valleys. When I deposit a gold coin on the table, it commands a certain degree of respect. No one is obliged to argue in its behalf. It speaks for itself. Having intrinsic value and the added stamp of the national mint, it represents so many grains of precious metal and their equivalent in whatever money will buy. Hence everybody welcomes it, and looks upon it with regard. Will the result not be analogous, when the colored man shall be seen to have an intrinsic value equal to that of the white man? When one shall no longer associate with him the ideas of bondage, pauperism, and barbarism, but those of freedom, prosperity, intelligence, and culture; when he shall not only carry in his person the stamp of American citizenship, but shall come out from a university training a scholar and a gentleman, like a glittering coin from the die?

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Every case which is at all parallel, confirms the validity of our reasoning. The classical scholar will, perhaps, remember that Cicero, in writing to one of his friends, advises him, when he has occasion to purchase a slave, not to buy one of those stupid Britons. Doubtless, after the Roman wars in Britain, thousands of captives had been sent to Italy and exposed for sale, according to ancient custom; and those who bought them had learned that they were intellectually inferior to slaves obtained from other sources. Why does a Briton no longer bear such a reputation? Because generations of favorable influences have brought him out of the barbaric condition in which he then was, and have educated him into the representative of civilization.

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There can be no reasonable doubt that educational forces, rightly brought to bear upon the colored people, will in time work a change in the matter of prejudice; which is only partially an incident of difference of feature and complexion, and is principally a manifestation of caste-pride.

* * * * *

The only certain corrective for this evil is general and special education, which shall raise the average intelligence of the masses, so as to make them more capable and independent in their judgments of men and measures, and which shall also provide appropriate leaders, worthy of their confidence, from among themselves. These leaders must be such as naturally come to the front in organized and cultivated society—the men in all professions and pursuits who to native talent add superior education. There must be a speedy addition of cultivated mind to the colored population if it is to be saved from follies which will be fatal. That grade of mind must operate not only directly and purposely through public addresses and by the press, but in all those quiet, incidental, and unconscious ways of daily and hourly intercourse, which are equally, or even more, effective. Hence we must have colored lawyers, physicians, editors, authors, clergymen, artists, statesmen, and teachers, whose attainments shall be equal to those of white men in similar occupations, and whose expressed opinions shall have just weight with their race, on the various mooted questions which may arise in Church and State.

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THE INDIANS.

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FORT BERTHOLD, DAKOTA TERRITORY.

A Discouraging First View. School Teaching and Brick Making. Increasing Hope.

E. H. ALDEN, INDIAN AGENT.

My work here since January has been incessant, and unprecedented in trial and difficulty in all my experience. I can labor on the wild frontier of Minnesota, organize Sunday-schools and churches, and labor with my own hands in the erection of meeting houses, with the mercury more than 30° below zero. But harder still it is to have the burden of care for 1,200 savages, bowed down by superstition and sin, through whom the rough ploughshare of the most degraded and vile white civilization has been driven for the last fifty years. With the prejudice of Indians against all agents to overcome, the strife arising from the desire to _make money_, in conflict with the desire to promote the highest and best welfare of the Indian, in our very midst, the underground whiskey traffic, with the vilest of all whites to encounter—these were barriers requiring time and pluck to overcome. Added to this, the red-tape of the department, making one always feel the force of the Latin words—“_Incidet in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim._”

The time for forwarding my report for your anniversary came when this deep, dark gulf of difficulty first opened to my view, and the letter that I then wrote, but did not send, had scarcely a gleam of hope for these savages. I am glad it was not sent. Since then, I have been laboring to overcome the difficulties, and I believe it is possible to do what I then thought was impossible. I have just come in from visiting our school of 40 Indian boys and girls, in the new schoolhouse we have built this summer. It was a pleasant sight. Miss Briggs has care of the Arickarees, and Miss Calhoun, Missionary of the A. B. C. F. M., has care of the Grosventres and Mandans, both excellent Christian young ladies, who guarantee success. Not far away is a new building for Indian supplies, 120×20; and at the new agency a barn 400×22, just completed. And near by is a pile of superior brick, which the Indians have aided in manufacturing, in the face of obstacles to overcome in the clay, probably unprecedented in the history of brick making.

While I am writing, “Son of the Star,” chief of the Arickarees, an intelligent, sensible man, comes in and gives me the shake of his friendly hand—one of the great majority of all the tribes who now look up to me with confidence as their friend and “chief.” All this assures me that the Indian can be civilized and Christianized.

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THE CHINESE.

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“CALIFORNIA CHINESE MISSION.”

Auxiliary to the American Missionary Association.

PRESIDENT: Rev. J. K. McLean, D. D. VICE-PRESIDENTS: Rev. A. L. Stone, D. D., Thomas C. Wedderspoon, Esq., Rev. T. K. Noble, Hon. F. F. Low, Rev. I. E. Dwinell, D. D., Hon. Samuel Cross, Rev. S. H. Willey, D. D., Edward P. Flint, Esq., Rev. J. W. Hough, D. D., Jacob S. Taber, Esq.

DIRECTORS: Rev. George Moor, D. D., Hon. E. D. Sawyer, Rev. W. E. Ijams, James M. Haven, Esq., Rev. Joseph Rowell, E. P. Sanford, Esq., H. W. Severance, Esq.

SECRETARY: Rev. W. C. Pond. TREASURER: E. Palache, Esq.

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THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE CALIFORNIA CHINESE MISSION.

REV. W. C. POND, SAN FRANCISCO.

By virtue of a tacit understanding, a place is given, year by year, in the course of the meetings of our General Association, for the Anniversary of “The California Chinese Mission.” This meeting was accordingly held this year at Sacramento, October 12th. It shared with the American Home Missionary Society the evening service. A large congregation was present. Rev. J. K. McLean, D.D., president of the mission, occupied the chair, and conducted the devotional exercises. The reports of the Treasurer and of the Directors, (some of the main points of which may be found in the Annual Report of the A. M. A.), were read by the Secretary, and stirring addresses were made by our helper, Mr. Fung Affoo, and by Rev. Joseph Lanman, of Woodland, and Rev. Martin Post, of Stockton. A very satisfactory token of the interest of the meeting appeared in the goodly number and generous amount of the offerings received.

THE GENERAL ASSOCIATION ON THE CHINESE QUESTION.

The action of our General Association on the Chinese question has excited attention and surprise among our Eastern friends. I am not prepared to defend it, and do not believe that it is defensible. Yet it was not so bad as to the spirit that prompted it, nor so bad in itself as to our Eastern friends it will naturally seem to be. The mistake was in meddling with a question on which we could scarcely speak at all without being misunderstood. The resolutions adopted were three: the first, in emphatic terms, rebuked lawlessness and riot; the second, in terms equally emphatic, endorsed the missionary work among the Chinese; the third set forth the perils attending Chinese immigration, and urged some modification of the Burlingame treaty and the adoption of any other just measures which may restrict this immigration. The fault and the danger is, not so much in what was really said, as in what will naturally and easily be inferred. For the first two resolutions will be taken as practically meaningless;—designed simply to smooth the way for the last: while the last will be interpreted as a surrender on the part of Christian people to the hoodlum element; a cowardly backsliding of Congregationalists in California from the position as up-holders of the liberties and rights of men, which our churches here and elsewhere held so bravely in the years gone by. The following extracts from a paragraph in the _Pacific_, truthfully represents, as I believe, the real sentiments of the Association:

“Christians in all parts of our land have long felt that, if any ‘_just_’ method could be found of restricting immigration, whether European or Mongolian, our country’s future would be less full of peril. But they have not felt that, for this purpose, it could be safe to violate the inalienable rights of men, or contradict those truths which our forefathers declared to be _self-evident_, and which constitute the very vitals of our body politic. And in this view, as we humbly believe, our General Association would be found in unanimous accord with Christian people elsewhere in our land.”

THE WORK.

The story of hindrance from cruel race-antipathies has been so often told of late, that to continue it would be tedious. But the hindrance still exists, and what with the meetings of so-called “workingmen,” held every evening to nurse a mob-spirit, and the perpetual droppings of venom from our daily press, we cannot tell when it will be removed. “Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal: The Lord knoweth them that are His.” And while the attendance on our schools is diminished, and one of them is for the time suspended, still the Spirit finds and saves His own. At our next communion in Bethany Church, we are expecting to baptize and welcome to membership five Chinese; and several others, as I understand, will soon present their names to the First Church in Oakland. We do not hasten this step. All who are thus received, have been on probation in the Association of Christian Chinese, for six months or more, and they come before the church only when recommended by vote of their brethren. Meanwhile, others are listening; and we hope to reap our harvests even in the midst of the storm. Mrs. Denton, writing from Sacramento, says: “Our school has been one of unusual interest this past month (October). ‘He leadeth me,’ seems to be the choice song of my pupils. After singing it last evening, I explained it to them:—how God leads us by his word and love, through care, sickness, sorrow, death, on towards heaven. All were _so attentive_, that I felt sorry to see the hour-hand pointing to nine. The harvest truly is ripe.” Another teacher writes: “To those engaged in the work, every week gives fresh proof of the power of the simple truths of the Bible to reach the heart, and elevate and purify the life. They say, ‘I hear about God’s love for us all—how Jesus came to die to save us—that is something new. Then when I hear He with us all the time, ready to hear and help us, I think it much better to pray to Him than to idols; and now I pray to Jesus; I _know_ He helps me.’ It is the unanimous testimony, when asked what they pray for, ‘I pray Jesus help me do right—to know more about the right way.’ So we are not disheartened, for surely they that be with us are more than they that be against us.”

Words of cheer from other quarters might be cited, but I fear that I have trespassed already too much upon your space.

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COMMUNICATIONS.

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PROTECTION BY DEVELOPMENT.

BY REV. C. H. RICHARDS.

There are two methods of protection against dangers that threaten from without. One is the artificial method that builds up walls of defence on the outside. The other is the vital and Divine method that develops inward power enough to ensure safety. God braces the oak against the storms, not by outward props, but by growth of inward strength. He gives a man successful life, not by providing a nurse to carry and feed him half a century, but by teaching him the art of self-development, which makes him capable and masterly.

In the great problem of Southern reconstruction, which is so slowly being solved, two parties feel themselves in danger. The colored man finds himself at an immense disadvantage amid the prejudices, the ambitions, the wider experience, the superior knowledge and skill of the whites. The old yoke is removed, but his new life is oppressed with a thousand petty exactions, which the strong are always able to make upon the weak. With the ballot thrust into his hands, he hardly knows how to use it wisely, and suspects that it may be snatched from him again.

Now this outward guardianship of law and force has been needed; just as the transplanted flower needs special shelter and the upholding aid of the stick to which it is tied, _until_ its vital power can build it into independent strength. It is still necessary, to a certain degree, though God’s providence is fast showing us that law and force can do but a transient work for the race, and must soon be superseded by something better; and that something better is the development of the colored man himself into wisdom, and capability, and moral power.

The only permanent safety for the blacks is in their intellectual and religious education. A weak race, helpless in its ignorance and corrupted by immorality, will always be kept down. The ambitious and intense desires of those who are wiser and stronger will take advantage of its weakness, and will crowd it to the wall. No legislation can prevent the working of this natural law in the struggle for prosperity. But a strong race, with vigorous, well-disciplined minds, balanced with virtue, will always hold its own in the world. Cobden used to say that he must see a Turkish ship, wholly built, equipt and manned by Turks, sailing from a Turkish port, and freighted with genuine products of Turkish manufactures; and then, and not till then, would he believe in Palmerston’s dream of Turkish regeneration. So when the colored man shows by his deeds that he is able to do all that a white man can do, he will hold his footing of equality secure. The race is to be tested by results.

The political safety and social elevation of the negro race depend on the resolution, patience and enterprise with which it takes up this work of self-development. And the only way the friends of the black man can permanently protect him, is to help him gain this inward power. The primer and the Testament, well used, will be a better paladium than Congressional enactments. The grammar schools and colleges, the industrial and theological schools, and the churches, where a more reasonable and sober religion may be taught them, will do more to secure their rights as freemen than a standing army can do.

The other party, looking out for “rocks ahead,” is the nation itself. Victorious in the struggle for its very existence, it has been ever since in constant perplexity as to the way of readjustment which would make its future safe. For a dozen years the Southern question has been one of commanding interest and momentous importance. The wisdom of our statesmen has been taxed to the utmost to avert calamities continually impending. But although time, and the steady purpose of the North to have equal rights for all recognized and enforced everywhere, and the new policy of pacification, have done much to change the perilous condition of things, and bring quiet, the danger is by no means gone. It has changed its complexion, but it lurks there still. The dense ignorance, the wide spread immorality, the pride of blood, the antagonism of races, the prevalence of mischievous notions about capital and labor, the indolence and “shiftlessness” of great numbers of the working class, the ambitions that will seize and manipulate these diverse elements with shrewdness and trained skill, still exist all over the great South, and are likely to make it a turbulent caldron of contentious elements for years to come. Race conflicts and class feuds are likely to arise, and sectional hatreds are ready to break out again, with new danger to the whole country.

How can the nation protect itself against such dangers? Only by this method of self-development. The South must become homogeneous in itself, and harmonious with the North by the spread of intelligence and right principles. Education and a reasonable religion will bring all up to a higher level, break down walls of difference, give broader and better ideas. They would so change the whole structure of Southern society, and unify its various elements, that the causes of dissension that now exist would exist no longer.

The American Missionary Association, then, is giving to the colored race its best and only permanent protection. It helps the black man to develop his inward power, so that his defence shall be in himself. And its work is the nation’s safeguard, for by promoting intelligence, integrity and moral power throughout the South, it increases the elements that alone make a Republic safe. Every motive of philanthropy and patriotism urges us to push forward its work more earnestly.

MADISON, WIS.

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EDUCABILITY OF THE BLACKS.

BY A VIRGINIA COUNTY SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT.

The great mistake most people make, in regard to the education of the negro, is that too much is expected in a short time. Education in its broad sense is by no means confined to the study of text-books, however well these may be learned. It takes a generation to correct evil tendencies and predilections, and the fruits of a systematic course of instruction do not appear at once. It takes time to do this; and not only is this true of the negro race, but of all other races as well. The entire history of our foreign missionary efforts goes to prove this. It would be folly to argue that no effort should be made to enlighten and Christianize the heathen, because the fruits were not apparent in a few years. This is just the case with the negroes among us. Although they have been in contact (in a certain sense) with the white race for a considerable period, yet no systematic or general effort has been made for instructing their minds or educating them in morals.

Having for the past six or eight years had abundant opportunity to compare the relative advantages of our system of public education on the white and colored races, I am free to say that, considering the advantages of the former over the latter, I am as much encouraged to go on with the effort to instruct the blacks as the whites. It is true that where intellect is concerned, the white greatly excels, but it is not so with regard to memory. The colored pupil memorizes as rapidly as the white, but lacks the faculty of applying the things learned to everyday life; and I am of opinion that this will remain so for a considerable time—till habits of thought and individuality of ideas are educated. A great deal depends upon home influences; and here the colored pupil is decidedly at a disadvantage, and must remain so till home influence is changed to a great extent. These are general rules, to which there are noticeable and valuable exceptions. Take, for instance, the graduates of Hampton Normal School, and they make not only better men and women in a general sense, but better for every special calling in after-life. This, however, is due in a great degree to the constant drill, the daily systematic exercises, the thoroughly qualified instructors, and to their separation for the time from associations with the vulgar.

It is gravely contended by some, whose opinions are worth a good deal, that the negro is below the white man because of deficiency of cerebral matter, and that an examination of the brain will demonstrate this average deficiency by weight or cubic inches. I do not know whether this is true or not, but this I have observed, and have had abundant evidence of, that the average colored pupil will, and does, keep pace in learning with the average white, _if the white associations are the same as the colored_, i.e., if the parents and kinsfolk or acquaintances of the white are as ignorant and ill-bred as the black. All things being equal, the black will outstrip the white in acquiring knowledge and applying it. I have noticed a greater facility for rising above caste in the colored youth than in the white. R. W. P.

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CAMPAIGN IN CONNECTICUT.

DIST. SEC’Y, POWELL OF CHICAGO.

Perhaps it may interest some of the “MISSIONARY’S” readers to learn a little concerning the speaking campaign in which Rev. G. D. Pike, Rev. Temple Cutler, of Chattanooga, and myself, have been engaged the past few weeks in Connecticut. For the gratification of such I send you the following sketch:

Our first meeting was a convention—Greenwich the place, and the afternoon of Tuesday, Oct. 30, the time. We met in the church; the audience was small but representative, and as our object was to talk to people whose _weight_ rather than number was to be taken into the account, we had no reason to complain of our send-off. Four churches greeted us in this meeting. Rev. Chas. R. Treat, son of the late revered Secretary of the American Board, gave us cordial welcome, and spoke words of hearty endorsement of our work and mission. At Norwalk we held a convention similar in character, and, so far as appearances went, similar in results. Rev. Messrs. Hamilton, Dunning and Bradford were present, and despite a rain storm that had set in with violence and long continuing determination, we had a good audience. “Come again,” said the brethren, “and you shall have a rousing reception”—a remark which in substance we heard at many other places, and a remark which I interpret to mean—“You can count on us as co-workers with you in your grand work.” There is inspiration in such interpretation, and with such co-workers as Norwalk and South Norwalk contain, we can rightfully jot down our visit to Norwalk as a success.

Our next meeting was in Danbury, the home of the “News-Man.” We did not notice that he was present, and, for that matter, we could hardly see that there was any other man. Nobody was to blame. The _dryness_ of the news-man’s jokes, I presume, has had such an effect upon the citizens of Danbury that they have not even the ordinary love of mortals for wet weather; but, were it otherwise, they were excusable for not coming out “to hear about missions” on that particular night. Noah’s Deluge was distantly suggested by that terrible and incessant down-pour of rain. We went through with our meeting, however, and it did seem as though Brother Cutler, extracting courage out of desperation, was bound to do his very best. The memory of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, beneath whose frowning battlements stands his home at Chattanooga, must have been vivid, for “he carried the night.” Rev. Mr. Hough, just home from Detroit and Syracuse, weary from the long journey, and suffering from a severe cold, ought to have stayed at home, but his determination to give us at least an audience of _one_ brought him out, even at the peril of his health.

Our first Sabbath was spent in New Haven. At nine o’clock in the morning we met the students of the Theological Seminary. Had I remained silent and Mr. Pike taken all the time, the students would have had occasion to be under obligation to me. He was in good trim, full of his subject, and effective in speech. Africa was his theme, and he handled it in such a way as to hold the continuous attention of the young men. During the day we spoke in several of the pulpits, and in the evening held a “Union Meeting” in the Center Church, which was well attended. The venerable Dr. Bacon was in his chair in the pulpit, as the “Emeritus” pastor of the church; Rev. Dr. Noble, the present pastor, and Rev. Dr. Hawes, of the North Church, were also on the platform, while the presence of Rev. Messrs. Todd, Williams and other ministers in the audience, showed that it was really a union meeting. The work, needs and claims of the A. M. A., I think, were clearly presented and discussed; though, judging from a report in one of the Monday papers, things were rather mixed; for example, one of us was represented as saying that “the colored people are going down to eternity, and if nothing is done by the people in the North they will drag the white people with them”—a very alarming statement surely, and well calculated to fire the popular heart, but I cannot find that either of my companions acknowledges its authorship, and I don’t quite like to assume it myself. The reporter must have been experimenting with a telephone. On Monday, the ministers very kindly accorded us a hearing.

We were indulging the hope that at last we had entered upon the favorable time for our meetings. New Haven had furnished us something of a field day, and strong desire, stimulated by encouragement, was shooting out into confidence; but that “one swallow does not make a summer”—a trite old adage we are in danger of forgetting just when we should remember it, was forcefully brought to our minds as we went to New Milford. The storm king came out in full force, with wind and rain, to give us welcome, and right pitilessly did he continue to rage all the night long. We hastily took back all we had thought and said about Danbury. There we had merely a distant suggestion of Noah’s Deluge—here we had an advance section of the genuine thing; yet so thoroughly had Rev. Mr. Bonar advertised our coming, and so strongly urged his people to attend, that we had a goodly number out to hear us.

We struck Waterbury on election day; still the union of the two churches, under the lead of Rev. Messrs. Beckwith and Anderson, furnished us with a fine congregation and a profitable meeting. These brethren are both in special sympathy with the work of our Association. At Norfolk, elevated thirteen hundred and sixty feet above the level of the sea, we encountered the opposition of a minstrel troupe, which paraded the town with a brass band just about the time our meeting was to commence. It affected our audience very little, however, as the church-going people in that region are not given to such things. A well filled house greeted us, and with the aid of Pastor Gleason, whose earnest words gave us welcome and introduction, we had what appeared to be a very interesting meeting.

Winsted favored us with another rainy reception, but a fair audience, while a well trained choir was present, which, by the excellent rendering of an introductory anthem, as one of the newspapers facetiously put it, “gave tone to the meeting.”

New Britain was the next place, and may be noted as the turning point in the adverse circumstances attending the Connecticut campaign. A pleasant evening and a large audience here greeted us, and an interest evoked that was decidedly manifest. From this time onward until the last day, which proved rainy, we had good weather, and, with only one or at most two exceptions, well-attended meetings. What has been said regarding the co-operation we received from the ministers in the preceding places is true of all. Everywhere the ministers gave us cordial help, and to them is owing very largely the success of our meetings. Milford, Manchester, Glastonbury, Southington, Colchester, Danielsonville, New London and Stonington are the remaining places visited on week days; Bridgeport, Wethersfield, Hartford, Berlin, Wallingford and Meriden on Sundays. In Bridgeport, we had a hearing in all four of the churches, with a union meeting in the evening. In Hartford, three of the churches—Pearl street, Fourth and Dr. Burton’s—gave us audience. Mr. Cutler spoke in the morning at Wethersfield, greatly enjoying the service by reason of the three-mile walk he took in order to reach the church, and yet he does not speak in favor of ministers taking such walks. He thinks the Scripture is right in saying that “bodily exercise profiteth little.” As just intimated, the last day of the campaign in Connecticut, Sunday, Nov. 25, was rainy. The closing meeting was held in Meriden. It was a union meeting of the First and Second Churches, Rev. Messrs. Hall and Hungerford entering heartily into it. A good audience braved the storm, and gave interested attention to our message.

We contemplate a short campaign in Massachusetts during the month of December, of which I may give some account in the future.

* * * * *

THE CHILDREN’S PAGE.

* * * * *

DEAR S. S. FRIENDS:

The other day I heard one of our teachers say, “I’d rather anybody would be really blunt, if he means what he says, than ever so fine, if I cannot depend upon him.” Yesterday, I heard another teacher say, “Mrs. J. is not deceitful enough to be decent.”

Now I know I ought not to write you a sermon, but these two sayings, like texts, will stay in my mind when I think of you.

A good many of you have been to school enough to study U. S. history, and you remember about the stern old Puritan who settled in New England and the Cavalier who settled in the South. Well, we Puritan Yankees, many of whom have been taught to feel that it is a sin even to greet an acquaintance with “I’m glad to see you,” when for some reason we cannot be glad at heart, are very much annoyed when we come South, by being so often deceived, because we cannot tell how much allowance to make for expressions which were intended only to please. For instance, I explain a difficult problem, and ask if it is understood. “Yes, ma’am,” is the prompt reply. Surprised, as well as delighted, at the brightness of my pupil, I ask, “Are you sure you understand perfectly?” “Yes, ma’am,” with as much assurance as before. The next day I assign the problem to the confident pupil, and he knows nothing about it. Or, a pupil comes to me for assistance in a problem. I give it, and he replies: “I started to do it that way, but thought it was wrong.” Of course, such a strange thing as thinking we were wrong when we were right, could not happen very often. But when the same words—“I started to do it that way, but thought it was wrong,” and other expressions equally suspicious, are often repeated, with what weight they come to fall upon our hearts, almost burying our hope and courage as we see how hard it is to be simply true.

So you see there was some reason for my first friend’s saying she preferred honesty to refinement.

Now, perhaps some frank, brave little boy or girl is thinking—I’m not deceitful; I always say what I think, whether people like it or not. My dear little friend, do not be too proud of that honest tongue! Does not the same Bible that teaches us to be truthful, also say, “Be courteous,” and “Be ye kind!” Need I be either a severe Puritan or an insincere Cavalier? You see we old people cannot help feeling that somehow these Puritans and Cavaliers helped to make people believe that one must either be blunt and honest or refined and deceitful. It is a great pity that we should ever think beautiful, lovely Truth, must always speak cold or cutting words.

Now we ought not to fret because we cannot make everything straight in this crooked world, but should we not be a great deal happier if every man and woman and boy and girl who speaks the truth, would always speak it kindly and courteously; and if every one who is truly polite would always be thoroughly truthful? When that time comes, no one will ever think of making such a strange remark as my second friend did yesterday—“She is not deceitful enough to be decent.”

MRS. T. N. CHASE.

ATLANTA, GA.

* * * * *

RECEIPTS.

* * * * *

MAINE, $186.92.

Bangor. Hammond St. Soc. $53.18, and Sab. Sch.
$25.; First Parish $16.19. “A Friend” $2.;
Central Ch. Sab. Sch. $25 $122.17
Belfast. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 13.50
Dennysville. Peter E. Vose, Box of C., val. $40
Machias. “L.” of Centre St. Ch. 10.00
Milltown. Miss. F. M. A. 0.25
Norridgewock. Hattie Boardman, Bbl. of C.
Searsport. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 20.00
Woolwich. Cong. Ch. and Soc. $9; Mrs. J. P.
Frott $2 11.00
West Newfield. Samuel C. Adams 10.00

NEW HAMPSHIRE, $632.53.

Acworth. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 18.00
Amherst, L. & L. K. Melendy, _for Wilmington,
N. C._ 300.00
Centre Harbor. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 20.68
Fisherville. J. C. Martin, $5.; Geo. S.
Meseroe, $2 7.00
Great Falls. First Cong. Ch. 47.00
Keene. Second Cong. Sab. Sch. 50.00
Lempster. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 8.00
Milford. Sab. Sch. of Cong. Ch. 60.00
New London. Mrs. L. M. Trussell (deceased) by
Mary K. Trussell, $10.; M. K. T. 25c. 10.25
Plymouth. Cong Ch. and Soc. 14.26
Rindge. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 9.87
Salmon Falls. Cong. Ch., _for Wilmington, N.
C._ 15.00
Sanbornton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 20.00
Sullivan. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.00
Temple. Cong. Sab. Sch. 22.70
West Lebanon. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 18.50
Wilton. Second Cong. Ch. 6.27

VERMONT, $1,489.96.

Castleton. Cong. Ch. and Soc., to const. M.
CASWELL, L. M. 32.65
Chester. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 42.24
Danville. Cong. Sab. Sch. 10.00
Essex Junction. E. T. M 1.00
Johnson. Cong. Ch. and Soc. (ad’l) 7.00
Manchester. One case C.
North Ferrisburgh. ESTATE of Sylvia Dean, by
J. M. Dean, Ex. 15.00
Pittsford. Mrs. Nancy P. Humphrey 10.00
Roxbury. Cong. Ch. and Soc. $14., and Sab.
Sch. $6 20.00
Rutland. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 44.48
Saint Johnsbury. “Friends of Missions” 1000.00
St. Johnsbury. ESTATE of Erastus Fairbanks 250.00
Saxtons River. Cong. Ch. and Soc. $16.50, _for
paper_, $1.50 18.00
Waits River. J. F. W. 0.50
West Hartford. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 4.25
Woodstock. Hon. Frederick Billings $25; First
Cong. Ch. and Soc. $5; Cong. Sab. Sch. $4.84 34.84

MASSACHUSETTS, $3,556.17.

Acton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 25.00
Andover. Hastings H. Hart 3.00
Athol. Mrs. D. A. Bowker 5.00
Auburndale. Rev. J. M. 0.50
Belchertown. Cong. Sab. Sch. 15.00
Boston. Shawmut Cong. Ch. and Soc. $600.15;
Mrs. N. B. Curtis $200; “A Friend” $5; Mount
Vernon Ch. (ad’l) $2 807.15
Boston Highlands. Elliot Ch. and Soc. $68.85,
Immanuel Ch. and Soc. $50 118.85
Boxborough. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 8.50
Boxford. Mrs. G. P. 0.25
Boylston Centre. Ladies of Cong Ch., bbl. of
C., and $1 _for freight_ 1.00
Bradford. Young Ladies of Bradford Sem. $10
_for Atlanta, Ga._; “A Friend” $5 15.00
Brimfield. Mrs. P. C. Browning $10; J. A.
Upham $3 13.00
Cambridgeport. Ladies Aux. $19.25; J. S. P.
50c. 19.75
Concord. Trin. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 37.50
Conway. Mrs. O. S. 1.00
Dana. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 3.00
Dorchester. Mrs. R. M. L. 0.25
Dracut. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 25.00
Fitchburgh. Cal. Cong. Ch. and Soc. $183 to
const. REV. S. J. STEWART, L. M. 183.00
Fitchburg. ESTATE of Deborah Snow 6.68
Great Barrington. “A. C. T.” 1.00
Hatchville. Mrs. V. H. 1.00
Harvard. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 36.50
Harwich Port. Rev. J. R. Munsell 5.00
Hopkinton. Cong. Sab. Sch. $26, bbl. of C. 26.00
Jamaica Plain. “A Friend.” 20.00
Lynnfield Centre. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.25
Matfield. Mrs. S. D. Shaw 2.25
Merrimac. John K. Sargent $3, Chas. N. Sargent
$2 5.00
Millbury. First Cong. Sab. Sch. $25, _for
Student Aid_, M.D. Garfield $5 30.00
Newbury. Ladies of First Parish, bbl. of C.
_for Selma, Ala._
Newburyport. Mrs. J. C. Cleaveland bbl. of C.,
val. $60.50, _for Talladega_, and $3 _for
freight_ 3.00
New Marlborough. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 11.80
Northampton. “A Friend.” 200.00
Northborough. Ladies’ Sewing Circle, bbl. of
C. _for Atlanta, Ga._
North Brookfield. Union Cong. Ch. and Soc. 63.87
Oxford. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 32.00
Phillipston. Ladies’ Benev. Soc., bbl. of C.,
val. $33.60, and $3 _for freight_ 3.00
Princeton. Mrs. James Pratt, p’k’g of papers
Reading. Mrs. S. P. W. 1.00
Rockland. Mrs. A. S. Reed, to const. MRS.
HORACE W. STUDLEY, L. M. 30.00
Royalston. Joseph Estabrook 10.00
South Amherst. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.00
South Deerfield. Cong. Ch. and Soc., to const.
C. B. TILTON, L. M. 30.00
South Hadley. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 51.00
South Natick. John Eliot Cong. Ch. and Soc. 14.00
Templeton. Mrs. Marier P. Sabin and “A Friend”
$5 ea. 10.00
Wakefield. Mrs. A. S. 0.25
Warren. Cong. Ch. and Soc., to const. MYRON L.
HENRY and GEORGE E. PUTNEY, L. M.’s 68.40
Waltham. Trin. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 26.54
Watertown. Miss E. A. Linsley, by Corban Soc.,
$10; E. S. P. 50c. 10.50
Wenham. Dr. J. L. R. 0.25
Westhampton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 21.00
Whitinsville. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 1,305.50
Wilmington. Mrs. Susan Bancroft 8.00
Winchendon. North Cong. Sab. Sch. 27.03
Worcester. Union Ch. $114.10; Old South Cong.
Ch. and Soc. $50; Piedmont Cong. Ch. $24.50;
Rev. J. M. R. Eaton and wife $10; Mrs. John
B. Gough, bbl. of C. 198.60

RHODE ISLAND, $414.

Central Falls. Cong. Ch. 289.00
Providence. Beneficient Cong. Ch. 125.00

CONNECTICUT, $675.19.

Ansonia. “J. J.” 1.00
Bridgeport. Park St. Ch. (ad’l) to const.
PHILO J. PIERCE, MRS. WILLIAM MILLER and
CALVIN H. STUDLEY, L. M.’s 74.31
Deep River. Cong. Soc. 16.25
Durham. “A Friend” $5; Mrs. Olive Merwin $2;
Gaylord Newton $5 12.00
Ellsworth. Cong. Ch. 9.40
Enfield. First Cong. Ch. 33.64
Guilford. Third Cong. Ch. $50.26; “A Friend”
$30, to const. MRS. LUCY E. DUDLEY, L. M. 80.26
Mansfield. Second. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.33
Morris. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 9.00
New Haven. “A Friend in Centre Ch.” $5; E. F.
S. 50c. 5.50
Norwalk. First Cong. Ch. 52.40
Plainville. Cong. Sab. Sch. to const.
CHAS. LAWRENCE, L. M. 30.00
Preston City. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 32.50
South Norwalk. Cong. Sab. Sch. $100; F. N. $1 101.00
Southport. Rebecca Pennell 5.00
Stonington. Cong. Ch. 64.72
Thomaston. Cong. Ch. 55.38
Washingten. “A Few Friends” 12.50
Waterbury. “A Friend” 30.00
Wethersfield. “A Lady” 25.00
West Killingly. Isaac T. Hutchins 5.00
Westport. Amsey Warren 5.00
Windsor. Cong. Ch. 5.00

NEW YORK, $802.31.

Camden. “A Friend” 1.00
Brasher Falls. Elijah Wood 15.00
Brooklyn. Julius Davenport, $50; Mrs. Lewis
Tappan $10 60.00
Buffalo. W. G. Bancroft 200.00
Elmira. Park Ch. Sab. Sch., _for the debt_ 60.00
Evans. Individuals, _for mag._ 1.00
Gaines. M. & B. H. 0.50
Grandby Centre. J. C. Harrington 10.00
Gouverneur. Eli Mix 15.00
Hamilton. Second Cong. Sab. Sch., _for the
debt_ 30.00
Hopkinton. Cong. Ch. 8.87
Kingsborough. J. W. 1.00
Oriskany. Mrs. L. B. Porter $5; Rev. S. F. and
L. H. Porter $5 10.00
New York. Rev. L. D. Bevan, D.D., $50, _for
the debt_; Mrs. Hannah Ireland $50; Rev.C.
P. Bush, D.D., $5.00; “A Friend” $5,
for rebuilding, and bundle of C. 110.00
Parma. Ezekiel Clark, deceased, by Mrs. Clark 5.00
Penn Yan. Chas. C. Sheppard 150.00
Poughkeepsie. First Reformed Ch. 10.12
Poughquag. E. W. S. 0.25
Ransomville. John Powley 5.00
Rodman. John S. Sill 5.00
Saratoga Springs. Nathan Hickok 2.00
Sherburne. First Cong. Ch. 59.57
Spencerport. Cong. Ch. and Soc. $17; Mary E.
Dyer $10 27.00
West Chazy. Rev. L. Prindle 5.00
Westport. Mrs. A. M. S. 1.00
——. “A Friend” 10.00

PENNSYLVANIA, $85.00.