Chapter I: Part 1

VOL. XXXV. NO. 8.

THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

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“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”

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AUGUST, 1881.

_CONTENTS_:

EDITORIAL.

PARAGRAPH—The Mendi Mission 225
ILLUSTRATION—Mission Home, Mendi Mission 228
DEATH OF REV. KELLY M. KEMP 230
AFRICAN NOTES 230
FREEDMEN FOR AFRICA: Rev. Lewis Grout 232
ADDRESS AT NASHVILLE: Sec’y Strieby 233
BENEFACTIONS 236
CHINESE AND INDIAN NOTES 237

THE FREEDMEN.

ANNIVERSARY REPORTS—Continued.
Ga.: Atlanta University 238
Ala.: Talladega College 240
Texas: Tillotson Institute, Austin 242
S.C.: Avery Institute, Charleston 242
Ga.: Lewis High School, Macon 243

THE CHINESE.

ANNIVERSARY AT STOCKTON 245

WOMAN’S HOME MISS. ASSOC’N.

TWENTY MINUTES A-DAY WORKING SOCIETY 247

CHILDREN’S PAGE.

GRACIE’S MISTAKE: Mrs. Harriet A. Cheever 248

RECEIPTS 250

LIST OF OFFICERS 254

CONSTITUTION 255

AIM, STATISTICS, WANTS, ETC. 256

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NEW YORK:
Published by the American Missionary Association,
ROOMS, 56 READE STREET.

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Price, 50 Cents a Year, in advance.

Entered at the Post Office at New York, N.Y. as second-class matter.

THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

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VOL. XXXV. AUGUST, 1881. NO. 8.

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_American Missionary Association._

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We publish on the opposite page a map of Africa, upon which is represented, by crosses, the location of the different Protestant mission stations of that continent. The Mendi Mission on the West Coast, and the proposed Arthington Mission in the Nile Basin, are specially indicated by dotted lines. We give, also, elsewhere a cut of the Mission Home at Good Hope Station, Mendi Mission.

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THE MENDI MISSION.

SUGGESTIONS, WITH EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL.

REV. H. M. LADD.

Much of the mission work in Africa, at least upon the West Coast, has a basis in industrial work of some kind. Many causes have conspired to hinder this branch of civilizing work at the Mendi Mission. Without stopping to specify what these may have been, no one can doubt that the chief reason why the saw-mill at Avery has failed to be a source of income to the Association, is the difficulty of transporting the lumber to market. This mill, with a circular and an upright saw, with a good head of water during the larger part of the year, and with timber near at hand, is the only mill of the kind on the West Coast. There is a good demand for such lumber as the mill can produce, but the chief market is 120 miles distant. No one in Africa, however much he might want lumber, would be guilty of going 120 miles for it, nor even 120 rods, if he could help it. In former times the lumber was taken to the market in a large boat, propelled by oar and sail; but the climate and the worms have claimed that boat as their own. Here is a most potent agency, an attractive centre for goods. The mill might be producing thousands of feet of lumber a day, and yet if there were no way to carry this lumber to the point where it could be sold, its production would only become a burden. What is needed to insure the best success of the mill, and of all the industrial departments connected with it, is an easy and quick means of transportation. This would not only make the mill a really civilizing institution and a paying piece of property, but if a small steamer or tug-boat were thus in use, it would more than pay its own way in the regular trips it would make, and by the incidental services it could render to other mission stations where similar industrial work is carried on. There are promises enough to insure the successful running of such a steamer. It should be adapted to towing a lumber boat of large capacity to and from Freetown, and should also be adapted to carrying passengers up and down the rivers. It would accomplish more work in a given time than any other project yet proposed on this coast, would dispense with the small army of boatmen and fleet of boats now maintained, and would be the solution of the question in regard to the mill. But why keep up this mill? Why have an industrial department? Simply because the spiritual interests of the mission are involved in it and demand it. There must be a physical basis for any successful work upon the minds and hearts of the people in this part of Africa. This has been demonstrated in other missions than our own. The people need a place to tie to, and something to draw them to that place in order to receive any lasting good. They need to learn habits of industry along with the Gospel. They need to be lifted out of their barbarism by increasing their wants and showing them how to supply them.

These are a few of the considerations that make this industrial work a sort of entering wedge for the Gospel. The situation of things at the Avery Station is, however, such as to convince those who have considered the matter, that the keen edge of this entering wedge must be the sharp prow of a little steamer. There can be scarcely a doubt, that the facilities afforded by such a steamer would give a much needed impetus to the whole work of the Association upon the West Coast.

JOHN BROWN MEMORIAL STEAMER.

Here is now an opportunity to turn to account the latent forces that lie pent up within easy reach. But how shall the steamer preach its practical sermon unless it be sent? Some one must send it. Many hands make light work, especially when they contain the contributions of willing hearts. Why may not the many little rills, and springs, and even drops of love for the colored race, flow together and float this steamer? Why not send, as some one has suggested, old John Brown, of Harper’s Ferry, in a memorial steamer over to Africa, to carry forward in a higher sense the work of freedom which he began here, and which shall never end till his soul has ceased its marching on? About $10,000 are needed to furnish such a steamer as is required. Who will take the first $100 share in the steamer “John Brown” soon to leave for the coast of Africa?

ADVANCE TO THE INTERIOR.

If we may believe one-half of the glowing accounts which come to us regarding the high table-lands of the interior, one or two hundred miles back from the coast, the region is full of rich promises as the scene of future missionary operations. It is said that the land is rich, the country wonderfully beautiful and healthy, the population dense, and cattle and horses abundant. There are difficulties in the way of reaching this country, but they are not insurmountable. One of our missionaries (Mr. Williams), well fitted for the work, has pushed his way back into this region, and reports very strongly in its favor. He brought back a horse with him as corroborative evidence of his statements, and there can be no doubt that in this healthier upland region the natives are more intelligent, more industrious, and every way superior, while they are also ready to welcome any who come among them for purposes of peace. Our present stations upon the coast, three in number, furnish excellent starting points and bases of supply, and should be maintained largely as such. But it should be our aim to work back from the low, malarious coast into these healthier and more promising highlands just as soon as the proper men and the means can be found. Starting from the stations already established, it would seem to be a wise thing to locate a chain of stations within easy distances of each other, stretching back to the mountains. At these points the missionaries could reside two by two, with mutual helpfulness and support. The natives of this region talk the same general language as upon the coast. They are said to be remarkably fine singers, and are fond of music. They manufacture great quantities of cloth and various other articles of a superior quality. They are, however, reported to be the husbands of many wives, counting their honors by the number of their wives. The rivers that drain this region afford an imperfect approach to the country, but are available for considerable distances. Let the means and the men be found, and this healthier and more promising country can soon be captured for Christ. It is only a question of time. This push for the interior must soon be made, and a larger and better work must soon be inaugurated.

BRIEF EXTRACTS FROM THE JOURNAL.

On Wednesday, March 23d, we sighted the point of Sierra Leone by early dawn. The country as approached from the sea is beautiful. The serrated Lion Mountains slope to the water’s edge, covered with a luxuriance of tropical vegetation. The city of Freetown at a little distance appears comparatively well built. The public buildings are large and attract immediate attention, the streets are wide and regularly laid out; and the whole external aspect strikes one as much finer than what is naturally expected on this coast; but a nearer view suggests the truth of the old saying that “Familiarity breeds contempt.” The stay here was short, but into the time was crowded a variety of strange and novel experiences. From this point the mission boat “Olive Branch” carried us to Good Hope Station, on Sherbro Island, where we landed late in the evening of March 30th. This trip of about one hundred and twenty miles occupied three days and two nights, and was, perhaps, the most trying part of our journey. We experienced several severe tornadoes on the way, and suffered from the intense glare of the sun, now nearly vertical, and the difficulty of procuring proper food. Having reached the mission house, we at once made ourselves as much at home as possible. Thursday, March 31st, we were all up at an early hour, and went out before the intense heat of the day to inspect the grounds and buildings. The fine property of the mission had evidently suffered in many ways from neglect. All the buildings stood in need of repairs, and a large portion of the grounds, including the little cemetery where Barnabas Root is buried, was overgrown with bush. The spiritual condition of the church and station seemed also to bear some resemblance to its outward condition. It was not hopeless, but somewhat depressed. The grounds in the immediate vicinity of the mission house gave evidence, however, that the missionaries had neither forgotten to exercise their taste, nor been wasteful of the small force and slender means at their command. So, also, the spiritual condition of the station presented some encouraging features. The warm reception which Mr. Kemp and his wife received on every side gave some reason to hope that the church would yet nourish under his judicious care.

Friday, April 1st, was emphatically a day of calls. It had been quickly noised abroad that the new missionaries from America had arrived, and many availed themselves of the first opportunity to bid them welcome to Africa. Possibly a little curiosity was mingled with their politeness, but we did not care to analyze too closely, and were glad to see them all. The people we met were generally fine looking, of a rich, brown color, and not burdened by any superfluity of clothing. They talked a broken English, which was almost as difficult to understand as a new language.

To say that Sunday, April 3d, was a warm day would convey but a slight idea of the truth. When the thermometer indicates over 90° in America we are apt to call it rather warm; but a new adjective is needed to characterize African heat at 90°, for it is something so entirely different from the summer broils of other countries. No wonder that this is an unhealthy climate. The land is low, the water stagnant, the air moist, vegetation thick, and the heat intense. In the morning I preached in the mission church to an attentive audience on “The light that shineth in a dark place,” and was present at a service in the Mendi language at the school-house in the afternoon. The prayer meeting in the evening was well attended and full of interest.

On Monday, April 4th, we went in the “Olive Branch” to Avery Station, on the Mahna River, a branch of the Bargroo, forty miles inland. The trip took all of one night, the boatmen rowing and keeping time to their oars with a weird, monotonous singing all the way.

The inspection of the station at Avery consumed the early morning hours of Tuesday. We visited the mill, the boat houses, the coffee farm, the cassada fields, the rice houses, the boy’s department, the store, the church and school-room, and last, but not least, the “faki,” or native village, situated on the mission grounds, and under the control of the missionary. The situation of the mission house is a fine one, but the adjacent country is wilder than at Good Hope. The house stands on a high promontory, and commands a very picturesque view both up and down the river. This river abounds in fish and alligators, while the banks are alive with monkeys.

I was up at three A. M. on the 7th to help receive Mr. Kemp, who arrived from Good Hope Station at that hour. Later we visited the school together, examined the pupils in their various branches, and gave them a little talk, which they seemed to enjoy. Some of them were honored by such names as Wm. E. Gladstone and M. E. Strieby. Their appearance and behavior were very gratifying. The prayer meeting in the evening was fully attended, and indicated a marked degree of earnestness, the leader having some difficulty to bring it to a close. If hand-shaking is a means of grace, we enjoyed special privileges at the end of this meeting.

I found oysters growing on trees (April 8th), and plucked a large branch. Bread and butter also grow on trees in this strange land. I had occasion to turn doctor to-day, and prescribed some fearful doses, right and left, with marked results, due probably to faith.

After the ordination exercises at Good Hope (April 10th), a number of the ministerial brethren of the council went in a boat-load to attend service at the out-station of Debia, and although a severe tornado threatened to break up the meeting, we enjoyed an interesting and precious season together. The work at this point is full of encouragement, but greater facilities are needed to carry it on.

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The painful news has just been received through Rev. O. H. White, D.D., of London, of the death of Rev. Kelly M. Kemp at Good Hope Station, Mendi Mission. Thus one more bright name has been added to the long list of missionary heroes and martyrs whose dust hallows the soil of Africa. No particulars have been received, and we cannot speak confidently as to the cause of his death. Those who have read the recent accounts of his ordination and reception at Good Hope need not be reminded of the high hopes that were entertained in regard to the work upon which he had but just entered with so much zeal. Mr. Kemp’s earnest consecration and varied experience and sweet Christian character had not only endeared him to all who knew him, but had given rich promise also of great good to the people among whom he had counted it all joy to labor.

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AFRICAN NOTES.

—The Sultan of Zanzibar is about to study the organization of the French navy. He was expected at Marseilles in July for that purpose.

—Dr. Stacker is attempting to explore Lake Tsana in Abyssinia. If he succeeds in accomplishing this he purposes to push on to Ghera.

—M. Viard, who has already explored the Niger and the Bénvé, in company with the Count of Semellé, is just attempting a new expedition for penetrating into the interior, and establishing there commercial stations.

—Captain Neves Fereira, Governor of Benguela, and some other officers, have placed themselves at the disposition of the Geographical Society of Lisbon, for a new Portuguese expedition from the west to the east, upon an itinerary like that of Serpa Pinto.

—P. Francisco Autuses, charged with establishing the mission of Zoumba upon the Zambeze, has set out from Lisbon for Mozambique. After studying theology and natural sciences at Louvain, he will devote himself to taking meteorological observations. He will establish a station for this purpose at Zoumba. In a little while he will be joined by a number of Portuguese workmen, whom government will send there to make the necessary buildings for a commercial office.

—The Portuguese Commission of Public Works has constructed in the Province of Angola a telegraphic line of 344 kilometers from St. Paul de Loanda to Dondo and Calcullo. It has already rendered good service to commerce and the navigation of the Quanza. At Dondo everything is ready to prolong the line as far as Poungo Andongo.

—The Sultan of Zanzibar has just explored the upper country of the Loufigi with an expedition, the command of which was entrusted to M. Beardall, who formerly studied the region of the Rovouma, and more recently has had under his care the construction of the Dar-es-Salam road.

—The society formed at Sfax will establish at the most important points in the rich countries of Haussa, Bornou, Darfour, &c., commercial stations, which will be at the same time scientific stations, and between which will pass regular caravans, well armed, to which will be joined special men, furnished with all necessary instruments for making topographical and meteorological surveys.

—Four Roman Catholic missionaries have gone to the Baptist mission at San Salvador. They were brought by a Portuguese vessel to the point where the Congo ceases to be navigable, and escorted from thence to San Salvador by a lieutenant and a detachment of the navy. They carried with them some holy water, fire-arms, silver vases and a golden crown, and offered them to the King of San Salvador from the King of Portugal. The king received them and returned thanks, saying that it was the most beautiful present he had ever received. He has promised his protection to the missionaries.

—Mr. James Stevenson, Esq., has offered £4,000 to the London Missionary Society and the Livingstonia Mission, provided they will, without delay, establish stations and maintain them on the line of road between Lake Tanganyika and Quilimane on the coast. It is expected that merchandise will be transported over this route by steamer up the Zambezi and Shiré to the falls of the latter river. There will also be steamboat facilities on the upper Shiré and the Nyassa lake, leaving only about three hundred miles for the transportation of goods by porters or domestic animals in order to reach the Tanganyika.

FREEDMEN FOR AFRICA.

REV. LEWIS GROUT.

The Freedmen, properly educated, will make capital missionaries for Africa. After a careful study of the race for thirty years—fifteen on their own ancestral shores, and now fifteen in this land of ours—such is my conclusion concerning them. They have, naturally, some of the best traits to fit them for mission work. They are hopeful, for one thing, as every missionary should be. During all the long years of their bondage, and then during all the war, how did they hope on and hope ever that deliverance would come, till come it did! They are naturally a social people. Getting a new idea, a new truth, they talk it over, pass it on, keep it going. The missionary must be social, if he will do the most good. They are a sharp-minded, quick-witted people. For ability to read character, make a quick turn, a good use of passing events, or take a good illustration from nature, the Africans have no superiors. They are of a tropical constitution, most happy, healthy, and most at home in just such a climate as that of Africa. It is their native clime—a fact whose value can neither be denied nor over-estimated.

Now keeping all these natural qualifications in mind, let us briefly notice some pertinent points in that most unique, varied experience and divinely appointed discipline through which God, in His providence, has been causing the Freedmen to pass for all these years, as giving them a yet more special preparation for the great mission work He has in store for them.

First, experience in suffering. I know not how it may be with others, but for myself I have come, long since, to think that there is no discipline in this world like that of suffering, rightly used, to fashion us after the image of the Divine. In this way the Saviour himself is said to have been made perfect and fitted for His great redemptive work, (Heb. v., 8, 9). And when, in olden time, God would make choice of a people to be conservators and propagators of His truth in the world for ages, how did He prepare them for their mission? Not by sending them to college, but by sending them down into Egypt; and there, for long generations, did He keep them in bondage, and then for other long years in wanderings in the wilderness, till He had fitted them for His work, and ground into them a character which all the fiction of the ages has not yet ground out of them. So with the people of whom we speak—what an experience have they had in suffering! Surely, God must have in store for them some great and wondrous mission, for which He has intended this experience to be both presage and preparation. Then notice the discipline they have had as soldiers in the camp, on the march, on guard, in the battle, shoulder to shoulder with our men, sons, brothers, fathers, bravely fighting for the Union, that they might know what war is, and what it sometimes costs to secure liberty and save a nation from anarchy and ruin. See, too, what experience and discipline they are getting in civil and political life, in the use of the ballot, in the forming and reconstructing of states, in the framing of constitutions, in making and executing laws, in all the varied and complicated duties of citizens, magistrates, judges and rulers, that they may know how laws, states and nations are made and sustained, and so be prepared to go and plant these institutions and principles in the land of their fathers. And then, last and best of all, what an experience are they getting in the work of organizing and running Christian schools and pure churches among their own people, under the lead of our teachers and preachers in the South, that they may be prepared to do this same blessed work in that dark land which is so imploringly calling to them, as her own sons and daughters, to come with the school and the church to her help.

I love to look at the work of the American Missionary Association in this Divine light. I love to come up in this way upon these highlands of God’s movements in Africa, and among her sons on our shores in this our day, and to get, as I think I can, in this way, some good look at the sweep and the purpose of His providence in the otherwise strange revolutions through which Africa, the Africans, and we ourselves are so swiftly passing.

And now, what is wanting to bring this divinely planned enterprise to a speedy and glorious consummation, but that we do all come quick and glad into line with God?—that the Freedmen, the American Missionary Association, all its noble constituency of churches, the whole rank and file of God’s American army, tread firm and true to the music of His providence? So shall be generously furnished the men and the means He now asks, by which to hasten, in His time, the redemption of Africa unto Himself.

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ADDRESS AT NASHVILLE,

AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE OF LIVINGSTONE MISSIONARY HALL.

BY SECRETARY STRIEBY.

As we are about to lay the corner-stone of a new school building, it is proper that I should answer the question, Why do we come down from the North to erect these buildings in the South?

Before answering the question, I may say that if we come at all, it is not strange that we should select so beautiful a spot as this for a location; nor that we should come to Nashville, for there seems to be some sort of educational lodestone that attracts schools to this city. Joshua conquered a Moabite city called Kirjath-sepher, which scholars tell us means “Book City.” What could have given it that title in that remote era, whether the possession of one book or several books, when letters had probably not long been invented, must remain forever a mystery. So when Macaulay’s New Zealander, after having meditated on the ruins of London Bridge, shall come to this spot and meditate upon the ruins here, or when some Layard or Cesnola or Schliemann shall dig down deep into their foundations, this place may be denominated the “School City;” for at the earliest date of the settlement of Nashville, good schools were formed, and now the hill-tops are crowned and the streets are adorned with schools of the highest character. Nor are these for the white race alone. The Methodist Central Tennessee College, the Baptist Normal and Theological Institute, and neither last nor least, Fisk University, crowning these heights, attest the interest taken in the Christian education of the colored race.

But why do we come here from the North to build these buildings? First, we come as fellow-citizens, who have shared in the agony of the late civil conflict, at the bottom of which lay negro slavery, and for which North and South were responsible, though it may be in different degrees. In the piping hot days of the anti-slavery contest, the Evangelical Alliance met in London. An English gentleman took the platform and delivered a scathing rebuke to America for slavery. Dr. Cox, our most celebrated off-hand orator of that day, took the floor, saying that of course America had her view as to who was responsible for negro slavery in America, whether Britons or Americans; “but,” said he, “I propose to take one corner of the mantle, and let the brother who has just spoken take the other corner, and we will walk backwards and throw it over the originator of negro slavery in America.” We come as fellow-citizens in a like spirit, ready to throw the mantle of charity over the past. But emancipation has introduced a new element. The ex-slaves need Christian education and elevation, and we come as Christian brethren and say to our friends at the South: We will take one corner of the mantle of Christian education, if you will take the other, and we will go _forward_, with our faces lifted to Heaven, and will throw that mantle over the emancipated slaves.

This is the work we propose to do in the South, and wise and candid men both North and South are beginning to realize that the education of the negro race is the paramount duty of the nation to it. Presidents Hayes and Garfield have voiced the feelings of the North on this subject, while Col. Preston and Dr. Ruffner of Virginia, Sen. Brown and Pres. Haygood of Georgia, have nobly re-echoed the sentiment from the South. This Association goes farther than mere intellectual education. It believes that the Christian element lies at the foundation of all true character, and that character is the basis of all true manhood and citizenship. It has been the aim of this Association not merely to lift up the individual, but to apply the levers to the elevation of the mass, and hence it has founded in every large Southern State, schools fitted for the training of teachers, preachers and missionaries of the colored race. At Hampton, where the first slave-ship entered the continent, in the same year in which the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, the Association opened the first Freedman’s school in these United States. Under the energetic administration of Gen. Armstrong, Hampton Institute, with its broad lands, its large and commodious buildings, its steam-engine and multiplied mechanical employments, gives educational and industrial training to its large company of students, graduating about fifty pupils each year, ninety per cent. of whom go into the State as teachers, carrying with them, into the school, the Sunday-school, the prayer-meeting and the church a healthful Christian influence; while the noble old state of Virginia responds to the effort by a gift of $10,000 a year for the support of the school. Atlanta University, with its two commodious buildings, and another soon to be added, imparts a higher range of teaching, including classic instruction to its pupils, and the state of Georgia responds with its gift of $8,000 a year. If you would see what is done at Fisk University, look around you and examine the classes under instruction in Jubilee Hall. But time would fail me to speak of Talladega, Ala.; Tougaloo, Miss.; Straight University, New Orleans; Tillotson Institute, Austin, Texas; and of the other schools, normal, grammar and primary, which the Association sustains. From all these institutions we believe there are pupils now engaged in teaching, who have under their care 200,000 children, and that there are pastors in churches that we have founded, and in others not under our care, whom we have prepared to be intelligent and faithful preachers of the Gospel in this land and in Africa. We believe that the providence of God is bringing to pass a wonderful combination of discovery in Africa and of Christian education among the Freedmen, that is to have an immeasurable influence on the long neglected races of the Dark Continent.

In these efforts for the colored people, we do not wish to make them vain nor to pauperize them. We believe our efforts have led thus far to neither of these results. The scholars going from our schools are not troubled with what is so aptly called the “big head,” and my observation shows that around our schools and others like them the colored people are inclined more than anywhere else to buy land, build houses and make comfortable Christian homes. Our purpose in erecting these buildings, in addition to the good that is done to the scholars under immediate instruction, is to inspire hope in the whole race. And we are doing it. A good colored deacon in one of our churches said that he expected no greater change to come over him when he entered Heaven than came over his race when the doors of the school-house were opened to it.

In the prosecution of this, our great work, we have spent over $3,000,000, and to secure that sum we have had providential helpers. First on the roll and steadiest in the ranks are the Christian friends at the North and in Great Britain, whose firm support has been the stability of our efforts. We mention also the Freedmen’s Bureau, with its large and wise distribution of Government funds for educational purposes. This Bureau has not been popular at the South; but we believe the time will yet come when our Southern friends will learn to appreciate the work of Gen. Howard, the head of this Bureau, and of Gen. Fisk, who administered so wisely and impartially for both races the Bureau work in this and adjoining States. The Jubilee Singers need no eulogy in this presence; their monument stands before us in Jubilee Hall; yet no list of the providential helpers of this Association, and especially of Fisk University, could be complete without their names. And last, but not least, mention must be made of the noble generosity of Mrs. Valeria G. Stone, attested not only in the gift of $60,000, which is to build Livingstone Hall, whose corner-stone we lay to-day, but in like gifts throughout the land. God rejoices in the coming spring, when the frozen ground and the ice-covered streams give place to the springing grass and the budding leaves, coming forth to adorn and beautify the earth and to presage the approaching harvests. And so, without presumption, may His child, the giver of the bounty which rears this building, be permitted to rejoice as it sends forth its annual company of students, trained and adorned for a useful life that shall gladden and bless the world.

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The Vicksburg _Herald_, rebuking a narrow-minded correspondent, says: “We are heartily in favor of the South from the Potomac to the Rio Grande being thoroughly and permanently Yankeeized. Yankee energy, Yankee schools, Yankee cultivation, Yankee railroads and Yankee capital are badly needed in the South, and will be welcomed by every Southern progressive patriot.”

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BENEFACTIONS.

—John P. Howard, of Burlington, has given $50,000 to the University of Vermont—the largest individual gift ever made to the institution.

—The Hon. Robert H. Pruyn, of Albany, N.Y., has offered to give $100,000 toward the general endowment of Rutgers College, New Brunswick, N.J., provided the remaining trustees contribute $400,000.

—Dr. Hoffman, Dean of the Faculty of the General Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary of New York, with his family, has given $75,000 toward the endowment of that institution.

—Mr. John R. Buchtel, of Acton, Ohio, has added $75,000 to his gifts to the Buchtel College, making the entire amount about $200,000.

—Mr. Wharton has given $100,000 to the Wharton School of Finance and Economy in connection with the University of Pennsylvania.

—A benevolent lady has given $3,000 to Lincoln University for the erection of a tabernacle for the accommodation of visitors on anniversary occasions.

—A lady, who does not wish her name published, has just given $100,000 to Princeton Theological Seminary.

—Winthrop Hillyer, of Northampton, has given $35,000 to Smith College for an art building.

—_Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., has Jubilee Hall completed and over-flowing with students, and is now erecting Livingstone Missionary Hall, by the gift of Mrs. Stone; but endowments are the great necessity. Twenty-five thousand dollars will provide for a professorship, and there are seven such needing endowment._

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CHINESE NOTES.

—Chicago has fourteen naturalized Chinamen.

—Dr. Chalmers reports that the native church in Hong Kong has increased in numbers from 83 to 216 during the decade, although, during the same period, no fewer than 77 members have removed to other parts of China, or have gone abroad.

—The girl’s school in Shanghai, under the auspices of the London Missionary Society, numbers 100 scholars. A female missionary is employed at this point, who devotes her time to work among the women. Two ladies are also employed with marked success in the same branch of work at Hong Kong.

—A Consul of the English Government in China, writing from Chefoo, says: “A great change has come over all classes in regard to Christianity; it has made vast strides in the land, in spite of the fewness of the missionaries; and whether we are inclined to rejoice in or deplore the fact, the spread of Christianity is inevitable.”

—It is an interesting evidence of the growing power of Christianity in Japan that the people feel it necessary to bolster themselves up by mutual pledges so that they may be kept from becoming Christians. A Japanese paper reports that a number of citizens of Kioto, grieved at the rapid spread of the new religion, have established a society in which each member binds himself by solemn oaths never to embrace the Christian faith. Any member who disregards his vows will be ostracized. Men would not so set themselves did they not feel the power of the current.—_Missionary Herald._

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INDIAN NOTES.

—At Hampton there are seventy-nine Indian students, representing _sixteen_ different tribes.

—Chief-elect Wildcat, a Shawnee boy, in the middle class at Hampton, is improving his spare time by compiling a small English-Indian dictionary. He says that his tribe has no such book, and one is greatly needed.

—In the British possessions it is estimated that the total Indian population is less than one-tenth of the number found by the first European settlers.

—Rev. John Sunday, an Indian preacher at Hamilton, Ont., is reported to have closed a recent address with the following language: “There is a gentleman who, I suppose, is now in this house. He is a very fine gentleman, but a very modest one. He does not like to show himself at these meetings. I do not know how long it is since I have seen him, he comes out so little. I am very much afraid that he sleeps a good deal of his time, when he ought to be out doing good. His name is Gold. Mr. Gold, are you here to-night, or are you sleeping in your iron chest? Come out, Mr. Gold, come out and help us do this great work, to preach the Gospel to every creature. Ah, Mr. Gold, you ought to be ashamed of yourself to sleep so much in your iron chest. Look at your white brother, Mr. Silver; he does a great deal of good while you are sleeping. Come out, Mr. Gold. Look, too, at your little brown brother, Mr. Copper; he is everywhere. Your poor little brown brother is running about, doing all that he can to help us. Why don’t you come out, Mr. Gold? Well, if you won’t show yourself, send us your shirt, that is, a bank note. That is all I have to say.”

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THE FREEDMEN.

REV. JOSEPH E. ROY, D.D., FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.

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ANNIVERSARY REPORTS—CONTINUED.

Atlanta University.

PROF. HORACE BUMSTEAD, D.D.

Anniversary exercises are apt to afford but meagre indication of the real work accomplished by any school. To those of us who know the work of Atlanta University, such exercises seem especially inadequate to the faithful telling of what is being done here. When our good Christian friend, Philander Veryrich, hints that he is ready to come down here with a hundred thousand dollars in each pocket, to be emptied out wherever they will do the most good, I shall not especially urge his attendance upon our Commencement exercises. I shall ask him to spend with us either the first or the last Sunday evening of the school year. I shall beg him to preserve a strict _incognito_, and allow me to conceal him outside one of the windows, or behind one of the doors of our assembly room, with a peep-hole conveniently arranged. If it is the last Sunday evening before the vacation, he will hear many of the scholars speak with grateful appreciation of what the year’s work has done for them, and with enthusiastic hope of what they mean to do for others during their summer’s work of teaching. The members of the graduating class will recall their experience of six or seven or eight years in the Institution, and tell what a home it has been to them, and how much of what they have acquired in the training of mind and character is due to the Christian home influence of the school. If it is the first Sunday evening of the new school year, our benevolent friend will hear many of these same scholars tell of their summer’s work—how they have succeeded in some things and failed in others; what they have done in Sunday-school and temperance work; what obstacles they have met and conquered; what increasing favor they have found in the communities where they have labored. At either of these Sunday evening family gatherings (for such they are), I think our visiting friend will be struck with the simple straightforward way in which our scholars express themselves, with the extremely limited amount of what is sometimes called “gush,” and with the clear revelation which will be made to him that before, behind, around, and underneath everything else, the development of a thoroughly Christian character, and of a true manhood and womanhood, is the all-absorbing purpose of our work. But I am stultifying myself in trying to convey an impression of these gatherings to others. Even to our own corps of workers here, they come, twice a year, almost as a surprise and as a most inspiring revelation to ourselves of what God is permitting us to do.

And still, however inadequate, our anniversary exercises have been full of interest, and have revealed much to those who have visited us for the first time. The Baccalaureate sermon was preached June 12th, by our college pastor, Rev. Cyrus W. Francis, from 1st Tim. i. 19, “Holding faith and a good conscience;” and it was an earnest plea for the supremacy of the higher motives in the Christian warfare upon which the graduates were about to enter. Three days of public examinations followed, each day’s session being concluded by an exercise in music and light gymnastics. On the last day there was a display of what our girls have learned in the way of head-making. The walls of the front hall and one of the stairways were covered with specimens of the students’ drawing and map-making, indicating great progress in this department during the year. The normal work also has been making a decided advance. It is evident that those of us who teach the Greek, Latin and other higher branches will have to look well to our laurels. Fewer visitors to the school ask to hear the classics translated; more wish to see how the three R’s are taught. No exercise of the examination days riveted the attention of our friends more firmly than the exercise in teaching one of the grammar-school grades, by one of the members of the senior normal class, with following criticisms from the other members of the class. However, we classical instructors rejoice in all this, for we know that hereafter we shall have better equipped pupils for grappling with Xenophon and Cicero. It ought to be mentioned here that one of the most valuable exercises of our winter term this year was a three days’ Teachers’ Institute, in which all the teachers and scholars participated, and in which much light was thrown upon the improved methods of teaching, now attracting such wide attention. A further impetus was given to thought and effort in this direction by the visit of our friend, the Rev. A. D. Mayo, co-editor of the _Journal of Education_, whose four lectures and one sermon before our students, and whose private talk and counsel with our teachers on certain phases of our work, will not soon be forgotten.

A very large audience, as usual, packed the Friendship Baptist church on Thursday, to listen to the essays of eleven of the graduating class, and to the address of the invited orator of the day. Five young men and twelve young women received the diplomas of the school. The Commencement address was delivered by Rev. Atticus G. Haygood, D.D., President of Emory College at Oxford, in this State. Those who are now reading his recently published book, “Our Brother in Black,” will not need to be told that his address was listened to with the greatest pleasure and approval by all who were present. It was a plain, forcible and thoroughly wholesome presentation of some of the ways in which the true greatness of the State must be secured, and the relation thereto of education and of such institutions as ours. Dr. Haygood represents, most nobly, that rapidly multiplying element among the Southern people which believes in the motto, “Look up and not down, out and not in, forward and not backward, and lend a hand.” May his tribe increase.

One of the most excellent features of the address was, as one auditor suggested, the fact that it would have been just as appropriate for delivery before the Athens (State) University as before the Atlanta University.

The Alumni meeting, Thursday afternoon, brought together a goodly number of the graduates of former years. The spirit of the remarks made at this gathering gives, every year, an increasing assurance of the stability and self-propagating character of the work in which we are engaged.

The report of the Visiting Committee, appointed by the Governor of the State, has just been published. It furnishes renewed evidence of the growing favor which our work is meeting with among the people of Georgia. The remarks made to the school on the last day of the examinations, by Rev. Mr. Wilkes, the chairman of the sub-committee, who prepared this report, were full of good sense and kindly feeling. The speaker told of his life-long service as a teacher, and how it had begun with the instruction of a little colored boy, his father’s slave, in the safe seclusion of the corn-crib, in the days when such teaching was a criminal offense. None who heard him could doubt the entire sincerity of his words of sympathy and encouragement. It is astonishing how rapidly and widely the work of Atlanta University is coming to be appreciated. Among the applications for teachers which have lately been received, have been several from county school commissioners, who say, in substance, “The teachers we have met with from your Institution are of such a quality that we desire now to supply all our schools from the same source.” Let our friends at the North take courage. Their investments, so far, are bearing compound interest at a high rate. When these lines reach the eyes of the readers of the MISSIONARY, some ten thousand children, all over this great State, will be gathered under the instruction of our pupils. Next October we shall get the reports of this work. As soon as our friend, Philander Veryrich, will send me his address, I will give him the date of the Sunday evening gathering, from which he can learn more about our work than from whole volumes of the AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

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TALLADEGA COLLEGE.

MRS. THOS. N. CHASE.

After following with tender anxiety so many classes through their graduating exercises at Atlanta, it has been very pleasant for me, this year, to witness the closing exercises of two similar Institutions. This one at Talladega I have been urged to report for the MISSIONARY.

The sermon before the graduating class was preached by Pres. H. S. De Forest upon the worth of the soul. His eloquent review of the grand geologic ages told of the greater grandeur of Him for whom they were prepared. His allusions to the soul’s capacity to think, feel and choose, to its immortality and cost of redemption, must have brought to the class an overwhelming sense of their responsibility. In closing, they were asked to remember that what a man may be is infinitely more than what he can sell himself to get.

The Missionary Society had the promise of an address on Sunday evening by Dr. G. B. Willcox, of Chicago Theological Seminary. A telegram announcing his sickness was throwing its shadow over us, when, as unexpectedly, Rev. H. M. Ladd dropped in upon us, only a few days home from Africa. He hastened South to catch the last days of Talladega and Atlanta sessions, hoping to find recruits for African missions.

On Monday the examinations began. This Institution is fortunate in having an excellent primary school in the building. It is a constant object lesson to the little army of teachers who go out every summer to teach just such children, and also dignifies primary work, which, in spite of Frœbel, Pestalozzi and the truly wise and good everywhere, is too often considered of minor importance. The principal of the intermediate department has remarkable ability in bringing her pupils up to her high standard of excellence. In the rear of her school-room is a power for good which is inestimable. It consists in a long, low table with seats. On it are fastened, by a very simple contrivance, interesting and instructive illustrated papers and magazines, which the children are allowed to read after lessons are prepared. In an age when the best literature floods our land in such cheap forms that the humblest need never thirst, what nobler philanthropy than to allure these often worse than homeless children on to an early taste for good reading?

The normal work and classes in natural science are in charge of a graduate lately from Beloit College and Whitewater Normal School. The classical department is in charge of an Olivet graduate, whose three years here have proved him invaluable. A most interesting acquisition to the corps of teachers is a scientific farmer, a graduate of Massachusetts Agricultural College. To enjoy the delicious vegetables from his garden is enough to convert a sceptic in scientific agriculture. It really looks as though, under his skill, these unsightly acres of red clay were, in time, to blossom as the rose. The joy and pride of this Institution, however, is its theological department, and well it may be. Its class of eleven were examined two hours of one of their hot days, and nobody seemed weary. The clear, simple topics, recited in such an interesting, lucid style, tolerated no hovering fog, that I had supposed always, more or less, mystified a recitation in systematic theology. The accuracy of their knowledge in Bible history, too, was wonderful. None but a born teacher could have secured such results from a class of that grade of scholarship. Classes in geometry and rhetoric told unmistakably of thorough work.

We were entertained, Monday evening, by prize speaking and essay reading; Tuesday evening, by an interesting account of Mr. Ladd’s African experience, in place of the expected address by Dr. Willcox; Wednesday evening, by the ordination of two candidates; Thursday evening, by a musical concert. There are a few rare voices here that vocal training would develop into marvellous sweetness.

Thursday was graduating day, and as the class was much smaller than usual, five young men from the preparatory department gave orations. They were all excellent in matter and delivery. Their effect would have been more pleasing, however, had there been a greater variety of subjects or of treatment. Doubtless, in the depths of these students’ hearts, no subjects are so momentous as “The curse of Canaan;” “Cannot we, too, become great men?” “The ballot,” etc. But what has pleased me here more than anything else, however, is the excellent spirit manifested by the students in the family. There is, especially among the young men, an earnestness of purpose shown that is simply grand. Possibly it is, in part, owing to the fact that so many are from the country, schooled by hard work, away from the follies of city life. There is here no airing of exquisite broadcloth nor swinging of fancy canes. All are respectful, unassuming, and possessed of a modesty that seems to reach beneath their delightful demeanor and give them a true estimate of their abilities. At family devotions, the last morning before the school separated, one of the graduates led us in prayer. I cannot think that the thought and tones of that prayer will ever leave me. The ear of the Omnipotent must have heard those pathetic pleadings that his fellow-students might be sustained by the Everlasting Arms as they took up their heavy burdens, often in the midst of terrible temptations. We who send out these large numbers of young men and women to reach the masses, feel the need of your prayers and sympathies; but how much more do these young and inexperienced ones, as they go out to battle with ignorance, envy, intemperance and every form of vice! We never realize how great our hopes are for them till we occasionally get a great shock by the death of one, or the overcoming and fall of another. We reach but a few. Surely our work and the entire Southern work of the American Missionary Association centres in those who go out to reach the millions. If they fail, we have failed. How important that we hold up such a high standard of character, that they shall be beacon lights instead of tapers that shall soon go out in the darkness.

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TILLOTSON INSTITUTE, AUSTIN, TEXAS.

(From the Daily Statesman)

Tillotson Institute is presided over by the Rev. W. E. Brooks, a gentleman of evident Christian piety, an accomplished scholar, and a man thoroughly impressed with the dignity and importance of his trust. Professor Brooks is ably assisted in the educational part of his work by Miss Hunt, an experienced and successful teacher of the young, as her class examinations, conducted at the Institute on the 9th inst., fully demonstrated; the boys and girls, in the careful and prolonged examinations to which they were subjected by their teachers and the visitors present, displaying an accuracy of information and a fullness of understanding highly commendable to themselves, and a just source of pride to their faithful and efficient teachers. The examination in English grammar, including analysis and parsing, was excellent, as was that also in geography. The result of the examination in arithmetic, algebra and Latin showed an uncommon proficiency on the part of the students, considering the fact that they have been at this school and under this training scarcely more than six months.