The American Missionary -- Volume 34, No. 10, October, 1880

These singers of world-wide fame will once more enter the “service of song” for Fisk University. They have devoted their wonderful voices to its benefit for six years, during which they left their marvelous impress on vast and select audiences in America, Great Britain, and the Continent, including the highest and humblest in rank, and have reared as their monument the substantial and beautiful Jubilee Hall, at Fisk University. The past two years they have taken for needed rest, and in giving concerts for their own benefit; and in dedicating themselves to the up-building of the University, it is now for endowment, as it was then for building.

During all these years, their voices have been more and more highly cultivated, without losing their freshness and originality, or their power to move most deeply the hearts of vast audiences, as was so signally manifested in the enthusiastic gatherings they met recently at Chautauqua.

The name and fame of these Singers have been repeatedly appropriated by unworthy imitators. This true Jubilee Troupe, when again heard, will need no credentials except their own voices to certify to the public that they are the original Jubilee Singers.

[The following letter with the above caption is from the New York Evangelist, and was written by the Rev. Moses A. Hopkins, a colored preacher of Franklinton, N.C. It contains so much truth, and good, hard, common sense, that the Missionary is constrained to send it along. This is done with a slight but emphatic caveat in regard to one paragraph, to which exception is taken as misleading. To say “the pinching poverty which drove a few idle and ignorant Freedmen to Indiana, Kansas, and Africa” does not come up to the proportions, as the writer would imply that it does, of a satisfactory explanation of this great movement which has taken more than 40,000 colored people from their old to new homes, at great expense, both of suffering and money.

From Florence, Ala., many of the most intelligent and well-to-do of these people exodized. Among those who went to Africa were many intelligent and thrifty men, sufficiently so to send out an agent and arrange for the movement, with means to place themselves in their new home, and they were unanimous in assigning reasons which justified them in the experiment.—Ed. Miss.]

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Many designing men, “filled to the brim” with sledge-hammer rhetoric and campaign eloquence, for more than a decade have “used sorcery and bewitched the colored people” with their “cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive,” till many of the Freedmen thought that the time had fully come when the last should be first and the first last, and were waiting and watching for their turn in the White House and Congress.

But having hoped against hope, till hope deferred and poverty had saddened their hearts, most of them have turned their minds to the soil, which now promises “seed to the sower and bread to the eater.” On every hand “the valleys are covered over with corn,” and God, the poor man’s Friend, has just granted the tillers of the ground “a plentiful rain,” which causes “the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.”

The present prospect of a bountiful harvest has greatly inspired our people to labor and to appreciate honest toil, and to remember that the great mass of the Freedmen will make better plowmen than Presidents, and better sowers than Senators. The pinching poverty which drove a few idle and ignorant Freedmen to Indiana, Kansas and Africa, has taught those who had the good sense to stay at home, that God will not bless idleness and ignorance among any people. Most of the Freedmen have decided to buy land and labor on it; to build houses and dwell in them, “and to plant gardens and eat the fruit of them”; to seek the peace of the country and the cities where God has caused them to be carried away captives; and to remember that in the peace and prosperity of this country shall they have peace.

The settlers of New England showed their uncommon common sense by the early establishment of Harvard and Yale—the nursing mothers of the common school system which has made these States what they are. These colleges are not the ripened fruit of the common schools, but the creators of them. For these colleges, we are indebted to a class of men among the Pilgrim Fathers, educated in the universities of the old world, a class not to be found among the colored people of the South, and because of which alone, if for no other reason, their condition differs immensely from that of the Freedmen, who have no ability to create the instruments by which they can be lifted up from the degraded condition in which slavery left them.

The deep-seated prejudice of the Southern white against the fact of negro education, his bitter unwillingness to see the experiment tried, coupled with his scornful incredulity that anything worth the effort could be accomplished, made it certain that those most deeply concerned, because of the new relation these people sustained to them, in the elevation, through schools, of the negro, would originate no efforts to this end. This gospel, like every other, must be sent to those who are to be specially benefited by it, and must be sustained, like all missionary enterprises, by those who know its value, until it can vindicate itself to those to whom it is sent.

It is not rash to say that, but for outside pressure, few, if any, of the Southern States would now have a system of common schools, provided for by State legislation, even for the whites; even less bold is the assertion that, but for the proved results of missionary schools for the education of the colored people, the South, and a large proportion of those in the North, would be utterly incredulous as to[294] the possibility of making scholars of the negroes; and that the common schools forced upon the unwilling South by the constitutions formed by conventions in which the Southern sentiment found no expression, would never have gained favor as they have with the people, but for the trained teachers which our schools and the schools of other societies have furnished. As in New England, so in the South, the trained teacher makes the schools, which are thus the children of the colleges and normal schools.

Wherever we have been able to send competent colored teachers, the whites are in favor of sustaining the common school system; and it may with modesty be said, that the A.M.A., perhaps more than any other agency, has won for it a place in the future of these States, ten of which, according to the latest reports, appropriate $49,829 for normal instruction in colored schools, a large share of which goes to institutions established by Northern charity, to carry on a work the value of which had been fully proven by these schools before these States contributed a dollar for such a purpose.

In 1878, out of a total school population in the recent slave States, including the District of Columbia, of 5,187,584, 2,711,096 were enrolled, being nearly 62 per cent. of the whites, and something more than 47 per cent. of the blacks. Nearly twelve millions of dollars was expended upon the schools for that year, and for the most part it has been very equitably divided between the races, except in Kentucky and Delaware, in which States the school tax collected from the colored people alone is appropriated to colored schools.

Thus the teachers of negro schools have fought a great fight, and have won substantial victories, for a system of education which is to regenerate the South, and, more than any other and all other agencies, is to convert elements of danger, which, neglected, would soon have proved the ruin of our republic, into elements of strength and greatness.

There is a general feeling outside of, and it is encouraging to believe even in, the South, that a new state of things is desirable for that section of the country. No one who has seen its homes, schools, churches, industries (or want of them), its literature—in short, whatever at once marks and constitutes its civilization, and knows how meager and unworthy it is, but assents to the proposition that the South needs to be regenerated, and heartily wishes that “old things might pass away and all become new.” In one way or another, New England has supplemented her earnest wish for it with most earnest efforts to accomplish this regeneration. To say nothing of legislative attempts by the Government, thousands of missionaries, at an expense of millions of dollars, during the past fifteen years, have, with great self-denial and laborious effort, attempted the task, and the reports are abundant and uniform that these efforts are beginning to have their effect. Old prejudices are yielding; new industries and new institutions, the outcome of new ideas, are springing up; society is changing, and the country is beginning to put on a new aspect. Never before have the societies and laborers engaged in this work been so cheered and encouraged by the outlook.

It may be well at this point to ask, toward what ideal we are working, and fairly to consider the forces that are co-operating with, or working against, us in this effort. The most potent factor in the creation of a new South must be, of course, the South itself, as of necessity she will be chiefly the architect of her own fortunes, good or bad.

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It would be unwise, and the effort would prove futile, to attempt its reconstruction by outside influences and agencies, in utter disregard of the fact that to her belongs the right, and upon her devolves the duty, as she alone possesses the power, of shaping her own destiny. This being the case, it becomes evident that the new South is not to be a New England in the South, and our Yankee egotism should not measure the progress made in that section simply by its observable approximation to Northern ideals. New England, as it is, could not have been built except upon New England’s hills, and we shall never see it in the cotton fields, rice swamps and everglades of the sunny South.

Other influences than those that are merely ethnic and moral help to mold the character of a people, and to develop the industries by which it shapes its civilization. We dare not think what the result to our Republic would have been had the Mayflower found the mouth of the Mississippi River instead of Plymouth harbor, and had the Pilgrim Fathers settled on the savannahs of Louisiana instead of the bleak hills of New England. The intelligent and thrifty New England farmer, transplanted to Florida, may not, indeed, degenerate into an everglade “cracker,” whose “strength is to sit still” and chew tobacco; but he cannot be a New England farmer in Florida, for the reason that he has neither the climate, soil nor products of his old farm, and none of the conditions which partly prompted, and partly compelled, the thrift which has characterized the farmers of New England.

New England has emptied itself, probably more than once, into the West; she has sent her sons and daughters out into the great prairies with the school-house and the church, and they have built them homes hallowed and made beautiful by these influences, but they have not reproduced Yankee New England, and they never can.

In the new South, the ugly mud-daubed log huts will give place to neat cottages; the school-houses will be multiplied until all her children shall possess facilities for acquiring education; churches, supplied with an educated ministry, will be accessible to all inhabitants; roads will be built, over which it will be possible to travel with comfort; the immense tracts of land now impoverished and running to waste will be brought under cultivation; a Christian conscience will displace a false code of honor among the people as a rule of conduct, and methods more civilized than the pistol and bowie-knife will be resorted to in adjusting misunderstandings among neighbors. All this will be, and of this there are evident tokens that it is now coming in. But the wide diversity of soil and climate and other conditions of life, the antipodal ideas which have shaped the character of the people, the heterogeneous elements which more and more are entering into the make-up of the population of the different sections—in short, the necessities of the case, make it absolutely certain that New England is to be confined to New England, and greatly modified even there, and that the civilizations of the South and the West are to be in many respects widely different, possessing characteristics as marked, and doubtless as valuable, as those which have made the influence of New England so beneficent upon the country at large. It is wise, as it is also incumbent upon us, to supply the educational influences which shall change the whole aspect of Southern society, but foolish to undertake to cast it in the exact form of that which we are proud to call New England.

In 1875, Stanley wrote in the London Telegraph of the wonderful opening in Uganda, at the court and among the people of Mtesa, for missionary effort. Within three days after the publication of his letter, the Church Missionary Society received, from an unknown giver, $25,000, which was soon increased by the same person to $50,000, for opening a mission among the Waganda.

The reception of the mission, which was soon sent out, was most encouraging. The opposition of the Mohammedan Arabs, bitter as it was, did not materially interfere with its prospects. The king seemed intelligently alive to the fact that there was something, at least, in a Christian civilization infinitely superior to what was offered in Mohammedanism or heathenism. For a time, everything progressed most encouragingly; the king and all his people gave themselves assiduously to the new doctrines, and the work of the mission was interrupted only temporarily by a suspicion on the part of the king that the missionaries were emissaries of the Khedive of Egypt, and were intriguing in his interest. This jealousy was soon allayed, friendly relations were restored, and the work was fully resumed, when there appeared upon the scene ten Jesuit missionaries, sent out by the Archbishop of Algiers, with instructions to occupy every station of the Protestant missionary societies in the region of Victoria Nyanza and Tanganika, with the intention of carrying the French language and influence into the depths of Central Africa.

Their coming endangered for a time the life of the mission, and their settlement near the palace by the king proved to be a serious obstacle to the prosecution of its work. They gladly bribed the king with gifts of arms and ammunition, articles eagerly sought by him, but refused by the Protestant missionaries. They immediately assumed a most hostile attitude toward the mission; denounced the missionaries as liars, and threw the king and court into the greatest perplexity. “What am I to believe?” cried the king. “Who is right? First, I was a heathen, then a Mohammedan, then a Christian; now some more white men come and tell me these English are liars. Perhaps if I follow them, other white men will come and tell me these are liars also.”

After a time, matters had settled down to comparative quiet. The missionaries appealed to the word, which they were rapidly teaching the people to read. King and people were learning with an eagerness like that manifested by the Freedmen of the South after the surrender. The king had the prayers written out in Arabic characters, and ordered many copies, so that all might join in the Sunday services; and such was the evident interest of all, that neither the efforts of the Moslems, made after the fast of Ramadhan last autumn, to have their creed introduced, nor the opposition of the Jesuits, availed to hinder the work.

But there was a danger greater than the joint opposition of Arab and Frenchman, of Islam and Loyola, with their confederates of the slave trade—an adversary more to be dreaded, because indigenous to the country, not foreign, and entrenched more deeply and strongly in the African nature than any possible influence by which he could be swayed.

Messrs. Mackay and Litchfield were in November last anxiously awaiting the return of Mr. Felkin from England, whither he had gone with the Uganda chiefs, being in sore need of more paper to meet the demand made for printed cards and pages of the Scriptures. Mr. Pearson was at Kagei, where he had gone to bring[297] some machinery from that point to Rubaga. This he was not able to do and was compelled to return without it. On arriving at Buganga his request to be allowed to go on was refused, because Mokassa, one of the Lubari of the Nyanza, had possession of a part of the lake, and no one could pass over it. At the same time a number of half-caste traders were kept waiting at Rubaga, not allowed to proceed to Unyanyembe until this Neptune, god or devil of the lake should return home. Messrs. Mackay and Litchfield heard from time to time that the Lubare was expected at court to cure the king of his sickness. One day they ventured to introduce the subject of his or her (for in this case the Lubare is an old woman who personifies the spirit or devil of the lake), coming. The king entered heartily into the subject and translated to his chiefs all that was said by the missionaries. They said to him, if Lubare is a god, then there are two gods in Uganda—Jehovah and Mokassa. If he is a man, then there are two kings in Uganda—Mtesa, who has given permission for these traders to depart, and Mokassa, who has forbidden it.

The next day, an order was sent for the traders to depart, and the king proposed to his court that some cattle should be given to the Lubare and she should be ordered to go back the way she came.

Weeks passed, and it seemed doubtful whether the king would triumph or the old chiefs and the king’s mother, who insisted that the Lubare should have houses erected for her in the king’s inner court. Mtesa himself said to Mr. Mackay, “I believe what you say is true, and that every Lubare is a liar, and deceives the people only to get food.”

There was a gathering of the old chiefs, and the king was advised by them that the missionaries had come to take possession of the country, and were laboring to change its customs as a preliminary step to conquering them altogether. Evidently the king was afraid of the chiefs. The missionaries were at length summoned to court, where were gathered the chiefs and a vast concourse of people. At length the king announced the result of the council: “We shall now have nothing more to do with either the Arabs’ or the white men’s religion; but we shall return to the religion of our fathers.” Every one assented with a simultaneous motion of hands. The next day, the beating of drums announced the great procession which accompanied the Mokassa to the palace.

The pupils have all ceased to come to the mission; a time of persecution is anticipated by those who have inclined to Christianity; and everything looks dark for the mission, which had been planted at great expense, with so much hope. It is emphatically Satan’s hour of triumph; but we feel assured that the hour of the Son of Man also draweth near, and this darkest is the hour before the dawning of the day.

[We give a prominent place in our pages to Mrs. Chase’s letter, hoping it may meet with speedy and abundant answers. These calls, dear friends, are frequent, and they are urgent; but they are the calls of our Divine Lord in the person of His poor children, that we give them a fair chance to rise up from the degradation into which they have been thrust, and in which wicked prejudice and selfishness would keep them. We earnestly hope Mrs. C.’s experience of ten years ago will be by as much more blessed in your responses, as our encouragement in this work, and apprehensions of its value, are enlarged.—Ed. Miss.]

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Atlanta, Ga.

Begging letters! How you hate them! so do we! How often have we been deluded with the hope that there was to be no more need of this unpleasant duty. Friends unexpectedly come to the rescue of needy students. Often since 1869 large donations have set our feet upon mountain tops when we had expected to remain years in the valleys. But every little while we have to meet our old bug-bear. After one year’s absence we had been back but a few days when President Ware said, “These twenty-six new rooms are to be furnished; you’ll write some letters for us, won’t you, Mrs. Chase?” Now that means begging; but those of you who know anything of the type of President Ware’s devotion to Atlanta University, know that the only reply possible for his friends to make would be, “Certainly, sir.” So here I am doing the thing you and I hate.

This begging money to furnish rooms brings up so many memories, I must ask you to indulge me in a few reminiscences.

Eleven years ago we had but one building—teachers, scholars, sleeping-rooms, dining room, etc., all crowded into that one. Enough furniture was sent from an abandoned school in Augusta to make the teachers’ rooms comfortable. In the students’ rooms, a barrel with a board on it did the double duty of washstand and table. In the summer of 1870, a new building for young men was well on its way. It was our first summer in Atlanta. Some one suggested that it would be pleasant to have individual friends, Sunday-schools and churches furnish the dormitories, and keep with us a memento of their generosity by placing the donor’s name over each door.

How well I remember with what enthusiasm I sat down, ten years ago, to write my first begging letter. I gazed then upon this same charming view that I am feasting my eyes upon at this moment, and drank in hope and courage from this wide north view, with the strong old Kenesaw towering in the distance.

Soon responses came. You little realize how much joy has been brought to weary teachers on opening letters with a twenty-five-dollar check for a room. One such occasional letter compensated for many chilling ones, and lightened the weary hours spent in timidly addressing this friend and that. Nearly all of us turned beggars, and soon had the name of our home church or Sunday-school, our native town or some dear friend, beaming down upon us as we walked through the buildings. At length, every student’s room became sacred to the memory of some faithful friend of the Freedmen. Some donations came as thank-offerings for dear ones restored to health. At the end of one corridor is a group of four rooms where three are named for three sisters whose husbands have all been engaged in Southern work, and the fourth bears the name of their sainted grandfather, whose prayers and tears, mingling with multitudes all over our land, doubtless hastened on the glad day his eyes were never here permitted to see.

In the wing of the young men’s building is a room furnished by a gentleman who named it for a dear brother stricken down by consumption when nearly through his studies, and who gave great promise of usefulness. This gentleman has had a book-case placed in that brother’s room, and sends frequent donations of books for the use of the occupants of “Ferrier” room.

An Andover schoolmate, an Abbott Academy girl, named a room for her father, a devoted friend of the slave, and sends for its walls pictures, brackets, etc. Abbott Academy, as a school, has furnished a room in each building. One room is named for Dr. Gurley, of Washington, Abraham Lincoln’s beloved pastor.[299] Just beside it is “Alice Carey,” in memory of an only daughter, a precious bud opening under brighter skies. Opposite is the name of the devoted father.

“Celeste,” my dearest companion in girlhood, though so angelic then, speaks to me now only of her celestial home.

“Little,” the young physician, brave soldier, and devoted husband of another dear friend, reminds me of the sweet promise that the darkness shall some time be made light.

So each of the hundred rooms has some history, many doubtless very precious to the donors, while unknown to us.

I must write of one more name, “Clarke,” which always deeply moves me. In 1862, our lamented E. P. Smith, whose earthly life went out in the Dark Continent, was laboring with his efficient and devoted wife in the hospitals of Nashville, Tenn., under the Christian Commission. Their first-born and only son, Clarke, sickened and died. Instead of leaving their post, heartbroken, they remained at the side of those wounded and dying soldiers, enclosed the precious dust in its little casket, and sent it to their dear Northern home.

In 1870, without any personal appeal, but in response to a letter in the Missionary, soliciting aid in furnishing rooms, came a precious note, calling down upon us and our work benedictions, of which so many have felt the inspiration, and closing with, “Please find enclosed $40 for a room in Atlanta University; please name it Clarke.

Yours, for the Master,

E. P. Smith.”

This summer, through the generosity of R. R. Graves, a large wing, which has been so much needed, is being added to the girls’ building. $25 will buy a neat, plain set of furniture for each of the rooms. I am sure there are some friends who will be glad to know of this further opportunity of sending $25 and some dear name.

Yours very truly,

Mrs. T. N. Chase.

—Lovedale: The Missionary, a few months since, gave facts to substantiate the assertion that the Free Church’s Industrial and Mission School at Lovedale was one of the busiest in the world. A magnificent pile of new buildings, which will cost £10,000, will soon meet the demand for enlargement which has been most urgent. The old school buildings will still be used, and these, with the new, the girl’s boarding-house, and the shops required for the various trades, will form a collegiate establishment of which Scotland may well be proud.

Lovedale is the centre and source of healthful educational and saving influences which are reaching out into a large portion of Southern Africa—a true missionary centre. It has a large native church under charge of a native pastor, who has studied the Scriptures in their original language. A missionary association has connected with it several Kaffir young men who preach in all the kraals of the vicinity, and Evangelists who have carried the gospel to Nyassa, and even to Tanganyika. It has also a literary society, a training society, a Young Men’s Christian Association, and other societies such as the best-working churches of this country find necessary for best efficiency.

—The Free Church of Scotland, since the death of Capt. Benzie, of the Ilala, and of Mr. Gunn, last April, are making explorations with a view to a removal of[300] their Station from Livingstonia to a more healthful location. The probable site is Bandawi, midway on the western shore of Nyassa, and contiguous to the promising tribes of the Atonga and the Mangoni, who have reproached the missionaries for not settling among them. The Royal Geographical Society has published in its proceedings the letter of Mr. Stewart, the civil engineer of the Mission, describing his explorations in search of this site, with two maps showing his route on the western coast.

—A Mission of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States on the West Coast of Africa, at Cape Mount, among the Vey people, has been commenced under the supervision of a young man of such energy, talent and Christian spirit, as give promise of successful prosecution.

It will be remembered that the Veys are distinguished as the only tribe on the continent of Africa which has invented an alphabet, and a missionary of the Church Missionary Society has made a grammar of their language. The natives are able to communicate with each other by written letters of their own invention.

Those interested in the evangelization of Africa will rejoice in the establishment of this Mission, and will watch with unusual interest its success among these, the most interesting of all the tribes on the west African coast.

—The success of the Belgian Exploration Company in the use of elephants imported from Asia, for the transportation of its baggage, has doubtless suggested the formation of a company at Monrovia for the capture of native elephants for the same purpose. Vice-President Warner is president of the company, and a hunter of great experience is in charge of an expedition which has been equipped and sent out for the purpose of capturing some of these noble animals, and there is hope that they will prove so valuable that they will be esteemed for more than their tusks, and their wholesale slaughter will cease.

—Malugsy needle-work is so superior to that of the English that it does not pay to send to Madagascar made-up goods, as the natives speak with contempt of the bad sewing, and insist that the cost of picking it out shall be deducted from the price of such articles.

—The London Missionary Society announces the safe arrival at Zanzibar, on the 29th of May, of the Revs. A. J. Wookey and D. Williams, with Dr. Palmer, on their way to the Central African Mission.

—The Stanley Pool Expedition of the Livingstone Island Mission, under the leadership of Mr. Adam McCall, is supposed to have reached the Congo about the 20th of April. The last tidings were written within three days of landing, and were very favorable. Donkeys and kroomen had been secured, and of the latter several were warm-hearted native Christians, who will, it is hoped, render good service as fellow-laborers in the Gospel.

Marietta, Ga.—On the Sabbath, June 6th, the new church, which is also to be used as a school building, at Marietta, Ga., was dedicated. The sermon, by Superintendent Roy, was upon the rebuilding of the Temple by the ex-captives. A Presbyterian minister from Pennsylvania being present, offered the prayer of dedication. The house is 24×40 feet, well finished and painted, and furnished with desks that answer the double purpose of church and school use. The people[301] raised $200 toward the building. Prof. T. N. Chase gave the people a Sunday supply, reporting his visit to Africa. Two young business men in Illinois put each $25 into this Christian investment.

Talladega, Ala.—The students are doing good service during vacation, teaching in day and Sabbath Schools, and keeping up with their studies so as not to fall behind if unable to return at the beginning of the term. One who is teaching for the third season at Hackneyville, Ala., has his sister, also a pupil from this college, associated with him. At a recent picnic on the school grounds, held for the purpose of creating an interest in education, leading citizens, both white and black, made addresses.

Swayne Hall, of which we have seen a fine photograph, is too good a building to be allowed to rot down, as it is doing, for want of $3,000 needed to save it and put it in proper shape for the most efficient service. Will not some one save $15,000 to Talladega College by sending his checque for $3,000?

Athens, Ala.—The Trinity School at this place is going forward with its new building. Last summer the colored people by volunteer labor made and burned a kiln of 120,000 bricks, and have made another this summer. If time is money, it takes a great deal of it to do a work for which there is no money, but under the inspiration of Miss M. F. Wells, who for a dozen years has been principal of the school, and is the good angel of this enterprise, the people are slowly but steadily moving forward to its accomplishment.

Lawson, Ala.—Rev. Spencer Snell rejoices in some eighteen hopeful conversions as the fruit of a series of meetings held in August.

Fisk University, Tenn.—The Jubilee Singers at Chautauqua have been attracting attention to this Institution, and to themselves as cultivated persons, almost, it may be said, irrespective of color. Their singing was one of the most fortunate and popular features of the wonderful gathering at that famous place.

Paris, Texas.—The Rev. J. W. Roberts, who is located at Paris, Texas, an enterprising and growing city on the Texas and Pacific Railroad, writes of a pleasant series of meetings resulting in some ten additions to the two churches under his charge. He has since been delivering a series of Biblical lectures which attracted in members and pastors from other colored churches and a sprinkling of white people. He is soon to be reinforced by Mr. S. B. White, a graduate of the Normal Department in Talladega, who is to teach the parish school. This church was organized in 1868 by a man who at another place had his life sacrificed to the turbulence of those times. He makes an appeal for a much needed communion service. If some one of our churches has supplied itself with a new service, its old one would be thankfully received; or if some one will contribute a new one, it would be at once a graceful and grateful thing to do.

Helena, Texas.—Rev. M. Thompson, on the first Sabbath of August, had the joy of receiving to his church six persons who had recently found the Saviour. The school in this place is now to be taught by Miss Henderson, a graduate of the Normal Department of Straight University.

Austin, Texas.—The Tillotson Collegiate and Normal Institute at Austin, Texas, has been built during the year. Including the basement above ground and the mansard roof, it has five stories and is a commodious and comely structure, crowning one of the finest sites about that beautiful city in the valley of the Colorado.

Revival Interest.

REV. A. CONNET

Our revival commenced on the Sabbath, August 15. That night there were four or five inquirers. Monday the interest increased, and Monday night there were thirty inquirers. Tuesday there were twelve or fifteen conversions. Tuesday night, 28 or 30 inquirers and three or four conversions. The number of inquirers continued to be from ten to twenty till the close of the meetings. The whole number of conversions was about 25. The congregation[303] on the 15th was the largest, we are told, that it has ever been. Only about two-thirds of the people could get into the church, even by the closest packing. Sunday, the 22d, between the sermon in the forenoon and communion in the afternoon, we examined 23 new candidates for membership, one to be restored and two for renewing their covenants. In the afternoon they were publicly received, and more than half of them baptized. I also baptized two infants. The communion was then administered to a large number of communicants. The house was full, forenoon and afternoon. One man, 56 years old, and his wife as old, or a little older, walked ten miles Sunday morning to attend the communion. Another man walked ten miles, or over, to the meeting, both the 15th and the 22d. Three of our pupils came about 35 or 40 miles to the meeting, by rail; another, a young woman, came by private conveyance 20 miles; and another, a young man, walked 12 miles, and came forward as an inquirer. Four of the converts were members of my daughter’s Sunday-school class, a number of them were members of my class, and nearly all young people and members of our school. Two are married men. One young woman came to us by letter from the Methodist Episcopal church.

It was truly a season of refreshing from the Lord. The people held a prayer-meeting Sabbath night, the 22d. We were too tired to go out. We were told that all the non-professors in the congregation (and the house was full), except three or four, came forward for prayer.

More than a dozen bade us good-by at the depot. Seven girls walked three miles to bid us good-by. We were greatly rejoiced that Miss Douglass was with us to share in our labors and in our joys. Some of the converts are among our brightest and most advanced scholars.

MR J. D. BACKENSTOSE.

During my recent vacation (spent in the State of New York) the question most frequently asked me was, “Are the Freedmen as anxious to obtain an education, as they were when schools for them were first opened?”

I have answered these inquiries by relating some of my experience, and fearing lest Christians at the North have the impression that they are less eager, and so are becoming weary in aiding these poor people in their struggles for an education, I now relate it for the benefit of the readers of the Missionary.

In the fall of ’73, two young men from distant part of the county came to our Institute at Greenwood, S. C., and asked permission to occupy a vacant room in the building and cook their own meals while they attended the Institute. I consented, and assisted them in furnishing the room. From the wood-shed we procured lumber for a bedstead and table, had boxes for chairs, and newspapers for window shades. They were delighted with this, and immediately wrote to their friends that there were excellent accommodations for boarders at Brewer Institute, and before the winter had fairly set in, there were nineteen men living in that room, which measured only 30×32.

Another raid was made on the wood-shed, and three more bedsteads hastily built after the pattern of the first, and on these four bedsteads the nineteen men slept four months. Part of them would retire at an early hour and sleep till midnight, then arise and let the others take their places. While some were sleeping, the others were cooking and preparing their lessons for the next day, in the same room. During all this time, I never heard a complaining word from them. Our rooms are now neatly furnished for students, and we have recently built a good frame house which is also well furnished. We have accommodations[304] for only twenty students, and yet during a part of the past winter we had thirty-three crowded in these rooms, and even then they were unwilling that I should say we were full and could accommodate no more.

So eager are they for an education, that they are willing to live for a time on corn meal, bacon, and molasses. The former they mix with cold water, minus the eggs and butter, and, after baking, eat it with their meat, gravy, or molasses. This three times a day and seven days in a week. Tea and coffee are never on their bill of fare.

The home of two of these men was fourteen miles distant, and once in two weeks they would walk there on Friday afternoon and return on Sunday night, bringing on their shoulders provisions to last them till they should go again.

A young man, a Baptist minister, who was obliged to leave school a few weeks before the close of the term, walked sixty miles in order to be examined with his class at the close of the term.

Could ever a people be more anxious to obtain an education than these are now? Twenty-three of those who have lived and struggled in this way to obtain an education are now engaged in teaching, and have under their care over thirteen hundred pupils. We have a beautiful school building well furnished with everything but a cabinet organ, and we believe that God will put it in the heart of some good friend to send us that.

A lively interest is constantly and in various ways manifested by the people, and everything gives promise of abundant fruit in the future. If our highest hopes have not already been realized, we thank God for the progress made. May He put it into the hearts of the benefactors of this race to add to their gifts and prayers, until not only twenty-three, but ten times that number shall go out from Brewer Normal Institute, as competent instructors of thousands of their brethren now ignorant and despised.

REV. FLOYD SNELSON, M’INTOSH, LIBERTY CO.

Last Sabbath was a day of great interest to us as a church. It was our regular communion season, and in addition to that, we observed our anniversary for the first time, though it is six years since we organized. The other branch of the old Midway church that formed itself into a Presbyterian body, came over with its pastor, Rev. J. T. H. Waite, to share the enjoyment of the occasion with us. We find, in reviewing our history, that, including those who formed the original church, 337 persons have connected themselves with it; ten have been dismissed, fifteen have been excommunicated, and twenty-eight have gone to their eternal home; leaving 284 to continue the Christian warfare. It is true that a great many of our members occupy the two extremes in life, and are very old or very young, and consequently bring no pecuniary strength to the church. Still there is a benefit derived from both which is of infinitely greater value than mere money, though we poor mortals are in many instances unable to see it. Especially is this the case when our eyes are both bent on self. However, the young will certainly prove, in due time, a help to the church also in the way of material support. Our church edifice is still unfinished, and as there are no means of heating it it is an uncomfortable place for service during the winter. Notwithstanding the failure of crops from the drought this year, my people have resolved to do everything they can toward completing it. Will some friend come to our aid? “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will He pay him again.”

The Atlanta University, at Atlanta, Ga., was one of the earliest educational institutions in this country to adopt as a text-book Dr. Richardson’s “Temperance Lesson Book,” published by the National Temperance Society. Among the recent commencement exercises of the University was a thorough examination in this admirable text-book concerning alcohol. A New England correspondent, who was present and listened to the examination, was much gratified with it. In thus leading the way in giving to its students thorough scientific instruction concerning alcohol, the Atlanta University merits the warmest commendation from all friends of temperance. It furnishes a most valuable precedent which we hope may ere long be followed by all our colleges and universities, as well as academies and public schools.

Our correspondent writes:

“I spent most of the time in the temperance examination. They use Dr. Richardson’s text-book, and the students showed that they had been thoroughly drilled in it. Isn’t it a very admirable thing for this book to be used in that place? There are nearly three hundred students, and they all study it at some time; and with scarcely an exception these students go out into the by-ways and hedges of this and other States to teach the colored children. They teach through the vacations to earn money for the next term. Think what a leaven this is to work among the poor, ignorant creatures. They estimate that the University students reach ten thousand children during the year. I attended the graduating exercises and thoroughly enjoyed them. The essays and orations were excellent. The speaking was really eloquent. One blind-folded would never have guessed that he was listening to black students, all of whose parents were slaves only seventeen years ago. Mayor Calhoun and one of the ex-Governors were present.”

The National Temperance Society has just received the sum of seventy dollars from this Institution, money collected by its students for temperance work, and we have forwarded a large case of books, tracts and pamphlets for distribution throughout the South during the summer vacation.—From National Temperance Advocate.

REV. J. D. SMITH, SHELBY IRON WORKS.

We have just had a refreshing time here in our church from the good Lord. Shortly after that class of eight young men graduated from the Theological Department of Talladega College, Bros. Cantry, Strong and Y. B. Sims, all members of my church, came down to spend a few days at their homes with their relatives and friends before going to their fields of labor. Each of them did some faithful preaching for several evenings. It seemed at first as though we were not going to have any success, but I continued the meetings after the brethren left us, and the Lord gave us some nine or ten conversions as the result of our labors. We received ten new members into the church last night. It was one of the most interesting occasions we have ever had here. The meetings were very quiet indeed; no excitement. They were all converted through the simple preaching of the Gospel and the quiet persuasion of the spirit of Christ. There was not as much fervor among the brethren as I like to see; the Lord did the work, nevertheless, and we give all the glory to Him.

Most of the members who united with us last night were heads of families, and all of them were adults. Our church is gathering in the best material in the place. The members of the other[306] churches say their ministers do not feed them, and they must seek for better pastures. Our church has a brighter outlook than ever before.

The Sunday-school is in a flourishing condition. The Lord is building up His Zion here. Pray for us, that we may still be refreshed from Heaven.

REV. W. H. MOORE, FLORENCE.

This has been a busy week with me, and I trust one of good to our cause, in removing false impressions, &c. I have come in contact with the masses of the people; we like each other well. Last Wednesday night I preached at Oak Grove A. M. E. Church. As we approached the meeting house, our ears were greeted with a volume of song, and the woods re-echoed with such weird strains as only our people in their unlettered state can produce. The surrounding grove was filled with horses and mules hitched to the trees. The church was packed; all seats were filled, pulpit filled, windows crowded, standing room taken, doors filled, and large numbers out of doors. There were all kinds and conditions present, from the ebony hue to the pearly white, from the infant in its mother’s lap to the octogenarian; women and men sat round the floor of the rude pulpit, and just left standing room for me to speak.

The thought of their ignorance and superstition, and the fact that fifty or more of their number were seeking the Saviour, fired my heart and mind. I preached from Matt. vi., 33, and they listened with rapt attention, while I spoke as I only could under the inspiration of such an audience and the presence of the Holy Spirit. More than twenty have decided for Christ since the Sabbath.

On my return to town, I gave a lecture on Labor—the dignity of labor, and that labor should be duly rewarded. The meeting had been well advertised and worked up by friends, so there was a good turn out, especially of working-men and women.

I think I begin to see the dawn of a bright day for our cause here. To-morrow afternoon I preach a sermon to children. It is to be our S. S. Centenary (Raikes’?) Celebration. The church will be decorated with evergreen and flowers. I shall give each one a beautiful card, a present from the Muskegon, Mich., S. S. That Sunday-school and the “Little Ones of the Bird’s Nest” of Kalamazoo, Mich., have sent us a lot of beautiful papers and cards as a memento of the day.

I have had the pleasure of carrying the word of life to the aged, infirm, and sick who cannot attend church often. I receive more comfort, I think, than I give. It did do my heart good to see a dear old aged and infirm lady rejoice and weep that she had the word brought to her. I shall see this class of God’s poor as often as I can. I do enjoy the pastoral and pulpit work; would that I might do it better. It is my only ambition to become a faithful and successful minister of Jesus Christ.

To-day Mr. Alex. Jones, Sr., and I attended a large country gathering ten miles west of Florence. The crops are unusually large this year. We noticed on our way large farms of golden corn and fields of blooming cotton, which will soon be changed into snowy whiteness. This is a holiday with the farmers, who have laid by their crops and are now hopefully awaiting the harvest time. They have an annual picnic at Bethlehem Church. Two hours of the morning and two of the afternoon are devoted to speeches. The audience was large and appreciative. I spoke an hour, and received several “Amens,” “That’s so,” and “Tell it, brother.” Then followed the hand-shaking, good words, &c., when I had finished. I enjoyed it royally, and trust I did some good.

REV. G. STANLEY POPE.

The immediate surroundings of Tougaloo University are, perhaps, the most beautiful of any of our schools. At the same time it has seemed for the past three years to be a very healthful location. The school has been unusually full during the past year, and the work in the school-room has been most thorough. I have had associated with me a very competent and willing corps of workers. Their work has been every thing I could ask for. We attempt to give only a thorough, practical Normal training in our school, feeling that this meets the present necessities of the colored people of our State. We are willing to take the rough stone from the quarry and put on the heavy, telling strokes of the builder, and leave the more artistic strokes of the sculptor to be given by some of our sister institutions. A peculiar and interesting feature of our school-room work is the study of the Bible in the class-room. This is done to give a special preparation for Sunday-school work.

We have sufficient apparatus for illustrating physics, but beyond this we are poorly supplied with school-room conveniencies. We have but a limited supply of models, maps and charts, while our library consists mostly of Congressional documents.

A peculiar feature of the work at Tougaloo is the training given the students in gardening, farming, stock-raising and housework. Already the shipment of strawberries to the Chicago market is proving a rich remuneration to student labor. Our clover field is a wonder to the students and neighboring planters, and our fine blooded cattle not much less of a surprise. These industries are opening up new avenues of livelihood as well as usefulness to our students. Many of our young women have been but field hands, so that the work about the house and in the sewing room is a new kind of labor to them.

We have been able to do nothing, comparatively, in the church work. No churches have been organized as the outgrowth of our school. There are communities ripe for such work if we only had the means to carry it on. There are points along the lines of railroad that could be supplied by students if we only had a theological class to put to work in organizing and carrying on church work. We have not neglected the Sunday-school work because we have not been able to do all that we have wanted, but have visited schools and held some conventions. The influence of these conventions is being felt in the surrounding country.

The exodus affects our school but little thus far. The effect of the movement upon the colored people themselves has not been such as to warrant us in encouraging it in any way. Many of the patrons of our school have secured small farms and are in a way to give their families a fair education. Our school is becoming more widely known and its influence more powerfully felt. Parents came two hundred miles to see their sons graduate last June. Applications have been crowding in upon us for accommodations next year.

Our buildings are far from supplying our necessities. We have comfortable accommodations for sixty-four boarders, and some of the time we have had one hundred and eight. We have unfinished and merely temporary rooms for thirty others, but instead of one hundred boarders we ought to have two hundred, and might readily have if we but had rooms.

During the year we had a most precious revival, embracing nearly all in our normal and preparatory departments. Our work seems limited only by the lack of means to furnish room for those desirous of coming.