Читать книгу: «The American Missionary. Volume 43, No. 07, July, 1889», страница 6

BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK

MISS D.E. EMERSON, SECRETARY

WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS

CO-OPERATING WITH THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION

ME.—Woman's Aid to A.M.A.,

Chairman of Committee, Mrs. C.A. Woodbury, Woodfords, Me.

VT.—Woman's Aid to A.M.A.,

Chairman of Committee, Mrs. Henry Fairbanks, St. Johnsbury, Vt.

VT.—Woman's Home Miss. Union,

Secretary, Mrs. Ellen Osgood, Montpelier, Vt.

CONN.—Woman's Home Miss. Union,

Secretary, Mrs. S.M. Hotchkiss, 171 Capitol Ave., Hartford, Conn.

MASS. and R.I.—Woman's Home Miss. Association,

Secretary, Miss Natalie Lord, Boston, Mass.¹

N.Y.—Woman's Home Miss. Union,

Secretary, Mrs. William Spalding, Salmon Block, Syracuse, N.Y.

ALA.—Woman's Missionary Union,

Secretary, Miss S.S. Evans, Birmingham, Ala.

MISS.—Woman's Miss. Union,

Secretary, Miss Sarah J. Humphrey, Tougaloo, Miss.

TENN. and ARK.—Woman's Missionary Union of Central South Conference,

Secretary, Miss Anna M. Cahill, Nashville, Tenn.

LA.—Woman's Miss. Union,

Secretary, Miss Jennie Fyfe, 490 Canal St., New Orleans. La.

FLA.—Woman's Home Miss. Union,

Secretary, Mrs. Nathan Barrows, Winter Park, Fla.

OHIO.—Woman's Home Miss. Union,

Secretary, Mrs. Flora K. Regal, Oberlin, Ohio.

IND.—Woman's Home Miss. Union,

Secretary, Mrs. W.B. Mossman, Fort Wayne, Ind.

ILL.—Woman's Home Miss. Union,

Secretary, Mrs. C.H. Taintor, 151 Washington St., Chicago, Ill.

MINN.—Woman's Home Miss. Society,

Secretary, Miss Katharine Plant, 2651 Portland Avenue, Minneapolis, Minn.

IOWA.—Woman's Home Miss. Union,

Secretary, Miss Ella E. Marsh, Grinnell, Iowa.

KANSAS.—Woman's Home Miss. Society,

Secretary, Mrs. G.L. Epps. Topeka, Kan.

MICH.—Woman's Home Miss. Union,

Secretary, Mrs. Mary B. Warren, Lansing, Mich.

WIS.—Woman's Home Miss. Union,

Secretary, Mrs. C. Matter, Brodhead, Wis.

NEB.—Woman's Home Miss. Union,

Secretary, Mrs. L.F. Berry, 724 N. Broad St., Fremont, Neb.

COLORADO.—Woman's Home Miss. Union,

Secretary, Mrs. S.M. Packard, Pueblo, Colo.

DAKOTA.—Woman's Home Miss. Union,

President, Mrs. T.M. Hills, Sioux Falls;

Secretary, Mrs. W.R. Dawes, Redfield;

Treasurer, Mrs. S.E. Fifield, Lake Preston.

We would suggest to all ladies connected with the auxiliaries of State Missionary Unions, that funds for the American Missionary Association be sent to us through the treasurers of the Union. Care, however, should be taken to designate the money as for the American Missionary Association, since undesignated funds will not reach us.

The meeting of the officers of the Home Missionary Unions of the Congregational Churches held at Saratoga, June 4th, was well attended. Twelve States were there represented, and the occasion was one of great interest and of encouragement to the cause of missions. The suggestive and forceful papers presented, indicate that our ladies are in earnest for the evangelization of our country, and that they will give their best effort toward extending the influence of our National Societies by the financial help which they will endeavor to render.

The next meeting of these State organizations will be held in Chicago, Ill., at the time of the annual meeting of the American Missionary Association the latter part of next October.

MERIDIAN, MISS

A little of our industrial work of this first year I would like to present to you. Our girls, on the closing day, exhibited fourteen pieced quilts all completed, and twenty were well along toward completion. Twenty garments have been finished and disposed of. All of the material has been sent from Northern friends and homes, and some of the girls have learned the first things of needlework, having learned to use needle, thread and thimble. One little girl when first given a needle said, "O see! there is a hole in one end of it." One old lady learned to knit.

We feel happy in the thought of the spiritual growth in our school. Several young men and some of our girls have openly expressed themselves as desirous of being Christians, and have started, I am sure, to follow Jesus. Another hopeful thing is the zeal with which they attend to the duties of the Band of Hope. Our young people who are to teach in the country are quite determined to organize bands and to fight for "God and home and native land," on the line of temperance. We have given all the instruction and illustrations we could, and the little ones are becoming leaders of the older members in the families. One little boy urged his old grandmother to stop using snuff, and she has given it up after using it more than twoscore years. She said he used to say, "Don't chew, grandma; the teachers say it is poison." Some mothers who have been in the habit of using ruinous alcohol medicines for their children, assured me they would stop it, after seeing the amount of alcohol contained, as was shown by our little experiments in evaporating and burning. One young man of twenty years old passed an examination in the country, and obtained a second grade certificate, and at sixteen years of age he did not know his letters. Are there many boys at the North who can show a better record in four years?

H.I. MILLER.

MACON, GA

I am sure you want to hear about the closing exercises of our cooking class. The teacher had given the seven girls comprising the class the privilege of getting a dinner and each one inviting a guest. One of the lovely things about the affair was that the guests were the mothers and teachers of the girls. So at three o'clock one day a company of eighteen sat down to a dinner that was all cooked and served by these girls. The white, puffy biscuits, well-cooked meat and vegetables, and the quiet lady-like serving, all testified to the excellence of the instruction received. Prouder mothers I never saw than those who then partook of their daughter's cookery. I was told that every Saturday it had been the custom for the girls at home to repeat in their own kitchens the work of the day previous, as it had been done under their teacher's instructions.

We hope next year with our boarding pupils to do more than we could with only day pupils. Our sewing classes are this week finishing their work for the year. There has been sewing in five rooms. The primaries have pieced blocks for outsides for two quilts, over-hand work. The next grade has put together four outsides (running). The upper classes have made fifty pillow-cases, twelve sheets, forty aprons, hemstitched three tray cloths, outlined one tidy and made three night-dresses. Darning, button-hole making and hem-stitching were taught in one class. The girls in another room have tied six comfortables. The boys in the carpenter shop are doing excellent work, and they like it very much. One class of five or six come every morning at seven o'clock, and they do this to get more instruction. Most of this class are country boys who cannot stay at school all of the year. In one of the primary rooms, we have the kitchen-garden material. There, with the twenty-four sets of toy dishes, the little ones are taught how to set and clear off table, and a great many useful things in reference to table manners and customs.

Our general school work goes on like clock-work. The children and young people are growing in their power of concentration and self-control, and we feel greatly encouraged, as we look into the future for them, to hope that at no very distant day a well ordered home, where three meals a day shall be served in a refined, orderly manner, shall not be so rare a thing as it now is. We are more and more convinced that the home life of these people must be changed, if they are ever to be what we want them to be, and what, for the interests of our country and for the coming of Christ's kingdom on earth, they must be.

And now I will close in the usual way by telling you some of our needs.

For the new boarding department, we shall need bedding of all kinds. I especially want that each mattress shall be furnished with a quilted or padded cover—that is, something as large as the mattress on top. Towels, table linen and such things as are needed in every house are always acceptable. If any one wants to furnish carpets for teacher's rooms, we do not say them nay.

MRS. LIVA A. SHAW.

OUR YOUNG FOLKS

WORK AMONG THE CHILDREN

BY MRS. L.R. GREENE

I have spent nearly five years in teaching the little colored children in this Southland. In my department there are over ninety bright, enthusiastic little folks between the ages of five and thirteen. I have often wished that the anxious inquirers as to whether the colored children were as bright and smart intellectually as white ones, could visit my room, and the little people would answer the question themselves.

My pupils, with one exception, being day scholars, I have had an excellent opportunity to know the colored people. I go to their homes; some I find as cosy and prettily fitted up as the average home at the North, while others are miserable apologies for the name.

I often, Sunday afternoons, take a bundle of papers and go through some of the streets where I find boys playing ball or marbles, and flying kites. When I ask why they haven't been to Sunday-school, or at home reading, they tell me they have no clothes, and that they have nothing to read at home; as I distribute the papers, they lay down bat and ball and eagerly devour the stories and study the pictures.

I find some very bright little fellows among them. I asked one little boy, "Won't you come to my Sunday-school?" He replied at once, "Oh yes." I said, "Do you know where I teach?" The ready answer came at once, "Up at the big college yonder," The next Sunday, as I went in, the first child I saw was Dan. He sat with eyes and mouth wide open as we talked about Joseph, sung our little hymns and repeated the commandments— things he had never heard before. The next Sabbath he was there as interested and eager as on the first, his bare feet hanging from the chair; but the third Sunday as I went out the gate, there stood Dan, forlorn enough. I said, "Aren't you going to Sunday-School?" He said, "I can't go; my sister is married, my mother has gone crazy, and I haven't a clean shirt." It would have melted the stoutest heart to have heard his sorrowful tale. I found him soon after, and through the kindness of a Northern friend in paying his tuition, I had him in my school, where he proved himself bright and interesting.

I might cite many such instances that have come within my observation, if time and space would permit. I long for much that is wasted at the North to help many such bright, interesting, needy little children.