Читать книгу: «The American Missionary. Volume 43, No. 09, September, 1889», страница 3

Last year there were baptized 3,705 colored children and 297 colored adults, which I estimate forms a population of about 75,000 Catholics in this Diocese.

We have six convents of colored Sisters, of which four are schools, one an asylum for 74 girls, and the other an asylum, for 21 old women. There are, besides, nine schools conducted by white Sisters, and eleven schools conducted by lay teachers—in all, twenty-four schools with 1,330 scholars. It is not bad.

At Emmetsburg, Maryland, the Roman Catholics report the following:

The Sisters are putting up a large and fine edifice which will be ready for business in September, and will accommodate all the Catholic children, both white-colored and black-colored in the town and vicinity. I am curious to know if this is the first instance in which children of both the dominant races will be educated under one roof.

Says the editor: "How quickly the color-line disappears in the Catholic Church."

NOTES BY THE WAY

BY DISTRICT SECRETARY C.J. RYDER

Not long ago, I met a Frenchman in the halls of the Congregational House, who was looking for Secretary Coit of the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society. He evidently had a very limited knowledge of the English language, for he accosted me as follows:—"You—eh, you somewheres? Ah! I begs my pardon."

This amusing bungle of the French brother fairly represents my condition during the past few weeks. I have not been altogether sure that I was even "somewheres." Preaching one Sunday in Dover, N.H., the next in Talladega, Ala., the next at Santee Agency, Neb., the next on the Cheyenne River, Dak., then enjoying a communion season with Brother Hall at Fort Berthold, and the next standing beside the pastor of a New England Church at the same Lord's table.

The days between these Sabbaths were filled with pleasant duties, in talking over the great work of our Association with the earnest and devoted missionaries. But many things are impressed upon one's thought by such a trip as this. We realize more than ever that the American Missionary Association is a great National Society, limited neither geographically nor by any race restrictions; actually gathering in its schools and missions, Negroes, Whites and Indians, and Chinese and Japanese, and Hondurans and Cubans, and who knows how many other needy and destitute people! Another fact that must impress one, is the thoroughness of the work done. The examinations were thorough and exhaustive in the schools. This was true, not only in the lower grades, but also in the advanced classes. Dr. Andrews conducted the examinations in Church History, at Talladega, which would have done credit to any of our Theological Seminaries. And Dr. DeForest's classes in Mental Philosophy gave evidence of careful study and of assimilation of that which they had studied. They had not only eaten, but had digested their mental food. The same was true at Fisk. What a grand thing it would be, if the good friends of the Association in New England, and elsewhere in the North, to whom our work is only presented through an appeal for funds, might visit some of these grand institutions in the South and West, and see just what is being done for these neglected people! The work cannot be appreciated in its vast importance and magnificent results, except after such a personal inspection of the field.

These large institutions are the centers of still larger missionary work outside. One professor in Talladega, a graduate of Harvard, has been especially busy during the last year, developing the Sunday-school work in the surrounding districts. The following are some of the results:– eight Sunday-schools enrolling about five hundred scholars; thirty teachers, all students in the College; two schools meet in buildings belonging to the College, three in log churches, owned by other denominations, not having Sunday-schools, two in log cabins. "In one school, teachers and scholars have to huddle together under umbrellas, if they have any, or go wet, if they haven't them, whenever it rains; and it is a sight which makes one long for better accommodations, that more efficient work may be done," writes this self-sacrificing professor in a note just received. In one house, he found a family of white children, all of them very ignorant, and, so far as he was able to discover, there was not a single book of any kind in the cabin. He invited the children to Sunday-school, where, like Robert Raikes, he teaches reading and spelling as well as the Bible, but the mother indignantly refused, saying that she "didn't let her children go to school with Niggers!"

There are many evidences of heroic sacrifice on the part of the people among whom we labor, that one runs across in such a trip as this. Here is one: A small church in Alabama has recently voted to pay fifty dollars per month of their pastor's salary, that they may become self-supporting, and so let the funds which they have received go to other more needy fields. There are seventy-five persons in this church who might be termed paying members; of all these, the pastor informed me, not more than fifteen receive over a dollar per day; sixty receive less than this. They pay, on an average, ten dollars per month for rent; there are twenty-six working-days to the month, and they often lose at least five of these, on account of weather or lack of work, making an income of only twenty-one dollars per month. Ten dollars going for rent, leaves but eleven dollars for the support of the family. Pretty heroic economy that!

The Annual Meeting of the Dakota Mission, the Convention of missionaries who are at work in the Indian field under the direction of this Association, gathered at Santee Agency, Nebraska, Saturday, June 15, and was full of interest. Sessions were held for three days, and continued late into the night. Thrilling incidents of exposure on the prairie during winter, swimming swollen and chilly streams, breaking through the ice when crossing, which, in one case, resulted in the drowning of a team of horses, seemed to be every-day incidents in the life of these heroic missionaries, who are carrying on this noble work among the Indians. The two Riggs brothers, whose heredity as well as personal consecration fit them for large usefulness in the Indian work, were especially rich in experience and inspiring in conference. One thing, especially, impressed me in this Indian work, and that was, the difference in character between the average teacher employed by the Government and those employed by this Association and other missionary bodies. Many noble men and women are at work under the Government in teaching the Indians, but the purpose of the Government-school at the best is simply to make intelligent citizens. The purpose of the mission-school is to develop character, to inculcate purity, to create moral earnestness, in other words, not simply to citizenize, but to Christianize. We need more mission schools among the Indians, for only the mission idea can redeem a pagan people. I would like to speak of Miss Collins's work, gradually bringing the village of Running Antelope on the Grand River into the knowledge of Christ, and of the developing work at Fort Yates, and of the work among the Mandans, Rees and Gros Ventres, and of the motley and picturesque crowd that gathered for communion in the little church at Fort Berthold; but the interesting facts from these fields must be left for other notes.

THE SOUTH

The Daniel Hand Fund is doing a noble work this first year in the education of many students who would otherwise not have been able to attend school.

HOWARD UNIVERSITY, THEOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT

The anniversary of this department opened the commencement week of the Howard University at Washington, D.C., which extended from Friday, May 24th, to Wednesday, May 29th. A crowded audience was in attendance at the Asbury colored church. The graduating class of four was exceptionally small this year, having been less in number than usual on entering three years ago, and having been particularly unfortunate in deaths and removals. The preceding graduating class numbered twelve, and the succeeding one will number thirteen. But the addresses delivered by the young men were of excellent quality, eliciting high approval from numerous intelligent judges who were present. One general from the army, who listened with great interest, came up afterwards to express thanks to one of the Professors for having invited him to attend the exercises.

TILLOTSON INSTITUTE, AUSTIN, TEXAS

Wednesday, June 5, witnessed the close of the eighth year in the history of Tillotson Institute. The closing exercises began on Thursday, May 30, with the annual written examinations which, on account of the very large attendance of this year—greater than ever before—meant more work than usual for the teachers. These examinations cover the work of the entire year, and are looked forward to with much apprehension by the students.

For the past three years, the last Saturday afternoon before commencement has been set apart as "Tillotson Day," and devoted to exercises appropriate to such an occasion. This year, Rev. W.H. Shaw, pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in this city, addressed the students in the chapel. This was followed by a pic-nic on the school grounds.

The last Sunday in the school is rather a sad day to most of the teachers. There are many interests in these Sunday-schools which one cannot bear the thought of leaving for four long months. We can only hope that the good seed sown during the year has not fallen on stony ground or by the wayside, and that it will survive the heat of the summer.

Monday and Tuesday were devoted to oral examinations. These were held in the chapel and were attended by an unusually large number of the parents and friends of the students from the city and elsewhere. The classes acquitted themselves very creditably; especially good, however, were the examinations of the seventh grade in geometry and the fourth grade in geography.

More attention has been given this year to industrial training than ever before. In the recitation rooms, were specimens of the handiwork of the students in the various industrial departments. A class of little girls told of the various forms of needlework, which was something more than theory with them, as their samples of work on exhibition testified. There was not a useless article in the entire collection; they have been taught how to make serviceable garments. Very neat specimens of darning and mending were displayed, also.

The cooking classes exhibited samples of their skill. The disappearance of all the handiwork of this class in the course of inspection witnessed to its success. The classes in carpentry displayed specimens of their skill. This is the first year that this industry has been taught here.

On Tuesday evening, occurred the annual musical and rhetorical entertainment. A large audience is always expected on this occasion, but this year it was larger than ever. Before eight o'clock, the chapel with the adjoining halls and recitation rooms were filled, and notwithstanding the efforts of the ushers to find room for every one, about half the number were obliged to go away. One little boy who came especially to see the dumbbell drill was found under the front steps, after the close of the entertainment, fast asleep. He had taken refuge there to await a chance to get a seat in the chapel later in the evening.

On Wednesday morning, an audience of much more manageable magnitude than that of the previous evening assembled at 10 o'clock, to listen to the regular commencement exercises. These consisted of essays, orations, recitations and declamations. Two young men, one of whom was graduated last year from the elementary normal course, were graduated from the higher normal course. The original productions presented this year were said to have been unusually good. A visitor, in an address made after the presentation of the diplomas, in speaking of the excellence of the orations said of one of them, "It would be creditable on the platform of any school in the United States."

The year just ended has been one of hard work and great prosperity. The attendance has been not only larger than ever before, but constant, and the result of such steady and persistent work is, as might be expected, gratifying progress in all departments.