The American Missionary. Volume 43, No. 07, July, 1889

We reached Plum Creek, where Edwin Phelps is stationed, about dark, and after two long days' ride I was glad when bed time came. Ellen Kitto and Elizabeth Winyan had come up from the Cheyenne, and I felt sure that Elizabeth had given up her bed for me. The next morning I asked Ellen if we could go out to some of the houses, but she said the people were all on the other side of the river, that there was a dance there. This was a disappointment to me, as I wanted to see the homes of the people, but after dinner Edwin offered to take Elizabeth, Ellen and me across the river to Cherry Creek, so that I gained rather than lost.

THE DANCE

As we drew near the dance-house I could hear the monotonous yet rythmic beat of the drum, and get glimpses through the door-way of the feathered heads moving in time to the music. Outside there was a crowd of women, girls, and young men, the young men wrapped in white sheets under which they carry off, and make love to, the dusky maidens. This is the way a Titon "makes love." As a recent writer describes this dance, bringing before one only its poetry, and that which may be perhaps really beautiful, it does not seem shocking or revolting in the least; but the reality is simply dreadful. Not so much in itself, perhaps, though that is bad enough, as in its influence, its consequences, all that it means and all that it leads to.

THE CONTRAST

Just beyond the dance house is the mission station where Clarence Ward and his wife are; a civilized Christian family in the midst of this heathenism.

Sunday was to be the eventful day, and as early as half past nine the congregation began to arrive. When the bell rang for service, the school-room was filled almost immediately. Everything possible was utilized for seats; trunks, boxes, wagon-seats, kegs, and those who could not be provided with seats sat on the floor. There were probably a hundred in all. The weight of so many people on the floor was too much for the sleepers. Some of them gave way, and the floor settled somewhat, but the audience was not "nervous" and was only amused. As I sat at the organ, a group outside the door attracted my attention; several bright faced girls, their shawls drawn over their heads with a grace a white girl might envy, but could not hope to attain, and beyond them a face that would pass on the most perfectly appointed stage for one of Macbeth's witches, without being "made-up." The faces of some of the men were as wooden and expressionless as the figures in front of a tobacco shop, but these are they into whose lives the power of the Gospel of the Son of God has not come. After this service came the church meeting, and a Cheyenne River branch church was established which still has connection with the mother church at Oahe.

The school-room being too small for the afternoon communion service, this was held out of doors. There must have been a hundred and fifty present, perhaps more. First came a marriage ceremony, then the admission of four new members, and the baptism of two children. Probably four-fifths of the congregation had been drawn thither merely from curiosity, and on the faces of many of these were the traces of yesterday's paint. The simple service, which the new communion set made perfect, could not fail to impress them that there is something better than they have known. At its close, Edwin Phelps's scholars stood and sang "Whiter than Snow," in Dakota. Have not those girls gained a great moral victory, when in native dress, with their shawls worn after the native fashion, they stand up among their own people and proclaim themselves on the side of right? It was a day full of new experiences and new impressions for me. The contrast between this scene and the one of the day before, presented itself to me over and over again.

DAKOTA WIND

The next morning we started out for the return to Oahe. The day was warm and pleasant and uneventful. I was comfortable and happy, and as we stopped for lunch when we got hungry, I began to wonder where the hardships of my journey were coming in, but people who are never so happy as when they are uncomfortable, ought to get their just deserts. I got mine. After we started from James Brown's, the wind rose. It rose and it rose. It kept rising. How that wind did blow! It blew us up hill and threw us down hill. It fairly hurled us along. It blew Mr. Riggs's hat off and we chased it for half a mile. It blew my hat off; it blew my hair down; we put into a ravine for repairs. We went through long stretches of burned prairie, and clouds of fire-black dust were flying. We hoped when we got down into the ravine it would not be so bad. Vain hope. It was worse. The dust was blacker and thicker and more dusty. The gravel stung our faces and blinded our eyes. For the entire distance of thirty-five miles, that wind howled and raved and tore. It almost took the ponies off their feet. I have not exaggerated it one bit. It would be impossible to exaggerate. When we reached the house where we had taken dinner going up, we found the dirt blown from the roof, likewise the tar-paper, leaving great cracks through which the dirt rattled. Everything was an inch deep in dirt, but we were welcomed to the shelter of the four walls, and what was left of the roof. The dirt did not matter. We were already done in charcoal. Mr. Collins was here, caught by the wind, and before dark the Agency farmer came. It was impossible to cross the river in such a gale, and here I knew we must stay.

The next morning was still and clear and beautiful. It was difficult to realize that the elements had been on such a tear the day before, so after breakfast we embarked for home, going the seven miles by water this time, and I reached the mission a gladder and a wiser woman.

This glimpse of out-station work is something I have long wanted, and anyone who does not believe in Indian education should see the results of it as they appear here. In the audience on Sunday, were three young women former students, one at Hampton, one at Santee, one at Oahe. Their dress, the expression of their faces, their whole appearance proclaimed the power of Christian education, and it is only in the faces of the Christian Indians that there is any expression of gladness. There is no gladness in their life outside of this. Oh, that the work at these stations may be blessed! There are hundreds and hundreds, yes, thousands of Indians who will never be reached by Hampton, Carlisle, Santee, by all the Indian schools put together, and who will never be Christianized or civilized by "edict from Washington." Christ must be taken to them, lived among them in such a way that his true loveliness may be made apparent to them. Without this, all else goes for naught; with this, life and light must come, and darkness and ignorance and superstition must flee away.—Word-Carrier.

THE CHINESE

THE CHINESE WORK

BY REV. M. McG. DANA, D.D., LOWELL, MASS

I never read any report of this, without feeling both humiliated and inspired. Humiliated, because I have regarded the field so unpromising; inspired, because such glimpses of gracious possibilities and achievements are caught. We have been so incredulous as to certain alien races, that we have only partially and feebly brought to bear upon them the saving influences of the Gospel. We are not, indeed, responsible for the presence of these Orientals in our land. Ours is a different responsibility; it is for their evangelization, now that they have been led to our shores. This work is laid upon us, and never was it more urgent or hopeful than at this hour. It was one of the methods of our Lord to arouse men to noblest service by reminding them of the obligations imposed upon them by their circumstances and opportunities.

Whether the call came to them from a promising or unpromising field, on them rested the duty of responding. In the great Sermon on the Mount, our Lord, after finishing with his gentle and sweet benedictions, abruptly turned and, with changed tone and impressive words, said to his disciples, "Ye are the salt of the earth." On you rests the obligation of becoming the conservative element in society. Confronting as they did a decadent civilization and a vanishing religious faith and a general heart-despair, they were to be the saviors of men. Pungent and preservative as salt, are ye to be in the midst of a putrid age. Few, too, as they were in numbers, and without honor as well, yet they were to be the light of the world. On their luminousness depended their power to influence. The radiancy of their life and teaching was to penetrate the surrounding gloom. Later on follows the divine imperative to "Go forth and disciple all nations."

However unfavorable the outlook, however inadequate they seemed for the undertaking, they were to attempt what was enjoined. It lifted them to an altitude never before reached, and made them conscious of a power never before possessed.

This is the principle which we need to apply to the emergencies in which we are called to act. We get from others what we tell them we expect. There is something in human nature that likes to be trusted with responsibility; something in us that responds to great occasions. You remember when Nelson fought that pivotal naval engagement at Trafalgar against the combined fleets of France and Spain, he gave to his command as a motto to inspire them to do their best, "England expects every man to do his duty." That brought every soldier and sailor under the eyes of the country whose interests they were upholding, and nerved each one to deeds of valor. It awakened a sense of responsibility and called forth their noblest service. So our Lord seems to be saying to American churches and to the constituency of this Society, "'Ye are the light of the world.' On you depends the evangelization of these despised Chinese. Treating them now contemptuously and now even brutally, ye are called to be salt to them, thus saving them from moral deterioration, and inoculating them with the spirit of the Gospel. Ye are to illuminate them with the light you have to shed as followers of Christ, and the responsibility is laid upon you to carry to them the principles of that faith which has given to us whatever excellence we have as a Nation. I expect you to Christianize these representatives of the Orient, to convert them to the worship of the God of the Bible." In this expectation of the Master, lies at once our obligation and our privilege. Much is laid upon us, but the trust brings with it honor, and inspires to grandest service.

The progress already made in this work, the cheering tokens of success that are reported by all laborers in this field, ought to awaken a far greater sympathy for those in whose behalf we are called to make our Christ-like expenditures. It is time we rose above the mean political enmities which have embarrassed not a little this imperative evangelism. Our treatment of these people is but another chapter in our history on which other and larger hearted generations will look with shame and sorrow. In the animosities born of our commercial greed, we have acted as if our religion had made us neither in life nor doctrine better than they. Eager to send the Gospel to distant heathen, we have been reluctant to exemplify, and slow to practically apply, to the heathen in our midst the teaching of Christianity. Now has come a new era, and the evangelistic efforts among the Chinese are assuming greater proportions than ever, and are engirt with every sign of gracious success. We have yet to learn to respect the manhood in these emigrants from the great kingdom beyond the Pacific. It is said of our Lord, when he came across the Publican Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom, that "he saw a man," and it was oftentimes the lowly, the shunned, the socially despised he called to become his disciples. It is a great art, this of seeing in a man the ideal, the possible man. When Jesus Christ looks upon a man, he looks him into a nobler manhood. We need to rise above class distinctions, to regard no one common or unclean, to speak of no one as hopeless or worthless.

One word as to opportunity. God always matches opportunity with ability, and when we stand face to face with opportunity, we must go forward or be recreant to every trust.

Here is this man—the Chinaman—on our coast, for whom we are doing exactly the same work that this Society has been urging us to do for the black race, in raising up preachers amongst them to go back to the homes in their own country and there become the proper evangels to their own people. When we realize that this is our work, and this is the opportunity before us, we shall talk of the Chinese question with more seriousness.

We are like the two American boys. One says to the other: "My father is a Christian; is your father a Christian?" The other boy replies, not wishing to be outdone, "Oh, yes, my father is a Christian, but he is not working much at it just now." That is about the way with this nation, nominally a Christian nation; we are not working much at it in the way we are treating the Indian, Chinese and colored man. We want the nation to act out the principles it believes in.

Mr. Gladstone said he divided the English nation into classes and masses. The masses, he added, have as little regard for the doctrines of the Gospel, as the upper classes have for its precepts. Now we have not only to give the precepts of the Gospel to the Chinaman, but we must inculcate its principles in the heart beyond all danger of eradication. If we do not do this, we shall act little better than the Chinese do themselves. A man was once asked how much he weighed. He replied, "I weigh 160, but when I am mad I weigh a ton." We need the madness born of a great zeal, the enthusiasm kindled by the Gospel, then shall we be able to lift up all classes and conditions of men.

When we get anointed for this work, and carry the Gospel with all the earnestness of our faith, and all the patience born of the example of Christ, then we shall realize our fondest hopes for the Christianization of the Chinese and of other races in our country.

We have only a few thousands of Chinese in our country, and whenever one of these becomes a Christian he is much like a Christian in apostolic days. He is raised above his former life, loses largely the sympathy of his own people, and is regarded as an apostate from his ancestral faith. It costs, therefore, a great deal to become a Christian under such circumstances, yet there are joyous, devoted Chinese Christians preaching, with signal power, the Gospel to their brethren, and living so as to be Christian luminaries among their idolatrous kindred.

I consider it no inferior part of this Association's work that it is expending its efforts among the Chinese now resident on the coast. We have, however, only made a beginning; much, very much, remains to be done. We have to conquer political prejudices, and invite to our faith with warmest welcomes those for whom Christianity has such priceless boons. If we raise up amongst them missionaries to go back to the crowded Mongolian Empire, this society will become an institution not only for Christianizing the conscience of our nation, but also an agency for training up and sending forth missionaries for the neediest of lands. Let it be ours to evince a friendly fellowship and true devotion to the despised, and kindle a manlier faith and larger Christian service.

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.