The American Missionary. Volume 48, No. 10, October, 1894

The American Missionary. Volume 48, No. 10, October, 1894
Various

Various

The American Missionary – Volume 48, No. 10, October, 1894

ANNUAL MEETING

Our annual meeting at Lowell, Mass., October 23d to 25th, promises to be an occasion of great interest. A large proportion of the addresses will be from missionaries. The work throughout the year has been greatly blessed, despite the difficulties it has had to meet from lack of adequate means. The meeting opens at three o'clock, Tuesday afternoon, and the annual sermon will be given by Rev. Charles H. Richards, D.D., of Philadelphia, in the evening, followed by the communion service.

ARRANGEMENTS FOR OUR ANNUAL MEETING

A partial and tentative programme of our Annual Meeting has been prepared. Times are provided for open discussion or the "free parliament." But it is deemed necessary to secure some able writers and speakers to prepare reports and deliver addresses on special and important topics.

We are happy to announce that at this writing a number such have promised attendance. Among these we may name the President of the Association, Merrill E. Gates, LL.D., President of Amherst College; Rev. Chas. M. Lamson, D.D., Hartford, Conn.; Rev. DeW. S. Clark, Salem, Mass.; Rev. Dr. McKenzie, of Boston; Dr. Lyman Abbott, of New York; Hon. Frederick Douglass, of Washington; and his Excellency, Governor Greenhalge, of Massachusetts. Some others have been invited from whom favorable answers are expected.

A marked feature of this meeting will be the unusual number of missionaries and workers from the field, who will give living pictures of things as they are. Following the happy precedent of other years, each of the co-operative Congregational societies will be represented by a speaker chosen by itself. These addresses will be brief, and will manifest the feelings of harmony and comity existing between these societies.

The meeting promises to be an interesting and valuable one. The topics discussed are of vital importance to the work, and the addresses will be worthy of the topics. Lowell is accessible, and its welcome will be cordial.

LOWELL

The city of Lowell has long enjoyed a national, even world-wide reputation, as the leading center for the manufacture of cotton fabrics. And, while this industry offers employment to something like 25,000 men, women and children, there are also enterprises in great variety that do not use cotton fibre in any way, yet find work for ten to fifteen thousand more toilers. The principal corporations are the Lawrence, Tremont and Suffolk, Merrimack, Boott, Massachusetts, Hamilton and Appleton, beside the Middlesex, where shawls are made, and the carpet mills, where the famous Lowell carpets are woven. While the city is a veritable beehive of industry, yet the people find time for recreation, and have wisely provided breathing places in different parts of the city, where they can recuperate mind and body. The prominent pleasure resorts are Fort Hill park, the North and South commons, Park Garden, the boulevard—extending three miles along the bank of the Merrimack River—and Lakeview, an attractive watering-place some five miles out from the center. This latter place is reached by means of the Lowell and Suburban Street Railway, an electric line, which also connects the neighboring villages of North Chelmsford, Dracut, North Billerica and Chelmsford Center. A ride to any one of these places costs but twenty cents for the round trip, and the Lakeview line is especially interesting at its terminal.

The city's moral and educational interests are also well provided for, as evidenced by the following: 30 churches, 47 primary schools, 10 grammar and 1 high school, besides a training school for teachers, and a manual training-school for boys; also a prospective State normal school. We also have three or four hospitals, an old ladies' home, and a home for young women and children. The police protection consists of a chief, his deputies, captains and sergeants, and about one hundred patrolmen. The fire system of the city is excelled by none in the country, and is well worthy a careful inspection.

Lowell is not favored with a great many pretentious edifices on her public streets, but the most prominent are the new City Hall, High School, Memorial Building, State Armory, St. Anne's Church and the Federal Building. The city is already furnished with a thorough water system, but, desiring a better quality of water than that taken from the Merrimack River, she has had a large number of artesian wells driven, and they now furnish about 3,000,000 gallons of water per day. All the principal streets are well lighted by electric lamps, and the residential portion by gas.

The Merrimack River affords a means of enjoying aquatic sports, there being rowing boats, canoes, sail boats and steamers in abundance. Two very enchanting spots up the river are Tyng's Island and Harmony Grove, and if one desire a longer trip by water he may ride to Nashua, N.H., by steamer or other boat.

The population of Lowell is probably about 80,000, and excepting in specially hard times there are few persons to be found in want of a situation. These are only a few of Lowell's salient points, but enough is here given to convey to the visitor a very fair idea of the city's make-up.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT

We wish to present to the friends of the American Missionary Association a full statement of its financial affairs, its debt, its retrenchments; its still greater debt and the still greater retrenchments that will be inevitable unless during the coming year its receipts can be greatly increased. It is not our aim to make a startling cry for transient relief, but for a steady increase of receipts to remove debt and insure the stability of the work.

At the close of our last fiscal year, September 30th, 1893, we reported a debt of $45,028.11. In that year we received aid from the Government for Indian work. During the eleven months of this year we have received no aid from the Government, but our receipts from other sources have increased over those of last year, and we have cut down our expenditures, so that if we had received the Government aid as last year our debt on the eleven months of the current year would be only $5,409.80, but with that loss the actual indebtedness of these eleven months is $23,937.10, which added to that of the last year makes the total debt August 31st $68,965.21. From present indications we can hardly hope for any material reduction of this amount during the current month, and hence the prospect is that this sum must be reported at our annual meeting.

A grave contingency confronts us as we enter (October 1st) on the new year. Our great work, which has lifted thousands of young men and women from ignorance and poverty into hopeful and useful lives, and which has brought cheer and help to multitudes of homes where poverty has reigned, must be carried forward; and our debt, which has hung as a weight upon this work, must be wiped out. A constantly increasing debt must be avoided at any cost. The next six or eight months (the harvest months for collections) must decide the question. If pastors of churches will lay the matter to heart and secure regular and increased collections, and if benevolent friends of these struggling races will bear them in remembrance by special contributions, an uplift of hope and help will be given where now they are threatened with discouragement in their great conflict with poverty, ignorance and race prejudice.

CAPITAL AND LABOR

Capital and labor are twin brothers, but they have been alienated almost from childhood, and the strife between them waxes warmer and warmer, and, like all other vexed questions, will never be settled till it is settled right.

There are various forms of these troubles—now in the coal mines, now on the railroads, and now in the shops—but there are aspects of the struggle which put on national traits and overthrow empires. The French Revolution was a struggle between capital and labor. The capitalists were the aristocracy, and they monopolized also intelligence and power. With these advantages they ground down labor till patience was changed to implacable rage, and the reaction brought forth the most serious and terrible massacres recorded in history.

Our great civil war of 1861-65 developed one aspect of the conflict between capital and labor. The slaveholders were the capitalists, and with them also were the intelligence and power. These levers were used to crush down the laborer into the severest form of slavery known among men. Labor was patient, but large sympathy was developed in the North in favor of the slave. This alone would not have brought on the war. Southern capitalists gloried in their power, and, accustomed to absolute domination over their slaves, assumed the same attitude of superiority over their fellow-citizens of the North. They ruled in Congress, dominated over the press and the pulpit, and, ambitious to extend their dominion, demanded larger territory for the extension of the slave system. When this was refused, they set up an independent standard and brought on the war. The end was disastrous to the South. The capitalists were well-nigh ruined and the slaves were set free.

On this same plain, growing out of the embers of that same conflict, another and almost as threatening a struggle is rising up before us. The white race in the South still largely controls capital, intelligence and power, and these forces are again used to hinder the impoverished laborer. The white man holds office, from which the black man is excluded, who is denied opportunities and privileges which crush his manhood. The contest is again unequal, and the outcome must take one of two forms. Either the oppressed laborer will rise in rebellion—and whatever may be the ultimate result the conflict will be dreadful—or, on the other hand, the laborer, denied education, a comfortable home and a chance to accumulate property, will sink into an utterly hopeless degradation, a curse to himself and to the whole South.

What is the remedy for all this? There is a remedy, and if applied promptly may save the nation from either of the catastrophes we have named, and that is: Give the black man a chance to acquire property, education and power equal to his white neighbor, and the elements of the struggle are gone. This is the work the American Missionary Association is attempting to do. It meddles not with theories, or parties, but aims quietly to give the needed help to the Negro.

OUR ALASKA MISSION

Letters received from Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson and Mr. Lopp give us the gratifying assurance that the mission is by this time opened under favorable auspices. Dr. Jackson found on reaching Alaska that Mr. Lopp had visited the mission at Cape Prince of Wales this spring and discovered that the buildings, furniture and supplies were in good condition. Mr. Lopp, in response to our request, has consented to return to the Cape and re-open the mission. He greatly regrets that an ordained minister was not sent, and expresses the earnest hope that another season this necessary addition will be made, but he consents to return and do the best he can. He has little fear of violence from the natives, finding them completely intimidated by the threats of the captain of the revenue cutter "Bear."

The experiment of introducing the reindeer into Alaska is thus far very encouraging. Mr. Lopp has had a herd under his care at Port Clarence, and although the winter has been unusually severe one hundred and fifty fawns were added to the herd. The Government has promised to our mission at Cape Prince of Wales this season one hundred reindeer, and Mr. Lopp, with adequate help, will have the care of them. The ultimate success of this experiment with reindeer in Alaska is one of great promise. It indicates a food and clothing supply for the natives, with increased facilities for transportation, thus laying the foundation for growth in population and in civilization.

It will be remembered that of the three men connected with the horrible murder of Mr. Thornton, two were at once arrested by the natives and shot. The third, Titalk, who was the leader, escaped for the time. Mr. Lopp thus describes his death: "After the 'Bear' had left for the South, Titalk came back to the cape, and his uncle, Te-ed-loo-na led him up on the hillside near the grave of Mr. Thornton, and asked him how he should put him to death, strangle him, stab him or shoot him. The boy preferred to be shot, so he commanded him to hold his head down and then shot him."

Mr. Lopp furnishes another evidence of the disposition on the part of the leading natives to guard the interests and property of the mission: "On one occasion during the winter Chief Eliguok heard that a boy had broken into the school-house, and he announced his intention to kill the boy, but upon investigation it was found to be a false report."

We trust that in the good providence of God, this mission will be made prosperous and be greatly enlarged, that its missionaries will be preserved in safety, that the natives will become more orderly, that the influence of the school and mission may bring to them peaceable fruits of civilization and Christianity.

HON. A.C. BARSTOW

We record our tribute of sorrow at the death of Hon. A.C. Barstow, which occurred September 5th. He was for many years intimately and usefully connected with the growth and prosperity of the city of Providence, R.I., which was his home and where he died. He was a man of wide sympathies in Christian and patriotic work, having held responsible offices in his native State, and was connected with other public movements, like that of the Board of Indian Commissioners, of which for a time he was president. He was a devoted Christian man, active in the church of which he was a member, and deeply interested in the missionary and benevolent boards of the Congregational churches. He was for a long time a vice-president of our Association.

REV. GEORGE S. SMITH

"Servant of God, well done!
Rest from thy loved employ!
The battle fought, the victory won,
Enter thy Master's joy!"

This may be fittingly said of Rev. G.S. Smith, who for thirteen years was pastor of the Congregational Church at Raleigh and McLeansville, N.C., and who entered into rest on the 12th of last August. Memorial services were held on the 26th of August in the church where he had long and faithfully conducted the worship of his people. Addresses were made by those who had been intimately associated with him in his work, which testified to the earnestness and success of his ministry. The best proof of his work is to be seen in the intelligence and virtue of the community in which he labored.

Our field missionary in a recent visit speaks in this way: "It is very rare to find colored people under such discipline and so orderly and intelligent in meetings. The faces of the old people are sunny and sweet, they are so attentive and appreciative and so responsive. The young people were at the meeting in large numbers. It will give you an uplift from your work to spend a day or two with the people of this place in meetings such as they now hold."

THE SOUTH

THE WALDENSES AT VALDESE, N.C

SECRETARY C.J. RYDER

This new field of work, which was reported for the first time at our annual meeting last year, is one of unique and especial interest. Two years ago the steamship Kaiser Wilhelm arrived in New York with one hundred and sixty-six Waldenses among her steerage passengers. These people came from the Piedmont valley and mountain regions of Italy. Their purpose in coming to America was to establish for themselves homes in our own mountain region of the South. This little company that came down from the deck of the Kaiser Wilhelm were the pioneers in the establishment of their colonies in this new land. They were rather the Pilgrim Fathers of this Waldensean movement. Before the actual colonists had come, Rev. Chas. A. Tron, D.D., pastor of the Waldensean Church, and member of the Board of Evangelization in Italy, had been to the mountain regions of North Carolina, and after careful investigation had purchased a tract of land for these Waldensean colonists.

Soon after the coming of these Waldenses, correspondence was opened with them by the American Missionary Association. The colony was to be planted in the midst of our great mountain field, and we had every confidence that the coming of these conscientious and devoted Christian colonists would be of real helpfulness in our work there. Rev. C.M. Prochet, D.D., whose name is well known to the readers of this magazine, and to the Christian public generally, came to look after the interests of the Waldensean colony not long after their first settlement. In conference with Drs. Tron and Prochet, and after learning thoroughly the condition of their colony, an appropriation was voted by the Executive Committee to assist them in the beginning of their work, as they were in great need of such help.

These Waldenses have begun their settlement in America in a wise and sensible way. Let us notice their business-like arrangement before speaking of the interesting educational and religious work which has developed among them with the assistance of the Association.

They have purchased five thousand acres of land. In dividing this land, they first set aside a portion for a church and manse, together with a small farm for the use of the pastor. Then they set aside a good, commodious site for the school-house. After this a considerable portion of the land, three thousand five hundred acres in extent, is divided into farms of fifty acres each.

In addition to this first company who came on the Kaiser Wilhelm, others have come at various times until there is a considerable colony there. These people are poor. They come from the splendid stock of Waldenses who have been so potent a factor in freeing thousands in France and Italy from the degrading superstitions of Romanism. As all our readers know, the Waldenses have stood for religious freedom from first to last The fibre of their character has been tested through many a conflict. Dr. Edward Everett Hale, who told the story of the Waldensean heroism and devotion in the beautiful legend "In His Name," brings out the noble features of their character in soft, yet bright colors. It is most fitting that our Congregational churches through the Association should welcome this new colony and extend to them the right hand of Christian fellowship. This they have done.

As soon as the colony was established and the people were felling the forests and building their humble homes, they applied to us for assistance for the support of the pastor and teacher. The colonists themselves made large sacrifices, and only asked us to assist them in the support of their religious and educational leaders.

Rev. Enrico Vinay, a native of Italy, was their first pastor. Mr. M.A. Jahier, was selected as their teacher. Mr. Jahier, together with Dr. Tron, was in conference with us in New York, and the simple, Christian character and progressive educational ideas of the Waldensean teacher charmed and impressed us all. He went into the field and opened a school and Sunday-school at Valdese, as the colonists call their mountain village.