The American Missionary. Volume 42, No. 08, August, 1888

*GETTYSBURG, FRATERNITY, FREE BALLOT.*

The meeting of the Blue and the Gray on the field of Gettysburg at the late anniversary celebration marks an era in national fraternity. The orator of the day, George William Curtis, did a noble, perhaps we might say courageous, deed in lifting the enthusiasm of the glad hour above the remembrance of past heroism and present harmony to the great duty of the nation—a free and fair ballot. A few lines culled from the oration will give the thought.

"The suffrage is the mainspring, the heart of our common life. If ignorance and semi-barbarous dominance be fatal to civilized communities, no less so is constant and deliberate defiance of law."

"No honest man can delude himself with the theory that this is a local question. If there be a national question, which vitally interests every American citizen from the Penobscot to the Rio Grande, it is the question of a free legal ballot."

"Can we wrest from the angel of this hour any blessing so priceless as the common resolution that we shall not have come to this consecrated spot only to declare our joy and gratitude, nor only to cherish proud and tender memories, but also to pledge ourselves to union in its sublimest significance?"

To this we add: The brave deeds of the soldier at Gettysburg, and the wise counsels of the orator, should be followed by the patient toil of the teacher and the preacher. It is hard to choose between the ballot withheld and the ballot cast by ignorance and vice. Blood and treasure flowed like water in the war. Shall treasure and toil be wanting for the work of peace—preparing the ignorant voter to cast the free ballot intelligently and honestly?

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*A BOOM IN THE PRICE OF A SLAVE.*

One of our best educated and most efficient colored ministers in the South furnishes us the following sketch of his experience on the auction block. He not only was sold "early and often," but always at advancing prices. We do not wonder at this, for he has shown himself to be so valuable as a man, that we are sure the boy must have promised to be worth a great deal as a slave.

I was sold in 1862 at the age of ten years, for $400, by the widow B. of Virginia. As a rule, after the first sale, I was upon the auction block every day for three months. How often I was sold during those three months I cannot tell, but on Davis' auction block in his sale-room I was sold five times in one day. The last sale at the end of the three months was made in Tennessee, to the Rev. H.F.S., a Baptist minister, who paid $3,500 for his property. The Rev. Mr. S. was a "Yankee" from Philadelphia, Pa., and came South at the breaking out of the war.

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*EXTRACTS FROM EXAMINATION PAPERS.*

Ques. Give a rule for the use of the period?

Ans. Every period must begin with a capital.

Ans. A period is a dot written to the end of a sentence and is used to low the voice.

Ans. A period is used for the topage of a sentence and to make our reading sound better than if we had no period.

Ques. What is the chief occupation in the South Atlantic States?

Ans. The ocoopations cold in the north part, but in the lower part rain seldom fails.

FROM A SUNDAY-SCHOOL

The lesson was on The Ten Virgins, and the next Sunday the review question was asked, "What was the lesson about last Sunday?" and a bright boy gave the prompt answer, "About ten gals that went to a weddin."

COMPOSITION LETTERS FROM YOUNG PUPILS

My dear teacher, God be with you witch I know he will, as the Song says God can see me every day when I work and when I play. again God is always near me when I pray. I shall nor for get Miss H. her name shall never die out Christ have mercy upon her If God calls her I will spect to meet her in heven at the last trumpet shall sound. I will be thair. Yours truly,

Robert –

Dear teacher, I wish I could write good. I have not done my duty. I will try the next time and do better. I am very sorry. I will try and do better. May God help me to obey my teacher. Miss F. is sick. I hope she will get better. I will try to be like Jesus. I have sign the pledge and have kept it. Now I will close my bad lines. I hope you will come back next year. Good by.

Your aff Scholar,

James –

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*ON JAMES POWELL'S PORTRAIT.*

BY J.E. RANKIN, D.D

O face, all radiant with the light of love,
O eyes, so laughing in their tenderness,
So quick to read the language of distress;
O lips, so touched with flame as from above,
O man, with godhead stamped upon thy brow,
And manhood beating in thy pulses strong,
To stir thee up to stamp thy heel on wrong,
That earth should have no more thy pattern now!
No more should see thee on the wings of mercy sent!
Thou hads't thy mortal years so wisely spent,
That Heavën seemed too soon to crown thy brow;
The veil of flesh was prematurely rent,
And earthly glory with celestial blent.

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A college commencement is a marked event to all parties concerned, and a good sketch of such an occasion furnishes interesting reading to a very wide circle. We call the attention of our patrons to the reports we make of the anniversaries in our Southern institutions. Some of these reports appeared in the last MISSIONARY, some will be found in this number, and others will be given in the next.

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=THE SOUTH.=

*NOTES IN THE SADDLE.*

BY REV. C.J. RYDER, DISTRICT SECRETARY

Orthodoxy and orthography are by no means inseparable, as the following letter proves. Correct views of Divine Sovereignty and very indifferent spelling may go together in the same epistle.

"Dear Miss –

"Dear Teacher, I am so much Thank you for your kindness of the medicine which you have sent to me yesterday, until I cannot express my gladness and feeling unto you in this world, but I hope God will take good care off you even on death if I never have the plegure of seeing your good and happy looking face any more.

"Your medicine has help me demegiately as I have took it. I hope God will ever to be with in your Jerney throught life in well doing."

This letter came from a young lad in one of the lower grades of school work. He had been seriously sick for weeks, and the teacher to whom he wrote sat with him and ministered to his comfort after the weary hours of her school work were over. This lad appreciated her self-forgetful kindness; his heart was touched, and as she left the malarial atmosphere of this Southern country for brief rest in her Northern home, this boy sent her this letter. His letter is "phonetic" and of the individual type, but I venture that the tearful prayer going up to God from his grateful, loving, simple heart may reach the Father's ear, and bring down a blessing upon his loving friend as "demegiately" as the rounded periods of learned lips. He evidently is no dusky Claudius whose confession must be:

"My words fly up, my thoughts remain below;
Words without thoughts never to Heaven go."

"What a privilege it is to be prayed for by such confiding souls," said the teacher as she handed me this letter.