Various

“ A “sweet-girl graduate,” folding away bouquets and compliments with her pretty muslin, wishes to know how she can make her school-room attractive. Speaking of future plans, she pens these words: “I mean to work for the Master to the best of my ability. I think a life not consecrated to God is no life.”
If sometimes burdensome, such letters do greatly add to the sweetness of vacation rest. They give assurance that the seed sown in weariness is yielding harvest, which, with the affection breathed from every page, inspires to future faithfulness and zeal. ”

“ Pity us for our wickedness, as we pity any man if he does evil to us. Not thou carry us to where evil is; but if evil find us, good thou help us conquer that evil. Truly all earth thy earth, and thou very strong, and thou truly very good, so we wish all this. Good so.”
It is no little task to make hymns for such a people out of such poor materials. Let it be understood that these are only hymns for the transition state, for Indians who can only remember a little, and who sing in English as soon as they have learned to read. ”

“ We have steadily driven him from one hunting ground to another, over the rivers and beyond the lakes, hemmed him in from the gulfs and the oceans, crowded him off the prairies into rugged mountains, compelled him to sell his native lands, and have let loose the dogs of war upon him, because, forsooth, he has had the manhood to resist our march of doom against his race. ”

“ I wish you could establish a school in Hong Kong for a Young Men’s Christian Association, as we have here. Then we could hold all our brethren together when they go back to China, and they would not all scatter abroad. I am sure all our brethren will be glad to have one. I ask God all the time for it, if God is willing, for He knows what is best. We cannot do anything without the Holy One. ”

“ We do not profess to know everything at the New York office; but we have a wise man in the East, at Boston, and one who may occidentally know a thing or two at Chicago, a royal correspondent in the South, who will be everywhere, and a whole corps of intelligent teachers and pastors on the field, who, best of all, can answer each other’s questions. ”

“ Alexander, the pastor of the Central Congregational Church, who is now in the North: “Notwithstanding the intense heat, and the excitement that prevails because of the yellow-fever here, the congregation at Central Church have not abated their interest, and, both on Thursday evenings and on Sundays, they manifest by their presence that they will ‘not forsake the assembling of themselves together as the manner of some is.’ The good Lord is present to bless at every service, and the faithful people are, as far as I know, conscientiously discharging every known duty. ”

“ The most profitable part of the farm-work is the dairy, and raising beef for the College boarding department. We shall keep fifty or sixty cattle continually, but we have now no barn. The working stock, the implements and the feed must have a shelter. We have nothing but sheds made of old lumber, which we fear the autumn storms will destroy, with much property within. Besides, if the farm is to be, as it should be, a model to the colored people, we must not leave everything out in the rain and cold, as is universally the case in the South. ”

“ The testimony of the agent, the missionary, the teacher, the physician, the farmer and the carpenter, is uniform as to their capacity, and desire to improve and live like the whites, and of their real progress in industry and manner of living. They are trusted more and more, and they honor the trust. ”

“ But how much better it would be if, by fair treatment and honestly-fulfilled pledges, we had made these Indians both friendly and law-abiding—or, even, if now, with patience and forbearance, we should be persistently kind and true, and see how long it would be before we and they should find each in the other, “a man and a brother.” ”

“ Stages, loaded down with mails and passengers, have rolled along over many of the same routes, having no more fear of Indians than of the white settlers, for whose convenience the post routes were established by government. Flocks and herds, in care of a few scattered men, have multiplied in all those regions. The robberies and murders, as the records of the courts testify, have been committed by white men. Sheriffs trace nearly every crime and outrage to the white, not to the Indian race. ”

“ An honored New Hampshire pastor writes: “I should be glad to see the A. M. A’s debt removed, and I am in hearty sympathy with the Society. It seems to me to combine, in the persons of the freedmen—to say nothing of the Chinese, etc.—the claims of Home and Foreign Missions in a remarkable degree. Patriotism and philanthropy meet and blend in its work.” ”

“ In church and Sabbath-school, Indian parents and children meet with white parents and children, join in singing, listen to a sermon in the morning, translated by the interpreter into the Twana Indian language, and in the evening, to one in English. They exhibit a desire to learn the word of truth, and are profiting by their instructions. Several of the pupils in the school have become Christians and united with the church. ”

“ Often, in the brooks of New England, the farmer’s boy, who goes fishing with a stick and a string, when it rains too hard to work out of doors, will bring home ten times as many trout as the city sportsman with eight-ounce rod, a Conroy reel and a choice assortment of flies. Perhaps a small army of cow-boys would serve us best on the frontier. It is not fit work for real soldiers. ”

“ Those who have from $200 to $300 over their passage-money will have a much better chance of becoming independent in Liberia than in America; but those who expect to find there a heaven on earth, where they will not have to work, and who are unprovided with means, will soon become disheartened, and be anxious to return to the United States.
The Indians.
—One fundamental principle in the management of the Indians should be, that they are not to be massed together, but separated in small communities, and as soon as may be, in homesteads. The more they mix with us the less they will disturb us. ”

“ With another, it is sorrow that we been without such a mission so long. “We plead,” he says, “our brethren to help us. I pray that God will bless you and open a way to make a mission in Hong Kong.” Another says, “If men can’t do it, we all hope God has an authority [has some way] do it for us. I hope our parents hear the gospel, receive it all, come to Him forever.” A refuge from persecution is often referred to. “We have great many trials, and I hope the Christians do this thing, then our brothers have a place to see each other. We are far from each other in China.” ”

“ When we reach the place, we crawl through the fence and enter the little house. We find the children seated on benches made of rough boards. May and I take our places in chairs at the head of the school. Sometimes we have over forty children. We open the school by singing some of the Gospel-hymns, then follows the prayer; after talking a minute or two to the scholars, the teachers take their classes and benches out of doors, and teach right among the bee-hives and hollyhocks! ”

“ Like the other students who remain, they work through the summer, chiefly on the farm, thus earning money for their clothing and support. They are allowed a day and a half in school each week, and thus, under a regular teacher, their instruction is kept up in the English language, with object lessons, and phonetic practice, writing, arithmetic and geography. They also meet for an hour every evening, from eight to nine, with a few of the other students, under the care of a teacher, for conversation, and games that are exercises in talking. ”

“ If he has counted us the aggressors and the outlaws, we have hurled back upon him the fiercest invective known to human speech. If he, in the wild delirium of madness, has outraged and mutilated his captive, we have, in fiercer and more fiery passion, counselled, if not plotted, his extermination. ”

“ Some have stood at their posts, and done noble work as nurses, as ministers, and in humbler stations. And some, doubtless, like those of other races, have been carried by their fears away from the most sacred of duties. ”

“ I heard you some time ago talking about if we would like have one American Association school in Hong Kong. I feel very glad, indeed, if we have one school in Hong Kong, that we may go back to our China and find a Christian Home. Canton and Hong Kong have two or three schools, but not our Congregational Association. You know how many of our Christian brothers have gone back to China. They find no Christian home ”

“ Williams, who accompanied the Azor’s shipload of South Carolina negroes to Liberia, is unwilling to take the responsibility of advising the colored people of the United States to emigrate. It is a magnificent country, and money is to be made there; but the risks of fever and disease are great, and the climate is enervating. Thrift, patience and good management are essential to success. ”

“ The solution of the Indian problem will be found whenever a policy founded upon justice shall be inaugurated, entrusted to a separate department of the Government, free from political or army interference, executed by men selected on account of fitness, who shall be exempt from the accursed political dogma, “that to the victors belong the spoils,” held to strictest accountability, and subject to removal only by impeachment. ”

“ The best way to study the Indian problem is to study the Indians themselves. The agents and employees on the reservations have all the means to test every element of this question.
Safety of Life and Property.
The agent, Edwin Eells, Esq., with wife and children, has lived among the Indians here seven years. The employees and their families have lived here from one to six years each, all without harm or fear. At any moment the Indians could have killed them, stolen their property, burnt the dwellings, and fled to the rugged hills and mountains. ”

“ This conversation class is thus far a great success, enjoyed by the Indians and the other students who take pleasure in helping them.
They also have their Sunday-school class, and a prayer-meeting, in which most of them are very constant and devoted attendants. The devoutness of their simple prayers in Cheyenne and Kiowa cannot be doubted by a listener, though understood only by the Great Spirit to whom they are addressed.
At their first meeting, a gentleman present spelled out the question with the card letters for one of the young men to answer: Why do you like to learn? ”

“ There is to be held, in connection with the department, this fall, the first Industrial Fair ever held by the colored people. We expect it to be a means of education to 5,000 people. The barn should be ready for their inspection and information. Fifteen hundred dollars will give the farm the barn it needs, and furnish work to a number of young men, by which they will learn the use of tools, under our very skilful carpenter, and be able to pay their expenses in school. ”

“ It is certainly more necessary and more promising among the colored people than among the whites. Already we can see the benefits of the department in the improving material condition of the people in the country about, in better and larger crops, cultivated more skilfully with better implements, etc.
The Agricultural Department is one of the most useful, and it is, also, one of the most remunerative parts of our work. At present we are obliged to go three-fourths of a mile by the road to reach the farm; $1,000 would buy a piece of land connecting the farm directly with the college buildings. ”

“ The payment of that debt will honor the cause of the Master; it will unfetter our hands; it will cheer us and our friends for future work; it will be a boon to the ignorant and needy masses for whom we labor. We appeal to the wealthy, the liberal, the self-denying, to all who love God and His poor, to make a final effort, by special gifts, to reach an object so near at hand and so important.
Our books will be closed promptly Sept. 30, for current receipts and [Pg 290] expenditures, but for receipts for debt they will be kept open till after the Annual Meeting ”

“ If him all [i. e., his relatives] no like me I go Christian house, call Christian friend Help me tell father, mother, sister, brother, how very good Jesus is. If all man, woman love Him, bye-and-bye go heaven. If he all beat and lick me, I go to the Chinese Mission at Hong Kong; very good, all the same my own church.”
Ah King writes: “Dear Mr. Pond—I am very glad in heart that I heard missionary schools be opened in Hong Kong. I think you make these things for our Christian brethren, just like builder build a stone foundation of buildings—the wind cannot blow off it.” ”

“ By this outlay sixty scholars have earned a large sum in payment of their school expenses. They have also learned to do these various kinds of work in a systematic and intelligent manner. But in the growth of character the good has been greatest. The young people have acquired earnestness, self-dependence and enterprise. During the vacation they are disseminating this practical knowledge and their spirit through the whole State. The Southern Educational Society, composed of some of the foremost educators of the South, recently pronounced “industrial education the hope of the South.” ”

“ While the soil for Christian labor is unfavorable, and tares find root, to the choking out of good seed sown, yet we should take heart in the increasing desire on their part for better homes and farms, and the laying aside of the wigwam for good houses, the gun and rod for the plow and hoe. ”

“ About thirty of the Indians, having finished haying, were away from home, most of them hunting in the mountains, or fishing at the weirs. Those at home had neat, well swept rooms, usually a sitting-room, bed-room and kitchen. Almost every one had a cooking stove, with its furniture, and crockery on the table, or in the cupboard a few chairs or benches, a clock in every house (often two) , occasionally a rocking-chair and bureau, always one or two bedsteads, with beds and blankets, and often covered with a neat quilt of the wife’s taste and make. ”

“ As this tribe receive $3,800 a year, the same being the interest on their funds in the hands of the Government, this meagre sum is illiberal. Rev. J. Slingerland, who has been both preacher and teacher for this tribe for many years, is still retained. While the number of children of school age is twenty-five, with nearly as many of the “old citizen” party, who are not allowed privileges, the greatest number attending any one month is thirteen, and the average for the year is ten. The church membership is twenty-nine. ”

“ The yellow fever, in its ravages in the South, pays no regard to race, color or previous condition. Whites and blacks alike have suffered from its sudden and malignant attacks. Death levels all distinctions. The statement which has been often made, that the negroes are proof against this pestilence, seems to have been ill-based, as intelligent observers of its ravages in former years utterly contradict it. ”