Various

“ To reclaim our swamp lands, howl at the Chinese. To encourage citizens to furnish free meals for white tramps, who refuse to work at any price, drive out from our kitchens the Chinese, who to-day receive higher wages than white men and women are getting in any State east of the Rocky Mountains. To show yourself a hero, hurl brickbats at the Chinese. From whatever point of the political or moral compass these broad and eloquent men set out, they are sure to end with a stereotyped spasm on the stereotyped topic—the infernal Chinese. ”

“ The white employés and white men living among the Indians were all interested this spring, and we hope there were several conversions and much good influence at work. One young man, born of missionary parents in the South Seas, who had wandered here from England and from the Lord, we trust has gone back home to live a better life. One man, with a half-breed family, said: “The white people have been teaching the Indians better ways of living; then you have had school, a good school, and now we are going to have church and religion, and do better.” ”

“ The republic is sick. It has gastric fever, gout, goitre, gangrene, scrofula, sciatica, croup, consumption, ophthalmia, vertigo, small-pox, and cholera. It has eaten too much, drank too much, danced too much, flirted too much, smoked too much, gambled too much, run riot in frivolity, gone mad in greed, flaunted its pageantry of pride, coveted, lusted, blasphemed, forsaken God, despised religion, loved leasing, and hated honest toil, with its health-giving frugality and slow but solid gains. ”

“ The agent must have executive capacity, together with that rare selective faculty that recognizes at sight a competent man for a given place. The character of the agency force of employés, and the quality of their work, reflects the personality of the agent. The progress of the Indians in the schools, and in learning to work for their own support, is in proportion to the efficiency of the agent as an executive. A vigorous, capable man infuses his spirit into his subordinates, and, in a more limited degree, into the natives. ”

“ There is One who does not quench the smoking flax. Another poor consumptive died this spring, telling her people not to believe what bad Indians said about our malign influences; that we were good; that if she got well she would come to church; that father and mother must not grieve for her, but, if they felt sad, go to us to be comforted. God has been teaching us how to comfort bereaved parents and friends by taking away our own baby, Harry, to the home over there. An atmosphere of sorrow is about all our Dakota mission-stations. ”

“ Many of our scholars attend school with only a handkerchief as a garment, tied around their necks, hanging somewhat cloak-fashion.
School is taught at Debia. The prospect does not seem very hopeful, yet more so than at any time previous. The people are very poor, and are not able to supply the wants of their children. A larger number could be brought in if we were to aid [337] them a little. This, we hope, we shall be able to do, to some extent, in future, as we trust we shall be so advised by the committee at New York. ”

“ The colored people, though the majority of them are unlettered men, seek for Christian teachers—even in our common public schools—as a general thing.
The mission work carried on by the theological students is still full of interest, and promises a bright future for the many thousands who are being brought to a knowledge of the truth. The students of the college go out into all parts of the State and teach day and Sunday-schools, and by so doing exert a Christian influence over their pupils. ”

“ Two years after closing his term of service, an agent was required to account for one iron wagon-bolt (purchased by a subordinate, three years before) , in order to secure release from his bond, and five hundred dollars arrears of salary. The agent’s family must endure practical exile, separated from society, schools and churches.
Every agent, honest or dishonest, suffers in reputation. If a man is thoroughly honest, dishonest contractors and jobbers invariably slander him, to get rid of him. ”

“ Especially, high moral character is a prime requisite, not only on account of the agent’s influence upon a people just rising from barbarism, but to enable a man to maintain his integrity under the extraordinary temptations that surround the place. Said an ex-agent of unimpeachable integrity: “I know of no service that tries a man’s principles so severely as the Indian service.” ”

“ We stand in great need of Sunday-school books, papers, mottoes, etc., which, we hope, will soon be supplied us.
Our aim is to train up young men and young women, who may go forth into this broad continent, and carry the light to those benighted ones whom we are unable to reach. Therefore, we recommend to this body the importance of establishing, at whatever station in their judgment seems best, a High School for the purpose of training up persons to be missionaries to the dying millions in the interior, with hope of the approval of the Executive Committee at New York. ”

“ First comes hard work. No branch of our civil service draws more heavily on a man’s time and strength. The agent is involved in a constant round of wearisome details, varied only by frequent hard journeys by wagon or stage, or worse, by frontier railroads.
The responsibilities of the place are onerous. The agent is held accountable, under a heavy bond, for all funds and property that come into his hands, as well as for all the acts and failures of his subordinates. ”

“ A barbarous man is a pure materialist, he is full of cravings for possessing something that he cannot describe. My experience and study of the pagan, prove to me, that if a missionary can show the poor materialist that religion is allied with substantial benefits and improvement of his degraded condition, the task will be rendered comparatively easy. ”

“ There is a great lack of funds, and also of proper organs to execute the law. So long as a meagre State tax is the sole reliance for the support of schools, they will inevitably languish. Double the amount of money now raised would be a scanty supply. The organization of boards of education, and of the other branches of school administration, is radically defective.
The report of the new Superintendent of South Carolina for 1877 shows that 2,483 schools, with an attendance of 102,396 children, out of 228,128, were in operation for a period averaging three months. ”

“ What repose it gives a State to have wise and just men at the helm of affairs! This epidemic rage—as unstatesmanlike as it is unphilanthropic—so prevalent in the halls of legislation just now, merits the sarcasm of a Lord Brougham. Yet I accord to our Representatives a fair measure of good intentions. The Chinese have no votes, and are not patrons of the press ”

“ We can never train up persons to serve as assistants in missionary work without taking them from under the unwholesome influence of their parents, and placing them under Christian influence.
(4) Therefore, seeing the difficulties which exist from having to receive the material upon which we are to work sent us at the will of the parents, we recommend to the Committee at New York that each station be allowed to retain as many scholars as can be well provided for. ”

“ Twenty-two new converts have been added, mostly from among the pupils of the mission, and some who serve as laborers; nearly all from the native element, whose eyes have been opened to the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, and have learned to love Him.
Now our number of regular members is forty-four. In addition to these we have baptized ten children. Our church is in a healthy condition, and attended mostly by a native element, preached to through an interpreter. The attendance is good, and at times our accommodations are not sufficient. We hope soon to see many others coming into the kingdom. ”

“ The Indians made choice of this region of country on account of the very fine groves of sugar-maple and the large number of inland lakes; but the white man, who defines the boundaries, took occasion to so run the lines that the most of the maple-groves and many of the lakes are left out, and the Indians have a reservation running from south-west to north-west about thirty miles, and from north-west to south-east but about three or four miles. ”

“ The African, once brought in contact with the European, becomes docile and imbued with a vague hope that he may also rise in time to the level of this superior being who has challenged his admiration. He comes to him with a desire to be taught, and, seized with an ambition to aspire to a higher life, becomes docile and tractable.” “I find them,” he says, elsewhere, “capable of great love and affection, and possessed of gratitude and other traits of human nature. ”

“ This year, three others have been sent to labor here and across the Lake, where no missionary work has been done, and where the Indians oppose any work of the kind. A church edifice is in process of building, to be completed by December 1st.
Progress is seen in the extent of land in cultivation, in largely increased crops, in fencing made, better dwellings, more stoves, tables, chairs, crockery, better clothing, greater cleanliness, more wash-boards and wash-tubs in use, more comfortable homes; more stock each year; a growing desire to have their children educated ”

“ O, I love to work for Jesus; He is always willing to help the poor. Last October I was thinking how I could manage to continue at school this session, having only $21.50 to commence. I thought that I would continue trusting the Lord and ask Him to help me. Then I went to school, and [333] found the teachers ready to receive me. I told them that I would begin school Nov. 1st. Thus the Lord has blessed me to commence, and I think He will help me to the end. I wish again to thank you for the aid you have furnished me toward getting an education. ”

“ They are doing well at agriculture—better than most Indians in the territory of Dakota. This year their crops of corn, potatoes, squashes and beans are large and fine; but they raise nothing else; and they have not learned to care for stock, to milk, to make butter, and grow feed for cattle. They do not put up hay for their ponies, but let them grow poor during the winter, on such dried grass, and corn-stalks, and cotton-wood bark as they can pick up on the prairie or the bottoms by the Missouri. ”

“ The year just brought to a close has been one of unusual pecuniary embarrassment to all the schools of the South. While every branch of the department of education has been affected by it, that relating to the employment of teachers has suffered most. [329] Notwithstanding these discouraging circumstances, the schools in most of the States, instead of deteriorating, have advanced in almost every respect. The attendance was never so great; the interest of the people never so general. ”

“ Adjacent to the house is an ell built for a kitchen, bath-house and store. Under the chapel is a room for a school; adjacent to this is another room, used both for school and sewing-room. Also, at the freight-house is a shed-extension used as a lumber wharf. The mill is in a decaying condition, the greater part of it being covered with bamboo, which was rotten, and allowed the rains to pass through, greatly to the injury of the frame-work and the mill apparatus generally. Repairs have been made on this roof more or less ever since our coming on the field. ”

“ The agent needs judicial knowledge. No laws are in force on Indian reservations, with a few exceptions, but the treaties with the Government. The administration of justice and the punishment of crime are left to the agent, with such coöperation as he can secure from the Indian chiefs. He settles family quarrels, neighborhood disputes, complaints against Indians by neighboring whites, questions of the boundary of lands and the ownership of property. ”

“ I know, too, that they can be made good, obedient, industrious, enterprising, true and moral—that they are in short, equal to any other race or color on the face of the globe in all the attributes of manhood.”
King Mtesa, the despotic ruler over 2,000,000 of people, appeared to Mr. Stanley the most desirable object for his first efforts. “Mtesa has impressed me,” he says, “as being an intelligent and distinguished prince, who, if aided by philanthropists, will do more for Central Africa than fifty years of gospel teaching, unaided by such authority, can do. ”

“ Then there are the contractor and sub-contractor; the man who failed to get the contract he wanted, and the man who is planning to get the next contract. There is the ex-agent, who corresponds with the employés and Indians, and criticises his successor, and the man who wants to be agent, and watches for a lever to oust the incumbent. (There are always twenty of them!) There is the dissatisfied employé, who corresponds with outsiders about agency affairs, and the meddlesome clerk at Washington, who gives him private assistance. ”

“ The new Chinese Ambassadors are men from whose intelligence, experience and wisdom we have much to hope. Chin Lan Pin, first ambassador, is a man of deep learning, being a graduate of the Han Lin College, of the highest class, and a man of extensive travel and observation as well. In 1872, he visited this country as Chief Commissioner in charge of the Chinese students sent to be educated in the Connecticut colleges, and he subsequently visited England and Spain on similar missions. ”

“ We have striven to open the way for the Gospel by sympathy with, and help for, the sick and dying. One young man among the Mandans died last year as I stood beside him. Before he grew unconscious, he had said to his friend that the white people were coming for him, and he was going. ”

“ They are rovers in every sense of the word, having no houses or permanent homes, save the starry-decked heavens. They are visited each year by the Agent; and such goods and supplies as the Department furnishes are distributed to them as presents. The appropriations are not large enough to supply employés; therefore, no civilizing measures have been introduced here. Five thousand dollars a year, judiciously expended for labor, in building houses, clearing land, and supplying cattle to these Indians, would, in a very short period, place them beyond want ”

“ If the agent is an incompetent buyer, contractors and merchants are quick to discover the fact and profit by it. A knowledge of accounts is essential. Accurate returns of every item of cash and property received and expended, are required by law, and are subjected to most rigid scrutiny. Absolute correctness, in both matter and form, is required, and ignorance of methods is not admitted as an excuse for errors. ”

“ It is a great gain to have the people eating wholesome food, for the want of which, in their changed condition of life, and the absence of the former abundance of game, they are dying off. It is greater gain to have them beginning in any way to make home more comfortable, attractive, decent; to have the women improving in cooking, and tidiness of home management; the men drawn to an interest in building better houses ”