Various

“ I don’t want even to refer to the treaty, where we pledged ourselves to exert all our powers to devise measures for the protection of Chinese subjects in this country. It is not on the ground of legal, but of the moral obligations that I prefer to rest this claim.”
Our treatment of the Indians is very much like the way a kindly parent allows his judgment to be at the mercy of the pranks of his mischievous boy. The boy takes a stick, and chasing a dog, pokes it and pounds it till the maddened brute turns upon his tormentor and bites him. ”

“ I greet your locked-up wealth, and ask it to come forth from the vaults of the bank to meet me and to join me in the work of Christ. I promise you to be the most liberal man in the world in dealing out your money from your pocket-books, and in accepting and in giving away your time. ”

“ The Colored People are crazily fond of organization. Women and men alike are caught in the whirl. Offices with high-sounding names, processions, regalia and show, have a wonderful charm before which go down their better judgment. The evils of the Lodge, our missionaries meet on every hand. In the home and in the church, this insidious foe to piety and thrift is encountered. ”

“ The opinion of the colored practitioners of law is practically unanimous that a Negro tried for certain crimes is more likely to be convicted than a white man for the same crimes, and likely to pay a heavier penalty where the penalty is discretionary with the court or jury. The marriage and bastardy laws of several Southern States at least concentrate the pressure to crime at the weakest social point, and do not give the Negro woman a fair chance, nor the same protection or reparation that the white woman has. ”

“ The demand of the hour is for living men and living women. Our age is a pivotal age, a cardinal age, a burning age, a crucial age. Let us not forget that we are living under the westering sun of the 19th century, and that this lays us under obligations to be 19th century Christians.
“While we forget not the age, we must not forget the land in which we live, and which expects an outcome of good from our church relations. America is the land where the battles of the future are destined to be fought. ”

“ They are idle, and cannot be otherwise. They spend their time foolishly, or worse, as idle people always do. As I looked upon these men, women and children, crowded together like cattle in a pen, and remembered the stirring words of Prof. Whipple, prophetic of such grand possibilities for this people, I wondered if our Government were making the wisest use of these Apaches in holding them in this confinement, that must result in increased viciousness. A Christian lady, after looking at these Indians, said: “Why, the very sight makes me blush for my country!” ”

“ It is a national humiliation. It ought to be so felt by the people. It would be so felt if regard for right and justice were supreme in the national heart and conscience. It is to be hoped that this matter will be brought by the proper authority, as soon as practicable, to the attention of Congress, and that the United States Government will speedily be clothed with statutory power to enforce its own treaties. ”

“ It is urged against the Chinese in one of your columns that their great sin is in the fact ‘that California has been drained of over $200,000,000 during the last twenty-five years.’ This is an average of $800,000 per year. But surely this is not a great offence, for Mr. Michael Davitt, at Madison Square Garden, New York city, recently urged ‘that millions of dollars had been sent from this country to gladden the poor Irish peasants.’ Every true man will rejoice that the peasantry of Ireland and China and Germany can be gladdened with money honestly earned by their friends in America. ”

“ All who are sick are to receive aid. When a member dies, his family will receive a thousand dollars. If any one of the family dies before the member insured does, twenty-five dollars will be furnished for funeral expenses. Heavy fines are imposed for absence from the meetings, which are held weekly. The name might lead one to suppose that this lodge is for men only, but it is composed of men and women. They have oaths and pass-words and secrecy, but one who is too wise to join such an organization says the great secret which they will never find out is where the money goes. ”

“ The savage stirred with anger strikes back, and the innocent with the guilty—if indeed the guilty do not go scot free—are made to suffer. Had the Indian been let alone he would have remained peaceful and quiet and friendly. ”

“ The idea of some one to help in time of sickness, and of property left to one’s children, is enough to draw the final dime from a colored person’s pocket, and stimulates parents who are not able to patronize a school to invest in a lodge. ”

“ White men—some of them not even citizens of the United States—in violation of law enter the Indian reservation, steal the Indians’ ponies, drive off their cattle, shoot down a few of the Indians for resisting them, or perhaps for the mere fun of the thing. The Indians, maddened by the wrongs inflicted upon them, go on the war-path. ”

“ But all the correspondents report an ambition to accumulate property, and the accumulation of more and more every year. The great mass of the blacks are not real estate owners. The great mass of black families are yet tenants; but the progress making in the acquisition of land seems to be satisfactory. In most Southern communities, land is yet very cheap, and the mere ownership of land does not argue material prosperity to any great extent; but the ownership of homes does argue a social advancement that is exceedingly significant. ”

“ Over thirty schools have been supplied with acceptable teachers from our schools.” We have here an illustration of what is taking place more or less in connection with all our schools. We are supplying teachers for the public schools of the South. Reports that tell only of what our missionaries are doing among those whom they personally reach, fall far short of that larger work, which, through their scholars, they are doing all over the South. Think of the difference between a school taught by a Christian teacher and one under the care of a godless teacher. ”

“ In Thomasville, Ga., the colored people paid taxes on three thousand one hundred dollars worth of property in 1880. In 1885, this same people paid taxes on ninety-five thousand six hundred and six dollars worth of property. In five years they had multiplied their taxable property more than thirty times. This represents no unhealthy “boom” in real estate, but an actual increase in the accumulations of the colored citizens of this flourishing and beautiful Southern city. The colored people have been given a fair chance in Thomasville, and this is the use they have made of it. ”

“ Our land cries for help, and we can help it. We can give it the gospel of Jesus Christ and that is what it needs above all things. The gospel alone carries in it the principles which can solve with safety and finality the social and political questions which are coming to America to stay.”
By treaty stipulations the Chinese in this country are guaranteed the same rights and privileges as are accorded the most favored nations. One Thomas Baldwin was arrested by a United States Marshal for driving out with force and violence a number of Chinese residents from the town of Nicolaus, California. ”

“ The love of organization may be utilized and turned to good account. Our teachers endeavor to impress upon their pupils the value of co-operation in doing good. The outcome of such instruction appears in one of our schools where the girls of their own accord, and without aid from their teachers, organized themselves into the Helping Hand Society, in which the members pledge, (1) Not to tell lies, (2) Not to steal, (3) Not to be selfish, (4) Not to quarrel, (5) Not to talk about the boys when together, and (6) To try and help every one they can. ”

“ A colored woman who does well to send one of her six children to school said to me last week, “I am just as much opposed to the lodge as I can be. A good many women have to work hard to support their families, for it takes all their husbands can make to keep up the lodges. They pay four dollars a month for the rent of a hall to meet in, and they can’t pay the rent for a shelter for their families, so their wives have to attend to that.” ”

“ Twenty years ago we began with a small number of Indians at White Earth Reservation. They were wild folk, used only to savage life. Now there are 1,800 people living like civilized beings. They have houses built by themselves. They are self-supporting. It is an orderly, law-abiding, peaceful community. In religion they are about equally divided between the Episcopalian and Catholic churches. ”

“ The one in which you thank God this town is afflicted with only a few of one nationality, or the one in which you propose to be counted out unless charity shall be bestowed regardless of creed or nationality? The man who tries to ride two horses is apt to fall. Inconsistency always appears ridiculous. We hope the prayer in your ‘Thank God’ does not put you under the condemnation of Proverbs 28:9.
“In behalf of every nation in America, we protest against the abuse of any people, whether they come from the banks of the Shannon, or of the Rhine or the Po, the Danube or the Hoang Ho. ”

“ The above are samples of versification that we have selected from this Sweet Songster, that our readers may see for themselves the kind of Christian instruction some white people in certain portions of our country receive. These selections are certainly ludicrous, yet they have also a serious aspect—they point to duty. It would be useless to denounce such incompetent leadership as is here revealed. It would be folly to argue either with the leaders or the people whom they lead. We must plant schools and educate the children. ”

“ Comparatively few of the colored people entertain decided notions of economy or have any faith in Government savings banks, but the wealth they have hidden away in old stockings and the money they are investing from year to year in lands and houses, if it could be rightly estimated, would prove a pleasing revelation. ”

“ He knows his life is wretched, and yet it would take almost a miracle to arouse him to activity enough to render his life comfortable. As I contrast him with my own boys and girls, with the emotions aroused by mental activity chasing each other over their faces, I feel that their lives will be happier and, I hope, better than his. ”

“ Colored men are everywhere reported to prefer light-colored women. There is a race pride on the Negro’s side as well as on the white man’s against intermarriage. But the Negro has, nevertheless, reached the conclusion, if these letters are representative of the race’s opinion, as they are believed to be, that the pure African will become rare in a very few generations, and that he is doomed to extinction. ”

“ The Races and the Laws.—The statutes of the Southern States are not a matter of complaint, except the bastardy and marriage laws; but there is a very general opinion that in the execution of the law, race prejudice appears. One correspondent lays great stress on a fact which several others mention, that many ignorant blacks often fancy that they are the victims of injustice when they are not. ”

“ Money given to the Lord during life is followed with no regrets at the dying hour. Were Christians thoroughly possessed of the conviction that such work as the A. M. A. is doing must be prosecuted and sustained as a religious duty, we believe their offerings would be far more generous than they are. ”

“ Meanwhile even China is on record as being far more Christian in her treatment of our people than Christian America is in its treatment of hers.
Money compensation is a very poor return as an offset to outrage. Congress passed the bill appropriating $147,750 to indemnify the Chinese sufferers from the Rock Springs riots. ”

“ He had left one church with stains upon his moral character, but, as is too often the case, another fold had an open door for sheep, goat, or wolf, and, as he could operate better inside a church than out, he went in. The initiation fee to the society is one dollar, and the monthly dues are twenty cents. Small as this amount is, it is much to those who have families to provide for upon very small wages. ”

“ New York: “The best book for its purpose that we have yet seen.”
From Rev. Judson Titsworth, Milwaukee, Wis.: “We like it better and better, and are not in the least happy in the thought that we have only begun to know it. We like it equally well in the prayer-meeting.”
From “The Independent,” New York: “The Rev. Dr. Richards’s ‘Songs of Praise and Prayer’ may safely be pronounced not only THE BEST YET PUBLISHED, but a very close approach to the ideal manual, particularly for the Sunday-school.”
Returnable copies sent free to pastors or church committees desiring books for examination. ”

“ Nine of these Indian boys have just gone off in the twilight with their lady teacher, in a big sled, to get the mail, and a dozen little girls are making rag dolls, etc., for they all like a little play after school is out and their work is done. So they have both work and play and are not dull. ”

“ Were the questions at issue about the Chinese raised in regard to subjects of Great Britain or Germany or any of the first or even second-class powers of Europe, is it to be supposed that any such a decision would have been formulated and promulgated by our Supreme Court? We do not question the ability nor the integrity of our justices. ”

“ The church has a large field of usefulness and a bright outlook.
GEORGE W. MOORE.
EVIDENCES OF PROGRESS.
The A. M. A. workers in the South have many discouragements. Our work is generally ignored by the whites, and often unappreciated by the blacks, but such letters as the following show that many fully appreciate the efforts that are made to purify and elevate the race. We have recently organized a “Social Purity Society,” and have already the names of over sixty women and girls on our “White Shield” pledge. ”

“ Drink is thought to be the greatest hindrance by a large number of the colored lawyers and teachers, as well as preachers. This points to a probably early agitation of prohibition over a wide Southern area. The colored man himself appreciates, too, the necessity of practical instruction, instruction in the trades.
Morality and the Mixture of Races.—A general moral improvement is what the Negro himself believes his race is making; and this belief is in itself strong evidence that this judgment is sound. But the dominant opinion is that the black race is already perceptibly disappearing. ”

“ The desire of the colored people for the obliteration of the color-line in these places seems to be universal and is strong.
The Most Pressing Need.—-In answer to the inquiry, “What is the greatest hindrance, and the most pressing need of the race?” the Negro’s appreciation of instruction, and his ambition to be educated, were forcibly expressed. “Education is the greatest need,” is the answer in substance of every correspondent. In the replies it was made plain that the race is prepared for an important prohibition movement. ”

“ The most intelligent of these correspondents, even as things are, favor mixed congregations and schools as a means of eradicating race prejudice.
It is worthy of notice that several correspondents declare that the separation of the congregations of the same creed on the color line has had much to do toward causing the blacks to doubt the sincerity of the religion of those who, though they teach that their religion is universal in its application, allow it to yield to race feeling. This is a significant confession for colored men to make ”