THE SOUTH.

NOTES IN THE SADDLE.

BY FIELD-SUPERINTENDENT C. J RYDER.

In the “Notes” of last month I spoke of the floods that threatened the destruction of plantations and villages in Western Mississippi. From Mississippi I passed over into Texas, and this was passing from flood to drought. In some sections of the latter State there have been only two showers in as many years. Cattle are dying by thousands on prairie ranches. Water is held at fabulous prices, and in some sections it is impossible to get it, even for gold. The reports of suffering which come from the Western part of the State are painful in the extreme. All Christian hearts are turning in agonizing prayer to Him “who holds the waters in His hand.” Special prayer services are held in many places, and every Sabbath petitions are offered in the pulpits for rain. It is a fearful experience through which Texas is passing just now, and unless relief comes speedily the loss of property will be enormous, and the lives of the settlers will be endangered.

I wonder if there be any occult logical connection between the want of water and the prohibition agitation? However that may be, Texas is stirred to its centre by this temperance movement.

Next August a prohibitory amendment to the State constitution is to be voted upon by the citizens. Churches, public halls and school houses are filled almost nightly with interested and excited audiences listening to the discussion of their political duties concerning this great moral question. The leading temperance advocates have confident hopes that this coming election will wheel the Lone Star State into line with the goodly number of prohibitory States. In the hotels, on the streets, in railway carriages, everywhere, prohibition is the absorbing question.

In the cars, as I journeyed from Paris to Dallas, two gentlemen sat just behind me. They were, of course, discussing this perplexing question of prohibition, although from their arguments I learned that they were both opposed to temperance legislation. One was a Georgian, the other a Texan. They both freely admitted that they “liked their bitters,” and neither believed in prohibition, “because, you see, it wouldn’t prohibit!” Said the Texan: “There always have been, and there always will be, certain besetting sins, and you cannot abolish them by law. People have kept getting drunk ever since Eve got drunk in the Garden of Eden, and I reckon they always will, and you can’t prohibit it by law.”

Poor old mother Eve! The apple must have had hard cider in it. This was the argument of a lawyer, and fairly averages the arguments urged throughout the State against prohibition. Agitation and fair discussion are all that are needed to convince every man that the thing to do with crime is to prohibit it. Every A. M. A. preacher and teacher was pronounced and energetic in his advocacy of this sound temperance principle. The influence of these Christian workers will be felt in the coming election. The colored vote is an important factor in the settlement of this question, and our A. M. A. workers will do their utmost to make it solid for prohibition.

The Sunday laws in Texas are strict and well enforced. Even at the news counter at the hotels, cigars and tobacco are not sold. Congregational leaven, or some other moral force, has agitated society most healthfully. Texas is a worthy example to many of our older States in respect to Sunday observance. There is now before the Legislature a law prohibiting hunting on Sunday, and there is every reason to believe that it will pass.

Tillotson Institute, the A. M. A. institution at the capital of the State, is demanding better facilities and larger accommodations. The school has outgrown its buildings. Its very prosperity makes additional expense necessary in order to do the work that is now pressing upon us. And there is every reason to expect still larger success for the school in the future under the management of its new president. It is the only institution which the A. M. A. has in the State, and it holds a commanding position. If it is largely and generously supported, its influence will be felt throughout the entire State.

A ride of forty miles across the lonely prairie, starting at midnight, was full of possible romances and imaginary dangers. The boy who drove got out of the buggy repeatedly “to feel for the road, sah.” As the track was so dim where other wagons had passed, and as there were no fences to mark the road, the only way to find it by night was to get down on one’s hands and knees and feel for it. Houses stood ten, twelve, and even eighteen miles apart. Wolves were all around us on the prairie. It would have been easy to have fancied that one was in danger, but there was no real danger, and when the light of the early morning came the ride was most delightful. The prairie was starred with flowers; thorny cactuses stood guard over more timid blossoms. Away back here on the prairie is Goliad, and in it an A. M. A. church and school. An old Mexican town, now in ruins, stands across a ravine a short distance from the present village. Here, in 1835, the terrible massacre of the American troops crimsoned the prairie grass. But it was the bloody baptism of freedom! The fetters of Mexican tyranny were broken. To-day this village is the centre of a large and exceedingly fertile farming region. The A. M. A. church is feeble, but full of hope and confidence. They own their meeting-house, and are thrifty and prosperous. They are pushing towards self-support. One of the church members teaches a day school. So in this out-of-the-way village on the prairies of Texas the A. M. A. is sowing the seed of a better Christian progress.

The local papers of Alabama have changed the spelling of the name of that State, and write it now “Alaboomer.” It is an appropriate change, for the whole State is in a fever of excitement over the “booms” in real estate. This rise in the value of property means increased work for the A. M. A. Children of small farmers can be spared from cotton and corn field as their parents become more prosperous, and thus our schools will be more crowded, if this is possible.

SENATOR SHERMAN AT FISK UNIVERSITY.

By invitation of the Republican members of the Tennessee Legislature, Senator John Sherman visited Nashville on his return to Ohio from Cuba, and on the night of the 24th of March delivered in the hall of the House of Representatives a public address on the issues of the day.

Dr. Theo. L. Cuyler said, a few mornings since, in addressing our students, that he had chosen to return home from New Orleans via Nashville in order to visit Fisk University, though he could spend only a few hours in the city; and that for a Northern man to come to Nashville and not see Fisk, would be like going to Washington and not seeing the Capitol.

The Mayor of Nashville followed the custom observed in the case of other distinguished visitors, in providing in the programme of the day for Senator Sherman and his party a visit to Fisk University. Under the escort of distinguished citizens of Nashville, during the present year we have had the honor of visits from Judge Kelly, of Philadelphia, “the Father of the House of Representatives,” and his traveling companions; Charles Dudley Warner and the Harper party, and others. These occasions are always full of interest, and the University becomes an object-lesson to teach and illustrate the possibilities of Negro education; but Senator Sherman’s visit was in every way so pleasant and significant that it will long be a fragrant memory and quickening inspiration to both faculty and students. The Senator’s party, largely increased in number by the addition of distinguished citizens of Nashville and of the State, and even of adjoining States, and under the escort of the Mayor of Nashville, arrived in carriages at Livingstone Hall at half-past eleven A. M. After a few moments had been spent in greetings and introductions in the President’s room, all repaired to the chapel, where the students had been assembled in the order observed at our usual chapel worship. The Senator, on his appearance with the president of the University at the head of the procession as the guests filed into the chapel and took seats upon the platform, was greeted with most hearty applause. The students then sang, accompanied by the piano, organ and orchestra, “The Red, White and Blue,” which called forth hearty applause from the platform.

President Cravath, in a few well-chosen words, then introduced Senator Sherman. The students rose to their feet and stood in silence with eager, upturned faces, until the Senator began his address. His words were reported by one of the students, and were full of the kindest sentiment and the soundest practical wisdom. At the close of the address the Jubilee song, “Good News! The Chariot’s Coming,” was sung.

At the request of Senator Sherman, Gen. Grosvenor, formerly Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and now member of Congress, was introduced. He began by referring to the gallantry and bravery of the colored soldiers under his command, who made the desperate charge on the Confederate works on Overton Hill during the second day of the battle of Nashville, and to the conviction expressed then that the descendants of such brave, heroic men would under freedom prove themselves worthy citizens of the country their fathers fought to save from disruption. The General made an excellent point in favor of higher education by an illustration drawn from the war. He said: “When we called upon the colored men to become soldiers, we put the best Springfield rifles into their hands, for being under greater disadvantages than white soldiers, they needed the best possible weapons. So for your success as leaders and guides of your people under freedom, you need the best weapons, and so the advantages of a higher education are provided for you, and you should arm yourselves with the best discipline, for you must fight your battles under unusual difficulties.”

Gen. Wheeler, a prominent citizen of Nashville, who fought on the Confederate side, was next introduced, and spoke a few words of most cordial greeting and congratulation.

The Mayor then tendered thanks in behalf of the party for the cordial reception that had been extended by the University, and announced that the limit of their time had been reached, so that they must ask leave to retire. The whole party then visited Jubilee Hall, and thus completed the inspection of the University. A quotation from the report of an interview with Senator Sherman, as published in the New York Herald and quoted in the Nashville Daily American of the 3d of April, will best convey the impression produced upon the Senator by his visit:

“Are the Southern Negroes devoting much attention to the matter of education? I never saw anything like it. Their thirst for knowledge has been greatly increased by the obstacles previously thrown in their way. There are several excellent colored universities in the South. Fisk University at Nashville is especially good. The young men and women attending it are bright and very intelligent. The young white people of the South must look well to their laurels or their black neighbors will soon lead them in the race for mental improvement.”

BY A TEACHER.

REMARKS OF SENATOR SHERMAN.

STENOGRAPHIC REPORT BY A FISK STUDENT.

This seems to me a very impressive scene. Most of you have grown up, indeed most of you have been born, since the event that secured your citizenship took place.

I am familiar with the object of “Fisk,” and Howard University in Washington; both are engaged upon the same work and are a tower of knowledge to a race of people that were denied all those privileges now so dearly cherished and so valuable to everyone. It seems almost an act of the genii or the golden lamp, like the story of The Arabian Nights. The rapid changes that have occurred and now are occurring, and the attainment of citizenship to a race that was a short time ago denied these privileges, seem only to have been made possible by the magical power of the wonderful lamp.

You are all now entitled by the Constitution and laws of the United States to the privilege of citizenship. Thirty years ago this could not be said of you in any State in the Union. Now, so far as law is recognized, you have the same rights as the proudest man or woman in the country. You must fit yourselves to enjoy these privileges. I am now getting to be an old man. Let me give you a word of advice. You must be patient in the progress you are making. You must meet the prejudice of centuries. While you should assert your rights with dignity, you must be patient, endeavor to command the respect of those you meet, and you will see in the time near at hand that you will be given all your privileges. You must be guided and directed by the forces that govern all humanity, and, therefore, while you have the rights of American citizenship, you should do all that will materially help your race and those that are to come after you. You must be patient if sometimes you meet with difficulties and prejudice.

The Alumni of Fisk University will some day stand side by side with the graduates of Yale and Harvard. To help on this passage are the laws of education, the study of the sciences, the study of arts, and the study of the practical development and various resources you have at your command. It is this, young men and young women, that is to help you.

Now, with these simple remarks, with no desire to excite you, I again express the hope that the time will come when in the North, South, East and West you will be recognized as a race and as American citizens according as you behave yourselves and not according to your color and condition.

A CHURCH AND A SCHOOL TO A COUNTY.

The “Mountain Work,” which the A. M. A. has undertaken in the South, has a tendency to make those who engage in it enthusiastic, and we in the field sometimes almost mistrust that even our well-informed officers in New York, with all their appreciation of the need and greatness of the work before us, are accustomed to make a discount of seventy-five per cent. on all we write them. On the other hand, we know we have not been, and shall not be, able to make anyone who has not spent weeks here realize one quarter of the real needs of this field. One has to go into their poor homes and see them in sickness and in death; come into contact with them day by day, and feel the general intellectual and spiritual destitution; see some of them taking on noble, Christian manhood and womanhood, before he can fully comprehend the importance of the work.

The A. M. A., burdened with debt and beset with calls from other needy fields, has been able, so far, to devote but a small sum to this work; yet the work has gone on marvelously. It has been clearly shown what can be done.

I am sure the A. M. A. is ready to hear and heed the command of the churches to go forward, and even to take as a motto: A Church and a School in every County in the Mountains. It is with the hope of contributing a little to such a result that I give the following reasons why this should be done:

1. These counties contain from three to fifteen thousand inhabitants each—some of them even more. In most of them there is no day-school worthy of the name, no Sunday-school, no prayer-meeting, no educated ministry, no churches in which pure religion is taught or systematic work of any kind is done. The majority of the people are good-hearted and respond readily to kind words and acts of love. They live mostly in wretched, windowless log-cabins, and know few of the blessings of a Christian land, having no luxuries and few of those things which are generally considered necessities. Physically, mentally and spiritually they need teaching and elevating. For the sake, then, of the two and a half millions already here, there ought to be a church and a school established at once in the county seat, or chief place of every county. From these centers the leaven would work through the whole region, and other churches would spring up about them as they are doing in Whitley Co., Ky.

2. The population is increasing very rapidly. Even the high death-rate from poor food, insufficient clothing, wretched houses, lack of nursing and of competent medical attendance, cannot keep down the increase. The children can be readily gathered into Sunday and day-schools. Another generation ought not to be permitted to remain in the condition of the present and past.

3. Then there is a third reason why this work should be undertaken at once on a much larger scale than at present. The attention of the outside world is turning to the wonderful resources of these mountains. It is becoming known that here is the richest undeveloped part of the United States. The great forests of valuable timber, the thick and easily-mined deposits of coal, the fine quality of iron ore close by the coal, and other undeveloped wealth, are already drawing men here in large numbers. The railroads are pushing their way among the mountains and immigration will add more and more to the population, and vastly more to the wealth. Villages are springing up, cities will soon follow, and before many years this region will be filled with an enterprising and well-to-do people.

Now is the time for the Christian influences which are to mould the future history of this people for good, to be set in motion from strategic points. Cannot the Congregational churches, which have the lead in Christian work here, arise in faith and take possession of the land in the name of the Lord?

There is one place which gives promise of being the future center of this whole region and the largest place in the mountains. It is now absolutely destitute of all elevating, religious and educational institutions. It is nearly one hundred miles from the nearest A. M. A. work. It is a village of three or four hundred inhabitants, with a thickly populated country all around it. A railroad is on the way to it, and it has such exceptional advantages that it can scarcely fail to become a large and important place. It ought to be occupied at once, for people are beginning to come in advance of the railroad and now is by far the easiest and cheapest time to start the work.

Is there not some man of consecrated wealth who will assume the financial part of establishing at once a mission in this place? A neat, inexpensive little chapel, a school building, a young minister and his wife, a teacher and his wife, would make a beginning from which great things would be sure to result. Beginning with this place, there ought to be a church and a school placed one after another in the most promising places, until there shall be a center of mental and spiritual enlightenment within the reach of every person in this backwood, but promising region.

FRANK E. JENKINS.