American Missionary | Page 5

find enclosed $5.00 for the A.M. Association, the
Christmas present of a son to a father. The father is eighty-one years
old to-day. He has been with the A.M.A. from its organization, and
wishes its continued prosperity until its great work is accomplished.
Yours truly,
AN OLD-TIME FRIEND."
* * * * *
Is there any work, North or South, at home or abroad, that requires
more versatile gifts or breadth of training than the work of this
Association? Here are a few lines from the letter of a missionary in
Alabama, which illustrate the many-sidedness of this work:
"I have organized a Woman's Missionary Society. I have an industrial
class for girls, and give them instruction in sewing, in housework on
the principle of the kitchen-garden system, without the practice, as I
have not the articles to use for that purpose. Then a lesson from the
Bible, also, comes in, and some amusement in the way of puzzles. The
girls are pleased to belong to a society of King's Daughters. I have a
class for instructing the women in darning, patching, button-hole
making and so on. We have a Society of the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union in which I have the Department of Social Purity.
"You will be able to believe that my time is pretty fully occupied. I
rejoice that I am able to be here, for I am never so happy as when I am
engaged in this beloved work."
Is not here a splendid field for missionary work for the King's
Daughters throughout the land? Why cannot the loyal daughters of the
King, at the North, support such missionaries as this in their
self-sacrificing work for the down-trodden daughters of this same
Divine King in the South?
* * * * *
PROTESTANT AND PAPIST: AN OBJECT-LESSON.
In the communication below, an esteemed friend finds in our Annual
Meeting at Providence an object-lesson in the Christian recognition of
the colored man, which he very properly sets over against a like
example in the convention of colored Roman Catholics recently held in
Washington, D.C. Our friend is right. The American Missionary
Association stands square on that subject. We only wish that everybody
else, even at the North, stood with us on that plank of our platform.

"In THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY for February, 1889, I read
extracts and notices from Catholic sources with regard to the
universality of that church organization that 'knows neither North,
South, East or West, that knows neither Jew nor Gentile, Greek,
Barbarian nor Scythian,' and emphasizing the fact that a colored priest
had celebrated mass in company with two white clergymen.
"I am thus reminded of the Annual Meeting of one of the most
prominent national organizations of a religious nature in our land. A
few months ago in the city of Providence, in one of the finest churches
of that or of any city in our land, before as refined and cultivated an
audience as could have been convened in our country, addresses were
made by colored men who sat in the pulpit with some of the most
distinguished white clergymen in the country. If one is an object-lesson,
is not the other quite as much so?"
* * * * *
SCHOOL ECHOES.
I shall let the students, small and large, speak for themselves a little
while, that you may see them as we do. And first--
Ques.--"What are the divisions of North America?"
Ans.--"Maine, New Hampshire, Illinois, North Pole and South Pole and
Augusta."
Ques.--"What is a unit?"
Ans.--"A unit is a number used instead of a name."
Ques.--"What makes the water rise in an artesian well?"
Ans.--"The upward pressure of the rocks under the water."
Ques.--"Where do the collar bones meet?"
Ans.--"Round the north part of the body where the collar fastens."
Ques.--(In woodworking class.) "What is the object of this exercise?"
(An exercise in lining wood.)
Ans.--1. "This exercise strengthens my mine and my character." 2.
"The object of this exercise is wood."
Ques.--"Define the kinds of sentences."
Part of answer.--"A purgatorial sentence is one that answers a
question."
DEBATE.--_Resolved, that Arithmetic is better than Grammar._
Affirmative: "Arithmetic is better, because without it we could not buy
or sell anything, build houses, bridges or railroads, measure lands or

even count. Can a man make money by knowing the grammar? Ain't no
sense in grammar noway. It's always been my experience that
'A naught's a naught, and a figure's a figure, All for the white man and
none for the nigger.'"
Negative: "To prove that grammar is better, take the Tower of Babble.
They built it, I suppose, many miles high, and the Lord looked down
and mixed up their grammar. So if a man was on top of the tower he
would call down, 'John, bring up the hammer,' and