American Missionary | Page 5

there is much
darkness. It was a letter from an old mistress to her former slave. He is
now a successful business man in Chattanooga. This earnest, Christian
woman, rising above her prejudices, wrote her former slave a cordial
invitation to visit her in her home. Her husband, his old master, had
died in the Confederate service. She had seen her servants taken away
from her through the success of the Union armies. Her property had
been depleted, and her fertile plantation overrun by the loyal troops. It
must have been with great sadness and a bitter heart, that she looked
out upon this ruin, wrought as she believed, throughout the invading of
the sacred soil of Virginia. But in these years that have passed, this
bitterness has largely gone, and this sweet, Christian letter comes to her

former slave. The ex-slave told me with tears in his eyes that he paid
her this visit, and that she welcomed him, not to the Negro quarters, nor
to the kitchen-chamber, but to her best guest-chamber, and said: "I
want you to feel that you are welcome to the best hospitality of my
home." "And she treated me almost as tenderly as she would one of her
own sons," said the colored man. And so light is coming, little by little.
Dr. Haygood expresses a regret that the white women of the South are
so slow to appreciate the importance of the moral elevation of the
Negroes, and so slow to join hands with their Northern sisters in his
education. But such facts as this kind, Christian letter furnishes, lead us
to hope and to believe that better times are coming, and that the
Southern Christians, interested as they are in the Negro in Africa, will,
little by little, appreciate and minister more and more to the terrible
need of the Negro in South Carolina and Alabama.
* * * * *
MUSIC'S MISSION.
BY REV. E.N. ANDREWS, HARTFORD, WIS.
Suggested by the following words by Rev. B.A. Imes in the May
MISSIONARY:
"The Mozart Society at Fisk treated us to an excellent rendering of
Haydn's great oratorio, 'The Creation.' Many came over from the city
(Nashville),--whites from the "best families," all crowding in, listening,
wondering, enjoying! How the music of those well-tuned instruments
and voices caught us up and carried us away! Color-line melted and
faded out. How we wished the politicians all might have been brought
under that magic spell of solos and choruses!"
O Music, with thy wand celestial, touch The hearts of men, and by thy
alchemy Divine, resolve, remelt, aye, e'en recast The thought and very
being! Selfish man, So filled with prejudice and hate hath need, O
heavenly messenger, of all thy aid.
And as thy votaries in anthems sing With the immortal Haydn, and do
praise Creative Wisdom, Who, of one blood made All Nations for to
dwell on earth in love, Then let celestial fires descend and burn
Complete, the offering of the lips, and purge The dross of caste and
hate from every soul!
This do, for Satan hath his spectrum set Before the door of human
hearts and cast Upon the screen the separated lines Of black and red

and yellow--white forsooth, While these should mingle in that glorious
Sun That shines alike on all, impartially.
Then come, O Music, re-resolve the lines, These color-lines, and let the
sun's pure ray Beam forth in unobstructed light and love, Transmuting,
by his touch, these human hearts, Till they shall mirror forth the Golden
Rule.
* * * * *
ITEMS.
Everywhere the colored contestants in Civil Service examinations
succeed admirably in their work. In March just past, there was a
competitive examination held in the Custom House at Newark, N.J., for
clerkships. Out of forty-three contestants, Mr. J.N. Vandewall, a well
known young colored man, stood No. 1, 96 per cent. There was only
one other colored contestant, Mr. G.W. Harris. He stood fifth, with an
average of 86 per cent.
Mr. A.C. Garner, our colored representative in the Chicago Theological
Seminary, passed an excellent examination last week, and received
praise not only from his Professors but from his student friends as well.
Out of a class of forty, he was one of seven chosen by the Professor of
Elocution to represent the class in oratory at the closing exercises held
last week.
During the recent illness of one of our teachers in the South, the pastor
of the Church called every Sunday for volunteers as watchers during
the week. There was always a ready response from the church members.
The teacher relates that before leaving him in the morning, these
watchers would almost invariably kneel down by his bedside and offer
up earnest, fervent prayers for his recovery. He was impressed with the
simple