American Missionary | Page 5

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.
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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.
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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 faith and trust in God of these colored Christians, their belief in prayer and the contrast between them and an equal number of white brethren under the same circumstances.
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THE SOUTH.
OUR SCHOOL WORK.
PROGRESS--OVER-CROWDING.
From Wilmington, N.C.--Instead of sixty pupils as a year or two ago, we now have over ninety, and next year the number will be fully one hundred or more, if we have room. The classes are very large.
From Grand View, Tenn.--The classes are full and the accommodations inadequate. The school numbers one hundred and eleven. It is necessary to crowd four boys into each room of the Boys' Hall. Four boys are boarding themselves in a shackly log building at the foot of the hill. Their grit is admirable.
From Tougaloo, Miss.--Both the dormitories are crowded.