Kitabı oku: «The American Missionary. Volume 42, No. 07, July, 1888», sayfa 6

BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK

MISS D.K. EMERSON, SECRETARY

WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS

CO-OPERATING WITH THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION

ME.—Woman's Aid to A.M.A., Chairman of Committee, Mrs. C.A. Woodbury, Woodfords, Me.

VT.—Woman's Aid to A.M.A., Chairman of Committee, Mrs. Henry Fairbanks, St. Johnsbury, Vt.

CONN.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. S.M. Hotchkiss, 171 Capitol Ave., Hartford, Conn.

N.Y.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. C.C. Creegan, Syracuse, N.Y.

ALA.—Woman's Missionary Association, Secretary, Mrs. G.W. Andrews, Talladega, Ala.

OHIO.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. Flora K. Regal, Oberlin, Ohio.

ILL.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. C.H. Taintor, 151 Washington St., Chicago, Ill.

MICH.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. Mary B. Warren, Lansing, Mich.

WIS.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary Mrs. C. Matter, Brodhead, Wis.

MINN.—Woman's Home Miss. Society, Secretary, Mrs. H.L. Chase, 2,750 Second Ave., South, Minneapolis, Minn.

IOWA.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Miss Ella E. Marsh, Grinnell, Iowa.

KANSAS.—Woman's Home Miss. Society, Secretary, Mrs. Addison Blanchard, Topeka, Kan.

SOUTH DAKOTA.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. S.E. Young, Sioux Falls, Dak.

WOMAN'S TEMPERANCE WORK IN THE SOUTH

We regret that the color-line is rigidly drawn in some parts of the South, at least, in the woman's work for temperance. Too much praise cannot be given to the white women in the South for their zeal in this good cause. The day will probably come when they will extend the hand of fellowship to their equally earnest sisters of the less favored race, but at present they do not recognize them as fellow-workers in the same societies. Some of the extracts given below tell this unpleasant story. All of them, however, show that the colored women, undeterred by this ostracism, are throwing themselves with zeal and success into this good work.

STORRS SCHOOL, ATLANTA, GA

We have a W.C.T.U., also a Band of Hope. Our Union has increased very much in interest, as well as in numbers, during the year. The Band of Hope meets every Wednesday. It has a membership of one hundred and twenty-five, and an average attendance of seventy-five or eighty. Occasionally one or two ladies from the white W.C.T.U. will visit ours, but our Union is not recognized by the State Union. At one time a lady, acting then as President of our Union, went to the white Union, but she was so light that no one could know to what race she belonged, unless they knew her personally. There were no questions asked, and I don't suppose any one thought of her being colored. Our colored members would not be admitted. Our teachers would be, going by themselves.

TALLADEGA, ALA

We have a W.C.T.U., also a Loyal Temperance Legion. Our Union is auxiliary to the Second W.C.T.U. of the State, and we are not recognized by the First, or distinctively white organization. Colored members would not be admitted. Indeed I understand that the First Union has withdrawn from the National, because colored delegates were received on the same basis as white.

LOUISVILLE, KY

I endeavored when I first came to L–, to arouse an interest in temperance work among the people. I visited members of the white W.C.T.U. They assured me of their interest, and a Y.W.C.T.U. No. 2 was organized among the colored women. They were not anxious to be associated with the whites, but when the whites insisted that the name given them should be changed to Colored Y.W.C.T.U., the colored women refused, and the Union disbanded, since which time it has been impossible to arouse among them an interest in organized temperance work, much as it is needed. Colored women would not be admitted as members of a white Union.

WILMINGTON, N.C

We have a Temperance Society of about eighty members, and a Band of Hope of one hundred and sixty members, no W.C.T.U., and if there were, it could not have any co-operation with the white societies. Colored members would not be admitted to white societies.

LETTER FROM A TEACHER IN ATLANTA

When, last November, Atlanta voted to bring the deadly saloon back to our quiet streets, she brought also startling revelations of woman's power. We are accustomed to the refrain of "woman's sceptre," &c., with all its dulcet variations, but the wild threats of deluded wives if their sons or husbands voted for prohibition was a hitherto unheard of "wail from the inferno." Many an earnest Atlanta woman dates her re-consecration to the temperance cause from that awful Saturday night when her frenzied sisters in the public streets joined in the Bacchanalian revelries over the return of their cruel foe. Woman's Christian Temperance Unions at once sprang up in various parts of the city. So much has been done by colored women here, I feel that other A.M.A. centres may be encouraged by an account of it.

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union of East Atlanta, formed in 1885, is an inspiring gathering to visit, with a membership over fifty, and the programme of weekly meetings full and interesting. There are three female physicians in the city who cheerfully address the Union when desired. The pastor of the First Congregational Church, once a month, gives up the mid-week prayer meeting entirely into the hands of this Union. Last week at the close of one of these meetings, a young man told his sister it was the best prayer meeting he ever attended in his life. The Temperance Catechism has been thoroughly taught and illustrated. Committees of women are appointed to visit homes and solicit members or attendance on the Union. At the close of the meetings the women have access to a box of leaflets on social purity, training of children, &c., which they read and return.

Atlanta University has a Y.W.C.T.U., composed of over seventy girls in the Higher Normal department. I wish our Northern friends could look into their intelligent faces and watch their eager interest in this work. A committee for visiting the poor reports every week; the press superintendent reports her work, and if there is time reads what she sent to the papers; the social purity superintendent gives a little talk or has something read on the subject; and the most cheering thing of all is the report from our literature superintendents, who often report as many as thirty books or leaflets read during the week from our little circulating library. This library cost about five dollars.

Every officer in all these four Unions is a Negro except one. They preside with such intelligence, grace and dignity, that our Southern white ladies who sometimes visit them are enthusiastic in their praise. The Unions plan for a mass meeting every three months in some large church.

Its forty departments of organized work give each a place where she can do her best, and its opportunities for visiting the lowly are excellent. To give our money is generous, but to give ourselves is Christly. House-to-house visitation and personal contact of the ignorant and unfortunate with those who are only a little wiser and better, even, is a mighty elevator. A W.C.T.U. visiting committee with short terms of office, and so including a large number of women during the year, can, in an official capacity, call on a poor or wayward sister without antagonizing her or wounding her self-respect.

OUR YOUNG FOLKS

CHILDREN'S DAY AT TALLADEGA

MRS. H.S. DEFOREST

A glorious sun ushered in the 29th of April, when for the first time Children's Day was observed by the College Church. Deft fingers had adorned the white walls, the chandeliers and the rostrum, with living green, and from pulpit and organ glowed and burned the roses which blossomed in rare profusion for this happy day. Early, from every quarter, flocked the children, many with faces "black, but comely," and all in attire neat and clean. Seats reserved for their use were speedily filled, and as their voices rose in songs of praise, canary and mocking bird from swinging cages swelled the glad sound. An ascription of praise to God by the choir opened the exercises, the pastor following with appropriate Scripture and prayer, and a word as to the object of the decorations and special service—not for a picnic or celebration, but that the children might ever remember this day with solemn and peculiar interest as their very own.

After the chanting by the choir, soft and slow, of "Suffer the little children to come unto me," twenty children were presented by their parents for baptism, two of the youngest belonging to officers of the College. Parents brought two, and even three, little ones, that the man of God might place upon their foreheads the seal of their consecration, and in solemn and tender words they were reminded of the meaning and obligation of the rite.

A second exercise of unusual interest was the presentation of a Bible to each of the baptized children of the church between the ages of seven and twelve. To sixteen children, the day was thus made memorable, the giving being prefaced with fitting remarks, and the hope being expressed that during the year the new Bible might be read entirely through. One recipient on reaching home immediately fell to work, and on being remonstrated with for using his eyes too steadily, said, "This is too good a Bible to stop reading." Doubtless all were appreciated in like manner, and will be sacredly treasured.

Short and pertinent addresses, suitable to childhood, were made by chosen speakers, hymns familiar and appropriate were sung, and the benediction, pronounced by a Baptist brother, closed a service unique and unusual.

A grandmother to twenty-three children, of whom three were presented for baptism, said to the writer, "Oh! I am so happy. We never had anything like this before, and the children and parents, too, are obleeged to remember it."