worthy poor women, bearing with them the gifts which they had earned to give them. Here they sang songs to cheer, and the eldest of the girls made a brief address and presented their offerings, which were received with warm thanks and tears of joy.

In the evening in the parlor of Teachers' Home, the teachers gave a little entertainment to the pupils consistings of songs, readings, charades, etc., and at the close many presents from Northern friends of the school and from the teachers were distributed among the students. Then, at a signal, they quietly filed out, and the hum of teachers' voices was hushed a moment ater, to listen to a sweet serenade rendered by these happy youths.

FIELD NOTES.

BY REV. G. W. MOORE.

The field missionary held a ten days' series of evangelistic services at Charleston, S. C. Over one hundred students of Avery Institute confessed Christ, and quite a number at Plymouth Church. The pastor, Rev. Geo. C. Rowe, and the principal, Prof. M. A. Holmes, and the teachers of Avery entered heartily into the services. Rev. L. B. Maxwell, of Savannah, Ga., also assisted in the meetings.

There were also nineteen conversions at Dorchester Academy, McIntosh, Ga. Prof. Foster and Pastor Sims and the teachers at McIntosh are doing good service in this country district. The community is composed entirely of colored people, and is known as the Black Belt of Georgia.

Our church and school at Thomasville, Ga., held a union Thanksgiving service in the morning with the Methodist and Baptist churches, and in the evening a praise and testimony meeting in the chapel adjoining the school. Rev. and Mrs. Sargent and the teachers testify to the missionary spirit of the students. One girl organized a Y. P. S. C. E., and held meetings in a country district where she was teaching. Pastor McLean, of Macon, Ga., gave the church and school a glowing report of the Hartford meeting. Rev. Geo. V. Clark has served as pastor of the church at Athens, Ga., twelve years. Prof. Clark, the principal of our school at Athens, still pleads for a library for his school.

The church and congregation at Chattanooga gave their earnings of November 30 as a special offering to the church. It was inspiring to note the spirit in which they entered into the work of the day in their endeavor to make it yield as much as possible for the church. Rev. J. E. Smith has served this church as pastor fourteen years. It assumed self-support the past year.

The church and school at Memphis, Tenn., are rejoicing in a season of "refreshing." A large number of the students of Le Moyne Institute are rejoicing in the joy of salvation, and the church has been greatly quickened.

Rev. R. B. Johns held a two weeks'series of revival services with the church and school. Rev. B. A. Imes having served as pastor of the church twelve years resigned in October.

MISSIONARY WORK OF KING'S DAUGHTERS.

MRS. H. I. MILLER, MERIDIAN, M188.

I can not fail to report a little effort at missionary work in our King's Daughters' Society. In the society we have about fifty young girls, and their meetings are very profitable, in which are discussed such topics as “politeness," "sincerity," "purity," and others of equal importance. It was proposed that an effort should be made to render some help, to some one, poorer than ourselves. It was easy to find objects of charity, and, on the day before Thanksgiving, an abundance of substantial food was brought in in little parcels, sometimes one sweet potato, or, one or two large yams, a package of rice, a little meal, etc. But "mony a mickle makes a muckle,” and several large baskets were well filled and sent out on Thanksgiving eve. The amusing part was to hear the reports of those who delivered the baskets, "The goodest little honeys," "May de Lawd bress ye," and all manner of provincial thanks. It was an active lesson in doing good "to the least of these," and will long be remembered by the scholars. Last Sunday our Y. P. S. C. E. had a missionary meeting, and the topic was "Africa."

We had a very enthusiastic meeting, one hundred and sixty were present and a little contribution was taken up for Nannie Jones, a Mississippi colored girl who is at Inhambane, East Central Africa, sent out by the American Board.

It did seem that we could see the dawn of better things, the disappearance of shadows of ignorance and the light of the Sun of Righteousness.

THE Y. P. S. C. E. IN THE SOUTH.

BY REV. JOS. E. ROY, D.D.

The Y. P. S. C. E. of Rev. Dr. F. A. Noble's Union Park Congregational Church of Chicago has just sent forward a new piano to the music room of the Tougaloo University. These young people deserve much credit for the largeness of their benefaction, for the judiciousness of their selection of their gift for a musical body of pupils, and for their turning to the lowly poor. They will be glad to know that our young people in the South are taking to themselves the Y. P. S. C. E. organizations, and in them are doing just the same kind of work that their confreres are doing in the North. Of fifty-six churches and institutions inquired of, forty-six reported that they had the Y. P. S. C. E. in full action. Our two colored churches in Washington, D. C, have each a junior and senior society, ranging in numbers.

from sixty-five to one hundred and fifteen. Besides devotional services and Bible study they engage in outside missionary work, in caring for the poor and the sick. Our Santee Agency school has also an active Y. P. S. C. E. Surely, as Dr. Schaff says, this new society is producing an era in modern church history.

NEEDS OF THE INDIAN HOME.

The first need is the home.

The houses in which the Indians live can scarcely be called by that name. Since the roving life has been given up and the Indians have settled, or have been settled, on reservations, the tent has given place to the log house, a small sod-roofed, floorless hut with one or two dirty windows. In the center of the room is the stove, nearly red hot. Arranged around the sides are several bedsteads, boxes, trunks and parcels of all descriptions. On the walls hang all the clothes that the family are not wearing, together with any pictures that may have strayed here. On one side a box may be nailed to the wall which does duty for a cupboard. The windows have no curtains for there are always more people inside than out.

In one corner of the room a little tent or covering is often seen which makes a cozy place for a family of puppies. Near by, the ration of meat is piled on the floor and covered with a dirty blanket. In summer the meat will be dried in the sun, but in the winter it is kept in the house. When there is any food on hand the meals are prepared with some regularity. The coffee pot and the soup kettle are never taken from the stove as long as the coffee and meat last. Coffee, meat, and bread are the principal articles of food.

At night each person takes his blanket and pillow (if he has one) and curls up in his own corner on the floor, if he has no bed. If à guest comes along, he of course will keep his blanket around him and be thankful for floor space whether there are beds or not. Instead of undressing and going to bed, each person rolls up in a blanket, one corner drawn tightly over the head, and lays him down to pleasant dreams.

The air in these houses, day and night, can hardly be imagined by those who have never visited them. It is vile in the day time, but the frequent passing in and out of the door admits some oxygen. But at night the atmosphere is nothing but poison. Pack eight or ten people together in a small room for an hour and you soon notice the empoverished condition of the air, where the people and room are comparatively clean. But think of the awful consequences of a room full of people sleeping in garments worn for weeks; whose persons are seldom or never bathed; the bedding stiff with grease and dirt; and walls that have never been washed. Then heat this air to 80° and you have a combination that makes one wonder how any

Indian ever lives. Besides all this, a large per cent. of the Indians are consumptive and add their disease-laden breath to the stench in the room.

Can we bring these women to realize what that word home really means? Can we teach them the need of soap and water and fresh air? So much oxygen furnished on our wide wind swept prairies, still the lungs of these poor people are starving for it.

Is there anything that an Indian home does not need to make it what it should be?-From the Word-Carrier.

ITEMS.

A season of great religious interest is now enjoyed at Orange Park, Fla. Over forty of our young people have openly acknowledged their purpose to follow the Saviour.

The first prize for the best entrance examination to Chicago University during December was taken by a colored young lady, a triumph for co-education and for a rising race at which we rejoice.--The Advance.

NEGRO WORDS OF WISDOM.

"If yer sets down and asks the Lord to help yer, yer jess gets leff be hine got to keep a inchin. Jess as I tells yer Miss, got to keep a inchin.” (And then he inched by charging twenty cents for a pumpkin worth only ten.)

A colored preacher in one of his flights of fancy said: "You can no more stop the progress of God's truth than you can soar aloft and wipe out the whole solar system with a feather of the jay-bird."

SANTEE AGENCY, NEB.

We have a nephew of Sitting Bull here. He was an interesting specimen when he came, looked as though he had never. been comfortable in his life. His hair was long and partly covered his face. His clothes hung on him any way. From his miserable, dirty, broad, felt hat, tied under his chin with a leather string, to his torn moccasins, there seemed to be little hope of doing much with him. That was in the middle of October. Now (December) he wears his hair pompadour, and came to me in distress to-day because about three inches of the hem on his windsor tie had unraveled. His highest ambition is to learn to read the Dakota Bible. He will succeed too.

GRAND VIEW, TENN.

Perhaps some one may be pleased to hear of our "children's meetings which are held every Sabbath afternoon in the church. The children are very much interested. Though the weather has been unpleasant, with the exception of one afternoon, ever since they began, still the attendance has

been good. The first Sabbath there were twenty-three present, some of the little girls walking over three miles. They all promised to do what they could to double the number the next week, and I believe almost every one has brought one at some time, though we have not had forty-six at one time (owing to the weather). One little girl who is boarding here said she didn't know any one to bring, but finally, after much persuading, induced one of the larger girls to come, who enjoyed it so much that she always attended until this term when she could not return to school. They are much interested this week in earning pennies to send away to help other children who have no meetings.

We pray that the Lord may increase our number, and give to us more and more of His blessed power to do the best for these dear children.

M. H. G.

THE COLLEGE COURT-TALLADEGA COLLEGE.

Naturally in a school like this, where many pupils come from neglected homes, there are many cases of minor improprieties, often hard to detect, and, if proved, not demanding severe penalties, yet always reprehensible and worthy of most effective discouragement. They should be disallowed and put down, and by vigorous public sentiment rather than by the terrors of law.

To meet such cases it was suggested about six years ago to some of the oldest and most thoughtful of the students, that they organize a court in due form, with judge, sheriff, detective, solicitor and jury; that they hear complaints and duly adjudicate the case brought before them, it being understood that all their proceedings were to be orderly, the accused to have capable defense, and that no severe penalty should be inflicted without the approval of the college president. As a help in these duties a copy of the Code of Alabama was provided, and naturally the court became not only readers of the law and students of ethics, but also had a new interest in observing judicial proceedings.

Their instructions may have been vague, and, the character of the causes they were to try not very well defined; but the court entered upon its duty with alacrity and with wisdom too. First and last the original court and its successors have tried cases not a few. It is believed that in propriety and in equity the college court would compare well with the regular tribunals of the region. It has been keen to detect and wise in punishing many minor disorders, and while it has been a potent force in maintaining good order in our college community, it has been a valuable training school to some who may need to exercise similar functions in other spheres. Our judges have never been suspected of taking bribes; our detectives have never been partners in vice, nor has one jury ever been "packed" or "hung." A blessing on the Talladega college court! May it live till it falls into "innocuous desuetude" from having nothing to do.-Our Work.