cles. So severe has been the political despotism over the native inhabitants of the land that never had missionaries in Burmah, or China, or the islands of the sea, to endure such baffling, heart-breaking discouragements as in the Republic of America. "Those who controlled the Government," says Senator Dawes, and we must remember that these expressed the will of the American people, "tried every method to get rid of the burden of the Indian. We broke our treaties with him and drove him out of his reservation; we hunted him with our arms; we spent millions of dollars in endeavoring to slay him, but all in vain. He kept on increasing in the land; he was always present; he was constantly in the way, and in all its past policy the Government has tried, by fair means or foul, to get rid of the Indian.”

By these statements we are inevitably reminded of the counsels of an ancient assembly of poetic fame, equally committed to a policy of destruction, and deliberating as to the best methods of its accomplishment.

"By what best way,

Whether of open war, or covert guile,
We now debate."

This was as true of the United States Congress as of that old council of Pandemonium. Here, too, was Moloch giving "sentence for open war," and Belial, who seemed

"For dignity composed and high exploit ;

But all was false and hollow, though his tongue Dropped manna, and could make the worse appear

The better reason, to perplex and dash

Maturest counsels."

And Mammon winning applause by inflaming desire of dominion and greed of gold; and Beelzebub, "pillar of state," with deliberation and princely counsel "drawing audience and attention still as night," while unfolding before American "Imperial Powers" how to drive forth

"These puny habitants, what their power

And where their weakness; how attempted best,
By force or subtlety."

Surely in Indian Missions the American Church has wrestled "against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

But we have reached "the outmost verge of Chaos and Old Night." The awakening con.

science of the people, the free, just, intelligent criticisms of the press, the sensitiveness of Congress to these indications of the pulse of public feeling, the adoption of a new governmental policy, all herald the coming day. And the sign of the times more than all others full of promise is this: that the government looks to the church as the ministry of a more exalting, vitalizing power, the most effective to lift the Indian to the estate of the citizen. Says President Cleveland in his response to the delegation of the Mohunk Conference, "I myself have learned to acknowledge, and more so every day, the benefit which this Government has received from, and the obligations which it owes to Christian and secular teaching. I have great faith in this instrumentality." Says Secretary Lamar, "I am doubly impressed with the belief, and it grows stronger every day, that the Christian religion, with its influence on character, on motive, and on conduct, is the instrumentality for the elevation of this race. The infusion of a spiritual motive is the thing that is to redeem the race from degradation."

These utterances of highest governmental authority accord with the statement of Herbert Welsh, who has so nobly given his life for this cause. "I say it not as a theorist, but as a practical student and observer. The first great line of effort for the Indian is though the Church of Christ."

As the Christian Church of America hears this appeal from the high places of earthly power, should it not come to her as a fresh Divine Commission from the King whose kingdom is not of this world? Should she not determine the measure of responsibility that rests upon her in these critical years for the civilization of the Indian? Should she not joyfully respond to the call of the Government to become its upholder and strengthener, and consecrate herself to the work with swift obedience and glad enthu siasm?

Yet all these favorable aspects are but theinauguration of the great work. For it has become burdened with the entanglements and difficulties, the uncounted political and moral debt, the bitter fruits of iniquity, the shame and disgrace of a "Century of Dishonor." But in regard to the appalling magnitude of the subject, have we not seen a gigantic evil removed in our own day, removed by terrible judgments in righteousness? Great and fearful as is this evil of Indian oppression, was not the evil of American slavery tenfold greater and more terrible still? If this

gigantic evil, striking its roots under the everlasting hills, and sending up the breath of its withering curses to the clouds of heaven, to be showered back upon us in the early and the latter rain; if this measureless iniquity, drawing down upon us as a perpetual magnet the thunderbolts of Almighty wrath; if this curse of terror has been swept from our land with the besom of an eternal destruction, shall our faith tremble now?

And shall we not as members of this women's society devote ourselves with fresh zeal to the work of rousing the women of our churches to action on this great subject? The missionary work in its several departments is largely dependent on the influence and labors and offerings of women. Could their influence be more fully elicited in this service, not only the Indian missions of the several branches of the church might be extended, but the pioneer work of this organization could also greatly enlarge the sphere of its operations, while all missionary work, as we are assured, will have a double significance and power.

And in estimating woman's influence in great governmental reforms, shall we forget that the greatest and most effective charge at American slavery was from the pen of a woman? More deep and far-reaching than all deliberations of statesmen, or discourses of orators, or sermons of divines, was her mission, who brought us to see the appealing look of human anguish face to face, and to hear the cries of human agony, till the swelling indignation ran along our veins like tingling fire. And not only for the negro but for the Indian a woman has arisen-forever of sacred memory-who has lifted the question from the grounds of social and political economy to the higher domains of thought and imagination; who has traced the march of those weary feet driven from mountain to river and river to mountain perpetually, towards the setting sun; who has shown the throbbing, bursting hearts beneath those dusky forms; who has revealed the astonishment, disappointment, tribulation and sorrow, indignation and wrath, the passions, deep calling unto deep, of those anguished, despairing human souls.

This woman, from the materials of the past, has reared a monument to her own honor and her country's disgrace, a monument whose opposite faces bear opposing descriptions; the one, recording the injustice and oppression of a mighty government against a small and defenceless people, the aborigines of the land; the other,

inscribing not the atrocities, but the long suffering of the Indian race, under ages of accumulated wrong. The third face of the monument, in

lines more enduring than the tribute on brass or marble, records the undying honor of Helen Hunt Jackson; and the fourth is yet a blank, awaiting its future inscription, either of the administration of justice by the American people, or of the fearful judgments that may baptize the nation in another red sea of terror and death.

FROM THE FIELD.

"Watchman, What of the Night?"

Chinese Mission.

Mrs. Elvira Bradway, of Oakland, Cal., writes as follows of her work and the satisfaction she finds in it. We commend it to the careful perusal of all.

The celebration of the Chinese New Year among our Christian brethren has been of unusual interest to me this year, because, notwithstanding their number was less than usual, they seemed to enter so earnestly into the spirit of their religious observances. My sleeping room is so situated that I can look towards the Mission and hear quite plainly singing or loud talking. Knowing as I do the custom of the Chinese brethren to watch the Old Year out and the New Year in, I do not sleep very soundly during the night before. On the last night of their year, as I lay listening in the stillness with a silent prayer for the quiet watchers, suddenly at midnight I hear singing from the Mission Rooms,

"Arise, my soul, arise!

Shake off thy guilty fears."

After a few verses of the hymn all was quiet for a time, and I knew there was prayer among them. After the prayers the next hymn floated out on the still air

"O, happy day! when Jesus washed my sins away!' Then again a season of prayer. The last hymn

sung,

"Hold the Fort,"

made me feel how much more encouraged these Chinese brethren are than they were a year ago when the boycotting spirit here had such a depressing effect on the mission work. I have never had a more deepfelt interest in the work than now. Indeed, my interest increases from year to year. In looking back to the time when I commenced teaching here, I have to thank God that He made me feel that the work was given me really in answer to prayer.

It will be nine years this coming spring that I had an unusual desire to do something more for the cause of Christ than I was doing. My desire was for some work that I could consider particularly mine to do for the Master. I felt this so strongly that I made it a subject of prayer for weeks. And while I had no particular work in view I trusted that God would give me that to do which would be most for his glory. After weeks of prayer and earnest desire, as I stood looking from my window one morning, I noticed a sign on a building opposite, a sign in a language I could not read. Instantly the conviction came to me that there lay the work for which I was praying. I knew the family who had been engaged in the school had left the city, and no one had offered to take their place. Eight years ago last August the school was reorganized for me, and in all this time God has so led me by His Spirit that I have felt sure of having been called to do this work for Him. In looking back over these years I realize how ignorant I was of what would be required of me. But I have been so guided at different times in particular ways that I could not do otherwise than recognize the hand of my Lord. It seems to me that my Christian life is so much more a reality. All other Christian duties are more of a pleasure in proportion as I am consecrated to this work. My life would seem very meager without this service for Him, and I hope I am engaged in something that will last till I am called to give an account of my stewardship.

Chinese News and Notes.

-Dr. J. B. Hartwell, Superintendent of Chinese Missions, writes us as follows:

"From the different parts of our Chinese field I receive reports hopeful and cheering. Miss Shouse, of Chico, is enamored of her work and is hoping for the best results. The pastor and good sisters in St. Helena are still enthusiastic in their little work for the Chinese. Mrs. Huntsman is devoted and prompt in her work in Brooklyn. The Sunday school there has been removed from the Jute Mill to the church. The attendance is small, but the same boys come every Sunday, and Mrs. H. is hopeful that at least one of her boys is a Christian.

"Mrs. Huntting was very much discouraged when she took hold of the work in Fresno, under peculiarly trying circumstances; but the pupils are back again, and though there are some grievous obstacles to her work she feels much more hopeful than she did. She has received the appointment of the ladies of the Boston American Baptist Home Mission Society and will remain in Fresno.

"Miss Willsie, who served us faithfully at Chico, resigned her work to take a position in a school in a neighboring town. The gentleman at the head of the school failed, as she thought, to comply with the terms of agreement, and she resigned the place, and is now ow-providentially, as I think-in Sacramento

and, as ever, anxious to work for the Chinese. I am trying to improve the occasion-the providence-in getting the churches there to take hold of the Chinese work. I am not without hope of success, though past failure there has made me less confident than I should otherwise be. Our Street Services and Zayat Services in San Francisco continue as heretofore."

-Mrs. M. F. Huntting finds some cause for encouragement in her arduous work at Fresno:

"While the wives welcome me pleasantly, and usually at the leave-taking say, 'You come again,' yet if I speak of a Heavenly Father, or a loving Saviour, or other topic to which they do not care to attend, I am met with, I no sarvay,' which means, 'I do not understand, and do not care to talk about that.'

6

"But a few days since, offering a tract to a woman where I had called to give the children a lesson in A, B, C, she eagerly took it and commenced the perusal. Presently she asked, 'Year-soo, Year-soo! What you call it?' 'Jesus,' I said, and she made me repeat it, saying it after me again and again, till I thought she felt sure she could remember Jesus, sweetest name on mortal tongue.'

"Never did it sound more sweetly to me than when it came so reverently from the lips of that heathen mother. And how gladly I tried to tell her something 'of Jesus and His love.'

"Another family, where the wife, with the husband's consent, asked me to teach their children in their home, interests me much. When I asked the wife her name, 'China women have no name,' came the quick reply. But,' I said, 'God has a name for you, and He wishes to make you happy in the saving of your soul.' China women have no soul,' was the sad answer, and she turned wearily to her work.

"Their two little sons, Tuck-Kwong and Toi-Har, are bright, pretty children, who learn rapidly; but the equally engaging son of thirteen is not permitted to come to school, because ostensibly 'no time,' but really, I fear, because his father does not wish him to become a Christian. This father has lived thirty years in California, and until quite recently in San Francisco. He speaks English well. Who will pray for him, that he may accept Christ and use his wide influence in publishing the glad tidings among his people?"

The Indian.

March 31 the President directed the allotment of lands in Severalty to the Indians on the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon. This is the first action taken under the Indian Land Severalty Act which was passed by the last Congress.

-The Indian school at Carlisle, Pa., numbers 361 boys and 192 girls.

-The Commissioner of Indian affairs, Mr. Atkins, is reported as saying:

I have sent the Severalty Act to the Secretary of the

Interior with a note asking for a construction upon some of its more ambiguous clauses; and we shall begin our work under the bill just as soon as those are satisfactorily settled and our force of special agents can be organized and set in motion. Where we can, we shall always secure the consent of the Indians to every move that we make in their work, but it might as well be understood that the policy involved in this Severalty Act will be carried out, whatever obstructions are placed in the way. It must be conceded that this entire work will inure to the benefit of the Indians

therefore be considered as the Magna Charta of the Indians of our country.

Of the 169 reservations at present existing by patent, treaty or executive order, 119 will probably be subject to the action of the Severalty Bill.

over it.

-Capt. PRATT, of Carlisle, says:

While we think the Land in Severalty Bill a most excellent thing as tending to bring about the breaking up of the slavery of tribal cohesion, and to encourage the independence and individuality of the man, which is the bottom stay, and brings such great success to our American plan, we do not especially enthuse over it, as by any means the plaster that is going to heal all the Indians' woes.

True, a change is made in his possibilities. Before he could not rise if he would; now, sibly may if he can and will.

he pos

"The Latest Studies on Indian Reservations," by J. B. Harrison, Esq., is a small volume of ab out 23 pages, giving the results of his observations last seasono in visiting several reservations as a representative of The Indian Rights Association of Philadelphia.

It is interesting reading, and will prove helpful to any who wish information on the subject. It may be obtained by addressing the Association, No. 1316 Filbert Street, Philadelphia, Pa.

Mr. Harrison says: "What is the Indian problem? Set forth plainly, without confusing rhetoric or sentimentality, it is the question how the Indians shall be brought to a condition of self-support, and of equal rights before the law, in which they will no longer require the special protection and control of the Government."

"The Crowning Act" is the heading of a leader in The Morning Star, by Alice C. Fletcher. Of the Land in Severalty Bill, she says:

This bill opens the way for the legal release of the Indian from his hitherto anomalous position in our midst. Born in this country, of an ancestry knowing no other land, he could not acquire here any rights that would place him on an equality with the race that had dispossessed him of his heritage. He could not become a citizen or possess individually his property by any act of his own, but must remain a “domestic alien," without the pale of the law until relieved by a special act of Congress. This relief has been granted. The Indian may now become a free man; free from the thraldom of the tribe; free from the domination of the reservation system; free to enter into the body of our citizens. This bill may

herewith a synopsis of its leading features. It is entitled, "An act to provide for the allotment of lands in severalty to Indians on the various reservations, and to extend the protection of the laws of the United States and the Territories over the Indians, and for other purposes."

Section 1 provides for the allotment of land as follows: To each head of a family, 160 acres; to each single person over eighteen years of age, 80 acres; to each orphan child under eighteen years, 80 acres; and to each other single person now living, or who may be born prior to the date of the order of the President directing an allotment of the lands embraced in any reservation, 40 acres (both sexes are placed on an equality in these matters). If the lands of any reservation are insufficient to meet such allotment, they shall be allotted pro rata; if in excess, only the amounts specified shall be alloted, except that where land is fit only for grazing purposes a larger quantity may be set apart to each person.

Section 2 provides that the Indians themselves may make their selections, heads of families selecting for their minor children, the agents selecting for each orphan child, and in such a manner as to embrace the improvements of the Indians making the selection. If any one fails to make a selection within four years after the President has directed the allotment to be made, a duly appointed agent shall make the proper allotment for him and patents shall be issued as to others.

Section 3 directs by what agencies such allotments shall be made and how records of the same shall be kept.

Section 4 provides that Indians who do not reside on reservations but wish to settle on lands of the United States not otherwise appropriated shall have such lands allotted to them in the same quantities and manner as to those on reservations.

Section 5 directs the Secretary of the Interior to issue patents in the name of the allottees, with the declaration that the United States holds the lands thus alloted, for the period of twenty-five years, in trust for the sole use and benefit of the Indians named, or, in case of their decease, their heirs, at the expiration of which period their lands will be conveyed absolutely in fee to the allottees or their heirs forever. The President has power in his discretion to extend this

period in any case. Any conveyance of the allotted lands before the expiration of the time named shall be null and void. The surplus lands of any reservation, by consent of the Indians, may be purchased by the Government with the approval of Congress, and shall be sold by the Government only to actual settlers in tracts not exceeding 160 acres to one person.

The sums agreed to be paid by the United States as purchase money for any portion of any such reservation shall be held in the Treasury of the United States for the sole use of the tribe or tribes of Indians to whom such reservation belonged; and the same, with interest at three per cent. per annum, shall be at all times subject to appropriation by Congress for the education and civilization of such tribe or tribes of Indians, or the members thereof. dians who comply with the provisions of this act and become citizens of the United States and competent as government employees shall have the preference in appointments to such positions.

In

Section 6 provides that, upon the completion of such allotments and the patenting of the lands to the Indians, every such Indian shall have the benefit of and be subject to the laws, both civil and criminal, of the State or Territory in which they may reside, and no Territory shall pass or enforce any law denying any such Indian within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law. And every Indian born within the territorial limits of the United States to whom al

lotments shall have been made under the provisions of this act, or under any law or treaty, and every Indian born within the territorial limits of the United States, who has voluntarily taken up, within said limits, his residence separate and apart from any tribe of Indians therein, and has adopted the habits of civilized life, is hereby declared to be a citizen of the United States, and is entitled to all the rights, privileges, and immunities of such citizens, and this, too, without impairing or otherwise affecting his right, if he has any, to tribal or other property.

Section 7 prescribes how water privileges in lands requiring irrigation shall be secured equitably to all.

Section 8 excepts from the provisions of this act the territory occupied by the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles and Osages, Miamis and Peorias, and Sac and Foxes, in the Indian Territory, also the Seneca Reservation in New York and a strip of territory in Nebraska adjacent to the Sioux Nation.

Section 9 appropriates $100,000 for the purpose of surveying land, the amount to be repaid from proceeds of sales of suplus reservation lands.

Section 10 relates to right of way through allotted lands, for railroads or other public uses.

Section 11 relates to the removal of the Ute Indians in Southwestern Colorado to a new reservation if they so desire.

The act was approved by the President February 8th, 1887.