Colorado.

Monte Vista.

Dear Brother: Our German church services, morning and evening, are well attended. The Sunday school can increase but very little, as there are no more German children.

Our church of thirty-two members have purchased a new organ and song books. Our people are doing all that can be expected. During this quarter we have raised $20 for local, home and foreign missions.

With cheerful hearts we look to God for the future.

Out-stations.

Our work at these places is fairly started. Our audiences (English speaking) at Twin Mountain and Pinos Creek average about seventy each. They seem very anxious to hear the gospel, and if I am able to make this distance of thirty-eight miles twice a month, I shall be more than delighted. We hope to find some competent person to open a Baptist Sunday school in Del Norte.

C. ARMBRUSTER.

How We Took Our Collection.

CANON CITY, COL., December 11, 1900. Dear Brother: I have just read in the HOME MISSION MONTHLY your article on "The art in taking a collection," and like it very much.

I must tell you about our collection last Lord's day for home missions.

First, at the mid-week prayer-meeting we took "Home Missions" for our subject. I read fourteen verses of the eighth chapter of II. Corinthians. Commenting on liberality as a grace, as well as on other things in the chapter, and upon home missions. Then throwing the meeting open to all--and such a meeting, I wish you could have been with us. In closing, I called especial attention to the eleventh verse, and asked that we might have it in mind Sunday morning when we took the offering for home missions.

Second, I advertised the fact that the collection would be taken Sunday morning. I did this through the church paper of the town.

Third, I preached a sermon Sunday morning on home missions, showing how at the first the work was done by individual churches and preachers in the face of oppositions and perse

Things are coming our way considerably on this field. Our congregations have improved till on a recent Sunday night the house was packed to the doors. At our Sunday school Christmas entertainment even all the standing room was taken. In addition to the usual "treat" of candy, nuts, etc., the "tree" contained an appropriate little present for each scholar, and they all went away feeling that Santa Claus was the best old fellow in the world. The Sunday school attendance now equals the membership of the church, and is a most promising branch of our work. We have held three weeks of evangelistic meetings since coming to this field, and as a result eleven have been added to the church since September, and one man stands approved for baptism. Our little church recently took an offering of $10 for home missions, making over $80 that has been raised on this field since September, above pastor's salary. We are determined to be in line financially on all the benevolences of our denomination. Some of our oldest members say the church here was never in better condition, nor the outlook more promising than at present. And yet we are weak, and have many obstacles to overcome, and need your prayers. But with faith, courage and hope we shall press on.

GEORGE W. TAYLOR, Pastor.

Wyoming.

Evanston.

BRIGHTER DAYS.

The writer settled as pastor of the Baptist church at this place on the first day of last November. Although the Baptists have the largest and best church edifice in this city, and are free of debt, yet they were much discouraged. They are very few in numbers, and few people attend any church here. For some time the church had made little progress.

Many things seem most encouraging now,

however. The church has rid herself of many delinquent members, and the remaining twenty or so seem united and enthusiastic. A young people's society has been organized. The evening congregations are increasing, until they are probably the largest in the city, among Protestants at least. It seems quite wonderful how the men turn out. Out of an attendance of one hundred, about two-thirds will be men. The singing of the new chorus, and the solos by the pastor's wife, seem to attract many. The pastor tries to preach the best kind of gospel sermons, and to mingle much among men as a man among men.

Evanston is one of the important cities of the State. Many men employed on the railroad, and in the shops here, offer a magnificent opportunity for Christian work. We are looking for a revival. A young man stood up before the audience last Sunday night to say that he had accepted Christ. He expects to unite with us. Pray for us.

ROLLA EARL BROWN.

East Side Church, Salt Lake City. We are pleased to learn through a recent letter from Deacon J. J. Corum that while the work on this field is hard, the church is moving along successfully, and the outlook is hopeful for continued progress and the building up of a strong church. We trust that in this stronghold of Mormonism, before many years elapse, our Baptist work may not only be in a prosperous condition, but that our principles may also have made a deep and lasting impression on the whole. community.

California. Eureka.

You will rejoice with us when I tell you that the Eureka Baptist Church has decided to be "self-sustaining" in the future. We record our gratitude for the blessings of God, and the generous help received from the American Baptist Home Mission Society in past years. T. H. STEPHENS, Pastor.

A Polyglot Church

The pastor, writing from New Richmond, Wis., says:

There are in its membership seven or eight different nationalities, including Scotch, English, French, German, Irish, American, Scandinavian (part Indian) and Pennsylvania Dutch. The resident membership is only forty-nine or fifty, and many of these live two and three miles, two families six miles, four families eight miles, in the country.

Altogether the attendance for the first quarter, though small, is gratifying. Our prayer meetings average eighteen; lowest attendance 11, highest 32.

Mexico. Monterey.

You will find in this letter my quarterly report. During this time we have had great things to thank the Lord for; His kindnesses have been manifested unto us. There have been eleven members received into the church, eight by letter and three by baptism; besides, we have five candidates for baptism.

We began to have services in the suburbs of the city. We held a meeting not long ago in the home of a brother who lives on the other side of the river, one of the most peopled and disorderly suburbs. I believe we must preach the gospel to this wicked people. I had thought that we would have had rocks thrown at us, and some trouble there, but we started the work trusting in God. We had scarcely begun when a great crowd of the lowest people came, invaded the doors and occupied a large part of the street. The room was soon filled, but a great number were still on the outside. I thought that the best thing to do to stop the noise was to stand as near the door as possible, and talk as to those who were inside as to the others. Thus, with the Bible in my hand, I explained to them what we, Christian people, believe, and the result was that, instead of making noise, they paid attention, and showed great interest at the exposition of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. At the end of the meeting we distributed a good many tracts, and thus got through with a meeting held among people to whom the gospel was entirely new.

The young men are taking an active part in the work. There are four or five of them who preach, show interest in the meetings, in giving, and in the general work undertaken by the church.

We will hold a series of meetings on account of the expiring century. We hope the Lord will bless especially during these services. We stand at the doors of the new century with greater vigor and trust in the Lord for His work. May He permit that this be a glorious century in the cause of the evangelization of Mexico.

ALEJANDRO TREVINO.

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Educational Department.

PROF. N. W. COLLIER.

The Florida Baptist Academy.

BY PRINCIPAL N. W. COLLIER.

It was founded in 1892, by the Rev. M. W. Gilbert, A.M. The occasion for the founding of the academy was the cold-blooded and unwarranted shooting into the buildings at Live Oak, Fla., where the Baptists at that time were doing all their educational work. This assault led many to believe that it was useless to spend the Lord's money and the time and brains of His servants in a place so openly hostile to education. The planting of the school at Jacksonville aroused the greatest enthusiasm, poor washerwomen pledging and paying as much as $25 each.

The wisdom of establishing the school at Jacksonville has been clearly demonstrated by its growth during the eight years of its existence. Located at the centre of the Negro population of the State, and having a territory nearly twice the size of New England, together with the adjacent islands of the sea to draw upon, the academy's position is strategic and its work imperative.

Dr. MacVicar, the beloved superintendent of education of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, now president of the Virginia Union University, has declared, on more than one occasion, notably at the State Baptist Convention at Pensacola, February, 1899, that the colored Baptists of Florida had contributed more for their own education than

the colored Baptists of any other State in the Union; and yet it is a sad fact that no State in the Union has had so little help as Florida. With a population in round numbers of 230,000 whites and 200,000 Negroes, she has twenty-eight or thirty high schools and colleges for whites, and only six secondary schools-with not a single school of theology or college grade of any denomination or description-for Negroes.

In point of attendance, this promises to be the banner year. Each year shows a healthy growth. For the past four years the attendance has increased nearly one hundred per cent. The teaching force, while inadequate, is hopeful and untiring. Indeed, the charming religious atmosphere which pervades the school is a sufficient balm for the ills we must endure in other directions. Last year there were twenty-four conversions in the school. In fact, every student in the boarding department, with but one exception, became a professing Christian before the close of the school year.

The outlook, taken all in all, is very encouraging. Our greatest need is sufficient funds to complete our main building, and to erect a boys' dormitory. Last year we were compelled to crowd four and five girls into rooms originally intended for only two, simply because we have been unable to complete the third story of our main building. If this third story could be finished, we should have ample accommodations for all.

For our boys, the only thing we have at present is a small building erected on our campus by the United States army officials, to be used as a mess hall during the mobilization of the Seventh Army Corps in this city at the time of the Spanish-American war. This building has been fitted up at considerable cost, but is entirely inadequate, and, at best, can only be regarded as a makeshift.

But, in spite of these disabilities, the work is pregnant with promise and the workers are buoyant with hope. The Lord has often allowed us to be disappointed, but He has not yet permitted us to be discouraged. And though at present the situation is very trying, faith in His promises assures us that the Macedonian cry now going up from Florida will not long go unheard.

The subjoined clipping, one from the leading papers of the State, and testimonial from leading citizens, may serve to show our faraway friends how we are viewed at short

range:

"With a view of ascertaining exactly what

is being done at the Florida Baptist Academy, a Times-Union and Citizen man spent one day recently in examining its various departments. The school is located in Campbell's Addition, near East Riverside. It owns four acres of land, and one main building and three smaller buildings-the buildings and grounds being valued at $8,000. During the first four years of its history, the work was confined to the preparatory, high and normal branches. Two years ago, an industrial department was added. A visit to the school during work hours will convince any one of the good order, neatness and thoroughness that prevails in every department. The enrollment for the present year has reached 184-the largest in the history of the school. About one-third of these are boarders, and come to the institution from all parts of this and adjoining States.

"The present president of the institution is Prof. N. W. Collier, A.B., a graduate of the Atlanta University, class of 1894. He has been connected with the Florida Baptist Academy ever since he graduated-at first as teacher, then as vice-president, and, about three years ago, he was elected president. He is a native of Augusta, Ga. He is an earnest, painstaking, scholarly and Christian young man. His popularity in Jacksonville and throughout Florida, among all classes and among all denominations, is something immense. He has succeeded in making many very valuable friends for the school."-TimesUnion and Citizen, April 10, 1899.

JACKSONVILLE, FLA., September 9, 1899. TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

"We, the undersigned, do heartily endorse the good work being done in our State by the Florida Baptist Academy, under the management of President N. W. Collier, and its able Board of Trustees.

"The influence of the school is being felt all over this and adjoining States, and its good is only limited by its lack of means. Having no income from the State or general government, it is wholly dependent upon public beneficence. A permanent endowment and increased facilities are its most pressing needs. No wiser, safer or surer investment for Negro education can be made than in this work.

"To a benevolent public and friends of education everywhere we most heartily commend the Florida Baptist Academy as in every way worthy of confidence and help. [Signed]

REV. J. J. PARSONS,

Pastor First Baptist Church, Jacksonville.

Cost of Southern Schools. Far Less Spent on Negroes, but Many More Attend than Do Whites.

COLUMBIA, S. C., December 23.-The annual report of the Superintendent of Education makes some curious exhibits as to the relative cost of educating the two races in the public schools, and the different degrees of interest taken in education by Negroes and whites.

The cost of the Negro schools, attended by 155,602 children, was $202,171, or a fraction less than $1.30 a pupil for the school year. The expense of the white public schools was $700,540, and these were attended by 126,395 children, costing $5.54 a pupil. Thirty thousand more Negroes than whites are receiving a common school education at three and a half times less cost to the State.

There is little or no difference in the expense in the rural districts, where the salaries of the white teachers are but little more than the colored, but there is a larger attendance at the colored schools. The difference in cost is the more expensive equipment and machinery in the white schools. For example, in Charleston the white schools are attended by 4,802; the colored by 7,709, and the cost of Charleston's white schools is $87,420, the colored, $12,979.

The fact that Negroes are more generally taking advantage of opportunities to obtain common school education than the whites is proved by the reports of the overwhelmingly "white" counties of the Piedmont district, North Carolina. In York County, with a large white majority, 5,979 Negroes and 4,066 whites attend school, the cost of instruction for Negroes being but $6,934, that of the whites four times greater. In Fairfield 1,642 whites and 4,827 Negroes is the record. In Spartanburg, with four times as many whites as Negroes, 8,305 whites and 5,062 Negroes were in the schools.New York Sun.

President Loughridge, of Bishop College, Marshall, Tex., writes:

"We are at our wit's end to know what to

do with the students. We have enrolled 333, a number never reached before January 12th in any year's history hitherto. There are rooms for 80 girls in Bishop Hall, an increase of eight, made possible by having three lady teachers move up to the mansion and occupy the guest room. One more shift may be made and two more girls placed. With eightytwo as the utmost limit, we have ninety girls to-night and more coming to-morrow. Marston Hall I have every room occupied, and more boys than I can put in all the beds, except with three in a bed. Several boys are sleeping three in a bed to-night, or on the floor.

In

Two more beds will go up to-morrow, then I must resort to cots or doubling up. The rooms are too small to allow two beds of ordinary kind to be put in. My plan is to make here mantel beds that turn up and shut under curtains, using a common woven wire mattress for that part. In this way a double and a single bed can go in each room so as to add nearly a half to the capacity of each flat. I am having carpenters make beds for two rooms to try the plan. I must have more beds and this will test the value of my idea.

"Our teaching force is overworked. The two grammar grade teachers are handling now seventy-five and eighty-five each. Of course good work, best work, cannot be done. We should have another first-class teacher at once,"

Coleman Academy-Gibsland, La.

A Trying Experience.

The

After working night and day for more than two months to raise $1,000 for a new building, Principal Coleman writes: "We had erected a fine building, which was to be presented to the Lord next January as a new century gift, but just when it was weatherboarded and the rafters on, a storm blew the building completely down; the damage from breakage and the subsequent rain is very great, and we hardly know what to do. money was collected wholly from Negro churches, Sunday schools and societies, and represents much hard work and self-sacrifice. We must raise the building again as we are wholly unable to accommodate the students pressing for admission. We now have from six to nine students in a room and three to each bed. We are doing all in our power to remove the drawbacks arising from this condition of affairs, and would be very thankful for help from any source. We have never

received a cent of help from the North for building, and Our institution carries the largest enrolment and stands for more Baptists than any other school in the State. We can enroll between 300 and 400 students if we can get the accommodation.

An Indian School Girl's Letter.

For a long time I have been thinking of writing to you, but never had time to write; but this very cold, windy day I have a little opportunity, so of course I will spend it for my kind brother who has learned to walk in our dear Saviour, and has doing all he can for some poor sinner like me. Brother, I will now tell you how my Christian life seem to It seem to me, sometime I get into an awful bushes which has nothing but great large thorns on them, and when sometime I get into it the thorns just fasten on me, and when I turn around to get out, it fasten to me again, and that is what my Christian life seem to me; for the devil is so strong, and I am so weak, to get out of the bushes.

me.

I am always trying to walk in the loving road, which is always ready for any one who has throw away his burden into the mud, where he can never turn back and see it again, but I am sorry to tell you that some of my own people has done been on this road, and said that they will never turn back to their burden, but when they has traveled a little way, they think of their burden, and turn right back carry it again; but my burden has been taken off by the words of the Lord Jesus Christ when I was thirteen year old; and hope you will pray for me, so that I might keep my burden off till the Lord calls me to be with the rest of the brothers and sisters who has done gone to be with Him, up in the beautiful home which is great deal better than the world below here. I am back in school, and has been trying to do all I can to not make much trouble around anybody, but the devil is so strong that sometime I almost get caught by him, but not very often it catch me. I like very much to hear Mr. Clouse speak the words of Jesus, who has done so much for me and other peoples. I will now close my letter, and hope to hear from you some time soon. Write and tell me what shall I do for Jesus that will make Him pleased?

I am your sister in Christ's name,

ALMA BIG TREE,* Rainy Mount School, Oakdale, Okla. Ter.

*The thirteen-year-old daughter of Chief Big Tree--N. B. R.