The natives are having their big yearly meetings and lively times
shouting and actually chasing each other in and around their log
churches to pull them to the "mourner's bench," and, in their wild
efforts, they upset stove pipes and benches. It is so much like a circus
that everybody runs to the big meetings.

* * * * *


SIGNS OF PROGRESS.

BY PRES. R.C. HITCHCOCK.

Every little while, some article giving ultra views of "The Problem,"
gets into the papers, sometimes painting a roseate-hued picture, and
again some one, who does not find people of dusky hue all angels, writes
that there is no hope; that all experiments leading to intellectual and
especially to moral elevation are failures; and that she (as one wrote)
is ready or almost ready, "to throw away the Bible and advise the
negroes to be honestly heathen."

I will indicate a few plain signs of progress. The negroes are rapidly
learning self-control. Six years ago, if a package was left in the hall
over night, there would be signs in the morning that it had been meddled
with. The contents might be all there--I have not found them greatly
given to peculation, from the first--but they did not seem to have the
power to resist the temptation to peep. Now, this is never done; a
package of any kind may be left where it is freely accessible for weeks,
and it will be untouched.