and industry, and thus stimulating the people whom we benefit to help themselves.

In making up the catalogue of Fisk University for this year, the following facts are culled out:

Total number of students, 505, which is a gain of thirty over last year, and last year the attendance was the largest the University had ever had. Number of students in the Department of Music, 110; a gain of twenty over last year. Special students in Theology, 9; a gain of six over the previous year. There has been a gain of eight in the College Department, two in the Normal, and four in the College Preparatory.

Mr. Coffin graduated from Fisk University in 1885, and has held important positions as a teacher ever since graduating. He has also bought about $250 worth of books on one of the special courses of study established by the Illinois Wesleyan University, and so successfully complied with the requirements of the course that the result mentioned in the letter below has been reached.

SCHOOL ECHOES.

Spelling by different authorities: Edgeucation, fraze, teadgeous, roughf, icecikles, natcheural, quallyfide, muskeline, femeline and nutur gender.

Definitions: "A word is a sound that consists from the loungs." "A participle is a form of a verb partaking of the nature of an adjective or a noun and expressing action or human being as flying and sleep."

A sentence reported in class of small boys: "By the time your brother get home, you'll be done et." (Translation, You'll be through eating.)

An example of a sentence containing an infinitive used as subject: "To be in the way is bad habits."

At a meeting held at Hampton last "Indian Emancipation Day," one of the Indian boys in his speech said:

"Whenever we do anything white man don't like, he call us 'Injun,' whenever we do anything Injun don't like, he call us 'white man.'" He also expressed his conviction that "Injun boy great deal smarter than white boy, 'cause folks expect that Injun will learn as much in three years as white boy does in nine or ten years."

An Indian boy writes from the country, "I have been confusion at the United States language."

BOOK NOTICE.

The Great Value and Success of Foreign Missions. Proved by distinguished witnesses. By Rev. John Liggins, with an introduction by Rev. Arthur T. Pierson, D.D. Published by The Baker and Taylor Co., 740 and 742 Broadway, New York.

This book contains not only leading facts and statistics regarding missionary work which are very valuable to all who are studying this subject, but also the testimony of diplomatic ministers, consuls, naval officers, scientific and other travelers who have witnessed the results of missionary labor in heathen and Mohammedan countries. This testimony from hundreds of representative men and women, among which we find the names of Lew Wallace, James Russell Lowell, R.H. Dana, Charles Darwin, James B. Angell, with English viceroys, governors and military officers, as well as prominent American and English ministers of the gospel, cannot but commend the book to all Christian people, and make it interesting at any page at which one may open it.

NOTES FROM NEW ENGLAND.

BY REV. C.J. RYDER, DISTRICT SECRETARY.

A trip to Ohio this month to attend the State Association and to indoctrinate the new District Secretary into the esoteric mysteries of the American Missionary Association was a delightful experience, and yet one does not get out of New England by going to Ohio. The hills and valleys, and clear mountain brooks are left behind, but New England people are there as much as here. And what grand opportunities there are in these interior States for growth in missionary enthusiasm and benevolence! Congregationalism is taking Ohio. I remember when a boy in the Buckeye State there were few churches of our order off the "Reserve," or "New Connecticut," as the northern counties were called. "Congregationalism was not adapted to those conditions," we learned in our unwritten, uncongregational catechism. But since 1860 it has been discovered that Congregationalism is fitted for any conditions where Christians are seeking the advancement of our Lord's kingdom, and there are souls outside of that kingdom. So Congregationalism has grown in all sections of Ohio.

The beautiful city of Mt. Vernon opened her homes and hearts in large and generous hospitality. The American Missionary Association received an especially cordial welcome, because many remember the golden days when the senior Secretary of the Association was pastor of this Mt. Vernon church. It was he they wanted to present the work of the Association in his old pulpit, but a younger man went because he was younger.

The new District Secretary of the American Missionary Association, Rev. C.W. Hiatt, was welcomed enthusiastically, and his record merits such a welcome. The office of this district will be in Cleveland, Ohio, and its territory includes Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Western Pennsylvania and Western New York—a large field for one laborer to till successfully! Take this New England district: there are eleven hundred and forty-five churches in it, and only one Secretary to reach them all! Were it not that the pastors and many of the lay members were ready to give their cordial and hearty assistance, and for the occasional, earnest help of a missionary, it would be impossible even "to shuffle round in it." But there is this hearty assistance and it constantly increases in heartiness.

Rev. B. Dodge of Pleasant Hill, Tenn., a faithful worker in that mountain region, has returned with a glad and thankful heart to his field of labor. His appeal published in the February magazine, and his indefatigable personal labors with individuals, were crowned with success, and he rejoiced in sufficient receipts to warrant the erection of the "Girls' Dormitory" for the mountain girls. The help rendered was most generous and timely. But this new building, as imperative as its need is, increases the annual expense of the work. Larger contributions are necessary in order to carry on this work in its larger quarters. Prosperity involves expense.

One of the true friends of Missions has hit upon a plan for gaining information that is worthy wider adoption than in her own church. She has organized a club of those who desire to read the magazines of the various Congregational Societies. This plan puts the magazine of each society into the hands of a large