the reservation. Although nearly all were citizens, I have not been able to learn that a single one drank any while here, even on the sly. A few days before the Fourth I suggested to the leader that it might be well to have some patriotic singing and speaking on that day, as white people do, and that if he wished I would help him to arrange about it. He replied in quite a speech, in which he thoroughly acquiesced in my suggestions, and added that while he provided the food he wanted all to have a good time, but that he had told every one time and again that they could enjoy themselves much as they wished, except that he did not wish any whiskey brought to the grounds. This item he emphasized very strongly.

Twenty-three or four years ago, soon after I came here, the Agent arranged a Fourth of July celebration. He was very particular on this same point. But this same Indian intended to do differently. He went off a few days before and procured some whiskey, drank some of it, and intended to use the rest on the Fourth, and have a jolly time with his friends. But other Indians informed the Agent about him; he was arrested and lodged in jail, where he spent the Fourth, and a few days beside. When I compare his actions then and now, is there not cause for gratitude?

CAPON SPRINGS CONFERENCE, WESTERN VIRGINIA.

The first Capon Springs Conference which met June 29th to July 3rd, to consider the work of Christian education in the South, was a successful gathering of many prominent educators. It represented twelve states, the District of Columbia, seven religious bodies and a number of schools, seminaries, colleges and other institutions for the elevation of the ignorant, both white and black.

The Conference before its adjournment issued a message in which it declared its deep interest in all efforts for the advancement of moral and religious education in the South along Christian lines, and especially that of the more needy of both races, bespeaking for this the sympathy of all Christian people, and in particular the Southern people.

The Conference also expressed its grateful sense of the generous aid which education in the South had received from friends in the North making for the unity and harmony of our common country. It testified to a hearty belief that there should be institutions well equipped in which provision should be made for the higher education of those called to leadership, as preachers, teachers, etc. It especially called attention to the opinion that the gifts of the North in aid of educational work in the South should proceed upon lines of intelligence, equality and discriminating selection, and that great care should be taken by the people of the South in authorizing appeals for outside aid.

This message abundantly justifies such a Conference in the South to bring Northern and Southern educators together.

CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR CONVENTION AT NASHVILLE, TENN. AND THE COLORED PEOPLE.

The Christian Endeavor Convention at Nashville in July, was marked with special interest. About five thousand delegates were present. Arrangements had been made to entertain thirty thousand.

The meetings were perhaps better for being smaller than were anticipated. The American Missionary Association work was well presented and represented at the "Congregational Rally," July 8th. In round numbers, two hundred Congregational delegates were present, including forty ministers. Profs. Dunn and Spence, Rev. Mr. Bond and J. C. Napier, Esq., spoke on our work, and the Jubilee Singers sang. The Convention was in a manner on American Missionary Association territory, and it was felt that its work should have an emphatic place. Indeed, nearly all the speakers referred to our work, chief among whom was Gen. Howard. The Northern delegates visited Fisk University in large numbers and expressed their pleasure both as to the scope and character of our work.

Before the convention the colored people had a feeling that they were not wanted there. They had been told that they must conform to the "unwritten law" of the South as to taking back seats at their local meetings, but would be on an equality at the Convention itself.

In talking the matter over with the colored Congregational pastor, we agreed that it was better to remain away from the local meetings, but to attend the Convention. Consequently, the Congregational Endeavorers of color and a number of others did so, and donning the Convention badge attended. Those who attended were well treated. Indeed, the colored people and the work of the Association were brought into special prominence through the large chorus of Fisk Jubilee Singers—twenty-two in all—which proved to be the favorite singers of the Convention. Besides singing at all the sessions, they also rendered a special programme of their music for half an hour on one afternoon, when I made a brief address on our work as illustrated by the singers and Fisk University. Our Northern friends have here seen many side lights of Southern life and the colored people, such as the "Jim Crow Car" and the "Separate Colored Waiting Rooms" at the stations, etc. The colored delegates of the Pennsylvania and other Northern delegations were sent into the "Jim Crow" car as soon as they reached Southern soil. The Northern delegates also observed the isolation of our missionaries. It is difficult for the Southern people to understand why Northern friends are so much interested in colored people and in their schools. Fisk University was, for example, the Mecca of many Northern pilgrims. Not a few of them visited in our home, and a number of delegates from New York and Massachusetts dined with us, which would certainly have shocked their Southern hosts had they known of it.

A Southern woman in commenting on the music of the Jubilee Singers, remarked in the hearing of one of our teachers: "Those darkies are very refined and sing well." A Southern woman inquired of me if I were white. I replied: "I pass for a colored man." Then she asked: "How much colored blood have you?" I replied: "It has never been analyzed—perhaps one-eighth." "How strange," she said, "but that one drop of Negro blood does make you belong to their side." I did not find her reason for that conclusion—which has been reached without reason—but I assured her that I was not ashamed to call them brethren.

I think that our Northern friends saw much to convince them of the necessity for our work in the South, and that even a war with Spain—while it is doing much to bring our Southern brethren under the old flag—does not and cannot at once change the habits, customs and prejudices of the Southern people. We may as well realize that it will take generations of hard, patient and self-sacrificing service on our part and patient continuance of Northern influence, such as the American Missionary Association is lovingly creating, to change their traditions and the conditions of the colored people.

On the whole I think we had an excellent convention and believe that the influence will be helpful for the colored people. A meeting at Howard Congregational Church (colored) Sunday morning was of great interest, when about two hundred Northern delegates were present. Rev. Dr. Hill preached and several delegates spoke. In explaining to the friends some things about the early life of Fisk at that place where Howard Church stood, I suggested that all present who were graduates of Fisk, former students and their parents, should rise, that the visiting friends might see them. Over one hundred arose to the surprise and delight of the visitors.

I have thought that the readers of the American Missionary Association Magazine might like to have this phase of the