The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-10-04


the soufh-Her Hopes Of Bettering tn
Race IL Through the Education of tn
ChildreD-She Goes Among the Poor AN
Criminal Classes with the Alphabet an.
| Gospel-sewing Feature Of Her Goo
Work.
Albany. n. Y, Oct, 3.-Miss Anna N
Barley, who arrived here today from
| Syracuse is young woman in the en-
ploy of the Woman's Baptist Home
| Missionary society, who is making a
| tour Of the northern states in the in
| terest OF the colored people Of the south.
among whom lies her chosen field of
labor. Miss Barclays headquarters
are at Memphis, Tenn. where she has
| for nine years been engaged in city
mission work. She is connected with
| the Home Industrial institute Of Mem
phis, in which institution she teaches
| from 9 a. m. to 1 p. m. daily, wheile
her afternoons are devoted to superin-
| tending the Industrial Schools. She
has a nurse training and a mission
| training class at this school, where she
| trains her helpers who in turn go out
| to teach in the Memphis Industrial
schools, Of which there are twenty-five
in this city of only $1,000 inhabitants.
Miss Barklay yesterday told a re-
porter something of the work among
| the colored people in whom she is so
| deeply interested.
| "Our only hope Of lettering the race"
she said, lis through the children who
we gather in the industrial schols. Y on
| think twenty-five schools is large
| number? Oh, no; indeed it is not!
| You see of the $1,000 inha bitants of
Memphis $4,000 are colored people. And
when 1 speak of a school I don't meair
] finely equipped brick building, o dear
no! 1 just mean any sort Of a room
| in any sort Of a building that affords
| shelter. We choose a location in or
near the poorest and most criminal dis
| tricts, and if we can find here church
we obtain the use OF a room therein
1 for our school. But we are not always
so fortunate. We sometimes have 10
| take up with poor quarters in the home
of some Of the colored people who may
happen to be kindly enough disposed
| towards us to let us have the use of
a room. Having once secured place
| to hold the school 1 put one of the vol
| unteer helpers from the institute in
| charge, and, by the way, all their ser
vices are entirely gratuitous. They
are paid nothing for their time"
In answer to the question as to what
sort of an education these assistant
| teachers were possessed of. Miss
Barklay said: "Well they can read,
| and write some and they have learned
something Of morality and Christiani-
| ty, which they in turn can impart to
others of their race, but I suppose they
| would seem to you very ignorant, in
deed. But they mean well and are
helping to elevate the home life in their
quarters of the city. / remember ask
| ing one of my teachers whom l had
| for the first time left in charge of a
school, how she conducted the exerciS-
es, and she replied: We'll, honey, de
fustest ting 1 did was to have respon-
sible readings from scripture and after
dat 1 complained the scripture to the
best Of my ability.
Our regular program in the schools
| is a Bible lesson and prayer and sing
ing for the first twenty minutes and
then an hour is devoted to sewing patch
work.
Il suppose" continued Miss Barklay
that the missionary societies UP North
here wonder sometimes what we do
with the hundreds OF basted patch work
blocks they send US. But let me tell
you patch work is the bait we use to
q
they will listen to the teachings that
opens to their view a different sort Of a.
life from that which their surroundings
lead to. They can keep all the patch
work they sew and some of them make
whole quilts and sell them. They are
largely from the criminal classes and
some of them have themselves served
terms in prison and have had boys in
the schools Is and 20 years old and
some Of them hardened criminals. And
with a policeman stationed outside the
door in case l needed his assistance 1
have gone through with the exercises
of the school and once in a while some
of them are impressed with what they
hear.
Il remember the case of 15-year old
boy who came to me one day after
school and said. Teacher, l want to
tell you something, and as I replied,
Yes what is it? he continued, I had
made a plan with another boy to break
into store one night last week and
steal some goods. Just as l was start
ing out from my room the wind blew
over my patchwork box and all the
pieces fell out on the floor and one lit
tie red and yellow block began to talk.
And ii kept repeating the text we
learned in school when l sewed il. /
held my ca but still 1 heard il and 1t
kept on talking until 1 decided I
wouldn't go out after all.
$50 you see," continued the mission
airy, they do imbibe some truth while
we interest them in the patchwork.
The barrels of clothing sent from the
north are distributed among these chill
dren and such practical evidence con-
vinces them that somebody really
wants to help them. And then the chill
dren carry some of the good influences
back TO their homes and we follow them
up house by house visiting. 1t is here
that we come in contact with the wo-
men and here we find our opportunity
10 suggest improvements in their home
It's little things that count immense
ly after ALL said Miss Barclay. 81
remember in one OF our barrels there
was sent a satin hand painted card
Now you perhaps might have thought
that such thing was useless in a
missionary barrel: but let me tell you il
was the means of carrying into one
home a refining influence that entirely
revolutionized it / carried it with me
one day while making my visiting
rounds and tackled il on the wall in a
certain house. The woman watched me
and when / had finished she said:
Pea. TO me honey dat wall looks
mighty dirty and i replied that so il
'peared' 10 me. And she at once in
augura;ed a vigorous house cleaning
such as her home had never before
been treated TO.
SOME PECULIAR MINISTER'S,
There are two very distinct caisses
among the southern colored people One
class are well To do. have pleasant
homes and educate their children. The
churches which they attend have color