The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-31
GIRLs' SCHOOL IN SOUTH AFBIoA.
Interesting Addresses at the First M. E.
 Church Yesterday Afternoon

A very interesting and largely attend-
 ed meeting of the Woman's Foreign
 Missionary society of the First Metho-
 dist Episcopal church was held at the
 church lecture room yesterday after
 noon and was addressed by Miss Anna
 Cummings of South Africa and Mrs.
 Heman B. Allen of Meriden, who was
 formerly engaged in the mission work
 in South Africa. Mrs. Allen is the
 widow of the late MT. Heman B. Allen
 of this city, who was prominent mem
 Der of the First M E. church.
 Miss Cummings gave very interest ing account of the Huguenot seminary
 for girls at Wellington, South Africa.
 This seminary was founded twenty-one
 years ago by Miss Ferguson, formerly
 lady missionary for the City Missionary association of this city. Miss Ferguson. was a graduate of the Mount Holyoke seminary. This work which was begun by her years ago has been steadily car ried forward by those interested in 1t. To-day there are 300 girls in the school at Wellington, and there are 300 girls more in two branch institutions, mak- ing a total of 800 girls receiving instruc- tion It is to be understood that the schools are for the white girls of the colony only. These girls are of three nationalities, Dutch, French Huguenot and English. The Dutch have been set tied there upwards of 200 years and the French are old residents there, as they came there to find an asylum at the time of the revolution of the edict of Nantes. The girls are most of them preparing to be missionaries and teach CTS among the savage and heather tribes in the interior. Five hundred teachers have already gone out from the school at Wellington, and have exerted powerful and lasting influence for good on the people of that benighted country. During the twenty years of its existence forty missionaries have
 gone forth into active work. They had penetrated that immense tract of country lying between Lake Nyanza and the Zambezi river There are at present about 0,O0O white residents in South Africa.
 Miss Cummings also made a brief statement of the needs of the institu- tion. They are endeavoring to secure new building at the cost of about 0,O00 The residents of the colony have agreed to bear half the expense if the friends of the school in this country will raise the other $25,000. She made an earnest appeal in behalf of the work there, and quite large col- Inrf a III al n for it's benefit.
 Anyone who feels especially interest ed in this work and desires to contribute to it may address any communication relating to it to Miss Anna Cummings, Stratford, Vt Miss Cummings will re- turn to Africa not before June.
 Mrs. Allen was then introduced to the meeting. She gave a very interest ing account of some of her experiences in Africa. Miss Ferguson, who founded the school, Is 8 sister of Mrs. Allen, and the latter spent two years in Afri- ca helping in the work. She gave a very interesting account of the old diamond city, Kimberly. She said that the town sprung up like magic at the discovery of diamonds there, and that the people at first lived either in tents or in corrugated iron houses. So the center of the town is at present irregu- lar and there are large excavations where they have dug for the diamonds. A great deal of religious work Is being done among the native diamond-miners, mostly converted natives themselves. I The proprietors of the mines have to keep a very close watch of the native miners, who resort to every device to steal the diamonds. They conceal them in their eyes, ears, nose and mouth, and in their woody hair, and some even cut a gash in their flesh in which to the precious stones. The mines are surrounded by high corrugated iron so high that the natives can not throw the diamonds over to anyone on the other side. Yet in spite of all the company's precautions they esti- mate that fully half the much coveted stones are lost to them It is among these sly and crafty natives to whom there seems to be an entire lack of moral perception that the native mis- sionaries go In and work. And a great | deal of good has been done by them Many of the natives have been induced to lead a true religious life. All the books used in the girls schools are in English although corrupted French and Dutch dialects are spoken by many of them before entering the schools.