The record-union., 1897-10-20
SACRAMENTO PRESBYTERY.
ITS SYNOD CONVENED IN THIS
CITY LAST NIGHT.
Interesting Address by Mrs. Pier
SON in Regard to the Work OF
Mission Schools.

The Synod Of the Sacramento Presby-
terry convened last night at the Four
teenth-street Presbyterian Church, the
customary sermon of the retiring Mod
orator being replaced by an interest
ing address delivered by Mrs. Frederick
Pierson, Corresponding Secretary Of the
Woman's Board Of Home Missions Of
New York City.
Mrs. Pierson captured her audience
and held them throughout by her easy
earnest maner of talking to and not at
them and the subject matter Of her ad-
dress opened up a new and most inter
esting field Of information to them.
Mrs. Pierson CONNIE lced by telling
story Of a boy in a mission school IN
India, who, when the question was
asked as to why Adam did as he did in
the Garden of Eden, replied, 1T was
the custom of the people so to do; a
very easy way of deciding troublesome
question. So the Presbyterian Church
had put the mission work largely in the
hands of the women. The missionaries
found difficulty in getting the word TO
the people of our land and they solved
the difficulty by forming department
of mission schools and placing them IN
the charge of the women The women
had not sought it, but the church dele
gated it to them, and the women had
done well with them. Among other
things, they have accumulated SfJO,UO0
worth of property in the way Of schools
and other things. The mission teacher
can go where the missionary cannot go.
The women are active in all branches
of schureh work and often form MIS-
sionary Aid Societies to help the ordl-
nary missionary work. The mission
aries know and appreciate the work OF
the schools and are anxious to have
them started in their various fields OF
labor, and beg to have them established
But they do not ask for money to keep
them running. All they ask the Wo-
men is Are they praying for us?'
Moses asked his followers who wanted
to stop at the Jordan if they were going
10 stop there and let the others do the
fighting to conquer the whole land. so
1t is here. The fighting is to be dore in
this State, for it is not yet conquered
for the Lord So in the mountains OF
the South are found more than two
millions Of the descendants OF the Old
Scotch Irish Pres byterian stock that
have been pushed back farther and far
ther into isolation til they have become
degraded, ignorant and immoral and
vet. are. responsive to teaching and feel
their needs. These mission schools are
being planted among them and meeting
with great success. The people VIII
undergo a great deal in order to give
their children chance to be taught.
In all her travels through that country
she noticed the universally melancholy
faces of the women and she could re-
member only one among them all that
had a smiling face.
She gave an interesting description
of the typical homes of these people,
who are not foreigners, but our own
people, she said, our own kith and KIN
and the eagerness with which they
guasped at chance to give their chill
dren little education and the priVa-
tions they would endure for that end.
Public school instruction in the
mountains of Carolina and Tennessee
means two or three months school in
the year, with very inferior teachers.
She told how young woman had come
to "Briton Cove" and started a school
in a place where people fired through
the windows of her schoolhouse when
she went there first, but became uplift-
ed to such an extent when church was
finally built that they were proud of ii,
and one man actually cut down the
trees in front of his house that he
might see it. She spoke of a region
where the moonshiners had their stills,
and where the young girls were so shy
1ooF l,a
women came through. hid from them as
If they were wild animals.
She told of a country town in North
Carolina on the French Broad River,
the home OF the United States Senator,
where there was not a man in the town
that could make public prayer. There
was not a school there until the mission
school was started, and told how many
girls had to be refused admission now
because there was no room for them,
and how pitiful their disappointment
was at not being able to enter. The
people are very sensitive, too, to any
thing that seems to them like ridicule
of their manners and customs. Many
of them had never seen a pair of stairs
and did not know how to go up and
AOWu tdteAl, anu Jet they are dfHDltlOuS
10 learn and succeed well through their
earnestness. The Bible is a new book
10 them, and they eagerly spend their
A3ime in reading it. the boys even break
dng the rules of the schools to read it
by moonlight.
These ignorant mountain people are
susceptible to religion and become an
easy prey to every illusion. For that
reason, these ignorant, hospitable peo-