Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-31
HOME MISSIONARIES
Something About Those ION the
Firing Line"
ARE IN EVERY SECTION
The Rivalry of Denominations is Fast
Disappearing. :.
BROTHERHOOD NOW PREVAILS
Work in Porto Rico, Alaska and Other
Possessions Is In This

written Tor The Star.
| A map of the United States, prepared to
| show the location of every home mission
airy now on the firing line" as the
| churches like to express It. would have
| crosses streWn rather thickly over every
| state and territory. = And there would be
| quite liberal supply of crosses left over
| for the inset maps of our two chief de-
tendencies. the Philippines and Porto Rico
| In the home field the Domestic and For
eign Missionary Society of the Protestant
| Episcopal Church Is responsible for the
salaries of nineteen bishops in the mission
airy districts. and the sttpends of 116O
| other olergymen, laymen and women" 40
| cording to the secretary of the board of
Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church
In the United States of America, more
| than two-ffths of our ministers now active
| in the work home missionaries" The
| exact number is 2.171. Seven are in Cuba,
| nineteen in Porto Rico. the rest distributed
| throughout thirty-nine of the states and
| territories. sixteen being in Alaska.
| Every church body now at work in this
| country maintains a force of home mission
| aries, nearly all being supplemented by
teaching and medical corps. cross ON the
| map for every one of these clerical and lay
| workers and-hello! there's a cross In your
| own immediate vicinity
| Not even the most thickly populated or
advanced sections of the country are free
| from the home missionary. Numerous mis-
| sionartes are working among the large for
| eign colonies of our cities. In seventy-five
| cities, Presbyterian preachers have under
| taken missionary work among the labor
1 union declarations They have become mem
bers of the declarations, not to take any part
| In the discussions concerning the relations
| of labor and capital but for the purpose Of
| making 1t clear to workingmen generally
1 hnf Fh }E &c fri ard ha
| man who labors with his hands he who
makes his way with his head. One church
| board has 1874 missionaries in New York
| state, 1S1 in Pennsylvania, IS in New Jer
sey and many section of rural New Eng
land has its own missionary.
The missionary has found his way to the
/ heart of the Appalachian mountain and
| feud country. There he is struggling to ed
! ucate, mentally as well as morally. the
| purest blooded of all native Americans. A
| new mining camp has but sprung into ex-
istence when the missionary arrives on the
! ground and begins preaching in a tent
! church. He is following the settlers into
| the newly created farming regions in the
| west-into former great desert tracts now
| beginning to blossom like the rose because
| of government reclamation on a vast scale
The most remote lumber jack Of the
| north woods cannot get away from him.
Every remnant of Indian tribe hears his
voice once every so often. The black
belts" are peppered with him, and away up
| in Alaska he struggles from camp to camp
| over the trackless SHOWS; he is even to be
found at Point Barrow, that territory's set
| tlement nearest the north pole.
Rivalry Disappearing.
In very few of the far-Hung fields do the
! missionaries of one denomination conflict
| with the brethren Of another In the homo
work, in the foreign, spirit Of comfy
| has sprung up Of late years, with the result
that when the secretary of the Presbyterian
board, for example. receives a complaint
| from another boards secretary, to the eff
! feet that Presbyterian missionary has in
yaded an already overcrowded field, the
missionary Is pretty sure to be withdrawn
| after a little investigation and sent to some
| other section.
Prior to undertaking missionary work In
| Porto Rico, the Presbyterian, Congrega-
| tionai, Methodist and Baptist home boards
| got together and partitioned the island, the
| Presbyterians taking the western portionj
! the Congregationalists the eastern and the
| Methodists and Baptists the central and
| southern parts Then the boards Joined in
| issuing proclamation in Spanish to The
| people; and at no time has there been
| single instance of UNCONVENTIONAL rivalry CT
clashing.
| The native work in Alaska has been dis
| tricted for a number OF years among the
various denominations there BY tacit
| agreement the Snake river valley in Wyom-
| ing is left entirely to Protestant Episcopal
and other western fields similar monopoly
| prevails for other churches. There are nu-
merous missions among the Appalachian
mountain whites but practically nowhere fs
there any overlapping, though each churchs
field Is not 30 well defined as in parts of the
| west.
Among these people, all of whom can
| trace their ancestry in this country back to
| the foundation days, the missionary now
| receives a hearty welcome. At first, how
| ever, he was looked upon with deep sus-
picion, not few mountaineers holding him
to be revenue officer In clerical disguise.
But the missionary's primary and training
| schools and hospitals have won the graft
| tude of the parents, and scores Of mission
| Notwithstanding more than rough log
| shacks in the main-now dot the region.
Indeed, the missionary Yields so much In
| huenoe, In the feud countries, particularly
| that the dying out of many feuds in recent
years has been laid largely by the authori-
| ties to mission efforts
In these mountain regions, as elsewhere
/ not a few Of tho missionaries are supposed
| to be supported jointly by their respective
| however, that mission, having promised
! to raise half the mssionary's small salary
| while in an enthusiastic frame IF mind,
| finds later on that It is unable to do so and
! the missionary falls between the two stools
| 1t Is this circumstance. among others, that
makes the life Of the home missionary even
| more uncertain than that led by his brother
| In foreign fields. The foreign missionary Is
| guaranteed fairly good salary: frequently
| the home missionary finds himself wonder
| ing where his next days sustenance is TO
come from
| Lonely and Perilous Work.
Then, too, the average foreign mission
station is not the lonesome place that many
a hqme station is Foreign missionaries
always work in bodies-a half dozen or so
men and women to keep each other COM
| pony, and In good spirits. The home mis-
sionary generally works alone, and even
the most remote stations in China and
Africa are not SO long shut off from outside
| communication as are not few home sta
| tons. Take Point Barrow, Alaska, for ex-
| ample, where a revenue cutter touches only
| once a year to deliver supplies. One year
| the cutter could not make the settlement
| on account of the ice. and the lone Presby-
| terrain missionary was In a quandary over
| supplies for the ensuing year. Luckily for
| him, belated whaler one day made its APP
| pearance. and from 1t he was able to pur-
/ chase the much needed food at exorbitant
| prices. And think OF the lonely life led by
| that missionary who travels up and down
| the vast desert and mountain stretches of
| Nevada-his only companions his horses,