- 7 ^ ■ 
 
 1 '^ ’ > 2 . / , 
 
 No. 1600 
 
 MEXICO: ^ 
 
 Korih Anicricoi 
 
 LIBBAIIY 
 
 JAN 
 
 THE LAND, THE PEOPLE, AND THE CHURCH 
 
 5( G'don 
 
 1912 
 
 THE BOARD OF MIS.SIONS 
 281 Fourth Avenue, New York 
 
 RIGHT REV. HENRY D. AVES, U.D. 
 Bishop of Mexico 
 
NEW ORLEANS 
 
 ( 2 ) 
 
MEXICO : THE LAND, THE PEOPLE, 
 AND THE CHURCH 
 
 Photo by Waite ONE OP MEXICO'S SNOW-CLAD PEAKS 
 
 Popocatepetl from the village of Amecamcen 
 
 THE ANCIENT AZTEC LAND—RELIGIOUS DIFFICULTIES AND REFORMS—THE 
 PEON, HIS ORIGIN AND POVERTY—HIS HOME AND CHILDREN’S NEED FOR 
 SCHOOLS—THE HOOKER SCHOOL—WORK AT HUMINI—ST. ANDREW’S SEMINARY 
 
 The Aztec Land 
 
 EXICO, the land of the Aztecs, 
 is a country of no mean dimen¬ 
 sions. Its area is 707,005 
 square miles, which is eciual to 
 that of all the United States east of the 
 ^lississippi Hiver, with the exception of 
 Wisconsin. It is equal to the combined 
 territory of fJreat Britain. France, Spain, 
 riermany, Holland, Belp’ium and Switz¬ 
 erland. When Bisho]) Aves wishes to 
 travel between the two missions of En¬ 
 senada and Salina Cruz, he must cover 
 a distance as g'reat as that from Boston 
 to Salt Lake Cit.v; and then he is a thou¬ 
 sand miles short of ^Mexico’s most easter¬ 
 ly shore. And when it is taken into con¬ 
 sideration that this vast country is no 
 wilderness, but is inhabited by some 
 14,000,000 people, and that many points 
 
 can be reached only by horseback or 
 stage, it is apparent what an overwhelm¬ 
 ing charge it is for a single bishop. 
 
 But Mexico is notable not only for its 
 horizontal extent, but likewise for its 
 altitude. From both its eastern and 
 western shores, the land rises abruptly 
 to a great central plateau, which com¬ 
 prises the greater portion of the coun¬ 
 try. This might.v table-land ranges in 
 elevation from 4.000 to 9,000 feet, with 
 snow-clad peaks almost 18,000 feet above 
 the sea. The City of Mexico has an ele¬ 
 vation of 7,350 feet. As a result, Mexico 
 has every variety of climate, from that 
 of the tropics at Vera Cruz, to that of the 
 cold temperate zone. It is possible in a 
 single da.v’s horseback ride to pass from 
 orange and banana plantations to the re¬ 
 gions of wheat, corn and frost. Bj’ rail, 
 it can he done within an hour. 
 
 (3) 
 
4 
 
 Mexico: Tlie Land, the Peoide, and the Church 
 
 The People and Their History 
 
 The people of ]\Iexico are for the most 
 part descended from the ancient Aztecs 
 and other aboriginal races. Almost two- 
 fifths of them are pnre-blooded, and a 
 somewhat larger number have an admix¬ 
 ture of Spanish. The balance are 
 foreigners—Americans, English, Span¬ 
 ish, French, German. President Benito 
 Juarez, the greatest ruler Mexico has 
 ever had, w^as a full-blooded Indian, a 
 descendant of the original possessors of 
 the land. Even those who are partly 
 Spanish take chief pride in their In¬ 
 dian ancestry. As one of our native 
 priests once remarked, “If it were pos¬ 
 sible, I would take every drop of Spanish 
 blood from my veins.” The term 
 “klexicans” is applied officially to all the 
 citizens of Mexico, whether of pure or 
 mixed blood. But the Mexicans of pure 
 Indian descent, especially those who still 
 speak the old dialects and retain the 
 primitive costume, are commonly dis¬ 
 tinguished from the others as “Indians.” 
 But of course the significance of the 
 term “Indian” in ]\Iexico is very differ- 
 eiit from what it is in the United States. 
 Spanish is the common language of the 
 country, but Aztec and other aboriginal 
 dialects are still spoken extensively. 
 
 Mexico is full of ancient ruins—pyra¬ 
 mids, temples and palaces—all that is 
 left of the pi’ehistoric civilization of 
 which the Aztecs were the last represen¬ 
 tatives. The latter founded Tenoehtitlan 
 (Tenoshtitlan), or the City of Mexico, 
 in 1325; and from it as a centre ex¬ 
 tended their empire over all the sur¬ 
 rounding country. In 1521 Hernando 
 Cortez overthrew the Aztec civilization, 
 and planted a new empire upon its ruins. 
 Then followed 300 years of Spanish 
 domination, three long centuries of mis¬ 
 rule and oppression. At the end of this 
 period the people rose in their might, and, 
 led by the patriot priest, Hidalgo, drove 
 out tlie Spanish power. But it has taken 
 the Mexican people many years to learn 
 the art of self-government; the begin¬ 
 ning was made with the rise of Benito 
 Juarez in 1867. Under his wise admin¬ 
 
 istration, and that of his successor, Por- 
 firio Diaz, Mexico has taken rank among 
 the republics of the world. 
 
 The Reliyion of Mexico 
 
 The Spanish conquerors gave to 
 Mexico a veneer of European civilization, 
 and likewise a veneer of Christianity. 
 This latter was a great improvement 
 upon the old paganism of the Aztecs, hut 
 it was very far from being what it ought 
 to have been. The images of heathen 
 deities were simply replaced by those of 
 Christian saints, and the conquered peo¬ 
 ple were as easily led to transfer their 
 devotion to these greater and more 
 powerful “gods.” There might have been 
 some apology for this as a beginning, if 
 it had been followed by a clear exposition 
 of the difference between idolatry and 
 Christian w'orship; but apparently the 
 Spanish monks were well satisfied to 
 have won the outward allegiance of the 
 Indians, Avithout inquiring too deeply in¬ 
 to the true character of their devotion. 
 
 How true all this is may be seen from 
 the following quotation from the letters 
 of Mine. Calderon de* la Barca, the Avife 
 of a Spanish minister to IMexico, and 
 herself a devout Roman Catholic; “The 
 cross Avas planted here in a congenial 
 soil, and as in the pagan East the statues 
 of the divinities did no more than change 
 their names from those of heathen gods 
 to those of Christian saints, and image 
 AA’orship apparently continued; so here 
 the poor Indian still boAvs before the 
 visible representations of saints and vir¬ 
 gins, as he did in former days before the 
 monstrous shapes representing the un¬ 
 seen powers of the earth, the air, and the 
 Avater; but he, it is to be feared, lifts his 
 thoughts no higher than the rude image 
 Avhich a rude hand has carved. . . . He 
 kneels before the bleeding image of the 
 Saviour Avho died for him, before the 
 gracious form of the Virgin who inter¬ 
 cedes for him; but he believes that there 
 are many virgins, of various gifts, and 
 possessing various degrees of miraculous 
 poAA’er and different degrees of wealth, ac¬ 
 cording to the quality and number of 
 
Photo by Waite 
 
 A COMBINATION OP PAGANISM AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 Indians dressed for a religious dance in the Church of Our Lady 
 
 of Guadaloupe 
 
 diamonds and pearls with which they 
 are endowed—one even who is the rival 
 of the other—one wdio will bring rain 
 when there is drought, and one to whom 
 it is well to pray in seasons of inunda¬ 
 tion."’ Until a very short time ago 
 the old pagan dances still survived as 
 a feature of the worship in the great 
 church of the Virgin of Guadalupe. 
 ^Mexico City; and they are still practised 
 in some of the smaller churches of the 
 immediate vicinity. 
 
 In view of this terrible degradation of 
 the Christian religion, it is little won¬ 
 der that the morals of the people have 
 suffered in a corresponding degree. Mar¬ 
 riage among a large proportion of the 
 poorer classes is looked upon as a useless 
 formality, an expensive luxury which 
 they can ill afford. This is due to the 
 exorbitant fees which the Church de¬ 
 mands under penalty of excommunica¬ 
 tion; and partly, also, to the openly im¬ 
 moral lives of many of the clergy. 
 Baptism is also very widely neglected, 
 because the people are too poor to pay 
 the fee. It is no wonder that the intel¬ 
 
 lectual stimulus which Mexico has re¬ 
 cently received, through contact with 
 other nations, has led to a wholesale re¬ 
 bellion against this travesty of the Chris¬ 
 tian religion. Of those who are respons¬ 
 ible for Mexico’s great advancement in 
 the past fifty years, the majority have 
 broken with the Roman Church, and are 
 openly hostile to it. The most enlight¬ 
 ened ones of the nation, in other words, 
 have renounced the only religion they 
 have ever known. 
 
 RcJigious Reform 
 
 It was due to the above-described con¬ 
 dition of religion and morals that a 
 movement for reform was started, during 
 the administration of President Juarez. 
 This movement was a spontaneous one, 
 and w’as not due to any one source or 
 leadership. “Evangelical” congregations, 
 as they were called, sprang up in many 
 places; and, as might have been expected, 
 most of them went to great extremes. 
 But this was not the case wuth all. Out 
 of the first confusion there gradually 
 emerged a little company of earnest and 
 
 (5) 
 
Mexico: The Land, the People, and the Church 
 
 6 
 
 sober-minded men, to whom President 
 Juarez himself and other members of 
 the Liberal party gave encouragement 
 and support. A jMexican missionary so¬ 
 ciety was organized in the United States, 
 and through them an American priest 
 was maintained in IMexieo, as agent of 
 the society. Large sums of money were 
 contributed. The famous old church of 
 San Francisco was purchased for about 
 $30,000, and that of San Jos? de Gracia 
 (since reconsecrated as San Pedro) Avas 
 practically presented to the reformers by 
 President Juarez. The great popular 
 preacher. Manual Aguas. a canon of the 
 Roman cathedral in Mexico City, having 
 been appointed to oppose the reform 
 movement, Avas himself converted, and 
 at once assumed a position of leadership. 
 Adhesions noAV came from every quarter, 
 and many new congregations AAmre organ¬ 
 ized. ITider the influence of Aguas, the 
 reformers organized “The Church of 
 Jesus,” and he Avas elected as the first 
 bishop, expecting to receive recognition 
 and consecration from the bishops of the 
 American Church. He died suddenly, 
 hoAvever, in 1872, befoi“e this could be 
 accomplished. 
 
 The American priest referred to above, 
 the Rev. Henry C. Riley, noAv became 
 the acknoAAdedged leader and Avas elected 
 bishop. In 1875 the Rev. Alfred Lee, 
 Bishop of DelaAvare, Ausited Mexico, and 
 Avas so impressed liy the movement, that 
 he ordained seven men, first deacons, and 
 then priests, for the “Mexican Branch 
 of the Catholic Church of Our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, Militant upon Earth.” A 
 coA'enant Avas made Avith the Inshops of 
 the American Church, by Avhich they 
 agreed to consecrate bishops for Mexico, 
 upon the fulfilment of certain conditions. 
 The conditions of this covenant AA’ere 
 neA'er fully compliel Avith, but in 187b 
 the Rev. Air. Riley received consecration. 
 
 Prom this time the affairs of the ucav 
 i\rexican Church ceased to prosper. 
 Bishop Rile.v absented himself from his 
 see for tAA'o .A’ears, and upon his return 
 serious dissensious arose. The old 
 Church of ,San Francisco aauas resold to 
 the Romans, and several congregations 
 
 became schismatic. LTnder pressure of 
 the American Church., Bisho]) Riley re¬ 
 signed, and a “Cuerpo Ecclesiastico” 
 Avas recognized as the ecclesiastical au- 
 thorit.A' in IMexieo. 
 
 RepresentatiA'es Avere sent by the Pre¬ 
 siding Bishop to labor in Mexico. Xot- 
 able among these Avas the Rev. Henry 
 Forrester, Avho for many years acted as 
 commissary in IMexico and Avhose mem¬ 
 ory is lovingl.A’ cherished b,A' those Avhom 
 he served. In spite of the faithful efforts 
 of these men. the Mexican Church did 
 not recover its former prestige and vigor. 
 It Avas not a mission of the American 
 Church, and it aauas i)Oorly supported by 
 the people. IMan.A" of the clergy Avere 
 compelled to resort to secular Avork for a 
 liA'elihood. 
 
 This Avas the darkest hour of the re¬ 
 form. 
 
 But a better day Avas about to daAvn. 
 In 1904 the Rev. Ileniy D. AA^es, d.d., 
 Avas consecrated as bishop, not for the 
 Afexicans, but to shepherd the great 
 number of Americans Avho had gone to 
 Mexico for the purpose of exploiting its 
 undcA’eloped resources. True to the 
 Catholic principles Avhich had ahva.vs 
 guided them, the native clei'gy asked to 
 be receiv'ed under his jurisdiction. This 
 Avas accordingly done in February, lOOG. 
 Thus the Ava,y Avas opened for the Board 
 of Missions to give the natiA^e Mexican 
 Avork the status of a regidar foreign 
 mission. Rt^gular appropriations are 
 noAV made for the support of the ^Mexican 
 Avork. 
 
 La Jijlesia Vatolica Mexicana 
 
 In becoming a mission of the Church 
 in the United States, the natiA’e Mexi¬ 
 can Church Avas obliged to forego, for the 
 time, its independence. But it still 
 thinks of itself as the Church of the Xa- 
 tion, the one faithful representative of 
 pure Catholicity in the land of iMexico; 
 and so it continues to proclaim itself by 
 the popular title, “Lu IgJesia Catolica 
 Mexiraita.” The clergy and people have 
 a profound conviction of the supremacy 
 of sound Church principles. They have 
 draAvn their insi>iration from a direct 
 
^lexico: The Land, the Leo])le, and the Church 
 
 study of primitive Christianity, yet their 
 churches and services are marked by a 
 simplicity which is almost austere, and 
 it is on that basis that they have waged 
 their fight. 
 
 The clergy now number fifteen foreign 
 and ten ^Mexican. There are 1,181 Mexi¬ 
 can and 811 English commnnicants, with 
 seventeen churches and twenty chapels. 
 At Mexico City is the iMary Josephine 
 Hooker School, with sixty girls. At 
 Guadalajara, the bishop’s place of resi¬ 
 dence, is St. Andrew’s Seminary, where 
 postulants and candidates are being pre¬ 
 pared for the ministry, also the begin¬ 
 nings of an orphanage and hospital. Of 
 the need of mission schools Bishop Aves 
 writes: 
 
 “The appeals for mission schools ex¬ 
 ceed our present ability to supply teach¬ 
 ers. The people are ambitious for their 
 children, appreciating the fact that edu¬ 
 cation is the only doorway opened for 
 their escape from the hopeless poverty 
 which they have inherited into the con¬ 
 ditions of self-betterment. And the 
 clergy realize the strong attractive power 
 of these schools, and the added oppor¬ 
 tunities they offer for the fortifying of 
 their work. I am, however, adhering to 
 the policy of requiring the people to as¬ 
 sume their reasonable share of the bur¬ 
 den, the providing of a suitable building 
 and a pledge for a part of the teacher’s 
 support.” 
 
 Under these conditions the Church is 
 at present supporting seven mission day- 
 schools. 
 
 EnffUsJi - Spcakinfj 
 Conffrefiations 
 
 Tn losing for the time its independence, 
 '‘La Iglesin Cnfolica Mexicana” gained 
 in comprehensiveness. It is no longer 
 the Church merely of the i\rexican peo¬ 
 ple, but of the English-speaking residents 
 as w'ell. Just how many there are of 
 these within the Bepublic would be very 
 difficult to say. There are said to be 
 50,000 Americans alone, more than 10.000 
 of whom reside in the City of !^^exico. 
 There are also great numbers of Eng- 
 
 i 
 
 lish and Scotch. The majority of the 
 English-speaking residents are engaged 
 in mining or engineering, and most of 
 them are scattered throughout the more 
 remote and inaccessible parts of the 
 country. The woiE among these people 
 is almost identical with that in the min¬ 
 ing regions of the western part of the 
 United States. We have about a dozen 
 congregations outside of Mexico City, 
 ministered to by nine priests. Practical¬ 
 ly all of these congregations are small, 
 and very far from self-support. Owing 
 to the difficulty of renting from the 
 Komanists. it is very important that they 
 should acijuire properties of their own, in 
 which, of course, they wdll need outside 
 assistance. Tn many places it is almost 
 impossible to tind shelter for our 
 services, on account of the Eoman 
 boycott. 
 
 The only English-speaking congrega¬ 
 tion of the Church in Mexico that can 
 boast a church building of its own, and 
 that is self-supporting as well, is Christ 
 Church in the City of Mexico. It was 
 started many years ago by members of 
 the Church of England, and the present 
 handsome church was erected in 1898. 
 With the later influx of Americans and 
 the coming of Bishop Aves, it passed un¬ 
 der American jurisdiction, and is now 
 the centre and bulwark of the English- 
 speaking work. The Rev. W. Jones- 
 Bateman is its rector. 
 
 Such, in brief outline, is the double 
 w'ork which the Church is doing in the 
 great Republic of ]\rexico. It is a work 
 of pecidiar difficulty, but likewise of pe¬ 
 culiar promise. For IMexico is only 
 awakening from the sleep which has held 
 her bound so long. She is throwing off 
 the ignorance and superstition of the 
 past four centuries, and is seeking for 
 better things. What she needs more than 
 anything else is ])ure religion. And un¬ 
 less it is given her. she will soon have no 
 religion at all. for the religion of Rome 
 is fast losing its hold. To give her pure 
 religion is the duty of the American 
 Church. 
 
 !^^exico is our nearest foreign mission¬ 
 ary jurisdiction. 
 
(S) 
 
 A MEXICAN PEON AND HIS BURDEN 
 
A MEXICAN PEON AND HIS FAMILY 
 
 THE PEON AND 
 
 M E-XICO is a land of contrasts. In 
 the midst of its natural beauty, 
 stately churches and progressive people, 
 live the indescribably poor, ignorant and 
 superstitious peons, constituting a vast 
 majority of the ]\rexican people. 
 
 It Avas nearly four hundred years ago 
 that this class began. When the Span¬ 
 iards came from over the seas clad in 
 their stone armor and carried their 
 strange Aveapons, they seized the na- 
 tiA’e Indian people of Mexico, took from 
 them their fertile lands and forced them 
 into a system of bondage called peonage. 
 Years haA’e passed, Spanish rule has 
 ceased, a more merciful form of gOA^ern- 
 ment protects the people Avith better 
 laAA’s, ))ut still the peonage system lives, 
 and the peon is virtually a slaA^e on the 
 great plantations, or lives out a miser¬ 
 able existence in the isolated mountain 
 heights. These people bear the burdens 
 of l^fexico, and these people bear the hope 
 of Mexico. From their children must 
 rise a great independent middle class— 
 educated, ambitious and prepared to ful¬ 
 fil the possibilities of a great nation. 
 
 Let us go to the homes of these people 
 in order that Ave may understand their 
 need of the Church. 
 
 HIS POSSIBILITIES 
 
 Through an ugly hedge of cactus Ave 
 see the little flat-roofed hut of adobe or 
 
 INDIAN GIRL AT HOOKER SCHOOL 
 
 (9> 
 
A MEXICAN JACAL. 
 
 One of the huts in ichich the peons live 
 
 A PEON GIRL GRINDING CORN 
 
 sun-dried mud. Its one room is rather 
 dark inside, for there are no windows. 
 The floor is the bare earth. There is 
 neither stove nor fireplace, thoug-h it is 
 often quite cold on the mesas and moun¬ 
 tain sides. The heap of straw in the 
 corner serves as a bed. There is a table, 
 perhaps, and one or two stools. There is 
 not a picture on the wall, nor a hook or 
 paper in the home—and probably no one 
 could read them if there were. The in¬ 
 variable diet is corn and beans. There 
 are no knives and forks, and the dishes 
 are all home-made and of baked clay. 
 The little girls have neither hats nor 
 shoes, and their clothing is miserably 
 scant and poor; for the father earns 
 only two and a half reals (less than six¬ 
 teen cents) a day. All this and much 
 more must make life rather serious for 
 these little ones. But more than all. 
 the.v see little or no cheer or pleasure 
 reflected in the faces of their par¬ 
 ents. The.v are the children of a 
 grave, stoical and seemingly hojieless 
 peo]ile. 
 
 Thus in these jacals we hear no voice 
 of joyful play or song or laughter; 
 neither do we hear the voice of com¬ 
 plaint or cr.ving. Bnending work and 
 life are synon.vmous, and at an early age 
 the children acce])t their share of the 
 
 (10) 
 
PRESIDENTE FLORES AND HIS HOUSEHOLD 
 He doubted that a bishop would come so far simply to help the starving poor 
 
 entlless work of gathering- wood, car¬ 
 rying water, washing and grinding 
 corn. 
 
 The federal schools—scarce and inade¬ 
 quate as they are—and the free mission 
 schools are the only doorways by which 
 these poor children may escape from 
 the hopeless condition which they have 
 inherited. Of these schools Bishop Aves 
 says: 
 
 “They have pierced the darkness of 
 popular ignorance with their little 
 shafts of light, and have shot the spark 
 of hope and ambition into the minds 
 and hearts of many who will be the lead¬ 
 ers of their people into better fields of 
 life, privilege, and service. 
 
 “On many railways it is not uncom¬ 
 mon to see .vonng women of Indian 
 birth serving as telegraph operators and 
 station agents. Through the mission 
 schools have come intelligent, self-re¬ 
 specting girls from the wretched jacals 
 of the monntain wilderness, who are 
 earning fair Avages as clerks, account¬ 
 ants, typewriters, saleswomen, teachers 
 and stenographers. And young men. 
 whose only iirosjx'ct was to herd a flock 
 of goats or carry freight over the monn- 
 tains at fourteen cents a day, are coming 
 from these same schools and making their 
 
 way into trades and positions of respon¬ 
 sibility and trust. 
 
 “I cannot adequately express my ad¬ 
 miration of the Avork these free mission 
 schools are doing. For AvhateA^er the 
 actuating inotiA-e behind these schools 
 ma.y be—and by their fruits Ave should 
 judge them—the results raise them above 
 the mere effort to propagate sectarian 
 names and traditions into the dignity of 
 
 DEACONESS AFFLECK 
 Who works among the poor of Mci'ico City 
 
 (11) 
 
12 
 
 Mexico: The Land, the People, and the Church 
 
 a great social cause of national im¬ 
 portance. They are potentially the lever 
 by which a submerged people may be 
 raised to a higher plane of privilege, op¬ 
 portunity, and Christian living. 
 
 “And that, it seems to me, should be 
 the burden of our missioii to Mexico; to 
 help a helpless people to self-help. And 
 to that I long to see our great, com¬ 
 passionate Mother Church give her heart 
 and hand.” 
 
 The Chui'cli to the Iteseue 
 
 Sooner perhaps than he anticipated 
 when he Avrote the aboA^e Avords, there 
 came to Bishop Aves the opportunity of 
 putting into practical effect the senti¬ 
 ment which moved him. The fall of 
 1909 was a disastrous one in the moun¬ 
 tain regions of Hidalgo and the approach 
 of winter found the people in the grip of 
 
 MEXICAN BOA’ AND BABY BROTHER 
 
 cold and famine. Thousands suffered 
 unspeakably, and Avithout doubt hun¬ 
 dreds Avould have perished utterly but 
 for the beneficent Avork done by the 
 Bishop of Mexico, in Avhich he Avas aided 
 by the general Church. Car-loads of 
 corn Avere shipped from the United 
 States and distributed by our mission¬ 
 ary, the Rev. Samuel Salinas, from Xo- 
 pala and other centres, to the starving- 
 in tAventy-fiA-e or more surrounding- 
 toAvns. 
 
 The Mexican Indians are both stoical 
 and pi’oud. They are inured to great 
 suffering by the hard life Avhich they 
 lead, and only the direst stress would 
 compel them to ask for help. It Avas 
 therefore an evidence of their extremity 
 that hundreds came from great distances 
 asking for a handful of corn. By strict 
 economy, alloAving to each adult slightly 
 OA-er one pint of grain a day, starvation 
 Avas aA-erted and the poor contrived to 
 live through this time of trial. Their 
 gratitude for the benefaction Avas pa¬ 
 thetic, and served to open to the Church 
 a iieAv door of access to the hearts of 
 these poor people. Bishop Aves, aaRo 
 personally superintended the relief AVork, 
 cites the folloAving instance: 
 
 “At San Andres de Milpan, a com¬ 
 munity of 5,000 Otomis, Avhere Ave spent 
 our second night, Ave found the people 
 gi-inding their little remnant of corn to¬ 
 gether Avith the cobs to make it last the 
 longer. Our host here Avas the presi¬ 
 dent e, an intelligent and kind-hearted 
 Indian, Avho Avas in deep distress for the 
 suffering of his people. Our offer of 
 corn for the most destitute Avas met Avith 
 incredulous astonishment, and w-heu he 
 Avas told in the morning before Ave left 
 that his guest in khaki Avas a bishop, 
 he said, ‘Xo, that cannot be, for bishops 
 never go humbly. They go Avith eclat 
 (“con l)oml)a”) ! And they go alAvays to 
 get, never to give. If I am to belieA-e 
 w-hat you say, there must be a ucav re¬ 
 ligion in the Avorld, of AA-hich I haA’e 
 neA’er heard.’ lie guided us OA-er the 
 range, and secured a promise from our 
 missionary to come again and hold a 
 service in his house.” 
 
HOOKER SCHOOL GIRLS ON THEIR WAY TO CHURCH 
 
 OUR CHURCH SCHOOLS 
 
 A DES'CRIPTIOX of the work of three 
 schools will give a good idea of the 
 educational work of the Church in Mexico. 
 
 The Hooker ^eJiool 
 
 The ‘‘Mary Josephine Hooker Memor¬ 
 ial School and Orphanage,” situated at 
 Mexico City, was established by ^Irs. 
 Hooker, who came to Mexico in 1870. 
 Early she realized the need of a Church 
 school for native girls, and to that end 
 devoted her fortune and her life. In 
 January, 1803, Mrs. Hooker died, and 
 Miss Henrietta de Saussure Driggs, who 
 had been associated with Mrs. Hooker, 
 assumed control of the school. 
 
 There are about sixty pupils in the 
 school, varying in age from six to sixteen. 
 They come from all classes, from the 
 v.'ealthy Alexican who pays the tuition 
 of his daughter, to the orphan of the 
 peon family. 
 
 The curriculum of the school is, in the 
 main, the same as that of the Govern¬ 
 ment schools. To it is added English, 
 lace-work and embroidery, while a share 
 in the housework of the school, its wash¬ 
 ing, darning, care of the dining-room, 
 etc., makes a liberal education for some 
 
 of the future wives and mothers of 
 Mexico. 
 
 The home life and religion of the 
 school has a marked influence over the 
 girls. Morning Prayer each day in the 
 little chapel, the after-supper hour with 
 its contendo los cuentos (telling stories), 
 and the Suinlay morning worship, when 
 
 THREE LITTLE PEONS 
 
 Many a Hooker School ffracluate began life 
 like this little girl 
 
 (13) 
 
WHERE THE SERVICES AT HUMINI WERE HELD 
 
 the girls, dressed in white, wearing’ neat 
 straw hats with a simple band of red 
 ribbon, march with a processional to the 
 chapel—all serve to make the girls love 
 the school and cai-e for what it stands. 
 
 The Church and School at 
 Hu min C 
 
 Bishop Aves gives the following de¬ 
 scription of the work at the little monn- 
 tain village of Hiimini. Riding np the 
 mountain side for his visitation a great 
 crowd gathered to meet him. 
 
 very plainly and poorly-clad people, 
 these; bnt, other reasons aside, we must 
 respect and admire them for their de¬ 
 voted earnestness, which is evidenced 
 l»y their Avorks. They have built with 
 their own hands the little stone church, 
 about thirty feet by fifty, and the school- 
 house (of about the same size) standing 
 by its side. The chapel was very humble, 
 hut it cost $200, which for rich people 
 would have been nothing, hut was an im¬ 
 mense sum for people Avho earn only 
 twelve cents daily; however, there Avas a 
 
 * Humini will not be found on the map, as 
 it is a locality and not a town. The nearest 
 village is Nopala. 
 
 firm purpose, and the construction iiro- 
 gressed little by little. It aatis very ini- 
 pressiA’e to see the boys and girls and 
 Avomen carrying the stones for the 
 church, and the men of the congregation 
 giving Aveekly one day’s Avork as their 
 part. 
 
 “XoAv they are building a home for the 
 teachers. They have a ])roud and inde¬ 
 pendent spirit, these Otomi people; and 
 it Avas probably this same spirit Avhich 
 led their forbears to the rocky fastnesses 
 Avhen the foreign conquerors claimed 
 their rich valleys and Avould have made 
 them shiA’es. 
 
 “The occasion of our visit is made es¬ 
 pecially important by the fact that Ave 
 are to examine the school; and the 
 buildings are made as festiA’e as green 
 houghs and Avild floAvers can make them. 
 Although the simple tests in the Three 
 R’s’ are attended by some fearfulness 
 and Aveeping, Avhen Ave reflect that only 
 six months ago none of these girls, 
 some of AA’hom are sixteen years of age, 
 kneAV either letters or figures, Ave must 
 admire their progress. Indeed these 
 Indian girls are both bright and am¬ 
 bitious. And Ave are reminded that it 
 Avas from these Otomi people that sev- 
 
 ( 14 ) 
 
THE NEW SCHOOL AND CHAPEL AT HUMINI 
 
 era! of our Hooker Annex girls came, 
 wlio, (luring the past four years, won a 
 majority of the prizes offered by the 
 government at the National Normal 
 School at Toluca. When we go into the 
 homes of these children and find no 
 single book or paper or picture there, a 
 realizing sense comes to ns of the great 
 blessing this school will be to them in 
 making their darkened lives brighter, 
 larger, fuller, better, and in helping 
 them to better opportunities of self- 
 help. 
 
 “Ten years ago two little girls, Amelia 
 and Leonora Bnstamente, were taken 
 from this community to be educated at 
 the Mary Josephine Hooker School and 
 Orphanage. They are now the teachers 
 here, receiving each a salary of $5 a 
 month, too little on which to keep 
 house and clothe themselves prop¬ 
 erly.” 
 
 >S7. Andrew's Soninarij 
 
 At Guadalajara, Bishop Aves has es¬ 
 tablished St. Andrew’s Seminary. Six 
 men are now in residence and as fre¬ 
 quently as deacons can be spared from 
 active work in the field they are placed 
 at St. Andrew’s and prepared for the 
 priesthood. Here also will be sent post¬ 
 
 ulants and such older boys as show 
 superior merit iu the mission day-schools. 
 The difiiculties in giving a theological 
 education are very gveat, inasmuch as 
 there are no theeffogical books in Span¬ 
 ish. everything’ that is to be presented 
 must first be translated and then ex¬ 
 plained and adapted. The Rev. Wil¬ 
 liam Watson, who is in charge of the 
 work, hopes that in time the lecture notes 
 of the present may take book form for 
 ihstruction in the future. 
 
 Bishop Aves says: “As illustrating 
 what others think of the Church’s oppor¬ 
 tunity here, I quote the words addressed 
 to me by. a Baptist missionary of long 
 experience in the native field: Hhere is 
 no Church but yours that can success¬ 
 fully reach aud hold the natives. You 
 can both attract and hold them, for you 
 have a religious form that appeals to 
 them and can satisfy them. Therefore, 
 I believe that the work of giving relig¬ 
 ious eidightenment to Mexico must be 
 done by you, if it is done at all. What 
 you need is a well-eciuipped divinity- 
 school for the native voung mem’ 
 
 “If oiir American Church is to take 
 seriously its mission to Mexico, it will 
 see the challenge that lies in an oppor¬ 
 tunity such as this.” 
 
 (1.5) 
 
SOME FACTS 
 
 I^EXICO is as large as that part of the United States lying 
 ^ east of the Mississippi River. 
 
 Its bishop is responsible for the most extensive territory of any 
 bishop in the American Church. 
 
 Bishop Aves has two distinct spheres of service. He is a mis¬ 
 sionary bishop to the Americans in Mexico, and he is also, 
 by its own free choice, the bishop in charge of the inde¬ 
 pendent native Church. 
 
 Many thousands of young Americans are in Mexico, and their 
 number increases rapidly. 
 
 The “ Mexican Catholic Church ” is the result of a movement 
 begun within the Roman Communion, and is made up 
 almost entirely of the very poor. They have put them¬ 
 selves under our protection and look to us for guidance 
 and help. 
 
 For all this work the Board of Missions appropriates (Jan. 1911): 
 For salaries, travel and other expenses of 
 
 the bishop and archdeacon . . $ 6,450 
 
 For the Hooker School (7 teachers and 
 
 63 girls) ..... 4,400 
 
 For 13 foreign and 10 Mexican clergy, 
 and for 44 other teachers and 
 workers, repairs, insurance, etc. . 1 7,577 
 
 $28,427 
 
 It is to remedy such conditions, existing in this 
 and other fields, that the Board calls upon the 
 Church to join in a forward movement for mis¬ 
 sions. Who will say that it is not imperative ? 
 
 Copies of this leaflet may be obtained from the Board of Missions, 
 281 Fourth Avenue, New York, by calling for leaflet No. 1600 
 
 Price, 5 cents 
 
 I Edition, Jan., 1911. (3M.)S.P.