NINE SUNDAY-SCHOOL Tories III To I accompany The Sunday School Program Come ^rhtghtg (BiHq” Christian America The Lasting Liberty Bond Christian Americanization Our National Ideals and Mission II II BOARD OF HOME MISSIONS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE U. S. A. 156 Fifth Avenue New York I. The Boy Behind the Aeroplane (Norwegian) UST outside of New York City is a little island so small it cannot be put on any map of any size, and be seen. An island where all peoples who come to us from foreign countries are halted by the U. S. Government and examined physically and morally before they are allowed to come into the United States. As Their Fathers Do, Do They. Since the war this work has all stopped and the buildings on the island are now used for hospital purposes. A short time before the war there was one Cof'yright by Committee on Public Information. The Finest Spruce Flies High. day when three hundred boys came from Fin- land, Norway and Sweden, stayed just long enough to be found physically perfect, and then they went straight up into the lumber camps of Washington and Minnesota for their first ex- perience in America. When we saw them come here we wondered what effect America was going to have on them, but we little dreamed the great contribution they were going to make, not only to us, but to the world, for they are a part now of the large army of men who are manning our great lumber camps and are known as our expert woodsmen. They are the ones who are chopping down the great trees — trees that have stood over three hundred years in order to reach their prime. Part of these will be made into aero- planes and the rest into the great ships that will transport troops and supplies that will make it possible for America to have her share in winning the war. Just Launched in Oregon. God has given the trees. The sons of the old world are giving their strength and their muscle. We are asking you to share the com- forts that America has given you in order that the big mill towns and the life in the camps will be what these boys need. For every thou- sand men in a mill town there are one hundred working in the woods. They leave at five in the morning, no matter what the weather is, as they work in sunshine and rain, and plan to cut down a tree every thirty minutes, returning at night, weary and hungry. If they come back to reading rooms, church life and social centers it is because you and I have made it possible. Some of our ministers are living with them and their children are sharing this life. What, are you doing? II. Bessie Standing Bear (Indian) D you ever meet a real little Indian girl in a real Indian reservation? It is quite an experience. One time I visited an Indian school. The first day the chil- dren did not speak to me at all. The second day a little Indian girl said, “I have six big brothers and three little sisters,” and I replied, “What a big family.” She looked at me and said, “You talk too soon. Not a big family; all dead.” Afterwards I learned that there had been a large family. The children had all died of the smallpox, and in her slow Indian way she was going to tell Two Real .Americans. me that she was afraid her mother would not want her to go to school another year. Later, the teacher told me that the Indians think we are a very impatient, impolite people. That we are always interrupting when some- body else is talking, and do not wait to get the real message. The teacher then said, “You will have to win her back or she will never speak to you again. She has decided you are rude.” The next day I met her again, and said, “Bessie, do you not want to give me your picture?” She said, “Do you want me going to school or coming to school?” I did not see any difference, but answered, “Going to school.” In a few moments she brought me a picture of a big umbrella with some little feet under it, because if she was “poing to school we could not see her face.” The next day, in the class room, the lesson was in arithmetic. The teacher had drawn on the board a quarter section of land. The ex- ample was like this: Put one-third of this into a house and garden, give one-third for the raising of cattle, and plant all that is left in oats, corn and wheat. It was a hard ex- ample, and they all worked a long time. Bessie’s drawing was by far the best. She put her house next the road because, she said, “I like to see things.” She put her garden back of the house because, she said, “Don’t like to walk.” Her cattle were on one side of the house and garden, and the oats, corn and wheat on the other, "So,” she said, "they cannot eat them.” Every other child in the room put the cattle next the corn. But Bessie made one mistake. She wrote “Oats”, “Corns’’, “Wheats”, and the teacher said, “Oh, Bessie, we do not put an ‘s’ on corn and wheat ; only on oats,” and Bessie answered, ‘‘Don’t you plant them just the same? Don’t the}' come up just the same? Don’t you gather them all in the fall, and if you put an ‘s’ on one, why don’t you on the other two?” I was glad I was not an Indian teacher, and decided it was easier to help the Indian understand us by sending money to keep the teacher on the field. I do not think many of us are smart enough to teach Indians. Ellis Island — The Landing Place in America III. A Modern Deborah (Russian -Bohemian) S HERE is a school in the United States near the border of one of our Great Lake.s, where girls that are born in foreign countries and do not know any English when they come to America are taught the ways of this country. After listening to one of the Bible classes one day, I was greatly interested to hear one girl say, “I just love ‘Deborah’ ”, and so I asked her “Why?” She said, “I love her be- cause she is so far back in the Old Testament — one of the first women ever written about. I love her because she knew there had to he a war, and she knew the man that had to fight it, and she went and told him so.” Then she said, with a funny expression on her face, “What do you think he said to her? I’ll go, if you’ll go, too.” And then she added, “That was away back in the Old Testament, long before America was discovered.” Now, who is this girl who loves Deborah, who has learned every single word of Deborah’s song so she can recite it any minute, not be- cause her teacher asked her to, but because she wanted to? A girl who is half Russian and half Bohemian, who came to America in 1914 and landed at Ellis Island with just two cents in her pocket. If it had not been for the mis- sionary people she would have been sent back, but instead of that, money was found to give her a home and help her go to school. She is now one of the interpreters in our courts, a leader of Red Cross societies, and demonstrat- ing Hoover’s recipes in seven languages. She has found numbers of women who do not know English but who can knit a great deal better than we can, and she tells them all about the war and what it means, and through her, many women, whose names are Dybowski, Anastas- seades, and Castellani, and who cannot read our newspapers or talk with any of us, by knitting socks, sewing on hospital garments, making button-holes on shirts for wounded soldiers, can do almost as much to help Uncle Sam as though their names were Smith, Alden or Winthrop. Isn’t it a good thing for the United States in 1918 that somebody in 1914 gave money to mis- sions? IV. Luella (Italian) EGINNING with Maine, and follow- ing down the whole Atlantic Coast to Florida, we find the heart of most of our cities made over by the people and children of southern Europe. One of the most fascinating Sunday-schools in Massachusetts is made up exclusively of Italian children. One warm, sunny Saturday in July, we took eighty-eight of them out to Franklin Park for a picnic. We were greatly attracted to one little girl. First, because she was so carefully dressed. Her hair was brushed, and brushed, I think with shoe blacking to make it shine. She had three hair ribbons — one red, one yellow and one green. During the noon hour she told us about coming to Boston, and said, “Onct, you know we did take borders, and all the time I did wash plates, I did. I nothing else did but did wash plates. I just did wash plates all, all the time,” until we had to make her stop, and afterwards we learned that when she arrived in Boston, a little nine-year-old girl from Southern Italy, her people put her to work in a large city boarding house where she scrubbed and washed dishes sometimes ten hours a day. She did not know many English words and was trying to describe the everlasting way the dishes came into the dishwater, and the only way she could do it was> to say it over and over again, and not leave any space between the plates. When we asked her if she was washing dishes now, she said, “Oh, no. The missionary doesn’t let me”, and she seemed to be so sur- prised that we did not know it was the Italian Missionary in the Italian quarter that had told her people all about the public school and the Sunday-school, and the good things that had come into that home since. At the end of her first year in Sunday-school, the children were asked for sentence prayers, and she prayed the following: “Oh, Lord, make Luella a good girl. Luella doesn’t want to be a good girl, Luella doesn’t mean to be a good girl. Lord, help Luella not to fool you any more. V. Themistocles (Greek) N years ago a little Greek boy, vithout parents or relatives, came cross the ocean and landed in New ['ork. He was such a tiny little )oy that the only work he could find was to pass spoons to a cook in the kitchen of one of New York’s hig hotels. Although he could not talk, and could not un- derstand much that was said, he could watch and listen, and he learned that in order to feed many people, day after day, dishes must be kept clean, vegetables and berries must be kept fresh, hot things must be hot and cold things must be cold. He saved his money and was soon able to go to a missionary school. How he worked! He would beat rugs for people; he would wait on table on Thursdays when servant girls were having an afternoon out; he would run errands, but with all his work he never got behind in his studies. All the time he remembered the first lessons learned in the kitchen. He made up his mind that American cities would always be crowded and that these people would always need food, and therefore he would be a farmer. He devoted himself to all phases of the dairy business and when the United States went into the war this little Greek boy was chosen to test the butter that was to be used by the United States Nav}-. All the butter that was to go out on the seas had first to receive his stamp of approval. And so this little Greek boy, from one of the last nations to send its children to our borders, is working shoulder to shoulder with the Sons of the Revolution. VI. Joe (Slovak) one of the big tenement houses in e most congested section of a large ennsylvania city, a Slovak mission- ■y took me up some dark, winding airs, opened a little, creeky door, and we saw Joe. Joe’s father is in the insane asylum, having been seriously injured in the blast mills. His mother goes out washing every day, from seven until six, and Joe, because he is re- liable, stays in the house all day and takes cart of Helen, aged two. His mother leaves five cents on the mantel piece up high, and when the whistle blows, Joe A Slav in America climbs on a chair, then on the table, and always finds it. He goes out and buys something to eat. Sometimes it is coffee, sometimes cake, sometimes bread and sometimes candy. At first Joe talked to the missionary in a language they both knew but which I could not understand. He wanted her to see how beauti- fully he had made the bed, and tried to clean up the floor, and how hard he worked to keep Helen from getting too near the stove, where she might get burned, and also he had to keep her from hanging out the window or the sparks from the great blast furnace might burn her hands or hair. Suddenly he looked at me and asked the mis- sionary in an excited way, if I did not come from the land of Santa Claus, and to tell me that he wanted “a cow boy hat, a red handker- chief that could live under his chin and did not have to stay in his pocket, some trousers with fringe, and a gun that went off with a bang, and lots and lots of rope.” “Why, Joe,” we said, “if you had a gun you might shoot somebody.” He answered, with great scorn, “A twenty-five cent gun doesn’t hurt when it hits”, and so I left the money for the outfit. After Christmas I received a letter from the missionary saying, “I forgot to tell you that there were six children in the family and when there are six little brothers and sisters, one cannot have a cow boy suit; there must be six or none. So I bought stockings for the entire group, but I did give Joe a red handkerchief, some rope, and a twenty-five cent gun. He is perfectly satisfied, and his eyes actually sparkled when he said, ‘Of course anybody with a big family like mine (he was si.x years old, remember, and had already learned to be reliable) can’t have everything.’ ” Can’t have everything? No, nobody can, but Joe can have a Sunday-school, pictures, Christ- mas boxes and gifts if somebody that you know will save and share what that same somebody has. VII. Gabriella (Cuban) EA\'IXG Florida and going across tlie southern border as far as Santi- ago, we find hundreds of children of Spanish blood. Some of the most beautiful children in the world are the Cubans, who have recently come into the State of Florida, and whose fathers and mothers work in the great tobacco factories. -4s She Looked at First. The children can run errands, carry great bundles of tobacco leaf up and down stairs, and the school hours have to be from ten to two. Everybody gets up at five in the morning and works until breakfast, which is served very late. The noon hour is often thre^ times sixty min- utes and then the peple go to work again in the late afternoon. Perhaps you wonder why Sunday-school money is needed in a place where everybody works and gets big wages. First, because all must be taught the English language. The peo- ple speak Spanish in their homes. Second, be- cause so many of the parents work in the fac- lories, the children do not go to school as they should. One little girl of eight had been living on the streets for a month. She had not been home nights. She used to steal fruit for food, and finallj' she began to beg from house to house. She reached our missionary home just as they were unpacking a barrel from the north, and As SiiF. Looked Six Months Later. somebody had sent a beautiful doll. She wanted that doll more than anything she had ever wanted in her life, and they told her that she would have to come in and live with the doll, and so she did. If you saw her picture when she arrived, and the way she looked six months later, you would be sure it paid to send money there. VIII. Christmas in New Mexico (New Mexican) i. THOUGH Xew Mexico begins with the word ‘‘X'ew,” it is really the oldest part of the whole United States. A person can go into a settlement that was two hundred j-ears old when the Revolutionarj- War was fought and not hear a word of English, unless he meets the one mis- sionar}- teacher who lives there. You will not see sidewalks, electric lights, or even buildings made of wood and brick. The people are still living in little adobe mud houses and the only industry is sheep herding. The men go out and watch the flocks just the way the3' did in the Old Testament da>-s. I spent one Christmas and Xew Year season there. Our Christmas dinner was a jack rabbit, and some canned potatoes that came from Mont- Her First White Dress. gomery-Wards, parcel post from Kansas City. There had been a drought the summer before and the cattle and the hens had all died from lack of water, and the vegetables had dried up. While we were eating our first meal, we heard interesting music, and the teacher said, “The Shepherds have come in from the hills and there will be a dance tonight. If they play one tune, I am invited. If the}' play two tunes the as- sistant teacher may also come, and a third tune would be for our guest.” As they played three times we all of us climbed the hill and went to the dance. At first, everything was very quiet. The peo- ple stood with their backs to the wall and no- bodj' spoke abov'e a whisper. They were wait- ing for the witch, and would not begin the dance until she appeared. Every village has a witch, and the people still believe she brings on the rain, and the sunshine, and causes the children to be sick or well, so they must be very careful not to do anything to get her angry. The most interesting people at the dance were some little girls, who were wearing their first white dresses and were also attending their first party. They did not care whether they had partners or not. They were watching to see whether the witch would look at them with an evil eye. If she smiled upon them they would have a happy future. If she frowned, they felt sure they would be poor and sick forever after- wards. There are only two real happy days in the lives of these little girls — the day they go to their first dance and then the day they are married. After that they are supposed to dress in black for the rest of their lives. A White Dress Party. . All over this country you will see great wooden crosses. The people believe that they must hurt their bodies to prove they are sorry for their sins. Sometimes the men carry these large heavy crosses on their backs until they stagger; sometimes they cut themselves with thorns. The teachers are teaching the children better and this dreadful practice will stop just as soon as we, by our gifts, and pra}'ers, and letters, can send enough teachers to show them the better way. IX. Ti Gum (Chinese) TARTIXG from San Francisco and going up the Pacific Coast, we find tlie children of four strong Oriental races — China, Japan, India and Old Korea. The whole coast is dotted with the temples of these peoples. One of them was built in 1848 and new temples are being built con- A Chinese Temple. stantly. This means that the children will either go where idols are being worshipped or where Sunday-schools like those held in our churches, are conducted. Sometimes when Oriental people are very poor, they sell their little daughters, not to Americans, but to people of their own race. In one of the missions is a home where children whose people cannot car - for them are being brought up. I remember Ti Gum, who had been there only a short time. The other children were having a party, with a little program. Every child either sang a song or recited a piece, and when this four-year-old child stepped forward, I thought I had never seen any one so little and so per- fect. She hid on Chinese embroidered shoes, little round trousers, a short coat with no col- lar, that buttoned on the side. Everything about her looked as though she had come parcel post from the oldest county of old China, but she opened her mouth and in her lisping, baby voice. said in English every word of the Twenty-third Psalm. When she came to the last sentence, we thought she had forgotten. The words kept coming slower and slower, her voice kept rising higher and higher. Finally she pulled herself together and said, quick as lightning, “And I — I — I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” This is really wonderful because she was actu- ally standing in the house of the Lord. Her mother w'ould have sold her for two dollars. She had been rescued by the Christian giving of the land, reminding us of the wonderful country God has given us to guard, and to guide, and to carry to the feet of the Savior. '^HESE stories have been prepared -*■ by Miss Miriam L. Woodberry of the Congregational Home Mission- ary Society, New York, for the Home Missions Council and the Council of Women for Home Miss- ions, to help in the observance of Home Mission Week, November 17-24, 1918. They accompany the Sunday School Program“They Come Bringing Gifts. ’ They may be used, however, with good effect apart from that program.