PAM. 
 
 AFRICA ___ 
 
 lpen*lptctures of 
 ©ur Hfrtcan fTDieetons. 
 
 
 
 EXTRACTS 
 
 FROM 
 
 DR. POHLMAN’S 
 LETTERS. 
 
 
 1900. 
 
Published by tbe General Literature Committee 
 of tbe 
 
 Woman’s Home and Foreign Missionary Society 
 of the Lutheran Church, 
 
 [General Synod.J 
 
 2419 Maryland Ave., Baltimore, Md. 
 
 1900. 
 
 2 Cents Each. 15 Cents a Dozen. 
 
No. 170. 
 
 ZPcn - ZPic turcs of Our 
 
 African 7/fission, 
 
 (EXTRACTS FROM Dr. POHLMAN’S LETTERS.) 
 
 Glimpses of Home Life.—As I look out of 
 my door, this is what I see : a lot of boys play¬ 
 ing- in the mission yard—they laugh, jump, 
 tussle, roll hoop, play marbles (with coffee ber¬ 
 ries), and are having a good time in general. It 
 is their “off hour,” for shortly they will each 
 take a half bushel basket and start with it on 
 their heads for the coffee farm to pick the beau¬ 
 tiful berries and “tote” them back on their 
 beads. The girls go to another part of the 
 farm and do the same kind of work. It is not 
 hard and they seem to enjoy it. In a couple of 
 months the crop will be in, and then school will 
 open and they will begin to study. In the beau¬ 
 tiful moonlight nights we are now having they,, 
 play till half-past nine out on the playground. 
 What impresses us most is that there is not the 
 least scramble for “ being first,” as among our 
 children at home They yield so gracefully to 
 one another. No pouting, no sulking, no crowd¬ 
 ing to be in the lead. And this is characteristic 
 of the native. One is elected to be “ head ” and 
 the others all follow. In all their plays this is 
 
noticeable. They are so amiable, loving-, gen- 
 tle and “nice” about their games and plays, 
 that one is rarely hurt. This is true of boys as 
 well as of girls. They treat each other far 
 more courteously than our childi-en at home. 
 For the time being we forget we are in heath¬ 
 endom. With all the noise, not a cross word 
 has been heard, not a black look, not a push, 
 not a semblance of petulence. There are so many 
 lovable traits about these negroes. Though 
 their faces are black, they always look happy. 
 
 Every afternoon at 5 o’clock they all come in¬ 
 to the chapel and repeat a verse of Scripture. 
 We then sing, pray and read the Bible. After 
 tea, we often gather the children into the parlor 
 and have some music, games, and a looking 
 over “ picture-books. ” This is always a pleas¬ 
 ant hour, for it gives an opportunity to talk 
 freely to every one, and it is surprising how 
 much at home even the newest children feel in a 
 short time. On Sundays, we have a morning 
 service at 7 o’clock, led by the pastor ; at eleven, 
 regular church service ; at one, Sunday-school, 
 and at five, a young peoples’ service. After the 
 morning service, 1 often hold a service at the 
 country kitchen, where our native wage-hands 
 and other natives are to be found. 
 
 “ He don die, come quick ! ” That is the cry 
 that startled us last night. On investigation, we 
 learned that one of our little fellows had been 
 looking for birds’ nests up in the big plum tree, 
 and, the branches being slippery from the last 
 six days’ continual rains, he fell from the top 
 branches, striking against all the lower ones in 
 
his descent, landing - on his head with a 
 heavy thump, and raising a lump on his soull- 
 cap as large as the egg he did’nt get. He was 
 tenderly lifted up by,one of our older boys and 
 carried to our parlor sitting-room. It is won¬ 
 derful to see the gentleness of these boys when 
 they understand that you want them to do this 
 kind of work “ softly.” A careful examination 
 showed no bones broken, but lots of bruises, with 
 a cheek cut. All night the lad lay moaning, 
 while four of the older boys kept watch, reading 
 their Bibles and looking at the illustrated pa¬ 
 pers to keep awake. This boy’s name is Albert 
 H. Studebaker, close and intimate friend of 
 Prank P. Manhart, who recently had a bad fall 
 from the loft in which he was sleeping. It 
 keeps us in close touch with the big men at 
 home to have their name-sakes here. Some 
 day, when the boys grow larger, we will tell 
 them who it is that we have named them after, 
 and try to train them up in the same kind of 
 work as those whose names they bear. For the 
 most part, these youngsters do very well. Only 
 occasionally they need the rod instead of the 
 kind word. Recently it became necessary to 
 give Luther Kuhlmann a sound thrashing, be¬ 
 cause he thought he could get out of doing “his 
 part of work.” It was a fine opportunity to tell 
 him how faithful and hard a worker is his name¬ 
 sake. Brethren, pray for these little black 
 saints in embryo, for they may yet work a 
 mighty change here. 
 
 Weather. —This is the season when we have 
 what is known as “ weather” in April at home. 
 You wake up in the morning to hear the rain¬ 
 drops beating on the iron roof, you go to bed at 
 night and fall asleep to the music of the steady 
 
“ drip-drop ” of the big drops from the eaves of 
 the house, you eat your meals accompanied by 
 the howling of the wind and the rush of the 
 storm as it beats now on this side and now on 
 that, you conduct morning and evening prayers 
 while the heavens hang heavy with waters eager 
 to fall faster than gravitation lets them, you go 
 to see the sick tucked snugly in a rubber coat, 
 boots and a slouch hat, while the umbrella only 
 shows how much rain it can’t keep off. You 
 take off damp clothing at night and put on damp 
 clothing in the morning, you light the damp 
 wood with a match-box and kerosene oil, you cook 
 with pepper clogged, salt wet, maccaroni mouldy 
 and spices generally sniceless ; you start the 
 laundry to wash early Monday morning and are 
 glad if half of it is dry enough to iron by Satur¬ 
 day night; you begin your study to find after a 
 while that there seems to be water even on your 
 brain, for all the thought that you seem to have, 
 while the dull ache creeps slowly up your back 
 and you wonder whether at your age you are 
 already suffering with rheumatism. On taking 
 a stiff dose of quinine and phenacetine, you find 
 that it was only the *‘Ager” that’s troubling 
 your bones. Everything you touch has a damp 
 wet feeling, and you wish you could feel dry for 
 once ; then you light the oil stove and dry and 
 warm yourself in front and find that the damp¬ 
 ness has only been sent to the back of your 
 body. Yes, this is weather. 
 
 Holidays. —This year (1898) we had a great 
 Christmas ! The chapel platform was rich with 
 palm-trees, while the parlor had palm branches 
 thickly clustered around it, tilled with tree orna¬ 
 ments like those we use at home. The girls’ 
 school-room was transformed into a bower of 
 
palm leaves, which likewise were filled with 
 ornaments, dolls and small gifts. 
 
 A week before Christmas the eyes of the boys 
 grew big as saucers at the sight of boxes and 
 barrels that came from America. They knew 
 that “ Christmas lived there.” As these were 
 opened they stood around, eager to help—and 
 incidentally to see what the many bundles con¬ 
 tained. Six months before the boys had asked 
 for some drums and fifes. For these they watch¬ 
 ed expectantly, and when they saw them cried 
 out: ‘‘Dem drums don come, an’ de fifes, too 
 don come! ” The good folks at home had re¬ 
 membered our children very generously, both in 
 quantity and assortment. It would have abun¬ 
 dantly repaid every donor could they have seen 
 the curiously pleased faces and heard the de¬ 
 lighted cries, as the children saw first this and 
 then that toy or article of value in their g'ifts. 
 “ Look dar ! ” “ See dat! ” “ Hi, ain’t dat fine 
 
 fur true!” “See my ’spenders!” “Look at 
 my doll-baby ! ” Boys and girls were alike in 
 their demonstrations of joy. Yes, it was a big 
 Christmas ! 
 
 Again has the “Glorious 4th” of Liberia 
 been celebrated in this land of liberty. The 
 26th of July is the “Independence Day” of the 
 people of this little republic on the West Coast 
 of Africa. It is now near dark. For hours 
 those dusky “ pickaninnies ” have been having 
 a good time. And how they have rigged them¬ 
 selves out! The boys sewed white tape up the 
 sides of their trousers, bound colored kerchiefs 
 around their elbows and waists and armed them¬ 
 selves with sticks (for guns), rough wooden 
 sword§, and, with half a dozen empty five-gal¬ 
 lon oil cans (for drums), have made the hours of 
 the day noisy with their juvenile military spec¬ 
 tacle. 
 
“ Shoulder arms ! ” Every stick goes up in 
 the air. 
 
 "Take’em down again !” and they drop to 
 the ground. 
 
 " Salute de President !” Every stick is given 
 a flourish. 
 
 "Forward, march, sachay right, march, close 
 open ranks. Break ranks and git into line 
 again ! ” 
 
 This is one order ! They got! What march¬ 
 ing ! One file goes this way and the other that. 
 Their movements might puzzle a West Point 
 drill master, but the boys enjoy it. 
 
 While the boys are "playing soldier” the 
 girls are also imbued by the martial spirit for a 
 while and march by themselves, though they do 
 not look like formidable amazons in their clean 
 new dresses. 
 
 Thus ended our 26th, the fiftieth of Liberia’s 
 independence. Long may she live and do good 
 to her own kith and kin, and point them up to 
 ;the " Author of Liberty ” (1898). 
 
 Work Among the Girls. —We have been 
 "moving.” The new lady missionaries, after 
 four and a half months’ of acclimating, "took up 
 arms against the sea of troubles” and started 
 to cross the Rubicon—the Rubicon in this case 
 being the river St. Paul, which divides the 
 girls’ work, on one side of its banks, from that 
 of the boys’ on the other of the river. The 
 "arms” in this case were quite formidable, 
 consisting of an entire outfit of house-cleaning 
 
apparatus, with which they made the dirt fly, 
 said dirt differing- somewhat from same-named 
 material at home, in that it was more African 
 in its nature, consisting largely of masses 
 of spider-webs, bug-a-bug nests, wood-lice, 
 haunts, insects’ habitats, etc. 
 
 Then came the moving. Household effects,, 
 dogs, poll-parrots, school supplies, wearing ap¬ 
 parel, chop, and, last and most important, the 
 little girls. This began on September 26th, and 
 when everything had been taken across the 
 river in large canoes, the “Emma V. Day Memo¬ 
 rial School for Girls ” was started in Muhlen¬ 
 berg Mission The school was practically 
 opened on Sunday, October 2, when services 
 were held in the school-room. We commended 
 the work to God’s hands, invoking His blessing 
 upon it, and asked him to carry out what had 
 been the cherished plan of the saint in whose 
 name the school was founded. 
 
 The latest addition to the work of the mission 
 is in the girls’ school, and consists of nothing- 
 more euphonious in name than a plain sewing 
 circle for women. This meets once a month. 
 Women come for miles to attend the meetings. 
 They have Bible reading, prayer and singing. 
 They talk and eat and sew. But this is not all. 
 They learn to know each other better, get into 
 touch with the mission, see the workings of the 
 school, are taught to cut and sew plain gar¬ 
 ments, hear articles read from magazines, are 
 entertained by the two workers at the head of 
 the school, and in many ways are given a broader 
 outlook of the world and have their inner life 
 deepened. It is a little leaven. It will show 
 later on by its fruit. In the meantime, they 
 greatly appreciate the opportunity afforded 
 them. 
 
A King’s Daughters Circle has also been 
 formed in this school, and the older girls drawn 
 into it. Others from the neighborhood will soon 
 be associated with the circle, and the King will 
 have many daughters who will render him lov¬ 
 ing service. 
 
 Evangelistic Work. —We paid a visit to 
 one of our neighboring towns just before the 
 communion services, to press the invitation to 
 attend church. Here we found a number of the 
 people in one of their country kitchens. We 
 made it a regular pastoral visit. We urged the 
 necessity of their coming regularly. They 
 plead : “We no got clothes for dem ch’rch ; 
 we coffee doan bring nottin’ at de stor’; de cop¬ 
 pers is scarce ; de picanninies dey cries in de 
 ch’rch; an’ we can’t come annyhow, for we 
 clothes is bad.” Then we quoted the “I pray 
 thee have me excused” parable, and asked them 
 what they could carry into heaven with them 
 after death. We pointed out the need of the 
 “wedding garment” which could be had “without 
 money and without price;” and told them of the 
 pressing invitation of the king to the feast. 
 Then we pictured the glories of the heavenly 
 home as compared to that of earth, and of the 
 love of God who provided all this for us. That 
 brought them over, and brought them to church 
 again. Thus we fish patiently for men—and be¬ 
 lieve we get them. 
 
 Yesterday’s congregation, at a town twenty 
 miles from the mission,was one of the best I 
 have had so far, paying the closest attention to 
 all that was interpreted to them, saying they 
 were sorry for all their wrong doings, of which, 
 it is not difficult to convict them by the Spirit’s 
 
aid. All knelt in prayer after the service. Then 
 they expressed a strong desire to have us send 
 them a teacher, who could tell them more about 
 the things of God, for they said that they did 
 not want to live in sin any longer, and wanted 
 to know how they were to serve God. 
 
 I cannot tell you how my heart yearns over 
 these people. Their understandings are so 
 darkened and their lives so sinful. Just to 
 preach the gospel to them occasionally will do 
 little good, for they straightway forgot all they 
 were taught. Constant teaching is their great 
 need, until some of their own number will be 
 able to teach their own people. To this end we 
 are now laboring, to discover the best places in 
 which to establish small schools, and then place 
 one of our older boys there to teach and be a 
 kind of Bible reader to them. 
 
 We believe that one of the strongest obstacles 
 to our evangelistic work is the native gree-gree 
 (devil) bush. Every boy and girl on reaching 
 a certain age, must pass through the rites and 
 ceremonies that are there carried on. When 
 they leave this place, they seem ever afterward 
 to be under its influence. No secret society 
 binds its members more closely than does the 
 devil bush ; for never a word will they tell on 
 one another as to their wrong-doing. Whip¬ 
 ping starving, imprisonment—none of these 
 will compel them to divulge their secrets. The 
 reason for this is that they believe if they do 
 what they have been taught not to tell they will 
 die at once. Since every native is afraid of 
 death, he closely guards his tongue on these 
 points, however loquacious he may be on 
 others. What is done in these devil bushes 
 is never known to an outsider. Should one try 
 to learn them, he will be a marked man, and 
 some day he will wake up and find himself a 
 
■dead man, as the Irish would say. The one fact 
 that we have learned with regard to these secret 
 societies is that they perform circumcision on 
 every male child, but this is among the Congo 
 people. 
 
 Because of this influence of the devil bush on 
 the child’s life, we deem it best to get possession 
 of their children before they have been in these 
 places, when it will be easier to bring them 
 under the gospel’s power, and we are therefore 
 bending our energies in that direction for our 
 future work.