CONGREGATIONAL MISSIONARY WORK IN PORTO RICO CONGREGATIONAL MISSIONARY WORK IN PORTO RICO Conducted by the AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION By HARLAN PAUL DOUGLASS Corresponding Secretary New York AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION 287 Fourth Avenue CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction 5 I. Congregational Porto Rico 7-18 1. — Within the Fellowship of Protestant Agencies 7 Protestant Comity, p. 7; Open Territory, p. 7. 2. — Our Exclusive Province 8 General Features, p. 8 ; Influence of Natural Boundaries, p. 8 ; Economic Aspects, p. 9 ; Transportation, p. ii ; Side-light on Character of People, 12 ; Towns and Cities, p. 13 ; Streets and Houses, p. 15 ; The Plaza, p. 15 ; The Poorer Quarters, p. 16; Occupations, p. 17; Rural Life, p. 18. II. The Call for Protestant Missions 19-25 Institutional Failure of Catholicism, p. 19; Virtual Paganism, p. 21 ; Not Needed for Common School Work, p. 22 : Prejudice Against Vocational Training, p. 22 ; Place of Medical Missions, p. 24 ; Summary, P- 25- III. Congregational Missionary Agencies 26-40 I. — Educational 26 Blanche Kellogg Institute, p. 26 ; Buildings and Equipment, p. 27 ; Pupils, p. 27 ; Two Schools in One, p. 29 ; Four-fold Service ; a.-Social Exten- sion Work, p. 29 ; b.-Influence on Future Leaders, p. 31 ; c.-Training of Christian Workers, p. 31 ; d.-Religious Center for Americans, p. 32. 2. — Church and Evangelistic Work 33 Organizations and Missionaries, p. 33 ; Chief Centers, p. 34 ; The Era of Building, p. 34 ; Num- PAGE erical Results, p. 37 ; Classes Reached, p. 38 ; Rise of New Social Class, p. 38 ; Native Evan- gelists, p. 38 ; Need of Trained Workers, p. 39 ; Proposed Inter-denominational School, p. 40. 3. — Beginnings of Medical Missions 40 IV. Missionary E.xperiences 42-58 I. — Attitude towavd Catholicism 42 American Catholicism no Analogy, p. 42 ; Few Signs of Promise, p. 43 ; How one Missionary “ Fought the Catholics,” p. 44. 2. — Pictures of the Missionary’s Day's Work 46 A Difficult Field, p. 47 ; A Priest of Another Type, p. 49 ; Doing the Work of an Evangelist, p. 49 ; A Bit of Christian Wit, p. 51 ; Typical Monthly Report, p. 52 ; A Plucky Lady Missionary, p. 54 ; The Satisfactions of Service, p. 56 ; Impressions of a Visitor, p. 58. Appendi.x : Summary of Evangelistic Work 60 Congregational Porto Rico. INTRODUCTION. This little book selects from the widespread fields of the American Missionary Association the latest and least corner ; latest in occupancy and furnishing the brief annals of scarce a missionary decade, least, in the area covered and unhappily still more so in the number of workers engaged, and tbe pittance of money available for their support. “Give a portion to seven, yea, even to eight.” The Association was already ministering to seven belated and handicapped groups of Americans, chiefly “off-colored folks,” but when Porto Rico crept in under the shelter of the Stars and Stripes the scanty supply of mission resources was gladly shared with the new comer. In its occupancy of Porto Rico, the Association confronts for the first time in Home Missionary experience, four problems : First: Plow to establish an American Christian civilization out of Latin materials, with men of Spanish blood and heritage. Second: How to establish an evangelical type of faith in a land ruled for four centuries by a decrepit and incredibly bigoted form of Roman Catholicism. Third: How to establish a free and democratic church in a society essentially without a middle class. Fourth: How to furnish staunch and inspiring leadership in a land historically lacking in great personalities. 6 The pages which follow do not seek to discuss these problems in formal terms, but they should be kept in mind throughout the reading of these con- crete illustrations of Protestant work in Congrega- tional Porto Rico. They attempt to tell the story of the evangelical leaven bravely working upon the stubborn and resistant temper and institutions of Porto Rico. In the preparation of this booklet two classes of readers were in mind ; first, those enlisted in mis- sion study classes, and using as a text this year Dr. Howard Gross’s book, “Progress in the Antilles,” as issued by the Young People’s Missionary Movement and the Women’s Home Missions Council, but de- siring more specific information concerning the work of their own Congregational denomination. Second: It has been thought that there may be those without access to the larger work who might read a modestly comprehensive booklet. Conse- quently the discussion traverses some of the same general ground which Dr. Gross covers, though the descriptive matter is limited to Congregational ter- ritory and work. Perhaps these brief pages may help some one to understand what the spirit of American and Chris- tian brotherhood would have us do unto these last and least of our brethren. I.— CONGREGATIONAL PORTO RICO. 1 . — Within the Fellowship of Protestant Agencies. When, in 1899, the Island of Porto Rico came suddenly under the American flag as a result of the Spanish War, a population of about a million souls was added to the nation. This population was crowded into a mountainous island of 3,550 square miles, in dimensions some thirty-five by one hundred miles, or about as long and twice as wide as Long Island. Protestant mission work for the Porto Ricans began almost immediately on the part of all the leading denominations, and the American Mis- sionary Association was in the field among the first, with an evangelist and eight teachers. From the beginning, the Protes- Proteatant Comity tant forces acted in comity. The Island was divided between them into districts, so that the work might be done thoroughly and economically, without sectarian rivalry or overlapping. This cooperative action and the splendid impression of Protestant unity which it has made, is one of the weightiest elements in the remarkable progress of but little more than a decade. The chief cities, especially San Open Territory Juan and Ponce, which promised to have a considerable American population, were left open for all the churches to occupy as they found opportunity ; but even here there has been a general understanding as to the division of the work, one denomination emphasizing religious activities, another educational and another medical missions, and all the forces co6])erating heartily with one another. 2. Our Exclusive Province. The district exclusively as- General Features of signed to the Congregational Province of Humacao Cliurches for mission over- sight was roughly identical with the old Spanish Province of Humacao at the extreme eastern end of the Island and embracing a population of some 90,000. On three sides is the ocean. The western boundary consists of mountain ranges crossing the Island, parallel to its eastern coast and following with remarkable reg- ularity its windings, and including the highest moun- tain of Porto Rico called El Yunque, or the Anvil. The peaks of this group rise to a height of some 2,500 feet, and they have been set apart recently as a government forest reserve. W'ithin and east of this mountain barrier is a territory from twelve to fifteen miles wide. Numerous small streams rise in tbe mountains and make their way across its narrow fertile plains to the ocean. They are easily forded under ordinary conditions, but may sometimes rise without warning to torrential fury after a thunder shower back in the mountains. Treacherous bars are formed at their mouths. The early journeyings of the missionaries reported many a narrow escape from freshets and quicksand, but bridges are now rapidly being built on all the main roads. The political boundaries of the Influence of Province of Humacao do not, Natural Boundaries however, absolutely conform to its natural boundaries. Our 9 missionary operations have naturally followed the latter and have reached through a pass in the moun- tains over an excellent road to the west, so as to include the town of Juncos and neighboring villages. This brings us up against the Baptist territory along the famous military road ; while on the south we have stopped at the mountains below Yabucoa and our Methodist brethren have come over to help us in this part of the Humacao district which lies be- yond them. The chief economic product of Economic Aspects the entire district is sugar cane, which luxuriates on the heavy black soil of the valleys and coastal plain, and fol- lows well up on to the shoulders of the lower hills. Since the American occupation the sugar industry has been consolidated and has come into the hands of a few great corporations, controlling thousands of men and of acres, and investing millions of money. The Fajardo “Central,” (or factory) and the San Sebastian “Central” near Naguabo, are among the largest and most modernly equipped on the Island. Besides the land directly controlled by these great companies, hundreds of small cane growers in the more inaccessible valleys are dependent upon them. Great lumbering carts, groaning under their load of sugar cane and drawn by patient oxen on their way to the factory, are among the typical way- side sights of the district. The companies them- selves lay parallel lines of light track through their immense fields and load the cane directly on small cars which are drawn by miniature steam loco- motives to the “Central.” Plaza and Catholic Church, Fajardo. Growing Tobacco Under Cheese Cloth. The administrative and clerical work of one of these great companies brings fifty or seventy-five Americans to its community for the grinding season which lasts eight or nine months of each year. The majority of the sugar workers, however, are Porto Rican peons of the poorest and most ignorant type. Wages are much better than before the American occupation and the extremely simple conditions of life make poverty less miserable than in northern climates. Yet at best their economic, sanitary and moral conditions are poor enough. Around J uncos, where our missionary field reaches through the mountains to the westward, it includes a minor portion of the great tobacco region at the center of the Island. Stretching along these high valleys for twenty or thirty miles are nearly continuous fields of tobacco, grown under cheesecloth to protect it from the intense sun. Seen from the mountain tops this wide carpeted valley, dotted with the thatched drying sheds, presents a most curious and beautiful sight. The coffee industry, unlike the sugar and tobacco, has not been centralized in Porto Rico. Coffee grows, however, everywhere in the mountains and almost every house has its little coffee patch in the nearby thicket. Immense cocoa- nut groves have been developed at points along the coast, while at the extreme northwest of the district begins the region of the pineapple and other fruit industries which have sprung up chiefly since the American occupation. No railroad touches the district ex- Tramportation cept that soiiie of the sugar com- panies maintain an irregular, semi- 12 public service on the twelve or fifteen miles of road which connects various tracts of their great hold- ings. Excellent macadamized roads, however, con- nect all towns, and others are under construction. Indeed, the quality of the Porto Rican roads (where they exist) compares more than favorably with the average in the States. The Porto Rican traveller usually rides horseback. Instead of a saddle he uses their characteristic basetta or pad, with wicker basket hanging on either side. The basetta has no stirrups, and the rider thrusts his feet out awkward- ly in front of the baskets. For the transportation of produce these baskets are swollen to enormous size, and, with their load, almost hide the little beast which staggers between them. The gentleman will ride an ordinary American saddle or drive a coache, a sort of crude surrey, wdiose clumsy brake is screwed up by a crank like a carpenter’s vise. The horses are driven between relay points at a constant gallop. They excite sympathy by their almost in- variably poor condition. In spite of their great endurance, to see one driven to death on the high- road is an almost daily commonplace of Porto Rican travel. The little Porto Rican horse has, however, splendid qualities, and the Department of Agri- culture is beginning to improve the type by the in- troduction of Kentucky blood. One who goes to P’orto Rico anticipating sights of gorgeous tropical birds and strange animals will be disappointed ; for bird and Side-light on animal life has been well-nigh Character of People exterminated from the Island by the density and cruelty of 13 the population. It was surely a wise man who observed, “Cannibals are undoubtedly very wicked people, but presumably also very hungry.” It is quite possible that the poor Porto Rican who kills the beautiful song-birds for food is more excusable than the American lady who has them killed for decoration. Yet the universal callousness of the Porto Rican to the suffering of animals is one of the impressions most strongly and frequently forced upon the American visitor, and, sad to say, the same callousness, born partly of misery and partly per- chance ;of the seemingly innate cruelty of the Latin temper/, extends to little children, to the poor, to the age;d and to women. One who has seen even a glimpse of it is at once clear that the primary busi- ness ot' the missionary in Porto Rico is not theo- logicak It is not to teach the people a different system of religious truth hut to try to substitute a new tenderness toward all living creatures, a new sympathy for suffering and a new reverence for humanity. How much that little, smiling Island needs Jonah’s lesson of mercy, “wherein are more than six score persons that cannot discern between their ^right hand and their left, and also niitcli cattle/’ Of the people of our Congregational parish, thirty or forty thousand are gathered into towns and vil- lages, of which the largest is Humacao, the city from which the old Province took its name, with a population of some 7,000. Fajardo, Towns ixnd-Cities Naguabo, Yabucoa and Juncos have populations of from 3,000 to 5,000 e; ich. These, curiously, are all situated inland Main Street, Yabucoa. Street in Poorer Quarter, Yabucoa. 15 three or four miles from the sea and usually upon a stream. The reason for this inland location is saitl to have been fear of pirates, who so long infested the Spanish Main. Each town has to have, there- fore, a “Playa” or port, usually a village of 300 or ■WO people, chiefly employed in carting produce from the towns to the docks and in loading them on vessels. Harbors are usually shallow and lighters are necessary to transport the goods to ocean-going ships, which have to anchor a mile or two out. average Porto Rican town Streets and Houses consists of a collection of insig- nificant, one story houses, lining narrow and ordinarily unpaved streets, though in recent years, the one or two main thoroughfares may have possibly been macadamized. There are no continuous sidewalks and few public utilities. Electric lights have generally been introduced but few' of the towns have public water supplies and none, as yet, sewerage systems. So far as mere shelter goes, the flimsy, unplastered houses are suf- ficient; but the problems of sanitation and of civic well-being are almost untouched in these repre- sentative towns and cities. It is with the greatest difficulty that an American standard of decency is secured even for our missionaries. Not only is medical attendance careless and inadecpiate, but the absence of ordinary sanitary facilities makes the problem of health difficult even under the most careful conditions. The center of the town is always the The Plaza Plaza, usually occupied partly by the Catholic Church and surrounded by the i6 main public and business buildings. The Plaza and Cathedral of Humacao, with the beautiful colors and skyline of the mountains as a background, is most attractive, though within a few months many of its fine old trees have been ruthlessly slaught- ered, ostensibly for improvement's sake. In the majority of the towns, however, the Plaza is ragged and unkempt ; its fences and pavements shattered and disfigured with unsightly debris. The churches, although many of them have fine architectural lines, are damp, discolored and in general disrepair. The public buildings have fared better and under Amer- ican auspices have been made to present a creditable appearance. Many of the recently erected public schools are models of substantial tropical archi- tecture. Everywhere the barracks of the insular police are notable for neatness and order, while the trim figures, gentlemanly bearing and fine horse- manship of these picked men make a most favor- able impression. The poorer quarters of the The Poorer Quarters tOWnS Consist of huddles of thatched huts set in utter dis- regard for streets. Jagged gullies worn by the rains, often constitute the only pathways. Formerly these huts were thatched on the sides as well as the top. the material being either the leaves and bark of the cocoa palm or the heavy stalks of the sugar cane. Now, frequently, the huts are less roman- tically walled with fragments of packing boxes and the legend “Armour's iMeats" or “Babbitt's Soap" greets tbe eye at every turn. Of furnishings there are almost none. A tiny hammock, seemingly bor- 17 rowed from an American sleeping car, serves for a rocking chair and bed. An earthenware vessel, the size of a half bushel, turns out to be a char- coal stove on which all cooking is done. Cocoanut shells and gourds are the chief domestic utensils. A gamecock or pig tied by the leg to one of the flimsy wooden piles on which the house is built, is characteristic of the picture. The family washing is done by women scjuatting in the nearby stream while the clothes are dried upon the rocks. And washing day comes every day in Porto Rico, for even the hundreds of peons in the cane fields are dressed in white linen, and to appear well clothed seems to be one of the universal Porto Rican char- acteristics. At first glance, one would say that Occupations almost the sole occupation of the poorer Porto Rican of the towns is hawking articles of food or clothing about the streets. Every other man, woman and child bal- ances a basket on his head, and wants to sell a pennyworth of produce from his little cart. In the morning they gather by hundreds in the market square and later cry their wares shrilly up and down the narrow streets. Ilidden away here and there, however, one finds most of the hand industries carried on in simple and primitive fashion, and fre- quently with remarkable skill. The hat and basket weaving and the lace making of Porto Rico are of course famous. The cabinet maker in his way is an equally fine craftsman, and the shapes of the native pottery show no mean artistic taste. Many of the Porto Rican women are excellent I8 dressmakers and get remarkable results without the use of patterns. It is a frequent village sight to see one sitting in the doorway or even squatting in the street, working at her little hand machine, l)rohably mounted on a box. h'ar up the valleys, on the shoulders of Rural Life the mountains, under the ocean clififs or along sandy beaches are scattered little villages of a few dozen huts where goes on tlie most typical life of Porto Rico; for the whole Island is essentially rural rather than urban. Most of its people liye in .such little groups. No- where is there the isolation of the western farmer of the States. On the other hand the problems of city life, which are apt to impress one first, are not numerically the chief problems of the Island, I'he real problem is how to reach and uplift the multitudes of these minor communities; and this the Catholic Church in its four hundred years of unchallenged opportunity, never did, nor has the American rule, with its sanitation and education more than begun to do it. II.— THE CALL FOR PROTESTANT MISSIONS. The most general explanation of the need of Protestant missions in Porto Rico is found in the fact that there are important things which no one else can do. Protestantism has of course its own jKjsitive message to the people of Porto Rico. Neither the Catholic Church, nor the Government professes to furnish an Evangelical Gospel, based on a popular understanding of the Scriptures and expressed through a democratic organization of church life; but beyond this, Protestant missions have a social service to perform in Porto Rico which grows out of certain failures of the older faith and the new political rule. The first failure of the Catho- Institutional Failure Church is to provide for the of Catholicism people of I’orto Rico even nominally. For the 1,000,000 of population, the published reports of the church claim at present but 66 secular priests and 49 mem- bers of religious orders, 87 churches and 21 chapels and oratories, which is less than one church for every 10,000 souls. And these numbers represent a large increase over the Catholic forces as they existed before Protestantism came in. As the Cath- olic system works and has worked through all the centuries, the majority of the population has been without actual religious privileges. Hundreds of thousands of Porto Ricans have passed through life unbaptized, unwedded, unconfessed, simply be- Not Her Automobile.' 21 cause the Catholic religious forces were too few, too poor or too inefficient to provide for them. An- other of the striking aspects of this failure is seen in the lack of financial support given to the Catholic Church by its own people. Under the system of state support they naturally were untrained to vol- untary giving, so that now our handfuls of poor church members frequently contribute more to their own support than do the hundreds of Catholics who throng their churches on occasional feast clays, but attend them rarely at other times. The facts are, that all the Protestant and all the Catholic agencies combined do not nearly furnish ordinary religious privileges to the Island. The results of these centuries of Virtual Paganism religious neglect is a condition in which immense numbers of the population are virtually pagan. Indeed, perhaps the majority of them are not Catholic, but adherents of a strange type of Spiritualism, a complicated and obscure movement, without seeming organic unity, but with a multitude of local circles, teachers and mediums, publications, and gatherings. This ten- dency touches on the one hand the lowest depths of African spiritism, and on the other extreme the most refined of philosojdiical speculations. It knows all about Mrs. Eddy and the Society for Psychic Research. A fisherman in a remote village, replied to my “hope that I might meet him again,” that “perhaps it would be when we each had a re- incarnation.” Thus a Buddhistic conceit has be- come part of the commonplace of Porto Rican thinking. 22 The magnificent development Not Needed for of public education under Common School Work American rule has reduced the demand for general educa- tional effort on the part of the missionary agencies in Porto Rico to comparatively small terms. From the first the policy of the American Missionary Associa- tion was to look to the public schools to supply a common schooling to all the Island. Some of. the other denominations entered more largely into edu- cational ventures, but only to reduce their activities in this line as public facilities increased. MTile only a small per cent, of the school population yet is in actual attendance, the tremendous strides of public education make it certain that a full measure of American opportunity for schooling will soon be l)rought to all the children of the Island. Over 100,000 are already enrolled in nearly 2,000 schools, a gain of 60 per cent, in two years in common school grades. Few, even, of the smallest villages are without a school; 170 of the public school teachers in 1909 were Americans. Only 345 stu- dents, however, were of high school grade, besides about 200 in the so-called “Normal” departments. Moreover, it is at present im- Prejudice against possible to get public support Vocational Training for this most iiecessary form of education. Vocational schools, which were emphasized in the earliest public school policy in Porto Rico, have been completely abandoned, no provision whatever for them being indicated in the last report of the Insular Commis- sioner of Education. The reason for this abandon- 23 ment is interesting, and throws a flood of light on the Porto Rican character and situation. When the Insular Legislature and municipalities began to be called upon to supply their own taxes for the support of education, they called an immediate halt to American plans to make the type of public educa- tion strongly industrial. Alice Roosevelt had dedi- cated a splendidly equipped Manual Training High School in Ponce, named in her honor. When I saw it in 1910 not a shop was occupied or a wheel turning, and so it is all over the Island. The Porto Rican idea of education is entirely academic. Schooling is supposed to prevent the necessity of manual labor and to look toward the professions. While, therefore, under American stimulus and ad- ministration, the Island is moving toward universal education of some sort, the hands which hold the purse strings of the schools have no idea of adapting education definitely to the needs of the masses of the people. Porto Rico is less to be blamed because America only recently, and still haltingly, has been willing to accept this idea of education. Further, the American classes with whom the Porto Rican has had opportunity to become acquainted hitherto have not tended to exalt the idea of practical educa- tion. The official has come, the soldier, the capital- ist and the school teacher ; but the American farmer and artisan have not come. They ought not to come without adequate knowledge of conditions and the capital necessary to embark upon life in a new and strange country. Yet the normal American respect for labor will be slow in impressing the Porto Rican, if he never has the opportunity to see the 24 average American, self-respecting in his daily toil. The fact remains, therefore, that the type of educa- tion most needed, cannot be furnished by the public schools without a complete revolution of Porto Rican public opinion. The whole field of industrial training is left for private initiative and becomes one of the main responsibilities of the missionary agencies. On the side of public health and sanitary ad- ministration, an admirably funda- Place of mental and comprehensive policy Medical Missions has been initiated by the Govern- ment and will undoubtedly be pre- sented increasingly with the years. William J. Bryan came back from his recent visit to the Island to urge more adecjuate measures in this di- rection upon the Congressional Committee of In- sular Affairs. But when government activity has done its utmost there remains so close a relation between disease and morality that the best policy will fail unless the roots of disease are reached in personal conduct. Only personal cleanliness can coiKjuer the hookworm and only a new standard of morality between the sexes can eradicate those ter- rific social diseases which are the worst scourge of the Island. The conversion of the Porto Rican to a Christian type of manhood and womanhood is fundamentally necessary for the success of the public health measures of the government, however scientific and however efficiently applied. So the medical missionary, preaching at once the gospel of health and of righteousness, is the most natural and necessary of missionary agents. 25 To sum up then, the business of the Summary Protestaut missionary in Porto Rico is primarily to proclaim an evangelical gos- pel and to establish a democratic church. This needs no formal argument. Besides, there is the ab- solute inadequacy of Catholicism, numerically meas- ured. Porto Rico is largely non-christian ; and gen- erally subject to the most astounding vagaries of religious thought and practice. Public facilities for education are largely developed and will soon be- come adequate on the merely academic side, but the peculiar attitude of Porto Rico toward labor makes the modern emphasis on vocational training, at public expense, impossible there. The public health program, magnificently attempted by the Government, can only succeed if moral training goes with it and if it can be taught in the homes of the people through the pastoral ministries of the mis- sionary workers. Ill CONGREGATIONAL MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 1. Educational. We shall now see how far and through what in- stitutions the American Missionary Association has been able to meet these needs of Porto Rico in the Congregational field. Our educational work is limited to Blanche Kellogg a single institution, Blanche Kel- Institute logg Institute at Santurce, the residential suburb of the capital of the Island, San Juan. Here, on an ample site, sur- rounded by that strange Porto Rican mixture of mansions and thatched shacks, has risen an attrac- tive building costing some $18,000, as a memorial to the young girl whose name it bears. Her father, a hard-working and thrifty florist of a middle western State, had accumulated a modest fortune. When his daughter died he desired to perpetuate in some way the sweetness and beauty of her life. He gave largely for the establishment of the school and the erection of its building, and had planned to give it a daughter’s share in his estate. Certain financial difficulties toward the end of his life prevented the consummation of this plan. Yet those who have the responsibilities of the school and who know the thought of its chief donor, are glad to feel that in the Institute is realized in good measure this fine and devoted purpose. The Congregational Endeavor- ers also contributed largely to the erection of the Institute building, and are proud to claim the school one pf their joint-planting -with Mr. Kellogg. 27 The building is a beautiful sample of Buildings and the Spanish type of architecture, well Equipment adapted to a tropical climate. Its deep, cool porches and shuttered win- dows afford shelter from the intense tropical light and heat. Five commodious schoolrooms are on the first floor and living quarters for six or eight teachers and a small number of boarding pupils have been furnished on the second. Connected with the main building by a portico is Adams Chapel, erected from funds supplied by the Church Building Society, furnishing a fitting place for the general and religious exercises of the school and for the Sunday School services. The finest homes of Porto Rico and many of the public institutions of San Juan as well as the chief missionary institu- tions of the different denominations are in easy walking distance of the school, while excellent trol- ley service connects with San Juan. In its early days, before Porto Rican life had Pupils fallen into its grooves after the American occupancy, the school was attended promis- cuously by cbildren of the neighborhood ; but with the growth of public facilities a natural selection took place. It left the Institute with pupils from the two extremes of society, both being geographi- cally its near neighbors. It came to have on the one hand, the children of the wealthiest classes, in- cluding numbers of Americans and foreigners, who were able to pay considerable tuition and whose parents patronized the school on account of its supe- rior advantages and its American teachers. On the other hand, there were the children of the shacks, Blanche Kellogg Insiitute, Santurce. 29 who could pay nothing, and practically had to be clothed and fed and otherwise ministered to by the missionary teachers. The divergent ideals and needs Two Schools in One of the two classes made it nec- essary, after a while, to organ- ize really two schools within the one buiUling. For the pay pupils, charges have been increased until the school on that side is costing very little of mis- sion money, with every prospect that before long it will cost none. Indeed, it is to be expected that the income from these more privileged children will soon help to carry on the mission work for their more needy neighbors. For these children of the poor. Four-fold Service also, a somewliat dft'erent type of Extension Work Schooling is urgently needed ; one which lays large stress upon prac- tical education, especially the home-making arts for girls and elementary industries for boys. Plans are under way for the erection of an Industrial Building, half school and half shop. It is hoped to make it a sort of pavilion, open on all sides, but protected from storm by canvas curtains, in which work and play may be happily combined, without too much of the repressive atmosphere of the school room. Boys' and girls' clubs and other community organizations would find their meeting place here, out of school hours. The teachers would be settle- ment workers as well ; and with a visiting nurse co- operating with the nearby Presbyterian Hospital, Blanche Kellogg Institute would be splendidly equipped for the extension of work in the general Primary Grade, Blanche Kellogg Institute. 31 lines of community betterment. But this is prophecy, rather than history; yet a prophecy easy to fulfill, which invites some helping hands with greenbacks in them to make it come true. This extension of the work is im- B~Influence on portant also as part of the educa- Future Leaders tion of the well-to-do children. Those who are neighbors geograph- ically ought to be neighbors indeed. The extremes of Porto Rican society may be kept in helpful contact through the medium of the school, and the lesson of Christian charity will be taught by its example better than by all its precepts. Indeed, the final justification of a mission school for those classes who are amply able to pay for their education, lies in the opportunity which such a school presents to influence the future leaders of Porto Rican affairs. Naturally these children come mainly from Catholic homes. The school does not attack their faith nor seek to entice them from it. The Scriptures arc read, studied daily in the school and memorized. Devotional services are shared by all and have their own silent influence. Splendid samples of Ameri- can womanliness, of modest social grace and of Christian earnestness are daily before the pupils in the persons of their teachers. This is the mission of the school to its more fortunate little patrons. Ten years is no very long time, C— Training of but long enough to carry some of Christian Workers the children born of Protestant parents through the common schools. We are just on the edge of a new genera- tion, baptized in our churches, reared in our Sun- 32 day Schools, and now possessed of the elements of an English education and, maturing early under the tropical sun, ready for the next stage of Christian development. They are not many in numbers, but we know of some in our little parish at the east end of the Island. Their presence puts a new demand upon Blanche Kellogg Institute and upon the similar schools of the other denominations. Somewhere these young people must have a high school educa- tion such as the Island furnishes only in three or four of the larger cities and at the same time a spe- cial training for Christian service which shall make some of them preachers and evangelists and all of them efficient and intelligent church workers. The ultimate solution of this problem depends upon the establishment of a union Protestant training school for Christian work. For the immediate future, Blanche Kellogg Institute plans to take a few picked young people from the mission schools into its more advanced grades and to provide living quarters for them by an alteration of its building. There will then be added to their course of study simple instruction in methods of religious work, and they will be sent out, the first fruits of the new Christian order in Porto Rico. Facilities for this phase of the work and additional teaching forces to carry it out are just now urgently needed. The crit- ical importance of it for the whole mission problem on the Island is clear. Blanche Kellogg Institute final- D -Religious Center ly fumishes a religious center for Americans to a few of the increasing American population of San 33 Juan, many of whom are settling in the immediate vicinity of the school. Down in the city the Pres- byterian and Episcopal denominations have excel- lent services in English, and just at the edge of Santurce the INIethodists have built an elaborate church ; but still the simple service on Sunday after- noons in Adams Chapel has a real service and pro- vides for a probably increasing constituency. The teaching force at the Institute has consisted for the past year of seven lady teachers, two of whom gave their time to the free school. i\Ipst of the pupils were only of low grade, but with the de- velopment of general education the Institute expects rank as a high school and to perform its chief ser- vice on this plane. 2 . — Church and Evangelistic JJ-^ork. Of organized churches in the Organizations Congregational district at the and Missionaries eastern end of the Island, there were ten in 1909, with twentv- two chapels or stated preaching stations surrounding them, — located chiefly in the Playas or port settle- ments, among the scattered villages of fishermen or farmers along the coast and up the valleys. The missionary force consisted of two ordained Ameri- cans and their wives. Dr. and Mrs. John Edwards supervise the northern division of our territory cen- tering in Fajardo, and Rev. and Mrs. Otto J. Scheibe the southern division centering in ITumacao. The Scheibes, however, had to return during the year on account of continued sickness due to bad sanitary conditions which it was then impossible to rectify. Their field was promptly supplied by thq 34 appointment of Rev. and Mrs. Thomas Gray, expe- rienced missionaries formerly in the Micronesian Islands. Three unmarried ladies from the States have assisted them as Bihle women and parish work- ers, and ten or twelve native evangelists have come to and fro on foot or by pony or bicycle, preaching in the many outlying districts, almost every night in the week. The churches at the chief centers, Chief Centers Fajardo and hlumacao, have a fully organized parish life, and a well-at- tended and impressive round of services. Each is now furnished, through the help of our Church Building Society with a well designed, tasteful and adequate church edifice, the equal of any Protestant building in Porto Rico, while the Blanche Kellogg Building is by far the best possessed by any Protes- tant school. Here, however, and unfortunately, the story stops, or will stop, for besides a couple of small but neat chapels our other churches and many preaching points were housed only in rented build- ings or the homes of the people. With the splendid fruitage of a decade of work waiting to be harvested and conserved, the era of building has come upon the mission work with an insistence which will not be de- The Era of Building nied. The Church Building Society will cordially cooper- ate in this aspect of the work as fast as its resources permit, and just now appropriations from its treas- ury have enabled us to buy extremely desirable church building sites in the two next most important towns, Naguabo and Yabucoa. Tn the latter place, 35 the site fronts the Plaza and Cathedral, and is next to the most important group of public buildings. In both places, the buildings now upon the property are furnishing greatly improved quarters for relig- ious services and for the native missionaries as well. In neither place, however, will the work ever have the permanence and dignity of that of Fajardo and Ilumacao till it gets equally adequate church struc- tures, to build which would cost $6,000 each ; while Juncos, Luquillo and a dozen .smaller villages and settlements call for permanent homes for their church life. The monthly rent list is now long and constitutes one of the least satisfactory items of mis- sionary expenditure. Rentals, moreover, are con- stantly being squeezed up and will soon compel further building in self-])rotection. Compared with .some of the other denominations, we have occupie