These lasted until about a month and a half ago. At this juncture I took a large contract to furnish 450,000 cubic feet of broken stone for the Madras-Bezwada railway. This gives me about twelve thousand rupees, and now for a month about a thousand people are at work daily on the contract, to whom I pay fair wages all they earn. I am also contracting today to break 1,300,000 cubic feet of stone for the above railway, to be delivered on or before the first of July. These contracts if they meet my anticipation will put in my hand about thirty thousand rupees and will furnish work for two thousand people for three or four months. By that time I hope that the southwest monsoon will bring us bountiful rains, and will give us seedtime and harvest. After this rain comes, which we hope will be about the first of July, times will be hard until a crop is harvested, which will not be before about the first of October. But as agricultural work will be going on as soon as the southwest monsoon rains come, there will be plenty of work for laborers to do, for which they can get enough to live upon. The trouble will be to take care of the sick and the old, the orphans, and widows with large families of small children. For these Brethren Manley, Heinrichs, Ferguson, Brock, Boggess, Stait, Marsh, Newcomb and myself will need all the money that God puts in the hearts of the American people to give to us for them, and unless you do give liberally, there will be not only distress, but many deaths by starvation or by disease brought on by want. Another thought. We already have a great number of orphans on our hands, and we do not know what to do with them. I have been thinking that we here ought to start an orphanage on a sufficiently large scale to provide for five hundred children under ten years of age. Will the Executive Committee and the American Baptists see me through it if I undertake this? Of course I know full well that if I wanted to do this and had the time to devote to it, that God would raise up friends for me to give us all the money that we required. But I do not want to do all the good work; I want the American Baptists to have a share in what God is doing over here, and such a share as will cost them something-something more than mere words on their part. Please tell me what you think about this, and as soon as you well can. Governor of Fort St. George His Excellency, Sir Arthur Elibank Havelock, the (Madras), was here on the 17th inst. We expected him to put up in our mission house and to hold a durbar in our chapel. But as he decided at last to remain in Ongole for only two hours, it was thought by our sub-collector not worth while, as he put it, to turn us out of our house. However, Mr. Martin and I had the pleasure of meeting him, and of taking breakfast with him, and I gave him an address, through his private secretary, prepared by our Ongole missionaries, which he told me he should carefully read at his leisure. J. E. CLOUGH. PROF. W. L. FERGUSON, RAMAPATAM, INDIA HE annual gathering of the Conference THE was held with the Baptist Church, Vepery, Madras, from Dec. 30, 1897, to Jan. 4, 1898. Fifty-one of our own missionaries were present, and visitors from the Canadian, Madura, Methodist, and other missions raised the number present to sixtythree. It was a pleasure also to have Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Leeming of the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church, Brooklyn, N. Y., present. These friends spent Christmas in Nellore, and had so arranged their routes and dates as to allow attending the Conference up till almost the last day. It was a joy to have them as interested spectators and participants, and not as critics. May their kind increase! The election of officers for the year resulted in the choice of Prof. L. E. Martin for Chairman; T. P. Dudley for Vice-chairman; W. A. Stanton for Editor of the Annual Report, and the writer for Secretary. Immediately following the election business was begun. A letter addressed to the Conference by the Executive Committee and Dr. Duncan greatly cheered the hearts of all for its expressions of brotherly love and sympathy; it also stirred the mind concerning some very practical questions on mission administration. The letter called for action on two or three very important points, and in a large measure it set the pitch for the after sessions of the Conference. One of the chief features of the gathering was the unusual amount of important business transacted. The question of a boarding school at Ootacamund for the children of missionaries has been in debate for a number of years. Action has been delayed for various reasons, the chief of which has been the want of suitable facilities for the opening of such a school. Now, however, the way seems clear. A fine house has been offered to the mission free of rent for three years, and a lady has consented to take the management of the home and school, and another lady has volunteered to teach for a short time at least, until the committee which the Conference appointed has time to arrange details and confer with the Executive Committee in Boston. The design of the school is to afford a place where the children of missionaries may go for longer or shorter periods of time, pending the departure of their parents for the homeland; and a place where their education may be begun under a competent American teacher and with the use of American textbooks. Another forward move was in the adoption by the Conference of the regulations submitted by the Executive Committee pertaining to newly appointed missionaries and the study of the language. The regulations provide for an examining board, and specify that all new appointees shall pass two examinations in the vernacular of their district within a given time. The time limit is a new feature with us, as is also the compulsory clause. For some years we have had a very efficient voluntary system, but it lacked just the two elements which this new scheme secures. A Telugu commentary on the Scriptures has been a pressing need, also. The dearth of what might be called a Christian literature for the Telugus is appalling when one considers the plethora of books with which Western Christians are provided. Aside from the numerous tracts which have been published from time to time, there are probably not to exceed one hundred productions worthy the name of book in Telugu. Many of these are barely above one hundred pages each. Some years ago the late Dr. Jewett wrote a commentary on Matthew, but it is now out of print. Our students and preachers have been shut up very largely to what they have learned in our schools and gathered from a few text-books, and the hearing of sermons by missionaries. It was occasion for gratitude, then, when Dr. McLaurin announced that our Telugu Baptist Publication Society had under consideration the production of a commentary on the entire New Testament. The Conference approved of the plans suggested, and appointed two committees to have the work in charge. It will be a happy day for the Telugus when they possess and use an adequate Christian literature. Two things are essential to this: first, people who can and want to use books; and secondly, books for them to procure and use at prices within their reach. It is hoped that our schools, college and seminary may provide the first conditions, and that our Telugu Publication Society will furnish the second. TELUGU CHRISTIANS, SUFFERERS FROM FAMINE The Industrial School for Ongole came in for a good share of attention. This project, so long delayed for the want of funds to establish it, has a very warm place in the affections of the mission. It is not yet a reality; but hopes run high that it may be fairly within reach by the end of another year. Mention ought also to be made concerning the proposal to establish a Baptist Literature Library. We are beginning to realize that we have made much history in connection with our missions, and that it is often difficult to get anything covering periods earlier than the one comprised within the limits of one's own memory. Pastor T. P. Dudley, Royapuram, Madras, would be glad to receive books or periodicals of the nature mentioned, or to learn of their existence. Nothing has yet been said about the discussions; the ringing resolutions pertaining to the suppression of vice, opium, hemp-drugs, and liquor traffic in India; the services in various parts of the city on Sunday, conducted in English, Welsh and Telugu. But enough has been said to indicate the importance of the work which the Conference had in hand and to show that the measures proposed are far-reaching in their scope and purpose, pertaining to the welfare of the Telugu mission for years to come. HE people by their manner of living THE are a diseased people, and have no help. There is an apothecary here who is employed by the government to give medicine away, but the people have no confidence in him, and the poor outcaste people die rather than go near the place. I have had people come to me from twenty miles. away, begging that I would give them some medicine. But I had no medicine, and have tried to get them to go to the dispensary, but they have said: "No, it is no use for us to go there. If you will give us medicine we will get well, but if you cannot give us we will go back home," and they have gone back the whole distance, without going near the dispensary. Many such experiences I have had like this. Simply from a humanitarian point of view it is blessed to help the poor sick souls. From a Christian point of view it is a compulsion. 2. I know but little of this kind of work. I think I would be willing to exchange what theological training I have for a medical. I think that men who work fields out in the jungle ought to have some medical training. 3. My lack of money. If I could keep on hand a fair stock of medicine I could do a great deal more myself. Whether I ought to stop giving the medicine or make some effort to secure a better outfit, is a question. We have given freely, and have made sacrifices. There are many calls upon us. I feel that I cannot carry on this kind of work alone. I do not ask you to give me anything extra for this. However, if you see any one interested in this kind of work, and can in any way send me money or medicines, I will be greatly helped in my work in this line. I now have the finest situated compound of any in South India. When we have some shade-trees and flowers, I have no hesitation in saying that Atmakur station will be the most pleasant of any in our mission. Some hundreds of years ago someone, no one knows who, at an enormous expenditure of money or labor, levelled off this hill, but never used it for anything. I could not have done it any better for my bungalow. It is about forty or fifty feet above the fields, and has about two and a half acres of level land. The ascent is very gentle, so that a bandy with a good load can ascend without difficulty. This elevation gives us a fine view of the whole country for twenty to thirty miles around. When the paddy fields are green, and the grass begins to spring up after the rains, the view is very pleasant. At the west is the range of Eastern Gauts, which often make a very beautiful sunset. At the distance of four miles is the Pennar River. Just at the foot of our hill is a very large tank, which adds a great deal to the whole scene. I have a view of the house taken from an elevation east of our bungalow, which gives a view of the tank and house and my cookhouse and storeroom. (See MAGAZINE for January, 1898, p. 19.) Being on this elevation we get a good breeze, and I think it is free from fever, as none of us have had even the slightest touch of it yet, which is a wonderful blessing. H1 BAPTIST MISSION HOSPITAL FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN, NELLORE, INDIA SIR ARTHUR HAVELOCK AT NELLORE REV. DAVID DOWNIE, D.D. IS Excellency the Governor of Madras Presidency paid a visit to Nellore on the 16th of February, and among the places where formal calls were made was our mission. This is the third time a governor has visited the mission during our term of service. His Excellency and suite arrived in Nellore in the forenoon, and had a formal reception at the station, where a large concourse of the citizens had assembled to do them honor. After breakfast at the collector's bungalow, a number of addresses were presented to the governor by the various communities. At five o'clock in the evening the party drove into the mission compound and were received at the bungalow. The writer introduced the governor to the other missionaries present, and then read an address setting forth the advantages which the mission brings to the people of India in social and political elevation as well as religious culture. The governor replied in a very cordial manner, expressing his pleasure and gratification at the reception that had been accorded to him, and especially for the expressions of loyalty and regard for Her Majesty contained in the address. He said he was not aware of the difficulties we were laboring under in our educational work, and would make it his duty to call attention to it in the educational department. He also expressed the hope that something would be done in the line of land grants for the poor people. After visiting our schools, with which the governor expressed himself highly pleased, we drove to the hospital, where Dr. Levering and Miss Faye conducted the party through the wards and dispensary. Sir Arthur expressed himself as specially interested in this hospital, from the fact that his friend (and ours) Mrs. Grose had opened it. Both the governor and Dr. Browning, the government surgeon, seemed greatly pleased with the arrangement and the management of the hospital. They expressed. great astonishment at the very small amount that had been expended on the buildings, assuring us that the government would have had to pay double the amount for the same work. The next visit was to have been to the government hospital, but they passed by that and went on to a garden party at the judge's house. This was a very brilliant affair. The garden was lighted with hundreds of tiny lamps with a very pretty effect. |