The Eliza Dee Home, Austin,Tex.

(Scholarship, $50.)

We are greatly embarrassed by our success in this Home. We were crowded beyond our capacity; so much so that three slept in one bed. The same conditions exist this year, except that we will have only two in one bed. We turned away last year (and have the same experience this year) two for every one we received.

Eight girls completed the dressmaking and plain sewing course. Our Queen Esther Circle has contributed about $30 to the "Silver Offering." The moral and religious instruction in both our Homes has been carefully observed, and results have been apparent. Sisters, when shall we have a new building? It is an imperative necessity.

Do you all understand that the Samuel Huston College gives us a small room (wholly inadequate) for our sewing classes, and that we do not have a room in the Home large enough to accommodate our classes?

We ought to have a millinery department, but we have no room. Many students come for music and millinery, an alliterative combination, if not a natural one. Miss I. Florence Alspaugh takes the dressmaking department, in place of Miss Wheeler. She is a graduate of the Kansas State School, and has entered into the work with enthusiasm and is well received. Miss King is a careful financier, but she writes me that the prices for all commodities are much higher, and that it will be harder to make ends meet. Miss Robertson, too, has spoken of the rise in prices of foods. It is always a marvel to me how these devoted women do as much as they do toward self-support with the amount they receive. It is a great joy to know that our pupils are proving beyond question that the negro has capacity for learning, in both industrial and intellectual pursuits. Our students, too, are developing worthy characters, and will go out from our schools to make good and intelligent wives, mothers, and workers in their chosen fields. Only those blinded by prejudice can ignore these facts. It is cheering to read in the September number of "The World of To-day" the following, from an ex-Governor of Georgia: "The white people of Georgia would be grossly recreant to this acknowledged confidence and this trust if they did not give the assurance that every individual black man, with his family, shall be absolutely sure that he will receive justice in his civil rights, his industrial relations, his educational opportunities, and moral and spiritual interests. This the people in Georgia have publicly proclaimed." "In Georgia we are free to announce that all men, irrespective of color, race, or condition, shall be equally exempt from punishment until guilt has been duly ascertained and declared." "In Georgia we insist that the white man and the negro are to be always equal before the law. With us there can be no aristocracy of crime." Christian sentiments these, but alas! in this same State of Georgia it is painful to read that Prof. Dubois, the distinguished scholar and author, could not go into the public library of Atlanta, where he resides, to draw out one of his own books, because he is a negro. The eternal years of truth and righteousness are God's; and in his own good time Christian truth and love will prevail and our

work will be crowned with success and this race be lifted.

Out of darkness into the light,
Out of the wrong into the right,
Out of the scorn and bitter fight,
Out from the law that right is might.

(MRS.) Lavanda Gassner Murphy, Secretary.

TEXAS.

The work of the Woman's Home Missionary Society of this Conference has prospered during the past year. At our Annual Meeting, last December, the women of the Texas Conference Woman's Home Missionary Society pledged themselves to raise $200, outside of dues, to aid in building an annex to King Home for Domestic Science. I was elected Corresponding Secretary, in addition to being Treasurer, and started out on my year's work full of hope and enthusiasm, for the sisters had promised to stand by me.

The city Churches were visited, their Auxiliaries encouraged, and much interest manifested by the pastors. We were at Harrisburg in March; organized an Auxiliary, and were 1o have gone back the next Sunday to organize the young women and children, but I was taken ill and remained so all spring and summer—thus the work has been neglected. Nevertheless, by writing a few personal letters at intervals, and sending out circular letters over the Conference, more than one hundred dollars of the money pledged has been raised, and we hope to raise the balance by our Annual Meeting in December.

More interest has been manifested in Home Missions this year than in many years. The financial report will be the best in the history of our Society. Though we have not been able to report quarterly, there has been some increase in Auxiliaries and Circles.

We are thankful to Almighty God for the victories achieved, and pray that another year may witness greater triumphs for the cause of Home Missions.

Mrs. J. M. Johnson, Corresponding Secretary.

 

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