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THE SOUTH.

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NOTES IN THE SADDLE.

BY DISTRICT SECRETARY C.J. RYDER.

A little girl in the Sunday-school at Quincy, Mass., when asked what a
missionary was, replied: "A missionary is a man who comes around to get
our money." That expresses with a good degree of accuracy the object of
the missionary's trip through New England, and it is wonderful what
large sums of money come from these generous churches in response to the
appeals of our different Societies.

It was pleasant to turn aside for a few weeks and mount again into the
saddle, and visit the field into which these contributions go, and where
so many earnest and godly missionaries are putting in their life work.
There were evidences of progress in these mission stations on every
side.

Lincoln Memorial Church at Washington have greatly improved their house
of worship, expending upon it $1,500, collecting through their own
membership almost this entire sum. Industrial classes are held regularly
in the same building, taught by the pastor's wife. A kindergarten, in
which a large number of little children are regularly taught, is also a
department of this missionary work. I noticed among the other children a
bright little French boy in this kindergarten school.

While waiting for a train in the depot at Washington, I noticed an old
colored man very busy reading a book. Looking over his shoulder, I found
that he was studying Barnes' Notes on Matthew! No white man was better
employed than this. And this incident is typical of the desire of the
colored people to learn, especially that which throws light upon God's
word.

Excitement ran high in Florida over the murder of United States Marshal
Saunders. A Southern man on the street, not knowing that any Northern
man was present, remarked to a friend as follows: "I would not give $250
to any man to shoot a United States Marshal, but I would give $500 to
help defend any man that shot him." The colored people were agitated
over this murder, for it hinted at the possibility of general outrage
and murder, in which they would be sufferers. I heard in a colored
church in St. Augustine the following prayer: "O Lord! overcome those
who oppress us, not by sword and bayonet and blood, but by the power of
the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ." When the spirit that that prayer
breathes becomes the spirit of the whole people of the South, black and
white, the present desp