ives him chase; after a brief
absence he returns to his home, and his wife eagerly asks "What did
you do with him?"

"Oh, we hung him, Betty, that's all."

These early settlers did not immediately plant churches and
school-houses, as the settlers of New England did. Still they were not
altogether illiterate. A public document still in existence has the
signature of 112 out of 114 of their number who signed the paper, two
only making their X.

In 1779, the first Court House was built at Jonesboro. At about the
same date, the author informs us, "The school mistress was to be found
at nearly every cross-road in the older settlements. She occupied a
small log-house, generally about sixteen feet square, and often
without floor or windows." The author might have added that she, or
one like her, occupies the same school-house to-day.

In 1779, the first "church-house" was erected, and Rev. Tidence Lane
became the "first settled minister beyond the Alleghenies."

To those of our readers who have recently followed the missionary work
of the A.M.A. in this Mountain region, these books will be of great
interest.

CHAS. J. RYDER.

* * * * *

We have received from Rev. Austin Willey, author of "THE HISTORY OF
THE ANTI-SLAVERY CAUSE IN THE STATE AND NATION," a gift of one hundred
copies of the book for gratuitous distribution among our workers in
the South. We gave a brief review and a warm commendation of the
volume in the AMERICAN MISSIONARY for June, 1886, and we renew our
endorsement, and tender our thanks to the author for his benefaction.
Our field workers will be interested in this candid sketch of the
early anti-slavery struggle, and we believe that many of our white
friends in the South will be glad to read in the light of these quiet
days the sayings and doings of a class of people whom they then
misunderstood.

The book may be had of B. Thurston, Portland, Me., or of C.T.
Dillingham, 678 Broadway, N.Y. Price, 1.50, postpaid.

The reference to Father Willey and his book is suggestive. He is one
of the "old, original" abolitionists. Men who were once denounced and
are now scarcely honored, for lo! to the amazement and amusement of
some of us, we find that everybody was an abolitionist and always had
been, that everybody learned to hate slavery on the mother's lap, and
was always opposed to it! We who in those early days were treated as
outcasts by "gentlemen of property and standing," and m