ualities of character, showing the possibilities of
the race. We have had a goodly recompense for Christian labor among
them, and does not this increase our responsibility for the
three-fourths that are yet to be helped to a good understanding of
themselves and their duty toward man and God? And no one will question
that in the development of the best _womanhood_ there rests the surest
hope of the elevation of this wronged, and even now, greatly oppressed
people.

But our woman's work finds also its mission among the needy whites of
the South. It seems almost incredible that there should be found, within
thirty-six hours' ride of our Northern towns, so dotted with schools and
churches and Christian homes, a section of our country where there have
been in hiding, in the ravines and on the mountain sides, two or more
millions of our American people, in gross ignorance and superstition.
But such is the case, and as always, the women are the greatest
sufferers. Doubtless the Negroes have the largest claim upon us, because
of their past history, their present wrongs, and their great numbers,
which have become so startling as to make it imperative that we yield no
jot of advantage gained, but rather increase our efforts every year for
their intellectual and moral improvement. Yet the work for the mountain
whites is _just now_ especially urgent. A missionary of much experience
expresses the view, that if we can bring the forces of Christian
education to bear mightily upon these mountain people for the next ten
years, they will themselves become a power as our allies in the great
battles of the future against immorality and false doctrines. A few
weeks since I met in North Carolina near the Great Smoky Mountains a
mother and daughter, the latter about eighteen years old. A school for
mountain girls had been opened there, and the daughter had attended the
last year. On entering she could not read a word, but now was in the
Fourth Reader, and studying arithmetic and geography. The rich, soft
color that came to her cheeks, and the kindling light of her eyes, told
of the brightness this school had brought into her life; this Christian
school, for here too, she had learned the way of eternal life. Even the
mother's eyes sparkled like stars as she looked with admiration upon her
"learned" daughter.

But our door stands wide open also towards the Indians and Chinese, and
all the arguments that appeal to us so strongly for the disenth