ton, Mrs. M.B. Langdon, Stockton, Cal.

* * * * *

THE SOUTH.

NOTES IN THE SADDLE

BY FIELD-SUPERINTENDENT C.J. RYDER.

I write these notes under the shadow of the great affliction that has
fallen upon the A.M.A. in the death of Dr. Powell. Although he was at the
head of another department of A.M.A. work, we always knew that we had in
him a kind and thoughtful friend, and one who would cordially co-operate
with the other officers in their far-reaching plans for the development
of the work, even though it added to his cares and burdens in gathering
the funds necessary to carry out these plans. We who have our work and
responsibilities in the field, no less than those who were in the office
with Dr. Powell, would bear our tribute of love, and scatter the
blossoms of holy memories upon this new-made grave.

* * * * *

Two State Associations of unusual interest were held during the month of
November. The Central South Association met with the Trinity Church, in
Athens, Ala., Nov. 3d. This Association includes the churches of
Tennessee and two or three of those in Alabama. The reports from the
churches were very complete. Only one church in the Association was
without regular ministerial services, and that church had recently lost
its pastor by death. They are now supplied by a competent and faithful
minister. The temperance question was discussed with great enthusiasm.
The influence of Fisk University on the right side, during the recent
prohibition battle in Tennessee, can scarcely be over-estimated. Many
expressed the judgment that the argument of the Southern whites, that
the colored people defeated prohibition, was not true. One pastor
reported that his county went almost solidly against prohibition, and
there was only one colored man in the county, so far as he knew, and he
was a staunch prohibitionist. Some argued that while so many churches
and Women's Christian Temperance Unions and Young Men's Christian
Associations shut out respectable colored people, and saloons welcomed
those who were not respectable, it would be a difficult task for the
better class to induce the more ignorant to vote against those who
welcomed them and in favor of those who shut them out. Is there not
considerable force in their arguments?

A young colored man, who had been a preacher in one of the old churches
of the South and had become disgusted w