The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1917, Page 68

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68

The Lutheran Pioneer.

Board for all it had done for them, especially in
so promptly replacing the old chapel, which had
been destroyed by fire, with the new church and
school. Among the attendants was also Sam
Young, chief of a small remnant of an Indian tribe
located a few miles from our church. Pastor Ter-
yalon enjoys the confidence of Chief Young and
his tribesmen, and hopes to do something among
these Indians in the near future. I encouraged.
Chief Young to come to our services, and he gave
me his promise that he would.

The next morning I visited the school and
found thirty-two boys and girls present out of an
enrolment of thirty-six. ‘The pupils were quiet
and well-behaved, and I got the impression that
Pastor Tervalon must be a very good teacher. The

Junior Lutheran Orchestra, Napoleonville, La.

pastor’s wife told me that she intended to start
a sewing-class with the girls of the congregation,
and I strongly encouraged her to carry out her
good intentions, which, I do not doubt, she has done
by this time.

Our congregation at Mansura is not great,
numerically considered, but it has been in the past,
and still is, a blessing for the community, and its
iafluence for good is felt for miles around. —

I left Mansura at 10 o’clock in the morning,
my objective point being Napoleonville, the seat of
government for Assumption Parish. “Old Barney,”

though wheezing awfully because of a bad attack ,

of asthma, I suppose, got me to Bunkie in time
to catch the train on the main line for Donaldson-
ville; and upon my arrival at the latter place a train
on the Lafourche Branch was waiting to take me to
Ratliff, a station lying on the left bank of the sleepy
Bayou Lafourche, directly opposite Napoleonville.

Napoleonville lies in the midst of large sugar
plantations, comprising thousands of acres each,
and employing a great host of Colored laborers.
Both branches of the Texas an‘ Pacific Railroad
leading from Donaldsonville to Napoleonville on
one side and to Lafourche on the other side of the
Bayou Lafourche run through extensive plantations,
whose pretentious residences and large sugar-houses
bear eloquent testimony to the fact that great sums
of money are here invested. Despite the rich plan-
tations, however, the Colored people are generally
poor. ‘The daily wage of a man is from eighty-five
cents to $1.25, and then the work is not steady.
Neither is it only the Colored manual laborer that
is so ill paid. While at Napoleonville I had the
pleasure of meeting the teacher of the Colored
public school, whom I found to be an intelligent
and well-informed man. I was dumfounded when
told that his monthly salary was $85, and that the
school-term only lasted five months!. Think of it;
paying a man of many years’ experience and the
holder of a good teacher’s certificate, the petty
sum of $35 per month for an annual school-term
of five months!

‘In the evening we had a fine, well-attended
service. At least forty adults were present. Our
old acquaintance, Mrs. Nelson, the wife of Dr. G. H.
Nelson, kindly played the organ, Qur congregation
at Napoleonyille has had a very slow growth, largely
owing to the baneful influence of the secret societies,
which are particularly strong ‘ere. Besides our
own mission there are three othe Colored churches
in the town, and a large Catholic church with a,
numerous Colored membership.

On Friday morning I attended Teacher
Demouy’s school till 10.30. Though Mr. Demouy
does not play the organ, the singing of his pupils
was very good. A ¢atechization on the Offices of
Christ brought out some good answers. I do not
remember of one wrong answer given by the pupils,
though they were not in every instance complete.
T also heard a lesson in United States History and
another in Primary Reading.

When we began work in Napoleonville, there
was only one school for Colored children in the .
town, and that was a public school of very poor
quality. Since our arrival in the field the Baptists
and Methodists have opened scheols, and to-day
each one of the four schools has an enrolment of
twenty-five to forty pupils. ‘The teacher of the
public school is a well-educated man and is doing
good work. The Methodist school is taught by