Medical Missionary Work in the Southern Union Conference
By O. F. Hayward
The territory of the Southern Union Conference is in many respects the greatest and most important field in America. It has conditions calculated to test to the utmost our courage and faith and love; it possesses possibilities and affords opportunities that are most inspiring. The nine States comprised in this union conference have a total population of over 15,400,000, distributed as follows: South Carolina, 1,340,000, with two black persons for every white one; North Carolina, 1,890,000, with two whites for one black; Mississippi, 1,550,000, in the ratio of eight whites for five blacks; Kentucky, 2,147,000, with only one black to every five white persons; Louisiana, 1,880,000, with the races about equally divided; Alabama, 1,828,000, about equally divided; Florida, 528,000, with a small majority of white population; Georgia, 2,216,000, nearly half of whom are colored; and Tennessee, 2,020,000, with a little over one-fourth colored. It thus appears that of our population of 15,400,000, about two fifths are colored. While by far the greater part of our population resides in the country and in small towns, we have, nevertheless, several large and important cities. Though many have been accustomed to think of the South as a poverty-stricken wilderness, its agricultural and mineral resources are ample, and the territory included in the conference is capable of supporting a much larger population than it does at present. The population of this territory may conveniently be grouped in classes. First, the cultured class, comprising people of varying degrees of wealth, all educated. This class may be reached, first, by well-equipped sanitariums, so situated as to bear to some extent the character of a resort; second, by suitable literature and schools of health; and third, by first-class treatment rooms and restaurants in the larger cities. Another class is the mountain whites, of whom about four million live in western Tennessee and Kentucky, the western Carolinas, and northern Georgia and Alabama. Inhabiting the most salubrious sections in all America, this people are, nevertheless, afflicted with a great many petty ills and deep-seated infirmities; they are nearly all sick, and it almost seems as if their chief business was to ward off health. Hundreds of thousands are unable to read or write, and their tendency has not been to advance. The excessive use of tobacco, coffee, pork, and hot soda breads, poor cookery, uncleanliness, smothering in winter quarters, and insufficient clothing are some of the causes of suffering among them. This class is to be reached, first of all, by the locating of families among them to do Christian Help work. Here is a great work to be done. Second, by the circulation of illustrated papers and small books. Such literature as Good Health will meet the needs of but few of these. Third, temperance and Bible lectures in schoolhouses, with such entertainments as a magic lantern, might be the means of saving many souls. There are precious jewels among the mountain people; and when we work with them as carefully and systematically as others are working the mineral wealth out of their native hills, we shall find many of God’s “diamonds in the rough.” Next are the mining people, of whom there are not a few. Our mineral wealth is great, and there are hundreds of small mining towns; many of those are as chips out of the worst portions of our large cities. Intemperance and associated vices are prevalent. It will require men of mettle to start small schools and Christian Help missions in these places. Still another class are the employees of the cotton mills. There is a great army of these, and their environment and training have made them a distinct and peculiar people. They enter the mills at a very early age, and as soon as they are able to take a spindle, their doom is sealed; they have taken their black veil; for in a great majority of cases they are in the work for life. Outside of the factory their time is spent in various kinds of amusements, but very little attention being given to education. They have pastors who are hired by the mill owners, and whose word settles all doubt and controversy in the matter of religion. This fact is of great importance, as it is the chief obstacle in the way of reaching these people with the third angel’s message. Cottage meetings have interested them in the few instances in which they have been held, but the most successful method of labor among them is still an unsolved problem. In our large cities we have what may be found in large cities elsewhere, plenty of work for evangelistic medical missions. In the preceding paragraphs, I have had in mind only the white population. The colored people also present several distinct classes. There is the small professional class, a large class of industrious laborers in cities and towns; and the poor plantation class, forming the dense colored population of the so-called black counties of Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina. A large army of colored medical missionaries must be trained to work from cabin to cabin among these people, leading them by gentle steps to a more clean and wholesome home life, and to a knowledge of the first principles of the Christian religion and of morality. These workers must be most carefully trained and tested; for they must be able always to smother the natural tendency to join in the complainings of the blacks, and must never by word or look foster the spirit of hatred or resentment among them. We are not to teach independence, but freedom in Christ; we are not to change social or political conditions, but to minister the gospel, which saves men no matter what may be their condition of social or political servitude. For such a gospel we should be devoutly thankful. The masses of colored people in our large cities may be reached by means of treatment rooms, missions, cottage meetings, and attractive literature; and these missions may be so conducted as to afford training-school advantages for workers who are to be sent out to labor among the plantation negroes. In planning for this work, we must bear in mind that persons who are qualified to set before the students correct ideas with reference to their future work, and carefully to discipline their minds to the self-possession and good judgment that are essential, are most rare, and should as a rule be chosen from those of Southern birth. The coast line of the Southern Union Conference is thirty-three hundred miles long, with several important ports, among which are New Orleans, La.; Mobile, Ala.; Savannah, Ga.; Charleston, S. C.; and Wilmington, N. C. These cities are world markets, and into their harbors come vessels from every quarter, to return laden with American products. The population of Key West, Fla., is made up largely of people from various islands in the West Indies. Are not these open doors to the world beyond? But this conference is unable properly to encourage its institutions, and work its inland territories. How, then, can it bear alone its responsibilities and relation to the neighboring islands and the rest of the world. To mention briefly the work now being done in the different conferences:— At Asheville, N. C., Brother and Sister M. H. Johnston, both trained nurses from the Battle Creek Sanitarium, have been at work for about seven years. They have leased for a term of years a finely equipped suite of treatment rooms, and recently have rented a twenty-room house not far from the bath rooms, and are prepared to receive a number of patients. Brother Johnston’s report for the last three months of 1901 was eight hundred and seventy-six treatments, over one hundred of which were given free of charge. At Graysville, Tenn., Drs. O. M. Hayward and Elsie Martinson have treatment rooms fitted up in the basement of the school building, and two rented cottages16for the patients, thus carrying on a sanitarium work in a very modest way. Both Dr. Hayward and Dr. Martinson go out to give instructions wherever there is an opportunity. This work was carried on as a private enterprise until Nov. 5, 1901, when it was turned over to the conference. The report up to this date was: patients received, 132, remaining, in the aggregate, 151 weeks; physicians’ calls outside, 593; nurses’ outside calls and treatments, 154; office treatments, 412; total, 1,159; surgical operations, 21. The Nashville Sanitarium for colored people has been incorporated by the Southern Missionary Society, the only institution of the kind in existence for the colored people. Thousands of eyes are upon it, and many colored youth are looking forward to the time when they can enter it, to become medical missionaries. In Nashville, Brother and Sister Hansen have a well-equipped bath and treatment institution for white people. This has been carried on for several years, and is recognized as one of the reliable institutions of the city. It enjoys a fair patronage, and numbers as its friends many of the most substantial families of the place. It has five workers employed. At Paducah, Ky., Dr. and Mrs. L. J. Otis have treatment rooms equipped with a good electrical and bath outfit. Dr. Otis has recently added the laboratory apparatus for making blood and stomach analyses and bacteriological investigations. The only report before us is for November, 1901, which is as follows: treatments, 163; day and night nursing, 73; medical calls, 26. There are three workers besides Dr. and Mrs. Otis. At Hildebran, N. C., a tract of land, with a large house and a fine spring of water, was purchased two years ago by Dr. Kate Lindsay. This property has been given to the Carolina Conference for sanitarium purposes. A board has been appointed, and preparations are being made to open the institution as the Piedmont Valley Sanitarium. Dr. G. P. Edwards will be the medical superintendent. There are six or seven other places where the work is being carried on by individual workers, some of whom are connected with either the State conference or the Medical Missionary Board, while others are working independently. The summary of the workers gives three physicians, eighteen nurses, nine students, and seven other helpers working under supervision, besides twelve independent workers. There is an imperative need of a permanent sanitarium work at Graysville, Tenn., as a center of sanitarium work and training for the Southern field, as the Nashville Sanitarium is for the colored people. A very desirable site has been secured, and three of the needed ten thousand dollars have been subscribed. The site, a tract of twenty-five acres, is on the side of Lone Mountain, and has a fine spring of soft water. To obtain frontage and another spring, the board has purchased another strip of twenty acres. A small building will be erected to serve as a dormitory when a better building can be erected. The work is being delayed for lack of funds, as the managers have adopted a strictly no-debt policy. The work everywhere in the South is in great need of financial help. Surely, some one will come to the help of the Lord in this work, about which so many urgent appeals have been made.