Publications

The Board of Publications and Sabbath School Work of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. publishes an Italian religious weekly, "L'Era Nuova," Rev. Francis J. Panetta, editor, 111 East 116th street, New York City. The Board also issues Sunday school cards and has other religious features in the Italian language.

E. MISSION WORK AMONG ITALIANS IN CANADA

By REV. F. C. STEPHENSON, Secretary of Young People's Forward Movement, Missionary Society, Methodist Church, Canada

The Methodist and Presbyterian churches are the only Protestant denominations which have organized mission work among the Italians in Canada. The Presbyterians have missions among this race in Montreal, Sault Sainte Marie and Winnipeg. The Methodists carry on work among them in Sidney, B. C., Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, Niagara Falls, Welland, Thirold, North Bay and Copper Cliff. In all of these places, regularly appointed, and for the most part, ordained, Italian missionaries are in charge of the work. In other places, throughout the Dominion, mission work is being conducted among European foreigners, among whom are many Italians.

In Toronto the work is carried on in three centers, and may be classified under three heads, namely, educational, institutional, and evangelistic, and is typical of what is being done in a modified form in other places. The educational work includes kindergarten. classes in each center, a primary class at Elm Street Church, and night classes for adults in all branches. The institutional work consists of clubs for boys and girls, sewing classes, athletic and gymnastic exercises, mothers' meetings, also citizen and musical associations for the young men. The evangelistic effort consists of regular Sunday preaching services, Sunday schools, private conferences, tract distribution, and open air services.

The Italians in Toronto, and for the most part throughout Canada, came from Sicily and Calabria, though there are quite a number who claim northern Italy as their birthplace. They are an industrial people and most of them engage in heavy labor, or work in fruit or small grocery stores. Others pursue the same varieties of occupation as our own English people. The majority

are illiterate, but very bright and ambitious. They have artistic temperaments, are naturally very religious, and, though born Roman Catholics, have little love for the Church of Rome, and are in danger of becoming atheists unless early brought under the influence of some church that will inspire their confidence.

Housing conditions among them are not satisfactory. They live in the most congested areas in the city and in the poorest houses, which are usually overcrowded with the children of the family and men boarders. One result of our work among the Italians in Toronto has been the movement from the separate Catholic schools to the public schools. Many scores of families are sending their children to the public schools, to which they now pay their taxes. There is no assimilator like the public school, and we hope this movement will continue. In many other respects our work among the Italians is producing most gratifying results.

There is no class of European immigrants among whom missionary work is so successful as among the Italians. A large number have been converted and are leading upright Christian lives. Their migratory habits disorganize our work somewhat at certain seasons of the year, but wherever the Christian Italians go they carry the leaven of the gospel with them. From the construction camps of the north, from the cities of the far West, from the trenches in Flanders, and from the army in the homeland. come cheering words testifying to the permanent blessings received by thousands who have come under the influence of the gospel in Canada.

F. WORK AMONG THE ITALIANS BY THE AMERICAN BIBLE

SOCIETY

By REV. W. I. HAVEN, D.D., Secretary

In 1834 the Board of Managers of the American Bible Society became perplexed with the problem of immigration from Europe into the United States, and decided that these strangers could not be left without the Bible, of which many of them knew nothing whatever.

Accordingly the secretaries were ordered to obtain from the British and Foreign Bible Society Scriptures in Polish, Swedish, Dutch, Portuguese and Italian. The report of 1837 shows that thirty-one Italian Bibles and Testaments were put in circulation in the United States. The growth of this work can be more quickly

understood by noting the number of Italian Scriptures issued in each tenth year since that date. In 1837 it was 31; 1847, 289; 1857, 753; 1867, 1,494; 1877, 4,499; 1887, 6,786. This seems. to have been the real commencement of a large influx of Italians, for in 1897 the number of Italian Scriptures put in circulation was 20,427. In 1907 the number was 38,282. There has been a steady increase until the beginning of the war. The last year before the war broke out the number was 101,779 volumes. figures for the report of 1917, eighty years since the work began, are not yet available, but the report of 1916 shows issues in Italian in the United States of 95,581 volumes. The falling off is probably due to the fact that a considerable number of Italians returned to their native land to go into the army.

The

These figures show one thing which is repeated again and again by the agents of the society. Rev. Dr. Eckard, secretary of the Atlantic agency, writes from Philadelphia: "In general there has been more success with Italians than with any other nationality of Europeans who come to the United States." The same statement is expressed in other words by Rev. Dr. Kirkbride, secretary of the Northwestern agency, who says: "No class of foreigners is more accessible to the gospel and give quicker and fuller response to the gospel teachings, than the Italians."

Our reports of the work among Italians for the year 1916 have come from the secretaries of the nine agencies of the American Bible Society, and the fields from which they report work among Italians are as follows: Rev. Dr. Eckard at Philadelphia; Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Rev. Mr. Porter, Richmond, Va.; Virginia, West Virginia, Georgia and Florida, the most important work for Italians in this field being in Florida. Rev. Dr. Broome, secretary at Cincinnati, Ohio, reports work for Italians in Ohio. and at Birmingham, Ala. Rev. Dr. Kirkbride, the secretary at Chicago has carried on work among Italians, especially in Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and adjacent regions. Dr. Ragatz, secretary of the agency at Denver, Col., reports good work in St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, and some of the mining regions of Colorado, besides the states of Montana, Idaho and Utah. The Rev. J. J. Morgan, secretary at Dallas, Texas, reports several correspondents and a number of voluntary workers in Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma. The number of Italians in these four last-named states is estimated at 95,000. Rev. Mr. Mell, secretary of the agency at San Francisco, reports that there were

no Italian colporteurs at work this year, but the coast cities have been carefully canvassed in the three years previous. The work among the Italians this year has been conducted by two colporteurs and eight other workers who were engaged in general Bible distribution. These sold about 3,000 volumes in Italian. Mr. Mell adds that 100,000 Italians scattered along the Pacific Coast have been carefully served to the extent of the ability of the agency during five years past. Rev. H. J. Scudder, secretary of the Eastern agency, having headquarters in Brooklyn, has the assistance of several Italian ministers who make a point of giving a certain amount of time to Bible distribution among their compatriots. In this way Scriptures were circulated in Harlem, in different parts of Westchester County, and on Long Island, during 1916, amounting to 673 Bibles, 2,770 Testaments, and 13,121 Gospels, a total of 16,564 volumes.

As we said above full returns for the year 1916 are not yet available, so that a general view of the circulation in the whole of the United States is not possible. The work of these agencies among Italians is carried on by Italians so far as Italian colporteurs can be found to do the work. It has been increasingly difficult to find men suited for this work in recent years because of the number of missions and evangelical churches which need the assistance of every thoroughly converted Italian they can find for their local work. It is the experience of the secretaries, howver, that to attempt to circulate Scriptures among Italians through people of another race is very disappointing. Where a thoroughly converted Italian could persuade and convince a number of men and women in every place and induce them to buy Testaments. or at least portions of Gospels, requests from a man of another race, even speaking a little Italian, would be immediately rejected In many parts of the United States the Bible Society agents have partly avoided this difficulty by making arrangements with wideawake Italian pastors to give a certain amount of their time to Bible distribution. The Bible Society supplies them with Seriptures without charge and gives them a liberal discount on Bibles which they buy for their people, and they make it a point to take the books to the outlying districts and let them go for less than cost, if necessary, provided there is a serious willingness to read them. In this way the pastors increase their circle of acquaintance, and the people gradually become accustomed to reading the Word of Life.

Work among the Italians is not without obstruction, and sometimes violent opposition. During the past year Mr. Morgan reports that at Bryan, Texas, some priests came in, gathered up all the Bibles and Testaments in town, and made a grand bonfire. The spirit of the Italian pastor at this place, as well as of the people who lost their Scriptures, is seen from the fact that he immediately sent to Mr. Morgan, ordering a second shipment of Scriptures to take the place of those which had been burned.

At Denver, Colorado, one Sunday morning, a mob of Italians surrounded the evangelical church with the purpose of killing the pastor. It seemed for a time that he could not escape. A dozen policemen, however, made a valiant fight and succeeded in saving his life. Such disturbances are not frequent.

It is pleasant to know that the work of Bible distribution has rapidly sown the seed of permanent growth. In Denver the evangelical Italian church is said to be the largest such church connected with the Methodist Episcopal denomination throughout the world, and this church was built up by the co-operation of home missionaries with the Bible Society's colporteurs. Mr. Sibilio, now the pastor of the Spring Street Church in New York City, was a colporteur of the American Bible Society in Denver. As little by little a group of Bible readers collected about him, his work was followed up by mission workers, with the result which has been mentioned. In Cincinnati and in Cleveland, Ohio, there are strong and influential Italian churches which have grown in the same way from the small groups of Bible readers, brought together by the colporteurs of the Bible Society. Dr. Kirkbride of Chicago, writing about his work in 1916 among the Italians, mentions Mr. Frank Malta, who was working at Kensington, Illinois, as a colporteur at the American Bible Society. The Reformed Church asked the Bible Society agent to allow Mr. Malta to give part of his time to work in their mission. From this labor sprang the Italian church at Kensington, Illinois, connected with the Reformed Church in the U. S. A., and making rapid growth.

Another case of the same character is the Italian Presbyterian Church at Hibbing, Minn., which grew out of the work of a colporteur of the American Bible Society, the Presbyterian Home Mission Board undertaking the work and following it up energetically. Another of the Bible Society's Italian colporteurs, Mr. Lizzi, is working at Virginia, Minn., with the prospect of a church of Italians being organized there very soon.