7 Sabbath schools number 290. There is only I unordained native Mexican preacher. Contributions for Christian work from the Mexican Christians amounted to $949 (Mexican), and for educational work $1,681 (Mexican).

The most noteworthy event of the Parral station has been the organization of a new church at Santa Barbara, where for several years regular services, with Sunday school and Christian Endeavor Society, have been held. This church started with 21 members by letter and 6 on confession of faith.

As both Mr. and Mrs. Wright have been necessarily absent from the station a good part of the year upon mission business, the touring has not been as extensive as usual, though Mr. Wright traveled about 1,110 miles on horseback during the five months he was in the field.

Within the limits of this field there are several thousand Tarahumare Indians and many Tepehuanes. They form the most inviting field for work, and the missionaries, watching for an opportunity to do something for them, hope to find support for this new work when the right moment for opening it shall appear.

Parral School, El Progreso.-The missionaries have had the aid of 5 teachers during the year. The number of pupils enrolled was 246, a few less than last year. Of this number 152 were in the regular department, 80 in the kindergarten, and 14 in the English department. Three-fourths of the pupils come from non-Protestant families. There has never been a year before when it has been so difficult to collect tuition, owing to poor financial conditions. The English department was continued until the middle of April, when it was closed on account of the illness of the teacher. The kindergarten, the only one in Parral, has had pupils from the most fanatical families in the town. A greater percentage of children in this department come from wellto-do families than do those in the advanced grades. Thirteen were graduated from the kindergarten. A class of 7 was graduated from the sixth-year class, two of whom will go to the Chihuahua school.

HERMOSILLO

This field has a population of 50,000, with I missionary family to direct the work. There were this year 6 native preachers, 3 of whom are supported by local funds and 5 of whom served only a part of the year. There are 20 outstations or places of regular meetings. The communicants numbered 279, 13 having been received on confession of faith during the year. The adherents numbered 772. Contributions by the congregations for self-support amounted to $828.

Though railroad building and modern movements bring many temptations, especially for the young people, the spiritual and moral standing is good in general.

It is especially important that the force of native workers be increased. Each one of the workers is in a different political district and in the main agricultural and business town of a separate, extensive valley. No two workers are within sixty miles of each other. The country is being traversed

by railroads; dams and canals are being put into the valley, where the rich, alluvial soil formerly lay dormant. The centers of our work are permanent. They reach a people of influence and of fixed residence. Not only will it be a populous section, but the people have been responsive to the gospel, and besides are trying to support the work and pastor. The whole field gives promise of self-support within the next few years, provided the proper men can be furnished. The opportunities of this field are rare.

EL FUERTE

This station, with a population of 50,000, has no resident missionary family, but is worked in connection with the Hermosillo station by a native pastor, Rev. J. J. Valencia. In this field there are 6 outstations. The adherents in the district number 150; the church has nearly 100 members, with an average attendance of 40. Two were received on confession of faith during the year. Native contributions amounted to $52.

Pastor Valencia has held regular services at different places, two and onehalf miles, sixteen miles, and forty miles distant from El Fuerte, respectively.

MISSION TO SPAIN

MADRID.—William H. Gulick, Ordained; Miss Anna F. Webb, Miss Mary L. Page, Miss May Morrison.

Associated with the mission, not under appointment.—Miss Elizabeth Huntington, Miss Elizabeth Parker, Miss Bertha Howland.

One station; 16 outstations; 1 ordained missionary; 4 single women; total American missionaries, 5; 4 ordained native pastors and 3 unordained; 24 Spanish teachers; I other native laborer; total native laborers, 32. There are 8 organized churches, with 301 communicants, of whom 36 were added by confession of faith during the year. There are 16 places of regular meeting: average attendance, 494, adherents, 1,510. The 21 Sunday schools have a membership of 1,014. The school for girls at Madrid has 47 boarding students and 19 day students, and the kindergarten 13. There are also 13 common schools, with 513 boys and 266 girls enrolled; night schools, 50 pupils; total number under Christian instruction in the mission, 908. Native contributions for the support of the work, $690; for education, including income of the boarding school, $6,574.

During the year the school of the Woman's Board in Madrid has enjoyed the services of the missionaries, Miss Webb, Miss Page, Miss Morrison, and Miss Bertha Howland, daughter of Rev. Mr. Howland, of the American Board's mission in Guadalajara, Mexico. These were ably assisted by Miss Elizabeth Huntington, of Norwich, Conn.; and Miss Elizabeth Parker, of Montclair, N. J., who had spent two years in the Philippine Islands as a teacher in the government schools, also gave valuable help through the academic year at her own charges.

Mr. Gulick in his report refers to the stay in Madrid of many Americans, professors, students, and others, men and women who have commended the

American name to the Spaniards by their abilities and attainments, and are widening the circle of friends of the Board in the United States. Special mention is made of the helpful visit of Mr. Charles H. Rutan, who is now president of the trustees of the International Institute for Girls in Spain. After referring to the two prominent events of the year, the war with Morocco and the outbreak of violence at Barcelona, Mr. Gulick says:

"It is a significant proof of the popular appreciation of the work, of the spirit in which it is done, and of the evangelical missions and churches in Spain, that at the time of these vengeful acts in Barcelona, when 48 churches and convents were destroyed in the space of two days, not one of the score and more of Protestant schools and chapels in the city was touched, nor even menaced. It is also to be noted that though some 300 lay schools since that eventful week have been closed by the government in the city and province of Barcelona, as centers of immoral and anti-patriotic teaching, up to this date not one of the evangelical schools has been touched.

"It has been interesting to note that during the past twelve months, when in many respects the government had reached a degree of religious reaction unknown in Spain for a long time, this very circumstance led to the union of nearly all the elements of opposition, both monarchical and republican, in a campaign throughout the country in the interest of liberal thought and action. Three or four of the most eloquent men of the country, who are the conspicuous leaders in both the political parties mentioned, for weeks devoted themselves to conferences and the delivering of discourses in all the important centers of the country. In these the rights of man to freedom of conscience and worship and a certain large liberty of speech were discussed in a manner that would have been acceptable to almost any popular audience in England or the United States. Of course it is well known that no very concrete results are likely to be produced by such a campaign, but it may unhesitatingly be said that such speeches and conferences could not fail in a certain degree to broaden and enlighten the public conscience on these great and fundamental questions. And it may unhesitatingly be said that the presence in the body. politic of the congregations and institutions, such as they are, of the evangelical community is the origin and the real motive of a large part of all the discussions on religious liberty. We are happy to say that the American Board, in the work which it has carried on for these well-nigh forty years in Spain, should receive no small share of the credit which attaches to the formation of the ever increasing healthful liberal sentiment in Spain."

The Woman's Board's School. This school has enjoyed a year of special prosperity. The two rented houses which have served as dormitory for faculty and students have been crowded to their utmost capacity. The domestic life has been happy, and though the conditions of the overcrowded premises have not been the most helpful for such results, the student life of the little community has been one of steady, cheerful, and productive work. A considerable part of those graduated become teachers in evangelical schools all over the country. There were 79 girls in the school during this year; of these 19 were church members, 4 of whom united on profession of faith during the

year. One of these girls was graduated from the highest course of the state normal school, and I from the Conservatory of Music; 3 received certificates for the commercial course, and 3 for other completed courses of work in the Woman's Board's school.

Christian Endeavor.-The administrative center of this society is in Madrid, and rests in the hands of the missionaries of the American Board. The monthly illustrated paper, Esfuerzo Cristiano, is printed in Madrid, and the officers of the societies have their center in the same place. The third national convention of the society was an event that marked an epoch, not only in this particular form of Christian work, but of evangelical life and labor throughout the country.

The convention enjoyed the presence of Dr. Clark, the president of the United Societies of Christian Endeavor, and Mrs. Clark through all its meetings, which were held in turn in all the different evangelical chapels of the city. Two evening meetings of a popular character were held in a large public hall, at which there were some 800 persons in attendance at each meeting. The grand rally was held in a theater accommodating about 1,500 people, which was filled with the Christian Endeavorers and members of the evangelical congregations of the neighborhood the last Sunday afternoon. It was a surprise and revelation to all that so large a number of evangelical Christians should be found in any one city in Spain, and undoubtedly this was the largest gathering of Protestants that has ever been held in Roman Catholic Spain.

Madrid. Mr. Gulick finds opportunities without number for serving in connection with the evangelical work in this city. The faculty of the Woman's Board school forms an important group in three of the evangelical congregations in the city.

Special mention is made of the presence of Rev. Dr. Charles Drees, of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States, who has been laboring in Mexico and the Argentine Republic, Porto Rico, and elsewhere, and who by his personal presence and most effective discourses gave a new impulse to the work as he toured with Mr. Gulick through the several towns of Spain. They visited Santander, where they found good congregations, though a large number of the people were absent, as was their wont during the summer months. The Sunday school here ordinarily numbers 200. At Bilbao Dr. Drees found a congregation from which had gone forth many emigrants to the Argentine Republic, where he had had personal superintendence of them. The preacher, Don José Marques, a man of strong character, faith, and great activity, who for thirty-three successive years has had a place in our annual report, has recently died. At San Sebastian Dr. Drees greatly interested the congregation in reporting the good work done by members of this church, who on emigrating to the Argentine Republic were very helpful in the evangelical work in that distant land. Visits were also made at Logroño, Pradejón, and Zaragoza.

In concluding his report Mr. Gulick speaks of his own and of Dr. Drees's convictions that Providence is now indicating that a great change and a

glorious future may be anticipated in Spain, and urges that a new and more carefully considered plan of campaign in the interests of Spain should be undertaken at once.

The Normal and Preparatory School for Spanish Girls.-The report of this school is prepared by Miss Webb, though she was for a portion of the year absent on furlough in America, during which absence Miss Morrison acted as directora. During the year Miss Winger and Miss Cooper have been sorely missed from the ranks of the faculty, but Miss Page has returned with recovered health, to the great joy of her associates. Two other American ladies have joined the mission, Miss Bertha Howland and Miss Elizabeth Huntington, besides Miss Elizabeth Parker, who has come as a voluntary helper. There have been 47 boarding pupils, 19 day pupils, and 13 in the kindergarten, a total of 79. An important matter has been the development of the commercial course, which serves admirably to prepare the girls for self-support in the future. The examinations in the government institutions have been passed successfully by the students. The normal department has two grades, the "elementary" and the "superior." The day pupils in the school have increased greatly ever since the institution was transferred to Madrid. Almost all the older girls in the school are church members, and 4 have been received on confession of faith the past year.

AUSTRIAN MISSION

PRAGUE.-Albert W. Clark, D.D., John S. Porter, Ordained; Mrs. Ruth E. Clark, Mrs. Lizzie L. Porter.

One station; 2 ordained missionaries; 2 wives of missionaries; 29 churches; 77 places for regular preaching: 1,913 adult members, 191 added on confession of faith during the year; 5,970 adherents; 22 Sunday schools, with 729 pupils; 15 Bible classes for adults; 16 ordained preachers, and 10 unordained preachers, evangelists, and helpers; 2 Bible-women; 25 societies connected with our churches, among them Young Men's Christian Associations, Christian Endeavor and temperance societies. Contributions of` people, 36,000 crowns ($7,200), or an average of about 18.80 crowns ($3.76) per member.

Two hundred years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth this field of Bohemia and Moravia was a stronghold of Protestantism under such leaders as Huss and Jerome, but in 1620 a terrible persecution crushed evangelical Christianity almost out of existence, and the "year that marked a new era of freedom in America sounded the death knell of religious liberty for Bohemia." New light and life, however, began again to gain admittance in 1872. Since then the work has slowly gathered headway, even though thousands upon thousands of the Bohemians have caught the "American fever" and settled in Chicago, Cleveland, and other cities here.

The church which started about thirty-five years ago in the home of Dr. Clark, in Prague, with 26 members, now has nearly 300, and is the mother of 23 other churches, each with its Sunday school, and several showing various forms of Christian activity. They reached self-support in 1894,