It is quite a custom among the colored people to hold “Watch Night” meetings.  These meetings are largely attended and are full of fervor and interest.  Our “Watch-Night” was a very precious one—­it was held from 10 to 12 o’clock:  it was divided into four half-hour services, viz:  1—­Prayer and praise; 2—­Bible reading; 3—­Address by pastor, and 4—­A testimony meeting.  The last five minutes was spent in silent prayer, and at 12 o’clock, when the New Year was announced by booming of cannon and the ringing of bells throughout the city, we united in singing our song of New Year greeting, “What a Happy New Year,” while extending to one another the right hand of fellowship.  At the close of the service all present pledged themselves, by standing, to abstain from the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage during 1890.

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THE INDIANS.

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THE RAMONA SCHOOL.

BY DIST. SEC.  J.E.  ROY.

I had the pleasure, in Santa Fe, January 13th, of attending an entertainment given by the Ramona pupils in honor of Miss Platt, one of their teachers.  Gov.  Prince and his wife, and several of the citizens, were present as invited guests.  After the singing of several songs, and a statement made by Prof.  Elmore Chase, the Principal, fourteen of the scholars rendered, in the action of nature and the speaking of English, Mrs. Bentley’s dialogue, “The Old Year’s Vision and the New Year’s Message,” as found in the January number of The Youth’s Temperance Banner.  One of the large boys first came in as an old man, clad in a mantle and trembling on a staff, to repeat the “Old Year’s Vision.”  Then came in, one after another, a dozen boys and girls, to recite the greeting of the several months.  It was a temperance exhibit, and so each one had a testimony for that cause.  January, bearing a New Year’s card in hand, declared:  “I’ve promised that not a drop of wine shall touch these temperance lips of mine.”  February bore a fancy valentine, with an appropriate motto.  March lifted aloft a new kite, with “Kites may sail far up in the sky, but on strong drink I’ll never get high.”  July, bearing a flag and a bunch of fire-crackers, declares: 

“I tell you I mean to celebrate, with something that won’t intoxicate:”  while December resolves:  “No brandy fumes in my Christmas pie; no wine-sauce in my pudding, say I.”

Then comes in a beautiful maiden, clad in white and crowned with flowers, to be greeted by a chorus of voices:  “The king is dead; long live the queen!” and then to recite the “Message of the New Year.”