a temple, and replacing them with tables, chairs, and other furniture for a modern school. Even the girls and young women are being provided for, whereas formerly they could get an education only in mission schools. In 1906 the viceroy of Nanking sent four Chinese women to Wellesley College to be educated, this being the first instance of the government of China sending women abroad to be educated.

Of course, official action in itself could operate but slowly if the people held back; but this is not the case in modern China. The people there are hungry for knowledge; and as soon as they learn something themselves, they are eager to pass it on to others. One of our workers, visiting some villages in the interior, was surprised to find the children in one village fairly well versed in the Scriptures. They knew the leading Bible characters, and could answer many questions correctly. This was the more strange because all the women and most of the men were illiterate. Where, then, had these children learned to read? They were asked if they had a school or chapel. The answer was in the negative. Where, then, did you learn these things?" There was a man in the village, reported one of the boys, who taught the children for a little while every evening.

66

The missionary sought out this self-appointed teacher, and found that he was a farmer living in a little mud-brick house with a straw roof and no floor. He was a poor man, too, and had to pay a high rent for the field he tilled; but every day, when the evening meal was finished, he gathered about him his own children and others who were free to come, and gave them a short lesson. The big rice sieve, turned bottom up over a grain basket, formed the table around which the children clustered, while the humble farmer taught them the intricacies of the Chinese alphabet. First they would recite in concert, naming the new characters after their teacher. Afterward each child would take a turn in reading by himself, the teacher giving him necessary help. After a few words in explanation of what had been read, the school was closed, and the table became a rice sieve again. Then the farmer would say: "Come, children, we must work the harder now to make up for the time spent in reading." And the children would go to their work with the same eagerness as to the reading.

Our school work in China has been carried on largely with the most primitive facilities, in low, dark houses with mud walls and thatched roofs. The students sit on narrow benches without backs, but they get their lessons. The quarters for the

boarding students are small and cramped. The Bible is the chief textbook. The elements of arithmetic, geography, and physiology are also taught. The girls learn to sew, and some schools are provided with a knitting machine and appliances for other lines of industrial work.

In our schools we have the children of Sabbath keepers, both boys and girls, and brighter children it would be hard to find. We have the parents, too, for hardly a quarter of the male population of China can read, and among the women not one in a thousand recognizes the written characters. But they are all eager to learn. Then we have children and adults who have not yet embraced the Adventist views, but are anxious to learn to read, that they may study the Bible for themselves.

In addition to these elementary schools, mostly of a local character, there was opened in Honan, in the fall of 1909, the China Union Mission Training School. The faculty consisted of Dr. H. W. Miller, principal, Miss Pauline Schilberg, assistant, and two Chinese teachers. The attendance at the beginning was twenty-eight. Dr. Miller's health having failed, he was compelled to return to the States in the spring of 1911, and F. A. Allum took charge of the school.

The revolution which started in the fall of 1911 put a stop. to the school work for the time being, and when conditions in the interior quieted down in the spring of 1912, it was felt that the quarters provided were so cramped and unsuitable for carrying on school work that it would be better to wait until the fall of 1912, and then open the school in the place where we planned to secure a permanent site for the institution. It was decided that Nanking would best serve the interests of the field. Quarters were accordingly rented there, and the school opened October 8 with an attendance of about fifty young men. Later this training work was carried on by the Shanghai Missionary College. In 1925 it was moved to Nanking, where suitable buildings have been provided for permanent educational work.

The Medical Work

Our medical work, as indicated in a preceding chapter, began in Honan, one of the central provinces of China. Honan is a vast, fertile plain, supporting a population of 35,000,000, with an average of 500 persons to the square mile. The inhabitants are for the most part farmers and small merchants. For a long time bitterly hostile to the foreigner, these people are today fully in accord with the new spirit which is actuating

China generally, and welcome the teachings of the missionary. Previous to the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, Honan did not have a single mile of railway, and only a few of the larger cities were provided with post offices. Now there are in the province hundreds of miles of railroad, including a trunk line from north to south, and another from east to west; while every city and town of importance has regular mail service. Moreover, manufacturing enterprises, such as modern cloth weaving, glass making, and the like, are springing up on every side; rich coal deposits are being opened, and new economic conditions are arising in consequence.

Nevertheless in all matters concerned with hygiene and sanitation the densest ignorance prevails. Surgery as practised by the native physician is barbarous. The suffering of the Chinese women in cases of difficult childbirth is beyond description. Bound by their crude superstitions, the people believe that angry gods and evil spirits are the chief cause of disease; hence the treatment applied is some form of sorcery, and includes puncturing with needles, blistering, cauterizing, and all manner of cruel, useless, and dangerous methods.

Owing to lack of proper hospital facilities, our physicians have been obliged to confine their efforts largely to those diseases which yield quickly to treatment. In the dispensaries in Honan alone, they have saved the lives of hundreds of persons who had taken poisonous doses of opium with intent to commit suicide. As a general rule, these poor people do not come back to thank their rescuers, not because they are naturally unthankful, but because their lot in life is so hard that they really wish to die. The majority of these victims of hard circumstances are women.

It is difficult for a foreigner to appreciate the situation of the Chinese woman. She never has a home as we understand it. As a child she is considered to belong, not to her parents, but to the home of the boy to whom she is engaged. And on her wedding day she is sent weeping away from all she has known and loved, to that which is unknown and dreaded. She is more than fortunate if her mother-in-law treats her with consideration. Her husband is not supposed to speak to her for the first few days, and except among Christians, he rarely learns to love her. The home is dark and gloomy, often including cattle among its inmates. The walls of the best room present nothing more cheerful than hideous images. There is no outlet for the smoke of the cookstove, and the bare earth floor is cold and damp. Even in the coldest winter weather there is

no cheerful fireside, but only a pan of coals buried in ashes over which the feet may be warmed.

In such home surroundings the Chinese woman enters upon her life of monotonous toil. There will be few moments of leisure for her. She must pick the cotton, spin the thread, weave the cloth, and make the garments for the household. She must cook the food, grinding the flour herself, and often she must go to the field to help gather in the crops.

Where the missionaries come closest to these women, and perhaps help them the most, is at the dispensary; but even here. their gross ignorance and superstition stand in the way. If a woman musters up courage enough to come to the mission for relief, her neighbors get together and discuss the case. They say, if she takes the foreigner's medicine, she will have to eat their doctrine also. Cr they declare that receiving the treatments will make her childless, or that she will die within a hundred days, etc. Nevertheless, some of the women do come, and in so doing find relief from much unnecessary suffering.

The Publishing Work

In 1905 a small printing office was opened by Dr. H. W. Miller in Shangtsai, Honan, and a monthly paper, the Fuh Yin Hsuen Pao (Gospel Herald), began to appear. A few tracts, a hymn book, and some small schoolbooks for primary work were also issued. In March, 1907, the printing office was moved to Sinyang, also in the province of Honan, a suitable building being erected to receive it. The printing work was suspended during the major portion of 1907 and 1908, while Dr. Miller was taking a furlough in the States.

At a meeting of the China Mission committee held early in 1908, the publishing interests received further consideration, and it was decided to sell the printing office in Honan, and establish the publishing work and mission headquarters at Shanghai, where Dr. Miller took up his residence on his return from America.

Literature has from the first proved an effective means of reaching the Chinese, who are eminently a reading people, and have the highest respect for the printed page. To be sure, the problem is somewhat complicated when one remembers not only that the Chinese language is extremely difficult to master, but that there are many dialects to reckon with. China has a written language (the so-called "classical ") which is understood by all the educated classes throughout the country. The Mandarin,

or official language, is understood by approximately three hundred million people. In addition to the Mandarin, there is the Amoy dialect, which is spoken by more than twelve million persons; the Cantonese, spoken by twenty million; the ShanghaiSoochow, spoken by twenty million, and understood by fortyfour million. The Shanghai dialect is spoken within a radius inland of about 120 miles of Shanghai. The Hakkas, living in the province of Kwangtung, are believed to number from eight

to ten million, and near them are the five million who speak the Swatow dialect, somewhat resembling the Amoyese. There are also five million Mongols, about that number of Ningpos, three million Hainanese, and three to five million Tibetans, included in this complex language problem.

In order to reach all the people, we need some literature in all these various languages. Nevertheless, we are already reaching, through our monthly paper in the Mandarin and classical, representative people in all parts of China. At present we have a goodly number of pamphlets and tracts and a few illustrated books in the classical tongue. Books and pamphlets have also been issued in the Mandarin tongue. Besides these there are pamphlets in the Cantonese, and a song book in the Shanghai dialect. Our paper, the Shi Djao Yueh Bao (Signs of the Times) comes out monthly in both the Mandarin and the classical language, the combined monthly edition exceeding fifty thousand copies.