Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-11-22
JOHN AND HIS TEACHER.
Cool Chinamen and Pretty Girls at Sun
 day School.

Cool Chinamen and Pretty Girls at Sum
 day School.
 The Sunday school room of Dr. Deems Church of the Strangers is on Mercer street, backing up against the church itself, which fronts on Winthrop place. It is large, airy room on the second floor. The services are held in the morning. In the afternoon the room is given up to Chinamen and young ladies. The ladies teach the Chinamen to speak and read English, and as soon as they can understand enough they inculcate the principles of Christianity. It is f1ourishing school. On pleasant afternoons it is filled to overdowing, and the mingling of the soft English accents of the teachers with the gruff but melodious jargon of the Celestials forms an unintelligible murmur as musical as it is odd.
 The eye also has its curious treat Each Chinaman has his own teacher They sit in pairs all over the room, bending over the same book or slate. The unshapely and often coarse blue tunic of the Chinamen con- trasts oddly with the trim figure and tailor made suit of the teacher. The guadily enl- broidered Chinese shoe looks the more wooden and ungainly beside the neat, tiny foot that peeps from under the teachers skirts. The Chinamens pigtail, rudely wound about the back of his head, apparently dis torting its shape, often brushes against the flowers and feathers of that dream which the teacher calls her best hat. The most curious of all contrast is when the pretty features of the American girl, her peachy skin, eager, winning smile, and laughing, bright eyes, approach close to the yellow, wrinkled | face, impassive gaze, almond eyes, and dis | torted grin of the Chinaman. Long looked at the effect is little bewildering. There is no missionary labor that requires | so much tact and patience as managing 0 | Chinese school. Chinamen won't be taught l in classes Each one wants his own teacher | In the second place, Chinamen don't like male teachers. Men overawe them, and, be- sides, they have an eye for beauty They | like pretty girls, and won't pay much atten- l tion to any others. Teaching Chinamen is not the field for homely girl, no matter how great her missionary zeal may be. To see that each Chinaman has the teacher of his choice is the hard duty that Superinten- dent Krug tackled. He carried book with 1 all the Chinamens names in it and the favor ite teacher opposite. He approached the 1 corner near the door. Every seat was filled | with Chinamen.
 It makes no differenc@how long a China | man has attended Sunday school, how we'll he knows his brother scholars and his teach CTS, or how familiar he is with the place and | its surroundings, he Is at once overcome with modesty the moment he enters the door. | There are no more self conscious creatures than Chinamen, and this it is that makes at once the charm and difficulty of teaching them. They arc never eager, but always grateful. They never take ofense, but are sensitive to the faintest appearance of g slight They are like house dogs in their do cilitv and affection but like children in sen stiveness. The work of teaching them can not bo carried along successfully by the aver age man. Men, conscious of their kindlines: of intention often offend unknowingly by brusqueness. Teaching Chinamen is womans natural mission field. Her sensitive nature is quick to read the delicacies of the China mans temperament, and her tact easily en ables her to avoid the rocks and quicksand
 on the road to his confdence-NewY Yorl Sun