Morning journal and courier., 1890-01-29

From the Philadelphia Record.1
The initiative and retentive powers of the
Chinese mind have long been proverbial, and
they are but rarely questioned, but kind
hearted lady who undertook to base her eff
forts to educate young Chinaman upon
those faculties had her long established be-
lief badly shattered. There are a score or
more Of ladies of means and leisure in this
city who are greatly devoted to the cause of
the Chinese, and they devote large share
of their time to efforts to educate and Chris
tianize the heathen sons of the Celestial en-
pire who find their way to this city. A Mrs.
Brownie, who lives in West Philadelphia, is
one of the latest additions to this CORPS of
philsuthropic ladies, and her first effort was
an experiment in teaching the English lan-
guage by method of her own devising.
Her pupil was bright looking young Chi
naman named Wing Shuen Lee.
To carry out her plan of teaching English
in object lessons, Mrs. Brownie took young
Lee out to the Geological Gardens, thinking
that his interest in the animals would be
sufficient to fassen in his memory what she
might desire to say about them. This is'the
"Ying, this is an elephant, the largest land
animal" ~. At sqS sts.4r
eyes. Lelephant. He heap big"
s'This is q camel from Arabia. He can 60
many dsyswithout' water"
n eyes. Camel can go long 'thoat water" !"
"Here is monkey. The monkey lives in
a tree and swings BY his tail. a4of
MONKEY heap tail and lib In tree"
"Now, Ying, that animal in the water Is .
sesl His skin makes nice cloak"
Gum. He sleal. Him make belly good
coat"
"And this is a COW. She is tame and gives
milk; and this is hen. The hen lays eggs" !"
This kind of antiphonal service was conduc-
ted by Mrs. Brownie until abe had gone the
rounds of the garden. Meeting Head Keeper
Byrne on the way, she introduced Wing Lee
to him, and told the Chinaman that he
watched all the animals and saw that they
were properly fed and cared for. Then she
sat down and endeavored to draw from her
pupil the information she had impaired to
him.
CHOW, Ying," she began, ''can you tell
me what an elephant isa"
After a moment Of reflection Wing replied,
with q thoughtful air: "Lelephant-he lit
tie animal, heap long tail; climb trees,
guess"
Mrs. Brownie kindly corrected Ying's Err
roneous impressions about the elephant and
started anew with her catechism.
"You know what COW is, don't you,
Ying?"
"He-he-he gif eggs and swim watera" was
the halting query of the Chinaman.
"No, no, mol" impatiently interrupted his
instructor, and then she sifted out of his
head his mixed idea of the seal, hen and
COW. Then, with some misgiving, she pro-
ceeded:
"Do you remember Mr.. Byrnea"
"Oh! yes. We know him. He com frome
'Rabia and dlink belly little water" The
Chinaman gave this answer with look of
supreme triumph, but poor Mrs. Brownie
hesitated between laughing and crying.
Finally concluding to do neither, she wearily
restored Mr.. Byrnes character in Yingis
mind and with all the courage she could
muster she tried over again.
"The hen, Wing. Do you remember what
I told you about the hens"
Wing did not answer at once, but buried
himself In thought for two minutes and
then began:
s'I know him hen. He heap big, gif milk.
He haf one tail front, one tail back. He"
But Mrs. Brownie did not wait for any
further revelations concerning the hen. She
led Wing away from the garden, and as they
passed out through the gate the ticket seller
heard the Chinaman innocentIy ask: "Him
monkey libe in water or lay eggs, Miss
Blownlee?'