The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-01-09
Students OF the Dosisha Celebrate the
Fall of Port Arthur.

BOSTON, Jan. 9, 1S95.-The following
letter from Rev. NJ. Lafayette Gordon.
M. d., DID,. has been received by the
officials of the American Board of Com
nlissioners for Foreign Missions of Con-
sregational Churches, giving an account
of the way in which the students of the
Doshisha celebrated the capture of Port
Arthur from the Chinese. The Doshisha,
to which reference is made. is a Christ
ian Japanese university, founded by
having 800 students Nearly all of its
leading teachers are Christians. Mission
aries of the American Board are mem
bers of its faculty. DR.. Gordon writes as
follows
anticipating the early fall of Port Ar
thur, the school began weeks ago to make
preparations to celebrate the victory. Ar
rangements were made with newspaper
correspondent in Hiroshima, the chief
headquarters, to send US an early tele-
gram, and so when it came Saturday
evening we had almost the first, if
not the very first, news of the victory
that reached Kyoto. Soon after dark,
after a vigorous ringing of the college
bell, the students turned out in full force
with flags, red lanterns, and a band of
music, that had been improvised during
the week. The girls school was first
visited. and the girls sang very finely
the National hymn Kimiga yo. Then
we marched through the park to the
South gate of the old palace, where the
same was played by the band. Thence we
went through the principal streets of the
city,, stopping before the residences of
several of our trustees 1t was very
interesting and exciting time Just as
we got fairly into the city the newsboys,
OF xttaer newsmen, were starting out
with the newspaper extras announcing
hats, or on each shoulder, and as they
went darting along were greeted with
loud cheers by our boys.
THE people by this time began to real
ize what had happened and greeted us
with clapping of hands and shouts of
''Banzai!'' The students sang-if we may
call 1t singing-nearly all the time an
number It was full of the catchwords
Of the war:-"Tenno He ika BanZap'
dong live the EMPEROR "Kagayaku
Asahi'' (the. shining morning SUM, "Foyo
etc. The tune didn't amount to much,
but the rythm was strongly marked
One man would sing a line. then. the
others WOulQ sing 1t aIter MIN. lnGlr
voices were pretty well gone before the
circle of the city had been completed.
AS you know, lack of patriotism Is one
of the fashionable charges made against
Christians and Christian schools. This
explains why particular satisfaction Is
taken in the fact that ours was the first
demonstration in honor of the victory,
and probably the most striking one ever
made by a school in the city. There is
no doubt but that the hearts of the peo-
pie are very deeply engaged in this war.
and it brings vividly before ones mind
the scenes of our own war thirty years
ago. One cannot help noticing differ
ences, however. Here thousands and
thousands of coolies are enlisted merely
to work. Here the large army cores
ponds to our regulars; there are no volun
teers at all. Then. of course, this not
being civil war; and the seat of 1t
being in foreign lands, the people know
very, little of it practically. Then there
is a careful censorship of the press. No
thing IS allowed which the Government
Inspector does not approve. Unfavorahle
news Is. as rule, suppressed. Happily
there has been very little of this. Some
times we have received war news by
way of London.
The successes of Japan are not hard
to explain. The first cause is an intense
patriotism which makes them a unit
OF this China seems to have very little.
The next is through preparation. l think
the Japanese army is more thoroughly
drilled than our regulars are, that is,
there is more individal drill.''