The San Francisco call., 1898-02-06

house to propitiate the evil spirits. As he had been an attendant at our meet ings, the wife of a missionary visited him a few days previous to his death, | and the rumor soon spread that she | had hoped to obtain his eyes and heart with which to make medicine.
 "A married missionary had a board floor laid some two feet above the damp cement one of his house. The Chinese looked at the proceeding with suspi- cion, saying He tells us he has but ona wife. He has several, and has built this place in which to conceal them
 Pathetic as well as ludicrous inci- dents occur where converts try to emu late the spirit of the missionaries. One poor girl had received as a present from her brother a string of 200 cash, whose whole value in American coin would be but 10 cents. She immediately brought it to the president of a mis- sion, supported by prosperous Presby- terian board, telling him as she had heard him remark that his society at home were in need of funds. she had brought the string of cash, hoping he would at once send it to the relief of his people in America.
 "As the accent determines the mean ing of many Chinese words, missonar- ies who possess but small knowledge of the language often make laughable mistakes. A newly arrived mission arys wife once told me that she had ordered her cook to make a cake, put ting two eggs into it. He seemed much amused and her husband hastened to explain that wrongly accented, her order had conveyed the idea that a cake was to be made containing two girls.
 And a New York worker 1aughingly told the story of the sermon about the Lord in Heaven. Now, tshu, may mean either Lord or pig, according to the accent, and unfortunately the mission ary had given the wrong accent. At the sermons close member of the congregation. who afterward became a jealous Bible woman, soberly informed him that she should do her best to reach that place. so filled with pigs, as she was very fond of pork.
 The lot of the Chinese woman of the lower classes is a hard one, but to those afflicted with blindness it is in many cases most deplorable, for she is considered burden to her family and treated with great contempt anA cruelty So far as possible the mis-N sionaries try to alleviate their condi- tion of suffering by purchasing blind girls and rearing them at the missions to lives of peace and usefulness.
 For many years the prevalence of blindness among the Chinese has been a matter of some surprise. So com mon is it among the lower classes that it seems like a natural affiiction of the race, due to degeneracy. Miss Os- trom has made a careful study of this strange affliction and finds that it is due to natural causes and can be pre- vented if the mothers could only be made to understand the cause.
 It is a common practice among the women of the lower classes to carry their babies on their backs, much af- ter the fashion of the American h. dians. But instead of carrying the babe with it's head looking back from the mother, as the Indians do, they reverse the child and place it so that it's face is up against it's mothers neck. If the child would remain that way all would be well. But it doesn't. As soon as it becomes tired the poor little things head drops back so that it gazes at the sky. If the sun hap pens to be shining 1t beats into the child's eyes, and the fact causes no concern to the parent. who will often leave it in that position for hours. The result is that the intense heat soon destroys the childs sense of vision
 Miss Ostrom, while admitting the many discouraging circumstances at tending her work, speaks of it with enthusiasm. She intends, if possible, to model her industrial schools In the south of China after those established for the same race of people upon the Hawaiian Islands, where the venture has proved eminently successful.