Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1899-02-22
CHINESE WAYS AT SCHOOL.
Ch1idren Hang Their Copybooks OF
the Fence to Dry for Want Of
RlOtting Paper.

Chinese Ways at School. ..-Flory
1t is not improbable that of all theil
studies, the Acknowledged youngsters
OF China find writing the most enjoya.
Die. They use small brush instead
OF pen and daulb on the ink with q
taVIshness dear to the Juvenile heart
They write one letter over another
TILL the page is as black as a cooking
stove, and the copy books become sc
wet that it is necessary 10 hang them
over the fence to dry.
There are no public schools in
China, or, indeed, schoobhouses of any
kind. But the boys and girls of the
howery land repair 10 the house OF
their teacher to pursue their studies.
They do not sit upon the floor, as
Ut commonly supposed, for, although
they have NO school furniture, such
as is used IN this country, they are
provided with common chairs, upon
which they sit while studying. Dur
Ing recitation they stand around their
teacher.
long before reaching the school
room, visitors may hear the pupils
vociferously shouting their lessons
and making din, which is, to say
the least, confusion to one unaccus-
toned TO this method of study.
But when one realizes what an ar
duous task it is to learn ones A B C's
In China, it is no longer a matter of
surprise that studying aloud is per-
mftted. Think of commi tting to
memory 214 elementary characters.
(These characters take the place OF
our alphabet, for the Chinese Ian
guage has no alphabet like ours)
That is what THE Chinese boys and
girls must do, and that is only the
beginning of trouble, for these char
acters are grouped together to form
words, of which there are more than
$4,000 in the Monaghan language.
Moreover, some of these words have
40 different meanings, the significance
OF a word varying with its infection.
Another popularity of the Chinese
written language is that the begin
ming of a book corresponds to the end
OF one of ours, 50 that the pupil ap.
pears to US to begin at the end of the
Last line on tine last page, and to be
reading backward.
In Studying an arithmetic Chinese
pupils use the abacus, or counting ap.
pa'ratus, a frame strung with wires
On which are gayly-colored balls,
SUCH as we see in the primary schools
IN our country, and which we have
copied from the Chinese.
They do not study geography for
uhe reason that the Chinese think
there is no country besides their own
that is of any Importance.
On their maps China is represented
as occupying the greater part of the
earth; other countries being grouped
Ground the middle kingdom-as the
Chinese are accustomed to speak Of
their country, and made to appear
as significant as possible.
Girls and boys dress exactly alike,
except that the boys wear their hair
IN a pig'tail, while the girls have q
Iunmy little wisp on top of their
heads. In some parts of China it is
very cold, and, as the houses are not
warmed like ours in winter, the chill
dren-and grown people, too-keep
comfortable by putting one dress over
another till they are 50 bundled up
that they cam scarcely move.
Possibly this may seem very un-
comfortab bile way of keeping COM
Portable, but the Chinese little folks
are not given TO complaining.-Bos-
tom Herald.