The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-03-17
A TALK ON CHINA.
INTERESTING MEETING OF THE
 WOMAN'S MISSIONARY SOCIETY
or Center Church Ladie. Held at Mrs. Thomas Hooker's-Mr.. sara T. Kim ney she Speaker ofshs Afternoon.

A pleasant company assembled at
 Mrs. Thomas Rockers yesterday after
 noon to listen to the able and interest ing paper by Mrs. Sara T. Kinney upon
 Social Conditions in China" The oc- casion was the regular meeting of the
 Woman's Missionary society of Center church.
 Mrs. Kinney began by saying that comparison between old and new GUS toms in China is practically impossible, for the reason that nothing new can be found with which to compare the old. China is nothing if not conservative, and nothing could be more foreign to her ideas of what is right and proper than innovation of any kind or degree. It is not possible to suppose that any, thing new every morning and fresh every evening can be desired or even tolerated by race which admits its fondness for eggs two hundred or more years old.
 The death rate among children is phenomenally large, fully one-half and perhaps even larger proportion dying under two years of age. This is due partly to the fact that from the day the CullQ C6dS6S lO AuISC iL 10 rAAlOWCo CAAAAl freedom in the choice of it's food Un- ripe fruits and raw vegetables are swallowed by babies yet in arms. Wee tots of children smoke tobacco and opi- um. Absence of all hygienic methods coupled with the ignorance and super stitions of the mothers, conspire to make the children easy victims of all sorts of infantile diseases. The daugh- ters of a family receive no education, and the earlier they are married the better pleased is the average Chinese parent. The boys, some of them at least, receive superficial education, and when one can write Chinese char acters rapidly, compose a poem and prepare an essay which is symmetrical in construction. and indicates a pretty thorough acquaintance with the given theme, he receives a strip of red paper literary graduate"
 Chinese students are not averse to certain practices which are familiar to some would-be students in other lands. Here we call it 'cribbing;;" in China it is known as the "box plan" or pad ding The education acquired by a literary graduate" is not of very practical character, but the right to wear the brass button gives him pres tige among his own people, and it is from his class, as we'll as from others higher up in the social scale, that gov ernment officials are chosen.
 Mrs. Kinney alluded to the war in the Far East, which, in her opinion, may not be confined to Russia and Japan. Western civilization will surely watch the writing on the wall and be ready to intervene when the time comes. War is a horror, and so Is a surgeons knife; but each in it's way is sometimes necessary for the eradica- tion of great and persistent evils. Every victory If I civilized nation over 3 pa- gan race leads to the opening tip of dark countries to commercial relations with other lands, to q regeneration of social customs and educational inter- ests, and such innovations are almost 1 followed by the opportunity for progressive Christian work.
 Two solos by Mrs. F. Q. Robbins were a delightful feature of the afternoons