The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-08-27
BRYAN's NEW BOOK IS OUT.
Written in Defence of Western CIyi
 fxaft0n


 fzntf0n.
 book from the pen of William Jennings Bryan, which has been heralded for sssne time. has been sent into the market by it's publishers this morning. It is a tiny volume entitled Letters to a Chinese Official" and constituting reply to the clever criticism of Occidental life and ideals published anonymously about three years ago under the title of Letters from Chinese Official" not aware that the author of the book was not a Chfnaman, but c. Loves Dickerson a welf-known English writer on philosophical and sociological subjects. At the time of its appearance. the book impressed Mir Bryan strongly. Now he says in the preface to his own volume:
 Never having visited China and never having acquainted myself with Chinese philosophy. the absurdity of his contrast between Chinese life and American life was not apparent Now that I have had an op- portunity to test his description by personal observations. feel that a reply is due to him well as required from us, for the hostility manifested In China toward Ameri- can ideals is evidently founded upon the l same misconception of our purpose which which his little book, If 1t has been trans lated into Chinese, would naturally encour- age.
 In the seven chapters comprised fin the volume that has just appeared-all of which were written on shipboard during Mir. Bryan's trin that Is now drawing to a close-the author deals successiyely with the overrating of our own; the folly of the Chinese policy of isolation the merits of 
 ment, and Western homes; tine right of the Western nations to regard themselves as having admission in the world, and, final ly, Christianity versus Confueianism. Of the tone and the style of the reply, this passage from the second chapter may serve as an illustration:
 In a progressive civilization there are constant changes in legislation; the running stream is seldom straight but its waters are far more pure than the waters of the pool hemmed in by ehangeless boundaries. We have poor, and an increasing part of the energy of society Is being directed to- wards both prevention and alleviation, and yet we are not so poor but what there is so much room beneath the lowest strata that Chinese workmen will cross an ocean to occupy it. We have our drunkards. but we also have our temperance societies and laws permitting each community to regulate or prohibit the sale of liquor. We have our iDcompetents, our aged, and our sick and while they do not ride us like a nightmare" they 50 appeal to our sym pathies that our land is dotted with hos pitals, homes and retreats where these re- ceive care and attention. Is 1t possible that you have never visited these institutions, of them by religious societies, and others by private philanthropy? On, having seen them, did they make no impression upon youf Have you never visited the asylums for tho insane, to be found in every State and In all the Western countries, the schools for the blind, the schools for the deaf and the homes for the friendless? Have you never compared our prisons with your own and noted our more humane methods of treat ment and the greater efforts for the re- form of the crimnalf