The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1907-12-26
THE FOREIGN MAIL BAG.
THE MEN TAKING HOLD.

| THE MIN TAKING HOLD.
Last spring the people living on the
Pacific Coast decided that it would be
a good plan to have a grand exposition
at Seattle in 1909, in order to exploit
the resources of the countries border
ing upon the Pacific Ocean, and to
bring them into closer commercial re.
lations. Seattle, with population of
about 100000, promptly subscribed
S650,000 in single day for the further
anoe of the project. American capital
and American push are never lacking
when the people are really convinced
that thing is worth doing. Some
thing analogous to this took place re-
Gently in the city of TorOno, Canada,
! when body of Christian laymen de-
cided to increase the offering of their
churches to missionary purposes from
! Sl41 900 to 100000. This action was
(! taken at what is known as the Laymen's
Missionary Movement, which started
just a year ago and is spreading all over
! the country. Three other Canadian
cities, also Topeka, Kansas, and St.
! Joseph, Missouri, took similar action
! within two weeks of each other. The
| aggregate increase agreed upon by
i these six cities exceeds half a million
i, dollars. This is the more significant
! coming at time when the money mar
ket is so greatly disturbed. About a
dozen of these interdenominational
mass meetings have been held in CO.'S
! mopolitan centers the last six weeks,
| and men say that their eyes have been
opened to new view of the real mean
F.; ing of life. The leaders are men Of
| high standing in the commercial world.
/ Their headquarters are at l Madison
Avenue, New York City. The spirit
| of enterprise which has projected the
Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, in
| volving an expenditure of 10000, 600,
| has evidently taken hold of Christian
] men for the nobler purpose of giving an
! impetus to religious and philanthropic
! efforts in non Christian lands.
THE PLUCKY JAPANESE.
Brief telegraphic reports of disasters
| in Japan give only faint idea of the
situation there. Decimated by war
and struggling under burden of debt
the island empire has also suffered this
year from a series of fires, floods and
earthquakes that would overwhelm a
less plucky people. Because they are
| SO brave and accomplishing we little
realize the actual condition Last May
a big fire nearly swept Sapporo off the
map. In August Hadodate i'll the
same vicinity was almost entirely de-
stroyed. The dwelling of every for
| eigner except that of the United State s
consul, Mr.. King, was burned. His
house was filled up with about 40 for
eigners and over 100 japanese. For
three days it was impossible to get food.
The telegraph poles were all burned
and so communication was cut Off from
the main island for time. An eye
| witness said, 1T was scene of desOla-
ton such as | hope never to see again.
The flames, whipped to fury by a vio-
lent gale, licked up the wooden struc-
lures like finder. In six hours nearly
10000 buildings were RACED to the
ground and $4,000 people left without
shelter" Yet they have accepted the
| situation with splendid courage, max
ing no public appeal for help, The lit
tie Christian community lost four ou-
of their five churches. What a fine
thing it would be if Americans would
surprise these plucky japanese with a
| Christmas gift of money to rebuild
these churches! 1t would do more to
promote peace between the two nations
than all the treaties thai ever were
drafted. If any one wishes to play this
role of Santa Claus money can be sent
through the treasurer of the American
Board, Mr.. Frank H. Wiggin, IA
Beacon street, Boston, Mass.
BURIED IN OORFA."
Years ago one of the brightest pu-
pills in the Normal School at South
birmingham, Mass, started for the
interior of Turkey, where, as some
said, she ''buried" herself in the an
| cient city of Oorfa, midway between
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This
bright pupil, Miss Corianna Shuttuck,
is now a middle-aged woman, and it
would be difficult to find a more active,
| more progressive, or happier person in
| the sultan'S whole domains. During
the years of her "buriap she has man.
| aged to establish educational and in
dustrial plants which are an amaze
ment to the few travellers who ever
penetrate to that remote part of the
world. Among other things she has
started four shops in the city where
the Armenian orphan boys are taught
to be carpenters, cabinet-makers,
smiths, tailors, and shoemakers. The
work is done between school hours and
during the evening, thus combining
manual and mental training after the
most approved modern methods. The
superior workmanship in the iron shop
! has brought the patronage of the OWL
ers of large rug factory in Oorfa who
/ had been obliged to send to Aleppo,
! five days distant, whenever their ma
chinery needed repairs. One farm
boy has recently returned from Mar
ash where he spent a year studying
, with an Armenian graduate of an
| American agricultural college. Now,
with pair of good work horses, he
/ says he is "busy turning up the soil
/ that never saw the sun BEFORE" and
so preparing for better fields year
i hence. He has two American plows,
cultivatOr and a seed-sower. What
would Abraham have said to such i'm
plements! This is a fair sample of
what foreign missions are doing in in
dustrial education. OF course the pu-
pills in these mission schools are des-
! perately poor and it is practical Chris
/ tianity to fit them for self-support.
The American Board is the only mis-
sionary society at work in Central
/ Turkey where Miss Shattuck has spent
her life usefully and happily, buried
in teaching hundreds of girls and boys,
and in conducting this large business
enterprise.
(AcT0PIA