The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-27

neV. LIT. w. A. r. Martin, published by Doubleday, Page & Co, New York; $3.80; for sale at Judd's.
 Dr. Martins book, is without doubt, most important and valuable work regarding China of today and its past history. It will be readily agreed that Dr. Martin stands In the foremost rank as an interpreter of China and the Chinese to the Western mind. His knowledge of the country comes from residence of one-half century among the Chinese as an evangelist and teach CT and his keen powers of observation, his scholarship and literary ability have eminently fitted and equipped him for the production of the present vol ume which must rank as a standard work in its field of enquiry and re- search.
 Born in Livon1a, Indiana, in 1927, graduate of the Indiana State universi- ty and the Presbyterian Seminary at New Albany, he went out as mission ary to Ningpo in 1850, and has ever since been actively engaged, mostly among the Chinese, but partly also among their neighbors the Japanese, as an evangelist and teacher For thirty years he was president and pro- lessor of international law at Tung- Wen college, later he was president of the New Imperial University of China, which was broken up by the Boxer in surrection in 1900, and from 1902 to 1905 he was president of the University of hCK,4nboYo sc aour ;y, DakiY
 Dr. Martin has written many books emhodying his experiences and obser- vatiorls and his crowning work is "The Awakening of China"
 The historical portion is replete with interest but it is of international inter- est and importance in its confirmation and revelations as to the new China which is emerging from the old and the tremendous significance of the wonderful transformation which is in progress, a significance of vast import ance both to China itself and the West ern world.
 The book gives in compact form the history of China from it's earliest known period to the present day. It presents a vivid and accurate picture
 
 eighteen provinces Dr Martin has re- sided in or traveled extensively in more than one-half of them. A large part of this vast country he knows thorough ly T spent" says Dr. Martin, ten years at Ningpo and one year at Shanghai both on the southern sea- coast. At the northern capital l spent forty years; and l have recently passed three years at Wuchang on the banks of the Yang-tse- -Kiang, a special coign of vantage for the study of central China. While residing In the above mentioned foci it was my privilege to visit six other provinces (some of them more than once) thus gaining a per- sonal acquaintance with and gathering information at first hand in ten out of the eighteen"
 The most valuable and the most in teresting feature of Dr. Martins book, however, is his forecast of the future of China, built upon intimate knowl- edge of it's present conditions.
 China, as he describese it, is the the- ater of the greatest movement now taking place on the face of the globe. In comparison the agitation in Russia sinks into insigniticance, for the Chin ese movement is not political but social. Its object is not changed dynasty, nor a revolution in the form of govern ment, but, with higher aim and deeper motive, 1t promises nothing short of the complete renovation of the oldest, most populous and most conservative of em- pires.
 Dr. Martin says that more sweeping reforms have been decreed in China in the last five years since the failure of the Boxer movement, than in half a century by any other power saving only the Japanese. The Dowager Empress herself dropping her former conserva- tive and reactionary attitude, has come out boldly and decidedly for reforms. Taught by the failure of reaction on which she had staked her life and her throne, the Dowager has become con $ vert to the policy of progress. She has in fact, outstripped her nephew. Dur ing her lifetime she may be counted on to carry forward the cause she has ss ardently espoused. She grasps the reins with a firm hand and her cour- age is such that she does not hesitate to drive the chariot of state over many new and untried road She knows she can rely on the support of her viceroys-men of her own appointment She knows, too, that the spirit of re- form is abroad in the land, and that the heart of the people is with her.
 The Dowager Empress finds in Vice roy Chang a most efficient, able and enlightened agent for carrying out her new policy, and he acts with great sa- gacity and vigor. Viceroy Chang, look ing about for assistants in this work called in pr Martin to aid him, and Dr. Martin, speaking of Chang, says: During my forty years residence in the capital 1 had become well ae- uuainted with Chang's brilliant career but it is only within the last three ol four years that have had an oppor- tunity to study him in personal inter- course, having been called to preside over his university and to aid him ir other educational enterprises"
 Forty years ago Dr. Martin exhibited the Morse system to the astonishment of the dignitaries of Pekin, but they regarded it as a curiosity simply and impracticable for use in their country but today the telegraph is everywhere in use and the peoeple themselves begir to appreciate its importance and use fitness, The wireless telegraphy k also being used; electric bells are com mon in the homes of Chinese in for eign settlements and the telephone anG the trolley are being rapidly harnesset into service