The Carlisle independent., 1907-12-19

has overshadowed all else. Fourteen weekly Bible classes for young wom- en. 12 in English, one in Singhalese and one in Portuguese, are main tained In Colombo alone. The re- fined. 1nnprofessional atmosphere Of the Young Women's Christian associa. tion work comments it in peculiar manner.
 Dusky Salvation Army Lassies.
 Like. and yet unlike, home are the native Salvation Army lassies, in the familiar red waist and wearing the nickel shield badge, whom one meets in Ceylon. They do not, however, wear the hideous poke bonnet, but, like all native women here, go bare headed. In travelling into the interior one finds them at almost every station offering, with the melting smiles that make all Singhalese women attractive, a subscription book, in lieu of the War Cry" The report is that very good work is done by the Salvation Army among the lower classes of na. tives.
 Caste obtains here, as in India, and is a barrier to religious work. The schools do more than little to over come it. While these articles are confined to American and Canadian missions, the excellent work done by the many British societies is met witb at every turn. Most of the missions that dot Ceylon are British; it is to their praise that there is very little criticism of missions here, and most of that is mere echo of the prejudice against missions which exists in the world of travel. The educational side of missionary service has been em- phasized; there is less need for medi- cal missions than in some other lands. This is British crown colony, and the government maintains a system of medical dispensaries, these being, by the way, a development of medical missions The only two missionary hospitals in Ceylon are maintained by the American board at Jaffna.
 It is claimed that "Indias coral strand is really at Jaffna. northern Ceylon, where the coral formation is extensive Probably that had nothing to do with the planting at Jaffna, 90 years ago, of the American boards second oldest mission. This mission, the only strictly American one on the island, was established in 1926, and it has maintained successful existence ever since.
 The oldest mission school for girls is at Jaffna, having been in continuous existence since 1923. It now has 200 girls in dormitory. The students are chiefly high caste natives, as are most of the Christians, and recently nota- ble victory has been won by the mis. sionaries in requiring the high caste pupils to associate closely, on basis of equality in all things, with a num- Der of low caste students who have been admitted. In the school there are no caste lines whatever. Despite this fact, and despite the fact that the school is strongly Christian in charac- ter, nine-tenths of its pupils becoming members of the church, high-caste, heather Hindu parents continue to send their daughters, paying higher tuition than elsewhere.
 Jaffna district has Protestant pop ulation of 4,499, of whom half belong to the American mission, the other be. ing divided among several English missions There are 27,161 Roman Catholics in 1,265 square miles. The whole population is 300,S51. The American mission, when all it's work CTS are in the field, has force of IA missionaries, IS churches, 10 ordained pastors, 23 unordained catechists, 39 Bible women, 5 higher educational in- stitutions, 12S lower schools, and l industrial school.
 Copyright, by Joseph B. Bowles.)