The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1907-06-07

tory, collegiate and theological depart
ments The staff of teachers number
20, seven of whom are Americans,
with DR.. Schneider at their head. /
was particularly struck with the
strength of Paul l.. Gerhard and Will
liam G. Sciple, Phi. D., the latter a
Johns Hopkins man whose hobby is
archaeology. Likewise, Miss Weidner,
Miss Powell and Miss Zurfluk, of the
girls school, impressed me as being
teachers and executives who would
not be without honor in their own
country. All that the government
schools teach, and more, is given in
the Tohoku Gakuin, the students of
which, like those of the former, are
exempted from military service The
| vigorous athletics of the Japanese, as
| we'll as baseball and other American
games, form part of the physical
training. Many of the students sup
port themselves, working and living in
the Industrial home which the denom-
nation maintains at Sendai, arising
| at TWO and three o'clock in the morn
ing to deliver milk and newspapers.
lhere is pronounced religious life
among the students; they have a Y.
M. c. A., and hold student prayer
meetings on the roof of the college
tower; they do evangelistic work in
the country, teach in Sunday schools,
etc. One OF them was my interpreter
when l was called upon to make an
address to the Manchurian veterans
and other soldiers in the military hos
pltal, and he certainly was a self-pos-
sessed, free and forceful speaker.
Making the Most of Miss Japan.
Japan's newly awakened interest in
the education of women affords the
missionaries an opportunity for work
that reaches far. There are three
schools for girls in Sendai, maintained
by American churches. AS already
said, that of the Reformed church,
winch has been in existence since
1886, is the largest and best equipped.
1t is run by three American young
women, with staff of ii Japanese
teachers, and has 100 students. All
but two of the graduates of this
school have been Christians; and the
aSgresslveness of the Christianity of
! the undergraduate students is indicat-
ed by the fact that every week 20 diff
lerent Sunday schools are supplied
with workers by the school,
A similar high religious standard is
maintained by the Baptist school,
which has so pupils and less preten-
tlous buildings. The Methodist girls
school. with about so pupils, of whom
20 live in dormitory, is industrial in
character and does efficient work with
an equipment unequal to that of the
nelghboring, schools.
The Missionary as Matrimonial Agent.
When calling at the Baptist school
| was at first unable to see Miss Buzz
zelle, the principal, as she was busy
condollng with young man who
wanted to marry one of her girls and
was trying to enlist her help I later
met the young man, and a fine fellow
he seemed. He had seen the girl once
and she had seen him. She was will
ing, and he was eager-extraordina
lly so, as such matters go in Japan.
But his family felt that the girls So
cial position was not equal to his.
though they finally consented to the
match. Thereupon the girls family,
its pride aroused, refused to let her
| marry the man; and inasmuch as in
this country girl really marries
whole family, and her future happi-
ness is determined more by her hus-
bands relatives than by the latter
himself, Miss Buzzelle thought the de-
cision wise and declined to intervene
for the ardent sutton. A measure of
this sort of responsibility goes with
the principalship of a girls school, al
ways, of course, with the cooperation
of the family. The graduates are de-
sired as wives, first of all by the Japa-
nese preachers and Christians. An in
creasing number of educated men, not
Christians, are selecting mission
school wives, although the teachers
rather discourage the girls from mar
rying any but Christian men.
Caring for Famine Orphans.
Most appealing to me of all the
sights of Sendai was the orphanage
which is an outgrowth of the famine.
Here ESQ children, some of them lit
tie girls who were kept from being
sold into immoral lives, find a home
under the care of Miss Frances E.
Phelps, a Methodist Episcopal mis-
sionary who nobly represents Ameri-
cas- finest article of export-the cul-
tured, fine-spirited, self-sacrifcing
women who have given their lives to
what they consider the worlds high
est welfare. Miss Phelps mothers"
this great company of children, ran
ging in age from two or three years
to thirteen or fourteen, many of them
orphans only because abandoned by
their parents during the famine.
They are a healthy, merry lot, al
though when rescued there were only
two who were free from the dreadful
eye trouble so common among the
poor of Japan, and all were covered
with rags, filth and vermin The al.
iteration in their appearance within
these few months is no more marked
than their development along other
lines. They sing the Christian hymns.
in wide variety, more heartily than I
have ever heard them sung by Sun
day school in America. On slight
financial foundation this orphanage is
doing a work of vast Importance.
which must commend itself to ones
sympathy and judgment, be he Hot
tentot, Buddhist or Christian.