The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1907-06-07

HOL Do WITHOUT honor III In0lr 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
well 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-
ination maintains at Sendai, arising
at two and three o'clock in the morn
ing to deliver milk and newspapers.
There is a pronounced religious life
among the students; they have Y.
NJ. G. 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
pital, 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,
which has been in existence since
1886, is the largest and best equipped.
1t is run by three American young
women, with a staff of IA Japanese
teachers, and has 100 students. All
but two of the graduates of this
school have been Christians; and the
aggressiveness of the Christianity of
the undergraduate students is indicat-
ed by the fact that every week 20 diff
ferent Sunday schools are supplied
with workers by the school,
similar high religious standard is
maintained by the Baptist school,
which has so pupils and less preten-
tious buildings. The Methodist girls
school, with about 80 pupils, of whom
25 live in dormitory, is industrial in
character and does efficient work with
an equipment unequal to that of the
neighboring 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
condoling with young man who
wanted to marry one of her girls and
was trying to enlist her help 1 later
met the young man, and fine fellow
he seemed. He had seen the girl once
and she had seen him. She was will
ing, and he was extraordinary
lily 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 a girl really marries a
whole family, and her future happi-
ness is determined more by her hus-
bands relatives than by the latter
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 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 $50 children, some of them lit.
tie girls who were kept from being
sold into immoral lives, find home
under the care of Miss Frances E.
Phelps, Methodist Episcopal mis-
sionary who nobly represents Ameri-
cas- finest article of export-the cul-
tured, fine-spirited, self-sacrificing
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 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 veymin. The al.
teration 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
have ever heard them sung by a Sun
day school in America. On a slight
financial foundation this orphanage is
doing work of vast Importance,
which must commend itself to ones
sympathy and judgment, be he Hot
tentot, Bud dhist or Christian.
The Calmness of Despair.