The morning journal-courier., 1908-11-09
IN 800 LANGU AGES The Bible Is Being Sold in Many Transactions More Than
 Ever Before.
DYING TONGUES PRESERVED
The Arabic Bible Was Difficult Task, the Result of Three Quarters of
 Century's Work,

AHcrlCans, more Bibles are sold and read and more money Is given for the work of the society than when every, body believed the Bible literally.
 Last New Year Mrs, Russell Sage of- fered the society s5000OO if 1t could raise an equal sum during the calendar year, The money is rolling In, and the society sees the million in hand by January l. The day after Mrs. Sages offer was made public a New York business man called up the office and said
 You can put me down for s50,00O if you won't give my name"
 couple of years ago another New York business man entered the office and said: T believe in the Bible, am also very much interested in the Mo hammedan races. I will give you piece of property If you will dedicate it to the end of time to the circulation of the Bible among the Mohammedan races The offer was accepted and the property. a New York office building worth si00,OO0 was turned over to the society.
 The distribution of the Bible to the inhabitants of the earth's surface Is practically work of the last century only. At the beginning of the nine teenth century the Bible existed in only fifty languages Today in round num- bers 1t exists in 500 The Bible went into moro languages during the nine teenth century than in the eighteen previous centuries.
 few weeks ago an item appeared in the papers to the effect that the American Bible society had completed the publication of the Bible In Chamor- TO, the chief language of the Island of Guam. Thus the natives got their first printed hook, their first alphabet, a written language and a literature all in one
 All over the world men are doing the same thing Scores of the worlds Ian guages have been supplied with an alphabet and written form by the transletors of the Bible.
 Last year, for instance the society printed a Bible for Pleasant Island. Few persons would know where to find Pleasant Island on the map. It Is a mere dot In the Pacific. 300 miles south of the Caroline Islands, with popula- ton of 1.boo; the sort of island one reads about In shipwreck stories
 For ten years one lone missionary and his wife have been living there He learned the language by ear and then set 1t on paper phonetically. Then he translated the New Testament into It. Then he begged and entreated the Bl- ble society to publish the Bible The society replied; We can't afford to publish the Bible In q language spok- en by only 1soo people,
 Then the tribe pledged itself to pay for the work If 1t could have time So the society sent the missionary print ing press and he and his native helpers set up and printed the work Then he sen; 1t to San Francisco, the society paid for binding It. and one more little South Sea island has a written lan- guage and literature.
 Phiiologists of the future will study extinct languages by means of these Bibles. Already 1t Is said that Name Matteo dc Turner's version of the Cos pels in ouichuea Ia the only key to the language of the Incas
 Americans have translated the Bible CT portions of it into thirty European tongues, forty-three Aslatic, eleven African. nine Oceanic and twelve American American women have made translations into fifteen lan- guages, the names of which are un- known to the educated public
 Tn many cases the Bible Is all tha. will preserve native American Ian. euages from extinction. Only last year the society published the four Gospels fin tho Winnebago tongue There are only 1000 Winnebagos left. Their chil dren are all learning to read English In another generation the tribe will b' extinct or asslmilated. But some on' offered to uay for the work for the sake of few old Indians who woult never learn to read English, and It wa done
 Two copies of the Gospels In the Sen ece language were sold within the pas wear; one in Arapahoe, four in Dakota fourteen in Mdskogee, twenty-five II Oiibway, one hundred and forty-slx 1T Cherokee and two hundred and forty two In Choctaw.
 Down fin Oklahoma the rich Indians the Cherokees and Choctaws, take racial pride in preserving their Ian euage from oblivion through the use 0 1t in their church life Although mos Of the adults read English now the. rrefer to use the Bibles in their triba tongues and only q few weeks ago letter reached the Bible house asklnl If A new edition of the Cherokee hyml book could not be got out uniform witt the Bible.
 A notable instance Of this tribal prid came within the past year in an orde to print the Creek Bible, the expense to be paid by the Creek Indians of Ok lahoma and some of their white neigh bors. Mrs. A. r. w. Robertson Con gregational missionary, made versio of the Scriptures in the Creek or Msk egee language. the labor of many years The order came to publish 1t after he death
 The board wrote "why do you go { such an expense as this when you children all read English? IL Is fool ish." The reply came back, We wan it as a. monument to Mrs, Robertso and the Creek language"
 One year after It's organization, f 1917. the society began the translation of the Gospels in to the Delaware an Mohawk tongues, In August 1908, a order came into the Bible hous from New York Indian fo a copy of that old Mohaw book
 1t ls a historical fact that in 1892, little party of Indians entered the cit