The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-26
TRAINING NATIVES FOR WORK IN CHINA An Effort to Christianize That
 Empire SOME LARGE AMBITIONS Religious Educational Work Carried On Among the Chinese In New York-Rem arkabIe Spread
 of English Language.
SOME LARGE AMBITIONS

New York. January 25.-The word eChnamen' when used in New York commonly brings to mind at once pie ture of dark, twisting Doyers street and the yellow angle of Chinatown formed by Mott and Pell streets, just west of Chatham Square. It carries with 1t also ideas of opium smoking, of mysterious Oriental joss houses, the cacopnony of Chinese theatres, of fan tan games, mur- derous Tong feuds, restaurants with strange dishes and much rice and tea, and a general smell of starch and bluing. And yet, of the 5000 Chinamen who live in this city. fully 10.J probably never enter the quarter" except to buy the ingredients of chop suey and yakiman and the star fruit and lyches preserves which are to be hal only at the tiny butcher shops and from the pig-tailed green grocers in this district. Except for these occasional shopping trips, these men are to be found night and day and during the week at the laundries or res taurants where they work sometimes ls hours out of the "A. But on Sundays, to find them one must go to the Chris tian churches or the F Chinese Sunday
  found, dressed for the most part in well fitting American garb and wearing short hair instead of the pig tail.
 If the plans of the Rev. Hule Kin superintendent of the Presbyterian mis- sion to the Chinese in New York, ma terialzes, 1t will not be long before these studious Chinamen will also be found In a s10o,000 building provided to non-sec, farian Christian influences, which Will provide for the Chinese the social and educational advantages common in the Y M c. A. buildings. This building will also solve the hotel problem for re- spectable Chinamen who visit the city, and now have no cheap and thoroughly comfortable hostelry where they are not the subject of disconcerting scrutiny by other guests, and where they can obtain food such as they are used to eating.
 While this work of Christianizing New York Chinese is carried on as local mission by the several churches which have entered the field. it's objective IS the making of Christian nation out or China with it's 4S2, ,0000OO people. Accord ing to MT. Kin, the work in New York ,s having a wide effect in the Far East The 1000 students in the Sunday schools are for the most part Chinese who have come to this country to make money ana then return to China to live. AS 1t nap pens any one who can teach Engnsn fin China is at premium and has no difficulty in getting pupils and in start ing school. In fact, Chinaman who simply knows the English Az, B. C's will be reoustioned as teacher in some of the towns far inland, while those who really can speak and write the English language are in demand as teachers in the government schools. An instance or this is Joe Lee. graduate of New forK university. who developed such com 1f oil ch American competitors he won second place in the Sandman oration contests. MT. Lee has 1ust been called back to China to take highly paid leadership in a government school at Canton.
 So remarkable has been the spread Of our language In China that MT Kin is of the opinion that English has fair chance to become the common language of the country Many Chinamen speak this tongue which they have learned from their residence In American and Australian and other English speaking coun- tries which are more frequented by Chi nese than are those where other European languages prevail. Moreover, the Cnlnese are beginning to use English in talking to men from other provinces. The dia- lects in China are so widely different that a man from Pekin cannot understand the talk of a man from Canton or Shanghai As result English affords conven- lent medium of speech, and the Cnlnese are beginning to study it in many towns of inland China. Moreover, a knowledge of English. especially written English has great commercial value for Chi nese clerk and is also useful for those who act as guides to travellers.
 The opportunity to learn English is, according to Mr. Kin, the magnet which attracts the heather to the Sunday schools, and the workers are very glad to have them come with this object as they think 1t Is too much to expect a Chinaman to enter a class primarily to be converted to belief of which he knows nothing. The Chinese learn more than the language in a Sunday school, however as is instanced by the fact that some 40 Chinamen in the school operated by the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian church have become com municants. Of these,' many have re- turned to China to found Christian schools in their native villages, and one. at least, went back to become a martyr to his belief 9th hers have moved from New York; and it is a significant thing. the teachers say, that on Communion Sunday they will travel