The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-08
HARDEST OF
 MISSION WORK Coral Islands Form Worlds Worst Field. GASOLINE LAUNCHES NEEDED New Field Will Be Opened by
 Launches. Rev. Hiram Bingham, the Pioneer Mis- ,.sionary Died Just as He saw His Plans Completed for the Ex- ionary Died Just as He saw His
 Which he Left.

San Francisco. Nov. 1.-The depar- ture of the gasoline schooner Hirman Bingham was made the occasion Of rejoicing on the part of the Christian workers of the section that the man who would most have been gladdened by this demonstration, did not live to see carried out
 The staunch 60 foot vessel is bound for the Mlcronesian archipelago and bears thence the name of the mission ary who only recently died in Balti- more at the very time when he was nearest to the consumation Of his la bors. Rev. Hirman Bingham. most de- voted of churchmen under the Ameri- can Board and beloved of all those who labor in the North Pacific ocean, pass cd away just as the vessel was complet- ed. His station was in Honolulu and there he was born in 1881, eleven years after his parents had reached that point as pioneer mission workers
 Ever since his birth the name of Bingham has been an honored one in the great archipelago that includes the Caroline group, the Gilbert Is- lands whence come stories of canni- bals and. the Marshall Islands. tinier than any of the others, and like them showing above the water line little of the odd coral formation that spreads for miles below the ocean depths in that section. Forty-three degrees of latitude hardly cover the field over which the launch will have to travel as frequently as can make the jour ney.
 To places with such euphonistic names as Marakei Tapiteuea. Apaiang. Molwonlap. Pingelap, Ponape and Nonouiie. the so foot little schooner will sail when she can and run with the motor when the winds prove con trary. The only place with a familiar name where she will touch will be at Guam the one spot that, Americans know though 1t is almost the least of the places where the American Board Is laboring under tremendous dif1lcul- ties to carry the gospel. What these obstacles are may be gathered from the life of Dr. Bingham. After his education at Willlston Seminary, Yale and Andover Theological Seminary. he volunteered for service as a missionary of the Congregational Church with a request that he might work in the same quarter of the world as that where his parents had been. He was promptly assigned to the Caroline Is- lands and thence sent to the Gilbert group, where 1t was said no white man could live. He took with him a girl from Northampton. Mass. a, school teacher who as a missionary's bride A@-@ husband.
 They were confronted at once with the lack of a written language. It was necessary to have one that the Bible might be placed in the hands of the natives. Nine years later the work was three fourths done and Dr. Bingham's health was gone. He came to America on furlough. His people wept as they saw him leave. Two years later he went back to find his home and printing plant burned, the grave of his baby desecrated and the Gilbertese dictionary over which he had spent days of the hardest work stolen. He rebuilt the station, com piled another dictionary of 12.00O such simple language that the natives could understand them.
 The foundation was laid and others were sent to do the active work over which Dr. Bingham kept watch, A steam vessel, the Morning Star. con- veyed the missionaries from place to place but the cost of coal in the Mic ronesian archipelago Is so high as to make steam a luxury. Finally the ves- seI was put out of commission and the Micronesian field was cut asunder from itself. Rev. A. c. Walkup came to this country to interest the American Board in the necessity for another ves- sel and missionaries sent out by the Liebenziller Mission which has its headquarters near Stuttgart German. also tried to secure funds from their organization with which a ship might be chartered OF built.
 The Americans have won in the race as usual. Their serviceable craft is on the way. But these German workers have been doing a magnificent work. especially as Ponape. They are getting a grip on the natives. In midsummer two Pinglapers and one Malay Moh- ammedand were baptized and at Lone in the Kiti tribe, where the Catholics have a school. there is a Protestant school with 50 pupils. Describing these people further, Rev. Thomas Gray, said at the missionary conven- ton; "A native Ponapean came with us to this country. He is past 25 and resembles a Filipino. Last year he attended Washburn Academy where he was the only in the class who stood high enough to exempt from final ex- aminations. But his highest talents are musical. The ease with which he sings and reads music is remarkable. He Is skilled with both violin and or gan. He has translated more than 100 hymns. besides other literature-into his native language. In appearance, in mental equipment, in spirit, in aim Of ltte, ne presents stTlhlHB con- trast to his boyhood companions in Ponape today. There a cocoanut left fringe, long knife. body covered with tek and oil mind without vls- ion, hope or ambition. a spirit dark negative and gross; here, a neatly dressed American college boy leading trained voices in sacred cantata in stead of the weird in a heather dance; flooding a missionary convention with enthusiasm by singing The Kings Business. himself a volunteer intent upon making the kings business in a foreign land his life wark."
 Much good Is done by members of the phosphate company that control several islands for they have already built a church and give no little aid in stopping some of the demorlzing practises of the various tribes. Dances have led astray the people at Tapituea Apemama and Tarawa but native work CTS have reclaimed the people after such hard work. The greatest hope of the workers, however, lies in the aid that the phosphate companies may extend and to the credit of the men back of this enterprise 1t can be said that they are quite as anxious as are the church leaders to have the gospel passed throughout the archipel- ago. When civilization has gone. the natives have become tractable and seem deeply attached to the mission aries. Their condition of life Is hard
 oral islands on which they
 yhere thfV strive for suSten-