Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1909-05-14

sections of the city where sailors arc
wont to resort. This reveals the side
Of Yokohama life which Jack Tar sees
wren he gets shore leave. Some
streets have lines of saloons and dives,
blazoned forth as "Ofd Glory Saloon
Red, White and Blue Saloon Amer
lean Sailors Resorts" The flags of
America, Britain and France are
AowH ostentatiously. The sailor is
! fair prey~for4 certain classes of ma
tives. He has money, and the orient
knows well the art of fattening on
such. Up in Toxic | met couple of
American sailors who explained their
presence there. with the. remark,
There is nothing doing in Yokohama
for man unless he is drinking hard"
For the sailors comfort the Ameri-
can Sea'men's Friend society main
tains mission in Yokohama, which
H$teRptC to care for the diversified
nesdE * Jack &sAOrs There is
reading room, a game room and an
auditorium, where entertainments are
given. A lodging house is maintained
and the missionary pays regular visits
to the warships that may be in port.
| This mission, however, is largely for
| the men of wars men For the COM
non rnHn before tke vast who is
as4e~e from the RSerchRnt vessels
! that crowd this harbor there is only
the Salvation Army ands.its rescue.
work. Here, as in .America, this or
/ ~anization does splendid sorvIce,g no
1 man being too low to be worthy of its
findly offices. s-e-a1e *
When Hawaii Helped Japan.
Other signs of the presence of mis-
| sion work here are to be seen on
many sides. In addition to the impos-
Ling edifces of the Roman Catholic and
Protestant Episcopal churches, there
are number of native church build
/ ings. The Oldest of these has a chapel
4 that was built nearly. 50 years ago by.
/ money sent from the native Chris
tians Of Hawaii for tia help of the
! heather Japanexe 1853
Up on the bluff, where mos Earo-
4 pean residents dwell, sne woYS have
! to shade his eyes to escape seeing the
large buildings of the mission schools.
! Most impressive, perhaps, is Ferris
seminary, of the Dutch Reformed
I church, although large institutions
are maintained, with literally equip
! ped class rooms and big dormitories,
! by the Presbyterians, Baptists and
! MethOdists. The Women's Missionary
! Union runs school for Bible women.
! The Baptists have an important theO-,
/ logical seminary. This educational
work of the missionaries is,-beyond
question creditable and a success.
! The schools are filed with girls from
/ all grades of japanese homes, and the
quality of the work d one is guaTan-
teed by the government, which will
not permit the maintenance of an in
efficient school. In addition to having
( received an education most of the
graduates have become Christians.
What They Say, of Missionaries.
From the foregoing it is plain that
the sweeping statement that nothing
is to be seen of missionaries or their
work in Yokohama is without fOunda-
ton. Just what those, best qualified to
speak think of the missionaries and
their work is another matter | have
been asking various types of Yokoha-
ma business men their opinion upon
this point. At the Yokohama United
club, which is the leading social or
ganization of the city, ! asked an Amer
lean whom l CHANGED to meet what
he thought of the missionaries. He
has been resident here for 80 years,
and, l later learned, is not a church
going man himself. He is a Missouri
an, plain and outspoken the, type of
man who says what he. thinks. d, His
opinion was as follows: "Oh, / think
the missionaries are all right. OF
course, | believe that missions are
business with them. 1t is their way
of making a living. Some few OF. them
are of no account, just as. there are
men in every other kind Of business,
in Yokohama or anywhere else, who
are of no account. Most of them are
men of real ability. l never heard a
whisper against the morality of any
of them. You will hear some people
say that they are rich, but that is all
nonsense. They do not live as well as
the business men here. One reason
that they do net go into ReciGtyyI sAS-
pose, is that they can't aAord it. AS
for th04r work, whatever. one thiA4a
of religion, there is 10 denying tlSt
their educational institutions are a
success
Another man said that the only def
mite criticism he had to make or had
heard made of the missionaries, was
against their tendency to sanctimoni-
BUSINESS and offishness. They are in
clined to draw apart from the other
foreigners in the community. He and
others with whom l talked made an
exception in the case of Rev. DR.. ]. L.
bearing, president of the Baptist
Theological Seminary upon the bluff,
who, it appears, mingles socially with
the leading European families and, /
take it, exercises considerable inf1u-
! ence over young Americans as well as
over the Japanese.
Summing up a number of inter-
views, 1 would say that the mission
airy is criticised most sweepingly by
I those who know practically nothing
of Yokohama outside of its foreign
hotels, and who. are not near enough
|
large number of Japanese Christians
in the city. There is manifest to the
most casual observer many evidences
of long established, important and sue
cessful missionary work in the city.
The simple fact that were it not for
the missionary, there would be no
Christian services here for the Ameri-
can community is itself of considera-
! BILE weight. To the missionary's char
| 2cter not a whisper of blame attaches