El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-01-15

. me If l would write him a new reader
or so especially adapted to the Chinese
market 1 replied that L was very busy,
and he thereupOn suggested that the
book could be written for me in their
office, and that 1 could revise it. But
in that case they would expect to pay
much less royalty. l told him such
proposition was out of the question,
but notwithstanding this he brought 1t
up again and again, and urged it upon
me at a Chinese dinner which he gave
me that night.
Among the other books in the ware
house 1 saw piles of Chinese English
dictionaries. They were in two vol
umeS, each as big as an ordinary table
Webster. They are practically a trans
lation of the Standard Dictionary, which
Is so largely used in the United States
They We're edited by DR.. Yam, who has
been connected with our legation in
Washington. The two volumes are wide
ly distributed; they sell for about So
III gold. Pocket dictionaries are also
printed, and a native law dictionary is
now IN press This will be sent out 10
the law schools which are now being
established at all the provincial CAPT
tails.
School Supplies.
After visiting the editors, 1 was taken
to another large building, which con-
tains curious brnch of this PUBLISH
ing house. 1t is devoted to school sup
plies, and makes everything from desks
to blowpipes for the chemical Iabora-
tories II manufactures pendUlums,
globes, indian clubs and dumbbells. The
dumbbells are cast from pig iron; they
are made in great quantities, and it is
intended they shall be used in all public
schools.
Every room Of this school book fac
tory Is lighted by electricity. and al.
are connected by a telephone system.
The machinery is uptodate, and on the
whole it shows one something of what
is going on in the new China
Mission School Books.
At present large proportion of the
new text books are printed upon the
mission presses The missionaries have
been at work in China for a century,
and they have established schools in
all parts of the country. They were
the authors of the first new text books,
and as teachers their graduates are now
IN demand. The american Presbyterian
mission press at Shanghai has been
pouring out volumes for number of
years at the rate of 100000 900 pages
per annum, and the consolidated mission
press of the American MethOdists has
also published numerous educational
works. The American Bible society
distributes between 500 600 and 900 900
VI lA4C SO4ApluACS III OliiIltSc
each year, and there is now a mission
educational association, supported by all
the Protestant sectS which is preparing
new text books for the schools. At
some Of the missionary stations they
are making school museums, including
such things as stuffed birds and ami
mails, mounted fishes. electrical ma
chimes, globes and model railways. They
have printed charts of the Chinese
provinces. with the principal industries
and resources marked upon them, and
have inaugurated new methods of
teaching the people Indeed, the work
which the missionaries have done can
not be overestimated and the situation
here just now is such that money spent
upon missions will return thousand
fold
Carnegie of China.
In this connection, a bright woman
clerk of the mission book store Of
Shanghai said to me today:
What China needs more than any
thing else is a system of circulating
libraries. which shall contain the sim
pier books of our mOderI literature in
GLIDING the scriptures. cOncordances and
the western classics. These people are
pining for the new learning; but they
are unspeakably poor and cannot af-
ford TO buy books. The Chinese women
want them In every community clubs
are already established. where the wom-
en- come together weekly or daily to
gossip and talk If they could have
such books they would be read aloud
at these meetings and a great educa-
tiOnal movement might thus be insti-
tuted. As to the Chinese translations.
they are cheap. The concordance OF
the scriptures costs less than 20 cents
gold, and there are few books of any
kind that sell as high as dollar