Omaha daily bee., 1910-04-01
Some Things You Want to Know
The American Oriental Society.

Few learned societies IN America may
boast a record 20 flied with useful achieve
uents as The American Oriental society
which holds It's annual meeting At John
Hopkins university in Baltimore today and
tomorrow. The society was founded In
Boston in Is42 by the learned John Pick
ering and a few Of his fellow scholars
II was Incorporated by the Massachusetts
legislature for the purpose Of the culu-
walton Of learning in the Asiatio. African
and Polynesisn languages" The journals
Of the society testify that the organization
has fulfilled the purpose Of its foundation
10 a degree far beyond what John Pick
sring cou'd have hoped.
The incumbent president of the society
ls the Rev. Or. william Hayes ward
editor OF The Independent and one Of the
most eminent Orentalists now living. He
was the director OF the Wolfe expedition to
Babylonia which was concerned with the
finding and translation Of inscriptions writ
ten In a language. the very existence OF
which was unknown 10 the founders Of
the American Oriental society. THE great
progress made during the sixty-eight years
II the socistv's existence Is forcibly IL
luttrnted not only by the successful recon
struction OF dead Oriental languages, but
by the wonderful spread Of knowledge con-
csrning the living speeches Of the orient
When the society was years Old, in
1876 It already had become an institution
OF more than nationwide interest and
Importance. The roster of its membership
in that year includes the names Of three
great American missionaries. who. in their
respective fields. accomplished more than
any other agencies in bringing together
the east and the west one was Hiram
Bingham, the Apostle to the South seas
who had carried Christianity to the Hawai-
ians and other Polynesian peoples. He mad
given the islanders Of the South seas al
phabets and printing presses and had con-
verted their spoken dialects into orderly
and grammatical written languages. An
other was Adonlram Judson, a missionary
in Burma, who was practically the father
OF the modern educational movement in
Farther India 1t was Judson who invited
the scholars Of the world to a consideration
Of the living languages OF those interest
ing buffer nations which separate the
Indian and Chinese civilizations The third
was HeNeT fhTheTi lns plOneeT HalbhlOlATN
at Canton. II was Parker who brought to
the attention Of American scholars the
vast storehouse Of philosophy. poetry and
history comprised in the Chinese classics.
Parker and his associates, together with
Parker's Chinese students, were largely
responsible for Commodore Perrys success
in opening up Japan.
The last annual address OF the first presl-
dent Of this society, delivered shortly be
fore his death, is a striking Illustration
Of the ignorance of even the most eminent
scholars Of that day concerning Japan, and
oil things Japanese. That was seven years
before the American naval expedition per-
suaded the shotgun OF Yeddo to establish
communications with the outside world.
Mr.. Pickering in his last address sought
to correct the popular prevailing impress
sion that the Japanese written language
was the same as the Chinese. although the
spoken language was quite different. He
said that IT had been lately discovered
that the Japanese language was written by
the use of a syllable alphabet, entirely diff
ferent from the ideoEraphic system Of
Chinese writing. Last year Count okuma
formerly prime minister OF Japan, and one
of the elder statesmen, presented 10 the
American Oriental society through DIR.
Kan-Ichi Asakawa, a japanese vtlo is a
professor in Yale university, complete
set Of japanese printing types. These
consist OF the Chinese telegraph charac-
ters, together with the Japanese syllable
alphabet. which is used in Japan In con-
nection with the Chinese written language
as a system Of diacritical marks. The
Japanese language is now familiar to
thousands of Americans, and it's literature
has long since yielded UP all its treasures
to the readers OF English The Japan
whose language was unknown even TO
great scholars sixty-eight years ago, is the
same Japan which today is looked upon as
probable martial rival OF the United
States.
In the year 1876, when Pickerings last
address was delivered, he announced TO
the society the then recent discovery by
Major Henry Rawlinson of key to the
dead and unknown languages OF Meso-
potamie Since that time the cuneiform in
scriptions have become the common prop
erty of all scholars, and every high school
boy and girl IN the United States is IA
mlliar with their appearance and has been
possessed OF translations which have
brought to modern America the codes OF
are to be divided between the saengerfest