New-York tribune., 1912-01-21

with sympathy for the suffering. are OF
fering their services as nurses and doc
tors. Or Yame Kin. famous as the fore
most Chinese doctor, graduate or the
Woman's Medical College. OF Baltimore, Is
at the head OF the relief work. earning
for herself the title OF the Chinese Flor
ence Nightingale" Five hundred young
Chinese schoolgirls from the missions Of
fered their services TO the army as war
riors. and, this being refused. they COM
promised by being nurses. This again is
an action which cannot be rated as the
same thing IL would be in America, for
among the Chinese nursing is regarded as
very menial occupation. only the low
Hest Of the social classes have engaged in
IL before. but these young girls are from
the finest families-families which have
money and intelligence enough 10 send
their daughters to mission schools. En-
thusiasm for freedom and the principles
OF democracy which these maidens have
drunk IN unconsciously through contact
with Western minds have impelled them
at this crisis 10 leave their comfortable
homes and defy all social conventions.
The women who have to stay at home
are not idle, either. They are making
clothes, bandages and no doubt comfort
bags" for their soldier lads and raising
money In all the devious ways they can
learn from their Western teachers.
Here in New York a group OF young
Chinese women recently produced a play
which netted several hundred dollars for
the sufferers from the war In China. The
play was written and managed by Miss
hn a of Aa L. ba
niece OF Ii Hung Chang Having been
closely allied with the old regime In China.
Miss Chang says little about the war. bur
her friends in New York say that this is
not at all from indifference to the welfare
OF her country.
1t is the searchlight OF to-day which has
shown up the Chinese new woman as she
really Is; yet. had the world cared to look.
several little things might have been seen
Of late years which would have softened
the present blow. In 1906 Mrs. Chang, OF
Peking. founded and edited a newspaper
for women. The news, written in colo
quial Mandarin, is simply written. easy for
the untutored mind TO understand, yet its
scope Is worthy Of the most substantial
mouthpiece of society. It would seem. from
the description of this influential sheet" in
Margaret f. Burton's book on THE Educa-
tion OF Women in China:
Significant also are the newspaper lect-
ures," when women OF all classes assemble
TO hear the papers read and to listen to
supplementary lectures on Love Of Coun-
try" Opium" "Footbinding." "Geogra-
ply" and Domestic Science" Women
who cannot read. themselves. throng to
these lectures and to the public meetings
called by the revolutionary leaders. and
eagerly pick up all the scraps OF learning
they can.
The spirit of the suffragette is abroad in
the land, too. In the anti-opium crusade
many women who could not convert their
spouses by argument of the evil effects Of
the poppy stole their cherished supplies
and carried them to the public sQuASes,
where they were burned, with enthusiasm.
Women-in China, this is. where no re-
spectacle female ever appears In public
marched in parades to protest against the
loan negotiated by the government with the
British for the railroad. an act which loyal
Chinese felt was jeopardizing the financial
independence OF the country. Moreover,
the women knew why they were marchingl
Some of the feminine patriots are so long
headed that they are deliberately training
up their children to be saviours OF their
country. feeling that the task will not be
accomplished by the present generation.
Several have moved over TO Japan, where
the air is full of revolutionary ideas and
where the children escape tho depressing
conventional society of China.
But the most remarkable performance Of
all Is that OF the woman who has sent her
sons to an American aviation school, there
10 learn TO pilot an airship over the camp
OF the enemy in the warfare which she
thinks will last for yet many year The
army of her country is To have the adj
vantage of all modern appliances of war
fare. even though II cost her her sons and
n son is the soul of a Chinese woman-till
she adopts Q national cause.