The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-09-13


 family eats from one bowl. Often they
 trke the bowl out of doors and ea1 in the open.
 For fuel the Chinese save every
 blade of grass. straw, pine cone, leaf,
 whatever can be burned Wood is very scarce for there are few trees and they do not yet mine the coal.
 "On their farms they raise wheat sweet potatoes peanuts, apricots peaches. grapes apples tomatoes mil let and of course rice. Millet Is one of their staple foods The heads are large and they beat these out and cook the grains into mush. In visiting in the interior. I live principally on this. I carry my own sugar and condensed cream and salt, and with a bowl of eoiled millet l fare very well. Their salt is not refined and its taste is had. Another food they use exten- sively and one that we enjoy is per- simmons They are IS large as oranges and are delicious. We can get eggs and 1 chickens, we use American condensed cream and our butter comes from Swift zerland. The Chinese have cows, but they do not milk them, using them in- stead for draft animals. I have seen a COW. a horse. as mule and donkey Eltched together 10 cart. Transpor- | tation is an important and often a sert | ous feature of life in China. Roads are | rough. streams are often bridGeless | and carts are uncomfortable. Beside the carts they use a vehicle called a. \. ,'shentsi. which is somewhat on the or 1 der of a sedan chair only larger and Instead of having& man at either end with the poles on his shoulders they use horses donkeys The poles are laid on their backs without befng fas- tened and if one of them stumble the passenger finds himself on the ground in his cage-like vehicle. The driver who walks by the side rights the shentsi, extricates the passenger and IrepIaces it on the backs of his long Istffering animals.
 .This is the life of the poor. The rich are more comfortably situated. Their food and dress are better, and their houses are more habitable Some Of the rich have sewing machines, and trey are beginning to use mode modern things to some extent. They still bind the feet of the girls. The peasants do this, too, but they do not make them so exceedingly small as do the leisure class. for they know that their girls must be able to walk. In that case poverty is truly a blessing. The Chris tan schools refuse to take girls withs bound feet and as they want to send their daughters to these schools' this Irrle helps. Small feet are considered lindicative of wealth and leisure, and unbound feet the opposite. The rich are loath to give up the prestige given by the practice. and the poor try to Hollow the style. They look upon their lreligion in the same way It gives lthem caste It is difficult to reach the
 officials and the nobility with Chris l tan teaching for they are unwilling ltt, ieopardize their social position. It
 takes a great deal of courage to pro Ifcss Christianity in China. l mean TOT the natives to do so, abandoning thelr heather faith The wealthy Chinese lore invariably courteous to Christian teachers but they will not discuss re llieion nor allow the subject to be 1n- ltroduced if they can avoid it. We nave been shown the most faultless atten- ton in their homes, but 1t Is seldom lthat they are influenced by our teach linr American and English and Ger Imam doctors and medical missionaries have been able to help them profession Ially and that has won at least consid- eration of individuals among the up" lper class toward workers from other
 countries.
 .rTheir peculiarities and heir crudeness
 seem queer and in many ways unattrac-
 five hut when we think that they are
 human beings with souls and that worse
 than death is their lot unless somebody
 help them. and that we are that some l body then every other thought gives
 way to the one desire to help them. The
 hospital is the open sesame to reachlns
 them for they come for medical treatment l when they would not come othefWlse l They learn of the hospital perhaps from
 someone who has been cured, ana come
 to us We have had 5000 patients in the seven years that I have been there' ana have performed more than 300 opera lions. I have one graduate nurse and six native assistants.
 | Our work is in three departments Chsstian teaching, schools and the hos
 pital. The first and last are mine, but all three are closely connected. We nave | a religious service in the hospital at nine l each morning and that and the physical l relief we S4ye them often rave the wa. to | their becoming Christians. About 10 per cent of those entering the hospital De- | come Christians, and many of them aid 1 us with our work in their home villages. | Often they look upon oIr curing them 1 as a miracle. They come with all Kinds of diseases, and with the exposure and lack of nourishing food to which the poorer ones are subjected. 1t is hard for them to withstand disease. They have doctors of their own, but as rule they are worse than none, for their medicines and their treatment are barbarous- We have cases of foot binding where the | bones have grown into the flesh and there i is nothing to do but amputate the feet, and we have pitiful cases of children where the suffering could be avoided if | they only knew simple rules of health. Wheat harvest time iS the least busy season at the hospital for they are then | too busy in the fields to bring sick peo- | pie to the Pingtu from distant places. l Then I leave the nurse end my first as- 1 sistant in charge and go into the villages for miles around to preach. A pack mule carries my medicine case, bedding, food and usually native companion accom- | panies me.
 "One of these is Pastor Lee, who was a heather teacher and who has been con- verted and become native preacher Last year we had 1900 converts, in com missions in China. The schools help grounded in the heather religions, and GUS there than even where churches are established. In Pingtu province are 100 village or primary schools for boys and mediate school for boys and one for girls. These are boarding schools, and the pupils remain all the time On Sunday there Is religious service at the church, with which the girls school is connected and tend in a body. Boys go from their school | in the same way Mrs. Sears has charge of the girls school and MT. Emmett Stew ems of Georgia is at the head of the school | for boys. They have native assistants. Only six of the 40 boys are not Chris tians, and believe none if the girls are unconverted.
 "On one of the trips into the interior reached little schoolhouse and upon go- | ing in l found that it was a heathen | school fart rt.yat y,xr