The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1914-04-22

do to keep her from giving them out
| dergarten children do not live very
close to US so they have not annoyed
us and they have certainly taken
great pleasure in them. The Sunday
after Christmas the sermon was pun
tuated by an occasional "chick," but
there are so many greater disturb
ances in China that "clicker' doesn't
disturb ones equanimity in the least!
Yours with much love.
Mamie F.. Glassburner.
Hal Tang, China,
March -, 1914.
Our Dear Friends: Our Christmas
time is over. and since you contrib
uted SO much to it's joy and perfec-
ton we want you to know all about
it, or at least as much as we can put
into a letter. The missionary Chris
mas is of long duration, lasting from
the time the first box or parcel ar
rives until the last DAY school parcel
is distributed.
This year our first box reached US
early in September. 1t was in SO
many ways an ideal box and our
friends so often say, please tell us
something definite that we can do"
that l am going to describe its con-
tents somewhat in detail. In the
first place there was not a square
inch Of waste space in the whole box
for the packing WAS calico. Bingham
and worsted scraps gathered from
many piece bag" They have been
put to many different uses, but most
of them are being used for baby quilts
for the children of our pastors, teach
ers and bible women. However, the
packing was the smallest part of the
box. There were yards and yards of
pretty calico and Bingham, dainty
modest patterns that would delight
the heart OF any little girl in the
home land, and do you know that
Chinese girls have tastes remarkably
like those of American girls? There
were hundreds OF bars of soap, for
the enterprising young women who
planned the box had taken her mer-
chant friends into her confidence and
they had secured sample" bars from
the travelling statesmen OF their &C
Quaintance. Soap is such boon in
this land of filth and squalor. There
was a wealth of Sunday school pic
ture cards and old post cards for our
Sunday school and day school work.
There were scrap books for the kin
dergarten and dozens OF handkerchiefs
for students and workers. There was
a box of old ribbons carefully fresh
ened for our school girls and a few
pieces of new ribbon for brides, SEN
iors, etc. There were percale and pins,
Safety" common brass and hair pins,
just plain wire ones. This is not
nearly all, but it will give You some
idea of what gold mine of a box it
was, and of the satisfaction with
which we put it away, feeling that
our Christmas was fairly well start
ed.
Following close upon this came our
parcels. Great big fat parcels for the
day schools and smaller, thinner ones
for the individual pupils in the girls
and woman's school. There were
two or three parcels containing dolls
which we are especially happy to re-
ceive, and one containing dozens of
red and blue bandannas Every one
was full of interest to us, and every
one deepened our Christmas joy and
they kept right on coming to the very
last.
A few nights before Christmas, be-
hind carefully locked doors and cur
.ained windows, we got out our treas
ilres and began to prepare our gifts.
If only you could have been here
to have helped US make UP our
bundles. We felt rich indeed to have
piece of calico, handkerchief, a
hair ribbon and bar of soap for
each girl. There were dolls too for
the tiniest girls and for our three
seniors. The day school bundles con-
tanned a bright piece CT cloth for each
pupils with cloth, soap and pretty
picture for the teacher. The dis
tinctive feature of the bible women's
bundles was gay Powered cretonne
bag for her bible and hymn book,
while it was in the preachers bundles
that the bandannas shown to greatest
advantage. In all we planned a
Christmas for about 500 people and
by far the greater part of our plans
were made possible by the bounty
of our friends at home.
On Christmas eve we sent the girls
to bed early and locked ourselves into
the chapel to work on our Christmas
tree. Surely no prettier tree ever
graced any chapel or parlor than this
pine from our own Hal Lang hills,
draped in tinsel and ablaze with
candles, which were lighted as the
chapel doors were opened in the early
morning and our girls and women
filed in slowly circling the tree and
singing Jesus the Light of the
World Would that you might have
seen their faces. 1t was certainly a
moment full of the deepest and rich
- 81, fo, uh0 hoi praporn1 tho