Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-11-13
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Other Personals On Page .
TAKING UP WORK
IN CHINA SCHOOL
Mrs. Gordon Poteat and Donald
Carruthers Write of Daily
Life at Peking

Letters have been received this
week, dated Oct. 10, from Mr.. and
Mrs. Gordon Poteat and Donald Car
ruthers who left here in August for
Peking, China. MIR. and Mrs. Poteat
are spending this year studying the
Chinese lang<iage preparatory for their
missionary work at kaifeng. Mrs.
Poteat writes We've had one week
of language study. There are two or
three hours of class work each morn
ing-the afternoon can be used with
your individual teacher. Most of the
class work is done by Chinese men
with a few English speaking Ameri-
cans, now and then. We spend about
three hours a day with a Chinese
teacher here at home, who helps us
pronounce, teaches us to write and
tries to talk to us. 1t seems like a
very slow process, but is not so diff
cult to pronounce as l had expected.
The difficult thing is the tones---you
say the same sound with either OF
four tones and YOU have a different
word-drop your voice, raise it. curl,
and just let it come. They surely are
patient in listening to us struggle.
They have asked us to sing in the
Mr.. Carruthers, who has charge of
the Princeton work in the Peking Y.
Nj. c. A., writes: To-day is the an
niversary of the foundation of the re-
public Ohird anniversary, l believe)
and the whole city is decorated with
| flags of the republic. There is GER
tain interest in this anniversary for 1t
looks as if it might be the last. Ru-
mors are everywhere abroad in the
Capital that they plan to institute the
monarchy about January /. They are
! to take a popular vote as to the
wishes of the people on this matter
and it is quite probable that they will
favor a return to he old regime.
Masses Are UneduCated
When one considers that but one in
twenty in all of China can read, it be-
! comes quite evident that to form a
republic of intelligent, honest and
conscientious citizens is very difficult
indeed. I'm quite sure we Americans
have q special concern in seeing the
republic continue as it is. | believe
we associate our idea of what our own
republic means to us with the Chinese
scheme of government We forget
that the constituency of the Chinese
republic cannot be compared to the
majority of our own educated and re-
|sponsible voters at home. They say
i here that Yuan is the only man who
] can tOnLTOl Cnllla ClIlleT as pIeSlutHt
| or Emperor and that while he lives If
they choose to continue the present
republic he can control things. He
| has absolutely no one to succeed him
! in case of sudden death for the Chinese
political game is now "a one-man
team" If the country at large desire
a monarchy the case ought to be clear.
| The Americans feel strongly that the
monarchial step would be extremely
bad. I've been in China but a month
so am certainly not in a position to
act as a consulting or advisory judge.
l attended the movies given at the
! German Barracks. They used our
machine so that was the real way in
which / got in. The Germans are GER
tainly a fine. keen type of men and
used my very lame German to un-
usually good effect and consumed some
pink lemonade with two sergeants
who seemed quite pleased at my Ger
imam venture.
The Y. NJ. c. A. held an inter-schol-
astic track meet yesterday of the
schools and colleges in Peking and
acted as one of the scorers.
I am over at West Branch, work
which Mr.. Galley is developing in q
Very crowded district. [ have Bible
class of very keen Chinese who have
asked to have foreigner teach them
They attend a private school during
the week.