The log cabin Democrat., 1921-03-02
MISSIONARY HERE
 DESCRIBES CHINA
NATIVE ARkANSASWOMAN
Mrs. Paxton Speaks Tonight at Pres byterian Church-At Public
 School Tomorrow.

Mrs. J. W. Paxton, missionary to China, this morning spoke to stu dents of the State Normal School and tonight at s o'clock will address the public at the Presbyterian church. Mrs. Paxton will speak tomorrow at the public school. She is now on tour Of Arkansas and Texas under the auspices of the Presbyterian church, made for the purpose of giving the home field first hand information in regard to China and church missions there. While in Conway, she is the guest of her friend Mrs. B. w. Tor Teyson.
 Added interest from Mrs Paxton s visit here comes from the fact that she ie native of Arkansas, her home hay, ing been at Fayetteville and later at Fort Smith. She will spend the month of March on tour of Arkansas and then will go to Texas fer one month before joining Dr. Paxton at Philadel- ph'a. They will return to China dur ing the summer.
 Mrs. Paxton is an interesting and informative speaker and her address tonight at the church undoubtedly will be heard by a large audience.
 Twenty-Five years residence in the Interior of China, where she has been engaged in evangelstic work among the women, has given the missionary the broad view characteristic of peo- pie engaged in large undertakings. And certain missionary work among Chinese women can be classed as one of the biggest undertakings in the world. Mrs. Paxton is still a young woman, young in manner, young in enthusiasm aRd youthful in looks, al- though she has 21 year old son who is now a junior at Yale.
 Mrs. Paxton gave brief history of China, beginning with the ancient cus- toms, etc. She outlined the changes that have taken place in the country during her 25 year residence there. While they are not what you might call receptive people," she said, many Chinese are responsive and sometimes eager for the christian gos. pei. They have three religions, Con- funcianism, Buddhism and Taoism. The first is the ancestral form of worship, Buddhism is the most spirit ual, but purely idolatrous after all. The idols are usually deified men, fact not generally known. Many changes have taken place since I first went into the interior of China as a When I went there quarter of century ago, there were practically no newspapers, and conse- quently, no public opinion. Public opinion, as you know, is created large ly through newspapers. Gradually nenwsapers have been established un- til now every city has one, two or three very creditable papers. Not like the American newspapers, but really very good disseminators of news, cur rent events, etc. And the Chinese peo- pie are gradually becoming a news paper reading people.
 "The first schools, 25 years ago were extremely primitive Education al work has progressed wonderfully. The road system, too, has developed remarkably. When I went to China there were no railroads leading into the interior. Now there are several long roads,"
 Less attention, perhaps, to the world war, was given by the interior resi- dents of China, than by any other people in the world, Mrs. Paxton thinks. The Chinese are people little interested in affairs not their own, she says.
 China is now suffering from a great famine. This came on acutely since the PaXtons left there last June, but from experiences with other famines Mrs. Paxton can very vividly portray the suffering since the famine has reached the acute stage Many times, she says, she and her husband have hear the vail Save Life, Save Life" coming from the famine camps. The direct cause of a famine, she says, is drought or overflow. An indirect cause is the excess population. With such inferior means of transportation the problem of sending supplies or of