The Columbia evening Missourian., 1922-04-12
MISSIONARIES
ARE NEEDEDINs j
FAR-OFF JAPAN
Miss Mary Searcy, Former Co.
lumbia Girl, Tells in Let
ter of Her Work in
the Orient.
LANGUAGE is A HANDICAP
Land of Sunshine and Cherry
Blossoms Is Fertile Field
TO Americans Crav-
ing Service.

A letter eight feet long, written or
thin, fne-lined paper, on which ar,
dainty colored designs, has been re
ceived by Miss Jane Searcy, daughter
of Mrs. S. b. Searcy. 302 College ave
nue., from her sister, Miss Mary Searcy
a Columbia girl, who is a missionary in
kure, Japan. Miss Mary Searcy is q
graduate of the University Of Missouri
and was a teacher for everal years in
the Lee School here.
Extracts from the letter written by
Miss Searcy, dated February Is, follow
This, my second year as a mission.
ary in Japan, finds me in Kure, very
important naval port of 100000 inhab-
iiants on the coast of the inland sea-
kure is a very beautiful city (if any
japanese city can be called beautifully
with unusually wide streets and with
mountains on three sides and the sea in
front.
HOME OF BEAUTIFUL GARDENS
The houses are all built exactly alike
and are hidden behind high walls so
that the streets look very bare. The
stores all look very much like our open
fruit stands in America and are so tiny
occasionally there is a new up-tO-date
store OF one or two stories, but outside
Of Toxic. Kobe and Osakas such are
seldom found.
The best homes always have a very
pretty garden with trees dwarfed and
trained into all sorts of queer shapes,
but the ground is always perfectly bare
and damp.
I'VE live in the only foreign house in
Kure. Ii is a source of much curiosity
and amusement for the japanese. We
often have japanese guests for meals |
and We always enjoy the time as much
as they. You should see them try to
use knife and fork for the first time
also you should see US trying to use
chops.icks. | don't know which is the
most awkward.
Everything in japanese is said just
exactly backward from the way We would
say il and then the different degrees Of
politeness makes the language difficult.
In saying the same thing to a servant,
child, a friend. a teacher or preacher,
you use entirely different verbs and
would hardly recognize the entence as
being .he same.
GIRLS LIFE IS MoNOTONOUs
Until you have experienced it your.
self, you cannot imagine how trying it is
not to be able to talk. There have been
times when | have been talking with a
woman when | feel that l would give
the whole world if could only say some
Of the things that | long to, and cannot.
There have been a few times when
have felt quite sure that | could help !
some girl TO be a Christian if l could
only talk to her, and | have to sit and
look at her and smile when, within, my
heart was just aching to tell her Of
Christ.
Il suppose il would no, be true to say
that the Jauanese girls are the most
lonesome girls in the world but they are
surely among the most lonesome. An
American girl has no conception Of the
of Japanese girls life. She
knows nothing of having friends such as
We have, Of playing games, hiking, pic
nicing, or going to parties. There ism.
even a word for party in the japanese
language And yet these girls love fun
Bnd excitement just as much as you do
and are just bubbling over with life.
Il am beginning a club for young la.
dies which meets twice a month. We
ire going to cook, sew, and read in this
lass and | am going to try giving
hort Bible lesson in English. II doesn't
'ound like l am doing much missionary
work, but teaching English classes and
'isiting around some in .he homes is all
can do right now. | hope to win the