convenient it would be, could they abolish it altogether.

Girls also develop a fondness for ball, for running races, and other active exercises, which they can and do enjoy, since with many of the schools it is now an inexorable rule that no bound-foot girls shall be received except upon condition that the ligatures be immediately removed and the crippled feet, treated by the mission doctor, be restored as far as is possible to their normal condition.

The pupils, as goes without saying, come out of the schools with few exceptions a new race of beings, physically, mentally, and morally. Their bodily improvement is due largely to the abundant food, the physical exercise they are required to take, and the regular hours for work, play, and sleep the latter, especially, being very little regarded in the ordinary Chinese household. Not only do the boys strive to excel in the rivalry of the playground, but in all the schools and colleges are annual or semiannual contests at which prizes are awarded, and the day is made a gala occasion. Invitations are issued, and there are present both "foreign" guests and a fair representation of Chinese of the better class, who are far more interested than might be supposed from their impassive demeanor.

In regard to physical training of the Chinese lad, a prominent English teacher

writes:

"According to the Chinese standards, he should, from the time he begins to be a student, which is generally at a very early age, conduct himself like a little old man. The result of the Chinese system is pitiful. Not only does it turn out a set of weak-lunged, roundshouldered, pigeon-chested, dyspeptic pedagogues, but it often ends in injury to the mind. The boy's mental powers are overstrained in his childhood, for no natural relaxation is allowed him: promising brightness is blighted in the bud, and he becomes a poor, stupid plodder, with his reasoning faculties almost entirely destroyed."

To these defects of the ancient system is added another: the lack of holidays; for, with the exception of the few annual feast days and the two weeks of the New Year, vacations in Chinese schools are unknown. The child is in school from early in the morning until late in the afternoon every day; and there is neither Saturday nor Sunday, neither Thanksgiving nor Christmas, wherein he may rest from his labors.

Of the students in St. John's College, Shanghai, the writer above quoted says:

They are highly intelligent young men, able to converse on a wide range of subjects, eager to learn more, and to look farther into the vast domain of knowl

edge. In the college library one can see them looking over the journals, magazines, and scientific papers, of English literature. These youths are a few examples reading with interest some of the great masterpieces of the new Chinese who are to go out and help break down the pride, prejudice, and ignorance of their countrymen."

The students of this school issue a little magazine called The St. John's Echo. Those in charge of the paper in October, 1899, were: A. S. Tuew, V. D. Chang, F. K. Woo, T. C. Dzung, and T. S. Zau. The contributions of the students were extremely interesting, giving one, through the medium of intelligible English, some comprehension of modern Chinese thought and opinion. Among the local items in the news column was an account of the closing exercises of the summer term, on which occasion the forum scene from "Julius Cæsar" was rendered by the Chinese students; in the cast appear such characteristic names as Tsu, Dzau, Sze, Dzung, and Tsang.

In the same issue of the Echo is an article on "The Alliance between China and Japan." As an opinion of New China in regard to preserving the autonomy of the ancient empire, it possesses special significance. The young editor, Y. S. Zau, in the admirable English he has acquired, writes as follows:

"Since the reign of Ivan the Terrible Russia has made a series of conquests over the Asiatic tribes, and it is from that time that Siberian princes owned Russian supremacy; such, then, is the history of the Siberian conquest. Russia, to this day, has well managed her acquisitions; the fact is shown by the springing up of many lucrative commercial centers, viz., Vladivostok (known to be the Russian San Francisco), Iskatek, Tobolsk, Tymien, Tomsk, and many others; some centers of the fur-trade, and others of mining, while the Siberian railway, running across the country, serves as a great highway for communicating with the various cities. Thus we find that Russia has thoroughly mastered the Siberian wilderness, so the next step is to descend farther south. Through the recent concessions of territory, the financial favor of loans, and being confident of her power, she deems the whole of Manchuria and adjacent territory hers. This next step is very likely to take place, if there should be no obstacle from without to blockade the plan. Let it be granted that China has fallen a victim to the northern power, then how should Japan contemplate further acquisition on the part of Russia? The rapacity of Russia is surely a danger to Japan, so she should be willing to lend a hand for its prevention, for the same fate threatens both the Asiatic empires. When Japan last attacked possessions, but to defend her own national welfare by her neighboring continent, her object was not for new the removal of stumbling blocks that lay in her way of progress; but it proved to be the reverse; so it seems to me that Japan, at present, should ally herself with China, and, with all her effort, oppose the final overthrow of China. What may we expect from this alliance? Japan will hold the remains of the likin (transit duties) and have possession of a few mines; she will be thus enriched to a certain extent; at the

same time by holding the power of the empire she will strengthen her own considerably. If Japan should be false, which can be barely believed, and break the alliance, thus turning for plunder and enlargement, can she be able to keep the booty in safety, being under the avaricious eyes of various greedy invaders? Why should we not think it wise for her to help the suffering, so as to gain a few compensations and, at the same time, to keep herself in security? If the two Asiatic empires are allied in sincerity, they may make a strong force, and, by mutual assistance, one may attain the name of benefactor and the other stand up before the world as a nation, if not a power. As it has been reported that England has wholly withdrawn from any intermeddling with Chinese affairs, the only hope now is that the nearest neighbor, whose language, customs, and history are most closely allied, should

share a part in this grand and most magnanimous work. It is, indeed, the task that can be performed more smoothly and easily by Japan than by any other of the powers; for our adjacent empire knows well that the more Russia has control over China the worse it is for herself; and, through experience, she has learned that, unless peace prevails upon the continent, she cannot be assured of her own safety. Thus we see, finally, that Japan is far from wishing harm to China, and that, in reality, it was and is the policy of Japan to keep China in integrity."

This extract is deeply interesting for several reasons: first, because it proves clearly that instead of alienating the young Chinese who are destined to control the empire when the present generation shall have passed away, it has engendered in them a truer, because a more intelligent, patriotism; and, in the second place, while the Chinese educational system develops the memory at the expense of all the other intellectual faculties we have here an example of clear, sound, forcible reasoning. One of the greatest dangers which has threatened China has been the ignorance of the ruling classes concerning the outside world, its numerical power augmented by all the help that modern science has devised, against which she, with her undisciplined millions, would be helpless. These educated boys, with their knowledge of history, geography, civil government, and natural science, are perfectly well informed of these facts, and have learned conclusively that China is no match for the western powers unless she is able to meet them upon their own ground, and confront them with their own weapons.

This clear and rational estimate may be accepted as the almost universal sentiment of the young and progressive Chinese, with whom the deposed Emperor Kwang Hsü was deeply in sympathy.

It is equally interesting to see what professions the young graduates select. From seven classes graduated at St. John's College, Tsu Powniau was a candidate for the ministry; Woo Zung-tse, assistant teacher in Nau

Yang University; Lee Yen-Sang, a student in the imperial medical college at Tien-Tsin; S. Dzang-Gau, teacher of English in Shanghai; Chau Niou-Chung, law student; Zau Sih-King, teacher of English in the AngloChinese college, Shanghai; Zau Fok-Kung, studying for degree in Vanderbilt University; Toang Yan-fong, employee in the China Merchants' Steamship Navigation Company; Sha Tsang-ziang, interpreter in the Chinese Consulate, Kobé; Tsang Tsebal, silk broker; Sze Hoo-nie, bookkeeper for the China and Japan Telephone Company; Wong Yue-ding, interpreter in the British consulate, Shanghai.

It is a rare thing that these young educated Chinese do discredit to their teaching, and it is not an exaggeration to say that, in dignity, sobriety, and diligence they will compare favorably with an equal number of students in the western universities. Many of them, possibly the greater number, are from the poorer classes, and as such would have been hewers of wood and drawers of water all their days-laborers, coolies, capable of earning a mere pittance, doomed to grinding toil, exposure, and semi-starvation. It is urged as an objection to educating such lads that they gravitate too largely to clerical positions and the learned professions; but there is an increasing demand among the four hundred millions of Chinese for the skill and knowledge of the western medical practitioner, and, within the next ten years, when the political fortunes of the empire will be weighed in the balance, there must be place and work, in the rehabilitation of the government, for every liberally educated Chinese who can be pressed into the service.

There is not so great an opportunity for educated Chinese girls. Aside from the profession of teaching, there is almost no occupation for them outside the home; and although affection and sympathy have little to do with marriage in China, they are forced into domestic life, whether they desire it or not. Young women, even those educated in mission schools, are prohibited from going about unattended chiefly because they are in ever-present danger of being sold for immoral purposes to the houses of illrepute with which all Chinese towns and cities abound. They cannot engage in any public calling without grave scandal, bringing serious reproach upon their teachers. There are thousands that are bitterly averse to marriage as it now exists a state of practical slavery, in which the birth of sons offers the only hope of bettering their lot,.

but there is no other provision for them, since the Chinese social economy has no provision for bachelor and spinster.

The missionary teachers dare not oppose established custom where opposition is not a matter of principle and would be of no avail, and where patience and moderation may accustom the people gradually to reforms which they may finally be induced to accept. Occasionally girls postpone the evil hour as long as they can, realizing that their school days, full of interesting work, laudable ambition, and pleasant recreation, are the happiest that they will ever know.

A few young women have studied medicine with success, finding patronage among the women and children of the native families. Prior to the coup-d'état of 1898, a school for the higher education of Chinese girls, a non-sectarian institution, was founded in Shanghai by Mr. King, a liberal and cultured Chinese gentleman, manager of the Imperial Telegraph Company, in which a number of Chinese ladies of the higher classes became interested. The school was under the management of two Chinese women physicians, who, however, had become Christians. They had accepted the positions offered them with the understanding that the Confucian sacrifices to posthumous tablets should not be required of the pupils upon the grounda remarkable protest from enlightened Chinese women - that "the idea of sacrifice to human beings seemed too blind in the light of the nineteenth century!"

The school opened with an attendance of sixteen girls, most of them the daughters of parents who themselves had been educated in mission schools. Mrs. Archibald Little, the author of "Intimate China," pronounced these aspirants to higher education "the first promise of the regeneration of China." By some means the obstacle of the sacrifice was overcome, and the two brave pioneers secured the support which was required in the attitude they had taken, declaring that they would not be doing their countrywomen the best service in grounding them in the principles of Confucianism — a system of philosophy that had done nothing to ameliorate their condition, and which gave small consideration to the rights and dignities of womanhood. Two additional schools were founded by the same liberal benefactor, but when the empress dowager resumed control of the government upon the deposition of the emperor, it was necessary for them to be placed under the charge of Mr. Timothy Richards of the Society for the Diffusion of

Christian Knowledge, thus making them, to all intents and purposes, missionary institutions, and as such entitled to protection under existing treaties. But for this precaution, they must have been instantly closed in the wave of reaction incited and encouraged by the zealous and conservative literati who are the most active enemies of western learning.

Among the pupil-teachers in the girls' schools are many of remarkable ability; one was pointed out to me in Peking, a healthy, finely-developed young woman of eighteen, who, a prodigy in mathematics, stood at the head of her classes in other studies. Chinese girls learn English readily, and, in addition to the common branches, are instructed in history, literature, and the natural sciences.

As in the boys' schools, they form English literary societies, declaiming choice selections in verse and prose, reading original essays, and, more remarkable still, conducting spirited debates in which they display excellent powers of reasoning with information upon questions in which we would not suppose that they could be greatly interested.

Marriages are becoming more and more frequent between the young men and women educated in the mission schools and colleges; for, enlightened himself, the cultured Chinese does not want a stupid and ignorant wife. I visited half a dozen such families, and in every one the position of the wife and mother was incomparably beyond that of the uneducated woman, who is subservient to her mother-in-law, and if she have no sons, is little better than a chattel as long as she lives.

The educated wife, so great is the reverence for learning, sits in the reception-room beside her husband, and is paid that deference which women enjoy in Christian lands. She has a wholesome and salutary influence over her children, and her house is far cleaner and more comfortable than those of her neighbors, thanks to the thorough domestic training she has received with her literary instruction.

It is argued by a certain class that the education of Chinese girls unfits them for wives, and lessens their chances of marriage, which, as Chinese society is constituted, is the only safe and desirable career open to them. It is the old, familiar objection, brought forward by a class of narrow, illiberal men in our own country, who are inspired purely by a selfish fear that they may lose something of that personal ministry they demand of their wives, and have no

consideration whatever for the personal inclinations of those whose lives they wish to absorb.

Education, no doubt, will engender an aversion for marriage on the part of the educated woman with the ignorant, superstitious husband who may be selected by the ubiquitous go-between. But the sooner a system based upon an inevitable and appalling sacrifice of womanhood, not only in China but throughout the entire Orient, is overthrown and destroyed, the better for humanity.

never women

There have been western apologists, chiefly French and Englishmen who have heartily endorsed Oriental marriage and concubinage, the most degrading form of all subjection, notwithstanding the widespread corruption it has engendered, the national enervation, and finally, the extinction of whole races. Whenever once powerful dynasties in China have been overthrown, it has been due to the increasing degeneracy of the rulers given up to luxury, and steeped in the vices of the seraglio.

The views of these not disinterested apologists will not be corroborated by those who advocate that high moral standard which finds its loftiest expression only in countries where women are most enlightened; where they are taught self-control, the exercise of individual judgment, and where they enjoy the greatest measure of personal liberty.

It is even probable that the present generation of Chinese women may be called upon to suffer keenly for the good of many, the inevitable destiny of the pioneer of either sex and of all lands. But the greater number, like the heroic girls of Mrs. Jewell's school, facing a death unspeakable at the hands of the Boxers, stand ready to do and to suffer all that may be exacted, for the uplifting of their sisters, down-trodden and degraded through ages of oppression.

There are others who oppose the expenditure of foreign funds in China while we have so much ignorance and misery and crime within our own borders. Great Britain owes the strength and purity of her present government, in no small measure, to the effort she put forth in devising an equitable government for India; good government there inspired a genuine-not merely a professed-desire for a better system at home; and we may reach the same end by the same process. Furthermore, there are no longer any "hermit nations." The steamship has brought the Orient to our doors, with the vice, the evil, the disease developed by the segregation of centuries. All the exclusion acts devised will not shut them out.

We may help cure the evils at the fountain source, or apply the remedy when they come among us with the contagion that they will sow broadcast. Our relations have been made closer still by the promulgation of innumerable treaties on either side. Race prejudice must disappear, and the truth promulgated by Terence, "Nothing that is human is foreign to me,' must prevail throughout the globe. So far as China is concerned, this new doctrine is being taught in the mission schools, both by precept and by example, as it is being taught nowhere else. And it is being taught there, almost exclusively; because, thus far, the religious bodies of the United States are the only organizations that have provided the necessary funds, and have sent into the field men and women qualified for the work. These teachers have dedicated their lives to their profession; they have acquired the language, having at heart neither the acquisition of territory nor the acquirement of important commercial advantages; but simply the enlightenment and uplifting of those who, with all their boasted learning, still" sit in darkness."