1 
 
 
 
DUKE 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 DIVINITY SCHOOL 
 LIBRARY 
 
 
 

 

 
 - en. 
 

 

 
 Digitized by the Internet Arch 
 in 2022 with funding from 
 _ Duke University Libraries 
 

 
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 ine. 
 
 
 
 VIEWS OF KEMENDINE SCHOOL. 
 
RETROSPECT. 
 
 A Review of the Educational Work 
 
 OF 
 
 The Woman’s Baptist Foreign 
 Missionary Society. 
 
 1873 — 1900. 
 
 Published by 
 Eke Woman's Baptist Foreign Missionary Society, 
 
 Gremont Temple, Boston, Wass. 
 
ae 
 nar 
 
 -e 
 
 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 At this close of our third decade as a Woman’s 
 Foreign Missionary Society, and the close as well of 
 this great missionary century, we bring to you a brief 
 review of some of the schools founded and maintained 
 by the Woman’s Baptist Foreign Missionary Society. 
 It is impossible to include all of the four hundred 
 schools with their fourteen thousand pupils, — many of 
 these are small village schools, — but we have selected 
 most of our leading boarding-schools and a few of the 
 more prominent day schools and kindergartens for your 
 consideration. To those who have responded so kindly 
 and promptly to our request for help, we extend our 
 hearty thanks. It is to them that we owe whatever of 
 interest is found in this little volume. It will surely 
 be an encouragement to those who have worked with 
 this society for the evangelization of the world to see 
 how God has used the faithful missionary teacher. 
 Trained Christian workers are an indispensable feature 
 in such evangelization, and it is to train such workers 
 that our Woman’s Society exists. 
 
 As we read the brief record of this educational work, 
 no argument will be needed to prove the value of edu- 
 cation in missions. No missionary of judgment or 
 experience denies the place of education in the work 
 of evangelization, though there may be sometimes a 
 difference of opinion as to the methods and extent of 
 such education. Thousands have gone eut from the 
 Christian home life of these schools strong to do battle 
 against heathenism. As the Master chose his little 
 company of disciples and prepared them to do the 
 work that he must soon leave in their hands, so. the 
 faithful missionary is ever seeking to train the best 
 material available, and so perpetuate his life and 
 work. 
 
It may be that some, after noting these results, 
 will feel led to devote a part of their means to 
 Christian education in heathen lands. Last year 
 fifty-five million dollars were lavished on education 
 in this country alone, already so richly provided 
 with schools and colleges. The little invested in our 
 work has brought wonderful returns. Surely the 
 amount invested ought to be multiplied many times. 
 Is there a nobler monument in this world than those 
 buildings on the Northfield hills, where thousands of 
 young men and women are being fitted to go out into 
 Christian service? Oh, that we might have in heathen 
 lands more institutions of this kind sending out an 
 army of noble Christians working for the salvation of 
 their own people. Not until Christians seize this 
 strategic opportunity and give as God has given to 
 them can we hope to accomplish the evangelization 
 of all nations as Christ commanded. We need money 
 and workers. Who will go? Who will send? 
 
 The work depends not alone on those at the front, 
 but on you in our circles, young and old, who have 
 furnished the sinews of war, and have given and 
 prayed and struggled and striven, that these schools 
 might be and might be continued. Have you ever 
 made a sacrifice for a school in Burma, or a teacher in 
 Japan, or a child in India? Then read with joy this 
 history of your own work, and pray that others may 
 read and appreciate and help. We have made only a 
 beginning in thirty years. Let us build on this foun- 
 dation in the years that are to come, believing that 
 faithful seed-sowing is sure to bring at last an abun- 
 
 dant harvest. 
 Le We owe 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 [Introduction 
 
 SCHOOLS IN BURMA. 
 
 A sketch of the Kemendine Girls’ School, Rangoon, 
 Kindergartens in Rangoon : : 
 
 History of the Pegu High School, Rangoon . 
 
 ve of the School at Thongze 
 
 BG of the Prome Mission School 
 
 oe of the School at Zigon 
 
 se of the Ilenzada Burman Mission School 
 
 Historical sketch of the Morton Lane Boarding 
 School for Burmese Girls . 
 
 Raymond House Kindergarten at Moulmcin 
 
 The American Baptist Mission Burmese Boys’ 
 School, Moulmein ‘ 
 
 Record of the English Girls’ High School. Moul- 
 mein 
 
 The Bassein Karen School 
 
 Mission Schools in Tavoy 
 
 A few facts about the Pwo Karen Mission School 
 at Maubin . 
 
 The Shwegyin Karen School 
 
 The Tharrawaddy School 
 
 The School for Chins at Sandoway 
 
 The Chin School at Thayetmyo 
 
 The Kachin School, Bhamo 
 
 Telugu and Tamil Schools in Burma 
 
 The Burman Woman’s Bible School, Rangoon 
 
 The Karen Woman’s Bible School, Rangoon . 
 
 Sketch of School in Mongnai, Southern Shan 
 States . 
 
 PAGES 
 
 iii 
 
 
 
 33-38 
 
 59-63 
 64-66 
 67-70 
 71-73 
 
CONTENTS. — (Continued.) 
 
 
 
 SCHOOLS AMONG THE ‘TELUGUs. 
 Beginnings of the Girls’ School in Nellore 
 The Girls’ Boarding School, Nellore, India 
 The Boys’ School, Nellore 
 History of Nellore Normal School . 
 
 = of the Ramapatam Mission School 
 cS of the Cumbum Boarding School 
 
 of the Madras Boarding and Day Schools, 
 se of the Vinukonda Boarding School 
 of the School at Secunderabad . 
 
 SCHOOLS IN ASSAM. 
 The Tura Training School 
 The Education of Women among the Garos . 
 The Evolution of a School on the Edge of the 
 World 
 
 SCHOOLS IN JAPAN. 
 The Mary L. Colby Home at Yokohama 
 The Sarah Curtis Home at Tokyo 
 The Evolution of a Kindergarten 
 The Tsukiji Kindergarten and Tokyo Day School . 
 ** ]Tinomoto Jogakko,” Himeji 
 
 Zenrin Kindergarten, Kobe 
 
 SCHOOLS IN CHINA. 
 The Boys’ Boarding School in Swatow 
 
 The Swatow Girls’ School 
 
 SCHOOLS IN AFRICA. 
 
 Notes on the Banza Manteke Schools 
 Sketch of Ikoko School 
 
 90-93 
 94-97 
 98-101 
 102-104 
 105-109 
 110-111 
 112-115 
 116-119 
 120-124 
 
 125-129 
 130-133 
 
 134-138 
 
 139-143 
 144-148 
 149-153 
 154-155 
 156-158 
 159-166 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Views of Kemendine School 
 
 Mrs. Luther, Rev. and Mrs. Sumner R. Vinton 
 
 Prome Mission, Burma 
 
 Tavoy Mission, Ah Syoo and Family, English High 
 
 School, Moulmein 
 Mrs. Harriet Carpenter 
 Sgau Karen School at Bassein 
 Burman Woman’s Bible School, Rangoon 
 Karen st us oe sh 
 Mission House, Nellore . 
 High Caste Hindu Girls . 
 Tura Mission 
 Mary Lowe Colby 
 The Sarah Curtis Home at Tokyo . 
 Miss Rolman’s Kindergarten, ‘Tokyo 
 Girls’ School, Himeji, Japan 
 The Swatow Girls’ School 
 
 Mission School at Ikoko, Africa. a 
 
 OPPOSITE 
 PAGE 
 

 
 
 
A SKETCH OF THE KEMENDINE GIRLS’ 
 SCHOOL, RANGOON, BURMA. 
 
 MRS. JENNIE BIXBY JOHNSON. 
 
 The Kemendine Girls’ School is one of the bright- 
 est spots in our mission. Let us study its beginning, 
 progress, and results. 
 
 Mrs. Cephas Bennett had sustained, largely at her 
 own expense, two day schools; one at Lamadaw and 
 the other at Kemendine. In October, 1870, Miss A. R. 
 Gage went from Bassein to Rangoon by invitation 
 of Dr. Stevens and Mrs. Bennett, to take charge of 
 these schools during Mrs. Bennett’s absence in Amer- 
 ica. The day school at Kemendine was held in the 
 house of the native preacher and was taught by his 
 daughter. One girl of fifteen, supported by Mrs. 
 Bennett, boarded in his family. The conversion, spir- 
 tual growth, and sudden, but triumphal death of this 
 girl impressed Miss Gage anew with the advantages of 
 a Christian home in the development of character, and 
 she desired to give other girls the same opportunity. 
 In April, 1871, Miss Gage received as a boarding 
 pupil a girl ten years old, and was obliged also to take 
 her brother. In May two orphan girls were given her, 
 and in August two more girls whose mother was 
 insane. A Christian woman from a heathen village 
 soon came with two daughters whom she longed to 
 place under Christian influences. Dr. Wade’s heart 
 was so touched by her appeals that he gave Miss Gage 
 fifteen rupees to enable her to take them. 
 
 In January, 1872, she asked the Society at home 
 for more money and a house for this girls’ boarding 
 school. The annual report, July, 1872, mentions the 
 two day schools under her care, and also gives the 
 following paragraph : — 
 
 ‘¢The Girls’ School at Kemendine has also been 
 maintained with increasing efficiency under the super- 
 intendence of Miss Gage.” 
 
When Mrs. Bennett and Mrs. Douglass, of Bassein, 
 returned from America in November, 1872, Miss Gage 
 had nine girls in her care, boarding in the ,preacher’s 
 family. She had asked that Mrs. Douglass might join 
 her in this work. The Woman’s Baptist Foreign Mis- 
 sionary Society built a house for them, and in May, 
 1873, they and the girls took possession, They were 
 now able to receive more girls. It is worthy of men- 
 tion that Mah Mee, the first girl received by Miss 
 Gage, remained in this school as pupil and teacher for 
 twenty-one years, proving a faithful helper, and left 
 only to become a _ Bible-woman in another town. 
 Seven of the first nine girls were Christians. 
 
 The next two years the average number of boarders 
 was eighteen. In May, 1874, the boarding depart- 
 ment dissolved its connection with the day school. 
 The bank of the river had fallen away rapidly, and 
 the house was unsafe; the boarders therefore removed 
 to a house left vacant by Dr. Stevens. A new and 
 better location was secured, through the generous gift, 
 by Mr. Bennett, of ten thousand rupees, with which 
 to build a permanent and convenient schogl-house. 
 In June, 1875, the new school building was dedicated. 
 The English government granted one thousand rupees 
 for furnishing the building, and made a yearly grant- 
 in-aid of one thousand eight hundred rupees. 
 
 This year there was a movement towards self-sup- 
 port. The pupils were required to buy, first their own 
 slate pencils, then their paper and slates. Parents, 
 except in extreme poverty, were induced to clothe 
 their children. The school numbered one hundred 
 and five. Forty had been baptized, and others gave 
 evidence of conversion. One half of the girls came 
 from heathen families, and as many of the conversions 
 were from the heathen families as from the Christian 
 families. Miss Gage says at this period, ‘‘ We are 
 assured that the influence of their religious training 
 has been felt not only in their homes but in their vil- 
 lages. It has been our aim to teach the way of life 
 and to develop Christian character far more than it has 
 
3 
 
 been to make great advancement in secular studies. 
 The teaching of the Bible has not been made secondary 
 to anything else. The Christian girls have manifested 
 a steadiness of purpose, a growth in grace, an effort 
 to labor now for Christ, which fills us with hope for the 
 future.” 
 
 Miss Gage, whose health was impaired by eleven 
 years’ toil in Burma, returned to America in July, 1877. 
 
 Mrs. Douglass was assisted by Miss Payne and then 
 by Mrs. Bailey, until Miss L. E. Rathbun arrived, 
 Dec. 5, 1877. Four native helpers were employed. 
 
 March 30, 1880, Mrs. Douglass was obliged to leave 
 for home. Miss Rathbun was aided by Miss Barrows 
 until Miss A. L. Buell came in December, 1880. 
 
 Miss Rathbun writes: ‘* The girls who desire baptism 
 have voluntarily formed the plan of coming to my room 
 late in the evening to talk about Christian living. 
 There are usually twenty or thirty present. Sixty of 
 our girls have Christian parents, forty are from 
 heathen families, and forty are professing Christians. 
 Sixteen pupils are motherless, fourteen others are 
 fatherless, and in thirteen cases the father and mother 
 do not live together. We cannot, therefore, expect 
 much money from them.” 
 
 In 1881 Miss Rathbun writes: ‘‘ The influence of 
 all our older pupils is on the side of Christianity. Of 
 the six grades into which our school is divided, the 
 highest grade are all Christians; in the next grade, all 
 but one small girl are either Christians or seeking to 
 become so; the same, with two exceptions, is true of 
 the next lower grade.” 
 
 Dec. 5, 1881, Miss Buell was married to Rev. Mr. 
 Roberts, of Bhamo. 
 
 In May, 1882, a normal class was opened. The 
 English government furnished the teacher, supplied 
 text-books and paid a monthly stipend of two rupees 
 to each member of the class. A government grant 
 was also made to the school of forty rupees for lower, 
 and sixty rupees for the higher grade, for each pupil 
 who should obtain a certificate of qualification. 
 
4 
 
 Mrs. Douglass returned to Kemendine in November, 
 1882, as a fully qualified physician, and her medical 
 skill was invaluable to the school. 
 
 Miss Rathbun soon had to return to America, and 
 Miss E. F. McAllister was transferred from the 
 Bassein Karen school to the Kemendine school. 
 
 In November, 1883, Miss Gage returned and writes 
 of improvement. ‘The school numbered one hundred 
 and forty-six boarders and a few day pupils. The 
 teachers’ places were all filled by former scholars. 
 She says: ‘‘ I am rejoiced to find that many of those 
 who professed Christianity are honoring it in their 
 daily lives, and are making their homes centres of 
 Christian influence. One young couple, married during 
 my absence, have read the whole Bible through once 
 and nearly through a second time at their daily 
 worship.”’ 
 
 Four girls were that year married from the school. 
 Three were Christians and married Christian men. 
 Five Christian girls left to engage in teaching. 
 
 In March, 1884, the Board appropriated seven thou- 
 sand rupees for the enlargement of the school building. 
 
 In 1884 Miss Gage’s health failed completely, and 
 she left Burma for the last time. 
 
 Miss Stark helped during the winter, and in March 
 Miss L. B. Clarke and Miss Mary E. Williams arrived. 
 Miss McAllister left for America, and Miss Stark 
 removed to Toungoo. 
 
 The school numbered one hundred and _ ninety-five 
 pupils, and fifty-three of the oldest girls were Christians. 
 
 This year Mrs. Douglass erected, largely at her own 
 expense, a hospital annex to the school building. It 
 contained an office for herself, a room for missionaries 
 who needed care, and a room for sick girls. Besides 
 her teaching and general care for the scholars, Dr. 
 Douglass was gaining an increasing outside practice 
 among natives. The following year fourteen girls were 
 baptized, and the man employed as teacher of the 
 normal class. He was converted through the reading 
 of the Bible while teaching a lady the Burmese lan- 
 
4) 
 
 guage, and endured persecution and desertion by his 
 wife for Christ’s sake. 
 
 In 1886 Miss Clarke became Mrs. Case and went 
 to Toungoo. Miss McAllister returned in December. 
 Six Christian girls from the normal class became 
 teachers. 
 
 Early in 1887 Dr. Douglass removed to take charge 
 of the government medical work sustained by the 
 Countess of Dufferin. Her presence was greatly 
 missed, and the care of the sick came upon Miss 
 Williams. 
 
 The year 1888 showed marked improvement in self- 
 support. Sewing had always been skilfully and profit- 
 ably taught. Under Miss Williams’ care the girls did 
 
 all the school sewing 
 
 g, and had, in four years, earned a 
 
 piano, an organ, and two sewing machines by the sale 
 of their needlework. 
 
 Rs. 1049 were received in fees for board and tuition. 
 Miss McAllister writes : ‘*‘ Our numbers might be greatly 
 increased if we would omit the Bible study. Heathen 
 parents object to that because, although the pupils may 
 not all become Christians, they do lose faith in their 
 idols.” 
 
 1889 was marked by severe sickness in school. 
 Miss McAllister and Miss Williams, broken down by 
 the unusually heavy burdens, left in November, 1890. 
 There was no one to take charge, and Miss Phinney 
 was obliged to add this care to her literary labors. In 
 1891 she was taken 111. Miss Stark came to her relief 
 until the arrival of Miss Lenna Smith, who soon became 
 Mrs. F. D. Phinney. Miss McAuister and Miss Wil- 
 liams hastened back to their loved work, Oct. 18, 1891. 
 
 The Christian girls had heretofore been received into 
 the Burman church at Lamadaw, but now a church 
 of thirty-one members was organized in the school. 
 The pastor’s salary was raised by the school. 
 
 In November, 1892, the government required the 
 opening of a kindergarten department, which was 
 started by Miss Fredrickson. This department will 
 be the subject of another paper. 
 
6 
 
 In July, 1894, Miss Williams, who had rendered 
 most efficient service for nine years, became the wife 
 of Rev. Mr. Burhoe. Miss McAllister mourns her 
 departure, but writes of the work as follows: ‘* In 
 March twenty-five of our pupils were baptized. During 
 the year a Christian Endeavor Society has been formed. 
 Nineteen pupils will take the teachers’ test examina- 
 tions. A large number of our graduates are teaching 
 in other mission schools, and most of them give satis- 
 faction. We have now one hundred and sixty-three 
 pupils. Since Miss Williams went away, Dr. Céte 
 has taken medical charge of the school.” 
 
 In 1896-97 Miss E. L. Chapman and Miss J. G. 
 Craft joined the school. Miss McAllister, who had 
 been connected with the school since 1881, withdrew 
 to engage in evangelistic work. For nearly sixteen 
 years the religious, educational, and financial success 
 of the school was largely due to her labors and execu- 
 tive ability. Mah Mee, for twenty-one years a pupil 
 and teacher there, accompanied her as a Bible-woman. 
 
 Miss Emily Hanna went to the kindergarten depart- 
 ment in 1898, and in 1899 Miss Julia Shinn joined 
 the workers. 
 
 If we should visit the Kemendine school in this the 
 year 1900, we would find it in the heart of a thickly 
 populated heathen village, three and a half miles from 
 Rangoon City. The compound comprises eight acres 
 of land. ‘Two large buildings are devoted to school 
 and dormitory uses. The ladies’ house is between 
 these two buildings, and is connected with the big 
 dormitory by a narrow enclosed passage and a short 
 flight of stairs. There are, in the rear, the servants’ 
 quarters, cook houses, bath houses, and the native 
 pastor’s house. There are now seventy boarding pupils 
 and thirty-five day scholars. Eight young women 
 teachers, all graduates of the school, and the normal 
 teacher, a devout Christian man, are employed. They 
 all possess elements of strength and beauty of char- 
 acter. 
 
 _ The Sunday services are as follows: Bible school, 
 
€ 
 
 7.30 A. mM.; church service, 10.30 a. m. and 3.30 
 p.M.; street meeting, 5.30 p.m. On the first Sunday 
 evening of each month is held the covenant meeting, 
 and every disciple is expected to speak; this is fol- 
 lowed by preaching and the Lord’s Supper. Sunday 
 evenings the teachers conduct a prayer-meeting with 
 the girls; Wednesday evening is the weekly prayer- 
 meeting, and alteruating Fridays gospel temperance 
 meetings are held. School is always opened with 
 chapel worship. 
 
 Many instances might be given of graduates who 
 are making Christian homes, successfully teaching, or 
 working as Bible-women, and some have proved heroic 
 in self-denial and consecration to the cause of Christ. 
 
 This sketch would not be complete without a tribute 
 to the Rev. A. T. Rose, D. D., who from its incep- 
 tion until the day of his death, 1896, was the staunch 
 friend, wise counsellor, and faithful missionary pastor 
 to the Kemendine school. 
 
 A DAY'S PROGRAMME AT KEMENDINE. 
 JULIA G. CRAFT. 
 
 5.30. Rising bell. Six o’clock one teacher goes to buy 
 the food for the day. 
 
 5.50. Work bell. Manual labor for one hour; sweeping 
 of all buildings, ete. 
 
 6.50. ‘I'en minutes to clean hands and make tidy. 
 
 7.00. First school session, — one hour. 
 
 8.00. Recess. Bazaar selling, — books, paper, pencils, 
 etc. 
 
 8.30. School breakfast and dish washing. [After break- 
 fast one teacher comes to assist me at the dispen- 
 sary. ] 
 
 9.30. Chapel worship. 
 
 9.45. Recitation. 
 
 10.30. Drill with small children. 
 10.45. Recitation. 
 
 11.30. Drill with larger girls. 
 11.45. Recitation. 
 
 12.30. Noon recess. 
 
 PR. M. 
 1.15. Bible classes. 
 2.00 to 3.30. Recitations. 
 
3.30. Sewing school. 
 
 4.20. Prayer, singing; dismissal at 4.30. 
 
 4.45. Dinner and dish washing. 
 
 5.30. Play. 
 
 6.30. Study. 
 
 7.45. First bell for children to retire; 8.00, in bed. 
 8.15. First bell for older girls to retire. 
 
 8.30. All lights out. 
 
 On Saturday mornings all our girls turn out for 
 about two hours’ work about the place, — pulling 
 weeds, raking leaves, washing school pillow-cases, ete., 
 etc. And when this is done and breakfast over, all 
 our normal girls (over tnirty) are required, because 
 cf government, to have a half day’s school session. 
 This on Saturday. So you will observe the days are 
 very fully occupied. This is but the regular order of 
 daily life at Kemendine, but does not convey any idea 
 of all the extra odd jobs that must be crowded in, — 
 petty repairs, renewals, errands, preparations for sewing 
 school, sickness now and then, oversight of the dor- 
 mitory and school, housekeeping, tonic sol-fa classes 
 sprinkled through the day, wherever Miss Hanna can 
 seize a clear fifteen minutes to drill the girls, all these 
 buildings to be looked after, accounts, government 
 correspondence, and mnumerable other things, each 
 one requiring a certain amount of attention, to say 
 nothing of trying to study the language. 
 
(t=) 
 
 KINDERGARTENS IN RANGOON. 
 MISS EMILY HANNA. 
 
 At present the kindergarten in the Kemendine school 
 has an enrolment of twenty-five with two teachers. 
 The kindergarten room is in the main school building, 
 large, and well equipped with chairs and tables and 
 with a very fair apparatus. The children are mostly 
 Burmese, with one or two of other races. The propor- 
 tion of boys is very small, possibly because it is known 
 to be in a girls’ boarding school. The kindergarten in 
 connection with the Baptist College, Rangoon, has 
 recently been moved from the building in which it was 
 very inconveniently placed along with the lower stan- 
 dards to the first floor of a small building used for the 
 boys’ boarding department, so that in the daytime the 
 kindergarten is quite by itself. The two rooms are 
 small but very compactly arranged. The walls are 
 painted white, making a good background for all the 
 bright colored ‘‘inventions’” of the children. The 
 natural wood walls at Kemendine are even more restful 
 to the eye. The attendance at the college kindergarten 
 is about thirty, and the differing races of Burma are 
 more fully represented than at Kemendine, also the 
 boys are much more in evidence. Each of these kin- 
 dergartens has two very fair kindergartners. 
 
 But the mention of this brings us to the great lack 
 of the kindergartens of Burma, — good, thoroughly 
 trained teachers. We have government approval. 
 The educational ‘‘ powers that be” are exceedingly 
 anxious to introduce kindergartens into their lay 
 schools. They recognize the exceeding value of Fro- 
 bel’s principles in preparation for general teaching, 
 and insist that not only the girls in normal schools but 
 the boys training to be teachers and managers shall 
 have instruction in the theory of kindergarten. One 
 of the officials high in authority has put himself on 
 record by saying that the brightest girls are kinder- 
 
10 
 
 garten teachers. ‘It seems to wake the whole girl 
 up.” Not only does the government give this encourge- 
 ment, but it gives liberal grants of money to kinder- 
 gartens under its supervision. The missionaries, too, 
 are coming to a very cordial appreciation of the help 
 that a kindergarten in connection with their mission 
 station gives. In the first place, as is not always 
 understood, the kindergarten is primarily and finally 
 a religious institution, in the respect that its object is 
 to bring human beings into harmony with God. As 
 Miss Dyer said to an English inspector, —I fancy to 
 his inward disgust, —‘‘If you leave religion out of 
 the kindergarten you leave the kindergarten out.” 
 
 In the second place, so far as is possible under 
 existing circumstances, all the work and play and 
 instruction, by means of stories and talks, are based 
 on the Bible. Bible stories are what the children never 
 tire of, what the teachers tell most dramatically, and 
 are most effective weapons against idolatry and super- 
 stition. Story after story can be brought to bear on 
 the evil of worshipping idols. The little talks on 
 nature and science, unostentatiously introduced, uncon- 
 sciously fortify the child’s mind against the ignorant 
 and superstitious legends of his forefathers. That 
 this is so and that the Buddhists recognize the danger 
 threatening their religion and institutions, is proved 
 over and oyer by angry parents who come to take their 
 children away from such pernicious influences, and by 
 the reports circulated by admiring relatives as to the 
 cleverness of children who repeat the religious teaching 
 they have imbibed in the kindergarten, 
 
 Missionaries and government officers alike recognize 
 that the kindergarten is ‘* good for what ails” Burmese 
 children, in the way of teaching obedience, — much 
 neglected among Burmese parents, — power of original 
 thinking, and neatness and accuracy, to say nothing 
 of many other cardinal virtues. But there is a erying 
 need of teachers who really understand the theory and 
 principles of kindergarten work. The Burman is 
 imitative, and very clever with his fingers; and the 
 
1 § 
 
 danger is that girls who have this mechanical ability 
 will be hurried into pioneer positions before they grasp 
 the deep principles underlying true teaching. As it 
 is, in some of the normal schools the girls who have 
 had some kindergarten training are so broadened and 
 improved in a general way that they are eagerly sought 
 as teachers in regular schools. Miss Dyer has achieved 
 a notable triumph in graduating a class of kindergarten 
 teachers who, most of them, already possessed teaching 
 certificates and were experienced as teachers. The 
 hope is to graduate a class of the same character from 
 Kemendine school next year, 
 
 One thing is very certain, —if the missionaries who 
 are kindergartners do not eagerly take this opportu- 
 nity so temptingly held out to them for capturing girls 
 eager to study to be kindergarten teachers, and training 
 them to be Bible students, to be imbued with the Christ 
 spirit in their teaching; to carry the Gospel imbedded 
 in their work with them into their jungle and heathen 
 town schools, the government will take away this talent 
 from us who have not used it, and give it toa man who 
 knew not Joseph, nor Joseph’s greater Master, 
 
 Along with the need for trained kindergarten teachers 
 is the need of a kindergarten literature. A  kinder- 
 garten manual or text-book for the use of Burmese 
 girls in studying Frébel’s system, is called for and is 
 to be authorized as a regular school text-book by the 
 government, although published by the Mission Press. 
 The two kindergarten superintendents at Moulmein and 
 Kemendine have been given carte blanche in the prepara- 
 tion of this book, 
 
 These are the beginnings of kindergarten in Burma, 
 It will be seen that like the young robin, classic in 
 kindergarten literature, who is almost all mouth, the 
 needs and demands are far greater than the ability to 
 fill them. But all things come not to ‘** him who waits,” 
 in this lethargic East, but to him who rouses and does 
 the thing at hand with all his might, trusting in the 
 Guiding Power who has brought him thus far to carry 
 him on to a successful end. 
 
HISTORY OF THE PEGU HIGH SCHOOL, 
 RANGOON, BURMA. 
 
 MRS. CALISTA VINTON LUTHER, M. D. 
 
 The Pegu High School was the outgrowth of the 
 great revival which followed closely upon the occu- 
 pancy of Burma by the British in 1842. 
 
 The results of this occupation were, first, the free- 
 dom of the Karens throughout lower Burma from 
 virtual slavery; second, their free access to the cities, 
 a thing which had been denied them by Burmese law, 
 and the placing them, for the first time in history, on 
 an equality with their former Burmese masters. 
 
 The Karens being a people not only without educa- 
 tion, but without written language, had, of course, not 
 had schools cf any kind whatsoever. 
 
 Hence, for the mere purpose of reading God’s word, 
 it was necessary that they should have instruction. 
 The first sessions of this school were held in the dilap- 
 idated old monastery within the Rangoon fort where 
 Mr. and Mrs. Vinton lived for the first year after the 
 taking of the city by the English. The pupils were 
 the refugees who had fled from the advancing Burmese 
 army, and who came to Mr. Vinton for protection. 
 
 They had brought with them their sick and their 
 wounded, and after occupying all the available space 
 which he could give them within the fort, the remain- 
 ing hundreds camped out in the neighborhood, where 
 they could be under the protection of English guns, 
 and be fed and cared for by Mr. and Mrs. Vinton. 
 
 During this rainy season all that were well and 
 were not needed to minister to the suffering and dying 
 were gathered in the largest room of the monastery 
 and taught to read. It was a unique and pathetic 
 sight that greeted Mrs. Vinton each morning as she 
 opened the session with reading and prayer —old men 
 and women, for whom spectacles had to be purchased, 
 eagerly striving to master the alphabet in the hope of 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 REV. AND MRS. SUMNER R. VINTON, RANGOON, BURMA, 
 Who sailed for Rengoon, August, 1900. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
13 
 
 reading God’s word before they died —fathers and 
 sons; mothers and little children sitting on the same 
 bench and learning not only to read, but also to sing, 
 the grand old hymns which have for generations’ been 
 precious to the Christian church, and which Mrs. Vin- 
 ton had translated into their poetical language. Two 
 hundred and fifty learned to read during that rainy 
 season who could not read before, and over thirty 
 young men received biblical training preparatory to 
 laboring in the distant villages, some as preachers and 
 some as school teachers. 
 
 So soon as the country was settled enough to admit 
 of the Vintons moving out to Kemendine, which was 
 to be the permanent home of the mission, arrange- 
 ments*were made for the erection of suitable buildings, 
 and with the self-forgetfulness characteristic of Mr. 
 Vinton, he put up first the boarding house for the 
 future school and, with his family, lived in one end 
 until the large school-house was ready, when he moved 
 into one corner of that, partitioning it-off with curtains 
 of blue cotton cloth which they were in the habit of 
 using when travelling in the jungle. Lastly, his own 
 house was erected. Mrs. Vinton had brought with 
 her from Moulmein two girls who had been trained by 
 Miss Miranda Vinton in the normal school, Eliza and 
 Fidelia, who, with their husbands, Thah Mway and Nyo 
 Poh, gave most faithful service as teachers in the earlier 
 years of the school. 
 
 Plans were laid very wisely and with far-seeing 
 judgment. As soon as was practicable a system of 
 village schools was established, which became feeders 
 to the central school. From the central school, in 
 turn, went out the teachers and preachers who continu- 
 ally enlarged the field brought under Christian influence. 
 
 The primal idea in all Mrs. Vinton’s schools was, 
 first, the conversion of every scholar, and, second, the 
 training of these scholars for bringing others to Christ. 
 
 Their education was looked upon as simply a means 
 to this end, and Mrs. Vinton frequently said that if 
 she should know of any scholar who should not so 
 
14 
 
 employ his ability, she would exclude him from the 
 school. 
 
 The school became at once popular, and by the year 
 1855 had become very successful. During the rains, 
 when travelling was impossible, Mr. Vinton conducted 
 the theological class, no theological seminary haying 
 been yet established in the Pegu provinces. 
 
 The school has always been largely supported by the 
 Karens themselves. 
 
 For a number of years the English government con- 
 tributed an equal amount to that raised by the Karens. 
 
 This work was not without opposition, being at the 
 first, and for some years, entirely misunderstood in 
 
 America, but the results have more than justified the - 
 
 wisdom of the policy pursued by the Vintons. 
 
 In March, 1858, Mr. Vinton died. No missionary 
 took his place, and Mrs. Vinton conducted both the 
 school and the mission alone, her son and daughter 
 being in America at school. Had it not been for the 
 corps of native assistants trained in this school, the 
 work would have suffered severely, but as it was 
 there was not even a break in the prosperity of the 
 mission. Directed by Mrs. Vinton, the native preachers 
 and teachers went on with the work, and not only held 
 the native churches together, but vastly increased their 
 number and efficiency until the son and daughter came 
 out to take up the work their father had laid down. 
 
 In the year 1859 Miss Calista Vinton returned to 
 Burma, and was from that -time associated with her 
 mother in the school, thus giving Mrs. Vinton more 
 time for travelling among the churches. In 1864 
 Miss Vinton was married to Rey. R. M. Luther, and 
 Mrs. Vinton gave up the charge of the school into 
 their hands, intending to devote herself entirely to work 
 among the churches. 
 
 God, however, had other plans for her, and in 
 December of that year she entered into rest. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Luther remained in charge of the 
 school until 1870, not being supported by any mis- 
 sionary society. They contributed largely of their 
 
15 
 
 own means for the support of the school, relinquish- 
 ing the grant-in-aid because of the embarrassments 
 which it caused. ‘The theological department was con- 
 ducted by Mr. Luther, some twenty-three young men 
 going forth into the ministry, many of whom are still 
 laboring there with success. 
 
 During all this period the history of the school was 
 marked by the constant conversion of the scholars, 
 while the work done by the teachers and preachers who 
 went out from it was of no common kind. As the 
 earlier assistants died or went into other work, their 
 places were filled by the graduates of the school. 
 From the day of its founding it seems to have found 
 favor both with God and man. The English residents 
 of Rangoon contributed many thousands of rupees to 
 its support. 
 
 In 1870 both Mr. and Mrs. Luther were forced by 
 failing health to return to America. The school then 
 passed into the hands of Mrs. Luther’s brother, Rev. 
 J. B. Vinton. Since his death it has been conducted 
 by Mrs. Vinton, assisted by Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Sea- 
 grave, Mr. Herbert Vinton and Miss Magrath. It 
 numbers about two hundred pupils. The establish- 
 ment of the Baptist College and the Government Col- 
 lege of Rangoon have made it advisable, in recent 
 years, to discontinue the higher grade studies. 
 
 Owing to the great increase in the number and efii- 
 ciency of the village schools, attendance on the city 
 school has been wisely restricted. 
 
 The Rangoon Karen Theological Seminary affords 
 the necessary training for the young preachers of the 
 district. 
 
 When Mr. and Mrs. Luther took charge of the 
 school in 1864 it was moved from the old school build- 
 ing, which had become inadequate, into Frank’s Chapel, 
 where it remained until three years ago, when the 
 southern wing of the Vinton Memorial Building was 
 opened, and it has since been accommodated there. 
 The girls have numbered from one fourth to one third 
 of the pupils. 
 
THE SCHOOL AT THONGZE. 
 MISS KATE EVANS. 
 
 To write a sketch of the Burmese girls’ school at 
 Thongze I shall have to go back to the time when it was 
 not a girls’ school, and long before its connection with 
 the Woman’s Society. Even then I cannot make it 
 very complete, as the destruction of the mission house 
 by fire, twice, has deprived us of the old records to 
 which I could otherwise refer. In 1858, after having 
 made one or more short visits to the place, Mrs. 
 Ingalls sent a Burman man to open a school. He 
 could only read and write, and the highest study was 
 a small tract on geography. The school was held 
 under a tree, a mat roof being put up in the spreading 
 branches, which were infested with paddy birds (a 
 species of heron) which were very troublesome. ‘There 
 were no walls, and the exercises were varied by 
 frantic rushes to drive out buffaloes, pigs, and pariah 
 dogs. 
 
 The school from the first, though in a purely heathen 
 community, was opened with reading of the Scriptures 
 and prayer, and singing by the old man, who, how- 
 ever, did not know one metre from another; and a 
 Sunday school was regularly held. 
 
 He held the fort as best he could until Mrs. Ingalls 
 came in 1859, when she took charge of it. At that 
 time there was not, so far as she knew, a single 
 woman in the district who could read, though some 
 had gone through the spelling book in their childhood. 
 It was not a popular thing for girls to know how to 
 read, as it put them on an equality with their fathers 
 and brothers, and would possibly interfere with their - 
 matrimonial prospects; but, in spite of this prejudice, 
 the sewing class, with English scissors and needles, 
 which were quite new to them, proved such an attrac- 
 tion that there were more girls than boys in the school ; 
 the boys being in the monastery schools. 
 
ig 
 
 Mrs. Ingalls had sole charge of the school until on her 
 return from America after her second trip home. Miss 
 Adams came with her to assist in the school work, 
 and, introducing the study of English, brought in a 
 large number of half-grown Burman boys. It then 
 became a mixed Anglo-vernacular school with a large 
 proportion of boys. She remained for a few years and 
 then removed to Henzada. 
 
 Tn the interval between her remoyal and my arrival, 
 Miss Le Feyre was here a short time. In 1871 the 
 Woman’s Society was formed, and under its auspices I 
 came to Burma, reaching Rangoon Feb. 25, 1872, and 
 Thonzge March 12 of the same year. I found Mrs. 
 Ingalls overburdened with work, haying the general 
 work and the oversight of a large mixed school. 
 
 As the years went on and both departments of the 
 work increased, it seemed best to divide, Mrs. Ingalls 
 retaining charge of the general work and I of the 
 school, freeing her from all care connected with it. 
 This was done in 1877, and the Woman’s Society then 
 assumed the support of the school. There was nothiug 
 in the way of school furniture or apparatus, with the 
 exception of Jong, low benches, behind which the pu- 
 pils sat on mats, a long rough table, and some rough 
 blackboards. The only text-books in Burmese were 
 Stilson’s arithmetic and Hough’s geography, lessons 
 onall other subjects being prepared by the missionaries 
 and their native helpers, and copied by the children ; 
 yery different from the present time when the country 
 is flooded with text-books. 
 
 In 1882 I was compelled to return to America and 
 Miss Elwin came to take my place, remaining until 
 my return in 1883. On her arrival she put into exe- 
 cution the plan previously formed, of having the school 
 registered under government as a grant-in-aid school. 
 On my return she removed to Prome. At that time, on 
 many accounts, it seemed desirable to have a purely 
 girls’ school. Many of the parents seriously objected 
 to sending their girls to school with the boys, and 
 there were a number of boys’ schools in the vicinity, 
 
18 
 
 but none for girls. So, in May, 1884, when the school 
 was reopened, only girls were admitted, with the ex- 
 ception of a limited number of very small boys from 
 Christian families in the village. 
 
 The school remained under grant-in-aid rules until 
 1888, when, feeling convinced that this was not desir- 
 able for a girls’ day school in the jungle, it was with- 
 drawn and became a purely mission school (as it is 
 to the present day). Up to this time a male teacher 
 was employed as head teacher, but from that year only 
 female teachers have been employed — mostly certifi- 
 cated girls from Kemendine and Moulmein, a number 
 of whom had been pupils in this school. 
 
 In 1891 it again became necessary for me to return 
 to America, and Mrs. Ingalls returning from home that 
 year was accompanied by Miss Batterson who was 
 sent to relieve me; she, however, only remained a few 
 months. In 1892 I left for America, leaving Mrs. 
 Ingalls alone with the school work on her hands, I 
 was forced to remain in America much longer than I 
 had intended, and in 1893 Mrs. Crawley came to Mrs. 
 Ingalls’ help, and took charge of the school cane a 
 short time before my return in 1894. 
 
 The girls’ school has grown from about forty to its 
 present number, eighty, which has to be its limit with 
 the teaching staff available. In 1896, for the first 
 time in its history, the school was graded, and teaches 
 to the sixth standard, though not the full curriculum, as 
 this did not seem to be necessary. In this place it 
 seems to be more desirable to give a good deal of time 
 to sewing and fancy work, and the teachers could not 
 possibly find time for this in addition to the full course. 
 A fourth teacher is greatly needed. With a larger 
 staff the school could soon exceed a hundred, as pupils 
 are being rejected frequently from simple inability to 
 do justice to them. 
 
 In 1886 a new building was put up, to be used, as 
 the old one had been, for both chapel and school pur- 
 poses. When completed it was supplied with good 
 desks, blackboards, ete., a great improvement on the 
 
19 
 
 old building with its low benches, which, however, did 
 good service in their time. Although this ranks as a 
 day school, we always have a few boarders in the 
 house. As a rule these girls are from Christian fami- 
 lies living too far away to send them as day pupils. 
 The number of these boarders varies; I think we have 
 never had more than ten or less than three at one - 
 time, the latter being the present number. 
 
 As long as this was a mixed Anglo-vernacular school, 
 fees were taken, and an effort was made to continue 
 the fee system when it became a purely vernacular girls’ 
 school; but it became evident that, in order to give 
 a chance of education to the many very poor children in 
 the vicinity, it would be necessary to go back to the free 
 school plan. After this had been-done, howeyer, still 
 another effort was made to introduce fees, with another 
 failure. The chief ain of this school is to give a 
 plain, useful education to those children whose parents 
 cannot afford to send them away to the more expensive 
 boarding-schools, and to gather in for Christian instruc- 
 tion these little ones, who would otherwise grow up in 
 heathenism. As nearly all of the children are from 
 heathen families, the number of baptisms has been 
 small. A part of each day is given to Bible study, 
 and the Sunday school is well attended, a majority 
 attending regularly, though attendance is not compul- 
 sory. Four young girls from the school were baptized 
 recently, one of them from a heathen family. 
 
 Of course, in a day school, as strong a religious 
 influence cannot be exerted over them as in the board- 
 ing-schools where the pupils are shut away from home 
 influences and surrounded by a religious atmosphere 
 all the time. Still, there must be day schools, and, 
 while the results are not as conspicuous as in board- 
 ing-schools, we have reason to believe that they fill an 
 important place in mission economy. i 
 
20 
 
 THE PROME MISSION SCHOOL. 
 REV. E. 0. STEVENS. 
 
 Eugenio Kincaid, D. D., with his family, arrived at 
 Prome in January, 1854, shortly after the town had 
 been taken by the troops of the East India Company. 
 Through the kindness of Col. (afterwards brevet 
 Major-General) Sir A. P. Phayre, Chief Commissioner 
 of British Burma, a beautiful site was secured for the 
 mission on the east bank of the noble Irrawaddy River. 
 Atacheap rate Dr. Kincaid purchased some deserted 
 monastic buildings, which, though quite dilapidated, 
 contained much well-seasoned teak timber. With the 
 materials thus obtained he constructed not only a 
 dwelling for himself, but also a rude zayat with a roof 
 of thatch grass. After the burning down of three 
 chapels, one after the other, in the centre of the town, 
 this humble structure on the mission compound served 
 as a meeting-house as well as a school-house until 
 the latter part of 1870, when the brick chapel had 
 progressed so far towards completion that it could be 
 used for public worship. This school-house was not 
 demolished until after the erection of the new building 
 on the same compound in 1878. 
 
 Dr. Kinecaid’s head boatman, Ko Shwé-lan, became 
 hopefully converted, and soon after his baptism he was 
 set to teaching a small primary vernacular school. 
 Maung Shwe-lan appears to have been the first school- 
 master employed in the Prome mission. Gradually a 
 division of labor was effected. While Doctor Kineaid 
 made extensive evangelistic tours, and had the general 
 oversight of the churches and the preachers, Rey. 
 Thomas Simons had the care of the town school. This 
 arrangement was continued until 1865, when, on 
 account of the infirmities of age, Doctor Kineaid 
 retired, and with his family returned to the United 
 States. Mr. Simons was thus left in sole charge of 
 the Prome station until the arrival of Rey. and Mrs, 
 E. O. Stevens, Noy. 25, 1866. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 THE MISSION Al PROME, BURMA, 
 

 
 * v 
 
21 
 
 In those early days, Mrs. Kincaid and Mr. Simons 
 took special interest in the case of Maung Bawa, who 
 proved to be a Christian boy of unusual promise. 
 From Prome he went to the government school at 
 Rangoon, while it was under the charge of Rey. A. T. 
 Rose. He afterwards became judge of the Small Cause 
 Court, and for many years he has been drawing a 
 government pension in Rangoon. Among those who 
 came to town in order to learn to read Burmese was 
 Aung-ban, a Karen young man from the Tharrawaddy 
 district. Now a gray-haired minister of the gospel, 
 he recalls with devout gratitude the exhortations and 
 instructions from the lips of Mrs. Simons, which led 
 him in his youth to consecrate himself to the service of 
 Christ. 
 
 In May, 1866, the British government established 
 an Anglo-vernacular boys’ school at Prome. The 
 nucleus of this was a colony composed of the most 
 advanced pupils from the mission school. Their pro- 
 ficiency in the use of the English language showed how 
 well they had been drilled by Mr. Simons in pronun- 
 ciation and articulation. The boy at the head of this 
 class afterwards became a deputy inspector of 
 schools, and is now head master of the Burmese mis- 
 sion school at Bassein, under the superintendence of 
 Rey. E. Tribolet. : 
 
 In 1867 Mr. Simons’ assistant teacher was Maung 
 Shwé-men, who had received his education at the 
 Anglo-yernacular mission school in Moulmein. After 
 his dismissal the Prome mission school was taught 
 first by Maung Htin-aung, and he was succeeded by 
 Maung Shwé-gyaw (both from Moulmein). It be- 
 came, however, exceedingly difficult to compete suc- 
 cessfully with the Prome government school, until 
 Maung Hpob-maung, the first assistant master, 
 resigned. From the time he accepted mission employ, 
 for two years the mission boys’ school had great 
 prosperity, as to numbers and the attainments of the 
 pupils, but after his reappointment to government 
 service the school began to run down again. Maung 
 
no 
 bo 
 
 Hpoh-Maung was a Baptist who had received his Chris- 
 tian training at a mission school in Caleutta. He was 
 subsequently promoted to be deputy inspector of schools. 
 
 Mrs. Simons returned home the second time in the 
 spring of 1873. In company with her went Miss 
 Jane Simons, who, during her brief sojourn in Burma, 
 had manifested much interest in school work, and 
 endeared herself greatly to the native Christians of 
 Prome. Her father died of cholera, Feb. 19, 1876. 
 At the time of his death Ma Shwe-ong was teaching a 
 school, whose origin may be traced to 1867. At this 
 last-mentioned date Mrs. Stevens gathered a little 
 girls’ school ina thatched hut on the mission premises, 
 and hired Ma Pwin (Bwen), a young married woman 
 from Thongze, to be their teacher. Mrs. Stevens her- 
 self gave instruction in English, in arithmetic, in needle- 
 work, in the catechism, and in the singing of Christian 
 hymns. Ma Pwin was suceeded by Ma Na Ma No, 
 by Ma Nhin-dan, and Ma Nhin-dan by the Ma Shweé- 
 ong just referred to. Ma Shwé-dng was one of the 
 Prome girls who finished their studies in the Morton 
 Lane girls’ school at Moulmein, and thus fitted them- 
 selyes to teach school on their return. She was the 
 eldest daughter of the first Bible-woman employed in 
 the Prome mission, After her mother’s death she 
 married Maung Tha-din, a Burmese gentleman, who 
 holds the position of extra assistant commissioner. 
 
 At the expiration of their first furlough, Mr. and 
 Mrs. Stevens reached Prome Dec. 17, 1877. They 
 were accompanied by Miss Clarissa Bromley, who, as 
 soon as she became sufliciently acquainted with the 
 language, assisted Mrs. Stevens materially in the care 
 of the school. In the new building, the boys’ school 
 and girls’ school were united. A few boarders were 
 admitted from places out of town, but nothing was 
 attempted on a large scale, because the native Chris- 
 tians were not disposed to do much more for the schools 
 than to pay the tuition fees which were demanded of 
 their children. A part of the time the mission was 
 favored with the services of Maung Aung-dék, a 
 
23 
 
 Christian vernacular school-master, who, having taken 
 his preparatory course at the mission village school at 
 Euma, had graduated at the government normal school. 
 This man’s salary was paid by the Department of 
 Public Instruction. 
 
 After two and a half years Miss Bromley broke 
 down and went home to die in her native land. In 
 1881 her place was filled by Miss Julia Elwin; but in 
 about two years failing health made it necessary for 
 her also to return to the United States. When Maung 
 Aung-d6ok resigned his position, in order to start a 
 school of his own in his native township, he was fol- 
 lowed by Maung Ne-dtm, who was well qualified to 
 teach, although he did not possess a teacher’s certifi- 
 eate. Soon after the breaking out of the last war he 
 resigned, and, as interpreter, in 1886 followed the 
 British army which had just dethroned King Thibaw. 
 Maung Neé-dtm’s successor was Ma Mi, holding a 
 vernacular teacher’s certificate. She was granddaugh- 
 ter of a man who, before the annexation of Pegu, had 
 held the office of magistrate or collector under the King 
 of Burma. 
 
 In 1889 Mr. and Mrs. Stevens were designated to 
 Moulmein. From the port of New York as far as 
 Rangoon they had as fellow-passenger Miss Jane 
 Stewart, who joined the Prome mission, which was 
 then under the charge of Rey. H. H. Tilbe. At about 
 that time the school was transferred to the brick chapel 
 near the big bazaar, three quarters of a mile distant, 
 and the school-house was fitted up for the residence of 
 Miss Stewart and of Miss Z. A. Bunn, who removed 
 from Moulmein to Prome. Ere long the failure of 
 Miss Stewart’s health compelled her to. leave her loved 
 work and take the long voyage back to America and 
 Miss Bunn was placed in charge of Zigon. The head 
 master for several years was a former pupil, — Maung 
 Yawba (Job), the second son of the pastor U Yan- 
 gen. Subsequently he resigned and went to Danubzt 
 in the Henzada district, where he gave great satisfac- 
 tion as the teacher of a Christian school. 
 
24 
 
 In 1893 Rev. L. N. Mosier came down from Man- 
 dalay to assume charge on account of the home-going 
 of Mr. and Mrs. Tilbe. He brought the school back 
 to the mission compound. In a few years Mr. and 
 Mrs. Mosier were obliged to leave Prome without a 
 resident missionary, and go to America in search of 
 health and strength. In 1899, when they rejoined their 
 appointment, they found that during their absence 
 Maung Shwé-dim, Ma Yong, and Ma Thet-hpa had 
 been doing extremely well as teachers in the school in 
 which they had formerly been pupils. Ma Yong and 
 Ma Thet-hpt, and some other Prome girls, obtained 
 their teachers’ certificates in the Kemendine Burmese 
 girls’ boarding-school. 
 
 Before closing, a few words should be added with 
 regard to the extra assistant commisssioner, to whom 
 reference has just been made. Ko Tha-din was a 
 Christian boy, who received his elementary training at 
 mission schools in the town and district of Prome. 
 He enjoyed the distinction of forming the first class at 
 the beginning of the government High School in Ran- 
 
 ‘goon. Since he received a government appointment 
 about twenty years ago, he has been rapidly promoted 
 for his faithfulness in the discharge of his duties, for 
 his probity, for his knowledge of law, and the excel- 
 lence of his administrative abilities. 
 
 Many other instances might be adduced in order to 
 set forth the benefits arising from the maintenance of 
 the Prome American Baptist Mission School, were it 
 not that this paper has already exceeded its prescribed 
 limits. 
 
25 
 
 THE SCHOOL AT ZIGON. 
 MRS. 0. L. GEORGE. 
 
 Before Lower Burma was conquered by the English, 
 and for many years after, the educational work of 
 Burma was wholly in the hands of the Buddhist 
 priests. Boys only, were taught to read. Therefore, 
 the first effort of the missionary for the children of 
 Burmans who had become Christians was to give them 
 a school free from Buddhistic teachings. Every 
 school in Burma began in this simple primary way. 
 Out of these efforts have grown the various schools, 
 colleges, and normal seminaries which are now our 
 pride. The efforts of the Christian teacher were sup- 
 plemented by government grants, and for the last 
 thirty years government has spent much money in 
 helping secular schools where the sciences are taught ; 
 but doubtless the impulse and thought of government 
 schools grew from the definite work accomplished by 
 the American missionaries. 
 
 The schools in Zigon district began in 1876. 
 There had been an unusual ingathering of Burman 
 converts. These babes in Christ needing a shepherd's 
 care, Mr. George and family moved from Henzada to 
 Zigon in the year 1576. Vague rumors of the won- 
 derful Christian schools in other parts of the country 
 had reached the ears of these new converts, and the 
 first demand upon the missionary after he settled in 
 Zigon was that he start a mission school. 
 
 But the missionary had some very decided ideas on 
 self-support and told the new disciples that he was 
 delighted they wanted a school, and just as soon as 
 they had put up a school-house and would promise the 
 salary of the teacher he would see that they had a very 
 excellent one. 
 
 This heroic treatment was a great shock to their 
 theories and hopes. They had dreamed of schools 
 
26 
 
 fitted and furnished for them, with boarding privileges 
 thrown iu. By tactful effort and wise encouragement 
 they began to plan for themselves. The first school- 
 house was a crude affair, a bamboo house with a grass 
 roof, but the house was given and built by the new 
 Christians. A few years later a teak school-house, 
 which also served as a chapel, was erected. The funds 
 for this building came from various sources — one half, 
 a granr-in-aid from government, the balance from 
 America and smal: gifts from the native Christians. 
 
 It is agrave question with one of the founders of the 
 school whether this new building was not a mistake. 
 With if came a more pretentious staff of teachers. 
 Fees, graded according to the studies, formed an im- 
 portant part of income, but it was not, as in the past, 
 owned and supported by the people. 
 
 It has always been a co-education school. The aim 
 from the first was to bring Christ into the life of every 
 child who entered the school. After the first year 
 dormitories for boys and girls were added. Self-sup- 
 port has been kept before the people amid many dis- 
 couraging circumstances. While following Burman 
 customs as much as was possible in the boarding de- 
 partment, cleanliness of garment and person was com- 
 pulsory; housekeeping was taught, ideals of pure words 
 and living ever kept before them. 
 
 Since the death of Mr. George, ten years after the 
 schoo! was opened, it has had careful oversight from 
 Mr. and Mrs. Hancock, Miss Payne, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Sutherland, Miss Bunn, Miss Barrows, and Miss Stark. 
 
 Its sons occupy important offices under English 
 government. Others have been teachers in the schools 
 of Upper and Lower Burma. It has always been a 
 light in a district famed ‘for bad men and ill deeds, and 
 from its ranks have come our best church members. 
 
é- 
 
 ho 
 ~I 
 
 THE HENZADA BURMAN MISSION SCHOOL. 
 REV. JOHN CUMMINGS. 
 
 Coming up the main street of the town from the 
 steamer landing and the bazaar, under a splendid 
 arch of padauk trees, you reach its intersection at 
 Court House Square, with Shining Gold Street just at 
 the mission gate. The street is named Shining Gold, 
 from an old pagoda on the river bank. Entering by 
 the stile, along a road fringed with frangipanni trees, 
 which drop their fragrant blossoms at your feet, you 
 pass the boys’ dormitory on the right and come to the 
 mission bungalow, half hidden in a grove of mango, 
 cocoanut, and tamarind trees, in the centre of a spa- 
 cious compound. Beyond the house is an iron-roofed 
 building used as girls’ dormitory, teachers’ house, and 
 vernacular school. To the front and left, connected 
 with the bungalow by a covered walk leading diagonally 
 from a corner of the veranda, is the combined chapel 
 and school building. It is indeed a noble building, 
 containing on the upper floor a chapel 70'x 30', with a 
 memorial window, four class-rooms at the corners, 18 
 x 18', a reading-room over the portico, 18’ x 18’, a large 
 school-room below, the same size as the chapel, and 
 four more class-rooms at the corners. It is most admi- 
 rably adapted to its use. Side verandas connect the 
 class-rooms with stairways leading up from the school- 
 room below, thus giving ready access to the main 
 rooms, and each class-room distinct, well lighted, and 
 well ventilated. 
 
 To Miss Phinney is due the credit of originating the 
 fundamental idea of the design. Rev. Mr. Price 
 
 - first worked it out in the Thomas Memorial at Henzada, 
 
 then Mr. Bushell, adding some improvements, erected 
 a similar building at Maubin; this is the third building 
 of the kind, and Mr. Tribolet has erected a fourth at 
 Bassein. It is a good type to perpetuate. This build- 
 ing was erected in 1895. 
 
28 
 
 The school is much older, in fact it dates back to the 
 founding of the mission by Rev. and Mrs. Crawley, 
 pioneer missionaries to the Burmans of Henzada (then 
 called Henthada), in 1854. Its history is naturally 
 divided into two periods: first, from 1854 to 1890, 
 when it was a vernacular school, doing its work through 
 the medium of the Burmese language, and was not 
 under the inspection of government; second, from 
 1890 to the present time, during which it has been an 
 Anglo-vernacular seventh standard school, teaching 
 English, and under the inspection of government. 
 Overlapping the two periods is one of transition from 
 one system to the other, when English was more and 
 more taught and preparations were making for its 
 present status. 
 
 During the first period the school passed through 
 many vicissitudes. It was established about the time 
 of the visit of the deputation to Burma, which dis- 
 countenanced school work for all but the children of 
 Christians, which generally set back educational work 
 in the province and lost to Baptists the monopoly of 
 Western education which they had held up to that time. 
 
 As there were few Burman Christians in that early 
 day, and the children of heathen were nominally not 
 eligible to the benefits of Christian nurture in a Chris- 
 tian school, progress was slow. It would haye been 
 slower yet had not some missionaries, wiser than the 
 deputation, seen in mission schools an evangelizing 
 agency for children, whether children of heathen or 
 children vf Christians, as well as a means ‘of training 
 those who had already begun the Christian life. This 
 broader policy enabled the school to make a begin- 
 ning. Its doors have always been open to any pupil, 
 Christian or heathen, who would come under its 
 training and submit to its discipline. It has carefully 
 taught the Bible and maintained a strong missionary 
 spirit from the beginning, and has continually raised 
 the standard of the general education imparted. 
 
 At first no fees were charged; everything was free. 
 It was hard to get pupils even on those terms. Not 
 
29 
 
 until 1885, under the management of Mr. Hascall, 
 were fees charged. He began with the modest charge 
 of two annas a month for Burmese and eight annas a 
 month for English; but fees were collected with great. 
 difficulty and seldom paid in full. The main difficulty, 
 as I afterwards proved, was because the school had 
 no government examinations, and could not properly 
 accredit the pupil with his standing. Now monthly 
 fees, ranging from Fs. 1 to fs. 2, according to stan- 
 dards, are easily collected. The fees for the past 
 year amount to over Rs. 1500, the total aid from 
 government amounts to about Rs. 2000, which enables 
 us, with the appropriation received from America, to 
 maintain an able staff of seven native teachers and 
 several jungle schools. 
 
 In the absence of school records previous to my 
 time, I am unable to determine exactly the sequence 
 of missionaries in charge, or the length of their respec- 
 tive terms of service, or who was in charge of the 
 school when several missionaries were accredited to 
 the station. I can only give the approximate order 
 as remembered by the older Christians, which is as 
 follows : — 
 
 Rey. and Mrs. Crawley during cneir first term of 
 service, save the last year when an exchange was 
 effected with Rev. Mr. Douglass, of Bassein. Mr. 
 Crawley returned to Burma from furlough in America 
 without his wife, but went back for her after about 
 four years’ service, and returned with her to Henzada. 
 During his second term of service he was joined in 
 the work by Rev. and Mrs. George, and Miss Rose 
 Adams, who subsequently became Mrs. Bailey, went 
 with the Georges to Zigon to open a new station, and 
 eventually found her grave there. Later came Miss. 
 Watson, now Mrs. Hancock, of Mandalay, and Miss. 
 Payne. Mr. Crawley started home in broken health, 
 and died before reaching Liverpool and was buried in 
 that city. After he went away Miss Rose Adams 
 Bailey and Miss Watson were in charge for a while. 
 After Miss Watson married, Rev. and Mrs. Hancock 
 
30 
 
 were in charge. Then came a long hiatus when no 
 missionary was sent for many years, and the school 
 languished and would have become extinet but for 
 the fostering care of Mrs. C. B. Thomas, who was 
 herself overwhelmed with Karen work, but who set 
 Ma Nellie and Ma Kyin to work for the Burmans. 
 The Hascalls came in 1882, and infused new life into 
 the school; Miss Phinney in 1885; Rev. and Mrs. 
 Cummings in 1887. 
 
 The Crawleys and the Georges gave their strength 
 to evangelization as became pioneers. The school 
 first grew to considerable importance under the care of 
 Miss Rose Adams, when a flourishing girls’ boarding- 
 school was maintained in the compound, taught by 
 herself and Ma Kyin, and a day school for boys on a 
 well-chosen lot near the bazaar in the centre of the 
 town. Both buildings were subsequently destroyed by 
 fire, the latter in a general conflagration, and the former 
 as the work of incendiaries in dacoit times, about 
 1885; so that Mr. Hascall had practically to begin de 
 novo. How much is lost in our mission from failure 
 to maintain a continuous school policy and of keep- 
 ing up foundations once established ! 
 
 During the latter years of Mr. Hascall’s administra- 
 tion, no Karen school was maintained at Henzada, and 
 local Karen pupils joined the Burman school, swelling 
 its numbers to about fifty. These withdrew on the 
 opening of the Karen school in 1887, leaving us barely 
 twenty-three pupils. When I came to study the school 
 problem and its relation to mission work, I became 
 convinced that more must be made of the school; that 
 it must be made good enough to command the respect 
 of heathen and Christian; that we could not afford to 
 give our children an inferior education, or force them to 
 go elsewhere to secure a knowledge of English. That 
 instead of having the migration wholly from us to 
 other schools, that it would be better missionary work 
 to start the migration toward us, and that this would 
 come if we only had government examinations which 
 are made the condition of all public appointments. 
 
dl 
 
 No pupil of parts would stay in a school in which he 
 could not secure them. Consequently the pupils had 
 been in the habit of leaving as soon as they could hope 
 to pass an examination elsewhere, and the school 
 occupied the humble position of a feeder for the 
 S. P. G. and Municipal School, and could not hold its 
 pupils long enough to train them. This was not good 
 enough. Without the school, how could we hope for 
 traised workers in the future ? 
 
 This led to the registration of the school in 1890, 
 and to the present period of its history. Pupils 
 rapidly increased. Miss Squires came out to aid in 
 the school work, the project of a new and suitable 
 building was undertaken, and through the gloom and 
 sorrow and shadow of death was nurtured to comple- 
 tion, and the erection of our present building in 1893. 
 Miss Squires had returned to America in 1892, leaving 
 double work upon me. Mr. Reid was sent out to 
 relieve mein 1894, when I went home broken in health. 
 Mrs. Crawley and Miss Hopkins assisted in the work, 
 and Miss J. V. Smith for a few months. 
 
 On my return from furlough, in 1886, I found the 
 school badly run down and requiring vigorous assist- 
 ance. It has steadily grown for four years, and now 
 numbers one hundred and twenty-five pupils. The 
 total enrolment since 1890 has been five hundred and 
 sixty-five pupils. As Dr. Burr once said of his church 
 at Ruggles Street: ‘‘ Here we preach and teach a pro- 
 cession.” A day school has fewer elements of stability 
 than a boarding-school. We have had a few boarders 
 from the beginning. In the growth of the mission, 
 these must increase, for I want the town schocl to be 
 a place equipped to receive any pupil from the jungle 
 who is worthy and gives promise of future usefulness 
 in the mission. We have graduated thirty pupils, of 
 whom fifteen are Christians, ten have become teachers, 
 ten have gone to colleze. We have now seven out- 
 station schools, taught by teachers trained in the 
 mission, aiid we have supplied a head master to the 
 school at Myingyan. 
 
32 
 
 Last year five pupils were baptized. We can hope- 
 fully look for an increase in the present year. For 
 every rupee received from America for the school, 
 three more are raised in this country. Miss Stickney 
 joined us in November of 1899, and with zeal, energy, 
 and efficiency is devating her time to the work. The 
 enlarged usefulness of the school is assured, for there 
 are fresh opportunities frequently opening to establish 
 new jungle schools, which in turn become feeders, as 
 well as asource of light and life, in fact, the religious 
 centre of the village in which placed. That schools 
 are essential to a mission, I deem proved past refuta- 
 tion in Burma. That the missionary needs to make 
 their religious interests dominant goes without saying ; 
 that out of them our most efficient workers must come, 
 I see exemplified in our pastor Saya Taik, and in Mg. 
 Yaw Ba, the head master of our leading out-station 
 school at Danubyu. The former, who knows no English, 
 passed through the mission schools of his day as pupil, 
 teacher, theological student, preacher, pastor. He is 
 the leading Burman in this mission. Mg. Yaw Ba 
 marks the transition to the teaching of English in 
 mission schools. He too has come up the line, pupil, 
 college student, seven year’ in government service, 
 paying back to his father what had been expended on 
 his education, teacher in the town school, head master 
 in a similar school at Danubyu, and the religious leader 
 in that town of twelve thousand heathen. The results 
 of school work are slow in maturing, but of surpassing 
 permanent value. Help us to work out the problem 
 here of more pupils, more college students, more trained 
 teachers, an educated ministry, and the advancement of 
 the line of light into all the centres of this densely 
 populated district of three hundred thousand souls 
 dependent upon this mission for the light. 
 
33 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE MORTON LANE 
 BOARDING SCHOOL FOR BURMESE GIRLS. 
 
 MISS MARTHA SHELDON. 
 
 Over thirty years ago, in the beautiful city of Moul- 
 mein, on the banks of the river Salwen, a young 
 woman was planning her life-work. The daughter of 
 devoted missionaries, who had labored together with 
 Judson and other pioneers in Burma, she had been 
 separated from her parents to be educated in one of 
 our seminaries in Christian America. 
 
 Now, haying graduated from the same institution 
 that fostered the growth of Ann Hasseltine’s mind and 
 heart, she had returned to the land of her birth. 
 
 But her heart yearned for the Burman girls, some of 
 them her old playmates, who had not the faintest con- 
 ception of the advantages which had been hers. With 
 Miss Susan E. Haswell, to think and feel was to act, 
 and in November, 1867, the Morton Lane school sprang 
 into existence. It was housed for a while in an old 
 building, on the street from which it derived its name. 
 But in October, 1873, a new two-story brick building 
 was dedicated on Mission Street, which would better 
 accommodate the growing school. 
 
 The upper floor of teak wood, and the lower of Port- 
 land cement, supported by handsome arches and pil- 
 lars, and the whole whitewashed, it has been called 
 ‘¢'The White House,” and presents a pretty picture to 
 the passerby as it stands in pleasing contrast to the green 
 abundant foliage of the trees which surround it, and 
 the red laterite roads which pass it and wind through 
 the compound, under the porch, and between the trees. 
 
 On the lower floor is a school-room capable of seat- 
 ing a hundred pupils; a large recitation room, used 
 also, in the evening, for asitting-room for the girls, for 
 study, and for prayer- meetings; three small recitation 
 rooms and a small store-room. 
 
 The upper story contains. two large dormitories for 
 
b+ 
 
 the boarders, a small one for the teachers, a large room 
 and bath-room for the superintendent, and a room for 
 the reception of visitors. In the rear of the building 
 a cook-house was built, with an eating-shed attached, 
 and, near the well, a bath-house was provided for the 
 use of the girls. 
 
 Miss Haswell had for her helpers, at different times, 
 Miss Le Fevre for a year; Mrs. Douglass from 
 1872-73, when she removed to the Kemendine school 
 to assist Miss Gage; Miss Barrows, who, after a year’s 
 service, took charge of the Eurasian Girls’ School, and 
 Miss Myra H. Stetson, who, at the end of a year, 
 came home to die. J was appointed to take her place, 
 and arrived in January, 1877. 
 
 At the end of its first decade the school numbered 
 one hundred boarders and fifteen day pupils. Half 
 were from heathen families. Boarders were bound to 
 remain from three to five or eight years, according to 
 age and circumstances. Many remained after their 
 time was up. Several had married, and over twenty 
 had become teachers. The giris did all the market- 
 ing, cooking, cleaning, and other domestic work of the 
 school. They had a half hour’s private devotion, reg- 
 ular family worship, and an hour’s Bible lesson every 
 day, besides attending weekly services at the Burman 
 chapel. They devoted an hour a day to sewing, cut- 
 ting, making, and mending their own clothes. 
 
 Their secular studies were the common branches in 
 Burmese, and those who wished to study English paid 
 for it. Five day schools for girls in different districts 
 were taught by graduates from the boarding-school, 
 and meetings were held at these school-houses for 
 heathen congregations, some of the boarding-school 
 girls serving as choir. 
 
 Miss Haswell had also started a hospital, where the 
 older girls assisted in the watching and care of the 
 sick, and in leading the patients to Christ. 
 
 In July, 1878, bereft of father and brother, and full 
 of anxiety for her mother, Miss Haswell, utterly worn 
 out herself. came with her mother to America, leaving 
 
35 
 
 me in charge of the school. It had been previously 
 arranged for Miss Emily H. Payne to come to my 
 assistance, and she was with me for five years, taking 
 charge of the outside work, and helping me in the 
 rainy season. In 1883 she came on furlough to 
 America, having been in Burma seven years. 
 
 In 1884 a normal department was added to the 
 school, and a member of the Burman church in Moul- 
 mein was secured as teacher, with the sanction of the 
 English government, who paid his salary. 
 
 The school had been registered by the government 
 as a middle school, corresponding to our grammar 
 schools, and received government aid, but depended 
 mainly on our Board and friends at home for sup- 
 port. 
 
 Most of the girls came from poor families, many 
 being too small to earn money for clothes and books as 
 the older girls did. Heathen families would not pay 
 for the education of their girls, when they would for 
 their boys. 
 
 It seemed to be a good time now to make a more 
 vigorous attempt towards self-support, for the board- 
 ing department was becoming unwieldy, one hundred 
 girls being crowded into dormitories, which had accom- 
 modation for seventy-five only. 
 
 At first no new pupils were admitted, unless they 
 agreed to provide their own clothes, bed covers, dishes, 
 and books. Then the girls were encouraged to con- 
 tribute towards new beds and lamps which were much 
 needed, and the monthly payment of Rs. 2 for board 
 was insisted on. 
 
 When the normal department was added, a monthly 
 stipend of Rs. 4 was received from government for each 
 normal student up to the number of twenty. A'so for 
 each graduate receiving a teacher’s certificate, a capita- 
 tion grant was given, varying according to the grade 
 of certificate. A bonus was given to the normal 
 teacher also. From this department graduate yearly 
 Christian certificated teachers, who are in demand in 
 the mission schools all over Burma. i 
 
36 
 
 They receive half-salary grants from government, 
 and are encouraged to start new schools in the jungle 
 villages. In 1886 Miss Agnes Whitehead came to 
 relieve me, and nine months later, in the spring of 1887, 
 I left the school in her hands, having carried it nearly 
 through its second decade. When I returned in the 
 fall of 1892, such advance had been made in self- 
 support that Miss Whitehead had been able to return 
 a good portion of the appropriation of our Board, and 
 from that time the amount required grew less each 
 year, till now less than a third of the expense comes 
 from America. 
 
 More than a third is received from government, in 
 salaries, stipends, results, and attendance grants, and 
 the remainder comes from boarding and day fees. 
 Before Miss Whitehead left, early in 1893, government 
 had made provision for the addition of a kindergarten 
 department, giving her a building grant, apparatus 
 from America, and the salary of a native teacher. She 
 had put up a small wooden building of one room, and 
 the kindergarten was opened. 
 
 In March, Miss Whitehead sailed, and I now 
 had the superintendence of a kindergarten, primary, 
 grammar, normal and Bible school, all in one, in 
 a foreign language; the finances and official corre- 
 spondence with the Board at home, and the Educational 
 Syndicate in Rangoon; annual reports to both; corre- 
 spondence with the friends of missions in the home 
 churches ; directing the housework and other industries 
 of from sixty to seventy-five girls, mothering them, 
 nurturing them in the fear and admonition of the Lord, 
 and nursing them when sick. 
 
 So I was glad to welcome, in November, 1893, Miss 
 Lydia M. Dyer. At Hasseltine House, Newton Centre, 
 she had received a kindergarten training, and so 
 came fully equipped to take charge of that department. 
 Her ability as a nurse, also, was appreciated, and as 
 housekeeper. ‘Together, also, we became architects, 
 planning and superintending the building of a new 
 kindergarten, — ‘* Raymond House,” of which you have 
 
37 
 
 read. If not, ask at the rooms for that beautiful story 
 of God’s providence. 
 
 We built, also, an addition to the main building, 
 containing a room for the kindergarten superintendent, 
 one for sick girls, a bath-room and pantry upstairs, and 
 two good-sized class-rooms downstairs. Miss White- 
 head had previously added a dining-room upstairs. 
 
 Raymond House was dedicated in June, 1897, but 
 its story and that of the work done within its walls 
 is written elsewhere. Our normal work is now sup- 
 plemented by a training in kindergarten methods and 
 principles. Our first normal teacher was promoted to 
 the position of Deputy Inspector of Schools, and his 
 place filled by a normal graduate. 
 
 In all departments there are nine teachers, all 
 Christian graduates of our Normal School, two receiv- 
 ing full salaries, the rest a moiety from government. 
 The salaries range from five dollars to twenty dollars 
 monthly. All give a tenth or more of their income 
 toward the salaries of pastor and preachers, and the 
 support of poor girls in the school, besides contribut- 
 ing to the various organizations of which they are 
 members. Housework, school work, Bible teaching, 
 prayer-meetings, Christian Endeavor, King’s Daugh- 
 ters’ and W. C. T. U. meetings and work, keep them 
 busy and develop their Christian character. When I 
 left the school in charge of Misses Hughes and Dyer, 
 in December, 1898, over sixty girls had completed the 
 normal course. Some have died, others married, and 
 the rest can be traced to their present positions. Over 
 six hundred pupils of nearly a dozen nationalities, 
 from four to twenty-five years old, half of them 
 boarders, have received instruction, from time to time, 
 and the majority of Christian workers in Burma to-day 
 are converts from this and other mission boarding 
 schools. No one can estimate the far-reaching in- 
 fluence of a Christian institution like this, in the midst 
 of a heathen people. 
 
38 
 
 RAYMOND HOUSE KINDERGARTEN AT 
 MOULMEIN. 
 
 MISS LYDIA DYER. 
 
 One of the happiest events in the history of the 
 Morton Lane School was the establishment of the 
 kindergarten department on the morning of Jan. 4, 
 1893 Like the beginnings of many larger enterprises 
 it was a day of small things. Six merry children, 
 representing four different races, Burman, Eura- 
 sian, Chinese, and Mohammedan, gathered to form 
 the nucleus of a kindergarten school. The parents 
 came also, and it was difficult to tell which enjoyed 
 the morning most. ‘To the child it was a new world, 
 and to the parents a strange scheme and very uncertain 
 but exceedingly interesting. The teacher Ma Thain-U 
 had had a little training under Miss Black in Bassein. 
 She was a bright Christian girl, a lover of all Christ’s 
 little ones, and she entered into the work heartily. 
 
 A small building about twenty by twenty-five feet 
 floor, with a small veranda, had been previously put up 
 by Miss Whitehead. Government had given fifteen 
 hundred rupees for building and furnishings, and 
 promised to pay the teacher sixty rupees a month, 
 About this time it was necessary for Miss White- 
 head to return home, and Miss Sheldon came back to 
 take charge of the whole school until some one could 
 be sent out who understood kindergarten to supervise 
 that department. Miss Fredrickson, of the Western 
 Board, who was then in charge of the kindergarten 
 work in Rangoon, very kindly came over and started 
 the school, and by correspondence helped Miss Shel- 
 don to carry it on the first year, thus laying the 
 good foundation that has made the school such a 
 success. 
 
 Despite the cramped accommodation the little garden 
 was destined to grow, and before long, beside cases, 
 tables, sand box, organ, and other necessary things, 
 
EE EE 
 
 39 
 
 it contained over thirty children and as many chairs, 
 and there was scarcely standing room left. 
 
 The building had been put up with jungle work, to 
 save money (?), with a tiled roof the weight of which 
 so strained the rafters that the rain poured down over 
 everything. This was a method of house cleaning not 
 altogether to be despised, but for health’s sake had to 
 be abolished. We asked for a new building with 
 better accommodations for the kindergarten itself and 
 the calisthenic drills of the whole school, and as a 
 result a new and commodious building has been erected, 
 ‘*Raymond House,” which stands a beautiful mon- 
 ument to the society of the Epiphany Church of New 
 York City. 
 
 The teachers have changed from time to time, but 
 our own normal class has supplied us with good girls 
 who have taken a deep interest in the school. 
 
 The present building contains but one room, but that 
 is well adapted to the needs of the school. Its extreme 
 length is fifty feet. and the width, including the addi- 
 tion for the classes, forty feet. An old piano stands 
 in the room, and although hoarse and somewhat asth- 
 matic helps to Keep time for the little feet. 
 
 The principal feature of the teaching has been the 
 Bible work. Those little tots love the Bible stories 
 and their faith is very sweet. Most of them are 
 day scholars and are here only from ten to three 
 each day. We often feel that the heathen influences 
 and superstitions of their home life must counteract all 
 their religious teaching here; but a visit to these 
 homes soon proves the contrary. Such wonderful tales 
 as the dear old grandmothers tell about the little ones. 
 They will tell with great pride how the little ones! 
 pray at night and how they preach to their elders 
 (which is not according to Burman custom) about the 
 true God and the love of Christ. It seems smart only, 
 to the parents, but it means to us seed sown in good 
 ground which will bring forth fruit later. 
 
 Some of the little ones are very wild and wilful when 
 they first come to us; they know not the meaning of 
 
40 
 
 obedience, and never intend to know experimentally. 
 If you could know individual children you would be 
 both amused and pleased. For instance, there is little 
 John Chinaman only three years old; turkey red 
 trousers anda blue jacket make up his school costume : 
 nature only provides his home clothing. Young Mo- 
 hammed wears a white muslin tunic, over which is a 
 small jacket of pink satin highly decorated with tinsel 
 and green braid, and trousers to match. The cap, 
 which matches only in elaboration, is worn continually. 
 English shoes often grace the stockingless feet and 
 help to make up what the natives think a smart look- 
 ing lad. The Burman boys dress according to age, 
 the younger ones with a single long garment gathered 
 into a band at the neck, and the older ones wear a 
 jacket and a kind of skirt, which is composed of one 
 piece of straight cloth sewed together at the ends, 
 which, by a series of twists and folds at the top, will 
 stay in at least five minutes. The girls dress very 
 much the same, except the skirt is put on a little 
 differently and stays a little better. Young Aung Mya 
 was a somewhat exaggerated type of young America 
 when he came to us, but a wonderful change has come 
 over him, and last hot season he was found in the 
 cook-house praying for rain, and was very cross with 
 his grandmother because she disturbed him. 
 
 Those who stay with us as boarders are by far the 
 most hopeful. Their sweet faith and love for Christ 
 is often very touching. One little one in particular 
 delights to talk of heaven which, to her childish mind, 
 means to be with God and to play with Jesus. 
 
 More than two hundred have been in the school. 
 Many of the girls are still in the standards, and a 
 large number of the boys have gone to the Burman 
 boys’ school, ‘Three of the number have been bap- 
 tized and united with the Church; others we feel sure 
 are Christ’s own little disciples, and before long they 
 will be allowed to confess him by baptism as they 
 desire. 
 
 Fifteen girls have been trained for kindergarten 
 
41 
 
 teachers. The last class just sent out, composed of 
 ten good Christian girls, received a government exam- 
 ination, which they all passed well, and they will have 
 the honor of receiving the first kindergarten certificates 
 given in Burma. Most of them will go into our 
 mission schools to teach. 
 
 The need of their work is very great. Government 
 is establishing kindergartens everywhere, and it means 
 much for the future of Burma if these schools can be 
 supplied with Christian girls trained in our Christian 
 schools. 
 
42 
 
 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSION 
 BURMESE BOYS’ SCHOOL, 
 MOULMEIN. 
 
 MRS. E. O. STEVENS. 
 
 This school is situated on historic ground, it being 
 on the plot of land originally granted to Rey. Ado- 
 niram Judson by Sir Archibald Campbell, in 1827, for 
 missionary purposes. ‘The land given to him at that 
 time extended from the river to the foot of the hills 
 back of the town, and was then dense jungle. The 
 march of improvements has intersected it by three roads 
 running north and south, namely, the Lower Main 
 Road, Dalhousie Street, and the Upper Main Road. 
 Dalhousie Street and the Lower Main Road now form 
 the eastern and western boundaries of the boys’ school 
 compound, leaving but about two acres of the original 
 large grant. Part of the land was given back to the 
 government by Dr. Judson, and other parts have been 
 sold by the A. B. M. U., in times of stress for money. 
 
 The building also is historic, dating.back to Dr. 
 Judson’s time, when a part of it constituted the Mis- 
 sion Press, then located in Moulmein. It was here 
 that the first editions of the Burmese and Sgau Karen 
 Bibles were printed. 
 
 After the press was removed to Rangoon, the build- 
 ing was first used for a day school for boys; then, in 
 1876, a thousand rupees were raised among the friends 
 of the school (chiefly from the members of the Eng- 
 lish church), to enlarge the building, making it suitable 
 for a boarding-school. 
 
 The recitation rooms were below, on a level with the 
 ground, and the dormitories and _ superintendent’s 
 rooms above. In 1890 the Woman’s Society granted 
 money for a still further enlargement, so that the head 
 master and his family could live in the building, as 
 well as the superintendent. Additional wings also for 
 dormitories haye been added from time to time, until 
 
MISSION AT TAVOY. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 AH SYOO AND FAMILY. 
 
 He:d Teacher in the Mou'mein Boys’ School 
 
 ENGLISH HIGH SCHOOL, 
 MOULMEIN. 
 

 
 
 
43 
 
 now one would hardly recognize in the present build- 
 ing the humble original structure. 
 
 The situation is most favorable for a school, as the 
 land slopes gently to the lower main road, affording 
 excellent drainage during the heavy rains of the south- 
 west monsoon. ‘There are three wells in the compound, 
 which the earlier missionaries had dug, which give an 
 abundance of water until the end of the long dry 
 season, and the playground is well supplied with a 
 variety of trees, affording shade from the fierce heat of 
 the sun. Prominent among these is the sweet flower- 
 ing mesna with its heavy green foliage. At the 
 western end of the school building is a fine large 
 specimen of the ambustia, probably the most gorgeous 
 of all flowering trees, planted by Mr. Bennett when in 
 charge of the Mission Press. Two frangipanni trees, 
 their branches topped with bunches of fragrant blos- 
 soms, are pointed out as having been planted by Dr. 
 Judson. ‘The English and Burmese chapels occupy a 
 portion of the southern part of the compound, and on 
 the eastern side is the dwelling of the resident Burman 
 missionary. 
 
 It would be difficult to say just when this school was 
 started, as a school for Burman boys has been a 
 feature of the Moulmein mission during most of its 
 existence. The first Anglo-vernacular boys’ school in 
 British Burma was taught by Rev. Cephas Bennett in 
 Moulmein, but it was under the auspices of the 
 government. This was started in 1835. Soon one of 
 the pupils, Ah Vong (still living), became a Christian. 
 Mr. Bennett was accused of proselytizing, and the 
 school was closed Nov. 11, 1836, because government 
 insisted that no religious instruction should be given. 
 
 Thereupon Mr. and Mrs. R. B. Hancock established 
 anindependent school. In 1838, with five pupils, it was 
 reorganized as a boarding school and placed under the 
 care of Rev. Hosea Howard. With the exception of a 
 brief period, when Rev. Elisha Abbott was in charge, 
 the school continued under Mr. Howard’s care until 
 1849, when he was obliged to leave and take his 
 
Ad 
 
 family home to America. ‘The school had grown to 
 such an extent, that in 1847 it was reported that the 
 number of scholars was ninety. Rev. Lyman Stilson 
 took his place until near the close of 1851. In 1852 
 the boarding department was abolished; and in 1853 
 the whole school was suspended, as the result of the 
 visit of the deputation which frowned upon schools. 
 
 Soon after Rev. J. M. Haswell’s return from 
 America in 1853, seeing the short-sightedness of this 
 policy, he started a boys’ school, which with brief 
 interruptions has continued until the present time. In 
 1860, when Rey. J. R. Haswell came to the help of his 
 father, he assumed charge of the school, raising its 
 standard, and himself taking classes in higher arith- 
 metic and algebra; but in less than three years he was 
 obliged to return to America. On Miss Susan Has- 
 well’s arrival in 1865 her recollection of the Burmese 
 language was such as to fit her for the responsible 
 position of head teacher in this school ; and until April, 
 1867, she toiled faithfully in it. The school was then 
 handed over to Rey. J. F. Norris, who had just come 
 out to the Burman mission at Moulmein. For some 
 reason he disbanded it, but on Miss Haswell’s return 
 to Moulmein in September, 1867, at the earnest request 
 of the native Christians, she reopened the school. Mr. 
 Illffe was head master for awhile, then Moung Kyan, 
 and after him Dr. Shaw Loo. From 1838 for nearly 
 thirty-five years the boys’ and girls’ schools were on the 
 same compound, the one now occupied by the Morton 
 Lane girls’ school. The transfer to the Judson com- 
 pound was made in 1873, probably. 
 
 Rey. W. H. S. Haseall took charge of the school, 
 both day and boarding departments, in 1877, and until 
 health failed he and Mrs. Hascall gave time and 
 strength without stint to the spiritual and temporal 
 welfare of their pupils. 
 
 In 1879 Miss Sarah B. Barrows came to assist Mr. 
 and Mrs. Hascall, and on their return to America in 
 1880 she took full charge. When Miss Barrows was 
 called to become its superintendent, a good start had 
 
45 
 
 been made in self-support, and she developed this 
 beginning faithfully. Both boarders and day scholars 
 were charged fees; the boys were taught to work about 
 the school and dormitories, to carry water, buy and 
 cook their own food, etc., ete. 
 
 After nearly ten years of successful management, 
 systematizing the classes and bringing the school up to 
 a higher standard, Miss Barrows felt obliged to come 
 home, and asked that a man and his wife might again 
 have charge of the school. Mr. and Mrs. Peabody 
 were appointed to take Miss Barrows’ place, but for a 
 few months before their arrival Miss Rathbun took 
 charge. On their reaching Moumein she went to 
 Mandalay and they took up their new work. In about 
 a year ill health compelled them both to leave, just as 
 Miss Barrows was returning from her furlough. 
 Though appointed to another station, she felt she 
 could not see that work suffer, when she had labored 
 so hard. With the concurrence of some of the Ran- 
 goon missionaries she resumed charge in 1889, and 
 worked again with her usual energy until 1896, when 
 she resigned and went to Thaton. At this juncture 
 Mrs. Crawley came from Henzada, and rendered most 
 valuable service. Rev. W. H. Sharpe, however, 
 became superintendent, and had charge until 1897, 
 when his wife’s health demanded a change of climate 
 and he went to Toungoo. Next Rey. E. O. Stevens 
 had charge of the school, but in January, 1898, he 
 was compelled to start for America on sick leave. 
 Miss M. Sheldon had charge until the arrival of Rev. 
 E. Grigg, who still has the care of the school in addi- 
 tion to his other duties as Burman missionary of the 
 station. 
 
 Were it not for the efficiency of Ah Syoo, who for 
 fifteen years has been head master, and his wife Ma 
 Mya, who was long associated with Miss Barrows, 
 these many changes would have been disastrous to the 
 school. Ah Syoo is a son of the Ah Vong who was 
 converted in Mr. Bennett’s school in 1835, and who 
 combines in his character the best traits of the two 
 
46 
 
 races which he represents, the Chinese and the Talaing. 
 Energy, skill, and faithfulness, combined with his rare 
 Christian devotedness, make him a marked man, and a 
 tower of strength in the school and church. He and 
 his wife speak English fluently. The school is Anglo- 
 vernacular, teaching up to the eighth grade, and is 
 annually inspected and examined by the government 
 educational officers. There are no graduation exer- 
 cises, but those who pass the examinations can enter 
 into the higher grade, either in this school or any other, 
 which is subject to government inspection. 
 
 It would be impossible to tell how many boys have 
 in this school been brought under religious influences. 
 Many have been converted while there, and not a few 
 have gone forth as school-masters to other parts of 
 Burma. Some are retained as teachers in this school 
 when they have obtained their education, others go to 
 the college in Rangoon. 
 
 The number of pupils, according to the last annual 
 report, was one hundred and forty-one. Many of the 
 day scholars belong to heathen families, but are brought 
 under Christian instruction ‘while in the school, and 
 carry away with them much knowledge of the Bible and 
 sacred hymns. The nearness of the chapel enables them 
 to be present at all the public services there, and 
 besides these they have class and general prayer-meet- 
 ings in the school. There is also a flourishing Band 
 of Hope. 
 
 Station schoo!s such as this are a source of strength 
 to any Christian community where they may be placed, 
 and are needed as feeders to the college. 
 
 If in this land Christian academies are needed, much 
 more are they in a heathen land where the youth are 
 surrounded by the worst of influences. Christian 
 homes and Christian schools are revolutionizing the 
 Jand of Alompra, and are potent influences in changing 
 it into Immanuel’s land. 
 
47 
 
 RECORD OF THE ENGLISH GIRLS’ HIGH 
 SCHOOL, MOULMEIN, BURMA, 
 FROM 1882. 
 
 MISS SARAH SLATER. 
 
 Mrs. Longley and Mrs. Sharland were energetic in 
 purchasing the present building occupied by the school. 
 For that purpose Mrs. Longley, now Mrs. Seaton, went 
 to England to interest the people there. She succeeded 
 to such an extent that this property of fifteen acres 
 and a large substantial teak building was purchased 
 from a resident lawyer at a cost of Rs. 12,000. It is 
 pleasantly located on the western slope of the Moul- 
 mein hills, and being isolated from the busy town is 
 admirably adapted for its purpose. One of our Bap- 
 tist residents, Mrs. Bryson, daughter of Mrs. Ady, 
 was placed in charge to fill the interim between 
 Mrs. Longley’s superintendence and Miss Bunn’s arrival 
 in 1882, to take charge of the work. Our Western 
 improvements in educational lines are in striking con- 
 trast now to those of the Orient; what they were 
 then can only be comprehended by the new comer. 
 However, Miss Bunn must have emphatically closed 
 her eyes to all visions of the fairy land of hopes 
 and dreams, and opened them only to the condition of 
 things. Being a thorough disciplinarian, she soon had 
 rays of light streaming in through the density, and 
 with active determination and tireless energy she 
 soon placed the school on a firm, desirable educational 
 basis. Many new scholars availed themselves of the 
 opportunity of studying with Miss Bunn. The school 
 grew, and increased in numbers and influence. Not 
 an unfair proportion were brought to Christ and con- 
 fessed him in baptism. The church record would 
 reveal the number, but it is not now ayailable to the 
 writer. Miss Whitehead came out to the work among 
 the Burmese girls at the Morton Lane girls’ school in 
 1886. As Miss Bunn was somewhat overtaxed with 
 
48 
 
 her wearing duties and must take a rest, Miss White- 
 head assumed charge for a year, while Miss Bunn took 
 a vacation. 
 
 Now let us pass a few years of school routine, and 
 glance in at the school in December, 1889. Were 1 
 dwelling with the scholars particularly I could record 
 many funny instances and experiences of getting 
 acquainted. A school of thirty-six greeted the new 
 comer, and question marks answered to question marks 
 as new eyes met new eyes, and conclusions of friend- 
 ship or antagonism were quietly interchanged. Three 
 grades and four teachers were on the school register. 
 The lower primary, consisting of two classes, was in 
 charge of Miss Nellie McGraw, who was sister of one 
 of the first pupils of the school. Both sisters are now 
 dead, Miss Nellie having died but a year ago. The 
 second grade, upper primary, two classes, was in 
 charge of Miss Leontine Montgomery, one of the most 
 faithful, conscientious Christians it has been my privi- 
 lege to meet the world over. The middle school, three 
 classes, was in charge of Miss Harriet Smith, while 
 the Burmese and sewing were systematically and sue- 
 cessfully taught by the present teacher, Ma Thein Yin, 
 whose face many of you have seen in our dear home 
 land. Time works changes; our thirty-six very soon 
 became transposed, and the doors of our little school- 
 room swarmed with faces eager to be in touch with the 
 opening exercises. We needed more room, —a fact 
 beyond denial, indeed. Our Board, ever willing to 
 advance our work, granted us the means of erecting a 
 new building. In a short while a pretty little building 
 was the outcome, and as you read its name you do not hear 
 the noise of the hammer, hatchet, and plane, nor the 
 melodious songs of the coolies as they raised post after 
 post to a perpendicular from a horizontal position. 
 Nor can you hear their pleadings for backsheesh at the 
 close of the day’s work. No, you only read a change 
 in the name of the school. Formerly it was the 
 ** Eurasian Girls’ Home.” Now you read ‘ English 
 Girls’ High School, 1893,” for we added two more 
 
49 
 
 classes so that we may keep our girls two more years 
 with us. Now we have ten teachers. The kinder- 
 garten has fifteen tiny mites with their interesting little 
 teacher. Our teachers are, with one exception, all our 
 own girls, from the kindergarten to the ninth standard, 
 and we thank God for them. Miss Leontine Mont- 
 gomery is still with us, having spent twenty years as 
 pupil or teacher in our school. Also Ma Thein Yin, in 
 the same capacity as before, absent only while she was 
 in America becoming acquainted with her Western sis- 
 ters. Miss Kushmore, now Mrs. Craighead, was asso- 
 ciated with me almost a year, in 1893, till she left to 
 marry Rev. J. Craighead of Assam. Miss Alice Ford 
 came out in 1894, and was associated with me until 
 1896, when I returned to America for rest (a mission- 
 ary s rest), and in the fall of 1896, Miss L. B. Hughes, 
 who is now at Morton Lane school, came out to be asso- 
 ciated with Miss Ford. New buildings, new furniture, 
 new dormitories, all engross our time. Our school 
 closed with one hundred and thirty-three on the regis- 
 - ter, and a prospect of a greater number opens our 
 eyes to wonder where we will store them all; but the 
 Lord will provide for his own. 
 
 During the six years, 1889-1896, forty-two were 
 baptized. Probably six hundred pupils have been 
 enrolled during the existence of the school. Of that 
 number two hundred or more haye been brought 
 into the fold. Some have gone to their reward. 
 In Christian homes here and there you will find 
 others, for Cupid’s arrows are not bounded by ocean 
 currents. When we haye a good teacher we some- 
 times wish they were. Many are teaching for other 
 schools, and filling other positions. Our curricu- 
 lum calls for arithmetic, algebra, euclid, geography, 
 reading, English history, grammar, Indian history, 
 science, physiology, Burmese or French, music, needle 
 work, and, chief of all, the Bible, which is taught in all 
 classes according to the prescribed Bible Course of 
 Study prepared by our Missionary Convention. We 
 are builders for the great Master Builder. 
 
50 
 
 THE BASSEIN KAREN SCHOOL. 
 
 (We regret our inability to secure a good sketch of 
 this school, and have selected these few facts con- 
 cerning the beginning from the early reports. ) 
 
 ‘* The school was established by the late Rey. J. 
 S. Beecher, in 1860, upon a tract of land granted 
 to the mission by government, partly in acknowledg- 
 ment of the loyal services of the Bassein Karens 
 in putting down armed opposition in 1853. It is 
 the child of an intense desire and a_ settled purpose 
 of the Karen pastors of this district to secure for their 
 children and their children’s children the benefits of a 
 high Christian education. It is the child of their 
 prayers, fed and clothed from its birth by their own 
 uustinted bounty. A hundred and fifty scholars were 
 reported in attendance the first year. 
 
 ‘+ Mr. Beecher, holding with many missionaries and 
 friends of missions the opinion that an English eduea- - 
 tion was neither practicable nor desirable for Karens, 
 had repeatedly declined their urgent proposal to estab- 
 lish an English department in the new town school. 
 In the course of this year, however, he found that the 
 Karens were actually laying plans and collecting money 
 to establish an English school of their own at Kosoo, 
 six miles from Bassein. He therefore wisely decided 
 to yield to their wishes and accept their liberal offers. 
 
 ‘* During the early history of the school Miss Baldwin 
 and Miss Walling went to a heathen village fora vaca- 
 tion, to try to interest the girls and women, with some 
 success; but as Miss Baldwin’s health continued to 
 fail, she accepted an invitation to Toungoo, and find- 
 ing that climate more favorable to her health, she 
 decided to make it her permanent home. She after- 
 ward became Mrs. E. B. Cross. 
 
 ‘* When Miss Walling received an invitation to go 
 to Tounyoo, she referred the decision of her place 
 of labor to the Board, and wrote: ‘I wish to state 
 

 
 MRS. HARRIET CARPENTER, 
 
 Missionary to Burma, and later to Japan, 
 
 Through her appeal for helpers for the school 
 work in Bassein, Burma, The Woman's Baptist 
 Foreign Missionary Society was organized in |871. 
 

 
 
 
d1 
 
 anew the platform on which I stand: To go where 
 I am sent, to stay where I am put, and to do the 
 work which is given me to do. When I arrived in 
 the country I was exhorted . . . to stand up for my 
 rights with the Board. Now, I consider it my right 
 that the Board shall designate my field of labor, and I 
 intend to maintain my right.” In the judgment of the 
 Board this is a very wise way for a missionary to 
 maintain her rights. Itsecures harmony and efticiency 
 as well. It was decided that she was needed at Bassein 
 and she continued to render efticient service there.” 
 
 A later report states, ‘* Miss Manning has continued 
 to teach four hours daily in the school, to have the care 
 of three classes of English composition, to teach her 
 Bible class on Sunday, and give what time she can to 
 the translation of Karen. She writes: ‘I have no 
 long, pathetic accounts to give of my arduous labors 
 and wonderful achievements. It seems almost idle to 
 attempt to report the quiet, steady work of school 
 routine; and yet I am glad to help this people to 
 secure what is so needful for them, —a good Christian 
 education that shall fit them to be independent, reli- 
 able Christian workers.’ ” 
 
 In 1876 we read : — 
 
 ‘Miss Belle Watson, who had gone out first in 
 1870, with improved health and a brave, trusting 
 heart, started alone from New York, joining the Cush- 
 ings at Glasgow, and journeyed with them to Burma, 
 reaching Bassein in November. She shared at once 
 the responsibilities and labors which had rested heavily 
 on the others since Miss Baldwin left. 
 
 ‘¢ The school has been again bereaved by the death 
 this year of the principal native teacher, who was also 
 the loved and trusted pastor of the church, Rev. J.P. 
 Sahnay. 
 
 ‘The present number of scholars is two hundred and 
 thirty, of whom about one fourth are girls. Tliese are 
 divided into two departments. the English and the ver- 
 nacular, and these into twelve graded classes. Be- 
 sides Mrs. Carpenter and the three lady missionaries, 
 
52 
 
 there are seven native teachers and eight pupil assist- 
 ants. There is a daily Scripture exercise, class and 
 general prayer-meetings, and singing classes in the 
 evenings; and the whole school meets as a Sunday 
 school, with Mr. Yab-bah as superintendent. There 
 have been nine baptisms in the school during the year. 
 
 ‘* In a mission school, the religious state must always 
 be the chief object of anxiety and care. We are not 
 embarrassed, as the managers of some mission schools 
 in India are said to be, by the necessity of employing 
 heathen masters. Al! of our assistants, without ex- 
 ception, are professed Christians, and seem to take a 
 deep interest in the spiritual welfare of the pupils. 
 Besides the Sunday school and devotional exercises 
 every morning and evening, one hour a day is given 
 by all to the systematic study of the Bible. 
 
 ‘¢ In preparaing for the Bible lesson, an hour, atleast, 
 of study is required from teachers and pupils. We 
 think many a native preacher who has no regular daily 
 hours, or places, or listeners would accomplish less of 
 positively religious work in a week than the quiet 
 teacher by this plan. We are happy to be able to re- 
 port that during the year there has been an unusually 
 deep and tender religious spirit on the part of many in 
 the school. Fifteen of the pupils were baptized by the 
 pastor and superintendent, beside several more who 
 were baptized by their own pastors during the school 
 vacation. We have now one hundred and twenty-three 
 professed Christians, out of a total of two hundred 
 and nine pupils. With two or three exceptions all are 
 the children of Christian parents. Four fifths are girls. 
 
 ** In 1878 Miss Walling decided to share Mr. James- 
 son’s home and work. She was married May 16, 
 and moved over to the Burman compound. She had 
 become a most valuable teacher and helper, and it 
 seemed hardly possible to spare her from the school, 
 for Miss Watson was not strong, and Miss McAllister, 
 who had been but a short time in the country, was not 
 yet able to use the language. 
 
 ** After Miss Walling left she moved over to the 
 
53 
 
 girls’ building, to have some oversight of the girls, 
 and also took another class in school. She gained 
 steadily in her knowledge of the language and people, 
 and also in her health. 
 
 ‘Miss Batson, who was appointed to take Miss 
 Walling’s place, sailed in October, 1879, arriving in 
 Rangoon Dec. 5.” 
 
 The year 1881 saw many changes. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Carpenter,.on account of his failing health, were obliged 
 to leave Bassein, laying the care of the school on Mr. 
 Nichols, who still bears it. Miss Batson became Mrs. 
 Price. Miss Watson was obliged to go on furlovgh, 
 and only Miss McAllister remained. An epidemic of 
 small-pox caused a panic and many of the students 
 left. The following year the school was brought under 
 government inspection,and the grant that year amounted 
 to 2,500 rupees. ‘The Karens, in their desire to add per- 
 manence to the school, pledged $10,000 to the Abbott 
 Memorial Fund. The following year, 1883, the attend- 
 ance rose to two hundred boys and twenty-seven girls. 
 Miss Watson returned and the work went on in a quiet, 
 uneventful way, doing faithful, thorough work. Miss 
 Hardin and Miss Harris, of the Western Board, kindly 
 assisted Miss Watson at different periods in 1886. 
 The report shows an enrolmentof three hundred and 
 fifty, with fifty-four baptisms. In 1889 Miss Hawkes 
 took charge while Miss Watson rested in America, after 
 twelve years of uninterrupted service. ‘The school in- 
 creased to more than four hundred pupils. In 1893 
 Miss Hawkes writes of moving with Miss Harris into 
 the house the Karens had built, which they have named 
 ‘¢The Land of Canaan.” Mr. Cross assisted in Mr. 
 Nichols’ absence. Later the school work was divided, 
 Miss Watson taking the girls and Miss Hawkes the 
 boys. In 1896 Miss Hawkes was transferred to 
 Shwegyin and Miss Watson has labored alone. Miss 
 Edna Scott, whose father was a missionary to Bassein, 
 and who was herself born there, expects to go back 
 this coming fall, 1900, to give her life to the school 
 which has been such a power for good to the Karens. 
 
MISSION SCHOOLS IN TAVOY: 
 MRS. HORATIO MORROW. 
 
 Among a poor, ignorant, and scattered people such 
 as we have in Tavoy, we need, not so much a man who 
 can stand up in the chapel on Sunday and harangue 
 the people, as a man who can preach by the wayside, 
 or can teach the family grouped together on the veranda 
 in the evening, or teach the village school of ten 
 or twenty pupils, and in doing these things count 
 himself favored of God, because he has given him 
 the opportunity. A man who shall not despise the 
 day of small things, but be ready to embrace every 
 opportunity to reach the people. ‘*O Lord, raise up 
 men who shall teach this people,” has been our prayer 
 uttered hundreds of times. God has heard us, and 
 sent some noble men well trained and devoted to the 
 Master’s work. The greatest help a missionary can 
 have is such a body of native preachers and teachers. 
 These receive their training in the mission school in 
 Tavoy. It is to this school that I wish to direct your 
 attention. Its location leaves little to be desired. The 
 campus contains forty acres, slightly elevated above the 
 surrounding paddy (or rice) fields. It was formerly 
 owned by an official, who laid it out, and planted 
 it with beautiful shade trees. All the buildings, with 
 one exception, have been rebuilt by the present mission- 
 ary. Last year there were in this school one hundred 
 and fifty pupils. These come from the villages of 
 Tavoy and Mergui districts. They are divided into 
 seven Classes; four in the primary, and three in the 
 grammar school department. We teach up to the 
 high school. All of the pupils study Karen and Bur- 
 mese, and most of them English. With the exception 
 of the Burmese teachers, all have been educated in this 
 school, and are Christians. When we went to Tavoy, 
 we found a primary school of thirty pupils and one 
 

 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 OUR SGAU KAREN SCHOOL AT BASSEIN. 
 

 
D9 
 
 -teacher ; Mr. Morrow left a school of one hundred and 
 twelve pupils and eight teachers, teaching both English 
 and Burmese. ‘* Commit the things thou heardest from 
 me to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others 
 also.” 
 
 This direction indicates one of the main subjects of 
 study in a mission school. The first forty-five minutes 
 in the morning is given to Bible study. For the first 
 five years the course of Bible study is definitely laid 
 out, and is conducted by native teachers. During the 
 last two or three, when pupils come into Mr. Morrow’s 
 class, the subject of their study varies. On Sunday 
 we take up the International Lessons, which are pre- 
 pared for us in Karen. By keeping up daily study of 
 the Bible for from seven to ten years, our pupils come 
 to be very well grounded in Bible history and doctrine. 
 But it is in the devotional meetings that the great truths 
 of the Scriptures are brought home to the heart and 
 conscience. A very important part of our work is 
 -done in the evening, when the lessons of the day are 
 over. When I came home the school numbered one 
 hundred and fifty. Of these sixty had made no pro- 
 fession of faith, and ninety were members of the 
 church. Every Tuesday evening, for many years, I 
 have gathered all the unconverted together, and we 
 have talked of our sins, our holy and loving Father, 
 our blessed Saviour; the way of salvation by faith, 
 and a death that never ends. As we have no suitable 
 room for our little evening prayer-meetings, these 
 children often come to my sitting-room, from which much 
 of the furniture has been removed. ‘They sit on the 
 floor, and quite fill both the sitting and dining rooms, 
 which are thrown into one by drawing aside a curtain 
 that separates them. Most of these children have been 
 in school only one, two, or three years. The greater 
 part of them are from twelve to sixteen years of age, 
 but some have grown to manhood and womanhood. 
 Probably a dozen of them are from heathen homes. 
 Some of them have only had the very grudging con- 
 sent of parents to their coming to school, and thus 
 
56 
 
 gaining some of the advantages which they see Chris- 
 tian children enjoying. ‘There were nearly sixty girls 
 in school when I came home in July, 1896, ranging in 
 age from ten to twenty-two years. 
 
 One little girl, baptized a few months since, has four 
 generations of Christian ancestors behind her. One 
 of our teachers is a young woman who has graduated 
 from the school, also as a nurse and midwife. She 
 speaks not only Pwo and Sgau Karen, but also Bur- 
 mese and English. She is a very capable girl to work, 
 a sweet singer, and plays the Karen harp. Yet she 
 was bornin a heathen home, and remembers the time 
 when as achild she went with the family to worship 
 idols. One ought to look into the blank face of a 
 heathen Karen woman, and then turn to the bright, 
 animated face of a Christian to see what the gospel 
 can do. Some of the older school girls, too, are very 
 capable, gentle, and lovable. 
 
 I remember at the opening of the school year in 
 May, 1877, I looked out into the back yard one after- 
 noon, and saw a young girl wearing a very dirty dress 
 and suffering from a skin disease. Her appearance 
 repelled me, and I turned away from her with loathing. 
 That girl proved to be bright and intelligent. To-day 
 she is the wife of one of the jungle teachers, and one 
 of the most companionable women that we have. One 
 evening in the month they hold a lyceum; the other 
 Wednesday evening a prayer or conference meeting. 
 They have their president, secretary, and treasurer, for 
 they take a collection at their lyceum. The exercises 
 consist of singing, reading, recitations, and discussions. 
 These are some of the questions that have been before 
 them: ‘‘Is it right for mothers ever to deceive their 
 children?’’ ‘* Ought women to work in the fields?” 
 ‘* Has the time arrived when women should go out as 
 evangelists in Tavoy and Mergui?”’ ‘* Should married 
 women give to benevolent objects apart from their hus- 
 bands?” ‘* Has the time arrived for the formation of 
 a Woman’s Missionary Society?’’ The members of 
 this lyeeum wrote letters to the women of the churches, 
 
57 
 
 and advised them to hold meetings, and take a collec- 
 tion once a month. This they did. These several local 
 women’s circles organized themselves into a Woman’s 
 Missionary Society two years ago. One young woman 
 from this town school, who has been deeply interested 
 in this woman’s work from the first, went out last year 
 as an evangelist to visit all the churches in the interest 
 of the Woman’s Missionary Society. This new society 
 meets with indifference and indeed with some opposi- 
 tion. It has, however, a place in the hearts of a few 
 earnest souls, and we trust it may grow to be a bless- 
 ing to our women, as the missionary work has been to 
 the women of America. 
 
 I do not think our girls have, as a rule, developed as 
 nobly as the boys. They are not so broad, or so self- 
 sacrificing for the Master’s cause. As the womans 
 nature is more sorely cramped by heathenism, perhaps 
 we should expect the sterner virtues would develop 
 in her more slowly. It is difficult to arouse in giris 
 proper self-assertion. They will seldom express an 
 opinion on any subject in a mixed class, seeming to 
 feel it would be immodest to do so. But they are im- 
 proving, and so is public opinion. Twenty years ago, 
 and later, the boys were fond of coutending that 
 women had no souls and could not be saved. Abra- 
 ham, Isaac, and Jacob sat down in the kingdom of 
 Heaven, but nowhere was it said that a woman entered 
 into the kingdom. Spirited discussions were carried 
 on between the boys and girls on the subject. One 
 day the girls came running to me, full of indignation, 
 asking what they should say to the boys. While their 
 souls resented the position the boys were taking, they 
 could not find satisfactory arguments with which to 
 silence them. Soon after we had a little talk in the 
 school-room one day about that grand word ‘+ who- 
 soever,” what it meant, and whom it included. As 
 there was no difference of opinion on the subject, it 
 closed the controversy. 
 
 The school is the centre of the work done in every 
 Karen mission field. To it come troops of children 
 
58 
 
 from the jungle, with body, mind, and heart undisci- 
 plined, and from it go out the finest product of the 
 mission field, young men and women ready for work 
 and for sacrifice. To this work I have given eighteen 
 years of my life, and if it pleased the Master I should 
 be happy to give as many more. In nothing that I 
 have ever done, do I rejoice so much as in the humble 
 part I have had in moulding the character of those who 
 are evangelizing the heathen, and building up the 
 churches of Tavoy and Mergui to-day. 
 
59 
 
 A FEW FACTS ABOUT THE PWO-KAREN 
 MISSION SCHOOL AT MAUBIN. 
 
 MISS CARRIE PUTNAM. 
 
 To write a full history of the Pwo-Karen school at 
 Maubin it would be necessary to go back about forty 
 years, to the time when the veteran Pwo missionary, 
 Rey. D. L. Brayton, opened a Pwo-Karen school in 
 Rangoon, gathering into it a large number of pupils, 
 and making it a great power for good among his people. 
 Of those early days I cannot speak particularly, but 
 I know that several of our present pastors and 
 evangelists, and many of our most substantial laymen, 
 were trained in that school by Mr. Brayton, assisted 
 by his wife and their daughter, now Mrs. A. T. Rose, 
 of the Woman’s Bible School in Rangoon. 
 
 In 1879 Rev. W. Bushell took charge of this 
 field, and moved the school to a more central location 
 at Maubin. Here a compound was secured and tem- 
 porary buildings erected. The school was first held in 
 the bamboo house occupied by the mission family, and 
 the first pupil was a young heathen Karen girl who is 
 now the efficient wife of one of our ordained preachers. 
 The first season the school numbered but fifteen pupils, 
 some of whom were grown people, some even motliers, 
 who sat on the floor with their children and learned to 
 read the Bible in their own tongue. 
 
 The first need was a chapel, and this the native 
 Christians provided, cutting the bamboos, floating them 
 down the river to Maubin, and erecting with their own 
 hands the temporary building which, soon after its 
 completion, was occupied by a school of seventy pupils. 
 A widow offered her house for a girls’ dormitory. It 
 was torn down, brought to Maubin, and put up there. 
 Another widow gave her house for a boys’ dormitory. 
 After a while a rough chapel of cheap material was 
 erected, the school boys doing most of the work. 
 
 The school continued to grow until it numbered 
 
60 
 
 about a hundred pupils, and in 1886 the writer was 
 sent out to assist in the work. Soon after this the 
 school was more thoroughly organized and graded and 
 raised from a primary to a middle school. Soon the 
 old chapel became much dilapidated and entirely inade- 
 quate to the growing needs of the school. Mr. Bushell, 
 who with Mrs. Bushell had labored with untiring devo- 
 tion for the success of the school, now began to urge 
 upon the Karens the imperative need of raising funds 
 for a new chapel. They rallied around him enthusi- 
 astically, and soon contributed more than six thousand 
 rupees. With this and an equal sum from America, 
 supplemented by a generous grant from government, 
 a substantial and commodious building was erected, 
 admirably suited to the needs of the school and the 
 joy and pride of every Karen in our mission. This 
 was completed in 1890, and in the following year Miss 
 Kate Knight was sent to assist in the school, where she 
 rendered most eflicient service until she was transferred 
 to Shwegyin in 1896. 
 
 In 1893 Rev. M. E. Fletcher assumed charge of 
 the school, and remained in charge until 1898 when he 
 returned to America leaving the school in charge of 
 the writer. The following year Rey. B. P. Cross was 
 sent to Maubin and has since had more or less connec- 
 tion with the school. 
 
 And now, having glanced at the small beginnings of 
 the school, and its gradual growth in members and 
 efficiency, let us make it a brief visit to learn its 
 present condition. The first object that attracts 
 your attention as you approach the compound is the 
 fine large building which serves the double purpose of 
 chapel and school-house. It stands facing the broad 
 Irrawaddy River, surrounded by fine mango trees. 
 On your right as you approach it stands the house 
 built for the single ladies of the mission and called by 
 them ‘* Chautauqua Cottage,’ not from the superior 
 literary attainments of its inmates, but because those 
 inmates came from the lovely portion of the Empire 
 State which bears that name. Back of Chautauqua 
 
or) 
 — 
 
 Cottage stands the girls’ dormitory, a roomy and sub- 
 stantial building, occupied at present by twenty-five 
 girls. On the left of the chapel stands the boys’ 
 dormitory with its sixty occupants, and across the road 
 is the mission house. 
 
 Entering the chapel you will find on the second floor 
 a large hall capable of accommodating one hundred 
 and fifty pupils, with class-rooms leading off from the 
 four corners, while other class-rooms occupy the lower 
 floor. Should your visit occur in the morning, you 
 would find the boys busy cutting wood, bringing water, 
 pounding out paddy, and cutting weeds or doing other 
 work on the compound. ‘The girls would be putting 
 their dormitory in order, sweeping the chapel, win- 
 nowing rice, and doing various other duties. 
 
 At nine o’clock you would see the chapel filled with 
 pupils large and small, round-faced, roly-poly little 
 Mongolians crowding the front benches, dignified 
 young men and women occupying the rear seats, with 
 jads and lassies of all ages filling the space between, 
 about a hundred and twenty in all. ‘They are of all 
 ages from five to twenty-five, and represent at least 
 four different races. A chorus of real melody rises 
 as their young voices ring out one of the Gospel songs 
 in their own language, or perhaps a standard church 
 hymn set to Duke Street or Ortonville or Lenox. Then 
 after the Divine blessing has been invoked they sepa- 
 rate to their various class-rooms and give the first hour 
 of the day to the study of God’s Word. They follow 
 as nearly as possible a series of graded lessons, begin- 
 ning with a simple catechism and then advancing to 
 the Gospels, the Acts, the chief historical books of the 
 Old Testament, then taking some of the epistles and 
 selected portions of the Psalms and prophetic books. 
 
 The Bible lesson finished, you will find the more 
 advanced classes wrestling with problems in algebra. 
 or geometry, or perhaps with some complicated sen- 
 tence in English or Burmese, while the younger 
 classes are busy with the three R’s or geography, or 
 laboriously trying to master the first lessons in reading, 
 
62 
 
 which, alas! must be done in three different languages, 
 — Karen, Burmese, and English. The whole course 
 extends over a period of seven years, and to graduate 
 one must have a good knowledge of English (ineluding 
 spelling, grammar, and composition), Burmese, arith- 
 
 59 > 
 
 metic, geography, and some knowledge of geometry 
 and algebra. 
 
 The play hour finds them engaged in foot-ball or 
 some other game, or off for a walk. The evening 
 brings the prayer-meeting, the C. E., or the even- 
 ing study hour. The Sabbath has its early prayer- 
 meeting, its Sunday school, its mid-day sermon, and 
 its evening service. 
 
 Thus the busy days and years pass, the round- 
 faced urchins grow into sturdy lads and lasses, then 
 into thoughtful youths and maidens ; then when school- 
 days are done, they go out to take their places in the 
 world as Christian preachers, teachers, clerks, farmers, 
 business men. Some of the girls become teachers, 
 some nurses; most eventually marry and take their 
 place as wives and mothers, to make Christian homes 
 and train up their children in the fear of God. 
 
 During the past thirteen years more than five hundred 
 pupils have attended this school for a longer or 
 shorter period, and more than a hundred of these have 
 been baptized while here. Forty of the latter entered 
 the school as heathen. About forty per cent of the 
 whole number of pupils were heathen when they entered 
 the school. Compared with the number enrolled, the 
 number of graduates is very small. Many take the 
 full course, fail in the very difficult final examinations, 
 and leave without graduating. Several! times, owing 
 to the smallness of the graduating class, we have 
 sent them to the Baptist College to take the last year’s 
 work there. 
 
 So far as I know there have been but twelve full 
 graduates, though we hope to nearly double the number 
 this year. Of these twelve, four are teachers, four 
 are office clerks, one is a student in the Baptist Normal 
 School, and one in the Theological Seminary. The 
 
65 
 
 others are farmers. Many who have not completed 
 the course have done and are still doing excellent 
 work. ‘Two former pupils are now ordained preachers, 
 three are unordained evangelists; three are teaching in 
 the Baptist College, three in our own school, and many 
 in other places. Several of the girls are trained nurses 
 and midwives, many others are married, and some 
 have entered into rest. 
 
 Thus the influence of the school reaches far beyond 
 the narrow limits of our mission station, into scores of 
 communities and hundreds of homes and hearts. Often 
 a whole household is conyerted through a single mem- 
 ber converted and trained in the school. Old pupils 
 return to their own villages to be pillars in the churches, 
 and helpers in every good work. Thus the Christian 
 community increases and Christian influences are ex- 
 tended, undermining old superstitions, and preparing 
 the way of the Lord in this vast wilderness of sin and 
 heathenism. 
 
64 
 
 THE SHWEGYIN KAREN SCHOOL. 
 REV. E. N. HARRIS. 
 
 As in most of our Karen missions, so in Shwegyin, 
 education and evangelization have, as by a sort of 
 necessity, gone hand in hand. It was in 1853 that 
 Rev. Norman Harris, the founder of the mission, 
 leaving Moulmein, where he had labored happily for a 
 period of seven years, made his way with his devoted 
 wife and a few faithful followers to this heathen town, 
 and, having tied up his bark in a little mountain stream 
 flowing by, went on shore to hold the first Christian 
 services that had ever been observed in all that region. 
 Even while he spoke, a Karen man chanced ( ?) along 
 who, having outgrown the childish superstitions of his 
 race, had given his allegiance to Buddhism, but, 
 although earliest of the worshippers at the pagoda, and 
 most unstinted in his gifts of charity, found the needs 
 of his soul unsatisfied and was still looking for light 
 and rest. Seeing a white foreigner, and hearing fall 
 from his lips the accents of his own language, he 
 stopped to listen. Never had he heard such words of 
 grace before. He found here what his soul needed, 
 believed at once, and, Karen like, stole away without 
 making himself known, to impart to family and friends 
 the good news he had found. In a few days he re- 
 turned, and less than two months from the time when 
 that first Christian service was held in that rude little 
 shed, he and seven others were baptized at a spot near 
 where the missionary’s boat had been moored, and the 
 first Shwegyin church was organized. 
 
 The real beginning of the Skwegyin Karen school 
 took place when this first convert, feeling within him . 
 the impulse of a new life, experienced the desire to 
 learn to read, so that he might be able the better to 
 proclaim the glad truths he had found. With him 
 there were soon others, however, for the converts of 
 the first year numbered no fewer than five hundred and 
 
65 
 
 sixty-seven, and from that time on the school became 
 an established institution. 
 
 One peculiarity of the Shwegyin school, which meets 
 us almost from the start and is worthy of mention 
 here because it makes its early history well nigh unique, 
 is that for many years it had but little supervision from 
 the missionary, but was largely under the management 
 of native teachers. Ten days after that glad time 
 when the first converts put on Christ in baptism, Mrs. 
 Harris, the devoted wife and mother, passed away, 
 leaving behind her a dying charge that the work at 
 Shwegyin should on no account be given up, and her 
 dust still consecrates that heathen soil and silently 
 appeals to God for the spiritual conquest of that land. 
 That beginning was largely premonitory of the history 
 of the mission, from that day down almost to the 
 present. Three years later Mr. Harris brought 
 another helpmeet to his assistance, but, after a brief 
 and happy service of six months, she too was removed 
 from the scene of her earthly labors. In 1858 still 
 another companion joined him in loving effort, but 
 frequent and malignant attacks of malarial fever made 
 her prolonged residence in Shwegyin impossible. And 
 so, until in 1882, in a ripe old age, Mr. Harris turned 
 his face for the last time to the home land, he was 
 obliged to spend most of his missionary life in Shwe- 
 gyin alone. The consequence was that for a long time 
 the school was largely without that supervision from 
 lady missionaries which it had been the privilege of 
 most mission schools to haye. Fortunately, however, 
 able Karen assistants were raised up who did much to 
 make up for the deficiency. Thus, in 1873, Kohcher, 
 a Karen who had been brought to America and given 
 an American education, returned to his native land and 
 became a valued assistant in the work. About six 
 years later the teaching force was augmented by the 
 addition of Samuel Tahree, a son of the first convert, 
 who soon proved himself an unusually competent work- 
 man, and was subsequently for many years the active 
 and efficient head master. After the departure of 
 
66 
 
 Mr. Harris for the home land, in 1882, followed not 
 long after by his death there, the missionary manage- 
 ment of the school for a number of years was some- 
 what irregular, and it was perhaps during this trying 
 period that the services of the native assistants was 
 most valuable, as well as most indispensable; but in 
 1893 Rey. Edward N. Harris, a son of the first 
 missionary, went out to the field, and since then the 
 school has had the benefit of his continued supervision. 
 From 1895-1897 Miss Hattie E. Hawkes rendered 
 valuable assistance. In October, 1899, Miss Stella 
 T. Ragon joined the mission force at Shwegyin and 
 is now giving the school careful and efficient oversight. 
 
 As to the intellectual and moral tone of the school, 
 for many years the sessions were held for only four or 
 five months during the rains, and the Bible was the 
 principal text-book; but as the intelligence of the 
 people increased there was a demand for a wider 
 curriculum and a more extended period of instruction. 
 Still it was not until about 1882 that the school was 
 brought under government inspection and made to 
 meet government requirements as to studies, and it 
 was not until 1895 that it became a regularly recog- 
 nized seventh standard school for instruction in 
 English as well as the vernacular. At all times, how- 
 ever, it had maintained a good record for scholarship. 
 It has also always been a source of spiritual power 
 and strength to the churches, and has in turn received 
 from them cordial sympathy and support. No aid is 
 received from America for the salaries of teachers, or 
 for any of the running expenses, which are borne ex- 
 clusively by the contributions of the Christian Karens, 
 together with such aid as government sees fit to grant. 
 
67 
 
 THE THARRAWADDY SCHOOL. 
 REV. WM. CAREY CALDER. 
 
 Among the Christian Karens the public school has 
 always held an important place in Christian education. 
 No sooner is Christianity established in a community 
 than at once the leaders seem to feel the necessity of a 
 school for their children, and not infrequently for the 
 elder people as well; for without education the Bible 
 remains a sealed book to them. No matter what the 
 later motive is among those who are Christians — 
 when they first accept the gospel their chief desire is 
 education for ability to read God’s Word, and the more 
 completely a community is cut off from the influence 
 of European civilization, the more marked is this 
 tendency for a Christian education on their part. 
 When the Tharrawaddy portion of the Henzada field — 
 left the 
 older mission it necessitated an entire new plant. In 
 some respects it differed very largely from.the general 
 run of new fields; there was a large Christian com- 
 munity already at hand, there were between five and 
 
 
 
 following the earlier political separation 
 
 six hundred baptized believers scattered over a wide 
 extent of country, and yet one of the most accessible dis- 
 tricts in Burma. The Rangoon and Prome R. R. runs 
 up through the centre of the field, and from convenient 
 points along this line there are good wagon roads 
 running off across the plains to the mountains. Dur- 
 ing the Dacoit troubles Tharrawaddy was one of the 
 most disturbed districts in the whole of Burma. The 
 mountains and the great forests, in some places almost 
 impassable jungles, afforded shelter for the many bands 
 of lawless men who for a time seemed to defy all the 
 pressure the English government could bring against 
 them. On one occasion a person standing on the 
 steps of the courthouse in the town of Tharrawaddy 
 could see the flames rising from the burning homes in 
 
68 
 
 seven villages. Yet in all this confusion and plunder, 
 and the bloodshed that attended them, the leaders 
 among the Karens in Tharrawaddy were making plans 
 for a school. 
 
 Their reasons for separating from Henzada were 
 that the older mission was large and far away; espe- 
 cially was it difficult of access in the rains, when 
 almost the only way to reach Henzada was the round- 
 about journey through Prome or Rangoon. Most of 
 the Tharrawaddy people were poor when compared 
 with those in the rich rice-growing plains or timber 
 districts, yet they believed in schools and had a mind 
 to work. ‘They were united and self-sacrificing. 
 
 At first they had no missionary to lead them; so 
 it was decided to enlarge the school in one of the 
 native villages, Tombola. It was almost entirely ver- 
 nacular — only a little attempt was made in: English, 
 but it was not long before they had one of the best 
 native schools in Burma. ‘Their success in the ver- 
 nacular only increased their desire to advance still 
 higher and perfect their children in a knowledge of the 
 English language. 
 
 There are some of the native elders and a few of the 
 European missionaries who still resist this tendency, 
 but the history of the case generally reveals the fact 
 they have had to give way — just as in this country it 
 has been found that an educated man is not necessarily 
 and almost all the denomina- 
 tions now believe in instructing the young. 
 
 When the missionary reached Tharrawaddy there 
 yas no sentiment against education opposing him. 
 
 
 
 an inferior workman 
 
 The difficult question was the best place for the school. 
 Sitkwin, a native town on the railroad and a few 
 miles from Tombola, was chosen as temporary head- 
 quarters. Finally it seemed to all that the town of 
 Tharrawaddy, the government headquarters, presented 
 the most advantages, and in less than a year the mis- 
 sion had been granted almost eight acres of the finest 
 land in the town, and all it cost the Union was about 
 three dollars for stamp duties and a little patience. 
 
69 
 
 As much is sometimes said about the discourtesy of 
 the European officials in their dealings with the mis- 
 sionaries, we should state that their conduct in this 
 whole transaction, from the coolie who drove the stakes 
 that marked off the and, to the chief commissioner 
 who signed the deed, was characterized by the utmost 
 courtesy. 
 
 The town of Tharrawaddy is about a mile and a half 
 from Thongze, where Mrs. Ingalls and Miss Evans have 
 for many years labored so successfully in their mission 
 for the Burmese. The new work was cordially wel- 
 comed by them. 
 
 There was now a fine tract of land in the best part 
 of the town, but there was not a building on it. The 
 native brethren immediately showed their deep interest 
 in a practical way. Each member pledged as a con- 
 tribution to the new work three rupees, a near-by 
 native house was purchased for about one hundred 
 dollars ; government gaye a grant of timber, the people 
 did much of the work themselves, and in a short time 
 there was a temporary shelter for the boys who were 
 transferred from the higher classes of the Tombola 
 school. 
 
 Too much cannot be said of the executive ability of 
 Thra Pho Kine, who in his management of the lads 
 showed himself an ideal head master of the school. 
 The native brethren have never failed in meeting one 
 of their pledges towards this school. It has had the 
 united support of the entire association. Since the 
 coming of Miss Higby the school has been enlarged to 
 include the girls who desire an education, and in every 
 way seems to be doing more effective work, and this, 
 too, in spite of the many drawbacks and inconyen- 
 iences encountered by those who are sacrificing much 
 that the work may be carried forward. 
 
 No missionary ought to be expected to live as Miss 
 Higby has been compelled to live, or else abandon a 
 very successful branch of our work. It has been suffer 
 or surrender. She has not surrendered, but with her. 
 
70 
 
 helpers has carried the flag of our Master a little 
 further into the enemy’s country. 
 
 The history of the Tharrawaddy school is not long ; 
 almost a decade of years will cover it, but the work 
 already accomplished is not reckoned by time. It has 
 its representatives in the college and seminary, the 
 village school and the mission field. It seems to be 
 an investment that will yield a hundred per cent at 
 a time when one will most need the highest interest on 
 one’s talents. Will you invest? 
 
cu 
 
 THE SCHOOL FOR CHINS AT SANDOWAY. 
 MISS MELISSA CARR. 
 
 This school was begun in May, 1885, by Rey. and 
 Mrs. W. F. Thomas, who came over to Sandoway 
 from their Karen work at Henzada and remained only 
 during the rainy months. The school at Sandoway 
 was started with comparatively few pupils, the most 
 of whom were boys, four girls only haying courage to 
 attend. When Mr. and Mrs. Thomas returned to 
 their Karen work, Mrs. C. B. Thomas, Mr. Thomas’s 
 mother, came and took charge of the new work at 
 Sandoway, and the little school grew and showed 
 continual progress during the three years she was in 
 charge. The Chin girls began to see that education 
 was not wholly for their brothers, but for them as 
 well, and even married women tried to learn to read. 
 
 In December, 1888, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas returned 
 to Sandoway from their furlough in America, accom- 
 panied by Miss Aldrich, who took charge of the school 
 work the following May when school opened. 
 
 In 1890 Miss Carr joined Miss Aldrich, and that 
 year school was registered under government, the aid 
 given depending on the yearly examinations. Up to 
 this time government had given the school a fixed 
 grant, not the result of examination passes, but of a 
 desire on their part to assist in the cause of education 
 among backward races. 
 
 In 1892 Miss Aldrich married Rev. E. Tribolet, of 
 Bassein, and the following year Miss Carr welcomed 
 Miss Lemon, and both continue in the school to the 
 present, Miss Carr haying just returned from the 
 United States. 
 
 Until 1898 our school remained only fifth standard. 
 No fees were charged, the support outside of America 
 coming from results-grants, and gifts from the Chin 
 churches brought in yearly at our Chin Association. 
 
72 
 
 These contributions were never large, as all our churches 
 struggle with poverty, the hillside cultivation raising 
 barely food enough for themselves; but year by year, 
 as the Chins learned more the value of school work, 
 the gifts increased. In this year, 1898, the school 
 was changed to an Anglo-vernacular, raised to seventh 
 grade, and monthly fees charged, which last has 
 lessened for a time the attendance of Chin pupils. 
 
 The desire of all who have charge of the school has 
 always been to furnish a strong religious training, and 
 the first and best place has always been given to God’s 
 Word, and no pupil, unless ill, is ever excused from 
 its study. Monthly examinations are held in all the 
 classes, from the little tots who have been taught Bible 
 stories and Golden Texts, to the larger boys and girls 
 in the gospels or epistles. 
 
 One of our Chin girls, when asked why she did so 
 well in her Bible examinations and so poorly in her 
 arithmetic and other studies, said: ‘* Because I love to 
 study the Bible, and I don’t love arithmetic.” Our 
 school sustains a flourishing Christian Endeavor 
 Society, to which some young Christians in town 
 belong, and on every Wednesday evening a regular 
 prayer-meeting is held. 
 
 No regular temperance society existed until recently, 
 but strong temperance principles were instilled, regular 
 temperance meetings held, to which oftentimes we 
 invited the public, and pledge cards distributed for 
 those willing to sign. Besides the temperance society 
 recently formed, an anti-tobacco and coon organization 
 has been formed. 
 
 The school compounds are not large, nor have we 
 been very successful as yet in getting shade trees to 
 grow. A few large beautiful ones beautify our 
 grounds, but we often long for many more. Unfor- 
 tunately our grounds are low and drainage very 
 bad. Almost yearly our compounds are covered with 
 water so that we visit each other in boats. On our 
 compounds, when the water subsides, are left sand, 
 mud, and rubbish of all kinds. ‘This injures the prop- 
 
erty and interferes often for days with our school work. 
 It is a great advantage to be removed a little from the 
 natives, to have the open paddy fields around us and 
 the beautiful Sandoway River in front, and we would 
 think our situation an ideal one were it not for these 
 hindrances which we are obliged to have. 
 
 On our compound are three buildings: the girls’ 
 dormitory, built a few years since; our own home, only 
 two years old, and our school-house, which is also our 
 house for all religious meetings. A side road separates 
 our compound from the boys’ on which is, besides their 
 poor ant-eaten dormitory; a paddy bin, work shop, 
 wood house, and cooking house. 
 
 Were it not for white ants we might see an end 
 sometime to repairs and new buildings here in Sando- 
 way, but, as it is, repairs constantly have to be made, 
 and in the near future we shall be obliged to ask our 
 Board for a new boys’ dormitory. 
 
 As we review the fifty graduates who have left us 
 we can find not one of whom we are not proud. Two 
 of the teachers in our school, ail the jungle teach- 
 ers, two of the Bible-women and most of our Chin 
 preachers, have been trained in our town school, and 
 it is a pleasure to bear testimony to their earnest, 
 self-denying work. One of our best Chin preachers 
 came to us not only from a heathen home but from a 
 heathen village, and the Master to whom he dedicated 
 his life when here, he has, since his graduation from the 
 Theological Seminary, been faithful in upholding in 
 a lonely, heathen village. 
 
 Many who come to us are from Christian homes, 
 but from heathen homes we haye some boarders, besides 
 the day pupils who are continually hearing of our 
 Saviour, and from these members, almost eyery year, 
 we have baptisms. 
 
 I wish I could array before you only one of our 
 classes. Jam sure you would feel as we do, that they 
 represent the best that is to be found in poor, dark 
 Arakan. 
 
THE CHIN SCHOOL AT THAYETMYO. 
 MRS. B. BALDWIN. 
 
 This school was begun soon after the Mission 
 Station was opened by Rey. and Mrs. Carson in 1886. 
 In May, 1888, it was registered as a government 
 grant-in-aid school. All races were admitted until 
 late in the year 1895, when the Director of Public 
 Instruction ordered that, as it was registered as a Chin 
 school, none but Chins must enjoy its privileges. This 
 reduced the numbers as well as cut off the receipt of 
 cash fees. 
 
 In 1895 Rey. and Mrs. Carson returned to America, 
 and the Chin work was undertaken by Rey. and Mrs. 
 Baldwin. 
 
 The school remains as it was registered, a fourth 
 standard school, although it is hoped that some day 
 it may be raised so that those who wish’to go farther 
 in their studies can do so without going to government 
 school. 
 
 At present six of those who have finished the fourth 
 standard here are attending the municipal school. One 
 girl is at the Kemendine school. Others of the gradu- 
 ates are teaching jungle schools or engaging in agri- 
 cultural pursuits. 
 
 Of the young men, two have graduated this year 
 from the Theological Seminary; three are still there 
 and another will enter when the term opens. 
 
 The outlook at present is most encouraging. The 
 pupils on the roll are of the age that promises to 
 remain in school until they receive permanent good. 
 There are thirty-six under instruction now. 
 
 On an average about cighty-five per cent are 
 Christians. All graduates have been Christians. 
 This is the only station school for Chins on this side 
 of the Yomas. There are four jungle schools and 
 another is asked for. It is hoped that some of these 
 may be permanent. 
 
=~] 
 Or 
 
 THE KACHIN SCHOOL, BHAMO. 
 MISS MARGARET SUTHERLAND. 
 
 Tt was in 1882 that the first efforts were made to 
 teach the Kachins, when Mrs. Roberts began with two 
 girls, teaching them Burmese spelling and reading, 
 using her parlor for a school-room. Then Mr. Roberts 
 built a nine-dollar school building which was used until 
 the school grew too large for the building, and as the 
 compound was too small for larger buildings, Mr. 
 Roberts was obliged to petition King Thibaw for 
 another plot of ground. He finally obtained three 
 acres outside the stockade, and put up, among other 
 buildings, a school-house large enough to accommodate 
 fifty pupils. At this time twenty-five Kachins were 
 studying Burmese. 
 
 In December, 1884, the school was broken up by 
 the sacking of the city by Chinamen. The old _ build- 
 ings inside the stockade were burned, and after Mr. 
 and Mrs. Roberts went to Lower Burma the new build- 
 ings were burned by the Burmese. Mrs. Roberts soon 
 returned to America, and Mr. Roberts came back to 
 Bhamo and took up lodgings in the Shan mission house 
 and started a school with seven boys. The school 
 continued from May to September, 1885, when Mr. 
 Roberts was ordered out of the city by the King. 
 
 In November the English annexed Upper Burma 
 and Mr. Roberts again returned to Bhamo. In 1887 
 Mrs. Roberts again organized a school at the Shan 
 mission house with about twenty pupils. 
 
 In 1888 Miss E. C. Stark came and took charge of 
 the school. In 1889 Miss F. D. Manning came, and 
 Miss Stark soon went home on furlough, returning in 
 189i. Soon after Miss Stark’s return Miss Manning 
 became Mrs. Selkirk and went into the Chinese werk, 
 
 In 1890 Mr. Roberts built the brick house on the 
 present Kachin compound. During the same year, the 
 
(6 
 
 school, as a third standard school, was placed under 
 government. 
 
 In 1892 Miss Smith came and was associated with 
 Miss Stark for a short time. About this time Mr, 
 Hanson began the writing of the language and the first 
 Kachin books were printed, and the pupils were 
 taught to read their own language as well as Burmese. 
 
 In 1896 Miss Stark again returned to America, and 
 Mr. Roberts took charge until after the arrival of 
 Miss L. H. Eastman and Miss M. M. Sutherland in 
 January, 1898. In 1898 the Normal Department was 
 placed under government. 
 
 The school now numbers about eighty pupils in seven 
 standards, and the Normal Department. Six have 
 been graduated, all of whom are teachers or preachers 
 or both. Three others, who left the school before it 
 was raised to its present grade, are stationed in villages 
 as preachers and teachers. ‘Three others are head men 
 in Christian villages. 
 
 About twenty-five per cent of the pupils are Chris- 
 tians, a large majority of the scholars having been in 
 school only a short time. 
 
~I 
 
 =I 
 
 TELUGU AND TAMIL SCHOOLS, BURMA. 
 MRS. W. F. ARMSTRONG. 
 
 Work among Telugu and Tamil children in Burma - 
 has been carried on, more or less, by the missionari« 
 there from the earliest mission days. Domestic ser- 
 vants in the country are almost exclusively from these 
 races, and their children have been brought into Bur- 
 mese and other mission schools by those who would 
 not neglect the children of their own households. 
 Where many have been admitted to schools from other 
 races it has been found better to give them a teacher 
 to themselves; in this way small schools for Telugus 
 and Tamils have originated in all the larger mission 
 stations. The first one to grow to any importance as 
 a school was the one in Moulmein. ‘This began in 
 connection with Miss Barrows’ Burmese boys’ school. 
 When the numbers increased she provided them with a 
 room and a Tamil Christian teacher, named Gabriel, 
 who carried on a school for Telugu and Tamil boys 
 and girls, which did great good as an evangelizing 
 agency. In 1884 Rev. W. F. Armstrong was put in 
 charge of the Telugu and Tamil work in Moulmein, 
 and Miss Barrows handed over this school to Mrs. 
 Armstrong’s care. About twenty-five children were 
 gathered in a hired room, but this was not at all satis- 
 factory. The large numbers needing the school de- 
 manded a place to accommodate them and to serve as 
 a chapel for the mission. Convinced of this, Mrs. 
 Armstrong started a fund for what is now called the 
 Mizpah Hall school-house. Others became interested, 
 and considerably over one thousand rupees were 
 raised towards it in Moulmein. When the case was 
 stated to the Board of the Woman’s Baptist Foreign 
 Missionary Society they donated two thousand rupees 
 to this purpose. Government doubled the funds by 
 a grant-in-aid, making in all about six thousand five 
 hundred rupees, In 1887 the building was erected in 
 
78 
 
 a vacant lot belonging to the Burmese girls’ school 
 compound. 
 
 Beside the numbers of children who have been 
 brought to Christ in this school, the head teacher, 
 Yesudas, and Vademonicum, two educated Tamil men 
 who came from India to teach there have been brought 
 to a fuller Christian life and baptized into the Moul- 
 mein church. This school has also exerted a powerful 
 influence in the community. Baptists have no mission 
 among the Tamil people save this one in Burma, and 
 it has been the means of bringing Bible truth to the 
 notice of hundreds of Tamils who knew nothing more 
 than a ‘** form of godliness without the power.” 
 
 From the outset the aim has been to bring the children 
 to a saving knowledge of Christ. In common with 
 other mission schools, one hour of each day has been 
 given to the study of the Bible; but in addition to 
 this, class meetings for prayer have been held in order 
 to bring the truth they have learned to a practical test. 
 In these meetings each child is brought face to face 
 with the question whether he will accept Christ as 
 his Saviour; whether he will worship him and re- 
 nounce his idols; whether he is merely to hear these 
 things, or to do them and live by them. The aim is 
 to bring each child into personal relations with the 
 unseen Father, that each may not only know about 
 God, but may become acquainted with him. As a 
 consequence, the children have grown into a personal 
 knowledge of the truth and of God; and, both in 
 Moulmein and in Rangoon, when at any special time 
 they as a school have been called upon to witness for 
 Christ, the results have been startling. Numbers have 
 felt that they knew him as their Saviour, that he had 
 heard their prayers, and they were confident in their 
 faith in him. 
 
 As an instance of this, in November, 1899, a won- 
 derful work of grace was manifested in Mizpah Hall 
 school. Miss Ford had been laboring faithfully in 
 the school for months, and felt that many of the 
 children had saving faith in Christ. Mr. Armstrong 
 
visited the school and addressed them on personal 
 religion. He concluded by asking for testimonies 
 from the children. How many among them believed 
 that in answer to prayer their sins had been forgiven 
 and that they were accepted of God? Forty-nine 
 children rose to acknowledge their faith, and nine 
 others asked for prayer that they might have a like 
 assurance. 
 
 Something similar to this was a moyement in our 
 Rangoon schools in 1897. Mr. Burgess, superinten- 
 dent of the Indian Sunday-school Union, visited Ran- 
 goon and appealed to the children to decide for Christ 
 without delay. In our Tamil and Telugu schools one 
 hundred and forty-eight children declared themselves 
 on the Lord’s side and were formed into Christian 
 Endeavor Societies, which still meet every week 
 and have steadily grown in numbers and influence. 
 One little fellow died when he was nine years old, 
 witnessing so triumphantly to the hundreds who 
 crowded to see him that all men marvelled at him. 
 He had no fear of death; he was going to the Saviour 
 he loved more than father or mother; and heathen who 
 saw his last days were impressed with the truth of the 
 gospel as no mere words had power to give. ‘* What 
 hath God wrought” ! 
 
 The Rangoon school had its rise precisely as the Moul- 
 mein school had, and was formed into a separate school 
 about thirty years ago. Faithful work was carried on 
 by different native evangelists, especially by Harnharri, 
 a Tamil Christian of much power who died there some 
 ten years since. 
 
 In 1893 Mr. Armstrong was put in charge of the 
 Telugu and Tamil work throughout Burma. At that 
 time the Rangoon school consisted of about eighty 
 children crowded together in a native house. He 
 secured Union Hall for them, commodious and well 
 situated for the purpose. Miss Armstrong started a 
 kindergarten department and the school grew rapidly, 
 especially the kindergarten, which was made a great 
 spiritual blessing to the school. 
 
80 
 
 In Ahlone, a suburb of Rangoon, there lived for 
 many years a Telugu Christian named Pooliah. He 
 was an architect and contractor for buildings. It was 
 he who put up and completed all the buildings for the 
 theological seminary at Insein. He was large hearted 
 and most generous with his money. Among his many 
 good deeds was the founding of a Tamil and Telugu 
 school near his own home. He put up on his own 
 land and at his own expense a neat little chapel for 
 Sunday worship, and gave the use of the building 
 through the week for school purposes, providing a 
 Sunday school for the children also. 
 
 After a time this school was registered and drew a 
 government grant-in-aid. The teacher was under the 
 supervision of the missionary, but the building was 
 owned and kept for the purpose by Pooliah. In 1898 
 Pooliah died and the school-room was rented to others, 
 but the school was transferred to a larger building and 
 is doing good work there still. It should be noted 
 that both in Union Hall and Ahlone schools, numbers 
 of Mohammedan lads, speaking Hindustani, have 
 sought admittance, and there are classes and teachers 
 for these lads in both schools. 
 
 In this way the gospel is gaining access to the 
 Mohammedan population of Rangoon. ‘Two or three 
 Mohammedan lads gave satisfactory evidence of con- 
 version, and all study the Bible and are taught the way 
 of salvation through Christ. 
 
 One other feature of the work deserves mention. 
 Much use is made in school and evangelistic work of 
 gospel hymns. The school is systematically trained in 
 the tonic sol-fa system, and draws a grant from 
 government for proficiency in this branch. 
 
 A great drawback to worship in song was the fact 
 that three languages were in constant use in our ser- 
 vices. In 1899 Mr. Armstrong completed a hymn 
 book to meet this need. It contains translations of 
 popular hymns in Tamil, Telugu, and Hindustani, so 
 arranged that each can sing the same hymn to the 
 same tune in their own language. One hundred and 
 
81 
 
 twenty hymns in Tamil and Telugu were thus harmon- 
 ized, and forty-nine of these are given also in Hindu- 
 stani. 
 
 The indices are so arranged that the number of the 
 
 ame hymn in the three languages can be found readily, 
 and all can sing together His praise whom we all wor- 
 ship. It was a somewhat difficult work, but the Spirit 
 who prompted the undertaking carried it to a success- 
 ful issue. Blessed be His name! 
 
 The Union Hall school has 21 teachers with 488 pu- 
 pils. The Ahlone school, 6 teachers and 100 pupils. 
 Mizpah Hall, Moulmein, has 8 teachers and 125 
 pupils. There is also a small school at Mandalay 
 with 1 teacher and 22 pupils. 
 
82 
 
 THE BURMAN WOMAN’S BIBLE SCHOOL, 
 RANGOON. 
 
 MISS RUTH RANNEY. 
 
 This school is open to women of all races who desire 
 to study the Bible in Burmese. It has one session 
 yearly of five months — the rainy season — continuing 
 from May to October. Since the school was properly 
 organized seven years ago (May, 1893), the total 
 number of pupils has been seventy, of whom forty- 
 six are Burmans, seventeen Sgau Karens, one Pwo 
 Karen, three Bghai Karens, two Chins, and one Kachin. 
 Out of the seventy, twenty-one have taken the full 
 three years’ course, fourteen Burmans, six Sgaw 
 Karens, one Chin. Fourteen, comprising the present 
 first and second year classes, may yet finish, and of 
 the remaining half twenty-five were with us but one 
 term. As to the failure or success of the work, we 
 feel we have abundant reason for encouragement, even 
 while our hearts sorrow over some who have turned 
 aside into sin. There are twenty-six of the girls who 
 are Bible-women, wives of preachers or teachers, or 
 teachers themselves and real helpers in the work. As 
 to the manner in which the Bible-women are made use- 
 ful, we find they go from house to house, where two 
 are together, explain Bible texts and tracts, or, better 
 still, accompany the lady missionary in her yisits and 
 tours. In some places they teach the Bible classes in 
 the mission school, visit the pupils in their homes, go 
 with the preachers to special cases, work in connection 
 with the dispensary, help the sick, and always and 
 everywhere gather the children and teach them the 
 gospel. Burman workers from the school have been 
 or are in almost all our large centres, and the Karen 
 contingent has done much in the jungle. Moulmein, 
 Thaton, Sandoway, Henzada, Prome, Shwegyin, Toun- 
 goo, Mciktila, Mandalay, Myingyan, and Bassein have 
 had helpers, while the Karens have worked in the 
 

 
 THE BURMAN WOMAN'S BIBLE SCHOOL, RANGOON. 
 

 
 iy 
 ' 
 i 
 { 
 t 
 ’ 
 
 
 
83 
 
 Toungoo Hills, Maubin, Tharrawaddy, and Rangoon 
 districts. 
 
 Seven years ago the school was supported entirely 
 by mission money, and it was hard to get.the class of 
 girls we wanted, even though we supported them while 
 here. The average cost per year has been five hundred 
 and seventy-five rupees, and the average number of 
 pupils seventeen. During the last three years dona- 
 tions have been given by native Christians, and we are 
 happy to report that the entire sum was raised by them 
 for the last session of school (1899). We trust to be 
 truly self-supporting in the future. The teaching is 
 done by your representatives, Misses Ranney and Phin- 
 ney, with the assistance of their Burman preacher, who 
 explains the tracts and teaches church history. Aside 
 from this, and a half hour for singing, the entire day 
 is spent in the study of different portions of the 
 Bible. 
 
 The present school is the outcome of a Bible class 
 for women taught by Miss Ranney in 1889 and 1890. 
 A widow, Ma Ee, was conyerted in Pantanaw and be- 
 came exceedingly desirous of preaching, but was so 
 ignorant of the truths of the Bible that she came to 
 Rangoon with an earnest plea for teaching. Other 
 women were found who wished to study with her, 
 and for two rains the work was carried on, somewhat 
 informally, in the house of Mrs. Bennett, with whom, 
 at that time, Miss Ranney was living. Then came a 
 furlough home and the return with Miss Phinney, when 
 the Lord opened the way for the present work. 
 
 For seven years there have been no proper school- 
 rooms, but through the kindness of the home friends 
 a suitable building is now being put up, where we trust 
 the Lord may further greatly prosper this work. 
 
84 
 
 THE KAREN WOMAN’S BIBLE SCHOOL, 
 RANGOON. 
 
 MISS ELIZABETH LAWRENCE, 
 
 This school having so recently begun, not much of 
 its history is yet made. 
 
 To begin at the very beginning of such a school, 
 we can go back to 1861-1862, when Mrs. Binney 
 instructed a class in the Bible. Then, in 1890, at the 
 Moulmein Karen Association, the women formed their 
 first Woman’s Missionary Society of that district, and 
 selected a committee to have charge of the business 
 of finding and sending out Bible-women among the 
 heathen. ‘Then was felt more especially the need of 
 trained women, for the few old women available had 
 but little knowledge of the Scriptures and could 
 scarcely read, and the younger women, educated in 
 the station school, were employed as school teachers 
 and could not be spared for this special work. The 
 question came up, ‘‘ Who shall go for us?” and 
 ‘*Whom shall we send?” Miss Lawrence, of Thaton, 
 proposed that the churches should select and send 
 women who wished to study for this work to her during 
 the rains. But it was not till May of 1893 that a 
 class of nine came with letters from their pastors to 
 recommend them as suitable pupils for such a school. 
 
 The class studied six hours a day till the first of 
 October each year for three years. During the travel 
 season they were engaged in teaching the Bible to the 
 little ones in their village day and Sunday school, 
 leading the women in prayer-meetings and mission 
 circles, and going from village to village among the 
 heathen with Miss Lawrence or some elderly native 
 woman to bring the light of the gospel to those sitting 
 in darkness. 
 
 In October, 1895, a class of seven graduated and 
 went out to work. During the three years there were 
 
85 
 
 four other women and two male helpers who received a 
 partial training. Of the whole number, one became 
 the wife of a foreign missionary to the Shans, two 
 married pastors of churches, two married Christian 
 farmers, One is assistant teacher in a village school, and 
 three have done good work as Bible-women. The 
 young man felt that God had called him to the work of 
 the ministry, and so took a course of study in the 
 theological seminary at Insein, and is now pastor of 
 a small church surrounded by heathen. The Thaton 
 school was supported partly by American money and 
 partly by the Karen Woman’s Mission Society of 
 Moulmein district. 
 
 A year or two before the Thaton Bible school opened, 
 a Karen minister, teacher Shwé Tu, wrote a letter to 
 Rey. D. A. W. Smith, D. D., on the importance of a 
 school for Bible training for Karen women. The 
 matter was talked over at the time of the jubilee of 
 the Karen Theological Seminary in January, 1895, by 
 several of the leaders among the people. It was sug- 
 gested that teacher Brayton’s compound (the Pwo 
 Karen compound) was a good place for the location, 
 and Mama Rose a suitable person to have charge of 
 such an institution. Teacher Pah-thay, of Moulmein, 
 offered to give a dormitory. On consu!tation with her 
 father and husband, Mrs. Rose drew up and sent out 
 a circular ‘* To the Karen missionaries, leading pastors 
 and laymen, and all interested,” asking them to express 
 their opinions and make suggestions on the matter. 
 She was willing and desirous of engaging in this work, 
 but did not wish to do it without their approval and 
 co-operation, and she thought it desirable that the 
 school should be supported by the Karens themselves. 
 The responses were all favorable. Just after that, 
 however, Dr. Rose became so ill as to require special 
 care, and Mrs. Rose gave him her undivided attention 
 till God took him to the blessed home above. 
 
 Thus two years more passed away before the way 
 opened to make the beginning. Meantime the Karens 
 in their different associations discussed the matter. 
 
86 
 
 Some small sums of money were sent in for the object. 
 Local committees were appointed to represent the work 
 and raise funds for it among the churches. 
 
 At the annual Pwo Association in Maubin, March 
 13-16, 1897, the people, were .very hearty in their 
 approval of the school, and resolved to give it their 
 cordial support. On return of Rev. W. Bushell to 
 Moulmein from this association he took word to teacher 
 Pah-thay from Mrs. Rose that she was ready to begin 
 the work if he would now fulfil his promise, 
 
 The result was that Pah-thay handed a thousand 
 rupees to Mr. Bushell, and asked him to come over to 
 Rangoon and make arrangements for the putting up of 
 the building. Karens also gave money to pay his 
 passage, and he came on March 23, when a meeting 
 was appointed for the 26th, in Mr. Brayton’s house, 
 for consultation. A good number of missionaries as 
 well as native Christians were present. 
 
 Rey. D. L. Brayton was elected chairman, and 
 teacher Zebedee secretary. After prayer Dr. Bray- 
 ton said: ‘* It looks now as if God has opened the way 
 for us to start the Karen woman’s Bible school. At 
 least we can take one step, for our brother Pah-thay 
 has sent a thousand rupees for the building of a 
 dormitory. Mr. Bushell has brought the money and 
 has helped us with his advice and counsel.” Mr. 
 Bushell made the motion: ‘* Therefore, as God in 
 his providence has opened now this one step before 
 us, we should move forward and open the school this 
 year.” This resolution was passed unanimously, and 
 then Mis. Rose was chosen to have charge, Rey. 
 Than-leza to be treasurer, and Rey. A. E. Seagrave 
 banker, 
 
 A building committee, with Mr. Seagrave as chair- 
 man, was chosen, and instructions to give out the con- 
 tract so the work might be done speedily. 
 
 A committee of arrangements consisting of six 
 members, including Mrs. Rose and Mrs. Vinton, was 
 elected, and the vote passed that the school should 
 open May 17th. The contract was given out, and the 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 THE KAREN WOMAN’S BIBLES SCHOOL, RANGOON, 
 
 With Mrs. Rose and Miss Lawrence. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
CH 
 ~I 
 
 dormitory was finished by May 1, and school opened 
 at the time appointed. 
 
 Under date of Jan. 51, 1898, Mrs. Rose wrote: 
 ‘* The first year of the Bible study has closed. We 
 can truly sing of mercy and goodness. No serious 
 sickness has interfered with the work. Funds have 
 been sufficient for the board, and a little surplus in 
 hand. Of the twenty-two names enrolled, only twelve 
 continued to the end of the year. These have been 
 faitbful and earnest in their work. We went through 
 the study of the Pentateuch, but did not quite finish 
 the Harmony of the Gospels.” 
 
 The second year began May 11th, and Miss Law- 
 rence returned from America on the 18th, and took the 
 entrance class, leaving Mrs. Rose to go on with the 
 first class. Nineteen names were enrolled, but two 
 pupils were out much of the time because of sickness, 
 so at the close, Feb. 2, 1899, only seventeen were 
 present. Mrs. Rose wrote then: ‘+ Funds have been 
 sufficient and there is still a little on hand.” 
 
 At the beginning of the third year, May 3d, sixteen 
 of the former pupils returned, and an entrance class of 
 seventeen enrolled. Of the thirty-three, thirty-one 
 remained through the year, and a class of nine having 
 finished the course of three years received diplomas, 
 Jan. 29, 1900, and have gone out to work in different 
 fields. Two of these have been chosen to be teachers 
 in this school, two to be missionaries in the Shan States, 
 and one to the Chins in the Chindwin Valley, while the 
 others find work nearer home. Three of those who had 
 only a partial training married ministers. 
 
 Eliza, an elderly Bible-woman, trained in Mrs. 
 Binney’s normal class, assisted in teaching the entrance 
 class for several months the last year,.and after Mrs. 
 Elwell returned from Tavoy, in November, 1899, she 
 rendered invaluable help in the school. 
 
 The Karens have done well in supporting the school 
 thus far, and though the third year closed with a small 
 debt, it has already been cancelled and a good balance 
 is in hand to begin another year, 
 
88 
 
 SKETCH OF SCHOOL IN MONGNAI, SOUTH- 
 ERN SHAN STATES, BURMA. 
 
 MRS. HULDAH MIX. 
 
 The school in Méngnai (Moné) was begun by Dr. 
 and Mrs. Griggs, in February, 1892. Mrs. Griggs’ 
 health soon failed and made necessary their return to 
 America in the following July, and the school was left 
 for several months in charge of the Shan teacher, 
 whose character was not the best. Mrs. Mix came 
 in March, 1893, and took charge of what was left of 
 the school. Since that time it has had its ups and 
 downs and has not been very encouraging some of the 
 time. The people have not cared for the education of 
 their children enough to pay a small fee, and have 
 been so afraid of their becoming Christians that they 
 preferred to have them run the streets and learn vice 
 rather than be in a Christian school. But in May, 
 1899, several of the children in the orpbanage being 
 old enough to go into a kindergarten, and feeling the 
 need of such work for theni, Mrs. Mix started one. 
 Searcely any attempt has been made to induce others 
 to come, but the parents are pleased with the work and 
 the children are delighted to come. They seem to 
 have no fear that these little ones will be contaminated 
 by Christianity, so the school is quite popular and is 
 growing all of the time, promising to be as large as 
 can be managed with the present accommodations and 
 help. Thus, quite unsought, has been pointed out a 
 way to begin our mission school. ‘Through many ups 
 and downs the solution has been reached. Probably 
 it would not have succeeded so well if we had not had 
 the orphans as a nucleus, as with their better training, 
 and no outside influence to hinder, we can mould them 
 to our minds and the others learn by their example. 
 The day pupils also attend Sunday school, and with 
 the daily Bible lesson and the singing of hymns are 
 absorbing a great deal of knowledge about Christ, 
 
 i ta me 
 
89 
 
 The improvement in these little wild ones is truly 
 wonderful. 
 
 One young man who was in the school two years 
 when first started has been a student for several years 
 in the Rangoon Baptist College, and is now in the 
 Theological Seminary at Insein. He promises to be 
 a yaluable helper. ‘Two others, one of them a Chris- 
 tian, are now in the Baptist College. 
 
 Two girls who have been several years in the school 
 are studying kindergarten — one at Kemendine and 
 one in Moulmein. Several orphans have been received 
 into the school as boarders, and nearly -all of these 
 have made good progress and bid fair to be useful men 
 and women. Aside from them and the children of 
 Christian parents, only one has become a Christian. 
 
 The school is held in the chapel, which has two small 
 rooms forclasses. It is a plain building with a thatch 
 roof, haying no beauty in itself, but is favorably situ- 
 ated for the school and religious services. It is on a 
 much-travelled road, on a rise of ground at the west of 
 the town, and is easily reached by all of the people in 
 the place. 
 
BEGINNINGS OF THE GIRLS’ SCHOOL IN 
 NELLORE. 
 
 MRS. LYMAN JEWETT. 
 
 Arriving at Nellore early in 1849, within that year I 
 began a boarding-school with three children, their 
 mother the matron. The number increased very slowly, 
 and they were often taken away to earn a few pennies, 
 without a moment’s warning. -Their tidy appearance 
 and learning to read counted for nothing; we were 
 the ones to be grateful for having had them so long! 
 It was no doubt more from this state of things than 
 from work among the people that I became very ill, 
 and obliged, with Mr. Jewett, to leave Nellore for 
 several months. During my absence, Mr. Day, with 
 all his station and village work, cared for the dear 
 children who remained, with the tenderness of a mother 
 as well as of a father missionary. They met me a few 
 miles out on my return from Madras with tears of joy. 
 Foremost among them was Julia, who had just re- 
 turned to Nellore. She wept on my neck, begging 
 forgiveness for leaving. Her mother, seeing that she 
 was almost a Christian, had taken her to a village. 
 Converts came, and with them some appreciation of a 
 Christian education. Instead of the little house first 
 occupied, a better one was built; Mrs. Gilmore, of 
 Madras, was appointed matron. She was sueceeded 
 by Julia, the first convert, who had become wife of 
 Rey. N. Kanakiah, a former member of the school, 
 who, with his two sisters, had been removed to another 
 city. Kanakiah was the first preacher ordained in 
 Nellore, a man eloquent and faithful in the work of 
 building up the little church. In 1855 we greeted 
 Rey. and Mrs. Douglass, our first reinforcement. 
 Mrs. Douglass was very helpful, as health would 
 permit, especially in the industrial department and in 
 teaching English Scriptures. When, in 1862, we took 
 our first furlough to America, Mrs. Douglass conducted 
 
91 
 
 the schools most efficiently, while Mr. Douglass had 
 charge of the increasing work of the station. He and 
 Mr. Jewett had received generous responses to their 
 solicitations for still further financial aid among our 
 English friends. In those days of beginning it was 
 impossible to give students an all-round education. I 
 taught the Telugu Scriptures, making them a specialty, 
 examining in other branches. Pupils who remained a 
 reasonable length of time were in nearly every case 
 eonyerted. We took them on tours, to help with their 
 sweet singing, as well as in talking to the people. 
 After preaching by the missionaries, the better students 
 could teach in Sunday school and then go and work 
 among idolaters. But the time came when we felt that 
 Christian parents should give more for the support of 
 their children than they were willing to, so we gradu- 
 ally reduced the number of boarders; but there were 
 some bright day scholars, and several adult converts 
 were received into the classes. Thus we had a boarding 
 and day school for the training of helpers. When 
 new missionaries came to begin other stations, they 
 took with them such of these as could be spared from 
 Nellore. The older missionaries, one after another, 
 were obliged to return to the home land for rest. Thus 
 the schools were depleted and the work reduced when,: 
 in 1874, Rev. and Mrs. Downie arrived and took 
 charge of the station. 
 
 Of day scholars, Rev. T. Rungiah married Ma 
 Lutchmee, of the boarding-school. After doing good 
 work in older stations, they removed to Madras, when 
 Mr. Jewett was appointed there in 1878. While 
 missionaries came and went, they toiled on, a bright 
 example of a family all converted and at work for the 
 Master. Leah married preacher C. Nursu, who was 
 one of the first pupils in a village school. Rachel 
 died at thirteen, asking Jesus to ‘‘ save a little place 
 for her at his feet.” Later the devoted Christian 
 mother was called, then a son who was head master 
 in one of Miss Day’s schools. Daniel is preacher at 
 Madras, and John teaches in Nellore. There were 
 
92 
 
 three little boys, sons of a gentleman’s coachman, 
 who attended with great regularity. One is now Rey. 
 A. Subbiah, the chosen pastor of Nellore chureh; his 
 brothers, A. P. Veerasawmy, evangelist, now assisting 
 Dr. Boggs as he had Dr. McLaurin, in literary work ; 
 and A. C. Veerasawmy, who assists the mission 
 treasurer. KK. Elisabeth has the usual black eyes and 
 black hair, the eyes larger and brighter than most 
 others. Not unlike some of them, however, she had 
 falls in the early part of her Christian life; but these 
 led her closer to the Lord, and she is among the purest 
 and best. After working variously, wherever needed, 
 she has become a most efficient nd trusted helper in 
 the new hospital at Nellore. 
 
 Other boarders: Ruth, when called away by her 
 wicked mother, said, ‘‘ Vo, these shall be my people, 
 and their God my God.” She had a rich Christian 
 experience. Her husband, Ezra, was a teacher; her 
 work mostly in her own family. Henrietta, a hand- 
 some girl, promised for ‘* temple life,” was rescued 
 and supported in our schools by Judge Walker. An 
 earnest Christian, she was taken from us all too soon by 
 cholera. She called the heathen around to come and 
 see how a Christian could die. Ellen, Elisabeth Kay, 
 and Rosamond married Church of England eatechists, 
 and were all efficient workers. Chinnamma, in a quiet 
 way, has long been, as Mrs. Douglass remarks of Julia, 
 a ‘‘standard bearer.” She is now in zenana work in 
 Nellore. We took in little, wandering Seetamma, — 
 not the one who came to America. In after years we 
 ate rice and curry with her, her husband, son of the 
 late beloved Bible-woman, Krishnalu, and their little 
 children. They are active school helpers in Ramapa- 
 tam. Ragamma,a day scholar, was taken from us. 
 She hid her testament through several years, and came 
 to us almost a Christian. We took her for a season. 
 The man she married apostatized from Christianity, 
 and with his friends persecuted her; but she remained 
 steadfast, hoping to bring them to Christ. David was 
 one of our brightest scholars. He wandered from us; 
 
93 
 
 ana we feared he had apostatized. Finally he appeared 
 to our missionaries in Secunderabad. Being in want 
 of a teacher they tried and kept him. Under their 
 training he advanced, and was ordained a gospel 
 preacher. Chungamma came withus to Madras. Her 
 refined and gentle manner has given her influence 
 among caste women. Slie has worked faithfully in 
 their zenanas through many years. Her brother, Chun- 
 zaya, a most promising youth, died of cholera while 
 on a tour. Honored as the oldest son, it was said that 
 his father, aferwards ‘‘ good deacon Poly-appa,’’ used 
 to hasten his house idols out of sight whenever he 
 saw Chunzaya coming home. Our three Eurasian 
 girls married, one of them a European, the other two 
 men of the London mission. All of them took a. 
 decided stand for Christ. Charlie, a Mohammedan 
 lad, was hard and careless till about twelve years of 
 age. One day, in a little school prayer-meeting, he 
 wept bitterly, saying, ‘‘ All these who came here after 
 me are believing, and I shall be lost.” He soon found 
 peace and was baptized. In less than two years came 
 his last sickness. How he suffered, and how he prayed 
 for the Telugus! The adversary sought him once 
 again —it was a dark hour. At last he said: ‘‘ Be- 
 gone, Satan; I am redeemed by the blood of Christ, 
 and will have nothing more to do with you.” The 
 great tempter left him forever. Later Mr. Douglass. 
 said, ‘‘ Charlie, we are all here.” He replied, ‘‘ Who 
 are you? I sce the hosts of God. O Jerusalem, how 
 numerous are thy gates! Which one shall I come in 
 at?” Thus he went in triumph, giving new courage 
 to good old Lydia and others who had never seen how 
 a Christian could die. 
 
 FITCHBURG, MASS. 
 
94 
 
 THE GIRLS’ BOARDING SCHOOL, NELLORE, 
 INDIA. 
 
 MISS FRANCES TENCATE. 
 
 From 1866 to 1872 Mrs. Jewett labored faithfully 
 for the advancement of the institution, and our older 
 Christians have many fond recollections of the earnest 
 zeal of *‘ Mother Jewett.” In 1872 it became neces- 
 sary that she should return to America, and the schools 
 were left to the native teachers under the supervision 
 of Dr. Jewett, until the following year when Mrs. 
 Downie assumed charge. It would be a difficult task 
 to tell how many years Mrs. Downie served the mission 
 in this capacity, for, from time to time, when the posi- 
 tion was vacated by the young women sent out by our 
 Woman’s Society, the work has reverted to her, and 
 she has at all times been ready to advise and help with 
 the work in any possible way, when the young lady in 
 charge has needed her assistance, so we might almost 
 say that she is still connected with the work. 
 
 In 1874 Miss Wood was sent out by the Woman’s 
 Society of the West to assist in the boarding-school, 
 but after a few months she was removed to Ongole. 
 
 In 1878 Miss Day, daughter of Dr. S. S. Day, 
 arrived in India. She devoted the first year to a 
 faithful study of the language, and in 1879, Dee. 1, 
 assumed charge of the schools. During the five years 
 that she devoted to the work the schools made marked 
 progress, and the standard was raised. Her services 
 were needed elsewhere, however, consequently in 1885 
 another change was made. Miss Day was removed to 
 Madras to take charge of the ‘‘ caste schools ” there, 
 and the Nellore schools were turned over to Miss Wayte 
 (now Mrs. Phinney, of Burma). During her term 
 of service special attention was given to the teaching 
 of the Bible; she herself taking charge of some classes 
 and supervising others. Her health demanded that she 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 LD. 
 
 HOUSE ON THE TELUGU FIE 
 
 A SCHOOL 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CHRISTIANS EDUCATED AT NELLORE. 
 
 
 
 THE MISSION HOUSE, NELLORE. 
 

 
95 
 
 return to America in the spring of 1893, and Miss 
 Slade, who is a trained nurse and came to assist in 
 hospital work, relieved her, but in the fall of the same 
 year she went to assist Mr. Brock, who, previous to 
 that time, had been living a lonely bachelor’s life in 
 one of our northern stations. Once more Mrs. Downie 
 came to the rescue. Her time was then already occu- 
 pied with the Bible work, and she was greatly relieved 
 by the arrival of Miss Darmstadt, who took over the 
 work Oct. 1, 1895, and who is still in charge. For 
 some time she was assisted by Miss Annie Downie. 
 
 The earliest admission register that can be found is 
 that of 1882. From that date to the present (1900) 
 we find that four hundred and twenty girls have been 
 in attendance. The majority of these have passed 
 through the standard in yogue when they were pupils. 
 We can also state that the majority are nominal Chris- 
 tians, and we trust that most of them are true children 
 of God; but that is beyond our power to record, as 
 only the Heavenly Father’s record could reveal to us 
 the truth concerning them. They are scattered widely 
 over the mission field and occupy a great variety of 
 positions. Not all are preachers’ wives, Bible-women, 
 or teachers; indeed, many are filling the most humble 
 positions in life, but among our most proficient mission 
 helpers we find that the former school girls are prom- 
 inent. As this is history and not fiction, it is neces- 
 sary to say that some few who have been promising 
 students have never given their lives to God, but seeds 
 of truth have been sown which will bear fruit. Only 
 afew weeks ago a missionary met a woman in the 
 bazaar who stated that she had been a pupil in Miss 
 Day’s time, and that the truths implanted then were 
 still prompting her to a surrender of her life. This is 
 only one instance. Others might be cited. 
 
 In its infancy the school was held on the veranda 
 of the mission bungalow; as the number of pupils 
 increased, it was removed to the chapel. At the 
 beginning of 1874 there were only three girls in the 
 boarding department, but there was then hardly 
 
96 
 
 accommodation for a greater number. In that year 
 the school was reorganized under the government 
 grant-in-aid system, and the Woman’s Society of 
 the East voted fifteen hundred dollars for the erection 
 of a new building, which was completed and dedicated 
 in Noyember of 1876. This is a pleasant building 
 containing two large rooms, two class-rooms, and 
 quarters for the matron. In 1896 an upper story was 
 added to this building, containing three comfortable 
 rooms and a large veranda, as a home for the young 
 lady missionaries. From these quarters a full view of 
 the girls’ dormitories and playground can easily be 
 obtained, and it is possible for the missionaries to keep 
 in constant touch with the children. 
 
 As the demand has been felt, from time to time, the 
 standard of the school has been raised. In 1880 a 
 class took the fourth standard examination and passed 
 creditably. The following year the standard was 
 raised one grade higher. A number of attempts were 
 made to add the sixth standard, but the pupils proved 
 themselves incapable of attaining to it until 1895. 
 One year later the grade was raised to the seventh 
 standard, making the school a lower secondary school. 
 That is the present grade. 
 
 Probably one of the most trying steps taken by our 
 missionaries has been that of asking the parents to bear 
 a part of the burden of educating their children. As 
 early as 1869 small fees were paid by a few of the 
 parents, but the custom of paying was by no means a 
 general one then, nor was it for a number of years 
 later. Miss Wayte accomplished a great deal along 
 this line, and Miss Darmstadt has continued the policy 
 until, at the present writing, every girl from the fourth 
 standard pays some fee, the rate varying with the 
 standard. It has taken hours of discussion ofttimes to 
 succeed in getting a parent to pay as much as four 
 annas (about eight cents) a month toward his child’s 
 education, but now the principle is being established, 
 and it is hoped that the day will come when the school 
 will be self-supporting. For a few years an industrial 
 
97 
 
 school connected with the institution hemped somewhat 
 in its support, but it was discontinued several years 
 ago. 
 
 There has been a boys’ boarding-school carried on 
 with the girls’ school, with corresponding grades, until 
 the present year, when the older boys were dismissed 
 and only the primary school retained. 
 
 This year (1900) there are fifty-eight boarders in 
 our girls’ school, and among them some of the most 
 promising Christian characters that have ever been 
 - numbered among the girls. There have been times 
 when the attendance was larger, but it is believed that 
 the standard was never higher. 
 
98 
 
 THE BOYS’ SCHOOL, NELLORE. 
 MRS. D. DOWNIE. 
 THE BEGINNING. 
 
 Rey. Samuel Day was the founder of the Telugu 
 Mission in India. When he came to Nellore in 1836 
 and began work there, among the first things he did 
 was to gather children from the hamlet near into a day 
 school and begin to teach them. Before long one boy 
 after another was taken into the compound and cared 
 for as well as instructed, and this was the nucleus of 
 the boys’ boarding school in Nellore. 
 
 The work was continued by Dr. and Mrs. Jewett as 
 long as they stayed in Nellore, and during their terms 
 of service a goodly number of young men were taught 
 and sent out as pioneers into the field. 
 
 First Fruits. 
 
 Rey. N. Canakiah, the first ordained preacher among 
 the Telugus, was among the first boys taken into the 
 school by Mr. Day. He has spent all his life in 
 Nellore, has done much evangelistic work, and has been 
 the every-day helper of the missionaries all his life. 
 Another boy was Tupili Rungiah, who also became 
 an ordained preacher and has for many years headed 
 the work in Madras and been the active pastor of 
 the Perambore church. Darsari Ragalu, a contem- 
 porary of these two, did not receive the promotion he 
 thought he deserved, and in a fit of pique he went 
 over to another denomination. He is to-day one of 
 the head men of the Wesleyan mission in Secunderabad, 
 There were others who ran well and were gathered to 
 their reward in heaven, leaving blanks in the work and 
 in the hearts of the missionaries. 
 
 A SEPARATION. 
 
 During all these years until 1876 the boys and girls 
 in Nellore studied together. The present flourishing 
 
99 
 
 boys’ school grew out of the flood of 1874, which dey- 
 astated the mission compound, destroying the native 
 houses, and so weakening the foundations of the old 
 chapel in which the school was held that it was deemed 
 dangerous and had to be afterwards pulled down. 
 
 The erection of the girls’ school building and its 
 occupancy in 1876, and the formation of a separate 
 school for them, necessitated a separate boys’ school. 
 Hence a small building was erected to the west of the 
 girls’ school, which was used by the boys until the 
 number was too great for the space, and government 
 insisted on larger and better accommodations. 
 
 The Woman’s Board assumed charge of the boys’ 
 school in 1884, and the beautiful new building, which 
 now stands almost adjoining the girls’ school, was 
 erected in 1894 and was a gift from them. 
 
 GROWTH. 
 
 Beginning with a few boys in 1877, the school con- 
 tinued to grow in numbers and in usefulness as well. 
 Among the boys in the school at first were two of the 
 Veeraswamy brothers who were received as boarders 
 during the famine of 1876-1878, and whose careers 
 haye been so marked. The elder of the two was 
 Subbiah, a sweet-faced, loving boy, who was particu- 
 larly fond of Annie and Minnie, the two little girls in 
 the mission bungalow, and nearly all his spare time was 
 spent in playing with them. He went through the 
 Nellore school and the high school in Ongole, and 
 also graduated from the seminary at Ramapatam. 
 He has been for nearly ten years pastor of the Nellore 
 church, looked up to and revered by all. 
 
 The other brother, A. C. Veeraswamy, was a bright, 
 mischievous boy, very smart, but never bad. He is 
 to-day the faithful assistant of the mission treasurer, 
 his great pride being that no errors have been found in 
 his accounts for many years. (See cut.) 
 
 These two are but types of those who have passed 
 through the school during the last twenty years and 
 over, studying in all the seven standards, then passing 
 
100 
 
 into the college at Ongole, or entering the seminary to 
 prepare for the ministry. 
 
 MANAGEMENT. 
 
 Up to 1884 the boys’ school had been under the 
 direct care of the missionary, and was usually looked 
 after by the missionary’s wife; but when Miss Wayte 
 took over charge of the school work in 1885, she took 
 the boys’ school also, and continued to care for the 
 boys as well as the girls, until her furlough in 1892, 
 when Miss Slade assumed charge. She was relieved 
 by the missionary’s wife in 1893, who cared for the 
 work until the new lady missionary, Miss Darmstadt, 
 had enough command of the language to take charge, 
 which she did in 1895. Miss Downie was associated 
 with her in the school work, and took special charge of 
 the boys for two years. Miss Tencate is at present 
 (1900) associated with Miss Darmstadt in the work, 
 and was appointed, in 1899, manager of the two 
 schools. 
 
 A Necessary CHANGE. 
 
 The school had added standards until it had risen 
 from a primary school to what is known as a middle 
 school, and was in a very flourishing condition, hay- 
 ing forty or fifty boarders, and nearly as many day 
 scholars. 
 
 But in 1898 the buildings became once more too 
 small, and several unpleasant things having happened, 
 it was deemed best to cut off the higher standards and 
 reduce the school to the primary standard. This step, 
 though apparently the right one, was unfortunate, as 
 it took away the larger boys, and as there was no 
 other school to which they could be sent, it deprives 
 Nellore of the only source of supply for native assist- 
 ants and candidates for the ministry. The policy of 
 the mission is that seminary students shall return to 
 the fields from which they were sent; therefore Nellore 
 will either have to beg or borrow, if it is to get any 
 addition to its ministerial force. 
 
101 
 
 There should be a high-grade school in some other 
 part of the Nellore field. Allur would be a good place 
 for such a school, and might be available for all the 
 region south of Rarnapatam. 
 
 RESULTS. 
 
 The Nellore boys’ school has raised up and sent into 
 the field a goodly number of helpers. There are few 
 stations in the mission that have not been benefited 
 by the work of men who got their early training in 
 Nellore. It has also been the spiritual birthplace of 
 scores of Telugu boys who got their first spiritual im- 
 pressions while pupils in the school. Some of our 
 brightest and most devoted Telugu Christians had their 
 early training there. 
 
102 
 
 HISTORY OF NELLORE NORMAL SCHOOL. 
 MISS KATHARINE DARMSTADT. 
 
 The Nellore Training School for Mistresses was 
 established Jan. 7, 1895, by Mrs. Downie. Early in 
 February Miss Darmstadt, who had reached Nellore 
 only two months before, assumed charge of this new 
 enterprise. Miss Downie assisted in the work, teach- 
 ing drawing and singing, and continued her labors, 
 adding calisthenics and kindergarten lessons, up to 
 Feb. 15, 1899, when her health made it necessary to 
 return to the homeland for change. The following 
 October Miss Darmstadt consigned the full care of 
 this interesting branch of work to her associate, Miss 
 Tencate. 
 
 The school was at first intended only to prepare 
 teachers for the work in the primary grades of our 
 boarding and village schools, but three years later, as 
 lower secondary pupils asked for training, it was 
 recognized in January, 1898, as a lower secondary 
 and primary training school. 
 
 The normal has two distinct departments, that of 
 the training class proper, and a school for practice in 
 which the students put in use their daily lectures on 
 methods. The work taken up by the normal students 
 is methods of teaching, model and criticism lessons, 
 drawing, singing, calisthenics and kindergarten les- 
 sons. The school of practice, composed of the infants 
 and first three standards or grades, have English and 
 Telugu, arithmetic, a little grammar, object lessons, 
 and kindergarten occupations, with songs, ete.; Bible 
 is a compulsory subject in all schools. 
 
 On the recommendation Of the Assistant Inspector 
 of Schools, Mr. Ramakrishnamachari, a teacher in the 
 Ongole College, was called to the head mastership and 
 has retained his position to the present time. As 
 assistant we have had various lower secondary teachers, 
 
103 
 
 and at present one of the class of 1895 has. by 
 private study, qualified herself for this position. 
 
 The first class was made up of nine girls, three of 
 whom had previously taught in our girls’ boarding 
 school, but being unqualified, according to the require- 
 ments of government, to hold their positions, it was 
 thought best that they should take the training. As 
 the course is only one year, five classes or forty-five 
 girls have been graduated, eight girls —two lower 
 secondary and six primary students — being in the 
 present class. Two others entered the school, but 
 one, because of misconduct, was expelled after four 
 months’ work; the other, a lower secondary student, 
 who gaye great promise of being a splendid helper, 
 was taken from us by death just one month before 
 completing her year’s work. Of those who have gone 
 out nearly all can be traced to their present positions. 
 Two of the number have been called home by our 
 Heavenly Father. Those remaining are widely scat- 
 tered, being in twelve different fields besides our 
 own, viz.: Madras, Masulipatam, Ongole, Udayagiri, 
 Kanigiri, Allur, Kavali, Ramapatam, Deccan, Gudur, 
 Canadian Mission, and Vinukonda. Many have 
 married, and, after completing their two years of 
 required teaching, some have given up entirely the 
 work in the school-room to look after their households 
 and family cares. Two have gone into Bible work, 
 three or four have not yet secured positions and are 
 at home, while the others are doing helpful work in the 
 various mission schools. 
 
 Heretofore our students have all been Christians, 
 but the present class has two Sudra girls from the 
 Nellore town. Our chief object is to qualify Christian 
 teachers for usefulness in the work of education among 
 their own people, and fit them for helpers in the 
 mission, Bible, and school work. 
 
 The expenses of the institution have been met by 
 the salary grants from government, tuition of students, 
 and an appropriation from the Woman’s Baptist 
 Foreign Missionary Society. Three years ago the 
 
104 
 
 Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor of the 
 First Church, Waterbury, Conn., lifted this burden 
 from the shoulders of the society by assuming its full 
 support, and have by their interest, off expressed 
 sympathy, and kindly thought, lightened the burdens 
 of those in charge here in India. Each primary 
 student draws a monthly stipend from government of 
 Rs. 5, to defray all expenses of board, clothing, books, 
 and tuition. The lower secondary students receive 
 Rs. 7, 8 annas each. This year we were enabled to 
 ask for a two-thirds reduction in the home allowance, 
 and receive just $30 instead of $90, as heretofore. 
 
 The school occupies the ‘* William Bucknell Memo- 
 rial”’ building, which was erected in part with this pur- 
 pose in view. Forseveral years a flourishing industrial 
 enterprise was carried on within its walls, but was 
 obliged to be abandoned for want of some one to 
 superintend the work. ‘There are two large, well- 
 ventilated rooms, with broad yerandas around sides 
 and front. At first the normal and practising schools 
 occupied one of the rooms and veranda, but when 
 raised to a lower secondary school more space was 
 needed, and the whole building was given up to the 
 school. The ages of the students under training have 
 been from fifteen to twenty-eight years, though the 
 average age is about eighteen years. Some of our 
 girls who have taken primary training, anxious for 
 improvement, have by private study successfully 
 passed the lower secondary examination, thus being 
 granted full privileges of a lower secondary trained 
 teacher. 
 
HISTORY OF THE RAMAPATAM MISSION 
 SCHOOL. 
 
 MRS. LYDIA H. HEINRICHS. 
 
 The boarding and day school at Ramapatam was 
 organized in February, 1874, by Miss L. Peabody, 
 who came to India with the understanding and firm 
 conviction that her work must be for the women and 
 girls of this country. She says: ‘*I had been in 
 India but a few weeks before I was led to feel the 
 importance of directing my efforts for the most part, 
 at least, to the education of Christian girls; an educa- 
 tion that would fit them for positions of influence as 
 teachers and wives of native pastors, and it seems to 
 me this could be done only by gathering them into a 
 boarding school.” 
 
 The school was started with but six girls, who lived 
 and studied in Miss Peabody’s home. A school-house 
 was erected, and in July, 1875, was occupied for the 
 first time, the school having grown to fifteen boarding 
 and eleven day pupils. It continued to prosper under 
 Miss Peabody’s able management until August, 1877, 
 when her marriage to Rey. Mr. Pearce compelled her 
 to relinquish the care of the school. During her service 
 of six years at Ramapatam, four of which had been 
 largely given to school work, Miss Peabody sent out 
 a number of well equipped Christian girls, who had 
 become teachers and Bible-women in their villages, 
 and lights to dispel the dense darkness of heathenism. 
 Dear old Krishnalamab, of Nellore, was Miss Pea- 
 body’s able assistant, and matron of the school. She 
 also did Bible work and preaching in the villages. 
 During the famine of 1876-1877, Krishnalamah 
 became much interested in the Yanadis, a strolling 
 people who are classed by government as ‘* profes- 
 sional thieves.” Coming to Miss Peabody one day, 
 she told of the sufferings of the Yanadis then in 
 -Ramapatam, and-begged that something be done for 
 
106 
 
 them. Miss Peabody had been attracted by the sweet 
 face of a child she had seen with them, and so gave 
 Krishnalamah permission to bring the child into the 
 school if the parents would consent. Hunger and 
 want made them willing to give her up, and so the first 
 Yanadi cnild came into the Ramapatam school. Later 
 on the parents of the child were converted, and old 
 Kistayah is now the peddah (elder) of the Yaniadi 
 Christian settlement at Ramapatam. The child, Grace, 
 became the wife of one E.. Benjamin, a Yanadi 
 preacher from Ongole, who has been a power for good 
 amongst his people. Their two sons are now in our 
 boarding school, and are quite the brightest boys we 
 have. Has not Miss Peabody’s call to work for girls 
 and women proven itself herein as being from God? 
 
 Upon Miss Peabody’s marriage and departure from 
 this station, Mrs. A. A. Newhall assumed charge of 
 the work. After a few months of loving care of her 
 new charge she was called to her heavenly home. 
 A school for boys having been begun, Mr. Newhall 
 soon found it expedient to combine the class work of | 
 the boys and girls. After several years, eight couples 
 from the school were married and put in charge of 
 village schools, receiving support from their own 
 people. In 1879 Mr. Newhall was compelled, by 
 failing health, to return to America, and Dr. R. R. 
 Williams, president of the seminary, assumed charge 
 of the school. Under the new management the school 
 increased largely in numbers, seventy-eight pupils being 
 reported in 1880, many of whom were married couples 
 fitting themselves for village school work. 
 
 In 1881 Dr. Williams returned to America and 
 Dr. Boggs took charge of the Ramapatam field and 
 seminary. For fourteen years the work was alter- 
 nately cared for by Drs. Williams and Boggs. The 
 school continued to prosper though. decreased some- 
 what in numbers. In 1891 a new and commodious 
 school-house was erected by Dr. Boggs and his son, 
 Mr. W. E. Boggs. 
 
 In July, 1895, Rev. J. Heinrichs was called from 
 
107 
 
 Vinukonda to the work at Ramapatam, and the writer 
 assumed charge of the mission and boarding school. 
 
 At this time seventeen boys and thirteen girls con- 
 stituted the boarding department, with an attendance 
 of sixty-four in the day school. Having left a large 
 school at Vinukonda, this seemed to us rather a small 
 affair. After becoming acquainted. however, with the 
 bright, intelligent boys and girls here, we decided that 
 we possessed in quality what we lacked in numbers, 
 for never a school had a nicer lot of boys and girls 
 than were these. In September sickness compelled 
 me to lay aside the‘work, and Miss Mary Faye came 
 to our assistance from Nellore. Four months she 
 gave her loving care and attention to the school, and it 
 was with deep regret that we and our people saw her 
 return to her work at Nellore. 
 
 In 1897 five girls and six boys, having passed the 
 fifth grade examination, to which standard the school 
 had been raised the previous year, were sent to higher 
 schools for further training. One especially lovely 
 girl afterward became the wife of Mr. V. Jakobu, a 
 former pupil in this mission school, later a graduate of 
 the seminary and now a newly appointed professor in 
 the seminary. 
 
 Soon after assuming charge of the school we felt 
 impelled to continue our work — begun at Vinukonda 
 —of collecting fees from the children of the boarding- 
 school. This caused some dissatisfaction, especially 
 as we were taking in, free of charge, a number of 
 Yanadi children, a depressed, poor and wild class, 
 whom we were anxious to win. But the Telugus are a 
 willing and sensible people despite their great poverty, 
 and soon we were collecting a fair sum in monthly fees. 
 
 In 1898, after nearly nine years of uninterrupted 
 work, we were compelled to go to America for rest, and 
 the school was placed in charge of Mrs. W. L. Fergu- 
 son, who gave it her care until February, 1899, when 
 other work necessitated the sending of the boarding- 
 school children to Nellore. Upon our return after 
 eighteen months’ furlough, I resumed the charge of 
 
108 
 
 the school, and soon after, much to the joy of pupils 
 and parents, recalled the children to their own mission 
 school. At present we have but twenty boarding 
 pupils, cleven of whom are Yanadis. We might have 
 several hundred boarders had we the funds with which 
 to support the many who apply for admission. In 
 time of famine like this. however, it is hard to 
 discriminate between those who are worthy and un- 
 worthy of admittance, hence it has seemed best to us 
 to admit none until the new term in June. We haye 
 at present a total attendance of fifty-eight cbildren in 
 the school. English is taught to the third, fourth, and 
 fifth grades. We have three Mohammedan and one 
 Sudra boy in the day school, and four more from a 
 home where the father is a Christian and the mother 
 a Hindu, bitterly opposed to Christianity. The eldest 
 boy from this family is, we believe, converted and 
 ready to put on Christ in baptism. Four others from 
 the school were baptized last month. 
 
 Since our return I have been enabled to give much 
 of my time to the school work, the good results of which 
 Iam already permitted to see. G. Samuel, himself 
 once a pupil in this school, has been for eighteen 
 years its faithful head master, and bids fair to con- 
 tinue for eighteen more. 
 
 A large proportion of the school children have con- 
 stituted themselves a Christian Endeavor Society, and 
 every Sunday gather here at the bungalow for a 
 genuinely good meeting. They are enthusiastic young 
 endeavorers —all poor, very poor children, yet unself- 
 ishly bringing each Sunday a goodly portion of grain — 
 often too sadly needed for their own food —to be 
 given to those who are still poorer. Herein are they 
 learning the blessed lesson of giving. Good seed is 
 being sown here, which must surely bring forth good 
 fruit. 
 
 Since the opening of the Ramapatam mission school 
 twenty-six years ago, about five hundred and _ fifty 
 pupils have studied here. Five have studied up to, 
 but not passed, the matriculation. Fourteen have 
 
109 
 
 studied in the Ongole College. Seven have been 
 trained as teachers. Two have passed the special 
 upper primary. Thirty-five have become village 
 school teachers, and twenty-five became preachers 
 and Bible-women. Many have died, while many 
 more who did not become mission workers have 
 been better men and women because of the time 
 spent here. 
 
110 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CUMBUM BOARDING-— 
 SCHOOL. 
 
 REV. JOHN NEWCOMB. 
 
 The school was established as a primary school by 
 Mrs. W. B. Boggs in 1883. Mrs. Newcomb suc- 
 ceeded Mrs. Boggs when the latter went on furlough 
 in 1886. Mrs. Newcomb has been in continuous 
 charge of the school since then, except during her 
 furlough for eighteen months, 1892-93, when Misses 
 Bergman and Skinner and Mrs. W. E. Boggs had 
 charge of it. Later Miss Bergman also had temporary 
 charge of the school for one year. 
 
 The school has grown from a lower primary into two 
 higher grade schools, the upper primary and lower 
 secondary or middle school. The first of these affords 
 five years study and the latter three years more, making 
 eight years in all, when the successful pupils pass to 
 college at Ongole. It will be seen from the last report 
 of the schools that the infant and first standards have 
 been done away with, and it is proposed to drop the 
 second standard next year, leaving only third and 
 fourth standards in upper primary school. The present 
 strength of the schools is: Upper primary, 63 boys, 
 17 girls; lower secondary or middle school, 47 boys, 
 17 girls; the total for both schools being 144. Of 
 these forty-one are Hindus and Mohammedans. All 
 are boys except one solitary little Hindu girl, the 
 daughter of the head man or the village magistrate of 
 Somararapupet. Without being solicited he brought 
 her and her brother to school about a year ago. All 
 the Hindu and Mohammedan pupils are day scholars. 
 In prosperous times the strength of the schools is 
 larger. The pupils, except the Hindus and Moham- 
 medans, are from the lowest classes, but their souls 
 are just as precious in the Lord's sight. 
 
 Most of these who have graduated from the school 
 
111 
 
 can be traced. Many of them are engaged as school 
 teachers and village pastors, others have graduated 
 from the Theological Seminary and are now employed 
 as preachers, a few are in government employ, while 
 one is completing a course in smithing and carpentry 
 at Nazareth, S. I., and a few others have returned to 
 their homes to follow the vocations of their fathers, as 
 shoemakers, weavers, and traders. 
 
 The primary school building is called the ‘‘ Carey 
 Centennial Memorial,” the money being raised and 
 appropriated for it during our furlough in 1892. The 
 lower secondary or middle school, having no building, 
 is held in the church, where both schools meet every 
 morning for Bible study and prayers. 
 
 The Hindu and Mohammedan pupils all take part in 
 the Bible study, and recite verses of Scripture like the 
 Christian boys and girls, and sit side by side with 
 them. 
 
112 
 
 THE MADRAS BOARDING AND DAY 
 SCHOOLS. 
 
 REV. ARTHUR CURTIS. 
 
 The school was started in 1880 by Mrs. Jewett and 
 had one pupil. That pupil is now one of our trained 
 Christian teachers. From Vepery, where it was 
 started, it was transferred to Perambore when Mr. and 
 Mrs. Waterbury came to live there. The boarding 
 department has never been large. A number of boys 
 who attended this school some years ago are now 
 studying at the college at Ongole and one has passed 
 his matriculation examination. All of these boys are 
 good Christians and will be ready in due time to 
 become pillars in our mission. We now have eleven 
 boys at the college. 
 
 About three years ago we consolidated with this 
 boarding-school one of our day schools which was 
 being carried on in Chucklipalam, a neighboring hamlet. 
 This consolidation was a great improvement, for now 
 in one building we have a first-class school of the 
 upper pritmary grade and there are now sixty-four 
 pupils. The school building is really the dormitory of 
 the boarding department, but as we have no school 
 building we are using this dormitory as such. Four 
 classes meet in this building and the infant class is 
 carried on in a small room at the back of our chapel. 
 The dormitory is a hollow square, consequently the 
 rooms about the open centre are well lighted and airy. 
 It is located in one corner of our compound (yard) and 
 is built of brick. The day scholars are nearly all 
 heathen children while the boarding scholars are either 
 Christians themselves or children of Christian parents. 
 We have four teachers in this school, three of whom 
 are Christians and members of our Perambore church. 
 
 The school at Boyapalem was started by Dr. Jewett 
 in 1881. Its location is strategie for a school, as it is 
 situated between a line of sepoy barracks and a 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 HIGH CASTE HINDU GIRLS. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
113 
 
 ~.bazaar. The building is very shabby. We are look- 
 ing for a more suitable building, but a house with 
 suitable location and low rent is not easily to be found, 
 The children number sixty-three and the school is very 
 thrifty. As the building is not nearly large enough, 
 two classes are held on an adjoining veranda, and we 
 have put up mats to shield the children from the sun. 
 We haye two teachers here, both Christians. With one 
 or two exceptions the scholars are all heathen. It is 
 a lower primary school, and the children who finish 
 here are urged to join the fourth standard class in our 
 boarding and day school. The building in which the 
 school is being held was rented by Mr. Waterbury for 
 a preaching hall. It was used for a time thus, but 
 when we came here in 1895, one of our preachers was 
 living there and finally we placed the school there. 
 
 The school at Kaida, a village about twenty-five 
 miles from here, was opened by Dr. Jewett in 1884. 
 This school has not flourished very well. The village 
 is small and there are but very few families living 
 there and the people are poor. They work out in the 
 fields, and as soon as a child is of school age he is 
 old enough to earn a little money by working in the 
 fields or tending cattle ; consequently the parents prefer 
 that he should earn his pittance than that he should 
 waste his time in school. This is a lower primary 
 school and has been having six or eight scholars. 
 However, the Kaida people are awaking and are prom- 
 ising to send more children. The school building is 
 of mud and the roof is of leaves and grass. 
 
 The school at Otary was established in 1884 by Mr. 
 Waterbury. We have been told that the people 
 greatly opposed the idea of haying a Christian school 
 in their midst, and consequently vehemently assailed 
 Mr. Waterbury and Rungiah with stones one day 
 when they had been visiting this school. Now the 
 people do not object to the school, but they are more 
 anxious to have their children earn money than attend 
 school. Still, there are forty-five children in attendance 
 and the school is doing excellent work. It also is of 
 
114 
 
 the lower primary grade. Both teachers are Christians, 
 but the pupils are all heathen. As the Bible is taught 
 faithfully in all of our schools every school day, and on 
 Sundays, we hope and. pray that these heathen children 
 may sometime become Christians. The school build- 
 ing is of mud covered with a tile roof. It consists of 
 one long room with a dirt floor, and a blackboard 
 serves as a partition between the two upper and two 
 lower classes. As at Boyapalem, so also the scholars 
 of this school who finish the third standard are urged 
 to come for their fourth standard to our boarding and 
 day school. 
 
 The school at Moolakotram was started in 1879 by 
 the Jewetts. It has been under Miss Kurtz’s super- 
 vision for the past few years, and was raised by her 
 from the lower primary to the upper primary grade. 
 The school numbers twenty-six scholars, and the 
 teacher in charge is one of the little boys whom Mrs. 
 Jewett had as her first pupils. He is a good Christian 
 man and has recently been married. The scholars are 
 all heathen, I believe. The house is of mud and 
 covered with thatch. 
 
 The Konditope school was started in 1880 or 1881 
 by Dr. Jewett. After a time it was given up, then 
 re-started by Mr. Waterbury. After his death it was 
 discontinued until Mr. Hadley came, when it was again 
 started. From this time it has gone on and is now an 
 upper primary school. There are thirty-six scholars, 
 all heathen, but both teachers are Christians. The 
 house is of brick with a tile roof. 
 
 With all the foregoing schools, the names of the 
 Jewetts, Waterburys, Drakes, Hadleys, and Guernseys 
 are more or less intimately associated. 
 
 The Hospital Lines School is situated near the 
 lunatic asylum, and is among a class of people who 
 are city scavengers. There is no school building, but 
 the school is being held in the shade of a building, and 
 for a time was held under a tree. It was started in 
 September, 1899, by one of our Christians, but as he 
 could not keep on with it, from financial reasons, we 
 
115 
 
 took the school. There are about twelve children in 
 attendance, all heathen. We hope to find a room 
 somewhere where the school may be held more 
 satisfactorily. 
 
 At Sotumparembettu, about twelve miles from here, 
 a school was opened about two years ago. At that 
 time the village was entirely heathen, but they kept 
 asking for a Christian teacher. We had no worker 
 who was willing to go out there, so the call was in vain 
 for some time. Finally one day, a young Christian 
 fellow came to us and asked for work. He was from 
 one of our up-country stations. We told him that we 
 had no place except this place in the heathen village of 
 Sotumparembettu. He said at once that he would go; 
 but we told him that he must first go out to the village, 
 see the people, talk with them, and then give his 
 decision. So he went and came back full of enthu- 
 siasm. We appointed him as teacher and he took his 
 family out there with him. A good work has been 
 earried on, a little school of ten or twelve children is 
 flourishing, and through this teacher’s influence three 
 men, heads of families, have become converted and 
 baptized. The people, with but very little financial 
 help from us, have erected two houses, one for the 
 teacher and one for the school, and are very happy and 
 proud over their work. The houses are of mud with 
 thatch roofs. The people seem to be so much inter- 
 ested in all the Christian work being done among them. 
 The children are being well taught -in the Scriptures 
 and can sing some of our Christian hymns. Who can 
 say that Christian schools are not doing evangelistic 
 work ? 
 
116 
 
 THE VINUKONDA BOARDING-SCHOOL. 
 MISS F. KURTZ. 
 
 The history of any boarding-school is involved, 
 more or less, with that of its station, as schools 
 usually follow in the wake of a missionary opening a 
 new station. This is certainly true of Vinukonda, for 
 when Mr. and Mrs. Thomssen came to Vinukonda to 
 open this station in 1883, it was not long before a 
 school followed for the education of Christian children. 
 Starting at first as a day school, a boarding depart- 
 ment was added, the girls occupying a house which is 
 now used as servants’ quarters, and a dormitory for 
 the boys was built by Mr. Thomssen, and is used 
 for that purpose at the present time. Upon Mr. 
 ‘Thomssen’s departure for America in 1886, the board- 
 ing department was, of course, discontinued, but the 
 teachers, T. Jacob, who is now pastor of the Vinu- 
 konda church, and his wife Maria, carried on the 
 school as a day school until the coming of Mr. and 
 Mrs. Heinrichs to this station in 1892. One of the 
 pupils of this early school was an old Sudra woman 
 named Polammah, a new convert from heathenism. 
 Having a strong desire to be able to read her Bible, 
 she began to learn her letters after she was forty years 
 
 old, and as soon as she could read she went from 
 
 village to village proclaiming the gospel, till she 
 became too old to travel about. She is now the 
 efficient and faithful matron for our boarding-school 
 girls. 
 
 With the coming of Mr. and Mrs. Heinrichs to take 
 charge of Vinukonda dates the beginning of the present 
 boarding-school, although it was not until nearly a 
 year later that the school was really opened. Soon 
 after Mr. Heinrichs came here the people began to 
 beg for a boarding-school for their children. They 
 were told that if they were willing to help bear the 
 
117 
 
 expense a school would be opened; but this, to them, 
 entirely new idea did not find favor at first. As the 
 missionary insisted that without fees there would be 
 no school, the village elders sat under the trees in the 
 compound debating the question for two days. At 
 last, as the missionary still remained obdurate, they 
 offered to pay two annas (about four cents) per 
 month, which magnificent offer was promptly rejected. 
 This sum was gradually increased until they consented 
 to pay eight annas a month. This was accepted and 
 they were promised that a school would be opened on 
 July 12, 1893. Preparations for this event were at 
 once begun by the building of a dormitory for the 
 girls, the boys’ house repaired, a new house built for 
 the teachers, and clothing for about sixty children was 
 provided. 
 
 On the morning of the 12th of July the people 
 began to come into the compound, bringing their 
 children, until « large number had gathered. Then 
 began the sifting process, which took all day. At last, 
 after all had been examined, about sixty of the 
 brightest and most intelligent were selected and the 
 rest sent home. Cleansing operations followed, and 
 under Mrs. Heinrichs’ vigorous direction, the children 
 were scrubbed and combed as they had never been 
 before, and sixty clean boys and girls were arrayed in 
 their. new clothes, — decently clothed for the first time 
 in their lives. At first the children were wild and 
 unruly, and did not take kindly to the discipline of the 
 school, but after three months of kind but firm treat- 
 ment they had settled down earnestly to the work of 
 theschool. That the hard work and earnest efforts of 
 Mr. and Mrs. Heinrichs had not been in vain was 
 evident when, at the end of the first year, nineteen of 
 these children had given their hearts to Christ and 
 were buried with him in baptism. At the dedication 
 of the chapel, in January, 1895, these same ‘*‘ children 
 of the jungle” were pronounced by the missionaries 
 present to be the ‘‘ banner singers of the mission.” 
 One of the applicants for admission into this new 
 
118 
 
 school was a young Sudra, who had just been ** born 
 again’? from heathen darkness, and whose heart was 
 aflame with a desire to preach the gospel to his own 
 people. He came with his wife and begged to be 
 admitted into the school. Reluctant to admit so old a 
 pupil into the infant class, for he knew not a letter, 
 Mr. Heinrichs offered so low a sum for his support 
 that he was sure it would be refused. To his surprise 
 the offer was gratefully accepted, and from that day 
 this young man and his wife could be seen daily sitting 
 on the ground writing their letters in the sand with the 
 little children. The progress of this young man was 
 very rapid, and in less than five years he had gradu- 
 ated from the boarding-school and entered the Theo- 
 logical Seminary at Ramapatam, and is now preaching 
 the gospel on this field. 
 
 The first teachers in this school were T. Jacob and 
 his faithful wife, who has since gone to her reward. 
 These two, with the help of a third teacher, B. Joshua, 
 continued to teach until the coming, in January, 1894, 
 of G. Paul and his wife, Gurrammah, both trained 
 workers from Ongole, who have been with us ever 
 since. During the first two years little trouble was 
 experienced in collecting the fees, but with the begin- 
 ning of hard times began our difficulties with the fees. 
 The amount of the fee was reduced to four annas per 
 month, but the fee system has been persisted in, as 
 we believe the people value most what they have to 
 pay for, and in spite of the reduced fee the amount 
 collected has steadily increased year by year. In July, 
 1895, Rey. F. Kurtz, the present missionary, was 
 appointed to take charge of Vinukonda, left vacant by 
 the transferring of Mr. Heinrichs to Ramapatam, to 
 take charge of the seminary. With the reduction of 
 the appropriation from the Board, the size of the school 
 was reduced to about forty boarders, and it has main- 
 tained this average ever since. With but three excep- 
 tions our pupils have always been of the lowest caste, 
 their ages ranging from ten to sixteen years. The 
 girls are required to do their own cooking, bring their 
 
119 
 
 own wood and water, keep their dormitory clean, make 
 and mend their own clothes, mend those of the boys, 
 and keep the chapel and its surroundings clean. The 
 boys’ work is similar to that of the girls, with the 
 exception of sewing; but they must work an hour on 
 the compound every day after school hours. Since its 
 beginning in 1893 seventy-two pupils have been bap- 
 tized, forty-four have passed the fourth standard, the 
 highest standard taught until 1896, when a fifth class 
 was added and the school raised to the grade of a 
 lower secondary; since which time fifteen have passed 
 this standard. Of those who have graduated from 
 our school, fourteen are at present teachers on this 
 field, fourteen have entered institutions for higher 
 education, one is studying in the seminary at Rama- 
 patam as the wife of one of our most promising young 
 preachers. Four have recently emigrated to Natal, 
 two have entered the Arcot Industrial School, one has 
 died, and one is an evangelist on this field, while those 
 remaining are doing good Christian work in their own 
 villages. 
 
120 
 
 THE SCHOOL AT SECUNDERABAD. 
 
 The Secunderabad boarding-school was opened by 
 Mrs. Lydia M. Campbell, wife of Rev. W. W. 
 Campbell, soon after the opening of the mission in 
 that city in 1875. As it was a pioneer work, the 
 beginnings were small. Mrs. Campbell says : — 
 
 ‘* I first opened a day school, and secured the children 
 for that school by going out into the streets,-and to 
 the homes of the women and asking them to send their 
 children to my school. Many boys and girls came ; 
 among them some caste boys, who wanted an educa- 
 tion in English to fit them for some employment under 
 the English government. One morning, I remember, 
 sixteen or seventeen of the children were absent. I 
 inquired the reason. They told me that the head man of 
 the village had told them they must not attend my 
 school; that I taught a different religion from their 
 religion and he didn’t wish them to hear about it. I 
 sent the native helpers, who went with us from the 
 Ongole field, and I went myself. We tried to get them 
 to come back, but they never came; but as long as I 
 was able to superintend the school it numbered about 
 forty. When I opened the boarding-school the first 
 to come were two little brothers. Later an older 
 brother came into the mission and he was admitted 
 into the school. It is a very common thing for the 
 parents in India to name their children for some 
 heathen god or goddess, and these three little boys 
 each bore the name of a heathen god. They often 
 asked me to change their names as they were Christian 
 boys and they wanted Christian names. We con- 
 sidered the matter, and called them Peter, James, 
 and John. Little John, or Yohon, was one day very 
 suddenly taken ill with cholera. 
 
 ‘* Mr. Campbell went out many times in the night 
 to give him medicine and to take care of him. In 
 
 - > ~~ 
 
121 
 
 the morning he was worse. We thought it best 
 to send him to the hospital, as there was one there, 
 superintended by an English physician. They brought 
 him out of his room. He was lying upon a cot in 
 the yard, and I said to myself, ‘If .Mr. Campbell 
 were not here, it would be my duty to take care of 
 that little-boy, and I won’t be afraid of cholera.’ I 
 went out into the yard and stood by his side, and I 
 said to him, ‘ Little Yohon, are you sick?’ He said 
 no, he wasn’t sick. He was too ill to realize the con- 
 dition he was in. He feebly put his hand upon his 
 chest, and he said he felt a little strange here, and that 
 was all. JI told him they were going to take him to 
 the hospital, and I hoped he would be well again and 
 come back to us. They took him to the hospital; in 
 the afternoon he grew suddenly worse. His brothers 
 were standing by his side, and suddenly he said, 
 pointing upward, ‘ Look, look! there is Jesus; he is 
 coming for me!’ He threw himself forward as if he 
 were going to meet him, and he fell backward dead. 
 I believe the little boy is safe in the glory land. He 
 often told me he was a Christian We tried to save 
 these boys and girls for Christ. 
 
 ‘« T taught the boys in my school to give up the use 
 of tobacco, and at one time there was not a boy who 
 used it.” 
 
 (Mrs. Trmpany sends the account from May,1894.) 
 
 In May, 1894, owing to the failure of Mrs. Maples- 
 den’s health, Mr. and Mrs. Maplesden, who had been 
 in charge for several years, were obliged to return to 
 America. Dr. and Mrs. Timpany were invited to move 
 to Secunderabad, and Mrs. Timpany assumed the over- 
 sight of the school. At this time there were between 
 thirty and thirty-five boarders in the school, including 
 both boys and girls, and the school was a lower pri- 
 mary vernacular school. Three or four boys whose 
 parents especially desired them to study English were 
 sent as day scholars to other schools near. 
 
 After a few months a change of teachers became 
 necessary and a trained teacher was secured from 
 
122 
 
 Ongole, who, assisted by his wife, also a trained 
 teacher, assumed the entire work of teaching the 
 pupils. The boys attending other schools were with- 
 drawn and English was taught in our own school, the 
 course of study being made equal to that of the goy- 
 ernment schools of the same standard. 
 
 At the beginning of the next year, January, 1895, the 
 missionaries began to feel that the parents should 
 assume some responsibility in regard to the cost of 
 educating their children. As the school belongs to 
 two fields, Secunderabad and Hanamakonda, no impor- 
 tant steps are taken without the concurrence of the 
 missionaries on both fields. The Hanamakonda mis- 
 sionaries, Mr. and Mrs. Beebe, were. heartily in 
 sympathy with the proposal, and a schedule of fees 
 was drawn up, the amounts being based on the 
 income of the parents. This innoyation was at first 
 strongly opposed by most of the parents, some even 
 withdrawing their children rather than pay the small 
 fee, even though well able to pay it. However, the rule 
 was enforced, and the fees though small have been a 
 material help to the school, One man who withdrew 
 four children has since come to see the folly of his 
 action and sent the youngest of the four for one year 
 to a mission day school near, so that she might pass 
 her examination and enter the next higher standard. 
 In January, 1900, after five years, he requested that 
 she be allowed to return to the boarding-school, cheer- 
 fully paying three times the amount monthly that he had 
 refused to pay for her when withdrawing her in 1895. 
 
 Notwithstanding the fees, the school has increased 
 in numbers year by year, and we believe has been 
 more appreciated than when it was free. The Telugus, 
 as well as other people, appreciate most, the things 
 which cost them something. 
 
 In the autumn of 1895 Dr. and Mrs. Boggs returned 
 to India, settling in Secunderabad, and Mrs. Timpany 
 gave the school work over to Mrs. Boggs, and soon 
 after Dr. and Mrs. Timpany returned to their old 
 station, Hanamakonda. 
 
123 
 
 In 1896, on invitation from Mrs. Boggs, Miss 
 Pinney came to Secunderabad to care for this depart- 
 ment of the work. Miss Pinney was sent out in 1893 
 by the Western Board, and as the school was part of 
 the work of the Eastern Board, her services have been 
 loaned to the Eastern Board since 1896, thus paying 
 her salary. The school is still under her care. 
 Since she came the work has been pushed steadily 
 forward, the standard of the school has been raised, 
 and grand work is being done. Owing to lack of 
 funds to pay a matriculate teacher, the school has 
 been able to teach only as far as the end of the first 
 year of middle school, but students who need to go 
 further are retained as boarders, and sent as day 
 scholars to other schools. In this way one girl 
 from our school passed the middle school exami- 
 nation last year, and several others, both boys and 
 girls, are studying for that examination this year. 
 
 As the past five years have been years of steady 
 rise in the standard of the school, the students have, 
 for the most part, been retained. Previous to this 
 period, those sent out were from the primary depart- 
 ment, and many of them went to other schools in other 
 parts of the mission. A few of our preachers, and 
 many preachers’ wives, received their primary educa- 
 tion in this school. One of the former students is 
 now studying with her husband in the seminary, and 
 doing very creditable work. Of the students who have 
 gone out recently, since the standard has been raised, 
 two are now eflicient teachers in the same school. Two 
 others haye passed out this year and taken positions 
 as teachers at Hanamakonda. One girl with some 
 industrial training now supports herself with needle- 
 work and lace making. Another, who left school a year 
 ago, has supported herself with needlework and ayah 
 work. The school has now reached a position where 
 a class can be sent out annually, fitted for work or 
 entrance into training schools. 
 
 At present the school contains about fifty children, 
 all from Christian homes. Under Miss Pinney’s 
 
124 
 
 supervision the Bible is given an important place in 
 the course of study, and much attention, thought, and 
 prayer is given to the building up of character. Most 
 of the Bible classes are personally conducted by her. 
 The two classes attending more advanced schools have 
 their regular courses of Bible study with her. One of 
 the drawbacks to the school is lack of proper class rooms. 
 This need is at present met by the temporary use of 
 an unused bungalow, but as this will be needed after a 
 few months, a school-room is greatly needed. As this 
 school is a centre for the advanced pupils from all our 
 Deccan schools, it seems fitting that it should be 
 properly equipped for its work. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
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125 
 
 THE TURA TRAINING SCHOOL. 
 REV. E. G. PHILLIPS. 
 
 The importance of the training school in carrying on 
 such a work as that centred at Tura can hardly be 
 overestimated. Here we have a tribe of one hundred 
 and thirty thousand, the great part of which is min- 
 istered to from Tura. These, when religious work was 
 commenced among them in 1864, were an independent 
 tribe of savages, without a written language, of whom 
 not a score, probably, could read in any language. 
 
 Annoyed by the head-hunting practice of this tribe, 
 the Indian government occupied Tura in 1867, and 
 took over the whole tribe in 1873. One of their first 
 steps was for the education of the tribe, and they 
 asked the mission to take charge of this educational 
 work. ‘The missionaries accepted the invitation, and 
 ever since, the educational work of the Garo Hills has 
 been principally in the hands of our missionaries, the 
 government assisting with a grant-in-aid. 
 
 Encouraged by government to teach freely the Bible 
 in our schools, this school work has ever been held as 
 an evangelistic work, and during the year 1898, the 
 last year for which the report has been received, there 
 were in the Garo Hills field ninety-six of these evan- 
 gelistic schools. Among a people who could not read, 
 where the printed page could not follow and reinforce 
 the spoken word, this evangelistic school work has 
 been very effective, and around these evangelistic 
 schools, to a great extent, have sprung up our Chris- 
 tian communities. At the end of 1898 there had been 
 baptized in the Tura mission five thousand two hun- 
 dred and thirty-nine converts, and there was a body of 
 three thousand six hundred members, organized into 
 fifteen churches. When we bear in mind that all of 
 these village teachers, pastors, and evangelists have to 
 
126 
 
 be raised up from a tribe of illiterate savages, we can 
 see something of the importance of the training school. 
 
 The small village school, which was later developed 
 into the Tura training school, was started in 1864 at 
 Damra, a village on the northern border of the Garo 
 Hills, by Ramkhe, one of the two first converts from 
 the tribe. He had been educated in a Garo school 
 opened by government in Goalpara, in about 1845, as 
 an effort towards civilizing the Garos. This school at 
 Damra was, with the financial help of our society, 
 opened by Ramkhe soon after his conversion. It was 
 one of the first steps towards the evangelization of the 
 tribe, and was from the first a centre of evangelistic 
 influence. In 1867 Rey. I. J. Stoddard went to 
 Goalpara to fully take up mission work for the Garos, 
 and this school was made the training school. For a 
 time it was continued at Damra, but as Mr. Stoddard 
 found it impracticable for him to live at Damra, on 
 account of the deadly malaria there, the school was 
 removed to Goalpara for the rainy seasons from 1870 
 to 1875, and in the latter year was permanently trans- 
 ferred to that place. Here it remained until 1878, 
 when Mr. and Mrs. Phillips, having occupied Tura as 
 a mission station, the school was removed thence. 
 As Tura is centrally located, and the centre of influ- 
 ence for the district, being government headquarters, 
 the school thenceforth drew pupils from all parts of the 
 Hills, and the adjoining plains, as it could not do before. 
 
 The following missionaries have had charge of the 
 school, namely, Rey. I. J. Stoddard up to 1873; Rey. 
 T. J. Keith, 1873 to 1875; Rev. E. G. Phillips, 1876, 
 1878 to 1883, 1887 to 1891, and 1897; Rev. C. E. 
 Burdette, 1884 to 1886; Rev. S. A. D. Boggs, 1893 to 
 1896; Rev. I. E. Munger, 1898; Rev. M. C. Mason, 
 1877 and 1899; and Miss E. C. Bond, 1891 and 1892, 
 as far as instruction, while Mr. Mason had general 
 oversight. Besides these, Rev. Mr. Dring, Mrs. 
 Phillips, and Misses Morgan, Wilson, and Mason 
 have at different times taken part in the teaching in 
 the school. 
 
127 
 
 The school has been taught in various buildings, 
 from the temporary shed with earth floor to the present 
 permanent and more commedious, though all too 
 small, house. Could you visit the school while in 
 session you would have a good climb up to it, espe- 
 cially from the bungalow occupied by the lady mission- 
 aries, for Tura is on the mountain side, and the school 
 is on the eastern or upper side of the compound. It 
 is 2 plain, rather long building of six rooms, the main 
 room being in the centre, with two recitation rooms on 
 one side and three on the other, all opening off from 
 the main room. The building h:s an elevated floor, 
 woven bamboo walls, and thatch roof As you climb 
 the steps to the little veranda, fronting to the west, 
 you should stop and take a view of the place. To the 
 right, as you face to the west, are teachers’ houses, to 
 the rear and right are the long dormitories for the 
 boys. To the left and below, and somewhat distant, 
 is the Dring bungalow, while to the front, below, 
 partly hidden by the trees, is the Munger bungalow. 
 Farther on, down across the road, to the left is the 
 Mason bungalow, and the chapel tothe right. Farther 
 still are the Phillips bungalow and the lady mission- 
 aries’ bungalow, with the girls’ dormitories in the rear. 
 Beyond the compound, as you look through the trees, 
 the view stretches out down over the verdure-covered 
 hills to the Brahmaputra, thirty-five miles away, a 
 silver line a little below the horizon. 
 
 At the opening devotional exercises the main room 
 is packed full, for there are more than a hundred 
 pupils present. Many must sit on the floor, for our 
 schoo!-house is not yet provided with seats, save rude 
 benches, the most of these planks resting on blocks of 
 wood. We need better seating, but such needs have 
 to be met slowly. 
 
 Co-education is going on here, for the two training 
 schools, the boys’ and girls’, have been merged into one, 
 thus saving in teaching force and probably giving 
 other advantages. 
 
 There are two departments, the advanced, consisting 
 
128 
 
 of a four years’ conrse, and the primary department. 
 In the upper department alone do any of the boys 
 receive financial help. Any boy or girl of good con- 
 duct, who is far enough advanced, will be admitted to 
 these upper classes, but no boy will receive financial 
 help who does not give promise of becoming a valuable 
 mission helper, for this is a mission training sehool. 
 To such, when needed, stipends varying from, three 
 and a half to five rupees per month, according to the 
 price of rice, is given. A pledge is required that the 
 recipient will remain in school until he has completed 
 the course of study, or is dismissed by the missionary 
 in charge, and will then engage in teaching, or, failing 
 this, will refund the money given him. This pledge 
 has proven very valuable in helping these independent 
 spirited young men to form a definite purpose to finish 
 the course and to stick to the purpose. Many of the 
 pupils in the primary department are day scholars 
 from the town and from the police lines. Others are 
 young men from the villages who are working their 
 way as servants, or in any way in which they can earn 
 a living while carrying on their studies in the school. 
 The number of these would be greatly increased were 
 we able to increase the facilities for such work. The 
 ages of the pupils ip the school as a whole vary from 
 little ones just beginning the alphabet to young men 
 and women just ready to be@sme mission workers and 
 workers’ wives. 
 
 These pupils are studying the elementary branches, 
 the Bengali language, and, in the upper department, 
 English, and one period of forty minutes in each day 
 is given to each class, save perhaps some of the very 
 beginners, in Scripture study. Examinations are held 
 at stated times, and once a year a teachers’ examina- 
 tion is held, the successful candidates receiving govern- 
 ment certificates. 
 
 It is © matter for regret that means are not at hand 
 (here in the United States) for ascertaining just how 
 many have passed through the school since its begin- 
 ning, but it is safe to say that of the two hundred and 
 
129 
 
 fifty or more young men who have done so, not more 
 than a dozen have left the school unconverted, and 
 these in the earlier years of the school. The great 
 majority of these have, after leaving the school, been 
 engaged as teachers, pastors, or evangelists among their 
 own people. Of the one hundred, more or less, now 
 engaged in religious work, a very small minority were 
 prepared for their work elsewhere than in this training 
 school. Besides those who have completed the course 
 of study in the school, many others have attended it 
 for shorter periods, and so its influence has been 
 increased. Indeed the Tura training school has been 
 a very important factor in accomplishing what has 
 been done for the Christianization of the Garos, and 
 with its growing efficiency it has the prospect of doing 
 a larger work in the future. 
 
130 
 
 THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN AMONG THE 
 GAROS. 
 
 MISS ELLA C. BOND. 
 
 Among the Garos, as among most other heathen 
 peoples, the work of evangelization and education was 
 begun among the men. The women, however, being 
 free to go about and mingle with the men in their 
 assemblages, were able from the first to hear and accept 
 the gospel. It did not take the average Garo long to dis- 
 cover that a man who could read and write had a much 
 wider field open before him than one who remained 
 in his primeval ignorance. Hence there were always 
 boys who were ready to go to school if they could be 
 supported while there. But when it came to the edu- 
 cation of the girls, that was another matter. Their 
 parents could sce no practical advantage in it, and the 
 work of the girls was valuable about the home and in 
 the fields. And so, although Mr. and Mrs. Stoddard 
 were appointed as missionaries to the Garos in 1867, 
 and entered immediately on their work, it was nearly 
 seven years before a girls’ school was started. 
 
 Mrs. Keith made the first attempt to teach the 
 women in a regular school. In January, 1874, she 
 opened a girls’ boarding-school in Goalpara, with 
 twelve pupils, of whom ten remained through the year. 
 Mrs. Keith’s health was not equal to the demands of 
 the work, and the girls’ parents wer? unwilling to let 
 them remain; so after little more than a year the 
 school was discontinued. Three of the girls, however, 
 remained with Mrs. Keith until it became necessary 
 for her to leave the field. 
 
 Although the first girls’ school was short lived, it 
 demonstrated the fact that Garo women could learn 
 something outside their hereditary routine, and be 
 improved by the knowledge. It soon became evident 
 that if the best results of mission work were to be 
 obtained, the women as well as the men must have 
 
131 
 
 Christian training. Accordingly, after the mission 
 station had been permanently established at Tura, a 
 request was made fora single lady to teach the girls, 
 which was answered by the sending out of Miss Rus- 
 sell in 1879. 
 
 Miss Russell’s first work was to learn the language 
 and prepare a place for herself and the girls. She 
 built a small bungalow with a long wing running back 
 for the school-room. Dormitories and cook-house for 
 the girls were built of less substantial materials than 
 the bungalow. Before the preparations were com- 
 pleted Miss Russell’s health showed signs of giving 
 way, and she was obliged to go away for rest and 
 change. Thus it was not until the beginning of 1882 
 that the girls’ school was again opened. So many 
 years had elapsed since the first effort that the pioneer 
 work had to be done over again. Miss Russell made 
 a tour among the Christian villages seeking girls whose 
 parents were willing to let them go to Tura to school. 
 She succeeded in getting ten girls, of whom all but one 
 were orphans and glad of a place where they could be 
 supported. But the next year only one of the old 
 pupils and two new ones came to Tura for school. 
 After much prayer and deliberation Miss Russell 
 decided that she must go out and live with the people 
 for at least one season and so gain their confidence. 
 Accordingly she had a bamboo house built in Nisan- 
 gram, and spent the dry season of 1883-84 there, get- 
 ting acquainted with the people and teaching such 
 girls as she could persuade to come to her. As a 
 result twenty-one girls returned to Tura with her, and 
 the school seemed to be established on a firm basis. 
 Most of the girls remained through the year, and all 
 who remained came back the next year. In the mean- 
 time Rev. C. E. Burdette had come to Tura as a 
 reinforcement, and in 1885 Miss Russell became Mrs. 
 Burdette. In the autumn of that year Mr. Burdette 
 was transferred to Gauhati, and as there was no one 
 on the field to take charge of the girls’ school in Tura 
 it was disbanded. 
 
132 
 
 In January of 1886 Misses Mason and Bond came 
 to Tura as new recruits. Miss Mason’s services were 
 required to preside over her brother’s household, and 
 consequently she was not able to devote her time to 
 the study of the language at first. Miss Bond, how- 
 ever, made the language her chief study for a year, and 
 then prepared to reopen the school. It was not so 
 hard to get pupils this time. Misses Mason and Bond 
 visited some of the Christian villages on the north 
 side of the hills during the dry season of 1886-87, and 
 took a number of girls from that region with them to 
 Tura. There were also a few from the south side and 
 some from Tura and vicinity, so that the school 
 opened March 21 with twenty-seven pupils. During 
 the year, from one cause and another, several dropped 
 out so that the year closed with only twenty-three. 
 Since that time the school has been carried on without 
 interruption, until last year (1899) it was united with 
 the normal school. Miss Bond had charge of it from 
 1887 to 1890, during which time Miss Mason assisted. 
 In 1891 Miss Bond was transferred to the normal 
 school, leaving Miss Mason in sole charge of the 
 girls. In December, 1894, Miss Alice J. Rood arrived in 
 Tura, and the following July she took charge of the 
 school, releasing Miss Mason for a much needed rest 
 in the home land. Miss Rood’s stay was not very 
 long. Repeated attacks of fever so weakened her 
 health that it was deemed best for her to accompany 
 Mr. and Mrs. Phillips home in November, 1898. 
 
 In the meantime there had come the great earth- 
 quake of July, 1897, which did so much damage in 
 Assam, and was especially destructive of mission 
 property in Ganhati. Misses Morgan and Wilson of 
 that place, having lost their home and most of their 
 possessions in the earthquake, were very much in need 
 of a suitable place to live in until their house in 
 Gauhati could be rebuilt. The bungalow at Tura 
 being about to be vacated (Miss Bond had preceded 
 Miss Mason to the United States), it was agreed that 
 it would be well for them to occupy it and take charge 
 
133 
 
 of the girls after Miss Rood’s departure. Accordingly 
 they came and held the fort in Tura for about a year. 
 The return of Misses Mason and Bond in the latter 
 part of 1889 released them and permitted a return to 
 their own station at Gauhati, where the work of 
 rebuilding was being rapidly pushed. The school 
 year of 1900 has opened with fifteen girls in the 
 boarding department under Miss Bond’s care. These 
 are all pupils in the normal school, where Miss Mason 
 and Miss Bond are teaching. 
 
 We have found it difficult to keep the girls long 
 enough to give them more than the merest rudiments 
 of an education, as they were mostly quite well grown 
 when they came, and either they or their parents soon 
 began to be anxious that they should marry. As 
 the sentiment in favor of the education of girls has 
 increased, and they have come to us better prepared, 
 it has been found practicable to keep them longer and 
 carry them further in their education. Up to the 
 present time there have been three girls who have 
 practically finished the course in the normal school. 
 Thus far the experiment of putting them into classes 
 with the boys has worked very well. They still retain 
 the consciousness of inferiority of sex which makes 
 them feel awkward in mixed classes, but we hope that 
 further education acd increasing self-respect will grad- 
 ually eradicate this uncomfortable consciousness. 
 
 Already the children of some of the older school 
 girls are appearing in our schools, and the advantages 
 of intelligent motherhood will become more and more 
 apparent as the years roll on. One who was a pupil 
 in Mrs. Burdette’s school, and afterwards a pupil 
 teacher with me, has been left a widow with four chil- 
 dren dependent upon her. Instead of being a burden 
 upon her relatives, or being obliged to seek another 
 husband to support her, she is supporting her little 
 family by teaching school, and is apparently the centre 
 of quite a circle of relatives and friends. Such results 
 as this more than repay us for the toil and care which 
 
 we have spent ou our girls. 
 
136 
 
 
 
 Indeed, a revival in ‘letters’ —a sort of Naga 
 Renaissance — was brought about, and that too by a 
 very humble agency, namely, the mere matter of a 
 considerable number of the Naga boys and girls learn- 
 ing to write. It would seem as if this alone did more 
 to show the Naga people the value of education than 
 all our talk and religious instruction combined. This 
 new interest aroused gave us no small encouragement. 
 We were glad also to note that a number of very 
 vexed and yexing problems were inclined to remain 
 solved and in the background. These were writ pain- 
 fully large on the tablet of memory and we were not 
 anxious to renew their acquaintance. 
 
 The principle of self-government adopted some years 
 ago has been modified and continued. We insist that 
 each pupil shall support himself, or work for at least a 
 part of his support. The plan is not wholly success- 
 ful but is the best that we have been able to devise. 
 The teaching of Seripture in Naga has not been, to the 
 present, 2 complete success; our apparatus is too 
 small. Later we were able to use Broadus’ Catechism 
 and also to have a good class in English Bible. In 
 these two ways we put abroad some of the fundamental 
 teachings of Scripture. 
 
 We are glad to be able to report a large number 
 baptized out of the schools. As an evangelizing agency 
 education stands shoulder to shoulder with any and all 
 agences. As a mode of missions, as a method of 
 becoming all things to all men so that thereby some 
 may be saved, it is hard to beat. ; 
 
 The year 1899 surpassed all others in results. We 
 were able to build two new buildings. The one for 
 the primary department was built by an Assamese car- 
 penter (or ‘* maistry ’’?) without any assistance from me. 
 This seemed like a very great advance. This build- 
 ing has a plank floor and ‘‘ maistry ” made wooden 
 desks. 
 
 The building for the training school proper has 
 wooden floor, reed walls plastered with mud on the 
 outside, thatch roof, and American desks. These 
 
137 
 
 desks did more, apparently, to establish the school in 
 the minds and hearts of the young people than all that 
 we had done. We had assured them that we intended 
 making a good school, but were so long about it that 
 they evidently doubted. The desks set their minds at 
 rest on that point. To the minds of some these 
 American desks would be a doubtful blessing; we 
 feel that they are a good investment, that they will 
 pay large dividends. 
 
 During the rains of 1899 we felt that the time had 
 fully come for more drastic methods of discipline. We 
 had always supposed that because the Nagas were so 
 wild that it would not do to draw the reins too tight ; 
 but something had to be done, so I thrashed three, all 
 young men and members of the church. Our skies 
 darkened, there were muttering thunders and lightning 
 flashes, soto speak, but they all cleared away and our 
 skies have been clearer and brighter than they have 
 ever been. We had this school year (and our school 
 year has never lasted longer than from April to 
 October) over sixty scholars in the three departments 
 of the school at Impur. We have not graded our 
 school. It is unique; it is unlike anything else under 
 the sun. It is a common school, academy, college and 
 theological seminary all in one, —it is what the people 
 seem to need. We have tried to make our school fit 
 the people, not the people fit the school. We call it a 
 training school, and that is its grade if it has a grade. 
 None have been graduated, but with the exception of 
 the four Assamese helpers, all of our teachers and 
 preachers are the first fruits of our school. We long 
 ago decided that if we ever had teachers we would 
 haye to make them to order. Most of our workers 
 teach and preach during the cold season and go to 
 school during the rains. We began in a very small 
 way and haye not yet got beyond the day of small 
 things ; but enough has been done to amply repay for 
 all the time and money expended, and to make us feel 
 that we could have hardly expended our lives in a 
 better way. 
 
138 
 
 Our scholars (there are sixty of all departments) 
 range in age from six to thirty-six or forty years of 
 age. One of them, Sosang, who with Purella, his wife, 
 learned to read in three months well enough to read 
 the Naga Scriptures and conduct the young people’s 
 meeting. Another, Imonungshe, the pastor of the 
 church at Impur, when he ‘was first converted and 
 came into the school, said he would go to school for 
 forty years so great was his desire for an education. 
 Of the eight teachers and assistants in our school six 
 are students as well as teachers. ’ 
 
 To conclude, we at Impur feel that we have a larger 
 work than to ‘* plant Christianity,” to use a phrase in 
 vogue at the present time in America. Christianity 
 was planted long ago in the Naga Hills, and if our 
 work is simply to plant Christianity our work is long 
 ago done. We feel that our work is to plant Christ 
 and to grow His life in the heart of every man. This 
 is the idea of the Great Commission. It will not be 
 done by our might, but through the power of the Holy 
 Spirit working through us and them. We are to make 
 them followers, learners of Christ. The development 
 of the Christ character is our great work. To this end 
 the temporal and mental and the spiritual go hand in 
 hand. High spiritual living is not usually attainable 
 in the midst of ignorant, filthy living. It was possible 
 for John Newton to write his finest passage on board 
 a slave ship; but the average Christian needs to flee 
 every sort of slavery. The exalted life in Christ Jesus 
 our Naga brethren have not yet attained, they will 
 never attain it in all its fulness; but we trust they are 
 striving after it. Nothing less can satisfy them or us. 
 To this end our training school is one of the most 
 important agencies. 
 
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For near'y Twen 
 
 
 
 
 
 MARY LOWE COLBY. 
 
 ty Years President of the Woman's Baptist Foreign 
 Missionary Society. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
139 
 
 THE MARY L. COLBY HOME AT YOKAHAMA. 
 MISS CLARA A. CONVERSE. : 
 
 The origin of this school, if traced to its very source, 
 was a school under the charge of Clara A. Sands 
 (Mas. Brand). Her school was for the most part a 
 day school, but she had a few boarders. When she 
 went to America in 1886, about six of these girls were 
 transferred to Mrs. Nathan Brown, whose home had 
 just been left desolate by the death of Dr. Brown. 
 The girls occupied a small building which Dr. Brown 
 had used as a printing house. 
 
 In 1887, Amy W. Cornes, an Eurasian girl, gradu- 
 ated from the Woman’s Union School and became 
 Mrs. Brown’s helper. From that time till the present 
 she has been a faithful worker in the school. 
 
 In 1889 Mrs. Brown went to America for a short 
 furlough. While there she told the ladies of her school, 
 which had so increased in numbers as to outgrow the 
 printing-house, and asked for an appropriation for a 
 new building. The ladies granted her request and 
 also sent Clara A. Converse to be her assistant. Miss 
 Converse arrived in Yokohama, January, 1890. 
 
 In September of the same year Mrs. Brown married 
 Dr. Ashmore and went with him to China. Before 
 going, however, she secured a lot and made arrange- 
 ments with an architect for the erection of a school 
 building and a home for the lady missionaries. This 
 new building was dedicated to God, Dec. 18, 1891. 
 At that time the home received its present name in 
 honor of her who, in many ways, had been a help and 
 inspiration to our work. The picture of Mary L. 
 Colby hangs in our chapel, and our prayer is that we, 
 both teachers and scholars, may have something of her 
 consecration and earnest piety in our lives. 
 
 The Bible-women, under the care of Nanna J. 
 Wilson, moved into the school in December, 1891. 
 Miss Wilson’ also had. care of .a boys’ day school. 
 
140 
 
 Ella R. Church was in the home for a few months 
 helping Miss Wilson and doing evangelistic work in 
 the outlying towns, but in the spring of 1892 she 
 went to Himeji to open the girls’ school, which is now 
 so prosperous. Early in 1893 Miss Wilson returned 
 to America broken in health. 
 
 With the exception of a six months’ visit from Mr. 
 and Mrs. Parshley, Miss Converse and Miss Cornes 
 were alone until the coming of Mary A. Hawley and 
 Harriet M. Witherbee, in September, 1895. These ~ 
 two ladies were in charge of the work while Miss 
 Converse took her furlough from May, 1897, till 
 September, 1898. Miss Witherbee went to assist 
 Miss Church in Himeji, in October, 1899. 
 
 The name Mary L. Colby Home, expressed in the 
 Japanese syllabary, would not be recognizable to an 
 American, and the Japanese are not satisfied with a 
 name which cannot be written in the Chinese character, 
 so, while the missionaries’ home and school together is 
 known as the Mary L. Colby Home, the school is known 
 in Japan as the Soshin Jo Gakko — Truth-seeking 
 Girls’ School. 
 
 In 1891, a course of study was prepared covering 
 twelve years. The government schools are divided 
 into jinjo sho gakko, the first four years of a child’s 
 school life; koto sho gakko, the second four years; 
 chu gakko, the high school grade, and dai gakko, or 
 university. 
 
 Our course of study was based on the government 
 schools’ curriculum, covering the eight years of sho 
 gakko and four years of high school or academic 
 grade. The Bible is given a firm, prominent place in 
 the course of study. The branches studie@ are much 
 the same as those pursued in the American schools, 
 but there is little opportunity for quiet studying in 
 preparation, for the text-books are written in Chinese 
 characters too difficult for the child toread. From the 
 first year, the children bezin to learn to read and write 
 the Chinese character, and the time required for this 
 is taken from what would seem to us to be more profit- 
 
141 
 
 able. English is taught only as one branch in the 
 school. Mathematics, science, history, ete., are all 
 learned in Japanese. 
 
 The course of study was as stated above until 
 August, 1899, when, owing to the new laws which 
 were made, Bible instruction was shut out of the 
 primary grades. For this reason our primary grade 
 was dropped, and our course of study is now eight 
 years instead of twelve. 
 
 The most of our students are boarders. Our school 
 home of about fifty is divided into families of four, 
 each family occupying one room. The most responsi- 
 ble of the four is the head of the room, and in look- 
 ing after the younger ones gains valuable experience. 
 The work of the school home is shared by the girls, 
 one servant being employed as a hub to keep the wheel 
 steady. Much of the work in the missionaries’ home 
 is also done by girls who are not able to pay their 
 expenses. 
 
 Since the beginning of the school ten girls have 
 graduated, all of them Christians. One married a doc- 
 tor, an unbeliever; one is Miss Church’s most reliable 
 helper, another is a teacher in Mrs. Thompson’s kinder- 
 garten, one was for some time Miss Duflield’s helper, 
 but is now a clerk in a photograph store, one is Miss 
 Witherbee’s helper, another is teacher in Miss Browne’s 
 orphanage, three are teachers in our school (one of the 
 three, however, is Miss Hawley’s personal teacher), and 
 one with a rich, full faith has crossed the river and 
 entered heaven. 
 
 Since the school came to this building in December, 
 1891, one hundred and twenty-two boarders and two 
 hundred and twenty-eight day scholars have been 
 enrolled. Most of the day scholars have been primary 
 children. They have learned much about the true 
 God; many of them, we feel sure, have become 
 Christians in heart, and the influence of the school is 
 markedly felt in the homes, but no large number of 
 them have become baptized Christians. Of the boarders 
 sixty-one are professed Christians. Many of the 
 
142 
 
 smaller children have also been lambs of the fold, we 
 believe, though they have not publicly professed Christ. 
 Of those who remain a year or two in school, few have 
 left us without faith. 
 
 The past year has been marked by a special spiritual 
 activity among the girls. God has given us several 
 marked answers to prayer and this has strengthened 
 the faith of the girls. Last July and August every 
 one interested in mission schools was full of anxiety 
 lest the new laws should close our Christian schools. 
 At that time our teachers and scholars bowed together 
 in fervent, earnest prayer. When the time for the 
 schools to open in September came, we found that we 
 need sacrifice nothing but our jinjo sho gakko, primary 
 grade. We were sorry to see the fifty little people 
 scattered, but we did what we could to keep them in 
 Sunday school and succeeded better than we expected. 
 The parents of the little children who were boarding in 
 the school were disappointed and begged us to make a 
 way to keep them. Arrangements were therefore 
 made to have them attend the neighboring government 
 school. Seven happy little children had their Bible 
 lesson and prayer in the morning and went off to 
 school. They did so well in their work that they 
 attracted the attention of the visiting committee. The 
 principal, who has one thousand children under his care, 
 spoke to me specially of one of the little girls by name, 
 commending her excellence in composition. Two of 
 the teachers came to our school to inquire into our 
 methods and this gave a Christian teacher the oppor- 
 tunity to say that one of the principal advantages of 
 our school is the intellectual stimulus gained from the 
 study of the Bible. The relations between the two 
 schools has grown more and more friendly, and we 
 trust that this experience will tend to break down 
 some of the prejudice felt in educational circles against 
 religion being taught in schools. The Japanese 
 teachers deserve a word of mention. The school 
 definitely organized has had six different male teachers. 
 Giro Heirabe is a man of high family, his elder brother 
 
143 
 
 being one of the first Embassy to the United States. 
 Mr. Heirabe while in a position of responsibility com- 
 mitted some breach of trust and was put into jail. 
 While there he read his Bible given to him by his sis- 
 ter. He was also much impressed by the kindness of 
 Mr. Bennett who visited the prison. As soon as he 
 received his liberty he came to our church. A little 
 later he was engaged as teacher in our school. He 
 was baptized and is now a deacon in the Yokohama 
 Baptist Church. He was a teacher for four years 
 from 1890-1894, and is still a strong friend of the 
 school. Mr. Iwara, an Episcopalian, Mr. Auzai, a 
 Methodist, and Mr. Tsurugu, a Baptist, were with us at 
 different periods and did good work. Juichiro 
 Uyiyama became a teacher in the school in April, 
 1892. He is a strong, steadfast Christian man; a 
 deacon in the church; a man who has had deep 
 spiritual experiences and who has a strong confidence 
 in prayer. Dinkichi Fujmioto became teacher in 
 September, 1894. He became a Christian after he 
 came to the school. He is a man of keen intellect, 
 clear, concise in speech and action, and though he has 
 a logical turn of mind he stands firm and steady on 
 the rock ‘‘ God saith,” and is not troubled by any 
 doubts or questionings of the Word. These two men 
 are opposites in everything except in that both are 
 firm in their Christian convictions, and agreeing in 
 this they grow more and more to sympathize in other 
 matters, and are always a tower of strength in the time 
 of difficulty. — 
 
 The lady teachers, aside from Miss Cornes, have been 
 for the most part graduates of the school and have 
 done excellent work. 
 
 One year from December next marks the tenth 
 anniversary of the dedication of the Mary L. Colby 
 Home. How great are the causes for thanksgiving 
 which come to usas we remember the record of these 
 years! but the mistakes also have been many. God 
 grant that better work may be done in the future than 
 in the past. 
 
144 
 
 THE SARAH CURTIS HOME AT TOKYO. 
 MISS ANNA KIDDER. 
 
 The Sarah Curtis Home had its beginning under a 
 name similar to the one by which it is now known in 
 the government, Shuntai Ei Wa Jo Gakko, — the 
 Tsuruga Hill English and Japanese Girls’ School, for 
 from this little eminence the country of Tsuruga can 
 be seen, and there stands peerless Fuji. 
 
 Rev. James Hope and Mrs. Arthur were sent to 
 Japan in 1873 to assist Dr. Brown, in Yokohama, but 
 Mr. Arthur longed to plant a Baptist church in Tokyo. 
 So, in June, 1874, as the guests of the Hon. Arinori 
 Mori, they came to this city, hoping in some way to 
 begin work for the longed-for church. 
 
 In those early days the foreigner who lived in the 
 city of Tokyo had to be employed by some Japanese. 
 The red-haired barbarian could own no land, rent no 
 house, engage in no trade, nor be principal of his own 
 school. After several unsuccessful attempts to do 
 something that would give opportunity for direct 
 Christian labor, Mr. Arthur, under Mr. Mori’s patron- 
 age, decided to open a girls’ school. 
 
 Mr. Mori had been in the United States both as a 
 student and as minister to our government at Washing- 
 ton, and had observed what education was doing for 
 American women, and gladly consented to become Mr. 
 Arthur’s employer in a work that he knew would be 
 uplifting to his country. He built a house on his own 
 land with Mr. Arthur’s money, in which the mission- 
 aries lived, and a school was opened in some old 
 buildings in his and in a neighboring yard. 
 
 To this place as many girls as could be accommo- 
 dated came,—the larger part from another mission 
 school started but a few months before in the Con- 
 cession, a small area set apart for foreign residence 
 —and apart from the Japanese normal school, then 
 just begun. 
 

 
 HON. ARINORI MORI. THE FAITHFUL STUDENT 
 AND FRIEND. 
 
 
 
 
 
 THE SARAH CURTIS HOME, TOKYO, JAPAN. 
 

 
145 
 
 After a time all but one of these left to try other 
 new schools. Whether the earthquakes, the tidal waves, 
 or the devastating storms are to blame, perhaps nobody 
 knows, but of one thing the observer of things Japanese 
 is certain; change is the one reliable factor in the 
 make-up of this nation. 
 
 With such a man as Mr. Mori to go before and 
 champion the school, the future looked promising. But 
 work was scarcely begun when there must needs be 
 the question whether Christianity should be taught 
 in this Christian school. Mr. Mori said no, so 
 Mr. and Mrs. Arthur, after a night of thought and 
 prayer, wrote to the head of the school what they con- 
 sidered their duty to the girls who had come to them 
 for instruction. Mr. Mori was quite as decided, and 
 his reply severed his connection with the school. 
 
 But as employer and employed were in a sense only 
 nominal terms, Mr. Arthur, under a man who would 
 be both his employer and teacher, kept on with the 
 school under conditions that were not easy to a liberty- 
 loving American. A friend could not be invited to 
 spend the night, nor a servant engaged or dismissed, 
 without asking this employer, who could get permis- 
 sion from the police. 
 
 When Miss Anna H. Kidder came to help in the 
 school in 1875, and the papers promising to yield to 
 the wishes of a heathen in all things pertaining to 
 school and residence were presented for her signature, 
 there came a halt; but the infant mission could not 
 then be sustained without the school. Again there 
 was a long night watch, and the conclusion arrived at 
 was that the contract could be signed, as there was 
 provision for violation, and it might be that if the 
 work could be held rightly under this man for a season, 
 the Lord would give other help in his own time and 
 way. 
 
 After a while three of the original pupils returned 
 to join the one who had remained faithful, but left 
 again when they began to realize that English was not 
 an easy language. So another school formed itself, 
 
146 
 
 among whose pupils were more boys than girls. But 
 when the boys found that the course of study was not 
 arranged for them they left, and one by one were 
 added little girls, some of whom remained to study, 
 became Christians, and finally to be good workers, 
 teachers, and mothers. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Arthur lived here only till the spring 
 of 1876, but long enough to form the church into which 
 he baptized the one girl who remained faithfully in the 
 school, and then, when they could least be spared, they 
 returned to the home land, he to go over to the heavenly 
 country, and she to work for Japan awhile in America, 
 
 -and then to go as Mrs. Mason, of Assam, to join 
 our mission band on the farther shore. 
 
 After a time the name employer was softened to 
 security. Seven of these have come and, with the 
 adoption of the new treaties, gone. One was so 
 wicked we paid him to leave. Another closed the 
 school to prove to those most concerned the extent of 
 his authority. Two have made us abidingly grateful 
 for their quiet helpfulness. One is that same faithful 
 pupil (see picture). She will soon resign this office, 
 as it is not needed under the new régime. 
 
 This school had six different homes in eight years. 
 Just when it had begun to take root some change in 
 the affairs of the landlord would necessitate a move, 
 and though the consideration of allowing us to change 
 in the summer vacation was almost always granted, 
 yet vacations spent in house hunting and moving were 
 anything but upbuilding to the health. One move — 
 our saddest — into the mission house in the Concession 
 took the number down to six. 
 
 This state of affairs prompted the missionary to ask 
 for a permanent home for the school. The need was 
 so imperative that our Ladies’ Board granted it readily, 
 and some good people in Muine, in memory of a good 
 woman, were moyed to give the larger part of the six 
 thousand dollars necessary for buying land and erect- 
 ing the Sarah Curtis Home. Great was the thanks- 
 giving of teachers and pupils when, on July 29, 1885, 
 the move to che new bedaing was accomplished. 
 
147 
 
 Miss Eva J. Munson came to the school in 1879, 
 where she remained a beloved teacher and missionary 
 till, in 1882, she became the wife of Mr. White, an 
 English Baptist missionary. 
 
 In 1883 Miss M. Antoinette Whitman, and in 1888 
 Miss Annie M. Clagett, came, and it would fail me to 
 tell of their abundant labors and watchings and fast- 
 ings for the church and school till the present time. 
 
 Miss Ella R. Church came in 1889, and after render- 
 ing service here and in Yokohama has proved herself 
 a worker that need not be ashamed, for in Himeji there 
 stands a flourishing girls’ school, the product of her 
 zeal and patience. The church was formed, grew, and 
 always held its services in the school till the move into 
 the Concession, in 1882. 
 
 The daily study and teaching of the Bible, always 
 in the vernacular, has given to all the boarders a good 
 knowledge of the Scriptures. The larger part of those 
 living in the house have become Christians. Some- 
 times those who have been quite free to believe and 
 profess Christ have refused his claims the longest. 
 There have been times of special refreshing when the 
 atmosphere was like winds from Heaven. At one 
 time all the boarders became Christians. Seventy- 
 seven have publicly professed Christ in baptism. A 
 much larger number have acknowledged the claims of 
 Christianity, but from opposition in other families have 
 quenched the light that began to shine in their hearts. 
 
 The course of study includes Japanese, Chinese,’ 
 English, and sewing. The girls make all their own 
 clothing and do most of the housework. 
 
 There has been fora long time a primary depart- 
 ment of four years, which was a good feeder for the 
 higher departments, but the minister of education 
 ruled last year that in such schools neither in nor out 
 of school hours could religious instruction be given, or 
 a prayer offered. We, of course, had to submit to this 
 tyranny so far as to give up this department. The 
 school ranks now as a high school, with a preparatory 
 division of four years 
 
148 
 
 None were graduated for the first twelve years, 
 though some completed the course of study; because, 
 in so many ways, the girls did not seem fit subjects for 
 graduation, Thirteen in recent years have been gradu- 
 ated. Many of the undergraduates, as well as those 
 who have received diplomas, are filling, with acceptance, 
 positions as teachers, nurses, helpers, wives of good 
 men, and mothers who are giving their children a home 
 education in character building such as has been given 
 to no other generation of Japanese. Ten sleep in 
 Jesus. 
 
 In 1884 the desire for English began to be mani- 
 fested, and for five years there was such steady growth 
 that the day of self-support seemed at hand, and nearly 
 the whole of this school’s appropriation was returned. 
 But a different spirit seized the people, all things 
 foreign were thrown aside, the Christian schools 
 dwindled, the press and the community were so anti- 
 foreign that no teacher or graduate of any one of the 
 schools was bold enough to come out publicly a 
 champion of the mission schools, 
 
 This time also passed; and again all were gaining 
 in numbers and influence, when the order of the present 
 minister of education struck us. Now, however, the 
 Japanese press and the Christian world have so dis- 
 approved of the Government’s assumption of absolute 
 authority over private schools, contrary to the letter of 
 the new Constitution, that there is a lull in the threat- 
 ened and begun opposition, and the schools are again 
 rising in influence. 
 
 The time to favor mission schools may be delayed, 
 but being an integral part of the gospel work for the 
 Empire, they, with the Church of Christ, have been 
 planted to remain and flourish till these islands of the 
 Sunrise Land shall become a garden yielding fruit 
 that shall shake like Lebanon to the giory of our 
 Saviour and Redeemer. 
 
149 
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF A KINDERGARTEN. 
 MISS NELLIE FIFE. 
 
 Feb. 5, 1897, dawned bright and beautiful, but the 
 brightness without did not compare with the sunshine 
 in our hearts; for this was the opening of the -Yotsuga 
 kindergarten. We had waited long for it and our joy 
 was correspondingly great; indeed, out of all propor- 
 tion to any visible cause. For what did we see? Only 
 a small Japanese house with one room fifteen by twelve, 
 and two tiny side rooms about nine feet square. In 
 these, five frightened looking little people with their 
 timid mothers, and two young Japanese teachers eager 
 to begin their first enterprise in life. Was ever 
 beginning smaller? But we remembered that tiny seeds 
 may become great trees and were content to sow in 
 hope. By the end of February, our numbers had 
 grown to fifteen, with bright prospects of a large increase 
 as soon as the weather became warmer. Whena triple 
 epidemic of whooping-cough, mumps, and small-pox 
 swept the neighborhood, for a time the kindergarten 
 was nearly broken up, but we seized the opportunity to 
 visit our small invalids and by loving sympathy win 
 the hearts of the mothers. The people in this part of 
 Tokyo knew little of foreigners, foreign religion, and 
 even the kindergarten. They were very timid and 
 distrustful. A slight cold was sufficient to keep the 
 children from our warm rooms, although they might run 
 the damp streets at will. Hundreds of calls were made, 
 while every morning the teachers sallied forth in quest 
 of their small charges, too often returning accompanied 
 by disappointed hopes. ‘These were the days when our 
 numbers were small and the omnipresent policeman 
 flourished. Should our numbers increase we would be 
 promptly closed up, so we rejoiced in small numbers. 
 We secured a teacher with a certificate and took steps 
 toward securing a government permit. First result, 
 the discovery of a multitude of things we might not do, 
 
140 
 
 and some few which we might if we could only get 
 the chance. Second result, the new teacher proved 
 unfitted for our purpose and left us. Nevertheless the 
 work steadily grew until summer vacation, when we had 
 a Sunday school of seventy-five, church services were 
 well attended, a number seemed to be earnest inquirers, 
 and our first convert was baptized. In the kinder- 
 garten we had enrolled forty-seven altogether, thirty of 
 whom proved permanent pupils. While the matter of 
 a government permit was pending we were assured 
 that we would not be closed up and the policeman’s 
 visits became less frequent. Work went on happily 
 during the autumn. The delights of the children in 
 their first Christmas gladdened our hearts. 
 
 As our second year opened we were confronted with 
 three imperative demands. Government permission 
 must be secured or the work must stop. To gain 
 that, two other things were necessary: a suitable 
 building and certificates for our teachers. By faith 
 our present building was put up with little visible 
 means, and ready for occupancy by June 30. The 
 same day one teacher received her certificate. We 
 now had room for fifty children. Wecould also renew 
 our efforts to secure a government permit. Sept. 30 
 the much coveted document came. We were now free 
 within certain limits. In Japan itis not so much what 
 you do as what you appear to do that is objected to. 
 We must not teach Christianity too openly. Praying 
 to be both wise and harmless we succeeded in teaching 
 the gospel without getting into trouble or compromising 
 conscience; but it was quiet teaching in kindergarten 
 only. The church and Sunday school had to be moved 
 to another place, where for a year a band of bad boys 
 tyrannized the Sunday-school scholars, even beating 
 them and spitting upon them in order to drive them 
 from us. Later on another place was secured on the 
 same street, and but a block from the kindergarten, 
 since which the work has gone on quietly growing. 
 
 When our second year drew to a close and we re- 
 viewed each step of the way in which we had. been led, 
 
151 
 
 our hearts were filled with praise to God who had sup- 
 plied our every need and crowned the work of his own 
 planting with so much success. 
 
 During the third year our numbers increased to fifty. 
 When the new school laws came into force it was 
 thought that the kindergarten would be closed as the 
 primary schools were, but on the contrary a written 
 statement was secured from the vice-minister of educa- 
 tion stating that kindergartens were free to teach any- 
 thing they chose, as they were outside of the regular 
 course of study. This gave us the freedom we longed 
 for. We soon opened a kindergarten, Sunday school, 
 and English classes in which the Bible is daily and 
 openly taught. As many public evangelistic meetings 
 as we wish can be held in the kindergarten rooms, a 
 privilege we are embracing. 
 
 Two years of aloneness made me feel greatly the 
 need of companionship. God heard my cry and gave 
 me Miss Minnie M. Carpenter as my associate. This 
 necessitated the enlargement of our building. The 
 autumn months were spent in building additional 
 rooms. At the same time, amid the clang of hammers, 
 the rasping of saws, and all the noise and work of 
 building 
 
 D2? 
 
 with one wall nearly open to the keen winds, 
 the kindergarten went on without a day’s interruption 
 until Christmas. 
 
 Dunean Academy had moved out near us during the 
 autumn and joined us in the church work, our beloved 
 pastor Mr. Chiba had come to us a little before, and 
 my other teacher had received her certificate. With 
 all these causes for thanksgiving we determined to 
 have a fitting Christmas celebration. The church and 
 Sunday school, the academy boys and teachers, and 
 the English classes were invited to unite with the kin- 
 dergarten in celebrating this happiest of days. About 
 two hundred were present, and we only hope all were 
 as happy as we were. We could now consider the 
 foundations of the Yotsuga work well laid. For the- 
 present, at least, no more time need be spent struggling 
 with contracts and carpenters, government rules and 
 
152 
 
 regulations, nor teachers’ certificates. Free to put all 
 our forces on direct work, we are looking for copious 
 showers of blessing. No sketch of Yotsuga work 
 would be complete without some account of the workers. 
 I will speak of them in chronological order : — 
 
 Miss Mizukami has been a great dependence all 
 through these years. Amiability, fidelity, love, and 
 loyality, coupled with much patience under difficulties, 
 are her leading characteristics. She always reminds 
 one of fragrant blue violets; though very timid she has 
 become quite a business woman, attending to most of 
 the business we have. 
 
 Miss Oka is our circle leader. She is very bright, 
 a natural leader, an enchanting story teller. She has 
 a generous, warm heart and many other excellent and 
 noble traits of character. 
 
 Miss Kinoshita came to me two years and a half ago 
 a veritable heathen. Her face looked stolid and hard 
 and I scarcely wanted to take her as a servant. Her 
 uncle charged her not to listen to Christianity, but she 
 heard, believed, and in three or four months was 
 baptized. Since then her development has been rapid. 
 She proved so promising that it seemed best to train 
 her for a kindergartner. She now has a class and is 
 doing lovely work. 
 
 Miss Kawashima is a graduate of our Himeji girls’ 
 school. Her character is marked especially by truth 
 and faithfulness. She is an excellent teacher. She 
 has our kindergarten graduates in Sunday school, and 
 also in English and Bible lessons during the week, 
 teaches another class in English, a class in kinder- 
 garten, and is most helpful in all departments of work. 
 
 Okuyama Omoto San is my dear old Bible-woman 
 who was with me four years in Sendai. She is a 
 woman of wide experience in Bible-woman’s work, and 
 is a blessing in our home and work. 
 
 Misses Mizukami and Oka graduated from the 
 Presbyterian girls’ school. ‘They have both become 
 Baptists by conviction and have been baptized. 
 
 Children who have been with us a year or more take 
 
153 
 
 high rank in the public school, both in scholarship and 
 deportment. The children at the head of the first and 
 second year classes are from the Light-giving Kinder- 
 garten. As the reputation of the work has become 
 better known we have evidently been adopted by the 
 community as a permanent institution, and we are be- 
 coming what our name implies, a light-giving centre. 
 
 We are trying to make the fullest use of our build- 
 ing. Sunday morning comes the kindergarten Sunday 
 school down-stairs, and Mr. Clement’s English Bible 
 class up-stairs. In the afternoon there is a young 
 ladies’ Christian Endeavor Society. Of course every 
 morning in the week, except Saturday, the kindergarten 
 is in session. 
 
 On Monday afternoon we have a children’s meeting 
 of the two Sunday schools. About fifty are coming of 
 late. There is a grand rush at the close to put away 
 the chairs, and arrange the chairs and benches for the 
 English classes which meet every day from four to 
 5.30 o’clock. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we have 
 special classes for the kindergarten graduates. Some 
 women’s meetings, and general meetings are also held 
 at different times. 
 
 We feel very grateful for ample opportunity for full- 
 est service, for our excellent teachers and helpers, and 
 the countless evidences of Divine favor, and our hearts 
 sing continually: ‘‘ The lines are fallen unto me in 
 pleasant places, yea, I haye a goodly heritage.” 
 
154 
 
 THE TSUKIJI KINDERGARTEN AND TOKYO 
 DAY SCHOOL. 
 
 EVA L ROLMAN. 
 
 The Tsukiji kindergarten was begun Jan. 8, 1897, 
 in the mission house. I began it as a department 
 of Mrs. Topping’s kindergarten for foreign chil- 
 dren. The Japanese department grew and flourished, 
 and the foreign one was moved to another house. 
 Mrs. Topping and Mrs. Clement have been connected 
 with it from the first. More than one hundred little 
 people have attended it for a year or more. .Owing to 
 the limited accommodations there have never been 
 more than thirty-five regular pupils at a time. Many 
 mothers, relatives, and nurses, while waiting for the 
 little ones, have come under the teaching of Chris- 
 tianity. There is a blessed influence continually going 
 out from the place. These wee pupils become real 
 seed sowers, and are wonderfully effective in opening 
 homes and hearts to us and the teaching. Already 
 several souls have been born into the kingdom and 
 baptized into the church, who first heard of Christ in 
 the kindergarten. 
 
 Four have graduated from the kindergarten. There 
 have always been two or three children from Christian 
 homes. ‘The children are from three to six years old 
 generally, though there have been a few who were 
 seven. They are all samurai, or middle class. 
 
 The building is a small two-story frame one, of 
 native style, with tile roof, and plastered within. It 
 is 18 x 21 feet, with an entrance on the east side 
 4x6 feet. There is an enclosed veranda on the south 
 three feet wide. As you know, all our doors and win- 
 dows are of paper, and run in grooves, with wooden 
 doors to protect them from the rain by day or to keep 
 thieves out at night. On stormy days, when the shut- 
 ters are closed, it is dark within, so one ean neither 
 read nor sew. To obviate this difficulty, both im the 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ‘OAMOL ‘NJLYVOUFGNIN S\NVATOU@SSIN NI SSVI ¥ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
155 
 
 kindergarten and school, we haye glass windows in- 
 stead of the usual white paper ones. 
 
 At the close of last December we received govern- 
 ment permission for the kindergarten, with permission 
 to teach Christianity as before. 
 
 Tue Torro Mission Day Scuoor 
 
 Is now called the Seikei Gakko School of pure teach- 
 ing. It is located in Bohikicho, about a quarter of a 
 mile southwest of Tsukiji. 
 
 The school was begun by Mrs. White in February, 
 18858, and cared for by her until Dec. 30, 1898. Since 
 that time I have looked after it, assisted by Mrs. 
 Clement. 
 
 The school is of primary and intermediate grade. 
 At present there are forty-five pupils, two of whom are 
 from Christian homes. All of the children are taught 
 from the Bible and catechism daily, and all of them 
 are regular attendants at the Sunday school held in 
 the school building. 
 
 The scholars are from seven to fourteen years of age. 
 I cannot give the whole number of graduates, but there 
 are at least four or five each year. No record has 
 been kept of the children after leaving the school. 
 -Some of them have gone out Christians, most with a 
 good head knowledge of the Word, and we believe heart 
 knowledge also. Surely the lives and conduct of the 
 pupils, both boys and girls, from this school will be 
 ruled and influenced by what they learned there. 
 
 The building is a two-story wooden one, large enough 
 to accommodate a hundred. The primary department 
 is on the first floor, and the intermediate above, on the 
 second. There are two teachers, a woman and a man. 
 Both of them are Christians now. ‘The head teacher 
 was the man converted this last term and expects to 
 be baptized into the church soon. 
 
 At the close of the year we received government per- 
 mission for the school. No restrictions were made in 
 the teaching of Christianity. 
 
156 
 
 HINOMOTO JOGAKKO, HIMEJI, JAPAN. 
 MISS ELLA R. CHURCH. 
 
 Saturday afternoon, Jan. 9, 1892, I reached the 
 city of Himeji. Dr. Rhees had for a number of years 
 held Christian meetings here occasionally, and at the 
 time of my arrival an evangelist was located in the 
 preaching place. My home for the first winter in 
 Himeji was a room twelve feet square in the evange- 
 list’s house, This one room was kitchen, bedroom, 
 dining-room, study, reception room and school-room. 
 The furniture consisted of a cot bed, which we put 
 into the closet in the daytime, a pine table two feet 
 by three feet, three chairs, and a charcoal brazier for 
 heating. The native callers sat on the floor, and I did 
 the same as far as I was .able, that I might draw 
 nearer to them, and understand them as well as pos- 
 sible. In this place, Hinomoto Jogakko, as yet name- 
 Jess and but a vague plan, began its existence with 
 one pupil, Kawashina Matsu, in the latter part of 
 January, 1892. Most of my time during the first few 
 months was given to a class of middle-aged women who 
 came daily for Bible lessons, and to the many callers 
 who thronged the little room. Still, by the end of March 
 there were two other regular pupils in our little school, 
 and a greater or less number of transient pupils, all of 
 which, was an indication that the school would grow, 
 but that its growth would probably be slow. Very 
 few girls in Himeji were sent to school after ten years 
 of age, and many of them not at all. The city is old- 
 fashioned and very conservative. I found the people 
 were not interested in female education, still, during 
 the first year, the school grew a little. In April we 
 took a larger house, and by the following January a 
 building was erected to accommodate forty pupils. We 
 moved into the new building Jan. 7, and the build- 
 ings were dedicated and the school formally opened 
 

 
 MISSION GIRL’S SCHOOL, HIMEJI, JAPAN. 
 

 
157 
 
 with the name ‘‘ Hinomoto Jogakko,” Feb. 11, 1893. 
 At this time there were in the school twelve regular 
 pupils, and fourteen others under Bible instruction. 
 Organizing new work, training inexperienced workers, 
 erecting new buildings in a heathen land, are by 
 no means easy tasks. The three duties falling upon 
 one person are far too much, and only as strength and 
 wisdom are given from on high can such work be 
 done. The writer felt so much her inability to cope 
 with the difficulties that often whole nights were spent 
 in prayer to God for needed help and wisdom. Many 
 blessed lessons of faith and patience were learned dur- 
 ing the first few years alone in Himeji. 
 
 The school grew and evangelistic work increased, 
 until it was plain to all that an additional missionary 
 was needed in Himeji, and Nov. 9, 1894, I was joined 
 by Miss D. D. Barlow, who remained in Himeji until 
 December, 1897. 
 
 Miss Florence Duffield spent one year in the Hino- 
 moto Jogakko during my absence in America. Last 
 autumn Miss Harriet M. Witherbee joined me in the 
 work here, so from the beginning of the work here 
 there have been four missionaries associated with the 
 school, but never more than two at one time, and for 
 much of the time only one. 
 
 During the seven years since the buildings were 
 erected here, there have been one hundred and forty- 
 seven pupils enrolled. The largest enrolment in any 
 one year has been sixty. There has been a gradual 
 growth from one at the beginning to twenty-four in 
 1896, and sixty in 1899. The average attendance is 
 still not over forty, but is growing higher. 
 
 Forty-eight of the pupils in the school have been 
 baptized, and a number of them are in direct evange- 
 listie work. Our school is so young that there have 
 not yet been many graduates. ‘The class last year were 
 the first to finish the entire course. The three gradu- 
 ates of last year have all entered upon mission work, 
 one as a helper in Mrs. Thomson’s kindergarten im 
 Kobe, another of Miss Fife in Tokyo, and the third 
 
158 
 
 went to Mrs. Scott to help her in her Bible-woman’s 
 work. Previously there were two girls whom we call 
 ‘*partial graduates.’’ The first, Honda Haru, gradn- 
 ated in Japanese in 1895, and, after helping Miss 
 Barlow for two years, married Takahashi San, a 
 graduate of our Baptist Theological School in Yoko- 
 lama. They are now working for the Master in 
 Kyoto. The second ‘‘ partial graduate,’ Yoshioka 
 Tetsu, graduated from the Bible-woman’s course, and 
 as the wife of Morita San, an evangelist at Toyodka, 
 on the west coast of Japan, is doing a good work 
 there among the women. 
 
 Our school began with little children, some of whom 
 could not read at all, but the grades have gradually 
 been raised as the city schools have grown larger and 
 better, until now pupils are not admitted until after 
 they have finished four years at the public schools. 
 We give the girls six or seven years more of school 
 training under strong Christian influence. No pupil 
 that has been in the school for six months as a boarder 
 is not a praying child, and no one (except the very 
 little ones) has been a boarder two years who has not 
 united with the church by baptism. 
 
 The location seems healthful. Many children who 
 have come to us delicate and sickly have grown strong 
 and rosy in our school home. But, better still, many 
 who have come with hearts polluted with sin have 
 grown truthful, honest, loving, and with hearts 
 renewed by the grace of God are ready themselves to 
 go out and seek to save the lost. 
 
ZENRIN KINDERGARTEN, KOBE, JAPAN. 
 HistoricaAL SKETCH: 
 GAZELLE R. THOMPSON. 
 
 The nucleus around which the Zenrin kindergarten 
 settlement finally materialized was a group of children 
 gathered out of the streets near our meeting house in 
 one of the eastern suburbs of Kobe, in February, 1892. 
 
 These children spent the livelong day wandering 
 aimlessly up and down the roads, playing in the 
 gutters, running after the chance foreigner to beg for 
 pennies ; occasionally, when pressed by hunger, filching 
 a cake or baked sweet potato most dextrously from 
 the numerous small stands along the streets; inci- 
 dentally, they were tending the babies tied on their 
 backs, or perhaps I should say that this was their 
 occupation, and the other things the ‘‘ incidents” in 
 their monotonous lives. 
 
 With the aid of a young Japanese woman who was 
 taking a post-graduate course in one of the Kobe 
 mission schools, and who could give me but two or 
 three hours per day, I began to teach these children to 
 read and write the simple Japanese kana (alphabet) ; 
 they also learned to sing hymns and to repeat Bible 
 verses. 
 
 They were eager to learn and their number increased 
 rapidly. The little students were inseparable from 
 their infant charges, and it was a sight when a class 
 recited or learned a lesson orally, as is their custom, 
 for each little nurse would keep on patting the baby 
 and jouncing it up and down to keep it quiet, by stand- 
 ing first on one foot and then the other, as mechani- 
 cally as a mother ‘‘ rocks the cradle.” 
 
 But soon our rooms were full to overflowing, and it 
 became evident that if we would help the little nurses 
 we must devise some method of caring for their small 
 charges. Knowing something of the blessing which 
 the kindergarten and the créche have proved to the 
 
160 
 
 children of the poor in the larger cities of my own 
 country, and having had some personal experience in 
 kindergarten work there, what more natural than that I 
 should covet similar blessings for these little brownies ? 
 
 Our home furlough came at this time, and thus I was 
 enabled to lay the matter before the Woman’s Baptist 
 Board of the East, in the United States, and the dear 
 home workers responded with the cordial interest that 
 is so characteristic of them; the generous impulses of 
 their large hearts reach out in sympathy to every nation 
 under the sun. It is enough to say that they made it 
 possible to open the Zenrin (Neighborhood Improve- 
 ment) Kindergarten when I returned to Japan. 
 
 On the 3d of February, 1895, when the Japanese 
 nation was frantic with excitement over its victorious 
 war with China, we made a little opening for our 
 school in a two-storied Japanese house in the heart of 
 Fukuai Mura, Onohama, a thickly populated district 
 of Kobe, whose people all belong to the humbler orders 
 of society. 
 
 As this was to be a Christian settlement where our 
 teachers were to live as well as teach, it was very 
 desirable that we should secure a Bible-woman who 
 should be old enough to matronize the home. In this 
 we were particularly fortunate; for three years, Mrs. 
 Kodera, a widow of mature years and experienced in 
 Christian work, acted as matron of our little establish- 
 ment. Her strikingly peaceful countenance, together 
 with her age, soon gave her acceptance with the people 
 and a ready entrance into their homes, where her gentle 
 ways and kindly acts of service caused her to be 
 regarded as a friend to be called upon in any hour of 
 need. 
 
 I began with but one teacher, Miss Matsu (pine) 
 Yoshikawa, a young graduate of the Mary L. Colby 
 Home, Yokohama, and a faithful little pine-tree she 
 has been, never once in the five years absent from her 
 place; other teachers have come and gone, and many 
 times my heart would have been heavy indeed but for 
 her unfailing interest in her work. 
 
161 
 
 At first the neighbors were very suspicious of us. 
 Why should we make such generous offers to teach 
 their neglected children unless we had some evil pur- 
 pose in view? But one day a forlorn looking little 
 fellow, most devotedly nursing a sickly baby, whose 
 small body seemed to be covered with sores, ventured 
 to look in upon our comfortable rooms. He was met 
 by kindness and soon came again with two or three 
 companions. In time these were joined by others, 
 but it was only after many visits that the first comer 
 dared to take his precious baby off his back and leave 
 it to the care of the nurse whom we had provided while 
 he devoted himself to study and play — two things for 
 which he seemed sadly in need. 
 
 Partly because the people could not understand the 
 kindness meant in the opening of a free school to keep 
 their children off the streets, and partly because we 
 thought it would contribute more to their self-respect, 
 we gave out that we would receive as monthly tuition 
 any amount that they could afford to give. Thus far 
 it has averaged about five sen (two and a half cents) 
 per month per child, and is used toward buying the 
 materials needed in their kindergarten occupations. 
 
 Soon the numbers began to increase rapidly, and I 
 felt that I must have a trained kindergarten teacher to 
 act as principal, for my part was to be that of organ- 
 izer, ‘‘ promoter,” as they say here, combined with the 
 post of general assistant. Again we were wonderfully 
 favored in getting the services of one who had received 
 good training and was experienced in the work, but 
 among a very different class of children, for up to this 
 time all the kindergartens established in Japan had 
 been for the children of the middle and higher classes 
 of society. 
 
 Miss Takano’s friends were very much averse to her 
 taking what they considered such a humble position, 
 and as she continually received offers much more 
 flattering as far as position and salary were concerned, 
 we felt that she only stayed with us because the love 
 of God constrained her to work for these needy ones ; 
 
162 
 
 but she was a born kindergartner, and the charm of 
 her loving enthusiasm soon made itself felt, not only 
 in the school-room, but in the homes of the children 
 also. 
 
 These little street waifs, without a particle of home 
 training, wild and unkempt in manners and appear- 
 ance, were transformed into bright, lovable, well- 
 behaved children. The babies were put into one room 
 and we hired a strong and faithful young woman to 
 look after them and to help in keeping our home clean ; 
 she is still with us and has been no small element in 
 the success of our establishment. The wee ones were 
 seated at little tables and formed the kindergarten, while 
 the larger children began to learn to read and write. 
 
 Soon their older sisters who were working in match 
 factories or tea-firing godowns, or were sorting rags 
 for the paper mill near at hand, began to get jealous 
 that they should be left so far behind in educational . 
 privileges, and they came with a petition that they 
 might be taught at night after the day’s work was 
 over. This was the beginning of our night classes for 
 working girls. 
 
 About this time Miss Takenaka, of Tokyo, joined 
 our kindergarten staff; Miss Nagai, of Kobe, also 
 came to live at the home. She and Miss Yoshikawa 
 took charge of the evening classes, and also helped as 
 Bible-women in the neighborhood and in the Kobe 
 Baptist church work. We engaged Dr. Goda, a skilful 
 Japanese physician, to look after the health of the 
 children; while he cannot afford to give his services 
 wholly without pay, he makes a most generous reduc- 
 tion as regards advice and medicines. He comes to 
 the kindergarten at a regular hour, once a week, and 
 it is understood that any family connected with the 
 school can consult him freely at this time, and if medi- 
 cine is required it will be furnished at a price within 
 their reach. The doctor has had excellent success in 
 treating the eye troubles and skin diseases, so preva- 
 lent among this class, and we are justly proud of the 
 personal appearance of our Zenrin children. 
 
163 
 
 By the time we had entered upon the third year of 
 our work, the kindergarten had outgrown its accommo- 
 dations and no larger were to be had in the vicinity ; 
 we had no playground for the children but the narrow 
 road in front of the house, which was often blocked 
 with loaded carts, making it a dangerous place for the 
 little ones to play; we had no room large enough for 
 the games and no space for marching, and we keenly 
 felt the deprivation of these joyous elements of kinder- 
 garten life. 
 
 Every little chair at our tables was occupied, and 
 we had a long list of names waiting to fill any vacan- 
 cies that might occur, for now the parents had come to 
 believe in us and were anxiously asking that their 
 children might come before they should be too old to 
 attend. 
 
 Again we appealed through the Woman’s Board of 
 the East to the friends in the home land, and again 
 there was a generous response to our needs, enabling 
 us to begin our fourth year of work in a new and com- 
 modious house, built especially for the kindergarten, 
 and finely located, not far from the place where we 
 began work ; so we are in touch with all our old friends. 
 
 The new building was finished and ready for dedica- 
 tion on the 17th of May, 1898. There was a large com- 
 pany present, the parents and friends of the children 
 being especially well represented. A pleasant pro- 
 gram was prepared, the Rev. R. A. Thompson pre- 
 siding, in which the pastor of the Kobe Baptist church 
 and five evangelists took part. At the end of the 
 religious and dedicatory service the children sang little 
 songs and played some of their kindergarten games, 
 much to the pride and admiration of their parents, and 
 astonishing many of the other guests by the progress 
 which they had made since the beginning of the work. 
 
 Soon after our dedication we had to part with our 
 lovely and gifted principal, who was married the last 
 of May to a very worthy young man in Tokyo. We 
 missed her greatly, but our present principal was asso- 
 ciated with her in the work for nearly a year and seems 
 
164 
 
 to have caught some of her inspiration, so things move 
 on much as before. A little later we missed another 
 valued worker; Mrs. Kodera was obliged to go home 
 for a prolonged rest. 
 
 Miss Akai came from Tokyo as teacher in the kinder- 
 garten, and a few' months later we were so fortunate as 
 to secure another teacher from the same city, who is a 
 trained Bible-woman as well as an experienced kinder- 
 gartner; and about the same time Miss Nagai left us 
 for a home of her own. 
 
 The year 1899 was one of vicissitude for Zenrin. 
 Three severe typhoons visited Kobe in succession. 
 Our kindergarten came in line of the first great storm 
 and was seriously damaged, nor could we get a carpen- 
 ter to make repairs before a second typhoon was upon 
 us. This twisted the beams nearly out of their sockets, 
 and we had barely succeeded in getting things patched 
 up so we could begin school when the third of the series 
 came along. The house was now in an absolutely 
 dangerous condition, and we were obliged to send the 
 children home until we could get the walls propped with 
 pillars. These posts were very ugly and inconvenient, 
 especially the five which it was necessary to put in our 
 large play-room, but it was the best that could be done 
 until we could get money for the repairs which the car- 
 penter says must be done before another typhoon 
 season comes around. 
 
 Another cause of anxiety, in the early fall, were the 
 sweeping promulgations sent out by the educational 
 department of the government, which threatened to close 
 all Christian schools. Fortunately for us, the limitation 
 regarding Christian instruction stopped just short of 
 the kindergarten age, but we were obliged to drop our 
 class for little nurses, and to change our night classes 
 into a working girls’ club. However, the latter has 
 proved even more popular than the night school, Every 
 month the club has a social and one or two lectures or 
 entertainments, and for the rest, as their object is self- 
 improvement, they have lessons in such very practical 
 branches as reading, writing, sewing, and knitting; I 
 
165 
 
 need hardly add that their teachers point out the way 
 of salvation unwearyingly. 
 
 When we were in the full swing of the fall work — 
 sixty children in the kindergarten, twenty-five members 
 attending the girls’ club, and from eighty to a hundred 
 coming regularly to Sunday school, and a full corps of 
 teachers and Bible-women at work — that dreadful 
 plague germ from China came along, and camped down 
 in Fukuai Mura. Almost simultaneously with its dis- 
 covery word was sent us by the city authorities to close 
 our kindergarten at once, and all meetings connected 
 with it, as some of our children came from the infected 
 district, and some of our club girls were among the 
 sorters of the infected rags. ‘This was the middle of 
 November, and for six weeks and more all schools in 
 the plague districts were closed, and no public meet- 
 ings were allowed in that part of the city. The whole 
 city underwent a thorough sanitary upheaval. It was 
 a very trying period, and had a chilling effect upon all 
 kinds of activity. Our workers stayed bravely by the 
 Zenrin settlement, although urged to come to a healthier 
 part of the city. No house-to-house visiting was 
 allowed, but they said the people who could not leave 
 their homes would be still more terrified if they saw 
 the Christian teachers fleeing from the neighborhood. 
 
 It was not until the 15th of January, 1900, that we 
 were permitted to reopen the school and pick up our 
 lines of work, and early in February we were nearly 
 burnt out; two houses next door to us burned down 
 about two o’clock in the morning. Our teachers were 
 awakened by the crackling of the flames and hastily 
 caught a few things which they hoped to save, but 
 expected the Zenrin to go. However, the police and 
 the fathers of the children came running to the rescue ; 
 they rallied around the building, saying, ‘‘ We must 
 not let the kindergarten burn.” We felt greatly en- 
 couraged from this proof of their gratitude for its help 
 to their children. 
 
 Notwithstanding all these vicissitudes we were able 
 to send out a class of thirty children this spring who 
 
166 
 
 have finished the kindergarten course. This makes 
 eighty-seven children in all who have passed through 
 this department, most of them into the publie schools. 
 Many of them continue to come to our Sunday school 
 regularly. There bave been several conversions and 
 additions to our church from this vicinity directly due 
 to the influence of the settlement, and a marked im- 
 provement in the character of our neighbors, so much 
 so that the landlords in raising the rents have attributed 
 the increased value of the land to the presence of the 
 kindergarten. From the working girls’ classes two 
 have gone to our Baptist Girls’ School in Himeji to fit 
 themselves for teachers. Is n’t that grand? And 
 does it not pay for all the time and money so far 
 expended? But the result of the influence which these 
 years of teaching will have upon the little ones is as yet 
 unknown. It is the Japan of the future that will reap 
 the benefit of this early sowing of the seed, which I am 
 convinced will not return void, but will bear fruit, 
 some thirty, some sixty, and some even an hundred 
 fold. 
 
 ——— 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 THE SWATOW 
 GIRLS’ SCHOOL 
 
 ® ‘ “. ae 
 Spt IE Snare ore 
 
 THREE CHINESE SCHOOL GIRLS. 
 
167 
 
 THE BOYS’ BOARDING SCHOOL AT SWATOW. 
 WILLIAM ASHMORE, JR. 
 
 Location. The school is located in the spacious and 
 beautiful mission compound at Kak-chie. This lies 
 across the bay from the Chinese city of Swatow, and 
 about one mile distant. The surroundings both physi- 
 eal and moral are healthful, and the place is admirably 
 fitted for the education of young boys whose characters 
 are still in the process of forming. 
 
 Building. The house erected by the Woman’s Bap- 
 tist Foreign Missionary Society, at a cost of about 
 $600, is a long, narrow building, thirty feet wide by 
 one hundred feet long, originally one story high, and 
 containing a school-room, two sleeping-rooms, a dinihg- 
 room, all of uniform size, together with some smaller 
 rooms for kitcheu, teacher’s room, ete. To this there 
 was added some years later a small outside building 
 for kitchen, and still later, as the needs of a growing 
 school required it, a second story was put on to the 
 main building, and separate school-rooms were thus 
 provided for the two departments, primary and inter- 
 mediate, into which the school was now divided. Even 
 these enlarged accommodations have, in the recent 
 years, been outgrown. ‘This consideration, tog>ther 
 with the advantage of having the two departments of 
 the school more completely separated, led to the trans- 
 fer, in 1897, of the primary department to another 
 building in the compound that was temporarily avail- 
 able. Two years later, when the new building for the 
 girls’ school was completed and occupied, the old 
 building vacated by the girls was occupied by the 
 primary department of the boys’ school. 
 
 Beginning. Early in the history of the work at 
 Swatow the missionaries began to impress on the minds 
 of the Chinese converts the importance of a Christian 
 education for their children. They at the same time 
 
168 
 
 urged upon them the duty of taking hold of this matter 
 as of a responsibility that primarily belonged to them- 
 selves. At one of the bi-monthly meetings held in the 
 fall of 1874, when the preachers and other native 
 helpers had come in from the country, together with 
 such others of the native converts as could come, the 
 question of schools was taken up and discussed. It 
 was voted to appropriate from the regular funds of the 
 church a part of the salary of the teacher in the girls’ 
 school (already in operation), and also an equal amount 
 toward the salary of a teacher for a boys’ school, to 
 be opened at the beginning of the next year. The 
 teacher for the latter school was also chosen at this 
 time. Miss Fielde already had, in connection with 
 her work for Bible-women, the nucleus of a school. 
 Some of the women in the training class had their chil- 
 dren with them. These, with perhaps one or two 
 others, a half dozen in all, were being taught to read, 
 and this work, for the lack of other accommodation, 
 was done in the Bible-women’s house. The new school 
 was regularly opened at the beginning of the year 1875, 
 with about a dozen pupils, and under the general oyer- 
 sight of Miss Fielde. The number of church mem- 
 bers in the Swatow mission at this time was about 
 three hundred. 
 
 Aim. From the beginning the aim of the school has 
 been to give to the children of the native converts a 
 Christian education, and this in order to make them 
 better and more useful men and chureh members, and 
 especially to fit any from among them who might go 
 into active Christian work for better and more effective 
 service. This fundamental principle has limited the 
 selection of pupils to boys belonging to Christian fam- 
 ilies, or having Christian connections. It has also 
 shaped the course of study pursued. 
 
 Curriculum. In the carrying out of the aim just 
 stated it is natural that the Bible should have had the 
 place of honor in the course of study. A large portion 
 of time has always been given to the study of God’s 
 Word. The Gospels in the colloquial (or vernacular) 
 
169 
 
 are made. the reading book just as soon as the pupils 
 have gotten beyond their most elementary lessons. 
 When they are a little further advanced they take up 
 the various parts of the New Testament in the wen li 
 or classical language. They learn to give the substance 
 of the story in the Gospels, and in the historical parts 
 of the Old Testament. And lastly they carefully memo- 
 rize whole books of the New Testament, and selected 
 Psalms of the Old Testament. The value of this long 
 and careful training in the Bible is apparent when these 
 boys come to enter upon the work of the preacher’s 
 training class, and when they engage in the actual 
 work of preaching and teaching. 
 
 Besides the Bible some of the sciences have been 
 taught in elementary form. At first suitable text-books 
 on these subjects could not be had; but in these later 
 years good outlines have been prepared in the several 
 branches, and now physiology, geography, physical and 
 political, arithmetic, astronomy, ete., have taken their 
 place as a regular part of the curriculum, and they are 
 likely to claim more of the time as the years go on. 
 Some time, but comparatively little, and that more with 
 the advanced pupils, has been allowed to the study of 
 the Chinese classics. This is in order that those who 
 have been through the school may not be wholly unpre- 
 pared to meet on their own ground, when occasion 
 requires, the educated Chinese with whom they must 
 sooner or later come into contact in the doing of 
 Christian work. And finally no small share of time 
 has to be given to learning to write the hundreds, yes, 
 thousands, of complicated Chinese characters that a 
 Chinaman must have at his command in order to have a 
 fairly good education. 
 
 Expenses. The school expenses have included the 
 cost of the building and furniture, the salary of the 
 teacher, the books and stationery used, and the board 
 of the pupils. In the earlier years these expenses were 
 almost wholly met by the annual appropriations from 
 the Women’s Board; but as the years have gone by 
 the native church has been doing more and more. 
 
170 
 
 From the outset they have paid a part, nearly one half, 
 of the salary of the teacher. The next step was the 
 requiring of fees from the pupils. These fees were not 
 large at first, but they were a beginning, and they 
 would meet from one fourth to one third of the expenses 
 for board. Quite recently the amount of the fees has 
 been considerably increased, with a sliding seale accord- 
 ing to the financial ability of the parents. Without this 
 provision there was danger of working great hardship 
 to some, and of entirely shutting out others who ought 
 to be in the school. The largest fee fixed was intended 
 at the time to cover the entire actual cost of board; 
 and it was a great gratification to the missionaries that 
 the people fairly recognized the principle that the entire 
 cost of educating their children properly belonged to 
 themselves. 
 
 Teachers. ‘The school has been blessed with a 
 succession of good teachers. All but one of these, the 
 first, had themselyes been pupils in the school, a fact 
 that has had a most important bearing on the efficiency 
 of their work. The teacher trained along native lines 
 is not fitted to do well the kind of work needed in a 
 mission school. A mission school training is required 
 for such service, and this training all the teachers, 
 except the first, have had. The first teacher was, after 
 four or five years, succeeded by his son, a young man 
 of excellent ability, whose name had been the very 
 first one in the roll of pupils. For a number of years 
 this son filled the place better than his father had done, 
 and he was afterwards transferred to other important 
 work, especially the translating of the New Testament 
 into the colloquial, in which sphere of labor he has 
 rendered invaluable service. 
 
 Results. In this, as in all mission work, there are 
 results that cannot be tabulated. And yet something 
 may be learned from figures. From the opening of 
 the school up to March, 1900, two hundred and ninety 
 boys had been enrolled as pupils for longer or shorter 
 periods. Some stayed only a few months, others com- 
 pleted the course of study, remaining in the school for 
 
EGy 
 
 four or five years, or even longer, and then going on 
 into the training class for preachers. The career of 
 some has. been a sore disappointment, and in this the 
 missionary has only shared the experience of many a 
 Christian worker in the home land. One hundred and 
 twenty-one have been baptized, and of these there were 
 in March, 1900, thirty-one engaged in various forms 
 of mission service, ten of the thirty-one were pastors 
 or evangelists, and seventeen were school-teachers, who 
 in nearly every case combine the work of preaching with 
 that of teaching. These boys, now men, are making an 
 excellent use of the training received in the school. 
 They are among the best and most faithful and most 
 efficient of all the mission helpers, and a large share of 
 their success as Christian workers is without question 
 due to what the school has done for them. 
 
 The general oversight of the school was exercised by 
 Miss Fielde during the earlier years, and until 1880, 
 when it was transferred to Rey. Wm. Ashmore, Jr., 
 with whom it has remained until the present time, 
 excepting the intervals of his absence from the mission 
 field, when it has been in the hands of some of the 
 missionaries who have been on the field at the time. 
 
 
 
172 
 
 THE SWATOW GIRLS’ SCHOOL. 
 
 In September of 1851 Mrs. J. W. Johnson opened 
 a school for girls at Hong Kong, and continued it 
 under her own superintendence and support. 
 
 In 1860 the mission was removed to Double Island, 
 near the entrance of the bay on which Swatow stands, 
 and Mrs. Johnson opened a school for girls at once. In 
 1863 there were in the school twelve boarding and six 
 day scholars. On the transfer of the mission from 
 Double Island to Kak-chieh, Mrs. Johnson continued 
 the school, using for school-rooms the lower part of 
 their dwelling-house The average number of boarding 
 pupils in this school was about twelve, but the influence 
 of Mrs. Johnson’s work is felt up to the present time, 
 many of the girls haying proved themselves earnest 
 Christians and efficient workers in the church. 
 
 Mr. Johnson’s death occurred in 1872, and Mrs. 
 Johnson gave up the school in the following year. 
 
 The plan of this school was an expensive one, but 
 it seemed necessary at that time to furnish the clothing 
 of the girls, as well as to meet all the expenses for 
 board, teachers, and incidentals of all kinds. 
 
 In the autumn of 1874 Mrs. S. B. Partridge began 
 a school with five pupils in a small house in the com- 
 pound, called the ‘* Valley House,” allowing each girl 
 $1.30 per month for food, fuel, lights, ete., the parents 
 to be responsible for all else that might be necessary. 
 In addition to the book lessons, the girls were taught 
 ‘*to keep the house clean, to cook their own food, 
 and to sew.” The Woman’s Baptist Foreign Mission- 
 ary Society made an appropriation of $150 for the 
 school, also an appropriation of $400 for a school-house 
 which was built in the following year. 
 
 The annual report of the society for 1876 says: 
 ‘**This school is under the care of Mrs. Partridge, 
 assisted by a native teacher and matron. There are 
 
173 
 
 now twelve girls connected with it, who have been 
 enjoying since July last the comfortable house which 
 we have secured for them. They say that never before 
 did Chinese girls here have sucha pleasant home given 
 them. It was completed the day before a severe rain 
 storm rendered the ‘valley house,’ formerly occupied 
 by the school, uninhabitable. We cannot forbear call- 
 ing special attention to the fact that a comfortable 
 school-house, including sleeping-rooms, was built for 
 four hundred dollars gold, and that a school of twelve 
 girls is supported, and the salaries of teacher and 
 matron paid, from two hundred and fifty dollars per 
 year.” 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Partridge returned to the United 
 States for rest in 1878, and the school was for a few 
 months in the care of Miss Thompson, ‘The report for 
 the year states that ‘‘ Miss Thompson wished to go 
 into the country in October, and the school was there- 
 fore dismissed. It was afterwards reopened by Miss 
 Norwood, with the promise from parents that their 
 daughters’ feet should not be bound, and that they 
 should not be betrothed to heathen.” 
 
 On her return to the field in December, 1880, Mrs. 
 Partridge resumed charge of the school, and her report 
 for the following year shows that there were seventeen 
 pupils, sixteen of whom were church members. The 
 report states that ‘‘ We have the four Gospels, Acts, 
 Romans, and Hebrews printed in character colloquial. 
 The girls learn to read that first, and afterwards they 
 take the Bible in the classical style. . . . Mrs. Ash- 
 more, Jr., has consented to give help in the school this 
 year, and we two together could easily manage twice 
 the number of girls we now have.” 
 
 At the death of Mrs. Partridge, which occurred in 
 January, 1882, Mrs. Ashmore assumed the entire 
 charge of the school, and has continued it until the 
 present time, except that in her absences from the field 
 it has been in the temporary charge of others. Dur- 
 ing 1882 the number of pupils became twenty, which 
 was as many as the house could conveniently accom- 
 
174 
 
 modate. In 1887 Mrs. Ashmore transferred the 
 school to Mrs. (M. E.) Partridge’s care, as it was 
 necessary that she should go to the United States for 
 rest. 
 
 The school had advanced year by year. The course 
 of study had been enlarged, and weaving had been 
 introduced. In 1889 the school-house was enlarged 
 and improved, and the number of pupils was increased 
 to twenty-four. As Mr. and Mrs. Partridge were 
 obliged to return to the United States in January, 
 1890, the care of the school was assumed by Mrs. 
 Foster, who continued in charge till the return of 
 Mrs. Ashmore, at the close of the following year. 
 
 At the beginning of 1892 there were thirty-three 
 girls in the school, and prosperity has been its marked 
 characteristic during the years since that time. Fees 
 have been required of the pupils for several years, and 
 in October, 1898, the native church took up the matter 
 and decided that the fees should be nine, six, and 
 four dollars per year, according to the ability of the 
 parents. 
 
 In her report for 1899, Mrs. Ashmore, Jr., states: 
 ‘* Early in the year we began to plan for the en- 
 largement of our school work. ‘The general work has 
 been growing more rapidly than in former years, and 
 the school work has shared in this advance also. The 
 present school building has long been filied. With the 
 increasing membership, and a growing desire on the 
 part of the Christians to educate the girls, we felt it 
 necessary to lay broader foundations. The building 
 authorized by the Board has been begun, and now at 
 the close of the year the foundations are nearly done. 
 Early in the year the building will be completed and 
 ready for occupancy. It will accommodate eighty or 
 ninety girls. We hope in the future to make this an 
 advanced as well as a primary school, and the brighter 
 pupils who have spent three years in the country school 
 can enter and be prepared for teachers and helpers. 
 The church has made an advance in the line of 
 giving fees. As a committee of the members them- 
 
 
 
selves decided what the fees should be, we feel that it 
 is areal progzess. . . . The six country schools, while 
 not supported by the society, are not entirely self-sup- 
 porting. The ‘Drawn Work Fund’ has furnished 
 the necessary help to carry themon. Fees are given in 
 some cases by the church where the school is, and in 
 others by the parents whose children attend.” 
 
 The school-house mentioned in this report has been 
 completed and furnished at a cost of $1,800 in gold, 
 and paid for by Mrs. Ashmore, Jr., from the proceeds 
 of the sales of ‘drawn work” maae by women and 
 girls, many of whom were graduates of this school. 
 
 The number of girls who have had the advantage of 
 the school since 1874 is a few more than two hundred, 
 many of whom are Christian wives of Christian men, 
 and are exerting a great influence for good in the 
 churches to which they belong. 
 
NOTES ON BANZA MANTEKE SCHOOLS. 
 
 As early as 1880, so soon as he had gained some 
 knowledge of the language, Mr. Richards began school 
 work with such of the village boys as could be per- 
 suaded to attend. His dining-room was the school- 
 room for six years. 
 
 After the great revival of 1886, with the opening of 
 evangelistic work in the surrounding districts, followed 
 the establishment of the village school. All converts 
 were expected to attend. These schools have steadily 
 grown in number till now there are thirty-five, with an 
 enrolment of 1,726 pupils. 
 
 Most of the teachers have spent eight montbs in 
 the Evangelists’ Training School here on the station. 
 They are able to teach reading and writing, and sim- 
 ple work in arithmetic. They are in most all cases 
 preachers as well as teachers. As the school work 
 has reached a point where more eflicient teachers are 
 needed, we have opened an advanced school for the 
 best pupils of these out-schools —a two years’ course 
 of study, with ourselves as teachers, a strict discip- 
 line, work hours as well as study and play hours. 
 
 It is our purpose to conduct this school on the ap- 
 proved modern methods, in so far as they seem appli- 
 cable to the field, and we believe its graduates, as 
 teachers in the town schools, will prove a powerful 
 lever for raising the present grade. 
 
 The station schools have always been taught by the 
 missionaries, so of course are far superior to out- 
 schools. The primary department is conducted along 
 kindergarten lines, and is in charge of Mrs. Clara Hill 
 Leslie. During Mrs. Richards’ absence, Miss Ger- 
 trude Welles lad charge of the school for the older 
 pupils. From its earliest days Mrs. Richards has had 
 the oversight and care of the school work. During a 
 number of years Mrs. Charles Ingham rendered valu- 
 able assistance, having been a London Board teacher. 
 
‘YOIudV ‘OXOX! LY TOOHODS NOISSIW yYno 
 
 SBD DDD Cee eee 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
Lay 
 
 Later Miss Frances A. Cole gave her best thought 
 and energies to school work. ‘The station woman’s 
 school is a very interesting feature of the work. 
 Besides the ‘‘ three R’s,” there is a sewing time. 
 Here the women buy cloth enough for a dress, which 
 is cut and basted for them, and they are shown how 
 to sew it. They make their own and their children’s 
 dresses. We greatly desire to make this sewing hour 
 a feature of every village school; but as yet it is im- 
 possible, and our teachers’ wives are not able to con- 
 duct the work. One of our pet schemes is to have the 
 girls of our new school taught to do such work and 
 made sufliciently confident to teach others. All these 
 things take time. 
 
178 
 
 SKETCH OF IKOKO SCHOOL—ITS HISTORY 
 AND PURPOSE. 
 
 REV. JOSEPH CLARK. 
 
 School work was commenced under a tree at Ikoko, 
 Lake Mantumba, by Mrs. Clark, in January, 1894. 
 In May, 1894, we were removed to Irebu station, and 
 the newly begun work at this place was left in charge 
 of a native lad. In January, 1895, we returned to 
 Ikoko, and Mrs. Clark again took up school work under 
 a shady tree. 
 
 In March she was joined by her sister, Miss G. 
 Milne (now Mrs. Harvey), who had for some months 
 been working at Irebu, and to her Mrs. Clark gave up 
 the school work. Both are Scotch certificated teachers, 
 so that from the first days we have had the advantage 
 of experience in school management. Miss Milne’s 
 first school-house was a native hut with one end anda 
 side removed, and it certainly was well ventilated 
 and lighted. 
 
 Seven months afterwards, Miss Lena Clark arrived 
 from Spelman Seminary, Atlanta, and took up work 
 as assistant teacher. Since Miss Milne left us in 
 March, 1897, the classes in school have all been in 
 Miss Lena’s care, while for writing and dictation cer- 
 tain of them go to Mrs. Clark on the veranda of our 
 dwelling-house. 
 
 For a long time we conducted school at night also, 
 and Mr. R. R. Milne gave valuable help in its manage- 
 ment. <All through the history of the Ikoko school I 
 have acted as ‘* director” and have helped in various 
 ways as necessity demanded. 
 
 Since opening the station, fourteen have been bap- 
 tized, all of whom had previous to conversion been 
 pupils in school. There are now about a dozen appli- 
 cants for church membership, and others either profess 
 conversion or a desire to know and follow Jesus, while 
 a minority are indifferent. I think that we may safely 
 
179 
 
 say that fifty per cent of those who have been three 
 years with us at school are professing Christians, and 
 that of many of the others we have good cause for hope. 
 
 We have only one person who professed conversion 
 before attending school. As we insist that all God’s 
 people should be able to read God’s book, he now 
 attends school, and you would be interested to see this 
 tall man standing with little children and learning from 
 a young lad to read syllables and words. 
 
 While it gives us pleasure to note the good progress 
 in school, and to be told by visitors that we are second 
 to none on the Upper Congo in our educational work, 
 I would have it distinctly understood that the primary 
 object of the school is not simply to educate, but to 
 bring the pupils to a saving knowledge of Jesus. We 
 only value the progress in knowledge in so far as it 
 helps either to bring the pupils out of ‘* darkness 
 into light,” or, by reason of the disciplined and 
 equipped minds, enables them the better to become 
 ‘* fishers of men.” The reading books are the Gospels 
 and other books of a religious character. Selected 
 texts in their own language are memorized, which with 
 these children seems to be an easy matter. Hymns 
 are taught and sung, and you can even see and hear in 
 the village the almost nude little urchins singing gospel 
 hymns which have been carried from school possibly 
 by an elder sister. 
 
 As French is the official language, a few minutes 
 are daily spent in teaching, viva voce, some words or 
 phrases in that tongue. 
 
 The most interesting class is that studying the Gos- 
 pels twice every week from 8 to 9 a.m. The highest 
 and second classes are combined for this, forming a 
 company of fully thirty. They read the Gospel in the 
 Bobangi tongue, which is spoken on the Congo River 
 from Irebu to below our Chumbiri station, and these 
 young people understand it. All remarks on the les- 
 son are made in the Ikoko language, and at the peri- 
 odie examinations the questions are given in our 
 dialect, as also are the written answers. This gives 
 
182 
 
 fully twenty years connected with the mission. He 
 passed into my hands about fifteen years ago. He 
 knows a good deal of English, some French, and, like 
 Vinda, his own and two other African tongues. He 
 at present holds our only out-station, two days’ jour- 
 ney from here. He is not so good a teacher as Vinda, 
 but otherwise is very useful. He also is married and 
 has one son. 
 
 Willie Lufwilu, My acquaintance with Willie dates 
 back about eighteen years. He was a slave, and 
 we purchased his freedom. He has paid this money 
 _ back. Willie is more at home with a hammer and 
 chisel, or with a file, than with pen or pencil, and only 
 helps in school because there is a stronger will than 
 his. He, too, is of great use to me in such things as 
 mending a bolt, making a firing-pin for my shotgun, 
 fixing a handle on an iron bucket, sharpening a saw, or 
 patching a par. He takes a share in the open-air 
 services in Ikoko. These three young men all married 
 young women more or less trained in the Ikoko 
 school. 
 
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