# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1899_S40 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 40 The Lutheran Pioneer. The Outlook from the Editor’s Window. Aw American lady, traveling in Japan, vis- ited the empress’ school for girls in Tokyo, and gives this amusing description of her re- ception:—‘‘A Japanese servant bowed po- litely as he received my card in his lacquer tray, but left me standing outside until the name had passed from one servant to another into the hand of the teacher who invited me, and who soon came to my relief. As she knew but little English, her welcome was, ‘I been vely glad,’ with any quantity of Jap- anese bows and a yolley of unintelligible sen- tences. Had I understood them, I should have been quite overcome, for my little mis- sion girl, who accompanied me, afterwards gave the exact idioms, one of which was, ‘Now, my dear lady, this is the beginning of my hanging on your honorable eyes;’ and when she asked me to sit down in the parlor, the question was, ‘Will you condescend to hang your thighs upon this chair?’’’ Describ- ing the music at this school, the writer says, “They called it music. Three of the lady teachers stood behind a long-stringed instru- ment called a koto, which lay flat on the top of the box in which it was kept. One played "an accompaniment and all three sang, the school joining in the chorus. Such doleful sounds! Tread on your cat’s tail firmly, and you get the first note; then sing through your nose in a half-minor wailing tone all around that first sound, and with a sudden jerk into your throat. This substitute has never been tried in Japan, for the cats have no tails.”’ Some years ago, when terrible rain storms occurred in Japan, making the rivers over- flow, sweeping away houses and devastating the fields, there was a lad who was suddenly aroused to the sense of his peril and bethought himself of what he must do. He must be quick in order to save his life. Was there anything that he could carry away to a place of safety ? His first thought was for his Bible. He seized a string, wound it around the precious book, and then tied it firmly to his neck, and so waded through the water up to his waist and reached a place of safety. He saved himself “Scand his Bible, and that was all. Tue biography of women in Eastern heathen lands is thus given in five words by Dr. Pier- son: ‘‘Unwelcome at birth, untaught in child- hood, uncherished in widowhood, unprotected in old age, and unlamented when dead.” Surely there is a great work yet for the gos- pel to accomplish in those benighted lands. But when it is known that, according to the most reliable advices, there are to-day _ 198,000,000 more heathen than at the begin- ning of a century of Christian missions, the ‘outlook is not very encouraging: Tex years ago some pupils of a young seminary at Stettin found 20 uncom- monly large ear of rye, which they resolved to devote to a charitable object. The grains were sown and reaped, and as this process was repeated for several years, they at last cleared a suflicient sum for having a bell cast for a mission church in South Africa, with an appropriate inscription. “Tx 1826 I met,’’ says an English officer of India, ‘‘in Belgaum a converted Brahmin, whose confession of Christ, as I knew, had cost him everything; no sooner had he been baptized than his possessions were taken from him, and even his wife and children left him. ‘Are you able to bear your troubles? Are you sustained under them?’ I asked him one day. ‘Many ask me that,’ he answered, ‘but they never ask me whether I am able to bear my joys, for I enjoy a happiness in my heart, since I know Christ, which nobody has been able to take from me.’”’ A SEAMAN on returning home to Scotland after a cruise in the Pacific, was asked: ‘‘Do you think the missionaries have done any good in the South Sea Islands!”’ ‘‘I will tell you a fact which speaks for itself,’’ said the sailor. ‘‘Last year I was wrecked on one of those islands, where I knew that eight years before a ship was wrecked and the crew mur- dered; and you may judge how I felt at the prospect before me, if not dashed to pieces on the rocks, to survive for only a more cruel death. When day broke, we saw a number of canoes pulling for our poor ship, and we prepared for the worst. Think of our joy and wonder when we saw the natives in Eng- lish dress, and heard some of them speak the English language. On that very island the next Sunday we heard the Gospel preached. I do not know what you think of missions, but I know what I do.”’ Boys and girls who go to Sunday-school in Japan wear the same kind of dress, cut and made in the same way; but the girls always have some red about them, while boys never wear this color. All go bareheaded, and some of the boys and girls have their hair cut in very odd ways. Many shave off all the hair except a little patch on the top of the head, while others have hair all over except on top. They wear low white socks with a different place for the big toe, just as American chil- dren have a separate place for the thumb in the mittens worn in winter. Over these socks, when on the street, the Japanese children put on straw or wooden shoes. ‘The straw ones haye nothing but soles, held to the fect by strings passing between the big toe and the other toes. The wooden shoes are on stilts, and are used in muddy weather. When the children reach the Sunday-school they all step out of their shoes and leave them at the door until they are ready to start home again. The floor is covered with straw mats about two inches thick. The children sit on these mats ~ with their feet under them. They can sit there for hours at a time without growing tired. The teacher sits on the floor too. The children are very quiet and well-behaved, and give very little trouble. ‘They seem to like the Sunday-school and to be glad to learn, and are faithful in their attendance. Tne Alaskans have a peculiar way of dis- posing of the bodies of their dead children. A basket is made, shaped like a papoose cradle, with a board at the back. The little body is packed in dried moss or grass, laid on the board and secured by a matting or wicker front. It is then suspended by a handle at the top. Sometimes the bodies of dead babies are put into a little canoe; this little canoe the poor mother pushes out into the stream, and the stream gives it to the river, and the river to the sea. Possibly she dreams that the spirits watch the floating casket and somewhere on the journey receive the child. — Acknowledgment. Received for colored missions of Rev. F. J. Lan- kenau, Missionary, New Orleans, La., from his Zion Congregation $50.00 and from his St. Paul’s Congre- gation 50.00; of Rev. J. Kossmann, Missionary, from his Bethlehem Congregation in New Orleans, La., 25.00. A.C. Burcporr, Treas. St. Louis, Mo., Sept. 20, 1899. Evangelical Lutheran Colored Churches, New ORLEans, La. EV. LUTH. ST. PAUL’S CHAPEL. 1625 Annette Str., between Claibowne and Derbigay. Divine services: Sunday morning at 914 o'clock. Sunday evening at 73 o'clock. Wednesday evening at 7% o'clock. Sunday School: Sunday morning at 10% ofclock. Adult catechumen class meets at 744 o'clock Tuesday evening. Singing School mects at 7% o'clock Friday evening. EV. LUTH. MOUNT ZION CHURCH. Cor. S. Franklin and Thalia Strs. Divine services: Sunday morning at 11 o'clock. punday evening at 7% o'clock. Thursday evening at 74 o'clock. Sunday School: Sunday morning at 914 o'clock. Adult ‘catechumen class meets at 7% o'clock Friday evening. Young Peeples’ Concordia Circle and Singing School meet Wednesday evening at 7% o'clock. F, J. LANKENAD, Missionary. EY. LUTH. BETHLEHEM CHAPEL. Cor. Washington Avenue and Dryades Str. Divine services: Sunda. Syentng at 734 o'clock. Thursday evening at 734 o’clock. Sunday School at 9% o'clock. Adult catechumen class every Tuesday at 734 o'clock and aftcr the divine service on Thursday evening. Choir practice at 734 o'clock on Tuesday evening and after divine service on Thursday evening: Circle for Young People meets at the school every, Tues- day evening at 734 o'clock. J. W. F. KossMANN, Missionary. Ey. Luth. Holy Trinity Church. Springfield, Il, Divine Services at half past 10 o’clock Sunday morning and at 8 o'clock Sunday evening. Sunday School at 3 o'clock P. M. Catechumen class mects Monday and Friday evenings. Singing-school Tucsday evening. ~ eee eee —— TERMS: Tae LurueraNn Pronzer is published monthly, payable in advance at the following rates, postage included, to-wit: 1 Copy cesove 10 Copies . 25 Tain 7 « see Club rates only allowed i to one address. angel business communications to All be addressed to “Concordia Publishing House,” St. Louis, Mo. All nications concerning the editorial de- partment fo be addressed to Prof. R. A. BISCHOFF, mcordia College, Fort Wayne, Ind.