The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1899, Page 40

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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.