Woman's Work in the Far East, Vol. XIV, No. 1. November, 1893. Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, Tt has been remarked that as, according the German myth, it was the kiss of soldier-prince that awoke the sleeping beauty, ao it was the rough lips of war that culled to ita feet the efficiency of which the Women's Foreign Missionary Societies are among the exponents, We all know the noble work done by women in times of war and calamity, and whilst the prejudice against the public work of women is not wholly removed, still there is a more got eral, and ever-growing reengnition the grent work to be necumplished through womanly sympathy, tact, and trai Napoleon Bonaparte recognised the importance of fenmnle agency when he sai "Kducate the mothers of France," and certainly the eduestion of the mothers of China isan important part of woman work, Another great leader, Tgnatiue Loyola, directed his followers to give their attention to two classes, crowned heads and the young, and the education of the young is certainly an essential part of widow: in China, Much interesting information on these two, as well as other phases of work in China, is given in the November number of Woman's Work in the Far East.
The first item, "A Year of Village Work," by Mrs, Arthur H. Smith, gives brightly written resume of woman's work at Pangehuang during the past year. Especial ly interesting and eneouraying are her details of the station classes. She tells how two hundred women and children, fre 35 different villages, "have been laaght, fed, drilled, loved, and we trust inspired in our winter school this year. At firet it was up-hill work, getting the men twenty dave, There was no precedent for to let the women leave home drudgery for it. It blanched their cheeks only to imagine what Confucius could have said to such a Proposition, The unspoken thought of it shook the foundations of society to their centre! How firmly and persistently we have kent on year by year teaching those men of Succoth' will be evident from the fact that we this year kept xll our brightest women forty days with hardly a resistant murmur from the men. It was marvellous how mu-h more our pupils learned. They were n The five foreign Indies spent thirteen and a half hours daily on thi school." We are glad to notice how ably the more intelligent and educated Christian women helped in the teaching. giving 310 days of unpaid labour. Tt seems, too, that the servants caught the contagion of helpfulness as in come departments of teaching they rendered valuable assistance.
Tr is easy toxee that apart from the particulars given of station classes, Sunday School work, hospital work, boarding schools, etc, there is a vast-amount of helpful work going on in many a village, which cannot well betabulated, Referring to the tours taken to distant parts ut the field by the Misses Wyckuff, Mrs, Smith says: "This is the most exhausting form of our work, but the only way to get our mountain and our Mahomet near enough to look over the same book."
Many a pastor might learn a useful lesson from the story of the simple little woman, who after painstaking dillon the catechism, went to he examined for admission to the Church. Questions on the attributes of God perplexed her, those on the Bible bewildered her, while those on the Judgment day quite confounded her. But the old Shantung shepherd had not carried his crook 21 years for nothing. He stepped round his sheep and approaching from another quarter said simply, How do the Christians get on in your village?" Shi waa alert and intelligible at once. She told the story of their persecution qui simply. She had had her head cut ops trying to help on a Christian wedding, and she and her husband found it next to impossible longer to support themselves by the sale of bread, as people would not buy of Christians, She added with a mixture of sweet earnestness and clear grit: I don't care. They can't stop me, While there's one mouthful of breath left in me I shall be a Christian Following after the interesting details of work in Hakka Centre, and Mra. Fxruham' ples for temperance work in China, comes "The History of One day" by Dr. Rachel Benn, This' will prove to many a revelation of th" importance and multiplicity of the duties involved in woman's medical work. What variety we have in Dr, Benn's patients; the patient suffering from an acute attack of Chines" doctoring; the mys terious case in the large empty room among the salt heaps; the kindness experienced, and luxury seen, in the Taotai's yamen the afternoon clinic in the hospital, with its many cases and sore-eyed children; the long hard day's toil winding ap with the four miles' night journey to a Mohammedan patient.
But even in "woman's work" there la a place and time for recreation and culture." The pleasantly told experiences of Mrs. Chaifant show how reasonable recreation fits the worker for better work and more of it, and our sympathies are enli by what we learn of the cramped ment in which lady missionaries live and work in the interine. We quite agree with the writer that when recreation is impossible in the way ut walking, a game of Badminton (or tennis, if there is room) whilst only taking up the few odd moments between duties, will prove a first-rate cnlisthetic, whilst great mental benefit will result from the pleasant batinage and the added spice of rivalry. With regard to social amenities, it is true there are those who, after having partaken of the has pitality of missionary families, have gone forth and openly criticised, but the general dining acquaintance of " missionary tunily will not mistake taste and fitness for extravaganee, nor simplicity for parsimony, It is quite imprssib'e, within our present limits, to notice at length all the information supplied with regard to work on various lines, and her fields, but we would note the' many references' to fuutbinding. In Miss Stewart's valuable paper, the subct is not only treated from a Christian vd_medical standpoint, but from the heathen women's, the missionary's, and the Christian Chinese women's various standpoints. In Miss Brittou's "Nate of Praise," we seo the helpful example of women who, having thought the matter over, have braved opposition and ridicule and unbound their feet, On pages 70 and 72 will be found references us to how the cruel custom is being combated, whilst Mrs, Muirhead's beau ful sketch of Little Kah-web-kuh" enlists our sympathies still more for all sufferers from the fuotbinding process:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.