An ancient manuscript of great value, dating back to the days of Catholic persecution in Japan, some 200 years ago, has come into the possession of Father William Stoceke, head of the St. Franci Xavier Mission in San Francisco.
For more than 200 years, the docament had been hidden in a secret, shrine in Japan, It is a Catholic catechism, written in ancient Japanese, by the studied hand of some Spanish missioner and recites Catholic prayers.
The possession of the manuscript, for years, meant death to the family in which it was handed down from generation to generation, It was jocked in the ancestral shrine of the Terasawas in the prefecture of Fukui and once a year, according to family custom, and at night, th: etoreat day' of the year,' the Mu, Roy Chapman Andrews, who is now staying in Peking, has been made an honorary member of the New York Explorers' Club, one of the most exclusive organizations of its kind. Mr, Andyews had been a member for' a number of, year but every now and than the organ zation selects. honorary members, head of the house went to the shrine and viewed the manuscrios "ft was given to me by Dr. B.
Teraswaws, a descendant of martyrs," Father Stoecke said. "Its Spanish' authorship is hinted at, by one of its passages, 'The picture the Blessed Mother is traced faintly in gold and has. a se-tet cover' by which "its, identifeatiin, when worn, could be concealed. The characters' inthe manuscript 210 ancient and hard for the modern, Japanese to read."—United Press,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.