note his lips were near the red, red rose. He whispered pleadingly into the heart of it.

"Mavourneen, what's come to ye?" Sinse," answered my lady, and stepped to a safer distance and tossed her head. The rose trembled.

"Wait," besought Larry, “till I fasten it."

But she shook it to his feet and laughed in the face of him.

"Take it to yer mither," she said.

Upon her doorstep, sniffing the perfume of the red blossoms about her lintel and the cool breaths that whiffed over from the far great sea, the mither sat knitting. There was a peat fire dying inside after toasting oat-cakes for supper, and it puffed faintheartedly, like Larry's pipe. What ail.d the boy? Sure, it wasn't his way to sit glum. The mither smiled, and cunningly set herself to tickle the heart of him.

"Is it rare Biddy Machree we'll be talkin' av, ma bouchal?"

"Do

"It's yerself," said Larry, with a frown that cleared as he turned to her. ye moind the toime whin I was a bit shaver an' we was vary poor?"

"Whist, now," and the tenderness made her voice sweet as Biddy's own, "what ails ye?"

"There was always a pratie for me," Larry went softly on, "an' ye'd always had yourn aforetime. 'Twas long after that I 'spicioned what ye'd had aforetime."

"Och thin, wasn't it all for meself, Larry dear? If ye grew wake like, ye great giant av a bhoy, could ye be takin' sich care av me since ?"

"Do ye moind the toime I come from the fair stumblin' and staggerin', an' ye run out to help me up the path? Ye sung a bit tune that I mightn't see ye were affrighted sore; but in the dark, whin I waked-"

"What contrariness to be moindin' the one day that ye give me a hurt! Whist, now! sure it's meself that'll be stumblin' and staggerin' soon wid ould age, and well I know the strong arm that'll be helpin' me up the path."

"Yis," said Larry, "sure I'll kape it handy; but ould age'll be long afeared, I'm thinkin', av yer sunny ways, an' the heart av ye, an' the eyes av ye."

When the moon stole out of the great sea and looked past the roses, the giant boy's head leaned on the kerchief 'cross the mither's breast; and she rocked and crooned softly just as in that old time when he was a bit shaver and ate his pratie alone because she had taken hers aforetime.

A brave fair that next, and who so sweet and rare in all the length of it as Biddy Machree? She came down the street with handsome Mick Daly traveling close beside, and the sun poured gold on her brown hair and in her eyes as if it, too, loved her. Suddenly, demure reproach covered the brightness of her face, for there was Larry Byrne meeting her at the corner.

"Will ye give in?" she whispered, and waited near his shoulder.

"Niver!" said Larry. But her glance had made mush of the heart of him, and he went away with his hat pulled low.

There came another day when he met her coming down the hill path, singing, singing sweet old Irish words that melt into the sweet old Irish tune, and birds hush to hear. He set his lips hard, and stepped aside into the grass to leave her way free; but beside him she suddenly broke off the song, reached her hands to his breast, and hid her face there.

"Biddy!" cried Larry, and closed his arms round her with the sweep of a storm. "Biddy!"

"Now will ye give in?"

He pushed her from him and stood trembling.

the witch, and laughed softly against the thumping of his heart.

"Will ye give in?" mimicked Larry. "Niver," she cried.

Radiant, hand in hand, they went to the door under the roses; and while Larry gathered buds for her bodice, sly Biddy Machree took the mither aside.

"I'll tell ye somethin'," softly; and, in the sweet Irish eyes of the two, smiles fought with tears" somethin' ye don't know."

"Sure, it's meself knows how he loves ye," whispered the mither, and kissed her. But Biddy shook her head and laughed. There's anither woman in the heart of him," she said, "an' I'm nather runnin' nor riskin'."

Sh

INCE the recent troubles in China the American papers have been full of discussions about the missionaries and their work. There has been a tendency to criticise them unfavorably rather than to give them credit for the good they are accomplishing. I shall not undertake in this article any special defense of the missionaries, because they do not require it, but I will endeavor to bring forward some truths about them and their labors which are not generally understood and appreciated at home. While there are many defects in the present system, there is no reason for holding the sixpence of unkind criticism so near the eye that we cannot see the good beyond.

For a period of four years there were over one hundred missionaries under my jurisdiction in Siam. They were stationed at widely distributed points, and operated under varying conditions. Their forces were made up of both men and women, so that the opportunity of studying the real value of their work was unusually extended. Moreover, it was my privilege to see much of missionary undertakings in China, Japan, Korea, and other countries of Asia. Going out to the Far East with a slight prejudice against missionaries, developed by much superficial talk against them which I encountered here

and there, I came away convinced beyond question that if the results of their efforts through long years could be carefully weighed in the balance of public opinion, a large majority of our people would earnestly espouse the continuance of missionary effort everywhere in Asia.

Those who travel along the Asiatic coast must not be misled by the superficial talk of the treaty ports. There is a plain tendency in the clubs, and in many of the social circles to which the traveler is admitted, to speak unkindly and even sneeringly of what the missionaries are doing for the good of the Asiatics. One case of failure is held up so that a score of successes are not noted. The misguided zeal of one missionary discredits the tactful work of a dozen others. If a small coterie of missionaries, by act, resolution, sermon, or pamphlet, arouse a feeling against the missionaries as a whole, among both natives and foreigners, the large majority of other missionaries who have not sympathized with the propaganda of this small coterie are made to suffer the blame.

It is, therefore, necessary to go behind the scenes, as it were, and study the real operation of the missionary institutions. It is not untrue to say that the masses of the Asiatics are friendly towards the mis

sionaries, and welcome their presence among them wherever they are not misled by unscrupulous officials, or where they have not come in too close contact with the vicious influences which emanate from foreign commercial centers. The further back one gets, usually, from the large cities where foreign materialism is predominant, the more good the missionaries

to accomplish. Therefore, when the merchant criticises the missionary, he should perhaps remove the beam from his own eye before demanding that the missionary shall remove the mote.

Looking frankly at the situation, it is well to note what are the failings in the missionary field. In the first place, too many men and women are sent out to Asia who are not qualified in mind or body for missionary work. They should never have been allowed to leave Europe or America. Too many who cannot succeed as ordinary missionaries or teachers in the church at home are sent to the Far East in the expectancy that they can convert the heathen, if they cannot convert their own people. This is a cardinal error. It takes a brighter, more tactful, and more devoted man to be successful in evangelical labor in China, Japan, and Siam than it does in the United States or in England. The man or woman of ordinary ability who cannot merit a call from a home church or be successful in home missions should never be sent across the Pacific. There should be as much care in selecting missionaries as there is in selecting the agents of business houses.

In Siam the missionaries, on the whole, were a remarkably capable and earnest body of men and women. Very few of them were inefficient, but those few were the occasion of all the complaints among the foreigners and among the Siamese against the others. I would not have it understood by this observation, however, that there was much complaint. There was very little, and the general impression was that the missionaries were accomplishing much good throughout that interesting kingdom. All the time it must be borne in mind that their results were greater back in the interior and away from the busy commercial and political capital of Bangkok than they were within its limits, where the natives could see

continually the vices as well as the virtues of foreign presence.

The King of Siam, who is one of the ablest monarchs in the world, not infrequently complimented the missionaries and showed himself much interested in their undertakings. He often subscribed. money for the encouragement of their plans, or gave them land on which they could erect their buildings for schools and hospitals. He put no obstacles in their way, but, on the other hand, removed many that troubled them. His instructions to his officials throughout the length and breadth of the kingdom were to assist and co-operate with the missionaries in every way consistent with their position. In all the years I was there, no complaint was filed by the missionaries against the attitude of the Government as a government, although at times some governors of interior provinces were guilty of acts which annoyed them. Likewise, the Siamese Government never complained to me of any unfortunate influences growing out of missionary zeal, although there were occasions when one or two individual missionaries, in their private capacity, were involved in matters that were not entirely pleasing to the Government.

Summing up my experience as United States Minister, I would say that I had far more trouble with tactless and selfish business agents and promoters than I had with all the missionaries under my jurisdiction.

It is not my intention to do any "whitewashing," or to say anything to gain favor with the missionaries. My desire is to tell only the truth. Some of my experiences with individual missionaries were both amusing and disappointing, but I would be the last to blame all of the missionaries or their course on account of these disagreeable incidents. There were in the missionary colony in Bangkok one or two men and women who refused to come to the American Legation on one Fourth of July, because I had had erected a large pavilion for dancing, and a ball was to be one of the principal features of the occasion; but the majority of the missionaries came, and enjoyed the celebration as much as I. This gave, however, an opportunity for other foreigners to speak of the bigotry of missionaries in general-a characteristic which was as

unfounded as it was untrue. At another time a smoking concert was given at the club, the proceeds of which were divided between the Protestant and Catholic missionary institutions. One American missionary undertook to return the contribution because it represented the proceeds of a "smoking" concert, but his action was not supported by ninety per cent. of the others; and yet that instance is cited everywhere in the Far East as an illustration of missionary intolerance.

Too many people lay stress on the question of conversions alone. While I would contend that the missionaries are meeting with greater success in converting Asiatics than is generally supposed, still I would lay especial emphasis on the results of their educational and medical work. Everywhere the excellence of the schools and hospitals of the missionaries is acknowledged. The good influences, moreover, that radiate from them tend to make better men and women among the natives. It is no exaggeration to say that the missionaries are solely responsible for preventing the spread of smallpox all over China, Japan, and Siam. They alone were successful in introducing vaccination and in convincing the people that it was both harmless and valuable. In Siam particularly they accomplished wonderful results in this way. The King more than once referred to the fact that the missionaries were responsible for the elimination of smallpox as a plague in his land. The diseas of course prevails there all the time to a considerable extent, but not to any such degree as formerly. One eminent American missionary, whose name will never be forgotten in that part of the world, Dr. Bradley, is accredited with having vaccinated fifty thousand Siamese in the course of his many years' residence in that country, making in that way an effectual barrier throughout the kingdom to the propagation of the disease.

Another prominent American medical missionary, who came later and went into northern Siam, Dr. M. A. Cheek, accomplished so much good in a general way that he was loved and respected by princes and paupers throughout an extent of country as large as New England. He treated as many as eighteen thousand people in one year. They came to him in crowds from all over the country, and he never turned

any of them away, whether they could pay or not for his services. His simplest surgical operations were new to them, and made thousands of men and women whole and happy who would otherwise have been cripples all their lives. Likewise, in the heart of China, Japan, and Korea, American missionary doctors have proved the advantages of Christian civilization by object-lessons of medical and surgical work where never before were the benefits of these agencies understood.

There is another point to be continually borne in mind. The missionaries. everywhere teach patriotism. In their schools and in their churches they bring up the boys and girls to love their own country. The real meaning of patriotism in Japan was brought home to the people first by the teachings of the American missionaries. In Siam the love of their country and of their King is paramount in all the teachings of the missionaries. The children and the grown people learn patriotic songs composed either by the teachers or themselves; they recite patriotic pieces in their own language, and they are taught the history of their own country in a way to develop their love for it. Throughout China the policy of the missionaries everywhere has been to de velop a patriotic spirit, and not a hostile feeling to the Government, as is often portrayed. There may be exceptions to this statement, but they are few.

The missionary schools have educated the majority of the native boys and young men who are now employed in the large foreign business houses. They may not remain Christians, or they may never have been converted in the first place, but they are developed into an earnest, energetic, and ambitious body of men who want to see their own country advance along lines of modern civilization. If these young men who were educated in the missionary schools learn bad babits and sometimes go to the bad, such results are due more to the foreign material surroundings than to the methods of their education. When we hear of boys in Asia going wrong who were graduates of the missionary schools, we must remember that this likewise happens in the case of our own schools, and does not prove in China any more than it does in America that Christian schools are harmful. If

one boy goes wrong, the whole school is blamed-it is the same old story. When I first went to the Far East, I heard it stated that the schools for girls were nothing more than preparatory experiences in which they learned in due time to become the mistresses of the foreigners. This assertion is as untrue as it is cruel, and is combated by the most reliable statistics in the possession of the missionaries in all Asiatic countries. If it is reported at the club or in the gossip of foreign social circles that a bright, pretty girl, who graduated from a missionary school, has become the mistress of a foreigner, every person says knowingly, "I told you so,' as if it were a common circumstance. While one girl, however, follows this unfortunate life, ninety-five per cent. of the others make good wives of the native young men, or become employed as teachers or in some other profession, leading virtuous and good lives. The world does not seem to be interested in knowing how many native young men and girls lead straightforward lives, but only in those who fall by the wayside.

Let us, therefore, be fair in all this discussion of the missionaries. It is well to note that nearly every Minister or Consul of the United States who has lived many years in Asia, and therefore has been brought in the closest contact with the missionaries and their work where he could study all the details of it, comes home more favorably disposed towards them than he was when he began his duties. He recognizes and admits their faults and weaknesses, but he would not have the world overlook their virtues and their strong points. In China, for instance, there would never have been an outbreak of Boxers on account of missionary influences alone. Had it not been for the unwarranted seizures of Chinese territory by foreign nations and their arbitrary course inspired by a commercial spirit, we might not have had this outbreak against the foreigners, the cause of which is laid at the door of the missionary. Moreover, the recent Boxer troubles had their promptings largely in the conditions accompanying the very serious famine which characterized the northern provinces of Chili, Shantung, and Shansi. When the rivers and wells became dry, unscrupulous officials, who were angry with the

missionaries because they had educated the natives to distinguish between right and wrong and between justice and injustice, told the people that the sources of water supply had been dried up by the gods, who were angered by the missionaries' teachings and methods, and wanted the people to punish them. They also claimed that the wells were poisoned by the foreign devils, and would not, therefore, flow and quench their thirst without also bringing death.

The real cause of anti-missionary feeling among the native Chinese is not due to the teachings of the missionaries, as a whole, or to the presence of the missionaries among them, but to fear and hatred inspired by dishonest local officials all over the Empire. The missionaries, naturally, have taught the people to appreciate when they are treated fairly as lawabiding citizens. They learn, therefore, to distinguish between the honest and the corrupt official, and when they do not get justice they complain to a higher authority, with the result that the under official is reprimanded by the higher one; in turn, he lays the blame upon the missionaries, and never loses an opportunity to encourage anti-missionary feeling among the people, hoping thereby to drive the foreigners from the country and allow himself an unlimited field for his evil practices. It is not true that the average missionary interferes in purely Chinese matters. Only when he himself is mistreated does he report the matter to the foreign consul, who, in turn, invokes the aid of the Minister at Peking, and then the matter comes back through the viceroy or governor. Of course this chaın of action exerts its influence, and the dishonest local official is angered, and vents his feeling on the missionary.

We cannot think of withdrawing our missionaries from the Far East unless we are willing to withdraw our merchants. Our ministers of the Gospel must remain as long as our ministers of diplomacy. Let us bend our energies to correct and improve the missionary system in the same way that we would labor to correct and improve our diplomatic, consular, and commercial systems. Thus there will be an advancement all along the line of foreign influence, and not only Asia but Europe and America will be alike benefited.