Evening Star Newspaper, February 12, 1898, Page 17

THRANE OF IEYase. JAPANESE JINGOISM ee Boy’s Holiday Teaches a Soldier's Love of Country. ete ea PATRIOTISM 1S RELIGION Lilliputians in Material Things, Giants in National Spirit. THE SIGN OF THE A CARP FOREIGN VISITOR to Nikko in the first week of June,wander- ing down the village’S single street, lined on both sides with little shops where the local specialties of carved wood and furs and various cu- rios are notes the evidences ef one of the most widely- celebrated and most Pe of Japanese nniversarie: or garden tall bam- . in the air from which ffoat | uber carp, so arranged with ide the head that their open mout pand and me In some i catch the air in a very lif tances a lighter p boo terminating in a broom shape ts at- tached to the end of the main pole. Or its top is a ball or fez-shaped object. Zanners often hang from arms of the same pole, s 1es so large that they dwarf the carp, displaying f figures of fighting men, generally in black 1 white, sometimes in colors. Occasion-| the pole blossoms out in ten or a dozen drooping twigs, long slender sticks | issuing on every side at the same height, | and terminating in small balls, apparently ef metal. These are the emblems of boys Japan, when every family in wi ha bee nd they ex- like fashion. of bam- bamboo cious day in h a boy sn born during the year proclaims Pine of Karasaki. @nd celebrates the fact. The date of th celebration is the 5th day of the onth. The old lendar, which is used in the rural districts of Japan, is almost a mo dar th later than the new calen- which regulates the time in the Jap- cities. We had thus the privilege of noting a double celebration of the day, in May in| Kioto and Osaka, and in Nikko in June. But the 3 ance was comparative- ly @ spiritless affair. There were few of the fying carp in either Kioto or Osaka and surmounts waterfalls. counterpart symbolizes the Japanese that their boys stem all adverse currents, most formidavle obstacle and prosper. lorification for the Girl. also have a holiday, the 3d of March, when the feast of dolis is cele- brated. The boys’ day glorifies the birth of a man p the world. The girl enjoys ne such glorification. The girl's emblem is 1 the Jaj woman herself, a doll, a toy, a plaything. The boy's is the sym- bol of all that is powerful and masterful and enterprising. In spite of the fact that the Japanese do not hide their women in jealous orien- tal seclusion, and in spite of the fact that its paper hopes of the y like the carp leap over the and live long Marquis Ito, Japnn’s Premier, occidental ideas of costumes and manners have been permitted to creep in among them, there still lurks under the modern varnish the old decayed conviction of the inferiority and degradation of women that is taught both in the Buddhism and the cianism which influence the national thought. The ineradicable oriental view of the dif- ferences between the sexes from the ten- erest age is reflected in the ancient Chi- i p supposed to have been selected by Confucius himself which commemorates the building of a new palace for King Swan, > B.C. “And it shall be wherever sons are born These shall be and rest; In I dresset noise! ns grand wid t apr gs and princes of the are born nm the ground, shall_be bound, heir playthings. "Twill belong hot with right or wrong; the household drinks and food lorification of the Boy is complete when the poet goes into raptures over the music of his cry. But these very raptures show the fallacy of the notion entertained and expre: by mary travelers that Chinese and Japanese babies never cry. If the boy in his comfortable robes on the bed and in spite of having a sceptrelet as a plaything c: even though he cries music- ally, surely the girl in tight swaddling band don the ground among the pots will most vigorously, careless that no music in her cry. It appears ut the brown babies were in 825 B. sing this inalienable right of uni- APPROACH TO SHRINE OF IEYASU. Cn ‘The rainy weather discouraged to some ex- tent the exposure to the elements of paper fish. but the custom so far as the carp are concerned seems to be dying out in the large cities where modern and occidental {deas prevail. But the swaying fish of many bright colors made a iine display in Nikko, hang- ing sometimes in bunches of half a dozen over prolific households, one carp for each boy in the family, whether born during the year or earlier. Our idea of the carp is of a sluggish fish, @ frequenter by choice of still and muddy water, or as in China the contented inhabi- tant of a tub, fed on food-ieavings like the family pig of other land: But in Japan the fish is typical of intense vitality, and ig famous for the power and perseverance With which it swims against the current versal babydom, and I doubt whether they have since surrendered this right. Japanese Babiés Do Cry. Unquestionably the Japanese bab‘es are wonderfully patient, well regulated and well behaved. But I heard a baby crying lusti- ly on my first day in Japan. I saw a Jap- anese infant despotically ruling his accom- panying family of worshipers, from grand- mother down, in a first-class railway car- riage between Tokio and Kioto, and the boo-hoo was one of the most effective weapons of his tyranny. If the Japanese babies were ever non-crying they have now adopted modern notions and customs on the subject in humble imitation of their par- ents and have changed all that. The non- THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1898-94 PAGES, crying baby, like the flowers and the nori-singifig bitds described by veracious travelers, has largely disappeared from Ja- pan, and if present Snot ka fie ack Telia- ble will soon be as extinct as the Altogether, the Japanese babies are most attractive. In general make-up with shaven crowns, variegated by hair tufts, they look strikingly like the Japanese dolls sold in America. Fastened to the back of mother or elder sister or brother they bury their noses in the back of the neck of their carrier and inspect the world with black and bead-like eyes. In Osaka I saw one favored infant who was strapped to his carrier's back with his face turned outward, apparently a more healthful and reasonable fashion. Groups of children, with their bright-col- ored dresses, their oftentimes sweet voices and pleasing manners, are the delight of the foreign visitors, and especially of the amateur photographer. P Here the master of a dancing school leads his pupils, a score or more of little girls, cut for a vacation romp in Shiba Park, in Tokio. The hair of Miss Flora McFlimsey was never more elaborately dressed than that of these children, and as to bright colors in attire, in kimono, obi and all the rest, Solomon in all his glory was not ar- rayed like one of these. Close at hand are some smaller children, apparently of a roving disposition, equipped each with a charm bag to ward off acci- dents, and a metal tag containing the name and address of the prospective wanderer to the end that he may be returned to his home if he is I Here comes rushing along an avenue of the park a whole school of boys out for the breathing spell of a recess. They cut up pranks, and laugh, and quarrel, and testify in every way to an overflow of ani- mal spirits, just as young America would cisport himself, except for the latter's dis- respect of his elders. But not all the juvenile conditions are ideal. A great many of the heads of chil- dren are scabby from eczema, produced probably by, shaving with dull and dirty razors, to which the youngster’s head is subjected until the age of five or six years is reached. No effort is made to cure this eruption because, it is explained, a super- stition attributes a di averting and health-giving influence in later life to the youthful scabby head. Evidently there 1s also a popular superstition which ascribes some physical ill, present or future, to the blowing of an infant's nose, however muc! it may need this delicate attention. Dainty handkerchiefs of children’s sizes are made by the thousand in Japan, but they are used, it would seem, exclusively for export purposes. In addition to the outward display of carp and banners floating over many a house there was an indoors exhibit in Nikko on the boys’ holiday, which was in accord with the symbolism of the carp, as the type of force, power, the overcomer of difficulties. Images of generals on horseback and sol- diers on foot, wrestlers, fighters of every grade and description, war flags and ban- ners, toy suits of armor, swords, bows and arrows, and the other implements of an- cient war, which have filled the toy shops for weeks. are now displayed by the proud parents of the boy in their home. First Lesson in Jingoism. The most conspici are large, set piece: subjects such < and the Empr This mythical the be ious of these exhibits representing warlike Hideyoshi on his throne Jingo and her councillors. empress is a model for in spite of her sex and figures conspicuously as the warrior woman among the images of the 5th of M: that are used as object lessons to teach the young the de mote patriotism. The Empress Jingo, the conqueror of Corea and the mother of Hachiman, the god of war, may be viewed as typical of triotic sentiment and of is of heroes, and to pro- the national » the warlike spirit of territorial extension. Under Shintoism, the nominal national re- ligion, emperors and emp: 8, Jingo among them, are deified and worshipe Thus in Japin, at least, Jingoism equa Shintoism equals Patrictism, and every “Jap” is a Jingo. In respect to things material and vi Japan is a realization of the tmagin: land of Lilliput, described by the ver Gulliver. In national spirit and aspira- tion Japan is of Brobdingnagian propor- tions. Every visitor to Japan testifies to the accuracy of the first of thes atements. The smallness >f things Japanese is the foreigner’s ..st vivid impression, from. hig first to his last glimpse of the little brown men and women and their proportionately tiny appurtenances and belongings. On landing at Yokohama he is placed in a jinrikisha or enlarged baby carriage, and is hauled to the hotel by a bare-headed and bare-legged male nurse, while he in- stinctively feels for his rattle and nurs- as intense patriotiem and abread as na- tional “‘cockiness” and bumptious conceit. The ‘Japanese sté&tesn®én are already in imagination inhe¥iting «the power now wielded by the effste Nations of Europe, whose speedy exhwustion they predict. fae a sample speétmen, listen to the words of Count Okuma, feeently the minister of forzign affairs an@*the’strong man of the jate administzatioh: © < “The European powers are already show- ing symptoms of decay, and the next cen- tury will see. theif constitutions shattered and their empires ‘in ruins. Even if this should not quit2 happen, their resources will have become exhausted in unsuccess- ful attempts at ‘rolonézation. Therefore who is fit to be tMeir groper successors if not ourselves? What mation, except Ger- many, Franc>, Russia,jAustria and Italy, can put 200,000 men into the field inside of a month? As to, intellectual power, the Japanese mind is-jin-eyery way equal to the European mind. It js true, the Japan- ese ar? small of stature, but the superior- ity of the body depends more on its con- stitution than on its size. If treaty revis- ion were completed, and Japan completely victorious over China, we should become on2 of the chief powers of the world, and no power could engage in any movement without first consulting us. Japan could then enter into competition with Europe as the representative of the oriental race: The Japanese statesmen, headed by Mar- quis Ito, who, after a period of retirement from power, is again prime minister, play- ed upon this patriotic sentiment in precipi- tating war with China. It is a common de- vice of rulers to pick a quarrel with the foreigner in order to solidify the home peo- ple. But there was never a more success- ful resort to it than in the case of Japan. Her government was beset by domestic dis- semsions and in sore straits. Three suc- cessive hostile majorities had appeared ninst it in the diet. From the moment that war was declared every opponent and every critic disappeared. Ali Japan ad- venced, and struck as one man, and the Icose-jointed, disorganized, anaemic giant ment in small bodies, ited and salut at the word of com! and to the soun of trumpets, and passed on quickly to make room for another detachment. After several hours of infantry procession, the cavalry passed and saluted in similar fashion. Neither young nor old could fail to be impressed by the spectacle of honor, even worship, offered to those who had died in the service of their country, and to be inspired with the patriotic desire to emulate their example. The national military spirit is fostered not only in school and in church, so to speak, but in the very holidays and anni- versary days of the boys. As I have al- ready noted the boys’ day on the 5th of May in permeated with jingoism, Shintoism, patriotism. Japan's national ambition is thus gigantic. Will she be able to realize a fraction of her dreams? A Vision of Conques: Her cry is ‘Asia for the Asiatic: mean- ing by the Asiatics the Japanese. She is spending the Chinese indemnity and much tax money out of the scanty resources of her own people in army and navy develop- ‘ment to meet, resist and, if possible, over- come Russia in Asia before the Siberian railroad connects the two Russias, and gives to the government at St. Petersburg power of concentrating troops, which would prove irresistible. She has a well-disciplined and admirably equipped army of considera- bly over 200,000 men, more than double the Russian force laboriously collected at Vla- divostok. Her navy, already imposing, will before long be among the strongest five in the world, surpassing the United States in the race unless our gait is faster than at present. Her people have surreptitiously aided the insurgenis in the Philippine Is- lands, now the property of Sp: which Japan has for some time c cus eyes. She planned a pea by colonization of the Haw and nothing but annexation by the United JAPANESE HOPEFULS. China went down before it at the first blow. The spirit which made Japan formidable against China was intensified by the result of the struggle. And it is conspicuous everywhere in Japan today and is carefully fostered by the government. Japanese Patriotism. Said Count Okuma in a speech before the Oriental Association ef Japan: “Undoubt- ediy Japan is a comparatively poor coun- try, but the aboundii ubjects in spite of her poverty is unique. Foreigners were therefore astonished at the love of country shown by the people and at the vast sums of money placed at the disposition of the government, which permitted the prosecution of the wa ful conclusion without having > to foreign capital. however, those countries should in- e, rights or interests, I n that the patriotism of the 40-000,000. Japateseswould, as 1 have already said, burst gut like a volcanic erup- tion. very influence -tends.to keep the pa- triotic spirit at white heat. Not only the adults are drilling, all 6¥er Japan, but the children also. In ‘the Schools the pupils bow with reverence to’ the portrait of the empcror in entering and leaving the room, and Tove of country Is tdught both in their secular and their Yelfgfous education. In the grounds cérihected with the temple of Hirano Jinja in Kioto I, noticed some school children at thelr, recéss. recreation. They had ‘tivided thto two bands, armed with wooden swords dnd guns, each army with its standard. Ong lay in ambush for thé other, and the Surprised army retreated untfl_a little hill was reached, on top of which a stand was made, and the pursuers beaten back. Young America could not re- “If, jure Japan’ need hardly aff ing bottle. Since the baby carriage is used by men, the doll’s carriage falls to the infants, and in the few cases where the Egyptian and Mexican method of transporting the baby fastened to the mother’s or older sister's back is not em- ployed, a vehicle is utilized which might have been made from Cinderella's pump- kin without enlargement by the fairy god- mother. I saw one of these tiny baby carriages in Osaka, and it was among the most curious of the many curiosities of street scenes in Japan. Leaving Yoko- hama to go to Tokio, the great modern capital, or Kioto, the ancient and venera- ted city, the foreigner enters a dwarf car on a narrow-gauge track and is pulled by a miniature engine over lilliputian bridges and through lilliputian tunnels. ever he visits he finds narrow streets, small frail houses, with tiny rooms and furnishin As the stregts 2 alleys, so the hors ponies. Going into ‘the country he finds that the farms are gar- dens of mintte proportions, in which rice and tea and grain are cultivated with the microscopic attention bestowed by the European gardener upon his choicest plants. The little “Jap,” with his diminu- tive farm and his toy house, eats from a table which is a lacquer tray, from a bowl which is a cup, and from~a cup which is as a thimble, and smokes a pipe which allows him but three whiffs before it needs refilling. In gardening his proud- est achievement is to dwarf a mapke or pine tree, so that, though a century old, it is only a foot high, and to confine the veteran of the forest in a flower pot. The same tendency is noticeable in the arts, in minute ivory and wood carvings, in microscopic cloisonne work, and in devo- tion to the small and delicate in painting upon a great variety of materials. Mother Goose in Japan. In short, there can be no doubt that Mother Goose, in the course of her world- wide wanderings on her broom, had paid a flying visit to Japan, and had that minia- ture country and p2ople in mind when she wrote: “There was a little man and he had a little wife, Weo cut their ttle loaf with a sharp but tiny knife, She had a’ little eat which chased a little mouse, ‘And they all lived together in a very little house. The quaint smallness of things Japanese if most keenly appreciated through con- trast by en American, fresh from the,mag- nificent distanc2s and vast expanses of the land of so many “greatest things on earth,” from grand canons and mammoth cav2s to monuments and waterfalls, gey- sers and machinery. But, as I have already indicated, if Japan is the vest-pocket edition of a nation in material things, in spirit and ambition it is a giant unabridged. The Japanese people, from the coolie, with his loin cloth and straw sandals, to the statesman, are full of that devetion to the national idea, that. pride of country, that unbounded faith in the national future, of which the combi- nation is the world over described at home Wher- | have entered with greater spirit. Shintoism, the original faith and the present state religion of Japan, is practi- cally patriotism and not much else. Its foundation is the worship of ancestors, thence of the emperor, as the heaven-born father of his people. Devotion to the ruler easily becomes love of the fatherland which {s ruled. Patriotic loyalty to the emperor is religion, and in this kind. of religion there are many fanatics. The worship of one’s own ancestors, de- rived from China, has been broadened in Japan into the worship of the hero ances- tors of other men, who, deified after death, constitute the Shinto’ pantheon with its membership of millions. The famous sol- diers and other heroes are honored and worshiped in shrines erected to their mem- ory. Religion lights the torch of patriot- sm. Osaka, which as Japah’s great manufac- turing city is the center of the industrial war which the empire is to wage against Europe and America, is also an import- ant military center, and in that city this spring I attended a Shinto service which showed clearly the manner in which all the influences of state and ‘church unite to fos- ter loyalty to the emperor and love of country. v - Worship for Dead Soldiers. Close to the one large hotel for foreign- ers in Osaka is a mnoriument to certain soldiers who fell ff. battle. A Shinto shrine is connected with the monument, and on the 6th day.,of: May the annual military service was: held there in honor of the heroes, attended by all the soldiers in the district, offigers and men, infantry and cavalry, and bys. seultitude of curi- ous visitors from civil lifé. On one side of the inclosure, in front of the shrine, stood the officers fn unifprm. from seventy-five to a hundred in member. At their feet, sitting on mats, were a hundred: or more of sons of the officerswin semi-military dress. On the oppasitedside of the in- closure were a brass bahd and a small group of spectatorss-Ontside, in the ad- jJacent tea house, and in intersecting Streets, the people were packed and jam- med, constantly harassed, shoved and pushed and scolded by the important little Japanese soldiers." Back of thé monument glimpses could be had of the arms or unt- forms of the thousands of soldiers, stand- ing ready for the order to march. First the procession of priests in white robes, with curious black headdress and black wooden shoes, entereif the inclosure, head- ed by wooden palanquins containing the offerings. Then the long and rather tedi- = aot service pe Thee ings of many diff tt articles, including fruits and vegetables, were from hand to hand, and ipresented before the shrine. At last the’ officers came before the monument in succession and presented branches handed “to them by @ priest. Then the officers gradually withdrew, and 12,000 soldiers marched before the monu- into mimic warfare patriotism of her | ar to a} States is certain to baffle her well-con- ceived design. In trade, as well as in arms, she aspires not only to lead in Asia, but to be among the great powers of the world. Her vast military exp2nditures have inter- fered sadly with national industrial devel- A Japanese Baby. opment, but the ambition to be wealthy is merely postponed in favor of the determi- nation to be powerful, and not by any means abandoned. It is impossible not to admire the high aims and courage of this people, as well as their Kindliness, their ingenuity, their manual dexterity and their artistic taste. The dwarf in material things has expand- ed into the giant like the great pine at Ka- rasaki, a iree which started out to be a dwarfed pine with sprawling horizontally growing branches after the regular model, but which escaped from its would-be mini- mizers two thousand years ago, and is now a magnified dwarf pine, enlarged five hun- dred tires. Can Japan, so admirable in small things, be equally admirable when the dwarf has become the giant? Has the Japanese character the adaptabil- ity of the elephant’s trunk, with its ca- pacity of picking up the smallest pin and of performing the most delicaie operations and also its power of applying gigantic force in breaking down walls and uprooting tre The Japanese has nothing more to learn, he thinks, in either the deceptions or the bluffs and ultimatums of diploma: He believes that he has discovered the secret ef the occidental powers in the maxims “Might makes right,” “Providence is on the side with the heavier artillery,” and he arms and drills himself, buys guns and warships, and discards his foreign instruc- tors. if the Aztecs in Mexico, had handled the Spaniards on the Japanese principle of dealing with threatening conquerors they would have received the invaders with rev- erential prostrations, and in a comparative- ly short time they would in humble imita- tion of the visitors be wearing armor, ric- ing horses, studying Spanish and mastering the secrets of the foreigners’ power: and finally, when all wis learned that the Span- ish had to teach, the Aztecs would have epposed to them their own weapons and An Outing in Shiba Park. their own military methods, and would have cast them out like oranges sucked ry. id Japan means to cut a figure in history. Will @ new Jingo give birth for her benefit to a modern god of war, and another Ieyasu arise to lead to victory? Or will the Jap- anese vision of glory collapse, bubble-like, at the first hostile contact with a European power? THEODORE W. NOYES. ———__. Beauty of Saxon Words, From the Chattanooga News. How beautiful dces Ruskin, who did so much to popularize art and harmony among the lower cleeses in England in “Sesame and the Lilie: express his idea of the true sphere of woman. He says: “What do you think the beautiful word ‘wife’ comes from? It is the great word in which th> English and Latin languages conquer the French and Greek. I hope the French will some day get a word for it in- stead of their femme. But what do you think it comes from? The great value of the Saxon words is that th3y mean some- thing. Wife means weaver.” You must be either housewives or housemoths, remem- ber that. In the deep sense you must either weave men’s fortunes and embroider them, or feed upon them and bring them to decay. Wherever a true wife comes heme is always around her. The stars may be over her head, th: glow worm in the night's cold grass may be the’ fire at her feet; but home is where she is, and for a noble woman it stretches far around her, batter than houses ceiled with cedar or painted with vermillion, shedding its quiet light for those who are homeless. This, I believe, is the woman's true place and power.” : if OLD SAINT SULPICE Famous Church and Seminary in the Latin Quarter. THE MOTHER HOUSE OF THE ORDER Many Well-Known Prelates Have Studieé There. THE FIRST WORLD'S oe FAIR Special Correspendence of The Evening Star. PARIS, February 4, 1898. OOK AT THE rehitecture of it,” said a tired male Voice to a group of tired American wo- men at 1 o'clock in the morning. It was Christmas morning and the par- ty had taken in the midnight mass, stand- ing for more than an hour on their feet on a stone floor, packed in with some fifteen thousand others in the immense church of Saint Sulpice. Who Sulpice was the guide books do not state; but his church is full of architecture in the weary midnight. It was a sight to be seen in wicked Paris, where the visitor thinks of anything else but church-going. Paris is a big town, very big, and all the inhabitants are not dancing nightly at the Moulin Rouge and other delectable resorts. Coming back in the restful daylight, we find that this grim, gigantic church, with- out a particle of Gothic or other poetry about it, is interesting to Americans in a homelike way. It is a parish church, of course, and serves the religious wants of one of the most populous districts of Paris, including a good part of that realm of my terious delight and squalor and unchurch- manlike students known to Americans as the Latin Quarter. Appropriately enough, the church is not under ordinary priests, but is served by the seminary near by. There, too, are stude: —not quite of the regulation Latin Quarter order. A high wall runs around their gar- den—high enough to keep the grisettes from looking over—and the long, plain building is like nothing so much as soldiers’ bar- racks, Here in France, where everything settles down into century-old routine, the clergy formg a disciplined body quite on a par with the army. Those who are now attacking the army because of Dreyfus mix up the clergy naturally with the obnoxious gener- als. Those who love law and order shout for both, regardless of the merits of the particular case. Some Distinguished Pupiins. The seminarists are mute on the supject as they file out in long, black-robed from the great door on their way to the church, where they do the singing with massive voices, several hundred together; or on their weekly walk in Tge squads, through chosen streets which will not be- guile them with too much Pa jan gayety. This seminary has sent, in times pas! many an evangelist to the Unit ; and, doubtles mong the studen' at the present day there are some Americans. At the time when the French revolution turned the church into a banqueting hall, where Napoleon was feasted, the “Sulpicians” quietly subsided into Baltimore until th storm was over. The theological seminar: which they founded there still continu: but the genuine French training has always brought back to the place in Paris some of their more distinguished students. Among the living, I believe, are Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore, Archbishop Williams of Boston—Cheverus, the first bishop of Boston and friend of Channing, was a French student of the place, expelled by the revolutiou—the late Archbishop Pur- cell, the war prelate of Cincinnati; Bishop Keane, who has had so much to do with the Catholic University at Washington, and any number of priests and prelates whom I have never heard of, but who have a soft spot in their hearts for Saint Sulpice of Paris. An older colony of Saint Sulpice in Amer- ica is the great seminary which is so prom- inent a spectacle, with its long stone build- ings skirting the mountain side in Mon- treal, Canada. It wes Louis XIV who sent it out, and when his successcr, by the ad- Vice of Voltaire, celmly gave up to the English the “few acres of snow,” which he was told his possessions were in that part ot the world, the Sulpicians remained on. When General Dix came to Pari: minister of the United S: French republic, he was had learned his French. “At Saint Sul- ,” he ahswered, to the astonishment of the profane Frenchmen, who imagined that the brave general must have deserted the ranks of the clergy for the army. But he was only a former student of the bo’ college, which is an annex of the semin of Montreal. Of late years these reverend teachers of young theologs have opened a seminary in Boston. All their establish- ments look back to this one at Paris as the mother house. Its Two Odd Towers. Seen from the great square in front, the scene is impressive. Two steps behind the church, you are in full Latin Quarter, with its fine musical cafe of the Concert Rouge, subsidized by a philanthropist that the stu- dents may have something higher than the silly, dirty Songs of their cefes-chantants. Up on the hill is the profane dance hal! the Bal Bullier. But here, placidity reigns. The great fountain in the center of the Square has the statues of France's four greatest preachers—Bossuet, Fenelon, Mas- sillon and Flechier. Their secred pose is not troubled by the dissolute laughter whose echoes die away before reaching them. Only the comiag and going of the omnibuses at the corner station bring life to the place; the seminarists can look from their windows without fear of perturbing their imaginations. It is not gay for the average tourist, and he does not come a second time. He is content to wonder why the two towers of the church front are so unlike each other. If he asks one of the natives, he will hear that Roman Catholic architectural ruling forbids any church except the bish- op’s cathedral to have two towers exactly alike. Probably he will believe it, as the people do—for some reason there must be. A better one is that the church was build- ing a hundred years, and one architect had the building of ene tower, while his suc- cessor dealt with the other. It is only a case of many men, many minds, and the mind that made the trou- ble was a certain MacLaurin, of Scotch blood, and therefore argumentative. He has the last word to this day, when the French are not much given to church building on so great a scale. His reformed tower still remains to make people ask questions and give answers, . Site of the First World’s Fair. Passing round by the north side, through @ narrow street which the high blank wall of the great church for2ver shadows with an uncomfortable gloom, we come out in a curious corner of old Paris, which is soon to disappear. It is a square space occupied with the lorg, low buildings of the local market of Saint Germain. The buildings are divided into the usual stalls, wher2 people come to find all things, from calico dresses to fish and fresh tripe. In the center is a fovntain, whose marble sides are sculp- tured with the classical designs dear to th men of the French revolution, for they thought they were like the Greek and Roman republicans. It was once in front of the Church of Saint Sulpice, but when priests and kings were restored in Paris the new ecclesiasti- cal fountain was set up .here, and the may be made the site of an educational building fcr lay school teachers. ‘The greatest interest of the spot comes from th> rer’ pewer from befor: the days of Charle- Magne. After a thousand years’ existence in one spot the corporation of the monks had a right to think themselves eternal. They struck out to be universal. They obtained from the king the priv- flege to hold here each year, in the carly springtime, a fair at which’ traders from every part of the world should have the chance to sell their wares. Caravans of strang> dealers came on from Russia and the east, and everything could be bought at the monks" fair from Angora cats to Arabian perfumes and Russian furs. Here coffee was first made known to the people of Paris by an enterprising Armo- Dian. And now these same Parisians are waiting for some other new thing for the latest exposition of 1900, Coffee came from the east; they would like something from the Americans of the west. But it must be new, and everything around Saint Sul- Pice is so very old! STERLING HEILIG. — 'N THE CHURCHES There kas been recently formed in North- st Washington, urder the auspices of the inth Street Christian Church, an organt- zation to be known as the “Minute Men it being erned after a similar organi tion in Boston. The prime objects of the organization are the bringing together of the young men of the neighborhood in social intercourse Christian fellowship and to give place where they may go at any t always feel assured of a cordial welcome. Owing to the present unfinished condition of the new church building, the organiza- tion has not as yet been able fit up suitable quarters for its uses, though within the next few weeks th y expect to be able to install themselves, as it is hoped that within that time ihe building will have been compieted. It is the intention to fit up suiteble reading and other rooms and e and them a and to also to furnish, in a modest way at first, a ble gymnasium outfit, wherewith light may be had by those whose tastes run in that direction. The regular meetings are held on the ond and fourth Tuesdays of with other and suppleme the form of social occasions y cers are: William F. Pierce, captain; Frank B. Reed, first Hew ant mon, first sergeant, and Fr quartermast ing their pes' tticers hold- aporarily until the first regular election, which will ur in the near future, and after that annually. Friday evening of next week a rally of the junior Christian Endeavor societies of the city will be held in Mt. Ver: lace M. E. Church. The program will consists of an illustrated lecture on “The Life of Chi interspersed with singing by the juniors of hymns thrown on the c Dr. S. M. Newman will lecture. No admission will be charged. Tie rally committee of the Junior Super- intendents’ Union, having the meetin, charge, consists of Miss Adelia Rand: chairman; Mrs H. Pennell, Miss Cabe, Miss Hodg James Revan officers of the un . president; Mi dent; Miss ¢ a Turnbull, recording sec- retary; Miss Allison, correspon ing secre- ary; Mr treasurer. The W yterian Church, Re Howard Wilbur pastor, has reor- ganized its quartet choi direc- tion of tt H mer in, Miss 2 th Robt new i » Oxley,who r of the ex- clusive musical organization known as the Manuscript Society, and was frequently heard in both concert and recital ten- or is My. John M. Rieman of this city. He has ntly begun to sing publicly A rish reception, called a “Klond! s given by the Ladics’ Aid Associat sisted by the Naomi ild of the Church of the Advent, Le Droit Park, Wednesday evening last, at the residence of My. Samuel C. Benjamin, on T street. The whole lower floor was given up to the visitors, who came in such numbers as to fill the house to its utmost capacity A literary and musical program was en, in which Mesdames Hort and Crand Mrs. Hollingsworth, Miss Hollingsworth and Miss Watson t Afterward, with Mrs. Phillips as ‘ and pianist, a parlor orchestra gave - tions from various composers. A light su per was serv Mrs. Benjamin. by Mrs. May and Mrs. Mott, received the ladies who called. Mr. Samuel C. Benja- min, assisted by Mr. Charles Davies and the Rev. Mr. Mott, welcomed the gentle- men. A choir has been organized in the Mary- land Avenue Baptist Church, Rev. N. c. Naylor, pastor, and is composed as follows: Miss Gertrude Butler, Miss Florence Calla- han, Miss Mignonette Haynes and Mrs. A. A. Protzman, sopranos; Miss Georgia Turn- bull, Miss Elva Pruitt, Ada_Priges and Mrs. S. 0. Ma Mr. Tuomp- tenors; J. D. kod C. F. Crane, A. A. Protzman and Luthe Hall, bassos: Prof. T. Edward Pruitt, di- rector, and Mrs. N. C. A musicale is to be giv y next in the Parish Hall of Trinity Church. object is to add to the fund for the oration of the church. During the summer of this year it is expected to hold services in the large room of the Parish Hall a give the auditorium of the church into the ands of expert decorators. Miss Goodwin of Trinity choir has volunteered to give this musicale for the benefit of the im- provement fund, and a number of her friends will assist hei Mrs. Esther Stanley, who for seve years has been an active member of worth M. E. Church South, left for Kansas City, Mo., where she will enter the Scarritt Bible and Training Missionaries. The evening previous to her departure from the city she was given a farewell reception, under the auspices of the Church League. The financial statement for the past twelve months of St. Cyprian’s Church, which has just been made public, is as fol- lows: Receipts—Cash on hand at previous report, $150; pew rent, $2,25 fertory lections, $1,613; monthl. liections, $360; extra collections, $300; Sanctuary Society, entertainments, $282; picnics, $500, $1,683; rents (society room), $170; do- total, $8,255 >} a 700; interest, ordinary ' expenses, ; toxes, $7 ete. terest-t debt paid, 1898, $206; . %, De 1s9S—Intere aring debt, fund debt (due societies) debt, $31,714.14. The int anuary 1, 1897, was $25.54), ficial societies of the parish paid out dur- ing the year $1,577.13 for sick bene! burial fees and other necessary expe g The new chorus choir of the Church of Our Father, Rev. Leslie Moore, pastor, was heard for the first time by the congreg: tion Sunday | Prof. Harry Howard is leader and organis' The Workingmen’s Club of the Brother- hood of St. Andrew in St. John’s Epis: pal Church, Rev. Dr. Alexander Mackay- Smith, rector, has just ente upon the fourteenth year of its existence. The pres- ent home of the club is at No.- 2105 Penn- sylvania avenue northwest. The building is open every evening of the week from 7 to 11 o'clock, and is well supplied with bil- lard tables, chess, checker and shuffle boards, and also with a good array of ath- letic appliances. Once a month a lecture or other emter- tainment is provided by the club, at the close of which light refreshments are served. There is talk of introducing in Washing- ton a novelty which prevails among young people in some churches in other cities, in the shape of a “dollar or more soci: Every attendant is expected to bring least a dollar of earned money to the so- celal, for the purpose of carrying on some branch of charitable work in which the church, is interested. By request of the World's Student Chris- tian Federation, tomorrow has been set apart by Protestant churches as a uni- versal day of prayer for students. Two M. E. deaconesses of the Cleveland home are attending the training school in this city. The work of construction of the North Carolina Avenue M. P. Church will be re- sumed as soon as the weather will permit and it is expected that the structure be ready for occupancy in a few months. Rev. Dr. Stafford will preach at the 11 in St. Patrick's