p. 12 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 25. (6/18/1902)

CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN.

By S. Hasegawa

(Concluded.)

AS I have already stated, Japanese civilization came in by adoption; and its progress was gradual from the higher class to the lower. Whatever is not adopted and favored by the higher class, can not easily find access to the common people and the lower class. But it is a lamentable fact that the highest class of Japanese society are spiritually dead, being entirely given up to Epicurean banqueting and the worship of mammon. The Japanese were a very clean people, and in feudal times were taught to despise money. The gospel of mammon is the gift of modern civilization.

“Isles of blest Japan! Should your yamato spirit Strangers seek to scan, Say—scenting morn’s sun-lit air— Blows the cherry, wild and fair?”

The wild cherry flower is the emblem of the Japanese heart. It is not gorgeous; it has no appearance of vanity; it does not fade on its twig; but it is simple, fair, and passes away, a living flower, at the call of the breeze. It is a symbol of many virtues; but in the worship of mammon there is nothing kind, nothing noble, and nothing true; but its entire influence is corrupting and deadly. In former times, when one man would borrow money from another, nothing like a pledge was needed; a simple note that if he failed to fulfil his promise, he would consent to be laughed at to his face, was a sufficient security. To be laughed at for an unfulfilled duty was not to be endured then; but what credit could one give to such a note in our days?

In the parable of the man from whom the devil went out only to return with seven other spirits, Christ rebuked the Jews, saying, “Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.” In many respects this saying can be applied to the present condition of Japan. The old condition, with its bad and good, is vanishing away, and the new, with the vices of material civilization, has come in. Some years ago, a Japanese prince, returning from a tour through Europe, said, “I think civilization is barbarism well dressed up.” And Japan, making no pretension to fear God, is displaying it nakedly.

“Society has degenerated and the hearts of men are corrupt,” is the cry taken up by statesmen, newspapers, and the people. “Who shall deliver Japan?” is the question of every sincere heart. As conscience awakens, the way is opening for the truth to spread, and erelong vast fields will be ready for reaping. Buddha teaches of hell and paradise; and now many believe there are no such places, but that they are taught as a means to correct people, and keep them in the right path. And they look upon the destruction of the wicked and the establishment of the heavenly kingdom, as taught in the Christian religion, in the same way. The Japanese have not much idea of eternal life, and the young men are worshipers of fame. This idea is often sung in military songs. The tendency of these religious views is to make it hard to appreciate the need of salvation for each soul. Tho the young men may be made to know God, and tho their hearts may seek after Him for the sake of doing right, they are prone to deny Christ’s resurrection and divinity, and by false leaders they are soon led away to intellectuality and rationalism. This is a very sad fact.

Young men who to some extent believe in Christianity, but do not feel much need of salvation, will flock into churches, if prominent politicians speak of Christian experience or some phase of Bible truth; but they do not care to have pastors preach Christ crucified. It is well that by any means they are brought to the gate of Christianity; the time may come when they will enter in, and be saved. But how shall they be taught? As it is now, they go into rationalism; or, if as students they profess Christianity, when they plunge into social life they are soon lost in worldly corruption, as bubbles in the water. To work among students, and get the new generation to see the truth, is very important, and this Christian teachers have readily seen. But unless the converts are built up, and become strong in Christian character, they can not bear the tests that will come, their environments are so bad.

Now our work in Tokyo is to teach the truth to students who come largely for the purpose of acquiring an English education. They are all attending schools where infidelity is much taught. My experience is that our work among them is not very effective; for tho they may hear the truth a little, they are surrounded by an atmosphere of skepticism, and are fully under the influence of worldly ambition. But with our present means we can not find a better method. A Christian industrial school is greatly needed, where students can be taken away from the secular influence, and their characters built up till they are ready to meet the world. It will take more money to do this; but if economy means, not a greater or less outlay of money, but money used to the best effect, then this is the truest economy. If plans are well laid, I believe it will be little expense to carry on a school after it is once established. And I believe our brethren and sisters in America will be liberal to help in this work.

I will now tell how the truth is finding its way toward the common people. Tho the higher class—the rich and the educated—are in a degraded state morally, there is much spiritual life in the middle class. For those who are sunk in gross idolatry, Christianity is hard to understand. But the majority of those who worship Buddha in good faith, and are devoted to the honor of ancestors, if they would turn to Christianity, and become as firmly established in it as they are now in their present faith, would put many European and American Christians to shame. Hitherto they have had a strong antipathy to Christianity, and have been unwilling to listen to it; but their minds are now becoming changed.

To express the general idea in words, I think it would be something like this: “Yes; I believe Christianity is a very good religion. Christ is just as good as Buddha. Buddhism and Christianity are different in form; but I believe they are the same thing in the end. They are two different ways of reaching the same goal, and I do not see that it is important to change my faith.”

I have attended several Buddhist meetings, and to my great astonishment have found that its intelligent preachers quote from the Bible occasionally, saying, “Christ said so and so, too,” to impress the minds of the audience. They even tell their hearers that they misunderstand Christianity; that it is not a bad religion. I think the Buddhist preachers know now that it would be to their disadvantage to oppose Christianity; that the only way to keep people firm in the Buddhist faith is to appear very liberal-minded, and to lead them to think that the priests have investigated Christianity, and found Buddhism superior. For in one way and another the idea that Christianity is hateful is passing away, and there is a growing disposition to hear it.

All Christian denominations are represented here; and people regard them as they do denominations of Buddhism. They think those that have many churches and schools are right, and that the others are the behind-the-times denominations. The denominations did a joint work last year to arouse a general interest, and the result was seemingly very good. This is the time to do active work, and I have tried to reach the families of the common people with the truth; but it is hard for them to appreciate our words, unless there is something tangible to show them. We can not and would not do as many other churches do here; but means are needed in order to do an effectual work. And I hope that our work here will always be remembered in your prayers, and that there will be shown an increasing interest in Japan. S. HASEGAWA.

WHICH ARE YOU?

By Ella Wheeler Wilcox

There are two kinds of people on earth to-day, Just two kinds of people, no more, I say.

Not the sinner and saint; for it's well understood The good are half bad, and the bad are half good.

Not the rich and the poor; for to rate a man's wealth, You must first know the state of his conscience and health.

Not the humble and proud; for in life's little span Who puts on vain airs is not counted a man.

Not the happy and sad; for the swift-flying years Bring each man his laughter, and each man his tears.

No; the two kinds of people on earth I mean Are the people who lift and the people who lean.

Wherever you go, you will find the earth's masses Are always divided in just these two classes.

And oddly enough, you will find, too, I ween, There's only one lifter to twenty who lean.

In which class are you? Are you easing the load Of overtaxed lifters who toil down the road?

Or are you a leaner, who lets others share Your portion of labor, of worry and care?

—Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

Fear and Love

NO ONE loves the man whom he fears.—Aristotle.

FOR THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS.

By E. A. Sutherland

It is the right of every child born of Christian parents to have a Christian education. Parents therefore rob their children of an inalienable right when they, as members of the church, fail to provide Christian training for their children.

Moreover, the adoption of a system of Christian education lies at the foundation of strength in church organization, and the Christian body which fails to provide schools for its children and youth will in time cease to exist; for its life-blood is sapped, and death is the inevitable result. Churches have died ignorant of the cause of their own decline. Could the case have been analyzed, it would have been found that year after year the youth—the strength, the flower, the hope of the organization—were drifting away. Nothing can preserve the church except the proper education of the children. As well might any other method be relied upon, as for mankind to attempt to perpetuate the race by applying healing remedies to adults while the children and youth were allowed to die unnoticed, consumed, as it were, by some awful pestilence.

It is because the children must be saved, because healing must be applied to the young and tender ones, the hope of our work, that teachers are in training or are urged to prepare for work in Christian schools.

The situation is a touching one. Altogether too long have we halted. Scores and hundreds of teachers must now be hurried into the field. No cheap cast of mind can do acceptable work in a Christian school. The standard is high. Christian teachers, above all others, need thorough training. It is for them that the Educational Department of the General Conference is planning to conduct the summer assembly at Berrien Springs, Mich., June 12 to August 20.

This school will be held in tents, in a fifty-acre grove of beech and maple, on the new farm of Emmanuel Missionary College. The site is lovely beyond description. Nature seems to have spared no effort to produce an ideal spot. The bluffs, the lofty trees, the river, the springs, the brook—in fact, the entire surroundings, are such as to remind one of that first school on earth, the home of Adam and Eve. It is a place where worn teachers may come apart to rest, where all will be near to God.

The St. Joseph River, near the Site of the Summer Assembly.

The course of instruction offered is of a most practical nature for teachers of church and intermediate industrial schools. The fact that the school is on the farm, where fruit is ripening, and the vegetable gardens are open to study, and where students may daily watch the growth of a school which is in process of construction—these things make it possible for a work to be done at Berrien Springs which could not be done elsewhere.

Some of the most stirring problems with which young people have ever been called to grapple, will be met at this assembly.

From August 10-20 the assembly will resolve itself into an educational convention, in which all departments of the educational work will be represented. This, to our teachers, will correspond to the annual gatherings of the Jewish nation, serving to bind together and unify the interests of those whose hearts are devoted to a noble work.

Those interested should make application for the Announcement of the Summer Assembly.

Address— E. A. SUTHERLAND.

Berrien Springs, Mich.

OUR WORK AND WORKERS.

Five candidates were baptized at Bluffton, Minn., on the 10th ult., by Brother Andrew Mead.

From Queenstown, British Guiana, Brother W. T. Downer reports the baptism of eight persons.

Throughout the Australasian Union Conference, June 14–21 was observed by our brethren as a week of prayer.

A German Department has been added to the Keene (Texas) Industrial Academy, with Prof. A. Kunz as principal.

July 5 is the date set by the General Conference for special donations for the relief of the publishing house at Christiania, Norway.

May 18, five candidates were baptized in the Ohio River at Wheelersburg, by Brother R. R. Kennedy. Three others were awaiting a future opportunity.

Thirty candidates were baptized at Keene, Texas, at the close of the academy term, a few weeks ago. Special meetings had been held a week.

Prof. C. C. Lewis, for several years principal of Keene (Texas) Industrial Academy, has been chosen as principal of Walla Walla (Wash.) College, and Prof. Alvin Covert takes the place made vacant at Keene.

Brother J. L. Shaw, who is laboring in India, reports the baptism of a man afflicted with leprosy. He had been wanting baptism for some time, but did not broach the subject, as he feared that no one would be willing to baptize a leper.

At the last annual meeting of Upper Columbia Conference, officers were elected as follows: President, A. J. Breed; secretary and treasurer, J. L. Kay; executive committee, A. J. Breed, J. H. Holbrook, J. W. Pasey, J. M. Willoughby, and W. H. Saxby.

The name of the Keene Industrial Educator, published at Keene, Texas, has been changed to Southwestern Union Record, merging also the two conference papers of Oklahoma and Arkansas. The Record is to be the organ of the Southwestern Union Conference, issued weekly at 50 cents a year.

Four candidates were baptized recently at Merced, Cal., by Brother H. G. Thurston. This fruit was the result of labor by Sister Evelyn M. Riley.

Brother S. M. Cobb, president of West Virginia Conference, reporting a tour of the churches to the Monitor, notes the baptism of five persons at Flora, five at Grafton, and one at Newburg.

The Indicator says: “An aged brother at Monticello [N. Y.], who is a cripple and has had no experience in selling books, sold five ‘Christ’s Object Lessons’ in going from his home into town.”

Our contemporary, the South African Sentinel, has been much improved, mechanically and otherwise, under the management of editor W. S. Hyatt. It is well patronized by advertisements of Cape Town business men, which shows a good degree of local appreciation.

At Lincoln, Neb., May 18, five candidates were baptized by Brother C. R. Kite. The Reporter also notes the baptism of five persons at Oakdale, and twenty-four at Culbertson. Brethren Gaede and Schroeder have been laboring at the latter place among the German population.

Sister Vesta J. Farnsworth has been chosen as editor of the Bible Echo, published at Melbourne, Victoria. She will be assisted by an editorial committee. Her former place as managing editor of the Union Conference Record, published at Sydney, N. S. W., is filled by Brother E. C. Chapman, of Cooranbong.

Brother Loyd T. Caldwell reports that for a year past he has sold the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Good Health, tracts, etc., on the streets of Denver, Col., on Sundays, with success. Lessons on present truth are given from the Bible, charts, etc., and printed matter is sold. The down-town crowds will listen for hours, and one has a cheap, rapid way to put the Gospel before them. There is much blessing and good results.

At the meeting of the Tasmanian Conference, held in February last, Pastor E. Hilliard was re-elected president; C. H. Parker, vice-president; T. House, secretary; P. H. Pretyman, treasurer; tract society secretary and treasurer, Mrs. I. Hilliard; Sabbath-school secretary and treasurer, Katie Judge. The conference voted to donate a second tithe of its funds for one year to the erection of a sanitarium at Wahroonga, N. S. W.

We note with pleasure the statement that our contemporary in India, the Oriental Watchman, is growing in circulation and influence. Three thousand yearly subscriptions have been taken in eight months. Two brethren who are laboring in Burma took 200 subscriptions in ten days. They have also received a large number of orders for “Christ’s Object Lessons.”

Our readers who have followed Dr. J. E. Caldwell’s career in the South Sea Islands, who have mourned with him the death of his devoted wife, will rejoice to know that the fruit of the mother’s faithfulness remains in the two sons who are at the school in Avondale, New South Wales, fitting themselves for better work for the Master. The training of children for God is the privilege of every mother. Dr. Caldwell expects soon to return to this country.

The North Pacific Conference has been divided, and its territory is now known as the Western Washington Conference and the Western Oregon Conference. The officers of Western Washington are: President, F. M. Burg; secretary and treasurer, H. E. Hoyt; missionary secretary, G. W. Pettit; executive committee—F. M. Burg, H. J. Schnepper, C. J. Cole, W. R. Simmons, and L. I. Stiles. The officers of Western Oregon Conference are: President, S. W. Nellis; secretary and treasurer, Miss Daisy Cuddy; missionary secretary, W. H. Coffin; executive committee—S. W. Nellis, E. L. Stewart, A. Q. Shryock, W. C. F. Ward, and E. T. Cornell.

Brother T. Christian, of Lemoore, Cal., a native of Pitcairn Island, sends us the following information: “We have learned by last mail that our people of Pitcairn Island have purchased a boat of their own, to ply between that island, Mangareva, Tahiti, Oeno, and Elizabeth. Tahiti and Mangareva will be headquarters, and any one wishing to send mail to Pitcairn will remember to send by way of Tahiti. This is the first time that the people of Pitcairn ever have had direct communication with other parts of the world, altho the island has been inhabited over a hundred years. The Lord is blessing the people there in great measure. Any further information regarding this matter may be had by addressing T. Christian, Lemoore, King’s County, Cal.”

THE MEXICAN FIELD.

By Editor

SINCE our last report we are pleased to announce the receipt of the following donations for the work in Mexico:—

Previously reported ........................ $367 21 M. A. Drake ...................................... 1 00 Mrs. Sinclair ....................................... 5 00 John L. Turner ................................... 20 00 Mrs. A. E. Slater .................................... 50 H. A. Hartman .................................... 1 00 Laura Shelton ...................................... 5 00 A friend .................................................. 3 00 Laura Trowbridge ................................ 2 00 A friend .................................................. 2 75 Mrs. Mary Skelton ................................. 1 50 S. T. Merrill ............................................ 5 00 D. A. Eddy .............................................. 1 00 Mary Barrett .......................................... 2 00 Mrs. H. Prewer ......................................... 25 Total $417 21

In addition to the above a brother has promised a regular donation of $25.00 every month for one year for Gospel work in Mexico. We feel very grateful to our friends who are responding so liberally to this enterprise. It represents a long-needed work for our near neighbors in an adjoining country, and we trust the interest in it will continue to increase. Full accounts of our plans have appeared in previous issues. If you have not seen them and desire to know what they are, ask us for the back numbers, and they will be supplied free. We hope that our friends will continue to forward donations for this work to SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Oakland, Cal.

GROWING DEPRAVITY.

By David Paulson

Why the People of To-Day are More Depraved than They were a Generation Ago.

There are at present half a million criminals in the United States. There are nearly a quarter of a million insane, feeble-minded, and imbecile persons in this country. Exclusive of the prescriptions of physicians and other legitimate sales, the inhabitants of one small New England State used three million doses of opium last year. Race deterioration is increasing. It requires no juggling of figures to demonstrate that this is a fact. When a nation expends many more millions for soul-and-body-destroying substances than it does for its bread, Bibles, and education, then we should expect nothing else.

The liquor curse is only one of the factors that contribute to this alarming race deterioration. It is amazing that at this age of progress so little attention is given to the study of practical dietetics. Thousands of girls are graduated from our higher institutions of learning, perfectly conversant with a number of more or less useless ancient and modern arts, but unable to prepare a wholesome meal. With such a situation it is not surprising that fresh recruits are daily being added to the already vast number of dyspeptics, and that thousands of our boys are tempted to resort to the saloons to drive away even temporarily the dreadful “all gone” feeling which invariably results from trying to subsist upon an improperly prepared dietary. There are sincere reformers and noble and enthusiastic temperance workers who fail to trace any relationship between an improper and unsuitable dietary and the saloon traffic; but the fact remains that if they could recognize this, the results from the efforts they put forth would be multiplied many fold.

Although the immediate effects of tobacco are not so apparent as those of alcohol, yet its slow, insidious influence is ultimately, in many cases, as baneful as that of liquor itself. Dr. I. N. Love, professor in the New York Post-Graduate Medical School, stated at a recent medical convention that “the numerous mental wrecks, youths who have come under my care whose lives were failures or who fill suicides’ graves, impress me that to-day tobacco stands as the greatest danger confronting the new century.” Leading educators have discovered that the cigaret fiend is ordinarily never found in the senior year; he drops out before he reaches this period. There is one company alone which produces from seven to nine million cigarets daily; and the overcrowded institutions for feeble-minded children, reform schools, and the hordes of pale-faced, hollow-chested, empty-brained boys, that throng the streets of our large cities, testify to the fact that the law of sowing and reaping has not been annulled.

When Adam fell, the Lord arranged that he would have to work hard enough to sweat. This was not a curse, but a blessing, and was essential to his happiness while in this wicked world; but there was never a time when honest labor was so much despised as at present, and when there was such a desperate attempt to get through the world without working. Every rescue-worker of experience will verify the statement that a large proportion of the ever-increasing army of fallen girls comes from homes that have in them the various comforts of modern life; but the gray-haired mother drudges in the kitchen and over the wash-tub, while the daughter enjoys the curse of “abundance of idleness.” Contempt for honest labor increases until she would rather barter her womanhood for bread than earn it legitimately. The young men of to-day use up their surplus energy while in college by playing pranks upon their fellow-students, and squander their useful activity in the wine-rooms in the evening; and by and by they discover that the shortest way of getting through the world without working is by gambling or forgery.

Some one has said that “an idle brain is the devil’s workshop.” It may be as truly said that it is his camping ground. The remedy for this evil consists in inculcating from early childhood the true dignity of labor, in giving industrial training equal prominence in the school curriculum with higher mathematics and the finer arts, in recognizing that the girl who does the kitchen work belongs on the same plane as her wealthy sister who never toiled, provided she otherwise possesses the character and qualifications. Just so long as society closes its social doors to boys and girls on the ground that they are toilers, while at the same time the dens of iniquity are extending their arms to them, society need shed no tears over the prosperity that these institutions are enjoying while sapping the life-blood of the nation.

Reformatory efforts will be successful just to the extent that they are directed to the removal of causes rather than the cure of effects. It is indeed a discouraging and disheartening task to pull up weeds with one hand while sowing for them with the other. Just to the extent that the correcting power of the Gospel is applied to the tap-roots of the fundamental defects of society, we shall see that it has in it the same power to inspire and uplift humanity that it possessed when it was enunciated by the lowly Nazarine on the hills of Galilee.

DAVID PAULSON, M.D.

THE CHILD

By Mrs. Mary Wood-Allen, M.D.

II. HEALTH.

WITHOUT physical health, or wholesomeness as the word primarily means, the individual is hampered in all his efforts. The foundations of health should be laid in early infancy. The very first requisite is the preservation of vital heat. In its prenatal life, the child has been in an unvarying temperature of about 98° F. It has been protected from jars and concussions, from pressure or cutaneous irritations. It is suddenly transported to a varying temperature that at its best must seem raw and disturbing. It is subjected to sudden jars, to turnings and tossings, to pressure and roughness of clothing, in fact to a multitude of conditions, all of which are unusual and many actually painful. How to avoid all possible causes of disturbance of body, and consequently of mental conditions, is the first requisite.

It not infrequently happens that jaundice, catarrh, and bowel affections result from exposure during the first care of the new-born infant, and these objectionable conditions may remain as permanent diseases. The dyspepsia of maturity may have originated in the first substances introduced into the baby's stomach. The future efficiency of the adult may depend upon the care received during the very first hours of life. It is, then, worthy of our attention to discuss the question of this care.

The new-born child should not at once be plunged into a water bath and put through the torture of an introduction to clothes; but after being wiped off quickly with a soft cloth, and the eyes washed carefully with old linen and cool water that has previously been boiled, he should be swaddled in soft, light-weight wrappings, and laid away in a warm place to rest after his tiresome journey.

The baby incubator exhibited at the Pan-American plainly showed how premature babies with low vitality may be kept alive by their bodily temperature being kept up to normal. While with the vigorous child this is not so absolutely essential, it is nevertheless important.

It is well to secure these conditions, if need be by the use of a hot-water bag placed near enough to keep the surrounding air comfortably warm, yet not near enough to produce discomfort. In such soft swathings, unhampered by weight or pressure of clothing, except shirt and diaper, the child may be kept for days, or even weeks, to his advantage and comfort.

His first cleansings may be with oil rubs, and these given in a room over 80° F. The most comfortable place in which to wash and dress a baby is the kitchen, close to a glowing stove, with the oven door open, and the genial warmth pouring out in a comforting flood. When the time for the first water bath arrives, the nurse or caretaker can don a large apron of flannel or Turkish toweling. The bath should be about blood heat (98°), and the body, wrapped loosely in a towel, should be lowered gently into the tub. This is a new and strange experience to him, and should be made as easy for him as possible. When he is enveloped by the warm water, the towel may be removed, and the nurse, holding the head with the left hand, can use the right hand in gently rubbing the little body. When the washing process is completed, the child should be quickly lifted to the lap, and wrapped in the large apron. Then one part of the body at a time can be exposed for the drying, which should be expeditiously done by gentle patting with a soft towel.

The clothing should be arranged so as to be put on with as few turnings of the baby as possible. Slips of different sizes can be placed one inside the other, and all slipped on at the same time. The Marguerite or the Gertrude patterns are practical guides for first clothing for infants.

And now comes the question of food. If the child can have the food which nature supplies, the problem is a simple one, needing only a regulation of times of feeding; but if art must be brought in to supply nature's deficiency, we may well be concerned as to the outcome. True, the problem seems to have been lessened by the manufacture of a great variety of infant foods; yet no food as yet has been found equal to milk, and after mother's milk, diluted cow's milk has the pre-eminence. No cast-iron rules can be laid down as to artificial feeding of babies. It will possibly need the combined wisdom, care, watchfulness, and patient experimentation of a competent physician, a careful nurse, and a judicious mother, to discover just what food suits the individual child. A few general laws may be stated. Every vessel in which food is kept, prepared, or served, should be cleansed and sterilized with most scrupulous care, and boiling is the surest method of sterilization.

The vessels should not be wiped, but allowed to dry by evaporation. It is well to have two bottles and belongings, that one may be cleansed while the other is in use.

Greatly to be pitied are both child and mother when artificial feeding must supplant that of nature; but the mother may still claim for herself the privilege of supplying the adjuncts to each meal. If she comprehends the value that her personal care and love will be both to herself and the little one, she will not put the baby off in his crib with his bottle, nor allow him to be fed by some one else; but she will hold him in her own arms, will cuddle and talk to him; will make him feel, as far as lies in her power, that from her he is supplied with food, and so she will in a measure maintain that sweet relation between her and the babe who—

“Finds in his mother's breast The cup of his life and couch of his rest.”

THE HOME LIGHT.

By Ripley D. Saunders

The light of home's a wondrous light, So tender in its shining, So soft it follows through the night, Our weary road outlining; Tho lonely and for years we roam, Far from the ones who love us, Yet ever shines the light of home, Like God's grace spread above us.

The light of home's a wondrous light; Through life it follows, seeming, Yet when with age the hair is white, Clear in the front 'tis gleaming. It shines from where our loved ones are— O, this is love's divining!— And through the gates of heaven ajar At last we see it shining!

—Ripley D. Saunders.

TRAINING DOGS FOR POLICEMEN.

By J. E. Whitby

[J. E. Whitby, in Modern Culture.]

THE dogs are taught by means of dummy figures made up as much as possible to represent the thieves and dangerous characters they may be likely to meet. How much patience is needed by him who undertakes this particular form of education only those who have tried to train animals will properly appreciate. The dog must be trained to seek, to attack, to seize and to hold, but without hurting seriously.

The first step is to place the dummy in such a position that it shall represent a man endeavoring to conceal himself. The dog soon understands that it is an enemy whom he must hunt, and enters heartily into this part of his lesson, but it is not so easy to teach him not to injure it. The teacher lowers the figure to the ground, and the dog learns that, tho he may not worry his prey, he must not allow his fallen foe to stir so much as a finger until the order is given.

After the dummy a living model is used; and as this process is obviously not entirely without danger, the person chosen for this purpose is usually he who ministers to the pupil's creature comforts and for whom the canine detective is sure to entertain a grateful affection. Nevertheless he is prevented at first, by means of a muzzle, from an exhibition of too much zeal. Afterward the experiment is tried on other members of the force. In four months the dog's education as a policeman is considered complete, and he takes his place with the rest. The animals are also taught to swim and to seize their prey in the water; to save life from drowning; to scale steel walls, and to overcome all obstacles, so that any enterprising burglar who goes “a-burgling” in Ghent has a lively time of it if he meets with one of these four-footed “bobbies.”

The dogs work so well and so conscientiously that their number is to be increased, and there is every probability that the plan will be adopted in other centers. Their keep comes to about three pence a day, and they cost the town altogether about sixty pounds a year, including their doctors and their tailors' bills.

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