city was real, a living individual, christened in the baptism of hardship, struggling through youth to full vigorous life. It led them to read newspapers and reports with newly colored interests. Above all, it spurred some of them at least to love their city and prepare to help it.

I come now to a second aspect of social training in which I have long been interested. I have taught ethics for fifteen years in five private schools for girls in Boston, taking usually the graduating class girls of about seventeen. Two points stand out in my experience: First, that ethical questions are of compelling interest, and second, that even girls who have what is called the best of chances are often uncertain or twisted in their ideas of right and wrong. I give actual cases for discussion. Every question is answered in writing. I comment in writing on each paper, and after they have written their answers the class discusses the topic.

Ethics is a dry word between the lips. Every one shies at it, but ethics the living subject is in my experience with several hundred students one of the most popular lessons in school, for it is the discussion of life in action. I tell my class that in the course of our discussions every subject in the world is open to us, for there is a right and wrong about hunting big game, keeping a secret, cooking mince pies, or running a railroad.

After speaking of the inherent and dramatic interest of ethics I center all my teaching round the idea of loyalty to one's own best and growing purpose. I begin by showing the nature of responsible as contrasted with nonmoral life. I give the class the following quotation from Professor Huxley: "I protest that if some great power would agree to make me always think what is true and do what is right on conditions of being turned into a sort of clock and wound up every morning before I got out of bed, I should instantly close with the offer and should be a better and happier

man." This proposition is invariably rejected by every member of the class. At the very outset I try to make my classes feel our responsibility for this life, which we life, which we at bottom want in spite of its danger and tragedy, and which we accept as our own to make

or mar.

This discussion of moral responsibility may seem too difficult or dry for students of seventeen. I have never found it to be other than intensely interesting and rousing to my class. To bring out the relation of a purpose to happiness, to say to the class: "Do you know any one who has no purpose in life? If so, describe one day in the life of such a person, and the difference between such a day and that of anyone who has a definite aim." It has surprised me to find how well purposeless people are known by my young students.

Purpose always means interest. I go on to consider Interests as Sources of Health, Happiness, and Goodness, and later take up The Choice of our Interests, in order to bring out the individuality of the girls and initiate a consideration of vocations.

The discussion of types of interest leads to the direct relation between loyalty to an interest and goodness. I suggest questions such as these: Can a person who is without any interest be good? Is it better for a man's character to have a strong interest in football or a moderate interest in study? Does hard work increase or lessen an interest? Give an example in which an interest has helped someone you know.

"Does it require any virtues to play football well?" I ask. At first there is a protest that no such abstract things as virtues are needed, but some student is sure to suggest courage, then another, perseverance, a third self-sacrifice, until it would seem that to do anything right up to the mark demands the virtue of a saint and the devotion of a hero. Any persistent purpose also demands conscientiousness.

We turn to the psychology of wrong-doing. Selfish acts are always more or less blinded by wilful inattention. I am traveling to the city. The train is empty. I monopolize two seats with my bags, parcels, and a great bunch of azaleas that I am taking home with me. The train stops and people throng by, looking wistfully at my extra seat. I become too absorbed in my newspaper to see them. I persuade myself that there must be seats farther on, and that someone else, not I, should make room. Of course, I am deceiving myself. I cannot at the same time picture the fatigue of a woman who is standing and keep my seat. It seems to me well worth while to show that in all wrong-doing there is an element of careless or wilful blindness.

You can easily see how the discussion of questions such as these may lead to that fairness of attitude so needed in our generation.

My final lessons center round the use of time. Here, carrying out my central thesis of the moral value of a growing purpose in life, I try to show that the great thieves of time are aimlessness and disloyalty. The girls all know the aimless woman who

drifts down town, attracted by a new hat or a bargain sale, and comes back after four hours with a lighter purse and a wasted day; they know, too, that the busiest people have most time because their definite purpose compels their loyalty to work and gives them freedom when it is done.

Perhaps I can best summarize my hopes of the social value of this ethical teaching by a quotation from one of my class. "Ethics seems to me to be a course for our thinking qualities; it enlarges our imagination. It seems to bring right before you the harm of wrong-doing; it strengthens your point of view; it gives you new ideas which are valuable, and often makes firmer your old ideas.

"Ethics opens your eyes and your ears. You notice things that you never saw before, and listen to conversation that would not have interested you. It helps you to think more clearly and judge more fairly. The part of the course that stands out in my mind is Truth. All other subjects seem to belong with it. When I think of truth I think of courage, too, and loyalty and honor, and how we can follow the great open human road."

O`

NCE Canton makes up its mind that it needs something very badly, it generally succeeds in getting that thing and in coming out on top! It may take a long, long time to get what they want; but, where we of the West might give up in discouragement under difficulties and reverses, the eternal patience of the Oriental stands them in good stead, and they finally arrive, triumphant.

Such has been the case with the women of this city, who for more than six years have been asking eagerly for

the Young Women's Christian Association to come in and start work among the classes who are not being reached by other Christian organizations. But years passed and the much looked for secretary was not forthcoming, and so, acknowledging their ignorance of Association ideals and methods of work as a regrettable, but unavoidable fact, they determined to organize by themselves, and so they did.

On request they became affiliated to the national work, and Mrs. Lerrings

of the Young Men's Christian Association was asked by the National Committee to serve as honorary secretary till the place could be filled by a permanent worker. This occurred in May, 1912, and up to the end of the year about sixty members were enroled, drawn largely from students of Mission Schools and Christian women in the community. The women who were the chief movers in organizing, became of necessity the board of directors, and this body of nine women is carrying the burden of getting things into running order.

During the summer of 1912 Mrs. Lerrings led a Bible class for six weeks, which was very well attended, and as a result two non-Christian girls -teachers in one of the Government normal schools-were converted, and joined one of the Chinese Christian churches of the city. These girls since have sent us an urgent appeal for the opening of a Bible class among the students of their school, but so far the person who can competently do this has not been found.

Besides this Bible class, lectures were given every Saturday and were generally followed by a short social time when the women gathered to play games and have a chance of getting better acquainted. The Association had no place it could call its own, but thanks to the generosity of Dr. Leung, the vice-president, they were able to meet in her home and have a place in which to keep their money and records.

arrived in Canton, a terrible fire swept over a big portion of the city, destroying over eight hundred houses in its course, and among these was Dr. Leung's. As the fire started early she was able, among other things, to save the Association papers and funds. so, except that they were once more without any fixed meeting place this reverse was a slight one. In a short time, however, some of the most enterprising had looked around and found a room which was available

CHINESE HOME

would be near the section of the city from which we hoped to draw our membership. Such a house has not yet been found, but we hope soon to get into touch with the people who can help us to procure a place, and then we shall feel settled and free to begin work in earnest.

The pull for the secretary will come when things do get started, for our board members are so progressive and

enthusiastic that they are speaking of membership campaigns, educational classes on a wide scale, and socials, etc., as activities to be undertaken immediately in spite of the fact that the whole working staff of the Association consists of one solitary foreign secretary who would have to assume all the responsibility of the work entailed. The board of directors is at present looking for a Chinese secretary, but so far none has been found who is free to accept the position. Even should she be found, work on such a big scale would be a dangerous undertaking at this time, for little or nothing of the preparatory educative work, so necessary before organization, has been done, and there is no one competent to handle such a membership as we could have, should we attempt a campaign within the next few months.

The two classes in Canton which are undisputably ours to work among, are the women of the leisure class in the residential, western section of the city, and the women students in the Government schools. Had we the workers to-day, competent to take charge of the work, we could open several student hostels, carry on numerous Bible classes and put on foot a big educational and physical work. The opportunity is here, and is ours if we can take it. We would be backed by the people of the city and given every encouragement. The appeal to open a hostel came from Mr. Chung himself, who is the head of the educational department of the province.

Our field and opportunity is unlimited, and the work which we could do is so vital to the right development and growth of these women who are just stepping out into a new life of freedom which they do not understand, and the awful dangers of which they cannot foresee, that it is hard indeed to feel that now, when they need us most, we are unable to put a strong work on foot immediately. It makes it all the harder for the women, too, when they see what is being done for the men by the Young Men's Christian Association, for in Canton the women feel that their right to life and its advantages is quite equal to that of the men.

Great quantities of agnostic literature have been distributed broadcast in all Government institutions of learning in Canton and already it is doing its work. The sad part of it is that there is no up-to-date Christian literature which can be put into the hands of these students who are reading the agnostic productions with such avidity. Canton needs books, the best books that the West has to offer. When education has been made compulsory in this city, we need literature which we can put into the hands of the young women.

The West, and more especially America, stands as the model after which these people are shaping their actions and forming their ideals, and there is a danger that in adopting western civilization they will overlook its underlying strength in the grip of materialism which threatens them.