Wide awake Station IN THE [AND»f(HOSEN A WIDE AWAKE STATION in the Land of Chosen. This is one station of EIGHT others in the CHOSEN MISSION where the Board has work. Twenty-seven of the entire force of 127 missionaries are located at Pyeng Yang, the “wide-awake station.” With them are asso- ciated 612 ordained and unordained Korean preachers, teachers, Bible women and other workers. The Evangelistic work of the Mission comprises 11,007 unorganized groups of believers, 189 organized churches ; ( See inside of back cover) A WIDE-AWAKE STATION IN THE LAND OF CHOSEN N JUNE, 1915, a party of American tourists were on the Seoul-Antung express train as it pulled slowly out of Chungwha station. The neatly uniformed, gold-braided conductor came through the first-class car and stopped opposite the party, politely raising his cap. “The next station is Pyeng Yang. You may have overstop there of two hours and take Man- churian Express at five o’clock. Do you wish ?” They were all Christian people and interested in seeing what the Gospel is doing for the East. They had seen mission work in Japan proper and had stopped a few days in Seoul. But they were busy people, due to be back in America by the first of August, with all of China and India and the Philip- pines yet to be done. And like most 20th Century tourists they were in a hurry. They had not expected to be able to stop off at the small city of 1 Pyengyang, but the newly changed train schedule and the polite conductor had arranged it all for them. With timetables carefully committed to memory and watches more carefully noted, the party of four came out through the gates from the trainshed and were pushed into that confusing mix-up of crowding, yelling, baggage coolies and eager, hopeful, ricksha- men, which hold up the traveller at every station. Out of the midst of all these strange Oriental sounds the tourists heard a delightfully familiar and pleasant sound — the honk-honk of an American Automobile. And at the same time they were met by a uniformed Korean guide, whose brisk and business-like manner made them think of home as he said: — “Take the auto, please ?” Pyengyang is no longer a city of slumber. It has rubbed its eyes and found itself awake in the early dawn of the new world. Time used to be when sight-seeing people rode around the town on donkey-back or sedan chair ; then later came the push-line street railway and after that the ricksha. P>ut now enter the famous, fourseated, finely finished auto, — the new rubber- neck-wagon of Pyengyang. Its equipment is composed chiefly of a three speed s-forw-ard-and-reverse, four cylinder engine, a reckless, open-the-throttle- 2 wide, Japanese driver, and, chief of all, a loquacious, six-cylinder three-years-in-America Korean guide — who collects your fare and tells you what you ought to see. He speaks any language made to order to suit his native countrymen or the Japanese or the tourist from America or Europe. The guide quickly took the ladies’ small handbags and led the party to the honking car. “What do you wish to see, Gentlemen, Japanese water works, soldiers barracks, electric light plant, riverside drive, or Korean old- town? Five dollars an hour.” “We have only two hours between trains,” was the reply. “Any foreign missionaries in this town?” “Missionaries? Ah ! 1 see you are Christian. Gentlemen and ladies, I will show you the biggest lot of missionaries and one of the greatest mission stations in the world. Ladies in the middle seats, please. Crank her up, Natakashima, and make it fast for W est Gate foreign settlement." The four cylinders began to fire, much encouraged by an open throttle and a small Japanese foot pressed firmly on the accelerator lever. A mile and a half of strange oriental street, filled with oddly dressed people and packponies and bulls and rick- shas and queer carts spread quickly out before them and as quickly vanished in the wake of the fast-moving car. Around four corners, over a small hill, 3 CLASS IN PHYSICS-UNION CHRISTIAN COLLEGE and the car slowed down and the guide rose up — and the four tourists began to breathe and to see again. “On your left, large brick building, the Pyengyang Union Christian College for men. Proud of it. Even the unbelievers say it’s a mighty worth while school. Eighty young men studied there this year — a fine bunch of young fellows who are getting an education that wasn't possible ten years ago in Korea. Wish I was one of ’em myself. They teach the boys good Chinese and Japanese and Sciences and the Bible. Idea is to make good men out of them. Dr. Baird is the president, fine missionary and he’s ably assisted by some good solid men — Bernheisel who tells the boys of the wonderful things of history, and Smith who teaches them how to split hairs, and Mowry who trails them around after bugs and worms, and Parker who feeds them mathematics in large chunks, and Grove of the Methodist Mission, who has done great things for the boys in music. And then this year they got hold of two splendid American-college-educated Christian Japanese, Kubo who teaches the national language and Narahashi who fills them up on science. ‘Christian College’ — yes, the label is all right ; founded on the Bible, teachers and students all Christians, aim of the school to make useful 5 INDUSTRIAL SHOP “ANNA DAVIS" SCHOOL Christian men. Right beyond the college you see a Ivorean-style two-story building- — The Boys' Academy. Three hundred students this year. I know a lot of those boys. They sometimes kick about the school but they are mighty glad to have a chance to study in it. See that long low building over in the back lot? Well, that is the Anna Davis Industrial Shops — part of the Academy. There’s that six-footer McMurtrie and the industrious Gillis standing out in front now. Their idea is to show the boys how to work while they study. Students: work and earn enough to pay their board — and learn how to saw a board straight and plane a square edge besides. Building? Yes this Academy has only the two. Think of handling 300 boys in one recitation building like that! It has far outgrown itself. I hear they hope to put up a new building this summer if they can get the money. Fine chance for some American Christian people to help in a good work. “Hold on there, Natakashima, stop the car a minute. I want these folks to see the building on the right. Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Gentle- men, this is the biggest Presbyterian preacher factory in the world. They had 230 of them in the making inside that building this year and at com- mencement they turned out 28 rolled-and-pressed, dyed-in-the-wool, thirty- 7 OUTPUT OF THE "PREACHERS FACTORY" two-coated, catechism-committed, Presbyterian preachers. They are Korean men of good stuff and will go out in all directions to take charge of churches which their western teachers helped to establish some years ago. This Seminary building is an over-worked plant, all right. Twice a year one of the biggest Presbyteries in the world holds forth under this roof. Every Sunday and on Wednesday night the West Gate or Fifth Church meets in this building. This church is full of students, the poorest fellows in the country, it has no money, and hasn’t been able to put up its own building like the other churches in the city have. Hope they do it soon. It will help my business, and anyway churches are a good thing for this old town. “And, say, along in January how they do overwork that Seminary build- ing. Last winter I saw a thousand happy men going in and coming out through those doors every day for two weeks. ‘Bible class’, they said, and men had come in from everywhere, a good many of them walking over 70 miles, and I knew some who walked in 120 miles from the mountains to study in this class. And then besides they had in December and January in this building a Bible school, regular course for two months, 213 men studied, and 7 were graduated at the close. Just now they are having a big Men’s Bible 9 class for church officers. Great old building, this. You can call it God's big work-house, always busy, never closed down. It’s been built for 8 years now and I reckon during that time ten thousand prayer-meetings have been held under that roof and many hundred Bible study classes have met in those rooms. “All right, Natakashima, drive around the corner. This is the Caroline A. Ladd Hospital. I saw something in there that made me want to be a Christian. Some country fellows had brought in a woman very sick from a terrible cancer. The foreign doctor and his Korean helpers seemed very glad to see the poor woman. ‘Fine case’ they said, to one another, but I couldn’t see anything very fine about it. In two minutes they had that woman on the white table, there was a rustling of white starched aprons, a clattering of doctor’s tools, and all was ready The doctor, the orderlies, the Korean nurse, all gathered round the table and stood attention. Then before the white mask was put on and the sleep-dope dropped on the woman’s face, they said, ‘Let us pray.’ They asked the Christian’s God to help them do that job clean and right and save the life of the woman — and chief of all to save her immortal soul. Then they quickly fell to work — five pairs of hands 10 — and in fifteen minutes a body was relieved of a most painful sore and a life was saved. I hear that that woman went back to her unbelieving house in the country, preached Christ to her people and brought them all into the church. During the past year Dr. Wells had 421 operations of different kinds, and over 18,000 people were treated at this hospital. Many of them are unbelievers and they come out of these gates mighty thankful for what the Christian doctor has done for them and with a mind to believe in his God. Koreans, Japanese, foreigners, all want to say, ‘Thank you for your hospital.’ “Now, ladies, something for you to see. Right up this steep hill inside the old city wall is the Woman’s Union Academy. 1 have heard there are 57 varieties of Christians. There seem to be only two kinds in this town, and just to show there are no hard feelings they have camped out together in this Girls School on the hill. Fine big plant, proud to show it to you — two brick buildings, fairly well equipped, but the school has grown so fast that they need another dormitory right away. Just think! 210 girls in that building this year and 18 of them came out as graduates this month. Learned something too. Educated women in this country are pretty scarce. But this 11 WOMAN S UNION ACADEMY-GIRLS ON WAY TO CHURCH union school is trying hard to give the young girls a chance. They never let me inside those women-inhabited walls, so 1 never saw them at work, but my brother’s chum married one of those graduates two years ago and I know he’s keen for the girls’ Academy. Says his wife got lots of valuable learning in this school — not only books like the old teachers used to give, but a Christian education, he says, has taught his wife how to live as well, how to work with her hands, to sew and cook and care for the house. Miss Snook has been principal of this school ever since it started and she knows by this time about what a Korean girl ought to learn. Then the married ladies often leave their babies and their husbands’ stockings, and come and help her. Mrs. Holdcroft teaches the girls how to know a bug when they see one; Mrs. Mowry pulls them through the mazes of mathematics; Mrs. Phillips keeps them busy working with their needles, to earn their board and make their fingers nimble ; Mrs. Gillis patiently leads them through the pleasant paths of music and drawing; and Mrs. Smith gives them everyday lessons in ‘English as she is spoke.’ Yes they all help. Mrs. Parker has given a lot of time to them and then there’s all the ladies of the Methodist Mission — all of them united in trying to give the Korean girls a better chance. 13 “Now more for the ladies to see. Natakashima just drive this benzine buggy over to that Womans Bible Institute Compound. Here we are. Here’s a piece of mission property that's mighty neat and good to look at — but it’s a whole lot more than an ornament. Here, ladies, is the Great Em- porium of Bible Learning for Women. The weeds never grow inside this front gate. Some busy place! I can’t begin to count all the Bible classes they hold in this place. System ! W hy the government itself could learn lots of red tape and system from the ladies who run this plant. They keep them ah classified and separated. First in the Fall they open the doors just a little bit and let in only the Women Sunday School teachers, teach them two weeks, turn them loose, open the doors again just so the Winter Country Class teachers can squeeze in. So they go it all the year round, holding classes for the classified. And then in the Spring this year Hiss Dorris, the manager of this big Emporium gathered her chief helpers of the Missionary wives, together and said, ‘Come along now. just turn your children and your household cares over to your husbands and let’s get busy on the three months’ Bible Institute.’ Looks to me like in one year they must get over the whole Bible, but what do they do next year but do it again — and they 14 all seem to like it. The teachers love their job and the Korean women come in hundreds, flocking in from everywhere, all glad to learn more about the Christian’s Great Book. This little building across the way came out from Illinois several years ago. Call it Marquis Chapel. It is used as a Sunday school and prayer meeting place and is the home of a little school that has no name in particular but which does a big work. A school for young mar- ried women. It’s on the job three days a week nine months a year. It is kept open for busy Korean housekeepers who can’t go to school all the time. This year 45 women were enrolled in this school. “Ladies and gentlemen, as you see from all these Chinese inscribed name plates, we are now in the midst of the Missionary Residence Compound — ‘Little America’ we call it. Fourteen houses here. Wish I could take you to see all these people from your native land. They would gladly welcome you and tell you better than I have about the work they are doing for their God. But we will have to hurry to catch that South Manchuria — so just a word. Counting men, women, and children, there’s 49 of them, and among the busiest people in the world. All the way from Dr. Moffett, President of the Seminary, founder of the station, whose anniversary of 15 25 years work in Korea was celebrated properly by everybody in this town last winter, all the way down to the five-year-old Phillips who pretends to be busy riding a motorcycle around over six counties to the northeast, looking after 68 churches — all of them are running around in circles trying to keep up with a work that is fast outgrowing their strength. Take Blair for example. He’s pastor of a big city church, pastor of 40 churches scat- tered over three counties, must visit them all two or three times a year; Principal of the Bible Institute; Chairman of some 66 different committees and officers boards. But he’s no exception, only typical of the rest of them. There’s Dr. Swallen. His circuit extends out over all these western plains to the sea. He is pastor of some 50 churches. One tenth of that circuit would keep him busy, but in addition he has many other jobs, chief of all teaching in the Seminary three months in the year. And there’s Holdcroft, Sunday School expert, and Bible teacher, and traveller over the hills to the southeast where he’s put in charge of some 47 churches. Busy, yes, these fellows can hardly be put in the idle class. The men who teach in the college have churches to look after in the country as well and extra Bible 16 classes to teach. And the men who have the big circuits in the country have to teach in classes here in the city as well. “That new brick building up there? oh yes, that’s the new Dormitory for the Foreign School Children. Just put up last summer. Have a fine principal, Mrs. Luckett of Washington, D. C., and an efficient teacher, Miss Fish of California. Missionaries’ children get a good education right here at home. Otherwise they’d have to ship all their babies home to their re- latives in America. This year they have had 28 American boys and girls studying in this school. Quite a lot of them come from other mission stations and from the mining camps, so a lot of people benefit by this school. The principal and the teacher do the heavy work, and two or three others help, and the children get forcible feeding all the way from primary milk tablets up to high school beefsteak and potatoes, and then they ship them off to Mt. Hermon and Northfield to get some more. “All right, Natakashima, turn around and take us back through the city — just time enough to see the city churches and then to the train. This town is full of churches. When they get started on one of their campaigns I can hardly run the car because of the crowds of Christians, preaching on 17 their way to church. You Presbyterians have seven full size city churches and three chapels. This year they have worked hard and have had a lot of new converts. During the big winter campaign some 3000 men and women in this town came out and said they wanted to become Christians. A good many of them didn’t get much farther than the church door for a few days but several hundred stuck fast and go to church regularly now. That little building with all those women flocking out the doors? Well, that’s a house with a history in the making. That’s the Pyengyang Womens Missionary Society being adjourned from a quarterly meeting. That foreign lady among them is Mrs. Bernheisel, their chief advisor. Women around these parts used to be little more than slaves. Now they do things in their own good way. Take the women out and the churches would have to close shop to- morrow. This missionary society is one of the livest wires around this Christian power plant. This year they have collected several hundred dol- lars — no church fairs or oyster suppers either — just plain giving for the Lord, and they’ve sent out ten women two by two into far ofif country places to camp out for six months and preach the Gospel to the Korean 18 women in the hills. And better than some of their brothers they are good business women — they closed the year with a balance of 300 yen ($190 gold). “Seen it all ? Well I guess not. You’ve only seen the headquarters of the Presbyterian mission. Methodists have a good sized mission over on top of that hill too. And some time when you want to see it all just let me take you out into all those country towns, far beyond those mountains. But two hours won’t do. You'll need six months to see all those 300 churches of this Pyengyang territory, and really see what good they are doing in this country. Come out next year and let me arrange a trip for you. Here we are at the station. Thank you very much. Always glad to see guests. Ladies, let me take your baggage.” The station clock pointed at 4.55 P.M. Our tourist friends worked their way out to the platform to take their train. An immense crowd of people had gathered. “Why all the Christians in town have come to see you off!” exclamed the guide. “There are all the Korean pastors and elders and deacons by the score — and what a crowd of women all dressed up in spick and span white clothes! Say 1 wonder what the circus is-” “Why yes” added one of the party, “and way down yonder in that crowd at the end of 19 the platform there's a bunch of foreigners. Guide, please find out what it is.” “Oh, be calm, please gentlemen,” pleaded a redcapped Japanese porter. “This no big thing. This only little crowd of Christians come to meet honorable missionary lady, Miss Best from years’ travel and rest-’em-up in America.” The Manchurian Express rolled in on time. An American lady, face all flushed with happiness, came down the steps and was lost in the embraces of a mighty happy crowd of Koreans and foreign ladies, while the men stood waiting with their hats off. The many station officials had difficulty in persuading this oblivious crowd to move toward the gate and make way for the passengers to get aboard. A clanging bell began to ring. The 20th century, rapid-fire, hit-em-on the fly, hurry-up tourists took their places in the first class compartment and settled comfortably into the big seats. 20 1,076 self-supporting groups and churches ; 46,804 com- municants, 19,264 catechumens and 109,371 adherents. In the 1,181 Sabbath schools there are 87,411 pupils, while 14,303 pupils receive their education in 487 schools of all grades. The sick are cared for in 18 hospitals and dispensaries, over 107,000 being treated in one year. And the Korean Church has given for all purposes, con- tributions which have amounted to $102,831.00 in gold. The Board of Foreign Missions of THE Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. 156 Fifth Ave., New York February, 1916.