University of Nanking - Linguist Yearbook (Nanking, China)

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18 CHILD LIFE IN CHINA Education textbooks, and under his private tutorship, they have mastered three readers in three months. Inside the simple thatched hut with its single room are numerous interesting objects,-the boys' old cradle, two bundles of lo-elrai-the tall dry reed used for fuel-a red pepper and an ear of red corn hanging on the mud wall, a bundle of dried leaves the color of tobacco supposed to be eflieaeious in killing bugs on the plants, matting GDB, v,,- 5 L I'l:oln hy .llisslou Pholo UIIVCIIII for repairing roof or wall, a little locked box of treasured pictures and trinkets, a varied assortment of mattocks, hoes, rakes and buckets. The little fellows are delightfully friendly and unusually honest. Their rough cheeks wrinkle and their eyes are full of 1llC1'l'lll1CDl2 as they look straight into yours. I ani tempted to give them many things because- strange again-they never ask for anything. They seem stolidly happy, they join now and then in games with neighboring boys, and the picture books which they are beginning to read open up a new world. Last Christmas a friend took them a basket of surprises and they listened with wide-open eyes and rapt attention to tl1e Christmas story. But what a narrow world they live in after all! Nevertheless, like the singing diabolo

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1 i CHILD LIFE 'HW' HINAV e .......-A NANKING CHILDREN--Some Pictures. AO-HSIANG and Mao-teo-r are strangely ignorant- of the geography of China and strangely wise about their ow11 little rented lialf-acre, Ev . , V. HA H fir.-ISlU.,tI Cry four weeks-six weeks in Xilllill-iIl1llC .1 new crop o 1 L 111 1 10 e , , . 0111111011 xegctuble green, grows under their hands. At all tnnes of day tl - - . 'C U10 small brothers llli1V be seen at work-setting out Dlants, hoeing, eq' . - V . . . ' nylllg V2'Lf01' from Stug11a11tpo11ds and spraying, cutting, unclbu11dl111gthe greclli or sta1rt1i11g oil to lll21l'li0t witl1 two baskets full across their shoulders. r y , U1011' futher is l'llCllll1EltlC and nsthinuticg their mother, of whom tl1e boys Ntlll Speak reverently und te11derly, d1ed flll'0C years ago. B130-llSiZll1g and 'Ia0'f0O-r are luds under fourteen, hut they f21l'1l1, cook, CHFI1 H10 eighteen douflls 21111111111 rent, and keep the family of three alive and happy. They have 11ot heen beyond Hsizt-kwun since they can l'ClllCllllJCl', they do not knflw i11 what direction Sllilllgllill is or 1'Cliillg 01' Clulffnl- AH1eI'icz1 is ll , Somewhere far off, But 13110 Qfgoks and turns of N:111k1ng streets and the 17121005 where their greens sell hesb HPC 017011 Scogmllily to tl1c111. YY lhey lmve never looked inside un aritlnnetie hook, 'Wt fhcy HPC Cxglerts III mental z1ritl1n1ctie und Chinese currency. H1111 HPC 1'H1'0ly cheated i11 m0l10y t1l'2'lllS2LUtlOllS. 1 The futher was o1-igilmllv from Hllllilll province, of Solid and respectable fll1'lllCI' class and can read qlliffl well, HS the well- tllUl11lJOCl old Chinese novels in his hut bc-ap witness. His futlierly ?tll1lJltlOll WHS stirred recently when his boys WC,-0 given u set of the Popular 1177

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THE LINGUIST 19 llla0 090-1' at New Year time sends high into the air and catches again on hlS string, their minds and spirits break away now and then from the Tronotony of existence in search of higher and fuller life. Some day, all 10 boys and girls of China will have a chance to find such a life. - Have a ride Z I called from my bicycle to a bright little chap i1lJOut eleven years old on his way home from school. Haoj' he shouted, Dlllled his blue gown up about his waist, and sat in front of me on my :heel Where do you study? Fourth Normal Primary. And then hilfifjld me about his basketball team, his playmates, the school store and U X, it Chinese water-color painting he was working on,and his studies. hire all your books here? and I pointed to the sehoolbook-basket lgmg On the bicycle-handle. No? We use a libraryg we are studying m1dCl' the Dalton plan. Shades of Confucius! I promised to visit his School and class, and put him off near his fathcr's paper store. Thank you Very much, he yelled in clear English. A week later, I saw Mi'lQ'Shao again in his school environment. Bright maps, diagrams, and Pictures on the wallsg well-illustrated and interesting text-booksg the school buildings divided into sections and named after continents and 00llntriesg an alert and progressive corps of teachers, ready to try new me'0ll0dSg a gymnasium and out-door swimming pond for June and SePtemberg boys and girls, clean, wide-awake, active. Moral education s through moral maxims and the teaching of citizenship. nlth careful training in manners. It is one of the best of the modern public schools in T '. . ' haulting and a promise of what Schools of Tomorrow and Ming-shaos of fOmorrow in China will be. Siao-tin-tz's head is at mass of sores and his eyelids are red and pulied from fPH0l10I11a. The cotton sticks out of his wadded trousers in a dozen SP0l2S and his face and hands are cold. But then what cares he? He has two coppers, gt Nexs, Year present from his grandfather to spend with the Cilfldy-peddler. lVatch his excitement as he whirls the candy-roulette wheel. Will it stop at the candy cow or the candy idol Z And then hasnt he a wonderful red and blue paper rabbit, which can be lit inside like 3