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Show want that room for the industrial school. We are hoping to move our first grade back into the school yard into one of the old buildings this next semester so supervision of the work will be easier, but the children will still eat and sleep in the new court. When our school buildings are all complete, we plan that this new court can be used for women's work. Thru the generosity of friends, and of one in particular, Mr. E. F. Stephens of Nampa, Idaho, we have a fund for industrial work which makes it possible to have girls in school studying part time and doing handwork part time. Many girls could not come tp school if not helped in this way for they come from very poor homes, and it means so much to them to study some and to live under the Christian influences here at school. Our standards of scholarship are as high as possible, but above the benefit derived from study we place the benefit derived from the instruction and help which come to the girls as they live together with the supervision that is given, so we feel it very worth while to give these poorest girls a chance to become strong useful citizens with a good foundation for Christian character altho they may never graduate from the regular course. They are so willing and eager to help themselves and one of the most enjoyable parts of the school work is to see the progress they make, and always the improvement is not only in the work but in their very lives. This industrial part of the school work was added only about a month ago and most of the girls are the little new ones who are just learning, so the results are not certain, but we feel sure that the plan is going, to succeed and be a permanent part of the school work. Some are learning to knit, and some to tatt, but most of them are crocheting. We are hoping to be able to get and knitting machine and see what can be done with making socks for the Chinese trade and also for foreign trade here in China: whether it succeeds or not depends upon the cost of the yarn and the market for such things, as well as the speed with which they may be made, but it seems to be an experiment worth trying. All the girls have an hour a day of handwork and this enables them to add to the amount they earn by taking work home during vacations. The selling of this lace is sometimes a problem but friends in America have been kind about helping and we hope others will when we have more to sell. You will notice that we have a new name for our school. The translation of the Chinese name, *' A Girls' School for the Nourishment of Virtue," is rather awkward for everyday use, and we were glad when a name was suggested which dedicates the school to the many who have helped in the past, to those who are helping now, and to those who will carry on the work in the future. We are truly grateful for our many friends. Some improvements have a been made in our course of study and at the Educational Conference in Peking next month, which we are planning to attend, more changes will probably be made for there is no standing still now. More books of modern methods are being printed and we are so glad to be working forward to the day when we leave the classical language behind and talk and read and write nothing but the every-day language which was meant for children What an ordinary Chinese school child reads bears about the same relation to his talk as the " classical " version,-" Scintillate, scintillate, globule vivific,"-bears to the ordinary nursery version of " Twinkle, twinkle, little star." We do have some readers for the little folks now that use almost the same words as the children do in their talk, and there seems to be a hope that before long the Primary grades will all have such books. This year we have two girls studying in Techou and two in Peking in the academy. We have a small student aid fund started which helps to send these girls to school and when they come back to teach, they return it as they can. But when they receive only six dollars a month and food costs three, they can't be expected to repay more than a dollar a month, and that amount at the end of the year does not cover even the cost of keeping a girl for one semester in our school at Techou, so it is quite a problem how to provide for the education of our girls. We must educate our own teachers and need a large Student Aid Fund to help them. They should not have to pay back more than a part of what they borrow for even a little is a great burden for them. Our chapel Sunday School,--the " ragged " one!-, is still flourishing. We have had over eighty children for several Sundays and how industrious they are in reading the Beginners' lessons ! The sheets are worn and rubbed until they can not be used any longer and often when the children come to be examined, the parts where the sheet has been torn so that there are no characters are |