Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber’s Note: Italics are enclosed in _underscores_. Additional notes will be found near the end of this ebook.

_Ten Years
in Burma_

_By
REV. JULIUS SMITH_

_CINCINNATI: JENNINGS & PYE
NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS_

_COPYRIGHT
1902 BY
JENNINGS
& PYE_

_ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED_

_PREFACE_

The following account of life in Burma has been written to make the country and its people better known in America. At this time, when the United States has come into possession of large and important tropical lands, there is much quickening of interest in all such countries. Burma is much like the Philippine Islands in climate, and there is great racial similarity between the Burmese race and the Tagals.

But I have written chiefly to record the experiences and observations of a missionary in a great and important mission-field, which is not so well known in the home land as it deserves to be. My purpose has been to make the condition of missionary life, and much of other life, real to the reader, who has had no experience in a tropical country. It is hoped that this presentation of facts will add to missionary knowledge, and secure a better acquaintance with the races of Asia and the forces of civilization that are making for the uplift of Asiatic peoples.

In writing of mission work in Burma, I have given special prominence to that under the control of the Methodist Episcopal Church. There has been no printed account of this mission for the twenty-two years of its history, and it seems well to give some permanent form to the record of that which has been undertaken by our little band of missionaries in that field.

In writing of races, social life, and government, I have, of course, written of that which is seen through a missionary’s eyes. It so happens that I have had a great deal to do with people of various nationalities, in relations not directly of a missionary character. This has given me many opportunities to observe as a man, regardless of my calling. In all respects I have tried to be fair and accurate. I have always cherished a fellow-feeling with men whose labors brought them to Asia, and my sympathies have been with all such in honorable callings. It has been my purpose to reflect the conditions of life with which they are surrounded. There has been much excluded that I would gladly have recorded, if the limit of this book had allowed the additional facts. Some incompleteness of statement has been unavoidable, as I could not verify the details at the time and place of writing. Ten years is a short time to study great questions in the East, and to form conclusions on the greatest of them; but I trust that enough of well-digested facts has been told in this book to give the student of missions and mission lands an inside view of the questions discussed. For such defects as are due to the limitations of the author’s ability to gather or to present facts in a satisfactory manner, I must trust to the generous sentiments of the reader.

JULIUS SMITH.

_TABLE OF CONTENTS_

PAGE
I. FROM AMERICA TO BURMA, 13

II. FIRST YEAR IN BURMA, 34

III. A YEAR OF CHANGES, 57

IV. THE PHYSICAL FEATURES OF BURMA, 70

V. THE CITY OF RANGOON, 87

VI. EUROPEANS, ANGLO-INDIANS, EURASIANS, 109

VII. CHARACTERISTICS OF RACES OF BURMA, 122

VIII. BUDDHISM, 139

IX. BUDDHISM; HOW MAINTAINED, 153

X. BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY CONTRASTED, 169

XI. RIPENED FRUIT OF NON-CHRISTIAN FAITHS, 180

XII. OUTLINE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS, BURMA, 201

XIII. METHODIST EPISCOPAL MISSION, BURMA, 216

XIV. PREACHING IN FOUR ASIATIC LANGUAGES, 236

XV. A UNIQUE ENTERPRISE, 263

XVI. THE PRESENT SITUATION IN MISSIONS, 293

XVII. BENEFITS OF BRITISH RULE IN SOUTHERN ASIA, 308

_LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS_

PAGE
1. JULIUS SMITH, _Frontispiece_.

2. SWAY DAGON PAGODA, 27

3. METHODIST CHURCH, RANGOON, 37

4. NATIVES OF BURMA, 43

5. PADDY-BOAT, 75

6. THE ELEPHANT AT WORK, 83

7. THE NEW PUBLIC OFFICES, RANGOON, 93

8. THE MOSQUE, RANGOON, 99

9. ENTRANCE OF SWAY DAGON PAGODA, 103

10. ROYAL LAKES AT EVENTIDE, RANGOON, 107

11. A BURMESE FAMILY, 127

12. SHRINE, SWAY DAGON PAGODA, 143

13. FRONT OF A GAUTAMA TEMPLE, 149

14. BUDDHIST MONK AND ATTENDANT, 157

15. FUNERAL PYRE OF A BURMESE PRIEST, 163

16. FESTIVITIES AT A POUNGYI’S CREMATION, 199

17. METHODIST GIRLS’ SCHOOL, RANGOON, 219

18. CHARLOTTE O’NEAL INSTITUTE, RANGOON, 223

19. LARGE IMAGE AT PEGU, 255

20. MISS PERKINS AND GROUP OF GIRLS AT THANDAUNG, 275

21. FIRST PERMANENT BUILDING ON THANDAUNG, 283

22. BURMESE FESTIVAL CART, 315

_Ten Years
in Burma_