Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 January 1919 — THE EVENING REPUBLICAN. RENSSELAER. IND. HAPPY IN POVERTY [ARTICLE]

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN. RENSSELAER. IND.

HAPPY IN POVERTY

Stem Pride That Is a Part of the Japanese Character. J - ! Educator's Pathetic Story of Mother's Self-Denial and Son’s Appreciation —Offer of Aid Most Gracefully Put Aside. A Japanese educator tells the story of brothers In the agricultural college of Sapporo, In the northern island of Hokkindo. One day one.of these hoys appeared wearing a woman’s yellow and black striped padded coat,- with a velvet neckband, showing that the garment was ordinarily worn to support a baby carried Japanese fashion on the hack. There was much tittering among the other students at this strange garb and the instructors found their classes somewhat demoralized. At noon the young man was called into the faculty room for an explanation. His father was dead ;'his mother made a bare subsistence out of a small farm ; she had managed to save enough to semi her boys to school with clothes for the summer season, and nothing more. When winter came the mother wrote that in- vain she had tried to save enough extra money to buy them the necessary winter kimono: that in spite of every economy she had been unable to manage it —such was the story. • •‘So I am sending you my own kimono and coat." she-wrote. “You must, have your thin cotton ones washed and mended, though I know they must be nearly worn out by this time. Wear my heavy kimono.” -the boy went on. “When I can I-will send you some money to buy new ones." “But though I have mended my old kimono,” the boy went on, "it Is too ragged. There was only one thing to do—wear this one on the outside.” He was asked why at least he had not removed the telltale black velvet band? “Last night,” he replied, “I took the scissors and began to rip, hut suddenly I remembered how my mother’s hands had sewed those stitches, and how she had taken off her warm coat to send me, and how she was always working, for us and thinking of us here, lonely for the sight of our faces, and I could not rip out the -stitches of my rnother’s hands: —I am sorry, sensei, but I bad t<> wear ft as it was.” Those same boys were inter invited to live free of expense in a small dormitory donated by an American lady, Gertrude Emerson writes in Asia Magazine. The younger boy came to thank her, hut to explain that acceptance would be out of the question. “My brother is very proud,” he said. “Besides, you do not understand. It is true that the paper shutters are torn anti that sometimes it is-cold, but we like our poor room. It is true that our lamp is small and the light is dim, but we study very well that way. It Is for our education that we suffer. We are quite happy.”