tted and fourteen thousand seven
hundred Sunday school workers, by actual count, went into the grounds.
It is said that the Japanese officials who for the first time witnessed
an array of the Sunday school forces of Seoul looked troubled. It was in
the month of May and the bushes of the old palace yard were abloom in
white and red. As the great multitude sang the Christian hymns in the
Korean language the very buildings almost trembled.

CHAPTER V

A GREAT UNKNOWN LAND--MANCHURIA

Of all the lands in eastern Asia perhaps the least is known about
Manchuria of any of them. And yet one of the finest sleeping cars I ever
traveled in was on the South Manchurian railway. I had a large roomy
compartment to myself. In it was a comfortable bed, or berth, a folding
washstand and writing desk, electric fan, and various other
conveniences. While this was an eastern model sleeper, an American
pullman was also attached to the train for those who preferred it.

For two hundred and seventy years the Manchurians furnished the rulers
for the whole Chinese Empire. The Empress Dowager was a Manchu. Born in
a humble home, at the age of sixteen she became a concubine of the
Emperor. She was so diligent in study and self-improvement that she was
elevated to the position of first concubine and later became the mother
of the Emperor's son and was raised to the position of wife. When her
son was but three years of age the Emperor died and she swept aside all
aspirants to the throne, placed her son upon it with herself as regent
until he was of age. For forty-seven years, in a country where women had
scarcely any power, this marvelous woman ruled one-fourth of the human
race.

Manchuria is a little larger than the combined area of Iowa, Minnesota,
Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. It is located at the northeast of China
and until recently formed a part of the Chinese Empire. While nearly all
kinds of grain and vegetables are grown, the one great staple crop of
Manchuria is the soybean. Think of growing two million tons of these
beans per year! Before the war Manchurian beans were shipped all over
the world. In a Manchurian city I asked a business man to tell me the
chief sights of the city and he said: "We have nothing here but bean
mills. It is beans, beans, beans." In the hills and mountains nearly all
kinds of wild beasts are found. The Manchurian tiger is perhaps most
dreaded of all.

Perhaps the best known place in Manchuria is