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Full Download PDF of (Original PDF) Seeing Through Statistics 4th Edition by Jessica M. Utts All Chapter
Full Download PDF of (Original PDF) Seeing Through Statistics 4th Edition by Jessica M. Utts All Chapter
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Contents
Part 1
Finding Data in Life 1
Chapter 1
The Benefits and Risks of Using Statistics 3
1.1 Why Bother Reading This Book? 4
1.2 What is Statistics All About? 4
1.3 Detecting Patterns and Relationships 5
n Case study 1.1 Heart or Hypothalamus? 6
n Case study 1.2 Does Aspirin Prevent Heart Attacks? 8
1.4 Don’t Be Deceived by Improper Use of Statistics 9
n Case study 1.3Using Probability to Detect Cheating 11
1.5 Summary and Conclusions 12
Thinking about Key Concepts 12
Exercises 13
Mini-Projects 16
References 16
Chapter 2
Reading the News 17
2.1 The Educated Consumer of Data 18
2.2 Origins of News Stories 18
2.3 How to be a Statistics Sleuth: Seven Critical Components 20
2.4 Four Hypothetical Examples of Bad Reports 23
n Case study 2.1 Who Suffers from Hangovers? 30
v
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vi Contents
Chapter 3
Measurements, Mistakes, and Misunderstandings 40
Chapter 4
How to Get a Good Sample 64
4.1 Common Research Strategies 65
4.2 Defining a Common Language 68
4.3 The Beauty of Sampling 69
4.4 Simple Random Sampling 71
4.5 Other Sampling Methods 72
4.6 Difficulties and Disasters in Sampling 77
n Case study 4.1The Infamous Literary Digest Poll of 1936 81
Thinking about Key Concepts 82
Exercises 83
Copyright 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.
Contents vii
Mini-Projects 88
References 89
Chapter 5
Experiments and Observational Studies 90
Chapter 6
Getting the Big Picture 120
6.1 Final Questions 120
n Case study 6.1 Can Meditation Improve Test Scores? 121
n Case study 6.2 Can Eating Cereal Reduce Obesity? 124
n Case study 6.3 Drinking, Driving, and the Supreme Court 126
n Case study 6.4 Smoking During Pregnancy and Child’s IQ 129
n Case study 6.5 For Class Discussion: Coffee and Longevity 132
Mini-Projects 133
References 134
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viii Contents
Part 2
Finding Life in Data 135
Chapter 7
Summarizing and Displaying Measurement Data 137
Chapter 8
Bell-Shaped Curves and Other Shapes 164
8.1 Populations, Frequency Curves, and Proportions 165
8.2 The Pervasiveness of Normal Curves 167
8.3 Percentiles and Standardized Scores 168
8.4 z-Scores and Familiar Intervals 172
Thinking about Key Concepts 174
Focus On Formulas 176
Exercises 176
References 180
Chapter 9
Plots, Graphs, and Pictures 181
9.1 Well-Designed Statistical Pictures 182
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Contents ix
Chapter 10
Relationships Between Measurement Variables 202
10.1 Statistical Relationships 203
10.2 Strength versus Statistical Significance 204
10.3 Measuring Strength Through Correlation 206
10.4 Specifying Linear Relationships with Regression 210
n Case study 10.1 Are Attitudes about Love and Romance
Hereditary? 217
n Case study 10.2 A Weighty Issue: Women Want Less, Men
Want More 219
Thinking about Key Concepts 220
Focus On Formulas 221
Exercises 222
Mini-Projects 226
References 226
Chapter 11
Relationships Can Be Deceiving 227
11.1 Illegitimate Correlations 228
11.2 Legitimate Correlation Does Not Imply Causation 233
11.3 Some Reasons for Relationships Between Variables 235
11.4 Confirming Causation 239
Thinking about Key Concepts 241
Exercises 242
Mini-Projects 245
References 246
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x Contents
Chapter 12
Relationships Between Categorical Variables 247
12.1 Displaying Relationships Between Categorical Variables:
Contingency Tables 248
12.2 Relative Risk, Increased Risk, and Odds 251
12.3 Misleading Statistics about Risk 258
12.4 Simpson’s Paradox: The Missing Third Variable 261
n Case study 12.1Assessing Discrimination in Hiring and Firing 263
Thinking about Key Concepts 265
Focus On Formulas 265
Exercises 266
Mini-Projects 273
References 274
Chapter 13
Statistical Significance for 2 3 2 Tables 275
13.1 Measuring the Strength of the Relationship 276
13.2 Steps for Assessing Statistical Significance 278
13.3 The Chi-Square Test 280
13.4 Practical versus Statistical Significance 289
n Case study 13.1Extrasensory Perception Works Best
with Movies 291
Thinking about Key Concepts 292
Focus On Formulas 293
Exercises 294
Mini-Projects 300
References 301
Part 3
Understanding Uncertainty in Life 303
Chapter 14
Understanding Probability and Long-Term Expectations 305
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Contents xi
Chapter 15
Understanding Uncertainty through Simulation 328
Chapter 16
Psychological Influences on Personal Probability 344
16.1 Revisiting Personal Probability 345
16.2 Equivalent Probabilities; Different Decisions 345
16.3 How Personal Probabilities Can Be Distorted 348
16.4 Optimism, Reluctance to Change, and Overconfidence 353
16.5 Calibrating Personal Probabilities of Experts 355
n Case study 16.1 Calibrating Weather Forecasters
and Physicians 356
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xii Contents
Chapter 17
When Intuition Differs from Relative Frequency 364
Chapter 18
Understanding the Economic News 384
18.1 Cost of Living: The Consumer Price Index 385
18.2 Uses of the Consumer Price Index 389
18.3 Criticisms of the Consumer Price Index 392
18.4 Seasonal Adjustments: Reporting the Consumer Price
Index 394
18.5 Economic Indicators 396
n Case study 18.1Did Wages Really Go Up in the Reagan–Bush
Years? 398
Thinking about Key Concepts 399
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Contents xiii
Exercises 399
Mini-Projects 403
References 403
Part 4
Making Judgments from Surveys
and Experiments 405
Chapter 19
The Diversity of Samples from the Same Population 407
Chapter 20
Estimating Proportions with Confidence 429
20.1 Confidence Intervals 430
20.2 Three Examples of Confidence Intervals from the Media 430
20.3 Constructing a Confidence Interval for a Proportion 433
n Case study 20.1A Winning Confidence Interval Loses in Court 439
Thinking about Key Concepts 440
Focus On Formulas 441
Exercises 441
Mini-Projects 447
References 447
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xiv Contents
Chapter 21
The Role of Confidence Intervals in Research 449
21.1 Confidence Intervals for Population Means 450
21.2 Confidence Intervals for the Difference Between Two
Means 454
21.3 Revisiting Case Studies and Examples: How Journals Present
Confidence Intervals 456
21.4 Understanding Any Confidence Interval 460
n Case study 21.1Premenstrual Syndrome? Try Calcium 462
Thinking about Key Concepts 463
Focus On Formulas 464
Exercises 465
Mini-Projects 470
References 470
Chapter 22
Rejecting Chance—Testing Hypotheses in Research 472
22.1 Using Data to Make Decisions 473
22.2 The Basic Steps for Testing Hypotheses 475
22.3 Testing Hypotheses for Proportions 478
22.4 What Can Go Wrong: The Two Types of Errors 483
n Case study 22.1Testing for the Existence of Extrasensory
Perception 486
Thinking about Key Concepts 489
Focus On Formulas 490
Exercises 490
Mini-Projects 494
References 495
Chapter 23
Hypothesis Testing—Examples and Case Studies 496
23.1 How Hypothesis Tests Are Reported in the News 497
23.2 Testing Hypotheses about Proportions and Means 499
23.3 How Journals Present Hypothesis Tests 504
n Case study 5.1 REVISITED Quitting Smoking with Nicotine
Patches 507
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Contents xv
Chapter 24
Significance, Importance, and Undetected Differences 519
24.1 Real Importance versus Statistical Significance 520
24.2 The Role of Sample Size in Statistical Significance 521
24.3 No Difference versus No Statistically Significant Difference 522
n Case study 24.1 Seen a UFO? You May Be Healthier Than
Your Friends 524
24.4 Multiple Tests, Multiple Comparisons, and False Positives 526
Did Your Mother’s Breakfast Determine
n Case study 24.2
Your Sex? 526
24.5 A Summary of Warnings and Key Concepts 527
Exercises 528
Mini-Projects 533
References 533
Chapter 25
Meta-Analysis: Resolving Inconsistencies across Studies 534
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xvi Contents
Mini-Projects 551
References 552
Chapter 26
Ethics in Statistical Studies 554
26.1 Ethical Treatment of Human and Animal Participants 554
26.2 Assurance of Data Quality 561
26.3 Appropriate Statistical Analyses 566
26.4 Fair Reporting of Results 568
n Case study 26.1 Science Fair Project or Fair Science Project? 570
Exercises 572
References 574
Chapter 27
Putting What You Have Learned to the Test 575
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Preface
If you have never studied statistics, you are probably unaware of the impact the sci
ence of statistics has on your everyday life. From knowing which medical treatments
work best to choosing which television programs remain on the air, decision makers
in almost every line of work rely on data and statistical studies to help them make
wise choices. Statistics deals with complex situations involving uncertainty. We are
exposed daily to information from surveys and scientific studies concerning our
health, behavior, attitudes, and beliefs, or revealing scientific and technological
breakthroughs. This book’s first objective is to help you understand this information
and to sift the useful and the accurate from the useless and the misleading. My aims
are to allow you to rely on your own interpretation of results emerging from surveys
and studies and to help you read them with a critical eye so that you can make your
own judgments.
A second purpose of this book is to demystify statistical methods. Traditional
statistics courses often place emphasis on how to compute rather than on how to un
derstand. This book focuses on statistical ideas and their use in real life.
Finally, the book contains information that can help you make better decisions
when faced with uncertainty. You will learn how psychological influences can keep
you from making the best decisions, as well as new ways to think about coinci
dences, gambling, and other circumstances that involve chance events.
Philosophical Approach
If you are like most readers of this book, you will never have to produce statistical
results in your professional life, and, if you do, a single statistics book or course
would be inadequate preparation anyway. But certainly in your personal life and
possibly in your professional life, you will have to consume statistical results pro
duced by others. Therefore, the focus of this book is on understanding the use of sta
tistical methods in the real world rather than on producing statistical results. There
are dozens of reallife, indepth case studies drawn from various media sources as
well as scores of additional reallife examples. The emphasis is on understanding
rather than computing, but the book also contains examples of how to compute
important numbers when necessary, especially when the computation is useful for
understanding.
xvii
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xviii Preface
Organization
There are 27 chapters divided into four parts. Each chapter covers material more or
less equivalent to a onehour college lecture. The final chapters of Part 1 and Part 4
consist solely of case studies and are designed to illustrate the thought process you
should follow when you read studies on your own.
By the end of Part 1, “Finding Data in Life,” you will have the tools to determine
whether or not the results of a study should be taken seriously, and you will be able
to detect false conclusions and biased results. In Part 2, “Finding Life in Data,” you
will learn how to turn numbers into useful information and to quantify relationships
between such factors as aspirin consumption and heart attack rates or meditation and
test scores. You will also learn how to detect misleading graphs and figures and to
interpret trends over time.
Part 3 is called “Understanding Uncertainty in Life” and is designed to help you
do exactly that. Every day we have to make decisions in the face of uncertainty. This
part of the book will help you understand what probability and chance are all about
and presents techniques that can help you make better decisions. You will also learn
how to interpret common economic statistics and how to use the power of comput
ers to simulate probabilities. The material on probability will also be useful when
you read Part 4, “Making Judgments from Surveys and Experiments.” Some of the
chapters in Part 4 are slightly more technical than the rest of the book, but once
you have mastered them you will truly understand the beauty of statistical methods.
Henceforth, when you read the results of a statistical study, you will be able to tell
whether the results represent valuable advice or flawed reasoning. Unless things
have changed drastically by the time you read this, you will be amazed at the number
of news reports that exhibit flawed reasoning.
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Preface xix
class in which one of these formats is used, try to answer the questions on your own
before class. By doing so, you will build confidence as you learn that the material
is not difficult to understand if you give it some thought.
Copyright 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.
xx Preface
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Preface xxi
Chapters 15 and 16 from the first edition were combined and altered to make the
material more relevant to daily life. Some of that material was moved to the subse
quent two chapters (Chapters 16 and 17 in the second edition). Box plots were added
to Chapter 7, and Chapter 13 was rewritten to reflect changes in the Consumer Price
Index. Wording and data were updated throughout the book as needed.
There were major changes made from the second to third edition. First, an ap
pendix was added containing 20 news stories, which are used in examples and exer
cises throughout the book. These are tied to full journal articles, most of which were
on a CD accompanying the third edition. The CD (which has now been replaced
by a website) contained interactive applets as well. Material was reorganized and
expanded, including a new chapter on ethics. New exercises and miniprojects were
added, most of which take advantage of the news stories and journal articles in the
appendix and on the CD/website.
Again in response to feedback from users, Chapter 12 from the second edi
tion was expanded and divided into Chapters 12 and 13 in the third edition. As a
consequence, all of the remaining chapters were renumbered. As mentioned, there
was also a new chapter, Chapter 26, called “Ethics in Statistical Studies.” As you
have probably heard, some people think that you can use statistics to prove (or
disprove) anything. That’s not quite true, but it is true that there are multiple ways
that researchers can naively or intentionally bias the results of their studies. Ethical
researchers have a responsibility to make sure that doesn’t happen. As an educated
consumer, you have a responsibility to ask the right questions to determine if
something unethical has occurred. Chapter 26 illustrates some subtle (and not so
subtle) ways in which ethics play a role in research. New sections were also added
to Chapters 2, 5, 7, 12, and 22 (formerly Chapter 21).
Copyright 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.
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First there was the phraseology of the deed to haggle over, though
that was quite unnecessary. Then the conditions of sale, although
everything was as clear as it could well be. The last rallying point of
the retreating foe was in the matter of the fence, and here it seemed
as if the business would really come to a standstill.
If he sold the land, he must, at any rate, be allowed to remove the
fence all round the property.
To this I replied that, in the whole course of my experience, I had
never heard of such a proposal. The fence belonged to the land, and
served to mark it out, and was most important evidence, in case of
dispute as to boundaries. If we bought the land how could we give
him the fence?
But the Myo-woon wanted the fence.
Very well then, we could not buy on those terms.
The scribe who was proceeding with the writing of the deed,
ceased when negotiations came to this abrupt termination, and we
all sat silent, gazing into vacancy for several minutes, the old Myo-
woon, with his almost sightless eyes, looking particularly studious.
After giving me plenty of time to relent in his favour, and finding no
relenting, he abated his terms, and made it only the east and west
sides that he must have.
No.
Then the eastern fence only.
No.
Then let him have the posts of the fence.
Not a stick.
On finding me quite resolute in the determination to have fair
terms, he surrendered the position with a grace that was really
wonderful, considering the absurd and audacious attempt he had
made at over-reaching; and he showed a truly Burmese ability, to
smooth over, by neat phrase, and courtly style, what a European in
his position must have felt as a most awkward dispute.
Europeans wonder sometimes at the outrageous way Orientals
have of making claims and requests, which seem to them unfair and
impudent to the last degree, and they sometimes feel inclined to lose
patience with them about it. I think their doctrine of Fate may account
for this propensity. In looking after himself, the mind of the Oriental
does not run on what is true, just, proper, or reasonable, but what will
the Fates grant; and he likes to frame his request or demand on the
off-chance that your charity, or necessity, or complaisance, or
ignorance may induce you to yield to him. Thus, supposing six annas
to be reasonable, if he asks for six annas, and gets it, he may, on
that ground, see cause to upbraid himself for neglect of his own
interests, in not trying to get twelve. If, however, he gets less than he
asks for, or nothing at all, he can, with the aid of the doctrine of Fate,
take it with equanimity, for he has, at any rate, given the Fates a fair
chance, and got as much as it was destined for him to get.
It was at an early period of our work in Burma that we felt it very
desirable to take steps towards the training of mission workers from
amongst the people. Our schools will want teachers, and we shall
need to multiply these agencies greatly before our influence is widely
felt. We need catechists to instruct the people in the Christian
religion, and as our native churches spring up and grow, we shall
need native pastors to minister to them. If we had five hundred such
workers, we could easily find work for them. But where are these
workers? You look around for them in vain. They do not exist. They
will not rise up of themselves; we must grow them; we must take
them as they are, in the rough, and train them. Heathenism cannot
produce persons ready to our hands, with the character, the
knowledge, and the experience requisite for Christian work.
In commencing this department of his work, the pioneer
missionary must be content to begin at the very beginning. He
cannot afford to hold his hands in this matter, and wait for better, or
the best, material. Time is too precious for unnecessary waiting.
Every year is valuable, and it ought to be his aim to shorten the initial
years of paucity of workers, as much as possible, by seeking to
provide them early. He had better commence with such material as
he can find, and not be disheartened, however many failures and
disappointments there may be. A wise missionary will take care to
have always about him a number of young disciples, whom he is
training or trying to train, and into whom he is endeavouring to infuse
as much as he can of himself, and the Christian training of centuries
past which he embodies,—his knowledge, methods, thoughts and
aspirations, together with his spirit and example. All the best native
ministers, catechists and teachers I have known during many years,
have been men who cherished with gratitude the memory of their
association with some missionary, and his training and example. And
there is no mission work, earnestly persisted in, that is surer of its
reward than the labour we spend on our young native brethren.
We commenced this work with a very humble effort in the way of a
preparatory school, into which we gathered, from time to time, those
who were desirous of following the studies that would fit them for
teaching. Our experience illustrates the kind of difficulties that may
be expected in a work of this kind, and it also illustrates that,
although at the outset the failures and disappointments will be more
numerous than the successes, yet even then all is not lost, and if
even only one good teacher or preacher be secured out of the first
batch, that one will be worth all the labour. Afterwards, when things
get more into shape, and we can make a better selection, we shall
be correspondingly better off.
We had gathered eight Burman youths together in this preparatory
boarding school on the Mission premises. I had them regularly
taught by a conscientious and faithful native Christian teacher. They
attended Divine service regularly, and we took pains to give them, in
the school, Christian instruction, together with the course of secular
instruction that seemed adapted for them. One day I went into the
school and found all ominously quiet.
“Where are the boys?”
“All gone but one.”
“Gone? Where?” The matter was soon explained. The newly
appointed Sawbwa of Momeit, a semi-independent chieftain, ruling a
mountain district a few days’ journey north of Mandalay, being in
need of more followers, some of his men got at these boys of ours,
and persuaded them that a career of prosperity would open up to
them, if they elected to follow the Sawbwa. These visions of
prosperity proved too much of a temptation for these lads, so without
as much as “good-bye” they had taken their departure, in the usual
Burmese light-hearted way; and by the time we discovered they
were missing, they were on their way up the river by steamer, in
attendance on the new Sawbwa. One of the youths, however, our
most hopeful one, K. by name, had quite privately made a remark to
the youth who did not go, from which there seemed reason to hope
that, in spite of his yielding to the temptation to leave, there was the
root of the matter in him, and some hope that it might still result in
good. He told this lad that wherever he went he meant to preach
Christ. That remark was a good sign, but our disappointment was
great.
In due time the young adventurers found the wisdom of that
counsel, “Put not your trust in princes.” The Sawbwa never made
good his promises. No prosperous career opened out to them,
nothing better than lounging about the dirty village of Momeit, which
constituted his capital. One by one they left the Sawbwa. Most of
them I never saw again, but K., the one of whom we had most
hopes, came back to us, and is with us still. Notwithstanding this and
other disappointments, we still hold on in this enterprise of training
workers, and mean to do so. K. was the first convert I baptised in
Burma, and we have good hopes that he will prove a useful
preacher. He certainly has talents in this direction. From the first he
has shown more than ordinary intelligence and aptitude for study,
and a marked love for the Word of God. Finding in him this aptitude,
I commenced to give him, in Burmese, systematic daily instruction in
Bible studies and theology. I was surprised to find the progress he
had already made, and his extreme aptitude for understanding and
imparting it. With intelligence and abilities for study, and with the
taste for it, and a good natural utterance, we have great hopes of K.;
but knowing what we do of the immoralities so common in Burman
society, and the temptations to which young men are subject, we
have to tremble, and to exercise watchful care, and to pray that the
grace of God in him may prevail. The late C. H. Spurgeon has well
said, “To build cathedrals is a little work compared with building up
preachers.”
A communication recently to hand, from my friend and colleague
Mr. Bestall, gives gratifying news of the young men at present in this
training school, and gives us good ground to hope that this work is
not in vain. Describing the young men he says:—
“K. first heard of Christ in 1888. It would be difficult to find a more
fluent speaker or more earnest student. He preaches well and
thoughtfully, and we hope to have more to report of him in years to
come.
“G. N. is with him. He is an ex-Buddhist monk. He left Buddhism,
and for some months has been diligently studying the Scriptures. He
preaches in a very different style from K. He is quite familiar with the
Buddhist prayers in Pali, and usually prefaces his remarks by a short
recital. Having gained the ear of all, he continues, ‘I don’t pray like
that now. Why?’ and then he begins his address.
“T. follows. He has been studying for two years, and is developing
into an intelligent believer in the Gospel.
“S. is training for the work of a Christian teacher, and always
accompanies the preachers to the out-door services.
“Lastly comes N., a quiet, earnest young man, who of his own
accord has left a comfortable home to be trained in the Scriptures.”
With regard to our general work, we have had converts each year
after the first. There is no sign as yet of any great ingathering, but on
each station steady, plodding work has brought its reward. Our
earnest endeavour has been to commence on sound principles,
making ample use of the accumulated experiences of many past
years, and to build the foundations strongly and deeply, rather than
to aim at mere rapidity, which, in Burma, would be apt to end in
disappointment. We have made perceptible progress from year to
year in the hold we have on the people, the language and the work
generally.
One of our most important enterprises is a Boarding School and
Training Institution for girls. We aim not only at the conversion of
individuals, but also to constitute Christian homes in Burma, and for
that purpose we must have women converted as well as men, and
as many of them as of men. If special efforts are not directed to the
conversion of women in these Eastern lands, there is great danger of
the work being one-sided. The demand for the education of boys is
much greater than for the girls, consequently many more boys than
girls are placed for training under our care, and the natural
consequence is that we are apt to have male converts in excess of
female. In the earlier days of mission work in the East it was often
so, and this in some cases perceptibly retarded the progress of the
work. In some of the harder mission fields, the progress would have
been much greater if, from the very first, adequate attention could
have been given to women. Surely we ought to profit by that
experience in every new mission field taken up now.
“THERE ARE NO ZENANAS AMONG THE BURMANS, NO KEEPING OF
WOMEN SHUT UP.”
What happens when the converts amongst the young men are
considerably more numerous than amongst the girls? The time
comes for the young men to marry, and they marry heathen wives,
because it is unavoidable. Generally speaking, if a woman is a
heathen when she marries, she remains so to the end of the chapter.
There were in the earlier days, thirty or forty years ago, many
instances of this in Ceylon, the results of which are seen to this day,
and what we see is admonitory. I remember one, a typical case, of
an elderly man, a Christian teacher, whom I knew intimately. He had
a heathen wife. “There were none of these Girls’ Boarding Schools
when I was young, to train our Tamil girls,” he would say, “and so I
married a heathen,” and a great trouble it was to him. She was
agreeable enough to live with, but totally illiterate, and a rigid Hindu.
Everything was done that could be done for her, but she was, as
usual, impervious to all influences, and remained in the Hindu faith
till the day of her death. It was very seldom that a woman accepted
Christianity after she was married, whereas a few months under
Christian instruction before almost always inclined them firmly to the
Christian faith. In Jaffna, where we have our largest Girls’ Institution
in that mission, where there are always some eighty or ninety girls,
the Christian influence is so strong, and the minds of the young are
so impressible, that they practically all embrace Christianity within a
few weeks of their entrance. There are never more than a few new
comers unbaptised, who are only waiting that they may learn a little
more, or to obtain the consent of their friends and guardians; and it is
the same with all the institutions of the kind in our own, and the
neighbouring missions. If missionary experience has proved
anything in the East, it has proved that no work is more abiding or
more remunerative than work done for girls, from ten to fifteen years
of age.
Another case in Ceylon was that of a native gentleman, a Christian
of good standing and respectable position. He married a heathen
wife, because Christian wives were not then to be found. I never
knew him, he died before my time, but I knew his family. They are
now grown up and in middle life. Under the mother’s influence they
were brought up as heathens, although the father was a Christian,
and when the boys went to school, they had to be dealt with as other
heathen lads. Two of them were happily converted and baptised into
the Christian faith, after they were grown up, but the rest of the
family are all rigid heathens to this day, and their children also.
Experience in such cases amply proves that only when the wife and
mother is a Christian before marriage, can the family be relied on as
a Christian family. If not, you may expect to have all the work to do
over again in the next generation. This is woman’s nature all the
world over—
The family depends more on the mother than on any one else for its
religious tone.
Besides that, we require, in Burma, female teachers for the girls’
schools that we need to establish everywhere, in the towns and
villages of the country, and we need Biblewomen to go from house to
house teaching the Word of God. The preachers and teachers whom
we are seeking to train will need Christian wives. Where are all these
Christian girls? They are not in existence. They have to be created.
There is nothing for it but to open these Girls’ Institutions, and
commence with such material as comes to hand. The method found,
in all the missions in the East, to be best adapted to secure the
conversion and training of native girls and young women, is a
boarding school in connection with each principal station where
English missionaries reside, in close proximity to the mission house,
and under the care of the missionary’s wife or some other English
lady, where regular secular and religious instruction may be given,
without the continual drawback of irregular attendance, which is
found in day schools for girls. We make no attempt to denationalise
them, or to teach them expensive English habits. They live in the
same frugal way as they did at home, and have their food cooked
and served up exactly in the same style, squatting like tailors on the
floor, and eating their rice with their fingers, without the intervention
of knife and fork, just as they have always done. They follow their
own fashion in dress, which has this great advantage over European
fashions, that it never changes a hair’s breadth; and they spread a
mat on the floor to sleep at night. Daily there is Christian instruction,
and family prayers, and they are taken to Divine service on Sundays.
Under these conditions it is never long before a girl comes asking
for baptism. This result, provided these means are adopted, is just
as sure as the hopes of a woman’s conversion without them are
precarious, in a heathen land. Up to the present our Girls’ Institution
is only in its infancy, and we are only able to furnish one example to
show what I mean; but as this is the only case where the
circumstances have rendered it possible to test these methods in
Burma, and it is a success, I may briefly give the facts. We could find
hundreds of examples in Ceylon.
Some two and a half years ago Colonel Cooke, then the Deputy
Commissioner of Mandalay, informed me one day that he had
received, and forwarded to the provincial government, a petition from
the relatives of a certain Burmese princess in Mandalay, asking for
some charitable allowance for her support. Though quite destitute,
she was the niece of King Theebaw, her father being one of the half-
brothers of the king, and he was one of those unfortunate princes put
to death in the two dreadful massacres that disgraced the reign of
the last of the Burmese kings. The Deputy Commissioner
recommended the case to the favourable notice of Government, on
condition that the girl, then about fifteen years of age, should be
placed in the Mission boarding school, under the eye of the
missionary’s wife. This is the usual condition in such cases; and it
was in order to secure the proper charge of the girl, and a suitable
education for her, and to ensure that the twenty rupees monthly,
allowed by Government, are really spent on her, and not on
somebody else.
She came, and has remained in the school ever since, going on
with her education, and receiving a Christian training, though no
pressure whatever has at any time been used to induce her to
become a Christian, nothing beyond what we give to all the children,
and all the members of the public congregation. There is indeed no
necessity for any urging with young people, when the Gospel has a
fair chance. They themselves desire it. At a Sabbath morning
service, early in the present year, when the invitation was given by
the preacher to those who had been prepared for Christian baptism,
to come forward for that rite, she was the first to leave her seat, and
come quietly forward, and kneel down with the rest, quite
unexpectedly to the preacher, who was not aware that such was her
intention. Eleven new converts were received in all that Sunday and
the previous one.
The work of the Mission during those earliest years had to be done
amidst many drawbacks, but these I need not do more than mention,
as I have already said that I do not believe in calling attention to the
personal difficulties of the missionary, but rather to his work.
In addition to the feeling of unrest, and the danger of tumult
throughout the country, and especially in Mandalay, the focus of all
political influences, there was always the climate, with its enervating
heat, to contend with. For two months of the year more especially,
the dazzling glare and fierce heat of the sun, the parching drought,
and the hot winds, are very exhausting, and render it very desirable
for Europeans to take a holiday, and get away to the hills, a little
time, for change of climate; but no such thing was possible in Upper
Burma. There are, it is true, mountains up to five and six thousand
feet elevation, where the climate is delightfully cool, but they are out
of reach, for want of railways and roads, and no one knows yet
where the proper health resorts of the future will be. It requires years
of experience to know which of the mountain districts are free from
the deadly fever malaria of the jungle, and which are not;
consequently there was no chance of a change of climate.
Besides this, we cannot undertake pioneer work in a new country,
where there has not been the least attempt at sanitary
arrangements, without serious risk to life and health. The other
missions have already their roll of the dead and the disabled in
Upper Burma, and it is considerable in proportion to the number of
the workers. The smallpox epidemic, inevitable in a country up to
that time without vaccination, attacked two of our number, and one of
them was a very serious case, but by God’s preserving mercy they
escaped; and typhoid fever, probably the result of an impure water
supply, came in its turn, and two others of our little company—one of
them the Rev. T. W. Thomas, a new missionary, who had but just
arrived—were brought nigh to the gates of death. These, with the
ordinary diseases of the country, such as fever and dysentery, befell
us, but a merciful Providence brought us all through, and no one has
been called away or permanently disabled.
CHAPTER XVIII.
SEEKING THE LOST.