GRIFFIS, William Elliot, American cler gyman and author: b. Philadelphia, 17 Sept. 1843. He served with the 44th Pennsylvania regiment in the Civil War, and then entered Rutgers College, where he was graduated in 1869. In 1870 he went to Japan to organize schools after American methods in the province of Echizen, where he made a study of the Japanese feudal system, of which he is the only living witness from interior residence. On the fall of the feudal system and the unification of the empire he was appointed professor of physi cal sciences in the Imperial University 1872-74, inttoducing technical education in the govern ment schools. In 1874 lie returned to the United States, where he was graduated from the Union Theological Seminary in 1877, and became pastor of the First Reformed Church in Sche nectady, N. Y., 1877-86, of the Shawmut Con gregational Church, Boston,• 1886-93, and of the First Congregational Church of Ithaca, N. Y., 1893-1903. From 1903 he turned his attention wholly to literary work with the idea of helping to a better understanding the Oriental and Occidental civilizations. An authority on Japan, he also studied the Dutch origins of America and the influence of the Dutch in the formation of the United States. In 1905 he received the decoration of the Order of the Sun from the Emperor of Japan. He has written 'The Mikado's Empire' (1876) ; 'Japanese Fairy World' (1880) • 'Asiatic History: China, Corea, and Japan' (1::1) ; 'Corea — the Hermit Na tion' (1882) ; 'Corea, Without and Within' (1885) ; 'Matthew Calbraith Perry' (1887) ; 'The Lily Among Thorns> (1889) ; 'Honda, the Samurai (1890) ; 'Sir William Johnson and the Six Nations' (1891) ' • 'Japan — in History, Folklore, and Art' (1892) • 'Brave Little Hol land and What She Taught Us' (1894) ; 'The Religions of Japan' (1895) ; 'Townsend Harris --First American Envoy in Japan' (1895); 'Romance of Discovery' (1897) ; 'Romance of American Colonization' (1898) ; 'Romance of (1899) • 'The Pilgrims in Their Three Homes) (1898) ; 'The Students' Motley' (1898) ; 'The American in Holland> (1899); 'America in the East' (1899); 'Verbeck of Japan' (1900) • 'The Pathfinders of the Revo lution> (1900); 'In the Mikado's Service' (1901); 'A Maker of the New Orient' (19021; 'Young People's History of Holland' (1903); 'Dux Christus, an Outline Study of Japan' (1904) ; (The Japanese Nation in Evolution) (1907) ; 'The Firefly's Lovers' 09013) • 'The Story of New Netherland> (1909) ; 'China's Story in Myth,. Legend, Art, and Annals'
(1910) ; 'The Unmannerly Tiger and Other Corean Tales> (1911); 'Belgium, the Land of Art' (1912); 'A Modern Pioneer in Korea' (1912) ; 'Hepburn of Japan' (1913)•, 'The House We Live In' (1914); 'The Mikado— Institution and Person> (1915) ; 'Millard Fill more — Constructive Statesman) (1915) ; 'Dutch Fairy Tales for Young Folks' (1918).