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LIFE AND LIGHT
Vol. XLV. APRIL. 1915. No. 4
0n Carter iMornmg
"Certain zvomen of our company made us asto7tished, -which were early at the sepulchre^^
When that Jirst Easter Morning broke In many a home the humble folk Watched the blest Marys^ as they spoke Of Him^ who^n,^ dead^ they sought;
While some^ perhaps^ -whose ribald jeers Had hurt the matchless Sufferer^ s ears^ Turned half away to hide their tears^ Or eve7t spices brought.
But gladdest morning came at last
To those whose doubts had held them fast^
As when a storm is overpast
And sunshiiie scatters gloom.
So grant it^ Lord^ this Easter Day^ — Cast fear and hate and scorn away., Bring hufjian hearts beneath thy sway,, As when thou burst the tomb !
A, M. K.
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THE ANGLL OF THE DAWN
BY GRACE DUFFIELD GOODWIN
ANGELS are not so much heavenly visitants as they are human hopes and joys projected in a spiritual visualization. The living blue above us is all agleam w^ith slanting wings when and only when the veil of sense which hangs dark between" has lifted and we are enabled to know that the deepest longings and truest dreams of our inmost souls are not imaginings, lovely but powerless, but real and puissant expressions of the guardianship and leadership of God. Each soul is so lonely that it can scarcely find words in which to phrase its own inner secrets; how much less may it comprehend another's!
The gospel's Easter story is variant, impossible of uniformity, and its absolute verity is thereby the more certainly assured. Matthew's radiant dawn angel is more than we expected from Matthew. What was there in the quiet publican to lead us to anticipate so virile and tender, so spiritually impassioned an evangel, or to reveal to us that of all the four it was he whose angel was of the earthquake and the lightning, the angel .of fear and of triumph? "Very early in the morning," say they all. Truly,
"From darkness and from sorrow of the night To morning that comes singing o'er the sea"
is but a wonder moment and in that moment angels are born.
Mark's angel is but a man like himself — a ''young man." It is through the human he reaches the divine; through a strong and simple and tender personality. The young man has rolled away the "exceeding great stone," and now sits in a "long white garment," and says, "Tell his dis- ciples and Peter." Mark's angel was great enough to awaken fear, to inspire awe, but there is no feeling to mar the perfect simplicity. He had evidently seen angels before in the guise of plain men who knew Jesus.
Luke, whose gospel has been called from its tender pondering and memory of Jesus' spoken words, the "Gospel according to Mary," tells of the women, those faithful women "who came with him from Galilee," and who returned to gather spices for the beloved, dishonored body. These women, with "certain others," Peter and John, standing in sorrow and perplexity by the empty tomb, see, not one angel, but "two men in shining garments," so sensitive had they become through much love and
ms']
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endless service; and Mary must have told about it, because when the old Galilee words were repeated to her, she "remembered," exactly as she had always pondered and remembered from the time when this Man of the Resurrection was the Child of the Star. I wonder if women, more than men, do not owe that service of remembrance to their Crucified Lord? I wonder if. women, more than men, are not granted, if they be very loving and faithful, to see more and deeper into the "things of Christ"? Perhaps not, — but these women did.
Luke, like Matthew and Mark, points right on to Galilee, the common, toilsome service, out of which they had all come, and into which, Resur- rection led, they were all to go back again, even Peter. Galilee is so different when, between its barren stretches of unrewarded toil and sorely tried faith, we can find the dawn angel, and can hear from courageous lips the message, "He goeth before you." Never the same Galilee now. Before, a Galilee where we had his half-understood presence, saw his ill-comprehended miracles, heard his words, to whose meaning we had no clue; now, a Galilee of resurrection, light and life and wisdom. That is where the difference really comes. The Christ we never under- stood has become the Christ that, dimly and imperfectly, we are beginning to apprehend. And his interpreter to us is the dawn angel of the Resur- rection— yours for you, mine for me, just as each one needs and can com- prehend. Or, perhaps there is no angel at all. There was none for John, he whom the "minute made immortal"; but there was for him, this nearest and dearest disciple, a spiritual experience transcending visions. Almost wistfully, as he gives the simplest account of all, he reminds us that it was, after all, he, "the disciple whom Jesus loved," who saw no angel. He "went not in." Peter had hurried, eager and impulsive, into the tomb. John, torn with love, blind with tears, awe- held, trembling, in the throes of the great spiritual experience he was ever to know, opened his soul to be flooded with God, and lost his angel; lost the unneeded for the attained. Good, to see an angel ; better, like the women, to see two; best, like John, to see none. John did not realize even then that he had had the greater joy for he tells of the weeping Mary, who saw "one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain." And after all, of those who tell the story, John is the only one who was there. We have no knowledge that Matthew or Mark were present; we are sure that Luke was not. They dreamed their angels — none the less real for that, as burning love and imagination car- ried each man's soul to meet the great moment after his own fashion.
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What does it matter how the Resurrection story comes to you — if only it come, in all its strengthening revelation? Like Matthew, your angel, your God-interpreter, sent out from your inmost soul to meet him or from his immensity of tenderness to meet you, may be a messenger of faith, triumphant; like Mark, you may find him in some human comrade whose soul is strong to uphold your fainting hope; like Luke, you may cling to the supreme faith of those sweet saints whose doubly clear vision must suffice for us whose eyes are often ^'holden" ; like John, best of all like John, you may have so '^experienced God," as Luther said, that you will but live on to recount in joy, as John did of Peter, the story of all those you know to whom Jesus has said, ^'Lovest thou me?" and who, per- haps because of you, have learned to say, "Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee." When it begins to dawn toward the first day of the week, when the day star is risen in our hearts, when it is indeed the hour of Resurrection splendor, how much we shall miss, you and I, if we have not held our souls at pause to await the vision and the message of Easter, as once more we take up our daily task, — He goeth before you into Galilee.'*^
Surely there could be no more appropriate season than Easter for women interested in the Kingdom of God to unite in an international
"Women and World movement for prayer and an expression of their earnest Peace. desire for world peace, — a peace in accord with the
principles and teachings of Jesus. Mrs. Henry W. Peabody, chair- man of the Central Committee on the United Study of Foreign Missions, has for months had it in her heart to take the initial step in such a move- ment. On another page will be found the simple statement which already has the endorsement of several of the leading organizations of Christian women in this country, both home and foreign missionary Boards uniting in this appeal to the womanhood of the world. There is little doubt that missionaries of every nationality will welcome the oppor- tunity to record anew their adherence to the principles of the Lord of Life and Peace. A League of Intercession, enrolling those who will pray definitely and persistently for peace with righteousness, a simple pageant to instill international friendliness into the minds of young people, a peace propaganda appearing monthly in the religious magazines, are among the simple ways by which this movement will seek to make itself known among the women of all nations and especially among those who ^'preach peace through Jesus Christ, — he is Lord of All."
igi5'\ Editorial 149
The stirring of the hearts of women in this, perhaps the saddest Easter the world has ever known, breathes through the words of our president in the Council Table, and comfort and strength to endure is the message of "The Angel of the Dawn," from the gifted pen of Grace Duffield Goodwin.
The Joint Committee of the Central Advisory Commission of the Federation of Wo7nen^ s Foreign Missionary Societies and the Council of Women for Ho7ne Missions heartily endorse the plan for prayer and peace propaganda through women's missionary societies. Besides the articles which will appear in the women's missionary magazines and the Federation Bulletin, other literature is being prepared. A ''Pageant of Peace" on very simple lines will be issued by the Central Committee on the United Study of Missions, and will be on sale by all Women's Boards of Home and Foreign Missions. It is hoped that this Pageant, illus- trating Christian ideals of peace, may be given in every town and village on the afternoon of Memorial Day, May 30. It will be more effective if given out of doors. Women's missionary societies are urged to unite in this presentation. Costumes can easily be devised, and at slight expense for programs and music a beautiful and impressive appeal for peace may be made.
To All Missionaries. We know how this war has tried your souls and has made it seem almost inconsistent to preach a Gospel of Peace, and yet do you not need more than ever before to emphasize the fact that you are ambassadors of Peace sent by the Prince of Peace? As we meet to pray you will be remembered with special tenderness and sym- pathy. Will you not unite with us in this international peace movement bringing together your Christian women that we may encircle the globe with our prayers? Let us unite on July Fourth, making it a Day of Prayer, rather than a celebration of victory, prayer that peace, if it has not already come, may come speedily and abide. Will you send a postal card to your Board secretary if you will join in such a Day of Prayer?
May the Peace of God that passeth all understanding keep your hearts and minds.
The death of Dr. George Washburn at the age of eighty-two at the home of his son in Boston, February 15, calls attention anew to the won- President derful work accomplished by this veteran missionary.
George Washburn, He is characterized by Dr. Barton in The Congrega- tionalist as "an adviser of diplomats, — a leader whose influence in bring-
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ing about great and fundamental reforms in the Turkish Empire cannot now be estimated. " For nearly forty years he was president of Robert College, building upon the foundations laid by Cyrus Hamlin, whose daughter became his wife. He lived to see the small group of pupils housed in a little wooden building at Bebek become the splendid college with 500 students of nineteen nationalities, occupying the fine buildings which are the admiration of all tourists approaching Constantinople. The fees paid by the student body aggregate seventy thousand dollars annually, and the property is valued at over a million dollars. All this, humanly speaking, is due to the administrative genius and the constructive work of this great and good man, who nevertheless is remembered even more by his big, affectionate heart and his love for Jesus Christ than by all the honors bestowed upon him by kings or by the books he wrote. Con- spicuous as an educator, renowned as a statesman, he was first of all a missionary of the Cross, forgetful of self and eager always to serve others. In all his great work his wife who survives him had an impor- tant part for "she spoke more of the home languages of the student body *■ than did Dr. Washburn, and what the college and its common chapel exercises and common classroom failed to accomplish, Kennedy Lodge, presided over by Mrs. Washburn, brought about."
The passing away of Miss S. D. Doremus, January 24, in New York, N. Y., after a brief illness, recalls the early history of women's organized
Sarah D. work for foreign missions, in which her mother had so signal Doremus. a part. To Mrs. Doremus belongs the honor of first enlisting the Christian women of this country in this enterprise, resulting in the formation of the Woman's Union Missionary Society. Miss Doremus followed in her mother's footsteps and gave her life to the same cause, serving as editor of The Missionary Link and also as corresponding secretary. Just a few days before her death she read before the annual meeting of the Woman's Union Missionary Society her fifty-fourth report as secretary. Shrinking from publicity she yet put away her personal preferences at the time of the Jubilee and was an honored guest at the great public demonstration in New York in March, 1911, and also gave an address at the Northfield Summer School in July of the same year. It was characteristic of her that she asked that no notice of her work should appear in the magazine of which she was editor! "But her works praise her in the gates."
Editorial
151
Late in February the American Board received the sad news of the death of Dr. Levon Sewny of Sivas. Dr. Sewny went to the front in
Missionary October with the army and was not far from Erzroom where
Personals, his wife, formerly Miss Lillian Cole, had gone with Dr. Clark and Miss Graffam to help in Red Cross work. Mrs. Sewny had just reached Erzroom when she was called to her husband's bedside. Miss Loughridge of Talas writes: *'Dr. Sewny was a fine Christian doctor and was doing a splendid work in Sivas as head of a large Armenian hospital. He was loved and respected by the whole city, both Christian and Moslem." Mrs. Sewny 's great loss will call forth much sympathy and prayer from her friends in this country and elsewhere.
A card just received from Mrs. John S. Porter of Prague, Austria, dated February 11, says, "Wonderful things are happening to-day in the air, under the seas, but the Father's children have a way to the throne, ever open. My husband is quiet, alert, tries not to feel, — the better to help."
Dr. Eleanor Stephenson of Ahmednagar, India, has announced her engagement to Professor William S. Picken, who went out last October under a five year appointment from the American Board to teach in the Boys' High School in Bombay.
Miss Elizabeth Johnson of the Woman's Hospital at Ahmednagar and Miss Clara H. Bruce of the same station sailed March 10 from Bombay returning for furlough by way of the Pacific in company with Mr. and Mrs. C. H. Burr. Miss Mary B. Harding of Sholapur is probably in this party. Rev. and Mrs. A. A. McBride, also of Sholapur, are on the way home via Naples. Miss Gertrude E. Chandler of Madura expects to reach the United States about the first of June.
In a recent number of The Congregationalist the American Board pub- lished several stories of persons who have made Conditional Gifts to that
Conditional Board to provide for the future of themselves or their Gifts. relatives. It was most interesting to read how some persons of small means even had been able to send in a series of these Gifts from their savings, until a total was reached the income of which will be suflJicient to supply their needs when earning days are over. Others have sent Gifts for the benefit of relatives or dependents, resting in the fact that the investment cannot fail and that the principal will go into the foreign missionary work when the beneficiary needs the income no longer. Perhaps not all of our readers know that the Woman's Board also receives Conditional Gifts under the same arrangement. In accordance with a
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mutually signed agreement the donor of such a Gift (or a named bene- ficiary) receives a certain fair rate of interest semiannually and is re- lieved of all care of her money. If you are interested, or know of any person w^ho might like to make such a Gift, please write to our Treas- urer, Miss Day, for further information.
Two societies in Suffolk Branch were reported at the annual meeting ^ ^ March 2, as having attained a place on the Honor Roll of Life and Light — West Newton and Brighton. It is with especial pleasure that the editor is able to announce that in her own church in Brighton forty copies of Life and Light are now being taken.
The following paragraph taken from the annual report of Dr. C. H. Patton, home secretary of the American Board, is well worth the thought- Is your Sunday School Giving ful attention of all Sunday school superinten- to the Mission Boards? dents and missionary committees interested in the young people. It is amazing to note the proportion of money given in some churches by the children, apparently with the complacent approval of their elders, to objects quite outside the limits of their denominational responsibility, while the regular Board channels are riot being replenished from these sources. In fact in some cases the very names of the Mission Boards are not familiar to these "men and women of to-morrow." As is generally understood by junior leaders, through an arrangement with the American Board the Woman's Boards should receive the contributions from the primary and junior Sunday schools while the adult classes are considered the rightful constituency of the general Board. We quote from Dr. Patton: —
"The giving of the Sunday schools depends largely, too largely we feel, upon the attractiveness of the particular object of the year. If it is the building of a ship, the money comes pouring in; but if it is the sus- taining of a ship already built, the schools turn a deaf ear. Hospitals seem to attract when they need to be erected, but to keep a hospital run- ning is of little account. The trouble arises from the lack of loyalty and system in the average school. In the multitude of charities competing for the children's gifts, those are favored which make the most spectacular and definite appeal. We seek to present attractive appeals and to vary them from year to year so far as this is possible within our regular appropriations; but we greatly need among our schools a thoroughgoing loyalty to denominational work, whether foreign or home, as having a first claim upon the benevolence of the children."
Editorial
163
The Woman's Board of Missions will hold its semiannual meeting with the Old Colony Branch, Thursday, May 13, in the Winslow Church, The May Meeting Taunton, Mass. The program committee is at work of the Board. on the plans for the meeting and a profitable day is anticipated. Please reserve the date and look for full announcement in the May Life and Light.
A representative company of women, numbering nearly five hundred, met Wednesday afternoon, March 3, to listen to Miss Laura M. White of
Christian Literature for Nanking, China, and Mrs. Helen Barrett Mont- Oriental Women. gomery, as they set forth the need of Chinese women for elevating and practical books and magazines to aid them in their new ideals of motherhood and home-making.
It was announced at this meeting that the first number of Happy Child- hood {Fu Ttt Pao) was to be issued March 1, and that other plans of the Woman's Committee were well under way. At the informal re- ception which followed much interest was expressed in Miss White's magazine. The Woma?i^s Messenger^ and the whole subject made an appeal to the women whose homes are overflowing with a wealth of read- ing matter. Mrs. Montgomery set forth in her own convincing way the substantial help each woman could give to the movement by sending a book or magazine to some missionary of her own Board, and it was further suggested that many women might be willing to forego one new book or one subscription to a popular magazine each year in order to add to the fund which the Woman's Committee is slowly gathering to finance such work on the foreign field. The treasurer of the Committee will be glad to receive such donations. Make checks payable to Lila V. North, 7 Belair Drive, Montclair, N. J.
A successful Institute was held in New Bedford, Mass., February 26. Miss Calder conducted the conference hour and Miss Gilson gave the
Institutes and missionary address. At many of these winter meetings Study Qasses. The Spirit of Motherhood or scenes from the Pageant of Childhood have been given with acceptance. In Manchester, N. H., on March 3, Mrs. Daniels was the Board representative and Miss Gleason spoke of her personal experiences in Mexico. At these and other Insti- tutes careful planning on the part of Branch oflfiicers and the co-operation of neighboring auxiliaries have made the attendance and interest a grati- fying feature. Many semiannual Branch meetings during the spring will take the form of Institutes. A series of conferences in connection
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with the meetings of the county associations of churches in Vermont is being planned for the latter part of May and early part of June, looking toward the annual meeting of the Woman's Board of Missions in Burling- ton, November 10-12.
From several towns come the reports of interdenominational Lenten classes. In Northampton, Mass., the churches have united in the study of The Child in the Midst. Mrs. Labaree gave the first address before an audience of 300 women. In Holyoke on the occasion of the first meet- ing Mrs. Daniels was the lecturer.
The Woman's Board of Missions and the Woman's Board of the Interior have united in reprinting from the Shanghai ^Educational New Review an admirable article by Miss Luella Miner ot Publications^ Peking, entitled "The Christian Education of Chinese Women." The pamphlet is illustrated and may be obtained from Miss Hartshorn. Price, five cents.
A set of programs based upon Our World- Wide Work is being pre- pared by Mrs. Francis E. Clark and will be ready in April. These outlines are designed for smaller societies who for any reason may not care to take the regular text-books. All necessary material will be found in the popular handbook of the work of the Woman's Board on the field, and in current missionary periodicals. Price, five cents.
THL FINANCIAL STATLMLNT OF THE, WOMAN'5 BOARD
Receipts from February 1-28, 1915
|
For Resrular Work |
For Buildings |
For vSpecial Objects |
From Legacies |
TOTAL |
|||
|
Branches |
Other Sources |
Total |
|||||
|
1914 .... 1915 |
.$7,009.43 6,889.85 |
81,072.20 2,395.76 |
88,081.69 9,285.61 |
$1,400.67 2,563.54 |
.$108.27 257.75 |
.$8,050.00 |
$17,640.63 12,106.90 |
|
Gain .... Loss .... |
119.. 58 |
1,323.50 |
1,203.92 |
1,162.87 |
149.48 |
8,050.00 |
5,533.73 |
|
October 18, 1914-February 28, 1915 |
|||||||
|
1914 1915 ... |
337,261.53 35,478.78 |
$1,728.91 6,098.13 |
$38,990.44 41,576.91 |
$27,169.15 5,-353.78 |
$900.02 1,210.03 |
$14,088.25 2,135.15 |
$81,147.86 50,275.87 |
|
Gain .... Loss .... |
1,782.75 |
4,369.22 |
2,586.47 |
21,815.37 |
310.01 |
11,953.10 |
30,871.99 |
WOMEN AND WORLD PLACE
We are suffering to-day not only in our sympathies with those who are involved in the awful war in Europe, but in the terror that t9 us also may come as suddenly the horror of war. The strongest, most stable govern- ments have collapsed and the closest human relations have broken down while neutral nations and statesmen stand powerless to aid.
Women have found relief in knitting mufflers as did their grandmothers, but is there nothing that women can do really to help bring and preserve peace? Have they learned nothing in fifty years of the power of organ- ized womanhood? Is there no place for our great women's missionary societies to fill in this crisis?
It was just after our own civil war when our country was poor and weak and not fully united, that God called the Christian women of America to carry his message of peace to the nations, and women's foreign missionary societies were born. To-day there are forty such societies with a chain of peace stations extending around the world. Foreign missions being interpreted are just international friendliness and world neighborliness, based on the love and teaching of the World Saviour. Statesmen and pacifists tell us of new plans and international laws which will make war impossible. Poets have long sung of a "Federation of the World." God grant it. Yet while we have sympathy with every honest effort for better legislation for world peace we know in our hearts that it will fail unless back of human policies are the ideals and the power of Jesus Christ. Because we are women and have good reason to hate and fear war and the sins responsible for war, because we repre- sent the cause of constructive peace in our missionary societies; because we are Christians and still have faith in the power of God and his will- ingness to answer prayer, because we are summoned by every divine and human impulse into this fellowship of suffering we urge immediate action. We do not need to form a new peace party since we have our efficient missionary organizations with all the machinery needed.
We do not propose to enter into the political side of the question but will confine our efforts to a peace propaganda based on the teaching and spirit of Jesus. We submit no elaborate program, but we will promise to enlist individuals and societies for intercession. We will teach the children in our homes and churches Christian ideals of peace and hero- ism. We will study the New Testament and accept its teachings concern- ing Peace. We will endeavor to promote the understanding and friendliness of the nations by thinking of none as alien but all as children of our Heavenly Father,
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Mrs. Helen Barrett Montgomery, President of Woman's Baptist Foreign Mis- sionary Society.
Mrs. W. F. McDowell, President of Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. Mrs. Charles H. Daniels, President of Woman's Board of Missions, Congregational. Miss Margaret Hodge, President of Wo?nan's Foreign Missionary Society of the
Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia. Mrs. W. a. Prentice, President of Woman's Board of Foreign Missions of the
Presbyterian Church, New York. Mrs. Daniel J. Burrell, President of Woman's Board of Foreign Missions,
Reforjned Church in America. Mrs. Mary Clokey Porter, President of Women' s General Missionary Society of
the United Presbyterian Church of North America. Mrs. Samuel J. Broadwell, President of Woman's Union Missionary Society of
America.
Miss Belle Bennett, President of Board of Missions, Methodist Episcopal Church, {South).
Miss F. Heck, President of Woman'' s Auxiliary Southern Baptist Convention. Mrs. W. C. Winsborough, Wotnan's Foreign Missionary Work of the Presbyterian
Church in the United States, {South). Mrs. Anna R. Atwater, President of Christian Woman's Board of Missions. Mrs. Charlotte E. Vickers, President of Woman''s Foreign Missionary Union of
Friends of America.
Mrs. E. M. Spreng, President of Woman's Missionary Society of the Evangelical Association.
Mrs. DeWitt Knox, President of Cefttral Advisory Committee Federation of Woma?i^s
Board of Foreign Missions. Mrs. Henry W. Peabody, Chairjnan of the Central Cojnmittee on the United
Study of Foreign Missions. Mrs. Fred Bennett, Vice President of Cou?icil of Wo7nen for Home Missions. Miss Harriet Taylor, Secretary of National Board of Tou?ig Women'' s Christian
Association.
Dr. Kate Boggs Shaffer, Editor of the Lutheran Woman's Work.
Dr. John R. Mott writes in the International Review of Missions: There is greater need to-day than ever before of relating the limitless po-wer of united intercession to the missionary enterprise. A time of unexampled opportunity and crisis like the present is one of grave danger. There have been times vs^hen in certain parts of the world the situation con- fronting the church was as serious and as inspiring as it is to-day ; but has there ever been a time when simultaneously in so many non-Christian lands the facts of need and opportunity presented such a remarkable appeal to Christendom as now.''"
AN UNLXPLCTLD PAU5L IN ME.XICO
BY SARA B. ROWLAND
This letter from Mrs. John Howland, written at Manzanillo, Mexico, was mailed at Gardena, Cal., having been brought out by the Chattanooga.
This morning I sit looking over the broad, blue waters of the harbor to the gray and green hills beyond. Not a boat is moving now, in fact in this harbor there seems to be everything but boats. Day by day we listen for the bell from the signal station on the hill and hour by hour we watch for the flag and the black balls to announce the arrival of some ship with news from the outside world. It seems so strange to have week after week go by with no letters or papers or messages from anyone. The old year was just going out when we heard last from home and now the second month has begun. We are shut in by sea and mountains and we must let the world go on without us for a time. We had planned to start back to Chihuahua several weeks ago and had changed our money into the Villa currency just as late as possible, for there were risks in keeping it in the house, as well as of its being invalid. Bills were in circulation stamped Chihuahua, Sonna, Sinaloa, Durango, Constitutionalist army, etc., as well as those of Banks of Mexico, Jalisco and many others.
January 18 the city was retaken by the forces of Carranza after a long day's battle about five miles out of the city. **A11 day long the noise of battle rolled," but it grew less in the afternoon and we thought that the enemy had been repulsed. We had been invited to dine with the Ameri- can Consul that day, and as the city was still quiet, we went out as usual. We were taking our dessert when one of the American residents came in hurriedly to get the Consul to go to the Palace for soldiers to protect his house, as his daughter had telephoned that bandits were trying to get the horses. Our party broke up hastily and for awhile we stood near the hotel watching the groups of soldiers coming back from the field. They were of Villa's army and we still thought them victorious. By and by the wounded began to come in on horseback, sitting erect with bandaged limbs. Soon came a pathetic little company, bearing a long black coffin, and it was whispered that it was the body of General Ortega of the Northern Army. Then the groups came faster and faster and we went back to our quiet home away from the center of the city. Soon began the shots in rapid succession and from that time until morning there was little rest for us, or for anyone in the city. The Villa soldiers were closely pursued into the city, and as the uniform is nearly the same as
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that of the Carrancistas and as it was all unexpected, there was the utmost confusion, no one knowing the right countersign. The Yaqui Indians were in the advancing party, and they are very hard to control unless one knows their language, so a great many peaceful citizens were shot.
The next day few people of any nationality ventured into the streets while the victorious army was entering, but at intervals the shots sounded and it was whispered that executions were going on. Some of our people were passing and watched the suspected people marched away from their homes and heard the cries of the children. There are many political plots, no doubt, but nothing has unstrung my nerves so much as to hear of executions. War is certainly a terrible thing in any land under the sun.
We had come down the Mexican Central Railroad from Chihuahua to Irapuato and then to Guadalajara, the line being open to Mexico City, and we were receiving mail from both directions. Everyone supposed the Villa forces to be strong and there was nothing to be expected in the way of an attack on the city. Now all was changed and in a few hours communication with the outside world was cut off and there was nothing to do but to resign ourselves to remain. If we had been expecting to go on with the work in Guadalajara we could have settled down but all our goods were packed, the church had voted to ask the Methodists to send a pastor at the end of the month, the schools were disbanded and the fare- wells said and the rest of the mission waiting for us in Chihuahua to hold important conferences as to future work. It was said that the road to Manzanillo would soon be opened and that steamers were due for the west coast so that was our next hope. The intervening days were full of anxiety for our boys and others we had known in the city, all of whom had joined the Constitutionalist Army before the unhappy division, and by reason of the changes among the leaders had found themselves upon different sides. Most of the young men have risen rapidly in the ranks and there are lieutenants, captains and even a lieutenant colonel among them, while others are paymasters or secretaries. Many receive salaries of six or seven dollars daily and find the adventure much to their taste. It would be hard to collect the students again if we were to open the Colegio this year, though younger ones might be entering. Thus far none of the students have been killed or wounded, much to our gratitude, and none have been taken prisoners.
Wednesday morning we found that a train was going directly to Man-
igi5^ An Unexpected Pause in Mexico 159
zanillo and we decided to take it, as a steamer had been advertised to leave on the 29th. Quite a crowd of the faithful friends assembled even though the hour was early, and we have never had any harder experience than to leave this dear home where we have grown into the life of the people and found them loving and loyal. Some day I shall write more of the last days among them, but now the path is simply onward and I am trying not to look backward. The only motive was to do God's will more perfectly, so the results must be left with him.
I have always heard of the wonderful scenery of the road to Manzanillo, of its crossing the canyon and climbing the mountain at an unusually steep grade, skirting the edge of precipices and shooting through dark tunnels, and I thought the trip would be very interesting. But when every step seems fraught with possible tragedy, one does not care about ^'scenery, " and I was never more relieved than when we reached the level of the sea. Only a few days ago there occurred on this very spot one of the most terrible railroad accidents of modern times and ours was the first passenger train to make the trip afterwards. To take such a journey in safety one needs experienced engineers and a large, oil-burn- ing engine. Here the roads are frequently torn up, and the officials are all changed with each turn of the political wheel, and all of the good engines have been reserved for military trains. There is no more oil and even wood is scarce, so you may imagine the difficulties of travel for passengers. Indeed there is no ''schedule time," but each train goes when it gets ready and trusts to pick up wood somewhere on the way.
After the troops had entered Guadalajara, the governor ordered that the families of the soldiers should be taken up from Colima in a special train. There were more than twenty cars, simply packed with humanity, the roofs covered with women and children and many slung under the cars in a most perilous position even for ordinary travel. At the top of the steepest grade coming down, the engineer lost control, the cars rushed down the long incline throwing off its human freight on both sides and finally plunging into the abyss. It is estimated that nearly nine hundred people were on the train and only six were unhurt. More than six hundred were killed outright and between three and four hundred were wounded. Some of the Yaqui Indians committed suicide when they were told of the accident to their families and they have sworn ven- geance. All the railroad men were killed so there are none to suffer.
Everyone on our train was oppressed by the horror of this terrible occurrence and there were many pale faces when we crawled slowly up
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the steep with our little engine, and just above the abyss, where we could see the pile of wreckage and the black ashes of the funeral pyre, we stopped short for lack of steam! The men flew to the hand brakes and the train was held and by and by we crept on and over and down, but the '^scenery" was not appreciated by me. There were so many delays on the way that at eleven o'clock at night we were in Colima and were relieved to find that the train would not go on until daylight. It was a comfort to rest in the quaint hotel, with its broad corridors filled with palms, our window opening upon the beautiful plaza, so silent now in the soft moonlight. The days of fiesta are over and instead of enjoying the lights and music under the laden orange trees the people hurry to their homes fearful of plot or invasion or street riot. Changes come so rapidly now that one does not know what to expect.
The ride from Colima to Manzanillo is along the edge of the cliffs, but the grade is not very steep and there are most beautiful views of canyon and volcano and finally the blue waters of the harbor at noon and our journey ended. We hurried to the American Consul's to learn about the next boat and were told that the Pacific mail had just left and there was no other expected for a month, though a Mexican boat might touch at the port. So here we are — maybe for a month — with no way of sending even a telegram to our friends. The Consul gets no word except by wireless, if a ship happens to touch here. There is communication within the territory of each army but none with the United States or with the ground occupied by the enemy. Not a paper is published here and not even an old one comes in. The censorship is absolute and the answer to our questions is almost invariable, ^uien sabe.''^ (Who knows.) Others are just as anxious for news as we. At this little boarding house, recommended to us by our good friend, the Consul, we are a cosmopolitan set, but the best of comrades. Our own table is American — Mr. Fritts, Mr. Woodyard, a miller from Guadalajara, and the Rowlands. At the other table we find Mr. Stadden, the Consul, a German sailor who has been wrecked three times and seen all manner of adventures, a Norwegian mechanic, a Spanish civil engineer, a Mexican colonel, an English merchant. The hotel is kept by Chinamen, absolutely devoted to our interests as "boarders." The waiter. Fan Tan, has a face like an ancient idol, impassive as a Buddha in eternal repose, but he remembers the slightest wish, as far as he is able to understand.
We have always been told that the climate here is unbearable and the summers must be intensely warm, but we have found a good deal to enjoy
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at our enforced "watering place. " The harbor is beautiful. The intense blue of the water and sky reminds one of the Mediterranean coloring, and the lofty hills on every side, the wonderful breakwater curving half across the port, the schooners and fishing boats, the sea gulls flying slowly above make a scene of wonderful beauty. Sometimes a shark gives a glimpse of himself and several whales have come up under our very eyes as we stand on our own veranda. Blanket fish of immense size and por- poises are very common and flocks of white pelicans mingled with the gorgeous flamingoes sweep across the sky.
It is very warm during the day but as we can keep quiet we do not mind it. A beautiful evening walk is to climb the steep path to the signal station on the mountain behind our dwelling, and see the sun sink slowly into the ocean — its departure heralded by three strokes of the bell and the raising of the red flag and two black balls — which mean "good night" to the port. We have learned many of the signals, and indeed the whole town rushes at the sound of the bell to see how many balls have been raised, and if the flag says "north" or "south." Alas! we have seen only a few variations in our two weeks' stay. It is always em- barcacion menor^ "a little ship." Some day we hope to see a warship or an ocean vessel for which the whole port is waiting now.
Later, The ship has come, and we can send our letters, though there is no way for us to go. We may have to go to California. We are safe and well and will write when we get out. We do not know anything about the real Mexican situation. {^Dr. and Mrs. Howl an d' s arrival in San Francisco has been reported in personal letters.^
News from the Nearer East.
Mrs. Stanley Emrich writes from Beirut, Syria, sending out her letter by the North Carolina: "This week is likely to prove one of the most momentous in Turkish history. The attack on the Suez is now going on and Russian troops have been landed near Constantinople ready for the attack there. Our ignorance of what is going on outside is amazing. But we do see the suffering of those left at home, — the wives and little children. My little son Richard said this morning, ' I wish I could go back to Mardin, mother, and then I would not hear so many beggars crying.' But the awfulness of the situation is in the fact that all places are alike in their suffering. The last call is now taking men from forty to forty-five. All our servants and helpers in Mardin go with this call, so Dr. Thom writes
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IN THE HEART OF NEW 5ERVIA Some Summer Experiences of Two Itinerant Missionaries
BY DELPHA DAVIS
IN these times it seems almost useless to try to send anything half around the world and there have been weeks together when scarcely a word has come through to us from the outside world. Letters and papers used to come from America in fourteen days but now we consider ourselves fortunate if they come in a month while usually they take much longer if they ever reach us at all. Last summer when school closed Miss Pavlova and I went on a tour. Even though war was not going on at that time, we knew it would be difficult to cross boundary lines so we made up our minds to stay in Servia, and in order to do this we had to go across country some seventy miles by carriage to reach the other line of railroad which leads north- ward to Belgrrade.
A SERVIAN GRADUATE FROM PRISHTINA ®
Faithful to Her Light Here w^e found a lodg- ing place just across the street from the home of our Servian teacher. She and her mother were very hospitable and through them we wxre able to meet a number of the young people who were interested in Bible study. There was one girl in particular who attracted us. She was lame, as so many in Servia seem to
VELIS, WHERE THE TEACHERS TOOK TRAIX FOR BELGRADE
In the Heart of New Servia
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be. Really, in the ten days we were in Belgrade, I think we must have seen no less than a hundred halt and lame. This Miss Militza was very sweet and so simple and childlike. She seemed to be just taking her first steps toward the Father and it was touching to see her interest and eager- ness. One evening we had a little prayer circle. She had never learned to pray but so wanted to show her love that she repeated the Lord's Prayer in the ancient Slavic as she had learned it in the state church. We have had cards from her just now at the Christmas time and know that she is in a very hard and dangerous position working as a stenographer in gov- ernment employ among rough men. How we hope that the little light she has had may be enough to keep her safe through these hard months.
Belgrade was a pretty city. I wonder what it looks like to-day.? It is beautifully situated between the rivers Danube and Sava, with ancient fortifications on the headland in the fork of the two and a well kept park of good size surrounding them. At the opposite end of the city is another similar park about the old palace which belonged to the first Servian kings. All these things together with the unfinished palace of the Crown Prince in the heart of the city must be in ruins now. We know the beautiful steel railroad bridge spanning the Sava is gone. How many times we watched the trains spin across it and admired the picture it made against the background of water and the Austrian shore. Senjlin is so close that one can almost distinguish the separate buildings, and the villagers come over from the Austrian shore to do their marketing in Belgrade.
We left Belgrade before war was declared, stopping at Scopia where we had to change trains. There we have a small Protestant church, so found ourselves among friends. We went on to a small town several • hours to the north of Scopia where one of our former graduates has her home. There we spent ten pleasant days. They have a little church which the few Protestant families have built chiefly by their own efforts. It is not completed yet but I hope it may be if ever this war comes to a close. The three homes composing this tiny community give tithes of all they possess and that is how the little church building had come into being. It was while we were there in Esther's home in Prishtina that the war broke out. We went to the mayor, a pleasant man, and asked his advice about hurrying home, but he said there was no need of haste as there would be no trouble about our traveling where we chose with our foreign passports.
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Apprehended as Spies
SCOPIA FROM THE RAILROAD STATION
We rued the day we listened to the mayor's advice. We had been in- vited to spend Sunday at a small tovs^n between Prishtina and Scopia where the sister of our Monastir pastor lives. Her husband met us at the train and took us to his shop to wait until the train should move on so that we might go to their home which was on the farther side of the tracks. We had scarcely gotten inside the shop when a police came in, looked us over, asked who we were and went out again. In a moment the mayor appeared, ostensibly for the purpose of ordering a new cap, really to look us over. Even then we had no thought that we were being especially watched, but a moment later we understood when the police who had come in first returned with the chief of police and placed us under arrest because we were traveling with foreign, not Servian, pass- ports. They were going to hustle us off to a hotel (fortunately not to prison) but we refused to stir. It seemed that our host was suspected because he had been a friend of the Catholic priest in town. All Catholics were considered as Austrians, consequently enemies and, never having come in contact with any Protestants, the officials classed us as Catholics, consequently Austrians, dangerous, probably spies! Luckily for us, there was another family in town having a daughter who had been in the American school so we begged to be permitted to spend the night there. For seventeen hours we were under guard, not allowed to leave the house; but on Sunday morning a telegram came in answer to the one sent from Ferizovitch back to Prishtina saying that we were really what we claimed to be and we were set free with a very grudging apology. We left by the first train on Monday and were glad to shake the dust of that town from our feet. In spite of the excitement of our arrest we had had a good visit with the two families of friends and felt that we had really accomplished something.
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Homeward with Rejoicing
The rest of our journey after leaving Scopia was not hard. We came back over the long carriage drive by night winding through the moonlight up and up over a high mountain ridge. That was the best and most beautiful part of all the trip, but I think that nothing ever looked quite so good to us as our
MISS DAVIS AT HOME IN BITOLIA (mOKASTIr) r , . i
own front gate when we
reached it on the evening of the next day. We had had a rather exciting summer experience, to say the least.
The rest of the summer passed quietly enough. We got the buildings ready for the opening of the school year and fitted up a room for Miss Lavagood, an American who has come to help us this year since Miss Matthews is still away. I think very few of the friends of the school in America even know that she is here. She was visiting friends in Bul- garia when I was there last spring and, hearing of our need, consented to come and fill in the gap this year. She has taken charge of the kinder- garten department where she is doing beautiful work, not only with the children but in the train- ing of the older girls and younger teachers in the principles and practice of kindergarten teaching. She has had two mothers' meetings which were something entirely new
here and proved very bringing charcoal into bitolia (monastir)
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successful. It is so nice to have her here, I hardly see how we could have gotten on without her.
The school is very full this year. I have had to turn many applicants away for lack of books, seats and teachers. There is plenty of room in the buildings but we lack equipment and we cannot get what we need until the war's end. You know all the work is in English except the one hour a day given to the Servian language. About a month ago the C. E. Society gave an evening program — all in English except three recita- tions which the Servian teacher had helped some of the girls prepare. Our schoolroom was crowded. It is wonderful how these people enjoy a thing of the sort even when they do not understand a word of what is said. We tried as much as we could to give things which were full of motion and costumed, which helped out very much. It was such a success that the boys begged that they might be permitted to prepare a program also, so we are looking forward to having another evening enter- tainment in February, and I think we shall have to admit by ticket this time.
Unspeakable Conditions Among Prisoners There are many Austrian prisoners in town. Among them are men of talent. They have organized an orchestra which plays really fine music. They gave a concert not long ago which was the first real music I have heard since leaving America. We all hope they will play again so that the younger teachers may have a chance to hear them.
There are several thousand wounded in town too, some Austrians, most Servians and Macedonians. We visited many of the hospitals on Christmas Day and gave away a great basket of apples. The condition in these places is awful beyond description. There are no sheets on the beds and the men are eaten up with vermin of various sorts. They have little or no care. There cannot be more than a dozen nurses in all this big town and the care of the sick falls principally upon a few of the Austrian prisoners and some untrained servant men, soldiers, so that more men die from lack of care than for any other reason. There is a young man whom we know in one of the hospitals who tried to escape from the arrny, wandered about in the mountains for some days during the very coldest weather, had to give himself up finally because both feet were so badly frozen and was brought here. After days of suffering one foot was am- putated. There are eight other men in the same room with him, all in about the same condition. Some of them will die just as we fear Tryan
In the Heart of New Servia
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will, not because there is any need for they have fine constitutions, but only from neglect. The worst of it is that if women in the city offer their services they are refused. The authorities do not seem to care. I read now and then a story or article which makes war seem a noble and heroic thing and which is desired to send a thrill through the reader. We have called that thrill patriotism. I wish that every editor and author could see but once what war really is. If all the world could know as we here know what beasts war makes of even the best men, surely this pseudo- patriotism would give place to something truer and better. God grant that this may be the last such upheaval the world need ever see. It is beyond conception that people calling themselves Christians can engage in such awful slaughter. We are on the very outermost edge of the war territory yet we see enough to fill us with horror. What must it be in the more central places .5* When this war ends there will not be a city, town or village in all Central and Southern Europe but will count its dead and maimed by the score.
But let us not let this letter end with all this sad talk about the war. Some one wrote me not long ago wondering whether we should have Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations this year. We did. Our young girls need not and should not feel all the sadness and^ sorrow of these times so we keep on with our school work just as if world history were not being lived out under our eyes every day. We had a splendid tree with heaps of presents, most of which we made ourselves out of what- ever materials we could find in our bags and boxes. It is wonderful what one can do with odds and ends when she sets her mind to it. We manu- factured all sorts of things, ranging from needlebooks for the girls to hats and blouses for the teachers.
We had company during Christmas week. Mr. and Mrs. Cooper came up from Salonica. It was such a treat for no guests come our way now that the workers in Albania are scattered. The week they spent with us was a very full one for on Tuesday we closed school for the holidays, on Wednesday we had our tree, on Thursday we visited the hospitals with our apples, on Friday and Saturday we made calls and, it being the week of prayer, every afternoon we attended meeting in the church. On New Year's Day we received here at home. More than forty callers came during the course of the day.
I wonder how many of my letters will ever reach their destinations? I wonder, too, how long they will be on the way? They may reach you in time for Easter greetings. Easter comes early this year. Whenever they may come to your doors they will bring you my greetings and best wishes, and let us all hope and pray that before another year rolls around men may be living as brothers in word and deed.
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MEETINGS AMONG WOMEN 5TUDENT5 IN CHINA
BY MAUD H. EDDY
Through the kindness of Mrs. Sherwood Eddy we are allowed to give the follow- ing extracts from report letters written for friends during Mr. Eddy's recent meetings in China. Mrs. Eddy is an English woman and the daughter of former mission- aries in Madras. Assisted by specially trained workers in each city she was in charge of the meetings for women. While these letters speak of only a few cities, the same wonderful results were seen in other places. In looking over the records since her return to America, Mrs. Eddy finds that 100 meetings for women were held during this evangelistic campaign. Five hundred and eighty-nine women definitely decided to lead a Christian life, while about 2,000 signed cards promising to read the Bible and give attention to its truths. With all the sadness of this Easter time in the world, a great gladness must fill the hearts of Christians as they learn how the Word of God has had free course and been glorified in these apostolic events in China. — The Editor.
It is not possible to give a detailed account of all the cities in which meetings for women were held, so for this purpose I have selected two centers only, Soochow and Hangchow.
Meetings for Women Oney Soochow is a conservative old city, and is called ^'the Venice of China," owing to the many canals which intersect the town. Descending from the modern railway car, we entered a primitive canal boat, and for nearly two hours glided along the placid river beside the old gray city wall over which green vines climbed in rich profusion. The spire of a church rising in the distance marked the mission compound, which was our destination. Soochow differed from all the other cities in one respect; it was the one place in the whole tour where meetings were held for women only. The first meetings held there were for the deepening of the spiritual life of the Christians, and 160 girl students attended the conference, and received much help and inspiration through the addresses of various speakers. The second effort was for non-Christians. For months beforehand the local workers had carefully trained a normal class of Bible teachers, young women who were ready for volunteer service. They had also established friendly relations with the principals of the different government girls' schools in the place, and had carefully dis- tributed tickets of admission. A large tent was erected on a site loaned by the government, and a thousand non-Christian girls filled the benches. The response of the students surpassed our highest expectations: 483 signed cards promising to join Bible classes, and every woman principal pf the government schools there entered her name as a Bible student,
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We had previously visited these principals, and had been much impressed by their dignity, capability and earnest desire to help their students. One of them said to us: ^'I have done my best to train my girls in character, and while they are here under my influence they seem to respond. But v^hen they go back to their homes they gradually drop back and seem to lose their ideals. Education alone does not hold them, and T am trying to find some other way. Can you help me?" We were glad indeed that we could tell her just what she wanted to know. Another principal is a woman of such striking character that she is known locally as the "Empress Dowager." She is a wealthy widow, and receives no salary for her work. Three of her daughters are now studying in American colleges, and they have all become Christians. The mother did not oppose them but thought that Confucianism was sufficient for her. The very day we called on her a letter arrived from one of the daughters say- ing that she was earnestly praying for her mother's conversion. The "Empress Dowager" was much exercised at the growth of gambling among the women of the city, and tried to form a league to check it. One day she came to a young Christian teacher in utter despair. "I cannot get the women to be interested although I have done my best, so I have come to you. Will you help me?" she said. She was conscious of the fact that with all her wealth and influence she lacked the power that this Christian girl possessed. Opposition to the holding of Bible classes has developed since we were in Soochow. Will you not pray earnestly that these women and others may have the opportunity to learn more of the truth ?
Leaders Among Chinese Women At Hang-chow we found a band of earnest women who had worked hard to make the evangelistic meetings a success. A thousand non- Christian women students attended for three days, having received official permission to do so. The governor's dainty little wife took the chair the first day and prepared an address of welcome. She was not accustomed to appearing in public, but she bravely stood up while a Chinese lady friend read the address for her. Here again the principals of the govern- ment girls' schools were most sympathetic. Two hundred and eighty- three students signed Bible study cards, the principals setting the example. The leading principal invited us to a Chinese feast to meet the other principals and teachers. It was a most interesting gathering. In the address of welcome, after a cordial greeting, our hostess said: "Chinese jyomen are as those who live in the bottom of a well : with the exception
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of a streak of light everything is invisible. The women of Western nations are standing on the summit of a mountain, seeing everything. Words cannot describe how wretched is the condition of Chinese women. . . . From the time when I began to have education even to this day, from morning till night I have been trying to think out a plan to deliver my country women from hardships and difficulties. . . . For the sake of China I have decided to face danger and drudgery, and sacrifice my life. ... At last living together in this world of liberty, we Chinese women can be equal with the women of Western nations." This woman is one of those now studying the Bible and there she will find the Light which drives away all darkness, and brings joy and peace to troubled souls.
It seems as if for the first time in the history of China the non-Chris- tian women students are willing to study the Word of God. In every place where the meetings were held, trained teachers were ready to give their services, but these leaders will need earnest prayer to sustain them. Humanly speaking on them rests the greatest responsibility. It will not be an easy task. Let our faith prevail for these Chinese Christian girls, many of whom are making their first effort to lead souls to Jesus Christ.
"Organize Victory Out of Defeat" When we reached Canton we found the Christians in the depths of despair. Political conditions were most discouraging. The Progressive Party, disgusted at the overthrow of many of the improvements they had introduced, started the so-called "Third Revolution," and many bombs were thrown in different parts of the city. The governor therefore felt obliged to forbid any large gathering of students, and the great mat shed which had been especially erected to hold four thousand students for the evangelistic meetings had to be torn down before it was once used. It was a bitter disappointment to the Chinese Christians who had cheerfully subscribed to erect it, and who had worked for months beforehand to make the meetings a success. It looked as if all their plans and all their hopes were doomed to failure. What happened? First of all meetings were held to inspire the Christians with fresh courage, and they rallied splendidly. Most encouraging reports still reach us. "The Church was never so stirred before," writes one missionary. Then the Chris- tians were asked to bring non-Christian friends to a meeting in a large central church, and in that one meeting so many women students signed Bible-study cards that the workers had as many as they could properly handle. Classes were formed at once, the voluntary teachers having been prepared for this purpose some months previously.
^^/jT] Meetings Among Women Students in China 171
Two young Christian teachers in a government normal school were so stirred that they influenced the lady principal to extend an invitation to us to come and speak to the students. We found 250 girls gathered in the lecture hall, and for an hour we were able to present the claims of Christianity to a deeply attentive and responsive audience. News has just reached us that requests were received from two government schools to form Bible classes for the students, and seventy of these girls are now enrolled. The whole Chinese Church seems to have received a new impetus, and individual members are working to win souls as they never did before. Canton has asked for a province-wide campaign for next year, and the Christians have already laid out plans and started work with this object in view. And so defeat was turned into victory, lamentation into a song of praise to our God.
In the Old Capital The last city we visited was Nankhig^ the old capital of China. There had been adversaries in many places, but here the committee of preparation had been forced to change their plans so many times, in order to adapt themselves to local conditions, that they could not tell until the
THE PRESBYTERIAN GIRLS' SCHOOL AT NANKING
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final day whether or not the city officials really intended to carry out their promises. They offered to lend the theatre in the former Exhibition Grounds, and promised to grant free railway passes to students attending the meetings. As the day came nearer and nearer, opposition developed, and the workers had a hard time trying to adjust matters. But in the end ail difficulties were overcome. When we started in the morning the road was lined for several miles with carriages and rickshaws filled with women; a train passed by with open cars crowded with girl students, while others bravely trudged along the road, carrying their school banners. I shall never forget the scene at the theatre door: a seething mob besieged the gate, pushing and pulling, excited and anxious, all intent upon getting in. Two policemen guarded the gateway and only those possessing tickets were allowed to enter. The governor's wife arrived, accompanied by the wives of some high officials, and the soldiers attending her cleared a passage so that she could make a dignified entrance. The governor's band, kindly lent for the occasion, broke out into a gay martial air, and with all due ceremony we escorted Her Ex- cellency to the platform. We began the meeting with two thousand non- Christians in the theatre, while another thousand outside were entertained by Professor Robertson's demonstrated Science Lecture, until they could have their turn. The governor's wife was formerly a teacher in one of the government schools, and she graciously prepared and read a cordial address of welcome.
As we faced that immense non-Christian audience the greatness of the opportunity was overwhelming. Such an audience of women had not been gathered in any part of China, I believe, for a religious address. It was unique, and it was awesome as well as inspiring. Facing us were students from non-Christian government schools with their principals and teachers, wealthy Tai-tais and women of influence, most of them know- ing absolutely nothing about the teachings of Christianity. That audience seemed to lay a hand upon our very heartstrings. *'Who is sufficient for these things ?" ''Our sufficiency is of God." The interpreter was Dr. Mary Stone, the well-known Chinese doctor, and her beautiful interpre- tation, her vivacity, and her earnest spirit held that great crowd attentive and responsive to the very end. Beginning with patriotism and morality we led them to the simple first principles of Christianity, and then we sent them out while another thousand came in to hear the same address. One Tai-tai was so interested that she begged one of the missionaries to come straight back to her home to teach her this new doctrine. Another
Meetings Among Women Students in China
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result of the meetings was a small gathering of the leading principals of government schools in the city, who met to discuss the question of letting Bible classes be formed in their schools. One of the principals is being, prepared for baptism, having been won to Christ by the kindness she received at the hands of missionaries during the awful days of the rebel- lion, when pillage and outrage were the order of the day. She was the first to open the discussion. "I feel that I must tell you what Christian- ity has done for me," she said. "You all know why I became a Chris- tian. They might have spoken to me for years about Bible study and I would never have listened, but I saw the lives of those Christian people
AMERICAN TEACHERS IX NANKING — MISs COLCHIiR, .MRS. IHLRSTON, MISS MEAD (Taken in Kuling at Mrs. Thurston's summer home.)
and that convinced me. We had not even known each other before, yet they were willing to give their lives to save us." She spoke of the joy and peace that had come to her own soul, and of the practical help she had found in the "Jesus doctrine." Another principal rose in hot haste. "Of course you became a Christian," she said. "The for- eigners saved your life and your school, and conferred so many favors on you that no one would blame you for joining them. But how about the rest of us? We would like to have these Bible classes but we cannot. We are entirely dependent upon government support, and we might lose our positions." Before she had finished another had risen: they were
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fairly brimming over! One by one their difficulties were settled, and finally every principal there agreed to attend a weekly Bible class, and ^also asked a young Chinese Christian teacher to present the matter to their students, inviting them to attend voluntary classes.
Both in Canton and Nanking our God showed his power, and wrought victory out of seeming defeat. Will you pray that the Chinese Chris- tians may come to know Him in a fuller and deeper sense? The Can- tonese are fond of quoting a saying, Canton leads China," and they are famous for their qualities of leadership, adventure and hardihood. If added to these natural qualifications they are endued with power from on high, who can say what will be the results of the future province-wide campaign? It is our privilege to be fellow workers with them in prayer. Let us see to it that we do not fail in our share, then we too can rejoice with those who reap the harvest of souls. Let us also remember the Bible classes for principals meeting every week at Nanking. Let us pray these women into the Kingdom of God, that they may use their influence to win their students for Jesus Christ. '*Lord, teach us to pray."
But if you are of the purely altruistic type, and wish to enter medicine solely for the sake of doing good, then I have but one piece of advice for you. Be a medical missionary. Instead of settling down in New York City to be a doctor to ninety-two families, in a block where there are four hundred families, go to China (for instance) and help that brave man Dr. Taylor, who, when he went there, was the only scientific physician among twenty million people.
Go out to such dark countries as this, and teach the native doctors that the ideal remedy for an aching tooth is not to hit it hard enough to kill the black worm that is supposed to be gnawing at its roots. Show them that the best cure for failing vision is not to pierce the eyeballs with a needle in order to let in the light. Go and tell them that melted wax is not the best thing to pour into open wounds; that all diseases in the spring do not come from the liver, nor all diseases in the summer from the heart; and that a red-hot needle run under the skin is not a panacea for every ill that flesh is heir to. Yes; if you wish to go where help is most urgently needed, secure the best school and hospital training you possibly can, and then carry the gospel of anaesthesia and antisepsis, of bacteriology and physiological chemistry, — whether by canoe or camel or jinrikisha, by sledge or palanquin, — to fhe dark nooks and corners of the earth. — Robert Haven Schauffler in " McClure s.'^
BOARD OF THE PACIFIC
Southern California auxiliaries have had the inspiration of Miss Henrietta Brewer, our Branch Secretary, during the weeks of February. Field Work in Her appointments have often been two and sometimes California, three a day, before Sunday schools, C. E. Societies and midweek services, as well as before our missionary societies.
The Southern Branch and Home Missionary Union are teaching us many a lesson of co-operation. They hold their executive meetings at Co-operation in the same time, in the Y. \V. C. A. at Los Angeles. Missions, After separate sessions in the morning, they have joint devotional service at 12.15, followed by cafeteria luncheon together, and a fellowship meeting at 2 p. m., at which reports of everything of mutual interest are given. Mrs. Raymond addressed the January meeting. The Northern Branch and Home Union hold all business meetings, and pro- gram meetings as well, in joint sessions.
In the beautiful new building of the North Berkeley Church, February 4, occurred the midwinter meeting of the California Northern Branch Midwinter and the Home Union. In the afternoon, Mrs. Bell spoke
Meeting, upon "The Effects of War upon Missions," and Mrs. Clay of Oakland described her recent visit to Japan, Korea and India.
Forlorn and deserted may be the Peace Palace at The Hague, but abounding in life and good fellowship are the wonderful palaces of the
Peace Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Pageants? There Palaces, are real ones every day, spontaneous and jubilant. Other ex- positions have been cosmopolitan, but with a limited representation from the Orient; in San Francisco, we have the real Orient at our doors.
Japan takes precedence at the opening reception and in many an ex- hibit. One can take a trip to Tokyo, see Fujiyama, visit temples and theatres, and study national customs and art.
The Maori tribes who have never before been transplanted, have a village, and so has the Somali tribe from East Africa.
The Y. W. C. A. of the Exposition is entertaining upon a grand scale, the eight hundred girl cashiers being banqueted one night, and the three thousand women employed within the gates given a dinner in the same week, at which time each nation on the grounds had present a hostess speaking its language. It is an opportunity for Christian work that will be splendidly improved.
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BULGARIA IN WAR TIML5
BY MARY MERRILL KING, SAMOKOV
I took a day off this week from language study and from doing much of anything, and took time to read the last copies of Life and Light and Mission Studies^ and I thoroughly enjoyed them. My desire and intention to write to you was thereby strengthened, for of course I always turn to the W. B. M.-P. pages first and think of you in connection with the notes and articles there. It is almost like seeing old friends to read what Edith Parsons and Mrs. Cowles have written and to see their pictures. I'd like to assure you that all your work in that connection is worth while, if only for the enjoyment of the missionaries in the field, because it is about the only way we get news of what is being done by our particular Branch at home and by our friends abroad.
Although Edith Parsons and I are comparatively near to each other, it is a question how long it may be before we see each other. One of our dreams has been to visit Constantinople next spring or summer, but under present war conditions that is most improbable, because from all reports the war or wars are likely to be of long duration.
We are affected but very little by the war. Our schools opened at the usual time, and while there are slightly smaller numbers than last year this difference is accounted for otherwise than by the war. At last the girls' school has received government recognition, so that probably will mean an increase in numbers next year, but where more girls are to be put, I don't know, for all the available space is used now, and the mis- sionaries have to give up their rooms in their houses to both students and teachers from both the boys' and girls' schools. They keep them sepa- rate, however, for Bulgarian custom is very strict in that regard and it is quite an innovation to have even mixed classes, as there are in our schools in certain courses where there is only one teacher for both schools. I am impressed whenever I read of missionary work in different parts of the world, how there is the same appeal from all sides for more support, more funds, better equipment, more adequate plants in order to meet the present need, to say nothing of the possibilities of the future.
What Miss Parsons says about Brousa School would apply with a very few changes to the Samokov Girls' School, and it is so always. My greatest wonder, I think, when we first came was how they could do so much with so little, such poor equipment that even a country school in California would scorn, — such old, fifty-year-old, buildings and so few of
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177
them! The old definition of Mark Hopkins and the log for a university holds good here, for I am convinced it is largely the people that count, but I think that most of them would like a little more bark on their logs!
To return to the war, since Bulgaria has not mobilized, it has been very calm and quiet here, and there has not been the suffering that the poor people of Turkey had to endure for weeks even before Turkey went to war.
We have had a little difficulty in getting funds from Constantinople, prices on some things are slightly higher, and mails have been more or less delayed, but that is all the war has actually done to us. We feel that we are in about the safest place in Europe so far, but we never know what a day may bring forth. . . . We would like some California oranges and prunes, and a glimpse of our friends, but we have said good-by to the three people going from here to America at three different times this summer and fall without any wish that we were going too.
NOTL5 FROM THL TRANSVAAL
( Concluded) BY FREDERICK B. BRIDGMAN
*'What do you eat out there?" was the momentous query repeatedly fired at me in America. Well, on this trip I took some crackers, cocoa and raisins, these articles mostly for emergency use. Otherwise I lived on what the natives put before me — corn mush, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, eggs and chicken. Any one of those was good enough for a meal. I still smile when I think of the old woman who wanted to give me ten boiled eggs for dinner with absolutely nothing to eat with them. But it was a bit tough to tramp all day with only a few crackers and raisins for luncheon as frequently happened. I had a roll of blankets and experi- mented with a number of native-made corduroy bedsteads, bone-racking, but no vermin. Everywhere the people simply did their best for me. Touching thoughtfulness to anticipate my wants was frequent. At one kraal fhey provided me with a bowered bathroom next my hut! After one long day's walk I came to a kraal at sundown, still an hour from my destination, and found a hot meal of chicken and rice awaiting me. One of the men had in the morning sent word arranging this.
You may recall that some months ago I mentioned the great service a motor cycle would be in helping the Board's one missionary here to over-
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take his opportunities. The need became so imperative that I borrowed money and bought a nice secondhand machine, an English make bearing the name of '^Triumph." For two months this machine was of such exceeding value that I blamed myself for not taking desperate measures sooner. Imagine my feelings one fine morning when I awoke to find the Triumph gone! stolen from the well-built, securely locked storeroom attached to the house. My trusty steed vanished, and only a gruesome debt to show for it. And what irony of fate, it was insured against everything but theft! Police, detectives, circulars offering a reward through the land were of no avail. Months passed. In the meantime some generous readers of these notes sent gifts for a machine. This I bought at once; a great saver of time and energy, a comfort every way. So there was only that miserable debt in this connection to worry over.
Now the sequel! Wonted as she is to all manner of crime the city has recently been startled by a series of daring robberies and murders; a post office, railway station, two banks and finally two stores within three blocks of our house, four men killed and others wounded, the desperadoes always escaping on a motor cycle. From newspaper cut a man recognizes one of the gang who wanted a motor cycle repaired. The bandits' den is raided but they escape by auto car. In attempting to stop the robbers the police by mistake shoot dead General De la Rey and a doctor. The auto breaking down the gang are tracked by bloodhounds to a cave in our neighborhood. After twenty-four hours' siege the three burglars commit suicide. Despite disguises I soon proved the motor bicycle figuring in this lurid record to be my long lost Triumph! It was not seriously damaged and I have sold it for enough to square accounts. We are thankful for answered prayer not only in this remarkable recovery of the machine but also that I was not disturbed on the night of the theft, for had I interfered I would surely have been shot. This story also illus- trates the example set our poor natives by members of the self-styled ^^superior race" !
I have referred previously to the effort to build a chapel at Block B Mino. I want you to know that this church is completed and has now been opened for sometime; the cost, $700, being met almost entirely by the people.
I hear a clear voice calling, calling,
Calling out of the night, O, jou who live in the Light of Life
Bring us the Light ! — John Oxenkam.
OUR FIELD CORRESPONDENTS
We are permitted through the kindness of her friends in Western Maine to make the following extracts from the personal letters of Miss Elizabeth S. Perkins, who reached Foochow December 27, returning from her furlough in America.
On Board Steamship Siberia^ We sailed from San Francisco yesterday, November 21, friends seeing us off and presenting us with roses and violets. The two recruits, Miss Laura D. Ward and Miss Stella M. Cook, were with me from Philadel- phia, and Dr. Katharine Scott going to India, and Miss Olive Hoyt, returning to Japan, came aboard soon after we did, so our American Board party is increased to five. We have secured steamer chairs together on the bridge deck and seats opposite at the table. They haven't as good cabins as ours, because they decided to sail later. Ours is a good one, on the promenade deck, has two berths and a sofa, a wardrobe, washstand and two chairs. There is room under the beds for a good deal of baggage. I am established in the upper berth, my choice, though booked for the lower. One can lie in this berth and watch the ocean through the porthole, or draw the curtains and be quite private, with an electric light at one's head, reading steamer letters. . . .
Thanksgiving Day. To-morrow, I shall wake up in Honolulu Harbor. It has not been an exciting voyage so far. It is delightful to-day on deck. I am sitting here without wrap or veil. Dr. Scott has just said, "1 believe the big- gest asset is to be able to understand people and put yourself in their places." . . .
There have been birds flying about the ship to-day and we are ex- pecting to see land to-morrow and reach Yokohama Tuesday morning. We shall take the trip by rail to Tokyo and Kyoto, joining the steamer again at Kobe. I must tell you of our doings in Honolulu. We took the trolley car out to a famous aquarium, which is the finest in the world except that in Venice. Here were fish of many colors, pink, blue, green, red, gray, etc., beautifully marked. By getting a transfer, we came back another way and so saw a good deal of the town. We came back to the steamer for a rest and after luncheon started out again, taking another ride. . . .
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We are back on the Siberia and passing through the Inland Sea. Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Holmes (Bates College people) met us at Yokohama and were at our disposal. We divided into two parties, Dr. Scott and I going with Mr. and Mrs. Holmes and the Misses Ward and Cook going with Miss Hoyt. This party went by train to Kamakura to see the big idol, Dai Butsu, back to Yokohama and took the night train to Kyoto, where Miss Ward stopped with friends and Miss Cook went on to Kobe with Miss Hoyt. We rode to Tokyo third class, and though the car was crowded we got seats and enjoyed it. From the station we took the electric car, transferring twice, and got off three minutes' walk from the Holmes' home. Miss Rupert lives with them and they all attend lan- guage school. It was very nice to have a genuine bed and a family table. Japan seems cold after Honolulu and winter clothing is none too warm.
Wednesday morning we breakfasted early and took a rickshaw for a half hour ride to the station. The express train to Kyoto takes one through the beautiful hills, for hours in sight of Fuji and going very near its base. It was covered with snow about a third of the way down. We tried to eat a Japanese lunch bought at one of the stations, but gave it up and went into the dining car, where a European tiffi?i was served table d'hote. It looked well in the menu, but was not very appetizing. Sev- eral Siberia passengers were on the train and some other Americans who had come to Japan on the Korea, stopped over a week, and are going on with us. The observation car was good. We reached Kyoto at 7.30 p. m., and Mr. Lombard met us and took us to his home. Next morning we visited the Doshisha, and took the eleven o'clock train to Kobe. . . . This is our last day on the Siberia, for we are due in Hongkong early to-morrow morning.
. . . We came in sight of land Thursday and sailed along the shore of Luzon for several hundred miles slowly, as we could not get through quarantine before daylight. Friday morning when breakfast was over I went on deck and found we were already docked. Mr. Wright, one of the fine Presbyterian people whom I met last year, was there to meet Dr. and Mrs. Laubach, who are to work for the American Board at Mindanao. As they had not taken the Siberia, Mr. Wright wanted to entertain two of our party. Miss Bartholomew sent word for me to come to the school. First, we four were given a ride around town and later all went for a car ride out to Fort McKinley. After lunch we went to the Bureau of Science where Dr. Johnson showed us his work in leprosy. In the even- ing I went with Miss Hodge and several of the schoolgirls to an open air
t
jQiSj Our Field Correspondents 181
meeting, a regular affair with them which I had not taken in last year. The meeting was held in the dooryard of a Christian man, a half hour's walk from the school. Four or five young men from the Theological Seminary were there, and two of them took charge of the meeting which was in the Tagalog dialect. . . .
I will tell you about our arrival in Ponasang, New Year's and Christ- mas all at once, for we have only to-day been celebrating the last of these festivals. All my fine plans for arriving on Christmas Day were quite upset for we did not arrive until Sunday evening. However, the friends were glad to see us and forgave the delay. Mr. and Mrs. Beach and Frances, Mrs. Hubbard, Misses Deahl, Dornblaser, Blanchard and Brown had come down to Pagoda Anchorage in a house boat to meet us, and had been waiting all day. We took the launch up to Foochow and arrived at the Ponasang compound about 8.30 where Miss Garretson had a dinner waiting since noon for us all. Miss Crane and Mr. and Mrs. Christian were there also from the city. The schoolgirls and the women from Miss Brown's school were also out to greet us with firecrackers. My, but it was good to be back among all the nice people!
Tuesday morning Miss Ward and I took the Diong-loh launch and reached that beloved place about one. Chair coolies were at the wharf to meet us and the head man of the stand put off two bunches of fire- crackers to show their pleasure at my return. Such attention from the poor coolies is very touching. When we reached the compound gate there were more crackers from the school children and friends who had gathered to have the Christmas celebration in the new church. How glad I was to see every one of them ! After lunch we all went down to the church. It was packed full of happy people, men, women and chil- dren. There were songs by the different schools and a graphic presenta- tion of the Christmas story by some of the boys. The Chinese love to act and take their parts very well indeed. At the close the pastor called on me for remarks and although I had no idea whether I could remember Chinese enough to express my thought, I was so glad to be there that I just had to get up and tell them so. It was a case of having a message and being given the courage to deliver it. I had no trouble with the Chinese. The words came and I just talked.
New Year's afternoon the American Board was *^at home" here at Ponasang and invited the Methodists and English to meet all the 1914 newcomers and returned. This included Mr. and Mrs. Belcher, Mr. Gardner, Mr. Urch, Misses Ward, Cook and Perkins.
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Miss Caroline SiUiman writes from Van, Turkey : —
School opened just on time and with full classes. Our enrollment is a few less than last year, due to the small number in the kindergarten. We take no free children there and many parents*, thinking that kinder- garten training is not absolutely necessary, decided to keep their children at home. Money is very scarce because many of the breadwinners have gone and many more are working for the government without pay. Since the news from the Black Sea yesterday we think our letters will not go through unless we are very careful what we write.
The city was so unsettled the last days of August that we were very un- certain whether it was wise to try to open or not. Mr. Yarrow called on
A VINEYARD SCENE IN EASTERN TURKEY
the Turkish superintendent of schools and on receiving encouragement from him we began to register and collect the half year tuition. The classes filled up immediately and as among our teachers there were no young men of soldier age there was no reason why school should not open. Our boys' school and all the other schools in the city were some- what delayed because of the soldier question. Finally, the government gave permission and all are running regularly. Very likely there will be some trouble after this. Miss Rogers and I have both been impressed by the fact that our girls seem more eager and grateful for school this year than ever before. I suppose the reason is that they had been very much afraid that they would be deprived entirely.
Our Field Correspondents
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Our tuition is somewhat less than last year, but that is inevitable. We wonder that our pupils could give what they have. In several cases I know that the money brought should have been kept for bread. This shows how much school means to the common people when they are will- ing to sacrifice so to give their tuition. The sentiment along this line has changed very much during the six years I have been here. When I first came even those for whom it was easy saw no reason why it was necessary that they should pay good money for their children's tuition.
The Moslem Kindergarten is being continued this year. We waited for the committee of Turks, who had the work in charge, to give us word that they were ready to do their part. Last year they supplied the money for room rent and fuel from their own pockets. The superintendent of education told us that he had hoped this year to make an appropriation for this out of their regular school funds but owing to scarcity of money they were not able to. We are very much pleased with the interest these men take in the kindergarten. It is encouraging that they care enough to give to its support from their personal income when money is so hard to get hold of.
None of us^e suffering for any necessity. We have been more fortu- nate than the missionaries in some of our sister stations. Nothing has been requisitioned from our premises except medicines from the dispensary.
Miss Stella N. Loughridge writes from Talas, Turkey: —
Last Wednesday evening was New Year's Eve according to the Turkish calendar, so we had a New Year's dinner for the school. We turned the whole work of preparation and entertainment over to Nellie Hanum, our housekeeper, and the teachers and girls. They accepted the responsibility and everything was done beautifully. I wish you could have seen the long tables with their white cloths all decorated down the middle with pretty designs worked out in green moss and red berries. The pillars in the middle of the room were wound with red paper and twined with green myrtle vines. After dinner, games were played in the parlor and then followed a short piano recital by our two senior piano pupils whom Miss Phelps is training this year. Besides a few outside guests our five senior girls and their parents were the invited ones.
One of the pleasantest events of our Christmas week was a gathering of children yesterday afternoon in the schoolroom. A sugg-estion was made to the girls' club a few weeks ago that the different clubs prepare some
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kind of Christmas gifts for poor and lonely children at Christmas time. A few days ago a display was made of the girls' work. There were scrapbooks and bags of nuts and raisins, rag dolls, all beautifully dressed, and pictures mounted on large cards and tied with bright ribbons, and some underclothing, and kerosene. This last was brought by one of the clubs because they thought that Christmas should be a time of bright- ness. Many homes just now are without kerosene, the little lamps stand empty on the shelf and the family sits in the dark or by the light of a feeble candle, so these girls thought that a little kerosene would be the most acceptable Christmas gift. Kerosene is imported so that it is very hard to get now in war time and everybody who has any uses it with great care. Each girl was allowed to choose some little child for her guest and yes- terday afternoon they all assembled in the big schoolroom, each girl with a poor little boy or girl in tow. After a song one of the teachers told a Christmas story and then to the music of the organ the children marched around the room to inspect the gifts. Then each girl was allowed to take her gift and present it to her guest. Happy indeed were the little chil- dren, but far happier were the girls who saw what delight their efforts brought to those little ones. The funny little rag dolls were hugged up in little arms with as much ectasy as any doll ever was, and were covered over from the cold wind with thin and tattered little capes just as affectionately.
We still have enough picture postals to give one around and we hope before next Christmas that some one will send us a new supply. If the way is opened I do hope we may have some more Christmas boxes. But for this time I think we shall have to adopt the plan suggested in a letter from a missionary lady in China — empty all our scrapbags and make a fish pond of the contents. At least, we could have a jolly time over it, and the girls understand that it is the spirit and not the gift that makes Christmas. Even the usual white sugar candy which helps to fill the little bags must be omitted this year for sugar like kerosene comes from outside (or rather doesn't come now) and we must be very careful of what we have, for who knows when more will come if the war goes on. We hope we may continue the kindergarten which Miss Burrage has started here in the school this year as a permanent part of our school. We have a very good beginning.
Note. — Will not some societies who follow the suggestion for A Summer Christmas Tree on page 195 remember this school at Talas ? — Tke Editor.
Our Field Correspondents
185
Miss Elizabeth Ward writes from Kitano, Osaka^ Japan : —
Miss McKowan has a normal class in vt^hich she trains the schoolgirls how to teach the lesson and they carry that out in their classes.- She looks after the machinery of it and I the music, and teach a class of six or seven of our first-year class. Three or four come from the school dormitory. Miss McKowan does not teach in the afternoon, but teaches in the morning at the Umeda Church.
My Junior Christian Endeavor Society closed the term with a pretty good record, — thirty-seven not absent for the fall term, and about twenty for both the spring and fall terms. There was an average attendance of seventy-five or eighty, I think. The best attendance was in the first-year classes.
Our street railroad has been in operation since August. Our brick fence we find a very great help though the cars themselves are quieter than we had feared. They are all small cars and so far use only foot bells instead of the steamboat, screeches of the other road. They are noisy enough, to be sure, passing about every three minutes. We hope to break the noise further by planting trees along that fence. Our house is painted at last, — just finished about two weeks or less ago. It is so nice to be clean and bright. The color is much as it was before, a light sage green with dark sage green trimmings. Miss Ward writes under later date : —
One day last fall after Sunday school a lady with a very friendly face and voice came in, bringing her little nine-year-old son whom she wanted to have come to our Sunday school. She gave us her name and residence and invited us to come and see her which a few weeks later we did. We were much surprised at our reception, she seemed so glad. It came out in the course of conversation that she was a graduate (years ago) of a Bap- tist girls' school in Tokyo, was in fact a baptized Christian but evidently for years past has not been able to keep up church-going or connection in anyway. She said her husband while not directly opposing, still did not show a '^glad face" when she went or suggested going. Her mother-in- law, like most old women in Japan, is a devout Buddhist. She came in to see us and found us very interesting" and was surprised to find that she could really talk with us and understand what we said. Two of the sons also appeared, bright-looking boys. We enjoyed our visit and the cordial atmosphere very much, and of course asked her to call and see us, giving our at-home day as the third Tuesday, but if that was not con- venient she might find us at home at other times. So one afternoon
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before long came Mrs. Oiwa. She said her children had tried to get her started on our at-home day, but she could not well get out then so had risked it this day. She said our coming had given her family "seeds of conversation" for some time and had helped her to speak a little of Christianity; and the Christmas season drawling near she had spoken of it till the old grandmother w^as curious to see v^hat it was like. If we had only known of it and invited her to our school Christmas! I am sure it might have been enlightening to her. Mrs. Oiwa too was sorry to learn that the school Christmas was over. I urged her to take the "Ota San" and the children to the Umeda church celebration the night of the 26th but she was not sure that she would be able to go out at night. I sent a little Life of Christ in Japanese to the Ota San with my com- pliments, saying that as it was His birthday she might like to hear about him. Mrs. Oiwa's oldest son is in the boys' middle school and is study- ing English so we urged her to ask him to enter Mr. Allchin's English Bible class at the Umeda Sunday school. The little nine-year-old is so bashful we have not succeeded yet in getting him into our Sunday school. I think we'll have to go after him and bring him, if we get him.
Mrs. Oiwa is only one of the many girls, graduates of girls' schools, who have to keep alive the spark of their religion under many, many difficulties. She seems to have kept hers alive. I see in her only our own girls now and hereafter. But the Lord of the Harvest will look after his seeds. Our little Sunday school was very successful during the fail and had a very good Christmas entertainment. The teachers (except my- self) are schoolgirls and they have been very helpful and faithful. Miss McKowan has a normal class in which she gives suggestions for the teaching of the lesson, pictures, stories, etc., and they teach it on Sunday. I have a class of the youngest of our schoolgirls. This training is fine for the development of our girls, and the Sunday schools will do as much for the teachers, I am sure, as for the pupils. Mr. Allchin holds preach- ing services there once a week, and we aim to make it a feeder of the church, especially of the Umeda Church.
Miss Minnie A* Tont? writes from Mount Silinda, Africa : —
I am no longer a beginner who is struggling with the language. The reason is not that I have become master of Chindau but it is because I have had to teach ! In June the Mission decided that I should not be given more time for language study, but that I should begin to teach in July, and so I am now in the harness. I have taught five months. The
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187
term has brought many new experiences to me. Some have been happy experiences and some have been disappointing; but I have enjoyed meet- ing with the boys and girls from day to day. They have helped me very much. One forgets entirely that they are black. After all, what differ- ence does the color of the skin make? I have admired the courage of some of the older boys and girls — a few married men and women — which they show in being willing to stand alongside the tiny ones and learn to read. We have had a pleasant term of school. I tried to teach Bible, a little English and arithmetic. From twelve to two o'clock while Miss Clarke was teaching sewing I had a group of girls in laundry work. From two-thirty to four-thirty, I had another group of girls in laundry work. Since we have no laundry building we used a corner of the much crowded dining room in the girls' dormitory. Besides our regular school work Miss Minnie Clarke and I have been keeping a sort of school sup- plies' store. All times of the day we sell books, slates, pencils, and the like, and receive money, fowls, eggs or grain in exchange. I am living in the woman's cottage where Miss Gilson lived. Miss Clarke has her room in the girls' dormitory, but we have the sitting room and dining room in common. Miss Clarke is most kind to me. She works very hard.
I take much delight in my Sunday school class of over twenty little girls and boys. They are the beginners and I am teaching them the graded lessons. I try to teach them in Chindau. You see I am trying to put into use the little Chindau I have learned. I wish I knew Chindau as Miss Clarke knows Zulu. It is wonderful how she understands these people and how they love her.
The war affects us little here. We have been getting war news through the telegrams which come to the post office from day to day and from the Rhodesia Herald. But we can never realize the awfulness of the war. It seems too dreadful to be true. All we can do is to trust God to carry out his plans, for we know that he has plans.
French Missions in South Africa ♦
The outbreak of war has placed the Protestant missionaries of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society, now at work in British South Africa, in a serious position. For over eighty years these missionaries havvfi carried on their work in Basutoland, and for twenty-five years they have been at work in Barotsiland, on the upper Zambesi. Though both territories have passed under the British flag, the Paris Society has continued to maintain the missions. British friends of the missions are now undertaking to raise an emergency fund for the work of the Paris Society in the French colonies.
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OUR WORK AT HOME
AROUND THE COUNCIL TABLE WITH OUR PRESIDENT
"Love will find it, tho' the nations Tho' they trample child and mother
Rise up blind, as of old, As red clay into the clay.
And the new generations Where brother wars with brother
Wage their warfares of gold; Love will find out the way."
Love has already found out the way. God's love found it first v^hen "He so loved the world that he gave" ... a Deliverer. After a time men forgot the way He had shown them. Then, by His love breath- ing through their hearts, they rediscovered it. They began to send a deliverer, another and another, with love, and longing to rescue every creature.
It was Love, holy Love, which found out ways among the nations, ways which are widening until they will become highways thronged with people of every clime who mingle in a loving Peace.
Those of us who heard Dr. C. H. Patton, fresh from a visit to Africa, will not forget his vivid picture of the countless footpaths crossing and recro&sing the continent in a network, hardened by the feet of centuries.
Just so has Love made paths among the nations.
William Carey, Elias Riggs and all the other translators, made books by love, and so cut a way for Education. Dr. Peter Parker, opening China with his lancet, made a way for the Healing Art to work by love. Dr. George Washburn, though statesman and scholar, was in the Turkish Empire first and always because of a simple-hearted love for a burdened people. David Livingstone would have fled Africa in his longing for home and friends had not a mighty love held him to make a way for his dark-skinned brothers out of degradation into a new life.
Time would fail to tell of all the heroes and heroines of the past whose love found ways to hasten Brotherhood and the Dawn of Peace. And all the present force of missionaries in all the lands under the sun are loving the nations out and up to a preparedness for universal, permanent Peace and Good Will.
Dear friends of the Table, I am thus reminding you that we, all of us in the missionary circle, belong to the Blessed Order of Peacemakers by virtue of our Loving Mission.
/p/j] Around the Council Table With Our President
189
The Foimdatio7is of Permanent Peace ca7z be Laid Only by Love. We have had the honor and joy to send forth those who could lay some of the Peace foundation stones. We share to a degree in their rewards. We are co-builders of the new World City which is to be. Simple Love and only Love can build such a city! Self-seeking, worldly ambitions, jealousy, hatred, militarism, cut their own ways — ways which lead to destructive warfare. The proof is before us for our pondering.
A Call to the Advocates of the Love Way We are a great host of women who have advocated and used the method of Love as a world-winning power. We have not thought of ourselves pre-eminently as peacemakers. We have thought in other terms — in terms of child rescuers, home regenerators, educators, messengers of the Jesus Doctrine" to women weary of vain petitions and oblations. Suddenly, with empires gone mad in war, we begin to study Peace, its roots, its ways of growth, the necessities for its future establishment, and we discover that the missionary forces have been and are the real Peacemakers for the world. Did the Master think of them when, sitting on the mountain side, he declared, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God"? Did He dwell with joyful hope upon the thought of a missionary church, whose members would be "children of God," because they helped make a world peace .f* The call comes to all the missionary clans to declare now that they do belong to this blessed Order.
The call comes to us, members of the Woman's Board, to redouble efforts in active building for the future, that we may help on ancient militarism to its final downfall, and the new World City of Peace to its supremacy.
"Your dreamers may dream it Yet our kingdom draweth nigher
The shadow of a dream, With each dawn and every day,
Your sages may deem it Through the earthquake and the fire,
A bubble on the stream; Love will find out the way."
M. L. D.
' ' German soldiers at the front have sent remittances from their pay. Letters as w^ell as personal interviews have proved that the religious wave which has caught the whole nation has also reached the missions, and has deepened the devotion to the missionary cause. This explains why some of the German missions have had even higher receipts than last year.*'
190
Life and Light
lApril
THL OPENED WINDOW
BY ISABEL M. BLAKE
**Miss Felton would like to see you, ma'am. She said she had important business." Mrs. Carteret's English housemaid paused a little wistfully in the doorway. She longed to win a cordial welcome for the caller, who was almost the only one among Mrs. .Carteret's many guests who habitu- ally gave her a personal smile or word, '*for all the world as though I was a girl, and not a talking machine," as she confided to the upstairs maid. But Mrs. Carteret responded coldly, ''Oh well, bring her up."
Miss Felton was a dainty little lady with a nervous, birdlike manner. Though she belonged to one of the very oldest families of this large New England town, she never felt quite at her ease in the presence of this late- comer whose husband was the owner of the great factories which had brought so many foreigners into town. Factories, foreigners and "new aristocracy" alike. Miss Felton thought were ''undesirable," and regretted that Mrs. Carteret was on her visiting list for the missionary society; but she was determined to do her duty, and walked, inwardly trembling, but outwardly sturdy, into Mrs. Carteret's presence, like a true Spartan.
That charming lady could not have greeted a guest ungraciously. Before many minutes, Miss Felton had succumbed completely, as most people did, to her hostess' fascinations. She had wondered how che would begin the conversation, but it never lagged a moment. The ques- tion was how to introduce her errand gracefully.
"Yes," Mrs. Carteret was saying, "we go into the city twice every week to the opera. Mr. Carteret is exceedingly fond of music, and feels that he cannot miss it. He knows fa^ more about it than I do. It is such a wonderful thing to have a husband who can point out to you the depth of feeling, the truly elemental appeal of the Niebelungen operas. Every- one in the boxes uses it just as a social occasion. So Mr.^ Carteret will not have a box. He says he wants to hear the music and see the acting without interruption. So we always sit right in the middle of the front row in the first balcony. We have engaged those seats for the season. They are the best seats in the house for seeing and hearing, and so cheap. I always feel money is purely wasted on box seats, don't you?"
Miss Felton always sat in the family circle, and couldn't manage that very often. But she had plenty of dignity, and savoir faire.
"Yes, indeed," she said. "It is all for show. But don't you think a great deal of money is wasted on things that don't give much in real satisfaction ?"
The Opened Window
191
^^Satisfaction? Oh what is it? It's what we're all chasing, and never really get more than a whiff of, isn't it?"
"Oh do you think so? I think there is a real satisfaction when one has to save for weeks and then does manage an opera." (Her pride could not quite consent to a mention of the family circle.) ''But there is still more in giving the pleasure to some one else, and watching their enjoyment. Or in giving anything to people that they really need. And I have come to ask you to do that. It is nearly Easter, and we are trying to raise an extra offering, to show our gratitude for the resurrection. You know our church raised its apportionment, but this is such a hard year, prices are so high, and work so scarce, that I think we must make an extra effort to even pass our apportionment to help the Boards fill up what lacks from the many churches that may not be able to meet theirs."
"We always contribute our share, and I have no doubt we shall do so this year, though really, I think Mr. Carteret will be obliged to diminish his benevolences. You know the mills are not working full time. We wanted a new five-passenger Buick. The limousine really does not answer our purposes. But we shall not be able to get it this year. So why should we try to give extra or even as much to foreign work, when we can't have what we need ourselves? Really, I don't see how you can carry on foreign missions anyway, with this war going on. Why don't you send for them all to come home?"
"Oh, Mrs. Carteret, not one of our workers would come home now. You don't know them. Even in those countries, like Turkey, where there is really war going on, they are keeping at work in their hospitals and schools the same as ever. They say the people are in such poverty and distress that it would be like desertion to leave them now. All the men have been draughted into service, all the animals commandeered, and almost all food supplies requisitioned. Yet the people are thronging to the churches, praying as they have never prayed. Isn't it wonderful how, in trouble, the hearts of men turn to their God? And more won- derful yet, the Moslems were never so friendly. They are openly con- trasting the Christianity they have seen in the lives of missionaries and native converts these fifty years, or more, with the 'Christianity' of the warring governments. The talk of a Holy War has fallen flat. And in India and China and Africa, where the doors are open as never before, shall we cut off the resources of the missionaries because there is war in Europe? Oh, it would be base desertion all along the line, if we didn't stand back of our work at this crucial time!" The enthusiasm of a long
192
Life and Light
\_Aprtl
line of New England preachers glowed in Miss Felton's kindling face. It almost conquered Mrs. Carteret, but she did want that new Buick! *'It's all very interesting, Miss Felton, and must be most encouraging to one so deeply devoted as you are. Another time, I hope we can help you, but you must excuse us now. Expenses are very heavy, and we can not give more than we have done."
Nevertheless she could not quite forget the little woman, and to appease a restless conscience, she mentioned the matter to her husband that noon. He frowned. Expenses were heavy, and profits small. He wanted the Buick too, mainly for his wife's sake because her heart was set on it.
"You might give her a couple of dollars. But aren't they torments, these missionary women? Such persistent beggars!"
'^Well, anyway, Robert, it's not for themselves. All right, I'll give them a dollar."
She was still thinking about it that afternoon, as she sat in her limousine. She had sent the dollar at once to Miss Felton, a glow of pleasure at her own generosity suffusing her face as she sealed the enve- lope. A moment after, as she thought of Miss Felton's enthusiasm, the gift seemed paltry. She felt uncomfortable about it, and resented her own discomfort as she rode along. Suddenly the car stopped with a jerk. From the window she could see a tiny girl lying on the pavement beside the wheel. In an instant Mrs. Carteret was bending over the unconscious child.
"Oh Michael, Michael," she cried, "how often have I told you, you must be careful about your driving. Pick her up and drive at once to the hospital. "
The chauffeur stooped to pick up the child, but as he did so, he said, "Don't worry, ma'am. The car didn't pass over her, but just grazed her, and she fell. She hadn't no business in the streets nohow. She's just one o* them foreign brats that no one cares for."
Angered by the callousness of the driver, Mrs. Carteret snatched the child into her own arms. As she sat with her in the car, she looked down at the moist, dark locks curling around the blue-veined temples — an Armenian, she judged. There were many Armenian mill operatives in this part of the city. As she looked, the eyelids fluttered open, revealing a pair of great dark eyes, then closed again, but the little form nestled closer to the lady.
There proved to be no serious injury, just some severe bruises, but the doctor thought that the child had better stay in the hospital a day or two.
The Opened Window
193
Mrs. Carteret drove around to see the child's parents, thankful beyond words that the message was not one* of great sadness.
She found the woman living in a wooden tenement house that reeked of the weekly wash. "Evidently all the washer-ladies in town live in this block," she said to herself. Mrs. Darakjian was bending over a tub, but she left her work as soon as Mrs. Carteret, her caller, stepped into the room, and set a chair for her with a smile of welcome that made the warm-hearted lady love her at once. She had a gentle, tired face, great dark eyes, and masses of silky hair.
Mrs. Carteret did not sit down, but took the woman's hands in hers, soapsuds and all.
"Oh, I've come to tell you bad news. I'm so sorry — but it's not so very bad. Your little girl, your Gracie, was coming home from school and our auto — oh, don't cry! She isn't badly hurt. She could tell us her name and where she lived. She's in the hospital just for a day or two, but the doctor says it's nothing but bruises and the shock, and children get over those things quickly. I've come to take you to see her."
That was the first of many calls. The little girl was home, as well as ever, by the end of the week. Mrs. Carteret was not satisfied with paying her expenses. She had come to feel a real friendliness for the gentle, sweet-faced woman, who had never uttered a word of reproach or com- plaint, and for the slow, mild, blue-eyed husband, who was so different from the usual Armenian as she pictured him. She felt that they were above their station, and tried to hint delicately at helping them. She felt that it would be a real satisfaction to her to give them a lift.
"Oh no, madam," said Mrs. Darakjian, "I am t'ankful to you for your kindness and mostly for your fisits. But we are not needink any-- think. My man, he be foreman in de mill, we only live here till he build his house. He workink on it after hours. We do not need — but madam, if you should wish to give, give to the missionaries who are helpink the piple in our poor country."
By degrees Mrs. Carteret learned the story. The woman and her hus- band had been happy in the old country. Both had gone for a short time to the mission school, where he had learned carpentry as his trade. They loved each other, their home, the church, the school, the missionaries whom they spoke of as their best friends. But Mr. Darakjian's father had been killed in the horrible uprising of 1909, and these people had left the country, dreading a repetition of such scenes. Beside, they did not want their little son to grow up in a country where he would have to
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Life and Light
\_Aprtl
give the best years of his life to service in a w^retchedly-managed army in Arabia or some other unhealthful, far-away region. They had had a hard time on their journey and when they first reached America, but now things were going well with them. Mrs. Carteret liked the grateful way in which they spoke of Americans as their best friends, as the ones to whom their people could now turn in an hour of desperate need. And again she heard the story that Miss Felton told, of poverty and distress in Turkey, but with many little personal touches. Her uncle, counted a rich man over there, had had to pay the fee for exemption from military service three times over for each of his three sons. The armies in pass- ing through on their way to the front, proved to be rationless, and had helped themselves liberally from the stores of the well-to-do. '^So they cannot help the poor, much, madam. They have not enough for them- selfs. No, it is the missionaries, madam. They are like God. They stick to us through all."
Mrs. Carteret went away with the tears in her eyes. What if the mis- sionaries should suffer because the American churches did not pay their apportionments; or could not stay, or had to close the hospital!
Strangely enough, that evening her husband told her that she could have the Buick.
*^Oh no, no, dear," she said, "give me the money."
"Why, dear, I never knew you to be so mercenary. I thought you wanted the Buick, so it seemed as though you must — just must have it."
"Oh, I did, but — " then she poured out the whole story. Her husband listened gravely.
"Won't you regret this?" he said at last.
"Oh no, I'm sure there's no satisfaction like that of giving to those who are really in need for themselves, or for some splendid work they are trying to put through. And I have so much and they so little," she answered.
She carried the "Buick check," as she called it, to Miss Felton, her- self. She told her all that had happened. Miss Felton listened with shining eyes.
"And you know, dear," she said, "it's not only in Turkey, but there are many other countries where our work would suffer if the churches were not loyal to it as a whole. It's a world-wide work, thank God!"
"Yes," answered Mrs. Carteret, "and that little Armenian woman opened the window for me to look out and see the Real World."
JUNIOR DEPARTMENT
A 5UMMLR CHRI5TMA5 TRLL
BY MARY PRESTON
Everybody loves a Christmas tree. And most people, including boys and girls, love to get one ready. In churches where a Christmas cele- bration of giving instead of getting has been planned for the Sunday school, it has again and again proved a signal success. Why not, if it is really "more blessed to give than to receive"?
Now there are many boys and girls over the seas whose Christmas depends entirely upon the people in America. Hundreds of them are children who have come into the mission schools for the first time this year and have never before even heard the magic word "Christmas," or known that to part of the world the 25th of December is very, very differ- ent from ordinary days. How co2ild they know about the birthday of Christ when they never so much as heard the Saviour's name? Then there are others who have been in school longer or who belong to Chris- tian families, yet whose Christmas is only two or three or four years old. Could there be anything more enjoyable, do you think, than planning and sending a Christmas tree to boys and girls like these?
Of course an actual fir tree cannot very well be shipped over the seas, but any missionary, no matter how busy, can easily find a substitute for the original tree if all the things to put upon it are sent her. And it's easy enough to pack "all the things to put upon it" — the things that make a plain tree into a Christmas tree — into a box and send them across the ocean!
Through a certain obstinacy of facts Christmas comes only once a year — which has always been something of a hardship to children because it has limited Christmas trees to once a year also! But recently some one has thought of a way of breaking up that long wait from January way round to December and putting in a second tree midway, in June maybe, or July or May. And this is the "how" of it.
First, way back early in the winter or the spring, you must select a date in one of those months. Then the next thing is to begin preparing the gifts, for the more time you have to think about them the more fun it is. Every boy and girl in the Sunday school must have a chance to
196 Life and Light [April
share in the getting- ready and that means a little planning so that when the day arrives there will not be too much of one kind of thing or too little of another, such as too many candles and not enough holders, or too many presents and not enough trimmings! Of course some of the things can be made, like the candy bags and the paper chains to decorate with, and the dolls' clothes and the sewing bags and book bags and the scrap- books and aprons and wristers for presents. And some things can be hunted up, like remnants of silk (to make Chinese shoes!) and embroidery silk and simple games (which do not require knowledge of English) and picture postcards (to be prepared by pasting white paper over the writing) and pictures to put on the walls. But other things have to be bought — such as tinsel and candy and picture books and balls and ribbons and pocket knives and beads — and that requires time to earn money. Then, too, money has to be provided for freight expenses, and there must be a collection for that, or a committee to solicit it from the older people, or perhaps a special tax levied for the purpose. So one needs to begin a few months ahead of time and do a bit of planning.
It is well to decide at once to what boys and girls the tree shall be sent because sometimes that makes quite a difference about the gifts. For instance one mustn't send stuffed dolls to the Hindu children because the white ants would eat them up in no time, but Japanese children like that kind very well indeed! And wristers wouldn't be of any use at all in Ceylon where it's hot, but they're a great help in North China, say, where there is plenty of snow and winter wind. It is possible to decide all by one's self where to send one's tree, but it is better to write the Woman's Board, for they can often suggest some station where there is special need of it and can provide at least a little information about the children there. They can tell you too by what date the box must be started. In any event you will want to send for the free leaflet "Concern- ing Missionary Boxes," which gives lists of acceptable gifts for various countries and details about the shipping of a box (like itemized list of contents, valuation, etc.).
When at last the day arrives a real fir tree must be set up in the church, or, since it is summer, out on the lawn perhaps. As soon as the people have all gathered with their contributions for the tree, the service must begin with a Christmas song. After that some one must explain again (because of course this was all explained once when the plan was first launched) where the tree is going and why. Then those who have the trimmings march forward and give them to the three or four people
A Summer Christmas Tree
197
who with step-ladders and scissors and all the other necessities are ready at once to put them on the tree. Each child might even help a little in this. While it is being done, the other children should sing again — all the well-known Christmas and missionary songs. If desired, it will give the decorators a little more time and will add meaning to the service if some children dressed as the boys and girls of the land to which the box is to be sent, appear in some simple little scene representative of their country. Some of the worship, or play and work, or school scenes in the pageant, Contrasts in Childhood" (10 cents), may be adapted for this purpose, or other exercises may be used. If this is quite impossible a story of Christmas in some mission country such as the Here and There Story for December, 1914, "The Christmas Tree That Travelled" (3 cents) might be told. When the decorations are all in place the children with gifts may march forward so that these can all be tied on also; and then afterward if the number present is not too great, a circle and gleeful dance about the tree is in order. A pretty feature of this is to have the American children at first ignore the little foreign-dressed boys and girls who have been left standing at one side and then to have one or two young girls, dressed to represent angels, appear in the midst and point to them until the American children go and take each one by the hand and bring them to share in the dance.
"I think when I read that sweet story of old" is a good song to sing as the dance is brought to an end and then the children should sit down on the floor while the Christmas story is very simply and beautifully told and a star placed upon the "tip-top" of the tree. Just a word should be added of how the things will be packed in a box and unpacked again at Christmas time way over in the land across the sea, and of how at the very same time that we have our Christmas trees here in December, boys and girls there will be made happy by the things we have sent. The service should end with a simple prayer. If the children know a suitable one which they can repeat together, it will be an ideal ending.
Afterward of course the things must be taken off the tree, carefully packed and started on their long journey, with a letter to the missionary who is to receive them. "Concerning Missionary Boxes" gives all necessary directions for this.
Such a plan as this is capable of innumerable additions, subtractions and modifications, of course, to fit local situations. The writer only hopes that it will be submitted to multiplication also! It is one of the most beautiful and helpful services in which a child can be led to join.
198 Life and Light \_ April
OUR BOOK TABLE
Gleanings from Chinese Folklore. By Nellie N. Russell, compiled by Mary H. Porter. Published by Fleming H. Revell Company. Pp. 169. Price, $1 net.
Under the above title are now published for the first time a number of charming old Chinese legends and a few accounts of modern Chinese heroism. The former Miss Russell learned from her Chinese friends during the long evenings spent in their villages as she journeyed from place to place in her evangelistic work. It was her cherished plan as soon as she should retire from active service to edit carefully the rough drafts made from her first notes and to add to them more tales of Chinese life as she had seen it. The book was to be her contribution toward a better understanding of the people whom she loved by those of her own land. Her sudden call to her heavenly home while still in the thick of earthly work prevented the accomplishment of this purpose, but the tales fortunately have not been lost. For with loving desire to fulfill Miss Russell's wish Miss Mary Porter has now gathered them together, editing as little as possible and prefacing them with an account of Miss Russell's beautiful life and with appreciations from the pens of those who knew her best. As the expense of publishing the volume is borne by friends, all the proceeds of the sales are to be devoted to the work for the Chinese which was built up by Miss Russell. It may be said emphatically that the book is well worth reading for the illuminating glimpses its folk- lore gives into Chinese life and character. But to those who could not know Miss Russell while she lived, there is equal reward in the inspira- tion breathed forth from this account of her rich personality.
M. p.
WOMAN'5 BOARD OF MI55ION5
Receipts frofti Fehrtiary 1 to February 28, 1915 Miss Sarah Louise Day, Treasurer
Friend,
25 00
42 00
Eastern Maine Branch. — Mrs. J. Gertrude Denio, Treas., 347 Hammoncl St., Ban- gor. Bremen, Ch., Ladies, 3; Newcastle, Aux., 22; Searsport, C. E. Soc, 17,
Wester7i Maine Branch. — Miss Annie F. Bailev, Treas., 132 Chadwick St., Portland. Portland, State St. Ch., Aux., 25.29, Wil- liston Ch., Cov. Dau., 100, 125 29
Total, 167 '29
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
New Hampshire Branch. — Mrs. W. L. Fickett, Treas., 120 North State St., Con- cord. Int. Hadlev Fund, 76; Int. Sarah W. Kendall Fund, 16; Brentwood, Aux., 12.70; Colebrook, Ch., 5; Dublin, Aux., 6; Gorham, Ch., 10; Greenland, C. R., 1.50; Hampton, Aux. (to const. L. M's Mrs. Sarah M. Lane, Miss M. Emma Locke), 50; Hanover, Dartmouth College, Church of Christ, 139.50; Meriden, S. S., 2; Newmarket, Ch.,4; Portsmouth, Mrs. Martha J. Kimball, 1,000; Wilmot, C. E. Soc, 2, 1,324 70
Receipts
199
MASSACHUSETTS.
Friend, 1,000; Friend, 500.50 ; Friend, 440, 1,940 50
Andover and Wobtirn Branch. — Mrs. Henry A. Smith, Treas., 12 Belmont St., Lowell. Bedford, Aux. (25 of wh. to const. L. M. Mrs. John C. P. Riese), 40; Lowell, High St. Ch.,Aux.,25; North Wobum, North Ch., S. S. Kinder., 6; Winchester, First Ch., Miss. Union, 25; Wobum, Aux., 3.75, 99 75
Barnstable Association. — Miss Carrie E. Mitchell, Treas., South Dennis. Centre- ville. South Ch., 10.43; Yarmouth, Aux., 5, 15 43
Berkshire Branch. — Miss Mabel A. Rice, Treas., 118 Bradford St., Pitts fie Id. Canaan, S. S., 5 ; Housaconic, Aux., 11.25 ; Lee, First Aux., 290; Pittsfield, First Ch., 5. Less expenses, 49 cents, 310 76
Essex South Branch. — Miss Daisy Ray- mond, Treas., 120 Balch St., Beverly. Gloucester, Trinity Ch., Aux., 5; Lynn, Central Ch., Aux.,10; Lvnnfield, Second Ch., Aux., 10; Salem, South Ch., Aux., 5.81, 30 81
Franklin County Branch. — Miss J. Kate Oakman, Treas., 473 Main St., Greenfield. Greenfield, Second Ch, Aux. ,23.77; Heath, Aux., 15; Montague, Aux., 10; North- field, Aux., 25; South Deerfield, Aux., 6.23; Whately, Benev. Soc, 10, 90 00
Hampshire Cotinty Branch. — Miss Harriet J. Kneeland, Treas., 8 Paradise Road, Northampton. A m h e r s t, Aux., 30 ; Northampton, Edwards Ch., Friend, 100, Aux., 70.73; Williamsburg, Aux., Friend, 100 , 300 73
Maiden.— Yx\&r\A, 50 00
Middlesex Branch.— 'Sirs. Frederick L. Claflin, Treas., 15 Park St., Marlboro. South Framinghara, Grace Ch.,Jr. Dept. S. S., 2; Welleslev, Wellesley College, Y. W. C. A., 250, " 252 00
Norfolk and Pilgrim ^rawc//.— Mrs. Mark McCuUv, Treas., *115 Warren Ave., Mat- tapan. "Friend, Th. Off., 2; Braintree, Aux., 6; Braintree, South, Aux., 10; Halifax, Ladies, 6; Holbrook, Aux., Add'l Th. Off., 10.25; Plvmouth, Aux., 35, C. R., 12.50; Rockland, Aux. (Th. Off., 12.85), 63.40, S. S., 4.09; Sharon, Aux., Th. Off., 81.37, 180 61
North Middlesex Branch. — Miss Julia S. Conant, Treas., Littleton Common. Fitchburg.Rollstone Ch., Aux.,60; Little- ton, Aux., 10.50; Lunenburg, Jr. S. S. CI., 4.46; South Acton, Aux., 10, 84 96
Springfield Branch. — Mrs. Mary H. Mitchell, Treas., 1078 Worthington St., Springfield. Holyoke, First Ch., Aux., 100; Longmeadow, Woman's Benev. Soc, 7; South Hadlev Falls, Aux. f25 of wh. to const. L. M.'Mrs. Frank E. White), 40; Westfield, First Ch., S. S., 30, Prim. Dept., 12, 189 00
Suffolk Branch.— ^Irs. Frank G. Cook, Treas., 44 Garden St., Cambridge. Arlington, Bradshaw Miss. Soc, 10; Aubumdale, Searchlight Club, 25 ; Boston, Mrs. Edward B. BaiTev, 250, Miss Emily D. Croswell, 10, Mrs. Henry D. Hvde, 10, Miss Sarah D. Mason, 25, Central Ch., Aux., 46, Miss. Study Cir., 207.54, Mt. Vernon Ch., Aux., 49,76, Guild, 30, Friend, 25, Old South Ch., Aux., 826.50, Friends through Miss S. L. Dav, 115, Park St. Ch., Y. W. Guild, 60, Union Ch., Aux., 40, Monday Eve. Club (25 of wh. to const.
L. M. Miss Marion W. Webbsr), 26; Brook line. Harvard Ch., For. Dept. Woman's Guild, 400, Y. L. F. M. S., 170, Levden Ch., Woman's Union, 80; Cam- bridge, Mrs. S. H.Dow, 20, Miss Helen
G. Dow, 20, Miss Hattie E. Dow, 20, Mrs.
H. C. Herring, 15, First Ch., Aux., 119.75, Pilgrim Ch., Y. L. M. C, 15, Prospect St. Ch., Guild, Friend, 70; Dedham, Aux., 14.80, Chicatawbut Club, 25; Dorchester, Pilgrim Ch., Aux., 6, Romsev Ch., Aux., 10, Second Ch., Aux., 16, Village Ch., Aux., 15.75, Dau. of Cov., lU; Foxboro, Aux., 40; Franklin, Mary Warfield Soc, 6, Y. L. F. M. S., 10; Hyde Park, Aux., 10; Jamaica Plain, Boylston Ch., Aux., 5; Newton, Eliot Ch., Woman's Assoc., 60, Guild, 50; Newton Centre, First Ch., Woman's Benev. and Aid Soc, 100; New- ton Highlands, Aux., 65.84, Jr. C E. Soc, 10; Newtonville, Central Ch., Queens of Avilion, 30; Norwood, Aux., 150; Rox- bury, Eliot Ch., Aux , 33.75, Imm.- Walnut Ave. Ch., For. Dept., 98, Y. L. F. M. S., 20; Roxburv", West, Woman's Union, 8; Somerville, B r o adway Ch., Aux., 14, Franklin St. Ch , Aux., 50, Highland Ch., Women Workers, 15, Winter Hill Ch., Dau. of Cov., 60; Somerville, West, Lower Lights, 10; Watertown, Phillips Ch., Aux. (25 of wh. to const. L. M. Miss Rachel P. Snow), 44.30; Wellesley Hills, Aux., 6, " 3,678 99
Worcester Co. Branch. — Miss Sara T, South wick, Treas., 144 Pleasant St., Worcester. Holden, Aux., 25; Millbury, First Ch., Miss. Study CI., 5; Shrewsbury, C. E. Soc, 2; Warren, Aux., 9.50; Worcester, Adams Sq. Ch., Aux., 5, Bethany Ch., Prim, and Jr. S. S., 6, Piedmo'nt Ch., Little Light "Bearers, 7.80, Plymouth Ch., Woman's Assoc., 35, 95 30
Total,
RHODE ISLAND.
7,318 84
Rhode Island Branch. — Miss Grace P. Chapin, Treas., 150 Meeting St., Provi- dence. Barrington, Prim, and Beginner's Dept. S. S.,16; Kingston, C. E. Soc, 8; Providence, Union Ch., The Friends King's Dau., 5; Westerly, C. E. Soc, 5, 34 00
CONNECTICUT.
Eastern Connecticut Branch. — Miss Anna C. Learned, Treas., 255 Hempstead St., New London. Int. Eliza Freeman Wood- ward Fund, 10; C o 1 c h e s t e r, S. S., 2; Daniel son, Aux., 8.17, C. E. Soc, 6; Greeneville, S. S., 5; New London, First Ch., Aux., 10, Second Ch., Aux., 15; Nor- wich, Park Ch., Aux., Mrs. G. D. Coit, 25, Miss M. P. Huntington, 25; Stonington, First Ch., Aux., 10, 116 17
Hartford Branch.— Mrs. Sidney ^^/. Clark, Treas., 40 WiUard St., Har'tford. Int. Clara E.Hillver Fund. 90; Enfield, Ladies' Benev. Soc," 25, First Ch., Jr. Dept.. 10; Hartford, Immanuel Ch., Mrs. BuUard, 50, Aux., 62, South Ch., Jr. Girls, 5; New Britain, South Ch., Aux., 15; Plainville, Aux. (to const. L. M. Mrs. Hiram M. Harris), 25; Suffield, First Ch., 250 ; West Hartford, Aux., 67; Wethersfield, C. E. Soc, 5, ^4 00
200
Life and Light
\_April
Neiv Haven Branch. — Miss Edith Woolsey, Treas., 250 Church St., New Haven. Milford, Miss Emily J. Baird, 5; Nauga- tuck, Ch., 75, 80 00
Total,
NEW YORK.
800 17
New York State Branch.— ^rs. F. M. Turner, Treas., 646 St. Mark's Ave., Brooklyn. Albany, Aux., 5; Brooklyn, Lewis Ave. Ch., Aux., 25, Parkville Ch., S. S.,10; Beta Philathea CI., 3; Camden, W. M. S., 22; Greene, Ladies' Aid and Miss. Soc, 5; Groton, S. S., 14; James- town, Pilgrim Ch., Aux., 10; Massena, Aux., 9.25; Middletown, First Ch., Aux. (prev. contri. const. L. M's Mrs. A. J. Hornbeck, Mrr . A. F. Pierce), North Ch., Jr. C. E. Soc, 2.50; New York, Man- hattan Ch., Gt ild, 16; Oswego, W. M. Soc, 47.17; Riverhead, Sound Ave. Ch., C. E. Soc, 5; Saratoga Springs, Aux., 24; Syracuse, Geddes Ch., Woman's Guild, 52, S. S., 5, Prim. Dept. S. S., 85 cents, Plymouth Ch., Woman's Guild, 100. Less expenses, 50, .305
PHILADELPHIA BRANCH.
Philadelphia Branch. — Miss Martha N. Hooper, Treas., The Victoria, 14th and Clifton Sts., Washington, D. C. Z>. C, Washington, First Ch., Aux. (to const. L. M's Mrs. Bertha F. Ball, Mrs. Mary C. Blodgett, Mrs. Alice H. Gould, Mrs. Margaret G. Hughes, Mrs. Delia C. Per- ham, Mrs. Julia H. Piatt, Mrs. Emma J. Price, Mrs. Mary C. Rugg), 200; Mission Club, 135; Fla., Lake Helen, Aux., 6.73; N. J., Glen Ridge, Aux., 25; Montclair, Watchung Ave. Ch., 6; Upper Montclair,
Aux., 75; Westfield, Aux., 75; Pa., Phila- delphia, Park Ch.,5; Wilkesbarre, Aux., 10.84; Wllliamsport, Aux,, 25, 563 62
W. H. M. i/.— Mrs. W^ J. Drew, Treas., 28 South Palmetto Ave., Daytona. Or- mond, W^. M. Soc, Mrs. Carrie Foster Pitts, in mem. of her mother and sister, Mrs. Caroline Foster Packard and Miss Susie Perkins Packard, Brockton, Mass., 277 00
CANADA.
Cawarfa.— Cong'l W. B. M., Miss Emily
Thompson, Treas., Toronto
Th. Off.,
Donations, Buildings, Specials,
1,266 51
$9,285 61
2,563 54 257 75
Total, $12,106 90
Total from Oct. 18, 1914 to Feb. 28, 1915.
Donations, Buildings, Specials, Legacies,
Total,
golden ANNIVERSARY GIFT.
Previously acknowledged. Receipts of the month,
Total.
$41,576 91 5,353 78 1,210 03 2,135 15
$50,275 87
$84,887 97 2,563 54
$87,451 51
WOMAN'5 BOARD OF THE PACIFIC
Receipts for January, 1915 Mrs. W. W^. Ferrier, Treasurer, 2716 Hillegass Ave., Berkeley, Cal,
CALIFORNIA.
Northern California Branch. — Mrs. Arthur Moore, Treas., 415 Pacific Ave., Piedmont. Adin, 1; Alameda, 55; Berkelev, First, 37.50, North, 38.25; Fresno, 7.50; Hvdes- ville, 2 ; Oakland, First, b. S., 10.78, Guild, 200, Mrs. Fowler, 500, First, 73, Plymouth, 25, W'ard Memorial, 1; Oleander, 9.25; Petaluma, 14.08; Pittsburgh, Cradle Roll, 4; San Francisco, First, 25, Bethany, 1.25; Sanger, 2; San Jose, 120.50; Santa Cruz, 50; Saratoga, 15, S. S., 25; Sunnyvale, 12.90; Watsonville,10; Woodland, 2.50, 1,248 51
SoutherJi California Branch. — Miss Emily M. Barrett, Treas., 178 Centre St., Pasa- dena. Chula Vista, 18.20; Highland, 10, Cradle Roll, 2.50; Lemon Grove, 5; Los Angeles, East, 19, First, 429.07, Mission Study CI., 5, Mt. Hollvwood, 32.50, Olivet, 11.48; Monrovia, 10;' Ontario, 50; Pasa- dena, Lake Ave., 25, North, 10; Pomona, 50, S. S., 15; Redlands, 25; Redondo Beach, 9; Santa Ana, Cradle Roll, 10; San Diego, First, 125, 861 75
IDAHO.
Idaho Branch. — Miss Cora B. Russell, Treas., 1904 Eastman St., Boise, ^oise.
6; Bruneau, 1; Grand View, 1; New Ply- mouth, 4; Weiser, 7.50, 19 50
Oregon Branch. — Mrs. A. L. Cake, Treas., 421 West Park St., Portland. Ashland, 5; Atkinson Memorial, 8; Corvallis, 5.72; Eugene, 15; Forest Grove, 22.85; "Friend," 200; Hubbard, 7; Portland, First, 35,
298 57
UTAH.
Utah Branch . — Mrs . Geo . H . B ro wn , Treas . , Sandy, Salt Lake, First, 5 00
WASHINGTON.
Washington Branch. — Mrs. M. A. Ken- nedy, Treas., 4517 11th Ave., N. E., Seattle. Ahtanum, 10; Chewelah, 5; Eagle Harbor, 2; Natchez, Lower, 6.50; Seattle, Bay View, 1; Sunnyside, S. S., 12.25; Tacoma, East, 5, 4175
Total,
$2,475
For we In Lft 'iiu7 (miy
1-7 V.45
Life and Light for Woman
Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library
1 1012 00316 7501