3) 
 ne 
 
 ; 
 / 
 
S a result of the Eddy Meetings in Lahore, 
 India, over 200 students have signed cards 
 agreeing to study some phase of the Life of Christ. 
 
 Three have been baptized and others are 
 receiving special instruction. Sfecial prayer 1s 
 asked tor the Bzb/e Classes, ingutrers, those who 
 have been baptized, and for the churches. 
 
HE CRY OF SIXTEEN MILLIONS 
 
 The India Council at its second Annual Meeting sent the 
 
 following paragraphs to the Foreign Board as expressive 
 
 of the great need of India for the Gospel NOW. 
 EDITOR. 
 
 Our cry to the Presbyterian Church in America is the cry of sixteen million. 
 We had almost said it was the cry of India’s three hundred and fifteen million: 
 and in some sense it is. Our work indirectly touches them all. But at least we 
 speak for the sixteen million within the border of our three Missions for whom 
 we are wholly responsible. Has our Church fully faced and realized that 
 responsibility? 
 
 It is a responsibility enormously heightened to-day. Whatever the issue of 
 the present war, to no country occupied by our Board will its results be more 
 
 3 
 
tremendous and momentous than to India. She has in a new way taken her place 
 in the sisterhood of lands that make up the British Empire. New powers will 
 surely be granted, new opportunities will arise, new crises and new perils will 
 have to be met. The Christian forces must be ready to help in this hour of 
 India’s need. 
 
 Nor is it to be forgotten that England, depleted in men and money by the 
 terrific conflict, will for the present be helpless to increase, possibly even to main- 
 tain, the strength of her missionary effort. Double duty must be done by the 
 American Churches. India’s claim on America for help in things spiritual is as 
 Belgium’s for things temporal. 
 
 Will you of the Presbyterian Church adequately respond to this call? Let us 
 give you a measure of the word “adequately.” One of our Missions, adding up 
 the men and women called for by its several stations, reached a total of 37 
 (besides wives of missionaries). That would mean about one hundred for our 
 three Mission's: and we could place and use every one of them. But we want to 
 be reasonable. Laboriously and reluctantly we have made up a preferred list of 
 35 (exclusive of wives). Will you respond to this call? The burden is heavy on 
 our hearts: will you lighten it? India more than ever needs Christ: will you help 
 us meet the need, and furnish the funds to send the workers? 
 
 4 
 
N THE KASGANJ FIELD 
 
 SELF-SUPPORT 
 
 A real beginning in self-support has been made: Rev. Ganda Mal of the 
 Punjab told of his experiences and of the progress of self-support in the Punjab, 
 in the United Presbyterian Church. The workers were much interested and one 
 of the village pastors volunteered to give up his salary. He has a large family 
 so that it was a great trial for him. His wife has joined in loyally and the people 
 in his village are beginning to realize that he is dependent upon them. The 
 Kasganj Church is contributing six rupees for a few months, hoping that by the 
 time this is withdrawn the people will fully support him. Real self-support is a 
 new thing in the villages. Giving according to their ability was not inculcated in 
 the early stages of the work. Most of the older Christians believed that a donation 
 of an egg or two, or a half-cent in money answered all requirements. Times are 
 
 5 
 
hard and in many places the people have often gone hungry, so to start a cam- 
 paign for self-support seems untimely, but hard times do not seem likely to 
 leave soon. 
 
 The Kasganj Church has taken over the Christians in the city muhallas as 
 its ‘special care and has taken the support of a village pastor in conjunction with 
 the muhalla Christians. The Church is very small being made up of the families 
 of the teachers in the middle school and servants of the missionary, but at present 
 the Church is giving two-thirds of the worker’s ‘salary. It is gratifying to see 
 the interest these school teachers take in the work for the low caste Christians. 
 They are conducting Sunday Schools and coming and going among them without 
 hesitation. During our revival meetings in March a delegation, singing, marched 
 through the city straight to the largest muhalla, where a ‘splendid meeting was 
 held. Next day many people asked these teachers what special celebration was being 
 held among the Christians but no one found fault. This surprised us as a great 
 deal of effort had been made previously to injure our school because this was said 
 to be a sweeper mission. 
 
VILLAGE WORK 
 
 The village Christian community now numbers 6,296. A few new villages 
 have been added but the baptisms this year have been almost entirely in our old , 
 villages. Our communicants’ roll was increased by 135 names, making a total of | 
 504 communicants. The teachers’ registers show just fair progress in teaching to 
 read. Most of the effort seems to have been put in getting readers more proficient. 
 Many are reported as having learned to sing at least six songs, and to repeat six 
 miracles and parables. The number able to lead in prayer has grown very much: 
 As to Sunday services it is hard to say very much. The people in many villages 
 say they hold a little service of song and prayer by themselves on Sundays. The 
 obligation to hold such a service is at any rate beginning to be felt, and doubtless 
 meetings are held in many places without any outside assistance. Singing must 
 have a large place in such services and so we can not have too many songs which 
 convey Christian teaching. Kasganj station has tried to add to the number of 
 simple but useful songs and has this year published a little book of songs, some 
 new, some old, and some remodelled. One which has taken the fancy of the people 
 is entitled “Rejoice, O Christian, and Let Your Heart Be Filled with Joy.” 
 Another is a song composed by one of our preachers, following a blessing he re- 
 
 fi 
 
ceived during our revival meetings. In lighter strain one tells the ways of the 
 bhagats, how he hunts out the sick that he may get a feast from the sacrifice he 
 persuades to be offered for the sick. The bhagat is the only kind of priest the 
 sweepers had. He is ignorant and unscrupulous and is recognized by his long 
 hair. He does not gladly give up his income obtained by preying on the fears 
 and superstitions of the people. This year their bhagats have been very active in 
 some sections but circumstances or Providence have been against them. In one 
 village a big sacrifice was held, and now that community is almost gone. A few 
 days after the sacrifice nine adults had died and a number who had attended from 
 other villages were also dead. In one village a man was dying on his bed while 
 all his relatives were busy sacrificing to the evil spirits. In another place a youth 
 was sick. His father held a sacrifice but he died himself soon after. In another 
 place an old woman told of how she had sacrificed seven pigs on the bhagat’s 
 order, but she lost both her child and the pigs. The great proportion of our 
 people, however, have lost faith in the offerings to the evil spirits and we hope 
 that before long they will all rise above these superstitions. 
 
 One is tempted to write the report of the village work when incidents and 
 encouragements are fresh in mind after several months of camping. Now as I 
 write, the freshest experience is a trip I took on the motor-cycle. When I left 
 
 8 
 
the main road it was to find the village road like a lagoon, and utterly im- 
 passable. I turned and went to a place on the main road. From there I went 
 with a preacher to some villages nearby. A sudden storm came up and we were 
 glad to get into a broken-down rest house with enough roof left to keep one bed 
 dry. On this one bed we all sat and tried to do some work. When the rain finally 
 ceased the whole country was flooded and no road could be seen in many places. 
 During the summer the people are busy watching their crops and when they 
 do come home they are tired out. It is in the winter with its cold mornings and 
 evenings that work can be best done, while the people huddle over their little 
 smoky fires. Even in the winter one has experiences. One night rain came up 
 suddenly, and before we could do anything two inches of water had gathered on 
 the floor of the tent. At the same camp some thieves came and loosing our 
 buffalo started off with her. At another place thieves made attempts all night 
 long to loot our camp. But one of the greatest hardships in camp is, that one 
 oftentimes cannot get water fit to use. We have to use what our people use and 
 that often is not good. The Christians’ wells are generally a hole in the ground 
 and all the surface filth can drain into it. In some places the water in all the 
 wells is very brackish. But one appreciates the good all the more when it comes. 
 The Achalpur section is our oldest work. We camped there first and on the 
 
 9 
 
last day we held a special meeting. We had almost given up hope of having an 
 audience as the appointed time had passed and no one had appeared. But things 
 do not go by clock time nor like clockwork. In due time people began to come 
 and kept coming till our large tent was filled with people—Christian and non- 
 Christian. Of the Hindus many boldly entered and seated themselves. Others 
 more timid stood up inside while the most timid stood looking on from the out- 
 side. The whole village was interested in us and many were very kind. The 
 contrast with former years is very great. 
 
 KASGANJ STATION REPORT. 
 
 10 
 
UN THE MAINPURI FIELD 
 
 A NEW BROTHERHOOD 
 
 One of the greatest needs of our Christian Community is the sense of a 
 new brotherhood in Christ. In our District, although not always the case, it 
 is no uncommon thing to be able to go into the Christian quarters and to find. 
 several men sitting outside, smoking the common pipe of brotherhood, which in 
 India means so much. These men may be from several different villages and may 
 be intimate friends, but if one of them is asked if the man next to him is a 
 Christian, he will perhaps look rather blank and inquire how he can be expected 
 to know that. If Christians of one village are asked if the sweepers of the next 
 village have been baptized, one man is likely to say “Yes’’ and another “No.” 
 After a lively discussion the only thing proved is that they know nothing about it, 
 nor up to this time have so much as inquired into the matter. These incidents are 
 
 11 
 
significant of far-reaching conditions which we must not ignore. There is the old 
 brotherhood or caste which with its exceedingly loose organizations, but exceedingly 
 tight boundaries, by the force of circumstances holds this people together, and 
 greatly hinders the realization of a need for the new brotherhood to be found in 
 the Church. We are forced to build upon the old brotherhood to a certain extent, 
 and in so far as it has delivered the people en masse, it has been a tremendous 
 help. But it is so honeycombed with things not only non-Christian but un- 
 Christian that one of the first essentials is the feeling amongst our people of new 
 ties that bind. 
 
 We feel that one effective way to arouse this new idea is by the Christian 
 mela or gathering. During the months of April, June and August quite a number 
 of these small melas were held in the Southern portion of the District, and many 
 more have been planned for the coming season. These gatherings have not as 
 yet assumed proportions. The average attendance has been about 50, with about 
 7 villages represented. With one exception they have been accompanied by some- 
 thing to eat, given by the men at whose house they gather. There is much to be 
 said against a feast accompanying such a meeting, but with custom as it is, it is 
 an exceedingly difficult matter with which to deal. 
 
 These gatherings have been held but for a day. A group of singers keep 
 
 12 
 
things lively with song. The conversation is directed along the lines that will 
 arouse thought concerning a new brotherhood, or rather the Church. With as 
 many bhangies as we have around in this District it is inevitable that a few 
 of them should find their way into such a gathering. At first they feel that they 
 havea perfect right there. But thisis a Christian gathering and one of its chief aims 
 is to make the Christians feel that it is something entirely different from the usual 
 old time sweeper gathering to eat pig. So when the bhangies of the audience are 
 perceived, they are asked kindly to sit to one side in both the meetings and the 
 feast. It is a crude distinction to make, but is one that can be understood by the 
 dullest. At each meeting we have baptisms, and twice all the bhangies present 
 have asked for baptism before the day was over. 
 
 In these meetings a sort of picture roll is used that turns by a crank. The 
 pictures are of the Christ. As far as possible the people themselves tell the 
 stories of the picture, and the moral is brought home that this wonderful Saviour 
 is their Saviour, the leader of their new brotherhood or Church. At the end of 
 the day a Chaudari or Chief Man is chosen, and inducted into the office of a 
 Christian Chaudari, for a term of one year, with all due form and ceremony. As 
 far as possible, an influential but young and enthusiastic man is chosen. As a Sign 
 of his office, with proper words, a white turban is bound on his head, which he is 
 
 13 
 
charged to ever honor and keep white as a sign of his new position. There are 
 
 frequently quite a number of candidates for the office, and it is sometimes quite 
 
 difficult to choose. Both for efficiency, therefore, and to cover up hurt feelings, 
 we elect a number of Assistants or Naib Chaudaris, who are given as a sign of 
 their office a scarf of yellow cotton cloth. 
 
 These men are then presented with carefully printed, dated and signed cer- 
 tificates of their standing, and a list of their duties are somewhat as follows: 
 Within his territory to collect offerings for the Lord. 
 
 To preach to Christians and non-Christians by means of a picture roll. 
 
 To wipe out such bad customs as lapses into certain forms of idolatry, 
 marriage of Christians with bhangies by the old rites, ete. 
 
 To establish such new customs and institutions as Christian services and 
 prayers, Christian marriages, schools, and the new brotherhood of 
 the Church. 
 
 To cut the Hindu sign of the pigtail from the heads of Christians. 
 
 To inquire into the truth and falsehood of the law-suits of Christians. 
 
 The special spreading of the Gospel amongst baptized sweepers. 
 
 Ha whe 
 
 ~1d> Ul 
 
 MAINPURI STATION REPORT. 
 14 
 
ITH THE SWEEPERS 
 -— OF NORTH INDIA 
 
 We have been wondering what you think they are like. We have talked a 
 great deal about their serfdom, their poverty, their degradation — in a word, that 
 they are India’s sewers. It seems almost impossible to overstate this side of their 
 condition. But to tell of it and it alone, may give a wrong impression. For there 
 is another ‘side to their lives, a side that makes them much more worth while as 
 members of the Kingdom of God. 
 
 These people in times of famine are not so likely to suffer as other people, 
 who in normal years are in much better circumstances. In the first place they 
 have no appearances of respectability to keep up, and in the second place, unlike 
 their neighbors, they can eat anything without being polluted. In famine, food, and 
 good food, too, has been offered to starving caste men, and it has gone untouched, 
 the men preferring literally to die of starvation to breaking their caste by 
 
 15 
 
touching unlawful food. The sweepers have nothing like this to contend with for 
 they will eat almost anything from anywhere. 
 
 They are not a people physically inferior. Amongst them are many men and wo- 
 men of unusually fine physique and carriage. In pre-British days when the Kohhatris, 
 or warring class, indulged in many feuds amongst themselves, the sweepers were 
 largely involved, and were depended upon as good fighters. They are a brave 
 people on the whole. A caste man in a fight with a sweeper is at a great dis- 
 advantage. To be touched by his opponent is to be religiously polluted and before 
 the fight begins it makes him afraid. The sweeper on the other hand has the 
 distinct advantage of being unable to fall religiously or socially, for he is already, 
 in public opinion, at the very bottom. Realizing this to the full, it makes him 
 reckless and unafraid. 
 
 This quality makes the sweeper a most desirable man for many difficult posi- 
 tions. He is a favorite for the village watchman or policeman. His pay as such 
 is not big—a dollar a month — but the position brings with it many perquisites, 
 besides bringing him into contact with all the village people as well as Govern- 
 ment officials. Again he is a favorite as a collector of rents and debts. At first 
 this seems very strange, for such a position would seem one of honor and respon- 
 sibility. But Indians as a rule are very loath.to pay debts and rents, and are 
 
 16 
 
quite impervious to the usual arguments. But the sweeper-collector, backed by 
 the landlord or merchant, with his long loaded stick, is in himself a good argument 
 for prompt payment, for it is a great dishonor for a caste man to suffer the abuse 
 of a sweeper, and still worse to be touched by him. 
 
 For years, ground under the heel of his village, it has been hard for the sweeper 
 to eke out an existence. This has led to much migration. He has found ready 
 employment in his line in the cities of Calcutta and Bombay. A member of almost 
 every family has been in Bombay or Calcutta at some time, but it is not custom- 
 ary to stay long. They go and come, scarcely ever losing touch with their village 
 homes. 
 
 Many of them have acted as household servants for British residents, and 
 have in this capacity traveled extensively. Those of their number who have gone 
 to Calcutta usually learn to read and to write, and in turn teach their children. 
 It is no exaggeration to say that the percentage of literates amongst the sweepers 
 is much higher than amongst the chamars, the people next higher to them, and 
 numerically much greater. It can easily be 'seen, that in such matters as the use 
 of the Urdu language, and in good judgment as men of the world, such ex- 
 periences would tend to lift them up above the illiterate and provincial caste men 
 of their village who have never been away from their homes. 
 
 17 
 
HOPES 
 
 These people in this section of the country have very largely turned to Christ. 
 From a missionary standpoint we are not dealing with a helpless people, which 
 from a narrow viewpoint would be a Christian philanthropy, nor are we dealing 
 with an isolated people, which again from a missionary viewpoint could not con- 
 tain national aspirations. 
 
 On the other hand many of our people are brave and capable. They often 
 hold positions that of necessity bring them into wide contact with men and events. 
 They are not isolated, but territorially are extremely well distributed for evan- 
 gelistic endeavor. Their women go into many, if not almost all, of the homes of 
 the village as servants. Thousands of these people have accepted Christ. Do you 
 think it foolish for us to dream that in and through them lies the hope of the 
 conquest of India for Christ? They many times have most unique opportunities 
 of speaking for and of spreading their religion. Many of us believe that the 
 quickest way to the heart of the whole of India is to make of these people worthy 
 servants of the Lord. 
 
 “FIELD NOTES.” 
 
 18 
 
ITH THE SCHOOLS HI BRAR! 
 IN WESTERN INDIA 
 
 > 1) ke \ 
 
 NEED OF TEACHER-TRAINING 
 
 Did I tell you last year about the description of Niagara Falls given by one 
 of our Indian assistants when Mr. Tedford and I were showing magic lantern 
 pictures to quite an audience? In telling about the wonders of Niagara Falls 
 he said that they were two thousand miles high. I could not help laughing aloud 
 at this statement, so he realized that he had made a mistake and hastened to 
 correct it. “Oh,” he exclaimed, “I made a mistake; the Falls are only two hundred 
 miles high”! 
 
 A few days ago, while examining a class in dictation, I came across a 
 sentence that matches this description of the Falls very well. The teacher who 
 made up the sentence evidently wished to give the children some practice in 
 
 19 
 
writing numbers; so he told them to write this: “The driving wheel of a locomotive 
 is twenty miles in circumference.”” When I asked him whether he had ever seen 
 ai locomotive with a wheel that size, he was not sure whether he had or not; so 
 I asked him how high such a wheel would be. When he heard that it would be 
 about six miles high, he admitted that he had never seen such a locomotive. I 
 have come to the conclusion that if I wish to 'see the falls that are 200 miles high, 
 the best thing to do will be to get into the locomotive that has wheels twenty 
 miles in circumference and start off at full speed. 
 
 DHE SPP oS 
 
 A year ago someone admitted to the Girls’ Home the wildest, strangest, 
 queerest child you could imagine. I had always called her Gipsy Jane, for I never 
 considered that she could be tamed. Many of her father’s family I knew had 
 been well educated, but this child defied discipline. Left to grow up as she would 
 with an over-indulgent, busy, untaught, widowed mother, her very manner repelled 
 restraint. If you looked at her, she took to her heels; if you attempted to speak 
 to her, she ran like a reindeer, and perhaps you would not see her again for days 
 
 20 
 
or weeks. She had never seen a letter, and the idea of keeping that child still 
 long enough to learn the alphabet was ridiculous to think of. She would be more 
 likely to smash her slate into pieces at the first fit of rage, and then run away 
 for a year for fear of being punished. But the deed was done; she had been ad- 
 mitted, and all I could do was to await developments. At first she was shy, and 
 then she was fascinated by the new order of things. The pictures on the wall, 
 the children’s singing, the organ’s music, all held her with awe and wonder and 
 delight. Our boys and girls often repeat in concert many Scripture passages, and 
 this more than anything else drew her. Little by little, when supposedly un- 
 watched, she would join in with the others, until gradually she has come to 
 know by heart many beautiful chapters and verses. 
 
 Some months ago I was present at a review of Old Testament stories from 
 the Sunday School lessons. Many questions were being asked, and I seemed to 
 hear one special voice answering up more quickly than the rest. I turned to 
 listen, and would you believe it, there was my Gipsy Jane, eyes keen as they were 
 bright, face intent as it was black, all her body alert to catch the questions and 
 fling back the answers! Her Bible work is but an illustration of all her studies, 
 she took to books as a duck to water. She is as bright as a dollar, and as sharp 
 as a tack. Her penmanship is poor, but otherwise her work is splendid. Reading 
 
 21 
 
and spelling she rolls off, arithmetic (the bugbear of most Indian schoolgirls) she 
 delights in! In last month’s competitive examination she easily led her class of 
 thirty-two boys and girls. ; 
 
 All our children are not Gipsy Janes. Some of them are so slow that we 
 often wonder if after all it is the wisest method to give them all a stipulated 
 amount of book learning. The hard grind, the never-ending drill, the unrelenting 
 routine, are things every faithful teacher of children, whether in India or America, 
 knows only too well. And yet it is because we believe that, somehow, the result 
 of all these things will be a Christian India that we labor on. The light has 
 broken, the darkness is beginning to disappear. Many have come into the light 
 and their lives are changed. Many more are touched by the light, but it has not 
 yet really entered their minds and souls. To explain, I want to tell you about 
 a brass bell and a sick boy. “She said to use it in the children’s school.” And 
 the bearer handed me a brass hand bell, such as farmers hang around the necks 
 of their favorite cattle. It was a good bell, and must have cost no little sum. 
 “A Hindu woman,” the messenger went on to say, “handed it to me in the town 
 yesterday and ‘said, ‘My boy is very ill at home. You Christians pray for him —I 
 must run, I can’t stop to tell you the story.’” One could not help recalling the 
 Syropheenician mother and her anxiety for the little sick daughter. She came 
 
 22 
 
to the Great Healer in Palestine — this to an outsider, a heathen, and yet be- 
 lieving in the power of the Christians’ prayer. 
 
 The whole countryside is full of such people, how one longs to draw them to 
 the loving, living Saviour, whom they unknowingly believe in. If her boy died, 
 some angry demon, some old unappeased deity, some slighted family idol, must 
 have snatched away from her mother heart the precious child. No one knew 
 whither or why. And that very morning, not twenty miles away from the sick 
 lad, our nearly two hundred boys and girls, clean, warm, and cosy in their 
 Christian school and homes, were standing up to sing “Hymns of Praise A'scend 
 with Early Dawn on High.” Their ideas of death and heaven “flowing robes of 
 spotless white” and “joys that never fade.” 
 
 If you should come to India and look at the wells, you would be surprised that 
 more people do not fall into them than actually do, for they are great holes in 
 the ground, sometimes many feet in diameter, and often without any protecting 
 wall. The Kodoli school well is 22 feet in diameter, with a solid stone wall all | 
 around, the parapet being about two and a half feet above the surface of the 
 ground. Day after day the boys draw out the water and one often wonders how 
 it is that they do not fall in. One day last June, however, a little boy about eight 
 years old, who was playing near the well, contrary to the rules of the school, and 
 
 23 
 
walking along the stone curbing, suddenly fell in. It was almost 42 feet to the 
 water below and he could not swim. The boys who were drawing water raised a 
 shout of horror, but they could do nothing to help. A teacher who was passing 
 by rushed up to the missionary’s house to tell him that a boy had fallen in the 
 well, but this used up precious moments. In the meantime, however, a boy in the 
 dormitory, Vishnu by name, heard the boys’ outcry. He was over a hundred 
 yards away from the well. He started on a run at once and as he ran he tore off 
 his shirt. He wore no shoes so his feet were free. He did not have time to strip 
 off any more clothing. Arrived at the well, without a moment’s hesitation, he 
 jumped down to the water 42 feet below, and when the missionary arrived he saw 
 that Vishnu had put the little boy in the well bucket and was himself swimming 
 around trying to find some support. He had arrived none too soon, for the little 
 boy had already begun to sink the second or third time. Both boys were drawn 
 up by ropes and with the exception of aching heads and eyes neither seemed the 
 worse for the experience. 
 
 That afternoon instead of a funeral we had a celebration, and all saw the 
 beauty of a life of service for others. The boy who had risked his life to save a 
 schoolmate was a boy who was sent from a Hindu home by a village teacher, some 
 ten miles from Kodoli, about three years ago. He did not seem specially bright, 
 
 24 
 
but his willingness to study faithfully in a class of boys much smaller than him- 
 self showed that he had good material in him. He has kept on steadily in his 
 school work, has become popular among the boys, and has grown; in manliness. 
 In the eyes of the school children, a very important part of the program was the 
 reward given him to show how others appreciated his brave deed; the silver coins 
 fell one after another into his hands till there were in all twenty-five, the 
 equivalent of at least $75 to an American boy. That afternoon after school, when 
 he came to ask the missionary to put his money away for him in safe keeping, 
 without any suggestion from the missionary (who indeed had not even thought of 
 such a thing), he said that he wished to give two of his rupees to the new Church 
 building. May the number of such boys increase.” 
 
 KopoLi STATION REPORT. 
 
 25 
 
ITH THE SICK AT MIRAJ 
 
 THE PATIENTS 
 
 For most part of last year all the beds — frequently spaces between the beds, 
 as well as extra beds on the verandas, have been occupied. Patients have come 
 from far and near. From all parts of the Bombay Presidency they have come 
 and some from provinces far beyond. Even Persia, Arabia and Africa have been 
 represented by those who have sought treatment. All classes have freely availed 
 themselves of the hospital services and none who could be helped have been denied 
 treatment, yet it is sorely trying to be compelled to turn away incurables and 
 others requiring hospital care, just for lack of accommodation. Most of such pa- 
 tients are eye cases, not needing treatment as in-patients, but who, had accommoda- 
 tions permitted, would have been admitted. The best lodging many of these people 
 can find is the shelter of the roadside trees or the open verandas of the rest-house. 
 
 26 
 
The keeping of boarding houses has become a profitable occupation for many 
 persons having homes nearby. The Hindu Hotel, The Goanese Hotel, The 
 Christian Hotel, The Parsi Hotel are recent establishments, which have sprung 
 up overnight in various places in the town. Many Europeans with relatives and 
 friends come to the hospital for treatment and for operations. 
 
 The monotony of the daily round so common in the nursing profession is 
 relieved, nay, almost absent, in the Miraj hospital, by personal as well as profes- 
 sional interest. It is a joy to watch the stages of a patient’s condition. At first 
 there is abject disinterestedness, then awakening interest, followed by thought for 
 others and renewed vigor. With the hospital impress, they turn glad faces home- 
 ward, and it is not ours to know how much of the Gospel learned, is passed on to 
 others. Many of them come from distant villages where Europeans are rarely 
 seen and a large hospital such as ours, with its electric lights and other up-to-date 
 foreign apparatus, is apt to appear rather formidable; so they bring with them 
 their friends and relatives to encourage them and lessen their fears. Sometimes 
 one patient will be accompanied by so many people, that their presence in the 
 ward becomes a trial to those in charge and admission has to be refused. These 
 do not wander far from the hospital, they take up their abode in the nearby 
 rest-house or under the trees on our compound. Many interesting incidents happen 
 
 27 
 
in the wards in the course of a year. One which shows the superstition of the 
 people, is the case of a woman who had been critically ill for some time. One 
 morning her little daughter was sent to bring water from a neighboring tank. 
 While drawing the water a crow alighted on her head. This is considered a very 
 bad omen and evil consequences to the child could only be averted by causing the 
 mother to shed tears. A message was therefore sent post haste to the mother, to 
 tell her that her little daughter had fallen into the tank and was drowned. The 
 message had the desired effect; the mother, overwhelmed with grief, wept bitterly, 
 and it was not until the child, alive and well, was brought into the hospital ward 
 that she could be comforted. She quite agreed with her friends that it was better 
 for her to weep than that evil should overtake her child, but precautions of her 
 friends proved to be of no avail, for within a few days, the children were left 
 motherless. One morning a woman appeared at our veranda with a beautiful 
 babe, which she wished to dispose of for the sum of rupees ten. We tried to show 
 her how unnatural it was for a mother to sell her own child. She then told us 
 how impossible it was for her to keep it and begged us to take it, which we did. 
 Another woman, a patient, told us that unless we took charge of her infant she 
 would throw it into the river or dispose of it in some other way. We tried to 
 induce her to remain with the child and care for it, but her old mother would 
 
 28 
 
not consent to this. A third case, a poor old woman who had heard that mission- 
 aries would take children and care for them, brought her little grand-daughter. 
 She was very poor and had not sufficient food for her children. She was forced to 
 part with her daughter’s child. We greatly feel the need of a home where these 
 little ones can be sheltered and cared for. 
 
 SPIRITUAL RESULTS 
 
 Spiritual statistics are difficult and often impossible of record. Patients and 
 their friends have come from thousands of different villages far and near, and to 
 all the Gospel of free grace and salvation through Christ, the Divine Physician, 
 has been faithfully proclaimed. Tens of thousands of Christian tracts have gone 
 to as many houses. Many hundreds of Christian books and Gospels have passed 
 the portals of non-Christian homes. Who can tabulate the results? Much of this 
 dissemination of Christian truth has fallen upon stony ground, more probably has 
 fallen by the wayside, but that some has fallen on the good soil we are assured 
 by the reports that come to us. 
 
 One woman, who was a patient for four months, on leaving the hospital went 
 
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to Kodoli, and was baptized there last March. She said it was the teaching she 
 received in the Miraj Hospital that led her to become a Christian. We have faith 
 to believe that there are similar cases of which we do not hear, for the majority of 
 patients come long distances and it is difficult to keep in touch with them, once 
 they leave the hospital. 
 
 The noon-day Gospel service for women patients and their friends has been 
 conducted throughout the year in the women’s ward. It is often a task to conduct 
 it for one’s audience changes from week to week and the country folk have no idea 
 of keeping quiet. One grows accustomed to such distractions as shaking an iron 
 cot to quiet a crying baby, reading a letter aloud, hair-dressing, feeding a patient 
 and the scouring of pots and pans—for, there are always the earnest listeners 
 who encourage us with a nod or word, or who, with tear-filled eyes, tell us their 
 tale of woe. At such times I pray for “a heart of leisure from itself, to soothe 
 and sympathize.” After the service we ‘sell copies of the Gospel from which we 
 have read. An old man, who could not read, bought two Gospels to take home 
 to his village that the people there might read what he had been hearing. A 
 Brahmin widow said “My mother has gone mad over your lectures and hymns.” 
 The dear old body was also a widow and had not heard the Gospel story before. 
 It was a sweet new theme to her and she managed to be present at the meeting's 
 
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as long as her daughter was a patient. A Roman Catholic patient’s father asked 
 that the prayer offered that day be written out for him, that he also might pray it. 
 He added, “We do not understand the Latin prayers used in our Church, but 
 even I could pray your simple prayer.” 
 
 ol 
 
The Board of Foreign Missions 
 of the 
 Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. 
 156 Fifth Avenue, New York 
 
 April 1916, Form No. 2384