WORK WITH JAPANESE WOMEN and CHILDREN m SEATTLE Compiled and edited hy Frances 7^. Schuyler REVISED 1913 WOMAN'S AMERICAN BAPTIST HOME MISSION SOCIETY 2969 VERNON AVENUE CHICAGO MIbb NELLIE E. FIFE, MISSIONARY IN CHARGE OF JAPANESE HOME LITTLE DOROTHY BAPTIST JAPANESE CHILDREN AND THEIR TEACHER, MR. KARAZORRE, PORT BLAKELY, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON SUNRISE OKASAKI Japanese Women and Children in Seattle OUR MISSIONARY GENERAL Lew Wallace has said no truer words than these: "The happi- ness of love is in action. Its test'^is what one is willing to do for others." The record of years of service cannot adequately be pictured by presentation of facts and figures. The life of the missionary is measured by heart throbs. Who but God can know of the ceaseless vigilance she must exercise; of the hours of the night spent in weary watching and waiting; of the patient listening to the oft repeated tales of injustice, of misunderstanding, of lack of physical endurance, and alas ! too, of sin and its consequent suffering. To meet it and infinitely more than this, one frail woman would be insufficient but for the power of t>e Holy Spirit in her life. Such service and sacrifice is the over- flow of the life abundant. In the beautiful Queen City of the Northwest, with its population of 250,000, we find a Japanese community numbering nearly 6,000. Work among Baptists began about twenty-one years ago. Our denomina- tion own their own lot and have a snug sum of money in the bank, designated for a new church building. The location is near the center of the Japanese population, which commands a fine situation for aggressive work. The Seattle church is entirely independent and self-supporting except in its women's work, which is under the care of Miss Nellie E. Fife, a represeri- tative of the Women's Baptist Home Mission Society, now the Woman's Ameri- can Baptist Home Mission Society. Miss Fife labored in Sendai, Japan, for a term of four years. At a later period she spent six years in Tokyo in kinder- garten, Sunday-school, and evangelistic work. In 1902 Miss Fife returned to America broken in health, hoping to go back to the work she loved in the country of her adoption. This was evidently not the Father's will for His child, as her fond hopes were not realized. The strength necessary for the work in the Orient did not return. The Women's Baptist Home Mission Society welcomed the opportunity to place a trained worker in this needy field, and employed Miss Fife to labor among Japanese women and children in Seattle. Said Miss Fife: — "This dear society, ever ready to utilize any instrument, however poor, if the Lord's, was willing to take the worn and weary worker from over the seas and put her where her Japanese tongue could be of use. It is a poor, halting tongue, but it is to me a gold mine, because it is the only one owned by a white woman in this great Northwest, which can tell the unsearchable riches of Christ to the Japanese people. Imperfect as it is, I would rather own it than a king's ransom." Upon reaching Seattle July 28, 1905, Miss Fife found a number of friends busily at work. Mr. Okasaki, the Japanese pastor at this place, had formerly been the pastor of the church in Tokyo, with which Miss Fife had been asso- ciated, and his wife had been a teacher in the kindergarten. These earnest co- workers welcomed Miss Fife cordially to Seattle. In her annual report to the Women's Baptist Home Mission Society in 1907, Miss Fife says: — "As one glances back over the year 1906, marking the special blessings as well as the constant and minute care of our loving Father, the heart swells with songs of praise and thanksgiving. Out of the storms and struggles which marked the beginning of the year, we have reached a place of clear shining after rain. "The tiny plant, our Sunday school, has more than doubled its blossoms during the year, there having been twenty-nine rather wild cherry-blossoms at its beginning, while its close reveals sixty charming blossoms. The school did not grow much until September, when a number of little ones became old 8 enough to come, and some new children came to Seattle to Hve. The girls class has been very helpful in bringing in the little ones. The teachers have been very earnest and faithful. Easter was a glad day for the members of our Sunday school: prizes were given to those not absent during the past three months. Each child received a pretty Easter token. THE INTERDENOMINATIONAL W. C. T. U. "This society now numbers fifty members. The officers are all Japanese, your missionary having a kind of general oversight over the whole. The meet- ings are held monthly, alternating at the Methodist mission and our Japanese Women's Home. In November, a branch of this society was organized at our chapel in Port Blakeley, across the Sound, where I go once a month, weather permitting, for work. Members, 17. This is a fine beginning when one consid- ers the fact that the place is noted for drunkenness. "March was our red-letter month in the Home. Every available sleeping- place was full most of the time. On Sunday evenings, from 12 to 18 have re- mained to supper in order to attend church in the evening. "The annual meeting of the Japanese Women's Home Association oc- curred March 12th, a most joyful meeting inasmuch as the last penny for our furniture was paid, all other expenses fully met, and the year closed with a small surplus. March 13th, we gave our annual reception to both Japanese and American friends. Mrs. Myron W. Haynes made a fine address. The missionary in charge gave her report, after which our Japanese girls entertained us with Japanese music. Over a hundred were present, and all expressed de- lighted appreciation of the Home and its work. "March 30th, the wedding of one of our girls took place in the parlors of the Home. Decorations of ivy and flowers made the rooms attractive. The wedding was in American style from the crepe de chine dress and white veil of the bride to the wedding bell suspended above the bridal couple. The 9 beautiful ring service solemnized the marriage. Fifty guests sat down to the wedding collation. We trust another Christian home has been set in the midst of the Japanese community, for the bride is a sweet Christian, and her husband says he wants to be one. As a new year opens we are happy in the prosperity of all lines of work." In March, 1908, Miss Fife reports growth along all lines of the work, and with grateful heart writes : — "The story of the year with its lights and shadows, its trials and triumphs, is but a continued story of the Father's mercy and blessing, His ever watch- ful love and care. The past year has been marked by many signal manifesta- tions of Divine favor. HOUSE TO HOUSE VISITATION " Scattered over a series of curving, terrace-like hills, down, down to the tide lands, where houses and hotels are built on piles over the water, or raised on timbers from ten to fifty feet above the valley, within an irregular district of sixty-four blocks, Seattle's 6,000 Japanese chiefly live. In the heart of this dis- trict one finds a Japanese bank, the offices of the Oriental Grading Company, several large hotels, and a multitude of lodging houses, restaurants and laun- dries. Many little stores and shops of all kinds have sprung up. Here the people live. Few families occupy a house by themselves. Most of them sublet to other families or keep young men as lodgers, for the vast majority of the Japanese are men, though the number of families has increased greatly within the past two years. We know of about one hundred children from four to fifteen years of age, and about as many babies. Many of the mothers help to earn the family living in hotels, lodging houses, restaurants, and shops, while all do their own work, learning to fashion strange garments for their little ones, to wrestle with heavy, awkward furniture, and to do a multitude of unfamiliar duties of 10 which they were free in their native land. Is it any wonder that they often fail to adapt themselves to these strange conditions and need help and comfort? " Into these busy, crowded places we are seeking to carry the Word of Life. Sometimes we secure a number of hearers; more often business is going on, babies crying or noisy, and it is difficult, often impossible, to deliver a con- nected message. Some of those we were teaching regularly earlier in the year have since returned to Japan before gaining much knowledge of the way of salvation. "One dear woman, whose little son wasted away month by month with an incurable disease, gave heed to the message of love. As she heard of the bright heaven to which her little one was going, her sad heart drank in the truth. She tried to beguile the little fellow in his hours of pain by repeating the sweet story to him, and though giving heed to little else, he would listen quietly. At last the long agony was over, the little form laid to rest. The sore-hearted mother was comforting herself with her new-found hope, when without warning, her husband, never ill before, was stricken down and died suddenly. Over- whelmed with this new grief, she clung closer to the God of all comfort. Bitterly opposed by Buddhist relatives, she still declared her faith in Christ, and her determination to follow Him. She soon returned to Japan, where we pray she may be a true light-bearer. "Two others we believe have come into the light, although as yet it is dim. Four more are mild inquirers; still we believe they are coming to know Christ better. Many are held back by the desire to serve both God and mammon; many others are strong Buddhists. Most frankly worship the god of this world, straining every nerve to grasp things that fail. "This is the most difficult and least satisfactory branch on the coast, owing to the immoral and unsettled conditions. It is nearly impossible to get the ear of any one long enough to make an impression. Five dear women, bereaved by the death of their first-born, are already believers so far as they understand. II One has a regular Bible lesson once a week; the other is too busy for it, but comes to church when she can. Another overburdened mother wants to be taught, and says she does pray to God. "The wife of the proprietor of the largest Japanese hotel, who came for English lessons for a time, and was also for a few days in our home, says she> prays and wants to be taught the Bible, but she is so busy that it is nearly impossible to make time for it. However, her heart is light, and we have great hopes that she will come into full knowledge of the way of salvation. "From homes such as these come our seventy-five Sunday-school children. Only our pastor's two children have a real Christian home where father and mother vie with each other in training them aright. Three others have a Christian father, while still two more have a Christian mother, and two come from a home where Christianity is known. All the others are from homes where the religious ideas and practices are Buddhist. Our hope is in the children who are having their minds and hearts filled with the beautiful Bible teaching and stories. Nine have now been in Sunday school nearly five years; sixteen others have been with us two or three years. Our banner pupils are two boys, twin brothers, who, with two unavoidable exceptions, have not missed a Sunday in two years. Some of the girls render excellent help in looking up the absent pupils and helping to gather them on Sunday. THE JAPANESE WOMAN'S HOME "In August, 1903, Mrs. Okasaki had opened a Japanese Woman's Home, to afford a safe refuge to the many homeless ones on our shores, who otherwise would be surrounded by nameless dangers and pitfalls. I was asked to assume charge of this Home, which I did, September i, 1905. "The best work centers about the Home. Most of those who come here and who now and again stay for some length of time in the Home, are women 12 who work out in families. For the most part they are far superior, both in education and morals, to their sisters in the Japanese community. Most, per- haps I should say all, have some worthy object in life, and are working and studying hard to attain it. "Many have some free time, which they employ in the study of English, coming to the Home for that purpose. "Gradually the teaching of EngHsh has grown to be one of the regular branches of the work. The women who come here usually know only Japanese. One can imagine their hard struggles trying to learn to work in new and un- accustomed ways for a strange people, and with no knowledge of the language. These English lessons afford us many opportunities of coming into close touch with them, of having little chats, giving little pointers helpful to them, and finally winning them to Christ. Not all mistresses are as considerate as they ought to be. Many have no realization of the fact that those serving them are, in their own country, of a higher class than their mistresses. They too often run rough-shod over the most cherished ideals of these little Orientals. The girls, with feelings all lacerated, are glad to come to the Home, in whose sym- pathetic atmosphere their wounded feelings are healed, and they go forth again braced and strengthened to battle with trying conditions. This is an unseen but most potent work of the Home. "Over two hundred different ones have been with us from a few days to several months. Unlike boarding homes for young men, our girls cannot board in the Home and go back and forth to their employment, as most of them work in families and are here only when ill, tired, or out of employrnent. This year, however, several have been with us many months. All who live in town join our Japanese Woman's Home Association and become members of the Bible class; and, though scattered about the city, constitute our family. These daughters of the Home are our chief joy and crown. With four exceptions, all those who have been in this shelter any length of time have either become Chris- 13 tians or earnest seekers. These four had been walking in dangerous paths be- fore coming to America. Two of them who went to Los Angeles are under the care of the Methodist minister there, so we trust they will yet be saved. The other two seem to have come here with unlawful intentions. One has been de- ported, the other is in Portland. All the rest of our girls are from honest, up- right classes of people. Some are professing Christians when they come, though weak and untaught. The majority have here first heard the message of love divine. "All in the Home are expected to be present at morning worship, when a brief exposition of Scripture is given. They too like to join in the hymn and listen to the message, to some so strange and new, to others so dear, so com- forting. Many who knew not what they should do on their arrival have been surprised and delighted to find refuge, home, and friends. "The Sunday afternoon Bible class is for all of us the happiest time in the week. Our daughters come flocking home with radiant faces. The heartiness with which all join in song and prayer and Bible study is an inspiration. World- wide mission work holds chief place in our thought as being the aim of Christ's teaching, next to the direct exposition of Scripture. For such work a collection is taken every Sunday, more than $50 having been raised the past year. Ten dear women have been baptized during the year, while several others have ex- pressed their desire to become Christians. All are seeking ways of service for the Master. Two, our youngest and brightest, who have mistresses with high tempers, are learning lessons of sweet patience under provocation. One says that when her mistress flew into a rage, she, too, used to become excited and angry, but now she controls herself and the mistress, not a Christian, says the girl sets her an example of true Christian living. "All are growing in grace and knowledge and service. May the Lord raise up from among them some special workers in His vineyard." 14 MEMBERS OP THE JAPANESE BAPTIST CHURCH, SEATTLE MEMBERS OF THE KINDERGARTEN SUNDAY SCHOOL THE LITTLE ONES OF THE OKASAKI HOUSEHOLD, SEATTLE. WASHINGTON. MR. OKASAKI IS PASTOR OF THE JAPANESE BAPTIST CHURCH JAPANESE WOMEN'S HOME, 1102 EAST SPRUCE STREET, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON WRITING OF THE JAPANESE CHILDREN IN SEATTLE Miss Fife makes the following statements: "As near as it is possible to estimate the number of Japanese children in Seattle, there are probably somewhat more than a hundred between the ages of four and fifteen, and about as many more who are infants. The majority of these children will indeed become 'Citizens of Tomorrow,' as they are born in America, and many of them, being in the public schools, know English better than they do Japanese, although hearing only Japanese at home. "As I have already told you, the pastor's two children are the only ones who come from a real Christian home where both parents strive to train them aright. Two have a Christian mother who teaches them to pray; three have a Christian father and will, we trust, soon have a mother walking fully in the light, but who as yet has little knowledge of Christ. Two come from a home where Christianity is known though not practiced. All the others come from homes where, until our work began, absolutely no ray of Gospel light had ever penetrated. Picture what homes must be where none of the hallowed influences of a Christian Sabbath, none of the sweet teachings of Christ are known ! What- ever religious ideas and ideals they may have are entirely Buddhistic. "Until recently the homes of these children have been in the rear of crowded shops, in restaurants, hotels, and lodging-houses, in the vicinity of what is variously known as the 'Red Lights District,' 'The Restricted District,' 'The Under World,' or helow the dead line. Here the children roam at will, seeing and hearing all that goes on, on the open street, at least. Some live in the very heart of this district, where every Sunday Miss Okano, our Japanese helper, goes to gather them up. Until our new mayor, recently elected, put a stop to it, painted women in a half-nude condition came out openly on the streets, which were ablaze with many colored lights displaying the names of notorious ones, to solicit passers-by. A dozen of our children live on these streets where at all 19 hours of the day and night the clink of glasses, the click of billiard-balls, the tinkle of pianos, ribald songs and jests, may be heard. Here, in this reeking soil, we are trying to plant the Gospel seed. As seed sown in fetid earth has the rankest growth, so may we, from this sin saturated ground, reap a rich harvest. "Our Japanese church is within a block of this district, just in the heart of the Japanese community, and to this fact we owe much of the success of our Sunday school. But great changes are taking place. That whole part of Seattle is being regraded, two or three great railroad companies are to lay track and build stations. Even now the whole community is on the move. Many families have gone far up the hills, some too far for their smallest children to come to Sunday school. Our church is also in the near future to move. We hope to build farther up the hills. There is also talk of moving the 'Restricted District' farther from the homes of the people. Some of the W. C. T. U. workers wish to enter upon a campaign for abolishing the place altogether. We cannot tell what the future holds for us except that it will be something good. "Four of our older girls, just budding into young womanhood, are giving us anxiety. Every effort is being made to save them but the call of the world is very loud and has gained their ears for the present. Living and working in places thronging with men, they have learned to love attention. Cards, con- certs, theaters, parks, and Sunday company form allurements our little Sun- day school cannot offset. As yet no plan for a girls' society or any other of the usual attractive forms of Christian activities appeal to them sufficiently to hold them long. "On the other hand, we have a class, or rather seven other girls in the same class, who come from equally bad environments, who have been in Sunday school regularly for nearly five years. While these girls have as yet taken no outward stand for Christ, they are excellent helpers both in Sunday school and as assistants in bringing in the little ones. Two of these girls at the ages of thirteen and 20 fourteen are in the high school, having been promoted for superior scholarship. Two of our boys, twin brothers, with two unavoidable exceptions, have not missed a Sunday in two years, though they lived like lilies in the mud in the heart of the 'Red Lights District/ The boys are the hardest to hold, as always, and out of twenty-five or thirty in town we have succeeded in holding but six beyond the primary. These six were first in the primary, and we have held them because the truth was rooted in their hearts there. We need a specially trained worker for boys in order to hold them. At present baseball, fishing, fencing, and general lawlessness have them enthralled. We have in our kinder- garten department thirty-two, and in the primary department twenty-two, of whom nineteen are boys. We hope to keep most of these. As Japanese children attend both the public school and the Japanese school, it is not possible to have any meetings for them during the week. Our only chance is the one hour on Sunday. Nevertheless those who have attended regularly for years have their minds well filled with Gospel truths. We are looking for a harvest soon." Is not this worthy of our earnest prayers and generous support .f* Said Dr. Strong, upon one occasion, "Have we considered our debt to the workers? If they give time and strength, should we not give that which represents time and strength; viz., money? We surely ought to give enough to make their sacri- fices fruitful." We do not need to go to a foreign land to reach these Orientals. They are here. They are our neighbors many of whom we can, if we will, win as living gems to lay at the Master's feet. Again there are thousands of Japanese coming to our shores who, without Christ, are a menace to our nation; Christianized, they become brave, loyal citizens. We are fully assured of this fact by our observation of the great change that is wrought by the Holy Spirit in their lives after conversion. A great opportunity lies before us. The call is imperative. What shall be the response? 21 PROGRESS DURING igop-igio " Who keeps one end in view makes all things serve." In the passage of time since the compilation of the preceding pages of this booklet our work in Seattle has progressed with increasing interest. Our faith- ful, devoted missionary, Miss Nellie E. Fife, has found great delight in the de- velopment of the various activities centralized in the "Home" at 1102 East Spruce St. The new building is two stories high, 54x42 feet outside measurements, with an exterior finish of dashed cement. There are seventeen rooms, with hall, parlors, sitting and dining rooms on the first floor arranged for public gatherings, receptions and committee meetings. The rooms on the second floor are sleeping apartments. The structure has a cement basement and &team heat. The lots on which the building stands are 60x90 feet and cost ^4,500. The ex- pense of constructing the building was $7,000. The Women's Baptist Home Mission Society, now the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society, contributed $2,500 toward the lots, the Japanese girls of the home contributed $628, and the Japanese residents of Seattle $1,340.- 50 toward the building. The institution is conducted under Baptist auspices, but is strictly interdenominational in its scope. Miss Fife invites all ladies of the city who employ Japanese girls to encourage them to attend the Bible classes at 3 p. m., Sundays, which are conducted along the lines of the Young Women's Christian Association. The Home has paid all its running expenses since October i, 1909, and will be self-supporting hereafter. Funds are needed to free the building from debt. Spe- cial reception days are being arranged when the public may inspect the building and its equipment. _ _ ^ ^ LATER IN THE YEAR After describing the removal into the new church building, the marriage of her former Japanese helper, Miss Okano, and the coming of her new assistants. 22 Miss Fife writes : " If the work in the Home has been somewhat ' stressful, ' the Sunday School and other outside work has been doubly so. The regradmg has cut the Japanese community fairly in two with a great bank, from fifty to sixty feet high. While the Sunday School was at the Home, part of our little people had to make a long detour to reach us, toiling through mud and ram, their little shoes often soaked through. The tiniest ones could not come. During the summer, 1909, the exposition held many in thrall. The regrading also caused nearly all the families in any way connected with our work to move at least once and numbers of them several times. Houses had to be vacated and moved. It was amusing to see strings of houses, one just behind another, walking off up the hills. The new immigration laws have caused many to return to Japan, while others have sent their children to relatives. "After getting nicely to work in our new church we thought our wanderings were over and that we might settle down and grow. Alas ! another upset. The foundations of the new church began to slip down hill and for a time there was danger of losing the building. Happily that was averted, but people hearing of it were so alarmed they would not send their children. . "One Sunday we brought them all up to the Home. Our Christmas celebra- tion was held here also, as many were still fearful, although all danger was past. "There have been many changes, while removals have been frequent, new ones added to our numbers, and we have now thirty-one enrolled in the Bible class. Two have been converted and baptized during the year, one of these going with her husband to the Congregational church. Two others, converts from the general work, were baptized. The Christian girls in the Sunday Schools, while still unbaptized, are a constant joy and comfort. Four have been Christians about two years. Several others are also followers of Christ. A new and glorious day has dawned which we trust is only a harbinger of better things to come." 23 (i9io) In her report of 1909-10 Miss Fife writes enthusiastically: "A red letter year! A new home, a new church, new workers, new work, fresh opportunities! The Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad. The year has brought many changes, but much joy. "Our new building is a constant comfort, so well adapted to our varied needs. English, Sewing and Bible classes have gone on regularly, interspersed with various meetings and an occasional wedding, indeed once with two double weddings the same day. While but two have been baptized, several are now about ready for the ordinance. One other joined the Congregational Church with her husband. "Within the year three other churches have opened Sunday Schools, taking from our school the children of people affiliated with those churches. The re- grading of the streets has also more completely cut us off from one part of the community by a high, impassable wall. Many of the children who live beyond this wall now attend the new Sunday School opened by the Congregational church in that neighborhood. Our present enrollment is sixty-eight. We are still the banner Japanese Sunday School on the coast. Our Christian Sunday School girls, while still unbaptized, are bearing the fruits of the Spirit in their lives. They are increasingly helpful in the Sunday School and a constant joy to us. Our Easter program was very interesting. The children all did well. The little Sunday School at Port Blakeley across the Sound now numbers twenty- one. There is also a night school and other work carried on by Mr. Karazawa, a bright and consecrated young man from the Seattle church, "Taking the gospel into the homes, trying to awaken minds and hearts to new life, constitutes one branch of our work. While several are interested, no one has come into full light and to a decision for Christ this year. Several in- quirers have returned to Japan within the year. 24 "The first Wednesday of each month is devoted to the meeting of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, of which your missionary is president. While interdenominational in membership the work is practically that of your missionary and her assistant, Miss Shimanuki. This year the gospel has been given especial prominence in these meetings. The society has a membership of sixty-five. The White Ribbon recruits number thirty-six. The second Wednes- day an evangelistic meeting is held at the Eagle Laundry where we have had from ten to thirty-five in our meetings. Much interest is manifested. The third Wednesday a meeting of unbelievers and inquirers for prayer and the hearing of the Word is held at some one of the homes of the believers. The fourth Wednesday another neighborhood meeting is held. Our Girls' Club meets once a month on Saturday. Much interest is manifested. "Our share in the Kingdom is a great delight to the missionary. The home is entirely self-supporting. The English and sewing class tuitions, and the membership fees enable us to provide all the supplies for our two Sunday Schools and expenses of the general work. This year we are also paying for a sixty-dollar organ for the use of the church and the Sunday School. This we greatly desired to do as the young men of the church have always given us much help free of cost. The Sunday School collections are all given to missions. The Women's Bible class collections are also given to missions. "We are having our tiny share in world evangelization, and hearts and lives are being developed in Christlike compassion for the unsaved everywhere." * * * " What is your duty ? Everybody' s demands upon you." — Goethe. A summary of the work of the years as they have rolled away until seven have been numbered is a record of blessings manifold. Hundreds have found help, comfort and courage in the shelter and protection of the "Home" with our 25 Missionary and her able assistants to welcome, advise and direct. From this haven of rest again and again have the wedding-bells pealed forth; here little ones have first seen the light, and here too, twenty new-born souls have passed from darkness of sin unto eternal light and life. Yet not once has the cloud of death fallen upon the household. Faltering faith has been strengthened as knowledge has increased, and the soul has found its resting-place in God. The first year in the new building has been one of much joy and a continuous manifestation of the Father's love and watch-care. The Sunday School has an enrollment of 75 members. The teacher so much needed has been provided in Mrs. Randall, from the Tabernacle, who instructs the American-born Japanese girls, who are not so famiUar with the Japanese language. Mr. Randall plays the cornet and teaches the older boys and two of our brightest and best young men teach other boys' classes. A teacher for the kindergarten department was found in a trained kindergartner — a bride of one of the Christian young men. Another class is provided for by the coming of a second bride from Japan. Miss Fife said, in commenting on these facts, "Blessed be brides!" The eldest girl in the Sunday School, now a young lady of sixteen, who has been a pupil for eight years, has been advanced to the position of a teacher for a class of little girls. Thus seven of the classes are all equipped with teachers and the missionary, pastor, and all concerned are supremely happy. At the meeting of the board of the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society on Tuesday, November ist, Miss Fife's ardent desire to open a school in connection with the Japanese home was granted. The development of this additional feature of usefulness in reaching the Japanese in the thriving city of the great Northwest will be watched with deepest interest. "No great deed is done by falterers who ask for certainty," George Eliot has said, and our represen- tative, whose faith in God led her in the earlier years of her service to far-away Japan, now assumes this new obligation in the calm assurance that He who has led will lead and leaves results in His blessed hands. 26 SUNDAY SCHOOL PORT BLAKELY, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON A SUNDAY SCHOOL BABY A RETROSPECT (1913) *"Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours, and ask them what report they bore to Heaven.^' Miss Fife, when asked in 1913 for the latest facts regarding the Japanese Home and its interests, submitted the following items: "The years have brought many changes to the Japanese community of Seattle, and to the personnel of the Japanese Woman's Home. Most of those who were members in the beginning of the work have now gone elsewhere and others have taken their places. Quite a number are in their own homes with little ones about them. Many are scattered all along the coast, while a large number have returned to Japan. We try to keep in touch with as many as possible, and for the most part, hear good accounts of all. One woman in particular, Mrs. Kamanura, although greatly disappointed in her hopes, learned of the knowledge of God, and is now a deaconess in our Central Tabernacle, Tokyo, Japan. Two of those who were here before the missionary herself came are still members of our Japanese church and of the Woman's Bible Class at the Home. Miss Nakanishi was rescued by the pastor from the dreadful life to which her promised husband intended to consign her. For a year she worked in a Baptist minister's family. She was one of the first to be baptized from our Home and she is now helpful in bringing new women into the class. Mrs. Morayama was also here before the missionary arrived, and was one of the first to be baptized. She has always been very helpful, teaching for a time in Sunday School and singing in the choir. Our Bible Class now has an enrollment of twenty-three women. They gave $45.00 during the past year for missions. 31 . Every day some who have never heard one word of the gospel before coming here are hearing the blessed message. One by one they come into the light. Two have just decided for Christ, giving evidence that is very clear and bright. One of these, Mrs. Ishiyama, is a normal graduate and a teacher in the Japanese language school. Eight years ago when the missionary came, there were only about five hundred Japanese women in Seattle, few of whom lived in their own homes, or even in their own rooms. Nearly all worked out somewhere. Now, however, there are about a thousand women here, many of whom have little homes in rented rooms or houses. This greatly enlarges the scope of work in the homes where we are trying in every way possible to take the Word of Life. Several are listen- ing earnestly and I think are true believers, although not quite ready for bap- tism. Our older girls in Sunday School are a great comfort and joy. Six of them are Christians. Two have been teachers in the Sunday School who are no longer able to help, but four others are just now about to begin teaching in our primary department. They are very enthusiastic and are planning their work for Christmas. Miss Amy Purcell, my associate, has taken charge of the Juniors, while I keep the Primary department. There are twenty-eight in the Junior and forty-two in the Primary department. We are all very happy and hopeful. 32