Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-03-15

At the recent meeting of the Woman's s
Union Missionary Society, in Associa-
ton Hall, Mr.. f. Warren Clark, lately
returned from India, gave some account
of what he saw in the Society's mission
house in Calcutta. "I would gladly
give you little peep if could" he
said, s'into the quaint but agreeable
surroundings of your Home in Calcutta
l40 Dhuramtollah street; for although
as man would not gain an inside
view of zenana life and work, yet could
see the way the ladies had of doing
things, and the clock-like regularity
with which their duties were performed.
l arrived there i'm the hot season, and at
times when the thermometer remains
stubbornly at 40 in the shade. 1t is
calculated to throw everything else into
the shade. 1t is calculated to throw
everything else into the shade, too, ex-
cept the difficult question of keeping
cool, But the ladies only got up the
earlier for all that, and drove out two
by two in their Charles, or little cabs,
visiting their zenanas between six and
nine in the morning instead of staying
indoors, as some of us would have been
tempted to do. When | first drove
through the gateway. of the Calcutta
Home / saw before me substantially
built house of very different style from
what / had seen in China or Japan bat
on alighting at the vine-coyered en-
trance, and stepping into the open and
airy hall, there seemed something IA
miliar about il nevertheless, although
wondered how people made their pres
ence known i'm Calcutta houses, for no.
body was TO be seen. While reading
some chremo texts i'm the hall, such as
ssGod bless our home" &C., peerIng in
at the dining-room with its long table,
a pleasant young Hindoo appeared who
said his name was Tommy, and whose
bright, intelligent face told me at once
that he had Christian sunshine within
him. Tommy led me upstairs and
seated me in large, carpeted and nicely
furnished hall, which was square, hay
ing two rows of pillars in it, and TAX
ing up most of the second story while
varieus rooms were ranged around
three sides. Miss Buttan soon came
forth from one room and some other
ladies from others, and the welcome
was so warm that we had to sit down
under the punkahs, and be famed all
the time we were talking. After
while i was seated with the seventeen
ladies of the Home at their large tea
table, and for the time being L almost
imagined myself in zenana, although
rather a civilized one. / attended Miss
Wards Sunday-school of about fifty
girls, all black as ebony, but robed in
white. They sang and recited in Ben
galese, looked little strange ranged on
benches, with white sheets drawn over
their heads. and their wrists. ankles,
ears aud noses ornamented with rather
more profusion than taste. l attended
service four times the first Sunday,
once at the Calcutta cathedral, where a
fashionable English audience was as
sembled, and long punkah fans were
kept swinging across the whole width
of the church, cooling the congregation
during the sermon, and superb music
These punkahs are moved by black
Hindoos, who squat on the pavement
outside of the church with long ropes
in their hands. l visited several col
leges and missionary institutions in
Calcutta, the extent of which aston
ished me. The one that most interested
me was the Hindoo girls school, under
Mr. Chaterjee, where l found sixty
girls, bright, pretty and bedecked with
Jewels, who, although very small, an
swered my Scripture questions very
promptly, and afterward listened with
great interest while told them about
the little girls in Japan, and the bright
classes at the Mission Home in YOko-
hama. visited other girls schools in
India. but cannot refer TO them now.
As the hot season became hotter five
ladies' of the Calcutta Home wisely con-
cluded to flee to the mountains for re-
spite from the insufferable heat. The
journey was long one, nearly twelve
hundred miles, but the ladies set out
and reached their destination at Mus
soOni, on the Himalays, in two days.
At Saharunpore they left the railroad,
and rode or jolted fifty miles in wagon.
They then ascended seven thousand feet
through the mountains to Mussooni,
riding in dandies or jampons-peculiar
hammock-like chairs, born by coolies,
like the kango in Japan and palanquin
in China. Miss Seelye was weak and
unwell when she left Calcutta, but the
typhoid fever did not develop itself un-
til she had been several days in the
mountains. She took long and fatig-
uing walk one afternoon down into
one of the deep valleys; she returned
completely exhausted. She said To
Miss Lathrop, Il feel as though should
die.' Every attention was shown her
during her illness; she had kind friends
experienced nurses, the best of medical
skill and the fresh cool air of the noun
tains. She sank rapidly, died the 9th
of June, and was buried the following
dau af sunrise -