The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-11-11
missionary Fields by an Eyewitness.

life to missionary work, was lately inter-
viewed by Boston reporter. Miss Cum
mings is niece of the Misses Park of
our village, and has spoken to Benning-
ton audience, so that she is well known;
and her words, therefore, will be inter
esting to many of our readers. The in
terview, as published, is as follows:
She sat opposite me the other day, in
her simple gown, a little smile IN her
kind, tired eyes, chatting lquietly on and
on in her pleasant voice, answering my
crowding questions in a modest, matter
of fact sort of way, as if her subject
matter were nothing more remarkable
than an account of sewing society IN
Scranton West Corners. But as the
realization grew upon me of what sights
those kind eyes had seen, and what work
those deft, patient hands had done, l
was moved to repeat Thackeray's re-
markable outburst to DR.. Kane,-"Do
you think you would mind uery much if
kissed your boots?"
Yet not, like DR.. Kane, in the frozen
north; but in the far, burning south,
this little lady, for loves sake and for
mercy's sake has been doing years of
gracious and of terrible service. Like
Tavin's Kate she is a medical woman of
India.
ono" she said, in answer to my ques-
ton, "my work has not been in 'Naulah-
ka land The life Kipling's Kate saw
was the life of a small principality, gov
erned by tributary sovereign. My work
has been in Telegu, in the Madras presi-
dency. 1t is only a little missionary set
Element, very far from any English col
ony or English garrison. There have
been weeks at a time, when my fellow
workers were away on journeys, that
mine has been the only white face with
in fifty miles. Afraid Never! My
color was my safegard. Where the Eng
lish govern they govern. Since the
mutiny of 81 there is not Hindoo who
does not believe that the eye of the Gov
eminent is so eyer upon them, that to
strike down a white man, though it was
at midnight, in the jungle, were to feel
the moose about the neck. 1t is wonder
ful,-the safety the English have brought
in India for themselves and all of their
COIN"
'For the kings must go down, and the emperors
frown.
When the wildly at Windsor says stop!"
quoted, under my breath.
t'Those are Kiplings lines, are they
not? All. Kipling has done so much for
India-for us who work there, for those
for whom we work! He has built a
bridge over which the sympathles of the
whole world may pass to us. That in it
self is life work worth doing, is it not'
Before he wrote, India was only an out
line ON a map, and a name in the mis-
sionary journals, to thousands upon
thousands who to-day are eager for news
of the strange world Kipling has realiz-
ed and Unmarried for them. When we
who work there would appeal for sympa-
thy and help, there is a class to whom
we can appeal-the readers of Kipling.
''Yet not even Kipling can do more
than hint at the awful problems of India.
It is one thing to read of its conditions;
it is another to face them. l wish l
could tell you what the journey to Tele-
gu from the coast was like; my first in
PRODUCTION to India. Fifty miles-and a
two days journey! If we make two
miles an hour it is counted good speed.
Sand and sun-sand and sum- a glare
above and glare beneath. Practically
no vegetation; the trees look pestilence-
stricken. There never comes time
when they seem to renew their leaves,
though sometimes we used to think they
moulted the old leaves, rattle off, and
still there are leaves on the trees; but
they never look new. OF course am
speaking of my own part of India; near
the rank vegetation of the jungles it is
doubtless different. And one day is like
another; veal like another; thousand
years like another thousand years. The
impassive native stuffing the calfskin,
that his COW may be deceived and let
down milk, might be his own imme-
MORALLY great grandfather for all the ad-
vance he has made on his grandfather
habits of mind or body or soul You
don't know what l mean about stuffing
the calf? They believe the COW will give
no milk unless the calf takes first its
share; so when calf dies they stuff in
with weird results, | assure you-and
solemnly lead the cow to where this ap-
palling caricature is prOpped up on
sticks, every night before they milk her.
"The Hindu fatalism extends even to
the intellectual al side of life. In grammar
with them, as in destiny, thing is Sc
because it is SO; fatalism kills out rea-
son as it kills out spiritual effort and as
piration. / shall never forget trying to
get an explanation from Hindue teach.
er of finding, in some of their writings, a
plural substantive mated to singular
verb. why does not this plural noun
take plural verb?' Because it takes &
singular verb 'Why? Because it il
right that it should do So VIII!
wouldn't 1t be right that it should take q
plural verb? Because IL would bC
wrong But thought plural substan
tive Gl,pays took plural verbsr They
do yet this one does nOt?' No, this
one does not What rule governs i
thenP' There is no rule. 1t does so be
cause it is right that it should do so,'
''That is what happens to you whel
you try to study the grammar of thei
language or the grammar of their life
Facts-monstrously wrong facts-thrus
at you with an impassivity as blank a.
the glare of the sun on the sand
No rule. 1t is because it is right; it il
right because anything else would b
wrong. Kismet! Ye
oh, by so little and by so little, light i
coming. Thanks to the English soldier
who has put the forbiddance of the max
ed sword between the Hindu and som
of the blacklist horrors of hie past
Thanks to the missionaries, who la
down their lives every day that the mel
of Indie may be made holy and its wo
men free. Thanks to the medical women
who have penetrated as no one else coulc
to the life behind the curtain AM
gasped out to the legislators what the,
have found there. Thanks to a few O
the Indian women; thanks a million
times more to few of the Indian men
Why to the men more than to the won
en-? Reflect; the women of India il
runrIriucr -.