The Portland daily press., 1895-06-18


members. The amount raised the past
year was 50, 794. SO.
Mrs Adlott then introduced the speaker
of the evening, Miss W. J. Armstrong,
who had been missionary in India for
seven years. Miss Armstrong said that
nine years aog she came from the West
on her way to India, and vividly de-
scribed her motives at leaving her home
and father for such far distant heathen
land.
| She is a young woman of small stature,
and was dressed last evening in the
native costume of India
She first described her visit to great
Arabian palace, at the invitation of the
secluded women there, the wives of the
noblemen, who had made dire threats as
to what he would do if ever he found a
white Christian woman inside the walls
of his great house.
After she entered the great doorway the
iron doors were locked behind her, and
she was conducted to the apartments of
the women. They received her cordially
but quietly. They Immediately expressed
great surprise at the sight of her eye
glasses, and talked much about it among
themselves. Why this strange foreign
woman should cover up her eyes and
leave her wrists and ankles and neck and
| mouth and nose exposed to everlasting
disgrace is something that they cannot
understand.
| She did not dare to speak to them Of
her Bible on the first visit. But she be-
came more intimate with them and
suffered no dangers or discomforts be-
cause of her visits. She finally told them
| of her mission in their country, and
though these women may not dare to
mention the story of Christ in that house
hold, they will instill into the thoughts
and hearts of their children the virtues of
Christianity and the doctrine of personal
| chastity.
Miss Armstrong took her audience into
narrow street, six feet wide, that
'slends itself very generally for the pur-,
poses of an open sewer. They entered
| into low and dark and filthy rooms and
saw there one of her pupils, young
widow. Her story is sad one When
yet only child she was married to him,
who was as yet only boy She became
the servant of him and his mother She
famed him when he ate and when he
slept Finally, after she had given birth
to two little ones, her husband came
home stricken with the cholera and in a
| short time was dead.
Then strong hands fell upon the
trembling little widow. Her ornaments
and silken dresses were taken from her
| She was thrust into dark room and
given 4 coarse cloth to cover herself with
And thb harsh old mother Of her dead
husband scowled upon her and called her
laccursed forever because her husband had
died and she must have been the cause of
lit. Then strong hands again seized her
and cut close her long black hair and
| trimmed close her long eyelashes and
thus naked and accursed she was thrust
into the street, which she had never seen
before, and with the wailing of her little
ones in her ears, as they called after her.
she went out into the cruel world, an
outcast
And a harsh man soon seized her and
| locked her up in his house And for a
long time she served his pleasure, and
when he had wearied of her, he cast her
into the street again, and another man
seized her and after him another.
| 1t was to this poor widow that Miss
Armstrong brought the story of the
Gospel, and the wonderful, beautiful
| facts of Christian wifehood and mother
hood and widowhood.
Miss Armstrong added a great deal to
the fascination of her very eloquent and
vivid narrative by the use of Hindoo ex-
pressions and the singing of Hindoo
song.
She spoke of a mob of the lowest
people that she met in the street. She
knew from sad experience that it is un-
pleasant to be in the midst of such a
heather mob in such heather ommuni-
ty AS the mob went by she saw young
man dragging something on the ground
An old hag was helping him. Miss
Armstrong asked a man what it was that
was being dragged. He replied, "a
daughter -in-law She rushed into the
midst of the mob and screamed "Officers,
in the name of the Queen" When this
expression is used, the native officers
must respond, or they are liable to fine
and the cat-of- -ninetails; but if the person
thus invoking the Queen does SO in any
but a case of life and death, he is liable
| to the same punishment
The Scpoys officers appeared at her call
She read in the paper the next day that
! the officers had discovered riot in the
street. A young man was dragging his
| wife, tied by rope, face down on the
ground. She was much mangled by this
and by having been beaten with stones.
3 The man was arrested and was fined
| fourt cen rupees.
Miss Armstrong related other incidents
Of the frightful cruelty to women in that
country and her experiences in telling
them of her own land where women are
respected and protected and protect
themself. The church was crowded with
an audience of about breathlessly in
terested listeners, who shuddered and