The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-10-08
TRIBUTES To
MARY GREEN
Woman's Board of
Missions Misses
Her..
MRS. WHITNEY TELLS
OF HER LIFE WORK
Miss Talcott Reads a Paper on
Renewed Christian Activity
in Japan.

Gentle tributes to the memory of the
late Mary Elizabeth Green, whose life
work amongst the Hawaiians was in
service of the Master, came from many
lips yesterday afternoon in Central
Union Church at the meeting of the
organization she had for so many years
been a valued member. There was an
unusually large attendance. 1t seemed
strange not to hear a report from Mary
Green, as on every occasion of the
Board meetings she arose to speak en-
couragingly of her work amongst the
natives, boys and girls. people detained
in the city jail, sailors and soldiers, and
the sick.
Mrs. C. NJ. Hyde, the president, open
ed the meeting by saying that the
memory of her bright and CHEEKY exam
pie, her abiding and intense love fol
all Christian and philanthropic work
especially among the Hawaiians, was a
cherished remembrance.
Miss Martha Chamberlain offered q
prayer for the departed sister in which
she spoke of the influence for good
which Miss Green had always exerted
Who amongst the members would fill
her place as the Boards missionary and
take such an intense interest in the Ha-
waiian race? She thought it would be
difficult to replace her.
Mrs. ]. NJ. Whitney read a paper on
the life work of Miss Green and long
before she had finished 1t, many eyes
were wet with tears. Her tribute was
a gentle one and was listened TO with
attention. 1t was as follows:
HER LIFE WORK.
Mary Elizabeth Green awoke to Iife's
activities at Lahaina, Maui, Dec 14th
1890. Laid aside earthly labors and hel
weary body Sept 29th, 1902, at Homo,
lulu-nei.
Thus may read the record of one deal
sisters birth and death. But who car
tell the faithful labors for her deal
Hawaiian people, for the young of al
classes. for sailors and soldiers and the
sick and suffering and SHINING every,
where? How she visited homes ant
schools and prisons and hospitals ant
camps; the exhortations and prayer:
and pleadings and tears that filled
those 72 years of busy life This brie1
tel =.
ton of them. Their results can never
be known or recorded here. They arr
in Gods book above, and not one Of
them is lost. They are told also ir
many lives made better in Hawaiian
homes whose wife and mother has new.
er forgotten the earnest lessons in puri-
ty and Righteousness impressed in
childhood by her loving teacher. The
hundreds of young men upon oul
streets and who have passed on tt
other lands to whom Mary never failed
to give warm greeting, can never for
get her, and life must seem a little
brighter to many a homesick boy fol-
the loving look and grasp of the hand
she gave, just in passing.
Mary Green's early years of public
work were given to teaching Hawaiian
girls. Soon after the burning of the
Makawao Seminary in 1869, she opened
similar school at Waialua, Oahu
which she conducted for eleven years
They were years of hard, exhaustins
work, no one can tell how exhaustins
to her always frail body, but dauntless
spirit. Always struggling for means
to carry on the work, unable to hire
sufficient help, in buildings old and in
convenient and insanitary. But she
neld on year after year, for the chill
dren were there, and who else could OF
would care for them? In 1882 Mary's
health failed utterly and she returned
to her mothers home in Makawao
where she spent a few years in enforc-
ed rest, or less exhausting work
In 1884, the Woman's Christian Tenn
perance Union of Hawaii was organic
ed. 1t became evident at once that ou1
work should be largely among Hawaii
ans, ard We looked about for some one
VINO was fitted to take up temperance
and eVangelistic work among this peo-
pie. 1t was at the suggestion of Miss
Mary Parker that Mary Green was
called from Makawao to undertake the
work. She came gladly. for did it not
open to her new field of labor for hel
Gear Hawaiians? She was remarkably
ntted for the work, speaking the Ha.
wallan language almost like her native
tongue, with an intense love for the ma.
tive race, through her previous work
Tor them we'll known to many of them
and lnheriting from her ancestors tenn.
perance sentiments which prompted
the most eager endeavor among al
classes. Shortly after she began hel
work for the W. c. T. U. the woman
Board of Missions arranged with her to