Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1905-04-07
INTERESTINGLETTER
FROM BOMBAY


municatiOn was received the past
week by the District Secretary of w.
b. N. l. Congregational church, and
we publish the same, so that all who
are interested in Foreign Missions
may have the privilege of reading it.
American Mission, Bombay,
School for the Blind,
BYEULLA, Feb. 13, 1905.
MY DEAR Miss SEwELL:-I realize
that the Annual Meeting of Wis
cOnSin Branch is not SO very far off,
and you will want word from me.
First of all, allow me to extend greet
ingS to all the dear friends whose
hearts have been touched by the needs
of the foreign field, and who do not
allowlthe needsaof those nearer home
TO hide from their vision those of
other lands.
l should like to act as tourists
guide for you one day, showing you
the many things of interest in this
great and busy city, if you were not
afraid to come with me beca use plague
and smallpox and measles are
epidemic just now.
The fashionable tourist stays at the
Tai Mahal .Ho-Zaelic Club. Here
they can see the shipping come and
90 and hear the band play almost
every evening. In the early morning
before it gets hot, they drive out to
see the city, visiting Hindu temples
and Mohammedan Mosques, attending
Hindu or Parsee weddings, as they
have opportunity, buying beautiful
embroideries or carved wood furniture
or ornaments of silver or brass or
sparkling jewels.
They visit the Towers of Silence to
learn of the disposition of the Parsee
dead, or go to see the Nautch girls
| dance at some wedding or other
festival. Few of these tourists haYe
either time or inclination to look up
the missionaries and see what work
| they are doing. But there are some
each year who find us and want to see
our work and our Christian people.
Such interested friends are usually
asked to spend day or two with us,
SO that they can see our various schools
and other branches of work just as
| they are carried on. If they are with
us over Sunday they may attend our
Sabbath School, which is held in our
| High School, or, as it is known here,
| the Hannah Hume Industrial Hall.
Here they would see several hundred
children, most of them from our
Christian community, with the
orphans gathered during the recent
famine. At four O'Clock we have our
regular church service, where several
hundred people worship God just as
you do in Congregational churches of
the home land. Our pastor, of course,
breaches in Marathi, SO you would not
be much edited, but the singing
would be familiar though the words
would be strange. [ preside at the
organ now, but hope the day will come
when some member of the blind school
will be able to do this work.
| After Sunday, you would like to
lspend Monday and Tuesday in visiting
Iour various schools and homes. We
have some eight Or ten Hindu Schools
for boys or girls in different parts of
the city. Also a large High School
for Christian boys and girls, the latter
living in the boarding department at
Bunker Hall and the former in the
Mission compound. There is also the
lorphanage at Parel, which requires a
morning by itself. The next day you
would wish TO visit Miss Abbott's
Home for widows and then the Blind
lSchool, which is my pet work, and
which you will love because / do.
The school began with three poor,
wretched little ones whom every one
pitied and few loved. Today there is
hardly a more attractive school in