Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-10-07

lions ana It's dlIIlcultleS, the WORK IuT
women has also its problems and its
joys. A Chinese woman grinding at
the mill is surrounded on three sides
by walls of mud and corn-stalks: on
the fourth side may be the road lead
ing through the village and connect
ling 1t with the outside world, but often
so deep with mud or dust as to be
well-nigh impossible. This is a fair
! symbol of the life of. the average
woman. Her outlook is bounded by
the soil and the crops it raises, and
her time is filled with the unending
round of duties in the care fer the
| physical needs of her household. The
way that leads to things beyond and
makes her part of the great world
is so choked by ignorance, custom,
land superstition that it is hard for
her to travel out upon it or for others
to reach her. ........
Here is a woman grinding corn and
down the road comes stranger, two
books under her arm. She stops and
asks about the crops and the chill
dren, and the woman, glad of anything
to break the monotony, pauses in her
work and falls into conversation. The
younger daughteT-in-law, hearing
voices, comes to the door, spindle In
hand. and the elder leaves her weav-
ting and follows; grandchild, excited
by the novelty of strangers stopping
at their house, slips out to tell the
ineighbors; passerhy pauses, and so
a little broup of women gathers. The
stranger tells them that the God who
sends the rain and makes the crops
| to grow Is the one true God. and that
he cares for people as a father for
his children. To some all that she
says is new, others have heard
rumors of it through someone the
1 ehildren's father met at the market
town; some may have been to the fair
last year and dropped into the blue
tent with pictures on the walls to see
the queer looking foreign woman and
to rest their aching feet, and heard
something Of it there. These can feel
a little superior to their reighbors, to
whom 1T is wholly new. The stranger
talks, and opens book and reads
she must be very learned-and, still
more remarkable, what she reads they
can understand, at least in part,
strange book that reads as people
talk Then she opens the other book,
reads a few lines. and sings them to
queer music unlike any they know.
Well finally the stranger passes on
and those who have stayed to hear
her through chat few minutes and
scatter again to their several tasks.
If the stranger comes again, she
| may gather a larger group. To those
who heard her before her message
| will not sound so strange. If she
comes repeatedly there may be some
women who come regularly to hear
her, others will be new. Perhaps there
is one old woman whose Keeper of
the till'' has been favorably impressed
| with the new doctrine at the neigh
boring town, and finally she will ask
the stranger and the listeners in to
sit on the k'ang and talk together.
Some women go to the fairs each
year and drop into the chapel court
or the tent regularly, at first from
curiosity, perhaps, or to get place
to sit down, and later because they
have heard a little and want to hear
more. Women will listen readily
with varying degrees of interest and
understanding. of course). for their
lives are SO bare and dull that any
thing different is q welcome break
Many come to feel real interest in
what they hear, and feel that the new
teaching has something that they lack
and long for. consciously or vaguely.
But to get them beyond listening to
doing, that is the difficult and deli
cate task They are afraid; afraid
of rfdicule. Of persecution in the fam
lily, afraid they will be killed as they
hear the members of this society were
once lin 1900. And when they cam
not name what they fear, still they
are afraid. It is so new, so different.
Women Unafraid
But sometimes one is found who is
not afraid, like Mrs. Peace of South
Eminence who goes about her town
with the Bible woman saving. "I,et
them laugh at me. | am not afraid to
witness for God" Her husband was
an opium-smoker, but after middle
lie reformed and is now a Christian.
Where the children's father is a be-
lever. their mother has much less to
fear in her home when she, too, be-
lleVes openly. When opposition is not
strong, or courage is sufficient. a
woman may be able to go to the near |
est place where regular work is done, |
and spend month hearing more of
the gospel and learning to read in a
few simple books. more or less &C
cording to her ability. Every year
ten or fifteen women gather in these
study groups at various places, and
some are able to go several years in
succession. The two daughters-in-Iaw
OF the Canalmouth preacher came to |
such a class, and. quick to learn and
thoroughly in earnest, they went home |
eager to do all they could to help |
their neighbors Working for women |
Is uphill work, requiring tact and |
patience, but it is worth while The |
finding of one Mrs Peace may mean !
the winning of whole village in the |
end.
Hawaiian Beard at the 50th annivers- |
airy Of the founding of the Wailuku |