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TheAMERI RAMABAI·

ASSOCIATION

Report of the Eighteenth Annual Meeting

March 28, 1916

THE

REPORT OF THE

Eighteenth Annual MeetIng

MARCH 28, 1916

BOSTON

PRESS OJ!' GEO. H. ELLIS co. 1916

BOARD OF MANAGERS. 1916.

P,uidmt. REv. HARLAN P. BEACH, D.D., F.R.G.s., New Haven, Conn.

Vice-Presidents.

REV. LYKAN .ABBOTT, D.D., New York. REv. DANIEL DULANEY ADDISON, D.D., Brookline. REv. GEORGE A. GoaDON, D.D., Boston. REV. ALEXANDER MANN, D.D., Boston. REv. AUGUSTUS H. SnONG, D.D., Rochester, N.Y. Mll. EDWAJiD H. CLEKENT, Boston.

Treasurer.

Ma. CuaTIS CmPHAN, 222 Boylston Street, Boston.

Corresponding Suretary.

Mlls. S. W. LEE-MollTDlER, 170 Huntington Avenue, Boston.

Recording Seeretary.

MISS ALICE H. BALDWIN, 233 Fisher Avenue, Brookline.

CL.uENCE JOHN BLAKE, M.D. MISs CLEKENTmA BUTLER. MISS ANNA H. CRACE. MRs. JOSEPH CoOK. REv. EDWAJiD CumaNGS. Mll. GEORGE H. DAVENPOllT. Mas. E. C. E. DORION.

jfaMgers.

Mas. SUSAN SNOWDEN FzsSENDEN. MISS ANroINETTE' P. GRANGER. Mas. FRANK M. HoYT.

Mas. DAVID P. KnmALL. MISS KATE G. LAKsON. Mas. S. W. LEE-MoRTIIlltR. Mas. HENRy W. PEABODY. Mas. Aal'BUJi PEuY. JULIA MORTON PLmoom, M.D. MISS E. HARluET STANWOOD. Aal'BUJi K. SroNE, M.D. REv. ROBEllT A. HUIlE, D.D.

(Ahmecinagar, India).

&ecu#f1e Committee.

MISS CLEJlENTINA BUTI.Ell, Chairman, Providence, R.I. MISS ANNA H. CRACE. Mas. HENRY W. PEABODY. MRS. FRANK M. HoYT. Mas. S. B. CAPllON.

MRS. S. W. LEE-MoRTIKER, Secretary.

PriPld;ol of Siaratl4 Sada" aflll M tlj'i.

PANDlTA RAKABAI D. MEDlIAVI, Kedgaon, Poona District, India.

Viu-PriPldpal of ShlJratl4 Sada".

MANOJiAKABAJ M. MEDlIAVI.

AMERICAN RAMABAI ASSOCIATION.

THe Eighteenth Annual Meeting of the American Ramabai Association was held at Trinity Chapel, Boston, on March 28, 1916, at 3 P.M. The Chair was taken by Rev. Harlan P. Beach, D.D., President of the Association, who opened the meeting with prayer.

The Recording Secretary, Miss Alice H. Baldwin, read the formal call for the meeting.

The Recording Secretary then read the minutes of the Seventeenth Annual Meeting, which were approved.

The report of the Corresponding Secretary, Miss Elinor Andrews, was read by Miss Baldwin, and was accepted and placed on file.

6 The American Ramabai Association

REPORT OF THE CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

At the close of another year I can still report a seemingly unabated interest in the work of the Pandita Ramabai. During the past months there have been constant requests for further details and pictures, as local circles wished to be better informed of this splendid work.

It seems best to me that this report shall be my last one, and I have tendered my resignation to the Executive Committee. I have been too far away from home the past winter to carry on my duties, and the Recording Secretary, Miss Alice H. Baldwin, kindly took them over for me. My resignation implies no lack of interest in the work of the Association, and I still retain my Treasurership of the Brookline Circle, which position I have held for ten years.

With the many pressing calls for help from the War Zone, it is good to feel that so many are also carrying on this work in far-away India, in preparation for the "coming of the kingdom" of the Prince of Peace.

ELINOR ANDREWS, Corresponding Secretary.

RIVERSIDE, CAL., March 9, 1916.

The Treasurer, Mr. Curtis Chipman, read his report, which was accepted and placed on file.

TREASURER'S REPORT


TREASURER'S FOR THE YEAR ENDING

1915. Receipts.

March 1. Balance on hand 1916.

Feb. 29. Subscriptions for support of SM.radA Sadan, Subscriptions for support of Mukti School, Subscriptions for support of Kripa Sadan, Donations to the General Fund . Rental of Poona property to Government, Interest on current account. . Royalties on sale of "High Caste Hindu

Woman"

$558.83

2,096.05 223.00 24.25 47.00

1,000.00 11.36

1.55 $3,962.04

AUSTRALIAN FUND FOR LEGAL AND 1916.

Feb. 29. Balance

1916. Feb. 29. Balance

1915. April 9. Remitted to India

1916. Feb. 29. Balance

$2,737.31

$2,737.31

J. W. AND BELINDA L.

$693.43

$693.43

MARGARET F.

$100.00

2,055.80 $2,155.80

Report of the Eighteenth Annual Meeting 9

REPORT. FEBRUARY 29, 1916.

1916. Feb. 29.

Payments.

Remittances for support of ShArada. Sadan (including $1,000 rental of Poona property to Government) ... .

Remittances for support of M ukti School, Remittances for support of Kripa Sadan, Postage, stationery, and printing . General expenses of the Association,

covering advertising, salaries, clerical assistance, legal services, etc.

Balance March 1, 1916

$2,500.00 223.00

24.25 185.41

658.68 370.70

$3,962.04

MEDICAL AID OF LITTLE WIVES OF INDIA. 1915.

March 1. Balance 1916.

Feb. 29. Interest

RANDALL TRUST. 1915.


Feb. 29. Interest

WAITE TRUST. 1915.


Feb. 29. Interest

$2,651.44

85.87 $2,737.31

$679.47

13.96 $693.43

$2,085.80

70.00 $2,155.80


CONTRIBUTIONS OF RAMABAl CmCLES, SOCIETIES, ETC.

CIRCLJCB. 6~~ I_M_U_ktl_'_1 ~.::~.I ~= _T_o_tala_._

AubUrn, N.Y~,·Cato Pres-' byterian Church, Woman's Missionary Society

Auburn, N.Y., through Mrs. M. A. Church

Baltimore, Md. Brookline, Mass. Brooklyn, N.Y. Bryn Mawr, Pa. Buffalo, N.Y., Woman's

Society, Delaware Avenue Baptist Church

Canandaigua, N.Y. Cleveland, Ohio, Perkins

Circle Clintonville, Wis., Mrs.

P. E. Gibson's Sundayschool Class

Dorchester, Mass. . Fairport, N.Y., Woman's

Missionary Society, First Baptist Church

Franklin, N.Y. Germantown, Pa. Hartford, Conn., Mothers'

Meeting, First Baptist Church

Honolulu, Hawaii, Woman's Board of Missions

Honolulu, Hawaii, through Mrs. C. D. Westervelt

London, Onto Montclair, N.J. New Haven, Conn. Northampton, Mass.,

Smith College, Class of 1888 .

Northfield, Mass., Summer School.. . .

Northfield, Mass., through Record of Christian Work

Pawtucket, R.I. Petaluma, Cal. Philadelphia, Pa., Mano-

rama Circle

i I $1.361.

3.64 ............... . 39.00 . . . . . . . . . . ., ... ~ 64.00... .. .. .. . ..

214.00 ........ . ....... . .. ..... $30.00 . .. $45.00

10.00. 26.00.

28.00 ........

3.00 ........ . 34.00... . ..

5.00 ............ . 46.75 ..

104.50 ............ .

47.00 ......

95.00 .

215.00 ..... . 39.00 .... . 15.00 .... . 52.00... . ..

6.75.

150.80 .

51.00 ............ . 25.00. ... . .. . 13.00 .....• . ... .

181.00 ............•......

$1.36

3.64 39.00 64.00

214.00 75.00

10.00 26.00

28.00

3.00 34.00

5.00 46.75

104.50

47.00

95.00

215.00 39.00 15.00 52.00

6.75

150.80

51.00 25.00 13.00

181.00


CONTRffiUTIONS OF RAMADA! CmcLEs, SOCIETIES, ETC.

CmCLE8. ShtradA Mukti. Kripa General Totals. Sadan. Sadan. Fund.

---Philadelphia, Pa., King's

Daughters, St. Andrew's P. E. Church 5.00 .......... . .. . . .. .. 5.00

Plainville, Conn. 12.00 18.00 ........... . .. .. . 30.00 Providence, R.I. 38.00 66.00 $18.25 . ... 122.25 Rochester, N.Y. 134.00 . ...... .. .......... .. ..... 134.00 Roselle, N.J. 3.00 6.00 6.00 2.00 17.00 Stamford, Conn. 53.00. ........ .. .. ........ ....... 53.00 Stockbridge, Mass., Hill-

side Circle King's Daugh-ters 1.00 .. ........ .. . .. .. .......... 1.00

Syracuse, N.Y., Helping Hand Circle of Wesleyan Methodist Church 7.00 .. .... .. . ..... .. ...... 7.00

Terryville, Conn.. . Washington, D.C., through

Friends' Meeting (Ortho-

14.00. ...... .. .. . .... 14.00

dox) ..... .. 49.00 . .. . .. •••• I • 49.00 West Chester, Pa. 19.00. .. I .....

: .! ... .. 19.00 Wilmington, Del. 18.25. ... , ... . .. .. 18.25 Wollaston, Mass., through

Mrs. Lucy W. Pinkham 21.00 . .......... .. .. . ........ 21.00 Worcester, Mass. 7.00 . ............ ........ • •• II 7.00 *General Circle 341.00 7.00 ....... .. ....... 348.00

Totals $2,096.051

$223.00\ $24.251 $47.001 $2,390.30

CURTIS CHIPMAN, Treasurer American Ranwbai Association.

* Covering contributions from individuals.

BOSTON, April 4, 1916. I have examined the accounts of the Treasurer of the American

Ramabai Association for the year ending February 29, 1916, and find the payments properly vouched for and receipts duly entered and credited, showing balances of Principal and Income as of March 1, 1916, as below:-

General Fund. .. . . . . , . . $370.70 Australian Fund for Legal and Medical Aid of Little

Wives of India. . J. W. and Belinda L. Randall Trust Margaret F. Waite Trust

(Signed) GEORGE H.

2,737.31 693.43

2,055.80 DAVENPORT,

Auditor.

'\


REPORT OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS.

I am very sorry indeed to have to present to you this afternoon the resignation of our Corresponding Secretary, Miss Elinor Andrews. She has been the Secretary for three years and has been very successful and faithful in doing her work, but she is away from New England a great deal and that makes it difficult for her to keep in touch with the work. Miss Andrews' action makes it impossible to do anything but accept with regret her resignation, as she cannot be with us.

During the year the only matter of urgent business that has come before us is the request of Dr. Hume that he shall be given a power of attorney, so if necessary to sell our property in Poona he may act for us. That property has been rented to the Government for some time. The Government of course is a very good tenant, but the possibilities are that it may build headquarters of its oWn which will take the place of this property, in which case we will be left without that good tenant; and there are reasons why Ramabai and Dr. Hume both think it better to sell. So a meeting of the Board of Managers was called in October and power was given to Dr. Hume to make this sale when the right opportunity occurs.

Word has come to us of the marriage of Chandrabai Devrukhker, the student who formerly in the Philadelphia Woman's Medical College and later in the Bombay University was known to many of us. Her husband is a clergyman of the Church of England Mission, and we feel assured that, if spared, they will accomplish. a great work for God in this new sphere.

Report oj the Eighteenth Annual Meeting 13

Several communications have come from Manorama, from one of which with its word of Christmas cheer I quote:-

"Our hearts are overflowing with praise and thanksgiving to God for all His mindfulness of us. We knew He truly fulfilled His word and crowned the year with His goodness. We knew that every one in the different home lands was giving to the utmost for our brave soldiers and hardly expected anything for our Christmas, but on Christmas Day the hearts of all our girls were made glad with such nice things; they got more rather than less and so all were so happy. At the Watchnight service they just overflowed with praise and one after another got up to thank God for all He had done for them until they had to be told that there was not more time for testimonies, otherwise they would have gone on far into the night. Not only did the Lord supply our own need so richly, but He sent enough for nearly two thousand people from the villages round about Mukti. What a crowd they were! And as "the Lord Jesus did long ago, we made them sit down on the ground and gave them the Gospel and then we distributed clothing and sugar and toys. Surely the Lord looked down and was glad and we thank the dear ones at home for enabling us to make them happy and also for getting them within sound of the Gospel. A Brahman man who has recently confessed Christ and has been baptized testified for the first time before all these people and invited them to come to Christ."

Also I have her annual report, which will deeply touch us, as it relates the efforts of the women of India to do their part in this awful war. In between the lines one can read the unswerving loyalty of the Indian people to their Government.


Also I have the pleasure of reading a report from Ramabai. Not that we value the reports of Manorama less; but we know that such a burdened woman as Ramabai must be, with the care of so many souls, must indeed get the time to write to us directly only by real sacrifice, so we appreciate her own report very highly. Do you realize that this wonderful woman has cared for over five thousand destitute child widows and women and girls during the time of our work together? To-day she has under her care more than two thousand. Many have died during these years past, some have established homes of their own; but her wonderful gift for enlisting her own pupils in her work has given her a force of teachers to-day made up largely of former students. Of the little village which is growing up just outside of Mukti, where the married girls have their homes, Dr. Edwards, who has visited the institution more recently than any of us, may speak. Here, however, is a bit of the impression of a visitor published in the World Outlook:-

'''Can this be the place?' asked my husband, doubtfully. It certainly did not look promising, that long low building resembling an Indian bazaar. We had supposed that we were coming to visit the great institution which Pandita Ramabai had built up at Kedgaon. We afterwards discovered that the first building only shielded a regular village of houses which stretched out behind it-the village where two thousand widows and orphans are being shown that there is a place in the world for them.

" Mter breakfast we began our tour of inspection. " 'That was a great pair of oxen that brought us from

the station,' said my husband. 'Have you more than that yoke?'

"Our guide smiled a little. 'We have about eighty


head like that,' she replied quietly. 'Ramabai knows them all 'by name and, in fact, bought most of them when they were calves.'

" 'Where do they work?' we asked in astonishment. " 'Ramabai has taken up four hundred acres of land,

she replied. ' '''My, what a weIll' said my husband with an appre

ciation born of long residence in India. 'I wish we had one half as good.

" Again our guide smiled. 'We have ten of these,' she said.

"We went to the church building. It would seat four thousand when completed. ' Notice the acoustics,' said our guide. We stood in the farthest comer and she went to the platform and whispered. We heard her perfectly.

" , And who was the architect here?' we asked. " 'Ramabai wrote to an architect, but he was going

to charge six hundi-ed rupees. She said she did not believe that God intende<;l her to use the money that way, and she made the plan herself.'

" 'Ramabai is growing on me,' said my husband. "Then we went to the printing plant and saw widows

and orphans setting type. We visited the weaving establishment, where a hundred looms were being operated by the girls. Others in another building were hammering away in a deafening chorus on aluminum ware. Others, not so young or not so strong, were doing all kinds of sewing or fancy work."

Time fails us to quote more of this vivid picture of Mrs. Elmore's. We must just say a word about the faithful bands of workers in this country who since Ramabai's first visit have stood so loyally by her and her great enterprise. Miss Chace tells me of her collections


for twenty-eight years from a circle in Rhode Island. Others have been equally faithful who have never had the joy of seeing the work, as has been the pri:vilege of some of us. The Association represents the love and prayers of many devoted hearts who will some day rejoice with the Pandita in the glad heaven-vision of what has been accomplished by their united work permitted them in the Master's service on earth.

FOR THE BOARD OF MANAGERS,

CLEMENTINA BUTLER, Chairman Executive Committee.

The report of the Nominating Committee was presented by Miss Alice H. Baldwin and accepted, and on motion duly seconded, it was voted to suspend the by-law requiring election by ballot, and instruct the Recording Secretary to cast one ballot for the persons named in the report of the Nominating Committee.

The Secretary deposited the ballot as authorized, and the persons nominated by the Committee were declared to be unanimously elected to serve as officers of the Association for the ensuing year.

(The names of the officers elected appear on page 3 of this Report.)

Dr. BEACH. One other matter of business is the consideration of the proposed addition to the By-Laws, creating a Finance Committee and defining its duties. Perhaps the President may be allowed to make a statement in this connection. When the Executive Committee talked the matter over it seemed possible that there might be a conflict of duties between the Finance Committee and the Executive Committee. It is, how-


ever, very desirable that this matter be taken up and it does seem as if some alterations should be made in the By-Laws. I think perhaps the best thing would be to move that a committee be appointed to consider this matter and present at our next meeting such recommendations as seem desirable. I am ready to entertain a motion to that effect.

On motion, duly seconded, it was voted that the President appoint a committee to examine the By-Laws and at our next meeting recommend such alterations as seem wise and desirable in the premises. The President later appointed Miss Clementina Butler, Miss Anna H. Chace, and Mr. Curtis Chipman to serve as members of this committee.


REPORT OF PANDITA RAMABAI.

SHARADA SADAN, KEDGAON, POONA DISTRICT, INDIA.

February 14, 1916.

Dear Friends,-Another year has passed away and we are drawing nearer and nearer to our eternal home. Let us thank: God, our Heavenly Father, together and praise Him for all His goodness and His loving kindness. He has kept us from all harm, supplied all our needs, and sympathized with us and comforted us in all our troubles and trials. It is a great privilege to be allowed to serve Him even if so little, in any capacity. So let us thank Him for giving us this privilege of serving Him.

Things have been going on as usual with us. Our life is uneventful as far as the outside world is concerned. But all things in our little home are as big to ourselves as though we were the whole world, and all that is done by the whole world on a very big scale is done by the several members of our small family on a little scale.

School work is our principal work, and that is carried on in several classes in the High School department, in the Primary School, and in the Kindergarten as thoroughly as it is possible for us to do. We are training our own teachers all the time. The girls whom we teach are teaching us in their turn, so that we gain knowledge from them as they from us.

There are some children in the Kindergarten where our girls are being trained as Kindergarten teachers by a lady who knows her work well. It is a great help and one of the great pleasures of life to have small children around one. They have their several dispositions, and each one


must be studied and helped. They require a great deal of attention. Often they make it lively for us with their cries and shoutings and grumbles; but it is such a pleasure to see them growing and happy; and it is such a help to us as we try to train the elder girls as school-teachers to have these little children among us. They help the work in their own way.

The pupil teachers teach the children to work in the garden. They teach them how to water the plants, how to arrange the flower-pots, how to keep the garden clean by picking up small bits of dirt and rubbish, and then after their work the children come expecting some fruit or sweets as their reward. They are satisfied with as little or as much as is given them, and they scamper away with their prize to enjoy it. These children invent their own games and make toys with chips of wood, pieces of old tin, pieces of brick and broken tiles, or shapeless slones. The toys and games invented by them for themselves seem to give them more pleasure than all the more expensive toys bought from the shops and all the games taught by expert teachers.

Among our girls in the school there are some bright and promising ones who will make good teachers. They are now doing good work as pupil teachers, and they are rewarded according to their capacities.

There are some girls who will not be good scholars, but they are helping in the household work and other work that is essential for the existence and well-being of our little world. Here is the list of the different kinds of work in which the girls help: the care of children, laundry work, cooking and housework, carrying water and scouring kitchen utensils, hospital work, dairy work, field work, fencing the fields, buying grain and other necessaries of life, masonry; carpentry, cane and basket work, weaving cloth and carpets, oil-making, needlework and


embroidery, keeping stores and distributing them for cooking, etc., serving food, looking after the cleanliness and sanitation of the establishment, bookbinding, printing, typesetting, managing the oil engine and other machinery, caring for the blind and teaching them to work, office work such as tying up packages of books and parcels of needlework, typewriting, copying letters and manuscripts, mat-weaving and rope-making, lacework.

These are the principal occupations, but there are a hundred other things done here that take up time and thought and are very tiresome; but they cannot be named or described.

Besides all these things, our girls are helping to spread general knowledge among the peasants living in several villages around us. The village people, women and children especially, appreciate their work and are very glad to be visited by them daily and to receive instruction. About three hundred women and children are instructed regularly five days in every week, and because of this work there is a great improvement in the life of the villagers around us.

It gives us great pleasure and happiness to be of some use to our fellow-creatures, and we owe all this happiness to your kind and generous help. Without your help we could not have done much. So we thank you most gratefully for all the help you are giving to us and we pray that God will re~ard you a hundred-fold and bless you continually with His richest blessing. May this year, and many more years to come, be full of happiness and joy to you.

Believe me most sincerely and gratefully,

Yours in the Lord's service,

RAMABAI.


REPORT OF MANORAMABAI.

SHARADa SADAN, KEDGAON, POONA DISTRICT, INDIA. February 14, 1916.

Dear Friends,-We did not think: when we posted our last reports to you that at the close of another year this terrible war would still be in progress. We were hoping that peace would have come much earlier than this, but the war seems to go on and on with greater and greater force. We read of tragedies so terrible and so numerous that our hearts turn sick at the thought of such terrible brutality being practised in these days of civilization. We read of whole battalions being swept away, of great steamers being sunk and hundreds of lives lost, cities and houses and churches devastated, men, women, and little children slaughtered. as if lives were of no account. Yet in spite of it all we know that God has His hand over all. In His great wisdom He controls the affairs of every country on the face of the globe. Through all this terrible turmoil He is working out some great good, and in the mean while He is watching over and caring for every creature that He has made. Every life is precious in His sight, and we know that His great Father-heart feels for every sufferer. Many stories are told by Christian soldiers of God's presence with them on the battlefield comforting and strengthening when all earthly friends were far away. Many bereaved wives and mothers and sisters and little brothers are telling of God's goodness to them in their affiiction, and many stories of wonderful and gracious protection and deliverance from bombs and aeroplanes and other unexpected attacks


have reached us during the course of this war. Our faith is strengthened as we hear these testimonies to God's goodness and mercy, and though we know not what a day may bring forth we feel that we can rest in the knowledge that our Father lives and reigns.

Here in India we have much to thank God for. We are so well protected by the vigilance of our good Govemment and the brave soldiers who are fighting our battles that business and all the daily duties of life go on as usual. If we did not see the papers and sometimes see trainfuls of soldiers going to or returning from the front, we might almost forget that the war is going on. True, the prices of foodstuffs and all articles of household use have risen very high. All goods of German manufacture are fast disappearing from the market. Imported goods are getting more and more scarce and expensive. But apart from these facts our work is uninterrupted and our lives uneventful. We go quietly on with the daily routine, and there seems to be very little worthy to be recorded. We realize, however, that we are indebted to God's goodness for this quiet, peaceful life in troublous .times. Prices are very high, and food is difficult to get, but our God has not failed us. Day by day all the year long our wants have been graciously supplied, and with very grateful hearts we praise Him for His goodness to us; and we remember with thankfulness that God has chosen you dear friends in America as the ones through whom His goodness shall flow to us here in India, and so we gladly take this opportunity of expressing to you the thankfulness that we feel for your untiring love and devotion to the cause of India's women. Under God we owe our existence as an institution to you, and we are trying to be worthy of all that you are doing for us.

From the outbreak of the war our girls have been


keenly interested in the progress of Great Britain and her Allies. Many are now sufficiently educated to understand a great deal about the situation of affairs, and they talk and pray intelligently about current events. In an American home this would not be surprising, but in an Indian home of thirty years ago it would have been almost an unheard-of thing for women to engage intelligently in such a conversation as may be heard any day within the walls of the Sharada Sadan. In those days which are not really so very far off women could only talk about those domestic affairs which concerned them very closely. Now, thanks to the enlightenment which has come to India through the advantages of British rule and through the work of missions and of such institutions as our own, there are quite a large number of homes in which the women are well educated and where the daily paper rather than the daily meal suggests to them as well as to the men the topic of conversation.

Soon after the war broke out Her Excellency Lady Willingdon opened a Women's War Relief Fund, and she asked the women of the Bombay Presidency to do all that they could to help her in doing as much as possible for the relief of wounded soldiers. Little companies of women all over the Presidency agreed to follow Lady Willingdon's leadership and to help in the work as she should direct. Her Excellency then called several large meetings of representative women and put before them her plans of work and explained how the women of India might help the great cause.

At these meetings women of the Bombay Presidency belonging to all castes and creeds and to various nationalities rallied round their great leader and listened eagerly for her directions. Lord Willingdon is the Governor of Bombay, so Lady Willingdon's influence in this Presidency is very great. Besides this she has given her own


son to the war, a fact which gives double force to her appeal and which carries her message straight to the hearts of those to whom she spt::aks. At one of these large meetings I represented my mother, and I was so glad to see quite a number of high-caste Hindu ladies there prepared to take their share of the work. One of the principal speakers was Mrs. Ramabai Ranade, whose husband was once a member of our Advisory Board. He died some years ago. He was a great leader and reformer, and Mrs. Ramabai Ranade is doing what her husband would have wished her to do. Instead of settling down to the ordinary life of a Hindu Widow, she is doing all that is in her power to help other Hindu women. She is trying to brighten the lives of sorrowful women, to train them and educate them and to teach them by precept and example to devote themselves to the service of their country. Mrs. Kashibai Kanitkar was also present at this meeting. She is known to you by name as the lady who presided at the opening of the Sh~rad~ Sadan in Bombay. These two ladies and several others with them are carrying on a very good work for Indian women through an institution known as Seva Sadan. The work of the Seva Sadan in many points resembles the work of the Sh~ad~ Sadan, and I have no hesitation in saying that our institution has exerted a very great though indirect influence in the work of Seva Sadan and other similar institutions.

Our girls have done a great deal of needlework for the soldiers, and at Christmas time they made Indian sweetmeats for the Indian soldiers. We have also sent a great deal of literature, printed by our girls, for the soldiers to read on board ship and in the hospital. Some months after we began to work for the soldiers Lord and Lady Willingdon visited our school and encouraged the girls and teachers in their work.


My mother has told you about our Kindergarten School. A lady from Australia is helping me in that department of the work, and she is training Kindergarten teachers for us. These young teach~rs will be able, to go out to our village schools and teach the little Hindu children. In the early days of our work my mother used to train the Kindergarten teachers herself. I wish she could still do so, but she has not much time to give to school work now, and I am very grateful to have the help of Miss Ferguson, who also teaches drawing to the senior girls.

Another lady has come from England to help me with the Blind School. We have blind girls from Poona and Sa tara and Calcutta and other places, besides our own blind girls. For some years I have been feeling that I could do much better work in this departm~nt if I could have some one to help me. Miss Craddock has had some training in a Blind School in England. She is busy studying the language, and she hopes, when she knows Marathi and· is . in a better position to direct the other teachers working under her, that perhaps a blind lady from England may come out to work with her. I think that with the help of these ladies I shall be able to put our Blind School on a firm footing, and I am very grateful for this additional help.

We are trying to start a silk industry. My mother has planted a number of mulberry trees and castor-oil plants, and we have now a number of worms spinning their cocoons in baskets made by our own girls. Whether this will ever become a really paying industry or not remains to be seen; at present we are only experimenting.

Our school in Gulbarga is prospering, though at present I have been obliged to close the school and recall our teachers from there because the plague is very bad in the town and nearly all schools and offices are closed for the time being. I hope that before very long I may be


able to procure a piece of land from the Government in that city, where we may some day have a building of our own. This will be a great help.

Quite a number of our teachers here in Kedgaon go out regularly to teach for a certain number of hours each day in the villages around us. Requests come from places a long way off for schools to be started by my mother. Of course we are not able to comply with all these requests, but it is encouraging to know that our work is appreciated.

The number of Sharada Sadan girls who are with us now is I27. The number of Mukti girls admitted to Shdrada Sadan privileges is 99. So we have all together 226 girls whom we reckon as pupils of the Sharada Sadan.

During the last hot weather vacation, I took a party of I5 to Mahableshwar for a few days. Living as we do here in this village away from the city with its civilization and all its modern improvements, we sometimes find it difficult to explain to our girls the books which they read, because their ideas of many things are so vague. For instance, some have never seen the sea, some do not remember ever being in a train, some have never seen a river or a waterfall or a high mountain; a telephone, an electric lamp, a tramcar, an elevator, a large English shop, and many other things are to them things only in name, and we find that the easiest way to explain them is by taking parties of girls to Bombay or to some other place of interest where they will be able to see things for themselves. There is an old fort in Gulbarga which is an object of great interest. I often take one or two girls with me w hen I go there and let them study the place. We had a good laugh once in Bombay when a girl about eighteen years old who was preparing for her College Entrance examination saw the sea for the first time and drank some of its water, forgetting that it would be

Report of the Eighteenth Annual Meeting ·27

salt! She had often read about it, but she had forgotten.

You will be surprised to know that we have a few boys studying in our school. There are Government Primary Schools in all the important villages, where a good education is given up to a certain point; but there are a few village boys who are ambitious to go on to a High School education. Some go to High Schools in the cities. Others cannot leave their villages. A few such boys begged my mother to admit them into her school. They said they would pay whatever school fees she might ask, and they promised to be very good and to give their whole attention to their studies. Coeducation is seldom heard of in Indian schools, and my mother hesitated long before admitting these boys as pupils. But they begged so hard that she has yielded to them, and we have made arrangements for one or two classes of boys to be taught on the school verandah. In our highest class we are allowing one boy to study with the girls. He is a good student and he is anxious to appear as soon as possible for the Matriculation examination.

Several high-caste Hindu widows have come to us during the past year. Their stories are very sad, and the fact that such women still come to us is a proof that there is still great need for such an institution as ours. Times are gradually changing, and a few from the millions are coming forth out of darkness into light; but the darkness is still very great and the need seems appalling at times. Many, many hundreds of widows are living sad and desolate lives crushed by cruelty and oppression. We must go to them and take the message of salvation, and lead them to a true knowledge of the Saviour who alone can heal their wounded, broken hearts. We are very, very grateful to you for sending us forth as messengers to our sisters, and we thank you with all our hearts for all


that you are doing for them and for us. Please continue to pray for us that we may be faithful and that God's purposes may be fulfilled in us and through us.

I remain,

Yours very gratefully,

MANORAMABAI.

Dr. BEACH. We have now come to the best of all. In one way, however, the report of the Board of Managers is the best, because that tells us exactly what has been done this last year. I am so glad that the report from Kedgaon goes into detail. I never knew before that you even had to count the nails, but evidently great economy and care are being exercised in the work over there. Those other details given by Manoramabai are most interesting. I should not be surprised if some of these items were referred to by the speaker of the afternoon, because at all of our annual meetings we desire to hear another voice and some new impression concerning the work out there which is already well known to us. We depend upon travellers and missionaries to give us these impressions.

We have the very great privilege this afternoon of hearing from Rev. Dr. Edwards of Providence, who has visited our work and will tell us about it.


ADDRESS BY REV- LEVI B. EDWARDS, B.D.

I t is three years since I had the privilege of visiting Mukti, so what I have is not quite so recent as what you have had presented to you this afternoon. I know, too, that people who are interested in a special work usually keep themselves very well informed in regard to that work, so I doubt not that many of you are better informed with regard to the work at Mukti at the present time than I am. Nevertheless, I shall be very glad to mention just a few things which impressed me very much. As we never see things from exactly the same viewpoint, it is possible that I might bring to your notice something that you have not heard before.

"When I was travelling in India I was very anxious to go to Mukti, as I was interested in the Mission, and because the chaplain of the institution was a playmate of mine in boyhood days. So when I was in Bombay I made inquiries as to how to reach Mukti, and I was told that it was the simplest thing imaginable to reach Mukti. At the railroad station I would find a bullock-cart; get into the bullock-cart, and in a little while I would be at Mukti. It was one of the easiest places in India to find.

I was a little bit surprised at the buildings as I found them. I had seen something of them in pictures, but had an impression that possibly after all they would be a little more imposing than what I saw on my arrival. I arrived there somewhat late in the afternoon and was immediately taken into one of those little rooms in that long building at the front, along the road, and was told


that that was my room. I had one of the students assigned to me as my attendant while I was the guest of the institution. I went in and felt quite at home in this plain little room. Everything was very clean, but exceedinglyplain.

In a very little while the student came to me and asked me if I would have my supper in the dining-room or whether I preferred to have it in my own room. I wondered just what they thought of me, whether they thought I was one of those peculiar persons who would insist upon eating by himself when in an institution like that; and I said, of course: "I want to go to the diningroom. I want to see the institution and the people in it." In due time I was conducted to the dining-room. Though I had seen dining-rooms of various kinds in my travels, this one was unlike anything I had ever seen before. Some of you are, I am sure, very familiar with it: the long room, with no table and no chairs, and around the walls boards probably eighteen inches wide and two feet or a little more long sticking out from the walls. I was very much impressed with the appearance of things. I was the first one in the dining-room, so I couldn't follow the lead of others, and did not know just what to do. You know it is a good thing when you are in a strange place among strange people to watch and see what others do. I couldn't do that, as I was the first one there. However, after a time my attendant led me over to one of those boards and told me that was my seat. I didn't know just what to do, so I loitered around until some others came in. When they came in they sat down on their boards, so I sat down on mine. Then the students proceeded to bring my supper. I had a plate, and two instruments which by courtesy we might call a knife and fork. I don't intend to be fussy when I am travelling around, but still I couldn't help noticing how things were


done. The meal was served, and we got along very well; but it was always very interesting to me to go in there and look around at those boards; it always reminded me of an old bam in the country where, when the horses came in at night and were unhitched, they just let them go, and every horse knew his stall and went over to his proper place. So as we went into the dining-room after that each one seemed to know his own stall and sat there to be served.

Mter supper I went into my room and had a nice little chat with the chaplain. In a little while I heard the strangest sound. I could not possibly imagine what the noise was. In certain places I had been awakened by the peacocks early in the morning.. You know what their unearthly screech is like--it is enough to waken the dead. But this was a sound like the rushing of mighty winds and waters combined. I didn't find out what it was until the next day. I will tell you what it was when I reach that point in my visit.

I was informed that they would be very much pleased if I would addres~ them early the next moming-I think about six o'clock. The next day was their prayer day, the day set apart for prayer, which is one day a month; if I remember correctly, it is the first Tuesday in the month, and the whole day is given to special prayer and worship, and they begin their services very early in the morning before they have their breakfast. I was asked if I would speak at that first service. Early in the morning I was conducted into this great building, very plain but very large indeed, and the sight was wonderful. I was taken up to the platform, where the Pandita and Manoramabai and the chaplain were seated, and looked out over such a scene as I had never witnessed before. There were fourteen hundred girls sitting on the ground around me, all in similar dress; they differed somewhat in


color, but in style they were all alike; and I became very fond of that style, and I like the simplicity, where there isn't the contention and jealousy caused by various styles.

The chaplain conducted the opening exercises and announced that I would address them. The interpreter in some respects did that which Mark Twain speaks about-act as an interrupter rather than an interpreter, but I got along very well. I had had some experience in speaking through an interpreter, so I tried to form short sentences, and I commenced by telling them that I was very glad to be there for two reasons: first, to meet the chaplain, who was a playmate of mine in boyhood days, and, secondly, I was very glad to see them all again. I shall never forget how this girl who was standing by my side acting as an interpreter turned her face up to me with those keen, black eyes, when I said I .was glad to see them all again, with an expression that plainly said, 4' I don't know what you mean." I had told the chaplain what I wanted to say, and the chaplain told her to tell them what I said. She said: "I can't; it is no use telling them that. He has never seen us before." But finally she turned around and said it, and those fourteen hundred girls looked at me with as much amazement as the interpreter had. Then I went on to tell them how about a year or two before we had had 'I The Orient in Providence,"-a great missionary pageant,and that what interested me most were the moving pictures of Pandita Ramabai, Mukti, and the girls. As I talked about the moving pictures how those girls looked up and how interested they became! I said, "I wonder how many of you girls were in those pictures I saw at my home"; and I asked those who were in the pictures to raise their hands, and more than half the girls who were in the room raised their hands and seemed to be so delighted that I was "seeing them again."

" -'i' /~~(Ui~,~ Report of the Eighteenth A n~ 't' ~, N S

We went on with that early s . ~ which was ex; / ceedingly interesting, and at the en - ,Iv. ~.. ' that they would have their period of indiVittU~ pi ayer./ This possibly may not be new to many of you, but it was new to me. Those fourteen hundred girls were on their knees, with their faces turned upwards, and each began to pray audibly for just what she wanted, without any regard to the prayer of anyone else. They seemed to grow in intensity, and the loudness of their voices increased in a most astonishing manner. That was what I had heard the night before and didn't know what it could be. Imagine fourteen hundred girls each praying out loud at the top of her voice for just what she wanted, without any regard to anyone else. I remembered what the Scripture said about watching and praying, and I thought it was incumbent upon me to watch; so I sat there watching these girls pray, and it really was wonder-ful; no one seemed to have the least thought of anybody else in the building, but each girl was just intent on her own prayer to God for that which she desired at that time. As they commenced, it was not so loud, but after a time it rose higher and higher until the climax was reached, and then gradually it died away until, without a word being said, there was absolute stillness and not a sound in that building where just before these fo~een hundred girls had been praying aloud.

I was intensely interested in the educational work I saw being done there. Like many others, I was led to question a little about the practical part of it, why those girls should be learning Greek and Hebrew and translating the Scriptures into the different languages; but I couldn't question it at all when I knew it was all under the direction of Pandita Ramabai-it must result in great good.

The education of those girls in the Bible to me was very


wonderful. I was invited to speak three or four times a day in their various classes while I was there, and I was invited to speak before the class which was interested in theology and had been making a special study of the life of St. Paul; I was invited to question them on the life of St. Paul, and, my friends, I have never questioned teachers in this country where they seemed to be so thoroughly familiar with the life of St. Paul in every part as those forty girls were whom I questioned at that time. It was really marvellous to see those girls going around there with their Bibles, which are not small books like ours, but large Bibles.

Reference has been made to the growing village just a little way from the institution, where many of the girls are settled who have married. Here they arrange for a noonday meeting every day for the men as they come in from their work and are at home for a while in the middle of the day. I was over in one of these plain little buildings to see the men at noonday, and to see them coming in with these great Bibles under their arms was an interesting sight to me. They studied the Scriptures and knew them, and memorized the Word of God. The service was very brief.

You have been told, I am sure, how they sit along the roadside and quote Scripture so loud that people coming along must hear it. Sitting there, if they see some people coming down the road one of these girls will begin in a loud tone, Ie God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son," and so on. The girl will not say anything, but the people may stop and listen; if they do so she goes on reading, and sometimes there will be quite a little gathering there listening to the reading of the Scriptures.

Then to see these girls going off in the morning to the surrounding villages; to see them coming out with their


Bibles and going off in the carts to read the Bible and instruct the people-how intensely interesting it all was tome!

When I was visiting the Door of Hope Mission in Shanghai, China, I had a very interesting experience there which impressed me greatly and emphasized that of which I had known something before. When I had been conducted over the institution the assistant matron, who had been taking me around, came back to the little reception room and we were talking matters over; and she said to me in an extremely plaintive way, "Oh, Dr. Edwards, it is so sad to hear Miss Bonnell every day praying for husbands." Well, it struck me as a little odd, and I looked at her. Sometimes, you know, thoughts will go through your mind and you can see the funny side of things; I had a suspicion that she was unmarried, and I knew that Miss Bonnell was unmarried, and I was too at that time, and it was leap year. At most of these institutions for girls they cannot send the girls out without marrying them; they must find husbands for them; and I became intensely interested in that branch of the work in China and in India. I remember I was at one institution in India where they told me that the week before they had had ten men come one hundred miles to that institution for wives, and each one got a wife. So they are turning in the mission fields to our Christian institutions to get wives, and they get the best wives there. As I was sitting there one day talking with the Pandita and looking at these girls I said to her, "But, oh, Pandita, where are you going to find husbands for all these girls?" For I had come to feel that the institution was sort of responsible for finding husbands for them all. And I remember how she answered me, so positively, "I don't want them to get married; of course some of them will marry; but I want them to be teachers, to be missionaries,


to go out and work for our dear Lord." And that impressed me so much-that here she was taking in these girls of various castes, from various conditions, and teaching them and giving them what I would regard as a very wonderful education, and sending them out all aglow with the love of Christ in their hearts, to go and tell others, that they might know of salvation-MuktiSalvation!

There is much in my heart and in my mind that 1 would like to say. After I had stayed there some days and had a delightful time I said to Pandita and to my dear friend Mr. Brewer, the chaplain of the institution, "If I ever have a chance to say a good word for the Ramabai institution I shall be only too glad to do it, wherever I am."

And so I thank the Association for giving me this opportunity to tell you something of what I saw.

Dr. BEACH. I think in addition this further statement should be made: Ramabai has perhaps the highest scholarship of any Pandita in India; she is a very competent Sanskrit scholar and has written a Greek and a Hebrew grammar, or handbook for beginners in those languages. It may be a question as to whether the women of India, especially the women she has in charge, are the ones to be thoroughly educated in Greek and Hebrew; but remember that the Marathi version of the Scriptures is pretty high in its style; that it is not understood by the women, it is not understood by a great many of the 'men in that language region. Now, she desires very greatly that the Word of God should be understood; she has done what no one else has done in the mission world, so far as I know-that is, she has prepared a version of

Report oj the Eighteenth Annual Meeting 37

a part of the Scriptures for women. I wish the same thing might be done in China. There they do not understand a sermon at first, because they speak the women's language only. And so you will see how the Pandita is trying to make the Bible in India understood by them. She has there the two extremes: she wants to have her older, better educated girls understand the very words of the original Scriptures in Hebrew and Greek, and then she has gone to the common people and is preparing for them a version of the Scriptures in their own language.

May I add one other word with regard to that prayer feature, because a great many persons going to India are shocked at what we have heard about it this afternoon. That has not been a custom of very long standing; it began after I905. There had been in Northeastern India and in her own school some special manifestations of spiritual zeal. These took the form in her institution and other places of this united oral prayer of individuals. I t was not her suggestion at all; but it suddenly came upon those girls to cry out unto the Lord, and they cried out, all together,-a perfect Bedlam, as we would say. She opposed it at first, and then she said that it seemed as if it were really of God; and she recalled that saying of Gamaliel, "If it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God," and she did not oppose it; she let it go on.- When you speak of the irrationality of that procedure, just consider this illustration: N ext Sunday in this beautiful church men and women will come in and kneel; not a word will be heard, yet God will hear. Very often you will hear this request, "Shall we unite in silent prayer?" There may be fifty or a hundred people, but all who accept the invitation pray to God without a single word being heard. Now, that is just as irrational as the other. God hears; He desires His children to call upon Him; and I think


if you were there you would not be impressed by what might seem, as you hear of it, an entire lack of order in worship. When they pray at these meetings, they pray for India, first of all-for its mighty needs; then those who are more advanced pray for others who have asked for prayer. I suppose it is true that there is no place in the world except possibly the old Fulton Street Prayer Meeting in New York where so many requests for prayer go as to Mukti. I found in Pandita Ramabai's prayer list the names of missionaries and missions and causes in four continents. They had heard about that prayer service in Mukti and about this custom of praying for those who desired to be prayed for; and there was this earnest desire of far-away peoples to get help from those prayers at Mukti.

We ought to remember that we are doing two things admirably well: on the spiritual side we are doing what we can for India's uplift, and on the practical side we are doing ever so much for women and girls who without the aid we are helping to provide would be in sore straits indeed. Much more might be said, but it is late now and we have had a good afternoon. I will not detain you longer.

I will ask Dr. Edwards to lead us in the closing prayer and pronounce the benediction.

On motion, duly seconded, the meeting then adjourned.


FORM OF BEQUEST.

I give, devise and bequeath to the American Ramabai Association, a corporation duly established under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the sum of Dollars, to be expended for the purposes of the corporation under the direction of its Board of Managers.


BY-LAWS.

ARTICLE 1. The members of the Association shall be such persons as are mentioned in the certificate of incorporation, such persons as shall from time to time be elected by the Association or by the Board of Managers, and such persons as shall be selected for membership by the Ramabai Circles now or hereafter existing, provided that no more than one person shall be so selected by each circle in anyone year, and that no person so selected shall become a member of the Association till notice of the selection has been received by the Recording Secretary of the Association.

ART. II. The officers of the Association shall consist of a President, not less than five Vice-Presidents, a Recording Secretary, a Corresponding Secretary, a Treasurer, and Twenty Managers, all of which officers together shall constitute a Board of Managers. All said officers shall be elected at the Annual Meeting, and shall hold their office one year, and until others are elected and qualified in their stead. Any vacancy occurring in any of the offices may be filled by the Board of Managers. The election of officers shall be by ballot, and all or any of them may be voted for on the same ballot.

ART. III. The Board of Managers shall manage and control all the property, business, and affairs of the Association. The President of the Association shall be Chairman of the Board. The Board shall meet at such times and places as the President shall appoint. The Board shall make an annual report to the Association.

ART. IV. The Annual Meeting of the Association for the election of officers and the transaction of any business shall be held in March of each year at such time and place in Boston as the President shall appoint. Special meetings of the Association may be called by the President or by the Board of Managers, notice of the purpose of the meeting being included in the notice of the meeting. Notice of the time and place of the Annual Meeting or of any special meeting shall be given by publication in two Boston newspapers at least a week before the meeting.


ART. V. Seven members shall constitute a quorum of the Board of Managers.

ART. VI. Voting by proxy shall be allowed at meetings of the Association.

ART. VII. The Ramabai Circles shall be such voluntary and unincorporated Associations as now do or hereafter may exist in different localities for the purpose of maintaining interest in, and providing funds for, the work of this Association.

ART. VIII. The By-laws may be amended by vote of two-thirds of the members present and voting, provided that notice of the proposed amendment shall be included in the notice of the meeting.

ART. IX. There shall be on the Board of Managers representatives, not exceeding six, from societies contributing to the funds of the Association.

AIl.T. X. There shall be an Executive Committee of the Association, consisting of not less than five members of the Board of Managers.

No. 7956.

(tommonweaItb of massacbnsetts.

BE IT KNOWN, That whereas E. Winchester Donald, E. Hayward Ferry, Pauline Agassiz Shaw, Judith W. Andrews, Antoinette P. Granger, Clementina Butler, Catherine E. Russell, Abbie B. Child, William V. Kellen, Martha Silsbee, Cornelia C. Donald, Meta Neilson, Mary Rogers Bangs, Clarence John Blake, Josephine Dexter, and others, have associated themselves with the intention of forming a corporation under the name of THE AMERICAN RAMABAl ASSOCIATION for the purpose of promoting and assisting in the education, and to ameliorate the condition of widows, deserted wives, and unmarried women and girls, all of the higher castes, in India, and have complied with the provisions of the statutes of this Commonwealth in such case made and provided, as appears from the certificate of the proper officers of said corporation, duly approved by the Commissioner of Corporations, and recorded in this office:-

Now, THEREFORE, I, William M. Olin, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, do hereby certify that said E. Winchester Donald, E. Hayward Ferry, Pauline Agassiz Shaw, Judith W. Andrews, Antoinette P. Granger, Clementina Butler, Catherine E. Russell, Abbie B. Child, William V. Kellen, Martha Silsbee, Cornelia C. Donald, Meta Neilson, Mary Rogers Bangs, Clarence John Blake, Josephine Dexter, and others, their associates and successors, are legally organized and established as and are hereby made an existing corporation under the name of THE AMERICAN RAMABAI ASSOCIATION, with the powers, rigl1ts, and privileges, and subject to the limitations, duties, and restrictions which by law appertain thereto.

[SEAI.]

WITNESS my official signature hereto subscribed and the seal of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts hereunto affixed this twenty-sixth day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine.

WILLIAM M. OLIN,

Secretary of the Commonwealth.

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