Home Life in Chang-Sha, the Center of the Recent Uprising
By Dr. Emma P. Laird
THE women of Chang-sha enjoy considerable liberty, though foot-binding and other customs confine them closely to their homes. In the better families, women seldom go on the streets except in covered sedan-chairs. In wealthy homes, children are reared by a wet-nurse. Relieved of care and responsibility, the mothers readily resort to the water-pipe for smoking tobacco, or card-playing and other kinds of gambling; and, alas! too often they fall victims to the terrible opium habit, which has slain myriads.
I have been inviting the women and children to my home two afternoons each week, for Bible study, prayer, and singing. Never having attended a Christian meeting before, these women know nothing about order and quiet. When one point has been told them, it is necessary to rehearse it again and again. They often ask questions, which our Sabbath-keeping women are very ready to answer. After about an hour's study in this simple way, Bibles are laid aside, unless some desire to question further, and they are invited to see my little three-room house, which is an object of great curiosity. Their first question is, invariably, 'How do you get the floors so clean?' The foreign cook-stove is also a marvel to them. 'How wise the foreigner is,' they say, 'to make a stove so that no smoke nor ashes will come out into the kitchen, and that will cook so many things at one time.'
PUPILS OF THE CANTON (CHINA) GIRLS' SCHOOL
I am training our own women as fast as possible, so that they may be able to give Bible readings and visit the women in their homes, thus opening the Word of life to thirsty and hungry souls. They take great interest in their daily study.
What do you plan to do for these very interesting women during the coming year? You can have as definite a part in this work as those who are in the field, by remembering the work in your offerings and in earnest prayer.
