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Show kindergartens; there are now nine Christian Training Schools, that have sent out over two hundred graduates, but the demand is much greater than the supply. Our small investment in Tottori has brought us into much more than even these pages indicate. It has been our privilege to help support the Bible women who do such w^onderful work, and all so modestly that seldom any but the Master whom they serve can know and understand their real heroism. As Mrs. Bennett has said, "Oh these first generation Christians in these little towns, what they have to suffer. They are bearing the full tide of heathenism as it surges about them and they try to keep their heads up and their hearts strong. They are in the forefront of the battle and get the shock of the first attacks. I feel unworthy to touch the hem of their garments.'' We have helped the Women's Society and the King's Daughters in supporting their Bible Women at Tottori, and have a share in the rapidly developing work at Kurayoshi, a manufacturing center of 10,000 a few miles inland. This gives us our first touch with the great new economic problem of Japan arising from the factory hands, largely women and very young girls. Christian Japanese women are trying to meet the situation, and they need us. IN AFRICA No permanent work has come to us in Africa, though our Board has made many efforts to obtain it. Mrs. Carrie L. Goodenough of Adams, in Natal was ours for a year. Then she and her husband were sent to the new work opening at Johannesburg; and we became interested in Mrs. Sarah L. Holbrook, who went out to Natal as a young bride in 1883. The Oregon Branch claimed her as their own missionary as she had relatives there. She and her husband gave ten years to Africa and then withdrew. ]\Iost of that time she lived seventy miles from the coast with the nearest white neighbor twenty miles distant; yet with a brave heart she kept her hearthstone bright, and maintained the light and cheer of a Christian [ 62 ] |