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Show Tientsin, China, Sept . 5, 1911. My dear friends, The end of the summer is here, and the letters you already should have received still unwritten. Please be generous, as you have been in the past, and accept the enclosed and this note in place of tho personal letters which it seems impossible for me to write. The past year has been a busy one, full, for the most part, with ordinary mission work, The famine, of which some of you ask, was south of our field and the plague chiefly north though in a few of our villages there were many deaths. The hospital work during spring and early summer was heavy and by the middle of July I reluctantly closed the hospital and went to Peitaiho where mission meeting was held in early August. You may wonder why this is being written from Tientsin. I am here waiting the coming of my sister Edith, who, a cable-gram from Japan tells us, will arrive Sept. 13th. She is to be located at fcintsing. I cannot tell you how happy I am at the prospect of having her there. My only cloud is the thought of how she will be missed at home. I hope you will pray especially for her. The first year of one's missionary life, with all its r e - ad j us tment s , is at best a hard one. The coming months promise to be full of fruitful, satisfying work. We have hoped to put up the new fijintsing hospital next spring, but the fewness of our numbers may lead the building committee to advise waiting. Some say, with reason, that building in China is no work for a woman. Formerly the salary of the Bible-woman who teaches in the hospital had been paid from the funds of the general woman's work. It was decided at mission meeting to ask this amount to be added to our regular appropriation for medical work. The young woman who will do this teaching has two little children and so can be away from home only a few hours a day. I am sure some friend or friends will be glad to give the extra $20,00 needed for her salary. As you read the enclosed you will see something of what my clinic work is like. In addition there is the care of hospital in-patients operating, leading of meetings, language study etc. You surely realize how eagerly I count on your prayers for me and for the work, knowing that of myself I am wholly unequal* to the task before me, Sincerely Yours, SUSAN B. TALLMON. <t |
