This is the Pundita Ramabai, of the Mukti (literally "salvation") Mission at Kedgaon, near Poona, in the Bombay Presidency of India, who, since 1889, has been devoting all her energies to the work of bettering the condition of her country women, especially the hapless widows whom cruel custom compels to remain widowed all their lives, even against their wills. She inaugurated her noble work in Bombay, Hindostan's largest metropolis. At first her idea was to provide educational facilities solely for high-caste widows and married and unmarried girls. Many Hindus of advanced views promised to help her if she would guarantee not to impart any religious instruction whatever. In less than two years Ramabai broke away from this contract and moved over to Poona, where she made Bible training a special feature of her work. Here she undertook to educate any girl, poor or rich, low or high caste, admitting those who had parents and lived in the city as day, and the others as resident pupils. This continued until the famine swept the city in 1896, when she removed to Kedgaon in the open country, where she could enlarge her institution sufficiently to make it possible for her to receive large numbers of girls suffering from scarcity of food. Just as her move from Bombay to Poona involved the supplementing of purely secular education with religious instruction, her removal to Kedgaon resulted in her laying additional stress upon the teaching of the Bible. Indeed, with the last change of location, Ramabai made up her mind to confine her activities solely to producing Bible women for the purpose of proselyting India's teeming millions, and ever since, this has been her chief endeavor.

With this end in view, each ward of the Mukti Mission must spend two hours each week-day, except during holidays, which are few and far between, studying the Scriptures in the class. The Sabbath is devoted to religious observances, a morning and evening service and Sunday school being held. As soon as they grow up to be young women, the girls, posted at suitable points along the roadside just outside the Mission yard, take turns repeating Scriptural texts and preaching to the wayfarers that pass by. They are also sent out to the villages of the surrounding district, in charge of older workers, to persuade the people to receive the light of Christianity, taking a tent and supplies along with them, and camping out, sometimes for weeks at a time. All this is done for the dual purpose of converting unbelievers and giving the girls practice that will inspire them with selfconfidence.

Girls are also trained to be nurses, school-mistresses, and servants. Ramabai prefers to send her wards to work as domestics in missionary

families, so they will be out of harm's way. Many are taught agriculture on the farm of one hundred and seventy-five acres connected with Mukti, performing such labor as their strength will permit. A large number are educated to work in the printing, book binding, and translation departments, and in the library. A large weaving factory, with sixty hand-looms, and a fairly well-equipped dyeing plant, employs two hundred hands and also furnish the means of giving industrial training. In keeping house in the boarding establishments, the girls secure a practical knowledge of domestic science. A considerable percentage of the girls and boys, when they reach the proper age, marry, seeking husbands and wives among the native workers in the

shops of the institution. The word has gone out that the Pundita has educated eligible brides, and young men come from far-away districts to find mates. No courting is permitted, the selection of life-partners being done by Ramabai, who is looked upon as "Mother" by the girls and boys under her charge. The wards are not asked or required to leave the place when they reach any definite age. They may remain as long as they choose. After they graduate from school, if they elect to stay at Mukti, work is found for them in the shops, and they are paid regular wages.

The girls have not given up their graceful saris for Occidental garb. The same thing is true of the native teachers, Miss Ramabai and her mother. The wards of the institution live in red-tiled, stone

houses, long and narrow, the dormitories fronted by verandahs. Each young woman is given a wooden or steel box in which to keep her effects, and a dish, cup, and jug, all made of brass. They sleep on the floor, each girl on her separate blanket. Two lines of them, with their heads against the wall, occupy a dormitory, ten to thirty being assigned to a room, according to its size. Spacious courtyards are provided for play and recreation. Food is prepared in a common

kitchen, from whence it is carried and distributed to the various dormitories. Everything is done to make the place as little like an institution and as much of a home as possible.

Things are so efficiently and economically managed that it costs but $1.65 a month to keep each girl during an average year. When food is scarce and consequently expensive, the maintenance expenses rise, and at such seasons the number of girls also increases. Following the famines of 1896 and 1900, the institution had as many as 2000 inmates at a time. This is the maximum capacity of Mukti, though, at a pinch, as many as 2500 can be accommodated. Indeed, the chapel, incomplete as it is, holds that number and will seat 3000 when it is completed. The mission land-about 125 acres in fields and seventyfive acres under buildings-together with the structures, has a money value of about $67,000. Another $175,000 has been spent in maintaining the institution since its start, about fifteen years ago. About

$35,000 is needed for the annual expenses during normal years, a very small portion of which is guaranteed by anyone, Ramabai absolutely depending upon God to feed and clothe her wards and helpers. She has great faith in the efficacy of prayer, and since starting the enterprise, though often temporarily experiencing the pinch of want, has never yet been put to any serious trouble through default or delay in paying her bills. Nearly all the money she needs comes from outside India, Australia vying with America in supporting the Mission. Contributions are also received from Canada, England, and other Occidental lands, not a few of the donors denying themselves in order to help this work in a far-off land.

Girls of all ages, from new-born infants to grown-up women, are admitted into the institution. All castes are to be found there, though the low-caste people necessarily predominate. Creed does not bar anyone from Ramabai's protection; she believes in religious tolerance and freedom of conscience. But Bible study is compulsory, and the whole atmosphere of the place is antagonistic to an inmate retaining the faith of her fathers for a long time. The Pundita is quite frank about this. No one could witness a Sabbath service here without being struck by the deep Christian influence that the Mission must exert upon a newcomer. A Sunday school and morning and evening service are held every Lord's Day. A Sunday service here is something worth travelling a thousand miles to witness. Toward the close of the meeting the 1550 inmates-teachers and missionaries of the institution—all pray aloud in Marathi, and such life and force are put into it that an American revival meeting, unique as it is in its exhibition of emotion, pales into insignificance beside it. Each girl prays for herself, using any words and sentences that come naturally to her, uttering them at the top of her voice. Not a few of them are so earnest that their bodies quiver violently. What girl nature could effectually withstand such a potent appeal, week in, week out, and continue to remain a Hindu or Moslem?

It does not take a girl long to realize that Ramabai's one thought is to help her, and all the inmates are extremely grateful to her. I had an ocular demonstration of this gratitude on last New Year's Eve. Over 1400 girls were gathered in the chapel at Mukti—all squatting on the hard-wood floor. Ten minutes after the clock struck twelve, and the big bell in the belfry ushered in Anno Domini 1911, the "watch service" over, the short, stout figure of the Pundita, clad in pure white, her short, raven-black hair setting off her strong features, was the center of attraction in that immense, grey-stone building. She was throwing kisses to her family gathered all about