[Equally good for a missionary meeting or a gathering of newspaper men.]
A young journalist was requested to write something about the Zenana
Mission. He assured the readers of the paper that among the many scenes
of missionary labor, none had of late attracted more attention than the
Zenana Mission, and assuredly none was more deserving of this attention.
Comparatively few years had passed since Zenana had been opened up to
British trade, but already, owing to the devotion of a handful of men and
women, the nature of the inhabitants had been almost entirely changed.
The Zenanese, from being a savage people, had become, in a wonderfully
short space of time, practically civilized; and recent travelers to
Zenana had returned with the most glowing accounts of the continued
progress of the good work in that country. He then branched off into the
"laborer-worthy-of-his-hire" side of this great work, and the question
was aptly asked if the devoted laborers in that remote vineyard were not
deserving of support. Were civilization and Christianity to be snatched
from the Zenanese just when both were within their grasp? So on for nearly
half a column the writer meandered in the most orthodox style, just as he
had done scores of times before when advocating certain missions. Some one
who found him the next day running his finger down the letter Z, in the
index to the "Handy Atlas," with a puzzled look upon his face, knew he had
had a letter from the editor.