_March 9th, 1903._[1]
We have received word that the tortoiseshell will be here before many
days. And then the goldsmith will go with it to Solo. Now all three
branches of the artistic industry of my birth place are growing and
thriving. And we are still looking for others that can be spurred back
into life. The people know that our aim is their well-being, and they
show their appreciation by working with eagerness and enthusiasm. I am
thankful that they understand that we have their good always before our
eyes; otherwise everything that we might do for them would be useless.
It is splendid to see life waking and stirring around us. They are
beginning to grow vegetables on a large scale, even in the Kampong,
around the Malay camp. Everything goes so well. The goldsmith has taken
more boys as apprentices, and there are some clever youths that want to
be educated for the wood-carving trade also. I have noted one thing with
great pleasure; among the apprentices, there is a boy from the kota, and
consequently not a child of Blakang-Goenoeng, the wood-carving village.
We have to seek out other apprentices, but this boy from the kota came
of himself and asked us to take him.
The little ones here will carry on our work when we are gone. We can
lead them from a distance so long as they need leading.
* * * * *
Some one complained to us about ingratitude, among our inferiors. We
told him that if he were distressed at the ingratitude of the people, it
was his own fault.
He looked at us with his great eyes and said; "My fault, when people are
ungrateful to me?"
"Yes, your fault, when you allow yourself to be distressed by it. For we
must never do good with the thought of gratitude before our eyes. We
must do good, simply because it is good, and because only in so doing
will we fulfil ourselves." I believe that to be happy ourselves, and to
make others happy, we must understand. The more we understand the less
bitterness we feel, and the easier it is to be just.
He asked us too, "What would happen if you should meet some one in whose
presence your heart would beat?"
"I should be happy and thankful because that would indicate that I had
met a companion soul, and the more companion souls we find, the better
it is for our cause, and that of those whom we love."
"You will never meet a companion soul."
That was said forcefully. What did he mean? Does he place our men too
low--or me undeservedly high. If he but knew, I had just received an
enthusiastic letter from a young--and to me unknown--companion soul. I
shall send the letter to you. It is from a student of the Native
Artisans school. A spontaneous expression of sympathy about the article
that appeared in _Eigen Haard_ which you induced me to write. It is so
like a young boy--young in its glowing enthusiasm, but through it a
spirit speaks that is far from commonplace; there is candour in every
line.
That is a luxury which writers can enjoy, unknown people feel that they
are friends when they strike a sympathetic chord. I love to think that
it was you who induced me to make my own name known to the public, and
such an introduction from one whom I admire deeply is like a
benediction.
If that article has met with success, I attribute it to the fact that it
first saw the light through your hands. There were many things that had
to be included in that introduction, but in none of them did it miss its
mark. Its success has meant much to our artists, and since its
appearance many questions have come to me about our wood-carving.
[1] To Mevrouw Abendanon.