THE KING’S BUSINESS
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O f this amount the women’s boards gave $652,350, while collections on the mission field came to $716,579. The church sup ports. 2000 missionaries and 5863 native helpers. Items from Mexico A missionary in Aguas Calientes sends the following items in regard to the relief work at present being conducted in that city: “W e are very glad to get the relief money just received. I finally succeeded in get ting three sacks o f corn and have bought other things such as rice, flour and fideos. T o be sure, we are helping a very few and on a very small scale. W e have given out some 250 pieces o f clothing. It is impos sible to secure goods, shoes, hose, etc. I have never before seen starving children. I have seen pictures of children in famine- stricken countries, but now I see the real thing. “ Old women come tottering with weak ness and animals, such as fine milk cows, are dying for lack o f food. The army camps are over-supplied. A man came in from one yesterday saying he saw great piles o f fresh beef lying -in the sun spoiling. They kill many more than they need, tak ing the best parts and throwing the others aside. This is seen on all sides where the army is concerned. “W e have sixteen refugees in the school building, mostly women and children. The volunteer soldiers won’t fight, they run. They say they are tired o f it, that the war has no meaning.
“The number o f dead and wounded on the firing line a few miles out is something terrible. All wounded that they can get out are sent at once north. The mob author ities have fled. Not a man to be seen save the guards. Poor things ! They live run ning from one place to another, i i is remarkable, however, how thoroughly they have respected everything pertaining to the mission. I wish to say for the encourage ment o f the Church at home, that upon looking up the poor to help, we have found that the Protestant "people are the most thrifty and forehanded o f their class. “Almost all o f our families have bought up supplies ahead. They all had work as long as there was work. Some o f our women—widows, spinsters, and working girls—have taken advantage o f the times and are making money by keeping boarding and rooming-houses. Others have gone to San Luis Potosi and bought up goods and are making money sewing and selling to the families of the officers, while others bought feed, beans, corn, etc., and made money. There is not a hungry Protestant in town that we can find. W e have helped a widow with four children, but she was struggling bravely when we came to keep the wolf from the door. Each day I am more and- more convinced that could this people have a Christian education and opportunity to work, the questions would solve them selves. They are a very remarkable peo ple in some ways. “ Don’t worry about us. W e are hap pier than we have ever been in our work. We are having opportunities that we once would have thought impossible.”
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