“When twenty-eight days out the ship sprang a leak, made eleven inches of water an hour, eight feet a day. Men kept constantly at pumps; had to lighten the ship by throwing over some one thousand sacks of rice, one-tenth the cargo, and undergird the ship with a large sail—‘thrumming’ they call it. Spoke a ship which promised to keep company and to come and help if at night a certain lantern signal was hoisted. Lost sight of her however. Were indeed in great peril. But a gracious Providence brought them in safety.”
A visit of three months away from the tropics gave renewed vigour and again Mrs. House returned to Bangkok with buoyant hopes of a measure of comfort for her work. But as soon as the dry season had passed the pain renewed its malign attack. At this perspective of time the wonder is that she persisted in hope of being able even to remain, much less labour in the tropics. Her persistence is a silent testimony to her earnest desire to do something for the Siamese women. After another twelve-month she was again compelled to seek relief. Desiring to see once more her mother, then eighty years of age, she sailed alone for America, arriving in the summer of 1871.
APPEAL TO THE WOMEN OF AMERICA
Return to the temperate climate promptly brought relief and restored her health. Her demonstrated success in the industrial school had enlarged her hopes and clarified her vision of the possibilities of female education; while the rapid modernisation of Siam under the young King Chulalongkorn quickened her sense of necessity to place that education upon a broader and more permanent foundation. Both success and the opportunity impelled her to lay the burden of responsibility upon the women of the Presbyterian Church in America. This year in America we find her accepting invitations to speak in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Albany, Troy and other places, telling her story and pleading for the womanhood of Siam.
Just here it is both interesting and amusing to look back to the attitude of mind towards women speaking in the Church. The doctor writes to his brother counseling concerning his wife’s deportment in this matter:
“Keep her if possible out of the pulpit—where I understand the zeal of some returned missionary ladies carries them in these days of women’s movement in mission work.”
This would almost be interpreted as a bit of jocular admonition to a brother’s responsibility, were it not that we find these cautions direct to the wife:
“Don’t step out of your sphere into the pulpit. If you unsex yourself, I am not sure you will be welcome back as warmly.... O don’t let anything tempt you to go beyond your proper sphere as a woman; you cannot count upon a blessing there and you will certainly grieve many that you love.”
Nor is the doctor quite as sanguine as his wife over this project for a general advance in work for women even in Siam where he knows the situation intimately:
“I sympathise with you heartily in your wish to accomplish much for Siam before our stay here ... is over. And it may be that the privilege will be given you of working more for the women of the land. But there are great difficulties in the way of this and there will be great trials and disappointments awaiting you. I fear your distance from Siam lends ‘enchantment to the view,’ and makes you forget what the people are—heathen in heart and custom of life. You ought to know that not a few here are opposed to the principle of female industrial schools.... It is a very serious question you propose with reference to bringing a young lady out with you to reside in your family.”