Chinese Mary
A Cripple for life, because she took a nap at the wrong time
Defective and dependent children.
We started our chapter with children at play; we found that all too soon in countless instances the play must cease and hard grinding work must begin; we learned that in many lands great masses of little children are in hopeless slavery. One other large group of pathetic little ones claims our attention, sympathy, and help in this connection,—children who know little or nothing of play and fun and laughter,—for whom no provision is made in lands where Christ is not known. These are the defective and dependent children,—cripples, deaf mutes, the blind, orphans, famine waifs, children of lepers. Why is it that until missionaries started to work for these classes of children, or governments were inspired to such efforts by the examples of Christian governments, there was no chance or hope for the great mass of defective and dependent children in non-Christian lands? Why is it that blind girls in Korea had no other prospect than that of being sold to be trained as sorceresses, or that parents of blind Chinese girls find a ready market for them in brothels? Search diligently and find out if you can what would have become of the famine waifs of India and China, or the massacre orphans of Turkey, had not Christian missionaries considered their need a call to new and more difficult service, and had not Christians in Europe and America heard and answered the call for more funds to support the new work.
Statistics.
The World Atlas of Christian Missions, published in 1911, gives the statistics for Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands as follows:
| Missionary Orphanages | 266 |
| Inmates | 20,303 |
| Homes for Untainted Children of Lepers | 21 |
| Inmates | 567 |
Armenian massacre orphans.
The Armenian massacres in 1894–96 cast some fifty thousand children in Turkey without warning onto the care of the missionaries, who had to face the alternative of letting these children die or drift hopelessly into lives of wretchedness and vice, or else of caring for them in some adequate, systematic way. Many pages might be written to show how Christian missions rose to the occasion, but one instance must suffice as an illustration of the task, how it was met, and its consequences. We quote from a letter written in 1912 by Rev. George C. Reynolds, M. D., for forty-four years a missionary in Van, Turkey.
“In 1896 occurred the great massacre, when for a week our premises became the place of refuge for the Armenians, of which from 10,000 to 15,000 availed themselves. And then our streets became filled with helpless orphans, whose plaintive cry for help we tried to voice as an appeal to Christian philanthropy in America and Europe. Thank God, the appeal brought response, and we were enabled to gather in a few of these helpless waifs to feed and shelter and clothe and educate in books and trades. For fifteen years this God-given work was continued, and several temporary buildings were erected for its accommodation. When our German friends withdrew their part of the institution to separate quarters, promising sufficient orphanage provision for the province, the American Orphanage was allowed to pass into history; but we feel as we review this history, that this effort at least was worth while. Nearly a thousand children were rescued from the streets to find a loving Christian home, and the elevation which it gave them over the mass of even well-to-do villagers from among whom most of them were taken might almost make them thankful for the massacre. Forty-five of the five hundred and seventy-five boys have graduated from our high school, thirty-nine of whom have given some years of their lives to teaching. A good number have continued their studies in higher institutions in this country or abroad. Two have secured the degree of M. D. in America, and are engaged in successful practice of their profession there, while others are on their way to the same goal. One has just taken his M. D. degree from Edinburgh University, and another is soon to graduate from London University, while three or four are successfully pursuing university studies at Harvard. Three have graduated from colleges in Turkey. Political and economic conditions in this land not being attractive, many have emigrated, of whom fifty are now in the United States, and two in South America. Most of these are fully making good. This orphanage episode of my life brings me much of joy and satisfaction.”