Page:The Land of the Veda.djvu/555

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RESULTS THUS FAR OF THIS WORK.
545

main object kept in view is that of evangelizing the people, other objects are always found in subordination to the main enterprise. Take, for instance, the work among women. Female education has been almost revolutionized since Dr. Butler first took up his residence in Bareilly. When I first entered the field, I can remember well that only a feeble attempt had been made to establish a girls' school, and that, aside from the very few Christian converts, there were not half a dozen girls who even nominally were receiving instruction in all that region. Now, however, we see not only a Christian college for women established at Lucknow, but what would have seemed absolutely impossible thirty years ago, a rival woman's college established in the same city for the daughters of Hindoos. The Mission established by Dr. Butler can also lay claim to the honor of introducing the first lady physician ever seen in India. The first Indian women ever educated in medicine were also trained in this same Mission, and it was not until the missionaries had successfully demonstrated the fact that lady physicians could gain access to the women of India, and that educated Indian women and girls could be successfully trained in medicine, that the much vaunted Lady Dufferin movement became a possibility. It would be impossible to give Lady Dufferin too much credit for the noble work which she has achieved for Indian women, but it should always be borne in mind that missionary ladies first made the movement which she leads possible.

It would be interesting also, if space permitted, to trace the successive steps by which a great publishing work has been set on foot in connection with our now widely scattered Mission. As early as 1860 Dr. Butler gathered a few rupees together with which to purchase a small press, and a very modest beginning was made in the way of printing at Bareilly. This press was afterward removed to Lucknow, where it has flourished greatly, and is at the present time perhaps the most vigorous Mission press in all the empire. A second large publishing house has been opened at Calcutta, a third at Madras, and a fourth at the dis-