IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE PIONEERS
BY KEITH RANSOM-KEHLER
TO HAVE spread and established a religion throughout the world in less than four score years is eloquent testimony to the spiritual quantum contained in the message of Bahá’u’lláh.
Historians record as phenomenal the accomplishment of the followers of Muḥammad in carrying his teachings from the Red Sea to the Baltic, from India to Gibraltar, in eighty years; but in a corresponding period the Bahá’í Faith has become firmly rooted on all the continents of the earth.
Needless to say this has not taken place of itself. The divine rapture that sent our Persian martyrs dancing to their death had its more practical reflex in the worldwide projects of those who, scattering near and far, bore to mankind the “imperishable evangel of eternal salvation,” reiterated today by Bahá’u’lláh.
Leaving California where the historic pioneers Thornton Chase, Lua, Mrs. Goodall, Mrs. Cooper, and others prepared the way for the coming of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, my first objective was Japan. Calling en route at Honolulu, consecrated by the labors of Dr. Augur and Agnes Alexander, I found a brilliant Bahá’í Community; alert, active, zealous, ably abetted by the tireless enthusiasm of Miss Julia Goldman. Charles Mason Remey and George Orr Latimer, Mr. and Mrs. Charles R. Bishop, Orcella Rexford, Mr. and Mrs. Hyde Dunn, on their journey to Australia, Martha Root who had left a few months before my arrival; and since my departure from America, Mrs. Schopflocher, Mrs. Loulie Mathews and Mrs. Marion Little are among the Bahá’ís who have made their contribution to the advancement of the Cause in Hawaii: which incidentally I think the most beautiful spot in all this earth.
Pressing on to Japan I observed in Agnes Alexander that untiring service that has made her the trusted agent of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and of Shoghi Effendi in this ancient and remarkable land; a land to which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has given such unqualified promises of spiritual expansion and attainment.
How simple a thing when trees have been felled and underbrush cleared, the unyielding earth broken, the seed sown, tended and watered; drought, hail, hurricane and flood withstood; how exceedingly simple to walk “through the land at eve . . . and pluck the ripened ears!” No name is worthy of mention in any country except the name of those who with heroism and intrepidity first went forth to face the odds and difficulties, yes, terrors of the untried and the unknown in order to plant the mighty standard of Bahá’u’lláh in the midmost heart of the world. The names of Dr. Augur and of Agnes Alexander must ever remain the names to which all others are subsidiary in recounting the history of the Cause in Japan. Mrs. Ida Finch, Mrs. Greeven (then Inez Cook), Martha Root, and later Mrs. Schopflocher and Mr. George Spendlove have assisted in furthering Bahá’í interests in this fascinating country.
In Volume IV of this work Agnes wrote a very kind account of my happy visit.
I must attest to my profound appreciation of the quality of those whom, by her unsparing efforts, she has attracted to the Cause. A native Christian minister, Buddhist priests, university professors, journalists, merchants, students, teachers, officials; the wide range of her activities, the endless flow of her efforts, and her sincere detachment and devotion created a profound impression upon Bahá’ís and non-Bahá’ís alike.
It is a grave mistake for the world to
judge Japan by the policies of those who are
at present guiding her destinies and preparing
her internal propaganda. A nation of
absolutely disciplined human beings, men,
women and children, has resulted from long
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cycles of enlightenment and idealism and
must not be lightly regarded; for theirs is a
salient contribution to civilization.
No one could read the article by Torijino Torii in Volume IV of The Bahá’í World without a truer and deeper understanding of the spirit of Japan.
Reaching China I encountered for the first time on my journey the illustrious name of Martha Root as the pioneer Bahá’í teacher. She had sojourned in other lands that I had visited, but like myself was treading in the footsteps of others. Here she herself had been the first to bring this great evangel, and the evidences of her strenuous and ceaseless toil in that great vineyard will be immortal.
In America she had given the message to President C. S. Liu of Sun Yat Sen Agricultural College while he was an undergraduate at Cornell; and later to his sister, President Fung Ling Liu of Union Normal College, then a graduate student at the University of Michigan.
At Tsing Hua University she confirmed President Y. S. Tsao and his wife in the Cause, and the Bahá’í world is aware of his outstanding service in translating ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Dr. Esslemont into Chinese.
On her journeys through the Celestial Empire Martha carried on in her great tradition; interviewing statesmen, publicists and dignitaries; speaking in the foremost Universities; obtaining constant publicity for the Cause through the newspapers; broadcasting; receiving innumerable visitors. It was rewarding to meet those whom she had interested and gratifying to witness the steadfast devotion of those whom she had confirmed.
Miss Alexander and Mrs. Schopflocher have also paid several visits to China.
The traces of a world pioneer I have found in many places where his foot has never trod; our “ambassador without portfolio” as it were, Mr. Roy C. Wilhelm. Carrying on a world-wide correspondence, his cordial and cheerful letters, his gifts of reading matter and Bahá’í books, his continuous encouragement and helpfulness to those scattered beyond the confines of ordinary Bahá’í association, have made him, though personally unseen, one of the most popular and beloved of the Bahá’í teachers.
No more romantic story will embellish the history of the Cause than the recital of how Mr. and Mrs. Hyde Dunn, then well past middle-life, burning all their bridges behind them, answered the summons of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and arose to carry the Bahá’í message to Australia and New Zealand.
Their endeavors have been indefatigable, their accomplishments stupendous. "Whose maketh efforts for Me in My way will I guide them.” The trials, difficulties and vicissitudes that they faced and conquered must be recorded at length in a suitable memorial.
At last there was a happy issue out of all their afflictions. Mr. Dunn found an excellent position that necessitated his travelling over the whole Commonwealth, so that he has actually given the message in every settlement on that vast continent.
Equally persevering, Mrs. Dunn remained behind in the larger cities, consolidated their joint labors, formed classes, conducted meetings, fostered Assemblies, until at last, as a reward of their efforts, the National Spiritual Assembly is in process of formation.
Mr. and Mrs. Dunn (lovingly called Father and Mother by all Bahá’ís) are of singular beauty both of person and character. Mr. Dunn has the rarest and most charming disposition: loving, forgiving, genial, his spiritual attributes fit him peculiarly to teach the Bahá’í Cause. Mrs. Dunn has a quality of faith that I have seldom met. She lives in the Presence of God with a kind of awe and candor that assure men of His Power and Benignity; while her service is like the service of the earth to the sun, of the magnet to the pole, of the lover to his beloved. When so ill, with a dangerous illness, that any other woman would have been in a hospital, she was still ministering and serving and helping and soothing, until her very persistence in doing carried its own great message.
What a simple matter then to harvest all this effort and sacrifice and self-effacement in my joyous visits to Australia and New Zealand. Martha and Effie Baker, one of the first Australian Bahá’ís, visited New Zealand before me; and Martha and Seigfried Schopflocher, Australia.
There was much activity among the
friends to receive me. Full and interesting
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programs had been arranged, resulting in
confirmations in the various centers visited,
and in the formation of active study classes.
Perhaps fuller details will be furnished by
the friends in the Southern Hemisphere;
“Down Under” as they say.
No tribute that I could pay would be adequate to express the heartfelt gratitude and appreciation of the entire Bahá’í world, for the cordial welcome and sincere cooperation which is everywhere and continuously extended to us by the Theosophical Society. Wherever we may go this is always the first platform open to us; these audiences, always intelligent and responsive, offer us our first encouragement.
In Sydney I spoke twice in the great Theosophical Auditorium and from their station my lectures were broadcast to thousands of listeners. I was entertained at “the Manor,” their community center, and sent off with letters of introduction to other lodges in different countries. Mr. and Mrs. van Gelder and their family, who live in beautiful Blavatsky Park in Batavia, extended to me the most exemplary kindness and hospitality at the request of the Sydney Theosophists. All over the world this Society displays toward us the same spirit and the same goodwill.
Mr. Grosfeld, our dear Bahá’í pioneer in Java, is awaiting the arrival of an Egyptian Bahá’í friend of his in order to carry on a fuller program of activities.
My stay in Malay was not long enough to admit of more than newspaper reports and private interviews.
Sharing the ardors and rewards of the first mission to India and Burma were, among others who assisted the saintly Jamál Effendi, Dr. ‘Abdu’l-Ḥakím, now of Rangoon, Burma, and Siyyid Muṣṭafá Rúmí of Mandalay, the latter accompanying Bahá’u’lláh’s great emissary on his extensive journeys to the East.1
Arriving in Burma I went at once to Mandalay where to my great delight I met Mrs. Schopflocher and Lionel Loveday just down from a thousand-mile trip on the Irrawaddy, “where the flyin’ fishes play.” These flying
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1 A fascinating account of their experiences was published in the Bahá’í Magazine.
fish, by-the-bye, were the women who plied back and forth on the river boats.
In addition to my many engagements in Mandalay, we drove twice to the hill station of Maymyo where I spoke to the Young Men’s Union. I was very cordially received throughout Burma and was especially happy in the great house of Ma Tin in Mandalay; designed and built to accommodate ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on his hoped-for but never accomplished journey to Burma.
Very handsome properties are owned by the Bahá’í Community of Mandalay, the most recent acquisition being the estate of Siyyid Muṣṭafá Rúmí, in which he is now merely holding a life trust.
Our tireless Martha has preceded me there as usual and has written a lively record of her visit.
The grace and charm of the Burmese young people are worthy of comment. The beautiful and accomplished daughters and grand-daughter of U. Nyunyu, chairman of the Assembly; the son and daughter of Dr. Ḥakím, so earnest and devoted; the lovely and gentle Bahá’í children that I met wherever I went, impressed me deeply.
So much has already been written about Daidenow Kalazoo Kungjangoon, “the village of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,” that I cannot heighten the descriptions of Mrs. Greeven and Mrs. Schopflocher. In the warmth of their welcome, the extent of their hospitality, and the sincerity of their lives these village Bahá’ís are a source of pride and pleasure to the Western visitor.
The Rangoon friends had arranged a comprehensive program for me that they may perhaps discuss in their report. They were very efficient in their cooperation, arranging my conferences so that I met the most intelligent, progressive and inquiring in the city.
By now their Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds must be completed, which will greatly increase the prestige of the Cause.
The crowning joy of my visit was meeting in person those great pioneers of the Day of Bahá’u’lláh, Siyyid Muṣṭafá Rúmí and Dr. Ḥakím, who had in their youth, with Jamál Effendi, helped establish the Cause in India and Burma.
The calm beauty of their lives seems a
miracle amidst the haste and noise and
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vulgarity of our disintegrating civilization. I
know that they belong to that host whose
tread is measured to the tap of an unseen
drummer. As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá expresses it, “the
horse gallopeth though the rider is invisible.”
Their ears were constantly listening for
commands that mine were too gross to hear.
The music of Dr. Ḥakím’s voice as he prostrated himself each dawn and chanted our great prayer leaves the memory of my visit half real, half ethereal, as of daily duties performed amidst the drift of pinions.
The youthful exuberance of the venerable Siyyid Muṣṭafá was a constant surprise. Though now advanced in years he never seemed to show weariness or ennui or delation (if there be such a word—the normal swing from elation). His was a peace and a joy that the world can neither give nor take away.
Some years later Nemur Effendi followed in the footsteps of Mírzá Jalál in India, leaving a train of spectacular converts: among them N. R. Vakíl, President of the National Spiritual Assembly; Pritam Singh, M.A., its able Secretary, editor and publisher of The Bahá’í; Mahfoozu’l Ḥáq Ilmi, prominent teacher and editor of the Urdu Monthly, Kaukab-i-Hind; Hishmat-u’lláh Koreshí, Oxford graduate and man of letters; the late Professor Shírází of Karachi; and many another, generously devoting his life to the Cause.
Later several Western teachers visited India; among them Hooper Harris and Harlan Ober; Dr. and Mrs. Getsinger; Mrs. Lorol Schopflocher; on three occasions Mrs. Greeven, Mrs. Stannard and Martha Root.
A large number of the Bahá’ís of Western India (Karachi, Bombay, Poona) are Persian Zoroastrians or Parsis. There are no Bahá’ís in the world superior to those recruited from the Zoroastrian group. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá again and again attested to their sincerity, their simple faith, their purity of motive, their sacrifice and their utter devotion.
A generous account of my activities in Bombay and Karachi appeared in the previous number of this series. Professor Pritam Singh, M.A., late of the chair of economics in Alláh Abad University, Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of India and Burma, was designated to accompany me and arrange my meetings. Due to his initiative and connections I spoke in all the great universities in the various Indian cities that I visited, and to many associations, churches, clubs and social groups, where the message was cordially received. But it is practically impossible for me to write of my own activities; I never seem to myself to be accomplishing anything.
Through the kind offices of Sir Akbar Hydarí I received an official invitation from Hyderabad Deccan to be the guest of the state. I cannot sufficiently thank Mr. Rustum Khosrove, Secretary of the Spiritual Assembly of Poona who accompanied me, acting as my personal secretary as well.
It was very gratifying to meet here the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Education, the Minister of Court, the former Prime Minister, the Minister of State, Nabob Mehdi Yar Jung Bahádur, and others of the nobility and cabinet, and to discuss with them our teachings.
Hyderabad Deccan is the home of notable women as well as men; outstanding among them being Mme. S. Naidu, the renowned poetess who visited America some years since. Mme. Naidu was still absent in England at the time of my visit but I was the guest of her two remarkable daughters, Oxford women, and of Dr. Naidu, at “The Golden Threshold.”
Mrs. Soogra Humayan Mírzá is a famous Muslim woman, writer, editor, philanthropist, educator and world traveller. She is the author of sixteen books and is identified with many progressive movements.
Another woman of exceptional gifts and ability is Dr. Ethel M. Pope, a Canadian-American, President of Zenana College of Usmania University. She not only holds her music licentiate (L.R.A.M.) but has the earned degree of Litt. D.; speaks many languages fluently; contributes to leading poetry magazines; and manages the financial as well as the academic branch of her college.
Twenty-five great lumbering ox-carts gather these veiled undergraduates from all parts of the city and bring them, in curtained seclusion, to study for the B.A. degree.
One of the most gracious, erudite and able
men whom I have met is Sir Aḥmad Ḥusayn
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Amín Jung Bahádur, Minister of Court in
this Kingdom. Kipling tells us that East
and West meet
- “When two strong men stand face to face
- Though they come from the ends of the earth.”
Sir Aḥmad is of that category; a man who by the dignity of his bearing, the affability of his demeanor, the breadth and fluidity of his knowledge, the charm of his manner, and his innate, unconscious catholicity, widens the scope and deepens the significance of social contacts.
An appreciation of the Cause from the pen of Sir Aḥmad, written at Martha’s request, appears on another page of this volume.
Altogether Hyderabad struck me as one of the most alert and progressive lands in the Orient.
The programs arranged in Poona and Surat, respectively, afforded me the liveliest pleasure, for the meetings proved very popular and were attended by the representative people of these cities. Sir ‘Alí Delavi, Prime Minister of the Bombay Presidency, acted as my chairman on one occasion, and spoke with great appreciation of the Bahá’í teachings.
The next continent that I touched upon was Africa, which I had visited several times before; but alas! I was not able to follow in the hallowed footsteps of Miss Fanny Knobloch, who with her sister, Mrs. Pauline Hannan, established the Cause in South Africa. I disembarked at the Soudan but approached no nearer to the scene of her repeated activities. More advanced in age than Mr. and Mrs. Dunn when she undertook this trip, with extremely straitened finances, again and again she literally taught until she dropped; due to the exigencies of the climate that brought on a dilatation of the heart. Who can estimate the incalculable harvests that will one day be garnered from her love and sacrifice?
My brief visit to the Northern coast of South America some years ago was equally remote from the pioneer work of Leonora Holsapple and Maude Mickle; who like the other American pioneers already mentioned, answered the summons of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, proceeding to Bahia, Brazil. Their gallantry, their hard work in mastering an unknown language and supporting themselves as they established the Cause, their conquest of difficulties, their unremitting perseverance, is surely written in ineffaceable letters “upon the preserved Tablet of God.”
Martha has also visited several South American cities.
Leonora had preceded me to some of the islands of the West Indies, but to a few of them I was the first to carry the message. My longest teaching period on that tour was in Barbadoes where Leonora had ably paved the way for me a year or two before.
Let me record that I have found nowhere people more eager, more receptive, more alert or kinder than the Barbadians. God willing, I yearn to go back there for further teaching. I was very gratified to hear of the visit of Miss Ella Robarts to this beloved spot.
Returning to Haifa for further instructions, Shoghi Effendi graciously permitted me to come to the land of God’s pioneers, the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh; to walk the earth deified by Their Presence; to visit the scenes sanctified by Their noble army of martyrs; to read in the lives of their survivors those lessons of sacrifice, patience and steadfast faith that illumine the Cause.
En route I spent a few days in the holy city of Baghdád where Bahá’u’lláh declared His Mission and, finally sojourning in the Garden of Riḍván, gave to our Faith its most joyous festival.
These Bahá’ís are full of spirit and energy, and though I met only a few representatives from other ‘Iráqí Assemblies I was immensely assured of their devotion and zeal.
The monumental work of Mountfort Mills in representing before the League of Nations Bahá’í interests in Baghdád has already been fully recorded, in a previous volume of the Bahá’í World.
Mrs. Schopflocher’s visit left a deep impression and wrought good results. She had several audiences with His Majesty, the late King Feisal, and Martha, following her, also had an audience with the King.
Incidentally I know of no better place to mention Mrs. Schopflocher’s memorable visit to Russia; the only American Bahá’í, so far as I am informed, to teach in the Soviet Union.
Years since, M. and Mme. Dreyfuss-Barney and
Mason Remey had come to Persia;
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then, to the Tarbíyat School, Miss Kappes,
Miss Coy, Miss and Mrs. Sharp; Dr. Clock
had come to be near Miss Kappes; Mrs. Schopflocher
had visited Persia on two occasions;
Martha travelled through some of the provinces;
and Effie Baker, photographing for
The Dawn-Breakears, reached places that no
western Bahá’í has seen before or since.
The important work of Miss Lillian Kappes, who gave her life to the Bahá’í Cause in Persia, is attested by the present position of the Tarbíyat School, so ably managed by Miss Adelaide Sharp. She has today brought it to a position of preeminence in this educational field. Her unflagging zeal, her sound management, her personal dedication to teaching as a profession, are crowning with success the hardships and difficulties that still surround the educational activities of Persia.
But foremost amongst the Western pioneers in this sacred land must ever stand the name of Susan Isabel Moody, M.D., who, blessed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, was entrusted with the great mission of spreading scientific methods and hygienic measures amongst the women of Persia.
At the time of her arrival not only crude but barbarous practices sometimes obtained in obstetrical work; infant mortality still remains very high; the care and feeding of children was little understood. For many years she labored valiantly against the hosts of ignorance and resistance to change, working on against great obstacles until the violent fanaticism that ended in the murder of Major Imbrie made it inadvisable for foreign Bahá’ís to remain longer in Persia.
When under the enlightened régime of the present ruler, Riḍá Sháh Pahlaví, all danger was obviated, so deep was her devotion to her spiritual fatherland that she determined to end her days in this beloved country; and though nearing eighty, took the long and difficult trip from America back to Persia, a few years ago.
Her work in founding the girls’ Sunday School and in assisting the Tarbíyat School is still another monument to her greatness.
Although very feeble and partially bedridden, so unconquerable is her spirit, so cheerful her disposition, so intense her eagerness for the Cause and its welfare, that young and old throng to see her, and her presence is a blessing to every meeting that she finds strength to attend.
She always reminds me of the lines of Stevenson:
"I knew a silver head was bright beyond compare,
I knew a queen of toil, with a crown of silver hair;
Garland of valor and sorrow, of beauty and renown;
Life that honors the brave crowned her himself with the crown."
Some of my most impressive experiences here have been recorded in letters to Mrs. Helen P. Bishop, published in the Bahá’í Magazine. At present (August, 1933) I am in Ṭihrán and have not yet visited the South of Persia.
This would seem the appropriate moment to mention those immortal Persian pioneers to America, sent us through the bounty of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: Mírzá Abu’l—Faḍl—i—Gulpáyigání, and Jináb-i-Fáḍil Mázindarání. My advent to the Holy Cause of God is so recent that it exactly corresponds with Jináb-i-Fáḍil’s first visit, but all America bears testimony to the outstanding achievements of these powerful and notable pioneers.
Having been identified with the Bahá’í Cause for only twelve years, there must have been countless teachers in the early days with whose names I am unfamiliar. I hope that all such oversights will be forgiven. I have mentioned the name of every teacher in foreign fields known to me. Undoubtedly Jináb-i-Fáḍil in his forthcoming history will record the work of those whose names I have unintentionally omitted.
Though residing in Europe during several
years my itinerary has not yet taken me, as
a Bahá’í, to the scenes made memorable by
early Bahá’í teachers. May Ellis Maxwell,
who also established the Cause in Canada,
Alma Knobloch, George Latimer and Mason
Remey, Dr. and Mrs. Getsinger and more
recently Mrs. Louise Gregory, Miss Marion
Jack, Orcella Rexford, Mr. Kluss, Mrs. Emogene
Hoagg, Miss Julia Culver, Mrs. Stannard, Dr. and
Mrs. Howard Carpenter, Lady
Blomfield, Mrs. Stuart French, Mrs. Amelia
Collins, Miss Louise Drake Wright, and
others have taught on the continent; but
preëminently Martha Root, who has spread the
message not only in the leading universities
and highest circles of Europe, but to royalty,
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confirming the present Dowager Marie, then
Queen of Rumania, in the Cause.
Mr. Siegfried Schopflocher, a veteran world traveller, has supplemented his frequent business voyages with Bahá’í teaching.
In 1932 the Guardian bade me good-bye with a smile; that smile that soars like a bird from his lips to its heavenly nest. “You should be very grateful to Bahá’u’lláh for extending to you this opportunity for service,” he said.
Amidst the perplexities, hardships and problems that often beset my path I think that my abiding protection is a sense of deep and reverent gratitude; gratitude that I have been privileged, not to hear about, but to witness, in a thousand gleaming camp fires round the world the marshalling of the army of the Lord of Hosts; to behold in every land the unsheathing of His terrible, swift sword; to see, with mine eyes, the Glory of the Coming of the Lord. Men and women from every tribe and kindred of the earth, forgetting their age-old tutelage of hatred and antagonism, abandoning their prejudices and racial inhibitions, rejecting the animosities of ancient creed and dogma, learning new and shining lessons of forbearance, love and forgiveness; pressing forward in deadly, deadly earnest against man’s eternal foes: ignorance, oppression, superstition, greed, crime, war, poverty, injustice; putting aside every personal consideration to serve the mighty ends of peace and righteousness. Surely gratitude is the only appropriate emotion with which to regard the spectacle of life at the flood tide of its spiritual ardor. For in this Cause every Bahá’í is a pioneer; a pioneer in a new manner of living, a new outlook on life; a new assurance; a new fortitude, because ours is a new promise; the promise that at last that celestial city “eternal in the heavens, whose Builder and Maker is God”; that Holy City, New Jerusalem, shall descend to earth and that the tabernacle of God shall be among men. The doors of that city “shall never be closed by day and night; there shall be none; and into it will the kings of earth bring their glories.” It is for the speedy fulfillment of this promise that Bahá’í pioneers are laboring so arduously throughout the world.
A group of Persian Bahá’ís including Pioneer Workers.
