The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 155

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

155

not the whole truth about their badness, as I cannot
write it all.

“Now about the ‘luxuries’ of which others have
been telling so regretfully. Well, we have hot water
piped into three rooms. But it did not cost much to
get it. We use a salamander to heat the water, just
such a salamander as all Europeans use in India.
Most people simply have the salamander standing
out of doors, where they heat the water and then
have it carried by hand into the house. Our sala-
mander cost less than $5.

“But Mr. Norton thought it would save work
and trouble to put the salamander on an elevated

would do any good to the cause of Christ if I should
sell them and leave the ugly doors bare?

“India has so much of dirt and sickness that
I feel that I must do what I can to make my home
clean and even pretty, with the simple beauty of
clean curtains and such things. I think I am right.
If I am really wrong, I want to know it. But
until I am convineed that I am wrong, I shall just
go on trying to keep the house looking clean, even
though it cannot look new or fresh.”

What a pity it is that people who are probably
enjoying all the conveniences of life should be so
envious of the little luxuries of a missionary’s wife,

A View of Benares.

place, just outside the house, with pipes to run it
into the house. So there you are! Hot water piped
into the house at a cost of less than $10. And much
cheaper to manage than the old way. Also, our
water is pumped out of our well instead of being
drawn by bullocks, which was the old way.

“But it seems to have been the curtains which
aroused such pain in the heart of one who visited us.
She did not tell me about it. I think she should
have done so, so that I could repent if I need to.

“Yes, I have curtains, and they are pretty. Not
extravagant. Just pretty. And I try to keep them
clean and in order. I got so tired of looking at the
doors and door frames with their horrible worm-
eaten holes and general shabbiness that I saved and
worked until I got some curtains. I wonder if it

who is cut off from friends and is living the lonely
life of an exile!

We venture to say that, if one went the whole
world over, he would not find a class of people who
are more economical in their living, who try harder
to make a dollar reach just as far as it possibly can
be made to do, and who are more forgetful of their
own personal comforts and interests than the
foreign missionaries, who have given up their home
life to indentify themselves, as long as God gives
them health and strength to work, with the people
to whom they have been sent and for whose salva-
tion they are laboring. They are, as a rule, high-
minded, self-sacrificing men and women, willing to
undergo great personal inconvenience in the hope
and effort of bettering the welfare of others. Many