Tel Sono, A Japanese Reformer, Part 3.
by Tel Sono.
Volume 4, 1893/4, pgs. 296-299
"I am a little Japanese woman."
(From her Autobiography).
[Teruko Sono, 1846-1925, was a Japanese lawyer who "organized Christian missionary activities to assist Japanese women by education." Her daughter would have been 25 when this article was published.]
Chapter VI
It was the 19th day of December, 1885, that I set sail for America, arriving in San Francisco the 7th of January, 1886.
Before leaving my country, I wrote the following poem:
"My dear native land, my heart will never change its purpose, my duty to you will never be forgotten. If my purpose cannot be perfected I will never return to you, but will die in the strange country, and there my body will turn to dust."
To all who had hired money of me I gave back the notes which I held against them, valued at over one thousand dollars.
Three months after my arrival in San Francisco the Bank of Japan, in which my money was desposited, failed. When I heard of that I concluded it would not have been right for me to use this money, which had been obtained in the business of law, because in making one person happy I had made another sad, in making one love me I had made another hate me, and that surely could not be right.
Now, I said, is my opportunity to gain a varied experience. I determined to do housework, not only to earn my living and make money for my future work, but also to see how different people lived. I hired a room in a colored family, and began to look about for employment. Not knowing any thing of the English language, my situation was rather a difficult and painful one.
One morning a gentleman came to the Japanese Mission and wanted a boy or girl to do house-work and cooking. No one was willing to go because it was so far from San Francisco and on a farm, but I wanted to see how American farmers lived and said I would go. He asked me if I could cook and do housework. As I could not speak English, a friend answered for me and said I could do any work.
Then he engaged me, and we took the train to his home. His wife was waiting for us at the station with the buggy.
The family numbered six, the gentleman and his wife, their daughter, two hired men, and myself. The house was large, containing fourteen rooms, surrounded by a beautiful yard, in which were many flowers. The gentleman was a Mexican, and his wife a very proud German woman. She was angry because I could not speak English, and knew so little about housework, as it gave her trouble to teach me; and she would scold her husband for engaging me. Every morning, to atone for his mistake, he would get up early and teach me how to cook the breakfast. His wife taught me at dinner-time, and in about ten days I could do the work. One morning I made the biscuits without any baking-powder, so the next time she had her daughter make them for me to bake; but I did not know how long to let them stay in the oven. At dinner-time, after ringing the first bell, I looked at them and saw they were all black. I felt so ashamed and troubled that I hid them under the wood in the kindling box. She called me to bring in the biscuits, but I could not; so she came into the kitchen, and, not finding them, asked me where they were. I said, "Please excuse me! Please excuse me." I was very much afraid, because when angry she would slap her daughter, so I ran and hid in the closet. A long time after I told her about it and she laughed very much, as she had then learned to love me.
I had to work very hard from morning until night, and, as I had no time to study, decided to hide every day for twenty minutes and read my books. Often I studied until twelve o'clock at night, and in that way succeeded in translating the Third and Fourth Readers. Not being accustomed to work, it caused my hands to become sore and my limbs to swell so that I had to lie down to study at night. When my friends saw the books I translated they were surprised and very much pleased.
I asked Mr. Meyama, my pastor, to find me a room for which I would have to pay little or nothing. He answered laughingly that he could not unless I were willing to stay down cellar in the darkness. I said I would try it, so he went with me to see a room under the Chinese Mission. It had no windows, but a little light came from a hole through which I could see the feet of the people as they passed by on the street. As I had no money to pay rent I decided to stay there.
Mr. Meyama swept and washed the floor, then brought a candle and lamp, an old bedstead, and a sheet from the mission. He told me to sew the sheet up leaving one end open. When I had done so he took it away, and after a while returned carrying what I thought was a large white post. He put it on the bedstead and said it was my bed. "Am I to sleep on a big post?" I asked. It would become very comfortable, he said, after I had slept on it a week. When he had gone away I examined my strange looking bed and found it was made of many white sticks. I did not believe I could sleep on it, and, going to Mr. Meyama, told him I thought he had played a joke on me. He said, "O no, indeed! That is truly a bed, a chip bed, as we call it in this country."
To convince me he showed me the young men's beds in the mission, and said they were just like mine at first. I returned to my cellar still greatly troubled at the thought of sleeping on such a queer thing. I went to school that night as usual, but on my return could not study for wondering where I should sleep. I tried to make the bed smooth and even by knocking it with my hands, but my attempts were vain. Then I tried another experiment, which seemed more successful, and went to bed only to fall out while asleep. This frightened me; but I determined to try it once again, and, taking the ropes from my trunk, tied the bed to the bedstead, and lay down this time to sleep till morning. During the days that followed I was very homesick, and every night dreamed of my native land. When I had time I would go to the top of a hill, and, sitting down on the grass, look out over the sea towards my home and say:
"Ah, poor dismal heart!
In a strange land art thou,
Alone and friendless!
Thou has no one to comfort thee,
No one to listen to the tale of thy woe.
The great deep lies between thee and home,
The clouds hang a veil before thine eyes;
And in vain thou cryest
For native land and mother!"
I was indeed sad! The light of God's truth had not yet shone into my heart, my present position was very low, and the future was full of darkness in respect to the accomplishment of my work.
A Christian lady, Mrs. E. P. Keeney, who lived in the city of San Francisco, hearing of my wretched condition, took me to her home and showed me great kindness.
She taught me so that in three months I could read through the First and Second Readers. Then she went away and I returned to the cellar. During the day I worked at different places and at night attended school. On account of the dampness of the cellar I could not sit with my feet on the floor, so always sat on the bed to study, my little candle burning beside me. The bed, by the way, had become very comfortable, so that I used to say when coming in tired, "Dear bed, I love you better than the one at home!"
One midnight I was awakened by a great noise. Some colored men were quarrelling and fighting. I was greatly afraid, for I thought that they might come into my room, because they had already kicked to pieces two doors in the next room. I felt very lonely and prayed, "O, true God, come and save me! I am very much afraid of that noise. Help, I pray, lest they come and kill me!"
I believed God would make peace between them for me and, at once I ceased to fear. From that time I began to pray again to the "true God." I attended every meeting of the Japanese Mission, and tried to find Him, but could not. Still I continued to pray alone in my cellar, and always felt happy after prayer.
(To be continued.)
(Printed in the Parents' Review with the kind permission of Madame Tel Sono, in the hope of interesting many in her noble educational work.)
Proofread by LNL, Jul. 2023