The people of the Philippines, their religious progress and preparation for spiritual leadership in the Far East,

386 THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES

"The women and girls of the Philippines occupy a very
different position from their Oriental neighbors in China and
India. Here they may take part in all church and social affairs and appear in public programs; they participate in
Christian Endeavor and teach in the Sunday school, and go
out in groups to the villages to hold open-air Sunday schools.
It is the woman who dictates the religious beliefs in the
home-and for this reason she is in Silliman preparing for
her future home life. During the brief years that she has
shared the daily classes and Bible study with her brothers,
not less than two hundred and twelve have gone in and out
of the halls of Silliman, some remaining a year or two, others
taking the complete course and graduating." 2
Under the head of dormitories should be placed the homes
for mestiza children, whose fathers are white and whose
mothers are Filipinas.
Mrs. David O. Lund of Zamboanga found a large number of these girls in need of education and a Christian home.
She appealed to the American men of the province, and found
them very willing to pay for the support of these childreft.
She therefore collected about sixty mestiza girls into her own
large home and kept them there for years, carrying them
through the grammar grades, teaching them embroidery and
sewing, so that the girls could help earn their own way, and
so that they would be practical and useful women when they
left the school. When the girls reached the high school grades
it became necessary to find an assistant teacher, and as new
children kept coming all the while, the higher girls were
used to teach the lower grades. No work in the Philippines
has been so successful on such poor support. Very little help
has ever come from the American end of the Christian and
Missionary Alliance.
Mrs. Laura Crooks Hibbard in The Philippine Presbyteriaw, October 1920.