Notable Women of Modern ChinaBurton, Margaret E. (Margaret Ernestine)
History
Notable Women of Modern China
Burton, Margaret E. (Margaret Ernestine)
China -- Biography; Women -- Biography
As to the financial side of the work, Dr. Kahn reported: "The outlook is
most promising. During the eight months I have received over $700 from the
work, and as much more has been subscribed."
During the succeeding two years the work developed steadily. The number of
patients treated at the close of 1905 was almost three times the number
reported in 1903, and Dr. Kahn wrote, "We have tried to check the number of
patients, simply because we did not feel financially able to treat so
many." The rent which she had been obliged to pay for her building in the
city had been a heavy burden financially. Great was her delight therefore
to be able to report, at the end of this year, a new $2,000 building for
dispensary purposes, the money for which had been secured partly from fees,
partly from subscriptions. "With the incubus of a heavy rent off our
shoulders we may be able to relieve more patients, as we would wish," she
wrote.
The dispensary building was not the sole cause for rejoicing that year; for
in addition to it a fine, centrally located piece of land, worth $3,600,
was given for a hospital site. "All the assistance received has been from
the gentry and not the officials, and therefore it really represents the
people and we feel much encouraged by the fact," reads Dr. Kahn's report.
The gentry wanted to make over the deeds of the property to the doctor.
This, however, she would not permit, but insisted that they be made in the
name of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Church,
assuring the donors that the work would then be on a permanent basis, as it
could not be if the deeds were made out in her name.
It would not have been just cause for discouragement had the work dropped
off the next year; for a dispute between some French Catholic priests and
the Nanchang magistrates led to such serious disturbances and bloodshed
that the missionaries were obliged to flee for their lives. Dr. Kahn
refused to leave her work until the last possible moment, and returned just
as soon as it was at all safe to do so. At the end of the year she was able
to report that although it had been necessary to close the dispensary for
three months, fully as many patients had been treated in the nine months as
in the twelve months of the year previous. Another gift had also been
received from the gentry, a piece of land near the hospital site, on which
a home for the physician was already in process of building.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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