“As the wives and daughters of expectant officials they are representative of the better class of the whole country, for they are assembled from every province.  It is pleasing to note that dignity and modesty are often combined with real accomplishment among them.  It is amongst these that there is a marked eagerness to learn something better.  They talk about their country incessantly, and deplore with real sincerity her present condition, of which many of them have a fairly good knowledge.  To these we tell over and over again that the only hope of China’s regeneration is in her becoming a Christian nation, and that only the love of Christ can bring out the best qualities of any people....”

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.