MRS DAN CRAWFORD.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8783, 13 July 1914, Page 4

MRS DAN CRAWFORD.

It is a popular belief amongst young men of .to-day that girls have not got' the pluck and endurance of their grandmothers.. Mr Dan Crawford will not agree, for he tolls many delightful and ( stirring stories of his own wife’s bravery and -comradeship, “ and I never knew her.to whine" is his compliment to .the’ woman.’ who. realising! the hardships ■ and risks she would bo called upon to-face, went out from England to the Congo, and was married to the famous missionary by the British Consul of the district. Mrs Crawford was a. clever woman, with some surgical knowledge, and was soon known amongst, the natives as “the white, angel.” Two children were born in the wilds, and unhappily one little fellow was lost to them during the time that his father was away on a longer trip than usual. Fearing for the health of their only .remaining child, he was sent to a grandmother in Scotland, his mother tying him on her back and setting forth for the sea coast. There she embarked with her boy, for the long journey which was to end in a parting. This brave woman returned undaunted to her husband, and shared his selfimposed exile, which has lasted for twenty-two years. Coming back to civilisation after his long absence was like emerging into a new world for the missionary. For more than two decades he had never seen a railway train. The motor, the submarine, and the aeroplane were all new. to him, as were dozens and hundreds of other things which to ns no longer appear wonderful. Mr Crawford says he felt as if he had struck the planet Mars.