Twisting Topeka (7 page)

‘
Abdu’l-Bahá,
she remembered.
In 1905,
the year before we moved to Topeka, I signed a petition with
hundreds of others around the country, asking Him to come to
America.

“
Nine walls and nine
fountains…”
That would be
interesting
, she mused.
A nine-sided building —the shape would be
circular.
She clipped the article and put
it away, then became involved in other things. Strawberries were
blooming and the first lettuce and radishes were ready to pick. Her
life was in full swing once more. There was hardly time to
pause.

The next summer she was
surprised again. “UNCLE SAM ISSUES RELIGION BULLETIN, was a
headline on Sunday, August 14, 1910, in the
Topeka Daily Capital
, the morning
paper. A paragraph several down the column was even more surprising
than the one on the temple had been the year before. It not only
mentioned the Bahá’í Faith, but said:

“
This is a comparatively
new sect, growing out of the teaching of a Persian leader of the
middle of the last century named Ali Mehammed. He claimed to be the
forerunner ‘of him whom God would manifest.’ And called himself
‘Bab’ or ‘the Gate.’ Later came Baha Ulla, who claimed to be the
one who’s coming had been foretold, and from him the real name of
the body is derived. In 1906 he had 1,280 followers in the United
States who worshipped in 24 places through 14 states...”

Are there others in Kansas
besides Enterprise and Topeka? Who would know?

Felicity had to put these questions
aside and take care of daily needs. Lovelia had begun giving violin
recitals and concerts. She needed to advertise her ability to play
in order to draw students for lessons. Teaching music, violin and
voice was a way of earning an income despite being blind. Her first
concert was in May 1911 in Topeka. Later, in December, she gave one
in Valley Falls, where her mother was born and family still lived.
Newspapers in both cities praised her ability. The concerts
attracted students. This was good.

After the December
concert, Felicity was looking through the new issue of
Everybody’s
and came to
the story, “The Light in the Lantern.” The entire story, several
pages with illustrations, was all about ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and his home!
The author had visited Him and written about the visit. Felicity
was so startled that she wrote to her mother-in-law, who also
subscribed, and to her friend, Mrs. Frey, both in
Enterprise.

Her mother-in-law commented on the
article, Mrs. Frey’s answer surprised her. She stated that
‘Abdu’l-Bahá would be coming to the United States the next spring.
She and her daughter, Elsbeth, were making plans see Him in
Chicago. Did Felicity want to join them?

Leonard agreed, but she still had
concerns.

“
You must be sure to have
money in the bank to cover every check,” she admonished. “I won’t
be here to keep track for you.” He glumly nodded.

“
And Lovelia,” Felicity
paused. “What if she gets hit again?” Three years before, a driver
had hit her and sped on. No one ever found out who did it. The car
had only grazed Lovelia, but she was badly bruised. She had been
nineteen then, young enough to bounce back quickly, but
what about next time
,
her mother wondered.

“
Don’t you ever tell her
that,” Leonard warned. “She’ll think we won’t trust her to go out
by herself.”

“
I know, I know, but I
still worry.” Felicity let the matter drop. Three days later she
was able to find peace with the decision to go.

“
You seem particularly
happy, Mother,” Lovelia remarked that morning.

“
I just had the most
amazing dream last night,” Felicity answered. “Abdu’l-Bahá was in
it.”

“
I’m glad, Mother.”
Lovelia walked up to her mother and gave her a hug.

“
You’re such a lover,” her
mother said and hugged her in return.

“
That’s what the kids
called me at school,” Lovelia giggled.

“
Called you
what
?”

“
Lover,” she giggled some
more. “It was kind of cute.”

Lovelia would be later be known in the
family as “Auntie Lover.”

Felicity and Mrs. Frey wrote back and
forth to make sure they would be on the same train and stay in the
same hotel. On the big day Leonard drove Felicity to the train
station. Elsbeth  stuck her head out of the train window to
signal Felicity which car to board. Mrs. Frey wasn’t quite as
audacious. The three of them settled in together for the
ride.

“
Have you heard what
happened to the Titanic?” Felicity asked.

“
Such a tragedy,” Mrs.
Frey remarked.

“
Someone wrote me that
‘Abdu’l-Bahá was offered passage on the Titanic,” Elsbeth said. “He
declined and booked passage on the Cedric instead.”

“
Really?” Felicity was
surprised.
Could He have known?

They had brought food to eat: boiled
eggs, sandwiches, and fruit. None of them quite trusted the food on
the train. Besides, it was expensive.

Conversation turned to the class in
Enterprise all those years ago.

“
Our teacher really was
not well informed,” Mrs. Frey said. “He had learned of the Truth
while in Egypt, but made up a lot himself.

“
When He went to Haifa,”
Elsbeth added. “With the first group of pilgrims, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
tried to correct him, and he seemed to agree. But, after the group
returned, he resumed his idea of being the Head of the Faith in
America. That was simply not possible. Bahá’u’lláh had written out
who was to be the Head of the Faith, it was ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. No one
could change that.”

“
I see,” Felicity said.
This was another detail she hadn’t known.

“
It is through the
Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh that we turn to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá now,” Mrs.
Frey added. “No one else.”

“
And ‘Abdu’l-Bahá can’t
change that,” Elsbeth added.

‘
Then our teacher
renounced ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and tried to start his own religion,” Mrs.
Frey added.

“
There was confusion all
around,” Elsbeth continued. “Mother and I are the only ones in
Enterprise who remained interested.”

“
Except for Mrs. Ehrsam,”
Mrs. Frey added.

“
She only has a slight
interest now,” Elsbeth protested. “Not like before.”

“
It’s sad that her
interest waned,” said Mrs. Frey regretfully. “We were such a nice
little band of believers.”

“‘
Abdu’l-Bahá is going to
dedicate the Temple site,” Elsbeth said. “That is one reason He’s
coming. The land is on the shore of Lake Michigan, just north of
Chicago in the village of Wilmette. It will be
beautiful.”

“
Nine entrances will show
that people can come from all directions and meet in unity to
worship the One Creator,” Elsbeth continued. “It will be
unique.”

The day and scenery
passed. Once they went by a pasture with cows and calves. The cows
calmly continued to eat, but the calves bounded away.
We must seem like some kind of monster to
them,
Felicity thought.
Poor things.
Another
time, deer stood in the shadows of trees some distance from the
track and watched the train go by.

The night was spent
uncomfortably sitting and trying to sleep, but they did sleep some.
Once, when the train stopped to let on some new passengers,
Felicity roused enough to feel sorry for those who boarded the
train in the middle of the night.
They
must be in some great hurry not to wait for morning.

In the afternoon of the second day,
the women arrived in Chicago. They were greeted by members of the
convention Reception Committee who directed them to the
Entertainment Committee, whose members had hotel and other room
accommodation information. One member gave them directions to their
hotel and secured a hack to deliver them there. Upon arrival, all
three refreshed themselves and took short naps. They were too tired
and dirty to think yet about supper.

They had signed up for the
Rizwan Feast which would be held that evening. The next morning,
Sunday, April 28, the convention would begin. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was to
speak at the convention
and
dedicate the Temple site. He would also greet
people in his hotel suite in the evenings. The women determined to
see him as often as possible.

Elsbeth woke from her nap before the
others and went to explore the hotel. She found a reading nook off
the lobby with local newspapers. In one she found an article about
‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Excited, she took it up to the room to show the
others.

“
Mother, Felicity!” she
exclaimed, seeing they were waking up. “Listen to this.” She
read:

“‘
Abdu’l-Bahá, the leader
of the impressive Bahá’í movement which has sprung up to the
Mohammedan world, is coming to Chicago this month to attend —
strange to say — the international conference of the people of his
faith…

“It is a pity that
‘Abdu’l-Bahá has to talk through an interpreter. It would be hard
to find anybody coming out of the Mohammedan world whose views of
Christianity and the Western World would be more interesting or
even impressive. The Bahá’í movement, with its large
generalizations of the universal brotherhood of man, the unity of
all religions and creeds, and of universal tolerance and peace,
affords a splendid scale upon which to measure Western
achievements. But this can’t be easily conveyed through an
interpreter.”

“There’s a photograph of
Him, too,” Elsbeth added. She held the paper so the others could
see it; a kindly face, with loving eyes and a wide brow under a
simple kind of hat, not quite a turban, above a white beard. He
looked like one who had suffered, but bore no ill-will to anyone.
He had been born into an aristocratic family who had lost
everything for their beliefs, even their homeland. He had seen the
result of the torture inflicted upon His father, He had lost two
brothers, one an infant, the other a young man. He, Himself, had
been pelted with stones as a young boy.

“Under it,” Elsbeth
continued, “the caption says:

“The Persian philosopher
and leader has arrived in New York. He was born in Teheran in 1844.
His father was a prince of Persia’s royal line, who gave up his
position to strive for the regeneration of man. For advocating
liberal ideas he was thrown into prison, and his young son
‘Abdu’l-Bahá went with him. In 1908, after the Young Turks came to
power, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was released and at once took up the work of
his father. He estimates the number of his followers at about
2,000,000, about 5,000 of these being in this country. The basis of
his teachings is human solidarity. He believes that all nations and
religions should be united. His followers include Catholics,
Protestants, Jews and Mohammedans. He will lecture in various
cities and will attend the International Peace Conference at Lake
Mohonk.’”

“Well!” exclaimed Mrs.
Frey. “What do you think of that, Felicity?”

“I’m impressed. Neither of
the Topeka papers had anything like that, that I saw. Can we keep
it here so we can thoroughly read it?”

“I don’t know why not,”
Elsbeth answered. “We won’t take it out of the hotel.”

This was the most Felicity
had read of the Bahá’í teachings. There had been no book for the
class she had attended in Enterprise, just a small pamphlet which
they all passed around. This news article and the opportunity to
discuss it, clarified a lot of her thoughts and
questions.

“Dear,”
Mrs. Frey turned to Felicity. “There are more books now than when
we were in the class. And the magazine,
Star of the West
. You really have
been out of touch since you’ve been in Topeka.”

“I guess so.” Felicity
answered. “Can you help me get more while we’re here?”

“Sure we can,” Elsbeth
joined in.

The next few days were a
blur for Felicity, with the convention and seeing more Bahá’ís than
she had ever imagined existed in one place. And, of course, she saw
‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself.

At the closing session He
addressed the convention:

“Among the institutes of
the Holy Books is that of the foundation of places of worship. That
is to say, an edifice or temple is to be built in order that
humanity might find a place of meeting, and this is to be conducive
to unity and fellowship among them. The real temple is the very
Word of God; for to it all humanity must turn…”

He presented a dramatic
vision to Western eyes. His layered robes immediately attracted
attention. He paced, gestured and spoke, pausing frequently for the
interpreter. Felicity wished that a translator was not necessary.
She simply wanted to listen to those words pour over her. She found
it difficult to believe that He was, truly, nearly seventy years
old; that He had been out of prison for only four years; that He
had been a prisoner since He was ten years old; that He had no
formal education…It was too much to take in!