travel

Mahmúd's Diary records a brief stop in Baltimore in November 1912 — chiefly a day of rest in transit between Washington and New York, but with a small evening reception at the home of one of the city's three Bahá'í families.

Mahmúd's Diary records the long Atlantic crossing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and His small party aboard the S.S. Cedric in March and early April 1912 — the ten days at sea during which the Master, in His sixty-eighth year, prepared for the great American tour by simple devotions and long conversations with His attendants.

Mahmúd's Diary records a brief stop in Kansas City on the westward leg of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's American tour — a small reception arranged at short notice by friends from the Missouri-Kansas border who had heard the Master would pass through.

Mahmúd's Diary records the brief stop of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's party at Omaha on September 21, 1912 — a single afternoon in the great cattle-and-rail city of the central plains, with a brief talk in the parlour of a downtown hotel and the next morning's departure westward.

Mahmúd's Diary records the long train journey of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and His party from Salt Lake City to Portland in early October 1912 — the steady westward crossing of the Rockies and the Cascades, the Master's hours of conversation in the parlour car, and the slow preparation for the Pacific coast portion of the journey.

Mahmúd's Diary records a brief station stop at Spokane, Washington, on the northern transcontinental route taken by the Master's party in October 1912 — a small group of friends meeting the train and a brief exchange in the station hall.

Mahmúd's Diary records the brief stop of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in St. Louis on 1 November 1912 — an evening reception in the parlour of the Statler Hotel and a meeting with the small community of Missouri believers who had asked Him to come.

Mahmúd's Diary records the long quiet stretches of the transcontinental train journey from Chicago to the Pacific in September-October 1912 — the Master at His prayers in the parlour car, the night plains rolling past, the small acts of hospitality to the train staff.

In April 1913 'Abdu'l-Bahá visited Budapest. The Star of the West reported that He addressed Hungarian peace societies, Theosophical groups, and meetings drawing some eight hundred listeners — and that He charged a young Bahá'í named Leopold Stark with establishing the first nucleus of the Faith in the Hungarian capital.

In June 1916 the Star of the West printed a letter from Agnes B. Alexander — the first American Bahá'í to settle in Japan — describing her teaching work in Tokyo and Yokohama, her gatherings with university students, her placement of Bahá'í books in libraries, and her use of Esperanto as a bridge into Japanese intellectual life.

In April 1910, the Star of the West published a letter from Charles Mason Remey, then traveling through Japan, China, and Southeast Asia. He reported back what no American Bahá'í had yet been told from a Bahá'í pen: *In Japan the spiritual field of work is ready for the laborers.*

In June 1911 the Star of the West reported, in its News of the Cause in London column, the visit of Louis G. Gregory — the African American lawyer who had recently completed his pilgrimage to 'Akká. The English friends recorded their impression in a single phrase: *a great soul, aflame with God's Word.*

In 1914 the Star of the West printed a letter from Lua Getsinger, the Mother Teacher of the West, written from Bombay where she had taken the Faith into the heart of British India. *I am here in His Name and for His sake,* she wrote — words that would become the keynote of her service.

In April 1910 the Star of the West published the longer text of Charles Mason Remey's letter from Rangoon, describing his journey through Japan, China, and Southeast Asia in the cause of opening the way for Bahá'í teaching in the East — and the practical sense of need behind his often- quoted appeal: *American Bahais are needed in Japan*.