tched by 'Abdu'l-Baha (such as Haji 'Abdu'l-Karim-i-Tihrani, Haji
Mirza Hasan-i-_Kh_urasani, Mirza Asadu'llah and Mirza Abu'l-Fadl)
succeeded in rapidly dispelling the doubts, and in deepening the
understanding, of the believers, in holding the community together, and in
forming the nucleus of those administrative institutions which, two
decades later, were to be formally inaugurated through the explicit
provisions of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Will and Testament. As far back as the year
1899 a council board of seven officers, the forerunner of a series of
Assemblies which, ere the close of the first Baha'i Century, were to cover
the North American Continent from coast to coast, was established in the
city of Kenosha. In 1902 a Baha'i Publishing Society, designed to
propagate the literature of a gradually expanding community, was formed in
Chicago. A Baha'i Bulletin, for the purpose of disseminating the teachings
of the Faith was inaugurated in New York. The "Baha'i News," another
periodical, subsequently appeared in Chicago, and soon developed into a
magazine entitled "Star of the West." The translation of some of the most
important writings of Baha'u'llah, such as the "Hidden Words," the
"Kitab-i-Iqan," the "Tablets to the Kings," and the "Seven Valleys,"
together with the Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Baha, as well as several treatises
and pamphlets written by Mirza Abu'l-Fadl and others, was energetically
undertaken. A considerable correspondence with various centers throughout
the Orient was initiated, and grew steadily in scope and importance. Brief
histories of the Faith, books and pamphlets written in its defence,
articles for the press, accounts of travels and pilgrimages, eulogies and
poems, were likewise published and widely disseminated.

Simultaneously, travellers and teachers, emerging triumphantly from the
storms of tests and trials which had threatened to engulf their beloved
Cause, arose, of their own accord, to reinforce and multiply the
strongholds of the Faith already established. Centers were opened in the
cities of Washington, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland,
Baltimore, Minneapolis, Buffalo, Rochester, Pittsburgh, Seattle, St. Paul
and in other places. Audacious pioneers, whether as visitors or settlers,
eager to spread the new born Evangel beyond the confines of their native
country, undertook journeys, and embarked on enterprises which carried its
light to the heart of Europe, to the Far East, and as far as