the islands
of the Pacific. Mason Remey voyaged to Russia and Persia, and later, with
Howard Struven, circled, for the first time in Baha'i history, the globe,
visiting on his way the Hawaiian Islands, Japan, China, India and Burma.
Hooper Harris and Harlan Ober traveled, during no less than seven months,
in India and Burma, visiting Bombay, Poona, Lahore, Calcutta, Rangoon and
Mandalay. Alma Knobloch, following on the heels of Dr. K. E. Fisher,
hoisted the standard of the Faith in Germany, and carried its light to
Austria. Dr. Susan I. Moody, Sydney Sprague, Lillian F. Kappes, Dr. Sarah
Clock, and Elizabeth Stewart transferred their residence to Tihran for the
purpose of furthering the manifold interests of the Faith, in
collaboration with the Baha'is of that city. Sarah Farmer, who had already
initiated in 1894, at Green Acre, in the State of Maine, summer
conferences and established a center for the promotion of unity and
fellowship between races and religions, placed, after her pilgrimage to
Akka in 1900, the facilities these conferences provided at the disposal of
the followers of the Faith which she had herself recently embraced.

And last but not least, inspired by the example set by their
fellow-disciples in I_sh_qabad, who had already commenced the construction
of the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the Baha'i world, and afire with the
desire to demonstrate, in a tangible and befitting manner, the quality of
their faith and devotion, the Baha'is of Chicago, having petitioned
'Abdu'l-Baha for permission to erect a House of Worship, and secured, in a
Tablet revealed in June 1903, His ready and enthusiastic approval, arose,
despite the smallness of their numbers and their limited resources, to
initiate an enterprise which must rank as the greatest single contribution
which the Baha'is of America, and indeed of the West, have as yet made to
the Cause of Baha'u'llah. The subsequent encouragement given them by
'Abdu'l-Baha, and the contributions raised by various Assemblies decided
the members of this Assembly to invite representatives of their
fellow-believers in various parts of the country to meet in Chicago for
the initiation of the stupendous undertaking they had conceived. On
November 26, 1907, the assembled representatives, convened for that
purpose, appointed a committee of nine to locate a suitable site for the
proposed Temple. By April 9, 1908, the sum of two thousand dollars had
been paid for the purchase o