Lidia

One aftemoon Lidia and some friends strolled in the gardens near the Palace of the League of Nations, laughing and chatting and admiring the magnificent landscape. Lake Leman blindingly reflected the last golden rays of the sun. 'A rare enthusiasm ofjoy,' Lidia later recalled, 'some enchantment impelled us, as if carefree children, from flower bed to flower bed, from group of trees to group of trees. At last we stopped at a small square, in the middle of which was an object. We approached and regarded it curiously.

'On two poles hung a piece of bronze, whose surface was decorated with dragons, serpents and strange hieroglyphs . . . It drew us, attracted us. "What is it? What could it be?" someone asked. One ofus struck the bronze lightly with a finger. A lovely hum, like a soft, distant echo of a sound, could be heard. We struck it again. The mysterious, wistful sound reverberated. "A bell! Let's ring it!" someone cried.

"'Yes, a bell -" a voice intruded, "a bell sent as a gift from China to the League of Nations so that it might be rung when peace reigns in the world."

'The sense ofplayfulness left us. Respectfully we stepped away from the mysterious bronze. To call up its sound now, when the odor of blood still rises on the air, when serpents of hate still hiss in the swamps of chauvinism, would be to profane the bell.'

Lidia mused: 'Bell of peace! You, an enigma fashioned of bronze beside the yellow rivers of the Celestial Land! You emigrated from the heart of your homeland and have been set upon the shore of the most beautiful lake, between mountains that touch the clouds. And patient, like eternity - inscrutable, like eternity - you await the promised hour. That hour will come. . . you will ring, and winds will carry your echo far, to the snows of the North and to the deserts of the South, through green valleys and to snowy peaks. You will peal out and then swords will clang no more, nor will cannons roar, but the bells of all the temples of the world will repeat your song announcing to mankind the beginning of the new era!'

Thursday, August 6, promised clear weather, but a new storm was on its way, bringing back the clouds and rain. Earlier that week someone had invited Lidia to one of the fakkunvenoj, or specialist meetings, planned for Thursday. The congress program listed it simply as 'Baha'f Meeting'. The name did not mean anything to her, Lidia later recalled. 'I looked at the congress schedule. Another meeting, in which I had more interest, was to take place about the same time. I decided quickly: I shall not go to that Baha'i meeting.' But when the day came, the other meeting ended sooner than she expected. Lidia saw no reason to refuse the Baha'f invitation. She went, but, as she described it, 'out of politeness'.

The meeting had begun at three o'clock in the office of the International Baha'i Bureau. The Bureau office was near Victoria Hall, on theBoulevard Georges-Favon, abusy, wide, tree-lined street. Lidia approached the door of the brown-gray building. Above the door was the building number carved in stone: 19.

For some time, the Baha'1's had been working on preparations for the two meetings held there that week. They hoped to attract Esperantists to come and learn more about the Baha'i Faith. If they did not attract the Esperantists to their religion, at least they drew them in to enjoy their hospitality. 'Whoever wanted to drink good tea (for free!) surely went to the Baha'1 office to listen to the talks by Baha'fs,' reported Heroldo de Esperanto. '. . . With joy we leamed that everywhere the Baha'is are leaming our language . . . We admired also the fervor and devotion ofone ofthe great apostles . . . Martha Root.' Miss Martha Root, an American freelancejoumalist, had come to Switzerland from Haifa, Palestine, specially to help open the Intemational Baha'i Bureau and arrange the Baha'1 meetings at the congress.

A small, plain-looking woman of fifty-three who dressed somewhat eccentrically, Martha Root often impressed people at first as 'a little mouse'. But her dynamic spirit and sincerity drew people to her. In 1914 she had resigned her position as society editor of a Pittsburgh newspaper in order to travel as a freelance foreign correspondent, and for some years she had dedicated her life to traveling the world, most often alone, lecturing and writing about the Baha'i Faith. Although she was often ill, she traveled and gave speeches until exhaustion overtook her. She kept up a seemingly inhuman pace in a race against the disease which was inexorably consuming her body: since 1912 she had known that she had cancer.

Unconcemed with personal comfort, Martha Root traveled third class and often dined on such simple fare as a bit of cheese and an egg she boiled in her hotel room. Yet in every country she visited, she approached eminent people in many fields and met with royalty and presidents to whom she gave her message.