1909] Our Nurse at Sivas OUR NURSE AT SIVAS 443 MISS LILLIAN F. COLE, supported by the Eastern Connecticut Branch, is a nurse in the hospital at Sivas, in the Western Turkey Mission, a hospital of which Dr. C. E. Clark has charge. The report of the past year's work tells of 190 major operations, in which the share of the nurse is almost as important as that of the doctor; of 181 in-patients, their stay averaging fourteen days; and of 1,700 out-patients helped and cared for, for varying lengths of time. The in-patients have been Turkish, Kurdish, Circassian, Armenian, Greek and American; and among the diseases were measles, pneumonia, typhoid and typhus fever. Owing to the failure of the grain crop for two years the people have been very poor, sometimes almost starving, yet they have paid 70 per cent of the expense of their treatment, aside from the salaries of doctor and head nurse. Miss Cole speaks to the women every Sunday, bringing them some gospel message, and the patients hear her gladly. THE NEW GOVERNMENT IN CONSTANTINOPLE BY MRS. ETTA D. MARDEN (Mrs. Marden has been a missionary in Turkey since 1881, and has for several years, with Miss Jones and Miss Barker, had charge of the Gedik Pasha work, in the heart of old Stamboul.) HE situation here for the time is quiet, actively quiet; after the accession of the new Sultan, and the forming of the new cabinet, together with the co-operation of the army, much has been accomplished. The city is well governed, the new police, trained men from Salonica, make a good DEPOSED SULTAN ABDUL HAMID II, AND HIS RESIDENCE AT SALONICA appearance, and seem to be equal to the trust confided to them. As long as the city is under martial law there is a feeling of security shared by all of the diverse elements that make up this great city. Just how the new police will conduct themselves after the army withdraws is something we shall know only by experience. The Sultan is making a good impression and is evidently enjoying his new freedom. He goes out almost every day with little pomp and ceremony, visits the wounded soldiers in the hospitals, the graves of those who fell in 1909] The New Government in Constantinople 445 defense of the constitution; goes out on the Bosphorus in his twelve-oared caique. When he has a function he has out the army and all the pomp and glitter of uniform, gold lace and braid, but at other times he is very simple. His returning five thousand liras of the amount assigned him monthly by the parliament has made a good impression. The cabinet is fairly strong. Ferid Pasha, the Minister of the Interior, on whom falls the task of dealing with the provinces, is a good man, and will do all he can to regulate the country. But to hope for speedy results is to underestimate the gravity of the problem. To subdue and hold in hand all the diverse elements that make up the Turkish Empire is a tremendous task, and patience, wisdom, firmness and time are needed to accomplish results. The present attitude of the Turks toward the troubles in Adana and the region round about is quite different from that of twelve years ago. They are filled with shame, grief and humiliation over the situation. Halide Hanum has written an article which was published in the Turkish papers, and copied into the Armenian journals of the city. In it she expresses her grief in the most eloquent and touching language, and calls on her countrymen to cherish and protect in the future with their swords and with their honor their Armenian brothers. I was just reading it with an Armenian, who was melted to tears, by her tender sympathy and beautiful language. She voices the feeling of a goodly number who cannot express themselves so well, but who feel the grief and shame of the whole thing. In Aintab, when Dr. Shepard returned from Hassan Beily after caring medically for the remnant there, to collect supplies for the poor, bereft, homeless ones there, a Bey, Turkish, gave thirty liras for their succor, and Turks gave several hundred pieces of furniture, cooking utensils, etc., for their distressed brethren. We weep for Adana, but we hope we see springing from those multitudes of graves broad scattered over that whole fair province, shoots of the tree whose leaves will be for the healing of nations. We hope that all the loss, the grief, the suffering, the shame, the nameless woe, the cries of fatherless children, and tears of widows, will be forgotten-no, never forgotten-but will live in the memory of those who see in them the death throe of a fatal despotism, the birth pangs of an eternal liberty. Last week I went to Brousa for my first visit. Those two ladies are doing good work there, but with what odds! Old'tumble-down, ramshackle buildings, no yard, little sun. They are in marked contrast to the fine, tidy, commodious building of the Jesuits on either side of them, and a comment on our methods. I wonder that any parents care to send their children into such accommodations. While in Brousa I renewed the acquaintance made here in this city last winter of a very interesting Turkish woman. She is twenty-three years old, sweet, winning and devoted to the new régime. She has now a little kindergarten of nine girls, in Brousa, which she is managing as well as she can with her limited knowledge. She is taking English lessons of Miss Powers, and hopes to go to America and get a kindergarten course. It is a very hopeful sign that a Turkish woman wants to do this, and I hope that in some way her desire may be realized. She has means for her traveling expenses. There is no suitable opportunity for such a course for her here, and she would be enlarged and benefited by a sojourn in some other country than her own. The Turks need to know that although the natural beauties of their country are many, they fall far behind in the things that make up the requisites of good order and stability, and an object lesson is the most effective means of conveying such information. It is the experience that such of the Armenians as went to America, in the early history of work here, returned and rendered large service to their people. My conviction is that our first effective workers among the Turks need this same experience. They must see themselves as others see them. To surround Hurze Hanum by the sweet, pure ideals of Christian womanhood would awaken in her soul possibilities as yet unknown. COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT IN PEKING BY MISS BERTHA P. REED (Mrs. W. S. Ament, for several years a fellow-worker with Miss Reed, says of her service: Miss Reed's work is very varied. Besides her teaching in the Woman's Union College of Peking, she has her hand upon educational movements in the city, and holds classes for physical training in some of the high grade private schools for young women, thus multiplying her power for good. She is very tactful, and the influence of her gentle, yet strong personality is felt by all those who come in contact with her. She also takes a kindly interest in the welfare of the Emily Ament Memorial School, and examines the classes each week, giving in addition helpful talks on various subjects. A few girls who received their preliminary training in this school have been received into the Bridgman Academy, and we hope that some of the girls from the Memorial School will take a complete course so as to be fitted for assisting in the teaching at the school which gave them their first glimpse of the world. The majority, however, coming from heathen homes, have not that element of persistence which we find among the children of our church members in their quest for education.) FOR COR the first time, and after many years of effort, we may give so pretentious a title to the commencement of June, 1909, in our Peking school. Often has it been recorded in these columns that we of Bridgman School were gradually working our way up to a college, but it must have seemed to many that the fulfillment of our hopes has been long delayed. Perhaps 1909] College Commencement in Peking 447 our old friends may be a bit mystified by our present names, since we are divided into two departments, the Bridgman Academy and the North China Union Woman's College. But at last the goal of our plans has been reached, and a class has been graduated from the college, after four years of hard work since leaving the academy, the first of the girls of China to reach so high a point in education. All honor is due to the educators of our mission girls, past and present, who have by persistence and patience made possible this success. Many and arduous were the preparations for this final great day in June. The four seniors had their final examinations to pass, and wished to gain all possible honor in this last effort. And then there were their essays. The writing and the correction, and the rehearsals-who shall chronicle these labors, so necessary and so hard? The others of the school also had their preparation, in much training in music which should be fit for such an occasion. But all was ready at last when the day came-a day bright and clear and cool-a beautiful pause between the days of dust storm and rain preceding and following it, as if it had been arranged especially for us. Within the church was corresponding beauty. In the center, in front, were groups of plants and palms, and above them hung two Chinese flags, great dragons disporting themselves on pale yellow silk. At the sides were long banners of pale blue silk, with the class motto in large gilt characters : "The wisdom of the world does not merit praise. True wisdom is to follow God's will joyfully." The audience was a fairly large one. Only a few favored men were permitted to come-this being a girls' school in China-and among these were a few officials and others interested in education. The women who came were many and gaily dressed, and we were glad to see representatives from a number of the girls' schools of the city. We were proud of our school throughout the exercises. Their music for the day was very difficult, but they won great praise for the singing of it. If you knew these Chinese girls, you would realize that our four graduates took their part with great dignity, and showed that the work of these years had done much for them. Yet it seemed a time for sorrow, too, when the diplomas had been given, and the four sweet voices were singing the farewell song to the school, and all realized that here was the end of the happy school days, which had begun for each of them in childhood, and the beginning of another life, with new and unwonted responsibilities and cares. Still we are glad to see them going into what we know will be years of usefulness. We think of their power of mind, of their growing self-reliance, and of their spiritual life |