St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-04-30
reader, that so far as worldly matters
are concerned, what can man ask for
more than this?
Letter from Turkey.

inaIlOn, and L wish that some of our
American friends could have been pres
ent, to see and hear how well
these poor ragged boys could do in their
classes, during their two days examin-
alton.
The lower school was examined the
first day, and being public, such throngs
came that the house could not hold
them with any comfort, and the second
Gay, wishing to have some of the Turks
present, women were excluded, with
the exception of the missionary ladies,
as one must play the organ, and of
course she could not stay alone in q
room with $50 men and boys; so little
knot of teachers sat behind the organ
to stay up her hands. And it required
more than one her "(Hur)" to stay up
her hands in the presence of the nOta-
bles of Sivas for before the school had
finished singing the first hymn Zone of
Moody and Sankey's), the Pacha arriv-
ed, and shook hands with the mission
aries, and listened pleasantly to the
recitation of the lesson at the time.
Seven of his servants and guard sta
toned themselves in different parts of
the room, standing as they always do
in his presence, three of them heavily
armed. Imagine the embarrassment of
the boys. Fearless as they generally
are, their voices became husky and low,
for you little realize what a moment it
was for these boys to have such a man
listen to them but it was Friday, and
the Pacha must go to the Mosque, for
Friday is the Turks Sunday. After
pleasant words aud congratulations for
the improvement made, he and his suite
passed out.
During a six hours session, with only
an intermission of ten minutes, these
boys were examined in Grammar, Arith-
metic, Geography, Physiology, Algebra
and Bible History; some of the classes
usually recited in Armenian, but as
many of the Turks present knew but
one language, the little boys would recite
in the Turkish language one boy, who
could not have been more than ii years
of age, would talk as fast as he could
speak, translating from one language
to the other all day. The interested
audience listened attentively, and were
much amazed at the plates in the Phys
iology class. Opposite our school and
chapel is a Turkish Mosque, and a large
school connected with it, where the
| buys CnanG Tile noTiiu ana learn ArIUn-
metic. In all the Turkish schools all
the scholars study out loud; you can
hear the buzz as you walk the streets.
A special Invitation was sent to the
teacher of this school. The invitation
was given to soften the unpleasant feel
ing which they entertain against a
school located so near their holy ground,
and hoping it would stir them I'D to
improve their school. The teacher was
cordially received, and expressed great
pleasure as he listened to the classes in
Algebra, for he had never known any,
thing about that study before, but Bi-
BILE History was familiar to him he
had heard of Adam, Abel, Moses, Abra-
ham, etc. AT the close of school a Psalm
OF David was chanted, with which be
was delighted, and begged to keep one
OF the little copies of Psalms which were
given to those who could sing. We
trust that he will be desirous to improve
his own school: if he does not, his pu-
pills will be coming to ours.
There has been great improvement
and advance made in the schools here,
since the missionaries came, for the de-
sire for knowledge among boys, has re-
celved a great impetus within a few
years past, since they have found
out it helps them to make money. We
Americans were much amused over a
class in English, consisting of five boys,
one whom would translate an Armeni-
an sentence into English, and write the
translation on the black board, and the
others would correct it, and often the
correction was worse than the first
translation. We learned for the first
time that acented and gOtted were Eng
lish words. 1t is wonderful what re-
spect the Armenians have for the Eng
lIsh, and all who speak that language.
Last week | had native change Ira
| nt hn 4
man first glanced at us, to see if we
locked as if we would cheat him, then
threw it down to see if it had the true
ring, examined its edges, next produced
a pair of old balances and weighed it,
and being fully satisfied, he found bag
of silver and began to count out an
equivalent and such quantity of mon
ey as we had in return.
For two or three years previous to
this, they had what they call cine; the
paper currency was so inflated, that it
took 300 to 400 up to 800 and ,OOO
plastres to make gold Ira, and even
then they refused the paper, and it fell
to gold value but when it fell flat, all
the bazaars almost were closed, and the
trade OF the city has as yet scarcely re-
covered from the shock. 1t would be a
great misfortune for the country, to
have this repeated. In the last initiation
the Government cheated the people out
of rs cents on the dollar, and now that
Turkey is getting short of money again,
II she can sunder her relations with