St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1882-11-03
A Letter from Turkey.
fFrom a nrirate letter.l

weeks | will commence a letter to you
but my time is so little my own, | may
not be able to finish it at present.
While touring it was impossible to
send you anything except postals, and
since my return from the missionary
meeting at ConstantinOple, we have
had several shorter missionary tours
to make. For fortnight past, have
had quite siege with one of my eyes,
but the ulcer in it has finally broken
and | am greatly relieved, for some OF
the time it was very painful besides,
had planned to do so much during
vacation that every day seemed pre-
cious TO me. but the Lord saw fit to
give me longer rest than ! had
planned. Riding on the dusty roads,
with little or no shade, in the hot, glar-
ing sunlight, is very trying to strong
ewes. but peculiarly so to rise long be-
fore daylight, so many mornings, as
we did on our journey, III order to
avoid the intense heat of the MONDAY
sun, cropping our way over the stony
roads.-was travelling more by faith
than by sight. Notwithstanding, |
have contrived to get good deal OF
cloth cut out and work done, and
never was so busy in my life, yet had
hoped to do much more. The trip to
ConstantinOple was tatigulng, yet 1t
did us much good, for it gave us a
change of scene and air, allowed us to
catch glimpse of the outside world,
and enabled us to throw off for short
time the constant care, duties and re-
sponsibilities of our schools and to
visit and mingle socially with some OF
our older and experienced missionaries.
Our stay in the pleasant, happy homes
in Marsovan was especially delightful.
We were present at the examinations
in the school and commencement eXer-
cises. The young men did splendidly
i'm their examinations, and DR.. Her
rick's address to them was very fine.
They are fortunate in having such a
cultured, Christian man at their head.
| felt that | had gained many new and
useful ideas there about books, maps,
&c, which | hope to introduce into
our schools here. DR.. and Mrs. Bliss
kindly insisted as usual that | should
make it my home with them, and it
seemed very hOmelike and pleasant.
COnstantinOple never looked so beautl-
full before, perhaps owing to the con-
trast to the "InteriOr." | have written
YOU about the meeting and my journey
home. We were absent five weeks on
our last tour, "A longer time than we
intended to take, but it was IA satistac-
tory trip, and we brought back four
girls with us, two large and two small
ones of course, our time is fully occu-
pied in preparing work for them, as
the greater portion of their sewing for
the wear has to be done now, during
vacation, when the days are long and
it takes little artificial light. 1t seems
as if the work pressed in all directions !;
the women here are waking up to the
subject of having their daughters edu-
Gated and are urging us to take them
as boarding or day pupils, and as our
numbers must be limited on account of
funds, it will permit us to make our
own selection of pupils. | wrote Mrs.
DIR. Thompson last spring that we had
tried to reduce economy to science i'll
our boarding department; by the most
careful and rigid economy we had
been able to carry the girls through
the year without debt the board of
each girl averaging fire cents per day,
which was the best | could do for
them fearful that it might be thought
that | was starving them | boarded
and lived through it. If some of our
American people could see how CRATE
full they are for what is done for them,
although much patience is required,
they might he much surprised. Our
work, like our Masters, has been chiefly
with the poorer classes and we are
often reminded that 1.-THE poor We have
with YOU always - but the higher class
es are gradually becoming interested,
and we are hoping and DESTROYS of
reaching them also.
We travelled on the last tour little
less than two hundred miles, plodding
along often only at the rate of two
miles per hour, rising every night at
midnight and continuing on until IL
a. M, then camping five or six hours,
and packing up and going on until we
halted for the night; so we had plenty
of time for meditation. Fortunately it
was moonlight, so we could see our
way quite well. We spent most of our
lagos, although we visited two other
towns, real heathenish places, where
the women and children wore finger
rings in their noses, and although some
of them were dressed quite well for
this land they quarrelled in the streets
and on the house-tOps like cats and
often treated us shamefully. l took
our good faithful Elmas with me, for
she understands the dialects of these
places, which is quite different from
Siras. have been away this year
from Siras three and One-half months,
and have two more shorter tours to
make, one of three weeks and a second
of ten days. The latter we trust to
make about the first of September, or
earlier. We often feel the truth of one