The Portland daily press., 1895-10-11
DEERING.
Mrs. Hulda e. Leighton Returns From
Palestine.

Something About Her Work There-The
Auction Sale of Lots at East Deering-
Queer Cases in the Deering Court.
Yesterday, Mrs. Hulda E. Leighton of
Woodfords, wife of Royal Leighton,
arrived home from Palestine, after an
absence of over three years. She has been
engaged in missionary work there. under
the auspices of the Friends New England
Missionary Society. Mrs. Leighton nrst
went to Palestine in 1885, She went to
the Friends Mission at Ram allah, which
was established over thirty years ago by
Eli and Sybil Jones of China Me.
Ramallah. which means chill OF God,
In the Arabic, is village about twenty
miles north of Jerusalem.
Mrs. Leighton remained two years on
her first visit and was successful IN
establishing day school, in connection
with the original training school. She
returned home in go and went out to
Ramallah again in May, 1872, to establish
more schools. Now there are five day
shoots besides the training school, three
in Ramallah and one each in Feibyth
and Jtfneh, neighboring villages.
The people are Arabs and are in con-
dition of dense Ignorance, superstition
and degradation, or were before these
Friends schools were established. They
are very quick and ready to learn, ana
very gentle and intelligent. In all i've
day schools, about one hundred ard tfty
scholars are now in attendance. There
are only girls in the training schools
Many of these are now old enough to
become teachers themselves.
A few weeks after Mrs. Leighton went
out in '92 she received notice from the
Turkish authorities to shut up the
schools. 1t was in June, and the hot
season was coming on, SO she was willing
to obey them without much regret. In
October she opened the schools again and
soon after received visit from a Turkish
inspector from Jerusalem. He made
searching inquiries as to what was taugnt
etc., but did not give any restrictive
orders
Mrs. Leighton attributes much OF their
insecurity from the opposition OF the I'M
speakable Turk to the friendship OF an
official in Jerusalem, Persian, who IS
nevertheless an official in the Turkish
court, and in charge of the collection Oh
taxes. He has taken an interest in the
schools, has lessened the taxes at trst
imposed, and has constantly exerted his
influence in their favor.
Mr.. Charles NJ Jones and his wife OF
Deering, who went out to the Ramallah
mission, some time ago, arrived there be-
fore Mrs. Leighton left. He went out
for the special purpose of taking charge
of the building of new stone building
for the training school He has been
there before. He first went out with ELL
Jones' in the latter's old age. as COM
panion. Mrs. Leighton was that the only
information they got about the Armenian
atrocities came through the English
papers, and was. of course, months old.
The Turks allow no news about such
things to be disseminated in their
domain. Nobody dares even talk about
it, for nobody knows but what he may be
talking to some secret spy or at least
within hearing of one. A man once came
to the schools from Bayreuth to visit a
relative, and said that in that city, no
man dared lisp a word about the
Armenians.
TT is a matter of common talk. and be-
lisf all through Palestine that the
predecessors of the present Sultan Is not
dead, but was simply disposed OF by BE-
ing imprisoned in one of the palaces IN
Constantinople The present Sultan s
life is little better than that of slave,
in regard to confinement and fears Tor
his safety and life. He is shut up in his
paIace all the time and only goes out
once week to the Mosque, and IS then
attended by 5000 soldiers.
Mrs Leighton is in good health, the
reports in regard to her illness in
Palestine having been exaggerated.
THE LAND AUCTION AT EAST
DEERING.
At East Deering yesterday afternoon,
occurred the auction sale by the Richard
son Land company of the land at Ocean
vale. situated on Main, .Presumpscot and
Forest streets
Mr.. Allen of F. o. Bailey'& Co., was
the auctioneer. There was not very
large attendance, but the following lots
were sold: Two each on Main street to
E. E. Searles, T. L. Mitchell and Mr..
Earl of Deering Centre. These all sold
e. four cents foot. All the lots are
Fifty feet front and one hundred and
twenty feet in depth. Joseph Beauvin
bid in lot on Presumpscot street for
8 So cents per foot. On Front street, Mr..
Earl bought lot for 334 cents foot and
e. E. Searles bought a lot for 81 cents.
PAID Sc TO ESCAPE % CENTS.
In the Deering Municipal court Wed
nesday morning, before Judge Hopkins,
J. W. Pease was charged with avoiding
payment of sewer admittance under