The Portland daily press., 1895-11-19

|
Sees No Cause for Alarm for Personal
Safety-Things Are Decidedly Mixed In
Turkey.
| Boston, November 1S-Mrs. Cyrus
| Hamlin was seen at her pleasant home
in Lexington by reporter last evening.
Mrs. Hamlin is the friend of Miss Emily
G. Wheeler, Mrs. Susan A. Wheeler and a
relative of Miss Emma M. Barnum, all
stationed at Harpoot. Mrs. Hamlin was
herself for nineteen years missionary
in the interior of Turkey. Her work
kept her for the most part in Morash, but
she knows Harpoot very well.
Mrs. Hamlin has a daughter and a
niece engaged in the work of teaching in
Robert College. Her daughter is the wife
of the President, and her neice is married
to a professor in the same college. An
other of her daughters is a missionary in
Morash
"Indeed, yes," said Mrs. Hamlin to the
reporter, "the riends of the missionaries
stationed in the districts in the interior
| are very. very fearful for their loved Ones
I They are in a furnace of anxiety and
doubt, and can only hope and pray for
their safety. I received a lteter from one
of my daughters less than two weeks ago.
She tried to write as cheerily as possible,
but knew she felt there was llaDle TO De
trouble at any time.
81 think and feel, as does DR.. Hamlin,
that there is nothing to be feared from
the Turkish government. The officers OF
the government are sufficiently on the
alert; they know that their actions are
being watched carefully by England and
France, as we'll as by the United States.
On this point then, the missionaries feel
comparatively relieved. But there is no
knowing what might be done by an ex-
cited, blood thirsty mob. 1t is in the
possibility of such mob being started
that terrorizes the men and women
m iSSionaf1eS
lone of my daughters is engaged in
active work at Morash. 1t is more ex-
posed to danger than Harpoot. 1t is
discouraging thought that our loved ones
so far away are entirely at dependent for
their safety at present upon Turkish
officers. The Turks feel more bitterly to-
ward the missionaries now than they felt
we'll say twenty years ago. They called
them then men of a book and had
much more respect for them because they
had book similar to their Koran and
a prophet, too, corresponding in their
minds to their own Mahomet. than they
had for the Armenians, who made acts of
alteration before pictures.
stOf late this feeling has changed. They
have grown to feel bitter and bitterer to-
ward missionaries. For the last five years
in subtitle ways, the teachers and
preachers have been made to feel the dis
pleasure of the Mohammedan..
'sFor one thing, the Sultan, as the
missionaries feel, taking his cue from the
Gear, has been desirous of unifying his
empire, and SO he began to do what he
could toward exterminating all foreign
creeds. OF course, he has been limited in
ways of accomplishing his ends. He
didn't dare interfere with the Greeks, be-
cause he was afraid of Russia, and he
wouldn't take chances with France by
making it uncomfortable for the
Catholics. So he warred against the
Armenians.
"Five years ago, on the edges of his
empire, he began operations 1t was
some time before any of the powers knew
what he was about, and much oppression,
slaughter and worse had taken place be-
fore few outside the missionaries knew
in that a bad state things were.
SO yes, the missionaries know what
their danger is but from letters received I
know there isn't one OF them who would
not stand at his or her post to face what
ever comes. Indeed it would be fatal for
them, even if they were SO inclined, to
try to leave the missions. There are no
regualr roads, nothing but desolate
bride paths leading up and down over
the hills. Now, when all the country is
in so great state of confusion, it is
highly improbable that they could escape
with their lives. Precarious as is their
present situation, their only safety lies in
holding it for at least they are housed on
ground purchased and belonging to
foreign powers.
'They cannot work, of course, but the
schools are kept open. In Morash there
are three Christian schools, seminary
for young preachers, boys academy and
girls college. In these three schools
the young people are protected.
''It is difficulJ to get accurate news
from the interior. Letters are opened and
read by Turkish officials, ever on the
lookout for reasonable utterances or ex-
pressions Sometimes these letters are
resealed and sent on to the given address
oftener they are destroyed All books
sent into the missions are examined be-
fore they are passed along. Whole pages
are torn out of them sometimes, or
smeared over, if there chances to be a