The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1899-02-17
Letter From Turkey.

l feel great sympathy tonight for the
ladies who have to get up missionary
meetings; for / am on the committee
for our next one, and ought to be look
ing up literature this moment. "What
SO .iety'" Why the Central Turkey
Girls College Society. Lighters of Dark
ness, to be sure. Why we belong, we
are a branch, don't you know? We
started-that is, our branch was started
fifteen years ago, and over one hundred
and fifty girls have been members, and
have raised over one hundred and
seventy dollars, which has been sent to
Chicago. The full members must be
church members and pay about 9G cents
a year and other pupils may be non
voting members by paying one cent a
month. The full members do not
write papers" to read before the
society in its monthly meetings, no in
deed that "would not be so interest
ing" so they translate what we find
for them and memorize it, using maps
and sometimes drawing very realistic
pictures on the blackboard to illustrate
their remarks, and four or five girls
occupy the hour, closing by short
prayers, by the others, for the land of
which they have heard, and then taking
a co lection. AS some of the girls are
so poor that they can not possibly get
penny to buy necessary pens and paper,
and not one of them can pay the full
price (e5) for board, think they have
done well, don't your But their enter
prising young teacher thinks they have
not done half well enough. and says
1--WE must earn money" Earn money!
| thought when hundreds of women are
picking cotton from the balls and get.
ting from one to three cents day. and
men earn ten or twelve, but little did
| know of the resources of Turkey.
Here are all these leaves going to
waste" she said, "and if we only had
sheep to eat them we could sell it at
considerable profit later on" The
leaves were the dry fallen leaves of the
Apricot and Mulberry, and l could
scarcely believe that animals would eat
them, but saw man shaking them
down to waiting sheep below, and
know that it is So There is no hay in
this country, and straw is very costly.
This summer l saw enormous stacks of
great rank thistles put away to feed
animals this winter, so dare say leaves
may be luxury after ALL Well, we
are to have missionary sheep next
year, one of the big-tailed kind, whose
tail fills a milk-pan an the fat from
which furnishes a substitute for lard in
this land where keeping pigs is against
the law, and the eating of their flesh is
held in adherence.
''And we must raise some silk worms
from these mulberry leaves next spring.
added Louisa, conclusively, and l see
that there is hope of a missionary
society's earning money, even in
Turkey, when all are in earnest about
it.
Some of our girls wish to be mission
aries, little suspecting that they already
are, by their work in our three Sunday
schools. Last Sunday was great day
for the school, of which l have charge,
for they went into the church as they
do once or twice during the year, for
what they call an examination. 1t was
raining and cold and the mud was as
deep as it only can be in Turkey and
the poor little things shivered in their
ragged and threadbare garments, but
their faces were radiant, even if their
feet were bare, for were they not to
recite in the big church, and sing per-
fectly new songs Ia great thing here }
and, browning glory of all, the Hanum
was going to give them "bea-u-tiful"
picture such as they had last year-that
is, if they did not forget to sing, as they
sometimes do, and if they spoke loud,
and-and, was there any other provisO
attached? A look of responsibility set
tied down on their faces as they
crowded around their teachers, all sit
ting on the floor, of course. First,
came the 9Th Psalm in concert, then
singing, and then bswildering variety
of recitations-prophecies concerning
the coming of Christ, beginning at
Genesis by the older ones and the story
of his birth by the "little fine" ones, as
they say in Turkish, long hard chapters
of Catechism, and short poems, but
especially Bible verses, and then two of
the tiny ones gravely questioned each
other as to the meaning and right use
of the Sabbath, and others had motion
songs. A few were as old as twelve
years, but they graduate into the church
Sunday school now and leave more
room for the small ones. Every teacher
keeps record of attendance and
writes down the money given, and
every child is expected to bring coin
equal to 1-5 of cent. During the year
| find that we have oathered S15. 40