The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-10-15

The wife of one of the members of
the staff of the Advertiser has lived
in Asia Minor and is a personal acquaint-
ance of Miss Stone, the abducted mis-
sionary. She says:
The abduction of Miss stone, a mission
airy of the American Board OF Foreign
Missions in Bulgaria, by brigands, and
the facts that the Board does not pay
the ransom demanded, has caused some
unfamiliar with the methods of BuIga-
rian and Circassian kidnappers to cast
some reflections on the Board From
1880 to 1886 the writer was in Asia and
repeatedly reports would come of the
kidnapping of some of the colporters of
the British and Foreign Bible Society
operating in different parts of Asia and
Turkey in Europe. Large sums We're de-
manded and paid for their release, and
| it occurred so often the Bible Society
felt that the wisest way to deal with the
brigands and the quickest way to stop
brigandage was to refuse to pay ran
SONS.
Later the American Board after hav-
ing similar experiences, decided upon the
same course.
1t has now been many years since
missionary of the American Board has
| been abducted in Bulgaria. that hotbed
of political intrigue, and if, as it is now
thought to be, the work of the "Macedo-
nian Revolutionary Committee to raise
funds for work for which they were or
! ganized, it shows the shrewdness and
depth of their schemes in selecting such
a person as Miss Stone, so we'll beloved
by the Bulgarian people. She is a most
beautiful spirited and devoted woman
and has done wonderful things for Bull
| on RIG E1-nn and ORR,
years she has lived with them Then
too no missionary is held in greater es-
TEEN by the Board at home, and surely
if it were within their power, the $4,000
demanded for her release would be paid
They require this money to be paid be-
fore the middle of October or Miss
Stone be married to the leader of the
band, or killed, which perhaps would be
more merciful. She has written two let
tiers to the mission, begging them not to
look further for her, as she was foot
sore and weary, and unable to walk, by
being dragged from place to place
The writer well remembers hearing
! Sunset Cox" our minister to Turkey at
that time. at a reception given in Con-
stantinople to Americans, tell of the ex-
perience of some Americans in ascending
Mt. Olympus. They We're overtaken by
brigands but they were so well armed
IIley maze their ESCAPE. lltSSe UepTSud-
lions for plumber when it could be OBJ
tanned, or ransom when there was a like
| lihood of it's being paid, has been a
menace to travellers for years and years.
But as the writer has been told repeat
eddy. they never kidnap women.~ 1t is
| too much trouble to take care of them, -
| it shows the straits to which the a6duc-
tors have been driven for money in
| taking Miss Stone
The girls college in Constantinople is
on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, and
Robert College, for men. is on the Euro
pean side of the Bosphorus. Just a short
distance back of Robert College are the
! large strawberry fields. where it is I'M
safe for pedestrians to wander or for
! horseback riders to trespass. without a
strong escort, for fear of being kidnap-
| ped,
| For several miles outside of the walls
! surrounding the grounds of the girls col
| lege in Scutari Constantinople there are
charming roads for horseback riding: but
the parties must be large and well
guarded that dare venture more than a
| mile away. Bulgaria is virtually an in
dependent principality, but under the SUI
zerainty of Turkey. That is the reason
our minister to Constantnople has the
rescue of Miss Stone Certainly the sui