The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1910-03-31
IN ASIATIC TURKEY
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M AOlAllU lUkhEl
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to the mosque and killed there. The
wealthier families give some of the
meat to the poorer ones, for every
Turk must eat some of that meat
some time through the week. I got
one pretty good picture of one of the
calves, as it was led through the
streets. They decorate them up in any
way that they can, paper chains and
flowers, etc., and take them to the
mosque to be killed.
Any of the Armenians who can give
each other presents at their New
Years, which is IA or Is days after
ours, as they use the old system of
reckoning. Enough more presents
had come from the Normal girls, and
other friends in America, so that We
gave presents all around again, to
the astonishment of the girls. They
said "Santa Claus is very rich this
year." have been wondering if a
good many of you wouldn't like to
make presents to send for next Christ
mas. There is one advantage in
sending presents here-you could make
them in summer time and put them
all into box to send by freight, and
have them all out of the way before
you began to think about presents
for other people. I could tell any
number of things that you could fix
to send: Some of the little card pin
holders that the Normal girls sent,
gave the girls great delight. But a
little work bag, fitted up with needles
and pins, including safety pins, few
spoOls of thread, a five cent thimble,
and perhaps little pair of scissors,
would be about the most useful pres
ent that could be put into small
space. OF course hair ribbons and
handkerchiefs the girls always like,
or aprons.
Probably Blanche has told you,
that for comfort these people need
about three times the clothes they
get. If you could send whole box
full of old jackets, any style, they
would be fine. These people will
wear them until the sleeves gradually
wear off shorter and shorter, and
finally drop off, below the elbow;
great holes wear in the back where
their shoulder blades rub, and still
they tie them on with strings, and
patch over the holes with other kinds
of cloth, etc. You folks never saw a
ragged person; you don't know what
rags are; nor you don't know any,
thing about patching. When I see
poor people on the street I always
find myself wondering whether, some
time, several years ago, perhaps, they
had a garment that was all the..same
kind of cloth, or whether they were
originally made out of rags. Often
it was the latter, I'm sure, for.sso
washwoman showed us some under
wear that she had made for her boy,
it was just like a crazy quilt, but was
going to be pretty warm, as it was
made from either flannel or outing
flannel pieces, that Miss Bushnell
had given to her. So if any of you
have anything warm, that can't:.sbe
used there, it can here, if you can pay
the freight on it. Blanche says it
costs over 81 a cubic foot.
THE PERsIANs.
There are a lot of Persians, all
around us. We have three of the
girls in our school, which is most
marvellous, as they are Mohamme-
dams, and of course the girls in our
school have to take bible study, at
tend prayers, etc. Almost every week
one of the Persian men brings rug
or carpet to show to me, because I
bought little rug from him and a
carpet for my room.
I said these Perisans we're Moham-
medans, but they have whole lot of
extra performances in their religion,
that the Turks don't have; one of
these is perfectly awful. The Persian
consulate is just under our windows,
so we get the full benefit. Some time,
don't know how many hundred years
ago, the Persians killed one of their
religious leaders, and they have been
repenting of it ever since. Every
year, for forty days, the whole race
does penance for it, and you won't be
able to believe it, when I tell you how
they do penance. They beat them
selves with whips and chains until
the blood runs from them in streams,
and the more scars a man can show
on his back and breast, the better
man he is. The women are not allowed
to use whips or chains, as the scars
would mar their beauty, so they stick