The Detroit times., 1914-11-16
II LANGUAGES
.REPRESENTEDIN In
Y. M. c. A. MEET
Multiplicity of Tongues Ham.
pers Work in Turkey, Says
Secretary
TELLS INCIDENTS OF
MISSIONARY EFFORT
Gomez in Touch With Hundreds
Who Never Heard Of
Christianity

Many interesting phases or the hu-
man side OF missionary work-much
OF II performed during war times
have been brought to Detroit by Oar
ius A. Davis, general secretary OF De-
troits branch OF the Y. M. G. A, In
Constantinople, for the past four
years.
As Red Cross workers, Mr.. Davis
and his assistant ID. j. Van Bommei.
were able TO render Q valuable ser
vice during the Balkan war In the
care OF the sick and wounded men as
well as In making the barracks where
the men were housed, sanitary place
In which to live. Thousands of pieces
of linen were laundered under the su-
pervision OF Mr.. Davis and army off,
GERS and the soldiers were better
taken care Of than ever before.
while II was somewhat Of a shock
to the Turkish director to see Amer
lean gentlemen actually working
with their hands," says Mr.. Davis,
"he seemed to be very grateful to
be able to give the soldiers clean
linen. He said with evident convic-
tion that no one else would have un-
dertaken the work we did"
"one Of the most dificult problems
confronting any sort Of organized
Christian work In the Turkish en-
pire," says Mr.. Davis, 'is that Of the
great variety Of languages. For that
reason IL has been hard to get men
together, though at the opening meet
ing In the Y. M. C. A. quarters n
Constantinople, II different languages
were represented. At the billiard
table one night, for example, there
were four men. no one Of whom spoke
the others language. Still these fel.
lows came together under the roof
OF the Y. M. G. A. and made them.
selves understood by means Of signs
"In q public meeting II is often
necessary to ha eva hah dosen In.
terpreters, and always It 10 necessary
to combat natural race hatred
which exists everywhere throughout
the Moslem empire.
"A Moslem or even q resident OF
Constantinople, for that matter, has
no civic pride-no idea Of helping the
other fellow or even Of doing any
thing for the benefit Of the city. II
II, perhaps, the most cosmopolitan
city In the world. and there are many
prejudices and hatreds to overcome.
Ten per cent Of the participating
membership OF the Y. NJ 9. A., how
ever. is Moslem. and that II to us {
very encouraging sign: for gradually
the culture and ideals Of the west arr
beginning TO perIneate ino the nation
al consciousness there, and In th<
years to come the Christian institu
tons In operation there must have q
great influence.
There were 30 men present at ths
opening Of our association quarters
four years ago. The first year we
had membership OF 500 men; now
the figure Is considerably over that
about 600.
Hundreds of these men never be
fore heard the gospel OF Christianity
And. Of course, we have considered Il
great privilege to be able TO In
struct them wherever We could &c,
an audience"
Mr.. Davis relates Christmas story
that Is perhaps typical of the work OF
many other missionaries and work
ers In the foreign field
"On Christmas night after every
one else had gone, asked one oi
the Turkish soldiers who had read
the New Testament nearly through Il
he would not read the Christmas
story from the second chapter oi
Luke to the other men. I wish you
could have seen the faces Of those
soldiers and the approving mods oi