The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1920-07-01

f -
And now yoy = ~ like to hear how
things are go in the Orphanage
hele. wrote Il .tter for publication
in the Times-E Z I'd some months ago
but never knc 3 whether it was pub
lished or not. t was I seem to have
missed that ,ber. q wish you
would ask Trr p aw to send it to me-. }
If you Think )ple would be inter-
csted, will " ut this in the Times
Record.
The plant at Chair OF which l
am director, now a fawily of over
600 children -, which $50 are girls,
and the rest boys. There is also a
hospital which accommodates 80 or
35 beds. The children range from
about four years to 16 years old. We
occasionally get them younger, when
someone leaves an infant of year or
less on our doorstep during the night.
But we have to find some other place
for such charges. l have the charge
of finance and purchasing departments
and all management of outside affairs
such as building, repairs, and there
are many Of these as all the buildings
are old and many of them decrepit-
hiring and firing help, and general
supervision over everything. Mrs.
Moultrie has charge of all the opera
tions inside the buildings, the schools
and the household affairs. The whole
thing is on a pretty large scale, and
is real job. The children are most
interesting, and many Of them have
most pitiful stories to tell. This is
especially true of the Armenian chill
dren, who have nearly all of them
been through the deportations Of 1915
and 1916. Many Of them have seen
their parents killed right before their
eyes by the unspeakable Turks and
Kurds. That they have any senses
left is amazing when one hears their
stories. It takes about 100 people,
including everyone, to handle this
crowd of youngsters; in U. S. A. it
would be done by about 80 or 35. The
rule here is zone man, one job" And
they never break the rule. The pay
is correspondingly small. Our teach
ers receive besides their board and
room from $40 to 500 month. They
are not very high grade, being prac-
tically all native teachers-and do
not think they earn more than they
get. Few of them seem to realize that
they have responsibilities. They are
just like children. The scale of wages
for our workmen sounds ridiculously
small when we know what is being
paid in the u. S. For instance our
carpenters get one dollar and half
day and board themselves; stone
nasons the same; unskilled workmen,
mason's helpers, one dollar day; our
headcook gets $12 month and board;
the other cooks considerably less. The
dining room girls get about two and
a half dollars a month. This zone
man, one job" idea is quite impossible
from "our" point Of view. For in
stance we have three horses. One for
single carriage and two for the dou-
BILE carriage. It takes three men for
these three horses. One to drive the
single carriage though he is often not
needed as one of the staff drives; the
other to drive the dauble carriage;
and the third to clean these same three
horses, as the man who drives the
horse would not think he could posi-
bly, clean it. The consequence is that
all three Of them are sitting around
much Of the time doing nothing. A
live American goes pretty nearly
crazy seeing so many people loafing
on the job. But when one objects, he
is always met with the reply, "C'est
phabitude." I seldom ride in any
of these conveyances, as I have a
Ford, and am independent. But am
expected to take helper along in
that. Sometimes I do, and sometimes
l don't. He is nuisance most of the
time; when walk across the road he
insists upon grabbing my coat or any
little thing which I happen to have in
my hand, and walking along about six
feet behind me. It is considered to
not be "comme il faut" to carry any,
thing yourself. If I buy spool of
thread or half a dozen lemons, this
chap has to tag along behind and car
ry it or them for me. I feel just as
you would under the same conditions,
a regular fool to have to stand this
sort Of thing.
We have many and various exper-
fences. About week ago at five
20 clock in the morning we received
word that the chief district industrial
relief manager, who lives at the foot
of the mountain about five miles from
here, with three others had gone over
the cliff with his Ford up in the
mountains about IS miles away. I
took the Ford and drove to Beirut for
further informatida. Major Nicol,
who is my chief, decided to go with me
Immediately in his Studebaker to the
place of the accident. We started at
II o'clock and arrived at the place,
a small village 5000 feet up in the Le-.
banon mountains, at 6 that evening.
We found all the injured in bed in the
home~of the Sheik of the village, who
was a sort of feudal lord of the dis
trict, and a fine chap. Fortunately
they were not badly injured as we had
feared, the worst damage being to the
car which was pretty badly demolish-
ed. It was a case of broken radius
rod. We stayed at the home Of the
sheik all night, being very Hospitality
entertained. He and his whole vii
lage are Maronites-a branch of the
Church of Rome-and at about $3.50
the whole family, and retainers were
called in to a short evening service