Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-02-25
BY MABEL WHEELER.


of the greatest privileges possible" said
Miss Margaret Jean Butter as she told
of her adventures while at the orphanage
in Sidon under the direction of the Near
East relief After her war work in
France was over Miss Butter was trans
ferred to Mt. Zion, near Jerusalem, in
relief work and from there to Sidon.
Being sent to Mt Zion sounded odd to
me-" she said. II had hopes that my
soul after death would be In such a place,
but 1 did not expect my mortal self to
dwell on Mt. Zion"
Miss Butter is in Indianapolis in the
interest of the Near East relief work,
lecturing among the various clubs and
societies. She has been sent by the Ma
tionaI Relief Workers in New York. She
recently csme over from Armenia.
WONIEN'S POSITION
INTOLERABLE.
Truly" she said while discussing the
women of the Far East, 1.-The position of
women over there is intolerable. The
Turks have four wives, according to the
teaching of Mohammed, which is consid-
cred lawful and then they have as many
other women In their hareme as they de-
sire and they desire a great number with
frequent changes. The manner Of di-
vOrcing a wife by the Mohammaden Turk
is very simple. He las her turned out
and she sits on the outside step, which
indicates that she ia divorced. The Mo
hammedan- Armenian, however, while
privileged to have four wives, very sell
dom has more than one A few keep two,
but al a rule they are faithful to one"
Perhaps the most startling revelation
to American women that Miss Butter dis
closes is the almost unbelievable fact
that in the village market where she went
TO buy supplies women were bought and
sold. She related an incident concerning
a friend. a nurse in a relief station,
who on going TO market one day heard
them selling at the slave market and, on
turning, saw that a 3-year-Old girl was
on the auction block. No one cared TO
buy her as she was too young for the
Turkish harem The nurse had no ex
perience in buying human beings, but
she finally made it plain to the slave
merchant that she wished to buy the
child and for . cents she purchased her.
CHILD's LIFE
VALUED AT CENTS.
Think" said Miss Butter, as she con
Guided the story, "a little child's life over
there is valued at ? cents"
One Near East Relief orphanage, said
Miss Butter, cared for 300 children all
the time and fed 1900 and Of all they
ca red for only one died. although when
they We're picked up they did not look
as If they could live, they were IN such
pltiable conditions. The manner of gath
ering the starving children she described
as lust like picking up dead leaves from
the roadsides and fields" The trucks
are sent out from the various relief sta
tions and go out and gather them in.
when | returned to America said
Miss Butter. lit seemed an irony of fate
that eatables over here were being
thrown into garbage pals that would
have saved lives over there why, II we
had merely the wasted food from over
here at the relief stations, there would be
no lives lost from starvation. They
would be fairly OYer-fed. As IL is we
have only enough 10 keep some alive
This enthusiastic relief worker has
seen all the horrors, has worked right
under the shadow Of the Turkish village
with only d few English soldiers in the
town and no protection at the orphan
age but trusted natives and the teachers
and employees. no other American woman
or English woman with her and yet she
seems to have had no fear and is eager
to return She has awakened In tho
night to find q Turk bending over her
bed. in fact four times she has had sucn
an experience at different places, but
gun has saved her, for they all fed
when she exhibited her, weapon
NOT WITHOUT
AMUSING PHASE.
Il has not been all horrors and wick
edness. Miss Butter tells OF many anus
| ing incidents, one particular interesting
one being a wedding at the orphanage
The romance was q surprise to me-
| said Miss Butter. II was so blind that
/ | did not see the courtshlp by my finest
/ man teacher, Asset. Of Dorita, my cook.
/ Dorita was a beautiful Syrian girl OF
/ IS and ASST was about %. But the nrst
( thing I knew they annodnced that they
4 were going to be married and, of course,
| the wedding was to be the big event OF
/ the year. They were both Christians, so
we arranged TO have Red Cross worker
/ re2 dthe service. We decorated the room
gorgeously with Red Cross flags, which
was really against the rules, for we were
not allowed TO display any flags at all,
/ but 1 had to have decorations and so l
| took a chance on being court martialed
and disgraced.
81 sent the boys out to gather flowers
and never were there such wonderful wild
flowers as there were in the fields around
Sldon They brought in loads of fam
ing red anemone, vivid peoples, wonder
| full vari -coIored Wild orchids and great
white Shasta daisies. l made an arch
of flowers and the room was perfectly
wonderful looking, but-the sad part Of
it was that the bride never once saw all
the beauty, for native custom is for the
bride to keep her eyes shut all during
the ceremony and never to open them
upon the bridal room. We took pictures
of 1t so that she could get an idea Of 1t.
/ SHRIEKS HEARD
/ ON WEDDING DAY.
early in the morning of the wedding
day 1 heard the most blood curdling
shrieks and walls coming from down
stairs and l rushed madly down to see
whether some of my children were being
murdered. l was almost filed with fear,