Evening star., 1947-03-02

take on the job. There never was
any question in her mind what she
had to do then. She took with her
the blessings Of President Coolidge
and his State Departments little
money Of her own and the contribu-
tions of some friends. She went to
Damascus and started school her
self.
Students Become Leaders,
Some Join Her Faculty
She was still there when World
War II brought the American boys
to Syria. In a sprawling mud palace
in the center Of the city she was
teaching more than 600 Syrian kids
how to add and subtract and live
decent, clean lives-how to read,
write, talk and think in Arabic,
French and English. She taught
them so well that many former stu
dents had become lawyers, doctors
snd teachers, themselves powerfully
influencing the life Of the country.
A few of her teachers were Amer
ican volunteers. Most were gradu-
ates Of the school. It was Essie
herself, however, who made the
thing go. Her students, boys and
girls, ranged in age from 3 to 80,
and she knew them all.
She could be as kind as a saint
or as tough as a sergeant major, as
the occasion demanded. She told
everybody exactly what she thought,
and everybody-from the tiniest tot
in her kindergarten to the fiercest
shiekh in the desert-loved and
feared her.
And the life of the old city had
changed during the generation in
which she taught so many of its
children. The lot OF the women,
particularly. was improved. Girls
were allowed to sit in the fields and
on the river banks in the evening,
II they wished. They could even
stroll In the streets after sunset.
They could 60 out wearing a coat
instead Of the heavy, sacklike outer
garment Of 20 years ago, and it
was no longer necessary for them
to cover their faces with impene-
trably thick wells.
Essie called her contribution to
this sort of change a drop in the
bucket" Damascus knew better
and so, in her heart, did she.
Servicemen Found Solace
In Talking With Essie
To the homesick young men from
the United States, Essie's room in
the school was a far more impor-
tant place than the American Con-
sulate could ever have been. Hours
on end, the sturdy old lady lis
tened to their stories and memories
of home, while she fed them flap
jacks and coffee, American style.
They gathered around her rickety
piano and beloved familiar songs
while she sat on the sofa, nodding
and smiling.
It seemed to them she stood for
what was best Of America. Yet she
had not always been American. She
was Latvian peasant who received
a German education and worked in
Russia before coming to the United
States In 1908.
To a few, she told her story. How
the wildflowers smelled on her
parents little farm near the village
OF Ruien, where they went to bed
when the sun set at II pm. and got
up when it rose again three hours
later. How, in true feudal stlye,
her older brother was adopted by
the old, deaf German Baroness Won
Rosen, who lived in a great, glover
ing castle called Groszroop. How he
drowned In the Breslaw River when
she was 8. How, because she looked
like him, she was sent to take her
dead brothers place. And how she
cried all the way to the castle,
budding alone in the back Of a
coach as the galloping horses kicked
sand in her face.
She lived 20 years in Groszroop,
educated by private tutors, reading
everything she could find and form
ing deep attachment for the bed
ridden baroness, whose constant
companion and nurse she became.
She held the dying old 'lady's hand
and was remembered handsomely
in her will. The baroness sisters
wanted Essie to stay on in the
castle. She did-until one winters
night in 1904, when the revolu-
tionary tides that were already be-
ginning to creep through the Rus
sian provinces Tapped at Groszroop's
walls, and the ancient fortress was
burned to the ground.
Revolution Was Shock
To Her Sheltered Life
Essie, aged 20, took what posses
sions she could carry and walked
away through the snow by the light
OF the burning building. She moved
in with nearby friends.
Sheltered as she was, Essie had
thought little, until that moment,
about the possibility or the meaning
Of revolution. She held a strange
position in the social middle ground,
fully trusted neither by the aris-
tocracy nor by the people.
Even today, Essie is reluctant to
talk about her feelings and actions
during this period. She is . little
afraid people win say she Is .