lliilili P!iiiiyiiiiiiiniiiiiiilii|iiiiiiiiiii;iniii|ii«iiiii!iiiiiiiiWiP^^^^^ GTE O R GE WXSHBn RK i THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE AND RECOLLECTIONS OF ROBERT COLLEGE CHRISTOPHER R. ROBERT FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE AND RECOLLECTIONS OF ROBERT COLLEGE BY GEORGE WASHBURN, D.D., LL.D. Commander of the Princely Order of St. Alexander (Bulgaria) Grand Officer of the National Order oj Civil Merit (Bulgaria) BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 1909 COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY GEORGE WASHBURN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published October iqoq DK r PREFACE This book has been written at the request of many friends of Robert College. It embodies a history of the College from its foundation to the close of its fortieth year, 1903. I have chosen to make it a record of personal recollections, because this seemed to be the only way in which I could write freely of events and personalities as they ap- peared to me at the time, without compromising the present administration of the College or mak- ing it responsible in any way for my opinions or actions. It has been my purpose to make it as far as pos- sible a history of the College, but the picture of a college in Constantinople during these years could not be drawn without a background of incidents, personalities and events, such as would have no place in the story of a college in America. On the other hand, it did not seem wise to make the back- ground more attractive than the picture, or even to set the latter in the frame of a detailed history of the Turkish Empire. The Introduction is a re- view of the events of the last fifty years which have led to the recent revolution in Constantinople. j4 1S2G004 CONTENTS Introduction xv CHAPTER I The Founding of Robert College Mr. Robert interested in founding a College in Constantinople — The Messrs. Dwight — Dr. Hamlin invited to join Mr. Robert — Purchase of a site — The Trustees of the College incorporated in New York — Opposition of the Turkish government — Mr. Morgan and Admiral Farragut have apart in securing an Imperial Charter 1 CHAPTER n The Opening of the College at Bebec Name of the College — Religious status — Language — Course of study — Resignation of the two professors — Cholera epidemic — New tutors — Beneficiaries — Syrian Protestant College founded at Beirut — Lycee of Galata Serai — Erection of building at Hissar — Dr. Hamlin and Mr. Robert 14 CHAPTER in Last Ta\'o Years at Bebec. 1869-1871 Dr. Hamlin devoted to building at Hissar — The Bulgarians in the College — Visit of Professors Park, Smith, and Hitchcock — Self- suppoit — Visit of Mr. and Mrs. Robert — Visit of General Sheridan — Typhoid epidemic — Removal of the College to Roumeli Hissar . . 33 CHAPTER IV Ninth College Year. 1871-1872 Dr. Hamlin leaves for America — Tlie fall of French influence in Turkey — Cholera epidemic — Purchase of additional land — Achmet Vefik Pasha — Visits of Professor North, General Sherman, and Lieutenant Grant — Corporal punishment — I am appointed Director of the College — Failure of Dr. Hamlin to raise money in America — Greological work 51 vii CONTENTS CHAPTER V Development of the College. 1872-1873 Enlargement of the College — Appointment of Dr. Long and IVIr. Gros- venor as professors and Mr. Djedjizian as adjunct professor — A tem- porary study hall built — Racial conflict — Our Turkish neighbors — Cricket matches with English naval officers — Visit of Mr. Bancroft the historian — Why no senior class 64 CHAPTER VI Religious Questions. 1873-1874 Religious work of the College — Question raised by the Armenians — Correspondence on the subject — Attacks on the College in the news- papers — Great snow-storm — New apparatus 76 CHAPTER Vn Visit of Mr. Robert. 1874-1875 Political excitement — I visit Bulgaria — Seditious movements — Mr. Robert spends six weeks at the College — Horace Maynard appointed American Minister — Course of study — Excess of linguistic work . . 89 CHAPTER Vin Political Crisis in Turret. 1875-1876 How the crisis affected the College — Massacre of Christians in Bul- garia — Deposition and death of Abd-ul-Aziz — Deposition of Murad — Abd-ul-Hamid Sultan — War with Servia and Montenegro — How the Bulgarian massacres were made known to the world — IVIidhat Pasha and Sir Henry EUiot — Visit of Dr. Coe — Arrival of American war-ships 100 CHAPTER IX The Russo-Turkish War. 1876-1877 The European Conference — Lord Salisbury — The first Turkish Par- liament — War with Russia — The "Vandalia" — Fall of Midhat Pasha — Sir Henry Layard — Question of closing the College — The Greek Department 115 viii CONTENTS CHAPTER X The Russians at San Stefano. 1877-1878 Mr. PanaretoflF appointed professor — The Russians at San Stefano — General Skobelell' — The English fleet at Constantinople — The treaty of San Stefano — The treaty of Berlin — Dr. Long acting President of the College — Dr. Ilamhu at Bangor 127 CHAPTER XI Mr. Robert's Death. 1878-1879 What he left to the College — I am appointed President — Mr. van Milhngen appointed jjrofessor — First catalogue of the College — Rt. Hon. W. E. Forster and Matthew Arnold — An attempt to raise money in America for an Armenian University in Constantinople — Bulgaria adopts a Constitution and chooses a Prince 137 CHAPTER Xn After the War. 1879-1880 Trip around the Black Sea in U. S. Corvette "Wyoming" — Inner Hfe of the College — Our relations with Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia — Special mission of Mr. Goshen — Insecurity in Constantinople — Mur- der of the College steward — Dr. Hamlin invited to return to Con- stantinople 149 CHAPTER Xm 'J^vo Years in America. 1880-1882 Political situation in Turkey and Bulgaria — Prince Alexander — Commencement exercises — My work in America 158 CHAPTER XIV The College at the End of Twenty Years. 1882-1884 Mr. Bryce — Lord Granville and the Egyptian question — General Lew Wallace and his relation to the same question — Lord DuflFerin — "The Teaching of the Aj)ostlcs" — Russia and Bulgaria — Condition of the College — Professor Ehou 168 ix CONTENTS CHAPTER XV The Great Crisis in Bulgaria. 1884-1886 Dr. Long visits America — Mrs. Washburn and I spend two months in Bulgaria — The Philippopolis revolution — Edwin Pears — Sir William White and Mr. Nelidoff — Sir Edward Thornton, British Ambassador — Samuel S. Cox, American Minister 179 CHAPTER XVI The Overthrow of Prince Alexander. 1886-1888 Russia secures the kidnapping and dethronement of Prince Alexander — Mr. Stambouloff — Prince Ferdinand — Enlargement of the College — Visit of Rev. Dr. Arthur Brooks — Mr. Oscar Straus, American Minister — Visit of Mr. and Mrs. John S. Kennedy and Mr. Walter of The Lon- don Times — Founder's Day 189 CHAPTER XVII Armenian and Bulgarian Troubles. 1888-1890 Appointment of Professor Anderson — Armenian troubles — Russian intrigues in Bulgaria — New buildings projected — Professor Grosve- nor resigns — Demoralizing influence of political agitations . . . .199 CHAPTER XVIII Another Two Years in America. 1889-1891 Raising money for new buildings — Mr. Stead on Robert College — Winter in Florida — Mr. Blaine and a treaty with Turkey — Meeting o£ the American Board at Minneapolis — Various experiences in soliciting money 208 CHAPTER XIX Improvements in the College. 1890-1892 Kennedy Lodge erected for President's house — The Censorship — Mr. Chamberlain — Death of Sir William White — Sir Philip Currie, British Ambassador — Young Men's Christian Association — Parlia- ment of Religions — Question of elective courses — Completion of new Science Hall — Mr. Ormiston appointed professor 217 CONTENTS CHAPTER XX Trying Times in Turkey. 189'2-1894 A. W. Terrell, of Texus, American Minister — The Grand Vizier on Robert College — Death of wife of Professor van Millingen — Im- provement of courses of study — ParUamentof Relif^ions at Chicago — Serious earthtjuake at Constantinople — Miss Hart appointed matron . iid CHAPTER XXI Reorganization of the Board of Trustees. 1894-1896 Massacres of Armenians — The first Constantinople massacre — What England failed to do — Visit of Prince Ferdinand and of Bishop Potter — Assassination of a Greek student — Beneficiaries 235 CHAPTER XXII The Great Constantinople Massacre. 1896-1897 Anxiety at the College — Turkish troops come at midnight — Sir Michael Herbert — Winter in Egypt — War with Greece — The Powers occupy Crete 245 CHAPTER XXIII Further Development of the College. 1897-1899 The new Board of Trustees take measures to enlarge the College — Miss Stokes and Theodorus Hall — Legacies — President Angell, American Minister — Sir Nicholas O'Conor — The Spanish war — Athletic Club — Water supply — Lord Rosebery — Sir William Ram- say on Robert College 254 CHAPTER XXIV Death of Dr. Hamlin. 1899-1901 Important action by Trustees — Missionary Conference at New York — Mr. Lybyer appointed professor — Sudden death of Dr. Hamlin — Bulgaria at Paris Exhibition — Mr. Lloyd Griscom, American Charge d'Affaires — Letters of the Greek Patriarch 264 xi CONTENTS CHAPTER XXV New Professors and New Buildings. 1901-1902 Death of Dr. Long — Macedonia — Capture of Miss Stone — Assassi- nation of President McKinley — Two hundred and fifty American visit- ors — Appointment of Mr. W. S. Murray, Mr. G. S. Murray, Dr. C. W. Ottley, and Dr. George L. Manning as professors — Turkish and Ger- man departments — Theodorus Hall occupied 275 CHAPTER XXVI My Resignation of the Presidency. 1902-1903 President Roosevelt and Secretary Hay — Mr. Leishman settles impor- tant questions with the Turkish Government — Troubles in Macedonia — The Dodge Gymnasium and professors' houses — Visit of Dr. Coe — Gifts to the College — My resignation and the appointment of Rev. C. F. Gates, D. D., LL. D., as President 284 CHAPTER XXVII The Work of Forty Years. 1863-1903 293 APPENDIX A. Number and Nationality of Students and Graduates each year . 305 B. Receipts from Students, and Expenses at Constantinople, each year 307 C. The Faculty of the College, forty-fifth year, 1907-1908 .... 308 Z). Former Members of the Faculty 309 E. Former American Tutors 309 F. Mr. Robert's Requirements for Tutors 311 G. Summary of the Report of the Treasurer of Robert College for 1909 312 Index 313 ILLUSTRATIONS Christopher R. Robert Frontispiece Cyrus Hamlin . . 30 George Washburn 58 Hamlin Hall in 1873 72 Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz 104 Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid 116 Albert L. Long . 158 Prince Alexander of Bulgaria 18-i King Ferdinand of Bulgaria 240 Panorama of Robert College 294 Graduates and their Wives, Sofia, 1904 . . . 300 INTRODUCTION Constantinople has long been the queen city of Europe. It has been an imperial city for sixteen hundred years; once the chief city of Christendom, the centre of Christian missions, but since 1453 the capital of the Turkish Empire and of the Moham- medan world ; for centuries the one defense of Europe against the advance of the Moslem hordes of Arabia ; for three centuries the terror of the Christian world; during the last century the chief battle-ground of European diplomacy over the East- ern Question. \Mien I first knew it, in J8.5fi,4t-was no longer the city of Suleiman the Magnificent, or of Mah- moud II, the great reformer, who first undertook to check the progress of decay and save the empire by introducing something of European civilization. His son, Abd-ul-Medjid, owed his throne to the intervention of the European powers, and they used their influence, under the inspiration and di- rection of Lord Stratford, the English ambassador, to europeanize the government still further. This period of reform under outside influence ended with the Crimean War, and the treaty of Paris in 1856, when Turkey was formally recognized as one of the family of European States and her integrity guaranteed by treaty. Great changes had taken place in the empire. It had been consolidated and the government centralized. Much that was pictur- XV INTRODUCTION esque in Constantinople in the costumes of the people had disappeared; the Janissaries had been massacred; the turban had given place to the red fez ; but, after all, it was an Asiatic and not a Euro- pean city. The Turk himself was unchanged. The Sultan was an irresponsible autocrat, as his ances- tors had always been. The Turks generally were as ignorant and uncivilized as when they came from Central Asia in the thirteenth century. There were schools of theology, but otherwise education was unknown. The highest officials were often unable to read or write their own language. Still, there were great men among them, and one could not meet the humblest Turk without realizing that he belonged to the ruling race. For a few years after the Crimean War, Constan- tinople probably enjoyed more freedom than ever before, and more than most of the capitals of Eu- rope at that time. The government was weak, but feared nothing from the people, and left them very much to themselves. As the people of Constanti- nople were theoretically the guests of the Sultan, there was no conscription for the army and very few taxes of any kind. There was but little crime among the natives, and the police did not interfere with their private life. There was great freedom of speech, anything might be discussed in the ba- zaars or the coffee-shops, and as the Turks had not begun to read newspapers, there were no laws to limit the freedom of the press. There are no class distinctions among the Turks. Every Turk belongs to the ruling class and may aspire to the highest offices in the government. There was no- xvi INTRODUCTION thing to interfere with their individucal liberty so lono" as they observed the conventionalities of their Faith. There was a restfulness in life in Constantinople in those days which was refreshing to an Ameri- can. No Turk was ever in a hurry. Time was of no account. If a Turk moved, it was with deliber- ation and dignity. If he smoked, it was a tchibouk or a nargileh, and it was the business of the hour. No modern improvements had come to disturb the peace of the city and complicate the simple life of the people. A few small steamers had begun to ply on the Bosphorus, but it was still picturesque with thousands of graceful caiques and hundreds of sailing craft. I remember one day when more than a thousand ships passed up the Bosphorus. I counted more than three hundred in sight at once, all under full sail. All this has passed away. The Constantinople of fifty years ago will never be seen again. It is still an Asiatic city, still wonderfully beautiful, still the place of all others where I would choose to live, so long as I could enjoy the exceptional privileges of ex- territoriality secured to foreigners by the capitulations. For the subjects of the Sultan, the easy-going, happy-go-lucky government of fifty years ago was an era of relative liberty and comfort, which they have since learned to regret. But it was in those days that a few young Turks first woke up to a sense of their ignorance and the need of education. They founded a society and started a periodical to promote the progress of knowledge among their people. They used to come XVll INTRODUCTION to the American missionaries for aid and counsel. It was a new thing for the Turks, and the feeble beginning of the movement which has revolution- ized the government. In later years one of these young men was Minister of Public Instruction for the empire. In 1861 the reign of the weak but well-intentioned Abd-ul-Medjid came to an end, and his brother Abd-ul-Aziz ascended the throne, — a genuine Turk of the old school, as determined an autocrat as his father, but of unbalanced mind; wildly extrava- gant, to such an extent that he reduced the empire to bankruptcy; fond of cock-fighting and similar amusements. He once decorated a successful fight- ing-cock with the first class of the Order of the Medjidie. On another occasion he smashed the fur- niture and mirrors in his palace, in a fit of rage. During the first ten years of his reign, French influence was supreme in Constantinople, and two of the Turkish Ministers, Fuad and Aali Pashas, were recognized in Europe as statesmen of unusual ability. They induced the Sultan to ignore the tra- ditions of his ancestors and make a tour through Europe to visit the Emperor Napoleon. He was •careful to take with him the next heirs to the throne, his two nephews, Murad and Hamid, to guard against a revolution during his absence. On the occasion of his return and of the visit of the Empress Eugenie after the opening of the Suez Canal, we had the most magnificent fetes on the Bosphorus that Constantinople had ever seen. During these ten years of French influence there was comparative peace in Constantinople, except XVUl INTRODUCTION for the conflict between the Greeks and Bulgari- ans over their church relations. The Sultan was building palaces, buying ironclads for his navy, and making foreign loans to pay for them. The people were generally prosperous and contented, and there was always talk of reforms in the empire. But the influence of the great changes going on in Europe stirred the subject races of European Turkey to revolt against the Turkish rule. Servia, Wallachia and Moldavia were successful. The Cre- tans defeated the Turkish armies again and again, and maintained an heroic struggle for liberty for three years, aided by the Greeks ; but the powers of Europe allowed them to be subdued at last. The fall of the French Empire put an end to French influence in Constantinople; and as Bis- marck had no interest in the Eastern Question, there was a battle royal between England and Russia to win the confidence of the Sultan and control his policy. It was the object of Sir Henry Elliott, the British ambassador, to maintain and strengthen the Turkish Empire as a barrier against the ad- vance of Russia, while General Ignatieff, the Rus- sian ambassador, hoped to free the Slavic pro- vinces of European Turkey from Turkish rule, and make of them a bridge by which Russia could come to Constantinople. "WTiile the secret agents of Russia w^ere everywhere encouraging the Slavs to rise in rebellion against the Turks, Sir Henry Elliott was conspiring with the Turks to dethrone the Sultan, and at the same time to put down the revolutionary movements in the European Pro- vinces with fire and sword. xix INTRODUCTION The English ambassador cast in his lot with what was then first known as the Young Turkey party, the leader of which was Midhat Pasha. This party at that time was a sort of *' Cave of Adullam" ; the only thing in which they agreed was the desire to throw off the tutelage of Europe and restore the strength and independence of the Turkish Empire. For some of them this meant a great panislamic revival and the restoration of the ancient power of the Caliph. Others dreamed of a new Turkey, in which Moslems and Christians should unite to- gether to throw off the yoke of Europe, and build up a great and prosperous Ottoman Empire by themselves. A few were republicans, a few anar- chists. Midhat Pasha himself had been a very suc- cessful provincial governor, an able administrator, devoted to road-making and other public improve- ments, self-educated, and a most interesting talker on political affairs. His personal following was never very large, but his intimate relations with Sir Henry Elliott made him an important conspira- tor. The conflict went on until, in May, 1876, General Ignatieff appeared to have been defeated along the whole line. Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz was deposed, and a week later either murdered or allowed to commit suicide. First Murad and then Hamid was put upon the throne by Sir Henry and his Turkish allies. Midhat Pasha was Grand Vizier, and Gen- eral Ignatieff's proteges in the European provinces were slaughtered without mercy. It was dramatic, — a revolution and three sultans within three months, — but it was a barren victory for both XX INTRODUCTION Sir Henry Elliott and Midhat Pasha. Within a year Sir Henry was retired and Midhat Pasha sent into exile, to be finally assassinated in Arabia, while Turkey was plunged into a war with Russia wliich resulted in the loss of most of her European pos- sessions. There was one force which Sir Henry resolutely ignored, and that was the pul)lic opinion, the sympathies of the Christian world. The out- side world did not care whether the Sultan was Aziz or Murad or Hamid, but the wholesale mas- sacre of unarmed Christian people by the Turks in Bulgaria made a European intervention inev- itable, and when, at the end of the year 1876, the Conference of Constantinople opened a way for a peaceful settlement in a partial autonomy for the Christian provinces. Sir Henry and Midhat Pasha made the mistake of believing that Europe could be satisfied by the pretense that Turkey had suddenly become a constitutional government under which Moslem and Christian were to have equal rights. After this, war was inevitable, and no Christian state dared to ally itself with Turkey. This un- happy constitution of Midhat Pasha, which the Sultan had accepted to humbug Europe, had to wait thirty- two years before the autocratic rule of Abd-ul-Hamid had driven the Turks themselves to revolt and to seek refuge in its establishment. Life in Constantinople during these years of massacre, revolution and war, from 1875 to 1878, was anything but peaceful. They were years of wild excitement, sometimes of joy, sometimes of despair, on the part of the Turks. AVlien they had beaten the Servians, terrorized Bulgaria, defied Europe xxi INTRODUCTION by rejecting the demands of the Conference, and declared war with Russia, they were full of enthusi- asm and hope. During the first months of the war, when the Turks had checked the advance of the Russians, the Christian population of the city was alarmed for its own safety. When the tide turned and the city was filled with disbanded soldiers and starving Turkish refugees, the Christians prayed for the speedy coming of the Russians. The hor- rors of that winter can never be forgotten. Thou- sands of these poor Turks, men, women and chil- dren, died in the streets and mosques of starvation and of pestilence. They were too far gone, when they reached the city, to plunder it. Then came the Russian armies, which camped outside the city, and at whose headquarters the Sultan agreed to the treaty of San Stefano, which provided for the dismemberment of his empire. It was with great difficulty that the Sultan was dissuaded from abandoning Constantinople and retiring to Broosa. But for the arrival of the English fleet, he would probably have gone and the Russians would have occupied the city. The intervention of England led to the Congress of Berlin, in which Prince Bismarck professed to act the part of "an honest broker" between the Powers. The treaty of Berlin, which took the place of the treaty of San Stefano, humiliated Russia without helping Turkey, while it ignored the rights and interests of the people of the provinces of which it disposed. It was a triumph for Lord Bea- consfield, but it was a misfortune for England, and has been a source of trouble in Europe ever since. xxii INTRODUCTION When the war was over, peace concluded and the treaty of Berlin signed, Sultan Abd-uI-IIamid set himself to his task of rebuilding the shattered fabric of his empire. To those who knew Turkey best it seemed a hopeless task — the treasury bank- rupt, credit gone, the richest provinces lost, the army defeated and demoralized, the people dis- heartened or disloyal, and neighbors awaiting the chance to strike another blow. All honor to Sultan Hamid that he undertook this task with unshaken faith in the destiny of his country. He bore the burden alone, a solitary autocrat, trusting no one but himself, least of all his appointed ministers. He reigned supreme for thirty years after the war, and proved himself more than a match for all the diplo- mats of Europe. The story of these thirty years, up to the time when his autocratic rule was brought to an end by the revolution of July, 1908, ought to have been heroic. In fact it is pitiful, and the pity of it comes from two fatal mistakes. He was a self- constituted prisoner in his palace, and undertook to hold the whole administration of the empire in his own hands. As no man could do this work alone, he surrounded himself with irresponsible attendants, secretaries, valets, astrologers, spies and other vagabonds of various Moslem races, some of them the worst characters in the empire. He was possessed by the idea that he was in danger of assas- sination, and his attendants made him believe that it was only by their care that his life could be pre- served. They were but little better than a band of brigands, and there was no conceivable crime which they did not commit under the protection xxiii INTRODUCTION of the Sultan. Their chief object was pkmder, and as they were the real rulers of the empire, no one was safe from their extortions. There was no escape from this palace camarilla except in revolution. Europe would no doubt have intervened years ago, but for the fact that the German Emperor took this camarilla under his special protection. The Sultan himself had some ideas which were worthy of a great sovereign, and which he at- tempted to carry out. He saw the need of education and ordered the establishment of a great number of schools for Turks, even for girls. He saw the need of training for the officers of the army and in- duced the German Emperor to loan him a number of distinguished officers for this purpose. He en- couraged the building of roads and railways. He interested himself in the sanitary condition of the empire, built a number of admirable hospitals and reorganized the medical schools. He favored the development of the mineral resources of the coun- try and was no doubt interested in its general pros- perity. The palace camarilla had no interest in any of these things except so far as they afforded them opportunities for plunder. Death or exile was the fate of those who opposed them. They made the Sultan believe that his schools were fostering sedi- tion, and that the officers trained by the Germans were not to be trusted. They organized a system of espionage which employed thousands of spies and created a reign of terror for all intelligent Turks and Christians. Hundreds were secretly put to death, and many thousands sent into exile. Many others secretly escaped from the country. These xxiv INTRODUCTION were condemDed in their absence, and their pro- perty was confiscated. The suffering of the people all through the empire under this regime was ter- rible. Even the army was half starved and clad in rags. The Sultan took his religious rank as Caliph of the Mohammedan world more seriously than his immediate ancestors did, and in this he seems to have been encouraged by the palace camarilla. How far his motives were religious and how far political, it is impossible to say. One of his inti- mates assured a friend of mine that the Sultan was an agnostic, with no faith in any religion ; but he certainly did his best to rouse the militant spirit of Mohammedanism, not only in Turkey but all over the Moslem world, and also to break down the influence of his own Christian subjects. He would have taken away all their established rights, if Rus- sia and other Christian powers had not intervened in their behalf. The treaty of Berlin had a special article in the interest of the Armenians, but the Turks soon dis- covered that England was the only power interested in enforcing it, and nothing was done. The more loudly the Armenians appealed to Europe, the heavier was the hand of the Sultan; until finally, in 1894, the work of extermination was commenced in ancient Armenia. In 1895 there was a massacre of about a thousand in Constantinople, and as the powers tolerated this, the massacres went on for a year all over Asiatic Turkey, culminating in the great massacre in Constantinople in 1896, when some ten thousand were slaughtered in the streets XXV INTRODUCTION of the city, which literally ran with blood. Even worse than the killing of so many was the tireless plunder and persecution that went on from 1880 to 1908. It was only the palace camarilla and its agents that profited by this. It was through its influence that the Sultan approved it, while the better, more enlightened class of Turks felt that this plunder and massacre of the Christians was a political blunder and a great moral wrong, whatever provocation had been given by the iVrmenian revo- lutionists in their attempts to attract the attention and secure the support of Europe. The palace camarilla made a similar mistake in encouraging the revolutionists in Egypt, under the impression that in so doing it was working in the interest of panislamism, and strengthening the hands of the Caliph. The result was the occupa- tion of Egypt by England. Turkey had the oppor- tunity to join England in the occupation of the country, but failed to improve it. The loss which was most keenly felt at the palace was the cutting off of the golden stream of backsheesh which was always coming in from the Khedive. Following closely upon the loss of Egypt came the revolt of Eastern Roumelia, in 1885, and its annexation to Bulgaria. In this case Turkey hap- pily followed the lead of England and refused the demand of Russia that she should reconquer the province. The Czar had his revenge in stirring up the Servians to attack Bulgaria, and, when they were beaten, in kidnapping and dethroning Prince Alexander; but Bulgaria lived and flourished in spite of his enmity. xxvi INTRODUCTION These changes in Egypt and Bulgaria brought about great diplomatic conflicts in Constantinople, which added not a little to the interest of life in that city. In the summer of 1894 Constantinople was se- verely shaken by an earthquake, which caused the death of some fifteen hundred persons, most of whom were buried in the ruins of the bazaars, and great numbers of people camped out for a month, while the shocks were repeated almost every day. The same year the Greeks in Constantinople resented the action of the palace in restricting their rights, by closing all their churches, and Russia in- tervened in their behalf. In 1889, 1896, and 1897, there were revolts of the Greeks in Crete, which resulted in a war between Greece and Turkey, in which the Turks, aided by German officers, easily defeated the Greeks, and were prevented from occu- pying Athens only by the intervention of Europe; but, as generally happens in such cases, Turkey was not allowed to reap the fruits of victory. The European powers took possession of Crete, and nothing was left of the Turkish rule over the island but a small Turkish flag on an island in Suda Bay. In 1903 the storm-centre in Turkey was trans- ferred to Macedonia. The condition of the pro- vince had been pitiable ever since the Congress of Berlin had recommended that it be made an au- tonomous province by Turkey. The Turks refused to carry out this plan, and the Christian population was given over to be exterminated by Albanian brigands and Turkish officials. As Europe would do nothing to help them, the people finally revolted. xxvii INTRODUCTION This movement was directed by a committee of Bulgarian revolutionists which had brought the whole Christian population under its control by systematic terrorism ; and for a while it was success- ful. From that time up to July, 1908, the state of the country was such as to force the European pgwers to intervene. That nothing was accomplished by suc- cessive interventions was due to the fact that Rus- sia and Austria were allowed to take the lead, and neither of them desired any permanent settlement of the question. It was only the Western powers which had any real sympathy for the people of the province. The Turks might have put an end to the existing anarchy, but they preferred to encour- age the coniBict of races and religions which was going on and destroying the Christians. We may find some excuse for the Turks, but the conduct of the European powers, including Greece and Bul- garia, admits of no excuse. For five years Constan- tinople was constantly agitated by the different phases of this question. The revolution of July, 1908, was the triumph of a process of enlightenment which has been going on for many years among the Turks. They have ruled over the many conquered races of the empire for six hundred years in the spirit of Asiatic despots, and have shown themselves to be the most remark- able race that has ever come out of Central Asia to trouble the peace of Europe. Fifty years ago they were essentially unchanged from what they were when they first appeared in Asia Minor. This immo- bility has undoubtedly come from the unchange- able character of Mohammedanism. It is only since xxviii INTRODUCTION the Crimean War that any number of them have come under the influence of Christian civilization. Thirty years ago, in the time of Midhat Pasha, we first heard of a Young Turkey party, which pro- posed to modernize the form of government; hut it was too weak to influence Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid, and the palace camarilla waged an incessant war against the Christian nationalities which naturally sympathized with the Young Turkey party. The sudden and astonishing success of the revo- lution was due to many causes, first of all to the uni- versal fear and hatred for the existing government, and next, to the wisdom and tact of the Committee of Union and Progress which directed it. It was a wonderful inspiration which led them to attempt nothing at Constantinople, and, after having se- cured the support of the army, to strike their blow from Macedonia and revolutionize Constantinople by telegraph. The palace camarilla and the regi- ments of the Sultan's body-guard could do nothing. There was nothing in Constantinople for them to strike. Of course, behind all these things was the rapid progress of enlightenment among the Turks during these thirty years. This was due in some measure to the acts of the Sultan himself. He had seen the necessity of education for the Turks, and founded many schools of all kinds. He had brought Ger- man oflficers for his military schools, and German doctors for his medical schools and hospitals, who inspired the Young Turks with modern ideas. Every enlightened Turk sent into exile in the in- terior became a centre of light, and every one who xxix J INTRODUCTION managed to escape to Europe was filled with new ideas of society and of government. Other influences have been potent. Every mis- sionary station, and every school and college, has not only elevated its Christian students and the few Turks who attended these schools, but it has shown to all the value of education and made them more or less familiar with the progress of Christian civiliza- tion. The influence of education on the Bulgarians made a profound impression upon the Turks, even upon the Sultan himself. In addition to all these things, intelligent and patriotic Turks were moved by the rapid decline of their power and the dismemberment of the em- pire. They had a great history to stir their pride, and felt that by nature they were the equals of any other race while even in the Mohammedan world their influence was waning. They felt that their only hope lay in the transformation of their govern- ment, the education and general enlightenment of the Turkish people. It was a Turkish revolution in the interest of the Turks and designed to strengthen their power, but its leaders took for their watchwords. Liberty, Jus- ice, Equality and Fraternity, for all the races and religions of the empire, with equal rights and equal duties for all. As we in America proclaimed these principles in 1776, and have not yet been able to put them in force in all parts of our country, we may expect to wait some time before they can be fully carried out in Turkey ; but there is no reason to doubt the honesty and sincerity of the Young Turkey party in proclaiming them. XXX INTRODUCTION Abd-ul-IIamid professed to accept the new order of things which had transformed him from an auto- crat into a constitutional sovereign, but at heart he resented the dictation of the Young Turks and secretly plotted for their destruction. April 13, 1909, he startled the world by a counter revolution at Constantinople and the massacre of many thou- sand Christians in Asia Minor and Syria. In a few days his triumph seemed complete, but eleven days later the Young Turks, with an army from Macedo- nia, stormed and captured the city. Abd-ul-IIamid was taken prisoner, deposed and transported to Salonica, while his brother w^as proclaimed Sul- tan Mahomet V and reigned in his stead. How far the conquered races in Turkey, Moslem and Christian, will heartily accept this new form of Turkish rule and give it their support remains to be seen. The wild enthusiasm and joy of the first days of emancipation from the tyranny of the palace camarilla have passed, and already some of these nationalities have come to remember that what they have desired was not the reform but the de- struction of the Turkish Empire. Russia and Aus- tria are not likely to discourage this feeling, which has been the basis of their policy for more than a century. However this may be, we have to-day a new Constantinople hastening to be transformed into a European city. The old Asiatic Constantinople of a hundred, or even fifty years ago will soon disappear. Boston, 1909. FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE CHAPTER I THE FOUNDING OF ROBERT COLLEGE Robert College was founded by Mr. ChristopheA Rheinlander Robert, a New York merchant descended I from a French Huguenot family of Rochelle, France.^ J There is still an impression in some quarters in America, that the idea of founding a Christian college in Constantinople was a whim of IVIr. Robert's, a notion which sprang from his brain as did Athena from the head of Zeus, and it is often spoken of as IVir. Robert's college. The truth is that the College grew out of the natural^- vj velopment of American missions in Turkey, in whici Mr. Robert had long been interested. The policy of th( missionary boards at that tune was opposed to the ex^ * Mr. Robert was descended, in the fourth generation, from Daniel Robert of Rochelle, who was believed to have been a di- rect descendant of Count Robert of Normandy, the son of William the Conqueror, King of England. Daniel Robert was a Huguenot, and emigrated to New York in 1701, after the revo- cation of the Edict of Nantes, when he became a British subject. His grandson, Mr. Robert's father, was a graduate of Columbia and Edinburgh Universities, a physician by profession, who, after living ten years in the British "West Indies, returned to New York in 1784 and bought a large estate on Long Island, where Mr. Christopher R. Robert was born March 23, 1802. When fifteen years old he went into a merchant's ofl5ce in New York, and continued in business all his life. 1 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE penditure of missionary funds for education. A resolu- tion was passed at the annual meeting of the A. B. C. F. M. in 1856, that the only work of the missionary was to preach the Gospel, " the oral utterance of the Gospel in public or in private " ; but the time had come when some at least of the missionaries in the field saw the necessity of a new departure, saw what a Christian college might accomplish in the elevation of the people. Mr. Robert was the first man of means in America to see and appre- ciate this necessity, the man whom God chose to meet this want in Turkey, and to turn the tide of missionary work in other parts of the world in this direction. The fact that he was the treasurer of the American Home Missionary Society, which had already discovered this need in the newer states of the West, was perhaps one reason why he became a leader in this movement. Mr. Robert himself always felt that he had been providen- tially directed to the sacrifices which he made to found and sustain the College. It was the Lord's work, not his. There were good reasons why the first American col- lege of this kind should have been founded at Constan- tinople. Not only had the attention of the Christian world been concentrated upon the Turkish Empire by the Crimean War, but the people of Turkey had been aroused to new life and were beginning to seek for edu- cation. It was believed that a new era of tolerance and liberty had dawned upon the East, that the government, as well as the people, was desirous of encouraging prog- ress in every form, that at last there was an open door in Tm-key. Sultan Abd-ul-Medjid was a reformer, Fuad and Aali Pashas were enlightened statesmen. The Hatt- i-houmayoun was a charter of liberty for all. This was the general beHef of the Americans in Turkey. 2 THE FOUNDING OF ROBERT COLLEGE The French and the Roman Catholics had been quick to see and improve the opportunity for poHtical and reh- gious propaganda. They had estabhshed a number of schools of a low grade, and had induced many of the wealthy families to send their sons to Paris. French in- fluence was already dominant here. There were but few native schools of any kind. There were some Moham- medan schools for small children connected with the mosques, as well as naval, military and theological schools. There were a few Protestant and Catholic mission-schools, and here and there the Christian nation- alities had established schools, in some of which there were teachers who were doing good work ; but there was nothing corresponding to an American college in the em- pire. More than anywhere else in the world at that time, there seemed to be an open door and a great work to be done. Constantinople was the natural place to begin it. It was not only the capital of the empire, but it had been for fifteen centuries the centre of hfe and power in this part of the world. The idea of founding a college at Constantinople was first suggested to Mr. Robert in 1857 by Messrs. James and WilHam Dwight, the sons of Rev. Dr. H. G. O. D wight, then a missionary here. They were young men of high character, graduates of Yale College and Union Theological Seminary. They called upon IVIr. Robert, as a well-known philanthropist and friend of missions, and stated that they had for some time contemplated founding a school at Constantinople, not in any way con- nected with the Mission and tolerant of the religious prejudices of the natives, which they hoped would soon become self-supporting, and they proposed to associate with themselves an Armenian, also a graduate of Yale. S FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE Mr. Robert was interested in their plan, and in Octo- ber, 1857, a meeting was held at his house to consider this proposition. Those present were Rev. Drs. Wm. M. Adams, A. D. Smith, G. W. Wood, M. Badger, D. B. Coe, W. G. Schauffler and E. Riggs (the last two from Constantinople), Hon. Geo. P. Marsh, Messrs. Robert, Ely, Moore, Ransom and Schiefflin. No decisive action was taken at this meeting beyond the suggestion of six names for trustees of the proposed school. Five of these gentlemen appear to have met once in March, 1858, and in May the Messrs. Dwight called on Mr. Robert again, and he wrote to Dr. Hamlin to ask his opinion of the plan ; but, so far as I can learn from the correspondence in my hands, no money was ever pledged by any one to carry out this project, and it was abandoned. The reasons for the failure of the Messrs. Dwight to secure support appear to have been their youth, lack of confi- dence in the person associated with them, the financial crisis in America at the time, and a difference of opinion as to the religious status of the school. The Messrs. Dwight proposed to make the school purely secular, while Mr. Robert and others, to whom they appealed, felt that there was no reason why they should give money for a school in Constantinople, unless it was to be dis- tinctively Christian. Dr. Hamlin had written to the Messrs. Dwight in 1856, that it must be " a decided, thorough Christian school from its very commence- ment," or it would not secure the confidence of the people. A school without a religion would be an inex- plicable anomaly in Constantinople, and, as he said in another letter, "would be regarded as a trap to cheat the devil." ^ * In justice to the memory of the Messrs. Dwight it should be 4 THE FOUNDING OF ROBERT COLLEGE Mr. Robert liad become too much interested in the idea of founding a college in Constantinople to let it drop when the Messrs. Dwight gave it up, and he natu- rally turned to Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, whose acquaintance he had made when he visited Constantinople during the Crimean War, at the time w hen Dr. Hamlin was fur- nishing the British hospitals and soldiers w ith bread. He had previously consulted him as to the project of the Messrs. Dwight and January 3, 1859, in a postscript to a letter, he WTote : " Since writing a few lines this morn- ing it has occurred to me to ask confidentially whether, in view of the great importance of the institution referred to, it may not be your duty to take charge of it. I think thirty-five to forty thousand dollars can be secured for it with comparative ease, if you do, and I doubt if it can be without. My idea is to have the Messrs. Dwight as your assistants. You may ^\Tite me fully on the subject." x\pparently Dr. Hamlin either failed to notice the post- script, or did not take it seriously. IVlr. Robert wTote him again March 15, repeating the question. To this Dr. Hamlin replied at length. After calling attention to the fact that he had certain disqualifications for the place ; that he was not a persona grata with the Turks, and had a very meagre knowledge of the Turkish lan- guage ; that he had not the requisite scholarship for the stated that in the origiQal circular which they issued in 1856 they say, " It is desirable that the leading object of this institution should be to cooperate with the direct labor of others in the work of Protestant Evangelization, by giving the whole instruction a de- cided and unmistakable Evangelical influence, though it may be important that it should be distinctly recognized as standing on its own separate and independent basis." It appears to have been in the discussion of practical details that a serious difference of opinion arose. 5 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE post, and that his work in Bebec Seminary had aimed only at preparing young Armenians for the ministry by a short com-se of study, he concluded as follows : " This letter will be quite as unsatisfactory to you as to me. I do not see clearly what course the thing will take, and I wish to know the position of the Dwights before I go farther, also to ascertain the opinions of my associates and some good friends and advisers like Count DeZuy- len, the pious and excellent Dutch ambassador. Dr. Millingen, and others." Without waiting for a reply to his letter, Mr. Robert commissioned Rev. Drs. Coe and Badger to address to Dr. Hamlin a formal invitation to devote himself to this enterprise, which they did March 28, 1859, without mentioning Mr. Robert's name. Dr. Hamlin concluded that Mr. Robert had inspired this proposal, and wrote to hun April 26: "I shall write to Messrs. Coe and Badger as soon as any light dawns upon my path. If I should feel it to be my duty to do anything for this great undertaking, it would be only to get it fairly started and leave it in abler hands. . . . It is of the Lord and can- not fail, whether I have anything to do with it or not." Mr. Robert wrote again June 27, to press the question, and August 22 Dr. Hamlin replied that he had laid the subject before his associates in the Mission, and that the majority had expressed a decided opinion in favor of his undertaking the work. Two weeks later he wrote again : **I have, with feehngs of deep solemnity and sorrow, written my request to be released from the service of the Board as soon as my place can be supplied. ... I tremble at the responsibility I have assumed, but I trust that He who has upheld me through many trials and labors will not forsake me here." 6 THE FOUNDING OF ROBERT COLLEGE It appears from Dr. Hamlin's autobiography that what finally determined his acceptance of Mr. Robert's proposals was that he regarded the educational policy of the American Board as suicidal, and that the action of the Mission in accepting this policy and removing the Mission Seminary from Bebec to Marsovan put an end to the work to which his whole missionary life had been devoted . The proposed college would be a continuation and enlargement of that work.^ Mr. Robert and Dr. Hamlin were now both fully com- mitted to the work of founding a Cliristian college in Constantinople, and it was agreed that Dr. Hamlin should come to America to consult w ith IVIr. Robert as to their plans and also to secure additional funds, but it was thought best that he should first secure a site for the College. This did not prove to be an easy task. At first, the majority of his advisers, rather against his judgment, favored a location in old Stamboul and proposed the pur- chase of the old palace of Constantine Porph;yTogenitus on the city wall. A meeting of the friends of the College at the Dutch Embassy, in January, 1860, finally ap- proved of the site on the Bosphorus near the Castle of Europe, where the College now stands ; but the owner of this site, Achmet Vefik Pasha, then Turkish ambassador in Paris, absolutely refused to sell at any price. This was a bitter disappointment, but Dr. Hamlin purchased what he considered to be the next best available site, the land on the hill above the village of Kourou Tcheshme. We held this property until 1904, when I sold it to the Scheik-ul-Islam for a little less than it cost. We had never been able to find a buyer for it before, at any reasonable price. When Dr. Hamlin returned from ^ * My Life and Times, pp. 413, 414. 7 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE America a year later, it was found that Achmet Vefik Pasha had returned from Paris, needed money, and was willing to sell the land at Roumeli Hissar. After some months of negotiations, Dr. Hamlin, with Mr. Robert's approval, bought about half of the lot, about six acres, for sixteen hundred pounds sterling. Some years later, 1 bought the other half for about eighteen hundred pounds sterling. It was an essential part of Dr. Ham- lin's agreement with Achmet Vefik Pasha that no money should be paid for the land until the necessary permis- sion had been given to erect a building upon it for the College. This was December 2,1861. In March, 1862, the Minister]of Foreign Affairs having informed the Eng- lish ambassador and the American minister that the gov- ernment had given its consent to the erection of the Col- lege on this site, and the Minister of Public Instruction having authorized the establishment of the College, the money was paid over to Achmet Vefik Pasha. Dr. Ham- lin and his friends here felt that they had every reason to be jubilant. There is no more beautiful site for a college anywhere in the world, and no place on the Bosphorus to equal it. All the city wondered that such a site had been granted to an American college. Dr. Hamlin w^ent to America in the summer of 1860, and retiu-ned in June, 1861 . It was not a favorable time to raise money, as the whole country was absorbed in the conflict between the free and the slave states, the Presi- dential election and the outbreak of the Civil War, but he had no little success in awakening an interest in the proposed college. Harvard University took it up with considerable enthusiasm, and it was under its auspices that he had a very successful meeting in Boston. His visits to England in going and coming were also of im- 8 THE FOUNDING OF ROBERT COLLEGE portance in gaining friends for the College there. But the great object of his visit was to come to a full understand- ing with Mr. Robert as to the character and purpose of the College, and to make such arrangements aswere pos- sible for its organization and the erection of a building. A Board of Trustees was legally established, consisting of C. R. Robert, Wm. A. Booth, Milton Badger, David B. Coe, Wm. L. Lambert and David Hoadley, all per- sonal friends of Mr. Robert, and I believe all associated with him in the management of the American Home Missionary Society. Wm. A. Booth was President, and David B . Coe Secretary of the Board, and they held their offices until they died, many years after the death of Mr. Robert. They were his chosen advisers in everything concerning the College, and, for years after his death, the trustees were always guided by their judgment. In 186-4 they were formally incorporated by act of the Legislature of New York, under the name of " The Trustees of Robert College oj Constantinople,'' and the College was included with other state institutions in the University of the State of New York. This established the legal status of the College in America. The outbreak of the Civil War was a great blow to Dr. HamUn and ^Nlr. Robert, but neither of them was a man to turn back, when once he had put a hand to the plough, and they determined to go on and put up the building for the College. Dr. Hamlin spent much time in preparation for this. He interested Mr. Corliss of Providence in it, who gave him a steam-engine and other machinery for use in the woodw^ork of the building. He studied plans and bought considerable material. Most of all, he and Mr. Robert came to understand and trust each other, so that they could work together harmoniously. 9 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE As has already been explained, Dr. Hamlin, on his re- turn from America, abandoned the site which he had bought at Kourou Tcheshme and bought the site at Rou- meli Hissar. After some delay he received permission to build on this site, and believed that his troubles were ended. This was in March, 1862. It proved to be not the end but the beginning of serious trouble. He was destined to wait more than six years, until Decem- ber 20, 1868, before he could begin work on this site. The new era and the open door in Turkey supposed to have been won by the Crimean War seemed to have disappeared. This change was undoubtedly due in some measure to the death of Sultan Abd- ul-Medjid and the accession of Abd-ul-Aziz, in June, 1861, — a man of totally different character, who soon changed the whole spirit of the govern- ment. Whatever else might be said of it, it was no longer weak. It soon became a strong government, whether for good or evil. But I think Dr. Hamlin was right in believing that the opposition to the Col- lege did not originate with the Turks. If left to themselves they would probably have regarded it as a matter of very little importance in any way. The powers that he had to contend with were France, Russia, and the Roman Catholic Church. Their influence was pushed to the utmost to prevent the establishment of a college which would promote and extend the use of the English language and the influence of Protestant, English and American, ideas in the East. They were formidable enemies because at that time our friends were weak. America, en- gaged in a great civil war, had little influence here, Prussia and Holland were friendly but without 10 THE FOUNDING OF ROBERT COLLEGE much influence. England, at the close of the Cri- mean War, had lost her dominant position at Con- stantinople. This had been won by France, and under Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz Russia regained much of her former influence here. England was still a power to be reckoned with, but, at the time when the college question came up, she was represented here by Sir Henry Bulwer, a brilliant but unprin- cipled man, who was ready to sacrifice anything to his own personal interest. At first he supported Dr. Hamlin, but in the end abandoned his cause to se- cure a bribe which finally cost him his place. The permission to build had been granted through the influence of Achmet Vefik Pasha, then a minister; but, only a few days after it was given, he was re- moved from office and his enemies were glad to do him any injury in their power. Under these unpropitious circumstances, and with the forces arrayed against the College, it was natural for the Porte to oppose the erection of the College, and in Turkey it is always easy to find excuses for delay. How not to do it is the perfection of Turkish diplomacy. The permission to build was never formally revoked, but six years of wearisome and often exasperating negotiations followed. When Lord Lyons came from Washington to the British embassy here in 1865, he took up the question with vigor, but unfortunately he was transferred to Paris in eighteen months. The last thing that he told me before he left was that he had finally settled the col- lege question with Aali Pasha. If he had remained here, that would have been the end of it; but he had no sooner gone than a new reason for delay was 11 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE found. For Dr. Hamlin and Mr. Robert these years were alternations of hope and despair. No- thing that they could do here or in Washington seemed to be of any avail and the prospect was never darker than in 1868. The final settlement was brought about most un- expectedly by a providential combination of agen- cies, unconsciously working together, and was long a mystery to Dr. Hamlin. The ball was set in mo- tion by Mr. George D. Morgan of New York, a gentleman who had never heard of the proposed college until he"came to Constantinople as a traveler, in the winter of 1868. He saw Dr. Hamlin, investi- gated the case, and was so much interested that, when he returned to America a few months later, he went to Washington on purpose to persuade Mr. Seward to take action in behalf of the College. He first interested Senator Morgan and Mr. Evarts in the case, and they three went together to Mr. Seward, who had special reasons at that time to wish to please them. He was persuaded, sent for Blacque Bey, the Turkish minister, and pressed his demands in such a way that the minister wrote to Constantinople that this question must be settled at once or there would be serious trouble. This let- ter reached Constantinople not long before the ar- rival of Admiral Farragut at the Dardanelles, who insisted upon coming up to Constantinople in his flag-ship. His appearance in these waters at this time had nothing to do with the revolution in Crete, but to the Turks it seemed suspicious. They al- lowed him to come to Constantinople after some de- lay, and received him with great honors. To please 12 THE FOUNDING OF ROBERT COLLEGE his little son, now a professor in Columbia Univer- sity, Dr. Hamlin took him to call on the admiral, and by chance met a gentleman there who knew him well and introduced the subject of the College and its difficulties. The admiral was so much stirred by the injustice involved that he promised to speak to the Grand Vizier about it unofficially, if he had a chance. He found his opportunity at a grand dinner given in his honor, as Dr. Hamlin afterwards learned. No one at the College knew anything at that time of the action of Mr. Seward or the dis- patch of Blacque Bey, but the Turkish government put all these things together, and evidently believed that Admiral Farragut's real mission here was to settle the College question, with the possibility of his taking his ships to Crete in the background. They settled it, granting even more than had been asked, giving the College a toghrali trade, or imperial char- ter, as an American college under the protection of the United States with ex- territorial rights, and with all the privileges granted to educational institutions in Turkey. Indeed, they were so friendly and cor- dial that Dr. Hamlin wrote to Mr. Robert that, in case more money were needed, he should apply to the Sultan, who would undoubtedly give it. But he never applied. The irade was issued by the Sultan in September, 1868, but not communicated to the United States Legation until December 20, 1868. In October Aali Pasha informed the American min- ister that Dr. Hamlin "could go on and build as soon as he pleased and that an irade would appear in due time"; but Dr. Hamlin had been deceived so often that he did not care to act on this intimation. 13 CHAPTER II THE OPENING OF THE COLLEGE AT BEBEC When it became probable in the summer of 1862 that the contest over the site at Hissar would be a long one, Mr. Robert and Dr. Hamlin began at once to consider the possibility of opening the College elsewhere. The building belonging to the mission at Bebec, the suburban village on the Bosphorus just below Hissar, where Dr. Hamlin had for many years conducted the Mission school, was vacant, and no further permission from the government was necessary to open the College there. The American Board at Boston offered it rent free. Dr. Hamlin made extensive repairs, and the College was opened there September 16, 1863, with 4 students, 3 Eng- lish and 1 American, all residents of Constantinople. Two professors had been appointed in 1862, Rev. H. A. Schauffler and Rev. G. A. Perkins, and Mr. Robert had sent one to Germany and one to Yale to complete their preparation for the work in the College. They were present at the opening, and three or four native assistants had also been em- ployed. Before going to Germany Professor Schauf- fler raised twenty-one hundred and twenty dollars towards the foundation of a library for the College, and Harvard University contributed some two hun- dred volumes. Mr. Corliss of Providence, Mr. B. M. E. Durfee of Fall River, Mr. Wheelwright of 14 THE OPENING OF THE COLLEGE AT BEBEG London, and Mrs. J. C. Whitin of Whitinsville added to this fund, so that when the College went to Roumeli Ilissar the library contained some five thousand volumes. It now (1907) contains over twelve thousand volumes, has a card catalogue and is open to students every day. Before issuing a prospectus Dr. Hamlin felt that it was necessary to give a name to the College, and his advisory committee discussed the question with- out reaching any satisfactory conclusion, although many names were suggested. Mr. Robert had called it the American College, but this was rejected on the ground that it had a political significance. Finally Dr. Hamlin proposed Robert College as a neutral name, which could be spelled in all the lan- guages of the East.^ This was adopted with accla- mation. Mr. Robert protested against it as unwise and contrary to all his principles, but Dr. Hamlin replied that it was too late to change it. The name had already been adopted in all the languages and was universally accepted as the best. The discussion of the character, organization and curriculum of the College commenced in 1859. Mr. Robert wrote June 27, 1859: "In my judgment the time has come for you in connection with some of your wisest associates and any others in whom you may think dwells the spirit of true wisdom to draw out the plan of a college, taking as a pattern the best in our country as to the course of study, government. Faculty, etc. The beginning of course must be small but let the plan be such that it can be * This is more important than it may appear. My name, for example, cannot be spelled in any of these languages. 15 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE enlarged to meet the wants of the community in which it is situated. The foundations therefore must be broad and deep, but looking to a gradual execution of the plan in its completeness. A rapid and hasty growth must not be expected or desired." The religious status of the College was made clear in the constitution adopted by the trustees. It was to be unsectarian and open to all without distinction of race or religion. It did not aim to destroy or weaken the ancient Christian churches of the East, but to develop the moral and spiritual life of its students, their faith in God and their purpose to obey his law. The constitution states that "it is to be founded and administered on the principles of the Bible : it is hereby declared and ordained that, while it is to be a scientific and literary institution, God and His word shall be distinctly acknowledged and honored therein: the Scriptures, as published by the American or British and Foreign Bible So- cieties being read and prayers offered at least once each day of each collegiate term, and Divine wor- ship held on the Sabbath, at which services the Faculty are expected to be present, and all the stu- dents shall attend unless for special and imperative reasons some are excused by the Faculty and teachers." Dr. Hamlin replied at great length to Mr. Rob- ert's letter of June 27, proposing in substance Eng- lish as the language of the College, Preparatory and Collegiate Departments, a governing Board of Trustees in New York, a local Board of Managers (or Advisers he wrote later) at Constantinople, a Faculty of a president and three professors, a course 16 THE OPENING OF THE COLLEGE AT BEBEG of study essentially the same as in American col- leges, with the omission of Latin and Greek and the addition of French and the native languages, with some legal studies. There were two special reasons for making Eng- lish the language of the College. It was necessary to have a neutral common language for students of many races and tongues and this could only be some European language. Among these it was natural for us to choose English. Moreover, there were no text books to be had in any native language and no means of pursuing any science or other subject such as was offered by the literature of England and America. The use of English has attracted many students to the College for its own sake. Mr. Robert objected to the exclusion of the clas- sics, and since the second year's graduates in 1869 Latin has always been required for the degree of A. B. Otherwise the European universities would have refused to recognize our diplomas. The local Board of Managers was organized and was probably useful for a time, but died a natural death in a few years. Dr. Hamlin proposed to confine the study of the native languages to the Preparatory Department, but it has been found necessary to give them special prominence and continue them through the whole course. This helps the College to give a thorough education to students of different nationalities with- out denationalizing them or unfitting them to be- come the leaders of their own people. Dr. Hamlin was not discouraged by the small number of students the first year, 1863-64. Before the close of the year 20 had been registered, all but 17 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE 2 Europeans or Americans. Towards the end of the year 2 Greeks came. The second year, 1864-65, opened with 23 stu- dents, and 28 in all were registered during the year, of whom 4 were Greeks, 1 Armenian and 1 Bulga- rian. This year was a very trying one for Mr. Rob- ert and Dr. Hamlin, aside from the troubles in regard to the site. The two professors constituted a majority in the Faculty, and even during the first year there were serious differences of opinion between them and Dr. Hamlin as to the management and discipline of the College. These culminated early in the second year, and the trustees were called upon to decide whether to accept the resignation of Dr. Hamlin or of the two professors. They did the latter, and Dr. Hamlin was left alone in the middle of the year to carry on the College as best he could with his native assistants. In addition to this diflSculty Dr. Hamlin had to expel for immorality four students belonging to the best European families in the city, and this stirred up new enmity against the College. One peculiarly Eastern method of injuring an enemy was experi- enced during the year. Some one secretly intro- duced into the dormitories a piece of an old garment swarming with lice, which was not discovered until the evil had spread among the boys. The year closed with one of those terrible calami- ties which used to be so common in Constantinople. The Asiatic cholera carried off some seventy thou- sand persons in three months. The College was closed early, before there had been any cases in Bebec, and Dr. Hamlin and his family went to the 18 THE OPENING OF THE COLLEGE AT BEBEG Princes Islands to regain his health. lie was suffer- ing from insomnia and nervous prostration. I re- mained in Bebec, and one of my sons, about two years old, was the first victim of the epidemic there, after which Mrs. Washburn and I devoted our- selves to the care of the sick in the village for two months. I had to go to town frequently to attend to my work there, where Dr. Long and Mr. Trow- bridge had given themselves entirely to the care of the sick in the public khans. It would require the pen of a De Quincey to describe the scenes which I witnessed, pathetic, grotesque, horrible, a dance of death among men who had lost their hold upon the humanities of life. The epidemic passed away with a great fire in Constantinople which consumed some ten thousand houses and seemed to disinfect the city. What with the cholera and the fire it was not strange that the third college year, 1865-66, opened with only 8 students. The number grad- ually increased, and the whole number registered was 51, of whom 20 were Armenians, 9 Bulgarians and 6 Greeks. In place of the two professors Mr. Robert sent out two tutors, Messrs. Ostrander and Rodger, for a period of three years. This was the beginning of a plan which has continued in force all through the history of the College. In the Appendix of this volume will be found a paper which was drawn up by Mr. Robert and sent by him to the colleges where he was seeking candidates for this position. I think that this is the latest form of it. He had modified it from time to time as his practical experience with 19 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE the men sent out suggested weaknesses to be avoided. I remember when he inserted the clause not conscien- tiously obstinate. It is well worth reading, not only as illustrating Mr. Robert's character but also his idea of the work which the College ought to do. Probably his ideal was never realized in any one tutor; in fact, one college president wrote to him that no such men existed in this world, but many of those who have filled this position in the College have been men of rare ability and the highest character. Their personal influence over the students has been a very important factor in the work of the College, as they lived with the students and came into more intimate relations with them than was possible to the professors. It is the almost unanimous testi- mony of the men who have filled these positions that their years spent in the College were the most fruitful years in their preparation for their life-work. They gained here new and broader conceptions of life, of the world as a whole and of men and in- dividuals, besides enjoying rare opportunities for study and travel. The names of all the professors and American tutors who were connected with the College during the first forty years will be found in the Appendix. At the beginning of this year Dr. Hamlin secured the services of an English lady, Mrs. Julia Calluci, as matron of the College. There can be no doubt that the close of the Civil War in America and the final triumph of the na- tional government added much to the prestige of the College among the people here and was one cause of the increase in the number of students. 20 THE OPENING OF THE COLLEGE AT BEBEG It was also a great relief and great joy to Mr. Rob- ert and Dr. Hamlin. They were men of strong con- victions and deep feeling, devoted patriots, whose hearts were bound up in this struggle for national life and freedom for the slave. Their letters are full of it, and when peace came a great burden was re- moved from their minds and hearts. Mr. Robert at once interested himself in the edu- cation of the poor whites in the South, bought the United States Hospital buildings, with the land and furniture, on Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga, Tenn., and established a school there under the direction of Mr. Bancroft, who in later years became the famous principal of Phillips Academy, Andover. Mr. Robert's letters show that his interest in this school was quite as great as his interest in Robert College. The fourth college year, 1866-67, opened with a large increase of students. The whole number reg- istered during the year w^as 96, of whom 19 were Armenians, 13 Bulgarians and 18 Greeks. There was nothing to disturb the peace of the year but a terrific storm of which Dr. Hamlin gives a graphic account in his letters and which very nearly swept the college building into the Bosphorus. Dr. Hamlin's sympathies were deeply stirred during the year by the long and serious illness of two of the students, one of whom, a very promising Bulgarian, died, and the other, a German, was dis- abled, so that he was a cripple for life, although he finally recovered so far as to graduate in 1869. One of the questions much discussed during the year and in regard to which Mr. Robert and Dr. ^1 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE Hamlin never agreed was that of beneficiaries, of re- ceiving a certain number of students at a reduced rate. To satisfy Dr. Hamlin the trustees in 1864 voted that "the President select any number, not exceeding six, talented youth of high moral charac- ter, one from each of the large nationalities of the Turkish Empire, who shall enjoy the privileges of the College by paying one-fourth to three-fourths of the ordinary charges." In 1867 it was added that "those so received should sign a pledge that they will diligently pursue the prescribed course of instruction not less than three years." In fact, a much larger number had been received by Dr. Hamlin and he also rejected the last regulation as "needless, useless and injurious." In 1868 one- fourth of the students were beneficiaries and the amount deducted for them from the regular charges was about twenty-five hundred dollars, about five hundred dollars of which was specially contributed for this purpose by friends in England and America. Dr. Hamlin writes: "Both for scholarship and char- acter the students thus aided are the glory of the College. Of four prizes these men won three." The intensity of Dr. Hamlin's feeling on this sub- ject will be appreciated when we remember that his chief ambition was to make the College self-support- ing, and that his own salary at this time was only three hundred and seventy-five dollars a year and the board of his family in the College, a salary fixed by himself against the protest of Mr. Robert. Serious efforts have since been made to raise a substantial fund for beneficiaries but with limited success, and the College has regularly expended from 22 THE OPENING OF THE COLLEGE AT BEBEC two thousand to three thousand dollars a year from its common funds for this purpose. It is under- stood however that we do not receive free students, and the aid given depends on scholarship and con- duct. Dr. Hamlin, in his annual report, writes very con- fidently of the steady improvement in the character and intellectual progress of the students and very hopefully of the religious influence of the College. No difficulties had arisen from the religious services or the teaching of the Bible in classes, and the stu- dents seemed interested in both. At the close of the year the trustees at the sug- gestion of Mr. Robert voted to invite Dr. Hamlin to visit Paris during the great Exposition and appro- priated five hundred dollars to meet his expenses. He went there and also attended the meeting of the Evangelical Alliance in Holland. He enjoyed this trip very much, especially the opportunity he had to make the acquaintance of many distinguished men and to purchase in Paris some new and inter- esting scientific apparatus for the College. He returned by way of the Danube to escape quarantine, and Messrs. Paine, Grosvenor and Wilcox, the new American teachers, came with him. As none of them had passports they w^ere arrested when they reached Turkish territory at Rustchuk. Dr. Hamlin got through on the ground that he belonged to the suite of the Dutch ambassador's wife who had come with him from Holland, but the tutors were held until Dr. Hamlin could get orders at Constantinople to allow them to come on. This fourth year of Robert College was the first 28 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE year of the Syrian Protestant College founded at Beirut under the presidency of Dr. Daniel Bliss, an old college-mate and dear friend of mine. It was the first fruit of the influence of Robert College in leading to the foundation of similar institutions in all mission fields, and it was incorporated in the state of New York in the same act with Robert College. Dr. Bliss had been in America and in England since 1862 to raise funds for it. The first class of 16 entered in 1866. It has been a trium- phant success, although like Robert College it has passed through many trying experiences. The fifth college year, 1867-68, opened with a full number of students. One hundred and two were registered during the year, of whom 14 were Armenians, 16 Bulgarians, 33 Greeks, but Dr. Hamlin in his report at the close of the year com- plains that many, especially of the Greek day scholars, " came only to try it. Not liking it, after a few lessons half learned, they left," so that at the end of the year there were but 75 students present. He speaks in the highest terms of the work done by Messrs. Grosvenor and Wilcox, the new tutors. The College bore fruit this year of a very different kind from the sister college at Beirut. The French ambassador here and M. Bore, the Director General of the Jesuit Missions, had failed to prevent the opening of Robert College; but they took advantage of the visit of Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz to Paris in 1867 to induce the Emperor Napoleon to extract a prom- ise from the Sultan that on his return to Constanti- nople he would found a grand Lycee, the teachers in which should be appointed by the Emperor, the THE OPENING OF THE COLLEGE AT BEBEG language should be French and the whole cost should be paid by the Turkish government. In spite of the opposition of the Turks, the Russians and the English, the French government had in- fluence enough to hold the Sultan to his promise. The Lycee of Galata Serai was opened in 1868 in magnificent buildings, on a site unsurpassed in beauty by any other in Pera. Everything was done to make it attractive in every way and provision was made for six hundred students. The Emperor sent out a distinguished and experienced man as director with a large staff of able professors. Both our friends and our enemies felt that this would be the end of Robert College, especially as provision was made in the Lycee for a large number of free students. Dr. Hamlin was anxious but not disheart- ened, and there is no reason to believe that the Lycee of Galata Serai or any other of the numerous schools that have since been established in Con- stantinople has seriously affected the work of Robert College. The fall of the French Empire and the decline of French influence in Turkey led to great changes in the character of the Lycee. The language is still French and there are some eight hundred students, but it has long been a Turk- ish rather than a French school. It was destroyed by fire last winter (1907) but is to be rebuilt. There was considerable correspondence during the year between Mr. Robert and Dr. Hamlin in regard to the organization and the discipline of the College, suggested in some measure by troubles which had been experienced at Lookout Mountain. Dr. Hamlin did not think that it was desirable to 25 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE attempt a systematic classification of the students, but preferred to deal with them individually. At the close of the year he selected two of them, Hago- pos Djedjizian, an Armenian, who had been two years in the College, and Petco Gorbanoff, a Bul- garian, who had been there three years, to graduate and received the degree of A. B. He justified this action in a detailed statement of the acquirements of the two young men, each far advanced in certain studies and far behind in others, but both mature in age and character. Both of them became teach- ers in the College the following year. The former has long been a professor in the College. The latter has held many important posts in Bulgaria. The first "Commencement Exercises" of the College were held at the close of the public oral examination of the various classes, which in former years had attracted considerable attention. This year the audience was as large as could be accom- modated, and all were enthusiastic over the orations of the two graduates and the speaking of other students in Turkish, Armenian, Bulgarian and French. The diplomas given were unique, long sheets of parchment, on which the conferring of the degrees was written, in fancy penmanship, in four languages — English, French, Turkish and Armenian or Bulgarian. I believe that similar diplomas were given in 1869. The sixth college year opened with 80 students, and 95 in all were registered during the year, of whom 11 were Armenians, 41 Bulgarians, 17 Greeks. The all absorbing event of the year, which trans- 26 THE OPENING OF THE COLLEGE AT BEBEC formed Dr. Hamlin from an educator into an archi- tect, builder and mechanic, was the permission to build at Hissar, which was given informally at the beginning of October and officially December 20, 1868. In the evening of that day a general meeting of thanksgiving was held at the College and Dr. Hamlin writes, "It is a great triumph of right over wrong, and the Providence of God in bringing it about is truly wonderful and demands our warm- est gratitude and daily thanksgiving." All Con- stantinople had come to have an interest in this pro- longed contest, and it had long been predicted that the College would fail in its efforts to overcome the vis inertice of the Porte. They regarded Dr. Ham- lin's final triumph with wonder and admiration. Dr. Hamlin was determined to put up the college building himself without the aid or interference of any architect or builder, and I suppose that no one who reads his autobiography is surprised when he finds him undertaking this work. He would say: " It was just like him. He was that sort of a boy and man." He firmly believed that he could erect a better building at a less cost than any one else, and he undertook this Herculean task with a light heart. After the middle of the year he did not at- tempt to do any work in the College at Bebec except in the evening. He commenced excavations on the site April 7, 1869. All the teachers and students with many friends were present, and, after speeches in eleven languages, each one in turn took a spade, filled a barrow with earth and wheeled it away. In May, 1869, he received a visit from Mr. W. A. Booth, president of the Board of Trustees, and in 27 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE consultation with him made some changes in his plans. By Monday, July 5, he was ready to lay the corner stone. The day was unfavorable. Mrs. Hamlin was very ill, and there was a pouring rain all the morning, but quite an assembly gathered on the grounds and there were appropriate addresses in five languages. The ceremony of laying the stone was performed by Hon. E. Joy Morris, the American minister. Sir Philip Francis, Judge of the Supreme Consular Court, and Canon Gribble, Chaplain of the British Embassy, represented Eng- land and made sympathetic addresses. It was nearly two years before the building was ready for occupation. During those years, while the work of construction was going on. Dr. Hamlin was always at Hissar, but one never knew where to find him. He might be in the water at the bottom of the well mending the force pump, or at the top of the build- ing standing on an iron girder with forty feet of empty space below him. He might be setting up a steam-engine or doctoring a horse or teaching his masons how to lay stone. He might be entertaining some Turkish gentleman or using his rich vocabu- lary of invective on some wild Kurdish laborer. He made a sort of hut for himself in a pile of lum- ber near the building, and you might find him there taking a five minutes' nap in his chair or sharing his meagre lunch with a tailless green lizard which had made friends with him. If you came at the right time, you might be treated to a delicious cup of coffee made by himself. You might see him losing his own fingers as he stumbled on to a buzz- saw or tenderly dressing the wounds of some un- 28 THE OPENING OF THE COLLEGE AT BEBEC fortunate workman. Wherever you found him, you saw that his whole mind and heart was concentrated upon the building. He had endless difficulties, but was never discouraged and never daunted by any new and unthought-of problem which presented itself in the building. I think that those were the happiest days of his life. I shall have much to say of Dr. Hamlin in my personal recollections of the College after I came into it a few weeks before the close of the sixth year, in June, 1869, but it seems desirable to preface this by a brief statement of dates and details drawn from the correspondence of Mr. Robert and Dr. Hamlin, which do not directly relate to the work in the College and which may also supplement the statements in his autobiography. After a full discussion of the situation wuth Mr. Robert he went to America in September, 1871, to raise an endowment for the College, leaving his family in Bebec. He returned to Constantinople in June, 1872, and remained here until October, 1873, and while here he erected the Study Hall annex to Hamlin Hall, which was a temporary structure, but which served its purpose until 1906. In October, 1873, he went to America w4th his family to con- tinue the work of raising an endowment and never returned. In 1877 he resigned the office of presi- dent of the College. His letters to Mr. Robert bring out still more strongly than his autobiography his utter aversion to the work of raising money, and his ill success strengthened this feeling; while Mr. Robert, who was a man of moderate means, never a millionaire, 29 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE I believe, as the expenses of the College increased, was more and more impressed with the necessity of an endowment and with the belief that Dr. Ham- lin was the only man who could raise it. As early as August 21, 1867, Dr. Hamlin pro- posed to Mr. Robert that as soon as Robert College was well under way he should give himself to the founding of a college for girls at Constantinople. He writes: "It is not desirable that Robert College should remain in my hands after age begins to dim the eye and abate the natural force. I should then ruin it and I pray God in His infinite wisdom and mercy to keep me from it. I fear it now, but per- haps after a few more years I shall begin to think myself the only man who can carry it forward. In a female seminary I should not be exposed to any- thing of that sort. The work itself is necessary to the completeness of Robert College. The two in- stitutions should have no connection with each other, but naturally female education should and must have a certain correspondency to that of the other sex. This has long been in my mind, but the time has not yet come for more than the men- tioning of it." Dr. Hamlin pressed this plan upon Mr. Robert frequently in special letters and in 1874 almost per- suaded him to agree to his giving his time to raising money for this object rather than for Robert Col- lege. It was due in some measure to his influence that the Woman's Board of Missions in Boston took the matter up and founded a school which finally developed into the American College for Girls at Scutari, a part of Constantinople situated 30 CYRUS HAMLIN THE OPENING OF THE COLLEGE AT BEBEC on the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus. Dr. Hamlin, however, writes to Mr. Robert in August, 1873, that **a girls' college in Constantinople should have no connection with any missionary society, but be governed by a corporate board like that of Robert College, with no woman in it, unless insisted on by the donor or donors and then I would weep in secret places over the necessity. As a general thing woman has not, and I pray she may never have, the business education that would fit her for such duties." Mr. Robert finally insisted on Dr. Hamlin's de- voting himself exclusively to the work of Robert College, and he reluctantly consented. What Mr. Robert thought of Dr. Hamlin at that time may be gathered from a letter written to me in November, 1874. *'If I do not greatly mistake, those who come after us, fifty or one hundred years hence, will see more clearly than we ever shall that those who laid the foundations of the College were guided by the wisdom that cometh down from above. Al- though Dr. Hamlin is now highly appreciated by those who know him best it is only an index of far greater honor that will be showered on his name in after generations." The following years up to 1877 were very trying ones to both Dr. Hamlin and Mr. Robert. Dr. Hamlin had labored in vain to raise an endowment, and now he felt that the great crisis of revolution and war in Turkey had made his task hopeless. No one who has had experience in such work can fail to sympathize with his feeling that he could endure it no longer, and, this given up, he felt that 31 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE he had no place and no work in America. Mr. Robert was broken down in health. The troubles in Constantinople threatened the very existence of the College, and the burden of expense, with yearly increasing deficits, was greater than he was able to meet. No one who has ever found himself weighted w^ith a burden too heavy for him to carry, but which could not be thrown off, can fail to sympathize with him. Rightly or wrongly, he felt that, in the interest of the College, it was not wise for Dr. Hamlin to return to Constantinople at that time. The ques- tion was discussed between them several times, and in June, 1877, Dr. Hamlin resigned the place of president and accepted an appointment for one year in Bangor Theological Seminary. He and Mr. Robert kept up a constant correspondence during the year, and October 23, 1877, Mr. Robert wrote to Dr. Long, then acting as director of the College, "I suppose that the faculty at Bangor will wish to make his appointment permanent, but I have not much fear that he will stay if the College needs his services next year, as I hope that it will." The office of president was not filled until June, 1878, just as Mr. Robert was leaving for Europe, broken down in health, to die a few months later in Paris. Dr. Hamlin remained in Bangor to the sincere regret of his old associates in the College at Constantinople. 32 CHAPTER III LAST TWO YEARS AT BEBEC. 1869-1871 I CAME to Constantinople in 1858 as treasurer of the Missions of the American Board, and up to 1869 my connection with the College was only in- cidental. When Dr. Hamlin went to America in 1860 he left me in charge of a well to be dug on the Kourou Tcheshme lot. After going down about one hundred feet through solid rock without finding water I gave it up, and there it remains to this day. When Dr. Hamlin was left alone by the resigna- tion of the two professors, 1865, I taught several classes until the end of the college year. W^hen he was trying to secure permission to build at Hissar I was living in Pera, and for about two years I had charge of all the negotiations with the American Legation and with the British Embassy. We de- pended chiefly at that time upon Lord Lyons, who had just come from Washington, who was an en- thusiastic friend of America and who saw clearly that Robert College would strengthen English in- fluence in Turkey. Dr. Hamlin was so disgusted with what he felt to be a want of sympathy on the part of the American minister that he had broken off personal relations with him, and the situation was farther complicated by the fact that the min- ister and his first secretary and dragoman were not on speaking terms. Yet all the official communica- 33 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE tion with the Porte had to be carried on through the American Legation. Happily I was on good terms with all the parties concerned. Dr. Hamlin told me what he wanted and I went first to the minister and got his promise to act; then I went to the dragoman and persuaded him to act on the same line, in both cases listening to the complaints which the one had to make against the other. It was the most curious experience that I ever had in diplomacy. In 1868 Dr. Hamlin resumed direct intercourse with the American minister. I have already mentioned the aid given by Mr. George D. Morgan of New York. In January, 1868, Mr. Morgan and his family met at their hotel in Constantinople Mr. C. C. Coffin of Boston, the well-known war correspondent, who was a friend of mine. Mr. Morgan was ill, but Mr. Coffin brought the family to a prayer meeting at my house in Pera, and the next morning I went to see what I could do for Mr. Morgan. In the course of our conversation I told him the story of Dr. Hamlin's conflict with the Turkish government. He was so much interested that he gave up a day to go to Hissar with me and see the site. I took him to Bebec to call on Dr. Hamlin, and there he care- fully examined all the documents connected with the case. He told me that evening that he should not return to America before May or June, but that he would make it his first business after his arrival to go to Washington and settle this matter with Mr. Seward. He kept his promise, and this was the beginning of the end of the struggle for permission to build the College. 34 LAST TWO YEARS AT BEBEG I left Constantinople in the spring of 1868 with no expectation of ever returning to work here. I had other plans in view. In the winter of 1 808-69 I was at my father's house on a visit, when one morning I received a telegram from Chicago ask- ing me to take charge of a church there, a letter from two gentlemen in New York offering to fur- nish all the money needed for the carrying out of the plans which I had in view when I left Constanti- nople, and a letter from Mr. Robert, who WTote that it was absolutely necessary for me to go to Constan- tinople to look after the work of the College while Dr. Hamlin was engaged in erecting a building at Hissar. I declined the invitation to Chicago and went to New York to see Mr. Robert and to consult my friends there. I got their consent to postpone my work in New York for two years, and agreed with Mr. Robert to go and assist Dr. Hamlin for thatjength of time if he wished me to come, know- ing as he did that I had no special preparation for such work. He had expressed some doubt about my health and my willingness to come, but ap- proved of Mr. Robert's proposal fully when he found that another man whom he had invited had declined to go. I had no thought of making this my life-work, but I believed in the College. I loved and admired Dr. Hamlin and I was willing: to sacri- fice two years to help him out. I suppose that the one thing which led Mr. Robert to insist upon my going was the fact that my wife was Dr. Hamlin's eldest daughter. Dr. Hamlin telegraphed me to come at once, and we arrived in Constantinople in season to be present S5 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE at the laying of the corner stone of the new building at Hissar, July 5, 1869, and went to live in one of the college buildings at Bebec just opposite the main building. The College was still in session. Dr. Hamlin writes, "We welcome the Washburns with great rejoicing, for all these difficulties so absorb my time that the college year would wind up badly without him." My official position was that of Professor of Philosophy. Robert College in 1869 was a unique institution. It occupied an old wooden house, built in 1798, on the side of a steep hill in the midst of the village of Bebec. It was entered from a court, with three stories below this level and three above. At the op- posite end of the court was the kitchen. Dr. Ham- lin's family lived in the story on the level, and the students occupied the rest of the building. They also occupied part of a house on the opposite side of the street which Dr. Hamlin had built some years before for a flour mill and bakery. I lived in the upper story of this house. The main building was very picturesque, but there were very few conven- iences in either house, and what there were were chiefly the handiwork of the president. Not a penny which could be saved was ever wasted on the place, and the College was practically self-supporting. It was generally known as Dr. Hamlin's College. There was one professor when I came who had already resigned and who left in July. There were two American tutors, Grosvenor and Wilcox, and four assistant teachers for French and the native languages. Dr. Hamlin was the College. If the tu- tors were wise and tactful enough to understand and 36 LAST TWO YEARS AT BEBEG carry out his ideas, they were a help. Sometimes they were a hindrance. There were no regular col- lege classes. Every student was treated as though he were the only one and given such studies as were adapted to his capacity. Every year those who were advanced were selected and formed into a class to graduate at the end of the year. With the small number of students then in the College this system worked very well. We have had no graduates who have distinguished themselves in later life more than those who were under Dr. Hamlin's personal influ- ence. He had a marvelous power of impressing his own personality on his students. He was a great teacher and he lived with the students, ate at the same table, and managed, in spite of the variety of his occupations, to see much of them. He believed in righteous anger and sometimes came down upon a student like a cyclone, but behind this there was a tenderness of heart and a sense of humor which I think invariably won the affection of the students. I have found among my papers an old document in Dr. Hamlin's handwriting which illustrates his methods of discipline, which were often as unique as this, and almost always successful. It relates to two brothers, Italians, who were always quarreling. Articles of Peace between Silvio and Pierre Biscuchia terminating THE War of 1867 & 1868 March 7, 1868 The two high contracting parties agree : 1 . That in order to preserve peace, amity and good will and to confirm a strict brotherhood to all 37 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE future generations one shall not call the other an ass or a dog or a pig or a thief, robber, rowdy, pezevenk or other opprobrious epithet in Italian, French, Turkish, Greek, English, Bulgarian, Armenian or any other language spoken at the tower of Babel or since that day. 2. Silvio shall in no case strike Pierre nor Pierre Silvio. 3. If either is guilty of any injustice toward the other the injured party shall state it to the Principal in writing and judgment shall be rendered accord- ing to the evidence. Witnesses : (Signed) GusTAVE Gaze. Silvio Biscuchia. Henri Coidan. Pierre Biscuchia. Yanko Agelasto. These boys left the College soon after, and some years later one killed the other in a quarrel. He was as supreme in the kitchen as in the school- room and generally superintended the making of the morning coffee himself. Although he knew nothing of book-keeping he managed the financial affairs of the College with success, as he had man- aged his bakery and laundry in the time of the war. About three-fourths of the students boarded in the college, 35 in all. They studied in the study hall, slept in dormitories, 12 or 15 together, bringing their own bedding, ate in the dining-room, played in the small court, made their ablutions in a small lavatory or in the open court, got exercise by walk- ing and occasional games on the hills above Bebec. They had prayers conducted by Dr. Hamlin at 38 LAST TWO YEARS AT BEBEG 6.30 in the morning and any student who failed to be present lost his breakfast. Lunch was at 12.30 and dinner at 6. The study hours were 4 in the morning, 2.30 in the afternoon and 1.30 in the evening. Every student was in bed and all lights extinguished at 10. I think that Dr. Hamlin himself seldom slept more than four hours in the night, w4th some five-minute naps during the day. Each dormitory had a tutor's room next it, and the tutors were expected to keep a surveillance over the students at all times, but especially in the study hall and the dormitories. No student could leave the building without special permission. Most of the boarders at this time were Bulga- rians, and for twenty years the great majority of the graduates were of this nationality. During the pre- vious decade the Bulgarians had awakened from the sleep of centuries. They had thrown off the yoke of the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople and began to dream of escaping from that of the Turk. It was a nation of peasants, held in ignorance by a double bondage. When they began to seek for en- lightenment their attention was first directed to Robert College by Dr. Long, then an American missionary in Bulgaria and later a professor in the College. Although Dr. Hamlin had interested him- self in the Bulgarians in 1856 and used his influence to have missions established in Bulgaria, it does not appear from their correspondence that either he or Mr. Robert had ever thought of them as possible students in the College, and Mr. Robert died with- out knowing that he had played an important part in founding a new state in Europe. 39 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE When I reached Constantinople Dr. Hamlin had been absorbed for some time in the work of building at Hissar, and, having no head, the College had fallen into confusion; but it was soon reduced to order, the examinations were satisfactory and Dr. Hamlin looked upon the Commencement exercises as a great success. Five Bulgarians and one Ger- man were graduated and eighty persons attended the exercises. Dr. Hamlin writes to Mr. Robert August 6, 1869 : *' Our Commencement was the best we have ever had and left a very excellent impres- sion. The orations of the graduating class were sober, manly, dignified, earnest and full of Chris- tian thought. I would have wished you no greater luxury than listening to them. Mr. Washburn will put things in shape and keep them there. You will enjoy having a business man to correspond with instead of a busy man. I think he will do grandly." The seventh college year opened September 15, 1869. Dr. Hamlin continued in charge of the boarding department. Otherwise he was absorbed from the very early morning until evening at Hissar, but always ready to give me advice. Two new tu- tors arrived from America, Wetmore of Michigan University and Anderson of Hamilton College, and together with Mr. Grosvenor they entered into the work with enthusiasm and whole-hearted devotion. There were six assistant teachers. October 6 there were present 53 boarders and 18 day scholars from the vicinity of the College, making 71 in all, of whom 35 were Bulgarians, 10 Greeks, 8 Armenians, 6 Americans, 4 English, 2 Dutch, 2 Syrians, 2 Christian Osmanlis, 1 Persian prince, 1 40 LAST TWO YEARS AT BEBEG German. Dr. Hamlin could pick out only one stu- dent who could be called a Senior, an Armenian, but I managed during the year to organize a Junior class of five Bulgarians. Up to this time the Sabbath services at the College had been in charge of Rev. Dr. Schauffler, who had been for many years the pastor of a church made up of missionaries and foreign residents, which held regular services in the building which Dr. Hamlin had rented for the College. The students attended this service. Dr. SchaufHer resigned this work at the end of 1879 on account of feeble health. The College then became responsible for the services. The preaching was done by Dr. Hamlin and myself with what help we could get from the missionaries. The Bible classes had always been a part of the col- lege work, and Dr. Hamlin was nowhere more suc- cessful than in this department. In March the number of students had increased to eighty- three, but an epidemic of measles, brought into the College by a day scholar, created a panic, and thirty boys, mostly day scholars, left, some of them not to return. None of the cases proved fatal, but it was a serious interruption to our work. Mr. Robert was seriously ill in New York at this time and came to Europe to regain his health. This also was a source of great anxiety to us. We were greatly refreshed by a visit from Professor Park of Andover and Professors Smith and Hitchcock of New York. Their enthusiastic interest in the Col- lege and in the building at Hissar gave us all new courage. I do not think that a gift of five thousand dollars would have done us as much good. They 41 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE were great and good men and their hearty indorse- ment of our work, which many of the missionaries looked upon unfavorably, confirmed our faith in it. Professor Park had been lamed by the kick of a horse, but he insisted on going to the new building, and Dr. Hamlin had him hauled up the hill in a Turkish cart drawn by two buffaloes. Those who remember Professor Park can imagine how he looked and the play of humor between him and Professor Hitchcock. On Sunday, June 5, 1870, Constantinople was visited by a conflagration which destroyed a large part of the quarter of Pera, consuming over eight thousand houses, destroying at least one thousand lives and leaving some fifty thousand people home- less. Among the buildings destroyed was the palace of the English Embassy and many of the best houses in the city. No one ever attempted to esti- mate carefully the pecuniary loss. The homes of three of our students were burned and the parents of several others lost most of their property. Dr. Hamlin anticipated such a rise in the cost of ma- terial and in labor as would greatly increase the cost of his building, but the calamity was so great that the opposite result followed. The year closed with only one graduate, an Ar- menian, but we put the Juniors all on the stage with orations and had a very successful Commencement. Dr. Hamlin left his work at Hissar to attend the examinations and wrote to Mr. Robert: "The examinations were good and gratifying. The prog- ress of the year has been decided and hopeful for the future." The financial results of the year were 42 LAST TWO YEARS AT BEBEG equally satisfactory, as the income was sufficient to pay the expenses. But I called Mr. Robert's atten- tion to the fact that this could only be hoped for so long as we had no permanent faculty and depended on cheap and transient tutors. Dr. Hamlin had en- couraged Mr. Robert to believe that it was not only possible to make the College self-supporting, but that the profits would accumulate rapidly and fur- nish the means to erect additional buildings. He WTote to Mr. Robert that in the new building with 250 students, no more teachers would be needed than with 80 students, the number then in the Col- lege. It will be seen that this optimistic view has not been justified in our experience. A college without professors would be an anomaly anywhere, and to-day with 400 students we find 12 professors and 28 other teachers none too many for our work. The eighth college year opened in the old build- ing at Bebec in September, 1870, with 103 students, which increased during the year to 100 boarders and 35 day scholars, when we moved into the new build- ing at Hissar. We had managed at the close of the previous year to organize another class so that we began with a regular programme of studies and Sophomore, Junior and Senior classes, the balance of students being more or less irregular. Mr. and Mrs. Robert came to Constantinople in the middle of October and spent a month here. They went from here to Syria and visited the col- lege which had been opened under the direction of Dr. Daniel Bliss at Beirut. The Beirut College in- terested Mr. Robert because it had been founded on somewhat different principles from that at Constan- FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE tinople. It was closely connected with the Mission and was distinctively Protestant, taking the name Syrian Protestant College. It was largely under the control of a local board of managers. It had a medi- cal department in view, which later became the most important branch of its work. The language of the college was Arabic, this being the common language of all nationalities in Syria, but after some years of experience this was changed to English. I regret that I have not in my possession and have never seen any of the letters written by Mr. Robert at the time of his visit to Constantinople and must depend upon my memory for everything connected with it. Mr. and Mrs. Robert spent most of the time that they were with us in the old mill house at Bebec, but Dr. Hamlin naturally saw much more of Mr. Robert than I did. He spent almost every day with Dr. Hamlin at Hissar and interested himself in all the details of the building, although he did not approve of the way in which Dr. Hamlin often exposed his life in various kinds of manual labor. It was not long after Mr. Robert left that he fell against a buzz saw and lost two of his fingers. However, Mr. Robert told me that he had never en- joyed anything more than these days spent at His- sar with Dr. Hamlin. He took time also to see everything at the College in Bebec — to make the acquaintance of the teachers and students and in- vestigate every detail of every department. He did not hesitate to criticise and advise in regard to the w^ork at Bebec or at Hissar, and so far as Bebec was concerned his criticisms were generally wise and timely, although it was sometimes impossible 44 LAST TWO YEARS AT BEBEG in our straitened circumstances to correct the deficiencies which he discovered. He also saw the missionaries and interested himself in them and their work, and drew out such criticisms of the Col- lege as they had to make. The Grand Vizier, Aali Pasha, lived at Bebec and naturally knew of Mr. Robert's presence here. He informed the Sultan, who proposed to confer on Mr. Robert the decoration of the Medjidie, in dia- monds. The Grand Vizier invited Mr. Robert to call on him and informed him of the will of the Sultan in most complimentary language. Mr. Rob- ert expressed his high appreciation of the honor but declined to accept the decoration, as something altogether foreign to American ideas. The Grand Vizier took it very kindly, but there was a difference of opinion among friends of the College here as to the wisdom of his act. This official recognition of the College by the Sultan would have had its value in later years, and it is not exactly a gracious thing to refuse an honor of this sort, or a possible thing to make Turkish officials understand the motives of such a refusal. Still there is no evidence that any positive harm came of it in this case, and it would be difficult to imagine anything more incongruous than Mr. Robert wearing a Turkish decoration on his breast in a New York drawing-room. There can be no doubt that this visit of Mr. and Mrs. Robert to Constantinople confirmed him in his determination to support the College to the ut- most extent of his ability. Not long after his departure w^e had a visit from General Sheridan, who was fresh from the great 45 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE battlefields of France and enough of an American to interest himself in the peaceful work of an Ameri- can college on the Bosphorus. He told me that, although he had seen the most bloody battles of the war, near Metz, he had seen no such desperate fighting as took place on several occasions during our Civil War in America. After Mr. Robert left us we plunged into a sea of troubles, such as are incident to such an institution, but which were new to me. First came a most trying case of discipline involving two of the most promi- nent students, one English and one Persian, in a gross offense against morality. There was nothing to be done but to expel them both, although one belonged to a Christian family who were among our best friends. Later developments proved that this young man was a hopeless degenerate; but I felt then, as I have felt quite as strongly ever since, that to expel a student is a humiliating confession of failure on the part of the teacher and in some cases at least an evidence that the teacher has failed to do his duty. Early in January we had an outbreak of typhoid fever in the College, due, as I believed, to the over- crowding of the old building at Bebec, although Dr. Hamlin was unwilling to admit this. Many were ill and there were four serious cases. The worst case was that of a young German boy from Trieste. We took him into our house, and Mrs. Washburn and I took care of him for many weeks. He sank so low that for two days he was unconscious and lay like dead, but he rallied again and finally recovered his health, to our great joy, as did all the rest of our 46 LAST TWO YEARS AT BEBEG patients. But for a time the College was a hospital, with no doctor within five miles of us and no trained nurses. It was a great strain on all the teachers. It was partly on this account that Dr. Hamlin in- sisted upon moving into the new building at Hissar before it was finished. I think that no one else ap- proved of it, but the result justified Dr. Hamlin's decision. There is a common proverb current here, *'If you build a stone house, rent it to your enemy the first year, to your friend the second and live in it yourself the third." Every one prophesied evil of the dampness of the walls, and many would not send their sons on this account, but in fact the health of the College was perfect after our removal. The only inconvenience was the intolerable noise made by the forty or fifty workmen in the building. Dr. Hamlin's family moved into the building at the same time with the students. It was May 17, 1871, that the new building was occupied; and the change made in perfect weather from the narrow quarters in the midst of the village of Bebec to the hill-top at Hissar, the most beautiful site on the Bosphorus and one unsurpassed by any in the world, more than compensated for all the inconvenience of our unfinished building — and the bare, unimproved grounds, cumbered with workshops and piles of rock and unprotected with walls. The number of students rose to 130 before the end of the year. The public opening was postponed to July 4, just two years from the laying of the corner stone. It so hap- pened that Ex-Secretary Seward, on his way around the world, was in Constantinople at this time, and he came to the College to take the principal part in 47 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE the opening exercises. Blacque Bey, who was the Turkish minister at Washington at the critical time when Mr. Morgan brought the college question before Mr. Seward with such success, was also there. Mr. Seward was a physical wreck, but he made a noble address, and his presence on this oc- casion impressed the Turkish government and all Constantinople with the idea that the College was under the special patronage as well as protection of the government of the United States. I suppose it was one of the happiest days in Dr. Hamlin's life — a day of triumph in what he believed to be a great and good cause and for which he had battled for ten years. The Commencement exercises a month later were held in the study hall which occupied the northeast corner of the first story of the new building which I shall henceforth speak of as Hamlin Hall. Up to that time there had been 9 graduates, 2 in 1868, 6 in 1869, 1 in 1870, — 6 Bulgarians, 2 Armenians and 1 German. Mr. Petco Gorbanoff remained several years in the College as instructor in Bulgarian and since that time has been a prominent citizen of Bul- garia, a lawyer by profession, and often a member of the National Assembly. Mr. Hagopos Djedjizian has been a Protestant preacher and an instructor or professor of Armenian in the College since 1869. Of the next class Mr. Jordan Economoff and Mr. Stephan Thomoff studied theology in Drew Theo- logical Seminary in America and have since been Protestant clergymen in Bulgaria. Mr. Theodore Djabaroff has been a prominent official in Bulgaria. Mr. Peter Mattheoff has occupied high ministerial 48 LAST TWO YEARS AT BEBEG and diplomatic positions in the Bulgarian govern- ment after having been in the British postal service, and after having been engaged for the British Mu- seum in explorations in Babylonia with George Smith. Mr. Diran Garabetian of 1870 has been an ofhcial of the Imperial Ottoman Bank ever since his graduation, and Mr. Naiden Nicoloff also a banker. The class of 1871 were all Bulgarians, and no more distinguished class has ever been graduated from the College. Stephan Panaretoff has been in- structor or professor of Bulgarian and Slavic in the College ever since his graduation, and Bulgaria has produced no more distinguished scholar and teacher. Mr. Stoiloff and Mr. Slaveikoff w^ere both teachers in the College for a time. Constantine Stoiloff was the ablest statesman in Bulgaria until he died in 1901. Ivan Slaveikoff was one of the leading literary men in Bulgaria and held many high offices during his life until he died in 1901, as Minister of Public Instruction. Ivan S. Gueshoff is still a leading politician and just now diplomatic agent of Bulgaria in Constantinople, as he has been in Paris and Vienna. Petco Taptcheleshloff has been and is a merchant. I was not present on July 4 nor at the Com- mencement. I had left for America June 20. The two years which I had agreed to give to Robert College while Dr. Hamlin was engaged in building had been completed and the building was occupied. Family affairs and other considerations made it necessary for me to go to America. But Mr. Robert and the trustees in New York and Dr. Hamlin in 49 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE Constantinople urged me to accept a permanent position in the College, especially in view of the fact that it had been arranged for Dr. Hamlin to go to America in the autumn to raise an endowment for the College. Dr. Hamlin knew from two years' ex- perience that I could never manage a college on his plan and declared often that he could never manage one on mine; but he thought that I had learned enough from him and had caught enough of his spirit, to make me the only possible candidate to fill his place while he was in America. I accepted the appointment after much hesitation, because I had become deeply interested in the College and because I believed, after two years of trial, that, in spite of our differences, we could work together in harmony — peacefully agreeing to differ as we always had. I did not forget that I had come to the College without any experience in teaching or in the administration of a school of any kind and that most of what I knew at the end of two years I had learned from Dr. Hamlin. Our differences grew out of our characters. He was an original genius, I was not. He abhorred all the trammels and details of system- atic organization, which he declared belonged to Jesuits. To me such system seemed to be essential. We got on together because he tolerated my system and I was glad to have him work outside of it in any way he pleased. 50 CHAPTER IV NINTH COLLEGE YEAR. 1871-1872 Dr. Hamlin left for America September 30, 1871, leaving his family in the house which I had occupied at Bebec, while I moved into Hamlin Hall, occupy- ing the suite of rooms in the second story on the south side of the building, where we lived for twenty years. \ A great change had taken place in the political situation at Constantinople due to the Franco- \ Prussian War. It was illustrated by a request made 1 to me by an Armenian merchant at this time. "Please excuse my son from studying any morel French, that is played out. Let him study the/ Prussian language instead.*' Since the Crimean/ War French influence, and under its protection Jesuit influence, had been supreme at Constanti^ nople. Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz had visited Napoleon III at Paris, and the Empress, after opening the Suez Canal, had been entertained by the Sultan at Constantinople. The great Lycee of Galata Serai had been opened, with a staff furnished by the Emperor but supported by the Sultan, to compete with Robert College; and Dr. Hamlin had found all this influence arrayed against him when he was seek- ing permission to build at Hissar. All this was changed by the war and the fall of the empire. It was some years before Germany gained much 51 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE influence here, but Russia came to the front and England regained much of her old prestige in the eyes of Turkish statesmen if not with Sultan Abd- ul-Aziz himself. The men who deposed him a few years later were in league with England. Russia took the place of France as the chief enemy of the College and used her influence to turn Bulgarian students from Robert College to Russia for their education. Unfortunately for Bulgaria she opened the way for a boy in Tirnova, where Dr. Long was a missionary, and a friend of this boy, whose name was Stambouloff, to go to Russia for a free educa- tion in a theological school. If he had come to Robert College he would have had other ideas of government than those which he learned in Russia. He was probably the strongest man that Bulgaria has produced and saved Bulgaria from Russian domination; but so far as the internal government of the country was concerned he too often fell back upon Russian methods. When a student he was expelled from Russia as a nihilist but secretly em- ployed by the Russian Embassy as a sort of brigand revolutionist against the Turks, before the massa- cres, and came to the front as a great leader after the fall of Prince Alexander. The College opened September 15 with four college classes and a preparatory class, with but few students ; but by the first of October there were 135 boarders and 30 day scholars. Mr. Grosvenor had left for America and in his place two new tutors, Mr. Forbes from Amherst College and Mr. Richard- son from Hobart, had come, making with Mr. Anderson and Mr. Wetmore a most efficient staff of 52 NINTH COLLEGE YEAR American teachers. We have never had better men and they have all distinguished themselves since. I can never forget what I owe and what the College owes to their devoted service. The cause of so few students entering the College w^as the outbreak of an epidemic of cholera in the city. The horrors of the great epidemic of 1865 were fresh in the minds of all, and students were afraid to come. It was a wonder that we had so many. The first cases occurred before Dr. Hamlin left for America, and he hesitated about starting. It w^as while he was still detained in the quarantine at Trieste that I was roused from my bed by a mes- senger from Bebec, saying that Willie Hamlin had the cholera. It was a terribly stormy night, and it took me three quarters of an hour to reach them. I found the case far advanced, and no doctor could be found. Six years before in that very room my own son Harry had died of cholera in my arms. I fought the disease in this case until six o'clock in the morning, made all the arrangements for his im- mediate burial and disinfecting the house and came back to Hissar more dead than alive to go to bed and fight off an attack of cholera myself. Had I re- mained until the authorities knew of the case I should have been kept there some days in quaran- tine. It was a terrible shock to Mrs. Hamlin, but happily no other case occurred in the family. Within a few days I was called to three other cases in the families at Hissar. All died. There was something peculiar about this epidemic, unlike that of 1865. Nearly every case proved fatal, with treat- ment which in 1865 was generally successful. I had 5S FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE a second slight attack myself after one of these visits, and we had some three hundred cases of stu- dents with threatening premonitory symptoms, but every student was carefully watched, and we had no fully developed case of cholera in the College. Many thought that we ought to suspend and send the students home ; but they and their parents had such faith in us that, so far as I can remember, only a single student was withdrawn. At one time Mr. Wetmore had an attack when spending a night at Bebec, but I got to him at once and he recovered. Those were weeks when everything looked dark about us, but we put our trust in God and kept right on with the required routine of college work, and He did not fail us. The epidemic lasted about four months. There were about four thousand deaths in the city besides soldiers and sailors. The frantic attempts of the Turkish authorities to deal with the epidemic on modern principles frightened the people more than the disease itself. It was then that they first heard of microbes, and Turkish doc- tors stuffed chloride of lime into the mouths, noses and ears of their patients to keep the microbes from crawling out and attacking others. Perhaps the most important event of the year was the purchase of the land between the College and the village of Hissar. It belonged to Achmet Vefik Pasha of whom Dr. Hamlin had bought the college lot of about six acres. This one contained about twelve acres, and included the well which was our only water supply, besides the cistern of Hamlin Hall. Dr. Hamlin had written at length to Mr. Robert urging him to authorize the purchase by 54 NINTH COLLEGE YEAR telegraph. After Dr. Hamlin's departure a long letter came from Mr. Robert forbidding the pur- chase, but here appeared one of Mr. Robert's most admirable characteristics. Although the most posi- tive of men in his judgments, he hesitated about im- posing his authority upon us, even where it was a question of money which must come out of his pocket. He had held the letter over a day and then added a postscript which left the final decision to me.^ I bought the land at once for thirteen thou- sand tw^o hundred dollars. On this land to-day stand Theodorus Hall and six professors' houses. Achmet Vefik Pasha was in no special need of money at that time, but he was a warm friend of the College, and the price which he asked was very reasonable. He was the most interesting Turk whom I have ever known — a great linguist, famil- iar with sixteen languages and with the classic authors of all Europe, had held the highest offices in the government, was a great reformer and an * In regard to this postscript Mr. Robert wrote to me October 30, 1871: "I think I see clearly the hand of God in suggesting those lines. I had conferred with Mr. Booth on the subject . . . and we both decided it was not best to make the purchase. I went to Throgs Neck that evening feeling that we had done right, but thinking and praying over it, it occurred to me that I had never given Dr. Hamlin positive instruction as to anything, though I had several times differed from him, saying to myself why should I do so in this case. I name it because I have had the most pleasant emotions since read- ing your letter advising the purchase and cannot forbear expressing my feelings, for I have often during the past six weeks asked our Heavenly Father to guide all interested in the matter to such action as would be most for His glory, and my conviction is strong that in this thing we have all been directed by wisdom from above." 55 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE honest man, — a very rare thing for a Turkish offi- cial; but his ideas of government were altogether oriental and I think that Haroon-al-Rashid was his ideal for a sovereign. He lived very near the Col- lege, and I spent many evenings with him. One I shall never forget. I found there a German savant, and they were discussing the inspiration of the Bible. I declined to take part and listened. The nominal Christian was denying it, and the Moham- medan defended it quite as though he had been a professor in a Protestant theological seminary. I was amazed, and the next day I went to ask him where he had studied theology. He laughed one of his hearty laughs and said, "Oh! when I was ambassador in Paris I lived next door to Renan, and we discussed religious questions almost every day.'* He died some years ago, a poor man; his family has disappeared, and the very house in which he lived has been pulled down and sold for firewood. His magnificent library, the best in Constantinople, was scattered, — partly stolen and partly sold to pay debts. It is perhaps worth mentioning that in February, 1872, Nature favored us with an exhibition of the Aurora Borealis which surpassed everything that I have ever seen. For hours the heavens were as red as blood, great waves of light pouring down from a corona at the zenith and coming up from the hori- zon. It was the more remarkable as we seldom see anything of these displays here, and it made a great impression upon our students, as well as upon the superstitious people of the city. We had some very interesting visitors during the 5Q NINTH COLLEGE YEAR year. First Professor North of Hamilton College, *'the old Greek" as he was called by his students, and one who was greatly trusted by Mr. Robert. Many of our best tutors we owed to his recommen- dation. Three of them were here at the time of his visit. He was very enthusiastic about the College, and I have no doubt that his report of it was a great encouragement to Mr. Robert at a time when he specially needed it — when he was reluctantly giv- ing up his school on Lookout Mountain that he might concentrate his efforts upon Robert College. Later came General Sherman and Lieutenant, now General, Grant — Prince Grant as he was called by the Turkish newspapers, his father being at that time President of the United States. Gen- eral Sherman was the guest of the Sultan, and he brought with him to the College the staff of pashas who were in attendance on him. He made an ad- mirable address to the students and made it appar- ent to the Sultan and to all the city that Robert Col- lege was an institution honored by the government of the United States. Such support by such a man was invaluable to us. Later came Mr. Remington, of whom I shall write in connection with the Com- mencement exercises. One of the questions brought up by Mr. Robert during this year was that of corporal punishment, which he objected to. Dr. Hamlin had flogged students publicly for gross offenses and considered this a proper punishment, and I had been so far in- fluenced by Dr. Hamlin's example that in the earlier years of my administration I did sometimes resort to forcible measures in extreme cases even with 57 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE older students, and some amusing stories are current among the alumni of my punishments. For a man as big and strong as I was it was not unnatural to meet resistance sometimes with force. I did once throw a Turk down stairs, who had intruded into a dormitory after having been ordered out of the building, and some students did feel the weight of my heavy oak cane when they were riotous. Look- ing back upon it now, I am inclined to feel that in those earlier years something of this kind was nec- essary ; but as the College came to be a recognized power in the world its moral influence increased so much, that physical force was no longer needed to maintain discipline. In later years I never resorted to it with college students. But I have always be- lieved that whipping was a punishment well fitted for the younger boys in the Preparatory Depart- ment in a certain class of offenses. Only I insisted that it should be administered by the president in private, not publicly nor by any other teacher, and solemnly. There were ten cases during this college year where such punishment was administered. In the later years I found that a public reprimand at morning prayers was one of the most effective of punishments, only it was necessary to resort to this as a rare punishment, and for serious offenses. If it had been common it would have been useless. The most difficult cases to manage were those in which I had to settle quarrels between students, especially when they were of different nationalities, to be an absolutely just judge between them, and to so far satisfy both parties that there would be no further trouble. 58 GEORGE WASHBURN NINTH COLLEGE YEAR In May, 1872, I was appointed by the trustees Director of the College, which did not disturb the position of Dr. Hamlin as president, and was equivalent to the position of vice-president, giving me full authority during his absence. The title of director was chosen as one that would be better understood in Constantinople. Dr. Hamlin reached Constantinople June 17 on his return from America. His special purpose in re- turning was to erect a study hall building and two professors' houses. He was greatly impressed by the enthusiastic reception which was given to him by the College. He writes to Mr. Robert, " It was a most unexpected and enthusiastic affair.'* A week later he writes in regard to his eight months in America: "I have been able, some way or other, to secure a good hearing, but in the very crisis of the work, the getting of the money, I have failed. I have learned some things I never dreamed of as possible, and now it remains to be seen what success God will give to another year's deliberate and con- secutive effort. If I can raise an endowment of thirty thousand dollars a year I am willing to give four years to it." Dr. Hamlin's failure to get money is a mystery to me.^ Since that day I have had long and repeated * In a letter to me Mr. Robert gives the following reasons for Dr. Hamlin's failure. 1st. The low state of religion in the churches. 2d. Humanitarian efforts. These were stimulated by the war and since then the sympathies of benevolent men have run in this di- rection. 3d. Denominational zeal. Ministers try to turn all gifts into denominational enterprises. 4th. For two years several of the largest denominations have been getting up !' memorial funds." 59 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE experiences in raising money for the College and ought to understand the business, but I cannot un- derstand why Dr. Hamlin failed. I have never done such grand work or created any such enthusiasm as he did. He worked day and night. He had a great number of very successful public meetings, attended by the elite of America, and he diligently followed them up by personal interviews. No missionary has ever been more honored. No college president ever worked harder. But he got very little money. The great Chicago fire which took place while he was on the way to America may have had some in- fluence, and in New York City the fact that Mr. Robert's name had been given to the College fur- nished some with an excuse for not giving. No man in New York was more highly or more universally respected than Mr. Robert, but he was not a popu- lar man. There was no more liberal or conscien- tious giver in New York, but he carried out the in- junction not to let his left hand know what his right hand gave, and few knew how generous he was. It 5th. The Chicago fire. 6th. "Charity begins at home," the com- mon excuse for not giving to anything foreign. My impression is that he might have added another more important one. Both he and Dr. HamHn thought that their strongest argument was to say that the College was and would be self -supporting. I have always used the opposite argument. Without an endowment the College could not Hve. There is a pleasure in starting a good thing which will go on by itself, but where is there a genuine college which is progressing without an endowment ? According to Mr. Robert's books the College was self-supporting the fifth, seventh, eighth and ninth years, years when there were no professors. The other years there was a loss of more than two thousand dollars a year. It has never been self-supporting since the tenth year. 60 NINTH COLLEGE YEAR is not surprising that Dr. Hamlin found difficulties in New York City, but I never found Mr. Robert's name or character an obstacle in other places, where most of Dr. Hamlin's work was done. I cannot account for his failure. It was a terrible disap- pointment both to him and to Mr. Robert, and in April Mr. Robert had written to me that Dr. Hamlin feared that I was dooming the College "to financial ruin" by insisting upon the appointment of professors and perfecting our equipment. He seemed to share this feeling. Under these trying circumstances nothing in the history of the College is more remarkable than the way in which Mr. Robert's faith and courage rose above it all to meet the emergency. He not only consented to every- thing which I had asked for, but sent Dr. Hamlin back to put up three new buildings. It was during this college year and the next that Mr. Forbes and I made a careful geological survey of the Bosphorus region, extending back some twenty miles on each side of the Strait. Educated at Amherst under President Hitchcock, I had at one time thought of giving my life to geology. Mr. Forbes was also an Amherst man and had inter- ested himself in this subject, and he joined in this work most heartily. I probably owe my long life to the fact that for some two years Mr. Forbes and I devoted all the time that we could get to this out- of-door work, and there is no part of my life here that I look back upon with more pleasure. It was a field which had hardly been worked at all, and we made many interesting discoveries. We settled the age of the different formations in this vicinity 61 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE and learned much of its geological history. One incident brought our work to the knowledge of the scientific world. Much was made just at this time of the discovery of evidence of the existence of man in the Miocene period, based on the discovery by Mr. Calvert of fossil bones in Miocene strata eight hundred feet below the surface which were "cov- ered with pictures which must have been made by human hands." The locality of the discovery was near the shore of the Dardanelles just on the edge of the Troad. Mr. Forbes and I went down there to investigate, and Mr. Calvert very kindly showed us the bones and informed us exactly where they had been found. We found the place, and the formation was undoubtedly Miocene. We found plenty of fossil bones of that period, some with similar marks on them, but we were able to demonstrate the fact that no human hands ever had anything to do with making these marks to the satisfaction of the scientific world. We afterward visited Hissarlik and were entertained there roy- ally by Mr. Schliemann and his beautiful wife. The world is generally agreed now that this is the site of ancient Troy; but we came to the conclusion, after visiting all the supposed sites, that there is no place in the Troad which answers to all the demands of the Iliad. The college year closed with 210 students, and Dr. Hamlin wrote to Mr. Robert of the Commence- ment exercises, July 25, 1872: *' Yesterday was a great day and a high day at Robert College. It was the best of all our Commencements. It crowned them all, and in all respects the exercises of the grad- 62 NINTH COLLEGE YEAR uating class were excellent, not merely satisfactory, but positively gratifying, solid, thoughtful, clear, no flash, no ' hi-falutin,* but noble, manly and ele- vated. Music introduced for the first time and good. Speeches by Mr. Boker, American minister, Mr. Francis, our minister to Athens, Mr. Reming- ton" and others. Mr. Remington helped to cele- brate the day by giving five thousand dollars, the income of which was to be used for general pur- poses until it might seem wise to use the principal to start a museum of useful arts. We had already commenced a zoological museum, by the purchase of a unique collection of Turkish birds, which is still, I think, the only one in the city. The graduates numbered 8, — 6 Bulgarians, 1 Greek and 1 English. Andrew C. Zenos, the Greek, has been for many years a very distinguished professor in American theological seminaries, now at McCormick Seminary in Chicago. Edward Binns, the Englishman, was thrown from a horse and killed in 1876. Of the Bulgarians the one to whom their country owes the most is Peter Dimitroff. He had paid his way through college by teaching Turkish and remained a teacher for several years after graduating. From the time of the Bulgarian massacres to the present day he has been one of the wisest, best and most devoted servants of his country. Gonstantine Calchof is now a wealthy banker and has occupied many important positions in the government of Eastern Roumelia and Bulgaria. Dimitry Economoff and Ivan D. Gueshoff have done good service in high official positions. Stephan M. Camburoff entered the army and died in 1882. 63 CHAPTER V DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE. 1872-1873 This year marks an era in the history of the Col- lege. We crossed the Rubicon. We settled the ques- tion that this should be a college and not a high school, and that we would trust in God to raise up friends to support it. If Mr. Robert had not been a man of great faith, who lived very near to God, this decision would never have been made. I can never recall this decision on his part without a feeling of profound reverence for the man. Up to this time he had cherished the idea that the College might be self-supporting, and Dr. Hamlin had used this as one of his chief arguments in his campaign in America to raise funds. In fact during the last three years it had been self-supporting so far as current expenses were concerned, and the failure to raise money for endowment must have been a cogent reason in Mr. Robert's mind to avoid additional expenses, especially as we had managed to do some very good work under the existing system of having only one permanent teacher. Dr. Hamlin was a college in himself, as President Garfield said of Dr. Hopkins; but it must be remembered Garfield had in view that there should be only one student, "Dr. Hopkins on one end of the log, he on the other." During the ninth year there had been over two hundred students in the College. I was acting 64 DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE president, I was the Faculty, I was the college preacher, I was professor of Philosophy and Politi- cal Economy. I taught English, I was treasurer, I was dean, I managed the boarding department, I was secretary and had all the correspondence and the direction of fifteen temporary instructors of eight different nationalities; and I was not Dr. Hamlin. It would have been ridiculous to call such an institution a college except for the one fact that it was in Turkey and that there was no other school in the empire in those early years to equal it. On the same plan it might have con- tinued to exist as a self-supporting high school, but it could never have been a college and never have attained the commanding position which it has held since 1872. Two professors were appointed and one adjunct professor. I was furnished with a secretary and Dr. Hamlin had returned from America. We had a Faculty. Rev. Albert L. Long, D.D., was appointed Professor of Natural Science, Edwin A. Grosvenor, Professor of Latin and History, Hagopos Djedjizian Adjunct Professor of Ancient and Modern Armenian. Dr. Long was a rare man, of distinguished ability and not quite forty years old. He had taught several years in America. He had been a missionary of the American Methodist Church in Bulgaria for some twelve years, where he had w^on the confidence and affection of the people and with Dr. Riggs had translated the Bible into Bulgarian. It w^as through his influence that Bul- garians first came to the College. No college presi- dent ever had a more devoted and eflScient associate, and he was a tower of strength in the College until 65 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE he died in 1901, mourned by all Bulgaria and by every student who had been under him. He had been beloved as a brother by all his associates. Professor Grosvenor had been a tutor in the College for three years and had proved so efficient that we were glad to persuade him to return as a professor. He came back as an ordained minister. He filled the place with distinguished ability until he re- signed in 1890 to go to America and accept a pro- fessorship in Amherst College. Professor Dje- djizian was a graduate of the College in 1868 and had been an instructor ever since. He already had the reputation among the Armenians of being a very eloquent preacher and orator, as well as an Armenian scholar. His appointment as adjunct professor was a reversal of the former policy of the College, in which policy I had fully agreed with Mr. Robert, that we should appoint no natives of the country to permanent positions in the College. We all agreed in 1872 that this was a mistake, and our experience ever since has fully justified this conclu- sion. My secretary, Mr. Robert Thomson, who remained with me five years, was a young Scotch- man who had been a student in the College. He was an ideal secretary, and after leaving me he went to America and studied theology and has since been one of the best missionaries of the American Board in Bulgaria. In addition to these professors we began the year with four American tutors, Messrs. Richardson, Forbes, Arthur Hoyt and Woodbridge, eight other instructors and an English lady, Mrs. Dick, as matron. Our salary account for the year was increased about four thousand dollars over the 66 DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE previous year. The increase in our permanent staff enabled us to revise and improve our curricu- lum of studies, one thing Mr. Robert had con- stantly impressed upon us from the beginning. He often wrote about it. Dr. Hamlin's letters to him reechoed the same thought, and we all fully realized the fact that progress, development in the College, was essential to life. No one realized it more strongly than I did, and it has been my principle of action always. But progress means more men and more money. Our progress has never caught up with our desires. We had made progress before 1872. To move from the old house in Bebec to Hamlin Hall at Hissar was an evidence of progress which deeply impressed all Constantinople. And we had done what we could from the first to improve our organization, our equipment and our course of study. We had been very fortunate in many of our tutors and instructors; but although we did our best with the men and the means which we had, the establishment of Robert College had already led to the establishment of the Galata Serai Lycee and several other national schools which in their equip- ment were in advance of us. Our superiority lay altogether in the moral and religious influences which went to the building up of character. Now with a live Faculty and Mr. Robert's determination to press forward, we were in a position to keep in advance of all rivals, and at the same time to bid them God-speed in their work. One of our most pressing wants was a material one. Our study halls and recitation rooms w^ere absurdly inadequate to the number of our students, 67 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE and Dr. Hamlin had returned expressly to erect a new building to meet this want. He trusted per- haps too much to the good will of the Turkish government and commenced work without waiting for any permission, but Aali Pasha had passed away and the Grand Vizier was the tool of Russia. Per- haps it was our fault in having failed to give a back- sheesh to the inspector who came to see what was going on. At any rate, the work was stopped, and it was some months before Mr. Boker, the American minister, succeeded in getting an irade for it. He could not get permission to erect professors' houses, and Dr. Hamlin returned to America without erect- ing them ; buf meanwhile he purchased the house in the village of Hissar in which I am now writing. Dr. Long moved into it at that time. The study hall building was a large one-story building behind Hamlin Hall, made with dry stone walls plastered without and within, containing two study rooms and recitation rooms in the roof, a temporary struc- ture which cost about ten thousand dollars. Dr. Hamlin was probably joking when he wrote of it as "adding to the magnificence of the College." It was an ugly building externally, but it answered its purpose admirably for thirty years, when it was pulled down, and at the time when it was built it added greatly to the efficient working of the College. After investing so much capital in land and build- ings and authorizing this increase in current ex- penses, Mr. Robert's faith was to be severely tried up to the time of his death, but he never expressed to me any regret at what he had done. The year had hardly opened when the news of the great fire 68 DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE in Boston put an end to the hopes that he had had of help from there, and the great financial crisis of 1873 was not only discouraging in a general way, but it seriously reduced his own income. Much of his property was in real estate in the city of New York, and the value of this was steadily declining. Still he firmly believed that, in His own good time, God would provide for the College, as He has. His faith was not in vain. The number of students registered this year was 257, of whom 68 were day scholars and 189 board- ers, but the number present at any one time was never more than 170 boarders and 45 day scholars. There were some troubles during the year which led to the expulsion of 6 students. The number of Greeks in the College had increased to 48, and the great conflict of the Greeks and Bulgarians over the church question had lately been decided by the Turks in favor of the Bulgarians, in view of which the Greek Patriarch had excommunicated the Bulgarian nation as schismatics. The intensely bitter feeling between the two nationalities was political as well as religious, for this recognition of the Bulgarians as a separate nationality put an end to long cherished hopes of a restoration of the Greek Empire at Constantinople. It revealed to the world that the Christians of European Turkey were mostly Slavs and not Greeks. It was inevi- table that our Bulgarian and Greek students should share in the general excitement, and on one occa- sion we escaped a general battle at the evening sur- veillance only because I happened to be within a hundred feet of the study hall. The Bulgarian 69 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE instructor was in charge of the study hall, and I found him closed with a big Greek, while every student was on his feet just rushing to the fray. I sent the Greek to my office and had no difficulty in restoring order in the hall, but it was a narrow escape from a great calamity. It is to the credit of both the Greeks and Bulgarians that after this they respected the neutral territory of the College so far as not to have any more serious conflicts. But it was years before the better class of Greeks began to come in any number to what they often complained to me was a Bulgarian college. At this time, how- ever, the Armenians had rather suddenly taken up the College and outnumbered any other nationality, which caused a combination against us of their national schools and attacks upon us in their news- papers, which culminated in the difficulties of the following year. I had to go to America on important business in the summer, and as the president was here and Professor Grosvenor was living in Hamlin Hall I was able to get away a month before the close of the year. Nothing really serious happened in my absence; but with Armenians, Bulgarians and Greeks all in rather an excited state, it was natural that after my departure they should try the metal of the modified administration and see what they could do, especially as Dr. Hamlin was not living in the College. There was some rioting in the building at the close of the year, after Commence- ment, but nothing more serious than often takes place in American schools. Dr. Hamlin made little of it. His great trial was with a case of drunk- 70 DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE enness. He thrashed two students pul)licly and expelled the third. This last was a curious case. The boy had given me endless trouble. Much of the time he was not an unattractive boy, but at intervals his behavior was such that it seemed to me like the cases reported in the New Testament of demoniacs. He seemed to be literally possessed of an evil spirit whom I could not cast out so that he should not return. I never heard of him after his expulsion until the time of my giving up the work here in 1904, when the old students raised a fund to found a scholarship in my name, when the committee showed me a most complimentary letter from him with a contribution of twenty francs for the testimonial, and then I learned that he was a most estimable man of very modest means, who wished to testify to the good that he had got in the College. Evidently Dr. Hamlin's discipline cast out the devil. Our Turkish neighbors in Hissar were in general rather fanatical and sometimes made things un- pleasant for us and our students, but we took as little notice of it as possible, hoping that as they came to know us better they would become friendly. They occasionally stoned us, sometimes spat on us and generally made use of their rich vocabulary of vituperation to abuse us. This year for some reason these manifestations increased so that we had to apply to our Legation for protection. It took six months of negotiations with the Sublime Porte to bring the affair to an end. The following year, under similar circumstances, when a lot of boys from the village molested us, I sent for the 71 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE chief of the poHce, gave him a backsheesh and asked him to settle the matter, which he did by arresting the boys and thrashing them. We have not troubled our Legation with such matters since. The leader in these attacks was the wife of the village imam, a remarkable woman who for many years ruled this quarter of the village, a virago whom I do not care to describe, for we have been good friends for many years. I think it was Dr. Long who first won her over, when he lived just opposite to her in the house where I am writing. It was hard for any one to withstand his kindness. It was some years later that she came to my house and one day begged me to understand that the trouble she made us in those early years was all a mistake. "We thought," she said, "that you were bad people and would corrupt our village and we determined to drive you away, but we have found out that you are much better people than we are and we are very sorry for what we did." After the purchase of the house in Hissar Dr. Hamlin in some way got the idea that I intended to leave Hamlin Hall and move into this house. In fact I had never thought of doing so, but he wrote to Mr. Robert a solemn and rather violent protest against this. One paragraph may be quoted. *'This measure would be revolutionary. Its ulti- mate moral result would be bad. It would end in failure. Should the measure ever be proposed and acceded to what course should I feel impelled to pursue.^ ... I will never assent to it, I will die first. Such a revolutionary measure would neces- sarily dissolve my connection, whether nominal or 72 DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE real, with the College and with its endowment." I lived in Ilamlin Hall twenty years and only left it when forced to do so by my health; and when Professor Anderson and his family took our place, I still lived on the college grounds in Kennedy Lodge. I mention this matter here to record my absolute agreement with Dr. Hamlin's feeling, which prompted his protest. I believe that the work which Mrs. Washburn and I did in those twenty years was the best work we have ever done, that our influence over the teachers and the stu- dents was far greater and better than it has ever been since, even though we were living within a stone's throw of the College. So long as Professor Anderson lived in Hamlin Hall it was no great loss to the College, but it was a loss to me and Mrs. Washburn. In the end, after some ten years, he also was forced to give it up. Our personal influence over the students while we lived in Hamlin Hall was worth more to them than the instruction they received in my classes. One interesting episode of the year was a chal- lenge to a cricket match sent to our students by the officers of the British gunboat Antelope. They anticipated an easy victory, but they were igno- miniously beaten by our boys, and the same thing happened on the return match played a week later. They could not understand how Bulgarians, Ar- menians and Greeks in an American college could beat Englishmen at their national game, but they took it very good-naturedly. Among other interesting visitors during the year were Mr. Bancroft, the historian, then American 73 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE minister at Berlin, and Bevan Braithwait, one of the leading Friends in England. Mr. Bancroft was greatly interested in the College and was one of our best friends in America until his death. I took him to call on Achmet Vefik Pasha, who was as entertaining as usual, and made a great impression on Mr. Bancroft. He was just then Minister of Public Instruction, and he assured Mr. Bancroft that he had established forty thousand schools in the empire. Perhaps he had — on paper. Mr. Braithwait is still one of our warm friends in Eng- land and has visited us several times. "The Lord has always moved him" to address the students, and his addresses have been admirable. We had only one graduate at the end of this year, and he had gone over the studies of the Senior year a second time, having failed to pass his examina- tions the year before. He was a Bulgarian, John J. Sitchanoff, and he has been one of the most useful of our graduates. He has been for many years the pastor of the Protestant church in Philippopolis, the most important in Bulgaria, and is held in high esteem by all classes in the city. It will seem strange that the tenth year of the College, with more than 200 students, we had no Senior class. This resulted in part from the en- largement of our course of study, but chiefly from another cause. Of the 257 students registered the tenth year, only 54 ever graduated. This number would have been somewhat larger, but for the Ar- menian troubles the following year. Still it repre- sents an important fact. If we take the whole number of students who have entered the College 74 DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE since its foundation, not more than one in six has completed the course and graduated. The primary reason for this is that when the College was founded the only idea that the people of Turkey had of edu- cation was the acquiring a practical knowledge of three or four languages, and this idea is still very common. Then again the majority of our students come to the College to be prepared for business and are always ready to leave when their parents find a promising opening for them. Many are too poor to complete their education. Again in Turkey proper there are very few openings for Christians in professional life or in government offices, so that the need of a college education is not apparent. Many fall out because they are dropped from their classes for failure to pass examinations and from other personal reasons. During the tenth year 24 students left either from illness or because their families were leaving Turkey. But we have never measured the value of our work by the number of our graduates. The aver- age length of time spent in the College by those who have not graduated is more than three years. We do what we can to induce those who are of more than ordinary ability to finish their course, whatever career they may have in view, because there is great need of such men to become leaders of their people ; but many of our old students who did not complete the course have done more honor to the College and shown more affection for it than some of those who have graduated. 75 CHAPTER VI RELIGIOUS QUESTIONS. 1873-1874 Dr. Hamlin left Constantinople September 26 with his family to renew his efforts to raise an en- dowment, honored and beloved by men of many races, but most of all by those who had been under his instruction in the Bebec Seminary and in Rob- ert College. He never returned. On the twenty- fifth anniversary of the opening of the College every effort was made to induce him to come to Constantinople, at our expense, but he replied that if he could be sure that he would die there he would go. He could not again go through the trial of leaving. I have postponed any extended statement in regard to the religious work of the College until this time, because it will be better understood in connection with the Armenian difficulties, which had been threatening for some months and culmi- nated early in this college year. I cannot present it more clearly than by giving some of the letters which were written at the time to Mr. Robert. It should be said in advance that this is the only con- flict that we have ever had with any of the old Christian churches of the East, and that for many years the highest authorities in the Armenian as well as the Greek and Bulgarian churches have been our warmest supporters and have recognized 76 RELIGIOUS QUESTIONS the fact that our religious efforts are directed to making Christians rather than Protestants — that it is not our purpose to destroy these churches, but to strengthen their spiritual life and their moral influence. " October 2, 1873. "There is good reason to believe that we are just now entering upon one of the most trying experi- ences of our college life. I have already informed you that the College has been made the object of a series of bitter attacks in the Armenian newspapers of the city. The nominal cause of this was a case of discipline which occurred while I was in America near the end of the year. In fact, however, this was only a pretense. The real cause came out in various letters published in these papers, 'Why,' they say, * should Armenians patronize foreigners and here- tics when we have such fine schools of our own and such distinguished instructors.''' I saw a result of these attacks at the commencement of the term. No new Armenian students came. A number had been registered but have not come. Almost every one who was here last year came back this year, but on one pretense or another they have put off paying their bills, not all but most of them. . . . On Sunday last I received a letter signed by eleven Armenian students of which the following is a copy : Considering that the commentaries on the Bible will not be in direct and strict conformance with the especial doctrines of the Armenian Church, con- sidering that we are required by our religious officers as well as by our parents to be taught in religious 77 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE matters by them, as they are exclusively acknow- ledged by the Armenian Church, we confess our- selves not authorized to conform to your summons concerning the Bible class, unless the permission of our parents be procured by an especial correspond- ence.' '*I let the matter rest a day or two, and last even- ing I called these boys and had a two hours' talk with them. At first they declined to say anything but that this letter expressed the will of their par- ents. I cut them off from that tack and finally led them into a frank, full confession of their plans and ideas. They assured me that they had nothing special to complain of in the Bible classes, that they and their religion had always been treated with re- spect. They confessed that what they intended to demand and insist upon was * the absolute abolition of all religious teaching in the College. Only on this condition could they consent to remain. No one was authorized to give them religious instruction ex- cept the priests of their church, and as they did not understand the grounds on which their own faith was based, they feared that they might lose faith altogether in it. They and their parents were con- stantly abused and annoyed by other Armenians for patronizing a Protestant school and listening to heresy,' etc. I reasoned with them in the most kind, considerate and friendly manner, and the whole interview was very pleasant. Not one angry or excited word was spoken. But it was evident all through that they had not originated this scheme and were not their own masters, that they were simply a skirmishing party thrown out ' to feel the 78 RELIGIOUS QUESTIONS enemy.' It is not necessary for me to report my part of the conversation any farther than to say that I explained to them that you founded this College for the one object of giving a Christian education to the people of Turkey, that you regarded educa- tion without religion as more a curse than a blessing, that if I yielded to their demands you would remove me at once from my position as director. Moreover that I fully sympathized with your views, as we all do, that much as we might wish to retain the favor of the Armenians we regarded the favor of God as infinitely more important, that this was a matter upon which there could be no compromise and no hesitation. "This morning five of them went to town to report and get further instructions from head- quarters. What I anticipate is that they will do nothing until Sunday and then stay away from all the religious exercises, leaving it to me to punish them and thus give them a pretext for raising the cry of persecution. This w^ould be the shrewdest course for them to take. [They did 7iot do it, but attended the services.] I do not think that there is a chance of their giving up the battle without a sharp fight. *' I have looked back carefully over the past ten years in the light of this difficulty and I can see nothing to regret, nothing that I would wish undone in the course we have taken as to religious instruc- tion. We have never attacked the faith of any of our students. We have had no controversy with them, but we have preached and urged upon them constantly the simple, practical truths of the New 79 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE Testament, principles recognized by all Christian churches. We have never concealed from any par- ent, Christian, Jew or Mohammedan, the fact that we should teach their sons these things. On the contrary we have made it a point to explain it to them, that they might have no cause of complaint afterwards. I believe that this attack does not originate with the boys or their parents, but they are driven up to it by outside influence." " Saturday, October 5, 1873. " An Armenian newspaper of yesterday had a letter and an editorial on this subject in which it was said among other things that 'the director of the Col- lege was formerly engaged in paying Armenians to become Protestants, but now he had devised a plan by which he made them pay forty-four pounds for the privilege.' [This referred to my having been treasurer of the Mission Board.] This morning I called the leading Armenian students and told them that neither they nor we wished to have any conflict or any break in the uniform friendliness of our in- tercourse, that their plan of presenting me their parents' protest to-night and their refusing to attend the services to-morrow would inevitably bring on such a conflict and that, if they could not attend the services, it was better for them to go home for the Sabbath and return Monday morning. About twenty went home. As next week is the monthly vacation this will give us two weeks' time to settle the controversy. Their plan was to push things to a final crisis to-morrow and carry it through under excitement. They had made great efforts to induce 80 RELIGIOUS QUESTIONS the Greeks and Bulgarians to unite with them, but they failed utterly.'* " Monday Evening, October 7. " The Armenians returned and presented me with the following ultimatum signed by thirteen persons representing twenty-three boarding students : " ' Sir : Considering that the Protestant church ceremonies and Bible classes have become obliga- tory : considering that we have sent our boys simply to receive instruction in languages and in science, we beg of you by this present document that you would free our boys from attending the religious services and Bible classes, or if that is wholly con- trary to the principles of your College you will please inform our boys that they may at once withdraw from the College.' *' To-morrow I shall give them this reply : ** * Gentlemen : I have the honor to inform you that no new regulations have been made in Robert College with regard to religious instruction of the students, and that the instruction has been simply such as is considered in all Christian colleges essen- tial to good order and to the development of the moral character of the students. We have highly valued your favorable opinion and we shall regret to lose your patronage, but we cannot accede to your request to excuse your sons from attendance on religious services. Should we do so we must ex- tend this permission to all students of all nationali- ties, which would involve the cessation of all moral instruction in the College, without which we believe no institution of learning can secure the favor of God or man.' " 81 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE " October 13, 1873. "Tuesday morning I called these students together at half past eight o'clock and gave them the reply with some additional explanations. I then sent them home, having posted two or three teachers in such places that no disturbance could be made and they all went off in school hours as quietly as pos- sible. They collected, however, in the field outside the college grounds and marched in a body through the village of Hissar, singing Armenian national songs and making other demonstrations. Twenty- three left on Tuesday, 1 on Wednesday, and 1 on Thursday, 1 later, 26 in all, of whom 9 afterward returned. Others would have been sent back by their parents but the boys declared that they could not stand the merciless ridicule which would be heaped upon them by the Greeks and Bulgarians." The following year we had only 32 Armenian boarders in place of 70 the year before these troubles. This was not the end of the controversy. It was continued for months by the Armenian newspapers, with the result that for two or three years very few new Armenian students were sent to the College. The following is a translation of a letter pub- lished in the Armenian papers after the students had left. It is signed by two of the best Armenian students in the College, who were leaders in this affair and did not return. "We have recently seen several articles in the Armenian papers in regard to the religious instruc- tion given to the students of Robert College. Since there are some who do not believe these statements, 82 RELIGIOUS QUESTIONS we as students of the College feel obliged to state publicly what the real facts are. It has always been obligatory on the students to attend the religious services and Bible classes, but we and other stu- dents have attended them without realizing the con- sequences of so unjust a regulation or giving any information to our parents. We attended them at first mechanically, but we unconsciously came un- der the influence of this indirect preaching about the different doctrines of the Christian Church and the Bible exercises. The consequence was that we lost our faith in the Orthodox Armenian Church. For this reason we have been obliged to guard against the probable and necessary result that we should become Protestants. We first informed the director about this state of things and asked him to excuse us from attending these religious services. We did not expect that he would refuse so just a request. It was impossible for us to believe that a celebrated American institution in Turkey would ever be the means of violating the freedom of con- science. The object of this institution, as it is ex- pressed in the programme, being ' the highest mental and moral training of the students,' we wished to make another effort, so we presented the following document signed by our parents. [For this and my reply see previous page.] The consequence of this reply of the director was the withdrawal from the College of the sons of those persons who had signed the paper, but it is to be regretted that there are still about thirty Armenians in the College. We hope that those who feel any interest in their own religion will remove their sons to our national 83 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE schools. Finally we advise our people not to be de- ceived by the programme of the College, and assure them that if they send their sons there they will be the means of making them Protestants. (Signed) Hagopian and Capamadjian." Later, one of the prominent Armenians, who kept his son in the College, said to me with tears in his eyes: "The one thing that I desire for my son is that he should be a good man. I belong to the Orthodox Armenian Church and so have my an- cestors for hundreds of years. It would be a grief to me if my son should become a Protestant, but if he cannot be made a good man without that then let him be a Protestant." Some time after this the Hagopian who signed the above letter sent the following to the papers : "There is one thing that, up to this time, I have kept secret. Mr. Washburn, when we went to be excused from religious exercises, said to us: 'We are no longer in the dark ages. This is the nine- teenth century. It is an age of light. Men do not now cover their eyes and stop their ears from fear of learning something different from what they have believed before. Men do not accept blindly every- thing they are told by their priests, but investigate and judge for themselves. We do not ask you to ac- cept what we say because we say it, but to judge it and see if it is true. You expect to be educated men, to be the leaders of your people. You can only be so by becoming thinking men, willing and anxious to know the truth.' " He also said that Mr. Robert would rather cut 84 RELIGIOUS QUESTIONS off his right hand than abolish all religious instruc- tion in the College." The Mr. Hagopian who wrote these letters has been for many years one of the leading Armenians in Constantinople and one of the most faithful and devoted friends of Robert College. I should add a brief statement of exactly what was required of our students at that time in the way of religious services. It has been modified since 1902 in some details, but is essentially unchanged. All students are required to attend morning prayers at 8.15 every day except Sunday. At these the Scriptures are read and prayer of- fered. Sometimes there is a very brief applica- tion made of the Scripture passage. On the Sabbath we have a preaching service at 11 o'clock; at 3 P.M. we have Bible classes, with a general exercise of half an hour under the direction of the president at the opening, prayer, singing and a brief address either historical or exegetical. At 7.30 P.M. an informal service, where a great variety of subjects are treated. All students who do not live at home are required to attend these Sabbath ser- vices. At that period I preached half of the time. Dr. Long and Professor Grosvenor the other half. The evening services were conducted by the tutors and instructors and often in the native languages or in French. At these services it is intended that the teaching shall not be polemical and shall not touch on points at issue between the churches. No attack is ever made upon any religion, but the essential and practical teachings of the New Testament are presented as clearly as possible. It is no doubt 85 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE true that this religious instruction has an influence upon the students. If we thought that it did not we should give it up. The old Christian churches have long since come to appreciate its value, and I believe that it is the religious and moral influence of the College which, more than anything else, leads parents to send their sons here. Even the Turks appreciate this and they have sometimes said to me, *'I send my son here that he may be brought up with English morality," English in this case mean- ing Protestant. The long continued and violent attacks upon the College in the Armenian papers probably had some influence in stirring up the Turkish government to adopt hostile measures. The Grand Vizier told Mr. Boker, the American minister, that the government had determined to prohibit the circulation of the Bible in any language and that they would not allow that Protestant college to put up the houses we had asked for. He told Sir Henry Elliott that they had determined to oppose Protestantism with all their might as a matter of patriotism. This Grand Vizier was a tool of Russia and no doubt this also accounts in some measure for his opposition to England and to Protestantism. He was the same man who, dur- ing the Crimean War, as Turkish commander at Kars, is said to have sold the place to Russia. Other interesting events of the year can only be noticed very briefly. In February and March we had great snow-storms and cold which paralyzed the city and threatened us with starvation at the Col- lege. Men were killed and eaten by wolves within sight of the College. Wild boars were shot on the 86 RELIGIOUS QUESTIONS shores of the Bosphorus. There were remnants of these snow-banks on the hills near us two months later. In the summer of 1873 Dr. Long had gone at Mr. Robert's request to Paris and Vienna to purchase the apparatus needed in his department. This came early in the year and attracted much atten- tion, bringing us many visitors of different nation- alities, including Turkish pashas, who were much impressed by the experiments which they saw. April 1 we had our first Junior exhibition, under the direction of Professor Grosvenor. The new study hall was crowded with guests, and the orations, ten in number, were remarkably good. The moral and religious tone breathing through them im- pressed the audience most favorably. Aside from the Armenian troubles the year was a peaceful one, although two students had to be ex- pelled for engaging in a diabolical plot against one of their companions. The health of the students after the great storm was unusually bad, and I had to send my son to America in May with Mrs. Wash- burn as he was threatened with tuberculosis. Hap- pily he recovered. We were greatly distressed also by hearing of the illness of Dr. Hamlin. The number of students present at the close of the year was 178, of whom 47 were day scholars, 31 less boarders than at the end of the previous year, representing a loss in tuition of some five thousand dollars. It is not strange that this unhappy experi- ence impressed upon us and upon Mr. Robert the absolute necessity of an endowment. Dr. Long wrote to Mr. Robert: "To secure the permanence 87 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE of the College it must be sufficiently endowed to enable it to tide over just such difficulties as this, even if they should take away four-fifths of our students. Those who know the character of the nationalities of the East, know that a popular tu- mult is very easily raised and a storm is liable to arise at any time, when we shall be in danger of going down so long as we are pecuniarily dependent on their patronage. The life of so noble an institu- tion as this must not be contingent upon the favor of a fickle populace," — or, he would have added a few years later, of political disturbances and revolu- tions. The Commencement exercises were about as well attended as the year before and five students were graduated, all Bulgarians. One of these died a few years later. The other four have all distinguished themselves in the government of Bulgaria, and are still living. 88 CHAPTER VII VISIT OF MR. ROBERT. 1874-1875 It was evident, even at the opening of the college year, that storms were gathering about us in the political world which might seriously affect our work. The Eastern question had reached a critical period when some form of European intervention seemed probable, but which form it would take could not be foreseen. In Constantinople Russia, under the lead of General Ignatieff, and England, represented by Sir Henry Elliott, were both playing a dangerous game, which ended in massacres, revo- lution, war and the dismemberment of European Turkey. While the College had nothing to do with these political intrigues we felt the influence of them in many ways. Constantinople was in a ferment; there was a vague fear of what might happen which kept away some students and naturally excited those who came. We, who knew what was going on, could not but feel some anxiety. It was not dimin- ished by a visit which I paid to Bulgaria in the Easter vacation with Mr. Panaretoff . I had never before had any conception of the suffering of the Christians under Turkish rule, but I saw things there which filled me with horror, which were not so much direct acts of the government as the results of a general policy — the tyranny of the armed Turkish minority over the unarmed and helpless 89 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE Christian majority. It was not so bad in the towns where the well-to-do Bulgarians kept the Turkish officials in their pay, but the peasants were practi- cally serfs with no rights. I accidentally met one young man who confessed that he belonged to a company which was planning a rebellion against the government, and I spent an hour in trying to convince him of the utter folly of such an attempt, which was certain to fail and could only add to the suffering of the people. Such outbreaks had taken place near the Danube, under the secret patronage of Russia, but were easily put down. Notwithstanding these political troubles the year opened and passed away without any disturbance of the peace of the College. Our staff consisted of the director, Professors Long, Grosvenor and Dje- djizian. Mr. Panaretoff was also appointed adjunct professor of Slavic and Bulgarian. Our tutors were Messrs. Arthur Hoyt, Webber, Savage and Webster. There were seven other teachers. Mr. Hoyt lost his health and very nearly his life from malaria result- ing from a summer excursion through Bulgaria, and to our great regret was obliged to return to America, where in time he recovered, to become a distin- guished professor in Auburn Theological Seminary. Mr. Webber had charge of the Preparatory Depart- ment. Miss Haynes came as matron in November. The whole number of students registered during the year was 208. The number present at the close of the year was 176. Boarders . . . 144 Day scholars . . .32 — 176 90 VISIT OF MR. ROBERT As all of the Bulgarians were boarders, they were more numerous than any other nationality in Ham- lin Hall. The nationalities represented were as follows : Armenians . . 55 Greeks 48 Bulgarians . 45 English 21 Americans . 8 Turks 6 Jews 6 Germans 6 Italians 4 Dalmatians . 2 French . 2 Austrians . . 2 Dutch 1 Russian 1 Pole . 1—208 The most interesting event during the year was the visit of Mr. Robert, who reached the College June 12, 1875, and lived in Hamlin Hall until after the Commencement exercises, just six weeks. At the time of his first visit we were still in Bebec. It has been said many times that Robert College was the product of Dr. Hamlin's brains and Mr. Rob- ert's money. Dr. Hamlin never said this, and it is no disparagement of him to say that Mr. Robert not only gave his money and his heart to the Col- lege, but that every step that was taken from the first conception of the College to the time of his 91 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE death was fully discussed with him and largely in- fluenced by his judgment. It was to his credit that when an agreement could not be reached with Dr. Hamlin or with me he never used his authority to override our judgment, but left the final decision with us. His two visits to the College were devoted to the most careful study of existing conditions and future development — to getting light on every- thing connected with the work. He talked with all the teachers, made the acquaintance of students and their parents, consulted the missionaries and other foreign residents and listened to everything that any one wished to say about the College. He investi- gated every department of work, and this not as a matter of curiosity or a question of expense, but that he might be able to give more intelligent advice in what was the one thing that he was always insist- ing upon — the necessity of steady growth. He gave us the best he had of brain work as well as of money. He entered heartily into the social life of the Col- lege and the city, and he told me after his departure that he had never spent six happier weeks in his life. He greatly enjoyed a grand picnic that he gave to the teachers and students of the College. He char- tered a steamboat and made an excursion up to the Black Sea, returning to Hunkiar Iskelessi, where we had our dinner under the trees, with speeches and sports afterwards, getting back to the College in the evening. He also gave a breakfast to the mission- aries and their wives at Buyukdere. He found them more friendly to the College than they had been five years before. His addresses to the stu- 92 VISIT OF MR. ROBERT dents were very practical, and they were greatly in- terested in what he told them of his own early life and the lessons that he had learned from the Book of Proverbs. He gave each student a copy of the book, and I have often had occasion since to quote his authority, in addition to that of Solomon, as to how a young man was to win success in life. In those early years he was a subject of much discussion among the people of the country, who could not understand what motive prompted him to found the College. I have often heard it dis- cussed on the Bosphorus steamers. Mr. Hanson, the English banker, told me that he heard this con- versation between two Turkish gentlemen. *'Do you see that College.?" "Yes." "Well, in my opinion it is the greatest disgrace to the Turks of anything in Constantinople." "Why so, I never thought of that. It is a fine building." "So it is, but what does it mean.'' Here was a stranger, an American gentleman, who came to Constantinople for a few days and was so impressed with the neces- sities of our people, with their ignorance and their need of education, that he took his own money and built this splendid College and endowed it for the good of those who were strangers to him. We have hundreds of rich pashas, some of the richest living in sight of this College. Which of them ever saw or cared for the wants of the people or gave a piaster of his money to educate them.? This College is a shame and disgrace to us." The native Christians often said, "He did it for his soul," i. e. to purchase a high seat for himself in heaven. There were many, however, who had a sufficient appreciation 93 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE of his motives and of the advantages the College had brought to them to express, and I have no doubt to feel, gratitude — and now I seldom hear any other comment. One important subject of discussion when Mr. Robert was here was the question of the title to the land which we had bought since the first purchase, which was made secure by the trade. The other land w as held by a legal fiction — in the name of "Mariam bint Toma" which was Mrs. Hamlin, who had been registered under that name as a Turkish subject. English and other foreign insti- tutions held their property in the name of the con- sulates or embassies; but the United States gov- ernment refused to allow this, and for a long time refused to sign the protocol allowing Americans to hold property in their own names. It was tempo- rarily transferred to me as director of the College, and a few months ago (1906) the greater part of it, after all these years of negotiation, was secured to the College by irade — which reminds me that it took thirty years to get permission to build, at our own expense, a sewer from the College to the Bos- phorus. These delays to which we are always sub- ject do not come from any hostility to the College on the part of the government, but from the nature of the government itself, and are the common expe- rience of all, natives and foreigners. Much also depends upon the character and spirit of the min- ister who represents the United States government here. We were particularly fortunate at this time in the appointment of Horace Maynard, who arrived here in May, 1875, who was not only a statesman 94 VISIT OF MR. ROBERT of great ability, but an earnest Christian in full sympathy with our work. Many of the ministeTS sent here to represent the United j^ tntofl hav,e had no wlHTT S t \vlKitcvcr in the Americans resident in 2^^ ^|.^y QT wl have liad as Httle to do with thprn_as possible. Perg^n-^lly ^ hnve never had occasion to co mplam of an v one^of them. Fnr mnny T havpliaiT^,, niffhest res t he hip;hest res pect; but tlicrc have been times when^ ^ if It had not been fq y ^n^- inti'TnafP rp]^^|j ons with the^ Br itish Embassy, the College would have fare d very ^ baaiy. It has generaiiy, not always, been true tha t tlie English government has shown niueh greater in- teresl intEe'CoIlege than tlie government at Wtiijh- ington. ~X^ distinguished En gfefonan who visi ted^ Wai jlllllgl un wll ^h Mr. Bayard was Secretary of St ate was amazed to tind that he had never he ard of •Rn Wj- ri^llp pjp. T suppose that Mr. Bavafd was "" jually astonished to learn that this Englishman - thought that the founding of Robert College was the"" mofifer important thing that America had donE-in Euro pe. Mr. Hay was the b estfriend that we have ever jiad in the State Department. 'Mf.~Btaiue was ' a lso V-ery friendly. No President has .1p, but b^ imprnvpH fViP npp ni't y. -^t fl. dinner ^iven to him that night by the Rus s ian ambassador, to declare that Robert iJoilege h ad more influence in the East than either Russia ^ Engl and, and that it would end in Am ericanizi Turkey, for which I did not thank him. Ij was a _ fnrtj n Am^ri^p ^>>Qt it. was ch i^^ y in rflin'^"^ nnm'nty thatj jie College was kr^^wn. whilp in England nnd . Rri ssifi^ for eyample, it was best known in the min- istries of foreign affairs, and know n on acco unt oj tl ie mcidcwtal iii9TimujLj£,.^iM^Collii^eJtf rR^ rather than for its real purpose-as a-6feTTs*jftft42Qllege. TheXnttege~was not less appreciated in religion^ circles in America, but it w^as no longer unique. Its success had not only modified the policy of foreign mission boards, but had already led to the estab- lishment of similar institutions in other parts of the world, in connection with the missions of different religious denominations. While I met with less 209 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE criticism of the College than ten years before, on the part of good people who did not believe in edu- cation as a legitimate form of missionary work, the interest of the givers for such work was now divided. Other colleges in foreign lands were in need of money just as we were, and I had no desire to stand in the way of their getting it, even when they took it out from under my hands. It was the Lord's money going into the Lord's work just as much as though it came to Robert College. I can never forget as long as I live, and I believe that I shall remember with thanksgiving in another world, all the kindness and sympathy that I met with during these two years. It seemed like a reali- zation of Christ's promise of the hundredfold in this world. It w^as freely given by old friends and new, who treated me as a brother beloved when they had nothing but gratitude and love to expect in return. All that was painful in this work for the College came from a lack of confidence in my own ability to present the claims of the College in such a way as to make them understand. When I broke down in New York and was sent to Florida I felt as though my mission was a failure. We had a delightful winter, regained our health, made many friends, interested ourselves in much good work that we found going on there, and learned much of the burning questions which were agitating the country. Among other friends at St. Augustine we were specially indebted to Rev. and Mrs. Edwin K. Mitchell of the Presbyterian church, who did all they could for us and to interest others in the College. I had a letter of introduction from Mr. 210 ANOTHER TWO YEARS IN AMERICA Kennedy to Mr. Flagler, and he was very kind. lie even offered to furnish the needed funds, if I would drop Constantinople, to found a college at St. Au- gustine, but he had no interest in Turkey. We went as far south as Lake Worth and found kind friends there; but when I returned to Mr. Kennedy's in the spring with no money for the College, I felt as though my winter was a failure. It was not long after this that I received a note from Mr. Alanson Trask, of whom I had seen much at St. Augustine, inviting me to call on him in Brooklyn. I called and he gave me five thousand dollars. A year or two later he gave twenty-five thousand dollars more, also unsolicited. In the spring I had to go to Washington to con suit with Mr. Blaine and Senators Sherman and Edwards in regard to a treaty with Turkey which had been negotiated by Mr. Straus under the direc tion of Mr. Bayard, but which had not been acted upon by the Senate. In general it was a very good treaty, but it denationalized a number of persons who had long been recognized as American citizens, and on this ground I rponrppiprid^d thnt it should nrvi- l->f^ l-nti'fif^H, \v^||in]if modifications. Mr. Blaing^ withdr r w it wit h thr pnnr^rt of th p Committee on Foreign A ffairs T hnd npvcr met Mr. Bl aine beforeT an d mv previous experienc e with American Secre- taries of State had not le d me lu aalJLipAtii &ul1i H ' reception as he ^scve me. The ch arm of his manner w as a levelaliuii to m^. He received me as though I had been an old friend whom he was delighted to see and asked me questions which implied that he knew all about me and Robert College, and had 211 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE nothing more important to do than to enjoy an hour of social intercourse. I understood then the great secret of his popularity in the country. Sena- tors Sherman and Edwards were very different men, but they were very cordial and asked the Senate in secret session to furnish me with all the papers relating to the treaty, that I might give them a full memorandum on the subject, which I did. Washington was not a good place to raise money, but I found many warm friends there, some of w^hom I had known in Constantinople. In the autumn of 1891, by advice of the trustees, I attended the meeting of the American Board in Minneapolis. I had visited St. Paul in 1857 w^hen it was a modern village, and the change which had taken place there seemed miraculous. I had some very dear Constantinople friends living in the Northwest Territory four hundred miles west of Winnipeg, and so I went by Montreal and the Canadian Pacific to visit them on my way to Minneapolis. Wlien I left the train at a station fifty miles from their home, in the night, I was as- tonished to hear my name called by a young man, who took my valise as I stepped on to the platform in the dark, and still more astonished when I came into the light to see an old student of Robert College, who had heard accidentally that I was coming and had walked eight miles, after his day's work, to w^elcome me. When I returned to Winnipeg I had a very hearty welcome from the Presbyterian Col- lege and the churches there. They knew more about Robert College than the majority of similar people in the United States. I did not expect to get 212 ANOTHER TWO YEARS IN AMERICA any money at Minneapolis, but it was a delightful and profitable experience in the renewal of many old friendships, and profitable in the opportunity it gave me to consult with others engaged in similar work, as well as to make known what Robert College was doing. I had hoped to get some money in Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland on my way back, and I was not altogether disappointed; but I found my friends too heavily burdened with good work near home to spare much for Constantinople, and that many of their gifts at home were really drafts on the future. I shall never forget two or three days that I spent at Lake Forest and the re- ception given me there by Dr. McClure. At Chi- cago I found a home with Mr. Blatchford, always a warm friend of mine and of the College. I visited a good many colleges and universities to interest the students in our work and met with a hearty welcome, especially at Amherst, Williams, Hamilton and Princeton. I found college presi- dents generally ready to aid me in every way in their power, and with a keen appreciation of the value of the w^ork we were doing in Constantinople, and I met a number of peripatetic Western college presidents on begging expeditions in the East, who could at least sympathize with me if they did riot help me. One gentleman on whom I called re- ceived me almost with a groan and opened con- versation with the information that I was the seventh college president who had called on him that day, and intimated that we left him no time to attend to his own business. With the ministers I had a varied experience. 213 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE Some of them evidently looked upon me as a wolf trying to enter their fold — or at least as a sneak- thief. Some wished me all possible success in churches of my own denomination, or at least in some other congregation than theirs. I did not blame them. It was easy to understand that they felt that their people were already distracted by the multiplication of the appeals made to them. On the w^hole I found the ministers most sympathetic and ready to do anything in their power to help me. If I had been strong enough I might have had a good congregation to speak to every Sunday, in the strongest churches; and I did a good deal of this work with profit, especially in New York, where I was received as a brother in the ministerial club, Chi Alpha, which united the leading Presbyterian, Dutch Reformed and Congregational ministers in the city. Very precious memories are connected with the members of this club. Some of the Episcopalian clergymen also were very friendly and ready to help me. So were Dr. Hale of Boston and several other Unitarian ministers. The editors of the religious newspapers were mostly old friends of mine and were always ready to lend a hand. The same thing was true of some of the daily papers. I have no doubt about the value of their support, although I have seldom known any money to come from this source alone. For that matter I never, when I spoke, appealed for a general contribution, although I know of some large gifts which have been prompted by addresses that I made. Dr. Field, Dr. Ward, Dr. Abbott and the Primes, all the professors in the Union Theological Seminary, Dr. Taylor, Dr. van 214 ANOTHER TWO YEARS IN AMERICA Dyke, Dr. Hall, Dr. Booth, Phillips Brooks and his brother Arthur, are only a few of many devoted friends whom I might name among the ministers and editors. And I had no more enthusiastic sup- porters than our former tutors who were then oc- cupying various important positions in America. With all this sympathy and support it would seem that I ought to have found it easy to raise all the money we asked for. It was not the Lord's will. He gave us what He saw that it was best for us to have. I say this the more confidently because most of the money which has come to us since has not come from any immediate solicitation on my part, and most of what I got at that time came without my directly asking for it. As a gen- eral rule when I asked I got nothing but sympathy and often only a polite refusal without sympathy. There were some very interesting exceptions to this which were like flowers strewed along my path. The late Cornelius Vanderbilt was one of them. I had never met him when I went to his office at the Central Station to ask him for money; but he knew something of the College, and he listened to w^hat I had to say and questioned me as though it were a part of his business, which it was necessary for him to understand. He gave me a thousand dollars then and another donation later on. Another exception was Mr. Elbert W. Munroe. In answer to a letter he invited me to come to his house in the country, where he and Mrs. Munroe received me most cor- dially and carefully questioned me as to everything connected with the College. Later on they sent for me again and gave me five thousand dollars. It was 215 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE not simply the cordiality with which I was received, it was not simply the money given, which impressed me so happily; it was the fact that the money was given after a careful and conscientious consideration of the real worth of the College in the Kingdom of God. I went to America to ask for fifty thousand dol- lars for buildings and at least one hundred thousand dollars for increased endowment. Mr. J. S. Ken- nedy gave the money for the president's house, which we call Kennedy Lodge, and I found the money for the building now known as Albert Long Hall. Through Professor Newton of Yale Univer- sity, the children of Mrs. Lois Newton of Sherburne, N.Y., gave the property left by their mother, about fifteen thousand dollars, for the establishment of one-hundred-dollar scholarships for the sons of Protestant clergymen in Turkey or Bulgaria, or for other Christian young men — a very timely gift. But aside from this very little was added to the en- dowment. In May, 1891, I returned to Constantinople, somewhat disappointed, but thankful for what had been accomplished and with precious memories of my two years in America. 216 CHAPTER XIX IMPROVEMENTS IN THE COLLEGE. 1800-1892 For the greater part of the twenty-eighth year I was in America, but returned before its close. The number of students registered was 159, and for the third successive year the number of board- ers was 104. Of the whole number 59 were Ar- menians, 41 Bulgarians, 39 Greeks, 13 English and Americans, 7 others. The twenty-ninth year the number registered was 194, of whom 130 were boarders. Seventy were Armenians, 52 Bulgarians, 47 Greeks, 13 English and Americans, 12 others. The increase in the number of students which commenced this year was undoubtedly due in some measure to the new signs of life in the College, in the erection of new buildings. No such outward signs had appeared for many years. We had not even built a w^all around the college grounds. This also was done in 1891, and it added wonderfully to the general impression of the prosperity and dignity of the College. We continued our efforts to obtain permission to build a sewer to the Bosphorus, but it was still years later that we obtained it. No per- mission could be had to build it along the road through the Turkish Cemetery, as it was said that there might be graves of some of the faithful under the roadway which would be desecrated by a sewer. 217 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE It was finally built by a circuitous route through the old castle. On our return from America we went to live in Kennedy Lodge, although it was not quite finished, Professor Anderson continuing to live in Hamlin Hall. There is no more beautiful site for a house in any part of the world that I have seen than that of Kennedy Lodge, which we occupied until 1904. The political situation during these two years was essentially unchanged — the Russian government was still plotting against the existing regime in Bul- garia in a way which tended to demoralize the people. It was about this time that Dr. Vulcovitch, the Bulgarian diplomatic agent at Constantinople, was assassinated in front of his own house by per- sons protected by the Russian Embassy. The con- flict between the Greeks and Bulgarians over the ecclesiastical affairs in Macedonia went on as be- fore. The Turkish government was not unfriendly to Bulgaria so long as Russia was hostile to it, but it was suspicious of Bulgarians coming to Constan- tinople; and in September, 1890, one of our students was arrested and thrown into prison on his return after a vacation because a copy of Freeman's " Sketch of European History " was found in his trunk. We secured his release after a few days, but the incident was typical of what our students often suffered on account of their books. I once went myself to the Ministry of Public Instruction to protest against the seizure of some French text-books which were issued by the French government. The official whom I found in charge was a native of India who spoke English very freely. He refused to give up 218 IMPROVEMENTS IN THE COLLEGE the books, although he acknowledged that they con- tained nothing to object to except a notice of Vol- taire's drama of Mohammed, which in fact was very comjilimentary to the Prophet. I asked on what principle they condemned books. He replied that they would admit nothing which mentioned the Turkish government or the Mohammedan religion favorably or unfavorably. I objected that this would exclude history, cyclopedias, dictionaries, and a great amount of literature, Shakespeare for example. "Well," he said, "what the devil do you come here for, anyway ? Why can't you let us go to hell in our own way.?" And then he very politely bade me good-morning. I never got the books. There w^as no change for the better in the affairs of the Armenians. The agitators w^ere not numer- ous, but they were active in stirring up discontent in the country and in appealing to public opinion in Europe. The Turkish government did nothing in the way of reform and was increasingly active in measures of repression. The old friendly feeling between the Turks and Armenians, who had al- ways been regarded with more favor than the other Christian nationalities and who seemed to under- stand each other better, had given place to distrust and fear. It seemed as though the government was doing what it could to develop this mutual distrust, and desired to bring about a conflict, and was thus playing into the hands of the revolutionists who be- lieved that such a conflict w^ould bring about a European intervention. The sober-minded Arme- nians had no sympathy with the revolutionists, and 219 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE saw plainly that the hope of their people scattered all over the country was not in rebellion, but in the peaceful progress of enlightenment. It was this feeling which had led so many to send their sons to Robert College. The event proved that the Sultan had a much more accurate knowledge of vEuropean politics than the revolutionists and their friends in Europe. We saw many European statesmen in Constantinople in those days who came here as to a storm centre to see more clearly what was to be expected. The most interesting among those whom I saw was Mr. Chamberlain, who at that time ap- peared to have sacrificed his own career to his loy- alty to the unity of Great Britain and Ireland. I had seen him in the House of Commons, where I saw no other who was his equal in debate, and I found him one of the most intelligent and interesting in- vestigators of the Eastern question. England suf- fered a great loss at this time in the sudden death of Sir William White in Berlin, where he had gone to spend Christmas. If the time ever comes when the government allows the publication of his private papers, which it took possession of after his death, it will be the most interesting of books. They sent Sir Philip Curry here as ambassador in his place, another acquaintance that I had made through Lord Salisbury at the same time that I first met Sir William White. He had never had any experience in the diplomatic service, but had been private sec- retary of Lord Salisbury and later Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs. He was always a good friend of mine and of the College. My relations with him were as pleasant as they had been with Sir William 220 IMPROVEMENTS IN THE COLLEGE White, and in general I was in sympathy with the EngHsh policy here. It was neither anti-Turk- ish nor anti-Russian, a policy of peace and not of war, but not peace at any price. England would have resisted the conquest of southeastern Europe by Russia, and she favored the natural solution of the Eastern question in the development of the smaller states, Greece, Bulgaria, Roumania and Servia. So in regard to the Asiatic provinces of Turkey, what she aimed at was not the destruction or the weakening of the Turkish power, but the strengthening of it by good government and the fair, just and equal treatment of all the Christian sub- jects of the Sultan, especially of the Armenians. In securing this she did not wish to act alone but in concert with the other Powers. Whether a more active policy two years later would have prevented the calamities which followed is not a question to be discussed here. Another old friend of the College died soon after Sir William White — Mr. Heap, who had been for some years consul-general of the United States at Constantinople. He was born in the consular service at Tunis, where his father w^as consul. We lost our leading French teacher in 1892, not by death, but by the will of the Sultan, who took him to teach his sons; and he is still in service at the palace, although the last time I met him, he told me that he had not given a lesson for eighteen months. This was the second time that the Sultan had taken one of our teachers, the first being a German. In the winter of 1891-92, following a visit from Mr. Wishard, the secretary of the Collegiate 221 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE Y. M. C. A., a branch of this organization was founded by our students which was adapted to the pecuHar wants of this polyglot institution and was at the same time in full harmony with the general society. It was composed of four sections: Armenian, Bulgarian, Greek and English, each using its own language and meeting three times a month, united in one General Association, meeting once a month and using only the English language. Most of the personal work in each nationality is conducted under the direction of the respective sections. The president of the General Association is always a member of the Faculty. This society is now con- nected with the International Association and has been represented at various general meetings in Europe. It was during the twenty-ninth year that I be- gan to take some part in the preparation for the proposed Parliament of Religions, to be held in Chicago in 1893, and I had some very interesting interviews with the heads of different religious com- munities and others whom I invited to be present in person or by deputy. I sympathized heartily with Dr. Barrows' plans and did what I could to help him, although I had not so great faith as he had in the practical results which would follow. I found all the religious communities afraid to commit them- selves by sending official representatives, but, in one way or another, they were represented. Constan- tinople itself is a Parliament of Religions, but the discussions are not irenic, and it is very difficult for people to understand how they can be. The Sun- 222 IMPROVEMENTS IN THE COLLEGE day congregation at Robert College comes nearer to the ideal than any that I have seen. We did our best during the twenty-ninth year to make some advance in the College internally as well as externally. We had a very harmonious Faculty, and the work done was reasonably satisfactory. Professor van Millingen became Professor of His- tory and English Literature. Mr. Ormiston spent the year 1891-1892 at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and on his return was appointed Profes- sor of Chemistry and Mineralogy. Professor Eliou had been made professor and the head of the Greek Department, which he had already raised to a level with the Armenian and Bulgarian. We suffered, as we always have, from the excessive amount of lin- guistic work which is demanded in this country. Some wag proposed, when the College was founded, that it be named Babel College, and it was not al- together a joke. We met the difficulty in part by making the College course five years in place of four, but we have not escaped giving additional time to the vernacular of each nationality, to meet the in- creasing demands of the Bulgarian and Greek gov- ernments and the popular sentiment of the Armeni- ans. The Turkish government will no doubt make equal demands in the course of time. It is reason- able, and we have no desire to denationalize our stu- dents and unfit them to be leaders of their own people. The question of elective courses had already forced itself upon us, and we yielded something in this direction. I suppose that it is heresy to confess this now, but I did not believe in elective courses in 223 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE colleges and never favored them. I do not believe in them now. They belong to the university, and, as Professor Miinsterberg once said, the American col- lege of to-day seems to me to be a cross between a university and a kindergarten. The old college was a place of severe discipline, mental and moral. It has dropped out in America, and nothing has taken its place. It may be true that in this age of speciali- zation the "all-round man" of the old time is an impossibility. Certainly it is hard to find one; but it seems to me all the more necessary for the specialist to have four years of general discipline and culture, with no option as to what he will study, before he begins to specialize; and I say this with- out any reference to the many obvious abuses of the elective system, which are not an essential part of it. We have yielded something in the way of electives without giving up our idea of what a college ought to be, and we are forced to have a preparatory department to meet the peculiar w^ants of the country. The majority of our students have never graduated or intended to graduate when they entered. We do our best for them and have reason to be proud of some of them, but we wish that all who are capable of it might have the full course of discipline and culture necessary for graduation, for their own sake and for the good of their people. The new college building, which was then called Science Hall, but which since Dr. Long's death has been named for him, was completed in the spring of 1892. It was furnished by Mrs. Davies of New Haven, the sister of Mrs. Professor van Millingen. The Chemical Department was in the basement, the 224 IMPROVEMENTS IN THE COLLEGE museum, library and Department of Physics on the first floor. The whole of the upper story was occu- pied by a hall, which was divided by a movable par- tition into a chapel and lecture room. It was de- signed by Professor Hamlin of Columbia University and built by Mr. Burness, a Scotch builder, who is one of the most respected and reliable men in Con- stantinople and has put up most of our buildings. The college buildings and Kennedy Lodge are all built of blue limestone quarried on the campus. It w^as in the great hall of the new building that w^e celebrated the Commencement exercises June 26, 1892, with an audience of nearly a thousand, includ- ing the British ambassador, diplomatic representa- tives of Austria, Holland, Greece and Bulgaria, and many other official and distinguished guests of various nationalities. This was the formal inaugu- ration of the building. I was not present on this happy occasion, having started for America at the end of May to recruit my health and return in September. It was the beginning of better days, but the class which graduated was the smallest since 1874, only five in number, and smaller than any class since. Four were Armenians and 1 a Bulgarian. The Bulgarian is now a merchant in Russia. Of the Armenians 2 are merchants, 1 a dentist and 1 a physician. The class of 1891 numbered 8, 4 Armenians, 3 Bulgarians and 1 Greek. Of the x\rmenians 1 is a teacher, 1 a dentist, 1 a merchant, 1 unknown. Of the Bulgarians 1 is in the diplomatic service, 1 an army officer and 1 a teacher. The Greek is a merchant. 225 CHAPTER XX TRYING TIMES IN TURKEY. 1892-1894 The number of students registered the thirtieth year was 203, of whom 143 were boarders. Seventy- three were Armenians, 60 Bulgarians, 46 Greeks, 15 English and Americans, others 9. The thirty-first year the number registered was 200, of whom 123 were boarders. Sixty-eight were Armenians, 65 Greeks, 44 Bulgarians, 14 English and Americans, others 9. These two years were the beginning of more try- ing times in the country and in the College, mingled with many experiences for which we were very grateful. In Constantinople itself the thirtieth year was comparatively uneventful; but the Armenian troubles in the interior were increasing, and special complaints were made against the American s/chools. Hon. A. W. Terrell, an ex-Confederate officer from Texas, had been sent here by President Cleveland to represent the United States, and we svere under his protection for four years. He was vithout diplomatic experience and in many ways I typical Texan of the old school; but he was a jrave, warm-hearted, reconstructed American of ;reat natural ability, who did his best to defend American citizens and American interests. We ^ere under constant and great obligations to him. e had a talk with the Grand Vizier one day in 226 TRYING TIMES IN TURKEY 1893 which is worth noting here. The Grand Vizier said they had no reason to complain of the Jesuits, because they always spoke well of the Turks, but " where did you ever see anything good said of the Turks by an American missionary?" Mr. Terrell replied, "Why, I was at the Commence- ment exercises of Robert College, and I heard the president charge those young men to be loyal to the sovereign, and then I heard him pray for the Sultan." "Oh, yes!" said the Grand Vizier, "that was Robert College. That is altogether different. Did any one ever hear of the government having any fault to find w'ith Robert College.^ Robert College is all right, but those people at are quite different." It is easy to say good things about the Turks. We live in the most friendly relations with them and alw^ays find good things to say about them. What the Grand Vizier meant was, good things about the Turkish government. There are some good things to be said about this also. Robert College has reason to be grateful that for the last forty years it has never interfered with our work in any way, or refused any of the requests that we have made for new buildings or for the protection of our students, and that it has freed us from taxation. In return for this it has always been our purpose to respect its laws and its wishes. We have taught our students to do the same thing, and have never tolerated any seditious movements among them. Personally, outside the College, I have expressed my own opinions as to the policy of the government and used what influence I had in favor of what 227 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE seemed to me the true interests of all the people of Turkey. I love these people, and I could not do otherwise. I only regret that I have not been able to do more for them. The saddest event of the year for the College was the sudden death of Mrs. van Millingen on a French steamer from Marseilles. She went to America with me in the spring and was returning with Professor Panaretoff . The news of her death came to us by telegraph from Athens, while we were having a general Thanksgiving Day dinner at Kennedy Lodge, as a shock never to be forgotten. No one in the College filled a larger place in our hearts and lives than she did, and her memory will be cherished as long as any of those who knew her continue to live. The records of the Faculty show that much time was given during the year to the perfecting of the course of study. Among other things importance was given to the development of vocal and instru- mental music, which had never been altogether neglected, but which had been kept in the back- ground by our poverty, although its importance for our students had been recognized. Our students were able in June to give a concert, with the aid of their teacher, which attracted a large audience from all parts of the city and brought in about a hun- dred dollars for the charity fund of the Y. M. C. A. Something was also done to provide commercial instruction for those who desired it. I had taught bookkeeping in the College myself for many years, so far as I considered it an essential part of every educated man's preparation for life. I believed that incidentally it had also an ethical value. 228 TRYING TIMES IN TURKEY The French Department was organized and put on a solid foundation by the appointment of a permanent ijistructor to direct it. It had never been satisfactory to us or to our students up to this time, as our teachers were constantly changing and often inexperienced. The Scientific Department also made very satis- factory progress, with the advantage of the new Science Hall and the division of work between Dr. Long and Professor Ormiston. Through the kind- ness of a friend in Pittsburg, Pa., large additions were made to our apparatus, and our museum was enriched by a complete and beautiful collection of the fish and the algae of the Bosphorus, besides a number of prepared skeletons of birds and ani- mals. The marriage of Professor Ormiston and Miss Farley left the College without a matron, and we had the good fortune to find a lady to take her place who was an experienced trained nurse. Miss Meredith Hart, who has ever since filled a large place in our college life, and to whom teachers, their families, and students who have been sick owe a debt of gratitude which cannot be expressed in words, but which is never forgotten. In the summer of 1893 I went to America to at- tend the Parliament of Religions at the Columbian Fair. At Chicago Mrs. Washburn and I were the guests of our dear friends Mr. and Mrs. Blatchford. I spoke on Mohammedanism and Christianity, and was so far successful in presenting a fair statement of the former that no complaint was made of it at Constantinople, although Orthodox Mohamme- FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE dans naturally could not accept the address as a whole, while some of my Turkish friends here re- ceived it with favor. I also delivered an address on the Aim of Foreign Missions. The Parliament of Religions was much discussed at the time and in the following years, bitterly attacked by some and greatly exalted by others. It is certain now that neither the fears of the one party nor the hopes of the other have been realized. My own deliberate opinion is that it did no permanent harm and much real good. It fell to Dr. Barrows to bring out, define and express to the world a thought which was already working in men's minds, and which is now the source of much of the religious controversy going on in the world. It was well that it should be brought out by a man who had unshaken faith in the Divine origin of Christianity, and there is no reason to fear that it will not in the end lead to a clearer conception of what Christianity means. While in America and after my return I was drawn into a public and private discussion in regard to the secret society known as the Mystic Shrine of Mecca, which professes to be affiliated with the Mohamme- dan order of Bektashi dervishes, some of whom in Constantinople are near neighbors and special friends of mine. It is true that Orthodox Moham- medans look upon the Bektashis as a heretical sect, but they are Mohammedans. If this American society is what it professes to be, its members are Mohammedans who do not live up to their faith, for the first duty of a Mohammedan is to confess his faith and defend it. If it is a fraud and a parody on Mohammedanism, it is an insult to a great religion 230 TRYING TIMES IN TURKEY whicli is a shame to America. The Bektashis here are still in doubt as to which it is, and so am 1. When the thirty-first college year opened in September, 1893, Constantinople was surrounded by quarantine stations which made all travel very difficult, and about the same time cholera broke out in the city and continued with more or less severity until April, with sanitary regulations which caused even more excitement and alarm than the disease itself. The number of students coming from Bul- garia and other places fell off seriously. I managed to get back by way of Trieste with only one day of quarantine, but the land quarantines were more dangerous to health than the cholera, and it was a wonder to us that so many students came. As we had deliberately increased our expenses considerably by the appointment of new teachers, and in reasonable expectation of an increased revenue from students, we found ourselves under the necessity of cutting down the salaries of all our professors until we were relieved from our financial difficulties by a special contribution from seven of our tried friends in America who came to the rescue. This is the only time in the history of the College that we have made such an appeal to our friends. In July, 1894, just after our Commencement, came the great earthquake which caused the death of some fifteen hundred people, destroyed or seri- ously injured many thousand houses and public buildings, and caused such ruin in the bazaars that the seven thousand shops there had to be aban- doned. The shocks lasted about a month, and great numbers of the people camped out in the 231 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE fields, cemeteries and open places for much of this time. The College buildings were vigorously shaken but not seriously injured; and, so far as is known, none of the many earthquakes here have ever done serious injury on this part of the Bos- phorus. The centre of disturbance is the line where the Silurian formation of the Bosphorus meets the Miocene strata in old Stamboul. At the time of the first shock Professor van Millingen and Professor Ormiston were engaged in archaeo- logical work in the dungeons of the old prison of Anema, under the old walls of the city. Their escape from being buried alive there was almost a miracle. It was during this year that the Armenian troubles took an acute form in the massacres in the Sassoun district in Armenia and were followed by a Euro- pean intervention. The Christians in that part of the empire had long been a prey to the Kurdish tribes, unprotected by the Turkish government; but in this case the Turkish troops, under orders from Constantinople, took part in the massacre and plunder of the Armenians, and the work of their extermination was officially commenced. England called upon the Powers which had signed the treaty of Berlin and guaranteed the good treatment of the people of Armenia to intervene. England, France and Russia took the lead in demanding redress for what had been done and such changes and reforms as would secure the lives, property and rights of the Armenians in those provinces where they constituted an important part of the population. The Turks soon discovered that England was the 232 TRYING TIMES IN TURKEY only Power to be feared in this question and that the "Concert of Europe" would not tolerate any inde- pendent action on her part. Schemes of reform were devised by the ambassa- dors and discussed with the Turks, who refused to accept any kind of foreign control of the reforms demanded, but professed all manner of good inten- tions. So the negotiations went on month after month, while the political excitement in the coun- try steadily increased and the condition of the Chris- tians grew worse, until the climax was reached in the great massacre of 1895-1896. These were trying times for the College, where it required all our energy and skill to keep the minds of our students on their work; and as a result of the earthquake and the cholera there was great distress in the city, and many well-to-do families were reduced to poverty. In August the destruction of a town in Bulgaria by fire ruined several families whose sons were in the College. I was not present at the Commencement exer- cises in 1894. I was in bed, attended by several doctors who could not agree as to the cause and nature of the sudden attack which seemed to threaten my life; but happily they did agree as to what should be done for me, and I survived. I was well in the morning, though tired out, as I generally was at the end of the year; but a stormy interview of two hours with a half crazy student, who threat- ened all kinds of vengeance on me and the College and had to be quieted down before the public exercises, very nearly finished my work in the College. I recovered in season to leave Constanti- 233 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE nople for Switzerland the evening before the great earthquake, and thus escaped the great nervous strain of a month of earthquake shocks which caused the death of hundreds of people. The number of graduates in 1893 was 13. Of these, all of whom are living, 6 are Bulgarians, 3 are Armenians, 3 are Greeks and 1 is English. Of the Bulgarians 1 is a merchant in West Africa, 2 are lawyers and 3 physicians. Of the Armenians 1 is a merchant, 2 are or have been teachers. Of the Greeks 1 is an instructor in Robert College, 2 are in business. The number of graduates in 1894 w^as 21, all but one of whom are living. Of these 8 were Armenians, 6 Bulgarians, 4 Greeks, 2 English, 1 American. Of the Armenians 4 are merchants 2 teachers, 1 a den- tist, 1 unknown. Of the Bulgarians 3 are in the civil service in Bulgaria, 2 lawyers, 1 a teacher. Of the Greeks 3 are merchants, 1 a teacher. The English are merchants. The American is a civil engineer in America. 234 CHAPTER XXI REORGANIZATION OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 1894-189G Great and important changes took place during this period in the constitution of the Board of Trustees. Mr. Booth, who had been president of the Board from the beginning, died in December, 1895 ; and Dr. Coe, who had been secretary from the first, had to resign on account of illness and died in February, 1895. Mr. Hatch and Mr. Vermilye, the treasurer, had also died. Mr. Kingsley resigned. Dr. Coe's son, Rev. Edward B. Coe, D. D., LL. D., took his father's place. Mr. William C. Sturges, president of the Seaman's Savings Bank, became treasurer in place of Mr. Vermilye, Mr. Cleveland H. Dodge and Mr. W. T. Booth, the son of the former President, joined the Board, and finally Mr. John S. Kennedy consented to become the President. Whatever progress the College has made since that time is due to the generous support, the wise counsels and the active efforts of this new Board of Trustees. The College opened in 1894 with 205 registered students, of whom 116 were boarders. There were 80 Greeks, 63 Armenians, 36 Bul- garians, 13 English and Americans, 13 others. The thirty-third year there were 221 registered, of whom 132 were boarders. There were 92 Greeks, 69 xVrmenians, 37 Bulgarians, 8 English and Ameri- cans, 4 Turks, 11 others. 235 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE For the first time in the history of the College the Greeks outnumbered the Armenians and the Bul- garians. The Bulgarians had fallen off, owing to the establishment of government gymnasia, where students were educated at very small cost to their parents, and on account of the many difficulties put in the way of Bulgarians coming to Constantinople by the Turkish government. Constantinople was no longer a political or a business centre for Bul- garia. The Armenians were suffering from the po- litical troubles here and in the interior. The Greeks, on the other hand, had come to realize at last that this was not a Bulgarian college, that it was no part of its object to attack or weaken the Orthodox Church, and that our Greek Department offered to them everything that they could ask in the way of mental and moral discipline. They had come to appreciate the real value and importance of our re- ligious instruction and our efforts to build up the character of our students. Professor van Millingen was absent on leave during the year 1894-1895. Otherwise the Faculty was unchanged. The following year the College was saddened by the death of Mr. Charles H. Dur- fee, a tutor who had just come to the College, but had already won the hearts of teachers and students. He had an attack of typhoid fever, and I took him to Kennedy Lodge. It seemed a mild attack, but the second week he suddenly died, when Miss Hart and Mrs. Washburn were both with him. Mr. Hagopian had gone to America for his health at the end of the thirty-second year and on account of the Armenian troubles did not return for four 236 REORGANIZATION OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES years. lie spent most of the time studying in the University of Edinburgh, where he made hosts of friends. He had never had anvthinjy to do with revokitionists, but the Turkish government was in- discriminate in it^ arrest and imprisonment of all Armenians coming from Europe or America, and it was thought better that he should delay his return. His stay in Scotland fitted him for the position of adjunct Professor of Philosophy, which he now oc- cupies in the College. In reading the correspondence of these years and the following one I am surprised to find that through all these trying times, when it now seems to me a wonder that the College continued to exist, we kept up our courage and were optimistic in our hopes for the future. We suffered, and suffered keenly ; some- times it seemed more than we could endure, but it was not for ourselves. Our friends in America were alarmed and anxious about us, and Mr. Kennedy offered to send us a steam yacht upon which we might take refuge in case of need. We w^ere very grateful, but felt that the appearance of such a steamer anchored near the College might of itself create a panic which would endanger those about us. It w^as a serious question at one time wdiether we ought not to suspend the College, as Mr. Robert had advised at the time of the Bulgarian massacres, but so long as the Xurkish government manifested no inclination to molest any one within our walls we felt that there was every reason why we should keep our doors open. This is not the place to enter into any details of the events of these two years, and I have not the «37 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE satisfaction of feeling that any influence of mine modified the action of the Turkish government or did the Armenians any good. I can only claim that it never did them any harm. I had influence in Lon- don and here and used it in efforts to put a stop to the extermination of the Armenians, but the real defender of Turkey through all these horrors was Russia. No doubt the Russian government looked upon the massacre of Armenians in Turkey as it has since looked upon the massacre of the Jews at home, as a matter of little consequence, with which the outside world had no concern. She made it a question of the peace of Europe that there should be no armed intervention here; and while she joined England and France in demanding reforms, it was apparently with the purpose of playing into the hands of the Turks. After the Sassoon massacres and the oflScial in- vestigation of them, which had no practical result except to turn a stream of charity into the country from England and America, the negotiations here went on while the sufferings of the Armenians steadily increased. In the autumn of 1895 the em- bassies encouraged the Armenians here to break the deadlock in their negotiations by presenting a peti- tion to the Grand Vizier. They asked permission and received it, but it was revoked at the last minute, when troops were sent to prevent the presentation. A collision resulted between troops and petitioners, which was followed by a cold-blooded massacre of some eight hundred Armenians in the streets, most of whom had nothing to do with the petition. As such things never happen in Constantinople 238 REORGANIZATION OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES without the knowledge and approval of the govern- ment, it is generally believed that this first massacre of Armenians here was a bold and carefully devised plan to test the spirit of the European Powers, be- fore entering upon a general slaughter throughout the empire. If it proved that such things could be done with impunity, in face of Europe, under the very eyes of the ambassadors, it -would be safe to go on without fear of intervention. In England the Liberal government, which had been honestly and earnestly devoted to securing the rights of the Ar- menians, had fallen, and Lord Salisbury had come into power. The Turks felt that it was time to test his policy. I was in London in July, on my w^ay to America, and was asked to see Lord Salisbury. My old friends in the Liberal government could not have expressed their determination to put an end to the existing state of things in Turkey in stronger lan- guage than he did. When I reached England on my return five days had passed since the massacre, and I went to the Foreign Office to see Lord Salisbury and get the latest news. I found that Lord Salisbury was in France, the Under Secretary, Mr. Curzon, in the north of England, and the Permanent Secretary in Scotland. The whole Foreign OflSce was taking a vacation. I went to see Mr. Chamberlain, the only other minister whom I knew, and he was in Spain. It was a w^eek later that Lord Salisbury returned. I had come on to Constantinople and did not see him, but I know that he finally realized the gravity of this crisis and was ready to send a fleet to Constan- tinople. He thought that it w\as too late to act summarily and alone, and he entered into commu- 239 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE nication with the other Powers. For a time it seemed as though something might be done, but Russia finally put her veto on it, and the " Con- cert of Europe" contented itself with demanding the immediate acceptance of the meagre scheme of reform which it had agreed to,, which in fact amounted to nothing, and which did not delay the general slaughter which commenced in a few weeks and went on for a year. It was in vain that the ter- rible details of these massacres were published to the world, and that in England and America, and to some extent in France and Italy, public opinion was roused to demand some form of intervention. These publications simply exasperated the Turks and failed to interest the "Concert of Europe." What- ever plans the Sultan had he carried them out to the bitter end without fear, only tolerating the distribu- tion of great sums of money which were contributed in Europe and America to relieve the suffering of those who survived the massacres. During the college year of 1895-1896 we realized, as no one out of the country could realize, the signifi- cance of what was going on in the interior, and tlie burden of the people's suffering was hard to bear; but we had no fear of any massacre in Constanti- nople or any serious danger for the College. Once only we were made to feel the dangers about us. One of our Greek students, who had friends in Pera, left the College secretly one afternoon, after having been refused permission to go, and went with his friends to the theatre. They were insulted by a Turk who sat near them, and our student com- plained of it to the manager. The Turk waylaid S40 KING KKKDIXAM) OK IHLGARIA REORGANIZATION OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES him as he came out of the theatre and murdered him. I went to his funeral in the Greek church in Pera and was startled to find hundreds of armed Cepha- lonians (he was from Cephalonia) ready to escort the procession through the principal streets of the city. Thanks to the precautions taken by the po- lice, no one interfered with this demonstration. It was not the policy of the government to stir up trouble with the Greeks at this time. We had an alarm of cholera in the city in 1895 and the usual quarantine, which deprived us of a visit from our dear friends INIr. and Mrs. William E. Dodge, who were on their way to Constantinople, but turned back from Athens to escape the quaran- tine. Later we had a very interesting visit from Bishop Potter of New York, who made an admirable ad- dress to the students. Our most distinguished visitor was Prince Ferdi- nand of Bulgaria. He had at last been officially recognized by all the Powers and had come to visit the Sultan. He came to the College, attended by a brilliant retinue of Turkish and Bulgarian officials and guards, made himself very agreeable to the Bul- garian students, and took afternoon tea at Kennedy Lodge, where he was kind enough to say that Robert College had been a nursery for Bulgarian statesmen and he hoped that it would continue to be so. He did not know it, but he drank his tea out of a cup that once belonged to his grandfather, then Louis Philippe, King of France. The question of beneficiaries became more press- ing and more difficult during these years of political 241 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE troubles and financial distress. From the founda- tion of the College this question had been discussed more than any other. Mr. Robert never favored our aiding as many students as we did, and was al- ways cautioning us about it, while here the most try- ing experience that we had was the constant refusal of applications for aid of this kind. We were agreed upon certain principles: no free students; no promise of aid for more than one year; no benefi- ciary to be continued whose scholarship and con- duct were not of the best; no aid to any but those whose parents were really unable to pay more than one half. We were also agreed that the College ought to do something for the poor as well as the rich, and we rejoiced when Mr. Walter Wood of Philadelphia and the children of Mrs. Newton and occasionally others furnished funds for this pur- pose ; but in general we had to face the fact that the greater part of the aid which we gave had to come out of the general funds of the College, which at best were not sufficient to meet our expenses. Almost every year we have voted to reduce the number re- ceived, but we have seldom had less than fifty stu- dents (the majority day scholars) who paid only one half the regular charges. It is much easier to lay down general principles than to apply them to all special cases. So long as w^e had room for such ad- ditional students and they did not necessitate addi- tional teachers and they fulfilled our requirements, there were always special and exceptional reasons why this or that one should be received, so that we generally had a few more than we intended to re- ceive. I think that this liberality on our part has 242 REORGANIZATION OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES been appreciated by the different nationalities in the East and is one of the reasons why they support the College, and it has always seemed to me that while it is unwise to receive free students, who are not likely to appreciate what costs them nothing, in aid- ing a certain number we are simply carrying out the purpose for which the College was founded. Some of our most distinguished graduates were half-pay students. Some have disappointed us, but on the whole I see no reason to regret that, out of our pov- erty, we have aided so many to secure the advan- tages of an education in Robert College. The Commencement exercises in 1895 and 1896 brought together great crowds as usual, with many distinguished guests who were afterward enter- tained at Kennedy Lodge. The government had prohibited all such gatherings in the city, but they treated our case as exceptional and made no objec- tion to it, probably because the American minister presided on these occasions and the English ambas- sador and other ministers always attended. Still we felt it necessary to take every precaution against any appearance of anything like a political demon- stration. We had no address by any of the guests, and the orations were all in English or French. The only really trying moment on these occasions was when the band opened the exercises with the Hami- die March, the Turkish national air, and the audi- ence was expected to rise. If they had kept their seats this would have been a political demonstration beyond our control, which would have made trouble. Happily they did not. The number of graduates in 1895 was 15. Six 243 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE were Bulgarians, 5 Armenians, 3 Greeks, 1 was Eng- lish. Of the Bulgarians 3 are teachers, 1 a judge, 1 in diplomatic service, 1 in business. Of the Arme- nians 3 are merchants, 1 a civil engineer, 1 pastor of a Protestant church in Constantinople. The 3 Greeks are in business, and the Englishman is the agent of the Cunard Steamship Company in Con- stantinople. The number of graduates in 1896 was 6, of whom 5 are living. Three were Bulgarians, 2 Armenians, 1 a Greek. Of the Bulgarians 2 were lawyers, 1 a teacher. Of the Armenians 1 is in business, 1 a Protestant minister. The Greek is a musician. 244 CHAPTER XXII THE GREAT CONSTANTINOPLE MASSACRE. 1896-1897 In the summer of 1896 everything in Constanti- nople seemed to be quiet, and most of the gentlemen connected with the College went away for the vaca- tion. Professor Panaretoff and I went to Austria to the Saltzkammergut. We found nothing but rain and floods there and started for the Carpathians; but in Vienna Professor Panaretoff was ordered by his doctor to go to Carlsbad. As I was left alone I went to the Millennial Exhibition in Budapest for a few days and returned to Constantinople on Satur- day, August 22. The following Wednesday I went up the Bosphorus to call at the English Embassy and to lunch with Mr. Dimitroff at Buyukdere. I returned about 4 o'clock, and, soon after, some one came in great excitement to say that the Turkish army had revolted, plundered the Ottoman Bank and were slaughtering people in the streets. I at once took all possible precautions for the protection of the College and the families. It turned out that the news which I had received was incorrect, but that something equally terrible was going on in town. It had been a beautiful day, and several of our lady friends had been in town and found it very difficult to get back through streets which were al- ready running with blood. What had happened was this. About noon a band 245 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE of Armenians, most of them from Russia, entered the Ottoman Bank, with arms and dynamite, took the employees prisoners and barricaded themselves in the building, with the threat that, unless the am- bassadors at once secured a pledge from the Sultan of certain reforms, they would blow up the bank with dynamite. To finish with this part of the story, soldiers soon surrounded the bank, and negotiations began with the captors which in the evening re- sulted in their being permitted to leave the bank, go on board the yacht of the chief manager and leave the country unmolested. Who originated this plot I do not know, but it is certain that the Turkish government knew all about it many days before, even to the exact time when the bank was to be entered; and the Minister of Police had made elaborate arrangements, not to arrest these men or prevent the attack on the bank, but to facilitate it and make it the occasion of a massacre of the Armenian population of the city. This was to be the crown of all the massacres of the year, one worthy of the capitol and the seat of the Sultan, a final defiance to the Christian world. Not many minutes after the attack on the bank the bands of Turks, who had been organized by the Minister of Police in Stamboul and Galata, commenced the work of killing every Armenian they could find, pro- tected by large bodies of troops, who in some cases took part in the slaughter. Through Wednesday, Wednesday night, Thursday and Thursday night the massacre went on unchecked. An open tele- gram was sent by the ambassadors to the Sultan Thursday night, which perhaps influenced him to 246 THE GREAT CONSTANTINOPLE MASSACRE give orders to stop the massacre, and not many were murdered on Friday. I do not care to enter at all into the horrible details of this massacre of some ten thousand Armenians. Very few of them were able to make any serious resistance. Very few women or children were killed, and these only in certain quar- ters where the houses were attacked and looted. Many Turks looked upon the whole thing with horror and protected the Armenians in their own houses. An American negro sailor, stranded here, whom the Turks took to be a Mohammedan, saved one house full of refugees. We had a number of Armenian servants in the College, and a few others took refuge there. Thursday night there was a mas- sacre of Armenians just below us at Bebec and another opposite us at Candilli. The British gun- boat came and took off the British residents and offered to take us, which we declined. Ruffians gathered at Hissar to massacre and plunder the Ar- menians here, but the leading Turks drove them off in the early evening. We had five Montenegrans at the College, and about midnight I left them to patrol and guard the grounds, w^ith orders to wake me if any attack was made on us. We had already buried what we could of our valuables. Not long after we retired, the gate-keeper came to say that a company of Turkish soldiers was at the gate and demanded admission, saying that they were sent by order of the Sultan to protect us. It seemed wise to assume that this was true and admit them to the grounds, while the Montenegrans still guarded Hamlin Hall, where all our Armenians had taken refuge. The colonel who came with them 247 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE went away, and the captain left in command told the gate-keeper that they had come because they knew the College was full of Armenian revolution- ists whom they expected to capture. Which of these statements was true I do not know, but it was a very anxious morning for us, as we and our Armenian servants were at the mercy of these soldiers, of whose real mission we were in doubt. The next day these men were replaced by twenty other soldiers under the charge of a captain whose family lived in Hissar. The government claimed that they were necessary for the protection of the College, and I furnished them with quarters in the back part of the study hall building. We were not expected to do anything else for them. They were of the regular army, genu- ine Turkish peasants from Asia Minor, quiet and good natured; and the four months they remained there was a continuous holiday for them, as the cap- tain did not trouble himself to drill them. They never made any disturbance or gave us any trouble of any account; but after the College opened in September they were a source of constant anxiety, and we had to watch our students with untiring vigilance to see that they did not get into conflict with the soldiers, especially as we had a number of new Turkish students along with some sixty Armenians. The massacre of the Armenians came to an end on Friday, the day after the soldiers came to the Col- lege ; but the persecution of them which went on for months was worse than the massacre. Their busi- ness was destroyed, they were plundered and black- mailed without mercy, they were hunted like wild 248 THE GREAT CONSTANTINOPLE MASSACRE beasts, they were imprisoned, tortured, killed, de- ported, fled the country, until the Armenian popula- tion of the city was reduced by some seventy-five thousand, mostly men, including those massacred. They were replaced by Kurds and men of other wild tribes. Since that time it is very difficult for an Armenian to get permission to come to Constanti- nople from the interior. The poverty and distress of those left alive in Constantinople was often heartrending, and many women and children died of slow starvation. That this persecution still con- tinues in a milder form is undoubtedly due to the criminal agitation kept up by a few revolutionists in Europe and the United States, whose chief business is the blackmailing and murder of their own people. Sir Michael Herbert, the British charge d'affaires, and some of the ambassadors did what they could to stop the massacre of the Armenians, and some of the consuls aided the Armenians to escape from the country after the massacres; but the "Concert of Europe " did nothing. It accepted the situation. The Emperor of Germany went farther. He sent a special embassy to present to the Sultan a portrait of his family as a token of his esteem. Under all these circumstances, and in doubt as to what worse calamities might be in store for us, it was with much hesitation that we opened the Col- lege as usual on the 15th of September, only eighteen days after the massacre. Most of the Faculty was absent, and the decision had to be made by the presi- dent. It was a terrible responsibility to assume, but it seemed to me that we must go on and trust in God to protect us, as we had done at the time of the Bul- 249 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE garian troubles. We were surprised at the number of students who appeared and at their assurance that the College was a safe place. The whole num- ber registered was 200, of whom 130 were boarders. There were 77 Greeks, 61 Armenians, 38 Bulgari- ans, 8 English and Americans, 9 Turks, 7 others, about the same number of boarders that we had the previous year. The head of our French Department was prevented from returning by the fears of his wife's family, but the newly engaged French tutor, Mr. Reymond, came and has ever since been at the head of the department. Mr. Pollock, a new American tutor, broke down in health in the middle of the year and returned to America. The rest of us survived the terrible strain of months of painful anxiety and sympathy with suffering which we were powerless to prevent and could do little to alleviate, but at the end of November my health broke down so completely that I was forced to spend three months in Egypt to recruit. As at other times. Dr. Long took up the burden, and I was not missed. On our return from Egypt Mrs. Washburn and I improved the opportunity to stop at Beirut, with our dear old friends of the Syrian Protestant College, and rejoice with them in their prosperity. We greatly enjoyed this visit and our stay in the new Egypt of Lord Cromer, the renewal of our acquaint- ance with the American missionaries there, and our study of ancient Egypt. We felt sometimes that we never wished to see the blood-stained streets of Con- stantinople again. We came back to new and unexpected troubles and greater anxieties than ever. War broke out with 250 THE GREAT CONSTANTINOPLE MASSACRE Greece, followed by an order for the expulsion of all Greek subjects from the empire, and the fanati- cism of the Turks was roused to a higher pitch than at the time of the massacres. Constantinople was like a powder magazine which might be exploded by a chance spark. Our students were intensely excited, all of them, and we felt that the dreaded spark might be kindled in the College at any moment. That it was not was due chiefly to the untiring efforts of the professors and tutors of the different nationalities to quiet and restrain the students. Five of the Greeks ran away to enlist in the Greek army, but the Turkish government was considerate enough not to molest our Greek stu- dents or servants. This war was an act of supreme folly on the part of the Greeks. The government was driven into it by popular clamor against its own judgment. It was hardly less a folly for the Turks. It is generally believed that the final decision to declare war was due to German influence, exercised chiefly through the distinguished German officers who had reor- ganized the Turkish army, and that the popular demonstrations here were not spontaneous. The Greeks had no army to meet the Turks, who would have been in Athens in a few days if the Powers had not intervened. The Turks had no fleet which they dared to send outside the Dardanelles, and in the end they lost Crete. The Greeks might have had an alliance with Bulgaria and been supported by an insurrection in Macedonia, but here also it was the mob which decided the government to reject this alliance. It was well for Bulgaria that they did. 251 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE There was no reason why they should go to war with Turkey at that time. Our interest in the Greeks naturally led us to sym- pathize with them, but we could not sympathize with the spurious patriotism which had forced the government into war, and which has so often brought them into trouble. The Christian world owes so much to ancient Greece that it naturally in- terests itself in modern Greece and in every effort of the kingdom of Greece to improve its position. It welcomes every advance in the prosperity and en- lightenment of the nation; but sometimes its en- thusiasm is cooled by evidence that the same spirit of revolt against reason which ruined ancient Athens is still prevalent. The seventy-two Greeks in the College who did not run away and go to the war were not less patriotic and were much wiser than those who went. When the end of the year came and found us all alive, in relative peace and quiet, after the long months of terror, war, massacre, and the rage of the wildest passions about us, we felt like making our Commencement a day of thanksgiving; but the city was still full of misery and distress, and the political horizon still dark, so that we felt the need of unusual caution in arranging our programme. We gave special importance to the music and had one of the principal musicians of the palace to take a prominent part. Mr. Riddle, the American charge d'affaires, presided, the audience was as large as ever and everything passed off happily. The number of graduates was 14, of whom 13 are living. Five were Bulgarians, 4 Armenians, 4 252 THE GREAT CONSTANTINOPLE MASSACRE Greeks, 1 a German from Russia. Of the Bulgarians 1 was a teacher, 1 a judge, 2 in civil service, 1 died while studying medicine. Of the Armenians 2 are merchants, 1 an architect in New York, 1 a teacher in Robert College. Of the Greeks 2 are merchants, 1 a lawyer in Roumania, 1 a physician. The Ger- man is in Russia. 253 CHAPTER XXIII FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE. 1897-1899 The reorganized Board of Trustees did not dis- appoint us. When the reorganization took place it seemed almost too much to hope that a new day had really dawned upon us, that we were no longer to bear alone the burden which we had carried for so many years. The old Board was sympathetic, gave us its blessing and looked after our funds care- fully, but it was so constituted that it could do little more. I remember Dr. David B. Coe, Mr. W. A. Booth and Mr. William C. Sturges with grati- tude and affection. They were real friends of the College, and when I was in America they were al- ways ready to listen to me and do what they could. The fact that they were so well known and uni- versally respected was a guarantee of the standing of the College which I fully appreciated; but the new Board assumed a responsibility for the College which was an unspeakable relief to us. The Con- stitution was modified and the Board enlarged. At this time it consisted of Mr. John S. Kennedy, Presi- dent, Rev. Dr. E. B. Coe, Secretary, Mr. Frederick A. Booth, Treasurer, Mr. John Sloane, Mr. Robert W. De Forest and Mr. William C. Osborn. The Board not only listened to our wants and appre- ciated our needs, but undertook to supply them as far and as soon as possible. This could not be 254 FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE done in a clay, but the work of enlarging and strengthening the College began in this period, and it has been going on ever since. They were undoubtedly encouraged by a happy event which occurred in the summer of 1898. We had long felt the pressing need of a new building for our Prepara- tory Department, which we could not dispense with, but which could not be managed satisfactorily while it was under the same roof with the College. I went to America that summer with the special pur- pose of trying to interest Miss Stokes of New York in this need. I hardly know why I had thought particularly of her, although she had visited Con- stantinople and interested herself in the education of two Bulgarian students here, but I was very hopeful. When I reached America, to my great disappointment I found that she was not in the country, and I came back with a heavy heart. When I reached Kennedy Lodge and met Mrs. Washburn her first words w^ere that she had a letter for me that would interest me. It proved to be a letter from Miss Stokes in which she said that she had been thinking of the wants of the College and would be very glad to put up a build- ing for the Preparatory Department. I could hardly believe my eyes. It seemed to me almost like a miracle, and when the building was finished I sympathized most heartily with Miss Stokes' re- quest that it be called Theodorus Hall, the gift of God. The trustees were also encouraged by two legacies left to the College, — five thousand dollars by Mr. W. H. Stickney of Baltimore and ten thou- sand dollars by Mr. Charles F. Wilder of Boston, — 255 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE and they made arrangements for the appointment of a Professor of Mathematics, which had long been a crying need of the College. For the thirty-fifth year, 1897-1898, the number of students registered was 250, of whom 145 were boarders. There were 88 Greeks, 87 Armenians, 49 Bulgarians, 10 Turks, 7 English and Americans, 9 others. For the thirty-sixth year, 1898-1899, the number registered was 292, of whom 173 were boarders. There were 108 Greeks, 105 Armenians, 45 Bul- garians, 10 English and Americans, 14 Turks, 10 others. The increase of Greek and Armenian students after the massacres and the war was altogether un- expected, and we had to refuse a number of appli- cants in the fall of 1898. We could not accommodate more. One of the pleasantest experiences of this period was the coming here of President Angell of Michi- gan University as American minister, who was not only a college president, but a scholar and a states- man. He and Mrs. Angell were the most delightful of friends. We rejoiced in them and were proud of them as representatives of our country, which he had already represented in China. We were dis- appointed but not surprised that he found Michigan University more attractive than the Sublime Porte and resigned his place here after a year of fruitless negotiations, which, as he had been in China, had not even the interest of novelty. In fact he found that the Sublime Porte surpassed the Yamen in the style of diplomacy common to both. ^56 FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE On his departure our old friend Mr. Straus re- turned to the post which he had occupied under President Clevehmd, an appointment which was supposed to be agreeable to the SuUan. There was also a change in the British Embassy. Nearly all the ambassadors who had been here during the massacres were recalled and among them Sir Philip Currie, who was replaced by Sir Nicholas O'Conor, an experienced diplomatist, a kind-hearted and agreeable gentleman, who has been most friendly to the College, who has carried out his instructions to keep peace between England and the Porte, and who has given the Sultan end- less good advice which has seldom been followed. Since the massacres we have lived here through an era of German influence which seems now (1907) to be waning. It was in the autumn of 1898 that the Emperor William II made his pilgrimage to the Holy Land and visited Constantinople. It is be- lieved here that this visit cost the Sultan more than ten million dollars, and the Turks say that all he got in return w^as a marble bust of the Emperor and of his grandfather. He was not welcomed by the people here, either Turks or Christians, but he cemented an alliance with the Sultan which freed Turkey from all fear of the *' Concert of Europe" and in return opened a w^ide field for German enter- prise in Turkey and for the development of German influence in Asia Minor. German influence here has been as strongly anti-American as it has been anti-English. In 1898, in the time of the Spanish War, we had all Europe, except England, against us and had to 857 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE listen to much that was unpleasant here in Con- stantinople, where in diplomatic circles it was uni- versally believed that we should be ignominiously defeated. Curiously enough the Turks were on our side, and rejoiced over the defeat of Spain as a divine punishment for her treatment of the Moors in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was said that prayers were offered in our behalf in some of the mosques. I am tempted to quote here from a letter of one of the most distinguished statesmen in England, which I find among my papers, written in Sep- tember, 1898, apropos of the feeling in America- *'The change of sentiment in regard to foreign possessions in the U. S. A. is not more sudden than surprising to us. Whatever benefit there may be in it for Britain, it seems tome full of trouble for Amer- ica. Your constitution and government were not framed for the sort of work which oceanic Powers ruling half-savage tropical dependencies have to do, but I see that good men in America believe that, be- cause it has come in the dispensation of Providence, Congress will be endowed with the necessary wis- dom for it and it will even lead to an improvement in political methods and public life. England, as you will see, views it with sympathy." For ourselves, we regretted the war, but we re- joiced in its victories and hoped, as this gentleman says, that Congress might be endowed with wisdom to manage our new possessions. We are still hoping. But our Congress is not, thus far, made up of men whose knowledge or interests fit them to legislate for a world-power such as we have become. They 258 FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE are chiefly local politicians with little interest in the welfare of the country as a whole, and ignorant of foreign politics. There is no choice for any nation now but to be a world-power knowing how to de- fend its own interests, or to be dominated by the Great Powers of Europe and exploited in their interests. In 1896 we could not send a gunboat to Constantinople to protect the lives of American citizens because Russia and Germany did not wish it. Our trade with Turkey has been limited for years in the same way. From the standpoint of Constantinople it seems that the great need of America is more international statesmen. To go back to the College, it was in 1897 that we had our first public field day for athletics. An ath- letic club had been organized the previous year by Mr. Ostrander, then a tutor in the College. We had never ignored our responsibility for the physical culture of our students. As far as our means al- lowed we had provided gymnastic apparatus, and had exercised our students in some system of light gymnastics ; but our chief dependence had been in encouraging all sorts of out-of-door games — cricket, baseball, football, etc. The Athletic Club had rather a precarious existence for several years, but it has grown stronger every year, and its annual field days have attracted much attention in the city and developed the interest of the students in athletics. Some of our students have distinguished themselves by breaking world records and winning interna- tional prizes. For myself I rejoice that the interest in athletics has not yet reached a point where it over- shadows the proper work of the College, and I hope 259 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE that it never will. I believe that systematic work in the gymnasium is a far more important means of cultivating the physical powers, and that out-of-door games, if not conJ&ned to a chosen few, are equally important. Our games have never degenerated into gladiatorial shows. We have sometimes been troubled by international rivalries in athletics, but our own neutral position has generally enabled us to restore harmony, and on the whole the conduct of our students in these contests has been praise- worthy. Our chief source of anxiety in 1898-1899 was in re- gard to our water supply. We talked about it every day and dreamed about it every night. At times we had not a two days' supply in sight simply for cook- ing and drinking. We had a well one hundred and eighty feet below the College which furnished water for other purposes, but one horse pumped this dry every morning in two hours. We had several large cisterns and had always depended upon rain-water caught on our roofs for our supply. We had been in trouble before, but this year, with a greater number of students than ever before, we had to face a drought which had continued for two or three years with an annual rainfall of only twelve to fifteen inches. The first part of the year we sent our students to the Turkish bath in Hissar, but in the early spring this burned down. Then the well tlu-eatened to give out, and we saw the bottom of our cisterns. I arranged to have water brought on horses, in barrels, from a spring two miles away. The evening before this water was to begin to come a storm came down from the Black Sea with a deluge of rain, and that 260 FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE was the end of the drought. But this was an ex- perience which it was not safe to repeat, and Mr. Kennedy came to our rescue and furnished the means to put in a steam pump and connect us with the city water supply in a building which we erected for this purpose. Our supply is now unlimited, but we still depend on our cisterns for drinking and cooking purposes. Professor Anderson's health broke down in 1898 under the strain of life in Hamlin Hall, where he had lived with his family since a similar experience had forced me to withdraw to Kennedy Lodge. Since that time no family has lived in Hamlin Hall. The family rooms are now used as the college hospital and Miss Hart's apartments. There are also twelve teachers living in the building. The president's house is only a stone's throw from Hamlin Hall. After a year's absence, Professor Anderson returned to the College. Mr. Hagopian returned to the College in Novem- ber, 1898, and like other Armenians returning to the city, although his papers were in perfect order, he spent twenty-four hours in the city prison, when by our intervention he was set at liberty. The neg- lect of a friend of his in London to post a letter to me prevented our meeting him on his arrival. If I had known of his coming on that day, I could have saved him this trying experience, through the inter- vention of the American consul. In March, 1899, Lord Rosebery came to Con- stantinople, and Mrs. Washburn and I lunched with him at the British Embassy. I had never met him before, although when he was Foreign Minister I £61 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE was in correspondence with him. I had a long talk with him on Eastern affairs and English policy. I found him quite as interesting a man as Lord Salis- bury, though of a different type, and less inclined to express decided opinions. He related to me one or two most interesting incidents of his experience when Minister of Foreign Affairs. The number of graduates in 1898 was 14. There were 6 Bulgarians, 4 Greeks, 2 Armenians, 1 Eng- lish, 1 Italian. Of the Bulgarians 2 are in busi- ness, 1 a judge, 1 a lawyer, 1 a teacher, 1 in diplo- matic service. Of the Greeks 2 are in business, 1 a lawyer, 1 an engineer. Of the Armenians 1 is a mining engineer in Mexico, 1 a physician in America. The Englishman is a merchant; the Italian, unknown. The number of graduates in 1899 was 13. There were 5 Greeks, 4 Armenians, 3 Bulgarians, 1 He- brew. Of the Greeks 2 are in business, 2 have studied medicine and 1 is in the treasurer's office in Robert College. Of the Armenians 3 are in business, 1 has studied law in America. Of the Bulgarians 2 have studied law, 1 is in diplo- matic service. The Hebrew is an assistant in the physico-chemical laboratory of the University of Leipsic. We had our usual crowded and distinguished au- dience on both the Commencement days, and an admirable address from Mr. Straus, who presided in 1899. The subjects treated by the graduates in their orations were the following: The Russian Woman, The Temptations of Poverty, The Social Problem, Life a Conflict, The East and the West, 262 FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGE The Value of Self-reliance, La Dette de 1' Occident, La Puissance de la Volenti, Les Progres des Sciences et la Misere Socialc. I suppose that few foreigners have had a better opportunity to acquaint themselves with the people of Asia Minor than Sir William Ramsay, and I quote here what he says in his "Impressions of Turkey" of our graduates: *'I have come in contact with men educated in Robert College, in widely separated parts of the country, men of diverse races and differ- ent forms of religion, Greek, Armenian and Protes- tant, and have everywhere been struck with the mar- velous way in which a certain uniform type, direct, simple, honest and lofty in tone, has been impressed upon them. Some had more of it, some less ; but all had it to a certain degree; and it is diametrically opposite to the type produced by growth under the ordinary conditions of Turkish life." S63 CHAPTER XXIV DEATH OF DR. HAMLIN. 1899-1901 There was nothing in the history of the College in Constantinople the thirty-seventh year which de- mands special attention. Everything was quiet and peaceful in the city. The Sultan completed the twenty-fifth year of his reign and the six hundredth of the Ottoman dynasty, and all Europe united to congratulate him. The prosperity of the College continued un- abated. The number of students registered was 297, of whom 176 were boarders. One hundred and twelve were Greeks, 108 Armenians, 39 Bulgarians, 14 Turks, 13 English and Americans, 11 others. For the thirty-eighth year the number of students registered was 311, of whom 182 were boarders. One hundred and twenty-seven were Greeks, 108 Armenians, 34 Bulgarians, 14 Turks, 12 English and American, 16 others. The number of students for these two years repre- sented the extreme limit to which it was possible for for us to go in receiving students. We were over- crowded in the buildings which we had at that time. In the spring of 1900 the trustees of the College requested me to go to America and consult with them as to what measures should be taken to meet the immediate needs of the College and secure its future development. This was the most important 264 DEATH OF DR. HAMLIN step ever taken by the trustees and was the begin- ning of the development which is still in progress. It was a recognition of responsibility on their part which the Faculty welcomed with enthusiasm and new hopes for the future. At their suggestion I started in season to attend the Ecumenical Mission- ary Conference, which was held in New York that year, where it w^as thought advisable to have Robert College represented. The importance of the College and its world-wide influence were fully recognized. I presided at one of the great meetings in Carnegie Hall and spoke on different occasions, and had many opportunities for consultation with those en- gaged in similar work in otlier parts of the world, most of whom realized that it was the founding and the success of Robert College which had changed the policy of American missionary societies and led to the establishment of colleges in so many mission- ary fields. I found these personal conferences very profitable, and greatly enjoyed meeting so many great and good men of various nationalities from all parts of the world. It was natural to compare this meeting with the Parliament of Religions at Chicago, in which I had taken a prominent part, and I did so in the brief address which I made at the last meeting. They were not antagonistic in spirit or purpose, but the more definite aim of the practical workers of the Missionary Conference was certainly more inspiring and seemed to promise more immediate results. Soon after the Conference the trustees met in- formally at dinner a^. Mr. Kennedy's, where I had an opportunity to present to them the views of the Faculty as to the present conditions — the needs 265 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE and the prospects of the College. What was gener- ally agreed to there was afterwards adopted at a formal meeting of the Board. They resolved to carry out as far as possible the recommendations submitted by the Faculty. They resolved "to do everything that was necessary for the development of the College on the model of the best colleges in America, to make it thoroughly up to date in its material equipment and in its curriculum, personnel and spirit." Professor Lybyer had already been appointed professor of mathematics; and it was agreed to appoint, in addition, a principal of the Preparatory Department, a professor in the Scientific Department who should also be a physician, and a college treasurer who should also be a professor in the Commercial Department. It was also decided to erect a new building for study halls and recitation rooms, a gymnasium and three houses for professors, to supply new chemical and physical apparatus, and to increase the library, also to purchase adjacent land. As all this would increase the running ex- pense of the College, it was resolved to take imme- diate steps to raise two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to increase the endowment. A building for the Preparatory Department had already been pro- vided for by Miss Stokes, and Mr. Cleveland H. Dodge, at the meeting, promised to put up a gym- nasium. Mr. Kennedy promised to put up the pro- fessors' houses. It should be noted that this action of the trustees was not the result of any special appeal made by us, but was the result of their own investigations and of their own purpose to make the College worthy of 266 DEATH OF DR. HAMLIN the position which it occupied in the East, and the reputation which it had attained in the workl. No one, outside the Faculty, can fully appreciate what this meant to uswho were on the ground, who knew what the College had done and might do, who had had a part in all its trials and triumphs. This was not the only evidence which we had of the interest which was taken in the College in edu- cational circles in America. I received most cordial invitations to visit colleges and universities. Prince- ton and Michigan Universities, Amherst College, and later the University of Pennsylvania, honored Robert College by conferring on its president the degree of Doctor of Laws. I took special pleasure in my visit to President Angell of Michigan Uni- versity, who had so greatly endeared himself to us when he was United States minister here, and to Williams College, whose president had long been a faithful friend of ours and had done no little work in finding tutors for us, and to Amherst, my own Alma Mater. In August we arranged for a gathering at my son's summer home at Manchester-by-the-Sea of all who could be got together of the Hamlin family. Dr. Hamlin, then nearly ninety years old, was there in good spirits and apparently good health. He was much pleased to hear of what the trustees had done and promised to do for Robert College and rejoiced in its present prosperity. The next morning, August 8, he went with Mrs. Hamlin to Portland to assist in the celebration of "Home Week" there. That evening, on his return from a public meeting, where he had spoken, he complained of feeling ill and soon 267 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE died. His funeral took place at Lexington, near Boston, which had been his home for some years. His body was carried to the grave by Armenian friends, who afterward erected a monument over it, in memory of what he had done for the Armenian people in Turkey. After our return to Constan- tinople and the opening of the College we had a memorial service for him in the college hall, con- ducted by Dr. Long, with most interesting and ap- preciative addresses. There was a large audience of his old friends and of the college students. It was twenty-seven years since he had been in Turkey, but his memory was fresh in the minds of those who had known him. No one who had been a student under him in the Bebec Seminary or Robert College could possibly forget him, and the tradition of him still lingers in the city among those who had not known him personally. His name, attached to Ham- lin Hall, is familiar to all our students, and his por- trait hangs in the college chapel. Of his work as one of the founders of the College I have written in the earlier chapters of this book. Those who would know him as a man should read his autobiography, "My Life and Times." It was an interesting fact that, though Dr. Hamlin was a typical New Eng- lander, he, like Mr. Robert, was of French Hugue- not stock. On our return to Constantinople we stopped for a few days in Paris as the guests of Mr. Dimitroff , who was the Bulgarian Commissioner at the Paris Exposition. For us who had known Bulgaria as a Turkish province, chiefly inhabited by peasants who were practically serfs, a country with no sign or 268 DEATH OF DR. HAMLIN promise of modern progress, the Bulgarian exhibit was the most wonderful thing that we saw. It com- pared favorably with the exhibits of the smaller states, even in the department of art, and showed that the progress of the country in twenty years of freedom had been unexampled. AVe could not but feel that something of this progress was due to Rob- ert College. The Commencement exercises in 1900 were un- usual. The plague had broken out in Egypt, and it was believed that cases had occurred in Constanti- nople. We were in daily expectation that we should be shut in by quarantines, which would make it very difficult for our students to reach their homes. We closed the College a week earlier than usual and excused the Seniors from delivering orations. Pro- fessor van Millingen and Mr. Lloyd C. Griscom, the American charge d'affaireSy made addresses which were highly appreciated by a crowded and distinguished audience. Mr. Griscom represented the United States here as charge d'affaires for about a year, and won golden opinions, not only from all Americans, but from the representatives of foreign Powers, and was specially honored by the Sultan. It was he who finally arranged for a settlement of American claims for indemnity for losses during the massacres. We do not wonder at the successive and rapid promotions which have made him Amer- ican ambassador at Rome. He was followed here by Mr. John G. X. Leishman, who was raised to the rank of ambassador in 1906 and still holds this po- sition. One of the curious incidents of the thirty-seventh 269 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE year was the arrest of one of our Greek students and his imprisonment for two months in the common prison along with those charged with being incen- diaries, burglars and murderers. The only charge against him was that when he arrived by steamer in Constantinople he had in his pocket a patriotic Greek song, with music, which could be bought in any music store in Pera. We begged the Minister of Police not to imprison him on such a charge, and he sent him to the College; but some of the officials knew that his father was rich, and after some weeks made a formal charge against him of bringing in- cendiary documents into the country, the penalty of which is three years' imprisonment. His father had to come and bargain with the judges to acquit him w^hen he was tried. The trial was really a farce, but it cost the father a round sum. Mrs. Wash- burn and Miss Hart went to see him several times in prison and became so much interested in the piti- ful condition of the prisoners that on our Thanks- giving Day, with the consent of the officials, they gave them a good Thanksgiving dinner. This was after the release of our student. The thirty-eighth college year, 1900-1901, was one of continued prosperity in the number of our stu- dents and the work done by them. We had one addition to our Faculty, Mr. Lybyer, who came to take charge of the Mathematical Department. The one cloud that rested upon the College was the fail- ing health of Dr. Long, and it was arranged that he should take a year's vacation in America with full salary. In the spring of 1901 we had the pleasure of a visit from the president of the Board of Trustees with 270 DEATH OF DR. HAMLIN Mrs. Kennedy. Nothing could have been more grateful to us or more profitable for the College, and I am sure that Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy not only enjoyed their visit and appreciated the unsurpassed beauty of the site of Kennedy Lodge, but carried away with them a stronger impression of the impor- tance and worth of the College, as well as its needs. The work on the new building for the Prepara- tory Department was begun in the autumn of 1900, although, through the rascality or enmity of some officials at the palace, the irade which was issued had been lost, and the new one obtained after much delay was so ambiguous as to be worthless. None of the accredited authorities of the Porte or the city dared to take the responsibility of giving us permis- sion to go on, but they were all friendly and had no desire to stop the work, and we went on unmolested. After the building was finished we got the proper official irade to erect it. We also commenced the improvements in Hamlin Hall and bought in Paris and Vienna more than a thousand dollars' worth of physical apparatus. The most remarkable event of the year was the completion of the sewer from the college grounds to the Bosphorus, after thirty years of negotiation with the Turkish authorities, which enabled us, for the first time, to complete our sani- tary arrangements on scientific principles. This also was accomplished through our friendly rela- tions with the local officials, and the work was thor- oughly done, not only to our advantage, but equally to that of our Turkish neighbors, as we built up and covered in what had been an open sewer through the old castle to the sea. «71 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE The most interesting events at the Commence- ment in 1901 were the gathering of the akimni and a letter received from the Greek Patriarch. For the first time we had an alumni dinner, at which more than sixty were present, a large number considering that our alumni are scattered over the world and that the obstacles put in the way of travel prevent those from abroad coming to Constantinople. Two of our most distinguished alumni had died during the year, both of the class of 1871. Mr. Slaveikoif was Minister of Public Instruction in Bulgaria at the time of his death. Mr. Stoiloff had been inti- mately connected with the whole history of the prin- cipality, was the most widely known of Bulgarians, had held the highest offices of state, was a patriot and an honest man. We had no speeches at our Commencement, and the next day I received the following letter, which was also published in the official organ of the church by the Patriarch : — to the most noble and most learned Director of Robert College. Most Noble Sir : The following is an address which his Holiness directed me to deliver yesterday on my visit to your College, which I now have the pleasure to transmit to you. "Having come among you, Honorable Gentle- men, by order of his Holiness, my most venerable Master, it gives me great pleasure to say that his Holiness has always followed with great interest the work of your most important and most noble 272 DEATH OF DR. HAMLIN institution. Ilis Holiness duly apjircciatcs your labors and cares that the education which you give shall make good citizens and moral men, who will act in society as worthy and honest members of it, loving their neighbors, not rendering evil for evil, but good for evil. "But the appreciation of his Holiness surpasses this limit, for he admires and praises you for working in harmony with the teaching of the Apostle; doing good without any afterthought, which might bring forth scandals, you respect the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, who said, * Woe unto him through whom scandal comes.' Your enviable mission, as is proved by facts, is the mission of making good men, not of corrupting consciences : to make good Christians, not perverts from the church. For these reasons his Holiness gave me the fatherly order to express to you his thanks and praise for your work, inasmuch as our nation on account of unhappy circumstances has not been able to found such an institution as Robert College." Transmitting to you word by word this fatherly message of his Holiness, I take the opportunity to sign myself, with great respect and brotherly love for you. The Grand Vicar Chrysostome. There were 18 graduates in 1900, of w^hom 8 were Armenians, 5 Greeks, 3 English, 2 Bulga- rians. Of the Armenians 7 are in business, 1 a civil engineer. Of the Greeks 3 are in business, 1 an engineer, 1 a teacher in Robert College. Of the English 1 is a teacher, 2 are in business. The two Bulgarians are lawyers. 273 FIFTY YEARS [IN CONSTANTINOPLE There were 11 graduates in 1901. Five were Greeks, 4 were Bulgarians, 1 was Armenian, 1 was French. The Greeks are all in business. Of the Bulgarians 2 are in business, 1 is a lawyer, 1 a librarian. The Frenchman is in business in Central Asia. The Armenian is in business. 274 CHAPTER XXV NEW PROFESSORS AND NEW BUILDINGS. 1901-1902 These recollections of Robert Collefje I am writ- '&' ing in what was, for many years, Dr. Long's study, in the college house in Roumeli Hissar, and I feel it to be a more sacred place than any other about the College. He left us with his family in June, 1901, for a year of rest in America. He had been failing in health for several months, but his physician be- lieved that a sea voyage would revive him. We took him in a chair down to the landing stage, where the people of the quarter gathered to give him their parting blessing. The American minister had sent his steam launch to convey him to the steamship which was to take him to Liverpool. It was a sad parting on the deck of the steamer, and our worst fears were realized. He reached Liverpool only to die there in a hospital July 28, 1901, and there he is buried. He had been a professor in the College for twenty-nine years and acting president whenever I was absent, twice for two years at a time when I was in America raising money. He was born in December, 1832, graduated at Alleghany College, taught two years and came to Turkey as a mission- ary of the Methodist Episcopal Church to the Bul- garians. It was through his influence that the first Bulgarian students came to Robert College, and no foreigner has ever been more trusted and beloved 275 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE by the Bulgarian people than he. He came to Con- stantinople to join Dr. Riggs in the revision of the Bulgarian Bible, and when this work was done he was persuaded to accept a professorship in Robert College. No man ever had a wiser, more loyal and loving associate than I found in him, and much of the reputation of the College as a seat of learning was due to his broad scholarship. His religious influence was that of a man filled with the spirit of Christ. Even his Mohammedan neighbors re- garded him as a holy man. Robert College was never the same to me after he left it. Mrs. Long died, in December, 1901, at Enfield, N. H., a few months after her return to America, leaving two daughters who still reside in that town. The number of students registered the thirty- ninth year was 308, of whom 181 were boarders. There were 131 Greeks, 98 Armenians, 29 Bulga- rians, 15 Turks, 14 English and Americans, 21 others of 11 different races. So far as the College was concerned, the year in Constantinople was a quiet and peaceful one, al- though if we had chosen to interest ourselves in political affairs we might have occupied ourselves with much that was exciting and much that was trying to the people of the country. German in- fluence was dominant at the palace and the reign of the Camarilla unchanged. The Armenians were suffering from all sorts of oppressions and the Turks still more from the terrible system of espionage which left them no peace or sense of security day or night. The storm centre was in Macedonia, and incidentally it became a matter of interest to us and 276 NEW PROFESSORS AND NEW BUILDINGS to all Americans, throuf!;h the capture of Miss Stone, an American missionary, by a band of revolution- ists. The treaty of Berlin, Art. 23, had provided for a reformed government in Macedonia; but nothing: had been done to carrv this decision into execution, and the condition of the Christian popu- lation was worse than ever. Large numbers of the young men had fled into Bulgaria, and a revolution- ary organization had been formed there. A similar organization on a vast scale was formed in Mace- donia, with its headquarters at Salonica. The in- surrection broke out in 1901, and Miss Stone was captured in Macedonia by a band connected with this organization in the autumn of this year, when traveling on what was supposed to be a perfectly safe road and not far from a Turkish guard house. She was held for ransom. This is not the place to enter into the details of this unfortunate affair or to criticise the management of it. I believe that it is universally acknowledged that it was sadly mis- managed up to the time that Mr. Gargiulo, Mr. Peet and Mr. House went to Macedonia in Decem- ber and finally secured her release in February, lOO^. It was not until things had come to a deadlock in December that it was possible for me to do anything. I then went privately to Sofia, saw the Bulgarian ministers, four of whom happened to be graduates of the College, and the military officers who knew what was going on along the frontier, also graduates, and the chief of the revolutionary committee, who had never been in Robert College, but whom I found to be an educated gentleman who had studied in Paris. I saw others also and satisfied myself as to 277 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE what needed to be done. I returned to Constanti- nople, made my report, which was telegraphed to Washington, and my recommendations were carried out. It is my belief that she might have been set at liberty within a few days after her capture and for a small sum of money if the affair had been settled quietly at the outset. But whatever mistakes may have been made here, it was the American news- papers and the public there which was chiefly re- sponsible for the long delay and the large sum paid for her ransom. The telegraph kept the revolution- ists informed every day of what was going on in America and of the sums raised for her ransom. No finer work has ever been done in Turkey than that of Mr. Gargiulo, the first dragoman of the Le- gation, and his associates, in securing her release, in the midst of difficulties which seemed to be in- surmountable. The brigands got the money contrib- uted in America, and it is generally believed that it went to pay for the arms which were used against the Turks the following summer. The college year had hardly opened when we were shocked by the news of the assassination of President McKinley at Buffalo. At the request of Mr. Leishman a public service was held in the col- lege chapel on the day of his funeral, which was at- tended by all the American officials, by the staff of the French Embassy and the American colony. A formal service had been held in the morning of the same day in the chapel of the British Embassy at Therapia. This was the third time since the found- ing of Robert College that we had been called to mourn the death of a President of the United States 278 NEW PROFESSORS AND NEW BUILDINGS by assassination. What could we say to our stu- dents in view of such crimes, we who had come out here professing to represent a higher Christian civilization and the blessings of a free government — a government of the people by the people ? We told them that the people repudiated and condemned these crimes, that they did not disturb the stability of the government, that they were the work of indi- viduals such as were to be found in every country ; but in our hearts we knew that the principles which we represent here had been dishonored in the minds of the people of this country and our influence in some measure diminished. These great crimes have confirmed the belief of Europeans in the pic- ture of American society, which they get from their newspapers, which represents us as worshipers of the almighty dollar, given over to lawlessness and regardless of human life, with little real respect for God or man. They make this impression, not by inventions of their own, but by quotations from New York newspapers. Robert College is a standing protest against this conception of our country, and we defend its honor as best we can, without conceal- ing the fact that the conflict between good and evil is as fierce there as in other parts of the world. We sometimes have visitors at the College from America who impress on our students the idea that America is after all a Christian state founded on the same principles which we are inculcating upon them. Such a company visited us one Sunday in March, 1902, two hundred and fifty of them, and we had three admirable addresses from Dr. Josiah Strong of New York, Dr. Barton of Chicago and 279 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE Dr. Foote of Brooklyn, in place of our usual Sunday service. In general the crowds who come in excur- sion steamers every spring have but a day or two in Constantinople and find the bazaars more inter- esting than the College, although we exchange friendly salutes when they pass up the Bosphorus, and the evening of their arrival they often hear an address from Professor van Millingen, on Con- stantinople. The year 1901-1902 was a very important one in the internal development of the College. The professorship of mathematics had already been filled by the appointment of Professor Lybyer. At the beginning of this year three additional professors w^ere added to the Faculty, Professor William S. Murray as principal of the Preparatory Department, Dr. Charles W. Ottley as resident physician and Pro- fessor of Biology, Professor George S. Murray as treasurer and to take charge of the commercial studies. Before the close of the year Professor George L. Manning, Ph. D., was appointed Professor of Physics, and Rev. C. F. Gates, D. D., LL. D., was appointed Vice-President, with the understanding that he should come to the College after a year and take my place whenever I might resign, as I had in- formed the trustees that I should at the end of the year, after I had reached the age of seventy. In making these appointments the trustees were simply carrying out their purpose "to make the College thoroughly up to date in its material equip- ment, in its curriculum, personnel and spirit," a model college, not necessarily exactly like an Amer- ican college, but adapted to its environment. It is 280 NEW PROFESSORS AND NEW BUILDINGS needless to add that Professor van Millingen and I, the old stagers, looked upon this as the realization of the hopes which we had cherished through long years of effort to make the most of such means as we had, to keep the lead in the educational development of this part of the world. The other members of the Faculty — American and native — welcomed the dawn of the new day with equal enthusiasm, and our alumni w^ere encouraged to believe that they would never have reason to be ashamed of their Alma Mater. We were equally fortunate in finding men for our Turkish and German departments, for which w^e had never before been able to provide in a manner satis- factory to us or to our students. Tevfik Fikret Bey, who has since been at the head of the Turkish De- partment, is a man of high character and one of the most distinguished scholars in Constantinople, of whom we can be proud as an associate. We were indebted to the INIoravian Brethren at Herrnhut in Saxony for a German teacher who is in hearty sympathy with the spirit of the College, Mr. Friedrich W. Kunick, the first satisfactory German teacher that we have ever found. I once wrote to a professor in the Berlin University to find a man for us, explaining to him what sort of a man we wanted ; and he replied that there was a great de- mand for just such men in Germany, but that the supply was very small. Our wdiole staff of teachers at this time, thirty- five in all including the professors, was worthy of the high ideal wdiich the trustees had in view^ for the College, many of them among the most promising 281 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE graduates of the College, representing many nation- alities but working together in harmony and mutual goodwill. Theodorus Hall was ready for occupation at the close of the year, and we had also applied to the Government for permission to erect a new study hall, a gymnasium and three houses for professors. We had also completed the purchase of about seven acres of land just beyond the campus, for which Mr. Kennedy had furnished the money when he was here. Theodorus Hall was paid for, and Mr. Dodge had promised to build the gymnasium, but where the money was to come from for our greatly increased current expenses and the proposed build- ings we did not know; but the responsibility for the steps taken in advance had been assumed by the trustees,' and it cost me no more anxious days and wakeful nights such as I had known in former years. Much time was given during the year to a care- ful revision of the course of study in both the Colle- giate and the Preparatory departments. One year was added to the preparatory course, and in the Collegiate Department we arranged for a division of the course from the beginning of the Sophomore year — one division leading up to the degree of A.B. and the other to that of S.B., with a certain number of electives in each. Except in the matter of com- mercial studies, which may be chosen, there was no departure from the general principles which had guided us in former years, but we were able to give new importance to physical culture and to such studies as physics and biology. We introduced no 282 NEW PROFESSORS AND NEW BUILDINGS university methods, but we did what we could to adopt modern methods of study in the sciences. The buildings which have been erected since have enabled us to make still further progress in this direction. We did not in any way relax our efforts to make this a Christian college and to develop the Christian character of our students. We believe that the primary object of college education is dis- ciplinary — the forming of character, the educa- tion of the moral powders, the heart and will, and this in the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ and in accord- ance with His teaching, the development of true manhood. We put this first, while we would neglect nothing in the way of essential physical and intellec- tual culture to make not only good men, but strong men. The class which graduated in 1902 numbered 13, of whom 6 were Armenians, 4 Greeks, 2 Bulgarians and 1 Austrian. Of the Armenians 4 are in busi- ness, 1 a teacher, 1 in journalism. Of the Greeks 3 are in business and 1 a teacher. The Austrian is in business. The Bulgarians both continued their studies. 283 CHAPTER XXVI MY RESIGNATION OF THE PRESIDENCY. 1902-1903 I SPENT the summer vacation of 1902 in America, and, at his request, I went to Washington to see President Roosevelt. I had met him many years before, at a club in Boston, when he was interested in the reform of the government of New York City, and consequently had formed some idea of him as a young man. I went to see my old friend Secretary Hay first, to talk over Turkish affairs with him, and he arranged my interview with the President. When I reached the White House I found about fifty people in the reception room waiting to see him — Senators, Representatives and petitioners for all sorts of favors — together with some who seemed to have come as they would have to a zoological garden to see the elephant. The scene was not new to me, but I was more than ever impressed with the absurdity of it. It seemed to be a relic of the old idea that the Caliph should sit in the door of his house or tent every day and personally deal with every case that any one chose to present to him. Even the Sultan has given up this, although the shadow of it remains in the Friday Salaamlik. In America it is a traditional symbol of a republi- can form of government; but it is not an evidence of republican good sense to make such demands upon the time and strength of the President. On 284 MY RESIGNATION OF THE PRESIDENCY this occasion President Roosevelt appeared sud- denly in the room and disposed of the whole crowd in less than half an hour, listening and speaking to each one in a voice loud enough to be heard by all. After this I had a long talk with him in his private office on our relations with the Turkish government. He talked with a freedom which astonished me at first, but it was soon clear enough that I was ex- pected to distinguish between what he said as Theodore Roosevelt and what he said as Presi- dent of the United States, and that he took it for granted that what he said would not be made public by me. It was four years later when I saw him again and afterward lunched with him at the White House, with much the same experience. Theo- dore Roosevelt is certainly one of the most interest- ing men whom I have ever met; and President Roosevelt, from my point of view, which is European, is one of the greatest statesmen in the world. I know of no statesman in Europe who ranks above him. The college year opened in September, and the number of students registered was 318, of whom 190 were boarders. There were 145 Greeks, 101 Armenians, 28 Bulgarians, 9 English and Ameri- cans, 17 Turks, 18 others. The relations of our government with Turkey were strained at this time on account of concessions made to the French government as a result of its naval demonstration and occupation of the island of Mytilene. These concessions granted certain privi- leges to schools, hospitals and other institutions under Turkish protection which were denied to 285 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE Americans, although, after having been granted to the French, they had been extended to English, German and Russian institutions, by special irades. It was our right to enjoy the same privileges. The Turkish government did not deny this, but would not issue the irade necessary to enable us to profit by the right as they had done for the other Powers. Mr. Leishman pressed this question as vigorously as he could, but it was not finally settled until 1907. Robert College was not directly interested in it, as our position was established by our original charter given by Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz; but the prestige of the United States in Turkey was at stake, and most of the American institutions, including the Beirut College, were directly interested in securing these rights. It was not a question to go to war about, and there were occult influences at the palace, probably of foreign origin, which led the Sultan to resist all Mr. Leishman's demands, until the tables were turned and he had something to ask of the United States. Great credit is due to Mr. Leishman for the skill with which he took advantage of this opportunity, not only to settle this question, but to establish our position here as entitled to the same rights as the European Powers. The year 1903 was marked by the outbreak of the revolution planned by the Macedonian committee, not only in Macedonia, but in the province of Adrianople. The insurgents w^ere Macedonian Bulgarians, but were not supported by the government of free Bulgaria, or by any European Power, and they failed, al- though they demanded nothing more than the execution of the treaty of Berlin. Russia and Aus- 286 MY RESIGNATION OF THE PRESIDENCY tria intervened, but neither of the Powers wished to have the Macedonian question settled until they could settle it in their own interest. They inter- vened to maintain the status quo. This is not the place to tell the story of the horrors of that year or those that have followed, or to discuss the Mace- donian question. It need only be said here that one result of the troubles there has been to stir up a bitter enmity between the Greeks and Bulgarians, not only in Macedonia, where their bands have rivaled the Turks in barbarity, but wherever they meet, even in Robert College. This conflict be- tween them is as foolish as it is unchristian. It has been playing into the hands of their worst enemies, Austria and Russia. It has been a source of con- stant anxiety to us in the College; but happily, and to the credit of our students, it has not led to any serious disturbance up to the present time (1907). The College is a perpetual peace conference be- tween all the nationalities and religions of this part of the world. While I am writing (1907) I learn that the two representatives of Bulgaria at the Hague Confer- ence are General Vinaroff and Judge Karandjuloff, both graduates of Robert College, of the classes of 1876 and 1879. Theodorus Hall was opened for students in September, 1902, and proved to be admirably adapted to its purpose, and up to date in all its equipment. It accomplished what we had long felt to be essential — the entire separation of the younger boys in the Preparatory Department from the college students. Professor William Murray w^ent 287 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE to live in the building with the boys, and he and Mrs. Murray were tireless in their devotion to them. Mr. Hagopian had been appointed adjunct pro- fessor and assistant principal ; and he assisted in the opening of the school, but was so unfortunate as to break his leg on New Year's Day, and after seven months in the hospital came back too feeble to do much work for a year. Two American tutors and several other teachers lived in the building and assisted in the care of the boys. We commenced work on the gymnasium in the summer of 1903, although no progress had been made in securing an irade. The government never interfered with the work, and it was completed and occupied the following year. Like our other build- ings, it is of blue limestone. It has been a great boon to the College, and there is nothing of the kind in Constantinople to compare with it. We call it the Dodge Gymnasium, as it was the gift of Mr. William E. Dodge and his son, Cleveland H. Dodge, one of our trustees. In May, 1903, we welcomed Dr. Coe here as a representative of the trustees, and he brought Dr. Gates with him from Switzerland, where he was spending a year before taking up his work in the College. The visit was prompted by some criticisms which some of the new professors had made upon the administration of the College, and was a new proof of the desire of the trustees to meet their re- sponsibilities here with a full understanding of the condition and the needs of the College. Dr. Coe and Dr. Gates spent three weeks in Kennedy Lodge, had meetings with the Faculty and private confer- 288 MY RESIGNATION OF THE PRESIDENCY ences with the professors, teachers and others interested in the College. For all of iis it was not only a great pleasure to have them with us, but most profitable to us as individuals and as a Faculty, in the opportunity which it gave us to hear their views on many important questions and to discuss them with the secretary of the Board of Trustees. So far as I know there was no exception to the general satisfaction of all concerned, in the results of this visit. It was a happy introduction of Dr. Gates to the position which he was about to assume as president of the College. We received some gifts about this time which are worth recording — the first from a Greek gentle- man, Nicolaki Bey, a judge of the Court of Appeals in Constantinople. He gave us his house in Pera, which we have since sold, and the income of the fund goes to the aid of beneficiaries. Mr. S. M. Minassian also gave us a house in Pera, but we have not yet been able to obtain possession of it. Both these gentlemen had been students of Dr. Hamlin in the old Bebec Seminary. We were also indebted to Mrs. Frederick F. Thomson of New York for a fine pipe organ for our college chapel, which has added new interest to our public services, and to the British government, the British Museum and the Clarendon Press for very valuable additions to our library, secured through the influence of Professor van Millingen. The Commencement exercises w^ere held two weeks before the close of the college year — an experiment which proved so satisfactory that this arrangement has been continued ever since. Mr. 289 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE Leishman, the American minister, presided, and we had the usual crowd with the usual distinguished guests. The most interesting event of the day was the Turkish oration, delivered by our first Turkish graduate, Houloussi Hussein Effendi. In form, sub- stance and delivery it was the best oration of the day. We have had many Turkish students during these forty years, but only this one has gone farther than the Sophomore class. The whole number of graduates was 19. There were 7 Bulgarians, 6 Armenians, 5 Greeks, 1 Turk. Of the Bulgarians 2 went to Germany to study, 2 are in business, 1 is in the American consulate at Batoum, Russia, 1 in the diplomatic service. Of the Armenians all are in business. Of the Greeks 4 are in business and 1 in the service of the British government in Macedonia. The Turk is a teacher in Robert College. March 1, 1903, I completed my seventieth year, and I had long before determined that it would be my duty at that time to resign my place as presi- dent to a younger and better man. I had informed the trustees of my intention, and happily they had found the right man in Dr. Gates. It was at my earnest solicitation that he consented to allow me to suggest his name to the trustees. I knew of no other man who could fill the place so well, and after full consideration the trustees came to the same con- clusion. At the request of Dr. Gates and the trus- tees I retained my position in the College as profes- sor and continued my work until the close of the following year, when I bade farewell to Constanti- nople, as I believed for the last time, and spent the 290 MY RESIGNATION OF THE PRESIDENCY next two years in work for the College in the United States. In 1906, at the earnest request of the Fac- ulty, I returned to the College, and have since been teaching my old classes here, feeling much more at home than I did in America. The generous con- tributions made by IVIr. Kennedy and Mrs. William E. Dodge while I was in America have given new life to the College, transformed the appearance of the grounds, renovated Hamlin Hall, and given us the beautiful building known, at Mrs. Dodge's re- quest, as Washburn Hall, with two new houses for professors; and the number of students has risen to more than four hundred. But these recollections properly end with the close of the fortieth year, when I resigned; and what my feelings were at that time w^ill best appear from an extract from my last report to the trustees in 1903. *'I look back upon these thirty-four years in Rob- ert College with the deepest gratitude to the trustees in New York and to my associates in Constantinople. The trustees have given me their unvaried and abso- lute confidence and support, and no man ever had associates more loyal and true. We have all been of one heart and mind as to what the College ought to be, what the chief end which we had in view in our work, and each one has been wholly consecrated to it. This has been true, not only of the professors, but also of most of the instructors and tutors, many of whom have done as good work as any done in the College. This has been the secret of our success. Of my personal affection for these men, here and in America, the living and the dead, it is impossible for me to write. We have worked together, with all 291 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE our hearts, for what we believed to be the good of the people of this part of the world, have helped them in every way in our power and have sought to inspire them with the true Christian ideal. We have made no secret of our own opinions, but we treated theirs with respect and have done our best to enter into sympathy with their life and their habits of thought. In return our students and the various communities which they represent have trusted us, believed in us and given us their sympathy and affec- tion. I count this the most precious reward that they could give us for all the work that we have done. To all these dear friends in the East and to those in America, England and elsewhere who have given us their sympathy and support I owe a debt of grati- tude which I can never repay. "I hope that my wife will pardon me for men- tioning her in this report, but every one who has known the inner life of the College for the past thirty- four years knows that no small part of my success and the success of the College has been due to her untiring devotion to all its interests, her intimate knowledge of the people of different races, her power of winning the hearts of our students and all our neighbors, and, not least, her deep sympathy with the spiritual aims of the College." 292 CHAPTER XXVII THE WORK OF FORTY YEARS. 18G3-1903 I CANNOT say that I or my associates were ever satisfied with the work that we were doing in Robert College, or that at any time we ever realized our ideal of what it ought to be. But I feel no inclination now to complain of our poverty or of other circum- stances beyond our control which hindered our progress, for circumstances equally beyond our control have given the College an influence in the world far beyond anything that its founders could have hoped for. Those who have read the preced- ing chapters of this book will understand something both of the adverse and the favorable conditions under which we have worked. At the end of forty years we had done some- thing for the education of more than 2500 young men of many nationalities. The average length of time spent in the College by these students was about three years; 435 of them had graduated with honor, after from four to seven years in the College. Of these 144 were Armenians, 195 Bul- garians, 76 Greeks, 14 English and Americans, 3 Germans, 2 Hebrews, 1 Turk.^ In the early history of the College these boys came * In the Appendix will be found tables giving the details for every year of the number of students, the amount received from them and the amount of the current expenses of the College. 293 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE to us as very raw material so far as school training was concerned, and even at the present time this is of a very miscellaneous character, generally not including any knowledge of the English language. We were forced to have a Preparatory Department, even for those who were otherwise advanced enough for college studies. So far as home training was concerned they generally came with habits of obedi- ence and respect for their elders which fitted them to submit readily to school discipline. On the whole I think that our students have been less difficult to control, less unruly than American boys, and no hazing traditions such as disgrace our American colleges have been established here, although we have had occasional examples of similar brutality. I have been more and more impressed every year with the feeling that boys are by nature very much the same everywhere — that while different environ- ments and varied conventionalities modify them ex- ternally, boys of different races are at the bottom essentially the same. I am often asked which of the nationalities in the College is the most intelligent and how they compare with Americans. As to the different nationalities it is a question to which there is no answer. None could be given from refer- ence to our records for forty years. Our best schol- ars have sometimes been of one nationality, some- times of another. In comparison with American students, most of our students come to us with less of that unconscious education which every American boy has acquired outside the school, but when it comes to his work in the College the student here is equal to any American. 294 f 3BERT COLLEGE THE WORK OF FORTY YEARS The question what Robert College has clone for these students can best be answered by the extraor- dinary reputation which the College has gained in this part of the world. We are known by the charac- ter of our students and especially of our alumni. We have been sadly disappointed in a few of them, but the great majority have done honor to the Col- lege, wherever they have gone, in the universities of Europe as scholars and in active life as men. Our theory of college education is not new. In substance it is as old as Plato and Aristotle. Its chief end is the highest possible development of character. The principal work of the College is disciplinary. It also does something in the way of storing up in the mind of the scholar a certain amount of useful knowledge, but much of this is soon forgotten and the greater part of the knowledge which we use in practical life is not learned in college, not from the teachers at any rate. The greatest scholars are often the most unpractical and helpless of men. The most important work of the College is to train and develop the physical, intellectual and moral powers of the student. These powers exist in him. They are the gift of God. The work of the teacher is to draw them out, to cultivate them, to bring them into harmony, to develop them sym- metrically so that the lower shall be under the higher, so that the will shall habitually choose the higher rather than the lower motive. It is a well-known fact that most of our actions are determined by in- stinct or by habit. Youth is the time when instincts may be modified or brought under control and when habits are formed which generally go with us 295 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE through Hfe. When we say, then, that education is disciplinary and designed to develop and mould the character, we have in view the formation of those habits which will determine the actions of after life. This discipline may be directed specially to the physical powers, as where athletics stand first in the eyes of the student. It may be and often is confined to the intellectual faculties, to forming habits of study, of investigation, of reasoning, which will de- velop mental powers. Neither of these things should be neglected. Habits which will secure good health, with strong minds, capable of comprehending and mastering the problems of life, are precious acquire- ments. But when we speak of character we mean something more than these things and something far more important. We are thinking of the affec- tions and the will. These dominate the life, con- stitute the character and fix the destiny of the man. The discipline of these powers, the training of the will, the formation of habits which will bring the life into harmony with the will of God, this is the highest and best work of the College. Such is our theory, and we have done our best to live up to it. We have been so far successful that our students are recog- nized everywhere as representing a different type of manhood from that commonly seen in the East, and some of our alumni are striking and illustrious examples of this type. This is the real work of the College, and by this we are to be judged; but uncon- sciously and incidentally the College has exerted an influence in this part of the world and in other lands which is worthy of notice. It has revolutionized the policy of missionary 296 THE WORK OF FORTY YEARS societies in America in regard to education and led to the establishment of scores of similar institutions in different parts of the world. In Turkey alone there are now six American colleges and many more high schools. It has led to the founding of a large number of government and national schools in Turkey. This development of education was the direct result of what it was believed that Robert Col- lege had done for Bulgaria, and the progress made has been marvelous. These government schools are not what we might wish them to be, for the moral training is wanting, and the mental discipline is unsatisfactory; but they have their value in the enlightenment of the people. The schools of the Christian nationalities have felt the influence of the moral and religious training in Robert College and have greatly improved in this respect. This view of education has been much discussed in the kingdom of Greece during the past few years, its importance recognized and Robert College held up as a model. The Greek newspapers have been full of eulogies on our principles and our work. In Austrian Croatia and even in Russia there have been evidences of our influence. The fact that the heads of the Oriental churches in Turkey have long been warm friends of Robert College is an evidence that we have had an influence with them in removing their prejudices and leading them to realize the importance of a spiritual training for their young men. We have also had some influence, not so much as I could wish, in bringing about a less hostile state of feeling between the different races in the East. At least they meet together on equal terms in the College «97 / FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE and develop a certain amount of mutual respect, in some cases of warm personal friendship. They learn that it is possible to work together for a com- mon end, and they find a common bond of sympathy in their relations to us. We have had some remark- able illustrations of sacrifices made by students of one race to help those of another. We have certainly had great success in winning the confidence of our Mohammedan neighbors, re- moving their prejudices, securing their respect and friendship and giving them new conceptions of Chris- tianity, as well as of America. The Germans think that this and the other Amer- ican colleges in Turkey have a great influence in directing the commerce of the country to America and England. There is no doubt some truth in this. The trade of Turkey with America has greatly in- creased of late years, and the spread of the English language is an advantage both to England and America, but we have never presented this as one of our claims to support. The College is best known in Europe for the in- fluence that it had in building up a free state in the Balkan Peninsula. Fifty years ago, except to a few students of history, the Bulgarians were a forgotten race in America and western Europe. We did not exactly discover them, but we played an important part in making them known to the Western world at a time when they most needed help. Years be- fore this they had discovered us, and through the young, men who studied in the College they had come to have faith in our wisdom and goodwill. The most important thing that we ever did for them was 298 THE WORK OF FORTY YEARS the educating of their young men to become leaders of their people at a time when there were very few Bulgarians who knew anything of civil government in a free state. This was our legitimate work and naturally and inevitably led to our doing what we could for them after they left the College, to give them the advice which they sought in their new work, and to de- fend their interests where we had influence in Europe. That, in this way, we had an important part in the building up of this new state is a fact known to all the world and best of all by the Bul- garians themselves, who have never failed to recog- nize their obligation to the College and to manifest their affection for us as individuals. We have done what we could for the other na- tionalities of the College, and they understand that we take a deep interest in everything which con- cerns their prosperity and progress. They have not had the opportunity to distinguish themselves in statecraft, but they have won honor and success in other fields of labor, both in the East and in other parts of the world. We have had relatively few Turkish students, only one who has graduated, as it has been the policy of the Sultan to forbid Turk- ish students attending any but government schools. Notwithstanding this prohibition, we now have (1907) more than twenty Turks in the College, and its reputation among enlightened Turks is quite as high as with other nationalities. The burden of the work during these forty years was to make the College worthy of its reputation and to meet the ever increasing demand for a higher 299 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE education. As I have explained in the earlier chap- ters of this book, the College, at the outset, was a very primitive institution, better than any other in the Turkish Empire, but lacking in most of the ap- pliances which a college is supposed to possess. It was a long step in advance when we moved into Hamlin Hall in 1871, but many years passed after that before we were able to improve our material conditions to any extent. We devoted these years to what is really more important than buildings or apparatus, to the inner development of the College, to the development of our Faculty and staff of teachers, and the adaptation of our course of in- struction to our environment. Such men as Dr. Long and Professor van Millingen were worth more than new buildings. But the time came when these also were essential to our work and to our reputation. We had already been forced after Mr. Robert's death to seek for new friends in America to enable us to meet our current expenses. In the two years which I spent in America on this errand, in 1880-1882, such friends were found; and in 1889- 1891 we had to appeal to them again, or to find others who would lend a hand to save the College. It was twenty years after the erection of Hamlin Hall be- fore we were able to put up the Albert Long Hall, at the same time that Mr. Kennedy erected Kennedy Lodge for the president's house. We made other improvements at this time which made our grounds and buildings attractive. It was a turning point in our history so far as our influence here was con- cerned. A still more important event came five years later in the reorganization of the Board of Trustees 300 ^ ?> ^r^,L.^Sli nl "^1 4 l^liL^^ ^^^K^^^S ^^^^^K.' ^ ^P* ■v/^ ^ .* ^^Mj^^l^H ^t ^^•7 ■• "^^IM M^ ^'Sil \«^ ^ ■yn T^ '^^ r?*^ a^-^^' ■'4 w 0*5|P s -^ '^ ^^^2^H ■h «:i^B p^ ^^^1 ^sn ^^^^^^jr^Qrifl m r% '-« ^> -^ Ul'. f^s ■J' if;T y.h ^^^^^K » THE WORK OF FORTY YEARS in New York, which may be regarded as the begin- ning of a new era. After Mr. Robert's death the responsibility for the management, the support, the life of the College, rested upon the Faculty here. It was a burden too heavy for us to bear and not a desirable arrangement for the College; but we put our whole lives into the work and have no reason to be ashamed of the result. I am proud of my asso- ciates here, both Americans, natives and Europeans, whenever I think of it — of their self-sacrifice, their tireless devotion to all the interests of the students and the general interests of the College, their wis- dom and their faith. To work with such men in such a cause was a life worth living. The reorganization of the Board of Trustees has given new life to the College and been followed by the erection of Theodorus Hall for the Preparatory Department, the Dodge Gymnasium, Washburn Hall, the renovation of Hamlin Hall, the erection of five professors' houses, and many other important improvements. Equally important has been the inner development of the College, made possible by the appointment of five new professors, additional instructors, with new appliances and a revision of the course of study. Ail this work was not com- pleted in 1903, the close of the period of forty years, but it was all initiated in that period and has been most happily carried to completion under the wise administration of my successor. Dr. Gates, and the Board of Trustees organized in 1895. The demand for progress and development w^ill be as inevitable in the future as in the past, and this will mean more money and more strong, conse- 301 FIFTY YEARS IN CONSTANTINOPLE crated men to devote their lives to the work. No doubt there will be new trials and difficulties to en- counter as well. But Robert College has been a work of faith from the beginning. It is now and it will be in the future. The motto on our college seal is PER DEUM OMNIA 302 APPENDIX APPENDIX A. Number and Nationality of Students and Graduates Each Year Registered Students Graduates 2 -a O 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 20 28 51 96 102 95 96 143 218 257 237 208 191 135 128 162 209 232 259 243 215 173 182 182 16 25 44 76 79 73 66 98 164 189 172 163 152 98 93 111 149 158 173 165 142 115 120 130 1 20 19 14 11 35 35 80 98 87 55 54 43 35 50 74 85 94 83 82 63 64 53 1 9 13 16 41 38 41 40 38 43 45 33 42 50 54 77 89 105 110 91 71 71 70 2 4 6 18 33 17 22 33 34 48 43 48 39 14 11 32 27 28 24 26 29 28 37 36 18 22 16 39 34 23 25 34 64 73 64 60 65 38 32 26 31 23 37 24 13 11 10 23 2 6 1 5 8 1 5 11 15 14 8 11 7 12 9 10 22 15 20 26 1 1 3 7 6 3 5 3 2 4 4 7 4 8 10 1 5 5 6 1 5 7 7 5 3 6 4 9 5 5 14 9 12 13 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 305 APPENDIX Number and Nationality of Students and Graduates — Continued Registeeed Students Graduates 1 .2 E O a .2 S a < c •n a 3 09 a 2 o O 25 170 113 55 60 33 22 28 12 15 1 26 158 104 43 52 33 30 11 3 3 4 1 27 162 104 47 45 41 31 8 4 3 1 28 159 104 59 41 39 20 5 4 1 29 194 130 70 52 47 25 8 4 3 1 30 203 143 73 6Q 46 24 13 3 6 3 1 31 200 123 68 44 65 23 21 8 6 4 3 32 205 116 63 36 80 26 15 5 6 3 1 33 221 132 69 37 92 23 6 2 3 1 34 200 130 61 38 77 24 14 4 5 4 1 35 250 145 87 49 88 26 14 2 6 4 2 36 292 173 105 45 108 34 13 4 3 5 1 37 297 176 108 39 112 38 18 8 2 5 3 38 311 182 108 34 127 42 11 1 4 5 1 39 308 181 98 29 131 61 13 6 2 4 1 40 318 190 101 28 145 45 19 6 7 5 1 41 320 188 94 23 168 35 17 6 1 9 1 42 342 222 97 34 171 40 10 5 1 4 43 373 257 88 37 195 53 12 6 6 306 APPENDIX B. Receipts from Students, and Expenses at Constanti- nople, Each Year Expenses at Constantinople Year Received from Students Not including Building, Improve- ments, or Apparatus 1 $2,578 $5,181 2 3,845 5,630 3 5,808 6,107 4 '5 7,858 9,111 '6 7 10,300 11,052 8 14,869 13,939 9 26,906 22,308 10 31,548 27,874 11 26,364 28,380 12 24,697 26,778 13 20,014 24,648 14 14,780 20,490 15 14,511 18,981 16 16,746 21,890 17 23,720 25,647 18 25,280 28,350 19 29,493 32,371 20 29,020 34,185 21 24,535 32,792 22 19,144 26,131 23 17,384 25,694 24 20,552 28,164 25 18,889 29,488 26 16,227 28,987 27 15,891 26,004 28 16,033 26,998 29 20,227 30,088 30 22,426 30,728 * The accounts of these two years cannot be found in Constantinople. 307 APPENDIX Receipts and Expenses — Continued Expenses at Constantinople Yeab Received fbom Students Not including Building, Improve- ments, or Apparatus 31 $19,919 $36,169 32 20,845 31,442 33 24,987 36,753 34 24,070 35,640 35 28,300 36,682 36 33,117 40,731 37 32,577 42,539 38 34,636 43,670 39 34,295 48,302 40 37,028 59,006 41 37,434 59,457 42 45,320 60,031 43 50,782 68,189 The Faculty of the College, Forty-fifth Year, 1907-1908 President, Caleb Frank Gates, D. D., LL. D., appoi George Washburn, D. D., LL. D., appo Hagopos H. Djedjizian, A. M., appo: Stephan Panaretoff, A. M., appoi Alexander van Millingen, D. D., appo: Charles Anderson, D. D., appo Louisos Eliou, Ph. D., appo William T. Onniston, A. M., appo: Ion E. Dwyer, A. M., appo Bertram V. Post, M. D., appo George L. Manning, Ph. D., appo; Abraham D. Hagopian, A. M., appo George H. Huntington, A. M., appo: (One vacancy.) 308 nted nted nted nted nted nted nted nted nted nted nted nted nted 1903. 1869. 1872. 1877. 1878. 1888. 1890. 1892. 1904. 1904. 1905. 1905. 1907. APPENDIX PERMANENT INSTBUCTORS Peter Voicoflf, A. M., Constas Constantinou, Ph. D., Henri Auguste Ilcymond, Tevfik Fikret Bey, Stavros S. Emmanuel, A. M., Caspar H. Tuysizian, A. B., Friedrich W. Kunick, (14 other teachers.) appointed 1883 appointed 1895. ai)pointed 1896. appointed 1900. appointed 1893. appointed 1897. appointed 1902. D. Former Members of the Faculty * Cyrus Hamlin, D. D., LL. D., President, 1863-1877. * George A. Perkins, A. M., 1863-1865. * Henry A. Schauffler, D. D., 1863-1865. John A. Paine, Ph. D., 1867-1869. * Albert L. Long, D. D., 1872-1901. Edwin A. Grosvenor, LL. D., 1872-1890. George S. Murray, A. M., 1901-1904. * Charles W. Ottley, M. D., 1901-1904. A. H. Lybyer, A. M., Ph. D., 1900-1907. William S. Murray, M. S., 1901-1907. E. Former American Tutors Harry H. Barnum, Ward M. Beckwith, M. D., Philip M. Brown, Alvey M. Carter, Rev. W. V. W. Davis, D. D., Prof. Frank L. Duley, Charles H. Durfee, George E. Eddy, Handford W. Edson, Judge W. T. Forbes, Francis E. Garlough, University of Chicago. Westmoreland, N. Y. U. S. Embassy, Constantinople Art Museum, Boston, Mass. Pittsfield, Mass. Mount Hermon, Mass. Deceased. Rochester, N. Y. Indianapolis, Ind. Worcester, Mass. Boston, Mass. Deceased. 309 APPENDIX Miles T. Hand, John H. Haynes, Frederick M. Herrick, Esq., Winthrop H. Hopkins, Prof. Arthur S. Hoyt, D. D., Rev. Charles S. Hoyt, D. D., Rev. George E. Ladd, Rev. Clement C. Martin, Rev. Eneas McLean, Rev. D. S. Muzzy, Prof. Charles Nash, D. D., Rev. Luther A. Ostrander, D. D., Rev. Leroy F. Ostrander, ^rof. George E. Pollock, Lansing L. Porter, Rev. Lewis T. Reed, Rev. Orville Reed, Rev. C. S. Richardson, D. D., Rev. Charles T. Riggs, Rev. James Rodger, Albert H. Rodgers, M. D., Rev. C. A. Savage, D. D., Rev. H. K. Sanborne, Rev. Carl W. Scovel, Prof. Robert L. Taylor, Judge C. S. Truax, President E. M. Vittum, D. D., Paul T. B. Ward, Ernest B. Watson, Rev. Lewis B. Webber, Rev. Hezekiah Webster, Prof. E. W. Wetmore, Prof. S. D. Wilcox, Prof. L. D. Woodbridge, M. D., George G. Wright, Rev. George B. Young, Honesdale, Penn. North Adams, Mass. New York, N. Y. Auburn, N. Y. Auburn Theological Seminary, New York. Deceased. Red Oaks, Iowa. Fostoria, Ohio. Deceased. Yonkers, N. Y. Oakland, Cal. Lyons, N. Y. Samokov, Bulgaria. Deceased. Evanston, 111. Brooklyn, N. Y. Montclair, N. J. Little Falls, N. Y. Constantinople. Farmington, Minn. Corning, N. Y. Deceased. Oakland, Cal. Newark, N. J. Hanover, N. H. Deceased. Fargo College, N. D. Boston, Mass. Hanover, N. H. Brockport, N. Y. Deceased. Albany, N. Y. Deceased. Deceased. Boston, Mass. Brooklyn, N. Y. 310 APPENDIX F. Mb. Robert's Requirements for Tutors The candidate should be a man twenty-two to twenty-six years of age, of fervent, symmetrical piety, combined with a missionary spirit, a willingness to do hard work, the ability to work harmoniously with others and one who is not unyielding, stiff, or one who would be con- scientiously obstinate, one who is ready to do anything which the good of the College requires, even to teaching the alphabet, though he may be vers-d in the most abstruse parts of the Calculus; in short a man who wants to live a Christian life and do a Christian teacher's work, desiring to do good to the souls of his pupils as well as to improve their understanding. II A good mind in a sound body, with a large share of common sense, a firm but mild temper, a warm heart readily sympathizing with those under him, keenness of perception and a cool, unbiased judgment, governing himself well and able to govern others so far as practical by love rather than force. Possessing gentlemanly habits and feelings. Ill A man of great breadth of mind, who can take broad and proper views of education, not wedded to any system, comprehending the purpose of education, knowing a great deal more than he is expected to teach. IV A thorough and systematic scholar, not a man who has barely "got through " college or who has been little above the average of his class, but one who has been among the very first, a real enthusiast in learn- ing, never satisfied with present attainments but always pressing on to farther acquisitions. V Apt to teach, with abihty and tact to impart what he knows. An enthusiast in his work, determined to make better scholars than any other teacher has ever done and inspiring them with a love of learn- ing. Not a man in feeble health who wishes to "lay off." 311 APPENDIX VI A man who can impress himself on his pupils, who can influence them for good, whose wishes as well as his words shall be law to them, one who by his own habits of punctuality, promptness, system and neatness shall teach as well by his exemplary practice in all these re- spects as by precept. VII A mercenary person, or one who would go to make money, is not wanted. G. Summary of the Report of the Treasurer of Robert College for 1909 endowment funds invested in new YORK $243,402.22 134,080.18 General Endowment Fund . C. R. Robert Endowment Fund Scholarship Fund Lois Newton Fund Museum Fund Real estate and other property in Constantinople The College has no indebtedness. 8,000.00 11,302.50 5,997.50 $402,782.40 392,629.03 $795,411.43 312 INDEX INDEX Aali Pasha, 11, 45. Abd-ul-/Vziz, Sultan, 10, 105. Abd-ul-IIamid, Sultan, 106, 115, 130, 153, 170, 246. Abd-ul-Medjid, Sultan, 10. Achmet Vefik Pasha, 7, 11, 55, 74, 118, 130. Alexander, Prince of Bulgaria, 148, 183. 189, Alumni. 207. 263, 293. Anderson, Professor Charles, 40, 199. Angell, James B., American Minis- ter, 256. Armenians, 70, 76, 152, 200, 219, 237, 245. Arnold, Matthew, 144. Assassination of Presidents, 278. Athletics. 259. Bancroft, Greorge, 74. Bayard, Thomas F., 95. Bebec, 14. Beneficiaries, 22, 216, 241. Blaine, James G., 95. 211. Booth. William A., 9. Brooks, Rev. Arthur, 194. Bryce, James, 168. Buildings, 27, 47, 68, 216, 224. Bulgaria, 39, 52, 69, 89, 103, 122, 126, 147, 160, 173, 218. Bulwer, Sir Henry, 11. Censorship, 218. Cholera, 18, 53, 231. Civil War in Unitetl States, 9, 20. Coe, David B.. 6, 112. C©e, Edward B., 235, 288. College for Girls, 30. Commencements, 26, 40, 48, 62, 98, 125, 157, 225, 243, 289. Conference of Constantinople, 116. Conflagrations, 19, 42. Constitution, Turkish, 117. Cox, Samuel S., 187. Cricket match. 73. Currie, Sir Philip, 220. Development, 64, 67. 96, 141, 254, 265. 282. Dimitroff, Peter, 63, 151, 181, 2G8. Discipline, 25, 36, 46, 57, 70. Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield), 109, 145. Djedjizian, Professor Hagopos, 26, 66. Dodge, Cleveland H., 266, 288. Dodge, Mr. and Mrs. William E., 241, 288, 291. DufTerin, Lord, 164, 171. Dwight, James and William, 3, 4. EHyyer, Professor John E., 308. Earthquakes, 135, 231. Eastern Roumelia, 148, 152. 180. Egypt, 160, 169, 250. Elective Courses, 97, 223. Eliou, Professor Louisos, 125, 178. Elliott, Sir Henry, 89, 104, 108, 117. Endowment, 29, 59, 135, 164, 208. England, 11, 89, 116, 132, 200, 220. Farragut, Admiral, 12. Ferdinand, King of Bulgaria, 192. 241. Finances. 43, 61, 139, 231, 307, 312. Founder's Day. 197. Forster, Sir William E., 143. Frances, Sir Philip. 28. 315 INDEX Gates, President Caleb Frank, 280, Midhat Pasha, 111, 117 288, 290. Geological Survey, 61. Germany, 257. Gladstone, 110, 147, 153, 162. Grant, General, 131. Granville, Lord, 168. Greece, 250. Greek Patriarch, 272. Greeks, 69, 124, 155, 236, 240. Griscom, Lloyd C, 269. Grosvenor, Professor Edwin A., 65, 124, 204. Gymnasium, 288. Hamlin, President Cyrus, 6, 8, 14, 27, 28, 51, 59, 65, 135, 267. Hamlin Hall, 28, 72, 174, 261. Hanson, Charles S., 159. Haritune, Steward, 154. Hart, Miss Meredith, 229. Harvard University, 8, 14. Hay, John, 95. Herbert, Sir Michael, 249. Huntington, Professor George H., 308. Kennedy, John Stewart, 195, 235, 265, 291. Kurds, 202. Land, 7, 54, 94. Layard, Sir Henry, 121, 130, 153. Leishman, John G. A., 269, 286. Library, 14. Local Board, 16. Long, Professor Albert L., 65, 100, 122, 135, 147, 158, 179, 275. Lookout Mountain, 21. Lybyer, Professor Albert L., 270. Lycee of Galata Serai, 24. Lyons, Lord, 11, 33. Macedonia, 276. Manning, Professor George L., 280. Massacres, 103, 238, 245. Maynard, Horace, 95, 109, 149. Millingen, Professor Alexander van, 140, 158, 228. Missionary policy, 1, 7. Morgan, George D., 12, 34, Morris, E. Joy, 28, 33. Murray, Professor George S., 280. Murray, Professor William S., 280. Music, 228. Nationalities, 69, 91, 305. Naval officers and vessels, 112, 121, 149, 203. O'Conor, Sir Nicholas, 257. Organization of classes, 43. Ormiston, Professor William T., 180, 205, 223. Ottley, Dr. Charles W., 280. Panaretoff, Professor Stephen, 49, 89, 110, 156, 196. Parliament, First Turkish, 118. 130. ParHament of Religions, 222, 229. Pears, Sir Edwin, 104, 182. Perkins, Professor George A., 14, 18. Political situation, 100, 226. Post, Professor Bertram V., 308. Potter, Bishop, 241. Ramsay, Sir William, 263. Religious principles, 16, 76, 85, 151, 295. Revolutions, 104, 106, 183, 190. Robert, Christopher R., 1, 5, 10, 27, 29, 43, 91, 137. Robert College, 7, 9, 14, 15, 17, 47, 93, 107, 124, 168, 247, 293. Roumeli Hissar, 7. Rosebery, Lord, 186, 261. Roosevelt, President, 284. Russia, 10, 52, 89, 101, 149, 183, 240. Russo-Turkish War, 120, 127. Sabbath services, 16. Salisbury, Lord, 117, 239. Schauffler, Professor Henry A., 14, 18. 316 INDEX Schools in Turkey, 3. Schuyler, Eugt-iie, 109, 147. Seward, William II., U, 47. Sheridan, General, 45. Sherman, General, 67. Skobeleff, General, 128, 132. Spanish War, 257. Stambuloff, 52, 191. Stoiloff, Constantine, 49, 151, 272. Straus, Oscar S., 194, 257. Syrian Protestant College, 24, 43. Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, 172. Terrell, Alexander W., 226. Theodoras Hall, 255, 271, 282. Treaty of IJerlin, 133. Treaty of San Stefano, 131. Trustees, 9, 139, 235, 264. Turkey, 100, 142, 160, 193, 227, 232, 285. Turkish neighbors. 71, 120, 134. Turkish opinions of the College, 93, 227. Tutors, 19, 309, 311. Wallace, General Lew, 169. Washburn, George, 33, 35, 50, 59, 290. Washburn, Mrs. George, 73, 267, 292. Washburn Hall, 291. White, Sir William, 186, 220. Young Men's Christian Association, 221. CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS U . S . A UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date s^- Rl UCSOUTHtR^ f(lM(i',/,i , iMH.-.i;, i ACIt ITY AA 000 795 193 2 ,-C t^y 3 1 58 00013 4808