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 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT
 
 IN THE LAND OF 
 ARARAT 
 
 A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF MRS. ELIZA- 
 BETH FREEMAN BARROWS USSHER, 
 MISSIONARY TO TURKEY AND A 
 MARTYR OF THE GREAT WAR 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN OTIS BARROWS 
 
 With Introduction by 
 REV. JAMES L. BARTON, D.D. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 New York Chicago Toronto 
 
 Fleming H. Re veil Company 
 
 London and Edinburgh
 
 Copyright, 191 6, by 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
 Chicago: 17 N. Wabash Ave. 
 Toronto: 25 Richmond St., W. 
 London : 21 Paternoster Square 
 Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street
 
 
 tlTo 
 
 AMERICAN SCHOOL-GIRLS 
 
 WHO DUBING THEIR DAYS OF STUDY ABE MOVED BY 
 ASPIBATIONS TO ATTAIN TO THE HIGHEST 
 
 Excellence in Character and Usefulness, 
 
 THIS VOLUME, CONTAINING SOME GLIMPSES OF THE LIFE 
 OF ONE OF THEIR NUMBER, 
 
 la Inscribed 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 « 
 
 3081049
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE power of a devoted life, given with- 
 out reserve to the service of God, can 
 not be measured in any terms used by 
 men. When that life, in rendering the service 
 to which it has consecrated itself, is compelled 
 to face conditions which lead to an early death, 
 interest in it and influences that emanate from 
 it are vastly multiplied. Such was the life of 
 Mrs. Elizabeth Freeman Barrows Ussher, born 
 in ancient Cappadocia, but, after early child- 
 hood, reared in the Christian atmosphere of a 
 New England home, refined, educated, devoted 
 to the cause of Christ in the Turkish empire, 
 called upon by a combination of circumstances 
 connected with her life in Turkey to face un- 
 usual hardships and perils throughout the 
 larger period of her entire missionary service, 
 and yet meeting opportunities for service as 
 unusual as were the conditions of hardship and 
 peril. 
 
 Mrs. Ussher was one of the many who were 
 called upon to meet face to face the trials in- 
 cident upon the entrance of Turkey into the 
 great war, and growing primarily out of the 
 traditional hatred existing between the Turk 
 7
 
 8 INTRODUCTION 
 
 and the Armenian. Throughout it all, she was 
 the same hrave, unselfish little woman that she 
 had revealed herself to be during her entire 
 missionary career. In the midst of the siege 
 of Van, her calm performance of every duty, 
 her quickness to discover opportunities of ren- 
 dering service to others, was an inspiration to 
 all her associates, and was a revelation, to both 
 Christian and Moslem, of the Christ who ruled 
 her life. 
 
 It seems to us to be an inexplicable provi- 
 dence that demanded that her young but fruit- 
 ful life be laid upon the altar of God so near 
 the close of a series of events full of peril to all. 
 It is a providence we do not need to try to un- 
 derstand, but one that puts new emphasis upon 
 the story of this brave and consecrated life, so 
 admirably presented in this little volume pre- 
 pared by the devoted father. The story of this 
 life is not only a demonstration of the faith and 
 courage and triumph of one who gave herself 
 without reserve to her Lord, but it carries with 
 it an inspiration to others who would make their 
 lives count in the hard places of the world, re- 
 vealing the opportunities for service so little 
 grasped by those who live in the comfort and 
 enjoy the privileges of a great free country 
 like America. One can not read this volume 
 without raising the question as to who will 
 take up the task and carry on this work to
 
 INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 its inevitable triumph. In the language of 
 the poet, 
 
 " He who, in fealty to the truth, 
 And counting all the cost, 
 Doth consecrate his generous youth — 
 He joins the noble host. 
 
 He who, with calm, undaunted will. 
 
 Ne'er counts the battle lost, 
 But, though defeated, battles still — 
 
 He joins the faithful host. 
 
 He who is ready for the cross. 
 
 The cause despised loves most, 
 And shuns not pain or shame or loss — 
 
 He joins the martyr host. 
 
 God's trumpet wakes the slumbering world; 
 
 Now each man to his post! 
 The red-cross banner is unfurled; 
 
 We join the glorious host." 
 
 JAMES L. BARTON.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 IK this little volume I have attempted to 
 gather up some of the salient features of 
 the life of my daughter, who, in Turkish 
 Armenia, in the summer of 1915, literally gave 
 herself, and all that was dearest to herself, in 
 the endeavour to save, from the wretchedness 
 of death by starvation, Mohammedan mothers 
 and their little children, gathered in crowds 
 about her door. And this in the hope that 
 others, incited by the spirit of her example, 
 may, when necessity calls, be ready to under- 
 take some similar work for suffering humanity, 
 even though they must face perils as great as 
 were hers. Such have only to remember that 
 " God stands within the shadow, keeping watch 
 above his own." 
 
 In this narrative I have included some 
 things which, in recalling them, have some- 
 times made it necessary for me to wait till the 
 blur should pass from my eyes. That one of 
 our children, who had been together for so long 
 time the light and joy of our home, must now 
 be left in a lone, unmarked grave, in a strange 
 and far-away land — in a grave on which no 
 tear of affection would ever fall — this was a 
 11
 
 12 PREFACE 
 
 thought almost unhearable. But the truth soon 
 came to have control. She was not there. 
 Neither had she flown away, millions of mil- 
 lions of miles, " beyond the stars." It is prob- 
 able that the eternal life of the spirit is not 
 conditioned by what we now call " here " and 
 " there." 
 
 While we were rejoicing that the members 
 of the Van station had been freed from the ter- 
 rors of the siege and their relentless foes, and 
 that all, as we supposed, were safe and well, 
 suddenly sad news came to the American 
 Board. It was sent to us by telegraph, and 
 repeated to our home by telephone. Its words 
 were few, but freighted with a startling mean- 
 ing. In slowly measured accents, as if the 
 speaker at the end of the line was fearing to tell 
 us what she knew, she at last gave her message : 
 Mrs. Ussher had entered into rest ! So sudden 
 was the blow that it fell with well-nigh crush- 
 ing weight upon us all; but especially did her 
 older sister feel it. It seemed to her that it 
 must not be so. The burden became so great 
 as to deprive her of needed sleep and rest. But 
 in regard to an experience that she then had, 
 she may be introduced, and so speak for her- 
 self. " A little time after we had received the 
 news of my sister's death, one night, when I 
 had retired, I began to wonder, with a feeling 
 akin to rebellion, why this cruel war should be.
 
 PREFACE 13 
 
 and why my sister must be taken from us, 
 and why my father and mother, in their last 
 days, must carry such a burden of sorrow, 
 when suddenly my sister herself seemed to be 
 close beside me! She looked up, but oh, so 
 beautiful she was ! She had not changed in 
 appearance except that there was a beauty 
 which is not of this world, a beauty that 
 neither tongue nor pen can describe. She pro- 
 nounced my name so distinctly that it startled 
 me; yet I was so awed that I could do nothing 
 but just lie perfectly quiet and listen. She 
 said : ' You are grieving for me ; don't grieve. 
 You do not know God's plan ; I do. I can see 
 from the beginning to the end; you can not. 
 There is a veil before the eyes of the people 
 on your earth; they can not now see what the 
 end is to be.' 
 
 " She then spoke my name again, very dis- 
 tinctly, and said : ' You are grieving for my 
 little ones ; don't grieve. I know all about my 
 children, and I am happy.' Then with a look 
 of beauty that I shall never forget she van- 
 ished from my sight. 
 
 " My sorrow and rebellious feeling entirely 
 left me, and a great peace came into my heart, 
 so that in a few minutes I fell asleep, and I 
 slept all night. The next morning I could 
 think of nothing but the beautiful vision, and 
 I felt like singing all the day.
 
 14 PREFACE 
 
 " I am sure that God sent my sister to me to 
 comfort me, and to give me an obedient, trust- 
 ful spirit — of sweet peace." 
 
 I have now related, simply and truthfully, a 
 fact of experience in my own household. I do 
 not attempt to offer any explanation. 
 
 I suppose the reply may be that my daughter 
 was asleep, and so dreamed what she has re- 
 lated. But she says she knows whereof she af- 
 firms, and that she was not asleep. 
 
 But whatever may be true or false in human 
 experiences, let us know that God sits on his 
 eternal throne of love, and that, trusting in 
 him, we are safe. 
 
 J. O. B. 
 Norwich, Conn.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 I. Early Days . . . . 19 
 II. In the New England Par- 
 sonage 28 
 
 III. At School and College . 33 
 
 IV. The Purpose Tested; the 
 
 EiNAL Decision . . .48 
 
 V. Getting to Van ... 60 
 
 VI. The Marriage ... 78 
 
 VII. The Lace Industry . . 85 
 
 VIII. Again in the Homeland . 90 
 
 IX. The Eeturn to the Field . 100 
 
 X. In the Harness Again . 112 
 
 XI. Affected by the Great War 117 
 
 XII. The Conflict 
 
 XIII. Faith in Exercise . 
 
 XIV. " But I Say unto You, Love 
 
 Your Enemies " 
 
 XV. The Parting . 
 
 XVI. Last Days 
 
 15 
 
 126 
 139 
 
 144 
 152 
 157
 
 16 CONTENTS 
 
 XVII. The Retuen of the Enemy 164 
 
 XVIII. Is THE WOKK OF THE ChEIS- 
 
 TiAN Ended at Death? . 173 
 
 XIX. Was It Life Theown Away, 
 
 OE Achievement — Which? 180
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The 
 
 Class 
 
 The House in Cesarea in Which Mrs 
 Ussher Was Born . 
 
 Little Lizzie at Two Years 
 
 Constantinople . 
 
 At Fourteen Years . 
 
 At Graduation from. College — 
 Prophecy . 
 
 The Bosphorus . 
 
 Eev. C. D. IJssher, M.D. . 
 
 The Four Children When Introduced to 
 Their Grandparents at Stonington 
 
 ■Mrs. Ussher after the Death of her Little 
 Girl .... 
 
 Mt. Ararat 
 
 Dr. TJssher's House in Van 
 
 One of Poverty's Young Captives 
 deemed 
 
 Fleeing from Massacre . 
 
 Dr. TJssher's Later Home 
 
 Refugees Waiting for Bread 
 
 The House in Which Mrs. Ussher Died 
 
 -Re- 
 
 TACIKO 
 PAQB 
 
 Title 
 20 
 26 
 30 
 
 44 
 54 
 62 
 
 62 
 
 96 
 102 
 110 
 
 114 
 136 
 140 
 148 
 162
 
 I 
 
 EARLY DATS 
 
 IN the old city of Kaiserieh, or Cesarea, 
 the ancient Mazaca, situated at the foot 
 of Mt. Argeus, the highest land in Asia 
 Minor, there had been for some years the 
 homes of a little band of American men and 
 women. These had chosen to spend their lives 
 there for the sake of the good they might thus 
 do to the people around about them. On the 
 20th day of October, 1873, a babe was born 
 into this missionary circle. It was named 
 Elizabeth. She was greeted with gladness by 
 all, but she failed to appreciate the welcome 
 given her. She soon began to cry, and she con- 
 tinued to cry, and would not be comforted. It 
 was evident that her circumstances did not con- 
 tribute to her enjoyment. Or else her internal 
 condition was unsatisfactory. 
 
 However it might be, it seemed as if she 
 
 was allowing herself to cherish ingratitude for 
 
 favours received. For so it was that one of the 
 
 missionaries, Mrs. Elizabeth Giles, for whom, 
 
 19
 
 20 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 in part, the baby was named, took the little new- 
 comer to her great loving heart, and literally 
 carried her in her bosom, while, for long pe- 
 riods, she woidd walk the floor of her room 
 in the effort to impart a soothing influence; 
 but often with indifferent results. At the same 
 time she cared for her own little fatherless boy. 
 Dr. and Mrs. Farnsworth, also, were ready to 
 lend a helping hand. Their experience in 
 training their own household enabled them to 
 render assistance to others in that wise and 
 gentle way which makes assistance doubly val- 
 uable: and this they were ever ready to do. 
 What they had done for their own, what they 
 could accomplish in domestic instruction, has 
 been abundantly demonstrated in the honour- 
 able record of the " Farnsworth Children." 
 
 In addition to these, so capable and so kind 
 — senior members of the station — there were 
 others whose interest in the welfare of their 
 neighbours was unsurpassed. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Bartlett had taught their only child to regard 
 service rendered to others as the highest end 
 of living, as has been witnessed in her self- 
 denying efforts to introducee Christian kinder- 
 garten instruction into the schools of Asia 
 Minor. There was also Miss Closson, a devoted 
 and successful worker among women j and
 
 LITTLE 'LIZZIE AT TWO YEARS
 
 EARLY DAYS 21 
 
 Miss Griswold, who later became the wife of 
 Dr. H. 0. Dwight of Constantinople, and the 
 mother of a missionary now in the field ; also of 
 a rising young writer in the literary world. 
 Into such society was the little baby bom, and 
 yet she failed to appreciate the favouring cir- 
 cumstances, and continued to cry. And what 
 was a still more serious fault, possibly, she took 
 no notice of good Doctor West, who had come 
 three days' journey from Sivas, expressly to 
 welcome her into the world ! But while all 
 this, and much more of a like character, must 
 be acknowledged, it is a great pleasure to be 
 able to say that Little Lizzie, — as she began to 
 be called, — after many days, did come to her- 
 self, and to a better way of looking upon the 
 world of which she constituted so minute a 
 portion. From this time the evidence of ru- 
 dimentary possibilities of gratitude, and of 
 reciprocating attachment to her many loving 
 friends, was no longer wanting. 
 
 When she was two years old, for the sake of 
 her brother, who was suffering from hip-joint 
 disease, and who had found the severely cold 
 winters of Cesarea to aggravate his trouble, it 
 was decided by the mission that her father and 
 mother remove to Magnesia, or Manisa, as the 
 place is often called, about 40 miles inland from
 
 22 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 Smyrna. The journey was by the way of the 
 Black Sea and Constantinople. To reach the 
 sea, the mother and her lame boy, and Lizzie, 
 rode in a sort of rude palanquin, supported by 
 the backs of two horses instead of men's 
 shoulders, and called in Turkish by the euphoni- 
 ous name of taktravahn. This contrivance 
 could furnish a fairly comfortable way of get- 
 ting along; but on rough roads and on steep 
 mountain sides it would sometimes subject the 
 passenger to an excessive amount of uncertain 
 equilibrium. The two children enjoyed the 
 novelty of their experience more keenly than 
 did their mother, while a third child rode with 
 her father on his horse. 
 
 The stay of a few days at the wonderful Ot- 
 toman Capital was made very pleasant and rest- 
 ful by the thoughtfully kind men and women 
 who then composed the missionary circle there. 
 To note only a part of these would savour of in- 
 vidious comparison — they were all so very at- 
 tentive to the wants of their guests. One, how- 
 ever, can hardly forbear mentioning the venera- 
 ble scholar, Dr. Elias Riggs, and Mrs. Riggs. 
 To make their acquaintance was to make one's 
 life happier ever afterwards. And thus to refer 
 to the oldest members of the station tempts one 
 to turn back to the youngest. She had just been
 
 EARLY DAYS 23 
 
 brought from the Eastern Turkey mission, to as- 
 sist in the then newly organized Home School 
 for Girls in Scutari. She has since earned an 
 enviable name in the world of education and 
 Christian culture. 
 
 During this stay in Constantinople little Liz- 
 zie had her first picture taken. It shows the 
 then characteristic timidity of the child; but, 
 while not well understanding the part which 
 she was to take in the process — to keep still — 
 she turned the eyes of her forward leaning face 
 upward. This fact might be taken as prophetic 
 of her after life. She always looked up, and 
 never down. 
 
 Arriving at Manisa, the tired travellers re- 
 ceived such a cordial and happy greeting that 
 the hardships of the journey were soon forgot- 
 ten. Dr. and Mrs. Bowen, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Brooks, Miss Cull, and Miss Powers were per- 
 sons who did much to make the condition of 
 their associates pleasant and hopeful. They 
 possessed in an eminent degree those character- 
 istics which make mission stations places for 
 the cultivation of beautiful and abiding friend- 
 ships. This is one reason why missionaries are 
 the happiest people in the world. 
 
 The house then occupied by the missionaries 
 at Manisa had once been the home of the ladies
 
 24. IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 of a Turkish harem. Its spacious hall had a 
 very smooth marble floor. In running over this, 
 Lizzie caught many a fall. And usually she 
 would pitch forward, striking her forehead. 
 Her head seemed to be too heavy for her body, 
 and with small feet she would lose her balance. 
 These falls were so serious as to occasion some 
 concern. In one or two places the bruises caused 
 the skin to attach itself to the bone beneath, 
 and thus it remained. 
 
 The little girl was very backward in learn- 
 ing to talk, although her efforts to make her 
 own dialect intelligible were commendably per- 
 sistent. Her father remembers well how, one 
 hot day in summer, she came to the open door 
 of his study, and, dressed in her little white 
 frock, she took a position just inside, and began 
 making a great variety of articulate sounds, and 
 putting in all the appropriate gestures; yet in 
 this formal address not uttering one single word 
 that could be understood. She was listened 
 to with very great interest, and her effort re- 
 ceived deserved applause. 
 
 The climate of Manisa proved favourable 
 for the invalid boy, but his mother could not 
 endure the heat of the summer there. So a 
 second removal became necessary; this time it 
 was to Constantinople. A home was found in
 
 EARLY DAYS 25 
 
 one of the suburbs of the city called Beshik 
 Tash. Here was the principal summer palace 
 of the Sultan, the Yulduz Kiosk. The views 
 from the house thus secured were most charm- 
 ing. From its windows, opening towards the 
 Bosphorus, the eye could take in, at one sweep, 
 a large part of the Sea of Marmora, with its 
 islands, and the blue hills beyond; while, in 
 the nearer view, was Seraglio Point, of so great 
 historic interest, with its monuments and its old 
 palace of the sultans, reaching out into the 
 water. On the opposite shore was the site of 
 ancient Chalcedon, famous for its council, and 
 also the large city of Scutari, with its white 
 houses and its background of dark cypress ; then, 
 farther above, were green hillsides and valleys, 
 with shady walks and gardens and fountains, 
 pretty kiosks and little palaces — places of sum- 
 mer resort. In addition to all, on the swift-flow- 
 ing waters at one's feet, were sailing craft of 
 various kinds, while in the harbour below ships 
 with the flags of many nations, bearing the com- 
 merce of the seas, or waiting at the service of 
 the ambassadors to the Sublime Porte. This 
 striking panorama ministered to the daily enjoy- 
 ment of the missionary family; and here the 
 little girl of our story, we may be sure, began 
 to receive impressions that could not be wholly
 
 26 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 lost. And another characteristic of this mission- 
 ary home may be mentioned as possibly having 
 had some influence in the mental development 
 of the children of the household. The Sultan 
 had tv70 bands, made up of imported musicians, 
 •who discoursed fine music almost every day 
 in the week; these were sometimes within the 
 palace, but more often seated on the ground be- 
 tween the palace and the missionary residence. 
 This music had a peculiar charm, especially as, 
 on a warm summer evening, it would come in 
 at the open windows, bidding Morpheus keep 
 himself at a little distance, although he might 
 have been invited to come at about that time. 
 
 Sometimes Lizzie's father would take her 
 with him when he went to the city by the ferry 
 boat. Her hair was clipped short, and her dress 
 was not greatly unlike that worn by some of the 
 little boys living about her. So it not infre- 
 quently happened that the dignified Turks on 
 board the boat would call the little " boy " to 
 themselves, and perhaps entertain " him " with 
 sweetmeats, as they would praise the beauty of 
 the child. Had they known that their little pet 
 was a girl their praise would have been more 
 scantily bestowed. 
 
 When Lizzie was seven years old her father 
 was granted a furlough of a year, to visit
 
 EARLY DAYS 27 
 
 America. But at the expiration of this time, 
 the condition of the lame boy demanding seri- 
 ous attention, and because of the possibility of 
 improvement through a course of treatment 
 which would necessitate constant care for a con- 
 siderable time, it seemed best to ask for dismis- 
 sion from the Board. This was granted. Thus 
 the missionary family found for itself a home 
 again in a "New England parsonage. Lizzie was 
 then the third of the four children who made 
 that home bright and happy.
 
 II 
 
 IN THE NEW ENGLAND PAESONAGE 
 
 IF we regard what Nature only has done in 
 providing for one's self a home, it would be 
 diflScult to find a place more to be desired 
 than some of the suburbs of the city of Con- 
 stantinople. But however much a place in one 
 of these may excel in remarkable conditions, in 
 simple material loveliness, there is in home-mak- 
 ing something of greater importance to be taken 
 into account. And even the highest beauty, 
 after all, can not arise from that which is mate- 
 rial only. To one who is familiar with it, the 
 landscape has a beauty which is not originally 
 all its own. It has been imparted to it through 
 the lives of those who have been associated with 
 it, or we may say, bound up in it. The man re- 
 turns to the old homestead, and to the farm, 
 where he was born and was brought up. It may 
 be a rough, a lonely, an unsightly place, but it 
 has a peculiar charm for him. If it has a degree 
 of natural beauty, so much more does he love the 
 old home. But, in either case, there is an at- 
 28
 
 THE NEW ENGLAND PARSONAGE 29 
 
 tractiveness to him which is not material ; it is 
 spiritual. It belongs to the place because of 
 the lives that have been lived there. And such 
 a beauty attaches to many of the homes of New 
 England, to its hills and its valleys, in the 
 thoughts of its sons and its sons' sons. It was 
 such a beauty, added to the natural attractive- 
 ness of its hills, that characterized the town 
 of Atkinson, New Hampshire, when our Lizzie, 
 at the age of eight years, was brought by her 
 parents to live in the Congregational parsonage. 
 In addition to the loveliness of the view from 
 the heights, overlooking the valley of the Merri- 
 mac, and the serenity of their atmosphere, there 
 was a beauty and a purity of the life of the 
 place, because of those who had lived there be- 
 fore, which was lacking on the banks of the 
 Bosphorus, however delightfully charming the 
 works of simple Nature might be there. The 
 religious atmosphere of Atkinson had a salutary 
 influence upon the children who came to live 
 in it, and to breathe it. The lame boy had made 
 confession of his Christian faith while in Con- 
 stantinople ; but the two older of the girls were 
 received to the communion of the church while 
 living in Atkinson. Some of the children of 
 the parish formed a little praying circle, not 
 technically called a Christian Endeavour So-
 
 30 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 ciety — for such were hardly known then — but 
 it was in the best sense a class of Christian En- 
 deavourers. It is well remembered how little 
 Lizzie, who was probably the youngest of them, 
 would, not only in the presence of her own cir- 
 cle but of older persons as well, kneel down and 
 offer her simple prayer. She was eleven years 
 old when received into the church. 
 
 But now another removal seemed desirable. 
 This was not from any dissatisfaction cherished 
 by either minister or people. The parting from 
 the kind, true-hearted Christians of Atkinson 
 was an occasion of keen regret — a regret which 
 was mutual. The new home was at ITewington, 
 Connecticut. Here the missionary family re- 
 ceived manifestations of a Christian love as 
 true and tender as that which had characterized 
 the people whom they had left. Here Lizzie at- 
 tended the grammar school, taught by one who 
 had the happy faculty of impressing upon the 
 minds and hearts of her pupils something of 
 her own unselfish love to all. Erom this noble 
 woman, as well as from her Sunday school 
 teacher, the young girl began to receive impres- 
 sions which were to be abiding. Here she be- 
 gan more intelligently to lay foundations on 
 wbich she raised the structure of her after life. 
 
 And we would notice, first of all, that she here
 
 ELIZABETH FKEEMAN BARROWS 
 AT FOURTEEN YEARS
 
 THE NEW ENGLAND PARSONAGE 31 
 
 began more perceptibly to develop an unusual 
 strength of will. She had " a mind of her own/' 
 which was very apparent in all that she did. On 
 this account the guiding mind of her mother 
 did not always gain the wished-for point of at- 
 tainment without effort. By this it is not meant 
 that the child manifested a spirit of stubborn- 
 ness in any bad sense of the word. But in all 
 matters she very thoughtfully " made up her 
 mind," and it was very hard for her to see, some- 
 times, that the " making up " of her parents' 
 mind should take precedence. This element of 
 her disposition was manifest even in what we 
 have related of her infancy. Such a characteris- 
 tic of a child's inheritance does not make the 
 guiding work of the parent, in leading to a more 
 complete maturity of development, an easy task, 
 but when it is " sanctified," and so " made fit 
 for the Master's use," it makes possible an after 
 life of a more positive character, and of a more 
 enlarged usefulness. What at first may seem 
 to be only a fault comes to be a necessary condi- 
 tion of a preparation for the best attainment. 
 
 Another thing which we may notice in the 
 growth of the child's life among the good peo- 
 ple of Newington, was the kindling in her heart 
 of an unquenchable desire for a liberal educa- 
 tion. She was permitted by her parents to hope
 
 32 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 she might have the training of the high school, 
 or the academy; but that was not enough; she 
 looked beyond that. The full college course was 
 the goal of her desire. And although she could 
 not then be promised the means of its attain- 
 ment, she ever kept her purpose in mind ; for not 
 a moment would she let go of it. So with this 
 hope she entered Mr. Moody's School at ISTorth- 
 field, in 1888, when she was nearly fifteen years 
 of age.
 
 Ill 
 
 AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 
 
 IT was a great event in the life of Lizzie 
 Barrows when she entered upon a course 
 of study at l^Torthfield Seminary. And 
 from this time on we must speak of her as 
 " Beth," for so her schoolmates began to call 
 her. But perhaps the reader will here ask, 
 " Why should we not have come at once to her 
 womanhood, and to the part which she took 
 in the world of Christian thought and activity ? 
 We find nothing of very peculiar interest in her 
 childhood. She appears to have been much like 
 other little children." And to this it is replied 
 that she was very much like other little children. 
 She was not precocious nor wonderful. It is true 
 that she inherited something from the Pilgrim 
 blood that once flowed in the veins of John 
 Robinson of Leyden, and also of Governor Brad- 
 ford of Colonial fame ; but her immediate ances- 
 tors, on either side of the house, were plain 
 people who had little to recommend them ex- 
 cept that they tried to live honest and respect- 
 33
 
 34 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 able lives, and to be, if possible, a good and not 
 an injury to their neighbours and friends. And 
 she herself was a plain little girl, with some 
 of the good qualities, and some of the faults, 
 in varying proportions, that characterize most 
 other little girls. And indeed it is on this very 
 account that a view of her early days is made 
 to constitute a part of the picture which we are 
 attempting to draw. It is of this picture the 
 background, showing that the more mature de- 
 velopment of her after life, and what she ac- 
 complished, was not chiefly from any inherited 
 superiority, but because the life of God came 
 to be in her life the motive power of all notable 
 achievement. Her life was no longer hers alone. 
 Into it there was transfused somewhat of the 
 divine. So it was that there came to be in her 
 life that which may well be recorded for the en- 
 couragement of such as aspire to the highest 
 achievements in Christian service. And this 
 new life into which she entered was not a sud- 
 denly imparted gift, once for all; it was the 
 energizing force behind the developing activity, 
 which activity had a natural growth. Yet in 
 the truest sense it was divine. It was in and 
 through nature, but not of it. It began in her 
 life with the first dawning of Christian thought 
 and purpose. When she was so ready " to take
 
 AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 35 
 
 her part " in the little praying circle at Atkin- 
 son she began to be moved by this divine im- 
 pulse. At that time, however, she saw but a 
 little way ahead, and her childhood was not per- 
 fection. She had much to learn if she would 
 achieve. And the three years at Newington 
 served, in some good degree, to clarify her 
 thought and to strengthen her best purposes. 
 But at !N'orthfield she found herself in a new 
 religious world. [N'ot, indeed, new in kind, but 
 in depth and intensity, and of enlarged oppor- 
 tunity in " the practice of the presence of God." 
 The influence of the school was very positively 
 religious. In all respects it would be of the best, 
 but in its religious life it had few equals. It 
 set before the girls the highest ideals ; and these 
 not as theories, but as practical possibilities. As 
 to Beth, however, there was in her thought one 
 condition of their highest realization — she must 
 have the more complete training of the college. 
 Nothing in her circumstances could then give 
 the wished-for promise of the fulfilment of such 
 hopes; yet she cherished them just the same. 
 And in addition to this, she could not shake off 
 the feeling of obligation to accomplish a cer- 
 tain thing in her life work; and she was sure 
 that obligation and opportunity are inseparably 
 connected. And yet no good end is ever reached
 
 36 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 except through the use of the appropriate 
 means. So she chose to remain an extra year at 
 Northfield that she might be thoroughly fitted 
 for her college course, while as yet no college 
 door was open before her, to the north or the 
 south, to the east or the west. Only her faith 
 remained with her. On her graduation, the ob- 
 ject of her ambition seemed no nearer than be- 
 fore. Yet she still believed some college would 
 some day grant her admission. So she returned 
 to her father's house — then in Stonington, Con- 
 necticut — and engaged in teaching a district 
 school. At the end of the year, through the kind- 
 ness of a friend in Newington, she was made 
 sure of such assistance as enabled her to enter 
 The Woman's College (now Goucher Collie) in 
 Baltimore. This friend was also an instructor 
 in the College. And so the fond dream of the 
 years began to be realized. This was in 1895. 
 
 And now to return for another glance at her 
 life at Northfield. One of her classmates 
 writes : 
 
 " The portrayal of the life of a beloved 
 classmate during the period of her school days 
 proves a delicate task, but one well worth un- 
 dertaking, if, by so doing, some of the inspira- 
 tion and helpfulness which her life lent to those
 
 AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 37 
 
 who knew her best can be passed on to others 
 of earlier or later years. 
 
 " ' Beth ' Barrows, as she was known to her 
 schoolmates, became a member of the East Hall 
 family in 1888. Though one of the younger 
 girls of a large group, her personality stood out 
 with cameo clearness and possessed a winsome 
 charm which it is difficult to describe. She was 
 recognized by girls and teachers as gifted with 
 unusual intellectual endowments, a sunny dis- 
 position, and unfailing strength of purpose. 
 * Beth ^ was also fun-loving, but her fun was 
 pure and wholesome, and never was her sense 
 of humour tinged with even a suggestion of 
 unkindness. The source of her strength of char- 
 acter doubtless lay in an abiding and deep-rooted 
 sincerity of spirit, which ever imparted to her 
 features and manner the gentle dignity so sug- 
 gestive of true worth. 
 
 " With the organization of the class of 1894 
 opportunity came for closer association with her 
 classmates, and at the beginning of her senior 
 year she was elected vice-president of her class. 
 Later she became acting president. She was 
 also closely associated with the Young Woman's 
 Christian Association, and was a loyal member 
 of the Estey Chorus. 
 
 " Prompted by early training, and fore-
 
 38 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 warned by class prophecy, she kept in mind 
 the hope of work upon the foreign field, and 
 after leaving the Seminary she devoted herself 
 to preparation for a life of rare usefulness. 
 Her own high ideals of Christian womanhood 
 produced a life which has been an inspiration 
 to all who have known her, and particularly 
 to those who are privileged to call her class- 
 mate. We shall cherish her friendship as one 
 of earth's choicest gifts." 
 
 Another of her schoolmates writes: 
 
 " I did not know Beth at all until her senior 
 year, and I was then a junior ; but notwithstand- 
 ing we were separated in the classroom, we 
 from the first recognized the ' divine affinity of 
 virtue with itself ' which drew us to each other. 
 I think the first characteristic which impressed 
 me, and which continued to impress me through- 
 out my friendship with her, was her absolute 
 sincerity. I do not recall a single false or err- 
 ing note in all her intercourse with her mates. 
 In the next place I would mention the high 
 moral setting of her simplest word and deed, 
 and her unselfish appreciation of others. An- 
 other characteristic was her serenity of spirit 
 and her sweetness. I remember the cognomen
 
 AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 39 
 
 given her, ' Sweet Beth/ which seemed to those 
 who knew her so entirely apropos. But this 
 ' sweetness ' was never insipidity. Behind it 
 appeared character, unyielding in its integrity, 
 a quiet firmness where principle was involved, 
 which nothing could move. We, as it were, un- 
 consciously accepted the fact that she was never 
 other than nohle, fine, and dear. The word 
 * dear ' just expresses it ; she was that — always 
 dear. And she possessed a spirituality that at- 
 tracted but never antagonized, even the most ir- 
 religious, it was so genuine and so spontaneous. 
 It never appeared to be something put on, but in- 
 herent, natural. Her missionary spirit, ever in 
 evidence, was as a beautiful radiancy that il- 
 luminated her personality. But, with it all, she 
 was sweetly human. There was nothing stand- 
 offish about her; no attitude of superiority; 
 just a dear, happy-hearted girl, busy as a bee, 
 laughter-loving, appreciating a good joke, and, 
 in her quiet, reserved way, deeply loving. And 
 with no thought of envy, we all loved her. We 
 rejoiced in every honour or preferment that 
 came to her as if it were our owq. As I look 
 back over those dear old days of '93 — '94, I 
 think of Beth as a fragrant flower, dainty, 
 pure, and sweet. She moves in my memory like 
 the presence of the dear ones in the family that
 
 40 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 make home life so precious. I remember her 
 in the homely, every-day tasks that came to us 
 all, as one religiously faithful ; I recall, too, the 
 precious bits of conversation between times. 
 Once when we were in the laundry, just across 
 from each other, she at one tub and I at an- 
 other, she spoke of her hopes for the future, 
 of her eagerness for service in the foreign field, 
 and how she exclaimed, ' O Grace, I wish I 
 could take you with me ! ' And then we talked 
 of college plans, for it was our dream in those 
 days to go to college together. 
 
 " At commencement Beth invited me to ac- 
 company her to the Senior Reception. I remem- 
 ber how she limped all the way on her poor tired 
 feet, and how we drew closer together that even- 
 ing than ever before. She asked me to write 
 to her, and so began the correspondence that 
 has covered twenty-one years of our busy lives. 
 It has given me the precious heritage of her 
 heart-warming letters^ an inspiration and an 
 unmixed joy." 
 
 One of the teachers at ISTorthfield in writing 
 of Beth says : 
 
 " It was not my privilege ever to see 
 her, as she and her family were here dur-
 
 AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 41 
 
 ing my furlough year ; but well do I recall how 
 much influence I felt she must have had in the 
 Seminary, because of the way in which she was 
 remembered, in my early years, in the school. 
 We feel that great honour has come to North- 
 field through her, and that a larger responsibil- 
 ity rests upon us because of what she was 
 and did." 
 
 From these words from I^orthfield respecting 
 one of its students the spirit and aim of that in- 
 stitution can be clearly seen. A high moral pur- 
 pose has ever dominated its courses of instruc- 
 tion. The same is also true of Goucher Col- 
 lege. And yet life at that college is, in some 
 respects, quite different from that in the pre- 
 paratory school. While the college may be as 
 truly Christian, its students can not be expected 
 to bring to it the same homogeneity of Chris- 
 tian experience as that which is characteristic 
 of the girls in a school like l^orthfield. They 
 come from places and communities widely sep- 
 arated, a considerable portion being from the 
 Southern states. Many of them, before enter- 
 ing college, have never come in contact with the 
 opinions, and the supposedly stricter practices, 
 of persons and families of Puritan descent in 
 New England. And, in their thought, the chil-
 
 42 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 dren of Pilgrims and Puritans belong to the 
 same general family. Beth was surely one of 
 them. She made no effort to conceal what she 
 believed, and her practice was apparent to all. 
 Yet she made many friends, and made no 
 enemies. Whatever she believed, her religion, 
 as it came in contact with her associates, was a 
 life, and not a bundle of doctrines. It was not 
 JSTorthfield theology, or any other theology, but 
 the carrying out, in all her social intercourse, 
 the putting into practice, of the high Christian 
 ideals which permeate the very atmosphere of 
 Northfield Seminary. There is no one who does 
 not, who must not, accept, and be impressed by, 
 a loving devotion to the welfare of others. So 
 it was that Beth won her way to the hearts of 
 her college mates. 
 
 And here it must be said that she herself came 
 to accept some views respecting the manner in 
 which our Holy Scriptures originated, and the 
 literal historicity of some portions of them, 
 which were not in accord with what had more 
 often been taught at Northfield. What she did 
 continue to hold to, more and more firmly, and 
 to believe in more implicitly, was the Northfield 
 practice of piety. This she carried with her to 
 college, this she brought away. This could not 
 be subject to change, while she did gladly accept
 
 AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 43 
 
 the constructive elements of a reverent criticism 
 of our Bible. This in no way impaired, but 
 rather deepened and strengthened her faith in 
 the one great truth brought to mankind in the 
 Christian Scriptures — Jesus Christ the Re- 
 vealer of God and the Saviour of Mankind. 
 One of her college classmates says : 
 
 " Elizabeth Barrows entered Goucher College 
 when it was known as The Woman's College of 
 Baltimore in 1895. She served as president of 
 the junior class, and then was elected as senior 
 president, an honour rarely bestowed at Goucher, 
 but one richly deserved by her. She was present 
 at the tenth reunion, 1909. The next gathering 
 of the class, which would have occurred in 1914, 
 was postponed because she was to come home on 
 furlough in 1916. A sad reunion this will be, 
 but the memory of a life wholly dedicated to up- 
 lifting the sad and weary, will shed sweetness 
 and light into all our lives. A classmate wrote 
 recently, ' What a privilege for all of us in '99 
 to have felt the influence of Beth's life ! ' She 
 is one of the few of whom we may say that to 
 know her means that we can never forget the 
 noble purpose to which her life was devoted. I 
 am reading again the address which, as senior 
 president, she delivered so simply and naturally
 
 44» IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 on that Class Day of '99 ; and I can hear lier 
 saying, ' We realize that it is the multitude of 
 years which should teach wisdom, yet the four 
 within these college walls have not been too short 
 to impress many lifelong lessons. Stirring 
 national events have marked our course, and the 
 distant clash of arms has awakened sympathetic 
 echoes in our secluded world. Whether we be- 
 lieve in territorial expansion or not, discussions 
 of these questions have expanded our knowledge 
 of men and countries little known before, have 
 given us an insight into international relations, 
 and have taught us something of the meaning 
 of the " White Man's Burden." ' 
 
 " Little did we then dream that in sixteen 
 years a war greater than any known in his- 
 tory would shake the world; and that our Beth 
 would be one of its victims. Near the close of 
 this address she struck the keynote of high pur- 
 pose and aspiration which marked her college 
 life. She said : ' We have learned to call life 
 not a comedy, but an opportunity to him who 
 thinks; not a tragedy, but a joy to him who 
 feels. If we are beginning to think more truly 
 and to feel more deeply, it is not because we 
 have been through college, but, as one has ex- 
 pressed it, because the college has been through 
 us. We do not educate a man by telling him
 
 AT GRADUATION FROM COLLEGE 
 THE CLASS PROPHECY, GOUCHER COLLEGE, MAY, 1899
 
 AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 45 
 
 "what he knew not, but by making him what he 
 was not, and what he will remain forever.' 
 
 " Every word rang true. The classmates of 
 Elizabeth Barrows all knew that, however they 
 might differ with her opinions or beliefs, they 
 might pin their faith to her sincerity and single- 
 mindedness. It may be truly said of her that 
 she forever ' followed the gleam.' " 
 
 Reporting a reunion of the class of '99, a 
 member writes: 
 
 " The girls of Goucher, '99, stand to- 
 day with heads bowed and hearts uplifted 
 in loving, grateful tribute to our beloved 
 President, Elizabeth Barrows Ussher. It is not 
 easy to break the silence of sorrow. But to all 
 the girls of Goucher we must bear the message 
 of this life, so rich in service for college, for 
 country, for the Kingdom. 
 
 " In the life of Mrs. Ussher, our Goucher Col- 
 lege, our America, has laid a costly sacrifice on 
 the altars of human liberty. 
 
 " The life that counts most was the vision that 
 lured Elizabeth Barrows to her difficult work. 
 Her fitness for the great work of which she 
 dreamed, her classmates felt, not as setting her 
 apart from us, but as fitting her most rarely to
 
 46 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 share the lives of us all. Doubly dear was this 
 soul, fragrant with the warmth of a rich human- 
 ity, and with the divine sweetness of prayer 
 and peace. 
 
 " Early her life was purposeful. Wide as 
 were her interests and activities in her college 
 and her life-work, there early came to her the 
 serenity of a life truly unified in effort. To 
 this power of leadership the class of '99 gave 
 unique recognition in choosing her President in 
 both her junior and senior years. 
 
 " Said a great man whom Baltimore devoutly 
 remembers : 
 
 " ' A friend is the one who summons us 
 to our best.' So to-day, in warm and loyal 
 remembrance of our loved President, we would 
 stand reverently, and together say, ' Dear 
 friend, dear captain, your friends of '99 hear 
 anew your summons to the life that counts most, 
 and we will not forget.' " 
 
 Another Goucher student writes : 
 
 " It has been truly said of Mrs. Ussher that 
 her life was full of service, full of peril, full of 
 strength, freely and cheerily given to all forms 
 of work in the home, in the hospital, among the 
 poor. Her life blesse4 and made better the lives
 
 AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 47 
 
 of those she touched. Christianity is not a fail- 
 ure so long as it can produce one such life as 
 hers. In deep love and gratitude we pay our 
 tribute of appreciation to her memory, which 
 will live a pure, white, guiding light to thou- 
 sands to whom she ministered."
 
 IV 
 
 THE PURPOSE TESTED; THE PINAL 
 DECISION 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE JOTIENET TO THE 
 MISSION FIELD 
 
 SOMETIMES a purpose to pursue a cer- 
 I tain course in the future is severely tested 
 when one approaches its actual realiza- 
 tion. It was so with Beth in respect to her 
 student-volunteer pledge. But it does not ap- 
 pear that she for a moment wavered. Her 
 thoughts were upon work in the foreign field, 
 and her whole heart was there. 
 
 And yet there were reasons why work in the 
 homeland might properly be considered. To 
 some of her friends these reasons seemed very 
 weighty. At her graduation, her record showed 
 very commendable proficiency in her studies, al- 
 though in the acquisition of languages she was 
 not the equal of many of her mates. As when 
 a child she was backward in learning to talk, 
 so in after years it was not easy for her to mas- 
 48
 
 THE PURPOSE TESTED 49 
 
 ter a new tongue. And facility in this must 
 be considered in regard to one's adaptability 
 for work in a foreign land. Also, over against 
 Beth's slowness in learning to speak a new 
 language, was the fact that she had acquired 
 unusual facility in the use of her pen. Her 
 correspondence was despatched with great ease ; 
 correct composition, with pen in hand, seemed 
 to be, to her, almost a recreation. For the 
 exercise of this gift a wide door was opened be- 
 fore her. She could have had a secretaryship in 
 The Young Women's Christian Association 
 work. Her tact in dealing with young girls and 
 her influence over them had been fully demon- 
 strated in her school and college life. Should 
 she not continue what she seemed to be doing so 
 well ? Many thought so. Even her father was 
 much inclined to entertain the belief that she 
 would be a more successful worker in the home- 
 land than among peoples of other tongues. Yet 
 he would put no obstacle in the way of her 
 free choice. 
 
 But now it may be noticed still further that 
 the strength of this purpose was also tested 
 in another direction. Beth was persistently 
 urged by a worthy friend to make a home for 
 two in the homeland. To this entreaty she 
 turned a deaf ear, and decided, with a firm
 
 50 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 finality, to offer herself to go as a missionary 
 to the land of her birth. She was naturally 
 attracted towards this particular field because 
 in it her parents had laboured, and she also 
 retained some slight recollections of her own 
 early home. 
 
 She knew of no companion for the journey 
 who would go with her farther than Constan- 
 tinople. To start thus for one of the most dis- 
 tant and insecure parts of the Turkish Em- 
 pire, where for many years wandering Kurds 
 had been accustomed, for their living, to rob 
 and murder their peaceful neighbours, neces- 
 sitated, on the part of both parents and child, 
 a faith somewhat akin to that 
 
 " which will not shrink, 
 Though pressed by every foe ; 
 That will not tremble on the brink 
 Of any earthly woe." 
 
 Had the young missionary been leaving her 
 home under the care of a good husband, it would 
 have been comparatively easy for her parents 
 to say good-by, for from their own experience 
 and observation on the mission field they well 
 knew what privations and hardships a single 
 lady must sometimes undergo, notwithstanding 
 all the assistance that her associates, with most 
 thoughtful affection, can render. So Beth left
 
 THE PURPOSE TESTED 51 
 
 a home where there were full hearts and tear- 
 ful eyes. Her father, taking her to the rail- 
 road station at Stonington, watched the depart- 
 ing train till it had rounded the curve, and 
 was out of sight, then came back to a house 
 which had an air of peculiar loneliness, never 
 perceived by him before. The remaining hours 
 of that day will never be forgotten. The dear 
 girl had done much to make it a happy place. 
 She was very fond of Fanny Crosby's gospel 
 songs and other similar hymns. Very often, 
 of a Sabbath afternoon, seating herself at the 
 piano, among other selections, with notes so 
 soft and sweet she would sing: 
 
 " Some day the silver chord will break, 
 And I no more as now shall sing; 
 But oh, the joy when I shall wake 
 Within the palace of the King! 
 And I shall see Him face to face, 
 And tell the story saved by grace ! " 
 
 As Beth sailed from Boston in company with 
 missionaries returning to Turkey, the voyage by 
 sea, and the ride by rail, while uneventful, were 
 highly enjoyed. At the Ottoman Capital she 
 could recall some things connected with her 
 old home, and the place where she once played 
 with other little missionary children. Cross- 
 ing the Black Sea, she was favoured with a
 
 52 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 ride in a carriage from Trebizond up over the 
 picturesque hills as far as Erzroom. When as- 
 cending these far-reaching slopes the view be- 
 came superb in an eminent degree. Looking 
 backward, there was the sea with its long coast- 
 line, while before and around were scenes of pe- 
 culiar interest, because of their connection with 
 the events of long ago. Here it was that Xeno- 
 phon, with his escaping ten thousand, looked 
 down upon the waves that told of safety and 
 of home. Here, too, the Greeks had their col- 
 onies, as indicated by the name Erzroom, the 
 land of the Romans, as the Byzantine Greeks 
 were called. 
 
 With this glance at the arrival of the young 
 missionary at her native land, let us go back 
 to her own story of these days: 
 
 " We now soon came into the old historic 
 city of Constantino. Memories of my child- 
 hood's days came rushing back to me while I 
 picked my way through its dirty streets, and 
 gay bazaars, or floated on the blue Bosphorus 
 in the graceful caique, which gives the very 
 poetry of motion. I understand Turkish words 
 that I thought I had entirely forgotten. It 
 seemed really like getting home again. After 
 five days in Constantinople, waiting for our 
 
 1
 
 THE PURPOSE TESTED 63 
 
 passports, our little party, — which included two 
 English ladies, going to work for the orphans — 
 boarded a Russian steamer and we again turned 
 our faces eastward. We were thrilled with the 
 novelty and the beauty of the picturesque old 
 capital, with the sparkling Bosphorus, as blue 
 as the azure above it, and the cypress covered 
 hillsides, at whose feet, and lining the water's 
 edge, lay the stucco palaces, glistening like mar- 
 ble in the sunlight. 
 
 " We steamed slowly out of the Golden Horn, 
 amid all kinds of craft, from the Turkish war- 
 ships and the despatch boats of the ambassadors 
 to the slender caiques darting in and out among 
 them. Scutari, with its American College for 
 Girls, lay at our right, and soon we passed the 
 Heights of Hissar, crowned by the old round 
 towers built by the Saracen conquerors, and 
 the buildings of Robert College. We passed 
 up to the Black Sea between hills sloping gently 
 to the water on either side, and possessing a 
 charm and a beauty peculiarly their own. Then 
 our trip of three days, skirting along the Asiatic 
 coast, to Trebizond, was most delightful. The 
 scenery was beautiful, as the snow-capped 
 mountains, which come down abruptly to the 
 shore, were as grand in the bright moonlight 
 as when the sun shone upon them.
 
 54 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 " Wharves are not considered necessary in 
 this country, and so when we came into the har- 
 bour of Trebizond it was two hours before we 
 could land. Mr. Stapleton, who had come from 
 Erzroom to meet us, was soon beside our ship, 
 proffering any possible assistance. He attended 
 to our boxes, seeing that they were safely low- 
 ered into a flat barge, which was threatened 
 to be upset by a swinging ladder on one side 
 and the choppy waves on the other. Finally 
 we were rowed ashore, and were welcomed with 
 great heartiness by Dr. and Mrs. Parmelee, 
 who alone represent our country in this his- 
 toric city. 
 
 " Two days were spent in repacking the boxes 
 which were opened at the custom house, and in 
 preparing for our journey inland. The morn- 
 ing of November 21 dawned warm and bright 
 over the broad, crescent-shaped bay. Its 
 blue expanse, dotted with white sails, the 
 red-tiled roofs, and the dark green trees, 
 like a dash of colour against the brown rug- 
 ged coast, made a picture never to be for- 
 gotten. 
 
 " Our party of four, with our wraps and 
 small bundles, packed ourselves into a clumsy, 
 but fairly comfortable, open carriage, having 
 two seats facing each other, and drawn by
 
 m ^ ^
 
 THE PURPOSE TESTED 55 
 
 three horses abreast. For a mile we followed 
 the shore, then turned abruptly south through 
 a narrow valley shut in by steep hills. Just 
 here we met a man returning from Van, where, 
 in his archeological researches, he had unearthed 
 several interesting relics of the stone age, and 
 also deciphered many hitherto unreported in- 
 scriptions. 
 
 " It was hard to believe it was winter, for 
 the air was balmy, and near the little brook 
 which we followed, we could see dandelions, 
 and English daisies, and now and then a butter- 
 cup. Where the ground could be tilled every 
 inch was improved. At times little oxen were 
 seen plowing on such steep places that it seemed 
 as if the rude wooden plows would pull them 
 over. 
 
 " Our first stopping place was a little village 
 snuggled in at the foot of a high hill, and 
 near a roaring mountain brook. Our khan, 
 which was built almost over the water, was too 
 near Greek civilization to be a fair specimen 
 of Turkish hotels. Our room, which we cur- 
 tained into two apartments, boasted of an iron 
 bedstead, a table, and a mirror. With our own 
 bedding, food, and lights, we were comfort- 
 able. We had not had, however, sufficient ex- 
 perience of the thinking and the ways of a
 
 56 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 strange people to be properly charitable in our 
 comparisons and contrasts. 
 
 " The next morning we had our breakfast, 
 washed our dishes, packed our road outfit, had 
 a few minutes of quiet with the Master, and 
 were ready to start at 7 A. M. Now the air 
 gradually grew cooler, and we perceived that 
 we were on an ascending grade; the valley be- 
 gan to appear very far below us. After our 
 noon lunch, while our horses were resting, we 
 visited a tiny Greek chapel, built of heavy stones 
 and ornamented with rude paintings. The old 
 sexton tried to explain the various symbols. 
 He showed us an ancient illustrated Bible, writ- 
 ten in characters not now understood by modern 
 Greeks. 
 
 " The next day brought us to the top of the 
 lower of the two mountain ranges on our route. 
 The panorama of the mountain peaks above 
 and below the clouds, green at their feet and 
 crowned with snow, and the ever varying shades 
 of colour of the gorges between, was entrancing 
 in its beauty. The ride down the mountain 
 was exciting, as the road was badly washed 
 from a recent rain, and the driver seemed to 
 delight in seeing how near he could go to the 
 edge without tipping us all out upon the rocks 
 below. But notwithstanding the rocks and the
 
 THE PURPOSE TESTED 57 
 
 ■washouts we were not upset, and did not have 
 to get out and walk. As we all enjoyed sing- 
 ing, we made the hills fairly ring with our 
 songs, from church hymns to the latest war 
 jingles. We played thought games, told stories, 
 and had a jolly good time generally. The fol- 
 lowing day we were in the valley again, in the 
 midst of orchards which supply the whole prov- 
 ince with their ' silver fruit.' Plane and pop- 
 lar trees now took the place of the evergreens 
 of the mountains. 
 
 " The following night brought us to Baibourt, 
 the largest place between Trebizond and 
 Erzroom. Here we were entertained by a Prot- 
 estant family, whose wealth had been a temp- 
 tation to the marauding Kurds a few years ago. 
 The family, numbering about 25, came in to see 
 the strange hat-wearers, while the new-comers 
 tried hard to look intelligent and to appear en- 
 tertained. After coffee and tea, and then cof- 
 fee again, had been served, we sat with the 
 men on the floor around a low table, while the 
 women of the family stood at a respectful dis- 
 tance. The courses of lemon and vermicelli 
 soup, roast mutton, of apricots, of stewed mut- 
 ton and pilaf, were brought on one at a time, 
 and placed in the centre of the table, to which 
 we were expected to reach with our large wooden
 
 58 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 spoons. Thick slices of dark bread heaped with 
 stringed cheese took the place of plates. 
 
 " At night our bed consisted of a thick quilt 
 for a mattress, and another, with a sheet sewed 
 on it, for a covering. The next morning we 
 were escorted to the khan, where our baggage 
 had remained, by all the male members of 
 the family. 
 
 " We attracted a great deal of attention, as 
 foreigners are a rarity in this city. Remarks 
 upon our personal appearance, as well as our 
 belongings, were not wanting, 
 
 " Now began our ascent of the second and 
 most difficult range of mountains. After a 
 steady pull of several hours we stopped at Cope 
 Khan, where we slept a little and shivered more, 
 as the wind was not bashful about finding a way 
 through a hole in the oiled paper of our window. 
 iWhile our room was being warmed we sat in 
 the coffee room, filled with Turks and tobacco 
 smoke. One young soldier fell into conversation 
 about the Transvaal war. To be in an old khan, 
 miles away from any civilization, talking with 
 a Turk, in French, about English policies, was 
 a novel experience. 
 
 " The cold night was prophetic of what we 
 were to experience the next day, for now we 
 were near the top of Cope Dagh, the highest
 
 THE PURPOSE TESTED 59 
 
 peak of all. Soon after starting we were caught 
 in the clutches of a genuine blizzard, and for a 
 little time the cold was intense. The snow had 
 badly drifted, filling the already narrow, twist- 
 ing path to the point of danger. To add to the 
 difficulty, we met, on the very crest of the moun- 
 tain, a long caravan of frightened camels. Many 
 of these had broken loose from the ropes which 
 had held them in bunches of eighteen, and some 
 had fallen over the steep declivity, with their 
 loads, there to perish in the cold. But our wiry 
 horses struggled through the drifts, and in two 
 hours we were in quite another climate, with all 
 danger passed. Our baggage, however, was two 
 days in getting through. 
 
 " From this point until we reached Erzroom, 
 our route lay over rolling, treeless plains and 
 low hills, interesting for the many shades of soil, 
 indicating volcanic origin. At our last khan, six 
 miles out of the city, we were met by the ladies 
 of the station, who gave us a royal welcome. 
 Soon we had crossed the Erzroom plain, to the 
 city; were within the walls, and at the mission- 
 ary home. Our week's interesting and delight- 
 ful trip was at an end."
 
 V 
 
 GETTING TO VAK 
 
 THE preparation for the journey of a lady 
 missionary from America to the interior 
 of Turkey, as we have already seen, is 
 not all made at one end of the line. But the 
 preparation to go from the Black Sea as far 
 as to Erzroom is only the introduction to the 
 book: the larger, and the more complete treat- 
 ment of the subject is beyond. The anticipa- 
 tion and the reality may be very different. To 
 one who has never visited the East the setting 
 out is alluring. With each passing day the 
 attraction of what is before one increases. An- 
 ticipated experiences are of a most interesting 
 character. The lands of classic and sacred 
 studies are soon to be seen. Approaching the 
 great Mohammedan city, the view will not be 
 disappointing. If it chances to be on a pleasant 
 morning, when the rising sun is lighting up the 
 minarets on its seven hills, the beholder will 
 surely exclaim : *' The half has never been told 
 me." 
 
 60
 
 GETTING TO VAN 61 
 
 But the last part of the journey, — i. une hun- 
 dreds of miles inland, — will prove to e a very 
 different affair. It will have its sti mge, its 
 almost irresistible, attractions, but its hard- 
 ships, and its possible dangers, too. And for 
 this part of the way, whatever preparation may 
 have been made before leaving America, there 
 must be assistance coming from the place which 
 is to be reached. 
 
 When the missionaries at this station learn 
 that a new lady assistant is expected to be at 
 the coast at a certain time, then an escort must 
 be selected, and special provision made for her 
 safety and comfort on the way. Whatever work 
 may be in hand, to meet the newcomer must now 
 take precedence. One of the missionaries must 
 not only be fitted out with all things necessary 
 for the trip, but he must have at least one as- 
 sistant, who may also be a guide in finding the 
 way. In some cases it is necessary to ask the 
 government for a kind of policeman, who will 
 make a show of armor, if not of courage. One 
 extra horse must be taken along for the ex- 
 pected lady to ride, and a pack horse, to carry, 
 among other things, a little cot bed able to raise 
 the sleeper above the reach of certain small com- 
 panions, which will be sure to proffer their as- 
 sistance when not needed. Some food must also
 
 62 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 be taken for the return; for however much the 
 missions y may have become accustomed to the 
 food "wb ch can be procured upon the road, the 
 newly arrived can hardly be expected imme- 
 diately to cultivate a very strong desire for it. 
 The ways of living among a strange people must 
 be learned gradually. In fine, it must be said 
 that the uninitiated traveller in the interior of 
 Turkey must carry a large share of his hotel ac- 
 commodations with him. And what he can not 
 thus carry he often learns are not among the 
 optionals of his journey. He finds his choices 
 seriously limited by circumstances. 
 
 When news came to Van that Miss Elizabeth 
 Barrows was on her way from America, and 
 was expected to be at Erzroom at a certain time. 
 Doctor Ussher, a young physician, who had been 
 at Van but a short time, was fitted out and 
 despatched to meet her and bring her on. He 
 arrived at Erzroom a little time after his ex- 
 pected fair companion. But he prayed that he 
 might not be long delayed, for it was already 
 late in the autumn, at which season travelling 
 in Turkey can not be so hopefully undertaken. 
 
 Accompanying Miss Barrows was one of the 
 two English ladies that had come with her to 
 Erzroom, and who was also on her way to Van, 
 to assist in caring for the orphans that had been
 
 REV. C. D. USSIIER, ]M.D.
 
 GETTING TO VAN 63 
 
 left alive after the wholesale massacre of Ar- 
 menians five years before. iN'ow, however, un- 
 expected hindrances arose. We say " un- 
 expected," but such a word can properly be 
 used only in respect to those who have had no 
 experience of travelling in Turkey. Those who 
 have had such experience, always expect hin- 
 drances, and if they do not meet them they feel 
 like giving thanks for special mercies. On this 
 occasion the Turkish Government, in its 
 " watchful waiting," (the " waiting " is con- 
 tinuous, the " watchful " spasmodic) objected 
 to the plan of the woman from England, to pro- 
 ceed further into their territory, thinking she 
 might be connected with some bad committee. 
 In official circles the word " committee " came 
 to signify some revolutionary organization, and 
 so to excite suspicion. It happened to occur in 
 a telegram sent from Constantinople to 
 Erzroom. 
 
 As the young missionary from America had 
 fallen into the companionship of the English! 
 lady, the shadow of imperial authority had 
 fallen upon them both. They were forbidden 
 to go on from Erzroom, so Dr. Ussher seemed 
 likely to fail in his mission unless something 
 unusual could be done. But he was not the 
 man to give up.
 
 64 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 At this time Sultan Abdul Hamid was ex- 
 ceedingly suspicious of foreigners, thinking they 
 might have some relation to secret organizations 
 within his dominions. So when a telegram 
 came from an Armenian Relief Society in Eng- 
 land concerning two ladies that they were send- 
 ing to Turkey, to care for orphans, — one of 
 whom was to go to Van — suspicion was at once 
 aroused, and orders were sent from Constan- 
 tinople that the ladies should not only not pro- 
 ceed further, but be returned to that city. 
 
 The consuls at Erzroom refused to send them 
 back. Correspondence was at once commenced 
 with the Embassies. But the Government was 
 obdurate. Permission could not be obtained 
 that the English lady at Erzroom, whose des- 
 tination was Van, should proceed to that place, 
 and the same prohibition included the Ameri- 
 cans also. Policemen were set to guard the mis- 
 sion premises. Spies followed any one who 
 might leave the house. 
 
 Thus Dr. TJssher waited in Erzroom three 
 weeks. Every day was precious, for every pass- 
 ing twenty-four hours brought the travellers just 
 so much farther into the cold winter. Anxiety 
 increased, and also the determination to get 
 away. Finally word was received from the Am- 
 bassadors that the two consuls might use their
 
 GETTING TO VAN 65 
 
 own judgment, acting together. Still more days 
 passed. The question was a hard one for the 
 consuls. And it was evident that personally 
 they were not disturbed in their enjoyment 
 because the ladies were staying. Every even- 
 ing it was either at the consulate or with the 
 missionaries at their home. And Miss Barrows 
 would sing for the company. She captivated 
 all with her sweet soprano. But finally she re- 
 solved to give a hint to the consuls, and she 
 sang " Speed Away." This was with such in- 
 spiration that none could forget it. 
 
 The resolution to start was put into effect. 
 Horses and sleds were hired for the snow was 
 deep. The drivers were put under bond by the 
 police not to take the travellers out without noti- 
 fying them. And one morning, as they were 
 about to start, the American consul rushed into 
 the mission premises saying that he could not let 
 them go because a band of twenty soldiers had 
 been stationed at the gate to prevent it. But 
 after much discussion the consul yielded, and 
 said they would try it. If they could get past 
 the soldiers, very well. The gate was like a 
 tunnel, for the wall is eighty feet thick. 
 
 While the Doctor was getting his horse from 
 the stable the sleds were driven off, he suppos- 
 ing that they had gone to the gate. But on ar-
 
 66 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 riving there he saw nothing of the sleds. He, 
 thinking they had passed through, attempted 
 to proceed. The order to halt was disregarded. 
 A soldier seized his horse's bridle. He was over- 
 ridden and obliged to let go. Another of the 
 guard, outside the wall, levelled his rifle. The 
 Doctor rode his horse to its muzzle, demanding 
 how he dared to insult a foreigner in that way. 
 But thinking that, in such circumstances, dis- 
 cretion was the better part of valour, he changed 
 his tactics, and went back. He now called for 
 the officer of the guard, repeating his demand 
 for a reason for the insult. The reply was that 
 they had been ordered to prevent the Americans 
 from passing out. Who dared to give such an 
 order ? and as the Doctor returned such a bluff, 
 he took his note book from his pocket, asking 
 for the name of the soldier who had pointed his 
 rifle at him. The officer thinking a mistake had 
 been made, entreated that nothing be said to the 
 Vali, and added, " Please go out, please go out." 
 But the Doctor did not go out then. 
 
 When the consuls appeared arrangements 
 were made for him to leave the next day. He 
 would go with attendants, and sleds, baggage, 
 and arms necessary for the journey. He would 
 proceed to a certain place, and wait there for the 
 ladies, going out, as for a ride, with the consuls,
 
 GETTING TO VAN 67 
 
 the day following. Dr. Ussher succeeded with 
 his scheme as planned. He went through the 
 gate. It was a victory of pluck and persever- 
 ance against cowardly and insulting insolence. 
 The consuls, with the ladies, got through the 
 day following. And now, for a time, we will 
 let Miss Barrows tell her own story: 
 
 " Soon we were on the trackless plain. Be- 
 fore we had been out three hours our low sledges 
 had become so blocked in the deep drifts, and 
 the blinding snow had so obliterated all traces 
 of the road, that we were obliged to turn back ; 
 but by two in the afternoon of the next day we 
 were out on the road again. This time we 
 passed through the gate without the slightest 
 opposition, as pleasantly as if everything had 
 been of the kindest and best. We learned that 
 when the Government perceived that they had 
 treated consuls with disrespect, they assumed a 
 meek and apologetic attitude, and were willing 
 to be forgiven. They could even send a runner 
 to overtake Dr. Ussher to beg for a bakshish. 
 
 " By this time a caravan of camels had 
 broken a road, so that the sleighing was very 
 good. We rode all that night, with only a short 
 stop for afternoon tea and two hours' rest for 
 a midnight lunch. This stopping-place was
 
 68 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 characteristic of our hotels for the rest of the 
 journey. We entered hy a low door which 
 opened into a long, hlind passageway, with 
 rooms and stables leading off from it, without 
 the slightest idea of arrangement. The space 
 we occupied was raised two or three feet from 
 the corridor, but separated from the stables by 
 only a low partition. All the cattle and horses 
 and poultry are kept in the house, for the sake of 
 safety to themselves, and warmth to their 
 owners. We sat on rugs thrown on the bare 
 earth, and sipped boiling hot tea from little 
 curved glasses. The only ventilation was from 
 the low fireplace, where pieces of dried manure 
 were smouldering, and one window, about a foot 
 square, in the roof. 
 
 " At this place we were told that Dr. Ussher 
 had gone on. There was a happy reunion when 
 we reached him, as he had been waiting 
 anxiously for us. After a while a travelling 
 pasha arrived, having worked with a large force 
 of men since dawn to get through from a village 
 only four miles away. This meant that our 
 road was open, and we planned to start at mid- 
 night. It was a beautiful, clear, moonlight 
 night with zero weather. 
 
 " The scenery of the gorge was magnificent, 
 and the ride through it delightful for some
 
 GETTING TO VAN 69 
 
 of us. But the kavasses did not appreciate it 
 much, for just as we were crossing a small 
 stream at the entrance to the gorge their sled 
 broke through the ice, and tipped them into 
 the water. 
 
 " We stopped at a Turkish village at the 
 foot of the pass, and there hired extra animals 
 to carry our loads to the top, our horses find- 
 ing it all they could do to pull up the empty 
 sleds. We passed many large wolf tracks in the 
 way. Going down on the other side was rather 
 frightful, as the road would suddenly descend 
 at an angle of about seventy degrees, and then 
 ascend a similar slope. At one place where 
 all the three sleds stuck in turn, the vice consul 
 and our zabtier rode on and left us, so that at 
 the next village our drivers declined to go on. 
 They began to unhitch the horses. 
 
 " Dr. Ussher called to the English kavass to 
 bring his sled on, and he seized the bridle of 
 one of the horses in our sleigh and started them 
 off. As soon as the driver promised to go on 
 he was allowed to drive, but we had not gone 
 more than twenty yards before he whipped up 
 the horses, and sent the sleigh against the op- 
 posite bank of the stream, with the whippletree 
 80 crowded into the earth that no amount of 
 pulling could get it up the bank. Then he
 
 70 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 started up the horses again, apparently deter- 
 mined to break the harness, and so compel us 
 to remain at the village. Dr. Ussher took in 
 the situation, and with an almost superhuman 
 effort, he lifted the front of the sleigh, load 
 and all, and then on it slid much to the surprise 
 of the driver. This game having failed, he tried 
 again, and being off the sled, thrashed the horses 
 into a gallop against a large stone; this time 
 breaking the whippletree in two, and letting 
 the horses free. Again American ingenuity 
 came into play. The traces which consisted of 
 little ropes, much like an ordinary clothesline, 
 were tied to the sleigh, and it was again raised 
 and cleared from the stones. Soon we came" 
 to a place where the only choice of a path was 
 snow four feet deep, or across a stream with a 
 slush of uncertain depth. As our sleighs were 
 only eight or nine inches high, we preferred 
 to wade rather than to risk the possibility of sit- 
 ting in ice water. We got safely across, and, 
 with the ladies in separate sleds, the men walked 
 up the steep hill. 
 
 " As we were all spinning down the other side 
 as fast as it was safe for the horses, an ox draw- 
 ing a sled appeared in the narrow path below. 
 Its driver tried to turn it off into the deep snow, 
 but it stubbornly refused to move. Our driver
 
 GETTING TO VAN 71 
 
 slowed up as much as possible; but Dr. Ussher 
 seeing that a collision was imminent, jumped 
 off, and dashing ahead, put his shoulder under 
 the ox and shoved him, thrown on his side, into 
 the snow; then he snatched the light sled from 
 the path just in time for our sleighs to 
 glide past. 
 
 " It soon became dark and difficult to follow 
 the pure white road. At last the drivers had 
 to walk ahead of the teams while we followed 
 their dark forms on the snow. In spite of this 
 we lost the road, and just when the drivers were 
 becoming discouraged, we were guided back to 
 the road by the barking of a dog in the village, 
 about a mile distant. Here we found a large 
 stable room with a fire of ^ native fuel,' and 
 here rested. When one is tired enough rest is 
 possible almost anywhere. 
 
 " The next day was Sunday, and we had 
 hoped for a little longer rest. But early in the 
 morning the vice-consul caught the two drivers 
 trying to get away to a nearby place where they 
 might telegraph to Erzroom that we were there. 
 He knocked these men down, as he said, and 
 came leading their horse back to the stable. 
 This was in accordance with what we were sure 
 the Government wanted to do — hinder us on our 
 svay, and so prevent our reaching Van. The
 
 72 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 men, however, got away later, taking the 
 harnesses but leaving their horses in our 
 care. 
 
 " Soon after we noticed that soldiers and gen- 
 darmes were leaving the place. On inquiry we 
 learned that there had been recently a fearful 
 massacre of eighty-five men in the next village. 
 And as our drivers had spread reports respect- 
 ing our relation to the Government, the leading 
 men of the place came to us and begged us to 
 pass on lest our presence might precipitate a 
 massacre there. We were about to comply with 
 this request when we discovered the loss of our 
 harnesses. We went to work and manufactured 
 something to take their place from material that 
 we had with us. It took us four hours to reach 
 the scene of the massacre, and so complete had 
 been the awful work, that we could find only 
 some pieces of broken pottery in which to bring 
 our water. We experienced a strange feeling of 
 loneliness, and of possible danger, while we re- 
 mained there. 
 
 " The next day was December 25th, and a 
 memorable Christmas it was. It was, for us, 
 a day never to be forgotten. Taking fourteen 
 men with us to open the road, we started for the 
 pass. We all walked up the first hills as it was 
 all that the horses could do to draw up the empty
 
 GETTING TO VAN 73 
 
 sleds. Then the ladies mounted two horses, and 
 the men walked till they were nearly exhausted. 
 Our poor horses floundered in the deep drifts, 
 but we kept on till we came to a place where 
 the snow was about six feet deep ; to get through 
 it seemed a hopeless venture. We did, however, 
 push through this snow and up the next hill; 
 here our lead horses dropped. All the others 
 were down, or had been, and some of them lay 
 for nearly an hour before they could stand 
 on their feet. 
 
 " It was now a question of saving the lives of 
 our men and horses, so we left our baggage 
 covered in the sleighs, and started on foot, or on 
 horseback, for the next village. It was growing 
 dark and cold, and it was hard to keep the path. 
 We passed several dead horses on the way, some 
 of which had been eaten by wolves, and we 
 feared a similar fate for our horses, if not for 
 ourselves. By following a sheep trail we at last 
 reached a village, tired but thankful. One pack 
 horse, with our lunch boxes had managed to 
 come in. For this we were very glad. Every 
 member of our party was tired to the last degree 
 of endurance, and all threw themselves down 
 in any place and in any manner. They simply 
 could not stand. 
 
 " But it was Christmas evening. Our cele-
 
 74 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 bration of the day thus far could hardly be con- 
 sidered satisfactory. I resolved that we should 
 have a Christinas dinner. I believed that never 
 had we been more deserving of such innocent 
 enjoyment. The arrival of the food boxes made 
 it possible. Our kind missionary friends at 
 Erzroom had not forgotten that we might have 
 to celebrate Christmas under unusual circum- 
 stances. So they had put something into the 
 food boxes to facilitate such an event. After 
 considerable effort in relation to warming things 
 that were cold and the like, with no small at- 
 tention to the fire necessary thereto, I had the 
 exquisite pleasure of welcoming my exhausted 
 friends to a most delicious repast. I use this 
 word delicious advisedly, for it should not be 
 forgotten that everything in this imperfect world 
 must be taken according to its relative value. 
 So ended our celebration of the gladdest day of 
 the year, in a little-frequented part of Ancient 
 Armenia. 
 
 " It should be added that, at bedtime. Old 
 Mother Earth, in recognition, as we may fondly 
 believe, of our righteous zeal in observing 
 Christmas, gave us a vigourous earthquake 
 shock. This was the grand finale of the varied 
 entertainments of the day, and we closed our 
 eyes to happy dreams."
 
 GETTING TO VAN 76 
 
 The next day men were sent out to bring in 
 the sleds and baggage ; but at this point it was 
 decided to leave the sleds and go on, for the 
 rest of the journey, on horseback. Still fearing 
 the Government, the party went around the next 
 town, and crossed the Murad branch of the Eu- 
 phrates river on the ice. The vice-consul went 
 to find the needed pack and saddle horses. But 
 the drivers, who now put in an appearance, be- 
 gan again to make trouble. They had told offi- 
 cials of the vicinity of the fugitive party. 
 
 Meanwhile the ladies, who were left waiting 
 in a nearby village, had their first experience 
 of Oriental curiosity. They were surrounded 
 by Kurdish men and women eager to examine 
 every article of clothing, and every kind of food, 
 so different from their own. First it was a 
 piece of chocolate passed around and tasted, then 
 a piece of orange, bitter from having been 
 frozen. This went from hand to hand till it was 
 black with dirt, when one, more daring than 
 the others, ventured to taste it! The disgust 
 was intense as the offending thing was hurled 
 back to the giver. One of the women suddenly 
 pulled the hair of her visitor to see whether it 
 were hers, or only tied on. 
 
 The next morning the party essayed to go on, 
 thinking that they were now in the province of
 
 76 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 Van, and so safe. But the drivers and the gen- 
 darme, having a secret agreement, contrived to 
 put obstacles in the way, till the vice-consul be- 
 came impatient and insisted on starting, leaving 
 the British kavass and gendarme to bring the 
 loads. They had gone on a little way when Dr. 
 Ussher, feeling some anxiety concerning the 
 loads, rode back to a rise of ground where he 
 could see whether they were coming all right. 
 He perceived excitement, and he heard shouting. 
 Dashing down the road at full gallop, came a 
 band of gendarmes, who, seeing the Doctor, 
 loaded their rifles. He also, seeing their menac- 
 ing attitude, swung off his Remington repeater, 
 and, making it ready for use, turned back, and 
 called to the others to keep together. The band 
 came on, seized the vice-consul's horse by its 
 bridle and attempted to pull him from it. They 
 beat him till they had made his right arm use- 
 less. Dr. Ussher told them to stop, and in- 
 stantly covered them with his loaded rifle. They 
 turned, threw up their hands, and fled. On 
 another occasion during this eventful journey, 
 Dr. Ussher felt obliged to call on the colonel of 
 a Kurdish regiment for assistance, which was 
 readily given, because the Doctor had attended 
 several of his men who had been wounded in a 
 recent fight.
 
 GETTING TO VAN 77 
 
 Many more incidents of a somewhat similar 
 character might be related of Dr. Ussher's suc- 
 cessful attempt to bring the ladies of his charge 
 to their home station, but these we think are 
 sufficient to show the nature of the difficulties 
 with which he had to contend. 
 
 On Saturday the 29th of December the party 
 took a horseback ride of fifteen consecutive 
 hours, hoping to reach Van before the Sabbath, 
 but were unable to do so. Miss Barrows writes : 
 
 " We arrived at Van at noon the next day, 
 and were welcomed by the missionaries and a 
 chorus of school-children. How glad we were 
 to be at home at last ! "
 
 VI 
 THE MAERIAGE 
 
 AFTER the romantic and perilous journey 
 from Erzroom to Van had ended so for- 
 tunately, it is remembered that the gal- 
 lant escort of the ladies making it, was heard 
 to remark concerning one of them that he liked 
 the name Elizabeth because it was the name of 
 his dear sainted Mother, who was one of the 
 most lovable of the fortunate women to whom 
 God entrusts the rearing of children. 
 
 Whether there were at that time any other 
 reasons why he should have been pleased with 
 the name does not now very clearly appear. It 
 may have been that there were. To believe that 
 there were we do not think would involve an 
 extravagant supposition. The getting up of the 
 Christmas dinner when all others of the party 
 were so exhausted from struggling through the 
 snowbanks, and getting up and down hills so 
 steep that one needed to be braced up by the 
 snow if he were to keep his balance, that they 
 could hardly say whether they cared more for 
 78
 
 THE MARRIAGE 79 
 
 food or for sleep — this may have lingered in 
 his memory, as something pleasant to think of, 
 and to retain in mind when tempted to give 
 ■way to discouragement. We have now no proper 
 data to warrant one in making positive asser- 
 tions, but suppositions like these we do not think 
 out of place. In fact certain confessions, freely 
 made afterward, do give colour to this view of 
 the situation, and enable one in narrating these 
 things, to stand at last on the solid ground of 
 the unconditional and the undoubted for on the 
 26th day of the following month of June the 
 Reverend Clarence Douglass Ussher, M.D., and 
 Miss Elizabeth Freeman Barrows were joined 
 in holy and happy wedlock, Rev. Dr. George C. 
 Raynolds, the senior missionary at Van station, 
 officiating. 
 
 The marriage was in the church. 'Among the 
 three hundred guests who were present by in- 
 vitation, were the Vali and with him, about 
 twenty of the higher Turkish officials of the city. 
 It was doubtless a wholly new experience to 
 them. They had never before witnessed a mar- 
 riage with ceremony so sensible and so simple. 
 The consuls also, in their gala-day costume, 
 added brightness as well as dignity to the occa- 
 sion. Leaning on the arm of the British rep- 
 resentative, the bride was brought in.
 
 80 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 This marital union, while still a coming 
 event, had cast its pleasing shadow across the 
 seas, reaching the home of the bride's parents 
 in Stonington. It was at once evident to them 
 that a bridal gown must be prepared and sent 
 by mail to Van. For whatever preparation had 
 been made for the daughter's comfort at her 
 missionary home, what might be necessary for 
 her marriage was not included. There was 
 no thought of such a contingency. Her per- 
 sistent refusal of offers of marriage had seemed 
 to be sufficiently conclusive. But now the wed- 
 ding gown was hastily prepared and sent away. 
 On account of liability of loss on the journey, 
 it was put in a sealed envelope, and sent as first 
 class matter. The postmaster, who had had 
 much experience in preparing the mails, said he 
 had never before received so much postage on 
 a single letter. 
 
 It is evident that there had been a change of 
 view, as well as enlargement of heart, on the 
 part of the bride. It was acknowledged by both 
 parties to have been a case of love at first sight. 
 There was not, however, in this marriage, 
 anything to change or weaken the pur- 
 pose of the pair to give their whole lives to 
 mission work in the foreign field. It 
 wa3 rather, on the other hand, a strengthen- 
 
 i
 
 THE MARRIAGE 81 
 
 ing of that purpose, a sealing of the vows 
 made. 
 
 Mrs. Ussher was sent to Van to be teacher 
 of the school for girls there. But now a change 
 became necessary. While she continued, in 
 some ways, to assist in the school, another must 
 be found for its head. Extracts from a letter 
 by Dr. Raynolds to her parents may be properly 
 introduced here: 
 
 " It is certainly fitting that you should have 
 been informed directly, long ago, how highly 
 the coming of your daughter has been appre- 
 ciated by my wife and myself. We had looked 
 forward with great eagerness to her coming, and 
 had formed high anticipations of what it would 
 mean to us, and I am most happy to say that 
 those high expectations have been more than 
 realized since, after such trying experiences, 
 we were permitted to welcome her. The im- 
 pression she made upon us at the start was most 
 favourable, and the subsequent weeks have only 
 strengthened, and made more definite, the first 
 impression. Her sweet, unselfish disposition, 
 her hearty interest in the work and the people, 
 and her manifest determination to make herself 
 useful, have endeared her to us all, Americans 
 and Armenians.
 
 82 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 " The change in her plans as to the sphere 
 in which she is to work, caused my good wife a 
 little anxiety at first;, because she feared the 
 care of the girls' school would remain hers in- 
 definitely; but the willingness of both Dr. 
 TJssher and your daughter to take this work off 
 her hands till the school is otherwise provided 
 for has removed this feeling. In all other re- 
 spects we both feel that it is an arrangement in 
 every way suitable, it is calculated to promote 
 the efficiency of the workers, and thus benefit 
 the station. 
 
 " We rejoice with the newly engaged pair 
 in the bright prospects which are opening before 
 them, and feel that the friends of both parties 
 are to be congratulated on this happy outcome 
 of the hard and dangerous journey from 
 Erzroom. 
 
 " We wish it were possible that you both, as 
 well as other friends, could be with us on the 
 auspicious occasion which is to unite the for- 
 tunes of the two lovers. Of this, however, we 
 can have no expectation." 
 
 After her marriage Mrs. TJssher found the 
 sphere of her activities greatly enlarged. Not 
 only was there some work in the school that she 
 could do, but it was her great pleasure to labour 
 
 I
 
 THE MARRIAGE 83 
 
 among the poor women. As soon as she had 
 acquired their language sufficiently to get within 
 their hearts, she always had some kind word 
 for them, and they made her most welcome 
 in their homes. But to her their homes hardly 
 seemed like homes. She took upon herself the 
 burden of their deep poverty. Yet how lit- 
 tle she could do in affording relief! Her own 
 happy home seemed like an undeserved gift of 
 God as she compared it with the wretchedness 
 of many that she visited. She, like many an- 
 other missionary wife and mother, was unaware 
 of the good which a real Christian home does, 
 as an example among a people who have never 
 had an opportunity to learn what the word 
 means. There is no word for home in the Turk- 
 ish language. And many of the people get their 
 first real idea of a home from that made by the 
 missionaries. 
 
 Some have thought that for the sake of econ- 
 omy, for the greater freedom of action in itin- 
 erary labours, and also freedom from the heart 
 anguish that they know who must leave chil- 
 dren in the homeland, all missionaries should 
 remain unmarried; but then the example, and 
 the precious influence of real home life, among 
 peoples where home has been unknown, would 
 be lacking; and a great deal would be lacking.
 
 84 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 Because the wife and mother, who must devote 
 much of her time to the care of a family of 
 little ones, usually has less occasion for getting 
 her name into reports of work on mission 
 ground, she is by no means only a cipher among 
 significant figures. Those who know her work 
 best are fully persuaded of its exceeding great 
 value.
 
 VII 
 THE LACE INDUSTKY 
 
 IT was with sympathetic tenderness, prompt- 
 ing to thought and inquiry, that Mrs. 
 Ussher saw the dire poverty and suffering 
 of many of the women that she visited at their 
 homes. Could nothing be done for their relief ? 
 The funds of the Board could not be diverted 
 to the feeding of the poor. And indeed it would 
 not be best to adopt such a course even were 
 there money in hand which could be so used. 
 Human nature is about the same wherever 
 found. To give indiscriminately, and as a rule, 
 to the very poor, while nothing is required in re- 
 turn, is always destructive of the better aims and 
 purposes of the recipients. This is never more 
 apparent than on missionary ground. Jesus did 
 not, except in certain instances, and for special 
 reasons, feed the multitudes of hungry people 
 who followed him. And when because of his 
 great pity for them he did multiply the loaves, 
 he saw how many were unfavourably affected. 
 85
 
 86 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 " Ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles, 
 but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were 
 filled." 
 
 And so the missionary of to-day, the longer 
 he labours among peoples who are poor because 
 they are so circumstanced that it is almost im- 
 possible for them to improve their condition, 
 becomes, with experience, more and more cau- 
 tious how he feeds those poor. There are in- 
 deed times when calamity has overtaken them, 
 when famine prevails, and all must be fed; 
 then the missionary is only too glad to im- 
 prove the opportunity of showing to them, in a 
 manner beyond mistake, the love which has 
 brought him to them, the real nature of the new 
 faith that he preaches. 
 
 But such was not the case with those among 
 whom Mrs. Ussher was labouring. They were 
 chronically poor, always poor, with no chance 
 of bettering their condition. What should she 
 do for them ? Such a question, if asked in 
 America, could be answered in a variety of 
 ways, but not so in Turkey. These poor had 
 nothing to pay for what they might get. Yet 
 Mrs. Ussher believed that something could be 
 done for them. "What that something consisted 
 in was not very clear. Yet here her inborn per- 
 sistency came into good use. In her thoughts
 
 THE LACE INDUSTRY 87 
 
 she nurtured the plan of giving those women 
 work till something came of it. 
 
 At some stations the women were being helped 
 to improve their skill in making lace with their 
 needles. Why should they not do the same at 
 Van also? They could, they should have the 
 opportunity. Some kind friends assisted in fur- 
 nishing a little capital with which to start the 
 business. The enterprise assumed increased im- 
 portance. Skilled teachers among the native 
 women were employed. Soon more wished to 
 learn to make lace than could be received. A 
 suitable, clean place for making such delicate 
 fabrics must be secured. The material must 
 not be soiled. The fingers that plied the needle 
 must be kept clean. Every foot of available 
 space was occupied. Constantly more women 
 came with tearful pleadings for a little part of 
 the new work. Their children^ too, were in 
 want of bread. Thus, with enlarged accom- 
 modations, more than one hundred women and 
 girls were given something to do. The wages 
 paid were very small, but they seemed large 
 to those who compared what they received with 
 the nothing in hand before. 
 
 This enterprise demanded the most careful 
 supervision. There was first the buying of ma- 
 terial, which must be got from Europe or
 
 88 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 America ; then the choice of helpers when many 
 wanted the same places; the careful keep- 
 ing of accounts ; the inspection of all work done ; 
 and also the guarding of property that nothing 
 he lost. Then last, but by no means least, was 
 the selling of the goods. Markets were found 
 in Europe and America. In addition, there 
 was the danger of loss by the way in the trans- 
 portation of material for use, and also of the 
 finished product. 
 
 And it should not be forgotten that at the 
 end of each week the workers received, each 
 what was due her, more or less, according to 
 the amount of lace she had finished, without 
 flaw or defect. This work could not be en- 
 trusted to another, unless it were another of 
 the missionaries, and whose hands were already 
 full. To attend to so many small, and ever 
 varying accounts, taking particular care that 
 each one receive just the amount due her, and 
 that no money be in any way lost, was a weari- 
 some task; but it was ever cheerfully done. 
 
 And this was cheerfully done not only be- 
 cause in this way some assistance could properly 
 be given to many poor families — by means of 
 it not) a few little children might not have to go 
 hungry to bed — but also because thus some, out- 
 side the Protestant community, might learn of
 
 THE LACE INDUSTRY 89 
 
 the missionaries and their work. Special pains 
 were taken to tell to those who came to work 
 " the old, old story, of Jesus and his love." 
 
 The hospital was made the means of telling 
 many who came to have their bodies saved, of 
 the Great Physician who would save their souls. 
 So also the lace industry was conducted with 
 the same end in view. Jesus healed many that 
 were sick, because, in his tender pity, he would 
 relieve suffering, but he always wished to be 
 able to say to the suffering one, " Thy sins be 
 forgiven thee." He had compassion on the mul- 
 titude, and would give them something to eat, 
 but he thus opened the way for him to declare 
 unto them in a most emphatic manner, " I am 
 the bread which came down from heaven; of 
 which, if a man eat, he shall live forever." It 
 was more especially to be able the better to pro- 
 claim this great truth to the poor people of Van 
 that the lace work was carried on.
 
 VIII 
 'AGAIN IN THE HOMELAND 
 
 IF the traveller in foreign lands, though find- 
 ing much enjoyment — entertainment and 
 instruction on every hand, yet comes to 
 feel an almost indescribable longing for the 
 familiar scenes, and the endearing words of the 
 friends left in the homeland, what shall be said 
 of the missionaries, who have been away, almost 
 alone, among a strange, and perhaps but par- 
 tially civilized people, for a long series of years, 
 when they, and, if husband and wife, together 
 with the little ones, with which God may have 
 filled their home, start to go back to meet again 
 the warm embrace of father and mother, brother 
 and sister, to look in the faces and hear again 
 the well-remembered voices of those, whose lives 
 were so large, and so precious, a part of their 
 own in their childhood days ? 
 
 Doctor and Mrs. TJssher, after nearly ten 
 years of life in Turkey, were granted a furlough 
 of a year for needed rest. With thoughts and 
 90
 
 AGAIN IN THE HOMELAND 91 
 
 feelings which no one, not having had their 
 experience, could well understand, they began 
 to make preparations for their journey to Amer- 
 ica. They daily watched the wasting of the 
 snow at the foot of the mountains to see how 
 far advanced spring might be. It was a debat- 
 able question, whether it were best to go up 
 through the Caucasus to Batum, on the Black 
 Sea, or, crossing Lake Van, go over the moun- 
 tains to Erzroom, and thus to take the boat at 
 Trebizond. They finally chose the latter route. 
 They suffered no little inconvenience, crowded 
 into the clumsy boat on the lake. And also the 
 melting snow, and the slush and mud among the 
 mountains, made their way difficult; yet noth- 
 ing seemed to them hard, if they were making 
 progress towards the dear ones that, in imagina- 
 tion, they were already holding in their em- 
 brace. After finding themselves on board a com- 
 fortable boat, sailing towards Constantinople, 
 their journey was without special incident till 
 surprise at the changed appearance of New 
 York, with its sky-scrapers, assured them that 
 they were landing in America. The next day 
 brought them to Stonington. It was indeed a 
 red-letter day at the home which she had left, 
 when Mrs. Ussher enjoyed the rare privilege of 
 introducing to her father and mother a son-in-
 
 92 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 law whom they had never seen, while at the same 
 time leading in through the door four little 
 children — two boys and two girls — the proof of 
 the Heavenly Father's loving faithfulness in 
 watching between the dear ones, here and there, 
 while they had been separated one from the 
 other. In regard to leaving her home and thus 
 coming back she might adopt the words of the 
 prosperous Jacob when he was returning from 
 his interesting stay in Paden-aram : " With my 
 staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am 
 become two bands." 
 
 It was a great relief to the missionary family 
 to be able to feel that they had escaped all the 
 dangers of the hard journey, and were now in a 
 land of rest, and of safety. But soon they had 
 given to them another lesson to learn. We do 
 not know when our most deadly enemy may be 
 nearest. W^e are safe only when in faith we 
 rest in God. And then our safety is in His 
 faithfulness, and not in what we may desire. 
 Fell disease came to the Ussher family. The 
 older of the two little girls lay a dying. God 
 had come to take her back to himself, his gift, 
 Dorothea. Of that time her father says : 
 
 " Her lungs were swollen, and every breath 
 she drew was such an exertion as to shake the.
 
 THE FOUR CHILDREN THAT MRS. USSHER INTRODUCED 
 
 TO THEIR GRANDPARENTS IN STONINGTON 
 
 Dorothea, who died there, standing at the left.
 
 AGAIN IN THE HOMELAND 93 
 
 bed on which she lay. Her distress was extreme, 
 and yet she bore it so patiently, and took the 
 remedies without a murmur. 
 
 " Monday noon she seemed about to leave us, 
 when she said : ' Papa, can't you please tell 
 Jestis to make me better ? ' She always said 
 * tell ' for ask. I knelt by her bed and prayed 
 for her relief, and as I ceased, she said : ' Papa, 
 papa, keep on praying.' I told her, ' God hears 
 little girls' prayers; you pray too; not out 
 loud, just think what you want to say, and 
 he will hear you ; ' and she broke out, ' Dear 
 God please make my pains better for Jesus' 
 sake.' 
 
 " Then she sank back in a cold sweat and it 
 seemed as if she were going at once; but she 
 drew a deep breath, and began to breathe easily. 
 In a few minutes she called for food and play- 
 things, and we rejoiced that she was recov- 
 ering. 
 
 " In the afternoon she called me to her and 
 said : * Papa, I want to say what I say at night. 
 I want to pray, Jesus, tender Shepherd.' So 
 she closed her eyes and prayed : 
 
 " Jesus, tender Shepherd, hear me, 
 Bless thy little lamb to-night; 
 Through the darkness be thou near me, 
 Keep me safe till morning light.
 
 94 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 All this day thy hand hath led me, 
 
 And I thank thee for thy care; 
 Thou hast warmed me, clothed and fed me, 
 {and make me better) 
 
 Listen to my evening prayer. 
 
 Let my sins be all forgiven, 
 (my sins — all forgiven) 
 Bless the friends I love so v?ell; 
 Take me when I die to heaven, 
 {to hewven — to heaven) 
 Happy there with thee to dwell." 
 
 " ' And, dear Jesus, make all my pains well, 
 and make everybody well.' 
 
 " She rested quietly till evening, noticing 
 everything; and she, who had been so weak, 
 threw her arms about her mother's neck and, 
 kissing her, said : ' Good night, Mamma.' 
 
 " Tuesday morning her breathing was shal- 
 low, and her pulse fast, but she seemed much 
 better than Monday morning. Later there was 
 a gradual change, and sitting beside her, we 
 heard her say, ' I've had enough of this.' 
 Soon she called out, ' Papa, I'm all ready : 
 I'm all ready to fly.' I went to her and 
 asked : 
 
 " ' Where will you fly, darling ? ' 
 
 " ' Up to the stars and things.' 
 
 " ' Who is going with you, Dorothy ? ' 
 
 " ' I'm going alone ; may I go. Papa ? ' 
 
 " ' Will you come back again to Papa ? '
 
 AGAIN IN THE HOMELAND 95 
 
 " ' Yes, Papa ; may I go ? ' 
 
 " ' Yes, darling, if you will come back again 
 to Papa, you may fly.' 
 
 " ' Thank you. Papa/ 
 
 " She closed her eyes and was motionless 
 for perhaps less than half a minute, when she 
 opened her eyes, saying: 
 
 " ' I'm back again. Papa.' 
 
 "'Did you fly, Dorothy?' 
 
 " ' Yes, Papa, up past the stars : I went alone, 
 but some one came back with me.' 
 
 " ' Who came back with you ? ' 
 
 " ' He was — (she seemed at a loss to describe) 
 — he came back with me, but he is not here now : 
 he is gone again.' 
 
 " Then, fearing she would exhaust herself, I 
 bade her rest and tell me all about it later. With 
 a sweet, ' All right, Papa,' she turned on her 
 side. In about a minute I noticed a change 
 in her breathing, and ere we could speak 
 again the beautiful angel had flown; but the 
 message of joy on her face made heaven 
 ours, and Dorothea ' God's gift ' to us for- 
 ever." 
 
 But now a change had found place in the 
 character of the long-anticipated visit to Amer- 
 ica, which had been least of all expected. The
 
 96 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 blow fell most heavily upon the mother's heart ; 
 for a mother's love the mother only knows. Yet 
 Mrs. Ussher's gaze was above the dark cloud 
 which had so suddenly enveloped her. She 
 manifested a calmness and a strength which 
 were not her own. The support of the Divine 
 Presence did not fail her in the hour of great- 
 est need. She had an appointment to speak at 
 a missionary meeting of ladies in Hartford, to 
 be held immediately after the funeral of her 
 little girl. 
 
 Would she attempt to fill it ? No one thought 
 she could. Yet in a quiet, chastened demeanour, 
 with apparently perfect self-control, with no al- 
 lusion to what she had passed through, she filled 
 the half hour allotted her with an earnest plea 
 for the work she loved so well. It was to the 
 astonishment of all present. Her hearers, as it 
 were, held their breath, in nervous sympathy 
 and apprehension. It was afterwards referred to 
 many times. One said to another, " How could 
 Mrs. Ussher speak under such circumstances ? " 
 It was the " obstinate persistency " of the little 
 girl with her parents in the parsonage, now sanc- 
 tified, directed by reason, and so made fit for the 
 Master's use. The feelings which would 
 naturally rebel against what so often seems to 
 U3 an unnecessary affliction, were wholly set
 
 MRS. USSHER AFTER THE DEATH OF HER LITTLE GIRL
 
 AGAIN IN THE HOMELAND 97 
 
 aside. She said : " I have a little girl in heaven 
 — with Jesus. Shall I do less for him now? 
 May I not do more ? Shall I not begin to realize 
 now that I have a treasure laid up in heaven? 
 I need not be troubled or afraid. We named 
 her ' God given.' We can surely trust him 
 to care for her. Can we imagine how beau- 
 tiful may be her development in the higher 
 life?" 
 
 Mrs. Ussher taught her children to think of 
 little Dorothea as in heaven, and to speak of 
 her as not dead, but as living there. Her grand- 
 father was not at home at the time of her death, 
 and when, a little time after, he returned, the 
 younger sister went to the railroad station to 
 meet him. As he took the hand of the little 
 one to walk home, she looked up in his face, and 
 in her childish innocence, as if to tell him some 
 good news, said, " Dorothy has gone up to 
 heaven to live ! " 
 
 Mrs. TJssher had her mind so largely upon the 
 lace work, which at Van had been her care for 
 a good while — the providing of material, the 
 securing of more profitable markets for the sale 
 of the goods, etc. — that, with other work, like 
 correspondence and the making of missionary 
 addresses, she found but little time to visit with 
 her friends. It was sometimes remarked, while
 
 98 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 she was at her father's house, that she could 
 be seen only at meal times. Neither did 
 she find much time for social visiting with 
 family friends, or for any form of recrea- 
 tion. 
 
 When the year of furlough had expired, and 
 Mrs. Ussher was about to say good-by to the 
 friends that then seemed so dear to her, she 
 was heard to remark, that she thought she had 
 made a mistake in not taking more time for see- 
 ing the loved ones, that would now be for long 
 years out of sight. She added that when she 
 should come to America again she would do 
 differently. 
 
 Her second vacation involved larger issues 
 than would the coming to America. Must we 
 not believe that she has found abundant oppor- 
 tunity for unspeakably sweet communion with 
 the dear ones who had passed on before her? 
 Has not the cup of her mother joy been full 
 as she has found that she was right in teach- 
 ing her little girl to say that Dorothea had gone 
 up to heaven to live? 
 
 At one time, when she had in some way re- 
 ceived an erroneous impression in regard to 
 her mother's health, and thought she might have 
 passed away, she asked in her letter, " Has 
 Mother indeed gone to find little Dorothea ? "
 
 AGAIN IN THE HOMELAND 99 
 
 It may be believed that some day her mother 
 will find little Dorothea and little Dorothea's 
 Mother, in the enjoyment together of a life of 
 which we can now have no conception.
 
 IX 
 
 THE KETUEN TO THE FIELD 
 
 THE return journey was without unusual 
 incident until the party reached Batoom, 
 at the eastern extremity of the Black 
 Sea, from which place they could proceed by 
 rail to a point within a few days' travel, by 
 wagon or horseback, to Van. We will now 
 quote from one of Mrs. Ussher's letters of that 
 time: 
 
 " Let me tell you a little of our overland 
 journey. We spent one day in Batoom, leav- 
 ing at night for Tiflis which we reached about 
 seven o'clock the next morning. We were sorry 
 to miss all that fine scenery of the Caucasus, 
 but it could not be helped. At Tiflis we had 
 only about eight hours to do a little shopping, 
 necessary before attempting the rest of the 
 journey. But in the first place a good deal of 
 this time had to be spent in trying to find a 
 hotel, and then, after that, in finding something 
 to eat. And at last we found only third-rate 
 100
 
 THE RETURN TO THE FIELD 101 
 
 accommodations, as the city was full of tourists, 
 many of whom were going to Echmiadzin, to the 
 anointing of the new Armenian Catholicos. 
 
 " We took the train for Karkhoon (our near- 
 est stopping place towards Van) at four that 
 afternoon, and we had a very trying night, as 
 the cars were crowded full. At about midnight 
 we were suddenly told that we must change 
 cars. And this change was from a second to a 
 third-class train, which in respect to comfort 
 meant a good deal to us. Besides, had it not 
 been for the kindness of an Armenian gentle- 
 man, whom we had met on the Black Sea, and 
 who was on his way to Etchmiadzin, we never 
 could have taken off all our hand luggage in 
 time. The children were asleep, and we our- 
 selves partly undressed, when we were told to 
 change. The only light we had was from a sput- 
 tering little candle on the wall; and such per- 
 sons as porters were evidently never heard of 
 on this road. We barely caught the other train, 
 in which we had to sit on dirty wooden benches 
 for the rest of the night. Karkhoon is near 
 Etchmiadzin where we spent Sunday. May we 
 be delivered from ever getting into such a crowd 
 again. It was said that 20,000 Armenians had 
 gathered there. Accommodations could be had 
 for only about 2000, and food was at a premium.
 
 102 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 iWe went hungry part of the time, as our hosts 
 insisted upon providing for us, and then, of 
 course, could not get around to feeding every 
 one — ourselves included. We, however, were 
 honoured guests, and were furnished with a very 
 nice room in the theological school building, con- 
 nected with the monastery, and were given 
 special tickets of admission to the cathedral, 
 where the high ceremonies were to take place. 
 
 " As we were trying to follow His Holiness 
 into the cathedral, the crowd surged upon us 
 so that later, when the Russian soldiers had to 
 charge through, with fixed bayonets, because of 
 the panic, the rush was so great that a lady be- 
 side me and I were thrown to the ground, and 
 only Clarence's strong arm and quick action 
 saved us from being trampled on — saved us 
 from crushed ribs, and it may be from death 
 itself. It was a very narrow escape. But we 
 were extricated from the dreadful jam, and 
 finally reached our room, glad enough to be 
 there. Thousands were turned away from the 
 cathedral door. That evening we were granted 
 a special interview with the Catholicos, and we 
 were much pleased with the spirit of the ven- 
 erable old man. 
 
 " The next day we set out for Igdir. Three 
 of us, with our luggage, went in an old foor-
 
 THE RETURN TO THE FIELD 103 
 
 goon, or heavy, springless wagon, wbicli took 
 seven hours to cover the twenty-three miles. 
 At Igdir we found a better foorgoon, which, 
 with the carriage, that accommodated four peo- 
 ple, brought us safely to Van in four and a 
 half days. 
 
 " This overland trip was not particularly rest- 
 ful, although it was all very interesting. For 
 four days we were within a short distance from 
 Mt. Ararat, going around it. One pass was 
 more than 8000 feet high, and we had to put 
 yokes of oxen and buffaloes before our horses be- 
 fore we could get up the very steep ascents. In 
 some places the road was badly washed out, and 
 our men had to hold on with all their might 
 to preserve the equilibrium of the foorgoon, and 
 so keep it from rolling down the mountain side. 
 We crossed lava beds, which extended many 
 miles, — said to be the largest in the world. The 
 scenery was most magnificent. And it was much 
 pleasanter to our view than the dangerous places 
 that we must cross. 
 
 " There was another party along with us. 
 They were in two carriages, one of which was 
 overturned, and went rolling down a precipice ; 
 but, singularly enough, no one in it was sei^i- 
 ously injured. 
 
 " Two nights were spent in the open, as our
 
 104. IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 drivers refused to go on to a village. I made 
 a bed for the cliildren under the foorgoon, and 
 when a shower came up, I protected them as 
 best I could. It is needless to say they caught 
 cold, and we older ones slept but little. Now, 
 however, in the joy of being at home again, all 
 these minor difficulties are forgotten. 
 
 " But in order to reach home at the time in- 
 dicated in the telegram, sent from Constanti- 
 nople to our friends here, we were obliged to 
 travel, with only a short resting spell, twenty- 
 two consecutive hours. The children slept ex- 
 cept when we had to walk up the worst part 
 of the steepest places ; fortunately there was a 
 moon, so we got along all right. It was rather 
 weird to walk up the mountains in the moon- 
 light with the children, but they seemed to 
 enjoy it. Part of the time our old assistant, 
 Krekore, took baby in front of him on the mule. 
 After that he begged to ride on the ' mool.' 
 
 " And then such a welcome home ! It was 
 worth being away more than a year to see how 
 glad the people were to welcome us again. Some 
 hired carriages, but more walked five or six 
 miles, ' to bring us in.' The young men of Clar- 
 ence's ' Temperance and Purity League ' had a 
 big blue and white flag over their omnibus, and 
 several others dashed ahead on horseback, firing
 
 THE RETURN TO THE FIELD 105 
 
 their revolvers into the air, as the most sig- 
 nificant way of expressing their joy. All the 
 Americans, Germans, teachers and church mem- 
 bers, came out; so we formed a long cavalcade 
 through the city streets. People came running 
 to the doors and windows to see us pass. At 
 almost every door there was some one to salute 
 us ; and it made us feel so glad, and so humble, 
 when we realized how unworthy we were of 
 such love. It was not till then that I was really 
 happy in the thought that our beautiful vaca- 
 tion was over, and the long stretch of service 
 was before us. Since then it has seemed good 
 to feel the harness again. I only hope that I 
 may pull true and steady! 
 
 " I need not tell you how hard we had to pray 
 for strength when we closed our door upon the 
 joyous, singing crowd, and we five were alone in 
 our home — in a home that can never seem as 
 it used to before our darling left us. For some 
 days I was almost startled at the vivid expecta- 
 tion of meeting her, at this or that place, where 
 she used to play about. Her spirit has seemed 
 very near us; it did very especially yesterday, 
 as it was her birthday. 
 
 " For a few days we boarded with the other 
 missionaries, but soon we had our stove up and 
 our dishes out, so we could begin to have our
 
 106 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 meals at home. We like our new stove very much 
 although it burns a great deal of wood, and 
 wood is very scarce this year; so we use our 
 oil stove as much as possible. As a result of the 
 repacking of our fruit jars, filled with Stoning- 
 ton groceries, four were broken, and their con- 
 tents scattered through the excelsior, but that 
 is not a bad proportion. Almost all our things 
 came through well this time. The boxes that 
 we sent off last are on their way from Trebizond, 
 and we hope they will reach us before the snows 
 set in. Our rooms are all arranged and it re- 
 mains to set in order closets, cupboards and 
 drawers. This getting things set to rights has 
 had to be done by piecemeal, as we have had such 
 a constant stream of callers that no consecutive 
 work has been possible. 
 
 " We have had at least a hundred callers and 
 we have been able to return but two calls so far. 
 You can infer how some of my time will have 
 to go for the next month. I hoped to open the 
 lace work a week ago, but repairs on the rooms 
 prevented. The girls come to-morrow for the 
 first time. Then also Clarence will open the 
 hospital, with three operations in the morning. 
 
 " To-day he started early for a village five 
 hours away, to see a sick man. He will probably 
 not get back till after dark, and will feel pretty
 
 THE RETURN TO THE FIELD 107 
 
 stiif and sore, as lie has not ridden horseback 
 for so long a time. He had to borrow a horse 
 as his dear old Nedjib has been stolen. He was 
 taken away from Igdir before we reached the 
 place, and no one knows by whom, or how. But 
 it is our supposition that the khanje himself 
 disposed of him. The matter is in the hands 
 of the local police, and of the American consul 
 at Batoum ; but as Igdir is just on the border of 
 the three countries, it will be hard to find the 
 thief or to prove anything. 
 
 " Oh, I must now tell you about our experi- 
 ment last evening, as you may be interested to 
 try it. We suspended a darning needle, by a 
 fairly short thread, over the heads of the people 
 in the room. The needle must be near the hair 
 but not touch it. When over the head of a man 
 it would begin to vibrate back and forth in a 
 straight line; but when over the head of a 
 woman it went round in a circle. It is said 
 that you can test the sex of eggs in the same 
 way. We found when we tried it that the needle 
 acted differently in different cases. When there 
 is no life in the egg, the needle remains sta- 
 tionary. Of course the hand holding the needle 
 must be steady. One would hardly believe this 
 to be really true unless he had seen it. 
 
 " My lace work is in full swing again now. I
 
 108 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 am having a happy birthday, with aplenty to 
 keep me busy. I have written three letters, and 
 now I must attend to the children's lessons." 
 
 The little episode in the life of the mission- 
 aries at Van, when, as Mrs. Ussher relates, they 
 learned of the strange action of the needle, is 
 noticed in this sketch to show that, while they 
 were devoting all their strength to the one work 
 of bringing a new and happier life to the peo- 
 ple around them, they felt the necessity of an oc- 
 casional let up in the otherwise constant strain 
 of each day's work and care. 
 
 And, besides, they, like other missionaries 
 in the foreign field, naturally felt a peculiar 
 interest in the on moving of the great world of 
 life and activity, from which they were shut out. 
 Also the making of the daily life of the children 
 of the station pleasant and happy, while their 
 proper training was not neglected, must ever be 
 kept in mind. 
 
 In this it fell to Mrs. Ussher to have a promi- 
 nent part. And that it was so was greatly to her 
 enjoyment ; she loved little children, and to care 
 for, and train them, notwithstanding that, when 
 in America, she seemed so oblivious to every- 
 thing which did not directly contribute to the 
 success of her scheme for helping the poor
 
 THE RETURN TO THE FIELD 109 
 
 women of Turkey. And an hour of fun-making 
 recreation, when it was in the line of retaining 
 strength for the best work for others, she would 
 enter into with the greatest heartiness. 
 
 And while Van seems so iav removed from the 
 world's great centers of activity, it still has a 
 certain connection with wealth and fashion, 
 which is not the case, to the same extent, with 
 some other mission stations that seem nearer 
 at hand. It is the seat of government of the 
 province, and the residence of vice consuls of 
 the great powers of Europe. This necessitates, 
 for the sake of a favourable view by these offi- 
 cials of what the missionaries are trying to 
 accomplish, the observance of certain rules and 
 functions, involving the spending of a little time 
 and of incurring some slight expense. Mrs. 
 Ussher was always ready to do her full share 
 in making such occasions pleasant and 
 profitable. 
 
 And more, the geographical situation of Van 
 contributes not a little to a certain novelty in the 
 enjoyment of the newest things ; this is because 
 it is reputed to be the place of the oldest things. 
 Do not the beautiful gardens outside the walls 
 of the city of Van include the very site of the 
 Garden of Eden? There are those who affirm 
 that it is verily so. And it certainly is no easier
 
 110 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 to dispute their claims than it is to show the ab- 
 surdity of affirming that Adam and Eve once 
 sat under the shade of trees that bore their al- 
 luring fruit amid the now icy regions of the 
 North Pole. Or, somewhere else. 
 
 But, allowing that it is possible to raise some 
 doubt in regard to the exact site of the ancient 
 Garden, one thing does seem, from the record, 
 to be removed from the field of discussion, 
 namely, that the illustrious descendant of Adam 
 did navigate his big ship to the top of Ararat, 
 where it rested for a good while. And when 
 the venerable patriarch finally let out his 
 strange lot of passengers, he must have looked 
 down upon the lovely valleys, that have ever 
 since been the favourite home of mankind. And 
 so to live, it may be, in the very place where 
 it is thought that Adam and Eve sat under the 
 tree, and ate the forbidden fruit ; or, if not that, 
 at least where Noah and his sons planted their 
 vineyards and watched their flocks, and to com- 
 pare their mode of living, and ways of think- 
 ing, with the latest results of scientific thought 
 and invention, like wireless telegraphy and ma- 
 chines, without life, that talk and sing — to be 
 where, in your thought, these things meet, must 
 serve to kindle within one emotions most pe- 
 culiar and most rare.
 
 THE RETURN TO THE FIELD 111 
 
 Mrs. Ussher, from her frequent allusion to the 
 ancient things about her, and even the indica- 
 tions of the remains of things prehistoric, to- 
 gether with her ever keen interest in the newest 
 wonders of to-day, showed that she felt that 
 she was in a world where the most distant ex- 
 tremes, as has been long believed, are strangely 
 mingled to form an unquestioned present. This 
 added a peculiar uniqueness to her home at Van.
 
 X 
 
 IN THE HARITESS AGAIN 
 
 THESE words were suggested to Mrs. 
 Ussher by her experiences on the over- 
 land journey when returning to her old 
 field of labour. This journey was made by 
 means of the heavy old springless vehicles — 
 which we have already noticed — drawn by 
 horses that must make their way among ruts 
 and rocks, or with spasmodic jerks in en- 
 deavouring to extricate their load from bogs and 
 mire. Sometimes the harness would break un- 
 der unreasonable efforts to free the wagon from 
 its obstructions; or perhaps that would remain 
 unmovable while its wheels were sinking still 
 deeper into the mud. Mrs. Ussher did not wish 
 to do her work as those horses had been obliged 
 to do theirs. She wished rather to be able " to 
 pull true and steady." 
 
 Every missionary, on returning to the field 
 where he has spent many j'^ears, and to the peo- 
 112
 
 IN THE HARNESS AGAIN 113 
 
 pie for whom he feels a peculiar affection, is 
 sure to experience a kind of elation of spirits, 
 as these friends that he had made, crowd upon 
 him with a welcome that is shown in no unmis- 
 takable fashion ; and he is for the first time glad 
 that his " beautiful vacation " is over ; but still 
 things will not seem to him quite as they were 
 when he left them. It will take him a little time 
 " to get his hand in." Until he does, it will 
 not seem to himself that he is quite fitting him- 
 self into his surroundings. 
 
 But with Dr. and Mrs. Ussher the one sad 
 circumstance was that a sweet little face that 
 used to make home so bright, was no longer 
 there. The loss came to them with a sharper 
 poignancy of grief than that which they had felt 
 while in the homeland. But the mother's re- 
 markable strength of purpose, and the calmness 
 of her self-control, did not forsake her. She 
 was soon deeply interested in her work ; if with 
 a spirit more subdued, with an ardor no less 
 warm and pressing. And while she never for a 
 moment forgot that her mission was 
 
 " to tell the storjr 
 Of unseen things above," 
 
 to those who, in the darkness of their sinful 
 lives, were held down to things below, she also
 
 114j in the land of ARARAT 
 
 felt that it was her duty, as well as her great 
 joy, to care for, and instruct, the little ones 
 that God had given her, and had still left to 
 her here. 
 
 And it also added to her pleasure in doing 
 this, that she could make it a part of her work 
 as a missionary, in showing to the people around 
 her what a real home is, a home made up of 
 Christian parents and their children. Accord- 
 ingly what she most naturally, and most gladly, 
 would do for her own, was made a part of that 
 which it was most necessary to do for others. 
 Thus her home life should be made a preacher, 
 whose message could be understood, a message 
 the same in every language, and among all 
 peoples. 
 
 But in addition to teaching her children, 
 she also found time to give some instruction 
 in the schools. It had been her original pur- 
 pose to be a teacher, and she was glad that, 
 with changed circumstances, she was not obliged 
 to abandon this purpose altogether. 
 
 It was, however, in visiting the women at 
 their homes that she felt that she was doing 
 her most direct, if not the most important, 
 work as a missionary. In this she could come 
 in intimate contact with those who needed to 
 hear of Jesus and his love. She also had her
 
 i
 
 IN THE HARNESS AGAIN 115 
 
 best opportunity to sliow the sympathy which 
 she yearned to have the poor, and often suffer- 
 ering, women know that she felt for them. 
 'Withal she tried, as far as she could, to instruct 
 them in respect to matters that, as wives and 
 mothers, they so much needed to know. She 
 tried to tell them about the training of their 
 children, and how they could make their homes 
 happier. A kind and cheering word for a 
 mother she always had. 
 
 The teaching of the women to make beautiful 
 lace, and the giving of wages for the same, as 
 affording them an opportunity to get something 
 honestly towards their living, while, at the same 
 time they were taught of Christ as their Saviour 
 and Friend, has already been noticed. Deep 
 interest in this undertaking Mrs. TJssher never 
 ceased to feel. Time and effort for its best 
 success she never ceased to give. 
 
 Mrs. TJssher was an indefatigable worker. 
 She planned for much, and no small obstacle 
 could prevent the carrying out of the plan. 
 Many times in great bodily weakness and pain 
 she would keep on with her work, saying noth- 
 ing of herself. Three or four years before her 
 death she unfortunately slipped on the ice and 
 fell, breaking the lower extremity of the spinal 
 column. She was on her way to a meeting with
 
 116 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 the women. She continued to go on, and when 
 she reached the house where thej had met, she 
 sat down with them on the floor, in accordance 
 with their custom. But when she attempted to 
 rise she could not. She received the necessary 
 surgical attention, but at times she suffered a 
 good deal, and was never entirely without incon- 
 venience from the injury. Yet she continued 
 to do her work very much as before. The 
 strength of an indomitable will came into play 
 now, as so many times before. She was, how- 
 ever, ever ready to say, " The Lord is the 
 strength of my life."
 
 XI 
 
 AFFECTED BY THE GEEAT WAR 
 
 ALTHOUGH not yet in the path of con- 
 tending armies, no sooner was war de- 
 clared in Europe than the shadow of 
 coming events fell upon Van. The peoples of 
 Turkey were troubled. An order went forth 
 for the mobilization of her armies. The peasant 
 farmer heard the call, and he must leave his un- 
 winnowed grain on the ground. Men of all the 
 trades must drop their tools without an hour 
 of delay. The Moslem and the Christian were 
 alike included. Each conscript must furnish 
 himself with rations for five days, though he 
 might leave his wife and children without food 
 for one day. Only one thing was to be con- 
 sidered, and that was instant obedience to a 
 suddenly issued, absolute command. A man's 
 own condition, or the health, or even the life, 
 of his family did not come into the account. 
 Many, very many, families were left in a des- 
 titute and suffering condition. 
 117
 
 118 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 And it is also to be noticed that almost im- 
 mediately unjust diseriminaton began to be 
 made in the ranks of the soldiers. The Ar- 
 menians were singled out, disarmed, and made 
 to do menial service in the camps. Very natur- 
 ally abuse of many kinds would follow from 
 those whom they were made to serve. And when, 
 a few months later, Turkey was engaged in a 
 formally declared war with her powerful foes, 
 the dishonoured lot of her Armenian soldiers 
 grew still more unbearable. It was perceived 
 by them, and also by those left at home, that 
 this was doubtless the beginning of the old perse- 
 cution of their race. Nothing less than 
 more massacres could be expected. This 
 made the condition of the poor families, 
 bereft of their bread winners, still more des- 
 perate. 
 
 Those in the vicinity of Van began to look, 
 in their distress, to the American missionaries 
 for sympathy, and, if possible, for some mate- 
 rial assistance. But as the war went on, and 
 means of communication with the outside world 
 were largely cut ofF, it became difficult for the 
 missionaries to procure what they needed for 
 themselves. They were reduced to borrowing 
 money from merchants in the city. 
 
 And so it came to pass that Mrs. Ussher was
 
 AFFECTED BY THE GREAT WAR 119 
 
 obliged to stop her lace work when the poor 
 workers needed it most. This was a great sor- 
 row to her. She could not possibly pay them 
 their hire while no money came to her hand. 
 War in Europe prevented her from giving em- 
 ployment to the starving poor in far off Ar- 
 menia. Surely war is a world-wide calamity. 
 Who can compute its losses? who can know its 
 horrors ? The missionaries were fast approach- 
 ing a realization that these questions can not be 
 answered. They had hoped, and they had 
 prayed, that Turkey might not get involved in 
 the mad strife of the nations; but now they 
 began to see that they themselves were being 
 drawn into the outer edge of the insatiable vor- 
 tex of destruction. They did not then know 
 that they were at last to be subjected to the 
 cruelties of its unrestrained fury. During these 
 days Mrs. Ussher wrote " We do not fear 
 any personal injury." Alas, all the injuries 
 that war inflicts are not confined to the battle- 
 field! 
 
 But the suffering of the people in and around 
 Van did not, for the most part, result from a 
 sudden change of circumstances; it came by 
 gradual approaches. It came, as food among the 
 poorer people grew less. In Eastern lands there 
 are always some who are well-to-do among the
 
 120 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 poor; it was so at Van. After the war had 
 been in progress a few months, Mrs. Ussher 
 writes : 
 
 " Yesterday I made six calls on our 
 Y.W.C.A., and others, in the afternoon, wading 
 through deep mud all the way; so you see that 
 I am improving. I am obliged to report our 
 dear Miss Bond seriously sick with what appears 
 to be typhus — the dread disease which we hear 
 Mr. Stapleton and his two girls have now, and 
 which is raging at Erzroom. We have re- 
 cently taken on an extra force of nurses, so, 
 with the help of different members of our 
 station, the work of the hospital goes on as 
 usual. 
 
 " We have lately had a present of two tur- 
 keys, and as I have wanted for a long time 
 to be able to entertain the six young men of our 
 college class, I am planning to give them the 
 birds at a dinner soon ; also having their faculty, 
 with their wives, come in later, for a social 
 time. I greatly enjoy my Bible lessons with 
 them, as they are bright, responsive fellows, 
 eager to learn, and appreciative of what they 
 are getting. 
 
 " Do not feel anxious about us. By strict 
 economy, foregoing some things, we are getting
 
 AFFECTED BY THE GREAT WAR 121 
 
 along very comfortably. We have great occa- 
 sion to be thankful that, as a family, we are 
 keeping so well." 
 
 Mrs. Ussher not only got up a little entertain- 
 ment for her college class of young men, by 
 means of the two small turkeys given her, but 
 she also taught the little children of the station 
 to share their good things with their mates. A 
 few days later she adds: 
 
 " The younger children call themselves ' The 
 Kindness Club,' and they try to carry out their 
 idea of making others happy. Last Saturday 
 they gave a Christmas party to fifteen little 
 Armenian children, and had a most jolly time 
 together. 
 
 " Conditions are in statu quo. Armenian 
 Christmas calls are the order of the day. The 
 cold weather has mercifully kept off so far this 
 winter. Articles in The Congregationalist 
 and Missionary publications are true to life 
 here." 
 
 About a month later Mrs. Ussher puts on a 
 postal for her American friends (she did not 
 dare to send a sealed letter because of the 
 censor) :
 
 122 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 " We have had no letters from you for a long 
 time, no papers and no reliable news; we are 
 longing to know what is going on in the world." 
 
 In a letter dated the last day of January she 
 
 " I am sitting as I write in our west, open- 
 roof room, keeping watch over baby, who takes 
 his naps up here. You can judge by this how 
 warm it is for this time of year. And such a 
 beautiful view as I have from this place ! 
 
 " To the north is the irregular, rugged range 
 which we call Topra Kala, with its funny little 
 * match-box ' on its most commanding peak ; to 
 the south are the more regular, lower, snow- 
 covered hills, only broken by the monastery of 
 The Holy Cross ; while the whole of the western 
 horizon is filled with the expanse of the blue 
 lake, with Castle Rock rising abruptly from the 
 intervening plain. 
 
 " In spite of the hard times the schools have 
 taken in more than five hundred dollars for the 
 last half year. This will help considerably to- 
 wards the teachers' salaries, and also shows how 
 eager the people are that their children should 
 have an education. In many cases the small tui- 
 tion we charge means real self-sacrifice on the
 
 AFFECTED BY THE GREAT WAR 123 
 
 part of the parents. We feel, however, that it is 
 better for them to try to help, as what they get 
 free is never appreciated. The same thing is 
 so true in the medical department that we have 
 as a rule that something, even though it be but 
 ten paras (one cent), must be given for 
 medicines. 
 
 " Of course, a great deal is given to the poor, 
 and Clarence never refuses a real charity pa- 
 tient. We have had nothing coming in from out- 
 side, except aid from the Red Cross, for some 
 months ; and we are very thankful that so far all 
 our obligations have been met. Yet I confess 
 that the future does look dark to me sometimes. 
 For personal needs we have to borrow from the 
 merchants, as there is no way to receive funds 
 from outside." 
 
 In a letter of later date, she speaks of being 
 reduced to three cents; but they could borrow, 
 while there were many about them with as little 
 money, and they could not borrow. And when 
 it was announced to them from the mission 
 treasurer at Constantinople that a little money 
 had come for them — being gifts from friends in 
 America — and she was able to announce that 
 the lace rooms would be opened again, her su- 
 perintendent of the work — a woman who could
 
 124. IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 be trusted, and must be present witb the less 
 skilled workers all the time — cried for joy. 
 
 In another letter Mrs. Ussher says that the 
 lace factory is employing again its full quota 
 of a hundred girls; but in receiving these they 
 had made thorough examination, and only those 
 who were actually without bread had been 
 received. 
 
 And now again the postals were cast aside and 
 the venture made to write in sealed letters. But 
 Bome of these were opened, and the censor evi- 
 dently tried hard to get rid of what seemed to 
 him poor English ! Yet one passage which he 
 allowed to come through, contained these words : 
 
 " The clouds grow darker and more threaten- 
 ing. However, the day must break some time. 
 Tension between classes is more in evidence than 
 formerly. Every day we pray that the city's 
 present peace and quiet may continue; but we 
 shall not be surprised should a break come at 
 any time. There has long been cause enough 
 for it, and we marvel at the patience and self- 
 control of certain parties. It is so unsatisfac- 
 tory to be limited in one's conversation! We 
 shall be glad when we can talk face to face, shall 
 we not ? and then what a lot we shall have to tell 
 each other ! "
 
 AFFECTED BY THE GREAT WAR 125 
 
 The last letter that Mrs. Ussher received from 
 her parents, or other friends in America, was 
 dated February 19th. From that time all let- 
 ters from without, for Van, failed to reach their 
 destination, while letters from within were re- 
 ceived outside with some degree of regularity. 
 For five months letters were written weekly to 
 the missionaries, but not one was received. 
 
 This was one of the hard conditions of liv- 
 ing in Van at this time, that no reliable news 
 could come from without. Even local news — 
 news from Turkey itself — it was hard to get. 
 The missionaries knew that a fearful world 
 conflict was going on, and that was about all. 
 But, with this uncertainty, what also was the 
 condition of friends at home? Were they sick 
 or well? were they alive, or were they dead? 
 One near friend was buried in the family lot 
 with little Dorothea, and this was reported in 
 successive letters, but none of these were 
 received.
 
 I 
 
 XII 
 
 THE CONFLICT 
 
 VAN BESIEGED BY TUEKS, DEFENDED BY 
 ABMENIANS 
 
 ]^ a letter, begun on the 8th of May, Mrs. 
 Ussher wrote : 
 
 " If you received my post card of April 19 th, 
 our last post day, you understood that trouble 
 was imminent. It has come. But let me as- 
 sure you at once that we are safe so far, and as 
 well as could be expected in the circumstances. 
 Our own health and safety seem of secondary 
 importance, except as they affect the thousands 
 around us who look to us for both. Would that 
 I might spare you an account of these last three 
 weeks! I have started several times to write, 
 but simply could not continue. We, however, 
 owe it to our Armenian friends — whom we are 
 proud to call such — to let you know a little of 
 the terrible experiences which they are pass- 
 ing through. 
 
 126
 
 THE CONFLICT 127 
 
 " Perhaps I may give you a more properly 
 connected view of these events if I transcribe 
 a few notes from my diary : 
 
 " ' April 19th. IN'ews has come of the burn- 
 ing of the villages where Miss McLaren has so 
 often visited the schools. Our new schoolhouse 
 •has gone with the rest of the buildings. We 
 have tried to telegraph to the consul at Harpoot, 
 and also to our ambassador at Constantinople, 
 and although receipts were given for the tele- 
 grams, we learn that they have not been sent. 
 The Vali has promised not to put soldiers within 
 our premises, but his attitude is not friendly. 
 !We know that the fight is on. 
 
 " ' Miss McLaren and Schwester Martha 
 have been working in the Turkish hospital, in 
 the city, for five months. And although they 
 are only two miles from us, we are able to get 
 no news from them. 'No one from this side 
 can safely venture beyond the line of the revolu- 
 tionary positions, and no Turk dare show him- 
 self in this part of the city. 
 
 " ' For two weeks we had absolutely no news 
 •when an old woman, holding a flag of truce, 
 brought a letter from the Vali, in which he gave 
 assurance that the two ladies were well and 
 comfortable. He did not say that they are busy,
 
 128 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 but we think they are from the number of 
 wounded soldiers reported. One woman was 
 killed while bearing a message, with a white flag, 
 for the Italian consul to the Vali. Another 
 was wounded while sitting in her shed on our 
 premises. So the Armenian leader will not per- 
 mit more attempts to get news. We do not 
 know when we shall hear again from our dear 
 Miss McLaren. 
 
 " ' April 20th. The Turks began the strug- 
 gle by attacking an orphan girl, who, with sev- 
 eral village women, was trying to escape to the 
 German premises. The revolutionists fired to 
 protect her, and the war was on. This occurred 
 in front of the gate of the German compound, 
 so many were eye witnesses that the trouble was 
 initiated by the Turks. Although the Vali calls 
 it a rebellion, it is really an effort to protect the 
 lives and the homes of the Armenians. As 
 such it has our sympathy in heart, although 
 in action, and technically, we must be strictly 
 neutral. To this end we allow no armed men 
 to enter our premises. 
 
 " ' There has been constant firing, both with 
 rifles and cannon and now at night a perfect 
 hail of bullets is falling about us, but, strange 
 to say, with scarcely any damage. The great-
 
 THE CONFLICT 129^ 
 
 est harm is the burning of Armenian houses in 
 various parts of the city. 
 
 " * We have applications for rooms from 
 many families, so that we, as it were, are keep- 
 ing a hotel with some seventy guests. Every 
 room from the attic to the halls is piled with 
 goods of every description. Some of our guests 
 sublet their rooms, and ask for the privilege of 
 staying in our attic, or unoccupied spots in our 
 wood room. Of course we are rather thick, but 
 we are glad to be able to shelter a few. 
 
 " ' Our own family are all together in the 
 middle bedroom, which is baiTicaded by a wall 
 of large oil cans filled with earth. This shuts 
 out most of the sunlight, but the windows are 
 down from the top so that we have good ventila- 
 tion. The sitting-room windows are protected 
 by bags of flour piled up on the wide window 
 sills, and a triple hanging of heavy blankets 
 across the windows, to keep the stray bullets out. 
 
 " ' April 21st. Reports come to us of the 
 burning of village after village, with outrages 
 upon the women and children, and the shoot- 
 ing of the men. At night we could see the 
 light of fires at Artemid, our summer home on 
 the lake, about ten miles away, and at other 
 villages. We learned later that our caretaker
 
 130 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 at Artemid had been killed, and that his wife 
 had her hand cut off in trying to save him. The 
 house had been looted, nothing left inside, but 
 we are glad that the house itself has not been 
 burned. 
 
 " ' We have had no word for more than two 
 weeks from the less than one hundred Armen- 
 ians who are defending themselves within the 
 walled city. As we have seen the fires raging 
 there, and the cannon, as they were fired from 
 Castle Rock directly upon the roofs of the 
 houses, we have feared the worst. But we learn 
 that the Armenians have suffered but little loss. 
 The thick walls of their houses afford excel- 
 lent protection, while they live in the lower 
 part. 
 
 " ' Since the burning of the post and tele- 
 graph offices we have had no communication 
 from the outside world. If our mail is ac- 
 cumulating somewhere, we shall have a pile of it 
 when it finally comes through. The revolution- 
 ists are constantly sending runners by night 
 to the border, to try to hasten the help which 
 has been so long promised from the north. We 
 have sent the same message by them at three 
 different times. We have felt that we ought to 
 get some word to our Government. We have 
 written, " Internal trouble in Van. Ottoman
 
 THE CONFLICT 131 
 
 Government threatens to bombard our premises. 
 American lives in danger. Inform American 
 Government. To Americans, or any foreign 
 consul." 
 
 "'April 22nd. The British consulate has 
 been burned. Artemid is still burning. It is 
 reported that fifty persons have been killed in 
 this village alone. We try to keep ourselves 
 busy, while shut up in the house all day, that 
 we may the better bear the strain. 
 
 " ' April 23rd. The revolutionists burned a 
 large barracks to-day, but the soldiers had es- 
 caped through a tunnel dug into an adjoining 
 garden. Some supplies, and a lot of flags, were 
 taken as souvenirs. An exploded bomb struck 
 our house. 
 
 " ' April 24th. I have packed two trunks 
 and a suit case, to have ready what would be 
 most needed, should our premises be bombarded, 
 as the Vali threatened that they should be, or if 
 they should get afire. 
 
 " ' April 26th. In accordance with the ad- 
 vice of the Italian consul, we, at much pains, 
 made an Italian flag, to hoist, if it should seem 
 to be needed, over our buildings. But the Vali 
 forbade our making such use of it. In the even- 
 ing, at our English service, we sang such hymns 
 as " God, our help in ages past," " God moves
 
 132 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 in a mysterious way," and " Peace, perfect 
 peace." I never realized before how much such 
 hymns could mean to us. 
 
 " ' We have been marvellously protected from 
 these flying bullets. Of course we can not tell 
 how much the Vali's threat to bombard our 
 premises may mean. He is very angry with us 
 for befriending the rebels, and unless pressure 
 is brought to bear upon him from outside, we 
 shall not be surprised at any turn his cruel 
 fanaticism may take. Still we are not disturbed 
 in spirit. 
 
 " ' The firing is always worse at night, so our 
 sleep is disturbed ; but during the day we work 
 as usual, and indeed much more than usual as 
 the sick and the poor need so much attention. 
 It is a marvel how Clarence stands the strain. 
 He has 141 patients in the hospital, and a host 
 outside among the refugees, who need food more 
 than they need medical advice. Yet they beg 
 him to treat them. As no Turkish doctor dare 
 show his head in this quarter, he is the only 
 one to look after them all. At least twenty 
 babies have been born in the hospital during 
 these three weeks. 
 
 " ' I am now to help in one of the outside 
 refuges, where there are many sick. So I shall 
 have to give up Neville's lessons, which will not
 
 THE CONFLICT 133 
 
 be a bad thing, as he is so busy helping on the 
 premises. 
 
 " ' April 27th. A small band, escorting a 
 company of 2000 women and children, from the 
 villages of the Hiatzsoor region, surrounded a 
 band of Kurds, killed sixteen, took their rifles, 
 and brought their own people in safety to Varak 
 monastery, where there is plenty of food. 
 
 " ' To-day a cannon ball struck the church, 
 near the front door, but did little harm. These 
 thick mud walls are a fine protection. 
 
 "'April 28th. The Italian consul called 
 and advised our sending a messenger to the 
 border as soon as possible. This we did. 
 
 " ' April 29th. Snow, cold, mud. Three 
 Turkish positions taken. One hundred and five 
 cannon balls fired with little eifect. 
 
 "'April 30th. A party of 200 cavalry 
 and foot soldiers attacked Varak and Shushantz 
 villages, but were repulsed. 
 
 " ' May 1st. First bright day for a week. 
 Sharp firing in various directions. Our near- 
 est village, Sukhkar, burned. A man killed on 
 our premises by a stray bullet. 
 
 " ' May 2nd. Another Sunday which seems 
 little like Sunday. 
 
 " ' May 3rd. Fighting on the outer defenses. 
 Armenians have the advantage.
 
 134 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 " ' May 4th. A band of Bitlis Kurds, wear- 
 ing the white turban, gained control of a line 
 of new trenches, and were dislodged with diffi- 
 culty. One of our nurses recklessly exposed 
 himself and was killed by shrapnel. 
 
 " ' May 5th. More refugees arrive. A bullet 
 passed between two women standing on our east 
 open roof. Armenians first used their home- 
 made mortar for throwing dynamite bombs. 
 Were successful. It is now more than two weeks 
 since fighting began in the city, and the Armen- 
 ians have the advantage. By this you see that 
 the Vali has not succeeded in his diabolical pur- 
 pose to wipe them out in three days. He must 
 be surprised at such unheard-of resistance. But 
 the Armenians say that, if they are finally over- 
 powered, the Turks shall pay dearly for their 
 victory. 
 
 " ' There is a strong resistance made in the 
 city, for it is expected that the Russians will soon 
 come to our assistance. But in the defence- 
 less villages the story is very different. There 
 the tragedy is too awful to be described. It is 
 nothing but systematic and wholesale massacre. 
 There is first the killing, and then the taking 
 of prisoners, and sending them to the head of 
 the Armenians to be fed. In this way it is 
 expected that starvation will finish the slaugh-
 
 THE CONFLICT 136 
 
 ter. It is now evident that there was a well- 
 laid plan to wipe out all the villages of the 
 vilayet, and then crush the city rebels. 
 
 " ' Before the trouble began here, many of 
 the outlying villages had been burned, and the 
 inhabitants killed or driven away. So from the 
 first our refugees were villagers, some from a 
 distance. So when our premises could hold no 
 more, the houses near by, and protected by the 
 positions held by the revolutionists, were also 
 filled. It is estimated that there are at least 
 10,000 fugitives who are being fed by us in the 
 gardens. It is impossible to give an adequate 
 idea of their condition. Fleeing without time 
 even to collect their food, they come to us bare- 
 foot, ragged, hungry, and half sick from expo- 
 sure and fear. 
 
 " ' Many of the Turkish soldiers are averse 
 to this butchery; so the Vali has prom- 
 ised plunder and glory to the lawless 
 Kurds, who are nothing loath to do his 
 will. One morning forty women and chil- 
 dren, dying or wounded from Turkish bullets, 
 were brought to our hospital. Littles ones cry- 
 ing pitifully for their mothers who had been 
 killed while fleeing, and mothers mourning for 
 their children whom they had been obliged to 
 leave behind on the plains. Sometimes when
 
 136 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 the mother was carrying one and the father an- 
 other older, they could not manage the third one. 
 Can any one imagine a condition more pitiable 
 than that these parents were in! Oh, I could 
 tell you stories that would simply break your 
 heart. It is needless to harrow your feelings, 
 but there are two little waifs, sitting now in the 
 sun, in our yard, about whom I must tell you. 
 They were found near our garden gate this 
 morning, crying from cold and hunger. The 
 older, a girl about five or six, had carried her 
 two-year-old brother on her back from the Varak 
 monastery, which had been a refuge for 2000 
 villagers before the Turks burnt it up yester- 
 day morning. Their mother who had two other 
 children to bring, had left them and they fol- 
 lowed on alone as best they could. They spent 
 the night on the plain alone, and why they did 
 not freeze I can not see, for the baby had ab- 
 solutely nothing on him but a ragged cotton 
 shirt. The night was very cold. Their hands 
 and feet were blistered and sore, and they were 
 so hungry that we could not get a word from 
 them till after they had had a bath, a warm 
 breakfast, and some clean clothes. Their mother 
 has not appeared, and several persons are hunt- 
 ing for her. 
 
 " ' One of the refugees is the " Road Church
 
 FLEEIiXG FKOM .MASSACRE
 
 THE CONFLICT 137 
 
 Dove,"* who had to flee with her father-in-law, 
 leaving her two children with their grand- 
 mother. She came in two weeks ago, and she 
 did not know till yesterday whether or not her 
 children were among those who had their throats 
 cnt by Turks when her village was burned. Yes- 
 terday, at the command of the Vali, the rest 
 of the women and children of that village were 
 brought to the city to be fed. This is in ac- 
 cordance with the plan to make so many mouths 
 to fill that the food will fail. Aghavni was de- 
 lighted to see her boy again, a beautiful child 
 of four years, whose first word was : " I'm hun- 
 gry." She then asked about the five-year-old 
 sister, only to be told that she had died on the 
 way! Aghavni's husband obeyed the summons 
 to join the army some months ago, and now no 
 one knows where he is.' " 
 
 These extracts from Mrs. Ussher's diary give 
 only a glimpse of a few of the deeds of un- 
 speakable cruelty, visited upon many thousands 
 of innocent Armenians, by the Turkish Gov- 
 ernment in its effort to crush those of that peo- 
 
 * The First Congregational Church in Stonington, 
 Conn. — often called the Road Church — for a series of 
 years supported a girl in the school at Van. This girl's 
 name was Aghavni, meaning in Armenian, Dove.
 
 138 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 pie who were righteously trying to defend them- 
 gelves— their families and their firesides. The 
 effort is to show how the author of these notes 
 was related to these events.
 
 XIII 
 FAITH IN EXERCISE 
 
 LOOKING POSSIBILITIES IN THE FACE 
 
 TO be brought into great and imminent 
 peril involves a certain test of character. 
 It may be a very severe test. And in ac- 
 cordance with one's course of action in such cir- 
 cumstances, there is often said to be a show- 
 ing of bravery, or of weakness. Such judgment, 
 however, may not be wholly correct ; there may 
 not be opportunity to understand the whole mat- 
 ter. It may not be possible to see what, to 
 the view of the one put in jeopardy, is included 
 in the danger, which he must meet, or from 
 which attempt to escape. This in regard to 
 one's self personally. But if what we do or what 
 we fail to do, subjects others, who are depend- 
 ent upon us, to danger — it may be to great loss, 
 or even to death itself — the question at once 
 broadens in its scope, and to decide what we 
 should do becomes far more difficult. The ques- 
 tion no longer remains in the field of simple 
 139
 
 140 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 ethics. Or if it does, there is crowded into it 
 that which is of infinite moment. The deepest 
 and tenderest love which is possible to our 
 human nature may be involved. 
 
 Such was the case with the missionaries at 
 Van, when they were shut up to a cruel and 
 relentless bombardment of their homes by the 
 Turks. They could present no defense of them- 
 selves and their little children but the flag of 
 their country, and that was being riddled and 
 torn by the bullets of their enemy. The bomb- 
 shells were entering their dwellings. Shrapnel 
 was tearing to pieces the furniture of their bed- 
 rooms. Cannon balls were falling on their 
 premises. To minister to the sick and suffering 
 exposed them to the possibility of death at any 
 moment. They had known very well in what 
 condition they might be placed ; they had known 
 that by harbouring and caring for the suffer- 
 ing Armenians they were incurring the deadly 
 hatred of the local government. Should they 
 not then have made provision for the safety 
 of their ovni little ones, while they might do 
 the best the circumstances would allow for the 
 great crowds gathered about them ? They had 
 hoped that they, and those whom they were 
 trying to protect, might find deliverance from 
 the awful fate which a general massacre, upon
 
 DK. USSHEK S LATER HOME 
 
 In one corner of this house the children were gathered, trying 
 to escape the bursting shells.
 
 FAITH IN EXERCISE 141 
 
 their premises, would involve. But that hope 
 was fast becoming a forlorn one. They had 
 tried to send word to possible friends coming 
 to their relief, but in vain. Those who were 
 bravely defending themselves against the com- 
 mon enemy could not hold out indefinitely. 
 Should the missionaries have allowed themselves 
 to be left in such a plight ? Was it right ? Yes, 
 it was right. They did not waver in their de- 
 cision. They were where God in his providence 
 had placed them, and they would not flee. They 
 had had no thought of it from the first. Do you 
 ask, How did the fathers and mothers feel as 
 they looked upon those dear little children, or 
 pressed them to their hearts! No answer can 
 be given. Even those who have passed through 
 such hours of waiting can not tell the story. Its 
 meaning no words can convey. It can not be 
 within the thought of those who have not had 
 the experience. 
 
 The days were indeed growing dark. The 
 missionaries often met together to mingle their 
 thoughts, and to speak to the one Friend who 
 could save. They would sing together some of 
 the old hymns, written in times of persecution 
 and danger, and they found in them a fullness 
 of meaning never before perceived. So the 
 hours passed. The possibility, of which they
 
 142 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 could not speak to the confiding little ones, 
 seemed more imminent. They strained their 
 eyes towards the distant horizon. Was there 
 any sign? There was none. It was only to 
 wait. 
 
 And while they waited before Him who, not- 
 withstanding all, they were fully persuaded was 
 still " mighty to save," — while the hours of that 
 Sabbath day, which should be a day of cheer and 
 rest, amid the roar of hostile guns sank slowly 
 into deepening gloom, suddenly, as if an answer- 
 ing voice from heaven, deliverance came! A 
 message ! The Turks were leaving their 
 trenches! They were fleeing! A rumour had 
 reached their ears. A Russian force was near. 
 Escape they must. So the long siege was raised. 
 Wild rejoicing was everywhere, and " songs of 
 deliverance " filled the air. 
 
 For the first time in their life the Armenians 
 felt that they were relieved from the hand of 
 a cruel master. They set up a government of 
 their own, and began to try to restore some of 
 their ruined homes. Business began to revive. 
 The missionaries reopened their schools. Large 
 stores of grain and ammunition were found. 
 The great crowds of Armenian refugees left the 
 mission premises. But there was still much 
 work to be done. After a multitude of such
 
 FAITH IN EXERCISE 143 
 
 people had been living, huddled together on the 
 mission compound, much must be done to re- 
 store proper living conditions. 
 
 In looking back upon the last days of the 
 siege of Van, when indiscriminate slaughter of 
 all, parents and children together, seemed just 
 at hand, we catch an imperfect glimpse — for it 
 can be only such — of what it was to be in such 
 an awful condition; what then must we think 
 of the poor mother, who, driven from her home, 
 takes in her hurried flight, a babe in her arms, a 
 small child on her back, and another, a little 
 older, must be left to wander along alone upon 
 the dreary plain, till exhausted from crying and 
 fear and hunger, it lies down to die ! 
 
 Do we wonder that the missionary mothers, 
 who were in the midst of such scenes, took for 
 their motto, " Bear ye one another's burdens 
 and so fulfill the law of Christ " ? Do we 
 wonder that they should have done thus, though 
 it may in some cases have cost them their own 
 lives ? The remainder of our sketch will afford 
 an illustration.
 
 XIV 
 
 " BUT I SAY UNTO YOU, LOVE 
 YOUR ENEMIES " 
 
 WHEN the Turks gave up the siege and 
 fled for their lives, they left some of 
 their number in the city. There 
 were old men, women, and children that they 
 did not take along with them. Besides, there 
 were women and children left in the Moslem 
 villages that the Russian soldiers were " clean- 
 ing out." These were left to the revenge that 
 the Armenians, who had suffered such terrible 
 cruelty at the hands of the Turks and Kurds, 
 would be sure to take. Some of these could not 
 be expected to take a magnanimous view of the 
 situation, but smarting under unspeakable 
 wrongs, would be sure to exact " an eye for an 
 eye, and a tooth for a tooth." So on the leav- 
 ing of the 5000 Armenian refugees for their 
 homes, about 1000 Turkish refugees were taken 
 in their place. A letter which Mrs. Ussher 
 wrote at this time includes a setting forth of the 
 situation : 
 
 144
 
 " LOVE YOUR ENEMIES » 145 
 
 " I think there will he no harm in sending 
 off weekly letters, althongh we have little assur- 
 ance that jou will ever receive them. Our only 
 postal system as yet is what we have through the 
 courtesy of the Russian and Armenian soldiers, 
 who include our letters with theirs, sent by pri- 
 vate messenger to the border. ]N"othing is com- 
 ing in to us. Our latest word from you was 
 dated February 19th and was received just two 
 months ago. How we long to hear from you, 
 and also to get something more than rumours 
 about the great European war ! We can not 
 tell whether our cablegrams have reached Bos- 
 ton, or whether you are in anxiety about us. We 
 hope not. 
 
 " It seems queer enough to go into the city 
 and not meet a single Moslem there. But we 
 have enough of them here. One thousand Turk- 
 ish women and children have taken the place of 
 our 5000 Armenian refugees. When they were 
 here we thought we had our hands full, but 
 that problem was as nothing compared with 
 the situation confronting us now. These 
 thousand fugitives would all have been 
 killed had we not opened our doors to them. 
 They w^ere driven like cattle to our prem- 
 ises. 
 
 " Since one week ago yesterday we have been
 
 146 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 feeding tliis hungry multitude, or rather have 
 given them what small rations we could find 
 from our own funds. lS[ow this source of sup- 
 ply has given out, and what to do about it we 
 don't know. To turn them out would mean 
 certain death to them. The villagers have no 
 fields nor animals left. The city refugees have 
 only the blackened ruins of their burned houses. 
 To let them stay, as they want to, in spite of 
 conditions, means that more and more will 
 sicken and die. Hundreds are sick with a dread- 
 ful form of dysentery; others have influenza, 
 and measles attack the children. We have 
 bought forty quarts of milk a day, which, with 
 some water mixed, I dole out, a cupful each, 
 to the babies, sick children, and mothers. It 
 takes four hours to heat the milk and distribute 
 it by billet. The eagerness with which they push 
 around the pails shows how hungry the poor 
 creatures are. Besides the milk, they have two 
 pieces of bread a day, and meat, when we can 
 get it. It is hard to get food even at exorbitant 
 prices. 
 
 " It would be almost impossible to give you 
 an idea of the hatred the Armenians have for 
 these refugees. We can not wonder that they 
 resent all the cruelty that the Moslems have 
 heaped upon them; but many of these Moslem
 
 « LOVE YOUR ENEMIES » 147 
 
 ■women hate Jevdet Beg as intensely as the Ar- 
 menians do. And they are not responsible for 
 the actions of the government. They occupy 
 what was formerly the orphanage building, 
 and four rooms of the old school house for 
 boys. 
 
 " Their condition is better imagined than de- 
 scribed. Lying as they do on bare boards, and 
 helpless and hopeless when they become sick, 
 many succumb. It is simply heartrending not 
 to be able to do more for them. We have emp- 
 tied our dispensary of medicines for them. Mrs. 
 Yarrow and Miss Silliman superintend giving 
 them baths (as many as are well enough) at the 
 rate of forty or fifty a day. This job is hard 
 and expensive, as wood is dear, and the only 
 soap obtainable that which we had bought for 
 the boarding department of the boys' school. 
 This has now to be given up, as almost all of 
 the boys' fathers have been killed, and they must 
 go home to care for mothers and sisters in the 
 villages. 
 
 " It seems almost hopeless to prescribe for 
 our sick, for they die at the rate of seven or 
 eight a day. And as the weather grows hotter 
 the case will be worse. But we are doing what 
 we can, and surely some help will come some 
 time. I have not mentioned Miss Bogers's
 
 148 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 share of this burden; besides her school 
 duties, she dresses the wounds of about 
 twenty-five every other day, also distributing 
 medicines. 
 
 " Besides my work of feeding with the milk, 
 I am trying to get a room in some sort of con- 
 dition for the sickest ones to use. We can not 
 call it a hospital, but I hire a Turkish woman 
 to look after the sick, so far as she is able, and 
 as soon as possible I will have ten wooden bed- 
 steads put up for the neediest ones. The 
 mattresses for these beds are to be made of the 
 beds brought with the sick Turkish soldiers, re- 
 covered with clean gingham. 
 
 " Our hospital continues to be full of Ar- 
 menians, Turks, and Russians. The latter have 
 no field hospitals, and so send to us all the 
 wounded we can take." 
 
 There were other features of this stupendous 
 task of trying to care for a thousand refugees, 
 many of whom were exceedingly filthy and 
 feeble, many sick, and of these a large number 
 dying daily. But I will quote here from an- 
 other of the missionaries who has written of 
 these days of anxiety and of exhaustive effort. 
 Miss Knapp, in her booklet, " The Mission at 
 Van."
 
 " LOVE YOLTR ENEMIES " 149 
 
 " The effect on its followers of the religion of 
 Islam was never more strongly contrasted with 
 Christianity. While the Armenian refugees had 
 been mutually helpful and self-sacrificing, these 
 Moslems showed themselves absolutely selfish, 
 callous, and indifferent to each other's suffering. 
 Where the Armenians had been cheery and 
 hopeful, and had clung to life with wonderful 
 vitality, the Moslems, with no faith in God, with 
 no hope for the future, bereft now of hope in 
 this life, died like fleas of the prevailing dysen- 
 tery, from lack of stamina and the will to live. 
 
 " The situation became intolerable. The mis- 
 sionaries begged the Russian general to send 
 these people out to the villages, with a guard suf- 
 ficient for safety, and flocks to maintain them 
 till they could begin to get their living from the 
 soil. He was too much occupied with other mat- 
 ters to attend to us. 
 
 " After some time the Countess Alexandra 
 Tolstoi (daughter of the famous novelist) came 
 to Van and took off our hands our ' guests,' 
 though they remained on our premises. She was 
 a young woman, simple, sensible, and lovable. 
 We gave her a surprise party on her birthday, 
 carrying her the traditional cake with candles 
 and crowning her with flowers. She declared 
 she had never had a birthday so delightfully
 
 150 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 celebrated in all her life. She worked hard for 
 her charges. When her funds gave out and no 
 more were forthcoming, and her Russian helpers 
 fell ill, she succeeded where we had failed, and 
 induced the general to send the Turks out into 
 the country with provision for their safety and 
 sustenance." 
 
 The Armenian people, as a whole, would not 
 have wished to injure these poor Moslem 
 mothers and their children ; but there were those 
 whose natural feelings of revenge would have 
 prompted them " to get even " with the men who 
 had inflicted upon them, as a nation, such fear- 
 ful sufferings. So the work of the missionaries 
 was for the good of both parties, those who 
 would have inflicted retaliatory suffering upon 
 the comparatively innocent, and their victims. 
 
 This gave the missionaries a rare opportunity 
 to show the wondrous love of the Christ whom 
 they served, and whose spirit of self-sacrifice 
 they would try to illustrate. The families of the 
 Turks who, at the command of Jevdet Beg, had 
 bombarded, and tried to kill the missionaries 
 with their children, — in return for this, by 
 means of a most extraordinary effort, long con- 
 tinued, and involving work of great natural re- 
 pulsiveness, they tried to save ; and, as a result,
 
 « LOVE YOUR ENEMIES " 151 
 
 several of their number, contracting typhus, 
 were brought to death's door— being rescued as 
 by miracle — and the precious life of one was 
 blotted out.
 
 XV 
 
 THE PAKTING 
 
 ONE of the severest trials of foreign mis- 
 sionaries results from the necessity of 
 sending their children to the homeland 
 for an education, while they themselves remain 
 in the field. It often involves virtually a life 
 separation ; or, at least, till the parents, from old 
 age, are obliged to leave their work. The time 
 had come when Dr. and Mrs. Ussher must part 
 with their first born, a lad of fourteen years. 
 Their plan for sending him to America had been 
 maturing for some months, and only the war 
 had prevented its being earlier carried out. But 
 for this, about a month after the Russians took 
 possession of Van, an unexpected opportunity 
 presented itself. 
 
 A gentleman, a newspaper correspondent, and 
 a man who could speak the Russian language, 
 who happened to aiTive at Van, and was to 
 leave in a few days for the north, could take 
 the boy with him as far as Moscow. This seemed 
 to be a chance too good to be missed. So prep- 
 153
 
 THE PARTING 153 
 
 arations were hastily made. Miss Silliman also 
 was to go. At this time Mrs. Ussher writes : 
 
 " Just now we happen to have a visitor, an 
 Associated Press correspondent, who has lived 
 in Russia, and knows the country and the lan- 
 guage well. He is to return there soon, and 
 he offers to take Miss Silliman and ISTeville with 
 him as far as Moscow. It has left us very little 
 time to prepare for the journey, but we have de- 
 cided that they start to-morrow morning. They 
 wish to get off early, and it is almost midnight 
 now. You can easily imagine that we have had 
 a strenuous day. But I can not let !N^eville go 
 without at least a word to you. He will tell you 
 what would take me hours to write. In addi- 
 tion to packing for him, and getting the food 
 box ready, I have had the whole station here 
 at dinner. So you must excuse me for my hur- 
 ried writing. 
 
 " I don't allow myself to think of Neville's 
 leaving us to-morrow. The separation has come 
 so suddenly at last. Perhaps it is best so. The 
 hard part will be that I shall not know for so 
 long a while whether he has reached you safely 
 or not. We have not yet decided upon the route 
 from Tiflis or Moscow. They may be able to 
 get through by Roumania and Italy. They
 
 154 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 may have to cross Siberia. They certainly have 
 a prospect of interesting experiences. 
 
 " Clarence is going to take a day off to-mor- 
 row, and he and I shall take ISTeville in our cart, 
 while the other children will go out in the foor- 
 goon of the outgoing party, and come back in 
 the other carts. We shall probably go out about 
 three hours (nine or ten miles) and have our 
 lunch, returning towards evening. Our trav- 
 ellers will ride in a springless foorgoon, which 
 carries their goods as well as themselves. 
 
 " It will not be very long now before we, that 
 is, our family, will be making plans to see you. 
 Get Seville to give you all a kiss and a hug 
 for me. 
 
 " We can get no word from Miss McLaren, 
 who was taken away with the wounded soldiers 
 when the Turks fled in a panic towards Bitlis. 
 We have telegraphed to Petrograd, and have 
 tried to get messages to her, but her whereabouts 
 are absolutely unknown. We do not even know 
 whether she is dead or alive. The suspense 
 is wearing, but we try to assure ourselves that 
 she and Schwester Martha, her companion are 
 too valuable to the Turks to be injured." 
 
 The farewell words, and the committing to 
 the Heavenly Father's care, by the parents, of
 
 THE PARTING 155 
 
 the dear boy, about to make an uncertain jour- 
 ney, among a strange people in a strange land, 
 where there was war, and at best obstacles in 
 the way of travel, can not be pictured in our 
 thoughts, much less described. As we try to 
 think of it, our hearts swell with emotions of an 
 unusual sympathy, and that is all. 
 
 In a letter of date ten days later, the anxious 
 Mother says she can hear nothing from her boy ; 
 but she supposes the party may have reached 
 Moscow. It was really in Tiflis where Miss 
 Silliman was lying sick with a mild attack of 
 typhus. And there also the correspondent of the 
 press, who was to be the necessary guide as far 
 as Moscow, was suspected by the military au- 
 thorities, and not allowed to go further. 
 
 After more than a week of delay for strength 
 to proceed, the young missionary lady and her 
 boy companion went on alone. Without any 
 one who knew them, and without a knowledge 
 of the language of the country, they made their 
 way safely — only having a pair of shoes stolen 
 — up through to Archangel, where they found a 
 boat to sail immediately for America. They 
 passed up into the arctic zone, north of Iceland, 
 amid the fogs and icebergs, and then down on 
 the coast of Greenland, to New York. 
 
 At the news of their safe arrival, there was
 
 156 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 mucli rejoicing among their many friends, but 
 the Mother never heard from her boy! And 
 it was little suspected by those who so gladly 
 welcomed him that she had already been for 
 many days removed from all necessity of get- 
 ting news from him. It is not certain, however, 
 that she did not know all about him; but not 
 from any means or ways of which we may have 
 any conception.
 
 XVI 
 
 LAST DAYS 
 
 AS conditions in the city and the gardens 
 had become almost imbearable, so many, 
 in a wretched, filthy plight, had sickened 
 and died, filling the air with pestilential odors, 
 and also whooping cough having broken out 
 among the children, it was decided to take those 
 who seemed to need some change most, down 
 to Artemid, for fresh air and a better chance for 
 recovery. 
 
 Concerning this outing, and the preparation 
 for it, we may learn in part from the letter of 
 Mrs. Ussher to her absent boy of whose where- 
 abouts and condition she knew nothing at all. 
 She did not even know whether he had lived 
 to reach America. But she, with Dr. Ussher 
 also, was sick in bed with what afterwards 
 proved to be the dreaded typhus. The anxious 
 mother said to her boy that she would write 
 her first letter from Artemid to him. There is 
 more than a suspicion that she may even then 
 ihave been apprehensive that it might be her 
 157
 
 158 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 last letter. It was so. It was dated July 5tli, 
 1915. 
 
 " My darling Neville : 
 
 " My first letter from Artemid shall be to 
 you, my dear boy. It seems so strange to be 
 here without you, as you always enjoyed this 
 place so much. Last Tuesday I came down with 
 three Turkish women and Movses, the carpenter, 
 and we did what we could, from nine o'clock 
 till five, to make this place inhabitable. But 
 you ought to have seen the downstairs room! 
 The day after Mr. Yarrow, Miss Bond and I 
 came down to lock up the house, etc., Antraneg 
 came to this village and the surrounding dis- 
 trict, with three or four thousand sheep. A con- 
 venient way to count the sheep was to pass them 
 through the front door of our house, through 
 the dining room and kitchen, and so out the back 
 door. As this was done for ten nights, you can 
 imagine the condition of the rooms. We couldn't 
 clean the floors, even with a shovel. When 
 Hyganoosh, Beverly and I came down the next 
 evening, we soaked the floors; and by working 
 five solid hours the next day, and with the use 
 of great quantities of water, we were able to 
 make the boards clean. 
 
 " The next day Father brought Eleanor and
 
 LAST DAYS 159 
 
 Sydney down, and took me back to the city for 
 the lace work — closing the accounts. That night 
 we returned. Father hoped to go back to the 
 city this morning, but for some time he has 
 been exhausted, and Saturday was taken sick, 
 and has been in bed since. His trouble is in- 
 fluenza and fever. As he is better to-day I hope 
 he will soon be strong again. 
 
 " The interesting part of it is that I was taken 
 sick with much the same trouble, so we are in 
 bed together; and I am not strong enough to 
 WTite much this time. We shall both be all 
 right before long. Auntie Grace, with Boghos 
 came down this morning to take care of us, al- 
 though she had planned to Avait till after the 
 school hantess, day after to-morrow. After that 
 Auntie Gertrude and Auntie Buff will probably 
 come down. The Yarrows don't want to come 
 yet. Marian is caring for her sick boy, at the 
 Germans' ; and the family have no flour till they 
 can get their wheat ground. 
 
 " I hope you do not expect regular letters from 
 us. Only as we send them by occasional trav- 
 ellers to Russia can we be sure of them. The 
 military post refuses to take any more letters 
 for us, and the Armenians have not started a 
 regular route. It will doubtless be a long time 
 before weekly mails are possible.
 
 160 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 " This letter is taken by the Countess Tol- 
 stoi, who will leave as soon as she can get the 
 Turkish refugees off to the villages. The Gen- 
 eral is at last as anxious as we to get them to a 
 healthier place, and is hurrying them off — the 
 well, the sick, and the dying. It is about time, 
 for in spite of all that can be done for them, they 
 are dying at the rate of about twenty a day. 
 The upper building is practically ruined by 
 their misuse of it. Baron Stepan declares that 
 the walls are unsafe, and that the floors are 
 saturated. 
 
 " The Russian Relief Committee, which 
 promised so much, now says no more relief nor 
 helpers can be sent, so the Countess is going 
 right home from here. Your party probably 
 missed hers at Perigree, as you stayed at dif- 
 ferent places. 
 
 " We wish we knew where you are, and what 
 experiences you have had. Won't you have a 
 lot to write to us about ! We do hope you keep 
 well, and did not come down with whooping 
 cough on the route. The three children still 
 cough badly, especially at night. 
 
 " Earnest Yarrow has come down with 
 whooping cough, and his father and mother are 
 not well. Otherwise our station members in 
 the city are as usual. We get little news of
 
 LAST DAYS 161 
 
 fighting near Bitlis. That place will probably 
 soon be taken, as the Turks have been pushed 
 beyond Sarp, and Tadvan has been seized. 'No 
 word yet from Auntie Kate. 
 
 " I know you will share this with the family 
 circle, as I am not strong enough to write more 
 now. Stepan leaves in a little while for the city. 
 
 " Much love to yourself, and to all the others, 
 from us all." 
 
 " Mother." 
 
 The pen which had written so many hun- 
 dreds of letters was now laid down. 
 
 Mrs. Ussher grew more seriously ill, and her 
 disease was seen to be typhus. Dr. Ussher was 
 in the same condition, and it became necessary 
 that the two patients occupy separate rooms. He 
 became so weak, both mentally and physically, 
 that he gave little heed to what was passing 
 around him. He had the fever combined with 
 pneumonia. 
 
 She being utterly exhausted at the outset, 
 failed rapidly, and it was seen that she could 
 not resist the disease. At times she was mildly 
 delirious. During a lucid interval, she called 
 her little girl, Eleanor, to her bedside, and not 
 disguising the fact that she knew she must leave 
 her dear ones, she committed them to the care
 
 162 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 of her younger sister in the homeland, charging 
 her little daughter to be a good girl, and to give 
 her love to the aunt that was henceforth to be as 
 her new mother. Her strength continued to 
 fail till, on July 14th, she passed into the 
 higher life. 
 
 Miss Knapp was unwearied in her care of 
 Mrs. Ussher, and Miss Rogers, and also of Dr. 
 Ussher, for five days, alone, when Miss Bond, 
 being able to leave her own patients in the city, 
 Mr. and Mrs. Yarrow, came to her relief. 
 
 Dr. Ussher was now too ill to have any knowl- 
 edge of what was occurring. For two weeks it 
 was not deemed safe to inform him of his 
 dreadful loss. 
 
 The children were kept away, as well as might 
 be, from the infectious disease in the house, and 
 from a knowledge of what was transpiring. The 
 body of their Mother was taken away without 
 their knowledge, as was supposed. They, how- 
 ever, did have some inkling of the facts ; and 
 Eleanor said she was well aware that her Mother 
 had died. But it was not thought best that they 
 should look upon the features that were still 
 pleasant in death. 
 
 The body was at once taken to the city for 
 burial. Mrs. Raynolds, as one of the last of her 
 countless acts of loving sympathy for suffering
 
 LAST DAYS 163 
 
 friends, being herself counted among the num- 
 ber needing to be comforted, assisted by Dr. 
 Ussher's sister, lined the casket with pure white 
 cloth, and deposited the precious remains within 
 it. They then covered it with sweet peas — one 
 of Mrs. Ussher's favourite flowers. And after a 
 brief service of words of tenderness and respect 
 by the Armenian preacher, all that was mortal 
 of the loved one was committed to its kindred 
 dust. 
 
 Mrs. Eaynolds was then little aware that, in 
 a few short days, she herself would follow 
 her young associate, in the work at Van, to the 
 home of the blessed — to the peaceful rest of 
 those who have earned their reward.
 
 XVII 
 THE RETURN OF THE ENEMY , 
 
 THE freedom of the Armenians, and their 
 control of matters in Van, after the flight 
 of the Turks, soon came to an end. The 
 Ottoman forces that had been pushed back, after 
 a little, recovered from their defeat, having 
 received large reinforcements, and returned to 
 claim their old places, and to inflict revenge. 
 The Russians vpere short of ammunition, and in 
 no condition to retain their advantage. So re- 
 treat was their only alternative. Now they 
 must flee. They informed the missionaries, and 
 bade them escape without delay. They must 
 forsake everything ; they had hardly time to take 
 even proper clothing for their journey. All that 
 was precious to them in their homes must be 
 left for loot or destruction. If they could pro- 
 cure some means for the carrying of the sick, 
 and the feeble, and the children, they would 
 be fortunate. Everything had been " requisi- 
 tioned," and what should they do ? It was an 
 164
 
 THE RETURN OF THE ENEMY 165 
 
 hour to try the strongest nerves, to say nothing 
 of such as had been reduced to great weakness, 
 by care and watching, by overwork, and sleep- 
 less nights. 
 
 Dr. Ussher had barely recovered a little from 
 a combination of most serious diseases, and was 
 so weak that he must be carried on a stretcher, 
 with great doubt as to the result. There were 
 others who were still very weak from typhus, 
 and seven little children. One of these was only 
 a babe. Some food must be taken with them 
 or they might starve on the road. For these 
 unfortunate missionaries the problem was such 
 that all the future seemed to be crowded into 
 it. In their desperation the Red Cross came 
 to their assistance. These angels of mercy fur- 
 nished some ambulances, and in other ways re- 
 lieved the situation. Mr. Yarrow, rescued as 
 from the grave, was carried in one of these. 
 The long journey was begun. It was nearly 
 two hundred miles before they would reach the 
 railroad running to Tiflis, which place was their 
 objective. Some were obliged to walk, some of 
 the children even, along beside the teams. Their 
 feet became blistered and sore. Some of the 
 ladies were obliged to drive horses, which were 
 not the most gentle. It was from a wagon, the 
 horse attached to which was restless, that Mrs.
 
 166 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 Raynolds felt obliged to descend, when she frac- 
 tured her limb. She suffered much from it. 
 
 They were attacked by Turks and Kurds, 
 who fired upon the party, from the hills beside 
 the way. There was then hurrying with all pos- 
 sible speed to get beyond the reach of the bul- 
 lets. Some were in the wagons, some afoot. 
 Sad it would be for any left behind. Many 
 thousands of Armenians also were crowding on 
 in this dreadful exodus. Old and feeble ones 
 were not able to start with the rest, or, if they 
 did so, could not keep up, and they were all 
 killed. But at last the railroad was reached, 
 and then Tiflis. It was like a miracle of gra- 
 cious protection that none of the band of mis- 
 sionaries, with their little children, perished by 
 the way. 
 
 Dr. Ussher endured the strain of the escape 
 much better than it was thought he could. And 
 after reaching Tiflis, he was again sick unto 
 death, as it seemed, but he recovered, and, with 
 the rest, finally reached the homeland. We are 
 sadly obliged, however, to make one exception. 
 The dear Mother of missionaries at Van, and 
 the friend of the friendless, during the many 
 years of her missionary life, succumbed, in her 
 exhausted condition, to the wearing weariness 
 of the long journey, and the crushing of her
 
 THE RETURN OF THE ENEMY 167 
 
 fondly cherished hopes. She went to join, in 
 heavenly blessedness, her younger missionary 
 sister in the work of saving the perishing, and 
 who had not lived to share her experiences in 
 this last tragedy. 
 
 News was received of the death of Mrs. 
 Ussher before the arrival of the missionary 
 party. Her many associates and friends, of an 
 earlier or a later date, hastened to assure her 
 parents of their common grief at the loss of 
 one whom they had so dearly loved. These 
 many missives, all repeating essentially the 
 same thing, were a great surprise. 
 
 At Northfield Seminary a tablet, dedicated 
 to the memory of their former pupil, was un- 
 veiled. The public exercises of the occasion 
 were of marked interest, and left a deep im- 
 pression upon the minds of the young ladies 
 there. Among others who made addresses, Mrs. 
 Yarrow of Van, spoke with deep emotion of 
 the life of her associate : 
 
 " Mrs. Ussher is not dead ; she can not die. 
 Her life to me stands out radiant and glorious, 
 as a forest, touched with hoar frost, becomes 
 a sight of wondrous beauty. Her motherhood 
 was beautiful. I always looked upon her as a 
 model in the conduct of her home and children.
 
 168 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 " And also in the busy mother and home- 
 maker there was developed a quite unusual abil- 
 ity to plan and carry through a project which 
 demanded careful account keeping, a good, level 
 head, and a plenty of American push. She 
 started a new industrial work in Van to meet 
 the great need of employmnt for women and 
 girls. This lace industry was a great success. 
 It gave decent emplojnnent to a large number 
 of women, paid for itself, and often had a sur- 
 plus for other branches of labour. Mrs. Ussher 
 not only managed the girls, and the thousands 
 of yards of lace they made, but she also got 
 the market for the output. 
 
 " Some time ago she fell on the ice, on her 
 way to the lace house, injuring her back very 
 seriously. For months she was often in hard 
 pain. But she never spoke of herself, and 
 least of all of her suffering. 
 
 " I remember how, one Easter morning, as 
 we started out on our day's calling, according 
 to the beautiful Armenian custom, it came to 
 me as a shock, when some one said, ' Mrs. 
 Ussher is not calling to-day.' I knew how bad 
 her back must be to keep her from calling ; and 
 yet so cheerful and natural had she seemed, 
 that no one would suspect the intensity of the 
 pain she was enduring.
 
 THE RETURN OF THE ENEMY 169 
 
 " To try to save the starving Mohammedan 
 women and children was a harder task than 
 anything we had knowTi before ; but Mrs. Ussher 
 took hold of this new job with the same never- 
 to-be-downed spirit that came over in the May- 
 flower. The sight of little children dying from 
 slow starvation filled her whole soul with im- 
 pelling sympathy. At one time she took two 
 little babies to her home, and cared for them 
 as tenderly as if her own. So she loved the 
 people to whose redemption she had given her 
 life. I think it would not have been an un- 
 pleasant thought to her that her last resting 
 place should be among them. 
 
 " And so we left her there. But I do not 
 think of her as dead in the deserted graveyard 
 of the city she loved, now destroyed. I think of 
 her as she lived — a mother, sweet, bright, whole- 
 some. I think of her as the missionary, whose 
 deep, loyal love for the Master made her ' count 
 it all joy ' to do hard, seemingly impossible, 
 things, and to do them cheerfully. Elizabeth 
 Barrows Ussher ! Her glory was in losing her 
 life to find it." 
 
 Mrs. Sue Norton Sterrett, a Northfield 
 student and for some time a missionary at Van, 
 writes :
 
 170 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 " Two characteristics come to mind and stand 
 out prominently as I think of Mrs. Ussher in 
 her life at Van — her self-forgetfulness and the 
 indefatigable spirit with which she worked. She 
 gave unstintingly of herself and was ever think- 
 ing of the pleasure and comfort of others, and 
 ever doing numberless things to help them, even 
 though tired and suffering herself, so that one 
 seeing her cheerfulness, would not guess her 
 physical weakness. She was a real homemaker, 
 a wise and devoted mother, a kind hostess, and 
 a leader in work among women and the poor 
 and the needy. 
 
 " In addition to home duties, she had school 
 with her children, attended and led meetings for 
 women, made calls at their homes, and carried 
 on a lace business, with at times a hundred or 
 more workers, with whom she maintained per- 
 sonal relations. Besides superintending the 
 lace-making, she had charge of the accounts and 
 correspondence, and also of preparing the lace 
 for shipment. 
 
 " She did her full share and more. It would 
 have been natural and excusable had she neg- 
 lected letter-writing, but she was a faithful cor- 
 respondent. I am sure that many besides my- 
 self have enjoyed her letters. In one of these 
 she asked me to go to Van, and I am deeply
 
 THE RETURN OF THE ENEMY 171 
 
 thankful that she did. It was a great privilege 
 to live and work with her, and the other mem- 
 bers of that happy circle. 
 
 " She was a person of marked ability, never- 
 theless she did not lean upon her own strength, 
 but on the Lord whom she loved and served 
 devotedly, for whose sake she laid down 
 her life." 
 
 Miss Knapp also writes : 
 
 " Mrs. Ussher literally laid down her life — 
 not for her friends in the earthly sense of that 
 word — but for members of the race that shortly 
 before had threatened her, and all those that 
 she loved, with a merciless death. As she had 
 worked for the sick Armenian refugees in her 
 overflow hospital, during the siege, so she 
 w'orked for the Moslem refugees after the siege. 
 She performed the most menial service for 
 them, shrank from no loathsomeness when she 
 could relieve suffering; was unfailingly pitiful, 
 and patient, and tender. She took motherless 
 babies into her home, and cared for them as if 
 her own until she could find homes for them. 
 She had especial tenderness for all little 
 children. 
 
 " As a teacher her keen intellect, her zest for
 
 172 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 knowledge and research, her rich stores of 
 original thought, deeply and permanently in- 
 fluenced her pupils. As a mother she was ideal, 
 as a friend loyal, and helpful, and loving. In 
 every relation of life, with her unswerving devo- 
 tion to duty, her unflinching fortitude under 
 suffering, and her forgetfulness of self, she 
 showed forth the Christ within her. Her life 
 was a shining forth of His glory; it was a 
 strain of heavenly music, every note true, and 
 strong, and sweet, and inspiring. 
 
 " Her grave is now unmarked and lonely ; 
 but we hope that beside it will soon rise, as a 
 fitting memorial of her self-sacrifice, a hospital 
 which will minister to the physical and spiritual 
 needs of a sorely stricken people."
 
 XVIII 
 
 IS THE WORK OF THE CHRISTIAN- 
 ENDED AT DEATH? 
 
 IT seems to be. And if so, some questions 
 arise which are answered with difficulty. 
 Why does death come so soon to many who 
 are best of all fitted to do good ? Side by side 
 with these are individuals whose aim does not 
 seem to be to help others to have and enjoy the 
 best things. Indeed there are many whose lives 
 appear to be self-centred ; who do not make 
 the world any better for their living in it. They 
 have even made it much worse, and do not 
 seem disposed to change their ways of living. 
 Such often continue in the world, to the world's 
 injury, while the persons whose lives are filled 
 with benevolent activity, are in their youth 
 taken from it. 
 
 Why then under the beneficent government 
 of God, who desires all men to be saved, is the 
 injurious man permitted to stay in the world, 
 while the man who does the world good is not ? 
 If it were to save the wicked man, there would 
 173
 
 174 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 seem to be some reason for such a state of 
 things, but it is the testimony of observation 
 that the longer a person lives in this world the 
 less he is inclined to make any radical change 
 in the ways and ends of living. 
 
 Why is the active, devoted young person who 
 " works righteousness," often the first to be cut 
 off by death? From the earliest times this 
 seems to have been so. Abel died, Cain lived. 
 According to the generally accepted record, it 
 would not seem that it was good for the rest 
 of mankind that Cain should live. Would not 
 Abel have been a desirable person to have lived 
 long among others, a blessing to all ? 
 
 Why did young Jonathan die on Mount 
 Gilboa ? Was not the world then sadly in need 
 of all who would show to others the sweetness 
 of pure and loving friendship? 
 
 Why was young Stephen, who would have 
 continued to be a help and an encouragement 
 to others through his bold witnessing for Jesus, 
 and whose face was as the face of an angel, 
 doomed to have that sweet face bruised and 
 battered unto death by the stones of the insane 
 Sanhedrin? Was there not then sore need of 
 just such men as he ? 
 
 And when a little later a delicate Christian 
 woman like Perpetua, was thrown into the arena
 
 IS THE WORK ENDED AT DEATH? 175 
 
 to the lions, was there no power on earth or 
 ill heaven to save her alive ? The world could ill 
 afford to lose such a witness to the truth as 
 was she. 
 
 Was not the life of John Huss of far greater 
 value to the world than that of his persecutors ? 
 .Why should there be a power that could prevent 
 his ever doing more for mankind ? 
 
 And coming to later times, note the many 
 who have begun their work of trying to save 
 men only to end it! Did they thus do all? 
 Had it been forbidden that they should do more 
 of that Avhich their loving hearts had prompted 
 them to begin ? 
 
 How was it with Henry Martyn when he 
 laid down his wondrous young life at Toeat? 
 Had he done all ? Had Mrs. Harriet Atwood 
 Newell, when she reached the Isle of France 
 only to die there ? Had Mrs. Mary Hawes Van 
 Lennep, at Constantinople ? And shall we ask 
 concerning Adams who when dying in Africa, 
 soon after his arrival, had a vision of Africa 
 redeemed ? Should he not have stayed to as- 
 sist in its redemption? Could he stop just 
 there, and do nothing? 
 
 And shall we ask for the thoughts and the 
 longings of heart, of a Chapin in India, a 
 Pitkin in China, a Merriam in Bulgaria, a
 
 176 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 Giles at Cesarea, or a Lobdell at Mosul ? They 
 were only permitted to begin the work they 
 loved. And further, to speak of Labaree, of 
 Rogers, of Holbrook, of Leslie — what shall we 
 say? All that they had they gave in loving 
 devotion, facing danger and death in the path 
 of duty. Had they done all that they set out 
 to do? Could they be satisfied with no oppor- 
 tunity to do more ? 
 
 And had Mrs. Ussher accomplished as much 
 as she so fondly hoped to? At one time when 
 attacked with a sudden and serious illness, 
 she wrote: 
 
 " I did not feel as if I could go then, I had 
 done so very little." 
 
 When at last she had reached the end, did 
 she feel any better satisfied with what she had 
 accomplished ? Probably not. The more one 
 does in the kingdom of heaven here on earth, 
 the more he sees that must be done; and the 
 more eagerly he would have a part in it. 
 
 Is it then possible that the dying saint, com- 
 ing to the end of his service of God here, enters 
 upon a life of inactivity and repose? Such a 
 thing can not be reasonably supposed. It would 
 do violence to the very constitution of our being.
 
 IS THE WORK ENDED AT DEATH ? 177 
 
 It would not be felicity ; it would not be enjoy- 
 ment. Is it not then the only reasonable sup- 
 position that when the Christian, passing 
 through the gate of death, enters into a higher 
 life, he at the same time enters into a broader 
 field of usefulness ? Instead of being cut off, 
 in his youth or in the midst of his days, com- 
 paring his present with his past, it may be 
 said that he has now begun that service of his 
 God, in his gracious and glorious kingdom, in 
 which alone he can fulfill the purpose of his 
 creation. 
 
 And where, and for whom, shall this his 
 higher service be rendered ? Will it be for some 
 beings, in some of God's " many mansions " 
 far away, and before unknown? May we not 
 rather believe that it will be rendered to the 
 dear ones left on earth, and to the multitudes 
 that should be saved ? " Are they not all min- 
 istering spirits, sent to minister to them who 
 shall be heirs of salvation ? " We are not to 
 think that they who have passed on before us, 
 cease to know anything of us, and can not in 
 any way help us. It is probable that they can 
 render us, in our attainments in the spiritual 
 life, a far more important service than was 
 possible while they were here with us in the 
 body; and that the sphere of their activity has
 
 178 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 been immeasurably enlarged. How was it with 
 Jesus, our Lord Christ ? His being is a mys- 
 tery, far beyond our comprehension. But at the 
 same time, we may know some things concern- 
 ing him. God dwelt in him ; he was what we 
 may know of God as our Father and Friend; 
 but he was really and truly a man. As a man 
 he had a human body, subject to human limita- 
 tions. But he said unto his disciples, " It is 
 expedient for you that I go away." After that 
 he would come again, not to be with a few only, 
 as in the body, but to be everywhere present; 
 the sphere of his activity to be changed from 
 the finiteness of his bodily existence to the in- 
 finitude of his own eternal life. After that 
 He could not only be present with His 
 believing ones everywhere, but He could 
 do for His then present disciples what while 
 in the body He could not. It was profitable 
 for them, and also profitable for the whole 
 world, that He pass through the change of 
 death. 
 
 And shall not the experience of those he was 
 graciously pleased to call His brethren, because 
 made in the image of God, and possessing the 
 spirit of God as their essential life, be in some 
 respects like His ? Shall they not also be able 
 to do more for the salvation of others, after
 
 IS THE WORK ENDED AT DEATH ? 179 
 
 they have passed into the glorious possibilities 
 of their eternal state ? 
 
 Do we ask how this can be? We can not 
 know. Jesus is not seen now as He was seen 
 by His disciples when in the body. But those 
 who are His now know more of Him than they 
 did who were with Him when in the body. We 
 know not the process by which we are enabled 
 to enter into the fellowship of Christ in the 
 spiritual life. There is nothing which we can 
 see, or hear, or handle with our hands. But 
 we do know the reality of it. There is nothing 
 in the possible assistance given to us by our 
 departed friends, which we can see or hear or 
 handle with our hands ; but it may be just as 
 real as the presence of Christ. 
 
 Would we might see our dear ones in their 
 present broader, higher, and holier sphere of 
 activity! But let us devoutly thank God for 
 them as they are — and wait.
 
 XIX 
 
 WAS IT LIFE THROWN AWAY, OR 
 ACHIEVEMENT— WHICH ? 
 
 IT is not in human nature to wish to incur 
 the disrespect of mankind. Even such as 
 have become confused in their thought of 
 what is worthy of the approval of others, can 
 hardly hold life desirable, if all these show that 
 they think there has been a fatal mistake, and 
 that the consequent failure is alone the fault of 
 the one who has suffered by it. It may be ad- 
 mitted that one can not know the future, and 
 that the destruction of one's expectations may 
 sometimes be like the wind — no one knowing 
 whence it cometh — but to be thought to have 
 deliberately taken such a course as to invite 
 disaster, even a disaster that is overwhelming 
 — this is to a sensitive soul well-nigh unendur- 
 able. There must be some possible excuse for 
 such result, or the sun of one's life will have 
 set with no hope of another day. 
 
 And now concerning the young martyr 
 missionary at Van what must be the verdict? 
 J80
 
 WAS IT LIFE THROWN AWAY? 181 
 
 What does the world think? Are there many 
 who say in their hearts, if not openly, " What 
 a pity that one so well fitted to live a life of 
 great gratification to herself, and of usefulness 
 to others, should have given all she had to a 
 project, where it might have been seen that 
 failure would be certain ? " 
 
 " Why should ' Sweet Beth,' as her school- 
 mates so fondly called her, who, with oppor- 
 tunity for education and culture, had fitted her- 
 self to move in influential circles, to take a place 
 in the best society — why should she hide her- 
 self away among a people who could have but 
 scant appreciation of what she would do for 
 them? Remaining at home, she would have 
 had abundant opportunity for usefulness. Was 
 it necessary that she should let the advantage 
 which her training had given her, slip away 
 unused ? " 
 
 But did she thoughtlessly throw away that 
 which by years of study and discipline she had 
 acquired ? Does not the asking of such a ques- 
 tion betray an imperfect conception of the con- 
 dition of the world to-day ? Does it not imply a 
 disregarding of the fact that the unfortunate 
 and belated peoples are anxiously asking for, 
 or, it may be, blindly groping towards, some 
 light that will lead them to a truer and a hap-
 
 182 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 pier life ? Does not the asking of such a ques- 
 tion reveal an overlooking of that preparation 
 which is necessary for one who would labour 
 successfully in the foreign mission field? Is 
 anywhere else the most thorough preparation 
 more imperatively needed ? 
 
 But to look at this matter from another point 
 of view, we may ask, What is the true end of 
 living? What should one set before one's self 
 as the goal to be reached ? 
 
 If life ought to be satisfactory when each day 
 brings its desired gratifications, if that is 
 enough, then surely Beth Barrows's life was 
 thrown away. If daily amusement, something 
 which will relieve one of serious thought of 
 one's self or of others, is the end sought, then 
 her life was indeed thrown away. If expensive 
 apparel and glittering jewels, with social func- 
 tions for their display, is the end sought, then 
 her life was thrown away. If gratification in 
 self-culture, the study of literature and the fine 
 arts, with no effort to impart to others what is 
 acquired, if this is the end of living, then she 
 did throw her life away. If pious exercises, 
 like attending church, partaking of sacraments, 
 meditation and repeating of prayers, with little 
 or no thought of trying to save the unsaved, — 
 if this is the end of Christian attainment, then
 
 WAS IT LIFE THROWN AWAY? 183 
 
 her life of constant oiitreaching, of self-denying 
 effort, was thrown away. 
 
 But if, on the other hand, it is true that she 
 caught something of the spirit of the Christ, 
 who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes be- 
 came poor, then she began to save, for the best 
 use, what she had acquired. If she perceived 
 that the sinful peoples who have been long grop- 
 ing in their blindness, not only need instruction 
 but also human sympathy, which, in its power 
 to save, is made divine, then her resolving to 
 go to the foreign field was not an unnatural 
 thing to do. She did not thus throw her life 
 away. If she was impressed with the thought 
 that the little light that one individual Chris- 
 tian may shed is of far greater use when shin- 
 ing in darkness than where there is already 
 illumination, it was certainly a reasonable pur- 
 pose of hers to go, for her life work, far away 
 from her otnti Christian home. If she heard 
 the blessed Lord's last command to His dis- 
 ciples, " Go ye into all the world and preach 
 the gospel to every creature," and knowing that 
 she herself was able to go, said " Here, Lord, I 
 am, send me," such act of obedience could not 
 be characterized as erratic or unwise. 
 
 In fine, if, in her choosing what course to 
 take, what work to do, the entering into the pur-
 
 184 IN THE LAND OF ARARAT 
 
 pose of God to convert the unfortunate and un- 
 developed peoples of the world into such as shall 
 at last form part of the innumerable hosts of 
 the glorified humanity of the eternal ages, if 
 this could absorb, and hold unswervingly to the 
 end, her thoughts all through her days of study 
 in school and college, then, after years of suc- 
 cessful service, often difficult but always happy, 
 the passing of her life from the little summer 
 cottage on the beautiful lake in the land of 
 Ararat, to the unseen realm of a new existence 
 — to a broader vision, a higher service, and a 
 blessedness that shall have no end — can hardly 
 have been an event concerning which one may 
 properly ask, Was all this worth the while ? 
 
 It is written, " Behold I make all things 
 new." And so the promise, bright with im- 
 mortality : " Be thou faithful unto death and 
 I will give thee the crown of life." 
 
 raiNTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
 
 JAPAN— MISSIONS AND POLITICS 
 
 KIYOSHI K. KAJVAKAMI Author of " American 
 
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 Asia at the Door 
 
 A Study of the Japanese Question in Continental 
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 "The author has spent many years in the land of sherry 
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 MARGARET E. BURTON Author of" Notable Women 
 
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 The Education of Women in Japan 
 
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 The Cross in Japan 
 
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 Orient should read this book. Mr. Hagin has not simply 
 been a casual observer, but a close, discriminating student of 
 Japanese life. The whole book is saturated, filled with the at- 
 mosphere of service and Christian altruism. One exceptional 
 authority pronounces it the best book on Japan ever pub- 
 lished.' ' — Missionary Tidings. 
 
 JOHN HYDE DE FOREST 
 
 The Evolution of a Missionary 
 
 A Biography of John Hyde De Forest, for thirty- 
 seven years Missionary of the American Board, in 
 Japan, by Charlotte B. De Forest. Illustrated, net 
 $1.50. 
 
 "Even the most conservative critic will bless God for so 
 Christlike a lifeand so devoted a ministry. Candidates and 
 young missionaries will find in these pages a norm for their 
 own imitation in those mtthods and activities which are 
 fundamental in missions." — Prof, Harlan P. Beach.
 
 CONCERNING FOREIGN LANDS 
 
 EDIVARD IFARREN CAPEN, Ph. D. 
 
 Organizing Secretary of the Hartford School of Missions 
 
 Sociological Progress in Mission Lands 
 
 8vo, cloth, net $1.50. 
 
 ITie material for this able sociological survey Dr. Capen 
 gathered during a visitation of the missionary fields of the 
 world. Dr. James Dennis says: "Dr. Capen's grasp of a very 
 large and complex subject is adequate and well balanced." 
 
 JEREMIAH ZIMMERMAN, P.P. 
 
 The God Juggernaut and Hinduism in 
 
 India illustrated, 8vo, cloth, net $1.50. 
 
 "A careful study of the religious rites and gods of Hindu- 
 ism, based on his observations during a 5,000 mile journey in 
 the East, Dr. Zimmerman writes entertainingly and instruc- 
 tively of the life of these millions of our fellow human- 
 beings of whom we have known so little." — Syracuse Herald. 
 
 REN A L. HOGG Of the American {United Presbyterian) 
 
 —— ^^— ^— — — Mission in Egypt. 
 
 A Master Builder on the Nile 
 
 Being the Record of the Life and Labors of John 
 Hogg, D.D. Illustrated, 8vo, cloth, net $1.50. 
 
 Dr. Samuel M. Zwemer says: "It is bound to interest 
 people as fully as the life story of any missionary published 
 in recent years." 
 
 CARL LEROr HOWLANP, Ph.B. 
 
 Manual of Missions 
 
 Introduction by Bishop W. T. Hogue, cloth, net 75c, 
 
 "An authoritative statement of just what those interested in 
 world-wide evangelization desire to know regarding the occu- 
 pied and unoccupied fields of missionary enterprise. The 
 writer knows of no other work which presents so many and 
 euch varied facts regarding foreign missionary work within 
 so small a compass." — Bishop Wilson T. Hogue. 
 
 J. J. MULLOWNEY, D.D. and His Chinese Friend 
 
 A Revelation of the Chinese Revolution 
 
 i2mo, cloth, net 75c. 
 
 An authentic and intimate record of the Chinese Revolu- 
 tion. The author's data, inspired by men behind the scenes, 
 shows how the extravagance and inefficiency of the Manchus 
 brought about the ruin of their dynasty, and ushered in the 
 first Republic of the E^ast. There is, in addition, a closely- 
 written and illuminating review of the social and political 
 conditions which now obtain in the Flowery Kingdom.
 
 FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 
 ARTHUR J. BROIVN, D.D. Author .r The F,r,i[n 
 
 — '"■*"~"~"~^~~~'~~^^~~~— ~~~'~^"~"~ JMissionary ttc. 
 
 Unity and Missions 
 
 Can a Divided Church Save the World? i2mo, 
 cloth, net $1.50. 
 
 An able treatise, reflecting- the thorouRh knowledge and 
 broad catholicity of its author. Dr. Brown writes of thin^fs 
 he knows, and presents a lucidly written, often passionate ap- 
 peal for unity in missionary endeavor. There can be little 
 doubt that this discussion will make a valuable addition to 
 contemporary missionary literature. 
 
 JESSE PAGE 
 
 Judson, the Hero of Burma 
 
 The Stirring Life Story of the First Missionary to 
 the Burmese told for Boys and Girls. Illustrated, 
 8vo, cloth, net $1.00. 
 
 _ "In this volume Air. Page tells for boys and girls the stir- 
 ring life story of the first missionary to the Burmese. Mr. 
 Page's story is told in a way that will hold the interest of 
 the reader to the very end. There is not a dull page in th« 
 whole book. It stirs the imagination and moves the heart."— 
 Life of Faith. 
 
 AUCE M. PENNELL 
 
 A Hero of the Afghan Frontier 
 
 The Splendid Life Storv of T. L- Pennell, M.D., 
 B. Sc. F. R. C. S. Retold for Boys and Girls. Illus- 
 trated, 8vo, cloth, net $1.00. 
 
 "Of the niany noble men who have helped to make the 
 name of Britain honored in North Western India, Dr. Pen- 
 nell, of Bannu, holds a foremost place. As a medical mi»- 
 fionary among the wild border tribes, his fearless courage, his 
 sympathy, his self-sacrificing devotion, gradually won their 
 hearts." — Educational News. 
 
 REV. W. PA KEN HAM WALSH 
 
 Early Heroes of the Mission Field 
 
 New Edition. With Frontispiece. Cloth, net 50c. 
 
 "Dr. Walsh has not only carefully studied the records of 
 Christian life preserved by the best Church historians, but he 
 has also reproduced in a form at once reliable, instructive, 
 and interesting, the diverse conditions and heroic endeavors 
 for the furtherance of the kingdom of God that characterized 
 different eras." — Christian. 
 
 REF. JV. PAKENHAM WALSH 
 
 Modern Heroes of the Mission Field 
 
 New Edition. With Frontispiece. Cloth, net 500. 
 
 Continuing his sketches of Missionary Heroes, the author 
 has cho«en typical as well as representative pioneers of the 
 nineteenth century such as: Henry ATnrtyn, William Carey, 
 Adoniram Judson, Robert Morrison, Samuel Marsden, John 
 Williams, William Johnson, John Hunt, Allen Gardiner, Alex- 
 ander Duff, David Livingstone, Bishop Patteson.
 
 QUESTIONS OF THE DAY 
 
 FREDERICK W. PEA BODY 
 
 The Religio-Medical Masquerade 
 
 New Edition. i2mo, cloth, net $i.oo. 
 
 Ten years of critical investigation of Christian Science, re- 
 peatedly with the aid of legal process in important litigations 
 in which Mrs. Eddy was a party and he examined under oath 
 many of her closest adherents, have qualified Mr. Peabody, 
 above all others, to give a truthful representation of the char- 
 acter of the movement and its leaders. He was the Massa- 
 chusetts lawyer for Mrs. Eddy's sons in their protracted liti- 
 gation. 
 
 /. M. HALDEMAN, D.D. 
 
 Christian Science in the Light of Holy 
 Scripture 
 
 New Revised Edition. i2mo, cloth, net $i.oo. 
 
 "Dr. Haldeman brings every question he considers to tht 
 bar of that highest tribunal, and tests it in the full light oi 
 the divine revelation. All the resources of his intimate knowl- 
 edge of the Bible and of his powers of keen insight and ef- 
 fective presentation are drawn upon. He has so well suc- 
 ceeded that we do not see what more can be said. The proof 
 is absolute; it is clearly stated; it is exhaustive." — Examiner. 
 
 J. A. PHILLIPS Missionary of the Methodist Episcopal 
 
 • Church South in Mexicr 
 
 Roman Catholicism Analyzed 
 
 A Dispassionate Examination of Romish Claims. 
 With Foreword by Bishop Burt. 8vo, net $1.50. 
 
 "A dispassionate examination to the claims and doctrines 
 of the Roman Catholic Church. The argurnents are clear 
 and conclusive. Tlie logic is masterful, incisive, merciless 
 and based upon undisputed facts- The style is clear, lucid 
 and fascinating. It is an arsenal of anti-Catholic facts."— 
 Lookout. 
 
 WILLIAM PARKER 
 
 The Fundamental Error of Woman 
 Suffrage 
 
 i2mo, cloth, net 50c. 
 
 Most of the arguments advanced against Woman Sufifrage 
 a-re purely economic. The author of this volume adopts an- 
 lother course, declaring the fundamental error to lie in the 
 realm of morals. From this viewpoint he discusses his subject 
 in its moral relation to the chief phases of modern life — roar- 
 riage^ home, religion, social intercourse, civic and political 
 activities, and so forth. 
 
 IV. HALL CALVERT, M.D. 
 
 The Further Evolution of Man 
 
 l2mo, cloth, net $1.00. 
 
 A vigorous counterblast to the Darwinian theories of Nntr 
 ural Selection and the Snrvivial of the Fittest. The construc- 
 tive aim of the volume is to prove that social amelioration is 
 a necessAty of the spiritual evolution now in process in ouf 
 Western civilization.
 
 PROBLEMS OF WAR AND PEACE, Etc. 
 
 " ■"■■.- *^ 
 
 FREDERICK LYNCH, P.P. S.cr„ar, church P.ac, Uni,n 
 
 The Last War 
 
 A Study of Things Present and Things to Come. 
 l2mo, cloth, net 75c. 
 
 "A passionate and intelligent plea for world peace. It is 
 sane, thoughtful, well balanced and convincing. Shows that 
 the Christian churches have a duty to perform at this crisis 
 in the world's history." — Watchman-Examiner. 
 
 PETER AINSLIE, P.P. 
 
 Christ or Napoleon— Which ? 
 
 A Study of the Cure for World's Militarism and 
 the Church's Scandal of Division. i2mo, cloth, net 50c. 
 
 "A searching and powerful answer to this question. It 
 ghows how that divided Christianity is a failure and how even 
 the church itself is penetrated by the roots of this military 
 spirit. Mr. Ainslie is always a pleasing and interesting 
 writer and he has fully met every expectation in this book. 
 It will do you good to read his splendid message." — Louisville 
 Herald. 
 
 SIDNEY L. GULICfC, P.P. 
 
 The Fight for Peace 
 
 i2mo, paper, net 30c; cloth, net 50c. 
 
 "A valuable and comprehensive text-book on the subject of 
 securing world peace by means of the advocacy of Christian 
 principles by the churches. Many facts are given. Correct 
 principles are stated. Earnest appeals are made. A well- 
 written little volume." — Herald and Presbyter. 
 
 NEWELL P WIGHT HILLIS, P.P. 
 
 Studies of the Great War 
 
 What Each Nation Has at Stake. Cloth, $1.20 net. 
 
 "Dr. Hillis' volume will rank at once with the best of 
 those already available from his t)en. He would not have 
 Germany crushed; he would have it simply restrained to its 
 proper field of development. So with the other nations. It 
 would be hard to find a more complete summation of the 
 facts of the history, progress and present position of all the 
 nations involved than in this volume." — The Continent. 
 
 PROF. FRANKLIN HENRY GIP PINGS 
 
 The Western Hemisphere in the 
 World of To-morrow 
 
 l2mo, boards, net 3Sc. 
 
 The professor of Sociology and History of Civilization in 
 Columbia University, addresses himself to the problern of t'^i."; 
 future as it specifically relates to America. He examines ht r 
 traditions, heritage, ideals and program, and proceeds to out- 
 line her possible place and influence in the reconstructed worlJ 
 of to-morrow.
 
 PROBLEMS OF WAR AND PEACE, Etc. 
 I 
 
 ANUA FITZ GERALD VAN LOAN 
 
 The Power to Right Our Wrongs 
 
 Evidence from Facts that Christian Principles are 
 Best Aiding Humanity. i2mo, cloth, net $i.oo. 
 
 "This book demonstrates, from carefully taken premises, 
 that the principles which now control and maintain peace 
 in civic and national affairs could, and should, be applied to 
 avert international conflict, thereby furnishing a practical 
 method of ushering in an era of world-wide peace.' 
 
 GAIUS GLENN ATKINS, D.D. 
 
 The Maze of the Nations and the Way Out 
 
 The Prize Essay in the One Thousand Dollar 
 competition promoted by the Carnegie Church Peace 
 Union. i2mo, cloth, net 75c. 
 
 Dr. Atkins' main contention is that the only way to insure 
 a lasting peace among the nations of the earth, is by eliminat- 
 ing the causes of war. A thoughtful, ably-written essay, con- 
 taining suggestions for the pacification of the world, of real 
 and practical value. 
 
 THOMAS CAPEK (Editor) 
 
 Bohemia Under Hapsburg Misrule 
 
 A Study of the Ideals and Aspirations of the Bo- 
 hemian and Slovak Peoples as Related to and Af- 
 fected by the European War. i2mo, cloth, net $1.00. 
 
 "The whole forms a fairly complete survey of the character, 
 achievements, and aspirations of Bohemians, past and pres- 
 ent." — A'^, y. Times. 
 
 HENRY D. ESTABROOK 
 
 The Vengeance of the Flag 
 
 And Other Occasional Addresses. 8vo, net $2.00. 
 
 "This man Estabrook — he is a surpriser. Takes a man'i 
 breath away to read his speeches. A man can't let go when 
 he has once laid hold. It's like grasping the poles of a bat- 
 tery." — Omaha Mercury. 
 
 COMPARATIVE RELIGIONS 
 
 SAMUEL G. IFILSON, A.M., D.D. 
 
 Bahaism and Its Claims 
 
 A Study of the Religions Promulgated by Baha 
 Ullah and Abdul Baha. 8vo, cloth, net $1.50. 
 
 Bahaism is a revolt from the fold of Islam which in recent 
 years has been bidding vigorously for the support of Occidental 
 minds. Many of its principles are culled from the Christian 
 religion which it insidiously seeks to supplant. What this 
 Oriental cult is, what it stands for, and what it aims at, is told 
 m a volume which forms a notable addition to the History of 
 Comparative Religions.
 
 MUBRARY<: 
 
 University of California Library 
 Los Angeles 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
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