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LIFE IN ASIA MINOR.

Work of American Missionaries.

{From bhe Regular, Correspondent of the

'Tribune.')

Marsovak, Tarkey-ia-Asiai Augusb 30tb, 1889.—We toiled back up the hill, out of the Gorge of Amasia, and struck off in a north-westerly direction across the plain toward the town of Marsovan. The harvest was stilt in progress, and the reapers, gathering their handfuls with the old-fasjuoned- sickles included the whole family of the farmer. Even the babies were there. in their cradles in the shade of the rare, trees; visited by the sturdy mothers occasionally, under the influence of thab curious dread common to mothers thab their offspring may take a sudden notion to cease, breathings Houses there were none, save as we could see at rare intervals the clumps of trees, and mud huts of the villages where these farmers huddle for safety, far away from their fields. Tjwenby miles of riding brought us to Maraovan. In keeping with tho usages of Asia Minor, the people have their vineyards and. orchards in the outskirts of the town, and; pack their houses, of sun-dried brick, on bbo. sides of the narrow winding lanes, wjiich answer the purpose of streets. The houses are still builb on the theory of the cables of more ancient and troublous times, with windows looking on the street only in the upper storey. The contrast between the verdure of the outskirts of the bown and the gloom of ibs sbreebs hemmed in by endless dead walla of brown mud is striking and depressing. Marsovan has 25,000 inhabitants, and the difference between the effect on the mind of entering it and that experienced on entering an American town of the same population is about like the difference of impreßsions produced by going into a ponitentiary and those evoked by bhe interior of a §50,000 house in a civilised country. These feelings disappeared, however, when we found a hospitable welcome ab the home of the Amorican missionaries, which forma a delightful annex to the northern end of Marsovan. The next day being Sunday we went with the missionaries to the church builb up under their auspices. Puritan simplicity is too luxurious a term bo describe the sbyle of this church and its appointments. Its walls were of the usual material of the earth, earthy, but were neatly whitewashed. The roof was supported by columns formed of pine logs merely stripped of their bark and sand-papered till smooth. The pews were strips of haircloth spread on the floor. Upon these rough carpets the audience sab cross-logged—an economical arrangement, by. which a congregation of a thousand were compressed within the limits of a hall which would not seat 600 on the American plan. In this churob. where American ideas have tempered E istern oxclusiveness, a light fence ran along each side of the building to mark off the narrow strips of floor spaces given up to the use of the fair sex. With prudent forethought worthy of the men of the early New England times, the deacons had arranged the small boys of tho assembly, to the number of a hundred or more, in front and directly under the aweinspiring eye of tho minister. When tho whole congregation, led by an American organ, burst forth in a hearty rendering of a Turkish hymn, set to a familiar Moody and Sankey tune, there was no mistaking the adoption of some at leasb of the ideas introduced by the 'missionaries. It wa3 impossible to sib in bhab'place and to observe the.close attention given to the sermon of the missionary without feeling that the moral and intellectual influences of the Americans will certainly affect the whole future of these curiously backward races.

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS18900201.2.50.27

Bibliographic details

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 26, 1 February 1890, Page 3 (Supplement)

Word Count
614

LIFE IN ASIA MINOR. Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 26, 1 February 1890, Page 3 (Supplement)

LIFE IN ASIA MINOR. Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 26, 1 February 1890, Page 3 (Supplement)

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