‘ HAMLIN, THE BAKER.’

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVII, Issue I, 4 July 1896, Page 31

‘ HAMLIN, THE BAKER.’

Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, the first president of Robert College, Constantinople, was the first man to establish a steam flour mill and bakery in Turkey. In spite of the opposition of the whole guild of bakers the enterprise was highly successful, for the reason that Mr Hamlin sold good bread always above weight. During the Crimean War Lord Raglan established his military hospital in the Selimieh barracks at Scutari, which had been built by the great Moltke. One day Mr Hamlin was asked by an orderly to call upon Doctor Mapleton at the hospital. After some demur, he did so. As he entered, the doctor asked brusquely, without salutation :

* Are you Hamlin, the baker ?’ ‘ No, sir, I am the Rev. Mr Hamlin, an American missionary.’

‘ That is just as about correct as anything I get in this country, I send for a baker and I get a missionary.’ There happened to be two loaves of bread on the table and Mr Hamlin said, ‘ I presume it is bread you want, and you don’t care whether it comes from a heathen or a missionary.’ ‘ Exactly so,’ answered the doctor.

After some sparring between the American missionary and the English officer, Mr Hamlin agreed to furnish bread for hospital use, and taking up the printed contract to do this, in order to sign it, noticed that it said, ‘ To deliver bread every morning between the hours of eight and ten, or at such other hours as might be agreed upon.’ Doctor Hamlin paused a moment and then said, ‘ It will be necessary to insert in this contract the words, “except Sunday” after the word “morning.” The bread can be delivered Saturday evening, say at sunset.’ ‘The laws of war do not regard Sunday,* replied the agent of the English government, curtly. • I cannot change a syllable in that form of contract? * Very well, sir ; then I will not furnish the bread. I have not sought the business? To the hospital this refusal meant the loss of fresh food, to the missionary a loss of hundreds of pounds for the cause for which the good missionary had given his life. Nevertheless, he did not flinch, so the other had to give way.

‘ The chief purveyor? said the doctor, after a pause, * is a good Scotch Christian, and he will arrange with you for that? So Mr Hamlin furnished bread on his own conditions.

Later, a large camp of the English army was formed at Hyder Pasha, and again Mr Hamlin was engaged to supply bread at the rate of twelve thousand pounds a day.

The first delivery at the camp was dramatic. The soldiers were waiting impatiently to receive it. They seized the loaves ravenously and tasted them. Then the bread was hurled high in the air, and the joyful cry rang through the ranks : ‘ Hooray for good English bread !’

The provost of the camp was overbearing and rude, and some trouble was anticipated over the double Saturday delivery. On the first Saturday at sunset, Mr Hamlin, preceding the long line of carts, saluted the provost and said :

•As it is Saturday I deliver the supply of bread for Sunday ; as at the hospital, so at the camp? This was met with a volley of oaths, and the order to take the bread back, and deliver it in the morning. Mr Hamlin unheeding the order, left the bread and departed quietly. To the missionary's astonishment the next Saturday morning the provost wrote on his receipt, ‘ Remember the double Saturday delivery?