ALEPPO COLLEGE REPORTS

The Board of Managers has authorized the preparation of a semicentennial diploma, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the College. This diploma will be given to all living graduates of the College, and will state that the recipient was graduated from Central Turkey College in a certain year. It is planned to have the diploma bear the facsimile autographs of as many former members of the College faculty as possible.

Seventeen hundred books from the College Library at Aintab have been brought to Aleppo.

The physical apparatus, purchased with a grant from the Higher Educational Funds of the American Board, has been received and installed. It includes a radio equipment. New equipment has been purchased for laboratory work in chemistry and biology.

The College Press has bought new Armenian display types and a font of music type. During 1926-27 the Press printed a series of vocabularies for use with Junior High School text-books in Armenian and English, a reprint of "Pourasdank" (Ancient Armenian) for use by the Freshman class, a second edition of "The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life," in Armeno-Turkish translation, and the Announcement of the Boys' High School for 1927-28 in English.

AN EVANGELIST IN THE
COPTIC CHURCH

A writer in The Women's Missionary Magazine of the United Presbyterian Church tells the story of Abba Paulos. He was formerly a priest of the Abyssinian Coptic Church. Several years ago he became a member of the Swedish Evangelical Church. A few months since a soldier struck the old man, saying that he was doing harm by teaching the foreigners' Bible instead of the ancient translation used in the Coptic Church, which can hardly be understood by people of the present day. The two men were arrested and put in prison to await trial. There Paulos improved the opportunity to teach the Gospel to others in confinement. After about a week he came to the Swedish missionaries, telling them that he had decided to return to the Coptic Church. This was because he had been promised that, if he would do so, he might without hindrance preach the same things he had long been doing. His case being still before the court, a legal document embodying this agreement was drawn up to be signed by him. When the time came for doing this, his opponents managed to keep the old man's glasses away from him and he signed the paper without noticing that it did not contain what to him was such an important part. When he discovered what had been done, he had

the priests responsible for the trick summoned before the Patriarch. The wrong that had been done was acknowledged and Abba Paulos was accorded the desired privilege, by which he is now reading to the priests and others the Bible in a language they can understand and is proclaiming the doctrines that had aroused their opposition.

AGRICULTURAL TRAINING

FOR INDIA'S VILLAGERS When it is realized that 90 per cent of the population of India live in villages and most of them make their living from agriculture or allied occupations, one understands the reason for the increased emphasis being laid by American missionaries on the need of training along agricultural lines. The Middle School and part of the vocational school at Vadala, India, is giving intensive training along these very lines. Each of the twenty-six boys has his own plot. They are taught about various plants, vegetables and grains. One of the missionaries, who is in perpetual despair over the poverty of his parishioners, frequently remarks, "I do envy that missionary who went to Turkey recently with a rooster!" which is another way of expressing the conviction of the American missionaries of India that something must be done to lift the Christian Indian villager from a hopeless condition.

TURKISH PRAYER FOR THE AMERICAN WOMEN OF

BROUSA

So much has been said in the secular and religious papers about the Brousa trial which involved Miss Lucille Day, Miss Jeannie L. Jillson and Miss Edith Sanderson (especially from the point of view of those unfriendly to the work of these three fine women) that those keenly interested in the Turkey Mission will find inspiration from the recent account of one of these ladies, who writes of the "volume of prayer that has gone up on our behalf."

"We have been greatly encouraged and inspired," writes this missionary, "as we have learned of one person or group after another engaging in special intercession for us and for the outcome of the trial. Perhaps the most touching of all has been the prayers on our behalf by our Moslem Turkish friends in Brousa, who have sought in every way which their religion has taught them to draw upon Divine resources."

Faithful women servants in the Brousa school were constantly interceding from the beginning of the trial, and gave the three defendants little packets of sacred earth and other charms to carry. On May 4, plans were being made for the reading of the "Mevloud" directly following the decision of the court on the next Monday. The "Mevloud" is a Turkish poem of great beauty, describing the birth of the prophet Mohammed, and its reading is one of the most cherished religious ceremonies of Turkey. It is read after a death, at times of thanksgiving, or on very special occasions.

"They are not the only ones that are going to read the 'Mevloud' for you," declared a Turkish teacher in another part of the city upon hearing of the plans of the servants. "We are going to have a reading here in our home and all the women of the neighborhood are coming. We are not people who go much to the mosque, but every night mother has been burning a candle for you."

Another Turkish woman could not wait, when visited by one of the American missionaries, until greetngs were over before asking how the trial had gone. "I was lying here while the trial was going on," she said, "and I said my "Tesbih' (rosary of 99 beads) over nine times for you.' And still another young Turkish teacher reported, "My mother mas been reading the Koran for you an hour every evening ever since the rial began."

In addition to this remarkable Hemonstration of faithful Moslem Eriends, floods of letters have come from American churches, many of whom had never known the Brousa missionaries personally, telling them hat they and the entire Turkish people were the objects of special prayer services. An increased atmosphere of friendliness is being

shown in Brousa, and the American women feel that no small part of this change is the result of the united prayers of both Moslems and Christians.

MISSIONARY PERSONALIA

REV. ROBERT A. HUME once printed in Calcutta a booklet entitled The Supreme Person and the Supreme Quest. It went through several editions in English and was also translated and printed in four Indian vernaculars-Martji, Gujarati, Tamil and Telugu. An unbaptized Hindu prince, Raja Bujaugrao of Ellore, asked, and of course received, permission to translate it into Telugu and print it. This is a fairly typical illustration of how missionaries give a Christian message, and of how it is received by thoughtful Hindus.

Dr. Hume has condensed this booklet into a ten-page pamphlet called A Typical Missionary Talk in India. Copies may be obtained free from Mr. Harvey A. Meeken, 14 Beacon Street, Boston.

MISS KATHARINE MERRILL, recently a term worker in the Japan Mission, received in June the degree of Master of Education from Harvard University. She specialized in physical education, and prepared in course a thesis with the title, "Organizations for Girls," which may be published in the near future.

DR. AND MRS. LORRIN A. SHEPARD, after moving out of their quarters in the American Hospital, Constantinople, to a house in Bebek early in May, hoped to have a vacation and rest in Brousa; their being there would give Miss Jillson a chance to get away for much needed rest. Among the visitors to Constantinople during the spring were Dr. John R. Mott, Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, Rev. and Mrs. James M. Speers of the Presbyterian Board in New York. Mrs. Speers is the daughter of the late Dr. William S. Dodd, Missionary of the American Board in Turkey.

REV. WILLIAM L. CURTIS of the Doshisha University has had the, perhaps, unique experience of finding the solicitation of advertisements pleasant work. The advertisements are for special numbers of the Japan Mission News and the Mission Directory, and the work has meant most cordial friendly contacts with business men of Kobe, Yokohama and Tokyo. Mr. Curtis is a member of the mission's publicity committee; other activities outside his work in the university are Bible classes and English and singing

classes, occasional preaching services and chapel talks.

REV. HENRY T. PERRY, a retired missionary of the Board, whose gift of the diaries covering his period of service in Turkey was noted in the Herald for December, 1927 (page 459), has just passed his ninetieth birthday. "The whole experience of my missionary life has been joy," he writes; "joy has been its outcome even in times of grief. If I were to live again my life, I would take it, if the Lord so willed, along the same course in Turkey."

ISABEL BROWN ROSE of Sholapur has on press a new novel, "Diana Drew," which Fleming Revell Company will issue early in the summer. Mr. and Mrs. Rose left India on April 4, expecting to be in the United States, where the greater part of their furlough will be spent, by July or August.

The honor of having introduced the observance of Mothers' Day among the Protestant churches of Spain belongs to MRS. WAYNE H. BOWERS of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. "Many Spanish friends are sending me cards in memory of this event," writes Mrs. Bowers. "They celebrate it with enthusiasm."

REV. GEORGE M. COWLES has conducted the quarterly Communion Services in all the Umzumbe outstations since his return. On one of his last trips he was ten hours in the saddle on a day of furious heat, with a long communion service to anticipate at the end of the journey. The heat was so terrible that at one place he got off his horse and put water on his head; he could "hear it sizzle," he said. But he did not get sick in spite of his sixtyfive years. He has been spending his week-ends, and practically every Sunday, at his distant stations, and is getting six churches and two pastors' houses built. At last Umzumbe is to have two pastors, who have just graduated from Mr. Stick's theological class at Amanzimtoti and will be ordained in July. Educationally Umzumbe is prospering, with 200 in the Station School and 53 in the Night School for herder boys.

DR. WILLIAM L. NUTE received in May from the Turkish authorities his permit to practice medicine in the Republic of Turkey.

REV. JOHN S. PORTER'S daughter, a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, is with him and is studying in the University of Prague, which is the second university with regard to age on the continent. Dr. Porter's son, Livingstone, is writing as his thesis for the degree of PH.D. "The Prague University in the Middle Ages." The subject was assigned to him by the University of California.

REV. BRYAN S. STOFFER has been elected president of the American College, Madura, India. Since his appointment to the Madura Mission in 1923 he has been connected with the educational work in Pasumalai, acting as principal of Union Theological Seminary during Dr. Banninga's absence on furlough. A graduate of Ashland and Oberlin Colleges, he took his theological course and the degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy at Chicago University. In 1923 he married Miss Frieda Price of Nappanee, Ind., a graduate of Ashland College.

REV. JULIUS S. AUGUR, who has been a missionary of the Board in the Philippines since 1916, supervisor of churches and schools for the Bagobo tribes in the Davao district, has resigned from the Board and accepted the position of executive secretary of the Hillyer Institute, Hartford, Conn., entering upon his new duties on May 1. Mr. Augur is a graduate of Yale, and has done Y. M. C. A. and social service work in this country before going to the foreign field. He opened six playgrounds in his home town, Meriden, Conn.

REV. ALBERT E. LEROY, with his stalwart form, iron-gray hair and bronzed face, looks as if he had fought through a long campaign in a tropical country. And so he has. For he has built up to its present efficiency Amanzimtoti Institute in Adams, Natal, a school with which he was connected over a quarter of a century as principal. It is "the Hampton of Natal," with its Normal, Agricultural, Industrial, Theological Departments, and Mr. LeRoy's early life fitted him in a very special way for his task. Born in Petrolia, Pa., he became self-supporting at the age of twelve, acquired a great deal of business experience, taught school two years, and put himself through Wabash College, graduating in 1897. He then spent a year each at three theological seminaries, Western, Au

burn, and Oberlin. At Oberlin he met Miss Rhoda Clarke of Cherokee, Iowa, who graduated from Oberlin College in 1898. They were married in 1901 and went to Africa the same year. Resigning from the staff of the Institute in 1926, Mr. LeRoy is, during his leave of absence from the Zulu Mission, superintendent of the Walker Missionary Home, a home for missionaries on furlough, and missionaries' children, in Auburndale. Mrs. LeRoy ably seconds him in this work, as she did in Africa.

MR. AND MRS. ALBERT E. LEROY Superintendents, Auburndale Missionary Home

REV. AND MRS. WILLIAM C. BELL of the West Central Africa Mission live right next door to the LeRoys in Auburndale, although in Africa they were separated by the width of the continent. Mrs. Bell is the gracious hostess of Walker Cottage, where many single missionaries and missionaries without children, spend some time while on furlough. Mr. Bell is doing a great deal of speaking and writing on the behalf of his mission, for he is trying to help it celebrate its Jubilee in 1930 by the erection of a much-needed hospital in Dondi, and dormitories for Means School for Girls and for Currie Institute, and school and medical work buildings in Bailundo, Ochileso and Sachikela. Mr. Bell was born in Lockport, N. Y., and Mrs. Bell in Ithaca. After his graduation from Cornell University in 1897, they were married, and went out to Africa, where they worked under the PhilAfrican League (now the Swiss Mission) until 1907, when they joined the Mission of the American Board. Mr. Bell, who, before he left on his furlough, was Principal of Currie Institute, Dondi, has always carried a heavy load of work and responsibility.

MRS. FREDERICK R. DIXON would be remembered by the most casual acquaintance in America on account of three things: her beautiful music -for she is an accomplished violinist-and David and Barbara, two of the most engaging and original small people one is likely to be for

W. W. WINSHIP Trunks, Bags, Suit Cases, Etc.

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tunate enough to meet. Mrs. Dixon was Madeline Halford of Pittsfield, Mass. She graduated from Middlebury College in 1919, married Frederick Dixon in 1920, and went out with him to Africa; there they joined the Rhodesia Branch of the South Africa Mission. They have volunteered for the new work in Portuguese East Africa and are full of enthusiasm about it. Mr. Dixon has been spending the last few months in Portugal acquiring the necessary familiarity with its language, and in July Mrs. Dixon and little David and Barbara left to join him.

A charming afternoon wedding took place on Monday, June 25, at 3.30 o'clock in the Hyde Park Congregational Church, when Miss Margaret Clara Owen, daughter of Rev. George W. Owen, became the wife of G. Ross Thomas of Chester, Pa. A reception followed the ceremony. An interesting fact is that the officiating clergymen were Rev. George W. Owen, father of the bride, and Rev. Frederick C. Thomas, father of the bridegroom. Mr. Thomas is pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Oxford, Pa. The maid of honor was Miss Margaret Eggleston, sister of the bride, and a recent graduate of Carleton College, while the best man was Frederick C. Thomas, Jr., a graduate of Wesleyan and brother of the bridegroom.

A touch of romance is found in the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Thomas are sailing on September 28 on the S.S. America for Marathi, India, where Mr. Thomas will be business manager and treasurer of the Marathi Mission, conducted by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. This mission, which was founded in 1813, was the first work established by the American Board in any country.

Miss Owen is a Mt. Holyoke girl, class of 1926, and for the past two years has been psychologist at Perkins Institute for the Blind. Mr. Thomas was graduated from Wesleyan University in 1924, and in 1926 received his M.B.A. from Harvard School of Business Administration. He has been associated with the Liability Assurance Corporation of New York City.

THE CHRONICLE

SAILINGS FOR THE FIELD

June 6. From New York, Rev. and Mrs. George E. White, returning to Anatolia College, Salonica, Greece.

June 16. From Providence, Mrs. Emily R. Block, en route to St. Paul's Institute, Tarsus, Turkey.

June 19. From New York, Mr. Francis S. Wilder, en route to Ahmednagar, India.