THE YOUNG TURK 
The great educational system founded 
by these Americans comprises at present 
more than 300 common schools in the 
Empire, 44 high schools, 8 colleges, i 
normal school, and 5 divinity schools. 
This scholastic work is spread out all 
over this former "garden spot of the 
world," and has leavened the masses 
with high ideals of living, knowledge of 
free institutions, and longings for better 
government. 
Such an authority as Gladstone has 
placed upon record a statement that 
"American missionaries in Turkey have 
done more good to the inhabitants of 
that country than has all Europe com- 
bined. And Mr. James Bryce, the British 
Ambassador to Washington, goes even 
further, and states : "I cannot mention 
the American missionaries without a 
tribute to the admirable work they have 
done. They have been the only good 
influence that has worked from abroad 
upon the Turkish Empire." 
THK "UNSPElAKABrvE; TURK" NO LONGE^R 
EXISTS 
It should not be forgotten that Turkey 
of today is not the Turkey depicted in 
our child's history, nor is it in fact the 
same country that it was three years ago. 
The people of Turkey as a body have 
long since passed from the pale of the 
"unspeakable Turk," and many of them 
stand out as the peers of any people in 
the world in general intelligence, char- 
acter, and all the qualities that go to 
make good citizens ; but of course as yet 
they are wanting in sufficient experience 
to guide without assistance the ship of 
state to the high plane at which they are 
aiming. This experience they are fast 
acquiring, and are already as far ad- 
vanced in the practices of government 
by the people as were those of the 
United States at the end of the first 
decade in our history, having had our 
example to guide them. 
During my stay among these people I 
have found men of sterling character and 
unswerving integrity — men well fitted to 
lead their country through crises similar 
to those through which our own nation 
passed in its struggle for birth. 
While we Americans have done much 
toward the enlightenment of the Turk, I 
should say in all fairness to them that 
they have earnestly sought education 
through following the precepts of the 
Koran (their Bible), in which is com- 
bined the tenets ef both religion and 
legislation. A short selection from this 
book, so often misinterpreted, will illus- 
trate its teachings. It reads : 
"The duty of every Mussulman is to acquire 
science. 
Science is the life of the heart. 
The learned shine in the world like stars in 
the sky. 
Knowledge is the immortal soul of man." 
THE TURKS ARE APT SCHOEARS 
And that the Turks are apt scholars 
no one can doubt who has lived among 
them. One of the younger classmen of 
the Beirut American University pre- 
sented me, when I was last there, with 
a copy of a speech made by Dr. Bliss, 
its president, on the responsibilities of 
popular government, which this young 
student had taken down stenographically 
and typewritten himself. This young 
man, a Syrian by birth, spoke English 
well, and more than a dozen other lan- 
guages. Yet he was but an average 
scholar in the college. 
At Constantinople on more than one 
occasion I have witnessed the presenta- 
tion of some of Shakespeare's plays by 
the young women of the American Col- 
lege for Girls that would compare favor- 
ably with any similar representation in 
our own country. Many of the girls who 
took part in the plays were but 16 or 17 
years of age, and had not studied the 
English language, in which the dramas 
were given, more than one year. There 
was no self-consciousness or stage fright 
among these girls, because they were 
actuated by a common desire to acquit 
themselves well without any regard to 
the effect made upon others. 
The Turkish people are reaching out 
to other civilizations for help to recover 
from the tyranny and stagnation that 
has bound them so long in slavery. They 
look to America particularly as the one 
nation of the West that has no political 
ambition to subserve in its action toward 
