#2: The college and the town (1890)
Within the enclosure were the Theological Seminary, College
and Girls' School, about two hundred pupils in all. At the
highest point in the premises was located the square,
white-plastered, two story structure with basement below
and small bell-tower above, originally erected in 1871 at
a cost of Ltq. 400, or $1,760, for the Theological Seminary.
This building was the authorized cradle of the College.
The Girls' School was on lower ground as befitted a land
at the stage of the veil and the harem. There were three
American houses, part of one of which was assigned to us;
a bakery already famous for its good bread; and a small
self-help shop, where students could earn manhood and money
and learn at the same time to keep their whiskers out of
the machinery. Naturally there were spaces for games and
sports, though some sedate seniors thought such amusements
too frivolous for their dignity; a pleasant garden with
trees and flowers; and a stable with a pair of horses and
one cow. There were about 2,000 books in the Library,
chiefly on theological and directly religious subjects.
One of the prizes offered annually at Commencement by a
native pastor was a volume of printed sermons. There were
some home-made instruments and apparatus for use in the
study of Physics. We were told that funds for endowment
amounted to $13,433, not wholly bad for a four-year-old
in far-away Turkey.
Outside of the compound, the city was primitive indeed
in that remote bourne of time and space: houses and walls
built generally of sun-dried brick, adobe as in the days
of the Hittites; streets so narrow that I have seen a cat
cross a street by jumping from roof to roof; streets
sloping and draining to the middle, and between rains
often clogged with garbage of every kind including the
blood and refuse of butcher meat and fowls. Respectable
citizens were expected ordinarily to be housed for the
night by sunset and none went out later except in groups
carrying oiled paper lanterns. Christian people certainly
occupied Marsovan before the Turks appeared on the scene.
The whole region was included in the "Armenaic Theme" of
which Amasia was the capital during Byzantine Empire days,
and the first Americans adopted the Christian pronunciation
of the city's name. We all were familiar with the great
stone wall and iron gates that enclosed the highest ground
within the city as an acropolis, and within it were located
the large Armenian Church and school buildings. "Unwarlike
Armenians" never could have secured such a foothold after
the Turks were in control. An old Turkish bath in the city
was built with buttresses of evident Byzantine Church
architecture, was known as St. Barbara's Church, and was
authorized and used for Greek worship every year on
"St. Barbara's Day".
NEXT: The local people (1891)
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"OTTOMAN ANATOLIA"