“Hitherto,” Sir William Ramsey continues, “Turkish girls could only be educated at the college in defiance of the will and the commands of the sultan, and therefore the number of such pupils has been small. Only two Mohammedan girls have graduated. But the different races in Turkey live side and side, and what is taking place in one community is not hidden from the other—especially such important facts as the sending away to school or college of the daughters of any family, and the inevitable, although gradual, changes in the ideas and life of the people that result from education. Many instances could be cited of the imitation by Turks of new habits thus introduced among their Armenian neighbours by the daughters returned from this college or educated at the American missionary schools and colleges in the country.”
Sir William Ramsey continues to say: “The writer Halideh Salih is a graduate of the American College for Girls, and a writer of distinction. She has frequently been described as the leading woman in Turkey in popularity and influence. Her first published work was a translation into Turkish of an English book, ‘The Mother in the Home,’ for which she was decorated by the sultan. It always struck me as remarkable that a Mohammedan sultan—and that sultan Abdul Hamid—should be the first monarch to bestow such a distinction upon a woman.”
Halideh Salih is undoubtedly the foremost woman in Turkey. Her father was formerly minister of finance for many years under Abdul Hamid and sacrificed his political position and prospects by sending his daughter to the American College for Girls, because such an act was forbidden by the sultan. She spent seven years under Dr. Patrick’s instruction, graduated in 1901, and married a professor in the Imperial University. “The Mother in the Home” is an old-fashioned book for girls written by Rev. Jacob Abbott seventy-five or eighty years ago, and she translated it into Turkish when she was a freshman in the American college. Her father was so proud of it that he had it printed and circulated privately among the families of his friends in Constantinople and other Turkish cities, and, considering its limited circulation, there is not the slightest doubt that this little volume of fatherly advice to girls, written by a modest Massachusetts village clergyman, had as much influence in the emancipation of Turkish women as “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” had in the emancipation of the slaves. When the constitution was proclaimed Halideh Salih wrote the leading editorials in the Tanin newspaper, the organ of the committee of union and progress, at the request of the editor, defining the policy and the purposes of the revolution. Her articles became the platform of the liberal party in Turkey.
She has written a great deal for the Tanin since, and for the London papers and magazines. She has a novel dealing with recent events in Turkey.
Dr. Patrick bought fifty acres of land upon a bluff 400 feet above the Bosphorus, behind the village of Arnaoutkeny, six miles from Constantinople. It is the ancient seat of a pasha, and more than a century ago was purchased by a rich Armenian, who laid out the grounds in luxurious style. It has been occupied by his descendants for several generations. During the last five or six years it has been leased by the consul general of Great Britain. The sultan tried to purchase it as a wedding present for one of his daughters, and when he found that Dr. Patrick had an option upon the property, instructed his minister at Washington to request President Roosevelt to persuade her to give it up, but she declined to do so, and fought him off until he was overthrown and then she closed the trade.
A large part of the property is in forest, venerable old trees as dark as a druid temple; and a winding road leads from a landing on the Bosphorus to the mansion at the top of the bluff, 400 feet above the water, through a ravine. The mansion is in the midst of an old-fashioned garden surrounded by several immense cedars of Lebanon, said to be the finest in Turkey. Back of the mansion is a terrace 1,500 feet long and about one thousand feet wide, where the buildings will be laid out in a quadrangle. They will all be of the same school of architecture—free Italian renaissance and the material will be stone quarried on the ground.
The central building, to be called Gould Hall, will be 176 by 80 feet in size, with four stories and a basement. It will contain an auditorium, to be used as a temporary chapel and for literary exercises, that will accommodate 700 people, a central parlour or rendezvous for the students, 40 by 45 feet; several lecture rooms; a temporary art gallery; the offices of the administration, and several study rooms. It is hoped that some one will soon give funds for a chapel, a library, and a refectory, as plans have already been drawn for these buildings as a part of the general group. Space will be left for them, but Dr. Patrick is confident that it will not remain vacant long. The great necessity is to get dormitories where the girls can sleep and rooms where they can study and recite, in order to relieve the pressure from those who are earnestly seeking an education. The rooms in Gould Hall will suffice for administration, worship, exhibitions, and library until the greater necessities are provided for.
The second building, known as Science Hall, will be connected with Gould Hall by an arcade to shelter the students in stormy weather. It will be a memorial to the late Henry Woods, a Boston merchant, and is being erected by his widow. The dimensions will be 150 feet and it will be of similar design and the same material as Gould Hall. The interior will be arranged for lecture rooms and laboratories for biology, physics, and chemistry and will be used as a dining hall for the time being, and one of the laboratories as a kitchen until a permanent refectory is provided.
The next building, of similar design and materials, will be called Rockefeller Hall and will contain sleeping accommodations for 150 students, two in a room. The ground plan is 114 by 50 feet, with two wings extending in the rear, 50 by 35 feet, and it will be four stories in height. There will be two more dormitories, each capable of accommodating 150 students—a total of 450 boarders, in place of the 190 that were accommodated at the last term.
The twenty-first annual commencement of the Mektep Ammerrycolly Kuzlaran, or the American College for Girls, at Constantinople in June, 1910, was a momentous occasion in many respects and especially because the women of Turkey have been so far released from the restrictions that have surrounded them that they are now free to seek an education like men and are taking an active and influential part in public affairs. The commencement was also of unprecedented interest because it is probably the last celebration of the kind that will ever take place in the old buildings in Scutari, a suburb of Constantinople on the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus, where the school was started a quarter of a century ago, and where so many good women have been educated to mould public opinion in the households throughout the Turkish Empire and the neighbouring states. Before another year is passed the college will be at least partially occupying splendid new buildings, located on a beautiful site on the European side of the Bosphorus, where the work of construction has already been begun and is rapidly progressing. Already the preparatory department has been removed to the European side. With the change the college not only gains the advantages of greater room and larger conveniences, but greater dignity and prestige, pride of purpose, and ambition of achievement, which are the best inspirations that a man or woman of an institution of learning can possess.