Dr. Mary Mills Patrick, the president of the college, to whose ability and energy and tact its success and influence is largely due, had just returned from a year's visit to the United States, where she had been successful in raising funds for the purchase of new grounds and the erection of new buildings which will enable the college to extend its influence and usefulness. No one can realize so fully as that noble woman the importance of the results she accomplished for the good of the women of Turkey and the welfare of the Turkish race.
Dr. Patrick raised $350,000 while she was in the United States. Miss Helen Gould gave $150,000 for a new building to be called Gould Hall, and $25,000 for general purposes, John D. Rockefeller gave $150,000 for a new building, Mrs. Henry Woods of Boston $50,000, Mrs. Russell Sage gave $15,000 for land and $5,000 for a wall to be built around it, the late John H. Converse gave $10,000, Miss Grace Dodge gave $10,000 for the purchase of the land. Mrs. D. Willis James, Mrs. Henry F. Durant, Mrs. John Hay, James Talcott, D. Stuart Dodge and other friends made generous contributions toward the purchase of the land, the erection of new buildings, and the general fund.
The Mektep Ammerrycolly Kuzlaran, as the American College for Girls is called by the Turks, is now at high tide. It not only possesses the most beautiful site on the banks of the Bosphorus, considered by many the most beautiful sheet of water in the world, but will have a group of buildings equal to any in the United States. It has been officially recognized by the Turkish government and commended by the minister of education as a model for Turkish educational institutions to imitate. Mahmoud Bey, inspector general of education, told me several times that he considered it an ideal school. He said it " had set the pace and furnished the standard for colleges for women in the East. No institution for women in Europe has a higher standard and its graduates are recognized as among the most influential women in Turkey."
The minister of finance delivered the address to the graduating class and the American ambassador presided. A Mohammedan government is officially contracting for the education of Mohammedan girls in a Christian school to be qualified as teachers of Mohammedan children. This is perhaps the most extraordinary event that has taken place in the educational world for many years and indicates the radical changes that have taken place in the Ottoman empire.
A great boom in the education of women is about to begin in Turkey. The American College for Girls has been the source of inspiration and the ideal. Everybody agrees that the most remarkable change in social conditions caused by the revolution in Turkey has occurred among the feminine portion of the population, and it is conceded that the wives and mothers of the Young Turk party had a powerful influence in bringing it about. During the anxious months of conspiracy and preparation many highborn Turkish ladies worked with enthusiasm and intelligence for the cause of liberty. Some of them acted as
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messengers, carrying concealed about their persons papers which, if discovered, would have meant their death; others afforded the revolutionary committees opportunities for holding their meetings and furnished those who were in danger means of escape. Twelve thousand spies in the employ of Abdul Hamid were unable to outwit the women of Turkey in their work, and the leaders of the Young Turk party concede that they owe their success largely to the assistance of their wives and sisters and mothers.
It was not the work of a day, however, or a year, but of a generation, and in the preparation of the women of Turkey for the performance of this patriotic duty the American College for Girls at Scutari has been one of the most effective agencies. Its president, its faculty, and its alumnae have been engaged for a quarter of a century in a far-reaching propaganda to convince the women of Turkey that they are entitled to light and learning, and the results are seen in the eagerness with which the daughters of the foremost families of the empire are seeking an education similar to that which English and American girls receive.
It is purely an American institution which began in a small way twenty -five years ago, and for all those years has offered the only opportunity for a higher education within the reach of the young women of the East. Among the faculty are graduates of Cornell, Wellesley, Barnard, Middlebury, and Smith colleges, and six of the alumnae of the institution are on the corps of instructors.