THE MEASURE 
 OFAMAN 
 
 Wlhm%Sheddrf%rsia 
 
 A BIOGRAPHY BY 
 
 MARY LEWIS SHEDD 
 
LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 Purchased by the Hamill Missionary Fund. 
 
 -zr 
 
 BV 3217 .S5 S5 1922 
 Shedd, Mary Lewis. 
 The measure of a man 
 
THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 MARY LEWIS SHEDD 
 
WILLIAM AMBROSE SHEDD 
 
THE 
 
 MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 The Life of William Ambrose Shedd 
 Missionary to Persia 
 
 MARY LEWIS SHEDD 
 
 Witlfi an Introduction By 
 ROBERT E. SPEER 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 NEW ^SP YORK 
 GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1922, 
 BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
 THE MEASURE OF A MAN. II 
 
 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
To His Mother 
 SARAH JANE DAWES SHEDD 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 William Shedd was one of the ablest and 
 best men I have ever known. These are direct 
 and simple ad j ectives and they fit his direct and 
 simple character. He was an able man, with 
 a clear, fresh, unconventional mind, familiar 
 with the accustomed modes of thought and 
 forms of expression but assured that there was 
 more to be known about the truth of God than 
 man had yet apprehended and that there were 
 ways of stating the truth of God that should 
 be found and that would be more adequate and 
 persuasive. He had a good scholarly equip- 
 ment and a real scholar's instinct. In the The- 
 ological Seminary at Princeton both his teach- 
 ers and his fellow students recognized his un- 
 usual capacity. He would have taken first 
 rank in any one of several lines of study and 
 research if he had turned his life in these direc- 
 tions. But he had abilities which led him away 
 from scholarship into action-administrative and 
 executive ability, the power of sympathy and 
 of practical action. He was a good man in 
 this sense, that he would not give his life to 
 
 vii 
 
viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 the satisfaction of intellectual tastes even as a 
 teacher or defender or explorer of Christian 
 doctrine but must spend himself in helping 
 needy and destitute people and in carrying the 
 comfort and salvation of the Gospel to those 
 who were as sheep having no shepherd. There 
 were other senses also in which he was a good 
 man. He was intellectually and morally hon- 
 est clean through. He was modest and self- 
 forgetful but entirely ready to face responsi- 
 bility and to exercise leadership. The princi- 
 ple of justice and fair-mindedness was inwoven 
 in his whole character. He was destitute of 
 any fear that would estop him from duty. He 
 had no desire but to know and to do what is 
 true. He knew small-mindedness and malice 
 and hypocrisy when he met it in America or 
 Persia but he was endlessly charitable and 
 kind-hearted and in the dark days of the war, 
 without concealing his judgments or palliating 
 wrong, he still worked patiently with all whose 
 help might be of service in saving the people 
 about him, Syrian and Persian and Kurd. 
 And tihere was not one of them who did not 
 recognize that William Shedd was an able 
 and a good man. 
 
 He was one of the most competent and suc- 
 cessful missionaries of the Church. He came 
 
INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 to his work in Persia with a thorough and ade- 
 quate preparation. His inheritance, his fam- 
 ily background, his education, his character, 
 his knowledge gave him a unique equipment. 
 At first he had his father and Dr. Joseph P. 
 Cochran as his older associates and, after his 
 father's death, Dr. Cochran, and later Dr. La- 
 haree. He succeeded all of these in the confi- 
 dence and regard of the people of Urumia and 
 to them all, and to the Persian officials and to 
 the representatives of Russia and France he 
 was the incarnation of his Mission and of 
 America and of the spirit of love and justice. 
 It has been given to few missionaries to win 
 such a place of acknowledged leadership 
 among the people to whom they have gone. 
 The whole Assyrian nation came to regard him 
 as its counselor and guide. What Elijah had 
 been to Elisha he was to this people, "The 
 chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof." 
 The problems and perplexities with which 
 he had to deal were enough to overtax any 
 man. Nowhere in the world was there a more 
 entangled and impossible situation than in 
 Urumia during the war. The tides of human 
 movement and of political interest were so 
 confused that no human being caught in them 
 could escape from them. As a missionary, as 
 
r INTRODUCTION 
 
 American Vice-Consul, as a man, as a Chris- 
 tian, as the representative of righteousness and 
 truth in human relationships. Dr. Shedd had a 
 work to do in Urumia in teaching men brother- 
 liness and goodwill, in protecting the van- 
 quished from their victors and then those who 
 had been victors from those whom they had 
 vanquished and who were now victors in their 
 turn, in exposing and preventing treachery of 
 many kinds, in defending the helpless, in for- 
 warding the cause of justice, in delivering a 
 nation from death, which no other man could 
 have done as he did it. The burden was more 
 than any life could bear and he laid his life 
 down under it. But it was a glorious way to 
 lay one's life down. I do not know of any man 
 of whom the words which Matthew Arnold 
 used of his father in "Rugby Chapel" might 
 be more truly spoken. 
 
 'But thou would'st not alone 
 Be saved, our brother, alone 
 Conquer and come to thy goal, 
 Leaving the rest in the wild. 
 They were weary, and they 
 Fearful, and they in their march 
 Fain to drop down and to die. 
 Still thou turnedst, and still 
 Gavest the weary thy hand. 
 
INTRODUCTION xi 
 
 *If, in the paths of the world. 
 Stones might have wounded thy feet, 
 Toil or dejection have tried 
 Thy spirit, of that they saw 
 No thing — ^to them thou wast still 
 Cheerful^ and helpful, and firm! 
 Therefore to thee it was given 
 Many to save with thyself; 
 And, at the end of the day, 
 O faithful shepherd ! to come, 
 Bringing thy sheep in thy hand." 
 
 There, are still other lines in Arnold's tribute 
 to his father, which might justly be applied to 
 William Shedd, true missionary, lover of 
 Christ and of men, good shepherd like his 
 Lord. One of the Syrian people, Professor 
 Yohannan of Columbia University, who knew 
 and loved him, has himself used just such 
 speech of him and of his father. "Dr. Shedd," 
 says he, "was a scholar, and thoroughly 
 equipped for the work with something more 
 Ihan the surface-teaching of the ordinary the- 
 ological doctrines. His book, 'Islam and the 
 Oriental Churches,' is an able piece of work. 
 He laid, however, his literary ambition and all 
 his scientific attainments upon the altar of 
 God from whom they came, counting them loss 
 for Christ. . . . He did not work for stipend, 
 or honor, or the praise of men, but was im- 
 
xii INTRODUCTION 
 
 pelled by higher motives to the service of his 
 Master. He was the champion of the op- 
 pressed, the shepherd of a gentle and hmnble 
 spirit, to whom the poorest of his flock was 
 not too poor. His greatest joy was in bring- 
 ing a stray sheep into the fold." 
 
 But it is not necessary in these few words 
 of introduction to tell the story of William 
 Shedd's life or to attempt an estimate of his 
 character. I want simply to bear testimony 
 to what I knew. For nearly thirty years as 
 intimately as a brother I knew him, his pure 
 heart, his peaceableness, his courage, his quiet 
 power, his tenderness, his prudence, his free- 
 dom, his loyalty. He also was one "who never 
 turned his back but marched breast forward," 
 trusting God. The years are freighted with 
 the rich memories of him and every such mem- 
 ory is dear. 
 
 Robert E. Speer. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The life story of William Ambrose Shedd 
 is so full of thrilling interest and inspiration 
 that it needs to be written in permanent form. 
 The task has devolved upon me, to whom it has 
 been a labor of love. No other incentive could 
 have been strong enough to induce me to live 
 again the poignant experiences of the later 
 years. 
 
 I have not attempted to write the history 
 of Urumia Station nor of the war in Persia. 
 Neither have I tried, in any adequate way, to 
 tell of the services of others. There is much 
 that is worth the telling but that task remains 
 for others. 
 
 My gratitude is due the friends who have 
 read the manuscript; to Dr. Robert E. Speer 
 for his chapter of introduction; to Professor 
 Donald B. MacDonald, who has contributed 
 the history of the Urumia Syriac Concordance, 
 and to Miss Rachel Capen Schauffler, who by 
 her personal interest in the story and her care- 
 ful reading of the manuscript, has encouraged 
 and helped me greatly. 
 
 Mary Lewis Shedd. 
 
 Philadelphia. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER I: A GOODLY HERITAGE . . 25 
 
 Ancestry. His grandparents missionaries in 
 Ohio. His parents^ Rev. John Haskell Shedd 
 and Sarah Jane Dawes Shedd, missionaries 
 to Persia. Urumia, location and people. The 
 Old Nestorian Church. Early history of 
 Urumia Mission. Birth of William Ambrose 
 Shedd. 
 
 CHAPTER II: EARLY INFLUENCES AND 
 
 EDUCATION 38 
 
 Return of the family to America. Life in the 
 South and at Marietta, Ohio. William enters 
 Marietta College at fifteen. A visit to Persia. 
 Graduates from Marietta in 1887. Second 
 visit to Persia. Enters Princeton in 1889. 
 The Benham Club. Summer work. Grad- 
 uates from Princeton in 1892 and goes to 
 Persia as a missionary. 
 
 CHAPTER III: THE YOUNG MISSIONARY 54 
 
 His father's death. Estimate of his father's 
 work. His mother leaves Persia. Her death 
 1921. The Syrians. Mr. Shedd in relief 
 work. A spiritual experience. Coming of the 
 Russian Mission to Urumia. Mr. Shedd's 
 varied work. His marriage in 1894. Death 
 of his wife. A furlough to America. 
 
xvi CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER IV: LEGAL AND POLITICAL 
 
 WORK 71 
 
 Status of Chrstians in Persia. The Legal 
 Board. Death of Dr. J. P. Cochran. Mr. 
 Shedd appointed to legal and political work 
 as station representative. Murder of Rev. 
 B. W. Labaree. The Persian Revolution in 
 Urumia. Turkish invasion. Mr. Shedd's posi- 
 tion of leadership. The Russians in Urumia. 
 
 CHAPTER V: EDUCATIONAL AND MO- 
 HAMMEDAN WORK .... 94 
 
 Opening of a school for Mohammedan boys 
 1904. Difficulties, aims. After ten years. 
 Training young men for the native ministry 
 and for Moslem work. Mr. Shedd's personal 
 work among Moslems. His statement of the 
 missionary attitude toward non-Christian reli- 
 gions. His request to be definitely assigned to 
 Moslem work. 
 
 CHAPTER VI: PREACHER AND SCHOLAR 118 
 
 Dr. Shedd a preacher and evangelist. His 
 relation to the Syrian Evangelical Church 
 and its problems. Literary work. His book, 
 Islam and the Oriental Churches. The Urumia 
 Syriac Concordance. 
 
 CHAPTER VII: HOME LIFE .... 131 
 
 His marriage to Miss Louise Wilbur. A ser- 
 ious breakdown in health. Recuperation in 
 Switzerland and America. Return to Persia 
 in 1911. The political situation. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII: THE ADVOCATE OF THE 
 
 CAPTIVES 138 
 
 Russians in occupation of Urumia at opening 
 of the Great War. Persian sympathy with 
 
CONTENTS xvii 
 
 FAGB 
 
 CHAPTER VIII [Continued] 
 
 the Central Powers. The Russian evacuation. 
 Dr. Shedd urges the Persian authorities to set 
 up a responsible government. Christians 
 take refuge in the Mission Compounds. Dr. 
 Packard's rescue of the Geogtapa people. 
 Christian quarter under the American flag. 
 Christians from northern end of Urumia plain 
 flee to Russia. Turks occupy Urumia and 
 control affairs. Dr. Shedd's dealings with 
 the Turks. The flags in evidence. 
 
 CHAPTER IX: IN THE DEN OF LIONS . 158 
 
 Working with the Turks through the Persians. 
 Blackmail. Ransom of the Bishop and Dr. 
 Lokman. Fighting for the release of captive 
 women and girls. In the villages. Three 
 massacres by the Turks. Dr. Shedd's method 
 of dealing with them. Position of the Ameri- 
 can Mission. 
 
 CHAPTER X: ABIDING IN THE SHADOWS 174 
 
 Feeding the refugees, pestilence and death. 
 Sanitation. At the Hospital. Death of Made- 
 moiselle Perrochet and Mrs. McDowell. Mrs. 
 Shedd's illness and death. A tribute. Dr. 
 Shedd's review of the situation. Evacuation 
 of the Turks and return of the Russians. 
 
 CHAPTER XI: SALVAGE 189 
 
 Efforts of friends outside to help us. A mas- 
 sacre of Armenians in Salmas. Halil Bey's 
 lying telegram. The Turk. Reasons of the 
 persecution of Christians by Persians. Dr. 
 Shedd helping the Russian Consul to settle 
 the Christians in their villages. Return of 
 
xviii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XI [Continued] 
 
 PAGE 
 
 stolen girls. Turks again approach Urumia, 
 Russian evacuation begins and entire Chris- 
 tian population flee toward Russia. Flight 
 halted^ Christians return. Russians strengthen 
 their position in Urumia. 
 
 CHAPTER XII: THE INTERLUDE . . 202 
 
 Dr. Shedd spends a year in America and 
 returns to Persia in fall of 191 6. Relief 
 work. Our marriage July 1917. A French 
 Military Hospital comes to Urumia. Service 
 for the community our missionary call. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII: HOW BEST TO SERVE . 218 
 
 Bolshevism in the Russian army. Anarchy. 
 Forces of law and order unite to save the 
 situation. Dr. Shedd appointed Honorary 
 Vice-consul. The Governor refuses to organ- 
 ize gendarmerie. Allied Staff in Tiflis 
 attempts to organize native forces in Urumia 
 to hold front, then withdraw leaving native 
 Christians in tragic situation. Dr. Shedd the 
 man for the time. Trying to find the best 
 way to serve. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV: STATESMAN AND MEDI- 
 ATOR 231 
 
 Two armed camps. Persians attack Chris- 
 tians, who become the victors. Prominent 
 Moslems take refuge with Dr. Shedd under 
 the American flag. Lines of communication. 
 Famine. Government by Mixed Council. 
 Assassination of Mar Shimon. Revenge of 
 the Syrian tribes. Dr. Shedd saves the Mos- 
 lems of Urumia. Turks gather about Urumia. 
 
CONTENTS xix 
 
 CHAPTER XIV [Continued] 
 
 FAGB 
 
 French Hospital Staff and Russian Consul 
 leave Urumia. Turks make repeated attempts 
 to take Urumia. The Christians at bay. 
 Relief Committee furnish the fighters with 
 bread. Dr. Shedd's health breaking. A Brit- 
 ish aeroplane. Part of the army go to meet 
 a British squadron at Sain Kala. • Turks 
 renew attacks. Flight imminent. 
 
 CHAPTER XV: THE FINISHED TASK . 255 
 
 Flight towardithe south. Fugitives repeatedly 
 attacked. At Kara Waran Dr. Shedd saves 
 those in the rear. We reach the British at 
 Sain Kala six days after leaving Urumia. 
 Attack on the British squadron which retreats 
 in rear of fleeing people. Dr. Shedd's illness 
 and death. The grave by the roadside near 
 Sain Kala. The people reach Hamadan after 
 a terrible journey. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI: THE THINGS THAT RE- 
 MAIN 272 
 
 The British Refugee Camp at Baqubah. My 
 return to Tabriz. The fate of those who re- 
 mained in Urumia at time of flight. Last mas- 
 sacre May 24, 1919- Rescue of the remnants. 
 The trip to Sain Kala and the grave at Tabriz. 
 The people in exile. Our responsibility. 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Dr. William A. Shedd .... Frontispiecd 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Priests and deacons of the Old Nestorian Church, 
 
 Baghdad, 1919 B2 
 
 Maliks or Chiefs of the Nestorian or Syrian Mt. 
 tribes from Turkey. Photographed in the refu- 
 gee camp at Baqubak near Baghdad, 1919 . 32 
 
 Map of Western Persia and Eastern Turkey . 64! 
 
 Map of Asia Minor and Persia . , . , 65 
 
 A group of notables, Mullahs, Merchants and 
 landed gentry, attending the celebration of the 
 constitution regime at Urumia, 1908 . . 80 
 
 Foreign Diplomats and representatives and Per- 
 sian notables at the birthday celebration of 
 Muhammed Ali Shah in May, 1908 (Dr. Shedd 
 in window at the right) 80 
 
 Dr. Shedd with a group of refugees in the City 
 Compound, Urumia, 1918 224 
 
 Mullahs and other prominent men of Urumia 
 placed themselves and the city under the pro- 
 tection of Dr. Shedd after the battle of Feb. 
 22, 1918 240 
 
 Our Army of Defense, Urumia, 1918 . . . 256 
 
 Armenian and Syrian refugees in the Avenue lead- 
 ing out of the Kurdish Gate, Urumia, I9I8 . ^56 
 
 XXI 
 
THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
CHAPTER I: A GOODLY 
 HERITAGE 
 
 William Ambrose Shedd was of the eighth 
 generation of the Shedd name in America, and 
 the family ancestry has been traced in Eng- 
 land for twelve generations more to the year 
 1327. 
 
 Daniel Shed, the first to come to this coun- 
 try, settled in Braintree, Massachusetts, about 
 the year 1640. One of the name was a mem- 
 ber of the "Boston Tea Party" and in the Hst 
 of the Massachusetts soldiers in the Revolu- 
 tionary War are the names of fifty-two Shedds. 
 
 In 1829 the grandfather of William Am- 
 brose, Rev. Henry Shedd, a graduate of Dart- 
 mouth College and Andover Seminary, with 
 his bride, Mary Gerrish, went from Rutland, 
 Vermont, to Central Ohio as a home mission- 
 ary. Thus for nearly a century the name 
 Shedd has been associated with Missions. 
 
 Henry Shedd was fitted by nature and by 
 consecration to the work of a pioneer mission- 
 ary at the time when the two great questions 
 before the Church and the country were Aboli- 
 tion and Temperance. He was uncompromis- 
 
 25 
 
26 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 ing in his attitude toward both and untiring 
 in his labors among the churches. "Standing 
 through a long and self-sacrificing life for high 
 principles in Church and State," wrote his 
 grandson, William Ambrose, "he suffered 
 much unpopularity for his anti-slavery convic- 
 tions, not hesitating to bar the Communion 
 against the slave-holder, or to stand alone in 
 Presbji;ery or Synod, or to brave the rotten 
 eggs of a howling mob." 
 
 Henry Shedd was also a patriot. In his 
 diaiy in April, 1861, he wrote that he had 
 preached on the war before the first company 
 of volunteers raised at his home town. Mount 
 Gilead, and that he had sent ^ve hundred dol- 
 lars in gold for a United States Treasury note 
 to help put down the Rebelhon. Three of his 
 sons served in the Union Armies. 
 
 Life in the new country was hard for the 
 frail, cultured wife, and in 1835 she died, leav- 
 ing two little boys, Charles and John Haskell. 
 John, who became the father of William Am- 
 brose, was born July 9, 1833, and from the 
 time of his mother's death, even after his fa- 
 ther's second marriage, he lived with Mr. and 
 Mrs. Lewis Hardinbrooke, godly neighbors in 
 that pioneer land, and his foster parents had 
 strong influence in molding his character. 
 
A GOODLY HERITAGE 27 
 
 His early education was received in a log 
 schoolhouse in the woods. Later he attended 
 the Academy of Center College, Ohio Wes- 
 leyan University, and Marietta College, where 
 he graduated in 1856, second in his class and 
 with a fine record for character and scholarship. 
 
 Shortly after graduation, he became en- 
 gaged to Miss Sarah Jane Dawes of Marietta, 
 Ohio, who was then a student at Western Col- 
 lege, Oxford, Ohio, from which institution she 
 graduated in 1858. Her father was Henry 
 Dawes, whose family were from New England 
 and among the first settlers in Ohio. An an- 
 cestor was William Dawes, who rode with 
 Paul Revere on his memorable ride. Her 
 mother, Sarah Cutler Dawes, was the daugh- 
 ter of Judge Ephraim Cutler and granddaugh- 
 ter of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, who for more 
 than half a century was pastor of the Congre- 
 gational Church at Hamilton, Massachusetts. 
 He was chaplain in the Revolutionary Army, 
 and late in life a member of the United States 
 Congress. As director and agent of the Ohio 
 Company, he negotiated, in 1787, the purchase 
 of a large tract of land on the Ohio and Mus- 
 kingum rivers, and secured the incorporation 
 of certain articles that promoted education 
 and forbade slavery, in the Ordinance of 1787 
 
28 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 which provided for the government of the 
 Northwest Territory. His son Ephraim be- 
 came a settler in the new country and was a 
 member of the convention for forming the first 
 constitution of Ohio and so rendered to that 
 state much the same service that his father had 
 performed for the whole Northwest Territory. 
 
 John H. Shedd decided upon the ministry 
 for his life work, taking two years of his theo- 
 logical course at Lane Seminary, Cincinnati, 
 Ohio, and the third year at Andover Seminary, 
 in Massachusetts, where he graduated in 1859. 
 While in the Seminary, he offered himself as a 
 foreign missionary to the American Board and 
 was accepted. His son William, writing nearly 
 sixty years later of his mother's part in this de- 
 cision, said, "This consecration to missionary 
 service was something that did not affect him- 
 self alone and surely a question was never more 
 fairly faced and more fairly decided on the 
 basis of fundamental facts, than by this strong 
 and noble woman." 
 
 Jo(hn Haskell Shedd and Sarah Jane Dawes 
 were married July 28, 1859, and shortly after- 
 wards sailed for Persia under appointment by 
 the American Board of Commissioners for 
 Foreign Missions to the Nestorian Mission at 
 Urumia. This Mission station, where their 
 
A GOODLY HERITAGE 29 
 
 son William was born six years later, is in the 
 northwest corner of Persia close to the border 
 of Turkey. It is a land where time is counted 
 in millenniums, on the borders of ancient As- 
 syria, Media, and Armenia, while to the north 
 is Mount Ararat, where Turkey, Persia, and 
 Russia meet. Urumia is the traditional birth- 
 place of Zoroaster, and many great ash hills 
 mark the points where for centuries were kept 
 burning the altar fires of the Parsees, or fire- 
 worshipers. The plain, over which are scat- 
 tered several hundred villages, is about fifty 
 miles long and stretches westward to the tow- 
 ering mountains of Kurdistan, varying from 
 five to twenty-five miles in width. Urumia 
 Lake on the east is a great inland salt sea 
 nearly a hundred miles in length and from 
 forty to fifty miles at its greatest width. 
 
 The Mission field extended westward to 
 Mosul on the Tigris near the site of ancient 
 Nineveh, and included the plains north and 
 south of Urumia Lake. This territory was 
 partly in Persia and partly in Turkey. In the 
 little villages of the plains and among the 
 mountains of Kurdistan as far south as Mosul, 
 wherever occupied by Nestorian tribes, the 
 missionary found a parish. 
 
 The larger part of the population of the 
 
30 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 Urumia field were Persian Mohammedans, 
 Turkish in race and language but Persian in 
 sympathy and allegiance and belonging to the 
 Shia sect. The Nestorians, or Syrians, were 
 an ancient Christian people belonging to the 
 Old Xestorian Church. Thirty thousand of 
 them lived in the villages of Urumia and sev- 
 enty thousand, more or less, in the Kurdish 
 mountains, on the Turkish side. The Chal- 
 deans who live in the Tigris valley are Nes- 
 torians who have been converted to Roman 
 Catholicism. There were Jews in small num- 
 bers through the whole field. Many thousand 
 Armenians lived along the Persian border, in 
 and about Van, Turkey, and scattered through 
 the various cities of Persia. The Kurds live 
 on both sides of the border and are Sunnis, or 
 Orthodox Mohammedans, like the Turks. 
 
 Urumia, oldest of the Persian mission sta- 
 tions, was occupied in 1835 by Rev. Justin 
 Perkins and his wife and Dr. and Mrs. Ashiel 
 Grant. It had an uninterrupted history until 
 the summer of 1918 when, by the tragedies of 
 the World War, the work was entirely broken 
 up and the missionaries and all the Christian 
 population killed or driven out. 
 
 The mission was at first under the American 
 Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions 
 
A GOODLY HERITAGE 31 
 
 and was definitely begun for Nestorians. 
 They were responsive and a large work was 
 built up. Work for Mohammedans was re- 
 stricted by Persian law, ecclesiastical interfer- 
 ence, and persecution. One of the aims of the 
 first missionaries was, "To enable the Nes- 
 torian Church through the grace of God to 
 exert a commanding influence in the spiritual 
 regeneration of Asia." For twenty years an 
 earnest effort was made to revive and purify 
 the Old Nestorian Church, without interfer- 
 ing with its organization. As a body of spirit- 
 ual and enlightened converts developed, they 
 could not find in the dead language, the rituals 
 and ordinances of the Nestorian Church, the 
 means of grace and the instruction they desired. 
 No reforms were permitted and the spiritually 
 minded were driven out. Very gradually the 
 separation came, for it was not desired either 
 by the missionaries or the converts, and was 
 accepted by them as a necessity only after all 
 efforts to make the old organization a spiritual 
 power proved unavailing. At first the village 
 pastors and other workers joined with the mis- 
 sionaries in the Communion ; later they adopted 
 a simple Confession of Faith and formed their 
 own church organization, which they called the 
 Syrian Evangelical Church. Their first con- 
 
32 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 ference was held in 1862; three knushas, or 
 Presbyteries, were formed in Persia and one in 
 Turkey. 
 
 A system of village schools developed. For 
 higher education for boys Urumia College was 
 begun in 1836, and medical and theological 
 classes were added later. Fiske Seminary for 
 girls was opened in 1838. A printing press 
 was set up in 1839 and began printing the 
 Scriptures in the vernacular. Medical work 
 was begun by Dr. Grant in the first years, and 
 in 1880 Westminster Hospital was opened by 
 Dr. J. P. Cochran. 
 
 The missionary vision was ^^ Persia for 
 Christ" and in 1870 the name *'Nestorian Mis- 
 sion" was changed to "Mission to Persia." In 
 1871 the mission was transferred to the Pres- 
 byterian Board, under whose care it has been 
 ever since. As soon as the policy of expansion 
 was accepted by the home Board, active ef- 
 forts were made to occupy new fields. Ta- 
 briz, the second station of the West Persia 
 Mission, was opened in 1873. Teheran, the 
 first of the East Persia Mission stations, was 
 opened in 1872, followed by Hamadan, Kas- 
 vin, Resht, Kermanshah, and Meshed. John 
 H. Shedd had a prominent part in this ex- 
 pansion work. Within a few weeks of his ar- 
 
PhIK.ST^^ AND 1jKA(()\S OF THE OLD XESTORIAX t'HlKCH, 
 BAGHDAD, 1919 
 
 MALIKS OR CHIEFS OF THE XESTOKIAN OR SYRIAN MOUNTAIN TRIBES 
 FROM TURKEY. PHOTOGRAPHED IN THE REFUGEE CAMP 
 AT BAQUBAK, NEAR BAGHDAD, 1919 
 
A GOODLY HERITAGE 33 
 
 rival on the field in 1859, he was visiting the 
 schools and homes in the villages and making 
 short tours into adjacent districts. 
 
 "My mind is to get all the information hy 
 personal inspection and from the opinions of 
 others which is possible," he wrote that first 
 year, "and, candidly looking at the interests of 
 the work, to go where the Master calls." He 
 was a student of the whole field and his vision 
 soon expanded to take in the whole of Persia 
 as a mission field. This outlook he never lost 
 and was always ready to say, "Come," rather 
 than, "Go." He was clear-headed, mature and 
 balanced in judgment, consecrated in spirit, in- 
 tensely in earnest, a layer of foundations. 
 "He had a passion for developing new terri- 
 tory as well as for painstaking effort in behalf 
 of individuals." 
 
 A letter he wrote in 1870 gives a picture of 
 a typical j ourney of those days : 
 
 "The distance passed over in my eight 
 weeks' tour was about seven hundred miles. 
 Of the road it is enough to say that in very 
 few cases were we able to make more than 
 thirty miles a day, while in some places horses 
 cannot travel at all and mules are in constant 
 danger, creeping along at the slow pace of 
 twelve to fifteen miles a day. 
 
34 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 "The fatigues are compensated for usually 
 by excellent health, by pure air and water as 
 clear as crystal, and by refreshing sleep. In 
 fact, fatigue is often a blessing in disguise, 
 as otherwise sleep would be very difficult in the 
 squalor and confusion of many a night's quar- 
 ters. 
 
 "The plain fare of coarse bread and cheese 
 is compensated for by an appetite that makes 
 any food a luxury. There is enough, too, in 
 the scenery and incidents of the way, in 
 strange places and customs, in the antiquities 
 of these regions, to give such a journey a pe- 
 culiar interest. The shadow of death always 
 following one in this land of villainy and blood- 
 shed, casts over the way a shadow of anxiety, 
 and awakens a peculiar thankfulness for daily 
 mercies and deliverances. But one does not go 
 as a traveler, but as a herald of salvation to 
 the Kurds, Jews, Turks, and Christians, an 
 apostle striving to leaven the masses of wild 
 Kurdistan with the Gospel of love. Who is 
 sufficient for these things and who can be suf- 
 ficiently grateful for the privilege!" 
 
 The greatest achievement of John H. Shedd 
 was the organization of the Evangelical 
 Church, in which he had the leading part. The 
 executive body of the Church was the Evan- 
 
A GOODLY HERITAGE 35 
 
 gelistic Board, composed of nine members 
 chosen by the General Conference or Knusha. 
 There were also the Educational and Legal 
 Boards, chosen in the same way. 
 
 Mrs. Shedd was not behind her husband in 
 zeal and devotion to the Cause and was his 
 inspiration and co-worker in all his labors and 
 plans. An associate once said of them that 
 they could bring to a station meeting more 
 ideas and plans for work than the station could 
 develop in a year. Mrs. Shedd frequently ac- 
 companied her husband on his tours and the 
 hardships of the way were softened by her 
 poetic appreciation of the beautiful. 
 
 "Those mountain journeys were not very 
 easy," she wrote, "all that was necessary in 
 food, bedding, clothing, and furniture must be 
 carried on horseback over steep and dangerous 
 paths. More than once our baggage rolled 
 down the steep slopes into the mountain 
 streams. I can see the tumbling horses now, 
 and the water-soaked goods, but I remember 
 more vividly the wildly grand scenery of rocks 
 and cliffs and crags and tumbling cascades 
 glittering in the sunlight." 
 
 When they went to Urumia, part of the sta- 
 tion was living in the city where were the 
 press, girls' school, and the admmistrative 
 
36 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 work. The others were living at Seir, a 
 mountain village about six miles from the 
 city, where the boys' school was situated. 
 Twenty years later a new property, containing 
 about fifteen acres, a mile and three-quarters 
 from the city, was acquired. This became the 
 permanent home of the Boys' School, or Col- 
 lege, as it was always called, though not of 
 college rank. The hospital, missionary resi- 
 dences, and smaller houses for teachers and 
 hospital assistants were also built here. This 
 compound was known by natives and for- 
 eigners as the "College." It was surrounded 
 by thick mud walls, fourteen feet high, with 
 towers for watchmen at each corner. An ave- 
 nue bordered on each side by a row of tall, 
 magnificent plane trees divided the compound 
 and was its chief natural glory. The buildings 
 were made of sun-dried brick, with red or 
 burnt brick for facings, and with flat mud 
 roofs. 
 
 During their second year Mr. and Mrs. 
 Shedd went to S almas, the plain north of Uru- 
 mia, to work for Armenians. Here visitors 
 came by the score, sometimes a hundred a day. 
 
 "I was never so much noticed in my life, 
 before or since," Mrs. Shedd said; "I don't 
 see how I ever got my house into tolerable 
 
A GOODLY HERITAGE 37 
 
 order, for I was never alone and all I did was 
 of the greatest interest to the women, who 
 came in troops." 
 
 One day, utterly tired out, she hid herself 
 in a back room and lay down to rest. In a few 
 moments a sound attracted her attention, and 
 looking up, there stood a dozen or more women, 
 crowding in "to see the lady sleep." They 
 had climbed in through a window. 
 
 Later they moved back to Urumia and it 
 was in this remote corner of the ancient world, 
 with its Oriental character, thought, and life 
 little changed since the days of Abraham, in 
 the little mountain village of Seir, overlooking 
 the Urumia plain, that William Ambrose 
 Shedd was born January 24, 1865. 
 
CHAPTER II: EARLY INFLUENCES 
 AND EDUCATION 
 
 When William was five years old, the fam- 
 ily, which consisted of Charles, William, Sarah, 
 and John (two children having died in in- 
 fancy), came to America on furlough, and 
 owing to the ill-health of the mother, they were 
 unable to return for several years. 
 
 At the time of their arrival in America, after 
 an absence of eleven years in the Old World, 
 Mrs. Shedd's nephew, then a small boy, says, 
 "There was a great deal of excitement in our 
 family about their return. My father met 
 them in New York. He was very fond of his 
 sister, of course, and we all greatty admired 
 her. In fact, I think I have never seen a more 
 beautiful face. It was so full of dignity and 
 sweetness and strength. We all of us felt this 
 and greatly enjoyed the times when she would 
 gather us around her and try to instill some 
 good ideas into our wayward minds. Father 
 saw the family in New York before we saw 
 them and told us that Aunt Jane was wearing 
 
 38 
 
EARLY INFLUENCES 39 
 
 the same hat that she wore when she went to 
 Persia, but would attract admu'ation in any 
 hat." 
 
 Wilham was seven years old when they went 
 to Charlotte, North Carolina, where Mr. Shedd 
 was engaged in work for freedmen in Biddle 
 Institute, now Biddle University. The life 
 was hard there, because families engaged in 
 work for Xegroes were ostracized socially and 
 the children were cut off from good schools 
 and companionship with other children. 
 
 During the six years in the South, two boys, 
 Ephraim and Harry, were added to the fam- 
 ily and a great sorrow came to them in the 
 death of the little sister, Sarah, or "Daisy," as 
 she was called. At that time William was very 
 ill, and his life was despaired of. "I remember 
 how thin and weak he was," wrote his mother, 
 "as he sat bolstered up in an easy chair in my 
 room. He was not ten years old then, but he 
 was an interested reader and talked with me 
 of Russian affairs and international relations." 
 
 Of the influences and impressions of these 
 years in the South, William A. Shedd himself 
 wrote, "My own memories as a boy tell of no 
 friends among the white children of the place. 
 We children were sent to the white Presby- 
 terian church of the town. The doctor had the 
 
40 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 privilege that doctors have of ignoring social 
 conventions, and he was a friend. There was 
 a German who kept a country store and with 
 whom my father labored to induce him to give 
 up selling intoxicants. On the other hand, I 
 have no memories more delightful than those 
 of going with my father behind the steady 
 mare 'Judie' to the country churches under his 
 care. Communion services were sometimes 
 held in the woods, the communicants sitting on 
 either side of rough plank tables under the 
 trees, and there was a solemnity and simplicity 
 about it that laid hold on the imagination. At 
 noon, picnic dinners were spread, and the 
 lapse of years has not dimmed the memories 
 of fried chicken, sweet potatoes, pies and cakes 
 and other dainties made by cooks who had 
 learned the art in the great houses of the slave 
 plantations. These things played a larger part 
 in the boy's life than in his father's. 
 
 "The memories of these years are full of the 
 common pleasures of country life in America — 
 the pets and garden, the walks and picnics in 
 the woods, one summer spent on the seashore 
 in New Jersey, and the trip to Philadelphia to 
 the Centennial Exposition in 1876." 
 
 In 1878 Marietta College conferred upon 
 Mr. J. H. Shedd the degree of Doctor of 
 
EARLY INFLUENCES 41 
 
 Divinity. The same year he and Mrs. Shedd, 
 with the younger children, returned to Persia, 
 leaving William and his older brother Charles 
 with their grandmother and Aunt Lucy Dawes 
 in Marietta. The family thus divided was 
 never again united. In Marietta among his 
 mother's friends and relatives, William lived 
 while preparing for college and through his 
 college years. There were numerous cousins, 
 and they ^vith a few other intimate friends, 
 formed the "Hill Crowd." 
 
 Marietta was the place where WilHam made 
 his boyhood friends and where he was a real 
 boy himself. There was only one girl among 
 that crowd of boys, and she was sister to them 
 all. In recalling those happy days she says, 
 *'I counted on Will to defend me when I 
 needed defense. His ready wits were used for 
 my benefit against any of the boys when we 
 argued or quarreled, and I counted definitely 
 on his size and his brains as a help in 
 trouble. I remember once when he con- 
 tended that the fact that I was a girl 
 didn't disqualify me from participating in 
 their society on a basis of equality. This was 
 when one of the boys had objected, on the 
 score of sex, to my tagging along. It is all 
 forgotten except my gratitude to Will because 
 
42 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 he respected me in spite of the fact, the bitter, 
 humiliating fact, that I was a girl. 
 
 "Will looked more hke my father than any 
 of his sons, and his keen brown eyes that saw 
 eveiything but were so soft and smiling to his 
 friends, were like my father's, as were his thin, 
 small, brown hands. Their attitude toward 
 righteousness was the same. Neither of them 
 did right with a 'hoher than thou' air or with 
 set teeth, but they both always did right. It 
 never occurred to either of them to consider 
 anything else." 
 
 The "Hill Crowd" was made up of a very 
 bright set of boys, some of them brilliant and 
 none of them more than fifteen years old when 
 ready for college. 
 
 "It did not take us long to realize the qual- 
 ity of Will's mind," wiutes one of them, "five 
 minutes with him upon a difficult mathematical 
 problem would help me more than twice the 
 amount of time with any teacher. He was 
 always helping some one in this way. More 
 particularly when he returned in 1885 did I 
 come to appreciate this quality of his mind. 
 By this time we were putting in our leisure 
 hours in social activities. I am sure that the 
 period from 1885 to 1887 was in every way 
 a very happy period in Will's life. Our pleas- 
 
EARLY INFLUENCES 43 
 
 ures were simple and innocent but very keen. 
 We took picnics in skiffs and sometimes, when 
 we could raise the money, by carriage. He 
 joined us in all our sports and excelled in most 
 of them. He was always good natured and 
 happy and full of fun. I cannot imagine that 
 he would ever fail to see the point of a bright 
 remark or that he could ever have been so 
 burdened that his eyes could not have snapped 
 at something really humorous. He was always 
 sympathetic, keen in the enjoyment of humor, 
 quick in repartee, and a very jolly, genial com- 
 panion, ready at any time to turn to the con- 
 sideration of serious matters, which he always 
 clarified by his discussion. I have heard one 
 who was his most sincere admirer at that time, 
 say many times that Will Shedd had the clear- 
 est mind of any person he had ever known." 
 
 At fifteen William entered Marietta Col- 
 lege. He tutored some of the boys in the 
 Academy who found him a teacher of unusual 
 skill. One of them recalls him as being more 
 tolerant toward the younger boys than older 
 boys usually are, but most of all remembers 
 him for his attitude toward the "black sheep," 
 which was always one of the most admirable 
 of his characteristics. In later life he was sel- 
 dom heard to speak in adverse criticism of 
 
M THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 others, and those whose ideals and training 
 were different from his own were not kept at 
 a distance, but frequently found in him a warm 
 and sympathetic friend. During those last 
 months in Urumia when he was the central 
 figure in our little turbulent and isolated world, 
 men of every stamp came to him for counsel. 
 Some of the friendships he made were a little 
 joke between us and occasionally when some 
 scamp of unusually evil reputation in his ex- 
 tremitj^ turned to Dr. Shedd for advice, the 
 latter would announce to me with a smile and 
 a twinkle in his eyes, that he had made another 
 new "friend." 
 
 Two of the strongest influences in his life 
 while at Marietta were his grandmother and 
 aunt. 
 
 "She taught us reverence for all holy things, 
 God, the Bible, the Sabbath," he said of his 
 grandmother. "She taught us to honor our 
 ancestry and that is a very wholesome element 
 in self-respect. Then, too, she was such an 
 example of mental activity and untiring zeal. 
 She was part of my liberal education. The 
 lessons of character and faith, who can esti- 
 mate them! The Ninetieth Psalm and the 
 Fourteenth of John are inseparably connected 
 with her memory. I don't know how many 
 
EARLY INFLUENCES 45 
 
 times she has had me read them at prayers, 
 always one or the other when there was any 
 special occasion, as a departm-e from home." 
 
 "You must always be sure," he wrote to his 
 Aunt Lucy, "that every year I live I appre- 
 ciate more and more your unselfish devotion 
 and all that you have done for me." 
 
 At the time of her death in his tribute to her, 
 he said, "Her generosity of time and trouble 
 was drawn upon most freely by us, her nephews 
 and nieces. She never turned a deaf ear to our 
 requests and never despaired of our success. 
 The Hill Crowd had no more devoted cham- 
 pion than she." 
 
 At the close of his sophomore year, being 
 only seventeen and not robust, his parents 
 urged the postponement of the remaining years 
 of college work that he might be with them 
 in Persia. In October, 1882, after several 
 weeks of interesting travel, he reached Urumia 
 and home. 
 
 The year 1880 had been a memorable one 
 in the history of Urumia Station. Terrible 
 famine had been followed by the Kurdish raid 
 of Sheik ObeiduUah. Until the World War 
 all events in Urumia dated from the "Coming 
 of the Sheik." In the Shedd home this year 
 was not less memorable. "The year 1880," 
 
46 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 wrote theii' son William, ''was to Dr. and Mrs. 
 Shedd the hardest of all the years of their 
 missionary service. They passed through the 
 trials of famine only to endure the perils of a 
 Kurdish raid. The famine was scarcely over, 
 when word came from America of the serious 
 nervous breakdown of their oldest son, while 
 the Kurdish hordes left barely in time for them 
 to take to the Mission graveyard at Seir the 
 little body of their youngest son." It was a 
 time of great danger and responsibility to the 
 Mission and it was through the influence and 
 wisdom of Dr. J. P. Cochran that the destruc- 
 tion of the city was averted. "The real pro- 
 tection and reliance was the banner of trust in 
 God. Strong in that faith were those who 
 guided the affairs of the miniature state." 
 
 Disturbed political conditions and the pres- 
 sure of work made life in the Mission Station 
 very busy and the boy found plenty to do, cata- 
 loguing College and Station libraries, teach- 
 ing in the high schools and college, studying 
 language, visiting village schools, tutoring his 
 younger brothers, and so releasing his mother 
 for more missionary work. His father was 
 principal of the College and when the boy 
 was leaving after two and a half years at 
 home, could well say, "After my son leaves. 
 
EARLY INFLUENCES 47 
 
 it will be very hard for one missionary alone 
 to do justice to the college work, having both 
 theological and college classes that need his 
 teaching. He has done full w^ork in teaching 
 and helping in the college and in vacations 
 has done considerable. He is now twenty years 
 of age and his inclination seems to be toward 
 the ministry. He has learned the Syriac and 
 some Persian." 
 
 The next two years were spent in Marietta 
 College where he entered into all the College 
 activities, frequently took part in oratorical 
 contests, and during his Senior year edited the 
 College paper, the "Olio." 
 
 He had not yet decided upon his future 
 course in life. "Now that I am a man in 
 years," he wrote his mother on his twenty- 
 first birthday, "I suppose that I ought to 
 have a fixed purpose and aim in view. If I 
 were to follow my own inclinations, I should 
 go ahead and study some branches and settle 
 down as teacher or college professor (if I could 
 get such a place) and live a rather inactive life. 
 But I suppose I ought to do what will do the 
 most good, and there are certainly many rea- 
 sons why I should go to Persia." "I beheve 
 my natural ideal of life," he wrote later, "would 
 be a cozy home with money enough in United 
 
48 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 States bonds to relieve me of the trouble of 
 keeping accounts in order to keep expenses 
 down. I do believe that I was born with an 
 antipathy to economizing. I don't think that 
 I am especially extravagant in my tastes, but 
 I don't like to bother about ways and means." 
 He graduated from Marietta in 1887 and 
 the same fall again went to Persia to help the 
 hard pressed missionaries, especially his father, 
 who had not had a furlough for ten years. 
 The conditions under which the Mission was 
 working at that time are revealed in a letter 
 written by Dr. John H. Shedd, "Sometimes 
 it seems to me that the clouds are closing round 
 us. We have, on the one hand, the Turks, 
 bigoted and cruel beyond reformation, bound 
 by their religion and all their instincts to 
 repress the light if they can. Quite overshad- 
 owing all these regions, on the other hand, is 
 the great empire of Russia, crushing all lib- 
 erty of conscience. We hear of the banishment 
 of three preachers of Tiflis who have just been 
 banished for four years for no offense but 
 preaching the Gospel. The same spirit per- 
 vades Persia. Notice has been served to desist 
 from all sales of Scriptures, so strongly worded 
 that it says, 'any one who reads the New Testa- 
 ment is worthy of death.' Then in our little 
 
EARLY INFLUENCES 49 
 
 world among nominal Christians, the order 
 of the day is wrong and outrage. The reac- 
 tionaries of the Government and the landlords 
 are more and more oppressive and there is 
 no redress. The people are impoverished and 
 often discouraged and much demoralized as 
 to civil affairs. I could write a chapter of 
 wanton outrage on some of the most inoffen- 
 sive preachers and members." 
 
 William spent two years at this time in 
 Urumia, his principal work being the station 
 treasury and teaching in the College. His 
 father and mother took their furlough to 
 America, leaving such heavy responsibilities 
 upon his shoulders as made him long for the 
 wisdom of experience. *'I need guidance and 
 especially moderation. I wish I knew how to 
 be firm and yet gentle. More and more I feel 
 my weakness in comparison with the work 
 given me to do. Maybe this feeling will help 
 me. We all of us need a spiritual refreshment. 
 I wish I had talked more frankly about these 
 things," he said. 
 
 These two terms of more than four years 
 spent in Persia during his preparatory years, 
 not only enabled him to get a knowledge of 
 the languages, but gave him a sympathetic 
 and affectionate imderstanding of the people. 
 
50 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 Many of the friendships formed then, espe- 
 cially among the Syrians, were strengthened 
 and mellowed by the later years of common 
 service and hardships, until in the last years 
 he became the adored and trusted leader of 
 a great multitude. 
 
 He returned to America in the summer of 
 1889 and entered Princeton Seminary. The 
 days here were full of intellectual interests, 
 hard work, and pleasant friendships with their 
 enriching experiences. "He was always love- 
 able" and he counted his friends among life's 
 richest gifts. "I am in the Benham Club," 
 he wrote, "the very best boarding club in the 
 Seminary, not so much in the quality of the 
 board, though that is excellent, as the quality 
 of the crowd." 
 
 The affectionate name given him by his 
 friends at Princeton was "Sheddy." "Without 
 the first indication of priggishness in his rather 
 quiet and reserved nature," writes one of 
 them, "he enjoyed all the many sides of the 
 Club life and entered as far as his nature 
 allowed, into all the fun of the hour. 'Sheddy' 
 served as 'Judge' one year and, according to 
 the rules of the Club, enjoyed the privilege 
 of inflicting fines upon the others for making 
 puns. 
 
EARLY INFLUENCES 51 
 
 "He did not take an active part in the 
 more vehement side of life such as foot- 
 ball and baseball, but there was never anything 
 manifest in him that set him aside from these 
 things. 
 
 "To supplement the curriculum, which at 
 that time was none too attractive, some of us 
 availed ourselves of the privilege of sitting at 
 'Sheddy's' feet studying Syriac Grammar as an 
 optional. Syriac was to him as his mother's 
 tongue." "His elevation of character, his mod- 
 est and hearty good fellowship, and his unusual 
 ability marked him as one of the leaders in the 
 life of the institution." In speaking of him- 
 self at that time, he said that he had not yet 
 found his own theological opinions and was 
 glad to form a friendship with one inclined 
 toward Episcopalianism as he did not wish to 
 be too much under the one-sided influences of 
 blue Presbyterianism. His critical faculty was 
 more than ordinarily well developed and he 
 could not accept ready-made theological opin- 
 ions. He had learned to look at intellectual 
 and religious problems positively, not nega- 
 tively. "What I do beheve, not what I don't 
 believe," he said. Being a natural student, he 
 thoroughly enjoyed the intellectual atmos- 
 phere. "I could easily resign myself to a com- 
 
X 
 
 52 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 fortable cloister — no asceticism in it — and de- 
 generate into a book worm," he wrote. "My 
 ambition is to become a competent Orientalist 
 along some line and add some light to the 
 rays that come from the East, and to do it so 
 as to help the missionary work. I feel that I 
 should like to register a vow to devote my life 
 to Mohammedan work, not to the exclusion of 
 other work. It seems to me that it is the hard- 
 est missionary problem and one in which there 
 are the fewest ready and competent to engage. 
 More than any other work, it requires special 
 preparation. My prayer is that God will pre- 
 pare and use me in converting the Mohamme- 
 dan world, in the way and place He sees fit." 
 
 While in the Seminary, Mr. Shedd spent 
 one summer in Sunday- School work in South 
 Dakota. Another summer was spent in 
 preaching at Marion, Ohio, with so much satis- 
 faction that he felt that if anything should 
 prevent his becoming a missionary, he would 
 like to devote his life to just such a church 
 as that. 
 
 During his last year at Princeton, he worked 
 on his thesis for the Hebrew Fellowship, which 
 was awarded him and which carried with it op- 
 portunity to study abroad. The demand for 
 his immediate return to Persia, however, was 
 
EARLY INFLUENCES 53 
 
 SO strong that he felt that he must relinquish 
 the much prized opportunity for study and 
 accept the call. He asked that he be allowed 
 to postpone the use of the Fellowship for two 
 years, but he was never able to avail himself 
 of its benefits and resigned it in favor of a 
 classmate. "There is a certain relief in going 
 out to Persia this year," he wrote his mother, 
 "and still it is a pretty hard struggle, and it 
 is not all over yet. Of course it can't be 
 helped; a man can't oppose his personal pre- 
 dilections to his duty, but I never knew before 
 just how hard it is." 
 
 He was ordained at Marietta in the summer 
 of 1892 shortly after his graduation from 
 Princeton, and a few weeks later sailed for 
 Persia, a full-fledged missionary. 
 
CHAPTER III: THE YOUNG 
 MISSIONARY 
 
 When William A. Shedd went to Urumia 
 in 1892, the station was undermanned and he 
 being to the manner born, familiar with the 
 languages and customs of the people, was able 
 from the first to assume a large share of the 
 work. He was assigned the station treasury, 
 with a share in the press and in the superin- 
 tendence of churches, village schools and out- 
 field. 
 
 During his first summer there, he made an 
 eight weeks' tour through Kurdistan as far 
 as Amadia and Mosul, visiting Mar Shimon, 
 the civil and religious head of the Nestorian 
 Church, at Kochanis, the seat of the Patriar- 
 chate. 
 
 His father, the senior member and acknowl- 
 edged leader of the station, was in failing 
 health and found it necessary to give up, one 
 by one, the various departments of work with 
 which for so many years he had been identi- 
 fied and which he so greatly loved. His mantle 
 fell upon the shoulders of his son and the 
 
 54 
 
THE YOUNG MISSIONARY 55 
 
 father's motto, "Whose I am, and whom I 
 serve" became no less the son's. 
 
 John Haskell Shedd died April 12, 1895. 
 "The end came quietly and peacefully," said 
 his son, telling of his last days. "He said to 
 me on the last Sunday when the final struggle 
 began, 'I don't want a death scene' ; and there 
 was none. He left his work for me, he said, 
 a precious legacy but one I can never fulfill. 
 I answered him with the hope that I might 
 do it in his spirit. *A^o, not that, but better, 
 in the Spirit of Christ,' he said. He above 
 all things served. 'A servant of Jesus Christ' 
 would be his fitting epitaph." 
 
 Later William A. Shedd wrote an estimate 
 of his father's work for the Schaff-Herzog 
 Encyclopedia, of which the following is a 
 summary : 
 
 "Mr. Shedd's missionary work deserves 
 special record along four lines. On his arrival 
 on the field as a young missionary of unusual 
 ability and energy, he was restive at the hmi- 
 tations of the work for the Nestorians and he 
 sought hard to have it extended to the Armen- 
 ian and Mohammedan population of the field. 
 These efforts, though not successful at the 
 time, were among the influences that prepared 
 for the later wide extension of the work which 
 
 ••/ 
 
56 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 made the Mission to the Nestorians a mission 
 to Persia. 
 
 "A second line was the effort to evangelize 
 the mountain Nestorian tribes. 
 
 "Another line of work in which Mr. Shedd's 
 memory and influence will be lasting was in 
 the training of native workers. 
 
 "But the chief service he rendered the cause 
 of Missions was in the Organization of the 
 Native Syrian Evangelical Church. In his 
 plans and principles in this work, he was ahead 
 of his time." 
 
 "The truest monument to the memory of 
 John Haskell Shedd is the Evangelical Church 
 in Persia," wrote another. 
 
 The year following the death of Dr. John 
 Shedd, his wife resigned active connection with 
 the Mission and returned to America. Here 
 for more than a quarter of a century she bore 
 upon heart and brain the work of the whole 
 Mission and unceasingly carried to the throne 
 of grace and power the needs not only of the 
 Mission, but also of scores of individuals. 
 Through all the sufferings of the people, espe- 
 cially during the later years, she lived their 
 sorrows with them. Her love and interest in 
 the peoples of Persia, to whom she and her 
 husband had devoted their lives and to whom 
 
THE YOUNG MISSIONARY 57 
 
 she had consecrated her son, later surrender- 
 ing him in his final sacrifice, were that of a 
 mother for her children, and continued until 
 her death March 19, 1921. A woman of large 
 gifts of mind and heart, she was one of the 
 .strongest influences in her son's life, even to 
 the last. 
 
 When missionary work among the Nestor- 
 ians, or Syrians, was first begun, their spiritual 
 life was at low ebb. Centuries of living as a 
 subject people among Mohammedans, with 
 violence and oppression an everyday experi- 
 ence, and no rights of redress, had been debas- 
 ing in its effect on character. Such sins as 
 lying, deceit, and drunkenness were very com- 
 mon while the people were grossly ignorant 
 and superstitious. 
 
 For more than half a century the work of 
 educating and training them in Christian man- 
 hood and womanhood had been slowly pro- 
 gressing. The Spirit of the Lord had at vari- 
 ous times manifested Himself in power in the 
 schools and churches. The Syrian Evangelical 
 Church, in spite of persecution and opposition 
 without and of error and sin within, was a liv- 
 ing power for righteousness, leavening the 
 mass. 
 
 Now unrest among the workers was showing 
 
58 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 itself and there was constant demand for 
 higher salaries. "The whole matter of employ- 
 ing men who are consecrated to the service 
 with a lot of 'ifs' is an insoluble problem," 
 wrote Mr. Shedd. 
 
 The American fever became epidemic, occa- 
 sioned partly by a desire to see the world, 
 and partly by such political and industrial con- 
 ditions as made it impossible for these people 
 to better their condition in Persia. Several 
 thousand Syrian men, mostly outside the 
 Evangelical Church, were spending the 
 greater part of the year in Russia, working 
 or begging, thus leaving some of the Chris- 
 tian villages nearly empty of their male 
 population. This custom of begging in 
 Russia in the name of religion was so common 
 that those who made it a profession were called 
 "Stealers of the Cross." More and more the 
 graduates of our boys' school were looking 
 toward Europe or oftener America, as the 
 Land of Promise, where all their dreams would 
 come true. 
 
 The Syrians had been a subject race so 
 long that they were sadly lacking in initia- 
 tive and independence. The constant persecu- 
 tions and oppressions of Mohammedan village 
 masters and government officials, the frequent 
 
THE YOUNG MISSIONARY 59 
 
 Kurdish raids, the general disorder of the 
 country which the Persian Government was 
 unable to control, the discouraging industrial 
 conditions and Russian influence coming in 
 like a flood, made the problem of the develop- 
 ment of the EvangeUcal Church both complex 
 and difficult. These problems required wis- 
 dom, patience and a sympathetic understand- 
 ing of the native viewpoint, and there was no 
 one whose judgment was more depended 
 upon than Mr. Shedd's. 
 
 "He carried with him into his work the clear 
 and steadfast intellectual power which marked 
 his student days and his power grew with the 
 years. He brought to bear upon Mission prob- 
 lems and all the perplexities of the work in 
 Persia, a mind of singular purity and vigor." 
 
 "I suppose there will always be two ways of 
 looking at native character," he said, "one 
 making practically no allowance for circum- 
 stances, and the other, perhaps, lowering the 
 standard too much. I think it is generally the 
 people who make a good deal of allowance for 
 circumstances who are able to talk straight to 
 the people themselves." 
 
 Apropos of Mr. Shedd's abihty to talk 
 straight to the people is this incident of one 
 who had been reprimanded for his misdeeds. 
 
60 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 *'01d Shimon, blind and forlorn, was in to ask 
 after Will's health, when some one suggested 
 that Mr. Shedd was no friend of his. He re- 
 plied, 'Mr. Shedd may say hard things, but 
 he's honest and straight.' That is the feeling 
 that all have toward him. They know where 
 he stands, that he is uncompromising toward 
 wrong, but that he will be friendly and give 
 them credit for whatever is good. Will is, I 
 think, a rare combination of diplomacy and 
 strict honesty. Then he loves the people and 
 treats them with respect, and they trust him." 
 
 War and famine have been of frequent 
 occurrence in the Urumia region, and the suf- 
 fering and distressed of all races have always 
 turned to the missionaries for help in their ex- 
 tremity. In the winter of 1897, Mr. Shedd 
 made a trip to Tergawar, one of the outlying 
 border districts, trudging through the snow, 
 investigating and giving food to the two thou- 
 sand refugees from Turkey, and holding 
 crowded meetings. 
 
 On this trip he was invited to go on a hunt 
 for mountain sheep. The invitation was from 
 Piroo, a Kurd famed as a robber, who for a 
 year or more had been a fugitive and had just 
 returned to his home. Mr. Shedd with a dozen 
 Syrians tramped five or six miles over the hills 
 
THE YOUNG MISSIONARY 61 
 
 to Piroo's village which was built house against 
 house, all under one roof, over which the road 
 trailed as over a hiUock. Here on the roof 
 they were cordially received by Piroo, "a hand- 
 some young man, slight and well-built, quick 
 and alert with a good clear eye." He routed 
 his wife from her "apartment" to make room 
 for the dozen guests. This was a room twelve 
 by fifteen feet with two windows about a foot 
 square and served as sleeping quarters for all. 
 Here they sat on rugs beside a smoky stove, 
 drank tea, and ate a supper of rice, chicken, 
 and dates cooked in grease. After coffee there 
 was a guessing game, then their host left them 
 and as sleep was impossible, Mr. Shedd said, 
 "I kept a fellow telling mighty stories of Rus- 
 tum and Shah Abbas for the greater part of 
 the night." 
 
 By three o'clock they were on their way up 
 the mountain, trudging through snow three 
 feet deep on the level. On the crest of the 
 mountain, a herd of fifteen or twenty mountain 
 sheep, "airy, agile and graceful, leaping fromt 
 rock to rock" were surrounded. Said Mr. 
 Shedd, "I must confess I was too exhausted 
 to do anything but pant and cough and watch 
 the sport. One buck was given to me for my 
 *prowess.' " 
 
62 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 Another time when he had gone to the Sal- 
 mas-Khoi district to administer relief to the 
 refugees who had escaped the massacres in 
 Turkey, he said in his report, "I never saw 
 such pitiful creatures, poor little children, 
 fatherless and motherless. I was glad to have 
 something to help them. May God grant us 
 always as missionaries a part in this Christ- 
 like work of ministering to the hungry and 
 naked. It is all 'unstable equilibrium' till some 
 righteous revenge is taken for the blood spilled 
 in Turkey. Things can't be settled till they're 
 settled right, and Persia cannot entirely escape 
 the consequences of affairs in Turkey. 
 
 "As is always the case with this poor mis- 
 governed land, the innocent suffer with the 
 guilty, or oftener instead of the guilty. I saw 
 one poor man in the street in front of the Gov- 
 ernor's door who was dying and did die a few 
 hours later. He was an innocent man who had 
 been arrested to fill the vacancy of an escaped 
 Revolutionist. He died from the effects of the 
 beating and branding he had received in the 
 Persian prison." 
 
 The true story of a man's life is incomplete 
 without the record of his inner spiritual experi- 
 ences. It was on his return from this journey 
 
THE YOUNG MISSIONARY 63 
 
 to Khoi and Salmas, when depressed by thie 
 * 'cruel mercies of the wicked" which he had wit- 
 nessed, distracted in thought, and seemingly 
 far from abiding in Christ, that like Saul of 
 Tarsus, he met the Lord in the way. For sev- 
 eral days and nights there were deep searching^ 
 of heart when "It seemed as if the Lord were 
 wrestling with me and I must not let Him 
 go," he said. "It was to me a conviction of sin, 
 of righteousness and of judgment — a revela- 
 tion of my worthlessness, weakness and sinful- 
 ness. One sin after another was shown to me 
 in its true hideousness. At the same time I felt 
 God very near; perhaps in the way meant in 
 saying 'He that is near Me is near the fire.' It 
 was a revelation of my utter inability to do 
 anything and God's readiness to do everything. 
 The Lord has humbled me as I have never been 
 humbled before. This is not the whole either. 
 I have never known before how real a power 
 prayer is, how in real truth God will dwell in 
 us. Many things are different and life is new. 
 I do not wish to leave the valley of humiliation 
 for I do not see how I can stand except as I 
 am kept in mind of my weakness and the Lord 
 knows how and when to lead. All these things 
 are intensely real, and I am sure it is God's 
 
64 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 work. No part of it is from me, not even any 
 intellectual appropriation of truth or mental 
 vision of spiritual things." 
 
 One hesitates to lay bare a man's soul, but 
 this experience was a crisis in his life and 
 was written only for his mother. It was his 
 faith in God and the life of the Infinite within 
 him that made him strong to bear and to do, 
 and to follow the inner light even though his 
 vision reached beyond the ken of his fellows. 
 
 The year 1897 marked the coming of the 
 Russian Mission to Urumia, causing a big land 
 slide toward the Russian Church and creating 
 consternation in the other churches of Urumia. 
 As the Russian priests made their triumphant 
 procession through the villages, nearly the en- 
 tire Old Nestorian Church, many Armenians 
 and Roman Catholics, and some of the Evan- 
 gelical Church members gave their names to 
 be written as members of the Russian Ortho- 
 dox Church. 
 
 "The methods of the Russian priests were 
 interesting," wrote Mr. Shedd. "The first 
 thing on reaching a village was to reconsecrate 
 the Nestorian church which they took posses- 
 sion of without discussing the question of legal 
 rights. Those who had given their names were 
 then received individually and made their con- 
 
THE YOUNG MISSIONARY 65 
 
 fession to a priest. Later the ^converts' gath- 
 ered in the churchyard where the formal recep- 
 tion rite was performed. The people through 
 a representative and by kneeling in assent, 
 renounced the errors of Nestorianism and 
 accepted the Russian Orthodox Church. Then 
 all attended the communion service in the 
 church." 
 
 The Christian races who had for so long suf- 
 fered under the oppressions of the IMoslems, 
 saw in the Russian Mission the herald of Rus- 
 sian political influence under which they hoped 
 to find deliverance from their intolerable posi- 
 tion as subject races. The massacres of Chris- 
 tians in Turkey brought terror and panic to 
 the hearts of Persian Christians and they 
 thought to find refuge under the shadow of the 
 Russian Church. The strongest pressure was 
 brought to bear upon them and the wildest 
 hopes were indulged in. All sorts of reports 
 were circulated and the people believed that 
 the time of their deliverance was at hand and 
 that at last they would be free from Moslem 
 oppression and secure for themselves a posi- 
 tion of influence. This movement was under 
 the distinct patronage of the Czar, and while 
 on the surface it appeared to be religious, it 
 was purely political and aroused strong Per- 
 
66 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 sian feeling against the Christians. It was a 
 testing time for the Evangelical Church but 
 it remained loyal. Some went over to the Rus- 
 sians but most stood nobly against strong 
 temptations. Through the years there was 
 steady growth in the influence of the Evangeli- 
 cal Church and steady development in the spir- 
 itual life of its members as well as an increasing 
 willingness to accept responsibility. Probably 
 nowhere in the world had the Presbyterian 
 Board so large a work among so small a people. 
 In the later years the Evangelical Church 
 gained prestige out of proportion to the num- 
 ber of its members and though it was not the 
 largest church in Urumia, it was the most in- 
 fluential. With the Russians their relations 
 were friendly and with the Persian authorities 
 they were accorded a position of honor. 
 
 During these years Mr. Shedd's iirst work 
 was in the College as principal and teacher 
 of Theology, often making his own text-books. 
 Part of the time he was also station treasurer, 
 superintendent of village schools, editor of the 
 Syriac newspaper, between times preparing 
 other literary work, preaching on Sundays, 
 and studying languages as opportunity 
 afforded. He possessed marvelous powers 
 of concentration and could turn off an 
 
THE YOUNG MISSIONARY 67 
 
 immense amount of work. In his report of 
 1899 he speaks of making an attempt to regu- 
 late the spelling of the Syriae language, work- 
 ing on a Jewish version of the Sermon on the 
 Mount and a proposed dictionary, studying 
 Old Syriae manuscripts, helping in the College 
 museum, and acting as trustee of Deacon 
 Abraham's orphanage. In another report cov- 
 ering fourteen months, he told of having done 
 more evangelistic work than ever before and 
 of having found it the most delightful of all 
 work. He had preached ninety sermons, given 
 fifteen other addresses and lectures at confer- 
 ences, attended twelve preacher's meetings 
 and seventy-five other meetings. He had vis- 
 ited forty-seven villages, seven for a stay of 
 two days or more. There were two extended 
 trips to Tergawar and he had spent a week of 
 prayer in the City Church and Fiske Seminary. 
 His teaching work was very close to his 
 heart. "It comes over me sometimes over- 
 whelmingly what a task it is to prepare men to 
 stand in the midst of this weak nation and 
 against all the influences for evil and error," 
 he said. "Yet God can do it and we must 
 depend on Him. My greatest desire here is 
 to impart to my pupils such conceptions of 
 truth as will enable them to live really spiritual 
 
/ 
 
 68 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 and Christian lives and bear witness to Christ 
 in most difficult circumstances. I think more 
 and more our work as missionaries is to live 
 our lives rather than do our tasks, only to live 
 them in such a way that our influence really 
 goes out into the world about us." "A man 
 needs to be intensely in earnest in some funda- 
 mentals and then to take a great many other 
 things as best he can, form a working hypo- 
 thesis and go ahead. After all the chief end 
 of life is to do the will of God not to know it. 
 It is most happily true, we can often do it with- 
 out knowing it fully." "It is our calling under 
 God to raise up servants of Jesus Christ, who 
 will find it their meat to do the will of Him 
 that sent them. I know of no more difficult or 
 nobler work." 
 
 In 1894 Mr. Shedd was married to Miss 
 Adela L. Myers to whom he had become en- 
 gaged before leaving America. Her health 
 was never robust and a large part of the seven 
 years of missionary life was filled with suf- 
 fering. Her unselfish and joyous nature hid 
 much of the pain from others and there were 
 times when hope brightened in the prospect of 
 her recovery. There were long seasons of 
 great suffering wonderfully borne in patience 
 and cheerfulness, but at last the "silver cord 
 
THE YOUNG MISSIONARY 69 
 
 was loosed" and the beautiful spirit of Adela 
 Shedd found rest from the sufferings of earth, 
 leaving her husband with two little girls. 
 
 "Death has lost some of its terrors for me, 
 but I realize as never before the terribleness 
 of physical suffering," he wrote to a friend 
 some months later. "There is a saying of 
 Bishop Westcott's that has been with me a 
 great deal. He said not long before his death, 
 with reference to the death of his wife, that 
 we must guard our griefs, lest we lose the 
 revelation. There is a revelation in bereave- 
 ment, but we often lose it. In some ways the 
 difficulties all come over me as time passes, 
 especially as regards my children. They are 
 beautiful little girls, three and six years old, 
 and I realize how hard it is to mother them and 
 how much they need what I can give them 
 so imperfectly. After all, life is arranged by 
 God as a school of character." 
 
 In 1902 after ten years of service, Mr. Shedd 
 came to America on furlough. His first term 
 had not held for him the opportunity he craved 
 for devoting himself chiefly to Mohammedan 
 work. Something had been done in that 
 respect, in the way of personal contacts and 
 friendships. His alert and active mind had 
 been busy studying the problems of Islam 
 
70 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 and he was prepared when the opportunity 
 came for definite Moslem work in fanatical 
 Urumia. His work had been primarily for 
 Syrians and he had made for himself an envi- 
 able place in their confidence and affection. 
 His knowledge of the peoples and the field 
 had broadened. In God's school of character 
 he had learned some deep lessons which were 
 fitting him for larger influence and teaching 
 him how to become "all things to all men." 
 
CHAPTER IV: LEGAL AND 
 POLITICAL WORK 
 
 The Christian peoples of Persia were not 
 recognized by Persian Law as possessing legal 
 rights on a basis of equality with Moslems. 
 The most honored and self-respecting Chris- 
 tian might be subjected to the grossest personal 
 insults by Mohammedans without any right of 
 redress; as in the case of a Syrian preacher, 
 a man of culture and refinement, a graduate of 
 an American theological seminary, who when 
 spat upon in the bazaar by a Mohammedan, 
 could offer no self-defense nor had he the legal 
 right to make complaint. 
 
 An example of legal injustice which oc- 
 curred even in the later years was that of a 
 prominent Syrian of the Protestant com- 
 munity from whom four hundred tomans^ 
 were extorted by the Government on a 
 trumped up charge without an opportunity 
 being given, even to state his case. 
 
 Another incident illustrating the legal status 
 of Christians was that of the accidental killing 
 of a Mohammedan near one of the largest 
 
 1 Toman, normally one dollar. 
 
 71 
 
72 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 Christian villages. Some Mohammedan camel 
 drivers were stealing grapes one night in a 
 vineyard belonging to a Syrian. The alarm 
 was given and in the altercation near the 
 village, one of the camel drivers was shot and 
 killed. In the darkness it was not evident who 
 fired the shot which was the only one fired. 
 Investigation showed that it was most likely 
 fired by one of the camel drivers. The Gov- 
 ernment officials took up the matter not 
 with the purpose of investigating or punishing, 
 but with the intention of getting out of it all 
 they could for themselves. In Persia the vil- 
 lage nearest the scene of a crime is held respon- 
 sible, the fine for the life of a Christian being 
 thirty tomans and for the life of a Mohamme- 
 dan one thousand tomans. 
 
 In this case the Governor, a prince of the 
 royal blood, demanded five thousand tomans 
 of the village. After much argument and 
 many pleas, this sum was considerably reduced. 
 Then the villagers appealed to the foreign Mis- 
 sions to intercede for them. The American, 
 English, French and Russian Missions were 
 about to make a protest against such a fine on 
 the ground that the country was already unsafe 
 and that the course being taken by the Govern- 
 ment would put a premium on thieving and 
 
LEGAL AND POLITICAL WORK 73 
 
 tend to increase the general insecurity, when 
 the Russian Vice-consul took up the matter. 
 He called representatives of the four Missions 
 to meet with him for consultation. The Mis- 
 sions were glad to have him take the responsi- 
 bility and he finally succeeded in reducing the 
 amount to one thousand tomans. Beside this 
 fine the villagers had to pay about four hun- 
 dred tomans in fees and presents to govern- 
 ment officials, though there was no proof of 
 guilt on the part of any of the villagers. 
 
 Cases in which Moslems were a party must 
 of necessity be settled in the Persian courts, 
 but the need of a court where litigation be- 
 tween Christians could be settled was an urgent 
 need. The cases most common were disagree- 
 ments in accounts, settlement of estates, a few 
 divorce cases, personal and family quarrels. 
 Such matters could often be adjusted by a 
 patient hearing and authoritative advice, but 
 if allowed to get into the Persian courts were 
 seized as an opportunity for exacting bribes, 
 causing endless trouble, and bringing dishonor 
 upon the Christian Church. 
 
 The Legal Board of the Evangelical Church 
 was organized for the purpose of settling such 
 cases between Christians and so preventing 
 them getting into the Moslem courts. The 
 
74j the measure OF A MAN 
 
 members of the Board were chosen by the 
 Synod with reference to then' fitness, and one 
 missionary, whose position was practically 
 that of judge, represented the Mission. For 
 many years Dr. J. P. Cochran served on the 
 Legal Board and by his wise and fair decisions 
 and his rare personality gained for it great 
 prestige, 
 p In 1898 the provincial authorities, including 
 
 the representative of the Foreign Office and 
 the Crown Prince, who represented the Shah 
 in Azerbaijan, at the request of Dr. Cochran, 
 issued an order which gave full recognition 
 of the rights of the Legal Board to adjudicate 
 matters in the Protestant Church. Thus the 
 Legal Board was formally recognized by the 
 Persian Government. To this court were 
 brought all sorts of cases between Christians, 
 except those purely criminal, which were 
 settled in the civil courts, and the Board's 
 decision was accepted as final by the Persian 
 i authorities. 
 
 "The fundamental reason for this remark- 
 able state of things," wrote Mr. Shedd, "is 
 that Eastern jurisprudence in general and 
 Moslem jurisprudence in particular regard 
 Law as a religious institution, and so accept 
 as binding within the bounds of each religious 
 
LEGAL AND POLITICAL WORK 75 
 
 community, the peculiar laws of that com- 
 munity. Divorce and inheritance are generally 
 regarded as subjects especially amenable to 
 religious law. So we had here to constitute a 
 Church Court. The appeal in any case where 
 coercion must be used is necessarily to the Civil 
 Court." 
 
 In practice Moslem law in many instances 
 became customary, but the general basis for 
 law in the Legal Board was the Canon law of 
 the Old Nestorian Church. Latterly a code 
 of rules with reference to marriage and divorce 
 based on the Nestorian Sunhadis or book of 
 Church government, was adopted by the Evan- 
 gelical Church. The Old Nestorian law was 
 strict but not clear on some points, and 
 changed social conditions required modifica- 
 tions. 
 
 For many centuries the Nestorian, or Syrian 
 people, lived under Mohammedan rule in 
 Turkey and Persia, but even though living in 
 the midst of a polygamous people, they ad- 
 hered strictly to the marriage laws of their 
 own faith and divorce was very infrequent until 
 emigration began. It was in 1907 that Mr. 
 Shedd wrote, *'The Legal Board of our native 
 church had during the spring and winter an 
 unusually large number of cases and we had 
 
76 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 some success in collecting fees for work done. 
 The most annoying cases in themselves and 
 the most serious as a symptom of social degen- 
 eration were the divorce suits. The long suffer- 
 ing wives, so many of whose husbands have 
 been unfaithful to them during their long ab- 
 sences from home in Russia, seldom ask for 
 divorce. But in not a few cases the husbands 
 have gotten divorces without good cause from 
 Nestorian or Orthodox bishops. If opposed, 
 such cases inevitably go into the Moslem courts 
 and it is very hard and unsatisfactory work to 
 attempt to get a Moslem court to do justice 
 to a wronged wife. Raising the issue may be 
 worth while, even if justice cannot be secured." 
 There was one particular class of cases that 
 was the source of frequent trouble and the 
 English, French, Russian and American Mis- 
 sions were approached on this matter of 
 ''Jadad ul Islam'' with the hope that they 
 might be able to influence the Persian govern- 
 ment to do something. According to tradi- 
 tional Persian law, a Christian who is con- 
 verted to Islam may claim the inheritance of 
 all relatives within seven degrees of kinship. 
 That is, a Christian who becomes a Moham- 
 medan has the right to inherit the property of 
 his Christian relatives, superseding parents, 
 
LEGAL AND POLITICAL WORK 77 
 
 children, brothers and sisters, cousins and other 
 relatives, to the seventh generation. In prac- 
 tice this law was never rigorously enforced, hut 
 it furnished the basis of lawsuits often result- 
 ing in injustice and loss to Christians. 
 
 During the reign of His Imperial Majesty, 
 Nasr-ed-Din Shah, at the request of the Ar- 
 menian Bishop in Tabriz, an order was issued 
 that converts to Islam should inherit no more 
 from Christian relatives than they were en- 
 titled to under the ordinary laws of inheri- 
 tance. Afterwards, at the request of Dr. 
 Cochran, His Imperial Majesty, Mohammed 
 Ali Shah, issued a similar order while he was 
 Vali Ahd or Crown Prince. These orders 
 mitigated the evil but did not abolish it and 
 whenever such cases were brought up, the civil 
 officials seized their opportunity for exacting 
 bribes. As a rule the claimant, too, made de- 
 mands as a condition for his giving a quit-claim 
 or legal document, and there was nothing to pre- 
 vent the same case being brought up repeatedly. 
 
 In the summer of 1905, the greatest loss, 
 humanly speaking, that could befall the Mis- 
 sion, came in the death of Dr. Cochran, from 
 typhoid fever. For twenty-five years he had 
 been in charge of the medical work of the sta- 
 tion. The son of a missionary, and born in 
 
78 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 the country, he held a place of peculiar influ- 
 ence and power. His fame as a physician had 
 spread through Persia and far beyond her bor- 
 ders. His ability as a diplomat, his fairness 
 and wisdom in the Legal Board, his tact, 
 gentleness and good judgment in Mission 
 affairs, made him indispensable to the com- 
 munity. But it was Dr. Cochran, the man and 
 friend, who was so greatly beloved and trusted 
 by all races and classes of that region. The 
 story of his life is told in "The Foreign Doctor" 
 by Robert E. Speer. It seemed that the work 
 of the station could not go on without him and 
 to each individual came a sense of personal loss 
 and a realization of how much he had leaned 
 on him for sympathy and advice. To none of 
 his associates did it mean more than to Mr. 
 Shedd, for in the division of Dr. Cochran's 
 work, the responsibility for the Legal Board 
 and the position of station representative with 
 the government was assigned to him. He now 
 began a new phase of his missionary service. 
 That he felt the responsibilities of his new 
 tasks is evidenced in a letter written at the 
 time: "The Station felt that I ought to look 
 after political affairs as far as possible. It is 
 important to have our own people settle their 
 own disputes and the Legal Board will need 
 
LEGAL AND POLITICAL WORK 79 
 
 the confidence that can be gained only by one 
 of us taking part in it. I know a great deal 
 will be done badly, especially in comparison 
 with the past. A very large part of the work 
 done by Dr. Cochran must stop. It was a 
 special work due to his special influence. I 
 don't think that College or Theological train- 
 ing has helped me much in these matters. 
 Sometimes I think I should like to take up 
 a course in reading Law." 
 
 The experience of the years that followed 
 justified his appointment to these tasks. The 
 political and legal or dewankhana work greatly 
 increased, largely due to disturbed political 
 conditions. 
 
 It was in March 1904 that the Station expe- 
 rienced a terrible tragedy in the murder of 
 Rev. Benjamin W. Labaree, while on a jour- 
 ney two days from Urumia. Mr. Labaree was 
 the victim of a plot instigated by the Moham- 
 medan ecclesiastics of Urumia to kill Dr. Cochr 
 ran, who, representing the American Mission, 
 in conjunctioti with the English Mission, had 
 pressed the matter of the punishment of a sayid 
 for the unprovoked murder of a Syrian who 
 was a British subject. A sayid, being a lineal 
 descendant of Mohammed, is considered so 
 holy as to be immune from the penalty of his 
 
80 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 crimes, and the attempt to have him brought 
 to justice had aroused strong resentment 
 among the Mohammedan ecclesiastical class. 
 As there was no American consul in Persia, a 
 British consul was kept in Urumia for many 
 months for the management of the case. In 
 the following December Dr. Thomas Norton, 
 American Consul at Harpoot, Turkey, arrived 
 in Urumia as special commissioner for the 
 American Government. He was compelled to 
 leave before the settlement of the case which 
 dragged on for more than three years and much 
 of the responsibility fell upon Dr. Cochran 
 and later upon Mr. Shedd, as Station repre- 
 sentatives. For a long time there was much 
 uncertainty in the political situation and 
 anxiety for the safety of the missionaries and 
 the Christian community. 
 
 The Persian Revolution, which began in 
 Teheran, soon reached Urumia, and what was 
 at first a general unrest became an active pro- 
 test against the prevailing order of political 
 corruption, feudal oppression, and despotic in- 
 justice. The people, following the lead of 
 Teheran and Tabriz, demanded a representa- 
 tive government. An anjuman or council of 
 the people, was formed in which were repre- 
 sented the various classes of society. The 
 
A GROUP OF NOTABLES, MULLAHS, MERCHANTS AND LANDED GENTRY, 
 ATTENDING THE CELEBRATION OF THE CONSTITUTION 
 REGIEME AT URUMIA, 1908 
 
 '^MW^ 
 
 FOREIGN DIPLOMXi^ ^ Nj, UJ. PRESENTATION AND PER>! ■ i i - \T 
 
 THE BIRTHDAY CELEimATION OF MUHAMMED ALI SHAH, MAY. 190S 
 (dr. SHEDD IN WINDOW AT THE RIGHT) 
 
LEGAL AND POLITICAL WORK 81 
 
 movement, though unexpected, was popular 
 and patriotic, intellectual as well as political. 
 It was inevitable that such a revolution among 
 a people to whom the idea of representative 
 government was so foreign and for which they 
 were wholly unprepared, should lead through 
 anarchy and chaos to collapse. The granting 
 of the Constitution by the Shah was celebrated 
 in Urumia by the illumination of the bazaars, 
 where large crowds gathered full of enthusiasm 
 for the new day that had dawned for Iran. 
 Mullahs and sayids were enthusiastically talk- 
 ing of liberty and equality, with little concep- 
 tion of their meaning, but the road between 
 Oriental despotism and democracy is not 
 traveled in a day nor in a generation. A 
 society soaked in vice and corruption, bound 
 by the chains of ignorance and superstition, 
 and controlled by religious fanaticism is not a 
 fertile soil for the propagation of democratic 
 ideas and their practical demonstration. Un- 
 fortunately those who held the greatest power 
 in their hands were not those who were most 
 enlightened nor those who were most sincere in 
 desiring liberty, for the situation was largely, 
 controlled by mullahs and sayids. Wlien the 
 question of the rights of the Christian subjects 
 of Persia came up, it was openly claimed by 
 
82 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 the anjuman, in which mullahs were promi- 
 nent, that the religious law of Islam should be 
 strictly enforced. The anjuman opposed by 
 the old regime, but supported by popular 
 favor, for a while controlled the political situa- 
 tion, but in the end wrought its own destruc- 
 tion through avarice and general depravity. 
 
 Fidais, or devotees, organized with parades 
 of armed men, drill and political meetings. 
 There were popular organizations composed 
 of representatives of the bazaar, shopkeepers, 
 artisans, porters and the hke. Each organiza- 
 tion demanded a share in the government which 
 was divided among the Governor, anjumarij 
 leaders of the fidais, and representatives of the 
 trades. Sometimes the Governor by exercising 
 great tact in keeping on speaking terms with 
 the various elements was able to retain some 
 of his authority. Sometimes there was no 
 government at all, with disorder and crime 
 uncontrolled and constant danger from mobs. 
 
 An interesting episode in the progress of 
 revolution in Urumia in the spring of 1909 was 
 the arrest of the Governor by a Nationalist 
 leader who entered the city by night, sent the 
 Governor away a prisoner, established him- 
 self in power, though he had but a small hand- 
 ful of men, and for a few weeks reigned su- 
 
LEGAL AND POLITICAL WORK 83 
 
 preme while he exacted large sums of money 
 from the wealthy Persians. At the fitting mo- 
 ment he departed with his followers in the 
 night as he had come. A few months later 
 the exiled Governor returned with a guard of 
 fidais. 
 
 To make the situation more serious, the 
 Turks appeared on the border, pressing their 
 claims to that region. The Kurds made the 
 best of the chaotic conditions, attacking scores 
 of Persian villages, killing and plundering, 
 unrestrained by the Turks. The Turks ad- 
 vanced until practically the whole country 
 west of Urumia Lake was in their hands. A 
 Persian army sent against the Kurds was 
 attacked by a Turkish force and put to flight 
 without resistance. A Persian general once 
 exclaimed on a similar occasion, "How val- 
 iantly the Persians would fight if there were 
 no dying!" 
 
 Large numbers of refugees from the Chris- 
 tian villages along the border fled to Urumia. 
 Then as the Kurds attacked the Urumia vil- 
 lages, the helpless Persian Government gave 
 rifles to the Christians to defend themselves 
 from the attacking Kurds. The people turned 
 to the Missions for protection, and Mr. Shedd 
 representing the American Mission found it 
 
84} THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 necessary to give much of his time and in- 
 fluence to the saving of Hfe and property and 
 securing justice for the suffering people. 
 There were times of peril to the Mission 
 though there was no anti-foreign or anti-Chris- 
 tian feehng in particular. A boundary com- 
 mission was appointed by Turkey and Persia 
 but nothing was accomplished. 
 
 During these turbulent times Mr. Shedd 
 was brought more prominently into political 
 matters than he desired and he longed to be 
 free to give more time to building up the Mos- 
 lem educational work. The policy of our Mis- 
 sion was to keep out of politics as far as pos- 
 sible, but that was sometimes unavoidable as 
 for instance in relation to oin* press which was 
 the only one able to do Persian printing in 
 large quantity. Requests for printing came 
 from various political factions. The anjuman 
 wanted to print a proclamation on its inaugu- 
 ration. This was refused until the order was 
 signed by the Governor. Later a newspaper 
 was started which the supporters wanted 
 printed on the Mission press, but until a letter 
 from the proper Persian official stating that 
 liberty of press had been granted, it could not 
 be undertaken. Often it was difficult to know 
 who really represented the Government and 
 
LEGAL AND POLITICAL WORK 85 
 
 frequently the first difficulty was that no one 
 could be found with whom to deal. 
 
 The legal work was increasing and it was 
 most important that disputes between Chris- 
 tians be settled in the Legal Board and not 
 be mixed up in the corrupt and unreliable Per- 
 sian courts. The French and Russian Missions 
 had established similar courts and each com- 
 munit}^ had its own civil head or millatbashee 
 and legal difficulties were greatly increased 
 by these rival courts of the various Missions. 
 Some of the leading Syrians, chiefly Protes- 
 tants, under Mr. Shedd's advice, tried to elimi- 
 nate denominational divisions in civil affairs, 
 but were not successful. 
 
 "The worst thing about my dewankhana 
 work," wrote Mr. Shedd to a friend, "is that 
 it is almost impossible to bring anything to a 
 close. The Government, the people, every- 
 body, have neither the idea nor the capability 
 of decisiveness. If I were an autocrat in 
 Persia, I should wish a small but effective 
 army. Then I should try to bring about two 
 reforms. One would be the gradual introduc- 
 tion of religious liberty and the other would 
 be the establishment of courts whose decisions 
 would be final, except by appeal in certain 
 cases to a higher court. The worst kind of de- 
 
86 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 cisions, if really decisive, would be better than 
 the present uncertainty on every decision. It 
 seems to me that religious liberty is necessary, 
 not only in order that people get truth instead 
 of error, but also in order that the sapping of 
 all integrity of character by professing what is 
 not believed may be stopped. I don't believe 
 that honesty in anything will be possible as 
 long as deceit in religion is practiced so gen- 
 erally as is the case in Persia. But we will see 
 what God has in store. He is certainly work- 
 ing in ways that are marvelous. 
 
 "So far, to an extent that surprises me, I am 
 able to keep the confidence of the people, and 
 so I hear various sides of the same thing. I 
 suppose that these questions of law and politics 
 are part of my destined work, but they are not 
 my choice. We don't really wish to be people 
 of importance, but we are looked up to as for- 
 eigners very much, in actual truth and not in 
 flattery. They have an exaggerated idea of 
 what we can do through our governments. All 
 we can do is to be the simple reporters of facts 
 as they actually exist. I often wish that Dr. 
 Cochran were still here in charge of these 
 affairs, but perhaps the Good Lord knew that 
 he was weary enough of them and lovingly 
 wished to give him rest. I am discouraged 
 
LEGAL AND POLITICAL WORK 8T 
 
 about the quality of my work. It is hard 
 enough not to be envious of others who can 
 specialize and limit their work, but perhaps 
 we are called sometimes to do second-class 
 work, not to be satisfied with it, just to do our 
 best and let it rest. 
 
 *'It has been remarked by the Russian Con- 
 sul and others that it is impossible for any for- 
 eigner, even a missionary, to divest his actions 
 of political significance in the eyes of the 
 people. I am sure that in Urumia a great deal 
 of trouble is taken by our Mission to avoid 
 mixing in political matters, and that we should 
 rejoice to be rid of any political reputation. 
 It cannot be denied in any case that the cause 
 we represent is part and parcel of the country 
 in which we live, and that we cannot be free 
 and comfortable in the midst of such confusion 
 as has prevailed all about us. 
 
 "I am afraid that I will become morally 
 hardened. One sees so many people that are 
 wrong one way or another, and has to deal 
 with them. But what can one do? It is only 
 in this way that good can come in effectual 
 contact with the bad. 
 
 "Friday I was tackling the family and 
 divorce problems in two concrete cases. The 
 matter of banking and bankruptcy also gives 
 
88 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 me a good deal of trouble, and so I might go on. 
 I keep on having it impressed upon me that 
 back of all questions, as an important factor, 
 is the element of moral character, and there 
 religion makes or mars. Efforts to eliminate 
 religion as a factor have accomplished so little 
 that their influence is negligible, except as they 
 influence the character of religion. The King- 
 dom of God and the really beneficent political 
 order are nearly the same thing, I think." 
 
 It was the coming of the Russians that re- 
 
 / stored order, and their position in the Urumia 
 
 region is shown in a letter of Mr. Shedd's 
 
 wi'itten after they had become well established: 
 
 "The Russians will not withdraw until there 
 is a government strong enough to keep order. 
 No strong man has appeared anywhere in 
 Persia, much less the elements of a strong 
 government. One may guess that neither 
 Russia nor Turkey was anxious for a speedy 
 definition of the boundary. In name the Per- 
 sian Government goes on as a whole, with 
 the same methods that disgraced the past, 
 but with an important difference. There 
 is in the country a power to which all Per- 
 sian authority and all Persians must bow — 
 Russia, represented by three branches of 
 the government, the Ministry of War, the 
 
LEGAL AND POLITICAL WORK 89 
 
 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Holy 
 Synod. In most affairs the Russian Con- 
 sul is the supreme authority and on occasion 
 does not hesitate to exercise authority without 
 the mediation of the Persian authorities. A 
 hint from him is more effectual than an order 
 from the Persian Government, and the former 
 is often the cause of the latter, Next to the 
 Russian Consul, the Turkish Consul is the 
 most powerful official here. The Russian Mis- 
 sion represents the Holy Synod and as such 
 is only partially subordinate to the Consul. 
 Indeed, the impression here is that there is no 
 one who does not stand in awe of the Archi- 
 mandrite, the head of the Russian Mission, j 
 It is difficult for Protestants, and advising 
 or aiding them is a difficult and delicate 
 matter. A perplexing element in the situa- 
 tion here is the relation I hold to the nat- 
 m^alized American citizens. Most of them 
 are very respectable persons and give little 
 trouble to any one, but occasionally even the 
 best of them have troubles. Of course I hold 
 no official or even semi-official position, but 
 some one has to be the spokesman with the 
 authorities and the correspondent with the 
 American Consul. [The first American Con- 
 sul arrived in Tabriz in February, 1907.] 
 
90 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 "I should like to state the principles by which 
 I try to guide my conduct. In the first place, 
 Persian law and Mohammedan law in general 
 -admit the principle that each 'Millatf or relig- 
 ious sect, has its own law and has the right to 
 be judged by it. This law includes a large 
 variety of subjects, and in Persia, at least, 
 there is no definite line between the Christian 
 law and the law of the land. This gives the 
 Protestant community certain rights which 
 are vested in the Legal Board. The Board and 
 the Protestant community have been recog- 
 nized by the Persian Government. My posi- 
 tion is as representative of this body, rather 
 than of the American Mission, though the two 
 aspects of the matter are not distinguished by 
 the Persian authorities. On the part of the 
 Roman Catholics and the Russian Orthodox 
 Missions, there is little effort to make this dis- 
 tinction, but we should try to emphasize the 
 rights of the Church. This is important in 
 view of the increasing Russian influence. The 
 Evangelical Church has, before the law of Rus- 
 sia, more stable rights than a foreign mission. 
 
 "A second principle is that we have a duty 
 to use personal influence to secure justice. 
 This must be done with the greatest caution 
 and with the distinct disclaimer of any author- 
 
LEGAL AND POLITICAL WORK 91 
 
 ity on our part. Such cases are constantly 
 arising and Moslems as well as Christians are 
 appealing to us for help. The rule should be 
 to avoid interference, but the rule has excep- 
 tions. The Legal Board is careful to say that 
 it does not assume the responsibility for the 
 execution of its decisions, only for their con- 
 formity .to law and justice." 
 
 Such was the political situation in Urumia 
 at the outbreak of the World War. When 
 Mr. Shedd first assumed the duties of the Legal 
 Board and Mission representative with the 
 government, it was with great reluctance and 
 with the purpose of giving to that work as little 
 of his time and thought as circumstances would 
 permit, but the unusual social and political 
 conditions which prevailed in Urumia made it 
 increasingly imperative that some one with the 
 ability, fairness, and influence to command the 
 respect and confidence of all parties should 
 be able to speak in the name of justice and 
 righteousness. Not only Christians came to 
 him for judgment and protection, but also 
 Mohammedans who could not trust their own 
 leaders. 
 
 He became a student of Persian law and 
 acquainted with Oriental character and ways 
 of thinking, and as conditions of life grew from 
 
92 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 bad to worse and Persian governmental author- 
 ity became practically nil, he gained in power 
 and leadership. 
 
 "Interested and marvelously informed and 
 farsighted in politics, so wise and quick to see 
 both and all sides of a question," writes an 
 Anglican friend, "he was certainly an arbi- 
 trator of power and wisdom above any other 
 — most extraordinarily impartial and disinter- 
 ested. But to my mind he was above all else 
 the minister of God, a teacher instinct with 
 love and grace and the Spirit of God, in whom 
 Christ so dwelt that all of self, or party, or 
 sect, was over-ridden." 
 
 "His leadership was convincing rather than 
 superficially magnetic; he commanded confi- 
 dence through the cogency of his reasoning. 
 There was something in his reserve that carried 
 conviction. At the same time his leadership 
 was thoroughly democratic. He did not stand 
 on his superior knowledge or experience but 
 talked things over freely and simply even with 
 the youngest of his associates," says one of 
 them. "His leadership in the Mission and in 
 the community was by the right of intellectual 
 grasp backed by character." 
 
 A judicious mind, a statesmanlike grasp of 
 a situation, the ability to see clearly and quickly 
 
LEGAL AND POLITICAL WORK 93 
 
 the real issue at stake, the greatness and mag- 
 nanimity to ignore littleness and selfishness in 
 others, the tact and sympathetic understand- 
 ing which often enabled him to carry even his 
 opponent with him, his reasonableness, his ab- 
 solute integrity and impartiality; these were 
 the qualities which made him the man for the 
 times and gave him a position of power and 
 influence in Northwest Persia that seldom 1 1 
 comes to one man. 
 
CHAPTER V: EDUCATIONAL AND 
 MOHAMMEDAN WORK 
 
 During all of his missionary career, Mr. 
 Shedd was engaged in educational work ; after 
 his father's death taking the place of leader- 
 ship in theological teaching and much of the 
 time in the College. He had served as super- 
 intendent of village schools and as member of 
 the Educational Board of the Evangelical 
 Church, so that his influence was felt in every 
 department of the educational work. 
 
 Through all the history of the Mission in 
 Urumia, efforts had been made to reach Mo- 
 hammedans, but it was not until the fall of 
 1904 that the time was ripe for the opening 
 of a school for Moslem boys. Mr. Shedd was 
 chiefly instrumental in the establishment of 
 this school, though other missionaries were as- 
 sociated with him. 
 
 The opening of the school was a great event ; 
 there had never been anything like it in Uru- 
 mia, and it rapidly increased in numbers and 
 influence. JMr. Shedd was in charge and it 
 was his purpose to make it a positive mission- 
 
 94 
 
EDUCATIONAL WORK 95 
 
 ary force. He rejoiced in the opportunity it 
 afforded to form new friendships and to learn 
 to use more freely the Turkish language, the 
 common language of Urumia. He made 
 many calls, especially in the homes of the boys, 
 and found it hard, exacting work to get at any- 
 thing beyond generalities and secularities. 
 "For such work one needs to be filled even 
 more than in more directly and ostensibly re- 
 ligious work," he wrote. 
 
 The boys, from six to eighteen, came from 
 all classes of society, a considerable number 
 from the families of the highest nobility, a 
 larger number from families of lower rank who 
 were rising in the social scale because of en- 
 ergy, and a few from poor families. The son 
 of the nobleman, the merchant, the dervish, 
 the son of a servant or day laborer, and some- 
 times even a young sayid, could be seen sitting 
 side by side. 
 
 "The restraint in the matter of oaths, and 
 insistence on truthfulness, is something that is 
 immediately remarked by the boys. We hear 
 of one boy giving his father lessons on the sub- 
 ject of oaths. The acquaintance with West- 
 ern science, the close association with Christian 
 teachers, the order of a Christian school, and 
 much that can be said and done by the teach- 
 
f 
 
 96 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 ers in the innumerable opportunities of school 
 life, are influences that cannot be without re- 
 sult. With these we must join the power of 
 prayer." 
 
 "It is a comment on the externality of Islam 
 that parents are willing enough to have their 
 boys under the constant instruction of Chris- 
 tian teachers, but are nervously afraid lest they 
 should be contaminated by drinking water that 
 has been poured into jars by Christian hands. 
 Happily we are able to give guarantee on this 
 point," wrote Mr. Shedd. 
 
 The school was at first opened in a small 
 yard near the City Compound, and later a fine 
 property containing three and a half acres, 
 within the city walls, was purchased. This 
 property was known as "Sardari." After a 
 few years, when the school was well estab- 
 lished, it was united with the College under 
 the name "American School." Mr. Shedd was 
 largely responsible for this union of the Chris- 
 tion and Mohammedan educational work 
 which proved a great blessing to the whole 
 community, bringing Christians, Jews, and 
 Mohammedans together in friendly relations 
 on a basis of equality, teaching mutual appre- 
 ciation and breaking down religious and racial 
 barriers. 
 
EDUCATIONAL WORK 97 
 
 The educational work for Moslems encoun- 
 tered difficulties, but the school held its own 
 and exerted a powerful influence in the com- 
 munity. There was a time during the Revo- 
 lution that the anjuman^ or representative 
 council, threatened to close it. Mr. Shedd 
 replied that he would close it, but would let it 
 be known that it was closed by order of the 
 anjuman. It was very popular to be progres- 
 sive at that time and the order for its closing 
 was never given, while some of the leaders 
 took trouble to tell him how much the school 
 was appreciated. 
 
 The babel of languages was the most diffi- 
 cult pedagogical problem and taxed the cur- 
 riculum and the daily program to the limit. 
 French, English, Russian, Arabic, Syriac, 
 Turkish and Armenian were taught. Because 
 of the language difficulty, it w^as necessary to 
 teach the elementary classes separately, the 
 Syrians being taught in Syriac at the College, 
 and the Persians in Turkish at Sardari. The 
 upper classes were united at the latter place. 
 
 In the report of 1912 Mr. Shedd sets forth 
 his ideas of the aims of the educational work: 
 "Since the Station has seen fit to entrust to 
 me the leadership of this educational work at 
 a time when there are especially important 
 
98 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 questions of policy to be determined, it may 
 be suitable to state briefly what seems to me 
 to be the cardinal points in that policy. 
 
 "I should define the special aim of this work 
 to be, (1) the training of Christian evangel- 
 ^ istic workers for Persia, (2) through our 
 pupils and through the general influence of 
 the school to build up the Christian community 
 in this region and particularly the Evangelical 
 Church and (3) to exert deep Christian in- 
 fluence on the Christless community about us 
 /- and particularly on the non-Christian pupils. 
 
 "I should say that the special service under 
 God that we can do for Persia in our schools 
 is in the training up of native evangelistic 
 workers. Unless we do this we must condemn 
 ourselves to failure in our special mission. . . . 
 And no higher aim can possibly be set before 
 educational workers. 
 
 "Closely connected with this is the aim of 
 contributing directly and efliciently to the 
 strength of the evangelical community about 
 us, including the evangelical element in the 
 Old Nestorian Church. The separate Protes- 
 tant community has a difficult battle before 
 it. It must not be a battle for hfe but one 
 for conquest and there must be a spirit of ag- 
 gression. The base must be strengthened 
 
EDUCATIONAL WORK 99 
 
 in building up a community of industrial 
 efficiency, moral excellence and sturdy intel- 
 ligence; while the dominating aim of wide 
 evangelistic service must permeate the com- 
 munity. The revivals of more than sixty 
 years ago that were the glad birth-throes of 
 this evangelical body began among the students 
 of that day in the old seminary at Seir. We 
 cannot lay down the lines of the Spirit's activ- 
 ity nor determine our part in His work, but 
 we can and must expect to have a large share 
 in this work. It is necessary also to consider 
 the social and industrial problems. . . . 
 
 "Thirdly, the only way in which the Mission 
 will reach its maximum efficiency in evangel- 
 izing non-Christians is to make every part and 
 agency of its work evangelistic. This applies 
 to ours as much as to any other department. 
 Everywhere, but especially in school work, it 
 is true that Christian evangelization is primar- 
 ily the influence of the message of Christ 
 through a person who knows Christ and testi- 
 fies to Him. Hence the essential element is 
 the Christian character of the school. This 
 can be maintained only by 'prayer and fast- 
 ing,' the latter being the limitation of our ef- 
 forts and ambitions. 
 
 "Two indispensable conditions to success 
 
100 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 are pedagogical efficiency and adaptation to 
 existing circumstances. The former requires 
 a careful study of the methods of education 
 and the latter an equally careful study of the 
 actual conditions of life. 
 
 "We should have faith to expect that our 
 school will play a part in the evangelization 
 of Persia, not only locally but throughout the 
 kingdom and beyond its borders greater than 
 it has in the past and commensurate with the 
 opportunity. And the faith requires work." 
 
 The report of the year 1914!, the completion 
 of the tenth year of the Moslem educational 
 work, and up to the time when our work was 
 greatly interrupted by the World War, shows 
 what has been accomplished. The closing ex- 
 ercises for the Syrian community were held in 
 the Syriac language in a large tent at the Col- 
 lege where the work had been in progress for 
 thirty-five years. There was an audience 
 of about a thousand from the intelligent Chris- 
 tian community which had grown up through 
 the years. 
 
 The closing exercises for the Mohammedans 
 were held in the Turkish language at Sardari. 
 The audience was representative, including 
 a number of the principal nobles, among 
 them being the brother of the Governor as his 
 
EDUCATIONAL WORK 101 
 
 representative, a large number of landowners 
 and merchants, Jews, Armenians, Syrians, 
 Russians, and other foreigners. In the eve- 
 ning there was a banquet to celebrate the tenth 
 anniversary, planned by the Moslem alumni, 
 at which eighty of the "old boys" of the school 
 were present. Among them were men from the 
 Custom-house, Post-office, Persian Cossack 
 Brigade, merchants, school-teachers and others. 
 Some of the graduates were , studying abroad 
 in Switzerland, Paris, and in the United 
 States. The "old boys" were the best adver- 
 tisement the school had. 
 
 "This time is one of transition," said Mr. 
 Shedd, "and it is not easy to acconmiodate our 
 methods to the requirements of the time or to 
 see clearly or with unanimity what those re- 
 quirements are. Some of our best pupils, 
 including two members of the graduating 
 class, were taken from school by their parents 
 because of the religious influence of the school. 
 The attitude of our school to religion has been 
 a matter of common discussion. One cannot 
 wonder that this matter is discussed and that 
 parents are perplexed. We say that in our 
 opinion, morals cannot be enforced without 
 religious sanctions and that the facts of 
 Christian history and Christian morality are 
 
102 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 essential elements in modern education. We 
 say, further, and I have found no one to 
 contradict it, that in this time of increased dis- 
 belief in all reUgion there is no one fitted in 
 any way among Mohammedans to meet sym- 
 pathetically and frankly the doubts of young 
 men and that it is our duty to do this. All 
 this and more is said, and we make our position 
 clear in practice as well as in words ; but after 
 all, to men who believe in Islam it must be a 
 serious question how they can place their boj^s 
 in an avowedly Christian school. 
 
 *'Our schools do not cast off the culture of 
 the East, but they complete and inspire it with 
 a new spirit. May the American school here, 
 with its more than two hundred boys of differ- 
 ent nationalities and religions, give them those 
 ideals and aspirations which only Christ can 
 fulfill." 
 
 In the American School, with its large corps 
 of teachers, both Christian and Moslem, as in 
 other lines of work, Mr. Shedd displayed one 
 of the great qualities of his leadership, i-n that 
 while he led, he appreciated those who labored 
 with him, placing responsibilities upon them 
 and working harmoniously with them, inspir- 
 ing and justifying their confidence. 
 
 A Syrian, Rev. Jacob David, who was 
 
EDUCATIONAL WORK 103 
 
 closely associated with him for thirteen years, 
 says, "He always treated the teachers with the 
 utmost consideration and courtesy. We never 
 heard a single word from his lips to hurt our 
 feelings. It was wonderful that he never com- 
 manded us, yet kept us working very hard. 
 He was almost unique in his respect for the 
 beliefs and rights of others, and that was the 
 secret of his success as an educator. The 
 teachers under such a great man, worked not 
 grudgingly nor of necessity, but willingly and 
 faithfully, not for the salary they received, but 
 for the sake of the educational work in which 
 Dr.^ Shedd was interested. Whatever new 
 step or method he suggested, we were ready to 
 follow him because we believed in him and he 
 was our ideal." After 1911, Rev. Hugo A. 
 Muller was associated with Dr. Shedd in the 
 American School. 
 
 In his training of young men for the native 
 ministry, Dr. Shedd kept steadily before them 
 the responsibility of the Evangelical Church 
 for the evangelization of the Mohammedans, 
 and the instruction was arranged to include a 
 study of Islam as well as practical work. The 
 students gained experience by going out with 
 missionaries and native leaders for this work. 
 
 1 In 1907 the degree of Doctor of Divinity was given him 
 by Marietta College. 
 
104! THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 Each was assigned preaching or other religious 
 duties on Sundays in the hospital or in the vil- 
 lages. Frequently they were accompanied by 
 Dr. Shedd and so learned at first hand his 
 methods and caught something of his vision. 
 Certainly the young men of later years had a 
 clearer understanding of the greatness of the 
 problem, a deeper sense of responsibility 
 toward the Moslems, and a more earnest zeal 
 for that service, because they sat at the feet 
 of a great teacher. Said he, "If I could only 
 see my boys going out of school here with 
 something of the warrior spirit! The East 
 loves to lie down in the sun and sleep." 
 
 "The ideal should be, I believe," he wrote, 
 "toward the side of our Christian boys to turn 
 out men in spirit and equipment, ready to be 
 real missionaries to Islam, and who will stay 
 and build up, as laymen and as preachers, the 
 Christian community. On the Moslem side, 
 we ought to aim to turn out men who can fit 
 into life here and to present to them Chris- 
 tianity as the working religion of life. . . . 
 
 "It seems to me that the great influences we 
 can set to work are personal influences, new 
 knowledge of and new respect for Christianity, 
 new ideas of the character and knowledge of 
 Christ, and these can be imparted in no way 
 
EDUCATIONAL WORK 105 
 
 so well as by personal influence, and I am sure 
 it pays. . . . 
 
 "I pray to be delivered from restlessness 
 and discontent, but I do so regret being kept 
 from personal work." 
 
 His fitness and earnestness in this work are 
 well attested by paragraphs culled from his 
 letters: "Friday, my free day from school, 
 was a busy one. In the morning, with two 
 of our native workers, I had a two and a half 
 hour interview with two Suffi Mohammedan 
 teachers. One of them is a man of consider- 
 able reputation in Tabriz and Teheran and 
 other places, I am told. The other is a sort of 
 understudy. I hope to keep up interviews 
 with them, for it seems to me that their atti- 
 tude toward Christianity is a factor worth 
 counting. The discussion we had was a good 
 one. In the afternoon I had an interview with 
 a strange case, a Moslem who believed he had 
 been warned in a dream to follow Christ. He 
 may be insincere, but I think not, and he is 
 certainly ignorant. Next I had a lecture in the 
 school on American history ; most of the school 
 boys were present and a number of others. I 
 hope we can make occasional lectures the means 
 of interesting intelligent people. In the eve- 
 ning I went to a literary club of Armenians 
 
106 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 and Syrians that I have been able to organize. 
 Others are doing the same kind of work also, 
 and yet it seems to me that we need to do more 
 to extend the sphere of om^ personal influence." 
 
 "I was a good deal impressed by a remark 
 made to me by a young Moslem with whom 
 I walked out one day. He said that another 
 Moslem had said, in a company of them, that 
 if there were only one true follower of Christ 
 he would take him, the follower, as his prophet, 
 camp at his door like a dervish and kiss his 
 feet, but that there was not one such." 
 
 "Last Sunday I went to Dizza and for three- 
 quarters of an hour or more in a kahwa, or 
 tea-house, we had a Socratic dialogue with a 
 mullah. Perhaps I should not call it Socratic, 
 as I think that neither party was trying to put 
 the other in a hole. There was an audience 
 of fifteen or twenty men from the village, sit- 
 ting on the raised shelf around the edge of the 
 room. Our talk was all on religion and was 
 all very pleasant. I managed m the course of 
 it to have my companion, a theological student, 
 read aloud all the fifth chapter of Matthew and 
 a number of other verses. Then I had two 
 or three talks with mullahs that interested me. 
 One of them told me of a definition of God 
 that is quite good. They say that Mohammed 
 
EDUCATIONAL WORK 107 
 
 was once asked by a scoffer, 'What is God?' 
 He replied that when a man is helpless and 
 alone, as a shipwrecked man on a plank, and 
 calls for help, God is what man calls on. That 
 is, men instinctively and everywhere expect 
 help in need from a higher power." 
 
 "I had an interesting afternoon last Sunday. 
 One of the mountain boys has for Sundays 
 been going to Benda. I walked up with him. 
 It was a warm, pleasant day and we found a 
 crowd of about thirty in the open space near 
 the bridge. I read to them in Turkish the 
 sixth chapter of Matthew, with some remarks. 
 They listened respectfully and interestedly. 
 On our way back we went over to Janizlu, 
 where we had a meeting in a house. There 
 were about fifteen Moslems and eight or ten 
 Syrians, and we had a talk and prayer in Turk- 
 ish." 
 
 "I have made several calls lately on the 
 Hadjis who have just gotten back from Mecca 
 and it is interesting to see how little they have 
 to say of the Holy City and how much of the 
 sights along the road, especially of the wonders 
 of Alexandria and Cairo. 
 
 "Two other calls I made yesterday were in- 
 teresting to me. One was on the head of the 
 dervishes here: He was a fat, comfortable- 
 
108 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 looking man whose father and grandfather and 
 ancestry hack several generations, according 
 to his statement, have been heads of the der- 
 vishes here. With him were a lot of other 
 dervishes not so comfortable looking by any 
 means. I stayed about an hour and they sang 
 to me in honor of Ali, one song in Turkish 
 and one in Persian. The dervishes are of dif- 
 ferent orders and yet they all acknowledge the 
 same local head or Nakib; they differ also in 
 their behefs. If I can find time, I w^ould like 
 to get better acquainted with some of them. 
 I found that two of them had Testaments. 
 The other call I made was on one of the prin- 
 cipal and also meanest sayids in the city. 
 There the head man got to talking about af- 
 fairs in such a strain that I asked him if he had 
 a Testament. He had none, but seemed very 
 glad that he could get one, and I sent one back 
 to him after I got home. There is a change 
 in attitude in lots of these people." 
 
 "I had a long walk with one of the boys to 
 visit some of the Moslem villages. It was not 
 so successful as we hoped in a missionary way, 
 but ten miles or so of walking in the clear air 
 was fine. We came upon one camp of men 
 working in a limekiln. They stopped to eat 
 their bread, and the way they listened to the 
 
EDUCATIONAL WORK 109 
 
 reading and the reverence with which they 
 stood in prayer was an inspiration." 
 
 "Yesterday I had an interesting discussion 
 with a sayid in the city and, I beheve, left him 
 thinking. He quoted a saying that is very 
 Christian, 'The rich are God's agents, the poor 
 are his children.' " 
 
 "How superficially we have reached the ^'" I 
 spirit and the mind of Persia. We must some 
 of us, take time from the grind and machinery 
 to get to close quarters with people and by ' 
 
 loving controversy and fellowship, find out 
 their beliefs and their struggles." 
 
 In answer to the question as to what the 
 missionary attitude should be toward non- 
 Christian religions. Dr. Shedd replied in a 
 paper that makes clear his ideas and his meth- 
 ods: "It seems to me a distinction ought to 
 be made between the attitude toward the indi- 
 vidual Moslem and toward Islam," he said. 
 "If we are careful to be respectful and cour- 
 teous in the former, we can be more aggressive 
 in the latter. In order to gain a hearing, it is 
 necessary to be willing to give a patient hear- 
 ing. In this line comes the importance of fol- 
 lowing Oriental ideas of courtesy in the forms 
 of address and in the matter of referring to 
 the Prophet and to the Koran. One should 
 
110 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 always be careful not to impugn the sincerity 
 or the intelligence of the Moslem. If the 
 proper attitude is preserved toward individu- 
 als, one can generally find the way to present 
 the Gospel freely and fully. But this is not 
 the point, of course ; I do not think that I am 
 intolerant and I do not want to minimize the 
 common ground. But one must be sincere 
 and discriminating. Islam as a system I be- 
 lieve to be an obstacle to social progress and 
 also to honest religion. I cannot think it right 
 for me to profess any other attitude in reli- 
 gious discussion. It may not be necessary for 
 me to express my opinion, and it certainly is 
 not incumbent on me to express it in an offen- 
 sive way, but in my case I cannot honestly pro- 
 fess what I do not believe. Perhaps it might 
 be put this way. The truth that there is in 
 Islam is not helped to a useful expression by 
 the institutions and ordinances of the Moham- 
 medan religion; while the error and misrepre- 
 sentation of the truth which is contained in the 
 system obscure the truth it contains. So long 
 as this is my belief, my real attitude is deter- 
 mined, if I am honest in my convictions. I 
 think that a further distinction can be drawn 
 between the truth in Islam and Islam, or it is 
 often between the truth accepted by the person 
 
EDUCATIONAL WORK 111 
 
 one is talking with and Islam; for Islam is not 
 the only source of religious knowledge, nor are 
 all apparent Moslems really such. 
 
 "The effort of Moslems, if they are friendly, 
 is to show that the two faiths are practically 
 identical, and that consequently there is no 
 superiority on the side of Christianity. It is 
 an advantage, of course, to find common 
 ground, and the more common ground one can 
 honestly discover, the better, provided one 
 does not go beyond the common ground to that 
 which is not common. In fact, it has seemed 
 to me better to allow not only what the indi- 
 vidual presents but all that can with any sort 
 of propriety be claimed by Islam. In other 
 words, to meet the strongest case that can be 
 set up by the INIoslem, whether that case is 
 actually presented or not. However allowing 
 all that can with any propriety be allowed in 
 the way of common ground, there is always the 
 opportunity to go on and show how the two 
 faiths differ. I do not believe there is a single 
 doctrine in which the teachings of the two reli- 
 gions are really identical. In admitting iden- 
 tity, the danger is that the truth of Christianity 
 be minimized. For example, forgiveness by 
 free grace is fundamental to both religions ; but 
 in Islam the basis is God's absolute will, and 
 
112 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 in Christianity, it is His justice and righteous- 
 ness manifested in the Atonement. 
 
 "To stop at the common ground will give 
 the impression that there is no difference and 
 that in Christianity forgiveness is an act of 
 God's absolute will. One needs also to dis- 
 criminate in the use of language, and not to 
 use terms that imply what he does not wish to 
 imply. The uselessness and worse than use- 
 lessness of casual conversation on religious and 
 moral topics is in the fact that almost inevi- 
 tably platitudes are indulged in which give the 
 impression of an agreement, which is really 
 specious and deceptive. Perhaps I might il- 
 lustrate what I am trying to say by a conver- 
 sation yesterday. My caller was a very 
 friendly mullah. He made a leisurely call and 
 I found the opportunity to bring up the rela- 
 tion of faith to works, stating the New Testa- 
 ment teaching and asking him to give their 
 belief. He did this in terms that were intended 
 to show that there was no practical difference. 
 I then asked about the merit attaching to pil- 
 grimages, fastings, etc., trying to show that the 
 doctrine of merit was not in agreement with 
 forgiveness by faith, and tried to insist on the 
 essential difference between his position and 
 
EDUCATIONAL WORK 113 
 
 that of the New Testament. My purpose 
 from the beginning was to get him to realize 
 the difference in our beliefs. I don't mention 
 this because there was anything remarkable in 
 the conversation, but only to illustrate in a 
 concrete way what seems to me the proper 
 method. So, while emphasizing the fact of 
 revelation, I tried to point out the Bible method 
 of revelation in history, and the perfect life as 
 essentially different and superior to the Mos- 
 lem idea of a book sent down from Heaven. 
 In relation to the finality of the Christian dis- 
 pensation, I think it is important to contrast 
 the doctrine of the Immanent Spirit with the 
 doctrine of successive imams or prophets, show- 
 ing that the former secures the Divine Presence 
 in a real way, and the latter in an illusory way. 
 "By the way, I am afraid that I can't spot 
 Pantheists, of whom Persia is supposed to be 
 full, and I find more occasion to insist on God's 
 Immanence than to limit ideas of His Imman- 
 ence. I try to keep an open mind to learn 
 from the East, and I have great hopes that 
 Orientals will some day state truth in new and 
 beautiful ways. They have a power of illus- 
 tration and explanation that is very striking; 
 but I have far less hope of new truths. Per- 
 
114 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 haps they will give us new balance to truth, a 
 new and truer perspective in some things. . . • 
 
 "Various things the last year have made me 
 realize that I have changed theologically. 
 Perhaps what has influenced me as much as 
 anything is closer contact with Mohammedan- 
 ism. The influence is mostly by contrast. 
 On the one hand, dealing with the legalistic 
 and literalistic conception carried to extremes 
 in Orthodox Islam has made me prize as never 
 before the liberty of the Gospel, the freedom 
 from Law, and the whole conception of Chris- 
 tianity as a power by grace. On the other 
 hand, one sees a great deal of what is really 
 'New Theology,' divine immanence, indiffer- 
 ence as to the way of religion, disregard of 
 definition, exaltation of the common divinity 
 of all ; and while it is far more interesting than 
 dry Mohammedan 'orthodoxy,' I am not sure 
 but that it is ethically just as impotent and 
 barren. So I am not 'new' or 'old,' for JaldL 
 ad Din seven hundred years ago said far more 
 beautifully and, I think, more truly the say- 
 ings of 'New Theology' which are being said 
 now." 
 
 Personal work for Moslems and the visits 
 to Moslem villages were his recreation and usu- 
 ally made on Sundays or Fridays, when school 
 
EDUCATIONAL WORK 115 
 
 was closed. The desire to reach Moslems with 
 Christian truth was a passion with him and 
 expression was his rest. In the fall of 1909 he 
 formally requested the Board that he be set 
 aside for this work. 
 
 "Personal work for Moslems," he wrote, "is, 
 of course, no new thing, and I do not know that 
 I have anything especially new to contribute 
 to it ; and it is, of course, the kind of work that 
 should accompany every line of work and be 
 a part of every missionary's life. I think, 
 however, that in religious discussion, whether 
 controversial or evangelistic, there is need for 
 special training and scope for special aptitudes. 
 This is particularly the case with educated, 
 theologically-inclined Mohammedans. In Per- 
 sia this is a class that needs to be reached not 
 simply for their own sake but also because of 
 their influence over others. This leads to the 
 second point as to studying the religious con- 
 ditions of Persia. This is not so simple as it 
 seems to be. Persia is full of all sorts of be- 
 liefs and sects, and only by patience and 
 thought can their real beliefs be ascertained. 
 Moreover, it has never been done with any 
 degree of thoroughness. Yet it seems to me 
 that it is very important for the sake of our 
 missionary work. Such study would be of 
 
116 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 permanent and not merely of local and tran- 
 sient value. Out of such work one might well 
 hope to be able to make contributions of some 
 value also to the literature of the Christian 
 propaganda among Moslems. So what I ask 
 is that I should be able to consider work of 
 this character my first work." 
 
 Dr. Shedd was exceptionally well fitted to 
 present Christianity to Mohammedans. In 
 the words of another, "He was of careful and 
 conservative temper but his mind worked un- 
 ceasingly and with fearless originahty on the 
 problems of the theological and apologetic 
 statement of Christianity to Mohammedans, 
 and on all questions of Mission policy and 
 Church organization. He was a candid and 
 penetrating investigator of Mohammedanism 
 and of the books and institutions of Islam. 
 No one surpassed him in his skill or zeal as a 
 personal evangelist to Mohammedans or to 
 Jews in Urumia." 
 
 Because of the pressure of institutional work 
 and an inadequate missionary force, he was 
 never given as large an opportunity as he de- 
 sired to devote himself to Moslem work, but 
 as head of the American School, and exerting 
 every personal influence, he made for himself 
 a large place in the esteem and confidence of 
 
EDUCATIONAL WORK 117 
 
 the Mohammedan community, so that when 
 Unmiia was overwhelmed by the forces of evil 
 set loose by the World War, he was able to 
 exert a commanding influence for righteous- 
 ness and civilization. 
 
CHAPTER VI: PREACHER AND 
 SCHOLAR 
 
 No matter how busy in other matters, Dr. 
 Shedd was a constant preacher, especially in 
 the later years. He had felt that he could 
 do his best work in other lines than in preach- 
 ing, but his power as a preacher increased with 
 the growth and experience of the years, and 
 his ability to express his thoughts clearly and 
 forcibly could not be excelled. The impres- 
 sion he made upon the people is summed up 
 by one of the Syrian preachers: "He was a 
 brief speaker and for every question he had a 
 concise answer, but very satisfying. His 
 speeches were not like thunder, nor like a whirl- 
 wind, but short, quiet, and impressive. He 
 was not an orator; his delivery was slow but 
 ornamented with pure and attractive logic 
 which his audience would accept with great 
 appreciation." 
 
 On a short vacation from school, he visited 
 one of the large Christian villages and returned 
 filled with enthusiasm for the evangelistic op- 
 portunities there. "I never in my life had a 
 
 118 
 
PREACHER AND SCHOLAR 119 
 
 share in a work which was so evidently of the 
 Holy Spirit as our work in that village. Ev- 
 erything seems to have been ready for a harv- 
 est, and we believe many were brought to ac- 
 cept Christ as their Saviour, and the spiritual 
 life of many more was deepened," he said. 
 On his return from this village, one of his asso- 
 ciates remarked of him, "He is a wonderful 
 fellow ; everything he undertakes, he does well. 
 Now he has caught a new glow of evangelistic 
 zeal and has added another department of 
 work for which he is capable." Just before 
 this experience he had been disappointed, ow- 
 ing to ill-health, in his anticipated visit to the 
 Cairo Conference, but when he came home 
 from this work in the village, he remarked with 
 beaming face, "If I had gone to Cairo, I should 
 have missed this." 
 
 Many of the most important problems to 
 which Dr. Shedd was giving his thought and 
 time were those concerning the Evangelical 
 Church, which always held a large place in his 
 own missionary life as in his father's. 
 
 In 1909 the question of the union of the 
 Evangelical Church with the Old Church was 
 thoroughly discussed. The Nestorian Church 
 existed almost entirely among the Syrian 
 mountain tribes who lived in Turkish territory. 
 
120 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 The Evangelical Church membership was 
 largely confined to the Urumia plain, though 
 there was regular work and a number of 
 organized churches among the mountain 
 Syrians. The final decison of such a question 
 as union rested upon the two bodies con- 
 cerned, but no one was more sincerely in 
 earnest in trying to find a possible basis of 
 union between these two Christian bodies 
 which were so largely responsible for the evan- 
 gelization of the Mohammedan world about 
 them, than Dr. Shedd. "I suppose that the 
 real reason for separation," he said, "not 
 merely here but in Christendom, is in order to 
 secure strength by isolation; but those prin- 
 ciples which are developed by isolation must 
 surely be given the opportunity for free in- 
 fluence in the whole body of Christians by in- 
 creasing unity. This is being accomplished 
 in other places by the free interchange of opin- 
 ion and cooperation. So here the evangelical 
 principles ought to have as free a field for in- 
 fluence as we can get for them, so far as we 
 can trust their strength to withstand the perils 
 that must come from that unity and larger 
 opportunity. I should probably have been a 
 High Churchman if I had been born an Epis- 
 copalian, for the idea of unity and catholicity 
 
PREACHER AND SCHOLAR 121 
 
 attracts me. But I think in this case the hmi- 
 tation for the spread of evangehcal principles 
 and the need of the Old Church for our strong 
 Evangelical partj^ are the considerations. It 
 is a hard problem and one that involves some 
 fundamental questions. . . . 
 
 ''I don't know what the future has and don't 
 want to know, but I am sure that it is always 
 right to find out what is common ground not 
 so much in belief as in faith and love and ex-, 
 perience." 
 
 The time was not ripe for the union of the 
 two bodies, but the Old Church consented to 
 the Evangelicals preaching in the Nestorian 
 churches, while the Evangelicals agixed not 
 to form new churches among the IVestorians in 
 Kurdistan. This was the policy followed up 
 to the outbreak of the World War, when the 
 Christians were all driven out of Turkey, and 
 the Evangehcal Church was scattered. In 1912 
 this Church celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. 
 In an address at this celebration, Dr. Shedd 
 voiced its two most important responsibilities 
 when he said, "The justification for the exist- 
 ence of the Church will lie not so much in its 
 doctrine as in its missionary activity. Our jus- 
 tification will be ver\^ largely in the work done 
 in making the Gospel known to Moslems and 
 
122 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 extending evangelical truth among the various 
 peoples, Chiistian and non- Christian, with 
 whom its members come in contact. . . . 
 
 *'The time has come when this Church should 
 assume the full right to direct its own affairs 
 and do its own work." 
 
 During the last decade in Urumia the prob- 
 lem of the independence of the Church was 
 much discussed. The difficulty was not that 
 the Church was demanding its independence 
 but that it feared to assume responsibility. 
 The Evangelistic Board as the executive body 
 of the Church, on which the Station was rep- 
 resented, had for a long time accepted respon- 
 sibihty for at least one-third of the financial 
 support of the whole body, while a few of the 
 individual churches were entirely self-support- 
 ing. 
 
 The Church finally accepted its independ- 
 ence and with the Mission agreed upon certain 
 principles for guidance in their mutual rela- 
 tionships. 
 
 " ( 1 ) The principle that the Mission should 
 not exercise control over the Native Church, 
 this being so interpreted that even the grant of 
 money aid does not carry with it the right of 
 control over the expenditure of the money. 
 
 (2) The Mission is not under compulsion 
 
PREACHER AND SCHOLAR 123 
 
 to make grants in aid to the Church, and in 
 making such grants, the understanding if not 
 the formal condition, should be that they are 
 not for the pm^pose of enabling the Christian 
 communities to have 'regular services,' but to 
 aid them as evangelistic agencies. 
 
 (3) The principle of cooperation as separate 
 bodies in the relation of the Mission and the 
 Church. They are bound together by bonds 
 of love and service. 
 
 (4) The Mission may properly exercise in- 
 dependent control of the work carried on by it 
 which is in character auxiliary to rather than 
 essentially a part of the Church work, such as 
 educational, literary, and medical work. This 
 line cannot be arbitrarily drawn and there will 
 be need of patience, forbearance, and careful 
 thought. 
 
 (5) As missionaries we have both the right 
 and the privilege to be evangelists, but in the 
 exercise of this work among Moslems and non- 
 Moslems, care must be taken to stimulate and 
 not discourage the missionary spirit of the 
 Church." 
 
 Through the half century of its existence, 
 with all its weakness and lack of initiative, the 
 Church has not been untrue to its missionary 
 responsibilities, and probably no Church in the 
 
124 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 Orient, in proportion to its numbers, has sent 
 out so many preachers, teachers, colporteurs, 
 and other Christian workers, not only through- 
 out Persia, but even beyond her borders. 
 
 Such was the development of the Syrian 
 Evangelical Church at the opening of the Great 
 War which brought to this httle isolated body 
 of Christians such persecutions, massacre, and 
 destruction as have been inflicted upon no other 
 Church in modern times. Probably as many 
 as four-fifths of its ordained men and other 
 trained workers, and two-thirds of its member- 
 ship have perished either by violence or as the 
 result of persecution. The little remnant is 
 scattered to the four winds, still "bearing about 
 in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus" and 
 witnessing to His life which is in them. 
 
 Dr. Shedd was too busy a man to do the 
 literary work for which he was so well fitted, as 
 he once said, "I have found out long ago that 
 writing and studying have to be subordinate 
 parts of my life, and I try to accept it without 
 grumbling and keep on writing and studying 
 when I can." 
 
 He was profoundly thoughtful and his schol- 
 arly mind with its wonderful powers of con- 
 centration was the servant of the Work, so 
 that his literary skill was devoted largely to the 
 
PREACHER AND SCHOLAR 125 
 
 inconspicuous tasks of the Mission, though he 
 was a frequent contributor to magazines. 
 While at home on his first furlough, 1902-1903, 
 he gave a course of lectures on the Historical 
 Relations of Islam and the Oriental Churches, 
 which were prepared to fill the Student Mis- 
 sionary Lectureship at Princeton. They were 
 also delivered at Auburn, McCormick, and 
 Chicago Theological Seminaries, and at the 
 Presbyterian Theological Seminary of Ken- 
 tucky. Later they were published in the book 
 entitled Islam and the Oriental Churches, 
 
 A piece of scholarly work upon which he 
 labored for many years was the Syriac Con- 
 cordance of the Peshitta. Prof. Duncan B. 
 MacDonald of Hartford Theological Sem- 
 inary is best acquainted with the story of that 
 Concordance and contributes its history. He 
 says, "From a letter of Dr. Benjamin Labaree,. 
 dated from Urumia, April 11, 1902, I learn 
 that Professor George Foote Moore, then of 
 Andover Seminary, now of Harvard Univer- 
 sity, was 'the real father of the movement,' and 
 that he suggested that it should be confined at 
 first to the Old Testament, and that the Uru- 
 mia edition should be taken as a basis and that 
 the Lee edition should be let alone. 
 
 "In the summer of 1901 Dr. Labaree ap- 
 
126 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 proached the Hartford Theological Seminary 
 through Professor L. B. Paton with a proposal 
 that it should undertake the financial support 
 of this Concordance, and should also advise as 
 to its form and plan. The scholars in 
 charge at Urumia had come to recognize that, 
 while on the one hand, it was intended for the 
 use of the Syriac community in Persia as a 
 concordance of their Scriptures, on another 
 hand, it would be of great importance to west- 
 ern scholars and must be adapted to their needs. 
 But at that time the Hartford Seminary had 
 no funds for such a purpose and the matter 
 hung on, but was by no means dropped from 
 our minds. The work, however, was still 
 pushed at Urumia and in January, 1902, the 
 slips for the Old Testament were within two 
 months of being completed. In the meantime 
 I had been so fortunate as to come into corre- 
 spondence with Dr. W. A. Shedd in connec- 
 tion with the researches which had led up to 
 his excellent book, Islam and the Oriental 
 Churches, which was published in 1904. I 
 had the privilege of reading the MS. of this 
 took and of offering some suggestions on it. 
 I had also been in correspondence with B. W. 
 Labaree, one of iwy old students, from his re- 
 turn to Persia and up to the time of his mur- 
 
PREACHER AND SCHOLAR 127 
 
 der. It was natural, then, that in May, 1903, 
 Dr. W. A. Shedd should write me from Cali- 
 fornia about the raising of money for this 
 purpose, although this, for some months, only 
 kept the matter before the Seminary. But 
 steps were being taken, and through the gen- 
 erosity of some friends of the Seminary, among 
 whom Mr. D. Willis James was by far the 
 largest contributor, its Research Fund was es- 
 tablished. This was largely for the direct 
 purpose of supporting the Concordance, as Mr. 
 James was particularly attracted by the idea 
 that a Mission Station should make so signal 
 a contribution to scholarship. Thus in the 
 middle of 1904 I was able to write hopefully 
 to Dr. Labaree as to our taking part. The 
 work with the classifying of the slips was be- 
 gun again at Urumia, and a letter from Dr. 
 Labaree, dated September 6, 1904, marks this 
 new start and tells that the slips for the Penta- 
 teuch were almost arranged. 
 
 "In November, 1904, the whole charge at 
 Urumia was handed over to Dr. Shedd, who 
 had had much to do with the undertaking from 
 the beginning, and from that time on the cor- 
 respondence was between Dr. Shedd and my- 
 self. I was entrusted by the Seminary with 
 the task of drawing a plan for the Concordance 
 
128 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 and with the duty of generally advising on the 
 work, and the plan so drawn up was approved 
 on January 17, 1905, by a committee consist- 
 ing of President MacKenzie, Dean Jacobus, 
 Professor Nourse and myself. In 1905 began 
 also the financial contributions of the Seminary 
 which ultimately reached almost three thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 "The work so far had been most completely 
 and admirably done, and the problem for the 
 future was only the arrangement of the mate- 
 rials gathered and the decision as to how much 
 could be used. 
 
 "It is with a very melancholy interest that 
 I have gone over the correspondence recording 
 these long labors now vanished from the earth, 
 having left, humanly speaking, no trace be- 
 hind. My own work upon it was nothing com- 
 pared with that of Dr. Labaree, Dr. Shedd and 
 their native assistants. The financial contri- 
 bution of the Seminary was little beside their 
 patient, year-long labors. 
 
 "This was one of the great undertakings of 
 scholarship and its destruction is one of the 
 greatest blows that Semitic scholarship has ever 
 received, and it is to be reckoned among the 
 historic calamities of learning. It had been a 
 vindication of missionary enterprise as applied 
 
PREACHER AND SCHOLAR 12^ 
 
 to sound scholarship. As the Urumia Syriac 
 Old Testament had been one of the founda- 
 tions of Syriac learning, so this Concordance 
 would have been a basis for any future critical 
 edition of the Peshitta and would have put the 
 lexicography of Syriac on a new footing. In 
 it the glory of the ancient Nestorian commu- 
 nity would have been revived in the scholarly 
 labors of its last descendant. And it is in a 
 sense fitting, if also heartbreaking, that this 
 last monument of Nestorian scholarship should 
 have passed away in the destruction of the Nes- 
 torian race. 
 
 "Dr. Shedd's Syriac scholarship and the 
 breadth of his knowledge as to the history of 
 the Syrian Church had become plain to me in 
 our correspondence on his book. I had 
 learned, too, how open and catholic a spirit he 
 had on religious questions and how eager he 
 was for the deepening and widening of the 
 training of missionaries. I was now to learn, 
 in connection with the Concordance, how ac- 
 curate his scholarship was and what patient 
 pains he could take in the minutest details. 
 We soon worked out the plan. It was to be 
 a Concordance of the Perkins or Urumia edi- 
 tion of the Old Testament, without the Apoc- 
 rypha, according to the Nestorian Canon. 
 
130 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 With the Urumia text Ceriani's photo-htho- 
 graph of the Codex Ambrosianus (a MS. of 
 the Vlth.-VIIth. centuries) was collated and 
 all the variants recorded. The same was done 
 with Barnes' critical edition of the Psalms and 
 with his *Text of Chronicles,' where the text of 
 *Uramia' was weak. Recognition of Lee's 
 edition, of that of Mosul and that in the Poly- 
 glots seemed unnecessary. The order finally 
 adopted was that of the Hebrew text, as to 
 books, chapters, and verses. Everything was 
 put in except enclitics, inseparable preposi- 
 tions and particles; for proper names there 
 were references only. All this is simply to put 
 on record that such work was done and done 
 largely through the tireless energy of Dr. 
 Shedd applied through long years and in con- 
 stant fighting of ill-health and eye trouble. 
 It was an amazing piece of work and yet only 
 a part of his amazing life. 
 
 "When the war finally broke out, the work 
 was ready for the printer and had been tested 
 and corrected throughout. Dr. Shedd was oc- 
 cupied in reviewing the corrections when he 
 was compelled to stop. The story of the de- 
 struction of the MS. is part of the story of the 
 destruction of the Urumia Mission." 
 
CHAPTER VII: HOME LIFE 
 
 In April, 1903, William A. Shedd and Miss 
 Louise Wilbur of Riverside, California, were 
 married, and a few months later the home was 
 re-established. Mrs. Shedd was not a stranger 
 in Urumia, having been for a number of years 
 a member of the Station, first as teacher for 
 the missionary children and later principal of 
 Fiske Seminary, and so was able to enter sym- 
 pathetically into the missionary activities of 
 her husband and to take her share of the bur- 
 dens and responsibilities of a missionary home. 
 Louise Shedd never allowed personal comfort 
 or convenience to interfere with her husband's 
 work. He was very dependent upon the sup- 
 port and affections of the home and was largely 
 able to maintain his health and do his work 
 because they were never failing. He was not, 
 a financier; money had little value to him ex- 
 cept as a means of procuring the necessary 
 things of living, and it was as likely to be ap- 
 plied to other people's needs as his own. His 
 only extravagance was in giving, hence it de- 
 volved upon the wife to manage the family 
 
 131 
 
132 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 finances. Theirs was a home of simple tastes, 
 plain living, and high thinking, where self- 
 denial was cheerfully practiced. Two more 
 daughters were added to the family and no 
 man ever enjoyed his family more than Dr. 
 Shedd. 
 
 The burdens of the years of turmoil and 
 ceaseless activity had left their marks on a not 
 very strong body. Dr. Shedd suffered fre- 
 quently from corneal ulcers, but even when 
 confined to a dark room, he was kept busy with 
 the many persons who needed his advice. 
 "You know there is not a lazy bone in Will's 
 body," wrote Mrs. Shedd. "I never saw any 
 one who could turn out work as he can, 
 and while he is not robust, and has to take 
 a good deal of medicine, by conscientious care 
 of his diet and exercise, by working without 
 fret and worry, and by living as regular a life 
 as possible, he does more than most strong 
 men." 
 
 The latter part of 1909 his health became 
 seriously impaired. His trouble was diag- 
 nosed as "incipient tuberculosis," and on 
 Christmas day he wrote a friend, "Others have, 
 I believe, written you about the change in my 
 work that has seemed necessary. It is a little 
 hard, not a little hard either, but really one of 
 
HOME LIFE 133 
 
 the hardest things I have ever had to meet that 
 the change has come for such a reason. I hope 
 that it may all come out so that I may do better 
 work, if not more work, and that it may be the 
 work where I can do the best service. . . . 
 
 "The name ^tuberculosis' is not pleasant and 
 I have been rebellious, but I have no right to 
 be, of course. . . . 
 
 "The sense of deprivation from work is 
 sometimes very keen." 
 
 His was a simple faith, yet clear and satis- 
 fying intellectually. Heart and mind, faith 
 and life, were centered in Christ and domi- 
 nated by Him, as he testified, "The center and 
 ground of my faith is the Lord Jesus. It 
 seems to me I would yield allegiance to Him 
 and trust my soul to Him whether I found 
 Him in the Bible or out of it; whether in life, 
 literature, or tradition. He is the ultimate 
 ground of faith. Out of this grows a faith in 
 God, His Father and ours, in the Spirit sent 
 by Him and in the Scriptures which testify of 
 Him. . . . 
 
 "With me, at least, it is Christ Who holds 
 me to the faith, and not the theory of the faith 
 that makes Christ credible." 
 
 This period of being laid aside was a hard 
 experience such as only a man accustomed to 
 
134 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 a life of strenuous activity could fully appreci- 
 ate. It was also a time of preparation, spirit- 
 ually and physically, for the years just 
 ahead. 
 
 There was a year of resting in Persia, though 
 he was not idle. Aniong many other things he 
 did, was the revision of the Syriac Hymn-book. 
 He longed for an unirrigated country, "a coun- 
 try carpeted with God's own greensward and 
 beautified with God's own forests." This he 
 found to the full in Switzerland, where he spent 
 several months with his family. While there 
 he worked on his father's biography, but mostly 
 tramped about the country with the children 
 and rested. They came to America for a visit 
 and in the autumn of 1911 he was pronounced 
 fit to return to Persia. 
 
 The political situation in Persia was bad 
 and the Russians had brought in more troops 
 for the "pacification of the country." Mr. 
 Shuster after a long fight had to give up and 
 accept his dismissal. 
 
 As early as 1913 there were serious threaten- 
 ings of a general massacre of Christians in 
 Turkey. Dr. Shedd and Dr. E. W. McDow- 
 ell, who was in charge of Evangelical Church 
 work among mountain Syrians, made a visit 
 
HOME LIFE 135 
 
 to Kochanis to discuss with Mar Shimon, the 
 Nestorian Patriarch, the safety of the Chris- 
 tians. It was only a httle over a year after- 
 ward, in the late summer of 1915, that the blow 
 fell, and practically all the Syrian Christians 
 who escaped massacre, fled across the border 
 into Persia, where they found temporary 
 refuge. 
 
 The Kurds were demanding autonomy under 
 the leadership of the grandson of Bedr Khan 
 Bey, who seventy years before was responsible 
 for the massacre of the Christians. As has 
 been said, the Turks were laying claim to Per- 
 sian territory west of Urumia Lake. A 
 Turko-Persian boundary commission was ap- 
 pointed, on which were represented Great 
 Britain, Russia, Turkey, and Persia. The 
 frontier was marked out for a thousand miles, 
 from the Persian Gulf to Mount Ararat, the 
 Turks losing all the territory they had seized 
 in northwest Persia. 
 
 Dr. Shedd on his return from America had 
 resumed his leadership in the Educational work 
 and in the Legal Board and other departments 
 with which he had been identified. Then came 
 the World War, which brought to him tre- 
 mendous burdens and responsibilities, but that 
 
136 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 is a unique story and will be told in the chap- 
 ters that follow. 
 
 MEMBERS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN MISSION 
 IN URUMIA IN 1915. 
 
 Rev. F. G. Coan, 
 
 Mrs. Ida Speer Coan, 
 
 Rev. E. W. McDowell, 
 
 Mrs. Mary Coe McDowell, 
 
 Rev. Wm. A. Shedd, 
 
 Mrs. Louise Wilbur Shedd, 
 
 Rev. E. T. Allen, 
 
 Mrs. May Wallace Allen, 
 
 Mrs. Bertha McConaughy Cochran, (Mrs. 
 J. P.) 
 
 Miss Mary E. Lewis, 
 
 Miss Edith D. Lamme, 
 
 Rev. Hugo A. MuUer, 
 
 Mrs. Laura McComb MuUer, M. D. 
 
 Miss Lenore R. Schoebel, 
 
 Miss Elizabeth V. Coan, 
 
 Dr. H. P. Packard, 
 
 Mrs. Francis Bayley Packard. 
 
 Mile. Madeleine Perrochet, a Swiss girl 
 recently come to Urumia as teacher for the 
 missionary children. 
 
HOME LIFE 137 
 
 In Charge of Christ's Home for Children, 
 sent from Warminster, Pa. 
 Rev. Herman Pflaumer, 
 Mrs. Helen Pflaumer, 
 Miss Ena Bridges. 
 
CHAPTER VIII: THE ADVOCATE 
 OF THE CAPTIVES 
 
 At the opening of the Great War in the 
 summer of 1914, the Russians were in mili- 
 tary occupation of the Urumia region. When 
 the order came for the mobihzation of the Rus^ 
 sian army, there was great excitement. For 
 a while it looked as if the whole force would 
 withdraw. Such an event would have been 
 disastrous to the Christian population, but it 
 was evident that the Moslems would not have 
 grieved. As it was, a small force stayed, forti- 
 fications were built around the city and prep- 
 arations made for its defense. Turks and 
 Kurds began to gather on the border and in 
 September the Christians of the border region 
 abandoned their villages and came to Urumia. 
 
 Before Turkey's public entrance into the 
 War, early in October, an attack under Turk- 
 ish officers was made upon the city of Urumia. 
 The Russians brought their mountain guns 
 into action from a position near our Mission. 
 As we watched the battle from our roof, we 
 could follow the flight of the cannon balls 
 through the trees and with our telescope could 
 
 138 
 
THE ADVOCATE OF THE CAPTIVES 139 
 
 see them strike among the rocks where the 
 enemy were stationed on the opposite hills. 
 Certain massacre would have followed the suc- 
 cess of this attack but the city was saved just 
 in the nick of time by the arrival of fresh Rus- 
 sian troops. A Persian Nationalist who took 
 part in this attack, said afterwards that the 
 fighting force of Kurds and Turks was fol- 
 lowed by thousands of unarmed Kurds, men, 
 women, and children, ready to join in the sack 
 of the city and carry off the plunder. The 
 people were all looking to the American Mis- 
 sion as a place of refuge, in case the city fell. 
 
 There was a widespread sympathy on the 
 part of Persians for the enemies of Russia, 
 partly because they hated the Russians and 
 partly due to Tm^kish agents getting ready 
 for war with Russia. 
 
 "The Nationalist movement in Persia," 
 wrote Dr. Shedd, "which had begun a decade 
 previously, and which succeeded in establishing 
 the form of Parliamentary govermiient, was 
 a genuine popular movement, but it failed. It 
 neither established a stable, representative gov- 
 ernment nor produced an enlightened despot. 
 It left behind it in Persia a smoldering Na- 
 tionalist aspiration, discontented because of 
 its failure, for which it largely blamed Russia. 
 
140 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 Russian influence antagonized the popular 
 feeling, though it tended to secure order in the 
 country. It left behind it also a set of pro- 
 fessional revolutionists, men of some enterprise 
 but no principle. Many of these were forced 
 to flee and found an asylum in Turkey and 
 in the war were active Turkish partisans. So 
 in spite of the historic hatred, both national 
 and religious, the Persians being Shia or Shiite 
 Moslems, Persia's sympathy was with Turkey 
 when she entered the war." 
 
 The topographical and geographical rela- 
 tionship of Persia, Turkey and Russia makes 
 this corner of Persia strategetically important 
 and both Turkey and Russia wanted to hold it. 
 It furnished a road from the Russian railway 
 at Julfa through Khoi to Van in Turkey, and 
 was a possible avenue for the movement of 
 troops from Mesopotamia to the Caucasus. 
 
 During the last weeks of 1914 there were 
 premonitions of danger in Urumia, but the 
 Russians gave assurance that they would hold 
 that front at all odds. Without any warning, 
 as far as we knew, the order came to the Rus- 
 sian troops for the evacuation of the whole 
 region and during the night of January 1, 
 1915, they began to move out. In the morn- 
 ing there was panic everywhere as the news 
 
THE ADVOCATE OF THE CAPTIVES 141 
 
 of the evacuation circulated. The Christian 
 population was at the mercy of Turks and 
 Kurds and Persians. Dr. Shedd hastened to 
 the Russian Consulate and found it already- 
 dismantled and everybody getting ready to 
 leave. It was evident there was no help from 
 the Russians and taking leave of the Consul 
 with the words, ''Panah ha Khudaf' ''Refuge 
 with God," he returned to the city. We mis- 
 sionaries got together and faced the situation. 
 No one wanted to leave and there was so much 
 uncertainty as to how and where to go that it 
 was decided that all should stay. Tabriz was 
 the location of the nearest American Consulate 
 but we did not know that the roads would be 
 open nor whether that city would be any safer 
 than TJrumia. 
 
 With the Russian authority gone and the 
 Persian government paralyzed. Dr. Shedd was 
 the man to whom everybody looked for lead- 
 ership. He accepted the responsibility thus 
 thrust upon him and for the next five months 
 became the advocate and protector of thou- 
 sands of helpless people who had no one else 
 to whom to look. Writing of that first day, he 
 said, "I called on the mujtaJiid, the principal 
 religious leader in the city, and on one or two 
 others and urged them to take measures to 
 
142 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 secure the establishment of some sort of gov- 
 ernment to meet the difficult situation which 
 confronted us. In the afternoon the chief men 
 of the city got together to plan. They did not 
 dare set up a new governor yet, though they 
 were certain that the governor, who was a Rus- 
 sian partisan and instrument, would not stay. 
 For three days I was in constant communica- 
 tion with the chief nobles and ecclesiastics. 
 Urumia had an unusual number of high offi- 
 cials in title but there was neither unity nor 
 efficiency in the lot, and it was impossible to 
 get vigorous action for the protection of the 
 city itself, while murder and robbery ruled in 
 the villages without let or hindrance. It was 
 no encouragement to be in the councils of the 
 big men of the city. There was no unity, no 
 resolution. 
 
 "The English missionaries, who were our 
 good friends, left in the evening. The French 
 missionaries decided to stay, and one result of 
 our troubles was that we were thrown together 
 in the closest associations with them and were 
 good friends, too. The Belgian head of Cus- 
 toms brought his rugs and piano for us to 
 keep, and the Russian Mission sent some of its 
 goods. In general we did a big business as 
 residuary legatees. 
 
THE ADVOCATE OF THE CAPTIVES 143 
 
 "The next day there were more conferences 
 with the city people, and I began in earnest 
 the work that kept up for months, constantly 
 calHng on the authorities and others, who in 
 any way could help in securing safety for the 
 Christians. That Sunday was a terrible day. 
 When I walked out to the city gate early in 
 the morning, everything was quiet, not a Rus- 
 sian was in sight, all had gone. Soon the crowd 
 gathered, not of Russians but of Moslems, and 
 plundering began. People were coming from 
 the villages and filling up our premises. 
 
 "We must get in touch with the Kurdish 
 chiefs, so we sent a note with one of our gate- 
 keepers, to Karini Agha, the principal Kurd 
 now approaching the city. He sent back a 
 favorable reply. The next day was still worse. 
 Dr. Packard with a few others started out to 
 meet Karini Agha. He found the people of 
 Geogtapa, the largest of the Christian villages, 
 fleeing to the city, running the whole six miles 
 a veritable gauntlet of roughs who robbed them 
 of everything they could lay hold of. There 
 was every reason to believe that soldiers, serv- 
 ants of the nobility, and others, and some of 
 the big people shared in the plunder of these 
 robbers, who were city Mohammedans." 
 
 That night when Dr. Packard returned, he 
 
144 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 brought with him fifteen hundred or more of 
 the Geogtapa people whom he had rescued 
 from massacre through his influence with the 
 Kurdish chiefs. 
 
 By the morning of January 3, the people 
 began pressing into our yards in crowds. The 
 larger part of them had been stripped of every- 
 thing but the few clothes on their backs. It 
 was winter with snow and slush, the tempera- 
 ture often ten to twenty degrees (Fahr.) below 
 freezing, and many suffered greatly on the 
 road. We emptied all the school-rooms and 
 store-rooms, to get ready for the rush. The 
 big study-hall of Fiske Seminary was full of 
 desks and not thought suitable for living quar- 
 ters. Here fires were built and the shivering 
 women and children brought in to get warm. 
 They remained here for months and many of 
 them were carried to their graves from that 
 room. On the desks and under them, on the 
 platform and in the aisles, they lived and sick- 
 ened and died. The church filled up with 
 mountaineers. The Press, administration 
 building, boys' school at Sardari, college and 
 hospital buildings all filled up. Still they 
 came, first from the nearer villages, then 
 from the more distant ones, till every hall- 
 
THE ADVOCATE OF THE CAPTIVES 145 
 
 way, washhouse, cellar, and closet was packed 
 full, not lying-down but sitting-up full. 
 
 In our own houses, in kitchens, dining- 
 rooms, parlors, hallways, and bedrooms, were 
 the relatives of the servants and our special 
 friends. As the refugees continued to pour 
 into our yards by the thousands and as our 
 own buildings filled up, we took the surround- 
 ing yards, all of which belonged to Syrians, 
 who were eager to connect their yards with 
 ours by cutting holes through the walls, or 
 by ladders where the walls were low. These 
 yards were soon overflowing with the relatives 
 and friends of the owners. Then we took 
 houses across the street, and farther out into 
 the Christian quarters. Later we used the 
 Nestorian Church, the Russian School, and the 
 houses left vacant by Russians and native 
 Christians when they fled with the army. The 
 large English Mission adjoining our property 
 was opened into ours and an American flag 
 was placed over the gate. We had more than 
 fifty properties occupied with refugees and 
 these all had to be controlled and protected 
 and most of them fed. During the first weeks 
 there were fifteen thousand or more crowded 
 into our own and ad j oining yards. The people 
 
146 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 always referred to this siege as their "Captiv- 
 ity." 
 
 The storeroom at the gate, with mud floor 
 and walls, was used as a temporary place for 
 caring for those wounded on their way to our 
 premises. One of those early days a little girl 
 was brought in shot in the thigh, the wound 
 having gone undressed for several days. The 
 father had been shot in the village while carry- 
 ing the child and the bullet had passed through 
 his body, wounding the little girl. All of this 
 family of six were killed or died of their 
 wounds except the mother. 
 
 A Syrian physician was always on duty in 
 the city yard and was kept busy from morning 
 till night with these cases. 
 
 There was urgent demand for a maternity 
 ward, but we could find only two small rooms 
 for the mothers, many of whom had not even 
 a quilt. Several children were born in the 
 crowded church, but nearly all of them died. 
 The Seminary dining-room was reserved as 
 a ward for measles, and was soon overflow- 
 ing. 
 
 The unpretentious gateway of our main city 
 compound was of strategic importance. It 
 opened on the most frequented street in the 
 city and thousands passed it every day. All 
 
THE ADVOCATE OF THE CAPTIVES 147 
 
 other gates in our compound and adjoining 
 yards were closed, bolted and barred. This 
 being the only entrance to the whole Christian 
 community, the traffic and the throngs who 
 passed through every day were a tremendous 
 task to regulate and control, and required the 
 constant vigilance of a missionary. A number 
 of Persian guards were placed here but they 
 could not be depended upon and Mr. Muller 
 and his unarmed Syrian police were always 
 at "attention." The frightened fugitives, 
 stripped and often wounded, the porters with 
 their loads of bread from the bazaar, the 
 hundreds who formed the long breadline every 
 day, Persian, Turkish and Kurdish officials 
 who came to see Dr. Shedd, friendly Moslems 
 and messengers, all had to be admitted, but 
 it was equally important to keep out those who 
 would make trouble. This had to be done by 
 diplomacy rather than force. Calls of distress 
 had to be answered. There were frequent 
 troubles and excitements outside that threw the 
 terrified refugees into panic and unless han- 
 dled with tact and wisdom might have serious 
 consequences. This all devolved upon the 
 keeper of the gate, who was a sort of com- 
 posite of St. Peter and Horatius. 
 
 One day word came to Dr. Shedd in the 
 
148 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 main city compound that Kurds were break- 
 ing into Sardari. He grabbed his hat and 
 ran out, calling the Turkish guard at the gate 
 to follow him, and arrived at Sardari just in 
 time, for the Kurds were about to break 
 through the back gate. The refugees would 
 have had little chance if once they had gotten 
 inside. After refugees had been put into 
 houses outside our compounds, frequently a 
 call of distress would come after night, and 
 Dr. Shedd or others, lantern in hand, would go 
 to rescue helpless girls or women from the 
 lawless soldiery. 
 
 "Among the thousands of patient sufferers 
 in the City Compound," writes Mr. Muller, 
 "one poor woman had lost her reason and had 
 ^become a raving maniac. Her little baby was 
 ^ not safe in her presence. She had just been 
 given an opiate and sent to the hospital. A 
 score of persons followed Dr. Shedd to his 
 buggy as he prepared to go to his home and 
 laid before him as many different questions 
 and pleas. As he seated himself, a bundle was 
 passed to him. It was the helpless little waif 
 whose mother had suffered beyond endurance. 
 He wrapped the little bundle of rags in his 
 laprobe and held it as tenderly as though it 
 were his own first born, while the carriage 
 
THE ADVOCATE OF THE CAPTIVES 149 
 
 jolted heavily over the cobblestones to the hos- 
 pital." 
 
 At the College Compound where Dr. Coan 
 was in charge, the crowds had taken possession 
 of every foot of room while their cattle roamed 
 all over the yards. One day six hundred 
 people, led by their pastor, came in from the 
 village of Kala Ismail Agha, which had been 
 built up by a group of refugees who had es- 
 caped the Turkish massacres of 1895. They 
 had been promised by the Turks that they 
 would be safe and so had remained in the vil- 
 lage. Kurds came and after being fed as 
 guests of the village, they disarmed the men 
 and began to slaughter the people, killing over 
 thirty and wounding many others. The vil- 
 lagers scattered and ran to the hills where after 
 wandering about in cold and hunger, they 
 found their way to the Mission. 
 
 News of the evacuation of the Russian army 
 reached the villages at the northern end of 
 Urumia plain late in the evening of January 2, 
 and by midnight the people were hastening 
 after the army toward Julfa. By morning 
 practically every Christian village of that sec- 
 tion was deserted. The cattle were left stand- 
 ing in the stables, and the furnishings and food 
 supplies were left in the houses. Horses, 
 
160 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 donkeys, or any animals that could be used as 
 beasts of burden were at a premium. Only 
 small sums of money were usually kept on 
 hand, so that many who were comparatively 
 rich started out on that journey with almost 
 nothing. Nearly all were on foot and during 
 the week of trudging through snow and slush, 
 their clothing, quilts and even food had to be 
 discarded in order to carry the children. At 
 night it was impossible to find shelter. The 
 old and weak died along the road and those 
 who finally reached Julf a were so wretched and 
 emaciated that their friends did not recognize 
 them. 
 
 The Armenians and Syrians in southern 
 Russia helped their people and in every place 
 that these refugees found shelter in the Rus- 
 sian villages, the peasants helped to the limit 
 of their ability. Later, the Russian Govern- 
 ment gave a regular allowance to them. 
 
 Two or three days after the evacuation by 
 the Russians, the Turks occupied Urumia, and 
 the end of the first week found the Turkish 
 Consul in control of affairs, as the Russian 
 Consul had been previously. Azim-es-Sal- 
 tanah Sardar, a local nobleman, was the head 
 of the nominal Persian Government, and used 
 his influence to save life and protect property. 
 
THE ADVOCATE OF THE CAPTIVES 151 
 
 though he had no authority and little power. 
 He was in the humiliating position of having 
 to work in subordination to the Turks and 
 of having to help them to collect supplies and 
 funds for their army. The Turkish military 
 commander with a force of troops varying 
 from a few hundred to fifteen thousand usu- 
 ally worked with the Consul, though not with- 
 out friction and jealousy. 
 
 For the Moslems the situation was rather 
 mixed. They rejoiced over the departure of 
 the Russians and the large majority joined 
 the mob in looting the Christians ; while many 
 of them were guilty of worse crimes, murder, 
 rape, and forcible conversion of girls and 
 women. They preferred Turkish invasion to 
 Russian occupation and yet found it humiliat- 
 ing and distressing to see the plain overrun by 
 their enemies, the Kurds and the Turks in 
 control of the country. 
 
 Many of the Moslems on pretense of friend- 
 ship took Christians and their goods into their 
 homes. A great deal of this goods was never 
 returned to the owners, some of it being seized 
 by Turks and Kurds and more of it appro- 
 priated by the Moslem protectors. One of 
 our preachers after being plundered of every- 
 thing by his Moslem neighbors, was received 
 
•152 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 as a refugee into one of their homes. Here he 
 was fed on his own food, from his own dishes 
 and slept on his own bed, all of which they had 
 stolen from him. Persons kept by Persians 
 were frequently compelled to accept Islam in 
 order to secure safety for themselves or their 
 relatives. 
 
 When the troubles began, the total Chris- 
 tian population, including a thousand refugee 
 families of mountaineers, was about thirty- 
 three thousand. After the exodus to Russia 
 3,p proximately twenty-five thousand remained. 
 Of these, not more than a thousand families 
 escaped being robbed of all their possessions, 
 and many of these were partially robbed. 
 Over two hundred Christian girls and women 
 were forced to become Moslems. Hundreds 
 of women and girls were violated, about a 
 thousand Christians were killed and four 
 thousand died of disease. Thus twenty per 
 cent perished in five months. 
 
 All this time within our Mission Compounds 
 there was constant watching day and night. 
 There were times when the missionary men 
 took turns in keeping awake all night. We 
 had Persian and Turkish soldiers as guards, 
 and at the College Kurdish guards, but there 
 was no relaxing our vigilance. It was this 
 
THE ADVOCATE OF THE CAPTIVES 153 
 
 constant anxiety and the possibility of trouble 
 any minute that was most wearing. Dr. Shedd 
 was busy day and night going to the Persian 
 Governor, the Turkish Consul, the Turkish 
 Commander, the Kurdish Chiefs or others in 
 authority, and by diplomacy, by courage, by 
 patience, he won his case and kept the impris- 
 oned Christian community from the worst that 
 always threatened. There seems no answer 
 as to whj^ Justice and Righteousness so often 
 won against such odds, except that God fought 
 with those that contended for them. 
 
 One day while at dinner at the College, 
 word was brought to Dr. Shedd that Kurds 
 had just passed the gate with three Christian 
 women captives. He jumped from the table 
 and with the gatekeeper ran to the village 
 where the women had been taken, recovered 
 them from their captors, and brought them 
 back. Another time he sent horsemen after 
 women who were being carried off and recov- 
 ered them five miles away. A certain Turk- 
 ish officer had the reputation of beating his 
 prisoners and using the bastinado on them till 
 their feet were bruised and swollen. So, one 
 evening when an order came for Dr. Shedd to 
 appear before this man, there was considerable 
 anxiety, and the people in the yards thought 
 
154 THE MEASURE OF A IVIAN 
 
 he was going to his doom. Some of the mis- 
 sionary men accompanied him and fomid this 
 insignificant little officer ranting because their 
 soldiers, sick with typhoid, had not been re- 
 ceived into our overcrowded hospital when Dr. 
 Packard himself was down with typhus. Mr. 
 Muller writing of the incident says: 
 
 "It is hard to tell how diplomats are able 
 to turn delicate situations to good account, 
 but the fact is they do it. Before we left the 
 officer that evening, he had been persuaded 
 by Dr. Shedd that it would not be wise for 
 his soldiers to be in the American Hospital, 
 and a plan was made for a separate hospital 
 to be outfitted near the city for the soldiers, 
 and to be imder the superintendence of the 
 Mission medical staff." 
 
 A native woman once remarked, "\Vhen 
 Dr. Shedd speaks, every word comes to its 
 place so well that there is nothing left to be 
 said." 
 
 There was occasionally need of discipline 
 within our yards. There was no way of admin- 
 istering punishment to offenders officially, for 
 no one had money to pay fines and they could 
 not be turned over to others no matter what 
 they did. A young man came to Dr. Shedd 
 complaining that another youth had stolen his 
 
THE ADVOCATE OF THE CAPTIVES 155 
 
 shoes and was wearing them. The two 
 men were ordered to come to Dr. Shedd in- 
 formally in the yard for an investigation. 
 The defendant denied the charge. Dr. Shedd 
 asked the plaintiff where he had bought his 
 shoes. *'In Chicago, from such and such a 
 firm," he rephed. Then of the defendant, 
 "^^Tiere did you get yours?" "From a Rus- 
 sian soldier who bought them in Russia," he 
 answered. He was ordered to remove his 
 shoes; the trademark bore the name of a 
 Chicago firm. The shoes were returned to 
 their owner, and swift punishment was meted 
 out to the thief, such as sent him slinking away, 
 w^hile the large and appreciative crowd of 
 spectators marveled at the wisdom of the 
 sahib, 
 
 "We were not even as well off as castaways 
 on a desert island," ^vrote Dr. Shedd, "for 
 we had no assurance that the storm might not 
 overwhelm the premises in which we lived. 
 To change the figure, we had to steer our 
 ship through unnumbered perils, some as hid- 
 den as the slinking submarine. Securing 
 safety was not a problem of force but of diplo- 
 macy. We could to a limited extent urge our 
 rights as foreigners, but we had no official 
 status and excepting when it suited their pur- 
 
156 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 pose, the Turks refused to recognize us as 
 having the quasi-official position given us by 
 the Persians. This came to a direct issue on 
 the question of the use of the American flag. 
 
 "The Turkish officials made the demand first 
 of the Persian Governor and then directly 
 of me that all American flags be taken down, 
 alleging that their use caused a feeling of inse- 
 curity and that we had no official right to use 
 them. The Persian Governor maintained that 
 we should keep the flag over our own premises 
 and this was finally agreed to by all. We were 
 able to keep the matter dragging along and 
 not one of a score of American flags was taken 
 down until security of life was restored by the 
 Russians. Our street was dominated by the 
 Stars and Stripes, and the sight was like a 
 Fourth of July and a Lucknow siege. The 
 flag was never so beautiful as during these 
 months of peril, and I believe it was perform- 
 ing its true mission here as much as on the bat- 
 tlefields of the Republic. We claimed and 
 maintained an unofficial but very valuable rep- 
 resentative capacity for the whole Christian 
 community and made use of every personal in- 
 fluence and every appeal to humanity and 
 prudence." 
 
 The flags in evidence were symbolic of the 
 
THE ADVOCATE OF THE CAPTIVES 157 
 
 anomalous situation. There were the Lion and 
 the Sun representing nominal Persian author- 
 ity, the Star and the Crescent representing 
 Turkish military authority, the German flag 
 of a few unofficial Germans, and the Green 
 flag of the Holy War of Islam, which added 
 the terror of fanatical and religious hatred to 
 the horrors of most unholy and diabolical war- 
 fare. And there was our own beloved Stars 
 and Stripes representing all that was highest 
 and best in Christian civilization, affording 
 protection and shelter to the helpless, lending 
 hope to the desperate, and giving assurance of 
 liberty to the captive. 
 
CHAPTER IX: IN THE DEN 
 OF LIONS 
 
 The Turks gave assurances of security to 
 life and property within our premises, but 
 only eternal vigilance with tact, diplomacy, 
 resourcefulness and patience, combined with 
 the wisdom of the serpent and understanding 
 of those with whom they had to deal, enabled 
 the missionaries to maintain that position. 
 
 In spite of the weakness of the acting Per- 
 sian authorities, Dr. Shedd believed from the 
 first that the proper course was to work 
 through them in every possible way. Conse- 
 quently every effort was made to keep in con- 
 stant touch with them and with the principal 
 Mohammedans of the city. Literally hun- 
 dreds of calls were made to secure this result 
 during the months that followed. For practi- 
 cally everything it was essential to have the 
 cooperation of the Persians, for he had to 
 appeal for everything and nothing could be 
 had without asking. Said Dr. Shedd, "A very 
 real and most efficient help given unostentati- 
 ously was the Governor's refusal to hear law- 
 
 158 
 
IN THE DEN OF LIONS 159 
 
 suits against Christians. We feared a great 
 deal of trouble from such complaints based on 
 real or false grievances. There was practically 
 none. The Governor also helped in prevent- 
 ing or moderating demands made by the 
 Turks. The Oriental ability to procrastinate 
 never did better service than in his hands." 
 
 Dr. Packard was in a position to make the 
 strongest appeal to the Kurds and was very 
 successful, but for half the time he was down 
 with typhus and the responsibihty fell on Dr. 
 Shedd. Rarely has a missionary, or any for- 
 eigner, been placed in a position demanding 
 such constant and intimate dealings with Mo- 
 hammedans so diverse in race and rank. 
 
 Often in order to talk confidentially, he was 
 taken into the andurun or family apartments. 
 He would sit on one side of the hursi and his 
 host on the other, with feet under the quilt that 
 covered the frame of the brazier of charcoal 
 while they sipped the tea or coffee. Here they 
 could talk more freely and speak the truth 
 more frankly than in the public receiving room. 
 Persian officials seldom have private offices 
 and the only way to transact private business 
 is to get close up to the official and whisper 
 in his ear, which method is not without its em- 
 barrassments. 
 
160 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 "The people who came to see me were more 
 varied than those I went to see," said Dr. 
 Shedd. "They included the higher ranks but 
 among them were more of the poorer Moham- 
 medans. Some were spies or fawning hypo- 
 crites, but many Moslems were sincerely desir- 
 ous of helping. In Persia, tea or coffee is the 
 adjunct to business or diplomacy and one or 
 the other is served to all visitors. The incon- 
 gruity of punctilious ceremony with the 
 wretchedness around us was trying. Some 
 who came to me wanted help in government 
 matters. My hands were too full and affairs 
 too uncertain to listen to such, unless the safety 
 of Christians was involved. Others had infor- 
 mation from the outside world which had to be 
 whispered in my ear. To separate truth from 
 fancy or dehberate falsehood was not easy." 
 
 From the first the Turks made both public 
 and private promises to the Christians that 
 they might secure safety by taking out and 
 paying cash for certificates sealed by both 
 Turkish and Persian officials and many did 
 this. The Christians were notified that all 
 arms must be surrendered and in our yards we 
 collected a motley lot of rifles, pistols and dag- 
 gers and turned them over to the Turks. 
 
 Dr. Shedd found the Turks ugly to deal 
 
IN THE DEN OF LIONS 161 
 
 with and there were many trying questions. 
 Their first method of blackmail was the con- 
 fiscation of the shops of Christians in the 
 bazaar with their stores of wheat, raisins, etc. 
 It was evident that this was only a beginning 
 and that houses would follow the shops. An 
 arrangement was made that by the payment 
 of money the Turks should give a guarantee 
 for the safety of shops belonging to Persian 
 Christian subjects who had not fled with the 
 Russians. The arrangement was made 
 through the Persian Government with prom- 
 ises that there should be no further acts of 
 confiscation, but the business was the source of 
 much worry and trouble and the Turks kept 
 faith grudgingly and in some instances broke 
 it. Another method of blackmail was the 
 arrest of men of means whom they held for 
 ransom. 
 
 Dr. Shedd said of his dealings with the 
 Turks: "The Turkish officials are less cere- 
 monious than the Persians and usually less 
 affable. The most important Turk I met, 
 when we passed out after paying our respects, 
 said to another caller, 'These people are our 
 enemies, nicht wahr?^ He spoke German. 
 My constant companion till fever laid him low 
 was Dr. Isaac Daniel, a Syrian, better known 
 
162 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 by the title given him by the Persians of Loh- 
 man. He had a wide acquaintance among 
 Mohammedans and was most devoted and in- 
 defatigable. He died later of pneumonia. 
 The word that was the burden of our plea was 
 amniat, security, and I would argue and Lok- 
 man would storm and weep. We appealed to 
 village owners to help their subjects, to men 
 of wealth for money or wheat to feed the starv- 
 ing, to mullahs in the name of religion and 
 humanity, and to others on the ground that 
 'every day has its morrow,' and hence a reck- 
 oning might come. We worked for the release 
 of captive girls and for men who were held by 
 the Turks for ransom. We had to be appre- 
 ciative for favors, real or pretended, and at 
 times it was necessary to be outspoken and 
 bold. 
 
 "Many matters under consideration were 
 revolting; for example, it was not easy 
 patiently to discuss with official representatives 
 of a government the payment of money to save 
 an innocent man from hanging. The outstand- 
 ing case of this sort was the Bishop, Mar Elia. 
 He was a native of Urumia, a Syrian, and a 
 Bishop in the Russian Orthodox Church, 
 After various alarms and payment of bribes, 
 he was seized by Turkish soldiers on the roof 
 
IN THE DEN OF LIONS 163 
 
 of our church, where he was hiding, unknown 
 to us. Ten thousand tomans were demanded 
 for his ransom. I immediately appealed to 
 the Persian Governor for his release. A great 
 assemblage of the Persians of the city, mul- 
 lahs, merchants and officials, went to the 
 Turks in Oriental style, saying he had been 
 a friend of Moslems and was not guilty of 
 political intrigues, but they were unmercifully 
 snubbed by the Turks. After weeks of wait- 
 ing and negotiating, he was ransomed for five 
 thousand tomans. The Turkish Consul urged 
 me for 'humanity's sake' to rescue him from 
 them, apparently unconscious of the humor of 
 the situation." 
 
 Some time after this Dr. Lokman, Dr. 
 Shedd's companion in his calls, was seized 
 while attending a patient. That evening word 
 came from the Turks that all unransomed pris- 
 oners would be shot at midnight. It seemed 
 incredible, but the Turks had proved them- 
 selves capable of any atrocity. Every effort 
 was made to arrange the ransoms of each at 
 the lowest possible figure. Dr. Lokman was 
 in special danger. There was need of haste, 
 and go-betweens "cut the price" for him at a 
 thousand tomans. Turkish gold must be 
 found. Men were sent through the yards to 
 
164 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 find "brides" or young married women who 
 might have some of these gold liras, each worth 
 about five dollars, left from their wedding 
 dowry and frequently worn in necklaces. 
 They began to bring them in, first one by 
 one, then in larger quantities, for they would 
 buy the life of one of the influential physicians 
 of their people, and no one held back the price. 
 A message came that the Persian Governor 
 had been ordered by the Turks to send eight 
 men to the firing squad in case the ransom was 
 not ready. No time could be lost. Friends 
 joined in prayer groups while the money was 
 counted. Eight hundred tomans were ready, 
 and not daring to wait longer, two hundred 
 in silver were taken from our safe and sent in 
 haste, a man's ransom, and a much higher val- 
 uation than the Turk usually places upon the 
 life of a Christian. There was another hour 
 of anxious waiting for friends and for the 
 wife who sat trembling and fearing for the 
 worst, then Dr. Lokman arrived at the Mis- 
 sion. His first thought was for those still in 
 jeopardy. There were prayers of thanksgiv- 
 ing and consecration and Dr. Lokman, as one 
 raised from the dead, with his wife, returned 
 to their home and the waiting children. The 
 
IN THE DEN OF LIONS 165 
 
 ransom price was repaid to the donors soon 
 after by Dr. Lokman. 
 
 Said Dr. Shedd, telling of the rescue of 
 women and girls: "Over two hundred girls and 
 women were taken in order forcibly to convert 
 them to Islam and marry them to Moslems. 
 We secured the return of more than sixty be- 
 sides those brought to us voluntarily. Some 
 we paid money for, the highest price being 
 thirty dollars. The Moslem law, as accepted 
 in Persia, provides that in all cases of alleged 
 conversion to Islam, there should be an oppor- 
 tunity for delay before the decision, and for 
 public examination. We were unable to secure 
 the delay, but we were able through the Per- 
 sian Governor, to have girls brought in for 
 examination and in a number of cases, to 
 secure their freedom. The Governor was very 
 fair in his conduct of these cases, though we 
 had to fee his subordinates pretty freely in 
 order to get their cooperation. The examina- 
 tion was usually before those who happened to 
 be present at the Governor's and it was an 
 ordeal for the girl. I found it very important 
 to have the girls' relatives see them first in 
 private in order to assure them that their 
 friends were really living and that there was 
 
166 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 safety. They had usually been told that all 
 or nearly all their friends had been killed. In 
 theory, a decision to accept Islam is irrevocable. 
 Once when both girls involved were under 
 fourteen, my protest at the irrevocable deci- 
 sion, involving separation from kindred and 
 ancestral faith, being required of such children, 
 was met by the stern reply from a Kurdish 
 mirza, who, hawklike, was watching the pro- 
 ceedings, that in Mohammedan law, the age of 
 consent is nine years. 
 
 "The case I fought hardest was one in which 
 two villagers, enlisted as Turkish soldiers, had 
 each taken a girl. Only b}^ going to the village 
 where one was and facing the Kurds and Mos- 
 lems, were we able to get the girls at all. The 
 poor girls were taken twice to the Turkish 
 Consulate, kept over night at a mullalis and 
 when the 'civilized' Turkish Consul was satis- 
 fied that they were too frightened to speak out, 
 they were produced for examination. I urged 
 in vain that an opportunity be given relatives 
 to talk with the girls alone. After a stiff dis- 
 cussion on my part with the secretary sent by 
 the Consul, the girls were formally asked for 
 a decision. One of them I took home and I 
 never felt so like a victor in a hard won fight. 
 Needless to say, the Consul never fulfilled his 
 
IN THE BEN OF LIONS 167 
 
 promise to have the soldier punished if the girl 
 stated she had been taken by force. 
 
 "The most dramatic case was the first one 
 at the Governor's. The town was full of 
 Kurds and I made my way through masses 
 of armed horsemen dressed in picturesque, 
 bright-colored Kurdish clothes. Their rifles, 
 of which they were very proud, and their cart- 
 ridge belts, were on display, the latter strung 
 across their chests. When I entered the Gov- 
 ernor's room, it was full of Mangur Kurdish 
 chiefs. I was given a seat above most of them, 
 and as I sat there and heard and watched these 
 men, talking and drinking tea with them my- 
 self, it seemed like a strange dream. The 
 Mangur Kurds are a curiosity anyhow, many 
 of them looking like savage, old-time Teutons. 
 Their chief, Bayiz Pasha, was a big man, fair 
 and blue-eyed. Possibly they are relics of some 
 stranded Teutonic tribe, or of captives taken 
 in the Crusades. They had come expecting to 
 kill all the Christians and I knew it. The talk 
 as we sat there was of how they were going 
 to Tiflis to take the Caucasus. 
 
 "After a while they left, and the girl was 
 brought in with the Moslem who had taken her 
 off and forced on her a marriage. "When she 
 told how she had been taken and kept by 
 
168 THE MEASURE OF A ]MAX 
 
 force, though she hardly dared to tell the truth, 
 even with nie there, the Governor told her she 
 was free, and ordered the man to he tied up 
 and bastinadoed. He was a neighbor and she 
 had fled to his house for refuge. As we went 
 out of the yard, the girl was tremblingly prais- 
 ing God, scarcely believing that she was free. 
 The man was howling with pain under the 
 blows on the soles of his feet as he lay on his 
 back. The Persians and Kurds stood around 
 staring in amazement. It was a precedent of 
 great value and a courageous act by a cautious 
 but himiane ^Moslem Governor. It was also 
 an act of Providence, and when I went home 
 that night and told the story, was it any won- 
 der that I added that I had been with Daniel 
 in the den of lions?" 
 
 Many Christians were scattered in ^loslem 
 villages and it fell chiefly to Dr. Packard and 
 JNIr. Allen to plan for their safety and to rescue 
 those in danger, visiting the villages when no 
 native Christian dared move about. !Mr. Allen 
 with a small guard would be gone several days 
 at a time, hunting up lost girls, recovering 
 property, and listing casualties. The girls 
 were found in all sorts of places, dressed in 
 Moslem clothes and too frightened to declare 
 they were not ^loslems. Sometimes by bluff. 
 
IX THE DEX OF LIOXS 169 
 
 sometimes by daring, and a few times by the 
 help of the Turkish guard who rode with him, 
 he succeeded in taking the girls back to the 
 city with him. We were using every pressure 
 to induce the people to leave our crow^ded 
 yards and go back to the villages to live. 
 Guards were placed in each village. Then 
 some fresh atrocity would occur which would 
 send them flying back to the missionaries in 
 terror, and it was Mr. Allen's work to encour- 
 age them to hold on and brave the dangers of 
 the village rather than risk the epidemics in the 
 city. But always their cry was, "Let us die 
 by the hand of God, and not by our enemies." 
 Even within our yards the fear of the Turks 
 or the Persians w- as always upon them. A very 
 small excitement would start a panic, all 
 would rush toward the houses of the mission- 
 aries, while sobs and wails filled the air and, 
 as they said, their "hearts burst." We learned 
 to know the sound of a great multitude, frantic 
 with fear, and as we never knew what atrocity 
 the "unspeakable Turk" might be devising, it 
 usually set our own hearts to thumping as we 
 tried to quiet the people. 
 
 In February Raghib Bey, former Turkish 
 Consul, returned to Urumia full of smooth 
 promises, and issued a proclamation assuring 
 
170 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 protection to everybody. A few days later 
 fifty men who had been taken from the French 
 Mission were shot two miles from the city by 
 order of the Turks. This was shortly followed 
 by the massacre at Gulpashan, a Christian 
 town six miles from the city, which was under 
 guard of Turkish soldiers. A band of Turks 
 and Persians went there at night, took fifty 
 men from their homes and shot them in the 
 graveyard. They then plundered the town and 
 systematically violated every woman and girl 
 who did not succeed in making her escape. A 
 little later seventy Christians who had been 
 used by the Turks for carrying loads were 
 taken into a mountain valley and shot in cold 
 blood. 
 
 The Syrians have always been an inoffen- 
 sive people, and their cruel treatment at the 
 hands of Turks and Persians is inexplicable. 
 The story is told that once there were two 
 Kurdish chiefs who disputed as to which of 
 them was the rightful owner of a certain 
 Syrian village. Both had great respect for 
 the pastor of that village and agreed to leave 
 to him to decide which of them he and his 
 people would choose for their master. It was 
 a serious dilemma for the pastor, for which- 
 ever chief was not chosen would forever after- 
 
IN THE DEN OF LIONS 171 
 
 wards annoy and rob the village. The old man 
 pondered deeply, then replied, "Two oxen 
 were once quarreling over a bundle of hay. 
 How could the hay choose to which it 
 belonged? Its part was only to be eaten." 
 And so it seemed was the fate of these people. 
 
 It was Dr. Shedd who during all those aw- 
 ful times, had to face the Turks as intercessor 
 for the people, with pleas and protests. "I 
 saw the Turk as little as possible, doing busi- 
 ness through the Persian authorities," he wrote, 
 "but the day after the Gulpashan affair, I 
 called on Raghib Bey. He suavely asked what 
 word I had. I said, bluntly as I could, that 
 the word was that his soldiers were massa- 
 cring innocent people, outraging women, and 
 robbing villages. He had not much to say, 
 but promised to stop such affairs. It was all 
 hard work against fearful odds and with small 
 means at our disposal, except the help of Al- 
 mighty God. 
 
 "Through all these months, our faith was 
 sorely tried, and often it seemed as if we had 
 reached the limit of our resources, and that the 
 end might be a great catastrophe. Ileal 
 friends were few and weak. Those who had 
 power had little inclination to help. We cared 
 for the Turkish sick without charge and we 
 
172 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 were careful to preserve neutrality in every 
 way; but the treatment we received from the 
 Turks was often discourteous and overbearing, 
 and any help rendered by them was grudgingly 
 given. 
 
 "The Turks were suave and usually talked 
 the loftiest morality. Two things became 
 fixed convictions. One is that the highest 
 motives, as a rule, are the most effective to use 
 in appeal. The other is that straightforward 
 sincerity is the most effective weapon in deal- 
 ing with crafty Orientals. The highest 
 motives are those of humanity and of what the 
 Apostle James calls, 'pure religion and un- 
 defiled.' Straightforward disinterestedness 
 wins confidence and disarms opposition, while 
 the trickster does not know how to parry it as 
 he does the wiles and lies he deals in himself. 
 
 "During these months, the one institution in 
 the community that held its ground, was the 
 Protestant Mission. More than this, the mis- 
 sionaries were able to deal with some success 
 with every one of the many diverse parties that 
 had to be met. There was no one of any in- 
 fluence in the community whom we did not 
 meet on such terms as to be able to speak for 
 the oppressed. This would have been true of 
 absolutely no one else in the community. The 
 
IN THE DEN OF LIONS 173 
 
 unifying and mediating force there was the 
 Mission. The reason lies in the character of 
 the work as expressing the Spirit of Christ, 
 far more than in the person of any or all the 
 missionaries.'* 
 
CHAPTER X: ABIDING IN THE 
 SHADOWS 
 
 With the exception of the city people, the 
 refugees who crowded our compounds, came 
 empty-handed and as we heard the command, 
 "Give ye them to eat," hke the disciples of old, 
 we replied, "WTience, Lord, should we have so 
 much bread as to fill so great a multitude?" 
 If we had reahzed then that the feeding would 
 continue many months, while we were cut off 
 from the outside world and the source of our 
 money supply, we would have declared it im- 
 possible. But as the days went by with their 
 increasing demands, the loaves were multiplied. 
 With nothing but borrowed funds, no word 
 from America, the city drained of cash by the 
 Turks, we felt that we could give but one loaf 
 of about ten and a half ounces to each needy 
 person daily. Many were able to supplement 
 it with something else and so got along. For- 
 tunately the crops had been abundant and 
 wheat was cheap. While there were few who 
 died directly from starvation, hundreds, weak- 
 ened by insufficient and improper food, were 
 
 174 
 
ABIDING IN THE SHADOWS 175 
 
 unable to resist disease, and were soon carried 
 to the terrible trenches in Mart Maryam's ( St. 
 Mary's) graveyard. 
 
 After the people were scattered into the ad- 
 jacent sections, we made distribution to more 
 than two hundred yards and buildings outside 
 our premises. The largest number that we 
 fed at any one time was about fifteen thousand. 
 During the month of March the average 
 amount of bread distributed daily was over six 
 tons and all was brought in on the backs of 
 hammcds or porters. Many refugees were 
 able to feed themselves during the whole time 
 and others had small sums of money which they 
 used as long as it lasted. There was a demand 
 for tea and a few staples, and since the refugees 
 could not leave our yards to make purchases, 
 licenses were sold to a few men permitting them 
 to sell tea and some necessities in the yards. 
 We had a tea stand and used the proceeds of 
 sales and licenses for giving tea, eggs and milk 
 to the sick. The first three months, over a 
 thousand dollars was cleared in this way and 
 five or six hundred sick people benefited by it 
 for several weeks. Later the refugees had less 
 money to spend. We tried to induce the Mos- 
 lem village masters to provide for their tenants 
 whom we were feeding, but little came of it. 
 
176 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 Small contributions were made by individual 
 Moslems. 
 
 The problem of finances devolved upon the 
 treasurer, Mr. Muller, who never relaxed his 
 efficient control and management, no matter 
 what the distractions. The first few days 
 after the Russian evacuation, the Christians 
 deposited with him for safe-keeping about 
 twenty thousand dollars. This was received 
 on condition that we be allowed to use it in 
 emergency, and repay after banking was re- 
 sumed. 
 
 The Armenian agent of the English bank, 
 before leaving with the Russians, called upon 
 Dr. Shedd and asked him to receive ten thou- 
 sand tomans in silver. It was accepted by the 
 treasurer on condition that he use it as part of 
 the regular funds of the treasury. The Turks 
 later demanded it as contraband of war. 
 There were many conferences and great anxi- 
 ety, for by that time the loss of that money 
 would have left our treasury empty, but the 
 missionaries finally refused to give it up, and 
 the Turks never quite made up their minds to 
 take it by force. 
 
 Our largest and most constant expense was 
 for bread. There were presents for the rescue 
 of girls and women, for guards for all our 
 
ABIDING IN THE SHADOWS 177 
 
 premises, government and legal expenses, big 
 war levies, blackmail, and ransoms demanded 
 by the Turks. Money was necessary for the 
 missionaries and helpers for home expenses. 
 There were scavengers, hundreds of sick, and 
 the burial of three thousand. The money had 
 to be found, and we borrowed to an extent 
 that no one else could possibly have done, 
 though the only security we could offer was 
 personal character and the standing of the Mis- 
 sion in the community. 
 
 With such meager feeding, together with 
 crowded and unsanitary conditions, it was in- 
 evitable that pestilence and death should fol- 
 low. There were practically no bathing or 
 washing facilities, no underground drainage or 
 sewerage. A large proportion of the refugees 
 were crude and ignorant, as many as two thou- 
 sand of them mountaineers clothed in rags and 
 vermin. Persians have the convenient theory 
 that running water quickly purifies itself, so 
 the same streams are used for drinking and 
 for bathing and washing clothes. Ordinarily, 
 the sewage is drained into wells which are peri- 
 odically emptied, the contents dried in the sun, 
 mixed with earth, carried off on donkeys, and 
 used as fertilizer. We often had difficulty in 
 getting donkeys for this work and frequently 
 
178 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 appeals had to be made to the Governor. In 
 some of our buildings it was not a question of 
 sweeping but of shoveling out the mud and dirt 
 carried in on the feet of the hundreds passing 
 through. 
 
 Rev. E. W. McDowell was in charge of san- 
 itation. He established a scavenger system, 
 and patrolled all the streams to prevent con- 
 tamination, for the greater part of the people 
 were compelled to drink from these streams. 
 Connected with sanitation was the burial of 
 the dead. Twice a day the dead were collected 
 from the various yards and buildings and 
 brought to the room used as a morgue at the 
 gate. From there they were taken, usually 
 without shroud or coffin, to the trenches in the 
 cemetery. The number of the dead rose as 
 high as thirty-five and even more in a day. 
 One morning fifteen children and eight adults 
 were taken from the crowded church, the toll 
 for one night. During the siege, Dr. McDow- 
 ell attended to the burial of three thousand. 
 
 Dr. Shedd once remarked that it would have 
 been a sad commentary on us as missionaries 
 if we had been so protected as to escape a share 
 in the sickness, suffering and death that came 
 to the people whom we served. There were 
 eighteen adults and nine children in our station 
 
ABIDING IN THE SHADOWS 179 
 
 at the beginning of the siege, besides three 
 Americans at Christ's Home for Children. 
 Fourteen of the adults and two of the children 
 had either typhoid or typhus and three died. 
 We dwelt so long in the valley of death with 
 the sick, the hungry, the dying, the never ceas- 
 ing wail, hands outstretched for what we could 
 not give, and our own number coming down 
 one after the other, that each went about his 
 work knowing that he might be the next. Yet 
 we managed to keep fairly cheerful and fre- 
 quently found occasions for laughing. 
 
 There was a time in the hospital where were 
 several hundred patients, when the physician 
 in charge, his chief assistant-physician, who 
 died, the matron, druggist, steward, the 
 nurses, cooks and washer -women were all sick 
 together, and every missionary who went to the 
 hospital to help came down in turn. 
 
 Mademoiselle Perrochet, a young Swiss girl 
 who four months before had come to Urumia 
 as teacher for the missionary children, died 
 February 25. On April 16 Mrs. Mary Coe 
 McDowell died. She came to Persia in 1887 
 and spent most of her missionary years in Tur- 
 key at Mosul, Van, and in the mountain dis- 
 tricts, and had learned to "endure hardships 
 as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." In her 
 
180 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 quiet efficient way she had faithfully served 
 the sufTering about her, particularly the poor 
 mountain women, whom she considered her spe- 
 cial responsibility. 
 
 All through the winter the people had not 
 ceased to pray that Dr. Shedd might be kept 
 in health. "O Lord, spare that man, we can- 
 not do without him," was the prayer of many 
 hearts. Upon him more than upon any other 
 depended the fate of the imprisoned thousands. 
 He could not be in his own home at the College, 
 so he was provided for in the Allen home. The 
 excellent care and the prayers worked together 
 for good, and Dr. Shedd was one of the five 
 missionaries who escaped the fever. 
 
 When Mrs. Shedd was taken ill, she was 
 brought to the Muller home in the city, as the 
 situation was too critical for Dr. Shedd to go 
 to the College. Writing of her last days he 
 said: 
 
 "I was able to come in and out a great many 
 times and I slept in the house. This was a 
 great relief to me and I am sure a comfort to 
 Louise. I could not let go of things. With 
 thousands dependent on us, we were in too 
 perilous a situation to relax the watch, and yet 
 to have been separated those days would have 
 
ABIDING IN THE SHADOWS 181 
 
 been agony. Around us were literally hun- 
 dreds of sick and a province in anarchy. 
 
 "On Saturday the Turks had evacuated and 
 the city and country were in a turmoil. I had 
 to attend an assembly at the Governor's to 
 plan for the safety of the people as best I could. 
 On Monday morning it was evident that not 
 many hours remained. I asked to have the 
 children brought, and they reached the yard 
 just as Louise breathed the last quiet breath 
 at ten o'clock. [May IT, 1915.] 
 
 "The expressions of sympathy have been 
 very many, and from all sorts of people, on the 
 street and in the Governor's dewankhana, by 
 callers and the missionary friends. 
 
 "There have been the anarchy, the killing 
 and robbing, the anxious times and very real 
 perils, the months of waiting, the terrible epi- 
 demics, the sad crowds of people, the long 
 bread line every day, and the assurance in it 
 all of God's care and help. 
 
 "We are still living under the Flag and we 
 know as never before how beautiful the Flag is. 
 Ours are tattered and torn like battle flags and 
 I can not but believe that we have been fighting 
 the battle for the best things the Flag stands 
 for, and that we have the highest right to keep 
 
182 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 it flying, even if the Turks were anxious to 
 get it down. 
 
 "What can one say at such a time?" he wrote 
 a little later. "The easiest thing for me to do 
 is just to go straight ahead with work. There 
 is enough to do. Yesterday I made nine calls : 
 two on the Governor, two on the commander 
 of the small Russian force, and the rest on 
 various others. I had to see a rascal has- 
 tinadoed on my complaint for molesting Sy- 
 rians, had to advise the two Mujtahids through 
 their friends, as to whether they can wisely 
 stay here; had letters from the Sulduz khans 
 wanting protection when the Russians come; 
 had at least twenty other cases to advise and 
 decide. To-day is Sunday and I want to get 
 off with half a day in the city, but no one can 
 tell how it will come out. Two things are clear 
 in my hfe, that my work is in Persia and that 
 I must personally be to my children all that I 
 can. I want to live long enough to do my 
 part. If this winter and spring have taught 
 anything, it is that we cannot be sure of fin- 
 ishing anything here. 
 
 "This is a poor account of some very anx- 
 ious and confused weeks. There were reports 
 and hopes, fugitives, fears of massacre at the 
 last moment, difficult and important decisions 
 
ABIDING IN THE SHADOWS 183 
 
 to be made for both Moslems and Christians. 
 It was hard not to fail in the work that seemed 
 to be mine to do, but I think that I did not 
 fail and I am sm*e that Louise would have had 
 me do it." 
 
 Mrs. Packard, who lived close to Louise 
 Shedd, says of her : 
 
 "She was always so dependable, so ready 
 to help by a merry joke, by suggesting a book 
 to read, by common-sense advice, in a hundred 
 different ways by 'just being there.' The sick- 
 ness of Mademoiselle Perrochet and her death 
 on February 25, caused much sorrow to us all. 
 I said to Louise that it made me think of the 
 Psalmist's words, 'All thy waves and thy bil- 
 lows have gone over me.' Louise got her Bible 
 and looking up the verse said, 'Let's read what 
 comes after that, "Yet Jehovah will command 
 His loving kindness in the daytime and in the 
 night His song shall be with me." ' 
 
 "The day we buried Mrs. McDowell in the 
 garden, Louise said to me, 'I wonder if there 
 will be another grave here.' Then she added 
 quickly, *But we mustn't think such things or 
 we'll get to pitying ourselves, and that's fatal.' 
 She went straight on with a brave, glad face, 
 whatever happened to overthrow her. She 
 was so steadfast herself always, so loyal to the 
 
184. THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 work and to the Master of the work, the con- 
 sideration of self always came second." 
 
 Several months after they were past, Dr. 
 Shedd summed up the experiences of those 
 days: "How the threads of individual sorrow 
 are woven into the web of common woe was 
 vividly seen in the funerals. Some of us could 
 not leave our posts to be present when Made- 
 moiselle Perrochet's body was laid away. 
 After all was ready for Mrs. McDowell's 
 burial, we had to wait a day because the streets 
 were full of Hahl Bey's soldiers. When the 
 time came to lay the body of Mrs. Shedd be- 
 side the others, neither of the two men beside 
 myself who were not too weak, dared to leave 
 the city yards, and Mr. Neesan read the burial 
 service. All three and the little baby who 
 came to the Muller home only to leave it, were 
 buried in the garden at the College, till it should 
 become safe to move them to the cemetery on 
 Mount Seir. 
 
 "The external perils and guardianship oi 
 these helpless people required an intensity and 
 concentration of mind and service, that were 
 in themselves our salvation. The sense of our 
 own weakness and the inadequacy of all the 
 means at our disposal had the double effect of 
 making us quick to use every possible means 
 
ABIDING IN THE SHADOWS 185 
 
 and of throwing us back into the arms of the 
 Heavenly Father. Night after night as I re- 
 tired, and so came to the only time there was 
 quietly to review the situation, I would go to 
 rest with the overwhelming feeling of the in- 
 sufficiency of all the means that we could use 
 and the upholding sense of faith. We were 
 never alone. The Great Companion was al- 
 ways present. 
 
 "The sense of a great work was a sustaining 
 power, and with it the sense of accomplishment. 
 Truly the great tribulation of our day is as- 
 suring many of what its tragedies seem to ques- 
 tion, the love of the Father, and is giving to 
 many a new realization of the possibilities of 
 life. Our life was in accidents abnormal, but 
 in essential elements it was fundamentally nor- 
 mal. 
 
 "The nucleus of the wrecked Christian com- 
 munity was the Protestant missionary body, 
 and the personal and inner side of their lives 
 is the heart of the whole story. It was a ter- 
 rible ordeal and no one failed. . . . We never 
 emerged from the shadow of death. Dread 
 and darkness seemed never to depart. Re- 
 sponsibility and anxiety laid their heavy hands 
 on us day and night. To meet these we had 
 to summon courage and resolution, power and 
 
186 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 hope, good cheer and a sense of humor. The 
 whole armor of Christian manhood was re- 
 quired. The Great Companion who longed to 
 have His friends near at the time of the agony 
 of Gethsemane, who looked down from the 
 Cross on their faces, was with us, closer and 
 more real than ever before. 
 
 "One cannot describe the inner life. It can 
 best be revealed through the outward activities. 
 . . . Sectarianism could not survive the con- 
 ditions, and divisions were forgotten. The 
 conflict in which we were engaged called for 
 great things that belonged to our common 
 Christian heritage, and can be claimed exclu- 
 sively by none. The need of repentance, the 
 power of prayer, the forgiving spirit, depend- 
 ence on God's love, and the hope of eternal life 
 beyond the reach of earth's alarms were the 
 topics most often presented. On Sunday the 
 Communion table was spread for all who 
 would come, and hundreds came. 
 
 "In all that is said of service and patient 
 endurance, I would join with our Mission the 
 three Americans at Christ's Home for Chil- 
 dren, Miss Ena Bridges and Mr. and Mrs. 
 Herman Pflaumer, Mr. and Mrs. and Miss 
 Neesan of the Archbishop of Canterbury's 
 Mission and the members of the French Roman 
 
ABIDING IN THE SHADOWS 187 
 
 Catholic Mission. Monseigneur Sonntag, the 
 Apostolic Legate, is a man devoted to prayer. 
 He and his two associates were unwearied in 
 their labors. It was a pleasure to be associated 
 with them. All three had the fever and M. 
 Rainhault died a victim to his devoted care of 
 others and the sacrifice of his own comfort. 
 Seven priests of the French Mission and three 
 Protestant preachers were killed, some of these 
 in the attitude of prayer. Xor were they the 
 only martyrs; others died refusing to deny 
 their Lord. Several Nestorian and Russian 
 Orthodox priests were killed. Time would 
 fail to tell of those who died in the epidemics." 
 By spring a great many of the refugees were 
 scattering from our yards, though hundreds 
 still remained with us and there were thou- 
 sands camping about the city, and dependent 
 upon us for bread. There was the same need 
 of careful watching; there were frequent 
 alarms and cries for protection. We were sur- 
 prised April 11 by the arrival of a strong 
 and well-equipped Turkish force of fifteen to 
 twenty thousand men under Halil Bey, an 
 uncle of Enver Pasha. They were a division 
 .from Constantinople and were evidently in- 
 structed to treat Americans respectfully. 
 They advanced into S almas, where they had 
 
188 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 some heavy fighting with the Russians. As 
 they were always prepared to leave on short 
 notice, there was constant anxiety lest on leav- 
 ing they and the Kurds might indulge in a final 
 massacre of Christians. They left on May 15 
 and on May 24 the Russians came in. That 
 was a great day though we hardly dared believe 
 that the siege was ended. Dr. Shedd went out 
 to meet the Russians in a carriage furnished by 
 the Governor and accompanied by representa- 
 tives from the French and Russian Missions. 
 There were about a thousand Cossacks and 
 some Syrians and other irregulars. The Rus- 
 sian officers took great pains to show their 
 appreciation of the services rendered by our 
 M'ission. 
 
 For five months we had been "captives" in 
 that charnel house ; now the prison gates were 
 open and we were free and safe. In a few 
 days missionary friends from Tabriz came with 
 scores of Syrian men returning to their broken 
 families. There were no fireworks nor ring- 
 ing of bells. One doesn't rejoice with a great 
 noise on such occasions, but our hearts beat to 
 the measure of the Psalmist's music, "Yea, 
 though I abide in the Valley of the Shadow, 
 I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me." 
 
CHAPTER XI: SALVAGE 
 
 For nearly five months of the siege, commu- 
 nications with the outside world were practi- 
 cally cut off. Our isolation was especially 
 hard for Dr. Shedd, for he felt so keenly the 
 burden of responsibility for the safety of the 
 imprisoned community. A very few letters 
 got through, once or twice by help of the 
 Persian authorities and a time or two by secret 
 messengers. This was risky, but our condi- 
 tion was so desperate that risks had to be taken 
 for the sake of others as well as ourselves. 
 Two men with messages passed the guards by 
 wading a mile or two through the Lake. 
 
 During January, while Tabriz was occupied 
 by Turks and Kurds, their lines of communi- 
 cation were cut and our friends there were 
 themselves in danger. The wise measures 
 taken by our Consul, Mr. Gordon Paddock, 
 averted disaster. The missionaries there 
 moved into the central mission compound, 
 where they sheltered several hundred S\a4ans 
 and Armenians. All the adjoining yards were 
 filled with Armenians, who wished the protec- 
 
 189 
 
190 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 tion of the Mission and the Flag in case of 
 massacre. In addition to these, the mission- 
 aries extended protection to all the foreigners 
 remaining in the city; the French nuns with 
 their charges, the Belgian custom-house offi- 
 cial, two German ladies, Italians, Austrians, 
 Swiss, Russians, and some native subjects of 
 Great Britain. 
 
 As soon as they were able to get messages 
 through, the Consul and missionaries sent ap- 
 peals by telegraph, cable and post. The ref- 
 ugees from Urumia who had fled to Russia, 
 leaving their families behind, because that 
 course seemed to them and to us wisest at the 
 time, were frantic in their appeals. Rev. R. 
 M. Labaree of the Tabriz Station spent several 
 weeks in S almas in a vain effort to get to 
 Urumia. During the whole time the Consuls 
 at Tabriz and Tiflis, Ambassador Morganthau 
 at Constantinople, and our State Department 
 at Washington, did all they could to help us, 
 and their efforts were of the greatest value. 
 
 The correspondence of the Turkish Govern- 
 ment at Constantinople with our State De- 
 partment at Washington is characteristic of the 
 Turk. In January they stated that they had 
 not interfered with the Governments at Tabriz 
 or Urumia, that the conduct of the soldiers had 
 
SALVAGE 191 
 
 been good, and that the native population had 
 been in no way molested. As late as March 
 30, "The Turkish War Office states that no 
 act of violence has been committed in that re- 
 gion." Halil Bey and his officers, who com- 
 manded the division which came to Urumia in 
 April, were superior in education and character 
 to any who preceded them. But Halil Bey 
 delivered to the missionaries a telegram from 
 Ambassador Morganthau asking of our safety 
 and inquiring if we needed funds. The next 
 day an answer was given in Turkish for trans- 
 mission, mentioning the death of Mrs. McDow- 
 ell and the epidemics, giving the names of a 
 number of the missionaries who were ill and 
 stating our need of funds. The telegram sent 
 by Halil Bey stated that "the Americans at 
 Urumia are safe and well, and need no finan- 
 cial assistance." At the same time he sent this 
 telegram, he and his staff were discussing with 
 the missionaries the situation at Urumia with 
 reference to the epidemics, being quite fearful 
 for the health of his army. 
 
 The Turks for a while had occupied S almas 
 and were driven out by the Russians. Before 
 leaving, they ruthlessly mutilated and de- 
 stroyed the French Catholic Mission in the 
 town of Khosrawa. Jevdad Bey, commander 
 
192 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 of the Turkish forces there, had made the Mis- 
 sion his headquarters and was responsible for 
 the havoc wrought, though before the war he 
 had been a student in the French schools in 
 Beirut. It was he who at the time of their 
 withdrawal from Salmas, ordered and planned 
 the massacre in the town of Haftdewan, in 
 which eight hundred Christian men and boys 
 were tortured, and hacked to pieces with a 
 savage cruelty that could hardly be matched 
 even in Turkey. 
 
 A paragraph from the London "Times," 
 published during the war, is a fair character- 
 ization of the Turk: "The Turk as a ruler is a 
 merciless oppressor ; as a negotiator a cunning 
 Byzantine; as a soldier a tough fighter; as a 
 victor a remorseless bully; but when he feels 
 that he has met his match, he is a pathetic and 
 distressed gentleman, and so contrives that 
 the Turk has never been in the wrong ; no one 
 has ever convicted the Turk of a mean or cruel 
 act." 
 
 The Turk in Urumia was always consist- 
 ently a Turk. The treatment by Persians of 
 their Christian neighbors who had been Per- 
 sian subjects for many centuries is more diffi- 
 cult to understand. Said Dr. Shedd on this 
 subject: 
 
SALVAGE 193 
 
 "It was a strangely complex and contradic- 
 tory situation. ... I had not merely formal, 
 but important and often delicate, dealings with 
 hundreds of people, involving a large variety 
 of questions and all sorts of relationships, of 
 opposition and friendship, distrust and confi- 
 dence, in which men risked their own interests 
 and I risked mine and those of others. The 
 men with whom I had to deal were of all classes, 
 Persians, Kurds, and Turks, officials, mer- 
 chants, military officers, religious leaders and 
 peasants. These dealings involved constantly 
 the estimate of character, for they were largely 
 of a kind in which the individual and personal 
 factor was of paramount importance. For 
 many of these men I have a real affection and 
 genuine esteem, while for others I can confess 
 only a loathing. ... I have too many Mos- 
 lem friends and my obligations to them are 
 too great for me to bring thoughtless accusa- 
 tions against them or against what they reckon 
 sacred. On the other hand, I have had to deal 
 with too many crimes and outrages and I know 
 too well the wrongs inflicted on the Christians 
 to explain away or palliate the evil. . . . 
 
 "The underlying causes of the destruction 
 were complex, but they may be indicated with 
 considerable confidence. Probably the two 
 
194 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 causesrthat operated most widely were jealousy 
 at the prosperity of the Christians and resent- 
 ment at what was felt to be their self-assert- 
 iveness. The roots of both of these are re- 
 ligious. Christianity under any handicaps is 
 economically superior to Islam, largely because 
 of the stability it gives to the marriage relation. 
 Consequently, it has been universally true that 
 'ihe Christian villages have been conspicuous 
 for their better buildings, larger wealth, 
 greater comfort and profusion of household 
 goods. The changes of the past two genera- 
 tions have rapidly increased this discrepancy, 
 because the Christians have been more ready 
 to profit by closer relations with the West. 
 Emigration to America and consequently the 
 flow of money from America hastened the 
 change. In education and morality the Chris- 
 tians have been raised to a higher level by mis- 
 sionary work and this has reacted on social 
 conditions. 
 
 "Jealous resentment at the prosperity of 
 Christians, has been sharpened by foolish acts 
 of the Christians who took advantage of Rus- 
 sian domination to assert themselves in ways 
 that were often exasperating and unjust. It 
 was felt by men who were otherwise well dis- 
 posed, for it is inbred and inherited. Islam 
 
SALVAGE 195 
 
 tolerates Christians, if they will keep their 
 place. That place is not one of equality. 
 
 "Back of the Moslems is the question of 
 Islam. How far was religion an element in 
 the situation and what light do we find on the 
 character and workings of Mohammedanism? 
 • . . Islam is responsible for the permanent 
 social conditions and the long history of the 
 past that led up to these massacres, which are 
 the latest of a long series, and may God grant 
 that they may in truth be the last. Has Islam 
 ever raised an effective protest, or even at- 
 tempted to protest against such things? In- 
 dividuals have done what they could through 
 all the long, dark history. The moral force to 
 which we appealed with a degree of success 
 was not religious in its sanctions, but humani- 
 tarian. There were maxims of religion and 
 certain religious impulses, but fundamental 
 elements in Islam were against us. I had a 
 long interview one day with a strict and ap- 
 parently sincere mullah of standing, in which 
 he stated at length the terms under which 
 Christians could be tolerated. The whole atti- 
 tude was that of a superior giving, as he 
 thought, generous terms to inferiors. There 
 was no generous spirit; the terms given in- 
 volved a status of different and inferior treat- 
 
196 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 ment of Christians. He might have made the 
 details harsher and been true to the spirit he 
 showed in the name of religion. Every Chris- 
 tian girl who was held captive was held by the 
 sanction of religion expressed in a written con- 
 tract of marriage with a Moslem. The fmida- 
 mental obstacles to our attempts to help were 
 the spirit of Islam and the unscrupulous de- 
 signs of the Turks. . . . 
 
 "Finally, there is the question of jihad j the 
 sacred war of Islam, both in its religious and 
 its military aspects. . . . One may fairly say 
 that by their own act of declaring jihad and 
 unfurling the gi^een flag of Islam, the Moslems 
 have taken away every reason that might be 
 urged to shift the responsibility for the out- 
 rages from their religion. . . . At most, jihad 
 can produce only a mob. We know now that 
 the tragedy we were witnessing was only a part 
 of a vaster tragedy, the greatest crime of all 
 the crimes of the war, the Armenian outrages 
 perpetrated by the Turkish Government." 
 
 Even after the Russians were again in con- 
 trol of affairs in Urumia, there was no repent- 
 ance on the part of the Persians. They were 
 fearful lest they receive the punishment due 
 their crimes, but showed no willingness to make 
 amends or to return the property of the Chris- 
 
SALVAGE 197 
 
 tians. Many Moslems were arrested by the 
 Russians, but no one was punished. The Rus- 
 sians were not secure enough in their position 
 to antagonize the Persians. 
 
 As the Cliristians returned to their empty 
 and ruined homes, efforts were made to have 
 the Persians return to them some of their stolen 
 cattle, but nothing could be accomplished. The 
 people carried disease with them to the vil- 
 lages, they were without food and for a while 
 we continued to feed them. The Consul tried 
 to shift this burden to the village owners, who 
 were ready to make promises but seldom ful- 
 filled them. In the city the suffering was not 
 ended. The sick were lying about our prem- 
 ises or anywhere they could find the shelter of 
 a roof or the shade of trees. The best we 
 could do was to give them a little milk or eggs 
 and to a very few limited medical attention. 
 "We are a wrecked vessel here," wrote Dr. 
 Shedd, "and it is an appalHng task to help the 
 survivors. I am almost desperate, and if one 
 had not faith in God, there would be no hope 
 at all. Just now we are trying to get village 
 owners to exert themselves, and it is about as 
 hopeless as *Bre'r Rabbit's' fight with the Tar 
 Baby. Still we must keep on, but it is hard, 
 piteous work. Gk)d has worked a great salva- 
 
198 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 tion. Every one believes that but for our 
 presence here, there would have been terrible 
 loss of life. 
 
 "Perhaps it would not be prudent to tell 
 what one is forced to think of the Turkish oc- 
 cupation here. For the most part, they played 
 the part of bankrupt savages, armed with the 
 instruments of this age, and using in a des- 
 perate venture all the forces they could get 
 hold of, savagery, religious hatred, racial feel- 
 ing. 
 
 "Our part has been to feed and protect these 
 thousands, protecting all and feeding many. 
 We have had to use all the means we could, 
 cautiously, prudently, and yet fearlessly. My 
 constant effort has been to keep the friendship 
 of the Persians and to rely on them rather than 
 any one else; as I have told people, we must 
 depend on those who in no contingency will run 
 away. We have succeeded, I think, in most 
 part, in doing all that could be done and have 
 undoubtedly saved many lives. The means 
 have been very inadequate and the reliance on 
 man has been very imcertain, but in it all we 
 have felt as never before God's presence and 
 help. 
 
 "A good many things had to be settled on 
 short notice, and many a time I put up a silent 
 
SALVAGE 1921 
 
 prayer to Him who is able to keep us from 
 falling." 
 
 There was hardly a day when Dr. Shedd 
 was not forced to express an opinion or take 
 some step in relation to matters seriously in- 
 volving the interests of others and sometimes 
 their lives. 
 
 In June he rejoiced in the arrival of the 
 Russian Consul, M. Basil Nikitine, a man of 
 ability, sincere sympathy, and fine character. 
 Together they visited the villages in an effort 
 to settle the people in the wreckage of their 
 homes and to soften the hostility of their Mos- 
 lem neighbors toward them. In the Moslem 
 villages, they found the villagers busy in the 
 fields, with herds of cattle larger than usual in 
 the meadows, the houses in good repair because 
 of the timbers, doors and windows stolen from 
 the Christians. In one village a woman who 
 was a member of one of our congregations told 
 the story of how six months before, she had 
 fled to this village for refuge, and how her 
 son was shot in cold blood before her eyes, and 
 she pointed out the murderer to the Consul. 
 She also told of the treatment received by her- 
 self and other women at the place where her 
 son lay dead. There was little sign of repent- 
 ance on the part of the Moslems as the Consul 
 
200 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 gave them warning of the punishment sure to 
 follow future atrocities. 
 
 The Christian villages were in ruins, demol- 
 ished walls, roofless houses, charred timbers, 
 showing malicious destruction. In such places 
 the Christians were living in fear and hunger 
 and sickness, unarmed in the midst of those 
 who a few months before had murdered, robbed 
 and raped, while only a few miles away in the 
 hills were the Kurds, waiting for the changing 
 fortunes of war to give them another oppor- 
 tunity. 
 
 Proclamation was made by the Russian Con- 
 sul that all stolen girls must be returned and 
 our Girls' School became the receiving station 
 for them. Many were expectant mothers and 
 it was very difficult to know what to do with 
 them. Forty or fifty were brought to us and 
 in most cases they were welcomed by their 
 friends, who were ready to share with them 
 such as they had. There were others who did 
 not come to us, but went directly to their fam- 
 ilies. We had two or three weddings in the 
 school parlor when the fiances claimed the girls 
 as soon as they were free. 
 
 Fighting between Turks and Russians con- 
 tinued and there was much uncertainty all dur- 
 ing June and July, and early in August we 
 
SALVAGE 201 
 
 were notified that the Russians were about to 
 evacuate again. The whole Christian popula- 
 tion started en masse towards Russia and most 
 of the missionaries went with them as far as 
 Tabriz. The Turkish advance was turned 
 back and the flight of the people halted. But 
 epidemics had broken out and many died. The 
 danger passed and in a few weeks most of the 
 Christians were back again in Urumia. In 
 the fall of 1915 the Russians strengthened their 
 position in Persia and Urumia was again 
 within their lines. 
 
CHAPTER XII: THE INTERLUDE 
 
 In September, 1915, Dr. Shedd with his two 
 children left Persia for a visit to America. 
 Coming out of an atmosphere rife with the 
 horrors of war, he felt the need of mental ad- 
 justment to conditions in America. "I am 
 trying to clear up my ideas on the war," he 
 said. "I think that I hate war as much as 
 any one, but I don't seem to set peace as the 
 greatest good in the way that many people do. 
 With the American people, I'm a great deal 
 more afraid that they won't have the zeal they 
 should have than that they will learn to love 
 war. There is a kind of peace that is a nega- 
 tive kind of thing, like a good deal of the 
 prevailing complacency of conscience. 
 
 "This frame of mind that is always congratu- 
 lating our country on being out of the war does 
 not appeal to me; not that I do not appreciate 
 the value of being at peace. What is coming 
 I do not know. I hope our country will keep 
 neutral, but I hope she won't do it because 
 we are afraid of trouble and responsibility." 
 
 He spent the year at home in speaking, writ- 
 
 202 
 
THE INTERLUDE 203 
 
 ing and traveling to create interest in the Per- 
 sian situation. He wrote a history, which was 
 not completed, of the first year of the war in 
 Persia. At the request of the Mission Board 
 he prepared the report of the Missions of that 
 year. With the futui^e of the American School 
 in mind, he visited Hampton Institute and was 
 much impressed with what he saw there in ref- 
 erence to the possibility of applying the same 
 principles of education to our work in Urumia. 
 The result was an interesting and thoughtful 
 paper on Educational Ideals and Methods for 
 the American School for Boys. 
 
 In August, 1916, he turned his face toward 
 Persia, understanding pretty well what lay 
 before him. From the steamer he wrote to 
 friends : 
 
 "It was not easy to leave the children, four 
 fine girls, but I have a feeling that I am going 
 from a country that I love and understand 
 partially to a far less attractive one that I know 
 better. ... I feel as if I were going home in 
 the sense that I am going where I shall be at 
 home in the work and know what I am doing. 
 America is to me a place that I don't altogether 
 understand, though I know well enough that 
 it is the finest place in the world. I hope as 
 I start in again that I won't lose hold on the 
 
204. THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 best things I learned in the experiences of the 
 past, and I don't think I shall. . . . 
 
 "At the same time, when the world is full of 
 sacrifice and courage, I don't like to have my 
 going back called *brave/ Of course, it isn't 
 easy to leave the girls, but there is no question 
 as to what I ought to do. More than that, it 
 is no time to make much of our trials when 
 people in Europe are in the throes of suffer- 
 ing. . . . 
 
 "I have been wondering lately as to what 
 religion is and what its real purpose is. I have 
 tried to think how it would do to define it as 
 the means or way of transmitting divine energy 
 into human life. That is nearer truth, any- 
 how, than mere knowledge, feeling, or life-in- 
 surance. It might have pretty good Bible 
 justification, too. I have been through expe- 
 riences the past two years that make me 
 more certain than ever of the spiritual realities, 
 and, I think, less anxious about theology. I 
 hope I won't cease to think, even about the in- 
 scrutable things, but I hope that I can keep on 
 working at the hard and wrong things in life 
 and get the power of Christ at work in life. 
 I have not joined the exhorters or those who 
 j/ think that Christianity is only 'social service.* 
 
THE INTERLUDE 205 
 
 It is a good stiff fight all along the line, and 
 I hope I may keep it up until I drop. . . . 
 
 "What I am coming to believe in, is the ap- 
 plication of Christianity to life. As I under- 
 stand it, religion is the getting of power from 
 God, and the bringing of God into human life. 
 This includes, of course, the life of thought, 
 but does not end there. ... So in this war 
 crisis, the only way to peace is by applying 
 to international matters Christianity. Most 
 Americans feel that in matters outside Amer- 
 ica, and probably many within it, their con- 
 sciences have no occasion to react. The ques- 
 tion IS whether she will be a Christian nation 
 in world matters, i.e., governed by Christian 
 motives. I am not a pacifist because peace 
 can be secured only by introducing a new con- 
 science." 
 
 He arrived in Urmnia in the fall of 1916 
 and resumed his place in the American School. 
 In addition, theological teaching, Legal Board, 
 evangelistic work for city Moslems, and the 
 chairmanship of the Urumia Relief Commit- 
 tee made that a busy winter. 
 
 During the next two years, the relief work 
 occupied a large place in the work of Urumia 
 Station. The chief beneficiaries were the 
 
206 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 mountain tribes who had been driven out of 
 Turkey in 1915. These tribes when driven 
 from their homes by Turks and Kurds forti- 
 fied themselves in inaccessible mountain fast- 
 nesses where they were besieged. When food 
 and ammunition were gone, they fled down 
 the narrow valleys toward Persia, expecting 
 protection from the Russians. Pursued by 
 their enemies, many thousand, mostly women 
 and children, were killed, or left to die along 
 the mountain trails. Thirty to thirty-five 
 thousand crossed the border into the plain of 
 S almas absolutely destitute. Disease followed 
 hard after them, and hungry, almost unclothed, 
 and imsheltered as they were, the death toll was 
 high. Dr. E. W. McDowell, who for many 
 years had worked among them in their moun- 
 tain villages, with other American missionaries 
 and relief funds, reached S almas a few days 
 after the arrival of the refugees. The Rus- 
 sians also sent financial aid and supported hos- 
 pitals for them. Several thousand were scat- 
 tered in the villages of Khoi to the north, 
 while others found their way to Urumia on the 
 south. 
 
 The American Relief Committee was 
 largely responsible for the continued existence 
 of these mountaineers and the demands made 
 
THE INTERLUDE 207 
 
 upon them were not only for food, clothing and 
 shelter, but also for their protection and con- 
 trol. They continued to live more or less in 
 tribes under their maliks, or chiefs. Mar Shi- 
 mon, their civil and religious head, settled in 
 Salmas. 
 
 Being exiles and with no employment, they 
 often made themselves a nuisance and irritated 
 their'Persian.neighbors by petty thieving, espe- 
 cially in the fruit season. In 1917, at the time 
 of ripe grapes, all over the plain of Urumia the 
 vineyards spread out in unending waves of 
 green vines laden with dehcious grapes, a score 
 or more varieties. Scattered about in the vil- 
 lages were the mountaineers with no legitimate 
 share in all this lusciousness. It was all very 
 simple to these untaught exiles from the crags 
 and peaks of Kurdistan and one night a party 
 of them visited the vineyard of a Syrian neigh- 
 bor, bringing their large willow baskets which 
 they carry on their backs fastened with ropes 
 around the waist and shoulders. The owner 
 of the vineyard, hearing a noise, fired his rifle 
 to frighten away the intruders, who, in their 
 hasty exit, left baskets and ropes. These were 
 gathered up and taken to the house. Bright 
 and early the next morning, the offenders ap- 
 peared and politely requested that ropes and 
 
208 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 baskets be returned, as they were their chief 
 means of livelihood. They got them — and 
 grapes, too! 
 
 The momitaineers were not the only proteges 
 of American generosity. Our yards and often 
 our houses were filled from day to day with the 
 most grotesque and varied specimens of hu- 
 manity. Kurds driven from their villages by 
 famine and war came to Urumia to appeal to 
 the Americans. There were Kurds from the 
 south in full bloomers, wi^apped with a girdle 
 from thigh to armpit and armed with hanjar 
 or dagger, and the warrior who proudly boasted 
 rifle and cartridges. The Persian khan was 
 there to beg a loan in time of distress. There 
 were hundreds of poor, miserable women with 
 their starving babies and naked children cling- 
 ing to them. There were Mohammedan ladies, 
 each with a special petition, sometimes pre- 
 sented through one of the missionary ladies, 
 but oftener by direct appointment with Dr. 
 Shedd. 
 
 "I feel very tired to-night," he wrote in Jan- 
 uary, "and think it is not from work but from 
 the crowd of desperately needy Kurds and 
 other Moslems who crowd my big w^aiting room 
 in the city. I don't dare to help them, except 
 in a limited number of selected cases, because 
 
THE INTERLUDE 209 
 
 we simply cannot embark on so big a job. The 
 other day I had a deputation from a village 
 forty miles away. It is hard to refuse to help 
 them as I do many times a day, and yet, it 
 seems to me, it would be still worse to refuse 
 to see them, even if it would be easier." 
 
 In March, 1917, the report of the taking of 
 Bagdad by the British was good news to us, 
 and for many months we anticipated the taking 
 of Mosul on the Tigris. This would have 
 meant comparative security to Urumia and 
 would have made it possible for the moun- 
 taineers to return to their homes. 
 
 That spring wheat was selling at six dollars 
 a bushel, and the Relief Committee had to fur- 
 nish seed in order to have fields planted. The 
 Christians had been so completely robbed that 
 tools for preparing the ground and, later, 
 sickles for harvesting, had to be provided for 
 them. Loans were made for working the vine- 
 yards and for planting, but nearly all these 
 loans were repaid. A large number of orphans 
 were still being fed. 
 
 The Russians occupied Urumia and con- 
 trolled the political situation. The soldiers 
 were giving trouble and the feeling between 
 Moslems and Christians was bad. Early in 
 July the bazaars, that is, the business section 
 
210 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 of the city, were looted and burned by Russian 
 soldiers. We all had to 'pay the piper," for 
 prices soared and many things could not be 
 had. Those merchants who had goods were 
 afraid to let it be known and very little was 
 displayed in any of the shops. 
 
 Dr. Shedd and I had known each other four- 
 teen years and had lived as missionary associ- 
 ates in the same station. Our ideals and life 
 purpose were identical, our hearts were in the 
 same cause. In July, 1917, we were married 
 and when we set up our home it was dedicated 
 to the Master whom we both served. 
 
 We went to Seir for a vacation. Our Mis- 
 sion house there had been completely wrecked, 
 but the English Mission house was standing, 
 though the upper story and all doors and win- 
 dows were gone. We camped in the ruins and 
 found the shelter of the thick walls much cooler 
 than a tent would have been. 
 
 Alas, troubles began the very day we left 
 the city. That was the night the bazaars were 
 burned, followed by the looting of a number 
 of Kurdish and Persian villages. So all the 
 time we were at Seir, Dr. Shedd was busy get- 
 ting back stolen sheep and other plunder for 
 the owners and settling quarrels. He sue- 
 
THE INTERLUDE 211 
 
 ceeded in recovering practically everything 
 that had been stolen. 
 
 The Seir villagers claimed us as belonging 
 to the village, Dr. Shedd having been born 
 there, and out of their deep poverty, they 
 brought us eggs, milk, and kadda or tea cake. 
 Every afternoon, Persian fashion, we spread a 
 carpet on the grass, brought the samovar and 
 glasses, and served tea to all who came. A 
 frequent guest was a gentle old Nestorian 
 priest, wearing a cone-shaped felt hat of home 
 manufacture, and his hair in a pig-tail down 
 his back. According to mountain custom, a 
 newly married woman should keep her mouth 
 covered and remain silent in the presence of 
 the superior sex, taking her food in the corner 
 after they are served. Evidently some things 
 puzzled the old priest. One day I was re- 
 torting in a lively way to my husband's re- 
 marks. The visitor couldn't understand the 
 language, but he was watching the proceedings 
 and plainly thought that I needed reproof. 
 Then when the "Sahib" seemed to be holding 
 the floor for a few minutes, he asked approv- 
 ingly, "Are you preaching to her?" 
 
 In September we established our home in 
 the city. Very soon political troubles began, 
 
212 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 with the spread of Bolshevism in the Rus- 
 sian army, and our home became the center 
 of the seething, tumultuous life of the com- 
 munity. It was a very short year in spite of 
 the dreadful things that happened, and even 
 unrelenting time cannot rob me of those 
 months of joyous companionship with one of 
 extraordinary gifts of heart and mind, the 
 sharing in all his thoughts and labors at a time 
 when his life had reached its climax in con- 
 secration and service. Many years were 
 crowded into one, though there were only little 
 snatches we could call our own. Afterwards 
 when the people brought me questions and 
 problems that were difficult to solve, I found 
 myself always trying to decide what his answer 
 or solution would have been and basing my 
 decision on that. From him I learned a more 
 simple faith in God, to trust people more, to 
 be less "careful and troubled about many 
 things." The gracious outpouring of self in 
 friendliness, the humility and magnanimity 
 that counts nothing as done unto one's self 
 remain an inspiration. 
 
 That autumn in anticipation of fighting on 
 the Urumia front, a French military hospital 
 came to Urumia. With war all about us, Rus- 
 sia in revolution, political intrigues and threat- 
 
THE INTERLUDE 213 
 
 ened famine in our midst, life was strenuous. 
 One of the schemes of the Persian "Democrats" 
 was to detach the province of Azerbaijan and 
 join it to an independent Moslem Caucasus. 
 In December we received word of the treaty 
 between the Caucasus Provisional Government 
 and Turkey. 
 
 "The reaction of the Russian revolution is 
 hard to estimate," said Dr. Shedd. "It has 
 given Persia a chance, but what will she do 
 with it? There will be 'Democrats' of several 
 varieties, aspirations after liberty and progress, 
 and there will be blind reactions and fanatical 
 conservatives. Russian agitators will be at 
 work. 
 
 "It is hard to say just what is being done 
 by relief work. Thousands of lives have been 
 saved, but that is only part of it. It is the 
 work that helps to reconcile discordant ele- 
 ments here, and we are making it a very real 
 force for good order and so good will. Of 
 course, it takes time, and strength, but what 
 are time and strength for but to use them for 
 others? I pray that America may strike with 
 all her force to end this war and that her heart 
 may be made pure to meet the momentous 
 issue of it and to see her way clearly. I am 
 glad we are in the war and yet I tremble, not 
 
214j the measure OF A MAN 
 
 for the loss but for the responsibihties that it 
 seems to bring on us. You know that I am 
 not a pacifist, and I am inclined to beheve that 
 our country will exert the greatest influence 
 for peace and bring it more quickly and make 
 it more stable by putting her strength and con- 
 science into righteous war than in any other 
 way." 
 
 In October Dr. Shedd was asked by the 
 Governor to be a member of the Government 
 Food Commission. He found the Commission 
 with plenty of stationery and talk. 
 
 "I am skeptical of anything efficient coming 
 out of a Persian Government proposition, but 
 am willing to go and try to do my part," said 
 he. "We will keep in touch with them and 
 perhaps will be able to accomplish something. 
 The Persians don't lack abihty to see what 
 should be done, but they do lack the resolution 
 to put it through at the expense of their per- 
 sonal advantage or personal work." 
 
 The times were making unusual demands 
 upon him which required careful thought. 
 
 *'It seems clear," he said, "that the immedi- 
 ate purpose of most of us, or, at least, some 
 of us, must be service to the community in 
 a time of stress and need, both in relief 
 work and in efforts to preserve some sort of 
 
THE INTERLUDE 215 
 
 order here. Certainly the way to do this 
 with any degree of efficiency is to make it the 
 primary purpose in one's efforts and to allow 
 one's hfe to be controlled by this purpose. It 
 seems to me very clear that this is the leading 
 of Providence and that in plans for work and 
 life I should leave a margin, that is, a conscious, 
 voluntary margin, not merely an allowance 
 for the inevitable, for such leading. The de- 
 velopment of our work here during the last 
 three years is certainly such as could in no pos- 
 sibility have been forecast, and I should hesi- 
 tate very much to forecast the next three years. 
 We must accept it as a fact, and even as a de- 
 sirable and definite purpose, that our work 
 and ourselves become an integral part of the 
 general community life and as such that we 
 should accept and desire to share in commu- 
 nity burdens and hfe. . . . 
 
 "I have an ambition to do my part to keep 
 the people of this corner of the world from the 
 suffering that threatens them from their na- 
 tional and racial rivalries and hatreds. How 
 much I can do I don't know, but it surely is 
 something a missionary has a right and duty 
 to hold before himself as an aim. What a 
 divided and disjointed world this is out of, 
 Christ. This war is only a projection on a 
 
216 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 tremendous scale of what is chronic in this part 
 of the world, except that after all, in the war, 
 one can see the great principles at stake, while 
 in the plunderings and murders here, one can 
 see but the sputterings and flamings of old 
 hatreds. Certain it is that no international 
 treaty can give, though it may help, peace 
 here. May we have our little part in this great 
 purpose of our Lord." 
 
 MEMBERS OF THE AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN MIS- 
 SION IN URUMIA IN 1918 
 
 Rev.Wm. A. Shedd, 
 
 Mrs. Mary Lewis Shedd, 
 
 Rev. E. T. Allen, 
 
 Mrs. May Wallace Allen, 
 
 Mrs. Bertha McConaughy Cochran (Mrs. 
 
 J. P.), 
 
 Miss Edith D. Lamme, 
 H. P. Packard, M.D., 
 Mrs. Frances Bayley Packard, 
 Miss Lenore R. Schoebel, 
 Wilder P. EUis, M.D., 
 Mrs. Jessie Lee ElHs, 
 Miss Mary Burgess, 
 Edward M. Dodd, M.D., 
 
THE INTERLUDE 217 
 
 Mr. E. C. M. Richards (Near East Relief 
 worker), 
 
 Mrs. Elizabeth Coan Richards (Near East 
 Relief worker) . 
 
 In Charge of Christ's Home for Children: 
 Rev. Herman Pf laumer, 
 Mrs. Helen Pflaumer, 
 Miss Ena Bridges. 
 
CHAPTER XIII: HOW BEST TO 
 SERVE 
 
 In the autumn of 1917 heavy war-clouds 
 again gathered over Urumia. The dissolution 
 of Russia, of which northwest Persia had prac- 
 tically become a part, spelled destruction and 
 anarchy. With the spread of Bolshevism, 
 army discipline fast disappeared. When the 
 restraint which the military had exercised was 
 gone, every one who had an old score to settle 
 
 r seized his opportunity. The soldiers them- 
 selves were responsible for much of the dis- 
 order that ensued and they left many debts of 
 hatred and bitterness in the hearts of the Mos- 
 lems which were afterwards exacted from the 
 
 f native Christians. During the fall and early 
 winter the bulk of the army left in great con- 
 fusion. Large army stores had been collected 
 in the Urumia region and the least responsible 
 of the Russians who stayed behind busied them- 
 sdlves destroying and selling these supplies. 
 Rifles and amimunition were disposed of to foes 
 as well as friends, and many Kurds and Per- 
 sians secured them at nominal prices. In the 
 
 218 
 
HOW BEST TO SERVE 219 
 
 same way, Syrians and Armenians obtained 
 small quantities for their little army of defense. 
 
 As soon as the Russian army went to pieces, 
 the Persian Democrats began active propa- 
 ganda for arming Moslems again Christians; 
 as one orator said, "He that hath no rifle, sell 
 his wife and get one." Ijlal-ul-Mulk, the Gov- 
 ernor of Urumia, was as weak and irresponsi- 
 ble as the government he represented, and was 
 so tied up with the Democrats, who were the 
 real power, that he could not act with any in- 
 dependence. 
 
 The Russian officers who were not in sym- 
 pathy with Bolshevism remained in Urumia 
 and tried to get under control and organization 
 the remnants of the former battalions and the 
 unorganized men with rifles. These, as free 
 lances, were a menace to the community, but 
 essential for the protection of their people from 
 attacks by Persians in whose midst they were 
 living, and from Turks and Kurds, who were 
 only waiting for the last of the Russian army 
 to leave in order to swoop down from the hills 
 like wolves on the fold. 
 
 With robbery and murder of daily occur- 
 rence, the life of the whole community in jeop- 
 ardy, and no help from the Persian Govern- 
 ment, the various elements that stood for law 
 
220 THE MEASURE OF A ^E\N 
 
 and order combined, and in consultation with 
 the Governor tried to work out plans for pro- 
 tecting Hfe and property. 
 
 There were the American missionaries, rep- 
 resented by Dr. Shedd, M. Basil Xikitine, 
 Russian Vice-consul, Monseigneur Sonntag of 
 the French Catholic Mission, Dr. Caujole, 
 Chief of Staff of the French Military Hos- 
 pital, and the leaders of the Christian com- 
 munity. 
 
 The first necessity" was a gendarmerie for 
 police purposes for city and villages, composed 
 of both Christians and Moslems. The Gov- 
 ernor favored this up to the point of execu- 
 tion, then backed down and refused to have 
 anything to do with it, nor was any other pro- 
 vision made to control the ver\' serious situa- 
 tion. Dr. Shedd was frequently asked by the 
 Governor to help him in various ways to solve 
 the difficulties of his position. \Mien the trans- 
 Baikal Cossacks were leaving, they wanted to 
 change Persian krans for Russian rubles. The 
 Persians overcharged them and the Cossacks 
 threatened to get rubles for themselves. The 
 Governor sent for Dr. Shedd, who by securing 
 a fair rate of exchange and taking the respon- 
 sibility' for the transactions, settled the matter 
 without bloodshed. 
 
HOW BEST TO SERVE 221 
 
 During the months that followed, the 
 American [Mission was undoubtedly the great- 
 est power for good and the best friend of all 
 the races of that region. In the midst of m- 
 describable chaos, Dr. Shedd, the clear, quick 
 thinker, fearless and decisive in action, was the 
 leader. For a long time he had been practi- 
 cally performing the duties of vice-consul, and 
 with the hope that official status might 
 strengthen his position, ]Mr. Paddock, Amer- 
 ican Consul at Tabriz, m^ged his appointment. 
 Previously, when the question of his accepting 
 such an appointment had been raised, he had 
 declined, feeling that it might limit his mis- 
 sionary influence. Now the situation was so 
 critical that every possible means must be em- 
 ployed and every influence used to save the 
 community from destruction. He was ap- 
 pointed Honorary Vice -Consul for our Gov- 
 ernment, and on New Year's Day, 1918, the 
 American flag was officially placed over the 
 gate of our City Compound, and our home 
 became known as the American Consul-khana. 
 
 Northwest Persia was strongly pro-German, 
 and German agents had been there since before 
 the war. While Persia remained nominally 
 neutral, there was no doubt as to where her 
 sympathies were. Large numbers of Persians 
 
r 
 
 222 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 were serving with the Turks as regulars and 
 irregulars. Persia had j ust cause of complaint 
 against both sides, for both used her territory 
 for military operations. As early as 1906 Tur- 
 key had sent her troops across the border and 
 this part of Persia was under military occu- 
 pation by the Russians when the war began. 
 At the same time Persia was making no effort 
 to defend her frontiers or her subjects, nor 
 did she maintain her neutrality equally with 
 both sides. 
 
 The Consuls in Tabriz were urging the Gov- 
 ernor-General of Azerbaijan to take measure 
 for maintaining order in Urumia, but nothing 
 was accomplished. There was little responsi- 
 ble government in Tabriz. The Democrats 
 largely controlled the political situation. The 
 Vali Ahd and his followers were pro- German 
 and German agents were operating there. 
 
 This border-land as part of the Caucasus 
 front was important to the Allies. When the 
 Russian army deserted, the Allied Staff in 
 Tiflis sent French and British officers to or- 
 ganize the native elements for holding back 
 the Turkish advance. A British military 
 officer came to Urmnia with promises of war 
 materials, funds, and British officers, and the 
 Armenians and Syrians were persuaded to 
 
HOW BEST TO SERVE 223 
 
 throw in their lot with the Allies and hold that 
 front for them. The plan as outlined was to 
 reorganize the whole front, the command to 
 remain under the Russian Staff with French 
 and British attaches advising, and the money 
 to be furnished by the Allies. Because of 
 changes in the military plans, the promised 
 help never came and this httle undisciplined, 
 unequipped and disorganized force was 
 left to fight its own and Allied battles for 
 months unaided. During the six months that 
 followed the situation was so complex, so 
 chaotic, so barbarous and full of change, that 
 it is difficult to make it comprehensible to 
 those who did not live through it. But 
 it is safe to say that nowhere on the battle- 
 fields of the war did men fight more persist- 
 ently against such odds or stand more bravely, 
 than in this isolated corner of Persia. And 
 nowhere have they paid such a price for dar- 
 ing to be men. 
 
 This attempt of the Allies to organize the 
 Armenians and Syrians aroused strong resent- 
 ment among the Persians and when the matter 
 was dropped, the Christians found themselves 
 in a much worse position with the Persians than 
 they had previously been. The Persians de- 
 termined to "wipe out" the Christians. The 
 
224 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 foreigners were an obstacle to the fulfillment 
 of their plans. Dr. Shedd more than any one 
 else stood in their way and his path was a 
 thorny one. They were making all sorts of 
 complaints about him at Tabriz and Teheran. 
 In fact, that winter Dr. Shedd was accused of 
 about everything, from recruiting an English 
 army and bribing the Governor, to robbing the 
 mails and stealing Relief funds. 
 
 Extracts from his letters show his relation 
 to affairs: 
 
 "Things are showing the difficulty of work- 
 ing with the Persian Government and of do- 
 ing anything with them without friction. The 
 Russian prestige is low, and without any 
 egotism I can say that if I disassociate myself 
 with the plans, it will be difficult to find any 
 satisfactory mediimi of cooperation with the 
 Persians. Again, on the other side, with the 
 Syrians, whether having consular status or not, 
 I can avoid being asked advice only by leaving 
 the place, and it is very important for us to 
 use our influence to make the plans under- 
 taken effective, for on them depends our safety. 
 I sincerely hope that more explicit instructions 
 will come from the State Department. 
 
 "To be able to do anything in the way of 
 keeping order, I must cooperate in general 
 
DR SHEDD WITH A GROUP OF REFUGEE> 
 CITY COMPOUND, URUMIA, 1918 
 
HOW BEST TO SERVE 225 
 
 plans. Beyond immediate events, I believe 
 there is a service to be rendered in making fu- 
 ture adjustments more possible by diminishing 
 friction and engendering good feeling. 
 
 "Then also the protection of American in- 
 terests and lives requires a position of real 
 influence in these matters. . . . Things are in 
 such a critical condition that I don't want to 
 leave anything undone. ... I need not say 
 that the situation is a delicate one and must 
 be handled carefully. I anticipate there will 
 be complaints against me at Teheran, and 
 if the purpose of our diplomacy is merely to 
 avoid complaints, I may be blamed. But if it 
 be to try to help secure order in the country 
 for ourselves and others, I do not see how I 
 could follow any other course. The position 
 is a difficult one because telegraphic communi- 
 cations are cut with Tabriz, and, I am told, 
 with Tiflis. 
 
 "With regard to the relation I should sus- 
 tain toward the Russian plans, I shall certainly 
 endeavor to disassociate myself from any offi- 
 cial connection that might be considered purely 
 military, but conditions are so critical that I 
 shall have to consider the end of securing safety 
 rather than the means, and it is very difficult to 
 find anything that is purely military. Things 
 
226 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 are very much confused. I shall certainly not 
 neglect the principle involved." 
 ^ The middle of February he wrote: "You 
 
 know my instructions are to take no part in 
 military affairs, and so I am only reporting 
 conditions. Murders are taking place con- 
 stantly from Moslems and Christians, rob- 
 beries are frequent and roads unsafe. The Sy- 
 rians are so involved with the Russians that 
 it is impossible for the better class of people 
 to control affairs, though they have done much 
 to restrain violence. I hope we shall get 
 through, but it is certainly skating on thin ice." 
 "There have been efforts to bring Christians 
 and Moslems together in friendly conferences 
 and good has been accomplished. These are 
 heartily supported by the Christian leaders and 
 with sincerity. I am not so sure of the Mos- 
 lems, for they always stop short of any real 
 measure to put in force their democratic pro- 
 fessions, as, for example, placing Christians in 
 any responsible position. . . . One thing that 
 remains is to have Christians locally keep order 
 and to suffer wrong rather than give provoca- 
 tion. This is being done for the most part and 
 the responsible people, Armenians and Syri- 
 ans, are likely to administer summary justice 
 on outlaws from Russia, partly deserters from 
 
HOW BEST TO SERVE 227 
 
 the Russian army, who are guilty of the most 
 outrageous crimes." 
 
 There was in Urumia a Persian Cossack 
 brigade of about two hundred, but they were 
 so inefficient that they could not be employed. 
 The question of a gendarmerie would not be 
 silenced and the Governor finally agreed to its 
 formation and privately asked that British offi- 
 cers come to organize a sufficient force to con- 
 trol the whole region. But nothing came of 
 it, and he never organized a force himself nor 
 permitted any one else to do so in any adequate 
 way. Dr. Shedd was daily being entreated to 
 use his influence to prevent disorder and pro- 
 tect life and property, and while he and M. 
 Nikitine and others of influence were making 
 every effort to keep the various elements from 
 violent outbreaks, the Governor simply played 
 with the matter and could not be induced to 
 act. The insincerity, deceit, and endless in- 
 trigues of the Persians made it very hard to 
 work with them. One day, after a conference, 
 the Governor said to Dr. Shedd, "The great 
 difference I see between you and us is that 
 we expect to accomplish an end by the use of 
 lies, while you depend upon truth." 
 
 "No other man could have accomplished the 
 work he did during those trying years," writes 
 
228 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 an associate. "Not only was it his wisdom 
 which seldom failed, but his ability to see what 
 was usable even in the worst of men, and to 
 command that service as well as the love and 
 respect of the man behind it. And there was 
 his wonderful patience at which I often 
 marveled; his readiness to give way and find 
 some other method when his own plan failed. 
 I believe if it had not been for his wise leader- 
 ship, there would have been chaos and very 
 great destruction of life." 
 
 Besides the missionaries, there were about 
 fifty families of naturalized American citizens 
 and a large amount of property under Dr. 
 Shedd's care. The extensive work being done 
 by the Relief Committee, of which he was chair- 
 man, made it necessary for him to use every 
 possible means for safeguarding supplies and 
 the recipients of American charity. His posi- 
 tion of influence in the community and his con- 
 sular duties involved him in matters outside 
 the usual sphere of missionary activity. "It 
 is the opinion of the other missionaries that 
 the only way to disassociate the Mission from 
 this work, is for me to disassociate myself from 
 the Mission for a time," said he; "and I am 
 afraid that this opinion is correct. I say, 'I 
 am afraid,' for you will understand that it is 
 
HOW BEST TO SERVE 229 
 
 a wrench to be separated even in name from 
 the work that has been my Hfe." 
 
 We began to make plans to rent a native 
 house and establish the Consulate there, but 
 before these plans could be carried out, the 
 whole situation was thrown into utter confusion 
 by the attack on the Christians by the Persians, 
 February 22. 
 
 It was only a few days before that event 
 that Dr. Shedd wrote concerning his position, 
 "Of course I am thinking a good deal about 
 the questions raised by my assuming the 
 duties of Vice- Consul here, and I am about 
 ready to believe that it is a mistake altogether. 
 The real point of the matter is here. I have 
 a position in the community and relations with 
 so many people, and, further, my purpose is 
 such that for me to take the official and routine 
 view, which seems to control the Legation, 
 is impossible. We are in a very delicate and 
 dangerous situation here that makes it difficult 
 to be bound by the sort of policy that seeks 
 to avoid any criticism or conflict, and there is 
 too much at stake to make it possible to play 
 an altogether cautious game. 
 
 "I believe that you will not think that I 
 want to go into any adventures or to take 
 unnecessary risk, but, for example, for me 
 
230 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 to refuse to advise with people or to help in the 
 organization of some sort of police or gen- 
 darmerie force, when there are murders every- 
 day, and when the Government is helpless, and 
 people are ready to fly at one another's 
 throats, is simply impossible. For a time the 
 matter is blocked and I shall do nothing. Or 
 for me not to take a strong line with Syrians 
 who under the cover of being connected with 
 a quasi-military organization are robbing and 
 killing, is equally impossible. If the Vice- 
 Consulship will enable me to do some service 
 in protecting American lives and property, 
 and also serve the community by helping secure 
 peace, I am ready to sacrifice a good deal for 
 it, but if it will hamper me by restricting my 
 influence, without increasing my opportunity 
 for service, I shall ask to be released. Please 
 don't think I am criticizing, I am only trying 
 to find out in what way I can serve best." 
 
CHAPTER XIV: STATESMAN 
 AND MEDIATOR 
 
 For weeks we had been living in the midst 
 of two armed camps. Dr. Shedd was con- 
 stantly busy with the leaders of both sides 
 trying to prevent an outbreak. At a confer- 
 ence on February 22, each side promised not 
 to attack the other. Scarcely an hour had 
 passed when the Persians made an attack on 
 the Christian quarter of the city. The Chris- 
 tians were not prepared; the men with rifles 
 were mostly in the villages with their families. 
 As soon as the sound of battle aroused those 
 in the city to their danger, every man or boy 
 who owned a rifle ran for it, and from gate- 
 ways, roofs and streets, fought for their fami- 
 lies and homes. Agha Petros, the Syrian 
 leader, was the man of the hour, and but for 
 him and Malik Khoshaba, one of our mountain 
 preachers who could fight as well as preach, 
 there would have been a terrible massacre of 
 Christians. These two men got together a fol- 
 lowing and drove back the Persians until they 
 had possession of the greater part of the city. 
 
 231 
 
232 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 It was an anxious time for us for we did not 
 know whether our premises would be safe for 
 ourselves or for others. In the afternoon of 
 the second day a great shout of victory told 
 us that Agha Petros' men had taken the 
 tophhana or artillery square. Soon the white 
 flags began to appear and in the course of the 
 next few days practically every Moslem house 
 was floating a white rag from the window. 
 
 A band of mullahs and others went to Mar 
 Shimon, who was then in Urumia, to surren- 
 der, while the Governor sent a letter of capitu- 
 lation. Later the leading Moslems met with 
 Mar Shimon and the Syrian and Armenian 
 leaders in a council of war and agreed upon 
 terms of peace. 
 
 The next morning several hundred mullahs, 
 merchants, artisans, and other prominent men 
 of this Moslem city, led by the Sardar who was 
 governor in 1915, filed into the mission yard. 
 They planted their white flags and the green 
 flag of Islam in the snow banks in front 
 of our door. They had come to surrender 
 themselves and their city to the man whose 
 confidence they had betrayed and would be- 
 tray again, and yet whom they were not afraid 
 to trust. Dr. Shedd thus found himself in a 
 hard position but he could not escape the re- 
 
STATESMAN AND MEDIATOR 233 
 
 sponsibility. Neither side was willing to trust 
 the other; both had confidence in him and 
 wanted him in their councils. After negotia- 
 tions with the few hundred Christians who for 
 centuries they had despised and oppressed 
 the Moslems returned to their homes, with 
 the exception of thirty or forty who felt 
 most guilty. These took bast or asylum 
 with Dr. Shedd under the American flag, 
 until they could leave in safety. The Russian 
 military officers took responsibility for the 
 negotiations and gave a written and signed 
 statement to the Persians. The Persians 
 freely confessed their premeditated plan for 
 the annihilation of the Christians and laid the 
 blame chiefly on four men. Three of these 
 appealed to Dr. Shedd for protection and the 
 fourth was kept at the French Mission. 
 Twenty of the Persian Cossacks who were 
 among those who made the first attack also 
 took bast with Dr. Shedd. 
 
 The victorious Christians had no idea of 
 taking over the government, but asked for a 
 Mixed Council composed of an equal number 
 of Christians and Moslems. This council was 
 formed and the Sardar was chosen governor. 
 Ijlal-ul-Mulk, the former governor, was too 
 much involved in the treachery that led up to 
 
 1 
 
234 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 the attack to be trusted again. It was not easy 
 to set up a government that would function, 
 but the Syrian and Armenian leaders made 
 every effort to establish peaceable relations 
 and get along with the Moslems in working 
 out a temporary government for Urumia. 
 
 The Persians outside cut all lines of com- 
 munication with Urumia. They held the boats 
 on the east side of the Lake and closed the 
 roads north and south. We became an iso- 
 lated world of our own, but not from choice. 
 The Urumia Democrats, unable themselves 
 to punish the Christians, appealed to their 
 friends in Tabriz, who responded with great 
 eloquence, fearful threats and curses on the 
 "Jilus'' as they called the mountaineers. Tele- 
 grams were sent to Teheran complaining of 
 "pernicious meddling in politics" on the part 
 of missionaries and of Dr. Shedd in particular. 
 
 The Karapapahhs or Blackhats from the 
 south were ordered to Urumia to clean up the 
 Christians. They were reported coming 
 "weeping" for fear of the "Jilus" whose repu- 
 tation for valor had spread abroad. Simku, 
 the notorious Kurdish chief, was asked to go 
 to Urumia with his warriors. 
 
 It was necessary to get into communication 
 with Tabriz and settle matters on an authori- 
 
STATESMAN AND MEDIATOR 235 
 
 tative basis, but no native dared to go. A mem- 
 ber of the French Hospital Staff volunteered 
 to go, report Urumia conditions, and enlist 
 the help of the Persian Government. He was 
 arrested at Sharifkhana on his return trip by 
 the Democrats, robbed of his letters, and 
 sent back to Tabriz. Here he was detained 
 several weeks and received some rather rough 
 treatment at the hands of the Persians. 
 
 In Urumia the days were busy and troubled. 
 Every one turned to Dr. Shedd; the Chris- 
 tians for counsel and the Moslems for protec- 
 tion as well as counsel. Our home was the 
 Consulate and the hub of our universe. The 
 whole house had to be given up to the demands 
 of the work. There were telephone men, bell 
 boys, Persian and Russian scribes, several men 
 for receiving the hundreds who came, investi- 
 gating their business and carrying messages. 
 One man was kept at the telephone all night, 
 for there were often S. O. S. calls and other 
 matters which could not wait. Dr. Shedd was 
 busy from morning till late at night seeing 
 those who came with every imaginable com- 
 plaint, petition or tale of woe. There were 
 committee meetings and conferences with the 
 leaders of both sides. There were constant 
 efforts to keep order and prevent outrages. 
 
236 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 The hardest elements to control were the 
 Syrian and Armenian Kachaks who belonged 
 to none of the organized forces and were really 
 brigands from Russia. They seemed to think 
 no more of shooting a man than of shooting a 
 rabbit and terrorized Christians as well as 
 Moslems. 
 
 Famine increased the difficulty of keeping 
 order. Thousands of Kurds because of fight- 
 ing^and famine had left their village and come 
 to Urumia hoping to be fed by the Americans. 
 There were about a thousand Persian and 
 Kurdish refugees in our yards for five or six 
 months, but the greater part of the Kurds were 
 herded in empty houses, caravansaries, and 
 stables throughout the city, and their condition 
 was most pitiable. The Sunni Mosque was "in- 
 describable with its filth, smells, disease, hun- 
 ger, and abject misery. The best the Relief 
 Committee could do was to give them a daily 
 ration of half a pound of bread and as many 
 raisins. They died like flies, and though we 
 tried to help them, our best efforts could hardly 
 touch the surface of their misery. The Persian 
 authorities would not allow the Relief Com- 
 mittee to bring their wheat from S almas. 
 Prices continued to rise and food could not 
 be obtained. In the spring it became neces- 
 
STATESMAN AND MEDIATOR 237 
 
 sary to clean up the city. The missionaries 
 undertook the job and buried over a thousand 
 bodies that had been left just where they died. 
 These were nearly all Kurds who had died of 
 starvation. A great many horses died for lack 
 of food and the hungry Kurds stood about, 
 ready to snatch the body as soon as dead. 
 
 The Mixed Council with the heads of the 
 various organized forces were getting the sit- 
 uation pretty well under control, though the 
 Democrats^ as usual, were stirring up trouble. 
 Said Dr. Shedd, "The Democrats are doing 
 all they can to get up an army to ex- 
 terminate the mountaineers. The crimes 
 that in ages past have been done in the name 
 of autocracy are now being committed in the 
 name of democracy, that being the name to 
 conjure by. Apparently in Teheran they 
 think that things have moved too fast but 
 when people are pushed, they cannot always 
 regulate the rate of locomotion. They are dis- 
 avowing the plans made in Tiflis by the Allied 
 officers there and urged upon the people here 
 with a .great deal of heat and insistence. It 
 is all very mixed and only this place could 
 furnish the ingredients." 
 
 Then like a bolt from a clear sky came the 
 assassination of Mar Shimon, which completely 
 
238 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 upset everything that had been accomplished 
 and threw all that region into a state of 
 L anarchy from which it never recovered. The 
 Kurdish chief, Ismail Agha, or Simku, as he 
 is popularly known, has played an important 
 role in the Urumia tragedy. He had given 
 assurances of friendship to the Christians, but 
 at the instigation of Persians in high position, 
 he most perfidiously murdered the Syrian 
 Patriarch. Mar Shimon had retiu^ned to Sal- 
 mas from Urumia and met the envoys sent by 
 the Vali Ahd to confer with him in Dilman, 
 the capital of S almas. They had a satisfactory 
 meeting and at the close Mar Shimon received 
 an invitation from Simku to meet him in Old 
 City for a friendly conference. He went with 
 seventy or eighty of his men and was received 
 by Simku with great cordiality. They talked, 
 drank tea together, and pledged their mutual 
 good will, and as Mar Shimon was leaving, 
 Simku kissed him as a seal of their confidence 
 in each other. Just as Mar Shimon was step- 
 ping into his carriage, Simku gave the pre- 
 arranged signal to his men on the roofs to fire. 
 The Patriarch fell pierced with five bullets, 
 while his unsuspecting guard dropped all 
 around him. The Moslems of the town joined 
 
STATESMAN AND MEDIATOR 239 
 
 with the Kurds and only a few of the guards 
 escaped. 
 
 When news of the treacherous murder of 
 their Patriarch reached the mountain tribes, 
 nothing could restrain them from taking what 
 they believed to be their just and necessary 
 revenge and the town of Dilman and most of 
 the Moslem villages of S almas paid the blood 
 debt. Simku and his warriors escaped to their 
 stronghold, Chara, a few miles away and were 
 later driven out. They went to Khoi and took 
 part in the massacre of Chnistians there. 
 
 It was now more than ever difficult to con- 
 trol the mountaineers, for according to their 
 age-long custom and the common law of the 
 moimtains, having no protection but what their 
 own might secured them, they must "take the 
 blood of their Patriarch." 
 
 Those persons who had been leaders in the 
 February plot were still safe under Dr. Shedd's 
 protection because there was no responsible 
 government to which they might be delivered. 
 Our Mission compounds were full of Persians 
 and Kurds, some innocent and some guilty. 
 Thousands were being fed by American char- 
 ity. The responsible Syrians and Armenians 
 supported Dr. Shedd in his efforts to preserve 
 
240 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 this custom of hast,, but it was hard for the un- 
 tutored, maddened by their sufferings and per- 
 secutions, to imder stand the justice which pro- 
 tected these men who had plotted their destruc- 
 tion and whose allies had so infamously mur- 
 dered their revered Patriarch. Word had 
 reached Urumia of the massacre of the refugees 
 in Khoi by Persians; many had been killed 
 with special cruelty. The near relatives and 
 friends of these people were among the refu- 
 gees in Urumia and S almas. They wanted 
 revenge and planned a general attack on the 
 Moslems of Urumia. Knowledge of these 
 plans came to Dr. Shedd and, through his in- 
 fluence with leaders, the catastrophe was 
 averted. There are few incidents in all the 
 experiences of those awful years which so 
 strikingly illustrate the power of his personal 
 influence, and nothing else could have saved 
 the situation. 
 
 "According to the laws and customs of our 
 people," says one of their leaders, "it was clear 
 that the relatives of the victims were certainly 
 entitled to revenge the blood of their people. 
 As a nation we were obliged to avenge the 
 blood of our Patriarch. 
 
 "When Dr. Shedd heard of it, he solemnly 
 declared that such a deed must not be. . . . 
 
MULLAHS, AND OTHER PROMINENT 
 MEN OF URUMIA, PROCEEDING TO DR. 
 SHEDD's RESIDENCE TO PLACE THEM- 
 SELVES AND THE CITY UNDER HIS 
 PROTECTION AFTER THE BATTLE OF 
 FEBRUARY, 22, 1918 
 
STATESMAN AND MEDIATOR 241 
 
 And through his counsel and intercession for 
 more than four months he kept Urumia City 
 and villages, and saved the lives of thousands 
 of Moslems." 
 
 In April following the fall of Van in Tur- 
 key, twenty thousand Armenian fugitives with 
 their animals, bundles, pots, and kettles, 
 poured into S almas. They were hungry, so 
 they sacked Moslem villages and found food, 
 while the Moslems scattered in all directions. 
 The Turks followed close behind the fugitives, 
 first in bands of hundreds, then by thousands. 
 They were received with open arms by Per- 
 sians and Kurds, who alone were not of much 
 account as fighters, but joined with the Turks, 
 who were trained and equipped, they made a 
 strong combination against Armenians and 
 Syrians. The latter under Russian officers put "1 
 up a brave fight, holding back the enemy for 
 several weeks. In June the little army gave 
 way before repeated attacks of the Turks and 
 thirty-five thousand people, men, women, and 
 children, in one night, rushed pell-mell over 
 the pass into Urumia, or tried to. It was every , 
 one for himself and the Turk take the hind- 
 most, which he did. Those who came last were 
 caught in the jam on the pass and were robbed 
 and killed, or sent back where later they shared 
 
242 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 the fate of those who had taken refuge in the 
 French Mission at Khosrabad. The most of 
 them reached Urmnia and scattered about in 
 the villages or camped around the city, while 
 their animals pastured on the fields of new 
 grain and clover. 
 
 f The Turks now gathered about Urumia on 
 
 three sides and attacked it fourteen times. 
 The situation was desperate. There were 
 weeks of anxious fear with the battle line but 
 a few miles away. The Turks were pressing 
 from both passes. The lives of the eighty 
 thousand Christians in and around Urumia 
 City depended upon uncertain bands of men 
 and boys, inadequately supplied with rifles and 
 ammunition, There were times when the 
 Turks got within four or five miles of the city 
 before being driven back. The Christians 
 were fighting for their existence with backs 
 against the wall and they fought like heroes. 
 
 '^ Many times the men would say, "The victory 
 was not ours, but God fought for us. We 
 could not have won against such odds." They 
 were underfed and worn out with fighting. 
 Most of them were from families who were 
 dependent upon the wheat given by the Relief 
 Committee, and when they went to battle they 
 could take with them only enough bread for 
 
STATESMAN AND MEDIATOR 243 
 
 a day or two. The Relief Committee under- 
 took to furnish dry bread to the men while 
 in the fighting line. 
 
 Dr. Shedd writing in July said, "I have 
 given up all pretense to neutrality and keep- 
 ing out of military affairs. The people here 
 are not fighting the people of Persia, and will 
 not fight them, unless they are attacked. They 
 are repelhng an attack by an invading foe, 
 and our lives and safety depend on the result 
 of the effort to drive them off. We are under- 
 taking to find money for army use, expecting 
 it to be repaid. 
 
 "In this letter I wish to explain why it has 
 seemed to me imperative to aid in furnishing 
 money for the expenditure of the army here. 
 It is not necessary for me to say that I fully 
 realize that this would be an extraordinary 
 action in any circumstances and that it is 
 directly in contravention of the last instruc- 
 tions that I have received. I have been in- 
 fluenced by the following considerations: 
 
 "(1) The safety of the community, includ- \ 
 ing Americans, as regards both life and prop- 
 erty, depends on the threat of the Turkish 
 invasion being repulsed. It is not a question 
 of fighting between Moslems and Christians, 
 but the question of the armed Christians repel- 
 
244 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 ling Turkish troops who have invaded the 
 country. The Turks demand that the Chris- 
 tians give up all arms and surrender to them. 
 The Persian Government has shown its inca- 
 pacity to take any action in the matter. The 
 Persian Government went to pieces in the dis- 
 turbances begun by Moslems in February, at 
 which time the Government made no effort to 
 prevent the trouble. Since then its existence 
 has been dependent on Christians, and cer- 
 tainly without the help in various ways ren- 
 dered by myself and the American Relief 
 Committee, it would have been unable to main- 
 tain even a semblance of authority or even 
 existence. 
 
 " (2) No instructions have been received by 
 the Government from the authorities in 
 Tabriz ; and if efforts have been made to open 
 communication between Urumia and Tabriz, 
 they have been unavailing. Under the cir- 
 cumstances we are compelled to choose between 
 anarchy and supporting in an effective way 
 the military organization that exists. 
 
 "Since the departure of M. Nikitine, I have 
 been the only representative of the Allied 
 powers here, except the officers of the Russian 
 Caucasus army. Conditions in Russia have 
 reduced the influence of the Russian repre- 
 
STATESMAN AND MEDIATOR 245 
 
 sentatives very much. M. Nikitine was able 
 to maintain influence very much by his per- 
 sonal hold on the community. 
 
 "(3) Military organization here was begun 
 by the instance of the Staff in Tiflis, including 
 the French and British attaches. Later, it 
 was disavowed by the diplomatic authorities at 
 Teheran. The latest information which I 
 have myself is to the effect that the petition of 
 the Syrian National Committee asking that 
 they be taken under the care of the Allied 
 powers was favorably considered. I have 
 heard also indirectly that money was ready in 
 Tabriz for the army here. The people raised 
 voluntary contributions and kept going for 
 a time, but that is no longer practicable. No 
 one else has the requisite financial standing in 
 the community. 
 
 "(4) The situation here has been and still 
 is critical, and it has been necessary to make 
 decisions in important matters without any 
 possible way of asking for instructions or re- 
 ceiving them. I am ready, of course, to give 
 my reasons for that which has taken place and 
 I realize that with the imperfect information 
 that we have had as to conditions outside, my 
 decisions may have been at fault. The money 
 that has been advanced is being used almost 
 
246 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 entirely for food for the army and the expendi- 
 ture is carefully supervised. The persons fed 
 are largely the same people whom we have 
 been helping through the organization of our 
 Relief Committee." 
 
 In April the French Hospital Staff had 
 withdrawn from Urumia. Mr. Nikitine went 
 with them. Mr. Allen had gone with his fam- 
 ily at the same time. Dr. Packard and Dr. 
 Dodd were prostrated with fever for many 
 weeks, and Dr. Ellis was left with the super- 
 intendence of the hospital, the care of the sick 
 missionaries, the Mission and Relief treasuries, 
 and was Dr. Shedd's valued counselor, though 
 he had been in Persia less than three years. 
 All the other Americans with Syrian helpers 
 were busy with the care of refugees, the sick, 
 and other relief and mission work. Dr. 
 Shedd's health was breaking under the strain 
 and there was fear of a recurrence of tubercu- 
 losis. He had been sleeping on the roof until 
 the frequent cries for help, the incessant firing 
 of rifles all night long, and the wailing of the 
 hungry in the streets drove him inside. Here 
 the ringing of the telephones with their de- 
 mands upon him prevented proper sleep. One 
 got a great many thrills by day and night, for 
 though Dr. Shedd had no force at his com- 
 
STATESMAN AND MEDIATOR 247 
 
 mand, the appeals usually came to him. 
 Isaiah's summary of righteousness, "Seek 
 justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the father- 
 less, plead for the widow," was never more lit- 
 erally wrought out in life. 
 
 Day after day the leaders met with him, 
 frequently in our living room, and often it 
 seemed as if each man were striving for place 
 or power for himself or his party when the fate 
 of tens of thousands depended upon their de- 
 cisions. There was no confidence between 
 Christians and Moslems. The Moslems would 
 not allow that Christians had any rights nor 
 Would they live up to their agreements. Be- 
 tween the Armenians and Syrians there was 
 often jealousy and distrust. The atmosphere 
 w^as full of insincerity, deceit, and intrigue. 
 "Wlien I suggested that close and constant 
 association with these things might affect his 
 own character, Dr. Shedd vehemently replied, 
 *'If a man just hates a lie, he need not fear." 
 He wasted no time in accusations or recrimi- 
 nations, nor was he deceived. He often suc- 
 ceeded in getting unified action when no one 
 else could possibly have done so. The Persian 
 Government had gone to pieces, and in the 
 chaos everybody expected Dr. Shedd to do 
 the impossible and placed on him the respon- 
 
248 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 sibility for disorders which could not be con- 
 trolled. "Lonely is the man who understands," 
 and more and more he was left to struggle 
 with the situation alone, and to guide our little 
 ship of state without chart or compass through 
 a sea of blood and anarchy. When I insisted 
 that we must get away to some place where he 
 could recuperate, he thought for a moment 
 then quietly replied, "I cannot leave till the 
 Enghsh come." 
 
 There were reports that the British were 
 advancing through Mesopotamia and we 
 turned our faces in that direction, hoping 
 against hope, for we had heard these reports 
 for months, and still they came no nearer. 
 That Fourth of July was no glorious Fourth 
 to us, but a day of fear and distress and almost 
 despair, but for our faith that God had not 
 forsaken us. Thousands were praying for the 
 sea to divide for that great multitude of people. 
 Everybody was getting ready for flight. The 
 only possible avenue of escape now was the 
 southern pass and we must fight our way 
 through and try to reach the British somewhere 
 to the south. 
 
 "Fighting has been Oriental, though there 
 has been restraint on the part of the leaders," 
 wrote Dr. Shedd. "Moslems before and during 
 
STATESMAN AND MEDIATOR 249 
 
 this time have been guilty of perfidy in many 
 ways and it i^ hard to believe them in any 
 promise. It has been a comphcated and deli- 
 cate situation and I have not been permitted 
 to communicate with Mr. Paddock. The mat- 
 ter of protecting Moslems has been difficult 
 and the feeling among some of the Christians 
 has been pretty ugly toward us, or perhaps 
 I should be more accurate in saying, toward 
 myself. On the other hand, I am credited or 
 charged by the Persians, more perhaps in Ta- 
 briz and Khoi than here, with being the leader 
 in all sorts of things. But aside from the opin- 
 ions of others, it has been hard to decide on thq 
 right course to follow. . , . The main pur- 
 pose has been to secure peace and order. . . . 
 
 "But it is all problematical and I have made 
 up my mind long ago that to guide one's 
 actions by their probable effect on the 'Work,' 
 instead of by the single purpose to do Chris- 
 tian service, is neither the highest policy nor 
 the highest morals. So our right course is to 
 save life now while it is so cheap, and to re- 
 strain evil passions now while they are so un- 
 restrained, and also to be loyal to our Church 
 and national responsibilities. 
 
 "While in our native Church, there have 
 been lamentable lapses, a very large propor- 
 
250 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 tion are living up to the high ideals of Chris- 
 tian conduct, toward enemies as well as toward 
 neighbors. We are hving in another age, and 
 we see the passions and disorders that mark 
 Oriental history from the earliest time at work 
 before our eyes. 
 
 "We are in a peculiar position here and it 
 would be easy to place us in a very unenviable 
 light with reference to undoubted atrocities 
 that have taken place and are taking place. 
 Maybe I can serve as a sort of scapegoat for 
 the missionaries. What we have seen here 
 makes one feel more than ever the incompati- 
 bihty of Islam with modern ideals, or perhaps 
 one should say with Christian ideals. I am not 
 sure that it is not irrepressible conflict politi- 
 cally as well as religiously. The Pseudo-demo- 
 cracy of Persia, that lent itself to the foment- 
 ing of religious hatreds and sold itself to Ger- 
 man money, will probably be discredited, and 
 maybe there will be in its place something more 
 genuine and hopeful. It may be that Islam 
 will learn a lesson as to its incapacity and will 
 find out the reason. If people will only lose 
 \ faith in the intrigue and deceit in which they 
 place their hopes in this affair, it will be worth 
 a great deal in the end. Our position in the 
 community has been a great deal more promi- 
 
STATESMAN AND MEDIATOR 251 
 
 nent than we would like, and one wonders 
 when we shall settle down again to the mis- 
 sionary work that absorbs our energies and 
 time. In a good deal of this I can only rest on 
 the belief that we have earnestly desired and 
 prayed to be guided, and that to doubt guid- 
 ance in the past is as wrong as to doubt that 
 we shall be guided in the future. 
 
 "We have been in a sort of whirlpool caused 
 by the currents and tempests of the Great War 
 and for a time entirely cut off from the stream 
 of great events. For two months we have 
 maintained a police force in the city and vil- 
 lages. It is no exaggeration to say that we 
 have saved thousands of dollars' worth of grain 
 by protecting crops from being pastured, and 
 in other ways we have saved hfe and property. 
 In fact, we have kept the machinery going and 
 have maintained at least the appearance of 
 Persian Government authority. We are sup- 
 porting Turkish prisoners, about two hundred, 
 and there are heavy expenses in the Consular 
 work. 
 
 "Our life here is a striking example of what 
 all life must be in its larger aspects, a drama 
 of which we see only one side and that only 
 in part. What goes on here is a part of what 
 is going on in the World War, but we are cut 
 
252 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 off from the rest and see only our little frag- 
 ment. Consequently, it is very unintelligible 
 to us here, and we are working largely in the 
 dark. The other day, the Turks sent a lieu- 
 tenant with a flamboyant letter telling of the 
 Allied defeats the world over, in France, in 
 Crimea, Hindustan, Persia and elsewhere. So 
 much was said that some of it certainly is a lie ; 
 but one knows so little that he cannot avoid 
 some nervousness. Isn't that the way in our 
 relation to the meaning of life, and especially 
 the great struggle between good and evil? 
 "Whatever we do is part of the great conflict, 
 and this gives meaning to our part, and dignity 
 and assurance. . . . 
 
 "One day I got into a bit of massacring 
 and saw how it is done. I won't forget soon 
 and hope I may never see the thing again. 
 For a few minutes I did not know but that 
 I might take a more direct part in it than 
 I wished to take. I was trying to stop it all 
 and probably did some good. We have here 
 some seventy-five or eighty thousand Syrians 
 and Armenians, and scarcely a third of them 
 belong to Urumia. The Moslems are having 
 the experience of being the under dog, so to 
 speak. It is a bitter experience for them and 
 possibly some of them realize that I and the 
 
STATESMAN AND MEDIATOR 253 
 
 rest of us are trying to do what we can to keep 
 them from being wronged. One sees the ef- 
 fects of the missionary work on the people in 
 the difference between the Urumia Christians 
 and the others. If we had only Urumia Chris- 
 tians to deal with, or others like them, our 
 whole task would be much easier. I wonder if 
 any one ever had quite such a mixed crowd of 
 people as I have to deal with and restrain and 
 do work with. I suppose that others have 
 had just as hard a job but I often wish I 
 could get away from it all." 
 
 It was July 8, when a British aeroplane 
 flew over the city, causing great excitement. 
 Everybody rushed to the roofs and some began 
 firing, thinking it was Turkish. It rose and 
 flew toward the College, circling round over 
 the tall sycamore trees. There the people saw 
 the tricolors and became frantic with joy and 
 shouted and waved from the roofs. Lieuten- 
 ant Pennington, the aviator, knew then that 
 the Turks were not yet in Urumia and landed 
 a mile or two from the city. Two or three 
 thousand people ran out to meet him, pros- 
 trating themselves before him, kissing his 
 hands, his feet and clothing. He was to them 
 a heavenly messenger and brought hope from 
 the only direction that any could have reached 
 
254 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 us. The next morning the aeroplane flew away 
 leaving British promises that they would send 
 a squadron to meet a Syrian- Armenian force 
 at Sain Kala in two weeks with rapid-firing 
 guns, armnunition, money, and British officers. 
 That meant they would reach Urumia in three 
 weeks. Dr. Shedd was exhausted and when 
 I spoke of relief in three weeks, he sighed, 
 *'Can I hold out three weeks longer?" 
 
 The army began making preparations to 
 meet the British with true Oriental lack of 
 haste and efficiency. The first difficulty was 
 getting food supplies. There was no wheat 
 to he bought or confiscated and so they had 
 to harvest and mill the new wheat. They 
 started late, a thousand men under Agha 
 Petros, fought two or three battles with the 
 Turks, and reached Sain Kala several days 
 behind the schedule, to find the British squad- 
 ron had withdrawn. There was consequently 
 a delay of several days before they all joined 
 up at Sain Kala. 
 
 In the meantime affairs in Urumia were 
 not going well. The force that remained 
 could not hold back the- Turks who were press- 
 ing from the north; flight was imminent. 
 
CHAPTER XV: THE FINISHED 
 TASK 
 
 The long dreaded disaster was precipitated 
 July 31. On the afternoon of the previous 
 day word came that the movement had 
 begun en masse. As we still hoped to hold 
 on, Dr. Shedd and Mar Shimon went out to 
 try to stop it, knowing that just as soon as 
 the news of the flight spread, the Christians 
 would be at the mercy of their enemies. Their 
 efforts were in vain ; the Armenians and moun- 
 tain Syrians who were refugees anyway, were 
 on the move, and it was impossible for the 
 Urumia Christians to remain alone. 
 
 When Dr. Shedd returned, he found the 
 leading Syrian and Armenian men gathered 
 at our house for consultation. They talked 
 till midnight, but nothing could be done. At 
 three in the morning word came that the Turks 
 and Kurds were advancing. Dr. Shedd at 
 once notified the College, City, and other 
 places within reach. I began to get ready 
 for our journey the things we had gathered 
 together a month before when we thought we 
 
 255 
 
256 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 were going. There were food, clothing, bed- 
 ding and a hundred other things, for time, 
 place and route were very indefinite and we 
 would not be able to buy supplies along the 
 way. Dr. Shedd hadn't a minute for prepara- 
 tion; people came to him by the score till the 
 last moment. At 5 A. M. he called on the 
 Governor, Ijlal-ul-Mulk, to commit our prop- 
 erty to his care and make a last plea for those 
 who would be left. A few days previously, 
 the Governor had urged him not to go, inviting 
 him to stay with him during the first days of 
 disorder when the Kurds and Turks came in. 
 After the February attack the feeling against 
 all foreigners had been so bitter that we all 
 planned to leave in case of flight. As months 
 passed and we were able to show our true posi- 
 tion by helping, feeding, and protecting thou- 
 sands of Kurds and Persians, the feeling 
 changed. All but my husband and myself de- 
 cided to stay and take the chances in being 
 for a while under Turkish regime at the Hos- 
 pital Compound rather than risk the dangers, 
 privations, and sufferings of such a long and 
 indefinite journey. There were little children 
 and much serious illness in our mission circle, 
 which made it a practical impossibility for most 
 to go. Then there was the question of our 
 
OUR ARMY OF DEFENCE, URUMIA, 1918 
 
 ARMENIAN AND SYRIAN REFUGEES IN THE AVENUE LEADING OUT OF 
 THE KURDISH GATE, URUMIA. 1918 
 
THE FINISHED TASK 257 
 
 property and future work, and though we had 
 learned much about the Turk, we did not an- 
 ticipate the worst that came. Dr. Shedd's posi- 
 tion was different from that of the others. He 
 had been regarded as the leader in our world, 
 and was held responsible for everything that 
 happened. The Turks blamed him more than 
 any one else for the long fight they had had 
 to make for Urumia and made all sorts of 
 threats against him. After the Governor 
 urged his remaining, even though he might 
 safely do so, we thought he ought to go. 
 There was no leadership among the people. 
 He was the one who could do most with and 
 for them. They begged him to go as they 
 would need some one to speak for them when- 
 ever the flight might stop, as well as to advise 
 and direct along the way. 
 
 The missionary men from the College came 
 to see us off and Dr. Packard placed our city 
 property in charge of a Turkish officer, a pris- 
 oner who had been under treatment at the 
 hospital. We left about 7:30 and two 
 or three hours later, Kurds and Turks 
 reached the city. As we drove out, my hus- 
 band said quite cheerfully, "Well, we're going 
 to have some more experiences together'' and 
 I replied, "Just so it's together" Then, as he 
 
258 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 looked upon that fleeing multitude, "Oh, to 
 liave tried so hard and to have failed!" he said. 
 Eut there was no failure on his part; except 
 for him it would have come long before. The 
 cannon were booming in the suburbs as we 
 went down the Avenue to the river. 
 
 The first day there were numerous little 
 bridges made of sticks and earth, over which 
 quilts were thrown to make them passable for 
 carts. The jam at the bridges was indescrib- 
 able confusion ; every kind of vehicle, ox-carts, 
 buffalo-wagons, troikas or springless wagons, 
 furgans like prairie schooners, hay wagons, 
 phaetons, and Red Cross carts, remnants of 
 the Russian hospital, and many others in- 
 vented for the occasion. There were herds of 
 thousands of sheep and goats driven along 
 for the first few days, and donkeys, horses, 
 buffaloes, oxen, cows with their calves, and 
 mules. All gave a fine opportunity for ob- 
 serving their good and bad points as beasts 
 of burden. By evening we found ourselves 
 in a long line of vehicles between two walls, 
 in a road approaching a narrow Russian-built 
 bridge across the Baranduz river, 16 miles 
 from the city. 
 
 It grew dark and we could not cross until 
 the moon came up shortly after midnight. 
 
THE FINISHED TASK 259 
 
 Each kept his place in the line and we lay- 
 down in the bottom of our cart and tried to 
 sleep, without success. At two we crossed the 
 river and when we reached the foot of the 
 mountain, stopped to make tea with the samo- 
 var before starting up. Along the road were 
 scattered samovars, kettles, carpets, and bed- 
 ding which were being thrown away to lighten 
 the loads. At the top of the pass was a dying 
 baby. We covered it over to protect it from 
 the sun and passed on. On the descent were 
 a number of bodies of those who had given 
 out. 
 
 At noon of the third day we reached Haida- 
 rabad at the southern end of Urumia Lake, 
 where the Russians had built up a little port, 
 now entirely deserted. Some of the travelers 
 stopped to rest, but we went on. In the middle 
 of the afternoon, a rider dashed up to us with 
 the word that those in the rear had been at- 
 tacked at Haidarabad and that the Turks were 
 but an hour behind us. It seemed like our death 
 knell. Everybody began urging the tired ani- 
 mals on and those on foot made another effort 
 to hasten their pace. It seemed that at any 
 moment we should hear the cries of those be- 
 hind as the enemy fell upon them. All the 
 fighters had gone on ahead, except a few men 
 
260 THE MEASUHE OF A MAN 
 
 with rifles scattered through the crowds with 
 their families. 
 
 For a few moments neither my husband nor 
 I spoke. There was nothing left on earth to 
 do. I had put into the hand bag a little Brown- 
 ing revolver which had been given him several 
 months before when he was in constant per- 
 sonal danger. It had usually reposed in the 
 bureau drawer. He had never used it and we 
 both agreed that he would not now. Later, 
 word passed along the line that we were not 
 being followed, but we did not dare trust it. 
 
 Dr. Shedd might be able to do something as 
 a mediary for the people, so he whipped up 
 the tired horse to reach as quickly as possible 
 the next town, Mehmetgar, where he hoped 
 to find the Persian authorities and persuade 
 them to intercede for the people. But they 
 had all vanished on the approach of this horde 
 of fugitives. 
 
 We were climbing a mountainous road 
 and people were throwing away their stuff 
 and leaving heavy vehicles behind. Along the 
 river at Mehmetgar were camped perhaps 
 fifty thousand people, expecting to spend 
 the night there. !N'ow all began to move, 
 though it was sunset. We sent back a bor- 
 rowed horse to bring our steamer trunk and 
 
THE FINISHED TASK 261 
 
 left the wagon with the rest of the load on 
 the hill. 
 
 Traveling on in the dark over bad, uncer- 
 tain roads, we found ourselves in a field where 
 a number stopped for the night. Guards Vv^ere 
 placed in turn and we lay down in our blankets, 
 but could not sleep, and long before light were 
 on the road again, not knowing how near the 
 enemy might be. In leaving Urumia we 
 hoped in three or four days to meet the army 
 returning with the British and planned that 
 the crowd would camp somewhere imtil 
 Urumia was retaken, but we were bitterly dis- 
 appointed; there was no sign of them. 
 
 Near the top of the mountain trail, sitting 
 on the grass all alone, was a tiny baby girl 
 about a year old, quite deserted. We pulled 
 up the horse and took her in. She was ill and 
 it was impossible to care for her along that 
 road. At the next village we found a young 
 Kurdish woman who promised to keep her 
 until our return. We gave the woman a goodly 
 sum of money and promised more if the baby 
 looked well when we came back. How little 
 did we know of what lay before us ! 
 
 Frequently we heard of attacks on the rear; 
 some were killed, others taken captive and we 
 heard no more about them. The fugitives were 
 
262 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 kept in a state of nervous fear and were ready 
 to run and leave their loads of food and bed- 
 ding at the first alarm. The money being silver 
 was heavy and usually carried in the load, often 
 hidden in the flour. When the attack came, 
 the donkey would stick in a mud hole or be 
 too tired to be urged forward and the owner 
 would run for his life and remember too late 
 that he had left his money. 
 
 We reached Mianduab at noon of the fifth 
 day. Thousands had stopped there for a noon 
 rest and we were able for the first time to buy 
 bread and fruit. Dr. Shedd tried to call on 
 the officials, but all had departed. Here word 
 reached us that the British were at Sain Kala, 
 less than two days away. That night at Kara- 
 war an we camped with a few others in an 
 orchard enclosed by a high wall. The next 
 morning at six we sat down on the grass to 
 drink tea, when suddenly a lively firing opened 
 up just outside the wall. Dr. Shedd jmnped 
 on a horse standing nearby and rushed out to 
 get the men with rifles to make a stand. The 
 rest of us tumbled our stuff into the carts and 
 hitched up the horses. Every one was excited 
 and nervous and didn't know which way to go. 
 Our road was where they were fighting. We 
 engaged a Moslem boy to guide us through 
 
THE FINISHED TASK 263 
 
 the narrow streets and alleys of the town. 
 When we finally reached the main road, we 
 were in the extreme rear; only a few wagons 
 and pedestrians were behind us. Hurrying 
 on a mile or two, we found the main line of 
 animals and vehicles jammed in between two 
 walls and unable to move until the way was 
 opened at the front where there was also fight- 
 ing. On the right was the river and at one 
 point the enemy came up the bank and left 
 a number of dead, mostly women. We drove 
 our cart under the shelter of a wall and had 
 protection from one side, for rifles were crack- 
 ing all about us. 
 
 All this time I hadn't seen my husband; 
 he was in the rear encouraging those there 
 and keeping the gunmen at their task while 
 the families got away. One of the women 
 afterward told me that she and her family 
 would certainly have been captured or killed 
 at this place, except for Dr. Shedd, and that 
 many others would have met the same fate, 
 for the men with rifles would not have stayed 
 but that they were ashamed to run away when 
 Dr. Shedd was there. When we came up with 
 the last ones, he was so conspicuous in khaki 
 and helmet on horseback that fearing he might 
 be picked off by those firing from across river. 
 
264 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 I went to him and begged him to look out for 
 his safety, which was the last thing he could do. 
 
 The force pursuing us was a band of a few 
 hundred Persians and Turks under Majd-es- 
 Saltanah, formerly of Urumia. 
 
 When the firing at the front ceased, that 
 desperate jumble of humanity began franti- 
 cally to move forward; it was pandemonium. 
 Many carts and wagons were discarded with 
 little children and old women left sitting in 
 them, too stupefied to stir. Many completely 
 lost their heads and did not know what they 
 were doing. Hundreds left their food and 
 went hungry for days. 
 
 One of my school-girls told me afterwards 
 that when she reached the river at this place, 
 pursued by those demons and unable to carry 
 both her children, she held one child over her 
 head and waded through the river. Looking 
 back she saw that it was too late to return for 
 the other one and he was left sitting there 
 on the opposite bank. The memory of her 
 deserted baby haunted her day and night. 
 
 The firing kept up three or four hours, then 
 there was a respite. Again in the afternoon 
 we were followed by our foes, who kept under 
 shelter themselves as they fired into the long 
 line of fleeing folk stretching out for miles 
 
THE FINISHED TASK 265 
 
 along the base of the mountains. The men 
 sometimes gave them chase, but usually fired 
 from the road as they hurried their families 
 along. Again Dr. Shedd got on a horse and 
 rode among them to "give them heart" and 
 detain some riflemen among those too weary 
 to keep up. 
 
 The road was steep, our horses were done 
 out, bullets were flying all about us, one almost 
 grazed Dr. Shedd's face. It looked as if we 
 should have to leave everything and run for 
 our lives while our pursuers stopped to loot. 
 There was little six-year-old May whom we 
 had picked up when her father's carts had 
 given out. She had unconcernedly curled up 
 on the seat for a nap. I wrapped some bread 
 in a cloth and took the bag of money from the 
 satchel in order to be ready at a moment's 
 notice from my husband, if they should swoop 
 down upon us. This kind of cowardly fighting 
 was kept up by the Persians imtil late in the 
 afternoon, when Azariah, one of the Urumia 
 leaders, who had come back to help us, arrived 
 with a few men and got possession of the 
 ridge of hills and so protected the exhausted 
 fugitives as they crept along their dolorous 
 way. 
 
 Toward evening we were met by a squad of 
 
266 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 nine Britishers under Captain Savage, with 
 Lewis guns. They greeted us and passed on 
 to rescue the stragglers. Word had reached 
 the British camp that Dr. Shedd and I had 
 been taken prisoners and these officers had 
 come to our help. One of them, Captain 
 Nicols, never returned. 
 
 We had been under fire nearly all day. 
 Dr. Shedd was exhausted; he had eaten prac- 
 tically nothing, having left his breakfast with- 
 out a bite. We had hardly thought of food 
 all day. Yet he was glad in the thought that 
 in the morning we would at last reach the Brit- 
 ish and he could throw off his crushing burden 
 of responsibility for the safety and for the sins 
 of the people. We found a quiet place near 
 a threshing floor to camp, and through the 
 kindness of Syrian friends, had a bowl of hot 
 food that night. Dr. Shedd refused to eat 
 all his portion, for near by was one of his stu- 
 dents who, with a band of six or eight boys, 
 had fought bravely all day, and he must share 
 the best there was. 
 
 We were up before light, drank a little coffee 
 and were soon on the road. We reached Sain 
 Kala about nine o'clock and walked out to 
 the British camp where we were cordially 
 received by Major Moore and Captain George 
 
THE FINISHED TASK 267 
 
 S. Reed. The latter was an old acquaintance, 
 having been connected with the Mission of 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury in Urumia a 
 few years before. My husband was so elated ; 
 there was a ring in his voice, a light in his eye, 
 a buoyancy in his step, that I had not seen for 
 months, and I thought oiu* worst troubles were 
 past. 
 
 We had been in the camp but a short time 
 when word came from Captain Savage that 
 they had been attacked by a large force sev- 
 eral miles out and needed assistance. The 
 cavalry was ordered out and soon the camp 
 was in commotion. The native leaders were 
 called and asked to get their men together, but 
 they were scattered through the crowds with 
 their families and there was little response. 
 Dr. Shedd talked to them till he was exhausted. 
 There were less than two hundred men in the 
 British cavalry. It was a tragic situation. 
 The great unorganized multitude of fugitives 
 who had camped all about in orchards, gardens 
 and houses, and spread out over the fields and 
 hillsides, began to move on slowly but irre- 
 sistibly. Some of the men were sent back to 
 fight, many of the refugees were killed, and 
 women and girls taken captive, the people of 
 Sain Kala and towns and villages in the rear 
 
268 THE MEASURE OF A ]VL\N 
 
 joining in the attack against them. The attack 
 was not entirely without provocation, for the 
 disorderly element among the fugitives had 
 plundered shops and houses and in other ways 
 aroused the enmity of the villagers, and those 
 who followed and the law-abiding paid the pen- 
 alty. The Urumia people were the worst suf- 
 ferers. Captain Savage's small band, a few 
 miles behind, made a heroic defense against sev- 
 eral hundred organized troops, and with their 
 rapid-firing guns held them back until the cav- 
 alry arrived. It was here that Captain Nicols 
 went into a village and was never seen again. 
 A year later I was in that region and made 
 inquiries in several villages, thinking that I 
 might find his grave, but could get no informa- 
 tion. 
 
 An hour or two after our arrival in the Brit- 
 ish camp, Dr. Shedd complained of feeling ill 
 and as the tent was very hot, 1 made a place 
 for him to lie down in the cart, which, being 
 open at both ends, was cooler than the tent. 
 As he grew worse, the baggage was taken out 
 and we made him as comfortable as possible 
 on the floor. The British doctor was out with 
 the cavalry, but Dr. Jesse Yonan of Urumia 
 was there, and fearing cholera, we gave him 
 calomel. Late in the afternoon the British 
 
THE FINISHED TASK 269 
 
 camp was moved to the shelter of the hills. 
 We started out while it was still light that he 
 might not be jolted on the bad roads, expecting 
 to follow the camp loads. Dr. Yonan and 
 other Syrian friends came along with us on 
 horseback. Darkness came down quickly; my 
 husband needed all my attention and I did not 
 watch the road. After what seemed like hours 
 of stumbling along in the dark, we found our- 
 selves in a gully. We had passed the British 
 camp; the roads were too unsafe and rough 
 to return; there was nothing to do but remain 
 there until morning. Only a few drops of oil 
 ^ere left in the lantern. I lighted it and saw 
 that my husband was very ill, indeed. Two 
 of the men went back over the dangerous road 
 for the doctor. Hour after hour I crouched 
 beside my husband in the cart, trying to ease 
 the pain when the con\ailsions came. We made 
 coffee at the blaze, for there was no other nour- 
 ishment to give. As he grew weaker and 
 weaker, a terrible fear tugged at my heart, 
 but it was impossible even to think it. He had 
 not spoken for a long time, but when the doctor 
 reached us about midnight, he whispered 
 faintly, *'I never was so tired in all my life." 
 After a hypodermic injection, he did not regain 
 consciousness. The doctor returned to the 
 
270 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 camp, telling us to wait for him in the morning. 
 
 Fifty thousand terror-stricken fugitives had 
 passed on, a baby wailed all night nearby, the 
 desolate, rocky mountain loomed above us, 
 darkness was all about us, and it seemed that 
 no prayer could pierce that terrible gloom. 
 When the revealing light came, I could see 
 the awful change in his face, but I would not 
 beheve that he was leaving me. We heard 
 fighting behind and knew the British were 
 attacked. We dared not wait, so, in his dying 
 hour, he was jolted over the stony trail. 
 
 In an hour or two Dr. Featherstonhaugh 
 and Captain Reed caught up to us. The doc- 
 tor pronounced the disease cholera. A few 
 short, sharp breaths, and I was alone. A little 
 farther on, with a small adz and fingers, they 
 dug a shallow grave, and with the canvas from 
 the cart for a shroud, we laid him there. Dr. 
 Yonan read the burial service and a cross was 
 cut on the rock beside the grave. It seemed 
 impossible to go off and leave him there in 
 that unfriendly land, but there could be no 
 tarrying. Leaving the carts and most of the 
 stuff, we mounted the horses and followed the 
 fugitives. 
 
 Disease which had broken out among the 
 people now spread rapidly and from Sain 
 
THE FINISHED TASK 271 
 
 Kala to Hamadan, about three weeks' journey 
 for most through scorching heat, hunger and 
 thirst, the roadsides were lined with the dead 
 and the dying of our people. Those too weak 
 to keep up were killed and stripped of every- 
 thing by Persians and Kurds, while women and 
 girls met a horrible fate. There was hardly 
 a family without losses. The little British 
 force following in the rear did everything pos- 
 sible to protect and help the people. Many of 
 them walked and took women and children on 
 their horses. But the horrors of those days 
 must be covered with a veil of silence. 
 
 The news of Dr. Shedd's death swept along 
 that hne of suffering humanity like a wave of 
 black despair. Day after day as I rode along 
 on my horse, I was greeted by grief-stricken 
 faces and the despairing cry, "Wliat shall we 
 do? Our father is gone, our back is broken; 
 there is no one left on earth to help us. Would 
 that half our nation had died and he had lived !" 
 And as they mingled their tears with mine and 
 the moan of my own heart found ten thousand 
 echoes in theirs, I became one of them, and we 
 all knew that the worst had come to us. 
 
CHAPTER XVI: THE THINGS 
 THAT REMAIN 
 
 By the kindness of British officers, I reached 
 Hamadan and missionary friends twenty-five 
 days after leaving Urumia. Several thousand 
 of the people found their way into the city 
 where the missionaries, relief workers and 
 British were able, in a small measure, to relieve 
 their suffering, but the mass of them were 
 gathered by the British military into a tempo- 
 rary camp a few miles from the city of Hama- 
 dan. Later, in order to make it possible to 
 feed and protect them, they were moved three 
 hundred miles farther south into Mesopotamia, 
 where a great camp was established at Baqu- 
 bah, thirty miles north of Bagdad. Fifty thou- 
 sand refugees were gathered into this wonder- 
 ful tent city, protected and rationed by the 
 British. Hospitals were opened with doctors 
 and nurses from India and England. Despite 
 the fine medical care, several thousand died 
 of exhaustion and of disease contracted on the 
 journey. 
 
 In October I joined a group of American 
 missionaries and other relief workers in the 
 
 272 
 
THE THINGS THAT REMAIN 273 
 
 camp. But my heart was back among the hills 
 of Sain Kala and I knew that I must recover 
 the body of my husband and make him a safe 
 grave among friends. In April with a number 
 of missionaries just arrived from America, I 
 made the six weeks' journey to Tabriz, hoping 
 to find an opportunity to go to Sain Kala. 
 
 After our flight on July 31, 1918, several 
 thousand Christians who did not make their 
 escape from Urumia, were killed by Persians, 
 Turks, and Kurds. ]Monseigneur Sonntag, of 
 the French Catholic Mission, was murdered by 
 those whom for months he had protected and 
 sheltered, and of the six hundred who had 
 taken refuge with him, only a few women 
 escaped to tell the awful story. Of some two 
 thousand deported to S almas by the Turks, 
 but three or four hundred lived to return to 
 Urumia. Mr. Herman Pflaumer, who with 
 his wife and Miss Bridges stayed at the Or- 
 phanage with the children, was killed that first 
 day and most of the orphans were killed or scat- 
 tered. The missionaries were interned at the 
 Hospital Compound by the Turks, who filled 
 the hospital and school buildings with their 
 own sick, with the result that nearly all the 
 missionaries sickened of the fever brought in. 
 Miss Lenore R. Schoebel laid down her life 
 
274 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 there, September 28, dying of pernicious 
 malaria, the sixth war victim from om* mis- 
 sionary group in Urumia. Scores of native 
 Christians who had taken refuge with the mis- 
 sionaries also died there. 
 
 October 8, the missionaries were deported 
 to Tabriz by the Turks and after being held 
 for a week, they were dismissed, no charge 
 being made against them. At the same time 
 Dr. W. S. Vanneman and Rev. Frederick N. 
 Jessup, of our Mission in Tabriz, were re- 
 leased, they having been held prisoners by the 
 Turks forty-four days. 
 
 After the departure of the Turks, the eight 
 hundred Christians left in Urumia were gath- 
 ered into our City Compound by one of their 
 own number, Mrs. Judith David, who fed and 
 cared for them with Relief funds sent from 
 Tabriz. 
 
 Thinking the dangers past, Dr. Packard and 
 his family returned to Urumia in May and 
 the rest of the Urumia missionaries then in 
 Tabriz w^ere preparing to do so, when the final 
 blow came. Persians and Kurds were fighting 
 in Urumia. On May 24, after driving the 
 Kurds from the city, the Persians entered the 
 American Mission Compound and fell upon 
 the Christians who for eight months had prac- 
 
THE THINGS THAT REMAIN 275 
 
 tically been their prisoners. About two hun- 
 dred and fifty were killed, a hundred more 
 wounded, and scores most brutally treated. 
 The American flag was torn down and 
 trampled in the dust. Six hundred, with Dr. 
 Packard and his family found refuge at the 
 Government house where they lived in con- 
 stant danger for three weeks. Everything 
 portable that had been left by the Turks, in- 
 cluding doors and windows, was carried off 
 from the Mission compounds or destroyed. 
 
 Then came the thrilling rescue by our Amer- 
 ican Consul, Mr. Gordon Paddock. Accom- 
 panied by Rev. H. A. Muller and Dr. E. M. 
 Dodd of om^ Mission, a British chauffeur and 
 a friendly Persian official, he went to Urumia 
 with two Ford cars which did not stop for 
 punctures or blowouts. When tires could no 
 longer hold air, they were stuffed with hay. 
 After parleying with Simku in S almas for 
 several days, he gave them an escort of a hun- 
 dred warriors to Urumia. There by daring, 
 bluff, and diplomacy, they took out the six 
 hundred and the Packard family, through 
 streets lined with hostile Persians threatening 
 them at every step. Crossing the Lake by 
 boat and raft, they were brought to Tabriz by 
 rail. Here they were received and cared for 
 
2T6 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 by the Americans with Near East Relief funds. 
 Following this was a massacre by Tartars of 
 several thousand Armenians just across the 
 Persian border in southern Russia. Eight 
 hundred or a thousand escaped into Persia and 
 were brought to Tabriz and taken under the 
 care of the Relief Committee. There were 
 serious threatenings of trouble in Tabriz for 
 a while so that it was not until September that 
 the journey to Sain Kala was attempted. 
 
 Accompanied by Rev. J. C. Crothers of the 
 Presbyterian Mission, and Dr. Joel Joseph, 
 a Syrian physician of Maragha, we reached 
 the village of Sain Kala in five days from 
 Tabriz, traveling with a carriage and an open 
 wagon. The next morning with guards from 
 the Governor, we started out over the road of 
 flight through the hills. This was a critical 
 time and I knew that others were doubtful of 
 my finding the burial place in that unfamiliar 
 wilderness. We went on till noon, then the 
 Moslem drivers refused to go farther, for there 
 was no wagon road. They were finally per- 
 suaded and we pushed on till three in the after- 
 noon before I could find any sign that would 
 enable me to trace the journey of the year 
 before. When we came to a stream overshad- 
 owed by the great rocky side of a hill, I remem- 
 
THE THINGS THAT REMAIN 277 
 
 bered that I had been alone at that place. We 
 turned back and at sunset found the grave 
 which we had passed in the morning. 
 
 All that year of aching silence dropped 
 away as I hurried up the bank to the cross- 
 hewn rock and stood beside the grave. It was 
 empty! Absolutely empty! Wild beasts had 
 done their worst! In my anguish I heard a 
 voice saying, ''Why do you look among the 
 dead for him who is alive?" 
 
 We placed the relics of his mortality in the 
 casket we had brought and in the darkness 
 turned toward Tabriz. At the stopping places 
 along the way, we were hospitably received 
 in Persian houses. At Maragha the priest of 
 the Old Armenian Church called with his 
 elders and members and asked to have a public 
 service. They covered the casket with flowers 
 and forming a procession, we went to the 
 church. In his sermon the old priest claimed 
 him a sacrifice for his people as well as for 
 the Syrians, and as I watched the swinging 
 censer, the burning candles, and the ritual so 
 different from our Protestant service, I under- 
 stood that it is in sacrificial love that we find 
 our Christian unity. 
 
 We made his grave in the Christian ceme- 
 tery in Tabriz, where the dust of many races 
 
278 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 mingles. At the public service in the cemetery, 
 more than two thousand came to pay their 
 tribute of affection, many of them homeless 
 wanderers whose loved ones had been left 
 along the mountain trails of Turkey, and scat- 
 tered through the plains and highlands of 
 Persia, for a thousand miles, down into the 
 deserts and valleys of Mesopotamia, a witness 
 to their faith and to the cruel hate of Islam. 
 
 Dr. Iskander Ivhan, a Syrian friend, who 
 spoke that day of "Dr. Shedd, the Man," 
 speaks for his people when he calls him, "The 
 man of brains and resource, gentle but decided 
 on occasion; the friend of justice and helper 
 of the oppressed ; a real democrat, courageous, 
 and keen against sin but the friend of sinners ; 
 a good companion, genial and tactful; strong 
 in friendship and promises; influential, having 
 confidence in others; a man of peace and hope, 
 a man of patience and faith. O God, increase 
 men like him !" 
 
 y^ 7^ y^ ^ ^ y^ y^ 
 
 Tradition says that Christianity was brought 
 to Urumia nineteen hundred years ago by St. 
 Thomas, who walked across the Lake, and the 
 event has been celebrated each year by the 
 Christians there. Certain it is that for many 
 centuries Nestorian, or Syrian Christians, 
 
THE THINGS THAT REMAIN 279 
 
 have lived on the Urumia plain as Persian sub- 
 jects. They have acquired houses, vineyards, 
 and fields. Here their people have hved and 
 died for twenty generations. Their affections 
 center in this one place, they know no other 
 home. 
 
 The Syrian mountain tribes, who were sub- 
 jects of the Sultan, love with passionate loyalty 
 their rugged hills and steep valleys, yet these 
 Syrian people, like the Armenians, are kept 
 in exile several years after the Great War 
 fought for "humanity and the rights of small 
 nations." Their homes and possessions are in 
 the hands of their Mohammedan neighbors, 
 while they, but a small remnant of their peo- 
 ple, wander as beggars through Persia and 
 Mesopotamia, the victims of Persians, Turks, 
 Kurds, and Arabs. 
 
 In Urumia the missions, churches, schools, 
 and homes of the Christians, are a desolation, 
 and for the first time in six or seven centuries, 
 Christianity has apparently been exterminated. 
 "And Urmi knows the Christ no more." 
 
 Is this the end? A thousand years of mis- 
 sionary life have been given to the peoples 
 over there. For eighty years Christ has 
 been preached and the principles of His 
 Gospel have been taught through word and 
 
280 THE MEASURE OF A MAN 
 
 deed by missionaries sent from our own 
 land, while thousands of His followers 
 there through the years have witnessed by life 
 and by death to the faith that was in them. 
 The sowing has been in tears, the harvest must 
 come with rejoicing. God has not left Him- 
 self without witness there. 
 
 In the words of William A. Shedd written 
 in 1916, "It lies with us to see that the blood 
 shed and the suffering endured are not in vain. 
 May God grant and may we who know so well 
 the wi^ongs that have been borne, so labor that 
 the cause of these wrongs be removed. That 
 will be done when Christ rules in the hearts 
 of those who profess His name and is acknowl- 
 edged by all, not merely as a great prophet but 
 as the Saviour for Whose coming prophecy 
 prepared the way, Who is the fulfillment of 
 revelation, and in Whom human destiny will 
 find its goal." 
 
 THE END 
 
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