Journal 40, page 07

on a single plate-though we have now been so long accustomed to the "long drawn out" style of a European "table d'hote" & to being handed down to the dessert by gentle & imperceptible gradations that I felt "kind of lost" when the blanc-mange & fruits came suddenly upon me after a single plate (albeit said plate included half a dozen different "dishes." I am learning to like Turkish coffee & certainly relished as its rare flavor merited, that which good cordial Mrs. Long prepared for us.

The evening passed delightfully-looking at Miss Long's collection of souvenir flowers (from which she gave me specimens from the grave of Polycarp & Henry Martyr-& in hearing Dr. L's stories of missionary experience with his wife's sprightly "interlardings." Extracts from his note book, & his published letters accompanied these verbal reminiscences & we were likely not to go home till morning, so pleasantly & swiftly went the hours.

Dr. L. thinks "there is not oxygen enough in the air one breathes in the Greek Church to keep alive a vital Christainity" & differs from Dr. Hill of Athens in his views of missionary policy. Yet, he says, he moves with extreme caution & lays this down as a general principle to his converts: "Do not openly declare your opinions or foresake your Church until a clear case of conscience obliges you to depart from its requirements." (Apropos of this he related the story of Toda (?) a Bulgarian convert who has suffered great persecutions of a colporteur in whose behalf he has just interceded with the chief pacha of the Sultan's cabinet- of an old woman of 60 who was not allowed to read the Testament-& many others. Mrs. L's story of the missionary who gave an old swallow-tail coat to a Bulgarian & found the man's wife tricked out in it soon after,-of the married pair who couldn't both go to church on Sunday "because they had but one pair of trousers between them"-& of her isolated life in the interior of the province for many years, when she never saw an English speaking person & could get nothing to eat but beans & used to dream of "mashed potatoes" were glimpses of missionary experience that I am not likely to forget. Dr. L. made his own grammar & dictionary when he learned the Bulgarian language. (His story of the letter he wrote the native "school teacher."-the Greek Bishop didn't know a word of Bulgarian & when he found the Dr. was learning fast, warned his people against him as "a pestilential fellow." The Bp. an immoral miserable old man who replied when taken to task for his bad life: "That does not concern anybody in the least. All my people have to do with is my creed-examine that-it is without a flaw!"

D. Magiar & Cini.

Merchand

of Several, Curiosity Oriental Articles.

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The above sign adorns our first stopping place.