Letter from Dora Giffen to her mother Frances Martin Giffen and the rest of her family in New Concord, Ohio, April 8, 1921
MLA Citation
Giffen, Dora Eunice, 1897-1982. “Letter from Dora Giffen to her mother Frances Martin Giffen and the rest of her family in New Concord, Ohio, April 8, 1921.” Digital Gallery. BGSU University Libraries, 31 Mar. 2023, digitalgallery.bgsu.edu/items/show/41477. Accessed 15 Feb. 2025.
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Title | Letter from Dora Giffen to her mother Frances Martin Giffen and the rest of her family in New Concord, Ohio, April 8, 1921 |
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Subject | Giffen, Dora Eunice, 1897-1982 |
Women missionaries--Correspondence | |
Egypt--Social conditions | |
Egypt--Politics and government--1919-1952 | |
Missions--Egypt | |
Protestant churches--Missions--Egypt | |
Presbyterians--Egypt--Correspondence | |
Egypt--Church history | |
Christianity--Egypt | |
Missions to Muslims--Egypt | |
Protest movements--Egypt | |
Egypt--Description and travel | |
Anti-imperialist movements--Egypt | |
Description | Letter from Dora Giffen to her family in Ohio about her missionary life in Cairo, the health and activities of her peers, and about the political demonstrations and changes going on in the country, including a length description of he arrival of and reception for Saʻd Zaghlūl in Egypt. |
Creator | Giffen, Dora Eunice, 1897-1982 |
Source | Dora E. Giffen papers; MS-0309; Center for Archival Collections; University Libraries; Bowling Green State University |
Date | 1921-04-08 |
Rights | |
Format | Correspondence |
application/pdf | |
Language | eng |
Identifier | ms00309_b001_f002_i00021.pdf |
https://digitalgallery.bgsu.edu/items/show/41477 | |
Is Referenced By | https://lib.bgsu.edu/findingaids/repositories/4/resources/1425 |
Spatial Coverage | Cairo (Egypt) |
Type | Text |
1) 45 Faggala, Cairo. Friday, April 8, ‘21 Dear Mother and All: This week's letter from you came in the mail that was passed around after supper tonight. The mail did not arrive as early in the week this week as last. Needless to say I enjoyed the letter so much. I am sorry that Mother has to take off so much time every week to write her letters but if you knew how much I enjoy them, Mother, I am sure you would feel at least partly repaid. From Mon. morning until the day when the foreign mail finally does arrive I look in almost every mail for my letter from home. I certainly do hope that your housework next year will not be as heavy as it is this. You have far too much to do this year. I was just thinking the other day that if I had known when I sent in my application to come to Egypt last year that you would be moving to that big house in New Concord so soon, I certainly would have delayed my coming for at least another year for very likely I could have gotten work at N.C. But probably it is best as it is, if you do not break down under the heavy weight. Thank you, thank you so very much for the pougee waist, gloves, Muskingum Song Book, and Festival Music which you are sending. You could not, - even if you had spent most of your time in thinking about it, - have sent me things that could have pleased me more. Waists are things I am going to need out here and since coming I had particularly thought of wanting a pougee waist. So many have them and they are so serviceable. And I had just worn a hole in the pair of kid gloves that I had been wearing for my best. Somehow I have been unusually hard on gloves this year. I have worn out two pairs of kid gloves this winter; however one pair was gotten in Naples and seemed to be of inferior quality (material). I had been wanting a “Song Book” ever since I had seen in the B. and M. that there was such a thing. Lois Galt said she had received one and that it was a fine little book. One of the University boys had borrowed it for a song or two that he wanted to teach the Egyptian boys. I can hardly wait until mine gets here. As for the Festival Music, I was fairly in raptures when I heard it was coming. What made you so thoughtful as to think of sending it, and with the piano parts too? In previous years I would have liked very much to have had copies of the Festival Music to keep, - (and now when I think of certain strains from music we have played but cannot recall the whole pieces, I wish more than every that I had the Festival Music of previous years), - but Prof. Gray wanted to keep all the copies and they would have been quite expensive for me to have bought for myself, so I never got any period for the last few Saturdays I had been thinking about Festival practices which had probably started and had wished several times that I could see some of the music that they were going to use this year. And here I am to see some of that music! Thank you so much. Are there to be two nights of the Festival program again this year? I miss a good many things that I had and did at Muskingum in years previous to this, but beyond a doubt the thing that I miss the most is my orchestra work and particularly the work in the Festival Orchestra. So if Prof. Gray is kind enough to think that perhaps he may miss my violin this year, he may rest assured that he is not missing the one violin as much as I am missing the many. But don't think, though, 2) that I haven't been having some good times with my violin out here. I certainly am thankful to you folks for my training, even though the way I play does not sound, sometimes, like much training, I am afraid. Since Dr. Zwemer is to spend his last Sabbath for several months with us on day after tomorrow he has especially requested Mr. Maud to have our quartette sing again a selection from “The Crucifixion” which we sang once before, “For God So Loved the World.” It is a pretty thing and I would really enjoy singing it more if Fay Ralph, Alto, was just a little truer as regards pitch. It was just a little hard to keep up to correct pitch the time we sang it before. We sang it without the accompaniment but managed in practices to end on the same note we started on. Those were good grades Willard made. It is too bad that he could not get his “success grade.” I hope this term of school will not be as hard on him physically as the others have been. I sent a small package to Alexandria yesterday for Mr. Reed. If it reaches Alex. safely, I hope it will get to New Concord before Commencement. I think you will have no trouble in deciding who the different little things are for. I have them marked. I hope the boys like their “tentwork,” as I call it. The piece with the Egyptian eagle on (it) I like as well as any I have seen out here. The Mauds have some very nice pieces in their house. Everyone seems to have some of it. I ought really to have gotten Frances some little thing for her Commencement but somehow I did not think of it at the time. I wonder, Mother, if you would take a little out of what I am sending home to get her some little thing. Now I may be depending on that small amount of money, that I am soon going to write to Latimer about, to do too much. If so I am going to send some more later on. I have told Mr. Reed that you would pay him for customs charges, Mother, on that package I am sending with him. (To send money in the mail here in Egypt is not safe in these days.) so please don't forget to tell me how much the charges are when the package reaches you. Gladys's little doily or center-piece seems to be exactly like the one Cousin Edna gave me for my birthday. Your speaking of a thunderstorm, Mother, reminds me that last Tues. morning, at about five A.M., I heard it thunder three times and saw it lightning several more times (than that). That was the first thunder I had ever heard in Egypt. I could easily imagine I had been in America. The air these spring days is nice and fresh and because of the way it makes me feel I could almost think that we are just emerging from a long, cold winter. You did not have much real winter this year, did you? Well, I suppose you are anxious to know what happened on last Tuesday. Every time that I happened to waken during the night before, it seemed to me, by the sound, that people, people, and then some more people were going past. As soon as it got daylight and the cars began to run they were just crowded from top to bottom. Sometimes it was hard to see how even an extra flea could jump on those trams. Boys crowded on the tops of the cars until it seemed as if they ought to cave in; and the way people crowded onto 3) the running-boards of the open side of the trams made one hold his breath for fear the trams would collapse. I took a picture of one of the trams and if it comes out well I will send it home. When Mrs. Coventry and I came into Faggala from Uncle John's on last Mon. eve we thought we would go across and take a tram from the Girls' College, since the cars running past Uncle John's are usually crowded just in normal times and these are abnormal. Well, the first car we started to get on had been usurped by a mob of little street-arabs and we were informed that that car was for istiklal (independence), so we had to wait for another one. You see I am rambling on and just taking it for granted that you will have received the letter I wrote on Monday of this week before this one reaches you. Tues. was made a (national) holiday here in Cairo by the arrival from Paris of Zaghloul Pasha, whom the people all hail as Egypt’s deliverer. There was a great parade on that day and from the feeling that was being shown beforehand we (and the English included, I think) hardly knew what to expect. We thought there might happen something like what happened two years ago. The English army was prepared and on Tues. not one English soldier was on the streets. Everything, however, passed off just as smoothly and nicely as possible as far as any hostile demonstration was concerned. Crowds and crowds of people passed our Faggala House all morning, on trams, in carriages, in autos, on bicycles, and on foot. Three policemen stood immediately in front of our house and kept the people from going on down Faggala to Station Square which was crowded to its limits. Instead they headed them down the side street which is right in front of our house. It was so funny to watch these Egyptian men arguing and arguing the fact that they ought not to turn off of the main street, when they knew that they would have to turn off, from the beginning. People of all kinds paraded past here in the morning to be ready for the big parade in the afternoon; students from El Azahar and from schools all over the city - Mohammedan and Coptic, pilgrims to Mecca, Boy Scouts, etc. One of the prettiest things in the parade was quite a large “float” on top of an auto-truck. It was all in white with different colored streamers and on top was a throne on which was a goddess of liberty, one of the pupils in the Tewfikiya School, with her attendants, also pupils there. All morning we did nothing but watch the sights. We had an early dinner then Mr. McGeoch came over from Esbekiyeh Building to take any of us, that wanted to go, over to Mrs. Harvey's to watch the sights from her balcony, for Zaghloul and the big parade were to pass right in front of the Shepheard’s. Clarice, Eveyln, Lucia D. White, Ralph, Miss Downie, and myself went. We sat on Mrs. Harvey’s balcony from one until five in the afternoon. Zaghloul was supposed to arrive at 2:45 and he never came until 4:30. The people were hot and very tired from standing so long, for most of them had been standing in one place since early that morning; and once the rumor got started that the hero of the hour was not coming and some of the people, in front of the Shepheard’s started to go away but were called back. The crowds and crowds of people made a sight that was certainly worthwhile seeing. Every balcony and Shepheard’s was packed, as 4) were all balconies around and a place in some of them sold for as high as seven pounds, I was told. The roofs of the houses were also packed with people, as were both sides of the street, with a space left in the center large enough for about two carriages to pass thru. Zaghloul’s coming was heralded by several autos full of prominent women (someone said she saw Sitt Regina Khyatt among them.), then a fine calvalry of the finest of Arabian horses, followed by some prominent men, and then Zaghloul. People just went wild when they saw him but, unlike an American crowd, they did not throw their tarbushes into the air. After him then came the parade which lasted till I don't know when, for I only stayed a short time after the Pasha passed, - then came home. It was not at all dangerous to be out on the streets. Everyone seemed to be having the best of times and seemed to be in good humor. But all week, since the Parade, people have been making their way in groups, - some large and some small -, or singly to say how-do-you-do to the Pasha in his own house. I should think he would be very tired. He is rather an old man and it was rumored that while in Alexandria he fainted twice, - from over-exertion, I suppose. Since last week I have heard that he believes in complete independence and that is what he is standing for. That may be one reason why he is so popular with the people. They still continue yelling for him at all times as well as for their istiqla: (:) stands for long a in Gairdner script. If I were Zaghloul, I would be tired of my own name; but I don't have to be Zaghloul to be tired of it. Sat. 12:10 P.M. There are twenty minutes until dinner-time, so what I don't get written before dinner I will finish after. This morning was Betty Speer’s and my turn to clean the four rooms upstairs, so after we got that done, I came down and dusted my own room, cleaned up for dinner, and sat down in my nice big, comfortable arm-chair to write. While Betty and I were cleaning Mrs. Coventry's bed-room, White came in with a cake-pan for me to “lick,” - Betty had already been out in the kitchen and gotten some of the batter. When I was just in the midst of the performance, Mrs. Coventry came in and, having seen nothing of what happened before, accused me of running to her room to hide while I was looking at the pan; and she (in fun) made me promise to tell my Mother how she had caught me in the very act. So I am just fulfilling my promise. That reminds of a compliment Miss Anna Y. Thompson gave me one week ago at the “Young Men's Social. She said I reminded her of you, Mother, while I was giving the readings, and then she went on to tell how you used to entertain them. I was glad when Mrs. Coventry said that Mrs. Harvey enjoyed the readings that night. She is not able for much and I think gets quite blue sometimes because things do not go the way she would like to have them go. Her eye-sight is quite poor but her hearing is very keen. This afternoon is our at-home afternoon and that was why the cakes are being made. It is my turn to tell you to come over budget “some.” It was so nice of Aunt Elizabeth, Frances, and Dora to give you that Birthday bake, Mother. 5) Sat. night. Before the dinner bell was rung at noon today I was called into the Quay flat to choose rooms. Dwight, Macke (McFarland), Bloomie (Bloomfield), and myself were invited in by Mrs. Quay. We each made a possible choice and it just remains to be seen whether these choices will be permanent or not. The Quay’s baby is just getting so big and fat we will miss the Quays when they move (leave). Mrs. Quay is so jolly and full of fun. Miss Hosack went to the hospital on Wed. of this week. I think I mentioned in my letter weeks or so ago that she had been sick with something like the “flu.” She got up from bed at that time and went to work too soon, and was down in bed again last week-end. On Wed. she decided that she was not getting well fast enough here, so she hired a carriage and went to the German Hospital. She expects to come back on Monday. Miss McMillan and Lois McCracken, both from Tanta, were here from yesterday afternoon until this afternoon. They came to get some passports ready to go to Syria this summer and while here they did some shopping. We have been having a sewing woman here at our house for almost two weeks now, sewing for some of the girls. She is here for dinner only. She is to sew all of next week, too. I want to correct a statement I made not long ago that I thought that our house was large enough to accommodate about families. Since then I have found out that there are exactly twenty-five separate flats in the building. Dr. Grant seems to be fully recovering from the trouble he had. He is hard at work at Tanta again. It is just possible that I may go to Tanta and Zagazig with Avis, the first week in May. You know we are supposed to get in a month's visiting of the native people, at some mission station other than Cairo, during our second term which begins after the first exam is over. I had thought of taking my four weeks sometime next fall, but was advised this week to take two this spring and two next fall. I expect to definitely decide what I will do the first of next week. I heard this week that Miss Ruth Work left England for America on the 29th of March. Miss Rena is improving steadily, if not very fast. She is soon to go home to Scotland. Mother did you know that Aunt Carrie's son Roy Harper, is going to Monmouth College this year? I learned that from Avis and she heard of it in a letter from Miriam Davidson, whom you met at the New Wilmington conference this year. Roy Harper has been going with Miriam several times this year and she speaks very highly of him. When Lucia Dwight was at Fayoum she painted a beautiful picture, which we have all been admiring. She is certainly a real artist, - has quite a good deal of ability in mixing colors. She has taken quite a few painting lessons. Her home is in St. Joseph, Missouri. Mr. Douglass from the University told us a rather funny incident the other day, that happened in one of his classes. An Egyptian boy was reading a newspaper in class. Mr. D. called him down for it, saying that he had heard of only one man that could do two things at once and that man was Col. Roosevelt. The boy immediately replied, “But Sir, I am the second.” That's humility for you! Lois G. was telling me that she had heard that very likely Janet Downie would be M.C.’s Y.W. President for the coming year. Eleanor Steele wrote to Lois that she never had seen a girl develope so wonderfully in one year's time as had Janet Donie this year. Well, it’s time to go to bed, as its my turn to lead prayers tomorrow morning. Good night, sleep tight, and, I can say with real feeling, don’t let the fleas bite. One is doing its best to make me uncomfortable just now. Lots and lots of love Give my love to Uncle Sams when they arrive. From Dora. |