Generation
"many difficulties during the thirty-eight years I have had the charge of it. Marvelous changes have taken place in the country dur- ing the short period of freedom from the Turkish yoke and now it has taken its place among the governments that must be reckoned with, even by the great powers of Europe.
In place of the simple customs of Turkish times the cities, and some of the villages, have introduced European manners and dress and many of the modern improvements, steam and electric roads, auto- mobiles, paved streets, modern hotels and many of the conveniences of modern life are to be found here. This school has had its share in the development of the nation.
The hundred and thirty-five or forty girls who have graduated from the school have had a wide influence as wives of prominent lead- ing men. Those educated here are found in all grades of society and are leaders wherever found. Without doubt the thousand or more girls who have come under the influence of this school have, during the formative period of Bulgarian history, exerted a healthful influence, moral and religious.
A retrospect of the forty years spent in this land endowed with so much of natural beauty and occupied by a progressive people, brings to mind experiences of intense interest. The friendships formed here are of no ordinary type. Miss Maltbie will always be thankful that she was called to be a missionary teacher of the Gospel of Christ in this land of promise."
In Dec. 1910, Miss Maltbie wrote to Mrs. Verrill, that:
"Living has become very much more expensive, taxes exhorbitant and productiveness not increased to a great extent, so there is much suffering and need. The 'Holy Synod' is trying to get a law passed in the National Assembly to crush out Protestantism. One of the Articles is, that there can be no Evangelical Service in any place where there are not seventy-five Protestant families, and all the rest of the law in the same spirit.
We have a very full school and greatly need a new building. We have 112 pupils beside the kindergarten and we have not suitable accommodation for half the number--62 are boarders, the rest are day scholars."
Letters from Miss Martha J. Maltby, cousin of Esther Tapping Maltby.
"In 1908 the cares of the head of the 'School for Girls', (for this is the name by which the school has been known since its re- moval to Samokov) was resigned by Miss Maltbie but she has retained a position as teacher in the school."
"Cousin Esther is a modest, self-retiring soul and her life has been spent for others. I wish I could write how great her influence has been through this school for girls in Bulgaria, but I am not equal to the task. There has been no 'trumpet blowing' about her work but it shows in the lives of her pupils."
"At the Columbian Exhibition in Chicago, in 1893, I met the Bulgarian who had charge of the exhibit of that country there and I gave him my card saying, 'I've a cousin in your country'. Immediate- ly he said: 'Miss Esther Maltbie! I know her. My wife was one of her pupils. She is known all over Bulgaria. In Aug. 1915, she wrote "Owing to ill health Esther Maltbie has returned to the States and
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