the Russian Consulate. By a unanimous vote, Mrs. Bakhmiteff was elected president, a position she still holds.

Prince Ferdinand, on learning of the newly organized society, which had taken the name of his first-born daughter, Her Royal Highness Princess Evdokia, at once sent one thousand francs to its treasury. Fifteen small bedsteads were quickly ordered from Vienna, and the first ward for children was opened in the hospital. Now there are five wards, with sixty children's beds, all daintily furnished, and clothing for as many little patients. Only the poorest children are admitted. The government doctors and nurses attend them, thus relieving the society from all expense for these services. The ladies find great pleasure in visiting the children, and their president allows no day to pass when she is in Sofia without blessing the small patients with the sight of her loving face and the sound of her voice.

When she learned that the largest number of sick children came from the poorest quarter of the city, where they lived in unwholesome dwellings and had no suitable food, Mrs. Bakhmiteff proposed to the society to open a day nursery in that section, and thus help to give a good start in life to as many children as possible. The society gladly acted upon this suggestion also, and the first day nursery in Bulgaria was opened last year, providing accommodation in the beginning for fifteen children from six months to three years of age. No charge is made for any child. membership of this philanthropic society of Bulgarian women now numbers 135, and its yearly income is six thousand francs. In token of his appreciation of the services which Mrs. Bakhmiteff has rendered to his nation, Prince Ferdinand has decorated her with a beautiful cross.

The

THE LITTLE PRINCESS EVDOKIA.

When, three years ago, Miss Stone, the well-known missionary, was captured by brigands in Macedonia, who held her for ransom, it was Mrs. Bakhmiteff who, under God, finally became one of the indispensable factors in her rescue. When Miss Stone was given up for lost, because all endeavors to find her put forth from the time her capture had become known had up to this time utterly failed, it was this able-minded, tender-hearted American woman, mistress of the imposing establishment of Russian diplomacy at Sofia, whose heart became strangely moved on behalf of the captive. She had never heard of Miss Stone until that time, and as she read in the daily papers of the kidnapping, her heart began to burn within her to help to save her suffering. countrywoman. She chanced to meet an acquaintance of the captive, who interested her still more by the terms in which she spoke of her, and at the same time mentioned the fact that the court stationer at Sofia, Mrs. B. J. Kasuroff, a woman of fine character and great influence, was a former pupil of Miss Stone, and also a

MRS. B. J. KASUROFF.

dear friend of hers. Mrs. Bakhmiteff lost no time in making an errand to the court stationer, to obtain the information for which she was now eager. Finding Mrs. Kasuroff, she plunged into the subject which lay so close to her heart, and was soon revealing to her the absorbing desire of her soul. "I am almost insane," she exclaimed; "I cannot eat, sleep, or think of anything else but of that unfortunate Miss Stone!"

Mrs. Kasuroff, who had neglected her home, business, social duties, everything, in her anxiety to do something to save her lost teacher and friend, received the diplomat's wife as one divinely sent to her. No pleasanter task could have been asked of her than to give information of the one she almost reverenced.

Hope

sprang up in her soul that, somehow, this lady of rare ability might become. the means of rescuing the beloved sufferer.

Mrs. Bakhmiteff had felt great pity for Miss Stone, but now admiration for her was awakened. She visited Mrs. Kasuroff daily, often several

times a day, to try and contrive some means to reach the captive, to find out whether she was alive or dead. "If only she is alive, she will be saved!" said she to her Bulgarian friend, showing how determined she had now become to rescue her. As for Mrs. Kasuroff, the Russian Consulate was opened to her at all hours in those days of extremity, and together the two loving women worked to save the third, who was in the grip of the brigands.

During those terribly anxious days Mr. Mason, the American Consul at Berlin, accompanied by a newspaper correspondent from the United States, visited Mr. and Mrs. Bakhmiteff. A bright thought flashed across the mind of the quick-witted wife of the Russian diplomat, and she went with it straight to Mrs. Kasuroff. "I am planning," she said, "to give a dinner-party in honor of Mr. Mason, to which I shall invite all the consuls in Sofia, and learn their opinion on Miss Stone's case."

Queen Esther of old gave a banquet to save her nation; why should not Mrs. Bakhmiteff give one to save her countrywoman? While the guests were enjoying her feast, the hostess introduced the subject of the captivity, which was then baffling the combined efforts of the United States, Turkey, Bulgaria and Russia. From the discussion which followed Mrs. Bakhmiteff concluded that a letter must be written by someone whose handwriting Miss Stone would recognize, but that no name should be signed; then that a sum of money should be paid to someone who would risk the hazardous undertaking of going to hunt in the mountains of Macedonia in the hope of finding some traces of the bandits who held the captives, and to learn if the unfortunate women were still alive. Mrs. Bakhmiteff had decided to send

the bodyguard of the Consulate out into the city for this purpose.

Early next morning the American correspondent went to Mrs. Kasuroff, and presented the request from Mrs. Bakhmiteff that she should write a letter to Miss Stone. "Write a letter to Miss Stone!" exclaimed Mrs. Kasuroff, completely bewildered, "How can I write? I do not know whether she is dead or alive!"

"Oh, yes, you can write one," said the correspondent, reassuringly. "Just write as you would if you knew she were alive."

Mrs. Kasuroff wrote as her heart dictated, hardly daring to hope that it would ever reach her captive friend. She took the letter to the Consulate, where it was read and approved by Mr. and Mrs. Bakhmiteff. As they were agitating the perplexing question how to find a man who would dare to take the letter, a circumstance recurred to Mrs. Kasuroff's mind which at least suggested a solution. One day a rough-appearing fellow had seemingly put himself in the way of one of her friends, and had boasted in loud tones that if money enough were given to him to make it an object he would undertake to find the brigands who held the captives! No one knew anything of the man, whether he could be trusted or not; but it was decided to risk it. When the man was spoken to, and consented to go if two hundred francs were paid to him, Mr. Bakhmiteff threw down three hundred francs, saying, "Let the man go, and go this very night."

Meantime, Mrs. Kasuroff wrote to her friend:

"Particulars I cannot write you now, but it is sufficient to assure you that I have done all that I possibly could, and have felt all the time not I was acting, but another power has moved me from within. I am only looking how God hath put it into the hearts of others who have never known Miss Stone to

work perhaps the hardest of all for her to be saved. Mr. and Mrs. Bakhmiteff are trying as much as her own brothers would try if they were here. I feel that if Miss Stone is alive she will be saved."

A little later, when new difficulties appeared, Mrs. Kasuroff wrote to the same friend:

"A few nights ago I could not sleep, and got up and wrote a long letter to Mrs. Bakhmiteff. She has sent it to her mother in Washington, with the request that without delay it be given to Mrs. Roosevelt, wife of

the President."

returned, bearing a written word in Miss Stone's own handwriting! Both she and her companion in captivity, Mrs. Tsilka, were alive and well! The joy Mrs. Bakhmiteff and Mrs. Kasuroff experienced at the success of their attempt was too great to be expressed in words. This was early in November, two months after the capture. Negotiations were commenced with the brigands, the ransom was finally paid, and the captives freed.

Mrs. Bakhmiteff passed on to other deeds of mercy. Terrible troubles befell the poor Christians in European Turkey when, in the autumn of 1902,

unable longer to endure Moslem misrule, they rose against the Turkish Government and fought for their rights to live as men. Instead of following the armed insurgents to the mountains, the Turkish troops and bashi-bazouks fell upon the helpless women, children and aged people in the villages, burned up their homes. after pillaging them, and massacred thousands.

Those that could escape crossed the mountains and found safety in Bulgaria. Destitute, cold and in need of all things, they found sympathy in this warm-hearted American woman. She was the first to go to their relief at Rilo Monastery and other points on the Turko-Bulgarian frontier. For this purpose she left her home in midwinter, and, accompanied by a govofficial and a corps of

ernment

nurses, undertook a journey of one hundred and eighty miles by carriage, to visit the sufferers, and personally to give them, from Russian bounty, food, warmth and clothing. She heard their sad tales, understood their miseries, and with their tears her own were often mingled. She established, from her own purse, a refuge in Dubnitza, provided it with all needful facilities, and left nurses in charge. Only a few months ago. she gave twenty-five thousand francs more from her private purse to the refugees.

Her recompense of reward is: She is not only followed by the fervent prayers and blessings of all whom she has succored, including the ransomed captives, but has gained the hearts of a people on both sides of the Rhodope Mountains.