CHAPTER XX
IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS
This night of terrors proved my last
adventure in Turkey. Soon afterwards
events began to force me to feel that
in order to live my own life, as seemed right to me,
I must flee from all I knew and loved to an unknown,
alien land. It is a hard fate: it involves
sacrifices and brings heartaches. After all, what
gives to life sweetness and charm is the orderliness
with which one develops. To grow on the
home soil, and quietly to reach full bloom there,
gives poise to one's life. It may be argued that
this orderly growth rarely produces great and
dazzling results; still it is more worth while.
People with restless dispositions, people to whom
constant transplanting seems necessary, even if
they attain great development, are rather to be
pitied than to be envied; and, when the transplanting
produces only mediocre results, there
is nothing to mitigate the pity.
By nature I was a social revolutionist, and I liked neither the attitude of the men towards the women nor of the women towards life, among the people of my race. I have learned better
