| Description | Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, 7 Via Venti Settembre, Rome, to her relatives, wishing Aunt Amy a happy birthday and thanking her for her correspondence; visit of Miss Hogan, a nurse, worn out with three months of night duty; Mr. Green has been 'a terror' this week as the Lenten services have disrupted his timetable and he had been very rude; he has his faults as a teacher; arrival of Mrs. Brock in the apartment downstairs to stay with Miss Jazdowska [There were Jazdowskis associated with teaching and art in Aberdeen: James Bronislas Jazdowski, son of John, teacher in Aberdeen, graduated from Marischal College in 1856 and according to an annotation of the Search Room student list died in Rome in 1902]; Fulvio has been running messages for them; Aunt is rather better; suggestions as to use of prayer-wheel driven by electric motor in Lent; Mr. Lowrie is a bad influence religiously; the Scripture Gift Mission has inundated the country with Gospels for free distribution; Rostan, the Waldensian secretary, says that the soldiers now want Testaments instead; Uncle has asked Laing in Genoa to investigate the apparent discrepancies between supply and demand; Rostan has admitted that the soldiers want the Testaments as souvenirs because they have the Italian flag inside; the Italians believe that foreigners exist to give them gifts and money; the Leghorn affair continues as the 70-year-old caretaker has been leading an immoral life and has been fired; Pretesi has been slandering Miss Cooke, who has in the past been guilty of unsuitable conduct with sailors; it is really no sphere for a woman; the 'Fouvett' has been sunk; Mr. Aitken is now interim at Leghorn, and to be pitied; he is ill after some years at Naples but is a fine man; Miss Cooke is on holiday so the field is clear for him; Mr. Scott has gone home to be a minister in place of a man gone to be chaplain at the front; this is cunning, as he was only given local ordination; further examples of his deviousness as regards salary. |