Chapter VIII: Part 8

They went to one village and killed every man; the women of course, knowing their fate was soon to be worse than their husbands'. One of the leading women, named Shaheg, perceiving that the Turks and Kurds were getting ready to seize and ravish them, called the other women and said, "Sisters, our husbands are killed, and you know what is in store for us and our children. Don't let us fall into the hands of these savage beasts; we have to die anyway, and can die easier, and without being defiled first, and perhaps tortured. Let us go to the precipice and jump off." So saying, she took her baby on her arm, ran to the rock, and threw herself over; the others followed her, and thus all were killed. The Turks captured many boys and girls, six, or eight, or ten years of age, held them by an arm or foot, and hacked them to pieces with their swords. Sometimes they stood the boys in a row and shot them, to see how many could be killed by a single bullet. They wrenched babies from their mothers' arms, cut their throats while the mothers shrieked and pleaded, and boiling them in kettles, forced the mothers to eat the flesh. They cut open women about to become mothers, tore out the unborn babes, and marched triumphantly with the ghastly trophies on their spears--something almost surpassing the savagery of the Apache Indian. Even their worst horrors they made worse yet by the way they did them; they took a gloating delight in doubling the cruelty or the shame by making it torture others too. The husband was forced to look on while his wife was violated, and she in turn while he was mutilated, tortured, and murdered; the father while his daughters, even little girls of ten or twelve, were deflowered and their throats cut, the son while his parents had every form of shame and torture inflicted on them, and were killed before him, or saw him killed first. They tortured their victims like Indians or Inquisitors, in every fashion of lingering death and torment that makes the heart sicken and the blood run cold to read of. Crucifying head downward, and pouring boiling water or ice-cold water on them, leaving them so till death came; flaying alive; cutting off arms, feet, nose, ears, and other members, and leaving them to die; thrusting red-hot wires into and through their bodies. They pulled out the eyes of several Christian pastors, said, "Now dance for us," poured kerosene on them and burned them to death. They put a Bible and a cross before others, and ordered them to first spit and then trample on both, and deny Christ; on their refusal they were butchered. The handsomest girls and young matrons were not murdered, but worse; each one was kept as a spoil of some Turk or Kurd, who carried her to his house, and made a slave and concubine of her. Many hundreds of them are there to this day, enduring the awful fate of having been dragged from happy and virtuous homes, seen their husbands, or parents, or brothers, or all of them horribly murdered, and passing their lives each in doing menial labor and serving the lust of a brutal master, and all the other men he lets have their will of her, without hope, or comfort, or decency, and a long life of shame and misery yet to look forward to. This is another specimen of Mohammedan purity, and it all happens because the Armenians are Christians. If my readers think I am exaggerating, I refer them to the consular reports. All this was done by the barbarians con amore, with relish and delight. They boasted of it, they plumed themselves on it, they praised the Sultan for ordering them to do it, and he praised them for doing it, and decorated all the officers.

The condition of those who were murdered out-right was much better than that of those who were imprisoned and tortured. The following was written by an Armenian from one of the prisons:--

"Our condition in prison passes description. Only he who sees can
understand it. Most of the occupants of every room are Christians,
but many are Moslems. Life would be a shade more tolerable if the
subject race were not compelled thus to associate with the dominant
race, whose temper, tastes, and habits are so different. Into one
small room twenty persons are crowded. Except for a few Moslems,
not a single person has room enough on the bare floor to stretch
out and lie down. For fully sixteen hours in the night, the doors
of the rooms are all locked. In one of these small rooms, sometimes
twenty cigarettes are smoking at once. Out of the small amount of
food which reaches us, instead of eating themselves, the Christians
are obliged to feed the Moslems confined there. Moslem oppression
continues, even here; it is a tyranny within a tyranny. In
every room there are a few Aghas or principal Moslems, and every
Christian must contribute money to their lordships. Those who
withhold such contributions are not allowed to sit down.

"Among the inmates of the prison are twenty or thirty rowdies
and bullies, under whom the Christians must serve as menial
slaves. There is no respect, no pity. The horrible blasphemies
cannot be described. There is no book, no Bible, no work, no
sleep. Every man is covered with the swarming vermin with which
the unwashed rooms of the prison teem. To clean ourselves is
impossible. Now and then the rumor sweeps through the prison that
we are all to be put to death, and all our hearts melt like water.

"The terrible darkness of the night, the curses and stripes
inflicted from time to time, cause us to live in the valley
of the shadow of death. It is a living grave, a visible hell,
a world without God. Out of this throng of prisoners more than a
hundred are in daily suffering from the gnawing of hunger, and
from nakedness, but there is no one to pity. Many praying men
are tempted to cease praying, many are tempted to change over
to the Moslem faith. In truth, all of us are dumb; what to say
we know not. We are wearied of the long silence; our eyes are
strained with watching, our bones ache, our prayers are despised
by the revilers. Night is not night, and day is not day. Our
grief is our food, our sleep is weeping, for how long a time
must we cry? O Lord, wilt Thou hide Thyself forever? How long
will Thy anger burn like fire? And yet some of us are saying:
'Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.'

"When will the Christian statesmen and philanthropists of the world
find a way to cleanse these Augean stables all over Turkey? Long
centuries cry out for redress. Within a month the following
incidents have occurred: A Christian confined in this prison was
ordered to receive 400 stripes. After 300 had been inflicted he
cried out that he could endure no more or he must die. An officer
then presented to him a paper with the names of fifty Christians
in the city who were accused therein of sedition. In his great
agony he signed it, and this is to be used to incriminate others,
wholly regardless of their guilt or innocence. The other victim
of unendurable stripes was an old man. When he could endure no
more of this inhuman treatment, he also was asked to sign a paper
implicating others indiscriminately.

"Can any one living in a free country for a moment understand what
it is to live under such a government? There is a great flourish
just at present over the reforms that are being instituted in
certain parts of this land. No resident of this country can have
confidence in the superficial operations. What will you do with
a land where lying is the simplest of mental exercises, and where
no one was ever known to blush over it if exposed?"

I give here the testimony of a gentleman from Sassoun who escaped the atrocities. He is an Armenian from Sassoun, and my personal friend. I quote this from a little pamphlet, entitled "Facts About Armenia."

The Massacre of 1894.

"The Armenians of Sassoun were fully aware of the hostile intention
of the government, but they could not imagine it to be one of
utter extermination.

"The Porte had prepared its plans, Sassoun was doomed. The Kurds
were to come in much greater number, the government was to furnish
them provision and ammunition, and the regular army was to second
them in case of need.

"The various tribes received invitations to take part in the
great expedition, and the chiefs, with their men, arrived one
after the other. The total number of the Kurds who took part in
the campaign may be estimated at 30,000. The Armenians believed in
the beginning that they had to do only with the Kurds. They found
out later that an Ottoman regular army, with provisions, rifles,
cannons, and kerosene oil, was standing at the back of the Kurds.

"The plan was to destroy first Shenig, Semal, Guelliegoozan,
Aliantz, etc., and then to proceed toward Dalvorig. The Kurds,
notwithstanding their immense number, proved to be unequal
to the task. The Armenians held their own, and the Kurds got
worsted. After a two weeks' fight between Kurd and Armenian, the
regular army entered into an active campaign. Mountain pieces
began to thunder. The Armenians, having nearly exhausted their
ammunition, took to flight. Kurd and Turk pursued them, and
massacred men, women, and children. The houses were searched
and then set on fire. From certain villages groups of men,
tax receipts in their hands, went to the camp and asked to be
protected, but were slaughtered.

"A great number of villages outside of the Dalvorig district,
which had in no wise been concerned in the conflicts of the
previous years, were also attacked, to the unspeakable horror
of the populations. The troops climbed up even the Mount Antok,
where a multitude of fugitives had taken refuge, and massacred
them. A number of women and girls were taken to the church of
Guelliegoozan, and after being frightfully abused, were tortured
to death.

"When the work of destruction was nearly accomplished in the other
districts, some of the Kurdish armies were set on Dalvorig. The
people defended themselves against the overwhelming number of the
barbarians, but after four or five days they saw other tribes and
regular Turkish troops marching on them from every side, and they
took to flight, but were overtaken and massacred. The scene was
most horrible. The enemy took a special delight in butchering the
Dalvorig people. An immense crowd of Turkish and Kurdish soldiery
fell upon the villages, busily searching the houses and rooting out
hidden treasures, and then setting fire to the village. While the
troops were so occupied, a number of the fugitives fled wildly to
get out of the district, and tried to hide themselves in caves,
between rocks, or among bushes. Three days after the complete
destruction of Dalvorig villages, the Kurds and the regular
soldiers divided among themselves the result of the plunder,
and the Kurds returned to their own mountains."

As my use of English is defective, I take the liberty here of quoting from a long letter by E. J. Dillon to the Contemporary Review, January, 1896.

Dr. Dillon is an Englishman who was the special correspondent of the London "Daily Telegraph," a most accurate and conscientious reporter, who writes as an eye-witness:

"If a detailed description were possible of the horrors which our
exclusive attention to our own mistaken interests let loose upon
Turkish Armenians, there is not a man within the kingdom of Great
Britain whose heart-strings would not be touched and thrilled by
the gruesome stories of which it would be composed.

"During all those seventeen years, written law, traditional custom,
the fundamental maxims of human and divine justice were suspended
in favor of a Mohammedan saturnalia. The Christians, by whose
toil and thrift the empire was held together, were despoiled,
beggared, chained, beaten, and banished or butchered. First
their movable wealth was seized, then their landed property
was confiscated, next the absolute necessaries of life were
wrested from them, and finally honor, liberty, and life were
taken with as little ado as if these Christian men and women
were wasps or mosquitoes. Thousands of Armenians were thrown
into prison by governors like Tahsin Pasha and Bahri Pasha, and
tortured and terrorized till they delivered up the savings of a
lifetime, and the support of the helpless families, to ruffianly
parasites. Whole villages were attacked in broad daylight by
the Imperial Kurdish cavalry without pretext or warning, the
male inhabitants turned adrift or killed, and their wives and
daughters transformed into instruments to glut the foul lusts
of these bestial murderers. In a few years the provinces were
decimated, Aloghkerd, for instance, being almost entirely 'purged'
of Armenians. Over 20,000 woe-stricken wretches, once healthy
and well-to-do, fled to Russia or Persia in rags and misery,
deformed, diseased, or dying; on the way they were seized over
and over again by the soldiers of the Sultan, who deprived them
of the little money they possessed, nay, of the clothes they were
wearing, outraged the married women in the presence of their sons
and daughters, deflowered the tender girls before the eyes of
their mothers and brothers, and then drove them over the frontier
to starve and die. Those who remained for a time behind were no
better off. Kurdish brigands lifted the last cows and goats of the
peasants, carried away their carpets and their valuables, raped
their daughters and dishonored their wives. Turkish tax-gatherers
followed these, gleaning what the brigands had left, and, lest
anything should escape their avarice, bound the men, flogged
them till their bodies were a bloody, mangled mass, cicatrized
the wounds with red-hot ramrods, plucked out their beards hair by
hair, tore the flesh from their limbs with pincers, and often, even
then, dissatisfied with the financial results of their exertions,
hung the men whom they had thus beggared and maltreated from the
rafters of the room, and kept them there to witness with burning
shame, impotent rage, and incipient madness, the dishonoring of
their wives and the deflowering of their daughters, some of whom
died miserably during the hellish outrage.

"In accordance with the plan of extermination, which has been
carried out with such signal success during these long years
of Turkish vigor and English sluggishness, all those Armenians
who possessed money, or money's worth were for a time allowed to
purchase immunity from prison, and from all that prison life in
Asia Minor implies. But as soon as terror and summary confiscation
took the place of slow and elaborate extortion, the gloomy dungeons
of Erzeroum, Erzinghan, Marsovan, Hassankaleh, and Van were filled,
till there was no place to sit down, and scarcely sufficient
standing room. And this means more than English people can realize,
or any person believe who has not actually witnessed it. It would
have been a torture for Turkish troopers and Kurdish brigands,
but it was worse than death to the educated school-masters,
missionaries, priests, and physicians who were immured in these
noisome hotbeds of infection, and forced to sleep night after
night standing on their feet, leaning against the foul, reeking
corner of the wall which all the prisoners were compelled to use
as.... The very worst class of Tartar and Kurdish criminals were
turned in here to make these hell-chambers more unbearable to the
Christians. And the experiment was everywhere successful. Human
hatred and diabolical spite, combined with the most disgusting
sights, and sounds, and stenches, with their gnawing hunger and
their putrid food, their parching thirst and the slimy water, fit
only for sewers, rendered their agony maddening. Yet these were
not criminals nor alleged criminals, but upright Christian men,
who were never even accused of an infraction of the law. No man
who has not seen these prisons with his own eyes, and heard these
prisoners with his own ears, can be expected to conceive, much
less realize, the sufferings inflicted and endured. The loathsome
diseases, whose terrible ravages were freely displayed; the still
more loathsome vices, which were continually and openly practiced;
the horrible blasphemies, revolting obscenities, and ribald jests
which alternated with cries of pain, songs of vice, and prayers
to the unseen God, made these prisons, in some respects, nearly
as bad as the Black Hole of Calcutta, and in others infinitely
worse. In one corner of this foul fever-nest a man might be heard
moaning and groaning with the pain of a shattered arm or leg; in
another, a youth is convulsed with the death spasms of cholera
or poison; in the center, a knot of Turks, whose dull eyes are
fired with bestial lust, surround a Christian boy, who pleads for
mercy with heart-harrowing voice while the human fiends actually
outrage him to death.

"Into these prisons venerable old ministers of religion were
dragged from their churches, teachers from their schools,
missionaries from their meeting-houses, merchants, physicians,
and peasants from their firesides. Those among them who refused
to denounce their friends, or consent to some atrocious crime,
were subjected to horrible agonies. Many a one, for instance, was
put into a sentry-box bristling with sharp spikes, and forced to
stand there motionless, without food or drink, for twenty-four and
even thirty-six hours, was revived with stripes whenever he fell
fainting to the prickly floor, and was carried out unconscious at
the end. It was thus that hundreds of Armenian Christians, whose
names and histories are on record, suffered for refusing to sign
addresses to the Sultan accusing their neighbors and relatives of
high treason. It was thus that Azo was treated by his judges, the
Turkish officials, Talib Effendi, Captain Reshid, and Captain Hadji
Fehim Agha, for declining to swear away the lives of the best men
of his village. A whole night was spent in torturing him. He was
first bastinadoed in a room close to which his female relatives
and friends were shut up so that they could hear his cries. Then
he was stripped naked, two poles extending from his armpits to his
feet were placed on each side of his body and tied tightly. His
arms were next stretched out horizontally and poles arranged to
support his hands. This living cross was then bound to a pillar,
and the flogging began. The whips left livid traces behind. The
wretched man was unable to make the slightest movement to ease
his pain. His features alone, hideously distorted, revealed the
anguish he endured. The louder he cried, the more heavily fell the
whip. Over and over again he entreated his tormentors to put him
out of pain, saying, 'If you want my death, kill me with a bullet,
but for God's sake don't torture me like this!' His head alone
being free, he at last, maddened by excruciating pain, endeavored
to dash out his brains against the pillar, hoping in this way
to end his agony. But this consummation was hindered by the
police. They questioned him again; but in spite of his condition,
Azo replied as before: 'I cannot defile my soul with the blood of
innocent people. I am a Christian.' Enraged at this obstinacy,
Talib Effendi, the Turkish official, ordered the application of
other and more effective tortures. Pincers were fetched to pull
out his teeth, but, Azo remaining firm, this method was not long
persisted in. Then Talib commanded his servants to pluck out the
prisoner's moustachios by the roots, one hair at a time. This order
the gendarmes executed, with roars of infernal laughter. But this
treatment proving equally ineffectual, Talib instructed the men to
cauterize the unfortunate victim's body. A spit was heated in the
fire. Azo's arms were freed from their supports, and two brawny
policemen approached, one on each side and seized him. Meanwhile
another gendarme held to the middle of the wretched man's hands
the glowing spit. While his flesh was thus burning, the victim
shouted out in agony, 'For the love of God kill me at once!'

"Then the executioners, removing the red-hot spit from his hands,
applied it to his breast, then to his back, his face, his feet,
and other parts. After this, they forced open his mouth, and burned
his tongue with red-hot pincers. During these inhuman operations,
Azo fainted several times, but on recovering consciousness
maintained the same inflexibility of purpose. Meanwhile, in the
adjoining apartment, a heart-rending scene was being enacted. The
women and the children, terrified by the groans and cries of the
tortured man, fainted. When they revived, they endeavored to rush
out to call for help, but the gendarmes, stationed at the door,
barred their passage, and brutally pushed them back. [2]

"Nights were passed in such hellish orgies and days in inventing
new tortures or refining upon the old; with an ingenuity which
reveals unimagined strata of malignity in the human heart. The
results throw the most sickening horrors of the Middle Ages into
the shade. Some of them cannot be described, nor even hinted
at. The shock to people's sensibilities would be too terrible. And
yet they were not merely described to, but endured by men of
education and refinement, whose sensibilities were as delicate
as ours.

"And when the prisons in which these and analogous doings were
carried on had no more room for new-comers, some of the least
obnoxious of its actual inmates were released for a bribe, or,
in case of poverty, were expeditiously poisoned off.

"In the homes of these wretched people the fiendish fanatics were
equally active and equally successful. Family life was poisoned at
its very source. Rape and dishonor, with nameless accompaniments,
menaced almost every girl and woman in the land. They could not
stir out of their houses in broad daylight to visit the bazaars,
or to work in the fields, nor even lie down at night in their
own homes, without fearing the fall of that Damocles' sword ever
suspended over their heads. Tender youth, childhood itself, was no
guarantee. Children were often married at the age of eleven, even
ten, in the vain hope of lessening this danger. But the protection
of a husband proved unavailing; it merely meant one murder more,
and one 'Christian dog' less. A bride would be married in church
yesterday, and her body would be devoured by the beasts and
birds of prey to-morrow,--a band of ruffians, often officials,
having within the intervening forty-eight hours seized her and
outraged her to death. Others would be abducted, and, having for
weeks been subjected to the loathsome lusts of lawless Kurds,
would end by abjuring their God and embracing Islam; not from any
vulgar motive of gain, but to escape the burning shame of returning
home as pariahs and lepers, to be shunned by those near and dear to
them forever. Little girls of five and six were frequently forced
to be present during these horrible scenes of lust, and they,
too, were often sacrificed before the eyes of their mothers,
who would have gladly, madly accepted death, ay, and damnation,
to save their tender offspring from the corroding poison.

"One of the abducted young women who, having been outraged by the
son of the Deputy-Governor of Khnouss, Hussein Bey, returned,
a pariah, and is now alone in the world, lately appealed to
her English sisters for such aid as a heathen would give to a
brute, and she besought it in the name of our common God. Lucine
Mussegh--this is the name of that outraged young woman whose
Protestant education gave her, as she thought, a special claim to
act as the spokeswoman of Armenian mothers and daughters--Lucine
Mussegh besought, last March, the women of England to obtain for
the women of Armenia the 'privilege' of living a pure and chaste
life! This was the boon which she craved--but did not, could
not obtain. The interests of 'higher politics,' the civilizing
missions of the Christian powers, are, it seems, incompatible
with it! 'For the love of the God whom we worship in common,'
wrote this outraged, but still hopeful, Armenian lady, 'help us,
Christian sisters! Help us before it is too late, and take the
thanks of the mothers, the wives, the sisters, and the daughters
of my people, and with them the gratitude of one for whom, in
spite of her youth, death would come as a happy release.'

"Neither the Christian sisters nor the Christian brethren
in England have seen their way to comply with this strange
request. But it may perhaps interest Lucine Mussegh to learn
that the six great powers of Europe are quite unanimous, and are
manfully resolved, come what will, to shield His Majesty the Sultan
from harm, to support his rule, and to guarantee his kingdom from
disintegration. These are objects worthy of the attention of the
great powers; as for the privilege of leading pure and chaste
lives--they cannot be importuned about such private matters.

"In due time they began. Over 60,000 Armenians have been butchered,
and the massacres are not quite ended yet. In Trebizond, Erzeroum,
Erzinghan, Hassankalek, and numberless other places the Christians
were crushed like grapes during the vintage. The frantic mob,
seething and surging in the streets of the cities, swept down upon
the defenseless Armenians, plundered their shops, gutted their
houses, then joked and jested with the terrified victims, as cats
play with mice. As rapid, whirling motion produces apparent rest,
so the wild frenzy of those fierce fanatical crowds resulted in
a condition of seeming calmness, composure, and gentleness which,
taken in connection with the unutterable brutality of their acts,
was of a nature to freeze men's blood with horror. In many cases
they almost caressed their victims, and actually encouraged them
to hope, while preparing the instruments of slaughter."

After the horrible scenes at Sassoun, and other places, the Armenian protests shamed the European powers, who signed the treaty of Berlin, to send a commission and investigate the atrocities. It found the stories quite true, laid the facts before the Sultan--and that was the end of it. The Armenians asked, "Since you admit the truth of these things, why do you not punish the criminals, stop the outrages, and compel the payment of indemnity to those who were outraged and who lost their dear ones and their property?" The powers were deaf to all this. Then the Armenians prepared an appeal (several months ago) and carried it to the Sublime Porte, asking it to do them justice. As soon as the Sultan heard of this, he ordered his soldiers to fire on them if they presented it. The appeal was presented, and before the eyes of the European Ambassadors in Constantinople, the brave soldiers of the kind-hearted Sultan butchered about 3,000 Armenian Christians, several thousand were imprisoned, and several hundred were murdered in the Central Prison. Then the cold, wise, and considerate European powers began to move very slowly, not for the sake of the Armenians, but for their own, their citizens in Constantinople and elsewhere.

They ordered the Sultan to reform Armenia, brought their fleets to the Dardanelles near Constantinople to overawe him, prepared a scheme of reform for Armenia, and made huge threats to the Sultan if he did not accept it. But he knew that this pretended concert of the powers for Armenian reform was a mere trick and sham, as I have persistently asserted all along in the face of my hopeful European and American friends; in fact, the Russian government at this very time was secretly urging him to stand firm and refuse to accept the reforms. He did so, broached a scheme of his own as a substitute, and the powers accepted it as such; and then the whole thing was dropped, the Sultan did nothing whatever about it, as he had never intended to. The European countries were hoodwinked, and the Armenian massacres and conflagrations, plundering and deflowering, went on at a greater pace than ever. Then the powers dropped the Armenian question, and took up that of gunboats in the Bosphorus, to protect their citizens against a rising in Constantinople; that they forced the Sultan to permit, because their own interests were concerned in it,--which shows that they could have forced him to stop exterminating the Armenians if they had cared. All joined in this except Germany; the German Emperor is the Sultan's friend, and backs him up. So now Germany, Russia, and the Sultan are hand in hand, leagued to prevent any of the miserable victims of his tyranny from escaping his clutches, and the Sultan has the best possible encouragement to go on killing the Armenians. The German Emperor says, "Better that Armenians be killed than have a war in Europe and lose the lives of some of my soldiers." The Czar says, "Time must be given to the Sultan to reform his country." Lord Salisbury says, "The Sultan has promised, and we must wait and see what he will do." And the Sultan, cursing every Emperor and lord of them all as a set of Christian hogs, orders the soldiers and the Kurds to go on with the good work in Armenia. And when we come to America, the Monroe doctrine obliges it to quarrel over Venezuela, and not only refuse help itself, but give Lord Salisbury a good excuse to give none either.

Such is the situation; the massacres are going on in Armenia and the Armenians in despair are crying, "O Lord, how long, how long!"

Mass meetings are good as far as they go; raising money and sending it to relieve the Armenians is good as far as it goes; the Red Cross Society is good as far as it goes; there are no objections to any of them; they are all noble and Christian. But, reader, don't you think all these good movements with good motives will hurt the Armenian cause, as there is nothing to aid that cause directly? All these mass-meetings merely irritate the Sultan into carrying on the murders more strenuously, since there is no force back of them. Don't you think the Armenian question being discussed in the United States Congress, and resolutions made without any action, will hurt the Armenians more than anything else? If you can't tread down the Sultan, don't stir him up. Miss Clara Barton, that noble woman, is in Armenia to help the Armenians. The Red Cross Society is there and is feeding the Armenians. I thank her, every Armenian thanks her. But do you think that that will relieve the situation? Spring has come, and what now? Will the Armenians have any crops? Did they, or could they sow any seed? Is there any farmer left alive? Has any farmer, if he is alive, any oxen or horses? If he has, will he dare go to his field, sow, reap, and thresh? Reader, consider all these things, and reconsider them, and I am sure you will come to the same conclusion I did many years ago, that Turkey does not need a Red Cross Society, but a Red Cross crusade, not like the medieval crusades, but a Protestant American crusade in the nineteenth century. Let me illustrate this Armenian question by the following parable:--

Suppose a lamb is torn by a wolf, and the wolf lies in wait to finish it. You go to the lamb with a bundle of grass in your hand, pat it and say, "Here, poor lamb, I pity you, I give you grass; take it and eat it." Then you leave the lamb and go away. Do you think you have helped the lamb? As soon as you have gone, the wolf will come and tear the lamb to pieces. If you are going to help the lamb, you must kill the wolf, else no matter how much grass you give the wounded lamb, it will do it no good. You will do no good by sending Red Cross societies to Armenia to feed the Armenians if you have not the power or the will to keep the wild beasts off. You will feed them, and then the wolves will kill them.

Now I will pass in review some of the leading cities in Armenia where there have been great persecutions. Before beginning, however, I must state that it is impossible to give an accurate census of the population in the Armenian cities, or the number who have been massacred; for the Turkish government never takes a correct census, and never gives or will give the true number of those it has murdered. But I think I can make a fair approximation of both. I will begin with the city of Harpoot. [3]

HARPOOT AND ITS VICINITY.

This is one of the most important Armenian districts, because the Armenians outnumber the Mohammedans there; in the city the Turks are the more numerous, but there are many Armenian towns and villages which make up. The district has about 150,000 people, most of them Armenians, and about 40,000 were killed in the recent massacre. Harpoot is built on three hills, and has a commanding view. Here is located a great American missionary institution, the Euphrates College; it has three departments, the college, the Theological Seminary, and the Girls' Seminary. There were twelve buildings, eight of which were burned in the outrages, a loss of $100,000.

Almost all the outlying villages were burned, and the movables carried off. Women were made prey, boys and girls were kidnapped; the horrors can never be described. I give here a few words from a private letter, written by a Mohammedan Turk to his brother in this country. I have the letter in my possession, written in the Turkish language. He says:--

"My dear brother:

"All the Christian villages which belong to Harpoot district,
we plundered and destroyed, and killed the inhabitants. We killed
them both with our swords and with our rifles. The bullets of our
rifles poured upon them like rain; none of them are left, neither
any dwelling was left, we burnt all their houses. We thank God
that not a single Mohammedan was killed. Everywhere throughout
Armenia the Christians were punished in the same manner."

Another testimony from another Mohammedan, an officer; he says nearly 40,000 were killed in Harpoot province, February 26, 1896:--

"A petition in behalf of the Armenians was given to the powers
in the hope of improving their condition. An imperial firman was
issued for carrying out the reforms suggested by the powers. On
this account the Turkish population was much excited, and thought
that an Armenian principality was to be established, and they
began to show great hostility to the poor Armenians, who had
been obedient to them and with whom they had lived in peace for
more than 600 years. To the anger of the people were added the
permission and help of the government; and so, before the reforms
were undertaken, the whole Turkish population was aroused, with the
evil intent of obliterating the Armenian name; and so the Turks of
the province, joining with the neighboring Kurdish tribes by the
thousand, armed with weapons which are allowed only to the army,
and with the help and under the guidance of Turkish officials,
in an open manner, in the daytime, attacked the Armenian houses,
shops, stores, monasteries, churches, schools, and committed
the fearful atrocities set forth in the accompanying table. They
killed bishops, priests, teachers, and common people with every
kind of torture, and they showed special spite toward ecclesiastics
by treating their bodies with extra indignity, and in many cases
they did not allow their bodies to be buried. Some they burned,
and some they gave as food to dogs and wild beasts.

"They plundered churches and monasteries, and they took all
the property of the common people, their flocks and herds, their
ornaments and their money, their house furnishings and their food,
and even the clothing of the men and women in their flight. Then
after plundering them, they burned many houses, churches,
monasteries, schools, and markets, sometimes using petroleum,
which they had brought with them to hasten the burning; large
stone churches which would not burn they ruined in other ways.

"Priests, laymen, women, and even small children were made Moslems
by force. They put white turbans on the men and circumcised them
in a cruel manner. They cut the hair of the women in bangs, like
that of Moslem women, and made them go through the Mohammedan
prayers. Married women and girls were defiled, against the sacred
law, and some were married by force, and are still detained in
Turkish houses. Especially in Palu, Severek, Malatia, Arabkir,
and Choonkoosh, many women and girls were taken to the soldiers'
barracks and dishonored. Many, to escape, threw themselves into
the Euphrates, or committed suicide in other ways.

"It is clear that the majority of those killed in Harpoot, Severek,
Husenik, Malatia, and Arabkir were killed by the soldiers, and also
that the schools and churches of the missionaries and Gregorians
in the upper quarter of Harpoot City, together with the houses,
were set on fire by cannon balls.

"It is impossible to state the amount of the pecuniary loss. The
single city of Egin has given 1,200 (some say 1,500) Turkish
pounds as a ransom.

"These events have occurred for the reasons I have mentioned. I
wish to show by this statement, which I have written from love to
humanity, that the Armenians gave no occasion for these attacks."

The Turk, whose document is thus translated, figures that the total deaths in the province of Harpoot during the scenes, have been 39,334; the wounded 8,000; houses burned, 28,562; and that the number of the destitutes is 94,870.

"In a letter just received (Jan. 18, 1896) from the
Rev. H. N. Barnum, D.D., of Harpoot, Eastern Turkey, where
the property of the American Board was burned, he says that
reports have been secured from 176 villages in the vicinity of
Harpoot. These villages contained 15,400 houses belonging to
Christians. Of this number 7,054 have been burned, and 15,845
persons are reported killed. Dr. Barnum adds: 'The reality,
I fear, will prove to be much greater.'"

A letter from an Armenian named Kallajian, written from Husenik, a town about three miles from Harpoot, addressed to his brother in this country, says:

"Sunday, November 11, the government came to our town, Husenik, and asked the Armenians to give up their arms, and they surrendered all they had; and in the evening asked them to take the church bell down. They also obeyed, and by night the Turkish soldiers surrounded the town until the morning, and in the morning early they sounded the bugle. When they sounded the bugle, about 25,000 Kurds made an attack on the town, and plundered all the houses, killing 700 men, women, and children, besides the wounded. When the attack was made, we left our house, with two of our neighbors' families and many others from our town, about thirty in all. One little boy, my nephew, I carried on my shoulders, and the other was carried by its mother, and we ran up the hill toward Harpoot. The bullets were showering upon us by hundreds, and father fell. He was shot once in the head and once in the belly, and stabbed with a sword through his chin. When we reached the top of the hill, about twenty Kurds came down from Harpoot, and took all our clothes and money, and left us naked; and a little after, a band of Turks came down and made so much trouble for us that I am unable to describe it. They took us to the city, and we finally succeeded in getting to the house of Sadukh Effendi, formerly of our town, but now living in the city. We went to his house, and this kind man kept us there for two days in his house, and on Tuesday evening he took us to our own town, and as we came near to our house I found that father was dead under a tree. We went to the house; we saw that our house was open and stripped of everything, and father's trunk was broken open, and his papers were soaked in kerosene and set on fire, and twenty-five houses were destroyed on our street. We are hungry and in destitute condition; help us if you can. Our little nephew says: 'O Jesus, keep us afar from such trouble.'"

There are other letters also from Harpoot, but this is enough to
show the nature of the scenes there.

PALOO AND WHAT HAPPENED THERE.

Paloo is one of the oldest cities in Armenia. It had 15,000 population, 5,000 Armenians and 10,000 Mohammedans, and there were over forty Armenian villages in the district around. About 5,000 Christians were killed during the recent massacre.

Personal Letters From Paloo.

December 15, 1895.

"Paloo is in a miserable condition. All the houses and shops have
been robbed. About 2,000 persons have perished, and few have
survived this great ruin; but we thank God all our family is
in safety. Just to-day I received a letter from our home; they
write: 'We are alive, but hungry.' They have no bread to eat,
and no clothes to wear; our only hope is God. If the country is
soon reformed we can get our living, but if not we shall all
perish. Turks, Kurds, and soldiers united, plundered, robbed,
and burned the houses of Paloo and the neighboring villages. You
can guess very well who has given the order."

A personal letter received by the Armenian Relief Association, in this city, under date of Paloo, Armenia, November 24, presents an awful picture of the horrors to which the people there are subjected. The letter is in part as follows:--

"On November 3, the Turks of the town armed themselves, attacked
the stores, plundered their contents, and killed those who
attempted to defend themselves. A few days later the Turks left the
town, joined a band of 10,000 Kurds, and began a general assault
upon the surrounding villages, pillaging and burning the houses,
and killing all the men. They poured kerosene oil on all the
stored grain and set it on fire, and mixed the flour with filth,
so that it could not be used. The beautiful women were delivered
to the Kurds, who committed the most indescribable outrages. Many
were carried off to slavery, and forced to accept Mohammedanism.

"In Habab Village, where the people defended themselves for
six days, the government soldiers were called to the aid of the
Kurds, and the united forces overpowered the village and burned
all except fifteen of their three hundred houses.

"All of the forty-one Armenian villages around Paloo are in ashes,
the fields laid waste, and the inhabitants massacred. Nothing is
left but death and desolation.

"On November 11, 10,000 armed Kurds fell upon the city of
Paloo. They plundered the houses, even pulling down the walls with
hooks to discover anything valuable that might be hidden. All the
large houses were burned. Ten of the wealthy Armenians, who have
always cared for the poor, and sheltered the distressed, are left
without a pair of shoes or a blanket, 1,732 men were butchered
in cold blood, and of the 10,000 population, two hundred men only
are left, saved on condition that they serve the Turks as slaves.

"More than 5,000 women and children are left without any means
of living. They are begging from door to door for even a meagre
pittance of bran, which is all that is left, and every day death
claims more and more of the victims by starvation. All of the more
beautiful women have been taken by the Kurds. The Armenian youths
who have been forced to accept Mohammedanism are also forced to
take Turkish wives to prove their sincerity.

"All of my relations, save two, have been killed in my
presence. Our priests have all been butchered, except one, who
was forced to accept Islamism. Our churches have been turned into
mosques, where the remaining women and old men are compelled to
go and be taught Islam by the Mohammedan priest."

But here is another letter, from an Armenian mother to her son in this country, which brings us still closer to the actual horrors, for this woman was herself a victim--turned at a blow from a comfortable matron to a naked beggar, in winter, among the ruins of her village, her own friends killed, herself foully abused. Read this, and then talk, if you dare, about "exaggerated accounts"!

"December 12, 1895.

"My Dear Son:--

"We received your letter dated November 14th, which we read
with great pleasure. You asked for information about us, as to
how we are, etc. Except your father, we are all still alive,
with our relatives, and long to see you very much. It is very
hard to describe with the pen all the misfortunes that we have
undergone. They cannot be told; but since you are very eager to
know, I will try to write it down for you very briefly. My dear
son, on Tuesday, November 28th, they took by force the oxen that
are used for ploughing the fields. Until the evening of that
day they gathered all the oxen for ploughing from Paloo and the
neighboring Armenian villages, and took them for themselves, and
gave us notice that they should attack the village. Wednesday
morning all the people of the surrounding Turkish villages
gathered round about our village, and our village was besieged
until about noontime. From ten to fifteen persons were killed
up to that time from our side, and the village was surrounded
by more than twenty-two thousand Turks and Kurds, who bear
arms. It was impossible for us to protect our village. We
applied to the government, there was no government to hear us;
despair reigned in the hearts of all. They fought until evening,
and before they had reached us, we, all the villagers, left
everything, even not taking bread for one meal with us, went
to the monastery and left the village to the Turks. We passed
the night in the monastery, hungry and thirsty; the number of
the killed reached to thirty by morning. Then we learned that it
was not safe, even in the monastery, although they had plundered
it two or three times. Thursday, by noontime, the monastery was
full of villagers. At noon there was a blow on the door of the
monastery. Ravenous Turks, Zazes, and others were besieging the
building. Until evening they beat at the iron door to break it;
fifteen persons were at it, but it was impossible for them to open
it. Within, the shrieks and the cries of the people reached up to
heaven. Men, in order to save their lives, dressed themselves in
women's clothes, and covered their heads. Your brother wrapped
his moustaches so thickly that he should not be known, as the
Turks were after him by name. About 3 p. m., when the Turks
saw that it was not possible for them to open the gate of the
monastery, they broke in one of the stones in the wall, and the
plunderers entered.... I cannot describe here the sufferings
of the people.... Within one hour they robbed and violated a
population of 1,500 people, five times each woman, married or
maiden, and then left the monastery. The villagers, every one
to save her or his life, left everything, property, cattle,
merchandise, and provisions, and fled, the man leaving his wife,
the wife her child, the son his mother, the brother his sister,
and they dispersed in the adjoining mountains, plains, valleys,
and hills, with only their under-garments on, as the Turks and
Kurds had stripped them of everything else. Friday morning the
number of the killed had reached about fifty. Your father was
shot on the plain of Sacrat, but the wound was not dangerous. For
three days the people gathered in Sacrat, hungry and thirsty;
from Sacrat they were given over to the Zazes, to take them to
the city.... I can not write down here all the things we endured
at the hands of the Zazes.... Finally, after we had suffered
unmentionable cruelties, being twice plundered in the city and
violated, three brides and maidens were carried away as slaves by
the Kurds, more than one hundred persons were martyred, among whom
were two priests, and the rest were forced to accept Mohammedanism,
and after that the massacre ceased. For twenty days we remained in
the city, naked, hungry, and thirsty, also hopeless. The city was
rescued from the massacre after having suffered the loss of six
hundred houses, together with all the property of the shops and
stores, and the total sum of the martyred being 2,000. Our village
was given over to be burned for twenty days successively. Out
of two hundred houses, there are hardly thirty left sound; the
rest are all razed to the ground.... The rest of this story will
follow by next mail. I wanted to tell you a little about our hard
situation. Saved with only our undergarments, hungry and thirsty,
our whole family came back from the city, among the ruins. I,
your mother, had to go begging wholly naked and barefoot to the
familiar Kurd neighbors. I had only one shirt, which I made into a
bag to put the things in which I begged from the Kurds. For fifty
days I have provided thus for the family; after this I commit it
to your care; you know best what to do. We have not got even a head
covering; nothing to carry the water home in from the fountain. It
is the month of December, and you know well it is the first month
of the winter; we have two and a half months yet before coming
to the spring. We are all of us very, very, hungry. Those Turks
who were so friendly before have turned now not to know us, they
don't even give a penny. We have no hope from anywhere else; if
you do not come to our help, we shall perish! perish! perish! We,
with all the villagers shall die. Behold the description of our
misery. Read this to all the villagers that are there with you,
and notify them that all of you must be the helpers and deliverers
of our people, especially to us who are all helpless and on the
verge of starvation. Send us help. I remain

"Your affectionate mother."

MALATIA AND ITS HARDSHIPS.

Malatia is located about midway between Marash and Harpoot, a little distance from the Euphrates river. More fruit is raised in and about there than in any other section of Armenia. The assortment is large, but the apples and pears are especially fine, perhaps better than those of any part of the world. It has about 20,000 population, two-thirds being Mohammedans, and one-third Armenians. The private letters which have been received from there do not state, and cannot state how many Armenians have been killed during the period of the present persecutions, and it is not likely there ever will be any correct estimate of them. The region has suffered immensely, and letters from there reveal a most distressing condition of affairs. The people were plundered and violated in every conceivable way until there was nothing more for the time being for the fiends to wreak their cruelty upon.

Letters from Malatia.

Malatia, Dec. 22, 1895.

My Very Dear Son:--

We greet you with the fondest greeting, and it is the desire of our
hearts that the good Lord should enable us to see each other again
in this mortal flesh. In regard to ourselves, as to how we were,
and what we are doing. We are all alive yet with our whole family,
no loss of persons from among us. Don't mourn for us. Others
are mourning for their loved ones. Though in truth the grief and
mourning of others belong to us also because we are all Armenians,
one flesh and blood, and we all belong to the same nation.

I did not go to bring up the bride of our neighbor's with the rest,
so I was at home when the massacre began. You remember that there
was a well in that quarter. The Turks killed the bridegroom, his
brother, the priest, together with sixty-five other men, and threw
them into that well. In another house they burned seventy-five
men, and in still another forty-five men. Finally, I am unable
to describe with my pen all that passed in those days and hours.

May the Lord preserve your dear lives, and give you peace and
happiness. Your father.

Another Letter.

Malatia, Dec. 22, 1895.

My Dear Friend:--