The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1860-08-17

Letter from the american Census 20
Dr. NMyfand.

/
| Dr. Nayiand.
/ From the Providence Journal Aug. Sih
| The following letter will be read With
painful interest. IL was communicated 10
the Monthly Concert for Missions on Monday
evening. The Rev. w, Douglas and DIR. Z.
NJ. Snow we're appointed committee to CO.
/ operate With any other committee that NAV
be appointed here or elsewhere to devise
means for the relief Of these sufferers. Ger
tainiy they will not appeal in vain to the
| sympathies Of q Christian community. Mr..
johnson is the American Consul at Beyrout.
| BgYRorT, Syria, June g, 1860.
| You have doubtless heard of the horrible
massacres that have Just been perpetrased
upon the poor Christians Of Mount Lebanon
by the Druses, aided in some cases by the
Turkish soldiers.
A few facts may give you an adequate
idea of the present state Of things in Syria.
The American missionaries have estimated
the loss sustained by the Christians at 10, 500.
and that of the Druses about 1900. The
inhs bitsnts of the Christian towns of DER
IL komr and Hasbeya were brutality slaugh-
tered in cold blood, after o full surrender
had been made. Thirty or forty converts
had been pundered and burned, and the
monks were put TO death, some of whom
were French. Nearly one hundred villages
have been burned, and the crops Of the peas
antry destroyed.
Many churches have also been burned,
among them the American Mission Chapel at
Hasbeya and the school houses ct Deir il
komr.
These facts are enough TO strike the civil
ized world with h1rror, but there il yet some
thing to be told.
Ii is believed that not less than sixty thous-
and Christians are now homeless and stary-
ing, and have no other hope for subsistence
than the charity of the Christian world.
More than 5000 fugitives have been sup
ported by the Consus, missionaries, mer- |
chants and converts of Beyrout; but this 10
only temporary arrangement. Something
must be done for the starvisg, homeless
thousands who are now hiding 10 caves and |
other secret places until peace shall be de- |
clared.
Beyrout is no longer place Of safety for |
Christians. Moslem fanaticism 10 now fully |
aroused, and the Turkish Government has
found it necessary to station q platoon Of
soldiers in every Consuls house for their
protection. Thousands of the Christian ref |
ugees, and large Numbers of the native resi- |
dents, have fed the country. Indeed, the
land is full of miserg and deepest woe.
American missionaries, aided by the guards
from the American Consulate, have brought
away many poor, bssieged and prosecuted
Christians, whose lives have been thus pre-
served; and the Eng ish vessels OF war have
picked up about !, 900 fugitives, many wound
ei women and children, who had escaped to
the sea coast, and there 10 still work for
them.
What can be done 10 these United States
for these furnishing widows and orphsns2-
will say nothing now Of vengeance, for the
European Powers will no doubt exact justice
for this great crime; but humanity calls upon
me not only to distribute bread 10 the crowds
around my house, but to present their cause
TO my countrymen, and TO arouse their SYM
pathies in behalf Of this persecuted people.
The King of Greece has sent q sum Of mo-
ney for their present relief, and efforts are
being made elsewhere to COLLECT money for
that object. America sent food to Ireland
and Greece, and will not something be done
for the Christians 10 Syriap
You will doubtless see full accounts of this
bloody struggle in the European papers.
| send you a leaf from an old Samaritan
copy OF the Pentateuch. | think you will
find it to be from Deuteronomy xiii. g.
inere are about 40 male survivors OF this
singular people At Nablous, the ancient
Shechem, where obtained the inclosed. The
High Priest ia q venerable old man, very
courteous and agreeable. This leaf 10 thought
to be very old, and may be worthy OF place
in your cabinet. j. AUGUSTUS JOHNSON.
DDouglas, 10 bis pilgrim harangues.
endeavors to fnd favor with the free men of
the North by abusing Buchanan for trying to
force the Lecompton Constitution upon Kan
sas, when the people didn't want 1t. But he
doesn't say a word about bic own delinquency
in refusing to get through Congress q Con-
stitution which the people of Kansas did
want.
| Is not the one ss bad 90 the otherP No
man has been 90 vindictivs and abusive OF
the people OF Kansas AS Douglas, and Bu-
chHnan himself would be less hypocrits II
he should now pretend friendship for them.
| Il Albany Jour.
GTEx-Gov. Johaston, of PeDnsylvania,
who had been accounted Bell Everstt man,