Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-09-12
POOR OLD ARMENIA 1!
THE PlTiABLE CONDITION OF THE
 PEOPLE DESCRIBED.
Starvation In Perspective--The Turks Charged With Throwing obsta- cies in the Way of Foreign Benevolence-sass
 Outrages.
outages.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12.-The pitt able condition of the survivors of the Armenian massacres and the alleged efforts of the Turkish authorities tc retard the work of relief are de. scribed in a communication just re. ceived here from an American gen. tleman now at the scene of the Sassoun massacre. The letter is dated August 1, and after referring to the distribution of relief funds, which have been intrusted to Amer ican missionaries, he says in part;
 "The missionaries are now here, but the opposition of the Turkish government is so great that they can make but little progress. The people are completely prostrated. Two villages, samples of the thirty two that were destroyed, are now marked by crumbling walls, the roofs so completely destroyed by the incendiary soldiers that not a chip remains to show that they ever had roofs. The mass of the survivors of the massacre were scattered among the villages of the surrounding region and supported by those scarcely better off than themselves.
 Two months ago most of the sur vivors were induced to return to their old homes, SOW their fields with kind of millet that natures in a few weeks and seek to establish themselves before the winter. Many have only a few boughs to cover a corner of their former homes, and furnishings are bare; little hay to sleep on, with possibly some filthy rags to throw over them in place of abundant carpets. Hardly child has more than a remnant of a tat tered shirt to cover him, and many of the adults are not many degrees better off. Food is very scant and working tools are lacking.
 "In short, they are utterly pros trate, and must be put on their own feet by supplying them with everything till they can begin the upward road toward the old pros perity. There are already more than 5000 people to be thus cared for. England has already sent ,000 pounds and the Armenians themselves have raised two or three times this amount, but it will all be sufficient to do this work imperfect ly. Still, with sure prospects of re- form and present protection, they would go at the great task before them with cheerfulness and hope But, alas, these conditions do not yet obtain, nor do we know that they will.
 The English Ambassador obtained a promise that all assistance should be offered to the distribution of the English funds and the American missionaries were requested to come and superintend, but the three weeks they have spent on the ground have seen almost nothing accomplished because the government has thrown obstacle after obstacle in the way
 The first estimates of the slain were exaggerated, as no one could get into the region, and the sur vivors were scattered in different directions. Probably not. more than 4,0OO really fell at the time, the others died of want, and the tales of beastly lust and fiendly out rage that have come to our ears exceed all that we had dreamed of and can never be allowed to soil the pages of the clean historian.
 CRTTCHEn TO DEATH