The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-12-30

suls forwarded exhaustive reports. the
press published heartrending details and
Armenian ecclesiastics presented piteous
appeals. But we pigeon-hOled the con-
Sular reports pooh-poohed the particu-
taaIs puDlished by the press and ignored
the petitions of the priests We pressed
Knob, as 1t were, in London and there
by opened helis portals in Asia Minor,
letting loose legions of fiends in human
shape, VINO set about torturing and ex-
terminating the Christians there. And
lest it should be urged that our govern
ment was ignorant of the wide-reaching
eHects OF its lH-advised action, it is on
record that for seventeen years it con-
tinued to watch the narrowing results of
| that action without once interfering to
stop it.
ten law, traditional custom, the fundamen-
tai maximS of human and divine Justice
We're suspended in favor of a Mohamme-
dan saturnalia. The Christians, by whose
toll and thrift the empire was held to-
gether, were despOiled, beggared, chained
beaten and banished or butchered. Scores
or Armenians We're thrown into prison
and tortured and terrorized until they de-
nVered up the savings Of a lifetime. Whole
villages were sacked. In a few years the
provinces We're decimated, AlOghkerd, for
instance, being almost entirely purged of
Armenians. over 10000 Woe-stricken
wretches fled to Russia or Persia. On the
way they were seized over and over again
by soldiers of the sultan who deprived
them of their little money and clothes,
outraged the women and girls, and then
| uIONe lnem over the frontier to hunger
ana die. Those who remained for a time
behind were no better of Turkish tax
| gatherers followed these, cleaning what
the brlgands had left, torturing and fog
| gtng their male victims dishonoring their
| wives and defiouring their daughters.
| stories of this kind in connection with
| turkish misrule in Armenia have grown
| Iamillar TO English ears of late. 1t should
J be remembered that these statements are
1 neither rumors nor eXaggerations, con-
/ cerning which we are justified in suspend
NfuH hoe ~ f#s
| seal upon them. The Turks have admitted
4 these and worse acts of savagery; the
/ kurds glory in them trustworthy Euro
] peans have witnessed and described them,
and Armenians have grOaned over them In
/ blank despair. officers and mobiles in the
/ sultan's own cavalry regiments bruit it
| abroad with pride, the story Of the long
| series of rapes and murders which have
/ marked their official careers.
| In accordance with the plan of eXter-
mination which has been carried out with
/ such success during the long years of
/ Turkish Vigor and English sluggishness,
/ all Armenians who possessed money or
/ moneys worth were for a time allowed to
/ buy immunity from prison. But as soon
/ as terror and confiscation took the place
of eXtortion, the dungeons of Erezroum
| Birmingham, Marsovan, Hassankaleh and
! Van were filled till there was scarcely
/ standing room. Educated schoolmasters,
/ missionaries, priests and physicians
were immured in these noisome hot beds
| of infection and forced 10 sleep night after
/ night standing on their feet, leaning
against the foul, reeking corner of the
wall. Hunger, thirst and Shiny water rem
dered their agony maddening. Yet these
! were not criminals nor alleged criminals,
| but upright Christian men, who We're new
l.er.yet accused of an infraction OF the law.
I Into These prisons were cast venerable old
missionaries, teachers, ministers of re-
ligion, merchants, physicians and peas
ants.
| nounce their friends or consent to some
atrocious crime, were subjected to tor
/ lures indescribable, often occupying days
| while their tormentors laughed and howl
/ ed in glee.
Nights were passed in such hellish or
| gies and days in inventing new tortures
| or refining upon the old. Some of them
| cannot be described nor even hinted at
/ In the homes of these wretched people
/ the fiendish fanatics were equally active
| and successful. Rape and dishonor with
/ nameless accompaniments menaced al
most every girl and woman in the coun-
] try. Children were often married at the
/ age of II, even TO- in the vain hope of
/ lessening this danger. But the protec-
/ tion of husband proved unavailing; it
/ merely meant one murder more, and one
/ Christian dog less, and what astonshes
one throughout this long, sickening story
| of shame and crime is the religious faith
| of the sufferers.
I "Such in broad outline has been the
/ normal condition of Armenia ever since
the treaty of Berlin, owing at first to
the disastrous action and subsequently
/ to the equally disastrous inaction of the
/ British government. The above sketch
/ contains but a few isolated instances of
| the daily commonplaces of the life of the
/ Armenian Christians. The Turks en-
/ oouraged by the seventeen years coniv
ance of the only power which possessed
/ any formal right to intervene in favor of
/ the ArmenianS, organized a wholesale
1 massacre of the Christians of Sassoun.
The preparations were elaborate and
4 open The project was known to and
| canVassed by all. A long report was ad-
dressed by the Abbott of Moush to the
| British representatives at Erzeroum, in
/ forming him OF this lnhuman plan. but
| international comfy forbade US to med
/ die with the domestic affairs of friend
| ly power and the massacre took place
| as advertised The riVulets were choked
/ up with corpses; the streams ran red
with human blood, the forest glades and
/ rocky caves were peopled with the dead
| and the dying among the ruins OF once
/ prosperous villages lay roasted infants
/ by their mangled mothers corpses; pits
| were dug at night by the Wretches des-
| flung in while but lightly wounded, awoke
| beneath a mountain of clammy corpses
/ and Vainly wrestled with death and the
/ dead who shut them out from the nght
and life forever 1t was then that our
/ present ambassador at Constantinople
| took action and displayed those remark
| able gifts of energy ana industry 70 Wnich litil
the prime minister lately alluded with
! nride The British ambassador did mis-
best and at last carried the appointment
| of a commission OF investigation, 1e1i ts5i
/ sitting at Moush, the deeds Of atrocious
| cruelty which it was assembled to inveSt-
! gate were outdone under the eyes Of the
I delegates. Threats were openly uttered
4 that on their withdrawal massacres would
/ he organized all over the country-mas-
/ sacres it was said, in comparison with
] which the Sassoun butchery would com
mare hut as dust in the balance
.sIn due time they began. over sixty
tbouand Armenians have been butch
cred. and the massacres are not quite end
ed vet. In TrebizOnd, EreZingham, Has
+ sanizaleh and numberless other places the
/ CHRISTIANS were crushed like grapes dur
! ino the vintage. The French mob during
/ tbe Terror were men-nay, angels or
/ mercy-compared with these Turks.
! "T6ese are but isolated scenes. The
worst canont be described. And, If 1t
/ could be. no description, however vivid,
/ would convey a true notion OF the dread
+ reality. At most Of these manifestations
/ Of bestial passion and rapine the sultan 8
/ troops i'm uniform stood by as delighted
/ enecfators when they did not actually
/ take an active part as jealous execution
/ ers And these are the Turks whom unan-
4 irnous Etrope has judged worthy Of con-
/ Timing 10 govern and guide the christ
4 iane 81 Asia Minor The sultan under
/ takes IN a reasonable time be given him,
4 III re-egtahiish the normal state OF things
I III Turkish Armenia. and We know that
the normal condition implies the denial
3 b.. q al a1f faN fsNfa VI