Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-11-22
A Personal Letter From Armenia.

MI. >. ID, Hdll Oh NOIJu DbuuluBJOu
has received letter from a personal
friend, G. c. Rayno Ids, NJ, D., a medical
missionary of the American Board at
Van, Eat tern Turkey. The writer
taught in the academy at Bennington
Centre under DR.. Yates some years ago,
had an honorable record in the naval
service of this country in the civil war,
bears scars received during his mission
airy life in Armenia and has recently
been entrusted with the important relief
work in that distressed region. The
letter is dated Semal, Sassoon, Sept. %,
/ 1895.
you may be interested to know why
am away from home this summer, and
of the unexpected work in which | am
engaged The name at the head of my
page has probably become more or less
familiar. through the accounts of last
summers terrible massacre. trust
your sympathies have been drawn out
for the poor people who have so cruelty
suffered here, rather than deny the name
of Jesus and accept the religion of the
False Prophet. 1t was the purpose and
intention of the Turkish government to
completely wipe out the Christian popu-
lation of this province, not because they
had committed any act of
rebellion or given any other
ground for their hatred, but as
one act in the drama of extinction of its
| Christian subjects, which it inaugurated
! some years ago. 1t was foolish enough
to suppose that in such an isolated re
gion, it would be possible to keep the
knowledge of its conduct from the civil
! lied world, aud it's efforts to accomplish
| this have been Herculean, the interfer-
ence with our mails being part OF this
plan, but despite it all, the world has
! heard about it, it's sympathies have been
! excited for the poor survivors, and con-
siderable contributions for their relief
| have been senJ in, and | was invited to
cooperate with Mr.. Cole, of Bitlis, in
! administering this relief. So this is why
am here, and this is how my summer
is going.
OF the 10000 contented and prosper
Gus peasantry dwelling among these
mountains ne9rly 5000, after being scat.
tered over all the neighbOring regions,
| have gathered again in their old homes,
but oh! how desolate. Except one or
two stone churches, every roof in all the
province was burned, after the houses
had all been plundered, the flocks and
herds, which constituted their wealth
driven off and everything which contrib.
utes to existence destroyed. Our work
| is nominally to distribute $4,000, con-
tributed from England, but really its
scope is very much broader. 1t is to
act as superintendents and fathers to all
this population, who, while possessing
bravery and manv attractive qualities,
are yet childish and quite
incapable of getting on to
their own feet again, even were
abundant pecuniary means put into their
hands, without some one to act as gen
era supervisor. This work, at its best
is not an easy one, and its difficulty has
| been greatly increased by the persistent
policy of interference, on the part of the
government which has only very recently
given way, before the patient efforts of
the representatives of the English Gov
ernment. The thing to be first started
was the rebuilding of the ruined houses,
and we tried to start this when we came
at the beginning of July, but it was
August before the first pick could be
struck But there are difficulties be-
sides those from the government, and
| the circumstances of the situation. One
that is causing us a good deal of head
ache at present arises from petty jeal-
| OuSy on the part of one of the other vii
lages against the one where we estab-
lished our depot. This jealousy went to
the extent of refusing to do anything
about building their houses, unless we
would change our depot to their village.
The responsibility of distributing
e2OOO, is considerable, and we have
pretty heavy joint responsibility for
distributing an equal sum contributed
! by the Armenians, but these sums com
bined will go but little way toward
putting them on their feet, or even keep
| ing them alive till another harvest.
Fully twice the sums already in hand
| from all sources are needed for the lat
ter purpose, and $4,000 would hardly
suffice to furnish the sheep and cattle to
form the nucleus of new tlOcks and the
means of sowing their fields. Where all
these extra funds are coming from does
not yet appear. Our Board has made
appeals for funds IN America, but they
do not seem to meet very cordial re-
sponse.
"This devastated region is some 25
miles in diameter, consisting of high
precipitous mountains interSected by
deep narrow valleys. The northern bor-
der is a range 5000 feet above the sea
with fairly wide intervale at its base,
In which is situated the village in which
our camp is placed. Going south the
general altitude decreases, the mount
aims become much more wild and pre-
cipitous, with only here and there lit.
tie slope sufficiently gentle to admit of
cultivation. These are all improved and
and little scattered hamlets, often ex-
tremely picturesque in their situation,
shelter the inhabitants. Often these
hamlets, not more than half mile apart
in straight line through the mountain
or across the valley, require more than
! twice that distance of the hardest kind of
climbing, to communicate with each
other.
"There is great, though melancholy
interest in visiting these place, rendered
historic in such an unexpected manner,
standing by the death pits, for instance,
where scores of men who have surren-
dered to the soldiers, on the promise of
safety, were pushed in by the bayonets
of the faithless Turks, and then the
same bayonets prodded through and
through the living mass, till the shrieks
of the victims grew faint. My assistant
fell near the top of one of these pits and
two otheas fell upon him, and the bayon-
cts passing through their bodies before
reaching him, did not prove fatal, and in
| 10 IL lnI