Evening journal., 1896-12-04
CONTEMPORARY OPINION.
A PEcrLIAR PEOpLE.

We suppose that many people in
this country, while reading of the
Turkish butcheries i'm Armenia, last
ing for over a year, must have won
dcred why the Armenians have not
taken up arms in defence of their lives
and fought vigorously against the en-
emy Both Mr. Gladstone and Lord
Roseberry declare that over 100000 of
them have been slain, and yet we have
never heard of any considerable num-
Der of them making a good fight for
their homes. their families, and their
religion. There have been numerous
cases in which Christian Armenians
have calmly submitted to death at the
hands Of the Mohammedans; but few
cases in which they have met the
foes. as the inhabitants Of other noun
famous countries have often met their
foes. the inhabitants of Montenegro,
for example, or of Switzerland, or of
Northern Spain. or of the Scotch High
lands. or OF Afghanistan, or of Cuba.
/ We do not recall the name of any he
roic Armenian who has performed
deeds of renown during the year Of
| slaughter, who has rallied a few hun
| dreds of his people i'm some pass ol
upon some hilltop, defied the crescent
raised alCft the cross. and won i'm
mortality in the worlds annals. We
have been shocked by the reports oi
the massacres at Van Harpoot, anC
other places In Armenia; but we can
not say that the Armenians have eve
| given us reason to praise them fol
their valor IL is strange.
In explanation it may be said tina
the Armenians are not a warlike race
that they do not possess arms; tina
they are greatly inferior in number T.
the other people living in their coun
try; that the most spirited of then
forsake their native land or abide else
where: and that the wild Kurdisl
hordes spring suddenly upon their un
defended places bent upon murder an
, plumber. Again, they have been 70
so many ages under alien domination
, at once cruel and notifying, that tn
/ strength of their spirit has bee
broken. From the times of the AssyI
ians to those of the Arabs and tn
Turks. unhappy Armenia has been dc
vastated oftener perhaps than an
other country in the world, and its in
/ habitants have been sacrificed in ever
/ generation to the ambition of cor
s querOrs, the lust of plunderers, and th
To- tanaticism of insensate reilglOnlsu
, Alexander of Macedon was more hr
name to the Armenians than were th
r Arabian caliphs who were magnan
nous compared with Genghis G
e Tamerlane. neither of whom wa
e guilty of such ATROCITIES as have bee
porpctrated I'm our own time under Oh
. rule of Sultan ABDUL Hamid IL. Ho
would 60 be possible for any peop
with such a history as that of u
Armenians to retain the proud spir
, OF Independence They seem to ha'
possessed that spirit about the tin
when Abraham was young. but th'
~ surely lost II long before the openiI
r Of the Christian era. IL has not be-
'e manifest since then. and il is n
p manifest at this time. They submit
- daughter without drawing the swo
in sclf-defcnce. 10 Us a pitiful spe
faclc. But who among those who kno
't their country and their conditi'
re- would speak scOrniully of them?
r. lesson dat has often been cxcmplin
a. in fhe worlds history is that the d
n nay he crushed out ~ people.-N'
4. York San.