Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1896-04-24
#iseellaneuus &eadiag.
DOWNTRODDEN ARMENIA.
Some Interesting Facts About an Interest.
Ing People.

Some Interesting tacts ABOUT An Ahtorosc
Ing People.
Written for the Yorkville Enquirer.
This country upon which for months
past the world, shuddering and as
founded at the spectacle, has kept its
eyes fixed-Armenia, of such unhappy
and fatal prominence in our day, has
little about it to suggest the grace and
sweetness of "Eden's dawning day."
And yet it is in this elevated tableland
of Western Asia, among whose noun.
tains rise the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers, that the Bible narrative places
Eden-the home and abode of our
first parents. And it was on Mount
Ararat, the great central mountain
peak of Armenia, that we are told the
ark rested, when the waters began to
abate after $50 days. And it was on
the slopes of this mountain in the
centre of Armenia that Noah Sfered
to God in joy and gratitude for his
preservation a burnt offering, and
received from God the token of the
bow in the heavens-a promise and
covenant that the "waters shall no
more become a food to destroy all
flesh" And it was here, too, that to
Noah the promise was made: "While
the earth remaineth, seedtime and
harvest, and cold and heat, and
summer and winter, and day and
night shall not cease" This promise
is being fulfilled today in Armenia; it
is a rich and fertile country. And
yet the oppression and devastation
wrought by the hand of the Turk
has made it necessary to appeal to
the world to aid in keeping this
ancient people from perishing OF
hunger.
As Christian people the Armenians
first come into notice about SO2 A. D.,
when Gregory the 'Illuminator," a
member of the reigning family was
converted to Christianity, and aided
largely the introduction Of the religion
of Christ into the country. From that
time to the present the Armenians
have maintained themselves as an
independent and national branch OF
the catholic, or universal church.
they have never bowed the knee to
the pope of Rome, and they have been
free from the anomalies and eccen-
tricities of our divided Western Chris
tianity. They have kept the faith
pure and free from Roman and Prot
estant corruptions and additions.
They are catholic Christians then,
and neither Roman nor Protestant.
The Turkish rule began in the Four
teenth century, and it began with ap-
palling cruelties and bloodshed. For
centuries there has been no Armenia
nation, and Armenians like Jews have
gone in considerable numbers where
ever trade and commerce have invited
them. Today two and half millions OF
them live under the rule of the Otto
man empire. They are subjects, but
not citizens, of the Turkish empire.
But one avenue is open to them by
which they can secure citizenship
conversion to Mohammedanism. They
are thus without civil or political
rights; their testimony in the court OF
Justice is not admitted against that of a
Mohammedan, and they have no re-
dress for the constant robbery and
spelling to which they subjected.
In the year 1875 Abdul Hamid II
was called to the sultanate, and his is
the one mind I'd will that has insti-
gated, and openly accomplished, the
massacres of the past two years. When
Abdul came to the throne he found
himself absolute ruler of forty millions
of souls, and welding sceptre over
more than one million square miles OF
the earth's surface. He is man of
great industry, astuteness, and in Ger
tain ways, of great ability. He tolls
at his desk in giving personal super
vision to affairs of state and administra-
ton about eighteen hours day. When
he ascended the throne Turkish finan-
ces were in so bad way that loans
could be negotiated only at ~ per cent.
today the sultan floats his bonds at 5
per cent. To ruler such as this, the
presence in his dominions of more than
two million people of different religious
and race sympathies from the vast
majority of his subjects must be an un-
welcome sight; and perhaps cause OF