The record-union., 1896-02-21


strong and gifted men among these mis-
sionaries Some of their names have
been recently grouped by the Chicago
Inter Ocean, such as DR.. Cyrus Ham
lin, Elias Riggs, G. F. Herrick. William
Goodell, A. Fuller, t. D. Christie, C. F..
Gates and j. K. Greene.
There are now sixty-six missionaries,
eight doctors, 118 women teachers and
workers, 100 native pastors, 128 native
preachers and 900 native teachers un-
der the American mission organizations
in Turkey. Some of the last named
classes have recentlybeen butohered by
the Turks and the Kurds under turkish
wing and protection. It is noteworthy
that by far the largest part of the work
of the American missionaries in Turkey
has been educational Their schools
and colleges have most engaged their
energies. They have these schools in
all parts of the empire, from the COM
mon school to the first-class college.
Naturally enough as history is taught
CT necessity in these schools, reference
to forms of government other than the
Turkish have been considered, just as
such matters are handled in our own
schools, and out of this fact may have
grown the Turkish charge that the
teachers and missionaries have been
breeding dissension among the subjects
of the Sultan.
If there is any one thing more than
another that the Moslem hates it is the
dissemination among his people of
knowledge of other forms of govern
ment and of history of other lands, ex-
cept those histories come from Turkish
authors. He holds quite generally that
the dependents of Turkey have not
only no need to be read, but that it is
an assault upon the Government to
have them taught, especially by for
eigners, since the Turkish schools are
good enough. But these schools are in
the eyes of Americans little more than
travesties.
The dependents Of the Turkish En-
pire, and these include peoples as an
cient as history itself, and tribes that
occupied the land before the Turk be-
came conqueror, is, if not a Moslem,
"a dog" "an infidel," "a thing and
wretch of whom the Turk five times
daily prays, 20, Allah! give to thy
people the possessions and the wives of
the unbeliever, and to thy servants
his children, and may he perish from
the face of the earth"
1t is easy to understand how he who
thus prays can smile at the throat
Sitting of ''infidel dogs" and stroke his
beard complacently when brutal sol
diery spit Christian children upon bay
onets. OF course, the Armenian is
trader very largely, provident and
shrewd and he has the average Turk
in his debt most of the time. Quite
largely the Armenian is fanatical, hide
bound, passionate, hateful of the Turk,
and indiscreet enough to make it man
ifest. He has more than once taken
up arms in revolt. He has even en-
gagged in massacre of Turks. He has
spoiled the Turk when opportunity Of
fered. indeed, and he has not hesitated
to war with the Kurds on very slight
pretext. He is not, in his native state,
such man as we wish for citizenship,
but he very readily and rapidly changes
more gentle and free from the cruelty,
intolerance and oppression of Turkey.
But the Armenian of to-day is what
the Turk has made him. Decades upon
city, outrage and massacre upon him
have produced what was to have been
expected. AS far back as 1880 Lord
Salisbury in Parliament declared that
the task of inducing Turkey to be mer-
ciful and just to the Armenian seemed
to be hopeless, and that misgovernment
of the Pashas was something too fear
full to contemplate. He declared to his
fellow eountrymen that were the full
light of public opinion let in upon the
atrocities in the misgoverned districts
of the Turkish Empire, the demand
for reform would be imperative, but
even then correction would be slow and
painful The only alternative he saw
to correction by public opinion was the
terrible one of determination of the vari-
Gus races of which the populations Of
the provinces were composed, brought
about by the miseries to which they
were subjected.
At the same moment Mr.. Gladstone
was saying that the charges against
the Turk were all true and that there
was no hope for the wretched people
so long as the Powers gave Turkey to
understand that her integrity as State
would not be interfered with.
The truth is that the hard rule of the
Turk has made out of the Armenian in
Armenia an unlovely character, and no
wonder We should not be at all sur
prised that he began a movement in
| 1882 to restore the ancient Armenian
monarchy. nor that in 1894 Armenians
in New York, Boston and other cities
of our own country, and in London and
European cities, organized the Hench-
agist Society, the purpose of which is
to free their native land from the in
tolerable and iron hand of the Turk.
This society proposes force, while an
other, the philharmonic, proposes
achievement of the same ends. but by
peaeeable methods. These and other
4 -,o-e.+;os 1,ax1a fo,,o er1fad agitation in
Armenia, and the Turk, knowing it, has