Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1896-06-29
THE WOMEN OF ARMENJA

The stories that have come to MS
of the heroism of the Armenian wo-
men in the face of unparalleled cruel
ty and brutality lead to a desire to
know more about this long suffering
race.
The first woman ever martyred for
her Christian faith was Santukhd, the
daughter Of the king, who died a glor-
ious death before the first century of
this era closed. From that. time I'M
til now women brave enough to Law
down their lives for their convictions
have never been wanting in that land
of cruel prosecutions.
The fruits Of their simple and sim
cere piety have been evident in their
lives. Purity has been the marked
characteristic of the Armenian home.
With polygamy, sensuality, and pro-
higacy among the nations that press
ed them on every hand, they have al
ways kept their hearthstones unsul
lied, their family circle undefiled.
With this sacredness of the home
there has naturally grown up singu-
lar reverence for women among the
Armenians. No other Oriental race
has ever showed such respect for the
women of the nation. The grand
mother, among other peoples too Oft
en- neglected, has always the seat of
honor by the freside in the Armenian
household, sure of the devotion and
respect of the patriarchal family. Her
sons and daughters, grandsons and
grand daughters, delight to do her
honor; for through life she has ex-
emplified all the domestic virtues.
The thirty first chapter of Proverbs
might have been written to describe
the wife and mother of the Arme MAN
home. Indeed, just such homes were
in existence when the book of Pro-
verbs was written; for even then the
Armenians were an ancient race,
with a written record behind it.
The women of Armenia are not only
deeply religious, thrifty, industri
Gus, frugal, hospitable, loving, and
loyal to home and family, but per-
sonally they are most beautiful and
Their eyes, dark, lustrous,
pathetic, with the inherited woes of a
thousand years, are "deep as the sea
and true as the stars" Their voices
are low and musical, their manners
gentle and refined and their intellec-
tual equipment is such that, when
given an education, they are delight
fully companionable associates and
friends for the cleverest folks.
Knowing all this about these wo-
men of the East, the thought of the
outrages and horrors to which they
have been submitted by Turks and |
Kurds makes ones blood boil with I
impotent rage. They have thrown
themselves from precipices and high |
towers, they have drowned them
selves in rivers, they have fed and /
starved to death in caves and forests,
rather than than fall alive into the
hands of the pitiless human devils
who pursued them; yet through it all
they have chung to their religious
faith, and when death has come, they
have met it heroically. Ages hence,
when we who hear these things shall
nave been forgotten, their names will
De treasured among the worlds
oravest martyrs. In centuries to
come, when the records of this cruel,
bloody, selfish time are read, it will
De seen that the one bright spot in
ibis blackness, when not a nation in
Europe did aught to stay the horrors
IF that carnage, and the United States
stood silently looking OMIT will be
seen that the one bit of light in the
awful gloom that let one still believe
here was God in heaven shone from
jhe purity and fidelity of the women
If Armenia, though their agonized
,ries were UNDECIDED by the world
Iy,.11 Item.