The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-02-22
ARMENIAN AGITATORS.
How They Have Misl Their Poor F,

low Country men.
 Correspondence of the St James Gazette
 It is impossible to avoid deep feeling
 It is impossible to avoid a deep feeling of sympathy for those unfortunate Ar menians who, through the machinations of their revolutionary brethren in Eu- rope, have been led into open rebellion, and who are now houseless and destl- ute. The Armenian Patriarch estl- mates their number at half million; but fancy if we put the figures at lOO,- 900 We should be over the mark. TO provide for 100000 destitute people in a country where no roads exist,and which has been swept clean by plllaglng Kurds, is no easy task, and unfortu- nately there is no organization on the spot to distribute relief. While claim ing our pity, however, it cannot be for gotten that the Armenians have brought this punishment on themselves. For centuries they have lived on good terms with their Moslem neighbors. In eastern Asia Minor, it is true, they suf- fered ever and anon from the depreda- tions of the xurds; but so, too, did the Turks; and in many parts'of Van, Bit lis, Muish and Aleppo, notably in the Saissun and Zeitun districts, the Kurds met with their equals, and were very chary of encountering the wrath of the hardy Christian highlanders, who have retained much of their old independence of spirit.
 Unlike the Mohammedans, who are es- sentially a horne-staying race, the Ar menians are much given to emigration
 While the Moslem is content with what he hath, the Armenian is always long ing for more. The poorest families in Anatolia had one or more members in
 the big cities-some working as porters,
 others in houses of business; all striv- ing to better themselves. Men who had received a good education at the hands of the American missionaries would
 push further afield, and natives of Van and Diarbekir may be found in Lanca- shire and the United States. The love
 of money was innate in these men, but patriotism was an unknown virtue, and
 for the simple reason that the Arme- nians have no country and no history. The Armenia of the early Christian era
 was not, and never has been, an inde- | years at least has been subject to Tur-
 with their glorious past, making a bid
 for a kingdom, and we can, with diffi- culty, realize the aspirations of the Irish Nationalists; but for Armenians to in-
 dulge in such chimerical views is more
 than absurd. And the educated Arme-
 nian of England and the United States knows it is absurd, even as does his edu- cated brother in Constantinople
 When the Western Armenian has realized his fortune, does he return to his native land? Never! Does he like a wealthy Greek, endow schools or build churches or hospitals in the far off valleys of Anatolia? No. He drops his termination "ian," purchases a country seat, and poses as a merchant prince. Some few return to Constanti- | nople, and build palaces on the Bospho-
 rus; but I never heard of one venturng to Erzerum, or endeavoring in any way to ameliorate the condition of his fellow | countrymen. From distance, these | patriots have organized the Hintchak 1 party, sending emissaries, drawn from 1 the poorer classes, to travel through Anatolia, sowing the seeds of disconteni | and anarchy in their track By this | means they have inflamed the minds of l the peasantry, and finally caused them ! to break into open revolt. But not one | of the better classes has ever ventured personally into the fray. At Constan. | tinople, and elsewhere, the mobs were always composed of the laboring class. | es; the towards in broadcloth all took refuge in the churches.
 | The central Hintchak committee. safe | in Europe and America. worked fol | their own selfish ends, regardless of the | misery their action might entail or ! their fellow-countrymen What thei, 1 real object was is shrouded in obscurity There are many theories. One, that il was their intention to set up an autono- | nous state in Turkey, which should eventually become the center, around
 which the Armenians of Russia ant | Persia should gather, and from this. af. | ter the next great European war. should spring the new kingdom of Armenia. | Another theory is that the Hintchak 1 ists are Russian agents in disguise working merely to stir up discontent il | the country, making good government i impossible, and so leading to Russian | invasion and occupation. A third par |