The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-01-07
For the Relief of the Starving.

For the Relief of the Starving.
The decision of the City Pastors
union to make a special appeal 10 'he
public for contributions in relief OF the
starving Christians as yet unmassacreu
in Armenia deserves Il generous re-
sponsc. BY all accounts there are
thousands upon thousands of followers
of the Cross in Asia Minor-the rem
nant vouchsafed life by the murdefous
Turkish followers of Mohammed-who
at this time are literally upon the verge
of starvation. Their harvests have
been destroyed by barbarian uprisings;
their homes have been broken up or
else turned into the scene of rapine ana
outrage; and the coming of the winter
season has found them literally helpless
and without means of subsistence III
land filed with the graves of their mas
sacred associates and held with ruthless
firmness by their merciless enemy, the
Turk.
While the Christian powers of Europe
are by their inactivity virtually pro-
tecting the assassins of the Crescent
in their campaign of Armenian eXter-
mination, it is proposed that far-oit
America shall freight vessel with sup
plies and send it az an offering to these
suffering brethren in the Christian faith.
To this end an appeal is made to Scran-
tonians. in order that this city, which
was one of the first in the country to
make q protest against Turkish bar
barities, may sustain its word with
fitting deed, and prove that sympathy
which can talk can also act There Is
no resident of Scranton so poor that he
cannot give something for the relief of
these starving Christians of Asia Minor.
who though spared by the sword with
no thanks to the so-called Christian
powers, may, if not soon rescued. yet
perish by the slower process of famine.
If every Scrantonan should give only
s cents, the price of one loaf of bread,
the total would be $1,000. and it would
not take many Scrantons to fill ship.
But whatever is done il will need TO be
done quickly. Hunger and want will
not wait our convenience. a delay of a
week may mean the death of hundreds
of human beings whom prompt relief
would avail to save.
We have had heretofore chiefly the
rhetorical side of this Armenian ques-
tion. People have read of the whole
sale butcheries, which have ineffaceably
stained and damned the archaic sway
of the Mohammedan sultan. They have
voiced a casual thought or two of SYM
pathy and regret; and perchance, have
wondered whether Christian Europe
would take steps in redress. But there
the subject has dropped. 1t has re-
manned for the closing decade of the
nineteenth century, three hundred years
and more since the last recorded whole
sale religious massacre, to produce the
spectacle of 100000 Christians deliber-
ately done to death-babes slain at their
nurse, mothers first dishonOred then
slaughtered; and old men tortured-by
the minions of a sovereign ostensibly
under the thumbs of four Christian rul-
ers without any actual step taken in
their defence, or any organized effort
yet put forth, except in the manner now
under consideration to save from mas
sacre or starvation the remnant thous-
ands whom the Turk in his madness
overlooked.
Rhetoric, however, must now give way
to fact. There can in decency's name
be no further justification for hesitancy.
Let all who can do so send at once their
contributions of money. clothing or
provisions to Colonel II. NJ. Boies who
will act as treasurer of the Armenian
Relief fund. Let Scranton show that
she can do as well as talk; and an ex-
ample thus set will not fail to have in
ole