The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1896-02-28
800 OUT OF 1000
Left in One Village After the
Slaughter on Armenia.
Andersonville and Libbey of '6I-'65 Can
Not Compare to Prisons of Sufferers
at Turkeys Hands.
MARAsH, TURKEY, Dec, "a, '95.

MARAsH, TURKEY, Dec, "a, '95.
DEAR FRIENDS:
The mountain tops are white with snow
and the leaves have all fallen from the trees
in the Orchard-but it is so unlike Christ
mas weather at home, that can't imagine
what it would be to have snow here. For
the sake of the poor, trust there may be
none; as it is get very cold with winter
people can live is more than l can see.
l must tell you about those captive wo-
men and children-it just haunts me
night and day. Last night awoke in ter
tor-not from dreams, for no dream can be
worse now than the realities, and was
only living over the everyday horrors in my
sleep. 1 heard all the dogs of the city in
a perfect frenzy, and strange noise among
it all. 1t was Jackals, come to prey on
what the human Jackals had prepared for
them.
What week of horror it has BEEN
not Tor ourselves, but thinking of Zeitoon
and the heart-rending cases that come to
us for help. You cannot imagine it.
Don't try, for if you came anywhere near
the truth, you could not get the dreadful
picture out of your mind.
But to tell you about those children.
1t seemed that the men from twelve villages
around Zeitoon became alarmed at the ad-
vancing armies, and took their families to
the village of Furnuz. They kept putting
off from day to day going to Zeitoon and
one morning they awoke to find Gordon of
soldiers around them, and massacre was
begun. OF all the inhabitants of the twelve
villages of 1000 people, only 800 were left,
women and children. Why these were
spared do not know. They were driven
here in herd in two days and imprisoned
in the Third church. The weak and i'll
were driven at the point of the sword into
the water at the crossing of the river; and
when the little children fell down from
weariness-as their mother could no longer
carry them-they were left on the way, and
the soldiers would allow no one to 90 back
and pick them up. 1 can see them all the
time, running and weeping and sinking
down, at last exhausted and dying from
starvation-miles and miles from any human
habitatlon.
A crowd of Moslems, men and women,
came to the church to revile them as only
Moslems can do. They gathered on porch
overlooking the church-yard when the porch
gave way, killing one man, and injuring
several women.
The imprisoned women were given in the
morning piece of bread the size of a
biscuit, and at night piece one-half larger,
and that was all they had. Crowds came to
see them but were not admitted. Our
Bible women, however, got in by stratagem
several times. 1t was cold and rainy and
some one had passed an AK in to them and
they chopped all the wood from the inside
of the church, that had been left from the
of the utterly poor, who came to us for bread
to keep alive, shared their food with them,
smuggling 1t in some way. After they were
kept in the church several days they were
divided among the Gregorian, Catholic
and Protestant communities, the latter TAX
ing seventy-six. The plan was to house
them, they thinking we would support them
with our little pittance of cents week
each for so many hundreds. But the peo-
pie decided to take them to their homes.
There is one astonishing case-a family
of ten and another little one coming any day,
their house in ruins and absolutely nothing
but the quilt we gave them. This family
slept on their neighbor's steps. One of the
little village children knew them and begged
so piteously to have them take him that
they did so. There is no such thing as
rich and poor now.
We got a note from one of our native
pastors who is In prison. 1t makes me be-
lieve In literal pit of birthstone. They are
so crowded that they cannot lie down,
and are kept In the same place with Moslem
prisoners. The latter appoints ruler over
the Armenians, who are made to give over
their own scanty rations to the Moslems.
They rule with rod of iron, and should the
Armenians say or do anything, they would
be shot down for their pains, and the re-
port would go out to the world of the des'
perate Armenians rising against authority.
So then they die. The filth is indiscribabe
The wounded and well, alike, are helpless
and bonoIoea And what Is their crime? One
minister went openly to the homes of the
wounded and dying. The other did moth
a, .a d,asp,t lruoxu tho cha roa.