The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1896-02-27
ooUTFER1NG In ARMENIA.
A 5rloi sia'emcn, Of Facts.


The New York Committee states:
Within the last few months, addi-
iional and greater atrocities have
been committed. Hundreds Of towns
and villages have been destroyed,
and statements from American eye
witnesses of the most competent and
trustworthy character have been
placed in the hands of the Committee,
showing that probably not less than
10000 innocent people have already
been put to death, and at least $50,
900, mostly women and children, are
now entirely destitute and in danger
of perishing from exposure as well as
starvation.
The limitations which the plans of
Armenian Relief impose upon this
statement make even partial recital
Of facts difficult.
A responsible English traveller in
Armenia, whose statements are re-
ceived by high authority as accurate
and reliable, writes:
"If detailed desert ption were
possible of the horrors let
loose upon Turkish Armenians, tn ere
is not man within the kingdom of
Great Britain whose heart-strings
would not be touched and thrilled
by the gruesome stories of which it
would be composed"
Tie OuHook in its issue of Jan
uary IS, 1896, prints the following ::
''The situation of the Armenian
Christians is pitiable almost beyond
expression. Leaving the political
and international phases of the East
ern question out of view altogether,
the entire world of humane people is
urgently called upon for sympathy
and assistance. This aid must be
prompt to be of avail. Letters from
the ravaged districts show that famine
is following massacre. One letter
just received from Van says: 'All
business aad work of all kinds have
been stopped for two months-which
means starvation to hundreds. And,
worst of all, there is no light ahead =
The misery in Harpoot, Bitlis, Erzer-
oum, and scores Of the villages is
intense, and increases as winter ap-
proaches."
If information concerning the
massacres at Sassoun, Van, Bitlis,
Erzeroum and other places with all
the attendant miseries, often worse
than death, are desired, the informa-
ton is readily accessible through other
channels.
Competent authority increases the
statements of the New York Com
mittee and figures the deaths by
violence from the autumn of 1894 to
recent date at 6o,oo and the num-
Der of the impoverished people at
nearly 100000. The distress is most
aggravated and includes the loss of
everything needed to sustain life.
Houses, clothing, cattle, food supplies
are gone, and i'll many instances the
fathers of families upon whom wives
and children depended for support
are gone, too.
A letter from an American in one
of the devastated towns, written late
in December, contains the following:
"The more information we get
the more distressing as a rule, the
condition seems to be and the greater
is the need for relief. The report is
everywhere much the same, large
portion of the Armenian houses
burned, everything, clothing, bedding
and food carried off. The surviving
people bury themselves in straw.
Children are already dying of cold
and hunger. Many persons are
wounded aud uncared for. An officer
says he has seen women who had
gone to Turkish village to beg a
little bread dead on the road, from
starvation and exposure"
The following quotation is taken
from letter dated in another town,
also by an American correspondent;
"The relief work of DR.. Grace
Kimball at Van, Armenia, has ex-
tended since her last report to you.
The money sent has already done an
immense amount of good. She now
employs over nine hundred, repre-
senting 1900 souls, that are kept
from starvation by her efforts; yet
she could employ many more in her
Industrial relief, but for lack of funds.
The turning away of applicants is the
hardest task Of all. Her factory has
also been school of honesty to those
employed. The work is a shining
example of clean upright business
methods and Yankee executive
ability.
"Since the first of November more
Than two hundred and seventy vii
iages in the Van province have been
cleaned out by the Kurds, innumer-