The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-01-29
ARMENIAN horrors.
Looting and Burning Of the
American Seminary at Mar
ash Soldiers Too Late.

BOSTON. Jan. %. 1Sse-The following
letter is from a Bostonian in Constan-
tinople who has made special inquiries
concerning the massacre at Marash,
Central Turkey
THE details. coming slowly to hand,
show that the massacre in Marash was
carefully planned by the authorities and
was carried out with the utmost cruelty
Marash on October 26. on that day
about thirty Armenian men were shot,
the Armenian shops in the market were
partly looted and a few houses were
plunderad OF the Armenians killed two
were prominent and highly esteemed
Protestants. One of them was shot
while coming in from his fields by
mounted policeman and left a wife and
seven daughters The othe~ was shot
while on his way to the telegraph Office
by soldier, and his body was thrown
into stream.
.'Plans for the general massacre appear
not to have been fully matured, and SO
the bloody work was only partially ac-
complished on the above-named day,
Enough had been done, however, thor
oughly to terrorize the Armenians, and,
tants about one-third of whom were
Armenians (Gregorian, Catholic and
ProtestanD, all the men fled from their
shops and places of business to their
houses and remained in them in spite OF
the effort of the local authorities to get
them out.
Promises were made to the heads of
the Christian communities that if the
,1o
ness they should be protected. A few
men, trusting to these promises, opened
their Shops but their goods were stolen
in a flash. The Governor urged the peo-
pie to come out to church on the Sab
bath Day. and he himself sent to have
the church bells rung, but no one dared
stir from his house.
"On Sunday, November II, there was
much excitement in the city, but nothing
serious occurred. On the following morn
ing, however. the bloody work began in
good earnest. Soldiers were stationed on
and also help from the outside. The city
lies on the broad face of range of hills,
and on the upper edge are the grounds
of the American Board Mission. with
two houses occupied by American fanlil-
les at one extremity, the Girls College
Ga three-story stone building) at the other
extremity and nearly midway the Theo-
logical Seminary. the Academy and one
other building. A little distance above
the grounds of the American Board Mis-
sion are the barracks, occupied by an
Arabfc-speaking regiment from Syria.
1.-THE killing and plundering began in
the lower parts of the city about eight
O'Clock in the morning. In about an hour
the near neighbors fed to The houses oc-
cupied by the American families, and
soon after a squad of soldiers, followed
by rabble of men, women and children
appeared q on she l,s premises % Of the AIneri-
and the girls of the college. a native
professor and his family. and the stu
dents Of the Academy, and Seminary
students who were too late and hid III a
neighboring cave, in all about two hum
dred persons, took refuge /: the Anleri-
can houses. The Seminary and Academy
buildings were stored with food for the
winter. including several hundred BUSH
els of wheat, rice, butter, Charcoal and
..trhe soldiers in squads of ten, assisted
by the rabble and protected by guard
who were stationed on the hills above the
Mission grounds, occupied seven hours
in carrying away, mostly to the bar
racks. ali the supplies in the above mem
ing and bedding of the students, the
organ and apparatus, in short every NOV
able thing, save the books of the library
Late. in the afternoon the Seminary was
set on fire and burned to the ground
"a lady who had been watching the
dreadful scene from the roof of one Of
the American houses, seeing a larger
squad Of soldiers approaching, said to-
her companion, Our time has come. Lee
US go down and die with the girls, anc
sbefall us 1t turned out, however, that
these soldiers had been sent by the Gov
ernor when the time OF the massacre
4roc 90 " n +
houses of the Americans.
After this guard arrived the two theo-
logical students who had been discovered
IN the cave by the soldiers, and been
pierced with bullets in five or six places
and covered with cuts on their heads,
arms, hands and legs, ard had lain for
some seven hours In their blood, were
brought to the mission houses Their