The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1896-03-21
Christians Pray to Be Delivered
From Their Friends.
THAT FOREIGN INTERVENTION
Its Abortiyc Attempts Add Fury 10 the
acknowledgements of the Turk
Sorry Plight.

| Under date of Beyrout, Jan. 20, an Ar
menian clergyman who has been labor
| ing in that region, writes to the Chicago
| Tribune regarding the Armenian mas
sacres
I Our eastern proverb, I'm making me
J an eyebrow he destroyed my eye" is
| now quoted by the unfortunate Armen-
| ians whenever they speak of European
| intervention" in their behalf. Up to
this time, at least, all the well-meant
efforts of the diplomatists have only
served to sharpen Turkish cruelty
against those whom the Turks regard
! as the authors of their disgrace before
| the world in the matter of the re
forms" To be compelled by foreign
| Giaours to yield compliance in that af-
fair was a great blow to their religious
and national pride. Just as soon as
| they were convinced that the powers
satisfied with what they had obtained
would act together in making no fur
Their pressure, the Turkish authorities
urged on by almost the unanimous sem
timent of their people, proceeded, suo
more, to give the Armenians and their
foreign friends "a lesson" Both par
| ties must be taught most thoroughly
that the Turk is sole master here: that
he will continue to treat his Christian
subjects just as he pleases; and that
foreign Intervention i'm their behalf, far
from alternating, will simply aggravate
their misfOrtunes and their misery. And
so these horrible massacres ravishings
plunderings, distinctions, burnings are
simply the Turks answer to the felici-
| tations of the diplomatists over their
so-called victory in September. That
answer has been so terrible that 1t will
| never have to be repeated.
SAVE ME- FROM MY FRIENDS.
Unless something is done. of which
we have no signs as yet it would have
been UNNECESSARILY better for these
wretched Armenians never to have been
mentioned in any treaty or state paper
Better that the Berlin congress had said
nothing about them: that Sassoun had
been passed by without notice from the
Christian world; that 1.-The reforms"
had never been urged upon the porte
The Armenians had lived under Turk
ish misrule for centuries They had been
| oppressed, robbed, beaten, despised as
for centuries more they could have en-
dured and lived in like fashion. But
now, unless Europe acts, and acts
speedily, these miserable rayahs will
have cause forever TO curse the day
when she INTERVIEWED" in their behalf.
In recent massacre the soldiers and
their assistant Moslems as they fired
the shot or struck the blow with sword
or dagger. cried out exultantly and with
unmentionable curses: Take that for
your consult Take that for your for
eign friends! Thus the sharp edge of
the Turks evaporation against the
| Christian powers and especially
against England-whetted by the hu-
initiating coercion recently exercised
upon him. has been turned with tremen-
dOus force upon the utterly defenseless
people who were the innocent cause of
this coercion. In a neighboring city a
man who had many friends among the
Moslems, and whose life had been spar
ed in the massacre, was shot and killed
in the street simply because (as his
friends believe) he had received a tele-
gram from England and was on his
way to send the answer
Along with this was the ferocious
hatred against the Armenians. aroused
in every MOslem heart by their having
dared to protest against their wrongs
and to appeal to the outside world for
redress. To understand the fury of
this rage that has required to be slaked
in torrents of innocent blood one must
have learned by long intercourse with
the ruling class here how deep and
scornful is their feeling of contempt
for the native Christians, whom they
have ruled so absolutely and so long.
That these slaves, who by the we'll
known code Of Islam, owed their lives
simply to the mercy of their conquerors
and masters, should now dare to COM
plain, to ask for rights" and to call
in the foreign Giaours to assist them
this alone was enough to arouse in ev-
cry Turk an almost fiendish desire for
vengeance.
MOSLEM ENVY.
But it is necessary TO go still deeper
into the cause of this great exaspera-
ton against the Armenians, which has
now found vent in the massacres that
are horrifying the world. The plain
fact is that during the last half century
the Armenians have advanced so far in
culture, numbers and wealth as to make
them the objects of envy, hatred, and,
to a certain degree, of fear to their mas
ters. Schools for the Christians have
been everywhere established; have risen
every year in grade; and have done an
immense work. More and more every
year the business, and with it the
wealth Of the country has fallen into
the hands Of the Christians. Not to
dwell IN Tho dafof1c of x,ybo+ ho- 49,