The San Francisco call., 1897-10-17

i
the sword is to be condoled with. For the
pen is so pitiably weak.
never realized how little power there is
in making great wrongs public till | was
on my way home from an interview 1 had
with an armenian refugee-a girl-the
other day.
All the world knows vaguely that the
Armenians in Turkey are bitterly perse-
cuted. All The world knows anG has
grown accustomed 10 and weary OF know
ing that innocent people are massacred
there. Armenian has become synony
nous with martyr. The pen has told it
all again and again. Everybody knows
but who cares?
With the rest of the magazine-ta king
world l have read of Armenian massacres
and of Turkish cruelty. l have looked
idly or interestedly upon pictures OF peo-
pie in queer garments being hauled about
or tortured or beheaded by other people in
queerer garments. But l shall never dare
10 Iead another article or to look at an
other picture about the Armenian ques-
tion.
For the story has come true" to me.
he easily borne, abJiract case has become
parucuIarized, personitied. It's one thing
to read about something that happe ned
thousands of miles away. LIS a very
d.nerent and painful thing 10
come face to face. to talk with
one who has lived through what
seemed dim and distant; who has suffered
and sorrowed over what was to me merely
a magazine article or a newspaper story ;
whose presence in America to-day is the
most significant testimony TO the truth OF
the tales OF turkish barbarity.
In every account OF sufferers from the
Turks inhuman cruelty / shall see faces
like those l saw yesterday-pale, strong
faces, with strongly marked dark brow,
and black eyes. l shall remembe the
steady, unfinching, low voice of the Ar
menian who said to me:
I'VE have no hope. The world is be-
hind Turkey"
But the United States
What has the United States done
American missionaries are massacred in
Turkey. Is The Turk compelled even to
pay an indemnify No; the world is very
selfish--very cruel. The powers are back
OF the Sultan's hand. It's plain to be
seen in the case OF Crete. There is no
h"pe for Armenians in Turkey. No one
Will interfere. But while they live they
will never be conquered; they will never
Change-never!"
can we'll believe it. The Turks them
selves, I've read somewhere, call the revo-
lutionary Armenians 'Fedai"-those who
have dedicated themselves to death. And
the kurds, whose savagery Is respons bic
Tor haif the 800. COO massacred Armenians,
have prove b; The FedaPs ball tracks
the Kurd; finds him; kills him."
This girl viii not talk 10 you" said an
Armenian who knew that 1 wished to
meet the young refugee.
The speaker left Turkey about seven
years ago and is at present correspondent
OF various rapers in Mars lilies, London
and Mel bourne. He writes as he talks, al
ways about Armenia, inteIigentiy, with
strongest convection and most interest
ingiy.
why not?" 1 asked
"Becau,e she has relatives in Turkey"
"Weu?"
You cannot realize it, can your Bnt
ii this Armenian girl were 10 give you her
story, II she were to tell you frankly and
fully the circumstances that led 10 her
leaving COnslant!nop.e and the manner
OF her escape, the persecution, the im-
prisonment-the death, p rhaps-of hel
people in Turkey would follow"
oh, impossible P' 1 exclaimed.
1t did seem absurd 10 me, almost meIo-
dramatic.
L know you Americans cannot con-
ceive of such state OF affairs. but it is
quite true. l could tell you"
But upon W at grounds could her peo-
pie be arrested? Even the Turks must
have pretense. you know"
We'll, this is the pretrnse: In Turkey,
where the Armenians are tearfully perse-
Gu ed
"Why?'
because of their religion, for one
thing" he said
In the nineteenth eenturyr' 1 said,
family.
You see how hard it Is for an Ameri-
can to realize i! Why here you cons slider
it no shame-1 mean nothing dreadful-if
Jew marries a Christian, or"
And do you Armenians?'
es, We do, he said stiff1y
lelt rebuked and a little ike heather.
So l took hurried refuge in ou astions.
"a bout the Turks pretex -
wv hereYer people are prosecuted Ievo-
luuonary societies spring NJ. In Turkey
there are the Hentchakistes I do not
approve, you must know, of dynamite, of
BON b-throwing and that. The bomb