The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1897-06-19
GREEK AND TURK.
WHY THE FORMER BITTERLY
HATES THE LATTER.
Awful Devastation of the Greciah
Island of Scio by the Turks
How the Greeks Avenged
Their Comrades.
are passages in modern
i Greek history which explain
the unquenchabie hatred of
the Greek for the MosIeI

ieaVe Denlnu tnem @ running sore
which never heals. Such q wrong Is
the massacre of Scio.
Over against the seaboard of Asia
Minor, within seven miles of the beach
on which the surf breaks and in full
sight of the old Pagus range, with the
town of Smyrna nesting at its base.
the Island of Scio or Chios wooes the
Western breeze with her oils and
wines. Like most Of the Aegean is
Lands it was born of fire and sulphur
and lava, but after a time generous
nature swathed the rugged rocks of
the southern extremity with cover
ing of alluvium, on which the citron
blooms and the lentisk lends it's frag-
rant bark to the knife, so that the
gum mastic which the girls of the
Orient love shall flow.
From the remotest antiquity race
of islanders were grown to fit SO sweet
u landscape. The men were tall, SIM
ewy. brave, trained to handle their
small craft in the stormy seas when
the hurricane blows; they led quiet
lives, at peace with all the world, and
kept out of wars when war was every
where else. Nowhere, even in Lesbos,
were such beautiful girls raised. They
were taller than the Greeks generally,
with exquisitely rounded forms, fash
ing black eyes and ripping hair, which
hung loose over their shoulders.
For thousand years Soio was the
happiest of the gems of the Eastern
sea. Its chief city. basking on the
eastern beach, with its face to the ris-
ing sun, was rich and quiet when the
cutters of the other cities of that re-
gion flowed periodically with blood.
When the time came that the Turk
swooped down upon it, the people &C.
quiesced, let the Moslem set up his
mosques and went on chanting save
Maria" as devoutly as ever. Chance
favored it. twas made the demesne
of the Sultana dowager, and wild
rage for chewing gum having broken
out in the seraglio at Constantinople
it was discovered that the precious ar
ticle could be best manufactured.from
the gum mastic of Chios. Thus the
owners of lentisk groves grew rich.
In the times of the later crusades
the Genoese wrested Chios ont of the
hands of the Turks, held it for couple
of centuries. and left their marks all
over the island in the shape of con-
vents, churches, colleges, hospitals,
libraries and palaces. Then the Turks
reconquered it. But the softness of
the dir mitigated the ferocity of the
temper of the Moslem; the cres-
cent hoated over the castle of Scio;
but the Christians cultivated their
fields without molestation, and at the
beginning of this century they mum.
bered 90, 900 of the hundred and odd
thousand of inhabitants. When the
Greek war of independence broLe out,
the Chians did not at first see that
they were called upon to take part.
They read the papers in their quiet,
easy going way and kept their passions
well under control. But when news
came that Greek blood was flowing on
the mainland they rose IN arms and
locked up the Governor in the castle
without doing him any harm. He
dispatched swift messenger to Con-
stantinople to say that he had fallen
into the hands of the Phllistines and
that he was prepared to endure what
ever Allah might send.
The missive reached the hand of
Kara Ali. the capondan pasha, or lord
high admiral, who was just then start
ing from the Golden Horn with his
fleet to chastise the Greek rebels. 1t
occurred to the capondan pasta that
it might be good idea to drop in at
Scio on the way. He brought his
feet to an anchor in the roads and
landed 15, 900 troops, chiefly janissar-
les. These were joined by robbers
and adventurers from Smyrna, who
were ferried across the narrow strait
The, islanders were taken by sur
prise. They had no military organ
ization and were unprepared to fight.
They offered submission ct once and
protested that they did not propose
to dispute the Sultan's authority.
The capondon pasha pointed to the
castle where the Governor had been
imprisoned and quickly observed that
he proposed TO give Scio lesson. He
let loose his soldiers, bidding them
treat the island like captured city
which had been given up to sack.
The Turks went about the work de-
liberately. They took two months to
accomplish it. They began by hang
ing the archbishop. the heads OF the
clergy and the principal citizens; their
bodies were thrown into the sea and
foated round the Turkish ships until
they were eaten by fish. The capital
city. score or more of fourishing
villages and the splendid churches and
converts built by the Genoese were
then burned to the ground. The peo-
pie were penned up in corrals, the
males being separated from the fe
males. The former were killed to q
man the latter after judicious Sc
lection had been made by the Turkish
army and navy officers, were sent to
Constantinople to be disposed OF in
the slave market. s Gordon Isays that
the men who were slaughtered mum.
bered $4,000 and that As, 900 girls and
children were sold as slaves. Certain
it is that the price of comedy young
women declined fifty per cent in the
elave markets of the Levant during the
year 1922, wfsch was the year OF the
massacre.