Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1911-09-07
CHeAAF1NG
l &5f35 +
On the Scene Of the Recent Massacres
in New Turkey-Even the Men
Who In Cold Blood Slew Americans
Are Permitted to Walk at Liberty.
81 WILLIAM Z. Ills.

WdlCHeu bdlllulOI6 DuTu.
trod the smoking ruins Of San
Francisco. l have threaded my way
Through camps of myriads of starry
sng Chinese, in the great famine Of
four years ago. But no experience
have ever undergone has been SO
depressing as a visit to Adana, the
center of the Armenian massacres OF
a year and a half ago. Throughout
these Investigations in Turkey, Adana
has kept arising as a specter.
Now l have seen what remains to
be seen of that holocaust Of blood and
6re and pillage. The heart of the
city is still in ruins. People are only
Beginning to rebuild. Widows and
orphans bulk largely In the popula-
zion. A measure Of self support is
coming through the picking Of the
cotton crop, at which a family may
earn as much as rs cents a day. 1t
seemed to me, as l walked about the
streets of the city, and had pointed
out to me individuals as well as
nelghborhoods which had been re-
Bponsible for a share Of the five thou
sand deaths, as If there were a Gym
Zeal leer upon the faces of the Turks
who watched the stranger pass.
A Pail Upon the Country.
I came down through Asia Minor to
Adana and two days back in the
Taurus mountains l was told that
FHere the massacres began" The
christians were harried through
many villages and into Adana and
FTarsus. The whole region ran blood.
One cannot enter into conversation
with a group of people without quick
Ay hearing echoes of those awful days.
= CHANGED to meet six prisoners just
out of jail, where they had been i'm
prisOned since the massacres, because
khey had defended their village
against the Turks who assaulted it.
Some Of the stories Of the defense
of individual homes and village com
munities are thrilling to the last de-
gree. One English speaking young
man told me quietly when I ques-
toned him that he had not been in
Adana at the time, but in a nearby
village which had successfully resist
ed the attacks Of the Moslems. At
the last attack, when the Turkish
soldiers and the fanatics came upon
them, the men Of the village moved
in a body outside the walls, to make
There a last stand for their homes
and loved ones; for they knew If the
butchers got within the gates, all
would be over.
The massacre swept like a forest
S1re over all this beautiful region. II
gives a visitor a creepy feeling to
have a resident point out to him, here
and there, an individual who led in
the attacks Upon the Christians. The
real leaders in the massacre were
never punished. To the credit OF
The young Turks, be 1t said, they
hanged ffty-six %unimportant persons
whom they held responsible. On the
spot l find an ominous questioning as
TO whether the party in power has moi
been obliged to make terms with the
dictionaries.
~Unavenged Americans.
It comes as a surprise to learn tina
nobody has been punished for the
cold-blooded murders of Rogers ant
Naurer, the two Americans who were
bhot down while engaged in carrying
water to extinguish a fire. The yer!
names Of the murderers are men
aioned here. 1t would seem as If tht
simplest kind Of detective work OF
4he part Of the government could fine
che culprits. 1 saw the exact place
OF the Tragedy. The men we're sho
from a window that was pointed ou
90 me, while they were engaged in
work Of mercy. 1t was not random
balls from a distance-the nature o
She street precludes that-but we'll
aimed shots from the home of a vel
known citizen, occupied at the tim,
by Turkish neighbors. Trowbridge
Ehe third American, escaped only b,
Ealing on his face.
Here arises an important question
The safety of all other Americans il
Turkey is endangered by the immu
nifty of the murderers of Rogers an
Maurer. The fanatics have not bee.
SLOW to spread the news that two fol-
Pigners had been killed and nobod
punished. If this may be done wit
smpunity once, why not again? Amer
Ecans In this part Of the world ar
quite perturbed over the situation
and they point to the ~well-know
usage Of Great Britain in following t
abe bitter end whosoever sheds Brit
fish blood, The deepest instinct G
nationality calls for the protection c
citizens abroad, The department {
State has filed q caveat with tn
Turkish government, so that the wa
Is yet open to demand the punishmer
bf the offenders and indemnity to tn
families Of the slain. 1t Is true tha
p few persons Of no consequence yer
punished for the murders of fiftee
thousand Christians; but nobody ha
been punished specifically for th
Heath of the murdered Americans.
Tho Reason for the Massacres.
when the hive is full we gatht
che honey" is the way one Turk
quoted as having explained the Adam
massacre, and those that have pr
Hs IA At - nnI