The Washington herald., 1915-12-19
IN THE REALM OF RELIGION


shall be still standing In the bow
| curiosity and glad hopefulness to the
F, new world to which the unknown voy-
age will bring me.
| The friends of Henry Ward Beechsr
are raising q fund Of nifty thousand
dollars to endow . Beecher chair In
Talladega College In Alabama under
Methodist auspices. Mr.. Beecher was
of slavery. His attitude on the negro
question IL now remembered by many
a. being eminsntly sane and moderate.
Roman Catholics are now taking up
the Protestant Panama Congress pro-
posai or challenge. and are sending
out lecturers to tell what their church
has done for South America. The ar
gument Of these lecturers 10 to the ef-
feet that their church having done all
needful religious and educational
work in South America. q Protestant
| Congress in Panama or anywhere else
to consider the needs of Latin-America
IL not needed. The history of Dom
inicans and Jesuits. the orders that
led In the evangelization of South
America, Is being recited back to the
time Of Columbus and down to the
really wonderful work which Jesuits
have done In Paraguay.
The leaders in the refutation Of the
| supposed charges made by the Pro-
| testants in planning congress At
Panama in February. are the Amsri-
can Converts League. composed OF
about one thousand well-to-do men and
| women. now Catholics. but for the
most part until recently Episcopalians
| and Presbyterians. In the league. COM
posed in largest numbers Of women.
are Mrs. Henry W. Taft, sister-in-law
of the former president. Mrs. Francis
Burial Hoffman. Mrs. John @. Agas.
Mrs George +. 1selin. Mrs. william p.
| Van Wyck and the president Of the
league. Samuel p. West. Headquarters
of the league are in New York, but
\ there are members in Boston. Philadel-
phia. Baltimore. Washington. Chicago.
ST. Louis. Pittsburgh has a branch
league.
| The recent break among Episcopal
ians over the holding Of the Panama
Congress is to be taken advantage of.
| so the league announces. to further the
work of the league and increase the
number of Catholic converts from
Episcopalianism. Rumors are circu-
ers who are to go to the Catholic
| Church and into the league. A pros
pectus Of active work by the league In
! several cities has been issued.
The Salvation Army announces sss
purpose to enter. in January. upon its
1 financial campaign in behalf OF the
| American Booth memorials. This cam
paign was put over two years ago. in
difference to the Christian Associations
S4, 600. 900 campaign. The associations
| agreed that they would in turn help
the army. The purpose is to erect In
| New York and Chicago Army training
| schools, as memorials OF the late Gen.
| William Booth, founder of the army.
| The sum sought is S5oo.o0o. The New
York school trains army workers for
the east. and the Chicago school
trains for the west.
Maj w. w. Winchell of the Ameri-
can Army has gone to Belgium to
help American and English relief
| work there. Stopping in London he or
ganized a relief corps Of fifty. and
| arriving in Belgium he added to 1t an
other fifty. chiefly Belgian workers.
| Through the corps q wide distribution
| of food and clothing is being made.
| Assistance is also being rendered to
Belgian camp in Holland. where are
uuartered five thousand refugees.
The army in this country has sent
$685. 900 to the work. and Is sending
more as fast as possible. The army In
England is cooperating. The army re-
ports the winter outlook to be even
| more gloomy than was the case at
this time last year.
A German woman missionary Is the au-
thor of a letter recently received by
| the American Committee for Armenian
and Syrian Relief. among the many
communications which come to its
| headquarters in New York from Of
fcials. missionaries and other persons
known to members of the committee.
She is stationed not far from the bor-
der Of the Caucasus and gives an in
| innate picture Of the fate which has
befallen the Armenians.
Toward the middle Of April" she
writes, I'VE heard rumors that in Van
there were great disturbances. We
have heard statements made from both
Turks and Armenians: and. as these
reports agree in every respect. II is
quite plain there Is some truth in
them namely. that the government of
Turkey sent orders that all Armenians
were to give up their arms. which the
Armenians refused to do. stating that
they required them in case of neces-
sfty. This caused a regular massacre.
All villages inhabited by Armenians
were burnt down.
AT the beginning Of June we heard
that the whole Armenian population
Of Bitlis was done away with. 1t was
at this time that We received news
that the American missionary. DR..
Knapp, had been wounded in an Ar
menian house. and that the Turkish
government had sent him to Diarbekir.
The very first night in Diarbekir he
died, and the government explained
his death as a result of having over
eaten, which. OF course. nobody be-
lieves When there was no one left
in Bitlis to massacre. their attention
was called to Musch. Up to now cruel
ties were committed. but not too pub
licly: now they started to shoot peo-
pie down without any cause; they beat
them to death because they found de-
light in doing SO.
I'm Musch itself. which is big
town. there are alone $4,000 Arme-
mans; around Musch there are 800 viii
lages. every village containing about
so houses; and not one male Arme-
nian, and but a few women here and
there are visible now.
I'm Harput and Mezre the people
have had to endure terrible tortures.
such as their eyebrows being pulled
of. their breasts cut OF. their nails
pulled out. their feet cut of: or they
hammer nails into them, just as they
do with horses. The soldiers then
cry: Now let your Christ help you"
beginning Of July: 1000 Armenians
soldiers were ordered to leave for
Tleppo to build roads. The people of
Harput ware terrified on hearing this