The Washington herald., 1915-12-12

pull out your teeth and put than back
again, like this"-snd he performed on
dering chief, moved to admiration. in
stantly decreed that he must be spared
as holy man. The deadly guns were
lowered and the wonder-worker went his
My venerable deck companion drama
tized for me with deep emotion the ter
rible scenes that had then only lately
been enacted under his eyes In the course
1t was but .matter of months since one
of his brother missionaries had seen his
son-in-law killed at tbs gate OF mission
Nevertheless the father-in-law and his
widowed daughter. to exemplify the
Christian spirit Of forgiveness. Joined m
requesting the American government not
to press its lawful claim asainst the
American life.
caught another glimpse of the de-
voted heroism of this twentieth century
crusade when a young American nurse
waved good-by to me as she stepped
aboard a train for Aleppo and began her
long journey to Harpoot- For these cru
saders carry healing as well. and this
brave girl had come all the way from
the New World to minister to the sick
in an American hospital in the heart of
Asia Minor. War. and massacre now
surge about her and she is shut In from
friends and kindred. Meanwhile fright
full rumors Of death and torture come
from Harpoot. and we can only hope
that, even II the worst should befall that
beleaguered mission station, she may be
spared for the sake Of the wounded
Turks themselves.
The Arsenal of the Oppressed.
No race more eagerly grasped the out
stretched hand of America than the
Armenian and none has been more lifted
up by its aid. 1t is unanimously agreed
that the Armenians are the smartest peo-
pie in the Turkish empire. They print
more books. and. without sword TO
lift in self-defense. their wits have been
sharpened for their protection.
Always under a brutal despotism the
mind becomes the arsenal OF the op-
pressed. After hundreds of years be-
meath Turkish rule, the Jews, the
Greeks and the Armenians have grown
keener than the knife that is forever at
It is a common saying In Turkey that
the Armenians can get the best Of both
the Jew and the Greek as well as OF the
Turk. You are-or were before the war
likely to find him at the top In every
profession, business and skilled trade,
the architect the banker. the innkeeper.
He was the bookkeeper and financier Of
the Sultan himself.
presence Of the duties of civilization. and
IL he really wanted to do anything he
would not know how to do 1t. Long ago
he would have been lost in chaos but Tor
helpers behind the scene in the imperial
government Now he has the Germans
to keep him wound up and going.
What Ails the Turk. ~
As the Armenians have risen. they
have had to pay in trials and sorrows
the penalty of their jealous and suspi-
cious master for each upward step. For
to think, to dream, to hope Ii treason In
the eye of the Turk, and progress is
open rebellion.
not in himself but In the situation IN
which he has found himself ever since
the fortunes Of conquest made an In
ferior ruler over superior races. For my
own part. I have yet to see an unlikaoie
Turk. All travellers unite In praising his
generosity. his manners and his domes.
tic virtues II destiny had kindly guided
his wandering tribe into some other land
than Turkey, he might have done well
In Turkey he found the Arab. the Jew.
the Greek and the Armenian in possess
sion and all immeasurably above and
ahead Of him in DEVELOPMENT. He could
not assimilate them. for ne had @ nothing TING
older peoples have been 80 divided and
weakened that they could not absorb the
The presence of the Turk only aroused
the Instinct Of self-preservation in the
breasts OF the higher races. For the
Mahometan Arab holds himself almost
Al much above his conQueror a. the
Christian syrians. Greeks and Arme-
c Consequently the Turk. after ten CEN
t,Iries. remains an invader In Turkey.
enEaged IN a ceaseless struggle to drag
down and hold down his conquered su-