The Washington herald., 1915-12-19

- URPASSING in horror the fright
full days of the Spanish Inquisi-
1 tion. the tortures American In
dians inflicted upon early set
tiers. the barbaric practices of Asiatic or
African tribes, and even the cruelties that
the Turks themselves have committed in
other days are the stories of the Armenian
massacres and other rites of savagery
that Turks have been committing upon
the Armenian population of their nation.
Every successive piece Of evidence that
comes to the United States increases the
horror Of the story and confirms the
dreadful certainty Of its truth.
Five thousand refugees who had o.
capped the Turks by hook or crook were
carried from the fated country by
single French battleship and landed In
Egypt. Many others made use of lit
tie native boats and bamboo RATS and
in them escaped to Egypt, where they
found shelter in a city of tents.
Men, women and children have been
tortured and killed by the thousands.
Whole villages of Armenians have been
dragged from their homes under condi-
tions that make the sufferings and the
sorrows of the French who were deported
from Grand Pre- by the English as told
BY Longfellow in his "Evangeline" seem
like a pleasant summers excursion.
Women have suffered all the degrada-
tions that barbaric man could heap upon
them. Their virtue has been violated,
they have had their children torn from
their breasts and flung into raging fires.
and the younger Of them have been herd
ed into harems.
Old men have been shot, stabbed,
burned at the stake. Even dignitaries Of
the church have been cremated alive in
public squares. Fathers and sons have
been lined up one behind the other and
shot through and through. Men have
had their feet beaten until they swell up
and burst, have had their teeth filed down,
their finger and toenails pulled out, and
have had hot irons strapped to their
chests.
Whole villages have been surrounded
by Turkish and Kurdish troops, the
population has been put to the knife and
the village ransacked and burned. II
the most horrible of the reports are
true. women and children who gathered
in barns for shelter came to awful
deaths when the barns were set afire.
Ind the worst Of 1t is the officers who
have carried out these atrocities against
the Armenian population maintain that
they have been working under the Or
ders of the present Turkish government
itself.
Following is the text Of the Turkish
government order covering the massa-
cres: Article 2-'The commanders of
the army, of Independent army corps
and of divisions, may, in case of military
necessity. and in case they suspect es-,
pionage or treason, send away. -
al Qlv in the fnhahifanG. AZ
villages or towns and instdlS Their in
other places" IN
The orders Of commandersl I Il have
been reasonably humane, but hsveXecu-
tion Of them has for the most part been
unnecessarily harsh, and in many cases
accompanied by horrible brutality to
women and children. to the sick and the
aged Whole villages were deported at
IN hours notice with no opportunity to {
some cases to gather together the scat
tered members of the family. 80 that lit
tie children were left behind.
At the mountain village Of Geben the
women were at the washtubs and we're
compelled to leave their wet clothes in
the water and to take to the road bare
footed and half-clad Just as they were.
In Hadjin well-to-do people who had
prepared food and bedding for the road
we're obliged to leave 1t in the street, and
afterward suffered greatly from hunger.
tightly together with ropes or chains"
saws one refugee. Women with little
children in their arms or in the last
DAYS of pregnancy were driven along
under the whip like cattle. Three differ
snt cases came under my knowledge
WHARF the Womsa we're oaliyoro6 a