The Cordova daily times., 1917-10-16

went on. adding, Tt is nearer to the truth to say the Turkish government undertook the extinction of the Ar menian population" After the issue of an edict for all Armenians to go to Mesopotamia," he said, there came the arrest of all the men of standing.
 TThey were sent out on the road tied together in groups or two to five" | he said, driven and beaten by the gendarmes. Of the first party of 800 one young man survived to tell the story of what happaned. The party was taken into a ravine and ordered i to sit down. he told me. Then the gendarmes climbed up on the sur rounding rocks and fired with their rifles into the crowd of bound prison CTS as long as they showed signs of life. 'The man who told me the story sue ceeded in getting his knife and cutting himself loose. AS he made his dash for liberty he was followed by a vol i ley of shots, but got away unscathed i All the other men of that and similar parties were ruthlessly butchered. "The women and children were then started on the road toward Mesopo- tamia in companies of two or three thousand. By indirect routes they l tS ahn ho summer heat and disease wasted away the majority. No transportation was provided. I saw one old man, who had travelled 200 miles, start out to go the remaining 25O miles, carrying on his back his pack of quilts and clothes and on top of that his aged, palsied wife, who could not walk
 "Often the routes chosen took the people over waterless deserts, where thousands perished from thirst. I passed through such a region where thousands of bleached skeletons each side of the way told the story of waterless journey across the plains in August.
 "The people who passed through Harput from the north usually spent two or three days iu camp within sight of my home. The sights we saw there can never be forgotten. They were absolutely without shelter, day or night, from heat or cold The air was unspeakably foul from dead bodies lying near. As We approached the wo- men and children came around us like hungry wolves, all restraint lost in the one desire for piece of bread.
 "The sick and dying lying around under the blazing sun with no one to , care for them, waiting for the end. One place saw a row of twelve dead women and children, who had been lying in the shade of trees. With them was one little baby still alive The shade had shifted and the burning August sun had fallen on them and killed them. A long trench was dug beside the field Twhere these people were eneamped. The people them i selves were obliged to dig and fill it. As soon as one died she was dragged to the trench
 Since then, however" Dr. Riggs 1 continued, arrangements have been made to continue the relief work through neutral agents who are dis bursting the funds and supplies gath cred through the American committee for Armenian and Syrian relief in New York city. The question of saving the remnant of the Armenian race" he said "can be solved only by Ameri- can generosity. ~
 "The Armenian men are dead" he said. "and the women have been crushed and cannot long survive the terrible experiences through which l they have passed. But there are 400,- | 900 orphan children. most of whom are begging their bread today. The hope | of the future is in gathering together these remnants and saving them for l the seed of the future Armenian race 1 These children look to us today. If | they can be fed and housed and edu- | cated for the next ten years they can constitute the leading progressive ele- ment in the life of a new Turkey as their fathers did in the old"