The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-15

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.
They were sent out on the ROAD
tied together in groups of two to five,
he said, driven and beaten by the
gendarmes. OF the first party 500, one
young man survived to tell the story OF
what happened The party was taken
into a rayine and ordered to sit down,
he told me Then the gendarmes
climbed up on the surrounding rocks
and fired with their rifles into the
crowd of bound prisoners as long as
they showed signs of life
One of Number Escaped.
THE man who told me the story
succeeded in getting his knife and cut
dash for liberty he was followed by
volley of shots but got away unscatneo.
All the other men of that and similar
parties were ruthlessly butchered'
THE women and children We're then
started on the road forward Mesopo-
tamia in companies of two or three
thousand. BY indirect routes Iney
were forced to wander about until the
summer heat and disease wasted away
the m jority. No transportation
was provided [ saw one old man,
who had travelled 200 miles, start out
to go the remaining $50 miles carrying
on his back his pack of quilts ana
clothes and on top OF that ms dseu'
palsied wife, who could not walk,
"Often the routes chosen took the
DeopIe over waterless deserts where
thousands persisted from thirst:
passed thru such a region where
thousands of bleached skeletons each
side the way told the story of water
less journey across the plains IN Au-
gust.
1.-The people who passed thru Har-
put from the north usually spent two
or three days in 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
women and children came around Us
like hungry wolves, all restraint lost
in the one desire for piece of bread.
Dead and Dying in Blazing Sun
THE sick and dying lay around un-
der the blazing sun with no one to
care for them, waiting for the end.
One place 1 saw a row of twelve dead
women and children who had been ly-
ing 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 where these people
were encamped. The people them
selves were obliged to dig and fill it.
As soon as one died she was dragged
to the trench
In January. 1916, DR.. Riggs said.
there were 485,00O deported Armen-
ians in Mesopotamia, while in May,
1917, the most careful investigation
showed only 10000 survivors, more
than three-quarters having persisted
from famine. pestilence and massacre
in fifteen months.
Turks Took Relief Food.
1.-The only bright feature of this ter
rible picture is the help that has &C
tually reached a fraction of these peo-
pie thru relief funds from Americas
ever ready generosity" Dr. Riggs said.
I'm Harput we were able to give daily
rations of bread to nearly 5000 wild
ows and orphans. If more money
had come there were 10000 within
reach equally in need. Upon the rup-
ture of diplomatic relations, the Turk
ish government confiscated our food
supplies and many of these people
persisted of hunger.
'Since then, however, DR. Riggs
continued, arrangements have been
made to continue the relief work thru
neutral agents who are disbursing the
funds and supplies gathered thru 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 American generosity.
Only Orphan Children Survive.
THE Armenian men are dead" he
said, "and the women have been
crushed and cannot long survive the
terrible experiences thru which they
have passed. But there are 100000
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
the seed of the future Armenian race
These children look to US today If
they can be fed and housed and edu-
Gated 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"