The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-01-02

| OF torture; and then begin new fore
ed marches without bread and water.
under the blows OF the horsewhip,
/ new sufferings, bad treatment, Wor-
thy of slave dealers Of Soudan and
| there are victims all along the road
of this abominable calvary.
Those who have some money left
are necessarily; exploited by their
guards under threats of sending them
further on, and when these resources
are exhausted they put these threats
into execution.
! What l have seen and heard sur
passes all Imagination. Speaking Of
a thousand and one horrors is very
| little in this case. I thought I was
| passing through part of hell. The
few events, which I will relate, taken
here and there hastily, give but a
weak idea Of the 1amentable and hor-
rifying tableau. The same scenes are
found in the different localities
! through. which I have passed. Every
where it is the same governmental
barbarism which aims at the system
attic humiliation through starvation
of the survivors Of the Armenian ma
ton in Turkey, everywhere the same
| bestial inhumanity on the part Of
lures undergone by these victims all
along the Euphrates from Meskene
to Der-i-Zor.
Meskene, through it's geographical
position on the border between Syria
and Mesopotamia, is the natural
point Of concentration of the deport-
ed Armenians coming from the vilay
cts of Anatolia and sent afterwards
all along the Euphrates. They arrive
there by the thousands, but the ma
jority leave there their bones. The
impression which this immense and
dismal plain of Meskene leaves Is sad
and pitiable. This information was
obtained on the spot and permit me
to state that nearly $4,000 Armenians
are buried there. carried off by hun
ger, by privations of all sorts, by in
testinal diseases and resultant ty-
plus. AS far as the eye can reach
mounds are seen containing 200 or
800 corpses buried In the ground pell
NELL, women, children and old people
belonging to different families.
At present, nearly $500 Armenians
are kept between the town of Mes
'kene and the NEuphrates. These are
but living phantoms. Their superin-
tendents distribute to them sparingly
and very firregu1arly a piece of bread.
Sometimes three or four days pass
when, these famished people have alb
solutely nothing.
A dreadful dysentery claims nu-
merous victims among, them, espec-
tally among the children. These lat
ter fall ravenously upon all that
comes under their hands, they eat
herbs, earth and even their excre-
ments.
! I saw under a tent of five or six
square meters, about $50 orphans
pell nell in dirt and vermin. These
poor children receive $50 grams Of
bread per day. However at times,
and this is more often the case, they
remain two days without eating any
thing. Also death makes among
them cruel ravages. This tent was
sheltering $50 victims while I was
passing through. Eight days after
wards during my return, intestinal
diseases had carried off seventeen OF
them.
Abou Herrera is a small locality
north of Meskene on the bank OF the
Euhprates. It is the worst part Of
the. desert. On small hill 200 me-
tiers from the river are confined 24Gl
Armenians under the surveillance of
two gendarmes without pity, who
leave them to- die Of hunger in the
most atrocious sufferings. The scenes
which witnessed surpass all hor-
rors. Near the place where the car
rage stops, women who had not seen
me arriving, were searching in the 1
dung Of horses. barley sekds, not yet
d1gested, to feed on. I gave them
some bread. They threw themselves
on it like dogs dying Of hunger, took
1t voraciously into their mouths with
hiccups and epneptical trembltngs: |
instantly informed by one of the 24O |
persons, or rather hungry wolves. |
who had nothing to eat for seven
days, rushed to me from the hill ex-
tending their @emaciated arms i'm
ploring with tears and cries q piece
of bread. They were mostly women |
and children, but there were about a !
dozen old people.
On my return brought them
bread and was during three quarters
OF an hour the plying but unfortun-
ately powerless spectator of a rapa-
cious fight for piece of bread, such |
as savage, fam1shed beasts would ex-
hibit y
Hamman is a small village where |
are kept 1900 Armenians. Every day
the same scene Of hunger and hor-
rors. The men are taken as work.
men, roadmen and diggers. They re-
celve as wages a piece Of bread which
cannot be digested and which is in
suff1c1ent to give them the force nec.I
essary for their exhausting work.
In this place met some families
who still have money and who man
age to live without SO much misery,
but the majority lie on the bare
ground, without shelter, and feed on
Watermelons. The most unfortunate
OF them satisfying themselves with !
gnawing the skins thrown away by
the others. The mortality is very
high especially among the children.
Rekka is fairly important town.
on the left bank of the En-
pirates. Here 5000 to 900 Armen-
ians, mostly women and children. are
distributed in the different quarters
OF the town, and live in groups Of
from SO to 60 in houses which the
kindness of the governor has pro-
cured for the poorest. Merit must
be recognized wherever it is found
and that which would have been the
strict duty In normal times of an OF
toman official toward Ottoman sub
jects, can be counted as generosity
and even heroism in the present cir
Although the Armenians of Rekka
are treated better than at other
places, their misery is terrible Flour