The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1918-02-17

Van, Conquered Turkey.-After days
and nights of perilous travel across the
cradle of the human race, amid scenes
so primitive that it would take co.umas
to describe them Qor example l have
been bitten BY as many fleas and other
worse insects as there are words in this
article, / have come to the most t!agic
town Of the war, ancient old Van, hy
its great salt lake, and beneath its mic
torial rock castle, first Quilt at least
thirty centuc.es ago.
Wars desolation" is no mere poe'I-
cal phrase 20 one who has looked upon
the hundreds { absolutely ruined towns
that l have seen in the past month of
remote travel. So far away from rr-
cording pens Is this desolatiOn that the
world at large knows nothing of how
the ebbing and flowing tide OF battle
has literally wiped out hundreds of vii
lagos and towns which were old before
ever Columbus saw the shores of Ameri-
ca. | have looked upon ruined towns,
now given over to the owl and the
jackal until my eyes have grown weary
and my heart heavy, and my pen has
refused longer so much as to make note
Of them Even the frequent instances
of groups OF abjeCt survivors clinging
to the fallen walls, and crawling out 10
beg piteously Of the wayfarer, have
almost failed to make an impression
upon a mind numbed by misery.
Most tragic, as well as largest of
these ruins, the city of Van embodies
the theme of this series Of articles for
its destruction largely hinged upon re-
ligion, and its interest, to Western
eyes, depends largely upon its associa-
tions with the religious ministry Of
American Congregationalists; whose
conduct. at the time Of the siege re
fleets glory upon their nation and upon
their profession This is one OF the
places where the American flag has
been fired upon by a supposedly friendly
nation and women ana children be-
meath its protection have been slain.
What a Ruined City Looks Like.
So near to earth are the one-storiod
dwellings of the ruined Kurdish ana
Armenian and Turkish villages that
their ubiteration does not have the
same effect as the destruction Of pre-
tentious city. Their mud bricks seem
easily to merge into the surrounding
earth After what | have seen in proc.
css, it is easy to understand how Ninev-
ah aud Babylon, and scores Of other
lr,a, cities Of antiquity, became mere
heap. of earth upon the plains; 50 that
the glory Of a day that is departed IS
now only a slight mound, ploughed by
the farmer of the present. Remove the
few timbers from an Oriental house,
and the elements soon do the rest
Van, however, was more than an Or-
entail town. Countless Occidental
touches were upon it, hundreds Of its
people had been to Europe and Amer'c-,
and hundreds had taken their ideals OF
life from the Americans resident In Van
for generation. Most Of the houses
were two stories high. and the streets
were wide, and bordered on both sides
with trees, beneath which flowed the
swift. clear streams from the noun
tains. Set in the midst OF a fertile
plain, and surrounded by majestic noun.
tains, it was inevitable that the site
should he the site Of a great city; so
the written history Of Van goes back
for three millenniums, and upon the
mighty castle rock which stands ward