The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1918-12-28

by wild beasts. After completing this
destruction. the peasants and gen.
darmes gathered in the local tavern,
comparing notes and boasting of the
number of %"giaours' that each had
slain. In Trebizond the men were
placed in boats and sent out on the
Black sea. gendarmes would follow
them in boats, shoot them down and
throw their bodies INTO the water.
When the signal was given for the
caravans to move, therefore, they al
most invariably consisted Of women,
children and old men. Anyone who
could possibly have protected them from
the fate that awaited them had been
destroyed. Not infrequently the pre-
feet Of the city, as the mass started on
its way, would wish them a derisive
pleasant Journey" Before the caravan
moved the women were sometimes Of
fered the alternative of becoming Mo-
hammedans. Even though they accept
ed the new faith, which few OF them
did, their earthly troubles did not end,
The converts were compelled to surren-
der their children to a so-Called Mos
lem o~rphanage,' with the agreement
that they should be trained as devout
followers of a prophet. They them
selves must then show the sincerity of
their conversion by abandoning their
Christian husbands and marrying Mos
lens. II no good Mohammedan offered
himself as a husband, then the new
convert was deported, however strong
ly she might protest her devotion TO
Islam.
At first the government showed some
Inclination to protect these departing
thrOngs. The officers usually divided
them into conveys, in some cases num-
beTlng several hundred, in others sew
eral thousand. The civil authorities Oc-
| casionally furnished oxcarts which car
rled such household furniture as the
exiles had succeeded in scrambling to-
gether, guard OF accom-
panied each convoy, ~ostens1bly to guide
and protect it. Women, ~scantily clad,
carrying babies in the arms or on the
backs, marched side by side with old
men hobbling with canes. Children
would run along, evidently regarding
the procedure, in the early stages, as
some new lark. A more prosperous
member would perhaps have a horse or
a donkey, occasionally a farmer had
rescued a COW or a sheep, which would
trudge along at his side, and the usual
assortment of family pets, dogs, cats
and birds, became a part Of the varie-
gated procession. From thousands of
Armenian cities and villages these de-
spairing now set forth; they
filled all the roads leading south; every
where, as they moved on, they raised
y a huge dust, and abandoned debris,
chairs, blankets, bedclothes, household
utensils, and other impediments, marked
the course of the professions. When the
caravans first started, the individuals
bore some resemblance to human be
inES; in a few hours, however, the dust
OF the road plastered their faces and
clothes, the mud caked their lower
members, and the slowly advancing
mobs, frequently bent with fatigue ant
crazed by the brutality of their pro.
tectors" resembled some new anC
strange animal species. Yet for the
better part of six months, from April tC
October, 1915, practically all the high
ways In Asia Minor were crowded will
these unearthly bands of exiles. They
could he seen winding in n out of ev'
cry valley and climbing up the sides o
nearly every mountaineering on anC
on, they scarcely knew whittier, excep
that every road led to death. Villag,
after village and town after town wa
evacuated OF it's Armenian population
under the distressing circumstances al
far as can be ascertained, about 1900,
900 people started on this journey t
the Syrian desert.
pray for US" they would say as the,
left heir homes-the homes in whicI
their ancestors had lived for $500 years
we snall NOT see YOU III SIlS molI
again, but some time we shall meet
Pray for u.s."
The Armenians had hardly left thei
native villages when the persecution
began. The roads owe which the
Travelled were little more than donke
paths; and what had started a fe'
hours before an orderly procession 500
became a disheveled and scramblin
mob. Women were separated frol
their children and husbands from he
wives. The old people soon lost contaC
with their families and became eA
hausted and footsore. The Turks
drivers Of the ~oxcarts, after extortin
the last coin from their charges, wouI
suddenly dump them and their belong
ings into the road, turn around n re
turn to the village for other victim
Thus in a short time practically every
body, young and old, was compelled
travel on foot. The gendarmes who
|, the government had sent, supposedly
! protect the exiles, in a very few hou
. became their tormentors. They folloW'
> their charges with fixed bayonets, proc
!, ding anyone who showed any tendenC
. to slacken the pace. Those who a
= tempted to stop for rest, or who II
. exhausted on the road, were compelle
with the utmost brutality, to rejoin Il
: moving throng. They even proddt
i pregnant women with bayonets; If on
e as frequently happened, gave Dir
v along the road, she was immediate
= forced to get up and rejoin the marcl
ers. The whole course Of the journ,
g became a perpetual struggle with t
Moslem inhabitants. D~etachments
gendarmes would go ahead, notifyi1
e the Kurdish tribes that their victir
= were approaching, and Turkish peasan
were also informed that their long wa
ed opportunity had arrived. .
The government even opened t
.-A f-nn tLn n0pHytnfa
the understanding that they should b
have like good Moslems to the a
preaching Armenians. Thus eve<y ca
avian had n continuous battle for e
istence with several classes of enem'
their accompanying gendarmes, I
= Turkish peasants and villagers, I
Kurdish tribes n banGs of Chetes
hrigands. And we must always Ike
g. in mind hat the men who might ha
defended these wayfarers nad nea
all been killed or forced into the ar
"a as workmen, and that exiles themsel'
tFS had been systematically deprived
L all weapons before the journey bega
When they had travelled a few hot
from their starting pace, the kul
VI would sweep down from their mounts
4, homes. Rushing up to the young 81
IL they would lift their wells and ca
:, the pretty ones off to the hills. TT
IT, would steal such children as plea
lnFlI ldilNN diih hiCAN i'Nf'''
=, rest of the throng. II the exiles J
% started with any money or food, II
a. assailants would appropriate It. u
70 leaving them a hopeless prey to st
Nv walton. They would steal their clio
" ing, and sometime even leave both n
and women in a state OF complete NJ
,r ty. An the time that they were &C
20 hitting these d~epradations the ku
would freely massacre, and the. screa
of old men and women would add
the general horror. Such as esca
10 these attacks in the open would !
"a new terrors awaiting them in the NJ
rS lem villages, Here the Turkish rou
IN would fan upon the women, leaN
them sometimes dead from their
hss periences or sometimes ravingY mss
w After spending a night in n hideous
ar campment of this kind, the exiles,
", such as had survived, would start Is
" he next morning. The ferocity OF
"a, gendarmes apparently increased as
es tourney heightened, for they scel
'ns almost to resent the fact that par
their charges continues to live.
one who dropped on the road was
" nuentlv h~ayoneted OF the spot.