The Washington herald., 1918-10-23
FOURTH INsTALLMENr.


native villages when the prosecutions
began. The roads over which they
Travelled were little more than donhey
paths: and Whit had started few
hours before as an orderly procession
soon became dishseveled and
scrambling mob. Women were sep
arated from their children and hus-
ba nds from their wives. The old peo-
pie soon lost contact with their fam
lilies and became exhausted and foot
sore. The Turkish drivers OF the OK
carts. after extorting the last coin
from their charges. would suddenly
dump them and their belongings into
the road, turn around and return to
the village for other victims. Thus
in a short time practically everybody,
young and old. was compelled to
travel on foot. The gandarmes whom
the government had sent. supposedly
10 protect the exiles. In very few
hours became their tormentors. They
followed their charges with fixed bay
onets. prodding any one who showed
any tendency TO slacken the pace.
Those who ATTEMPTED to stop for rest,
or who fell exhausted on the. road.
were compelled with the utmost bru-
J tality. TO retotn the moving throng.
1 They even prodded pregnant women
with bayonets; IL one, as frequently
happened. gave birth along the road,
she was Immediately forced TO get up
/ and rejoin the mBrchers. The whole
course OF the journey became a per-
petusl struggle with the Moslem in
habitants. Detachments of gendarmes
would go ahead. notifying the Kurd-
ish tribes that their victims were aD-
preaching. and Turkish peasants were
: also informed that their long waited
opportunity had arrived. The govern
ment even opened the prisons and set
| free the cohvicts, on the understand
! ing that they should behave like good
Moslems to the approaching Arme-
mans Thus every caravan had
continuous battle for existence with
several classes Of enemies-their aC-
companying gendarmes. the Turkish
. peasants and villagers. the kurdish
tribes and bands OF Chetes or brig
ands. And We must always keep I'm
mind that the men who might have
defended these wayfarers had nearly
all been killed or forced into the army
as wOrkmen. and that the exiles
themselves had been systematically
deprived Of all weapons before the
/ journey began.
mn Nea kidnap Girls.
: When they had travelled few
: hours from their starting place. the
Kurds would sweep down from their
mountain homes. Rushing Up TO the
young girls. they would lift their
wells and carry the pretty ones off 10
! the hills. They would steal such chill
dren as pleased their fancy and marci-
lessly rob all the rest Of the throng
II the exiles had started with any
money or food. their assailants would
appropriate il, thus leaving them a
! hopeless prey TO starvation. They
would steal their clothing. and some
times even leave both men and
women in a state OF complete nudity
All the time that they were commit
ting these depredations the Kurds
would freely massacre. and the
screams Of old men and women would
add to the general horror. Such as
escaped these attacks in the open
would find new terrors awaiting them
( in the Mos'em villages. Here the
Turkish rouEhs would fall upon the
women leaving them sometimes dead
I from their experiences or sometimes
ravingly insane. After spending a
night In a hideous encampment Of this
kind. the eXiles. or such as had sur
vived. would start again the next
morning. The ferocity Of the gem
darmes apparently increased as the
journey heightened. for they seemed
almost to resent the fact that part of
their charges continued to live. ANY
one who dropped on the road was fire.
Quently bayOneted on the spot The
Armenians began to die by hundreds
I from hunger and thirst. Even when
they came to rivers. the gendarmes
merely to torment them. would some
/ times not let them drink. The hot
sun Of the desert burned their scantily
/ clothed bodies and their bare feet
| treadinc the hot sand of the desert.
became SO sore that thousands fell
and died or We're killed where they
/ lay. Thus in few days. what had
been a procession of normal human
beings became a stumbling horde OF
! dust-covered skeletons. ravenously
! looking for scraps Of food. eating any
offsI that came their way. Crazed by
/ the hdeous sights that filled every
hour of their existence. sick with all
! the diseases that accompany such
/ ihardships and deprivations. but still
prodded on and on by the whips and
clubs and bayonets Of their eNecu-
ftioners.
Disease Claims Many.
I And thus. as the exiles moved. they
| left behind them another caravan
that OF dead and unburied bodies. OF
| old men and women dying in the last
stages of typhus. dysentery. and
cholera, of little children lying on
their backs and setting up their last
! piteous walls for food and water.
/ There We're women who held IN their
[ babies to strangers. begging them to
take them and save them from their
tormentors. and failing this they
would throw them into wells or leave
Them behind bushes that at lnast
: they might die undisturbed. Behind
was left small army OF girls who
had been sold as slaves-freuuently
for n rnediidie, or about eighty cents
and who, after serving the brutal pur-
poses of their purchasers, were forced
to lead lives of prostitution. A string
of encampments. filed by the sick
and the dying MINGLED with the un-
buried or half-buried bodies of the
dead. marked the course of the cd
xancing throngs. Flocks of vultures
followed them in the air. and ravenous
dogs, fighting one another for the
bodies of the dead. constantly pursued
them. The most terrible scenes took
place at the rivers, especially the
Euphrates. Sometimes, when crossing
this stream. the gendarmes would
push the women into the water. shoot
; ing all who attempted TO save them
selves bv swimming. Frequently the
women themselves would save their
honor hy i'IrnDiDg into the river their