Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1919-01-16

1
Flooding across burning sands. Ever
thirsty. Lips parched. Throat dry
Growing weaker with every step. Moth
ers are forced to lay their babies al
the side of the sandy, blood-marked
trail, bordered with skeletons and
dying humans, because they have nc
nourishment in their breasts for their
offspring. Every shrub uprooted and
chewed until the last drop of moisture
is gone. Nothing to eat. Nothing to
drink.
Marching across desert, feet worn
to the bone, drops of blood are the
footprints in these sands of, desola-
ton. Whitening bones of millions OF
massacred men, women and children
strew the plains Of Asia Minor from
the Black Sea to the Persian Gulf. In
single days travel it is possible to see
the mutilated corpses OF more than s.
600 women, outraged by the Turkish
army, their children wandering to-
wards what once was their home,
guided only by instinct such as an an
imal shows when carried away.
Thousands Of living babies have been
hurled into the rushing tides of the
Euphrates, Tigris and other rivers by
mothers who wanted them not to suf-
fer the agony of slow death. From one
town $4,000 persons we're deported.
Not permitted to take even q crust of
bread. Allowed to carry only the
clothes they wore. Deported, driven
for endless miles over mountains,
numbed by biting winds; over plains
made barren by barbaric war; across
deserts Of parching heat. Passing hur-
riedly from one extreme of climate to
another, driven by mounted guards, :,
ex-convicts, criminals and ruffians Of
the .owest order.
After Ga days of wandering 1856 of
the $4,000 were living. They staggered
into a town hundreds of miles from
where they started Shuddering skele-
tons, covered only with rags of the
raiments that covered them at the
start, half blind from starvation and
heat, half dead Of their suffering. ;.
This is only one Of hundreds OF
towns and villages similarly treated |
by the Turkish armies. Horrors OF the |
underlings of the Sultan of Turkey,
by German officers. l: |
this was the end of the story appeal |
would be useless and the work of the |
American Committee for Re ief in the |
Near East would not be needed. But |
with the end Of the war and the cessa-
ion of hostilities these abused peo-
oles naturally attempted to return to
heir homes. They had nothing where
hey were. When they started on the
'eturn journey more of them died
However, hundreds of thousands man
lged to, Withstand the terrible ordeal
md reached what once were their
ZONES, only to find heaps of ruins
Children lost their parents. Parents
Who had not lost their babies could not
are for themselves. They could not
,e expected to feed others when they
lad nothing with which to regale
themselves. 1t is to save these helpless,
lmost hopeless, pretty babies of the
Western Asiatic countries that the
Committee for Relief in the
lear East was formed from the Amer
can Committee for Armenian and Sy-
ian Relief The Red Cross was not
rganized in these countries to succor
hese people. That organization gave
he American Committee for Relief in
hS Near East money with which the
slfef work was begun No more could
e spared from that body's treasury.
therefore, the committee decided to
SIX the people of the United States for
80, 900. 900 and the State of Tennessee
ras allotted one per cent OF this to
lise Just 100000. Every hour that
10 money is delayed, several hundred
,uocent babies reach up their arms
VI crust of bread, receive it not, and
"a Q cry q despair. perish.