The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1919-01-16
KANSAS MUST GIVE
Author of In His Steps" Tells of
Conditions Among Armenians
ard Jews.
tBy DR.. CHARLES NJ. SHELDON
To the People OF Kansas.

To the People OF Kansas.
1heFe lies on my desk as write
this, a modest letter from one of the
heroes of the Cross, Harrison A.
Maynard. born in Muscotah. Kan.
graduated from Washburn College.
and for seven years, under the Amer
ican Board, missionary and teacher
IN Bitlis, Eastern Turkey. He. with
his family left that station during the
war when the Turks were advancing
on 1t, because they would have been
imprisoned or killed if they had re-
manned, and after infinite difficulties
and dangers came back to Kansas.
But the call of starving Armenians
and Jews and Syians sounded so loud
IN their ears that two years ago when
the great war was at its height, but
while Russia for the time held
Erfvan and was friendly to the Unit
ed States and the missionaries, Mr..
Maynard and his family again set
their faces towards the east, and
from Erivan as a center began q
wonderful relief work up to the time
the Turks again threatened that re-
gion- A year ago they were compeII-
ed under advices from the United
States counsel to flee at the risk of
their lives from Erivan across Siberia
to Vladiestok, from there to Japan,
where Mrs Maynard and the children
said boodbye to Mr.. Maynard and re-
turned to Kansas.
But the starving children and
mothers of the war swept plans of
Armenia, Galicia and the Caucasus
held out their hands so pitifulIy to
Amreica that Mr.. Maynard stayed be-
hind as a representative of mercy,
and from Bagdad and the regions of
the Caucasus he has been feeding the
! hungry and clothing the destitute by
the thousand from money sent over
by the Armenian Committee No
race or nation is denied. But among
them all no group has suffered so
much or is in such terrible need as
the Armenians and Jews Little
babies with grass in their mouths are
found lying dead by the side of their
mothers. On one plain in Armenia as
the missionary sat on horseback and
viewed the fearful sight, nothing but
dead bodies of massacred Armenians
and Syrians could be seen in every
direction. And on a mound of dead
bodies, one child, with its reason gone,
sat beating its little hands up and
down, sending up its agonizing cry
which reaches from that plain of the
dead with all its horror to the wide
and happy prairies of Kansas where
there is plenty and safety, and home.
and father and mother, and smiling
babies when the night falls over the
homestead.
Through the hands of Mr. Maynard
as guardian of the money sent from
America to meet a part of this fear
full cry, have passed, sums spent with
rare wisdom and craftsmanship for
81 industries in weaving, cloth max
ing, in the distribution of food, IN the
maintenance of orphanage, IN the
work of the hospitals and in varied
work that has called for marvellous
amount of details in administration.
Every dollar sent to the east will be
used in establishing the needy people,
not only in feeding those who are
starving, but in providing them with
the seed and the tools and the land
with which to make possible again
their ruined homes and devastated
lands.
What better Christmas, o me-1 and
women of Kansas, could we spend
than in having a snare with this hero
of the Cross, who has given up his
own fireside for awhile in order that
other firesides may glow with the
light of the Christ Child! How can
we sit at our ease with Kansas plenty
around US and do nothing for the AGO.
600 orphans of the East. who will lit
orally starve to death unless America