The Covington leader. (Covington, Tenn.) 18??-current, 1919-01-16

Flooding across burning sands, Ever
thirsty Lips parched Throat dry.
Growing weaker with every step. Moth,
ers are forced to lay their babies at
the side OF the sandy, blood-marked
trail, bordered with skeletons and
dying humans, because they have no
nourishment in their breasts for then
offspring. Every shrub uprooted and
chewed until the last drop Of moisture
is gone Nothing to eat. Nothing to
drink.
Marching across a 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 1T is possible to see
the mutilated cogpses Of more than g.,
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.
final 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 were deported
Not permitted to take even crust "
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 barbario war; across
deserts of parching heat Passing hur
riedly from one extreme Of climate ia
another driven by mounted guards
ex-convicts, criminals and ruffians oil
the lowest order.
After 64 days Of wandering 1876 Of
the 1S,0C0 we're 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 SUI. ering.
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
commanded by German officers. II Il
this was the end Of the story appeal
would be useless and the work of the
American Committee for Relief in the
Near East would not be needed. But
with the end Of the war and the cessa
ton of hostilities these abused PEG |
pies naturally attempted to return tc
their homes They had nothing where
they were When they started on the
return journey more of them died /
However. hundreds Of thousands man,
aged to withstand the terrible ordeal
and reached what once were their
homes. only to find heaps Of ruins,
Children lost their parents. Parents
who had not lost their babies could not
care for themselves. They could moi
be expected to feed others when they
had nothing with which to regale
1t is to save these helpless.
almost hopeless, pretty babies Of the
Western Asiatic countries that the
American Committee for Relief In the
Near East was formed from the Amer,
lean Committee for Armenian and Sy.
rian Relief. The Red Cross was not
organized in these countries to succor
these people That organization gave
the American Committee for Relief in
the Near East money with which the
relief work was begun No more could (
be spared from that body's treasury. T
Therefore the committee decided to
ask the people Of the United States for
$50, 900, 900 and the State Of Tennessee
was allotted one per cent Of this to T
raise, Just $500 900 Every hour that
the money is delayed, several hundred +
innocent babies reach up their arms !
for q crust Of bread receive It not. and /
with cry 81 despair, perish