The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-05-18

Pa, told me today. TT his IA points had
 not been so idealistie, they would not
 have afforded these i,,surrectos an op-
 portunity of coupling his name with their agitation"
 Mrs. Askren knows what she is talking
 about. She has spent lo years in Egypt, engaged in missionary work for the United Presbyterian board of foreign mis- sions. Philadelphia. Most of this time she has spent in the Fayum district. south of Cairo, which mas always been hotbed of Beduin unrest and was one
 of the first places in the Egyptian gro vinces to break into disorder when the
 recent instruction began. Furthermore,
 she has just had one or the narrowest
 escapes from death at the hands of the
 insurrectos which any Christian has had
 during the-rising.
 She told me about it this morning.
 For the past six months. Dr. Askren and have been working with the Amer
 ican Red Cross in Jerusalem she said.
 "A few days ago I came down from
 Jerusalem on four days leave to secure
 our summer clothing from the mission
 station in Fayum, where we used to live.
 With three trunks gull of it. 1 left the station at Fayum Dy the o'clock train last Saturday morning (March 15D With me was R. w. Graves an inspector for the ministry of the interior in the Fayum district. Mir. Graves was bound for Cairo, but I was 70 change at Cairo
 for the Jerusalem railway We knew there might De trouble, for all sorts of rumors had been about We didn't know that we'd have such mar row escape as we did nave. however. When the train pulled into Com obl. Radi station, few minutes south of Wasta, 8 number of boys, armed with clubs, leaped into the train and began roaming up and down the corridors They did nothing in the first-class carriages, except to peer in at us, but later we could hear the crash o- glass in the sec | ond and third-class carriages. All of us were unanped and we mad no military guard.
 BOYS WITH CLUBS When the train pulled out of Com obu Radi station we saw some of them pass up and down the corridor again and we began to suspect that trouble was ahead of us. For they wouldn't be riding on the train with the insolence they showed unless they expected to meet their friends at the next station or two. They met them quicaly
 l "It takes only about four minutes to | reach Wasta from Com obu Radi, and there must have been nearly 70o0 natives
  were all armed with long clubs and knives and led by students on horseback, dressed in fezzes and European clothing l They swarmed around the train and be- gan to board it before It stopped. We knew we had little mercy to ex- pect from them.
 There were seven Christians in our l car, two Syrian men, their wives, a Syrian girl, MT. Graves and myself. With MT. Graves leading the way, we l jumped out of the car door before the train had come to stop and dashed across the platform to freight car. Ii was sheet iron car and looked as if il might afford some protection. We chained the door on the inside. and .he seven of us stood in the darkness within wondering what would happen to us next For a time I had had some hopes of saving my trunks, but I knew by this time that I would never see them again. presume I shall be compensated some time for the loss of them, but the future
 will take care of that. Standing in that
 freight car. we decided we'd be lucky
 enough if we got out with our lives.
 T think the reason we succeeded in
 getting into the car was that the entire
 mob was bent on footing before anything
 else. We knew that we were safe for a
 time, but as soon as the mob had glut-
 ted it's appetite for loot, we knew they
 would turn attention to us.
 "T had seen 8 Syrian who had been
 riding in the second class being unmer- cifully beaten with clubs as I ran to the
 freight car. l presume he either was
 rot giving up his money fast enough or did not have enough money on him to satisfy the mob. I had seen a Syrian woman who objected to having her ear rings torn out of her ears being beaten on the face.
 "The fact is that eacn member of the mob was afraid he was not going to get his share of the loot and to that fact owe my life It was not long before the rest of the Christian passengers had been footed and the mob began to turn its attention to our fre-gnt car. A fear full pounding began at the car door and soon it began to yield. I had already, as soon as I had gotten into the car, put my rings and most or my money into my stocking, leaving about Sl5 in my handbag under the supposition that if it were empty when I handed it over. il might enrage them.
 As soon as the car door began to yield, knives began to be thrust through the aperture and voices began to call in ina Arabic, Give us your money or we win take your lives?'
 "One of the Syrians at once began to hand his money out the aperture, scores
 of hands grabbing for Il, and the din in creasing in volume. The Syrian was badly frightened and the worse the din became the faster he handed money out the door. To tell the truth, we were all pretty nervous by that time. "The aperture in the door continued to widen slowly as il was forced open and when it appeareN that presently it would be wide enough open to admit one or two of the mob, MT. Graves succeeded in smashing open the door on the other side of the car, and the two of us jumped out.
 As soon as we hao gotten the door open. part of the mob leaped around the car to catch us.
 T thrust my handbag at them and ran MT. Graves thrust roll of money at them and ran with ms.
 T didn't look behind to see what was happening but MT. Graves did, and he told me afterward thA, the only thing that saved our lives was the fact that
 they were so pleased with my handbag that for the moment they forgot all about us.
 SANCTUARY
 "Neither of us knew where we were running to, but MT. Graves saw . small lopged to the railroad shops. Neither oi us knew what we wodid find there, but 1t was the only prospect of . hiding placa
 An Arabic boy saw us coming and. showing us into small filters shop. ht locked the door and returned to his work outside the shop. I shall never forget that boy. His name was Hohammed Ally, but he was a good friend of ours. He might have given us up to the mob at any time, but he stood Loyalty by us. They've been herc,' he said, as he