The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1920-01-30
80 1Ameg1C0y Americngg
In Sad Armenia,
Melville Chatter, home from
Near East, Tells Narrowing
Story of Human Misery
There-Beetles and Straw
for Food.
ssCROUCHING by herself in

ssCROUCHING by herself in a
~ corner, a little seven-year-
old girl was cracking something be-
tween two stones" says Melville
Chatter in an article, THE Land OF
Stalking Death" in the National
Geographic Magazine, describing
conditions in Armenia. 81 looked
closer and found the child was cat
ing the marrow from bone"
Where did she get it?" | asked
The interpreter who accompanied
me.
"Yonder in the grave yard he
replied, after questioning the girl.
This child, according to Mr.
Chatter, was subsisting solely on a
small dole of rice furnished daily
by the Near East Relief represent
atives in her nativ" city, Igdir
There was not sufficient food in the
town to even give one meal a day
TO all of the children arl shortly
~fter they had received this bare
rittance Of food all were searching
for any bit on which they might
chew to appease their hunger. They
picked up beetles, straws. and one
a piece of horses hoof, says Mr.
Chatter.
Root and Grass Diet.
Conditions at Igdir are horrible
almost beyond belief. People live
chiefly on roots and grass, but oc-
casionally the diet is varied by the
killing of dog or a cat. Workers
sent out by Near East Relief, the
former Committee for Armenian
and Syrian Relief, who are furnish
ing the only sustenance to these
people, told Mr.. Chatter that it was
impossible to remove at once the
bodies of those who had died from
starvation, and when they were
taken out for burial, an arm or a
leg of the body had been eaten by
the famished survivors.
Mr.. Chatter tells of visit to the
burying ground when graves were
torn open and bodies exhumed by
the famished inhabitants. 1--WE had
taken a short cut" he says, "to-
ward where our car waited and by
chance we were skirt;ng the ceme-
terry. Our guide pointed thither
and said:
att is not a pleasant sight. OH
must understand that the Turks
left this country so bare that there
were not even spades. Graves must
be dug with any available thing,
even with human bones. If the
dead has a relative strong enough
to carry weight-big stones are
placed on the grave; but if not
he shrugged Significantly.
81 asked, hardly knowing how to
frame my question, Exactly what
exactly whom do you meanF
-, -. Men Stalk Dogs.
"T mean he answered, the
pariah dogs by day and under
cover of night-well, COME and see
for yourselves! !;
81 will never forget that terrible
acre IN of .earth-the low-boblder-
heaped mounds, and those others,
the unprotected graves, now, re-
VedleQ as empty, SCOOpeu-out IoleS
whose Drinks were strewn about
with. remnants of torn-off gar
merits, among which lay blackened
sem'blances Of humanity. As.-'we
turned away the apparition Of a
great, yellow pariah dog, paving
among the graves, drew from us a
yoliey of stones. Then as he skunk
from skelcton-like man sprang. up
OF which ne -hf wall (under cover
prey and, brainins<v- stalking his
a club, disappeared, carryrHswith
carcass with him.
:. Our farewells and thanks to tn,
american Committees manage,
Ssmed an endless proceeding anc