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Show THE TRAGEDY OF ARMENIA Tho plight of Armenia nbout tho end of 1010, n condition which has been nggrnvntcd by tho recent defeat of Armenian forces by Turkish nationalists, na-tionalists, is described lu tho following communication to tho Nutlonnl Geographic Geo-graphic society from Melville Chater, "Erlvon, tho copltul of Annenln's provisional republic Is an Inconceivable Inconceiv-able contrast to the Georgian government govern-ment sent at Tlllls. At Erlvan one finds no spacious prospect nor viceregal vice-regal palace, no smnrt shops, Russian opera, nor gay night life. To behold misery In Tlllls, ono must search It out. In Erlvan one cannot escape It "This poor, straggling, dingy city of tho plnlus, whose government olllces suggest somo hastily extemporized election elec-tion headquarters and whoso parliament parlia-ment chamber Is rigged up with benches bench-es and cheesecloth In tho auditorium of tho second-class theater, boasts of but ono beauty, und that to speak In paradox Is forty miles away; for, In whatever quarter of Erlvan you may be, lift your glance nnd great Ararat of eternal snows Is seen brooding distantly dis-tantly over tho mean streets with his uspect of majestic cnlm. IIo Is tho Armenian's Olympus, or rather say, tho Slnnl of a rnco which has known bondage und wilderness-wandering; aud for centuries a people's Imagination Imagina-tion bos turned toward him. "The little Erlvan republic has been the center of refuge for Turkish Armenians Ar-menians ever slnco the massacre of 1015, nnd between 200,000 nnd 300,-000 300,-000 of them nre camped within Its borders. As for tho city Itself, Its former population of 40,000, has been doubled by this Influx. There, starvation star-vation and typhus linvo claimed their toll of 0,000, tho death rate fluctuating fluctuat-ing between fifty nnd eighty a day. "Though tho doctor nnd I wcro hero to observe the worst phases of tho situation, each of us waited for tho other to suggest n trip to the Igdlr region, where wo wcro told starvation was most acute. "Tho town of Igdlr, with Its locul and uenr-by populations of 30,000 Armenians, Ar-menians, 20,000 Tatars, nnd 15,000 Yezldls, revealed seme squnlld streets with but a few people seated here and there, uu we drove In. Throughout those tortuous, sun-beaten byways, no children played nnd no animal roamed. The nlr wns heavy with dreadful silence, si-lence, such ns hangs over plague-smitten communities, "Wo found the, children, such ns they were, Inhabiting an orphanage wherein ono sickened at putridity's horrible odor, and wcro informed that there were neither medicines nor disinfectants dis-infectants wherewith to allay tho condition con-dition of the many little sick beds. "Sick? Say, rather, tho bed-ridden a word which more Justly describes thoso tiny, wlthcred-up, crone-like creatures, upon whoso faces tho skin seemed stretched to a drumhead's tightness; whoso peering eyes shot terror and anguish, as if death's presence pres-ence were already porccptlblo to them, and who lay thero ut famine's climax of) physical exhaustion. In thoso young, yet grotesquely-aged faces, wo seemed to see a long llfetlmo of tragedy trag-edy packed Into eight or ten childish years. "Tho mud 'utfl which wo visited presented nn luvnrlublo picture a barren, cave-lll.e Interior, lacking one stick of furniture or household utensil, uten-sil, and with n few bleached bonos scattered here and there." |