Show t tX e. e m e nv B-nv Q n i g HOW flow Private Marshall r Mays ays as 0 of Topeka Kansas I Saved Her from rom Being I Resold Into Slavery if After After Her Her- Flight from fromon J Bondage on a e an and How ow a aLife aa a Life Partnership Is to toI Be Bei I i His Reward I iI i f 1 Y Iria i r Iff 4 r L. L J Jt t A t Ri J Jf f 1 y r r d a C Cs i s 1 r 1 o fl r 1 u. u 1 4 J r Y M 4 t a kc ra s sr s F r i I Vera Yera Ka from a Photograph Taken rI After Her Escape from Slavery L I I By Nina M Marbourg ar I A f r is a long Jong step from the unspeakable horrors of an Arab slave market to the environment t i of a s charming American romance but there is 15 isone I 1 one ane young woman in Minneapolis who has taken r i it it Her name Dame is W Vera Vcra ri On Vi her Vir r right tight hand is a cruel brand which she will carry to grave It Is the indelible insignia of a aeta eta bye Pet And today It is is counterbalanced by the sli raise which sparkles on D the third finger of her hand A lets a ng ago o Vera Vern arrived in New York i from 9 Tur Turkey y She was wa then on her way to Minto Min linn ni l neap to rejoin lain her brother John a dealer in f Oriental rugs JUgs A Accompanying pa ying her was a United P States soldier Marshall Ingalls Mays brays of Topeka overseas lamas fie a who went overseas with the Divi Divi- rl eian on After tn the tho armistice Mays was sent to Beirut to bo assist in the relief work And there i he M a found tho the little slave alavo girl Vera Once she t had be been n buried burled JW alive by her own mother to save her from the brutalities of their Turkish guards Later the ehe had bad been captured and sold into jf slav slav- oy exy Th Then n when the victorious victorious British arm army y was arching rs into Jerusalem she saw an opportunity 3 c to escape and she fled to the British lines And thero her troubles ended and the romance began The Slave Girls Girl's Story For a girl barely out of ot her teens s Vera t era l has lived through horrors which in fn war prewar war days scarcely could have havo been compressed como com com- o pressed in into to a century of atrocities Even after r her escape from slavery she was not safe There were days and nights durin during her journey from Arabia to the sea coast when Ma Mays s 's hH had to guard card her with drawn revolver from Turks who 3 t 21 the brand on her hand tried to rev re- re v t. claim her for the slave c market Perhaps it wa was s only n n. n at a time like that T tor the liberated slave girl to cling for pro pro- U 1 to fco the tiie bi big g brawny soldier from K Kansas 1 Today there is another w reason Priti Mays Maya has K r received his honorable discharge from the United I- I Stat States army but h he c isn't going back to Topeka r n H He ij is bound for Minneapolis instead and he is li t C going o into the Oriental r business tho the rug as parter part part- ly ner nel er of v Vera Veras s brother He lie is taken into tl tte finn r but that it is only rf hi his part c reward I It t i is s t d that nat Just juEt 5 tt us Vera soon as g grows rows a acher ac- ac c S 'S d to her new surroundings and has fully reCovered from mv the slave hardships she endured as a another md and more interesting ia II to bo formed partnership B Before leaving New r Sri in York for her new home Minneapolis Vera told th the story of her le adventures re re- Relief Uca Sh She a rat cst at at th the Near 1 liar East bast Headquarters on Madison avenue n tightly i t 7 i I I r iY y tn S n r r Ay rr rrAy rv y t r- r r l 7 r Y brt j n. n yrs r v J l a v 4 t i i I r iv I i 3 w 4 r r r KY h 5 il S I v Si f- f N J r k f y y C v r K Kr r I Giraud's Giraud s Famous Painting The Slave Slate Market arket Picturing ing the Tragic Practice of Which Vera s Sufferings Were a Survival clasping the hand of the big American American American Amer Amer- ican soldier to whom she owed so much Try My father wits was a prosperous merchant she began and in 1915 our family lived in much happiness in the Province Pro of Siva Two years before belore that my brother John had come conic to America It was the first break in the family tie but I know today ho hov ho v great a I w f t r i- i 4 1 r J Jk y r k kY Y t y 3 i v J Jf f. 1 t t J 1 J i d tiJi s1 s. s blessing it was that he came here for it t means that he ne is today alive instead of having been slaughtered b by the Turks Our family consisted of my mother and nd father sister aunt uncle and two young cousins a happy peaceful people For years ve WC V ha had been persecuted persecute by the Turks in minor ways but those things one bears as best she can Then uThen the war broke out Early Earb on one one morning morning in in October 1915 the family was sitting down to breakfast when two lurk Turkish sh policemen entered the house Unless are nn an Armenian you you cannot cannot can cannot not realize what that means These rhese policemen spoke pleasantly to us Such an attitude for for- bodes worse things than roughness We Ve were told that all the men women and children ren were to gather in in the square to hear bear certain news pro pro- claimed Under the e eye e of the police we went to the tho square squarer It was packed with people Turkish Turkish Turk Turk- ish police were everywhere Then the commandant of that section got on ona ona onn platform form and announced that a n all of the young men married marrie or single and all of the young youns- boys from 12 years up were to go to a certain place There they were to be examined to see if they were ph physically fit for the army They would be bo permitted to return to their families before being called out for service service There was nothing to do but obe obey an and within with with- in 20 minutes all of the younger men and boys were on their way to the appointed place some sonic little distance aWa away N None one but women children and old men were left in th Suddenly there was a thun thunderous t rous roar a great crack of ot musketry and the police about us burst into lau laughter Then we in the square knew what ha had happened Our men folks had haLl been taken away from us W Within thin three quarters of an hour from the time they were ord ordered red to the other street all hl had been shot dead What next That was the question whis whispered among us What would they do to us 7 It was then that the man mm who had ordered our fathers and brothers to leave the square told us he had found the men too weak weal for the army therefore useless and best killed outright We Ve were to march on to the next town spen spend a few dl days s 's there and then return We Ve started the young youn the old the sick cl an anthe and the well all told We started on a march not of a day daj but of months it and not many survived to tell of that march a an and rid so some ne r 1 of those who did Survive Zi have lost their minds r All AU the rest of the d day y yr r t we marched At t ni night ht we It c came me to a n halt in In the open f although it Cl had d D Begun gun to IH fit 1 t rain We Ve had no food and r tile the children were crying crIng J y u im a i a ar r a Mir The guards erected tents dozen more moro old men r 1 y tie tied them in groups i i of f four 4 or OT SIX six each wt t poured oil them over r c 2 w i 1 i and nd then the i applied i t match The next day dayon dayan on an the ro road d m my aunt aunte e l. l 7 I 7 12 i 4 The Thc Arab Slave 1 h Mark 2 ark rb Branded on rr id 1 r r it J rr y Vera Kara S t t g i Right High t Hand Sh She e Will rill Carr Carry This k t C. C Y Mark larIc for Lif Life c. c T t si gis j 3 s f 1 for o 0 r them themselves se built bui built t fires under the shelters a and n d cooked the themselves selves foo food There they sat eating an and drinking And there we huddled together er of us out iii in ill the rain our men nun dead the children chil dren Iron crying our sick dying A it Turkish guard eating under his shelter threw a apiece apiece apiece piece of bread on the ground not far from us One moth moth- mother er mindful of tha th hun hunger r of nf her hr child M fl rt a r K t c f ti i kf 43 a i r Y p l r 7 r. r i 1 fi 1 a r V Vera era as She Looks loday Standing with Her Soldier Rescuer Private Marshall i Mays of the Division A. A E E. F. F darted t d- d df f forward dt to r get it The instant her hand han touched that morsel of or bread a shot was tired fired and she fell over dead A roar of laughter went up from the guards an and they began a game of baiting us throwing scraps of or foo food within easy distance istance and yet no one dared reach out for it It HIt was not until two days ays later that we camped ramped outside a n village of Turks We were famished and our throats parched We Ve were on our way to Aleppo where some same of us were wera to beI besold bo be bosold sold bold into slav slavery ry I That night in the distance we heard hear a u great reat noise of i shouting houting and light from torches torches' burst upon us We Ve knew the Turks from the village were coming They were drunk an and the tho soldiers encouraged them There was a hole holo near when f n 1211 we stood that might once have hae been an old welland welland well welland and was partially filled with rubbish Suddenly I found myself thrust into it My uncle and mother had pushed me in there and th they y were era flinging rubbish over me There I sta stayed erl until dawn th the tha shouting and cursing of the men ringing out through the ni night ht When d dawn n came I was dragged out of the holeby hole holeby holeby by my mother who told me that many m ny of the young oung girls had been taken away to be slaves an and that many others were dead The guards half drunk as they always were started us off Then came en endless less days ays of wandering wandering wandering wan wan- dering marching on and on until we entered the desert that barren waste that comes to me now in the nights that place of torture that nearly drives me madOne madOne madOne mad One night in the desert it was park ark There was no moon and the guard drunk runK but tired of treating ill-treating the women needed neede new amusement One brutal soldier suggested that as the night was dark a light would be pleasant It was that night my uncle died The to o t k 1 h th 1 collapsed She had seen her husband husban burned and suddenly as we went along she dropped down When I leaned over her she was dead All this time I had escape escaped the notice of the guards for at night my mother would dig in m tho the sand with her hands nn and bury me leaving ju just t enough space for me inc to breathe But now she was getting too weak to do this She was always al always always al- al hide Hide ways telling me Hide Hid my daughter deep Better die dio first Better die diet I An And then enc cab night as wo wu were digging the hole she fell foil ever an and died in in my arms That ni night ht I put on the clothes of my young youn boy cousin crept to the outside e of oC the group and fell face down in the sand A soldier came caine by kicked me grunted out that there wits was one moro more f pI pig gone and went on and so for Jor nights I played tricks like that on them I iThen Then roving bands of Arabs began to surround surround sur sur- round us stealing tho the women for the slave slavo mar mar- ket keto An And one night when I went to a well for water I suddenly felt elt a grip on my shoulder I Iwas Iwas Iwas was caught I was dragged away by my y captor and that was the last I saw of that unhappy band now reduced to What was going to happen to me mel I did not know I did not care I 1 had no hope except that some day I 1 might find my brother John But how could I 11 Heie I w ws was s half dead and a captive and he be was in America How could he know what had happened Branded for Life c I 1 I III I was dragged into a farmhouse nearly neatly naked ak d in my rags and the Arabs lau laughed hed at me mc The Theother other women there laughed too and said I was fit but company for animals for animals l I I was beaten unmercifully un un- unmercifully mercifully and thrown down in a 1 corner where T J must lawn h Vir become u The liThe next thin thing I know knew a n woman was standing standing stand stand- in ing over oyer me with a bowl of ot soup She spoke kindly and told me that I was now a slave She told me to look at my hand an and I 1 would seethe see the slave mark I looked and there on my right hand at the base of my thumb was this Arabs Arab's slave mark sU such h as they put on cattle I am marked for life I uI was vas as so tick sick I could not eat elt Even today a little b bread bd d and liquid food is all I can take From then on I lived the life of a slave I IdId Idid Idid did work of the vilest lest kind from morning until night I slept with the cows and pigs and chick chick- ens I had barely enough clothes to cover cr me and there I was as far as I knew condemned to spend the rest of my ray days as a slave for an ArabIt ArabIt ArabIt Arab It was found out by a Turkish officer passing that I spoke Turkish as well a as Armenian and I Iwas Iwas was taken ken from my master to serve as i interpreter inter iter- iter preter in the Turkish army Life there wils was pas frightful and finally I managed to get a place in inthe inthe inthe the Turkish hospital as a nurse When the Brit British ish captured Jerusalem I m managed to make my escape to the British lines and was sent by them to the American relief station in B Beirut One day while giving out soup to the refugees I got in coin conversation with an Armenian soldier who had been in America and was then serving I with the French arm army He asked my name and andI I told him I know John who lives in Minneapolis in America said faid this soldier I told him Mm John was m my brother This soldier told my story to the tho relief relict people peo pIe le They got in touch with John And now I Iam Iam p am am going home with my brother and Mr Ma Mays Maya and arid wo we are arc to stay there always And Marshall arshall Mays Mas who had been sitting a all lI this time with her hand band clasped tightly in his nodded his head I |