Show STARVING ARMENIANS copyrighted by bv frank 0 Ca carpenter menter 1891 washington december 24 1895 ILLIONS 0 OF F dollars will be 3 0 require required for the a relief of armenia M miss i s s 0 barton tells me that at least 0 of its era people are now cc the of co on verge C 0 starvation and b oo 00 03 that these will 00 c n need e e d support 0 for eight or ten ru months she S h e does not think a relief expedition should be undertaken at all without So oooo is contributed at the start and she says that effective work will require an ex pend iture of millions the red cross society has no funds of its own it has not appealed to the people for money but at the request of the religious bodies of the united states hasmer has merely bly announced its willingness to distribute such funds as the people may inay raise for the purpose the amounts required for such relief are enormous iwas in fik russia arin during g the last ia mine famine and the people there ate up between two and three million dollars worth of food every day this was kept up for months and I 1 was told that the famine had bad cost very nearly half a billion dollars the private gifts of the russians amounted to the government ment gave nearly as much and the present czar who was then the crown prince was at the head of the relief fund our gifts to russia in food and money amounted to less than a million dollars they were merely a drop in the bucket in comparison to what was given by the russians themselves in russia it was estimated that one person could be fed for five cents a day it will probably cost more than that in armenia as all of the food will have to be brought in from europe but even at five cents a person it will require iz a day or more than half a million dollars a mouth month for the food alone ot of those who are now starving in addition money will be needed for clothes and shelter during the winter the farmers will have to be aided in planting their crops and it is hard to see bow the people can be kept from now until harvest for less than in this relief every cent wilt will have to come from the outside and if the other nations of europe do not unite with us it is doubtful doubt lul whether enough funds can be raised to do effective work the rich armenians Armen ians living outside of turkey will probably help and considerable aid aad may be expected from them the armenians Armen ians are the yankees of the orient they are the brightest brainiest brai niest and smartest of all the people of asia minor they are superior to the lews or greeks in business the turks say twist a yankee and you make a jew adew twist a jew and you make an armenian the greeks say that aee one greek is equal to two jews but that one armenian is equal to two greeks another provert current in turkey is from the greeks of athens from the jews of kalonika Sal and from the armenians Armen ians everywhere good lord deliver I 1 met the armenians Armen ians everywhere during my travels in asia minor and I 1 found them acting at the heads of all kinds of businesses there are many rich armenians Armen ians in india I 1 traveled with one coming from singapore to calcutta who told me be was on his way back from hong kong where he had gone to sell peat Is to the chinese I 1 found the conductors on the egyptian railroads to be arme anians and when I 1 traveled over the transcontinental railway to paris the guards on the train and the men who took up my ticket were armenians Armen ians who spoke english and french there are hundreds of thousands ot of armenians Armen ians in europe there are a large number in persia and those ohp live in different parts arts of turkey are said gaid to number eer about one million there are a number in constantinople they manage most of the banking business of the turkish capital and the large mercantile establishments there belong to them when the riots occurred in stamboul a few week ago nearly all toe the stores were closed their armenian owners fearing they would be looted by the mob when I 1 visited the government departments of the sultan I 1 found that though the chief officers were turks the clerks were in most cases arme wavis and the brightest men whom I 1 met in was one of the sultans sultan s secretaries who was of armenian birth he spoke a hall dozen different languages and was a man of great influence there are armenian engineers architects and doctors in constantino Const anuno pie ana atia when I 1 got money on mv letter of credit it was an armenian clerk who figure 0 up the exchange and an armenian cashier who handed out the in monay roi I 1 arte the he armenians Armen ians of armenia p proper are almost all farmers barme rs aj and ad the exorbitant excitant taxes of the sultan have ma made t the he most ot of them poor I 1 a w a large number of armenian pilgrims pili rims during one easter that I 1 spent at jerusalem they had bad come from all parts ot 01 asia minor to pray at the church ot of the he holy sepulchre they nave a patriarch at jerusalem who leads them in these celebrations he is a tail thin man with a long gray beard and a face ace not unlike that of a typical georgia cracker he usually wears a long gown and has a little skull cap on the crown of his head during the easter celebration his head was covered with a tiara which blazed with diamonds and his gown was a gorgeous gorge silk robe which was decorated with diamonds the armenians Armen ians are you know christians and their customs are much like those of the greek Cri they chev have mona and churches scattered throughout asia minor and they claim to be the oldest of all christian people the armenians Armen ians assert that their coun try is the holiest hollest land upon earth it lies in asia minor southeast ot of the Blacksea black sea and between it and persia mount ararat is situated in it not far from the locality in which these outrages are now taking place and some of the monasteries claim to have pieces of the identical ark in which noah landed upon the mountain and there is ia a ravine near it which aich is pointed out as the site of noahs vinyard vineyard chevine the vineyard has a monastery connected w with ith it and the monks show a wither withered ed old vine which they assert is the very one from which was made the wine which made noah drunk he e cursed it after he got over his aspre and it has borne no grapes unto this aay noahs wife is said to be buried san mount ararat and the armenians Armen ians tace e their ancestry back to japhet in on q long genealogical genealogic ail tree they have a adit tun that the garden of eden wa waa located in ar menia it was s altu td almost in the center of th the e regio re gioi I 1 where the most massacres have occur d j and it is now one of the barren par tf if the country the aru am evians evians belie beli that the wise men of the east who owed the star of bethlehem to find young christ came from armenia a that the star first appeared in the vens not far from mount ararat another curious ar an ian an tradition is as to adams fall 1 arding to tc this when adam was in the aden of eden his body was coverer nth ith nails nail like those which we have e on 1 r fingers and toes these nails nail ils 0 appedu each other like the scales ef a h thus div ing him an mor after the fall the nails all atop stopa off except from the end of his hi fi rs and toes where they remain ao fa is day to re mind man of his bis lost bality the armenians Armen ians say that tha tiyna reri god made adam of clay he had badi li e piece left over he threw this ign ion on e ground aud and as it fell it becam and formed all the gold of the world the ar medians believe in the bible and they are naturally a religious people the condition of the women ot of armenia is now terrible they have no refuge from the turks and outrages of all descriptions s script ions ar are e perpetrated ending in in death in some of the armenian cities during the late massacres the girls were collected into the churches and were kept there lor for days at the pleasure of the soldiers before they were killed one statement describes how sixty young brides were so treated and how the blood ran out from under the church doors at the time of their murders these armenian women are among the most attractive ot of the far east I 1 saw a number of them during my trip through asia minor they have large dar luminous eyes with long eyelashes and their complexion is that of rich cream many of them have rosy cheeks and luscious red lips they are tall and straight becoming soon fat after marriage they are very intelligent and not a few of them are married to turks these women have a dress of their own they wear red fez caps with long cassels tassels las tas sels much like some ot of the country giris gins ot of greece the richer ladies wear loose jackets lined with fur ur and long plain skirts of silk or fine wool in the province of van where some of the outrages have occurred the girls wear trousers under their skirts which are tied at the ankles some have long sleeveless jackets or cloaks reaching almost to the feet and open at the sides up to the waists and others wear gorgeous head dresses covering the front of their caps with gold coins which hang down over the foreheads girls often wear their whole dowry on their per sons and in massacres like those which have occurred rings are torn from the ears arms are cut off for bracelets and many a woman is k lied for her jewelry the poorer women are hard workers nearly every household has some kind of labor by which it adds to its income bome fome some of the i finest embroideries we get from turkey are made by armenian women the best of the work being done by hand in hovels the houses in which the armenians Armen ians live are dif different lerent in different countries in many of the cities of turkey there is an armenian quarter and the older armenian houses of smyrna are built like forts they have no w windows facing the str sir et and it has only been of late years ears when the people have considered themselves safe from religious mobs such as have lately occurred that they have built houses more like the arks turks in armenia proper where the outrages are going on the poorer classes have homes which would hardly be considered fit for cows in america the cow in fact lives with the family the houses are all ah of one story and it is is not uncommon to build a house bouse against the side of a hill in order to save the making of a back wall the roots roofs are flat and often covered with earth upon which grass gras and flowers grow and upon which the sheep sometimes are pas pastured tired the floors are usually sunken below the level of the roadway and the ordinary window is of about the size of a port hole you go down steps to enter the house bouse and you find a cow stable on one side and on the other the kitchen and private apartments of the family each room has a stone fireplace and the cooking is lone done with fuel of cow dung mixed with straw there are no tables and very few chairs the animal heat of the cattle aids the fire in keeping the family warm and all of their living arrangements are of the simplest and cheapest nature the houses of the better class are more comfortable and in the big turkish cities some of the rich armen ians have beautiful homes the armenian women are good housekeepers they are much more cleanly than the turks and even bevc n their hovels are kept clean they have a better home life than tle fe tl f e turks A man can have but one wife butth but the families of several generations often live in one house in in which case the daughter in law is to a large extent the servant of her husbands family she has to obey her lather father in law and during the first days of her married life she inot allowed to speak to her husbands parents or any of the family who are older than herself until her father in law gives her permission up to this time she wears a red veil as a badge of her subjection and this veil is is often kept on until her first baby is bot bon n armenian girls are married very young eleven or twelve is consider considered td quite old enough and women are still young when they have sons aged twenty marriages are arranged by pa parents barenis renis or by go Thru sual wedding day is monday and on the friday before the marriage the bride is taken to the bath with great ceremony on saturday she gives a big feast to her girl friends on sunday there cheri is a feast for the boys and on monday the wedding takes place it usually occurs at the church where the priest blesses the ring and makes prayers over the wedding garments there are numerous other elonies em onies making the wedding last from three to eight days one curious cus torn tom is is that shortly after her return from the church the children present rush to pull of the brides stockings in which have been hidden some coins of money lor the occasion and another is the placing of a baby boy on the knee of the bride and as she sits beside the groom on the divan with the wish that she may become a happy mother the real cause of these outrages is to a large ix extent intent tent religious fanaticism the better classes of the turks and the more intelligent of the would probably stop them if they could the sultan has I 1 am told tried to do so but he be is afraid of his life he realizes that if the common people get the idea that he is false to his religion he is almost sure of assassination the amans and the sheiks or in other words the priests to a large extent rule turkey today they are in most cases ignorant and intolerant at the head of them is the islam or grand mufti he is appointed by bv the sultan and the sultan cannot kill li n so long as he holds his bis title though he can depose him the sultan himself cannot be deposed unless the grand mufti so decrees he is a sort of a supreme judge in addition to his religious character among the fanatics there are a large number known as dervishes who roam about from country to country inciting trouble they are walking delegates as it were for the killing of christians they stimulate the religious zeal ot of the people and malt make violent speeches against un believers they fast much and they I 1 have curious methods of worship one class is known as the wheeling dervishes whom you may see any friday going through their worship in constantinople ti they dress in ii long white robes fastened at the waist with black belts and on their heads they wear high sugar loaf hats they sing the koran as they whirl about in the mosques althey go on the ch of f priest makes prayers they whirl fater faster and faster until at last their long skirts stand out like those of a ballet dancer they become red in the face and some finally drop to the ground in fits another class of these fanatics are the howlers bowlers how lers there is a great organization made up of these in turkey and they bave have probably been largely concerned in in inciting let fet ling against the armenians Armen ians I 1 have visited their mosques but I 1 despair ot of adequately describing their religious gymnastics they work them sel selves ves into a frenzy by gasping and howling out the name of god and the dervishes of the interior parts of turkey often take knives and cut themselves and each other in religious ecstacy rhey go into epileptic fits and foam at the mouth I 1 and the most oi of them think that the killing ot of a christian is a sure pas pa sport port to heaven I 1 would say however that these people are the cranks of mohammedanism and that they are not a fair sample of the mohammedan world r CAA CAAMA MA |