The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1918, Page 27

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

The Lutheran Pioneer.

But the height of cruelty was reached when this
poor nation was driven wholesale from their homes
into the desert. Homes were uprooted, families
captured, men killed, and women and girls violated
or foreed into harems. Such was the distress of
these poor exiles that mothers threw their babes
into the rivers, or sold them to strangers, to save
them from starvation or butchery.

For example, at Mamuret-ul-Aziz the people
were subjected for a long period to almost inde-
scribable tortures: hands,

feet, and chests were

24

perpetrated by man. Of Armenian Christians alone
$00,000 were murdered.

Though for the past two years systematic relief
has been regularly given by American missionaries
in certain localities, yet the distress among the
stricken people is actually beyond any power of
tongue or pen to describe. ‘The American Ambas-
sador and consuls report that the work done by
the missionaries, especially considering the limited
funds at their disposal, is most commendable, and
will in every way compare for system and economy

Native Houses in Asia Minor.

nailed to a piece of wood; nails of fingers and toes
were torn off; the feet were hammered with nails
as is done with horses’ hoofs; and others were hung
with their feet -up and heads down over closets!
Even the wives of the barbarous Kurds came with
their knives and participated in this work of murder.
To prevent the poor Armenians from escaping, the
Turkish government left those who were to be de-
ported into the wilderness without food for several
days, in order that they would be too weak to flee.
Judged by the numbers involved and the methods
used, this massacre of the Armenians even outranks
the persecutions of the early Christians or the Mas-
sacre of St. Bartholomew, and will therefore go
down in history as the greatest single horror ever

with any relief work done anywhere. Every case
is carefully investigated, and no one need fear that
Armenian or Syrian relief funds are either wasted
or given to the undeserving. Through soup
kitchens, industrial relief, and personal supervision
the greatest efficiency is secured with the most eco-
nomical use of funds at the disposal of the mission-
aries.

How great the number of those is that stand in
need of help may be judged from the following:
Former Secretary -.Tarler of the American Embassy
says that the number of children in daily need runs
high into the tens of thousands. ‘The former Amer-
ican consul at Mersine states that there is a popu-
lation of at least fifty thousand sufferers in the

patetcettic?